#—that makes it feel like early summer and i am making dumplings for dinner and the buttercups i bought last monday are blooming strong and—

[ofmermaidstories]

i love my hero so much. 😭 i love that the heroes before deku and co are imperfect, did things imperfectly, sometimes made things worse… but tried their best to help those kids grow and do better. 😭😭 i love them. I LOVE THEM ALL. i love this stupid shonen series LMAOOO. i wanna rip it apart with my TEEEETHHHH.

[fandomscombine]

The Boyfriend Introduction

George Weasley x Reader

This is an entry for @wonderful-writer​ ‘s Ficmas Writing Challenge 

Prompts: “Exactly how many people did you invite over for Christmas dinner?”

Tropes No.6. There’s only one bed

Trope No.8. Snowed in

BG: Will George make a good first impression on your strict parents over Christmas Dinner? What happens when prying muggle relatives are added to the mix? No magic is allowed, and a heavy snowstorm trapped everyone inside. What was supposed to last a couple of hours had stretched overnight. Will your family approve of George? Or will he be trapped with people who dislike him for the night?

A/N: This took almost a month to write. Started this with my writing motivation streak on high. Then the burnout came, I could write nor even read. Now I’m slowly trying to get back into the mood. Yea I realized that it’s not super Christmasy. But I hope that you enjoy it all the same.

WC:3352

>>>MASTERLIST<<<

‘Okay, you remember everything?’ You had just finish debriefing George on the what to expect when you arrive home later. What your parents likes and dislikes, what the home dynamic is, etcetera, brownie points to note to make sure he lands on your parent’s good side-you want your boyfriend’s first impression to be perfect!

‘Yes love, EVERYTHING. We’ve gone over this 3 times already, trust me it’s all up here’ George said, tapping a finger against his temple. ‘At this rate, I am more scared for them as it would be a total stranger knew everything about them!’ He pointed out.

‘Hey, you’re not a total stranger, they’ve met you before!’ You countered.

‘For only a couple of minutes, plus Fred was with us that time, I doubt they could have differentiated between us from that short time alone.’

Recalling back to the end of the summer holidays when your family had bumped into the Weasleys and Harry while school supplies shopping at Diagon Alley. You were just leaving of Flourish and Blotts while they were headed in. You had dropped your brand-new books and the twins had helped you pick them up. You had exchanged a quick thank you before hurried leaving to catch the bus back to muggle London.

Your parents had gratefully allowed you to spend the holidays at The Burrow, but only after they had met the boyfriend who you could never stop talking about. Majority of your letters back home consisted of gushing about how wonderful and sweet George is, so naturally your parents were curious and intrigued to finally meet this handsome fellow.

They had arranged for a Christmas Eve Dinner at home before you depart for The Burrow later in the evening.

‘You know, you still haven’t told me how you got your parents to let you spend the Christmas holiday with us.’ Quipped George. ‘I thought your dad was pretty strict.’ The Hogwarts Express had started slowing down, nearing its destination of Platform 9 ¾.

‘Yea but I guess it the real gamechanger was Mr.Weasley. The last I heard was that they started hanging out during breaks in the Ministry. It started out as a reconnaissance of some sort-the basic background check if the boy dating my daughter is good enough. Which then blossomed into friendship.’ You lean back against the train compartment window, giving him more space to reach up to the luggage rack overhead.

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘George! Y/n! Over here!’ Ginny yelled. She was standing near the trolleys, surrounded with a group of redheads.

Once you reached her, she wrapped you in a tight embrace. ‘I’m going to miss you.’

You chuckled, patting the girl’s shoulder. ‘Gin, I’m only be gone for a couple hours, we’ll be back by midnight.’

‘Yea, but til then I’ll be stuck with these dofusses.’ She winced, nodding towards the direction of her brothers.

‘Hey!’ exclaimed Ron.

Ignoring him, Ginny continued. ‘You know how time drags with these idiots. Why couldn’t I just come with?’

‘No you aren’t young lady.’ Stated Mrs.Weasley, making her way pass her children. ‘This is a very important occasion, meeting the parents. George has to make a good impression to y/n parents.’  She turned to the younger twin, hands on her waist. ‘So. NO funny business okay? I expect you to be on your best behaviour.’ She warned.

George raised 3 fingers up. ‘Yes ma’am. I promise.’

Mrs Weasley knew that despite George’s playful response, would keep this promise. Afterall she knew her children at heart. Recognises George’s coping tactics for nerves is through humour.

‘Alright then. I’ll see you later.’ Hugging you then her son. ‘Oh before I forget, we’ll take your luggage back with us so that it’ll be easier for you to get home. Fred! Percy! Come help me with these!’

‘Thank you Mrs.Weasley for-‘

‘Molly dear, call me Molly. I’ve known you for years now, you’re basically part of the family.’

You can feel your face warm up. ‘Thanks…Mrs…. I mean Molly for everything.’

‘No worries dear. Just be careful, I heard that it’ll snow more later.’

‘We will Mum.’ Replied George, placing a kiss on her check. ‘Don’t worry.’

You held your hand out to George. ‘Ready for your first ever ride on a muggle double decker bus?’

‘Oh yes.’ He nodded, interlocking his hands with yours.

~

‘Mum! I’m home!’ You shake off the snow that had stuck onto your boots before entering.

‘In here Dumpling!’ said a distant voice.

‘Dumpling huh?’ George teased; a smirk plastered on his face.

You were glad to see him calm down. ‘yea yea.’

‘Care to tell me why?’

‘Nope. Now get your butt in here.’

The house though small is full of life. Walls are lined with picture frames of the family together and along the hallway are frames of each member throughout the years.

You follow the fragrant smell of citrus in the air coming from the kitchen.

You head towards the opened refrigerator. ‘Merry Christmas Eve Mum!’ You greeted but were surprised to see someone else. ‘Dad! What are you doing here?’

‘What do you mean? It’s MY house!’ He resorted, taken aback.

‘You know what I mean.’

‘They let us off early in the Ministry.’

‘He means he left early’ Chimed your mother.

‘Perks of being the head of the department.’ He says nonchalantly, releasing you from a airtight embrace.

Your eyes light up. ‘You got the promotion?’ You asked, your father standing proud with a dazzling smile. ‘Congratulations Dad!’

‘Now now, this evening is not about me.’ His eyes dart to the tall boy behind you. The boy whose face showed apparent awkwardness during the mini intimate family catch up. ‘I don’t believe we’ve formally met. y/f/n yf/l/n.’ Extending his hand.

‘george..’ George cleared his throat. ‘George Weasley ,Sir. Pleasure to meet you Sir.’  George wondered if his hand had sweat more, feeling that your father was gripping his tight. Before his mind were to go down that rabbithole, he turned to your mother. ‘M’am..’

‘No please, call me y/m/n.’ Your mother insisted. ‘It’s nice to finally meet you George, we’ve heard so much about you.’ She leaned in close, whispering. ‘Between you and me, most of our dumpling’s letters here are about you!’ She looks over her shoulder to make sure, they aren’t overheard. Thankful you are preoccupied with dad. ‘It’s great to finally have a face to the name!’ Taking a more solemn tone she continued. ‘Listen you take good care of her okay, she doesn’t let anyone in her emotions easily, so you must be special.’

Just as fast as it came, she was back to normal. George would have thought that he imagined that whole exchange if it weren’t from the gleam in your mother’s eyes.

‘Right then.’ She clapped her hands together. ‘y/f/n, my love. Why don’t you give George here a tour of the house. Then help y/n and I when you’re done.’

‘On it my love.’ Your father replied, pecking your mother’s cheek. ‘George! I’m told you love inventing, so why don’t we start on with my study, I bet there’s a lot of things you’d find interesting.’ Said your father, leading George up the kitchen and up the stairs.

Once they rounded out the corner, your mother was instantly at your side, bumping your hips. ‘He seems like a nice boy. Quieter than I expected.’

‘Yea, He’ll get into the zone later.’ You noted. ‘Give him time and when he’s comfortable, he’ll be more like himself. He’ll really nervous, that’s all.’

‘I know.’

That made curious. ‘You know?’

‘Oh yess.’ Your mother sighed. ‘Your father had that exact same face when he first went to meet Grannie and Grandpops.’

‘Really?’ How had she never shared this story before?

‘umm hmm’ She reminisced. ‘It’s good that his reaction is like that. It shows that one’s scared and anxious, wanting to impress and give a good first impression.’

When she saw how lost you look, she held your chin up, elaborating. ‘It means that he cares. That it’s a big important deal, meeting the parents.’

~

It’s been a hour already since your father had dragged George off, to what you believe as a house tour disguised as a boyfriend interrogation. Truth be told you were scared out of your mind, you never had brought home a boy before so you didn’t know what to expect, this is unknown territory.

The growing sounds of footsteps and…laughter? Surely that was a good sign.

‘Woah that is a lot of food. Exactly how many people did you invite over for Christmas dinner?’ George had come up behind you, with a hand on your lower back- touchy as if warming up and testing the waters on how much physical touch he could get away with, with your parents in the room.

‘A lot.’ You replied, angling up to poke his cheek. ‘You’re not the only one with a big family, Weasley’

‘I thought you were only 4 of you?’

‘well, my mom’s side of the family is coming.’ You explained, counting them on your fingers. ‘So that’s includes my grandparents, aunts and uncles and their family-my cousins.’

‘why only your mom’s side?’ George was genuinely confused, isn’t Christmas all about getting together with family?

You chuckled. ‘oh it’s a funny story actually…’

‘More like an almost disastrous story.’ Cut in your father. ‘See my brother is a lightweight but every Christmas he tries to outdrink himself. And one Christmas, things…..got out of hand.’

When your father didn’t explain more, your mother further clarified, taking pity on George’s ever more puzzled look. ‘Long story short, he end up doing magic infront of my family specifically changed into his Animagus form it would be easy to say he just disappeared behind the couch if his animal form was small but his was a tiger- so harder to cover up.’

‘Dad ultimately had to obliviate 7 people’s memories of the past hour. From then on, for long holidays we separate the family into magic vs muggles.’

‘SO remember NO magic!’ Announced your dad. ‘Tonight, we act as Muggles, no magic at all cost. We won’t wanna risk Ministry intervention.’

~

The early Christmas dinner had gone in a blur, the food was quickly devoured by the table of 15. Yes that’s right, 15. Normally the dinner table could expand to accommodate 6 people, but thanks to transfiguration, your father had lengthen it to fit the then arriving guest.

In addition to enjoying the food, your relatives had seized the time to pry into your love life in between bites. The previous years’ answer of “I don’t have a boyfriend” followed by their unwanted input about what you’re doing wrong, was obviously not applicable.

So you ended up being interrogated by your aunt on your right, while George, who was sitting on your left was being questioned by your grandfather.

‘Gee is that the time! We better get going, maw come on dear we don’t want to be caught out of the road by the snowstorm.’ Your grandfather said, helping your grandmother up from her seat. ‘Get the car ready, Finn.’

At that, everyone began to get pack up. Usually you would all stay up for more talks, but under the threat of a looming snowstorm, it was better to be safe than sorry.

~

‘Alright dumpling, got everything?’ Your mother wondered, straightening up your coat.

‘Yup’ You replied, all snuggled up. You didn’t bother telling her that the coat wasn’t necessary as you would be apparating back to the Burrow- you knew how much she hated the tension apparition causes to one’s temples.

‘George..’ She said, now moving towards the quiet young man who had once again caught himself a bit out of place in such an intimate family moment. ‘It was really nice to meet you; I do hope that we would get to see you most often now that y/n has formally introduce us.’ She pulled him into a motherly hug. ‘You take care of my dumpling, or else… you’d find out what muggle parents do to those who hurt their children, and I warn you, you magic folks don’t know what’s coming.’

The final warning came and went, and George managed to utter. ‘I promise.’ Before your father came into view, looking more unreadable and stricter than their introductions earlier in the day.

George was terrified, he had thought that things had gone well, surely they had bonded over the guide house tour. Might had he said something wrong during dinner, Grandpa y/l/n sure did ask a lot of questions. George mentally recalled the past couple of hours, where could this all gone sideways.

To his surprise he was greeted with an outstretched hand. ‘You’re a good lad, George.’ Remarked your father, ‘Oh and you can call me y/f/n.’

Both your and George’s eyes go wide.

‘Thank you, sir! I mean…’ George was still nervous, a part of him thinking that this was a secret test. ‘y/f/n, sir. Thank you’ Tried George, the tips of his ears red.

Your father chuckled at the hesitant boy, ‘In time you will get the hang of that’ He turned to you. ‘That is.. if y/n is willing to for us to join you two in the future. The dinner might have frightened you off, sorry for that.’ Your father wrapped an arm around your mother, ‘Perhaps the next time could be with MY side of the family…’

At that moment the doorbell rang.

‘Now who could that be?’ Voiced your mother. ‘Mum, Dad!’

‘Bad News dearie, Roads and Highways are closed for the night-Too much snow.’ Explained your grandfather, barging into the warm house. ‘We’ll have to stay the night.’

‘Uh! George my boy, you are still here! Great! Pa look who it is!’ Cheered your grandfather, pinching his arm (His cheeks were too high up to reach).  Leaving George’s right sleeve with specks of melting snow. ‘Though I am afraid we would get to chatting in the morning, sleep is calling me.’

But before George would reply that he wouldn’t be here in the morning, your father interjected. ‘Yes yes of course, the guestroom is ready as always. Have a good night’s rest nannie.’ Looking past her to the doorway he shouted. ‘Finn you can take the couch, we’ll give you some blankets in a sec.’

He gestured for you both to follow him into the dinning room. You quickly followed suit, panicking as to how in the world could you apparate to the burrow while presenting a valid reason to your grandparents in 2 young person’s disappearance overnight when the is a heavy snowstorm raging on.

‘I wouldn’t suggest apparating tonight’ He huffed. ‘Unless of course if you don’t mind popping back in again tomorrow morning.’

You shook your head. You were not an earlier riser, besides spending the night in the burrow when had to be back home first thing would be wise, you would be just exhausting yourself.

‘Good. I’ll notify Arthur of our situation. Now unto the other thing….’ He raised a brow at George. ‘Since that the spare room and the couch are taken, it would be rude to ask a guest to rest in a more comfortable place..’

You internally groaned, you kinda had an idea where this conversation was headed to but gosh was it in the parents handbook to deliver to so awkwardly?

‘…you are bot old enough and trust both of you. So, George if you don’t mind, you would be spending the night in y/n’s room.’

You dared risked a quick glance at your boyfriend and you could tell that he was trying not to smirk.

George in fact was trying his best not to smile, biting the insides of his cheek to stop himself.

‘So no funny business.’

‘Yes Sir.’ George didn’t dare call him, y/f/n. Not at this moment, even if he was granted the permission.

~

‘So….This is me.’ Presenting your room. ‘It’s not much, but-‘

‘It’s beautiful.’ George cut you off. There wasn’t much going on, seeing that you spend majority of the year in Hogwarts and only a month or two at home. A single bed next to the window overlooking the road, a small desk, a wardrobe with a mirrored door and 2 bookshelves. Plain white walls decorated with a small makeshift photo wall of your most cherished memories.

Spotting the photos next to your bookshelf, he chortled.  ‘It’s really sweet of you, I feel honoured.’ He turned to you. ‘But this one? Seriously??!!?’ Pointing at the photograph.

It was of the yule ball. The relationship wasn’t official yet, it was still teetering on the side of best friends but with something more or so Fred calls ‘Y/n and George’s Era of Mutual Pining’.

The shot was of you in your gown, not so elegantly piggybacking on George, who was mid fall. Despite it all, you were both laughing your heads off. Ginny had taken that picture with your muggle camera. Something about it being developed as a standstill compared to the moving wizard photos adds charm to it, further highlighting such a moment.

‘I for one love it.’ You declared, leaning your head on his shoulder.

‘We do look nice together.’ He teased. ‘But gosh that is a bit unflattering, don’t you think? It looks like we’re drunk!’

‘Drunk on love you mean.’ Nudging his side. ‘Though we haven’t admitted it then.’

George squinted closer, ‘Wait a minute! It’s not moving!’

‘Yup, don’t want any muggle walking in a moving photo. But more importantly, it’s forever captures the moment of ‘I am in love with my best friend, a person who would never let me fall.’

‘Expect to fall in love, with your truly.’

‘Exactly.’ In moments like these, where no one else in the room, does George lets his sappy cheesy side on full blast and you love it. It’s as if a top-secret surprise that is for your eyes only.

‘Now come to bed with me.’ You reach for his hand, dragging him to your tiny bed. ‘I’m tired’

‘Love as much as I want to, I don’t think we’d fit.’ Eyeing the bed. ‘One of us will fall off- most probably me.’

Taking one of you pillows he said ‘ I’ll just lay down here.’

‘Nuh uh, not in my house. You are my boyfriend and my guest! No way am I letting you sleep on the floor!’ You argued. ‘Come cuddle with me, pleaseeeeeeee’ Giving him your best pout. ‘We have had any alone time, the whole day! Pleaseeeee babe! ’

George shook his head, knowing that the was no way that he could ever say ‘NO’ to you. He did miss his girl and after an exhaustive day practically being interrogated by multiple family member, he was grateful to finally spend time with you. ‘Alright.’ Giving into your request. ‘Scoot over and let me engulf you into a world of softness.’

Your head was resting on George’s chest, bopping along with his each intake of breath. The snow outside is still pouring but the all the noise is silenced as you focus in his heartbeat.  Tilting up slightly you pipped. ‘You comfortable Georgie?’

George wrapped his arms around you tighter. ‘I’m good anywhere with you.’ He placed a final kiss on your forehead before exhaustion take you both away to dreamland.

~

Bonus:

The sun had come up, casting a warm glow onto the white blanked pavement.  

Still drained from the day before, neither of you had woken up to your bedroom door opening.

‘Merry Christmas Y/n dearie! Nannie has bought you your favourite hot choco—’  Your grandmother stopped in her tracks upon seeing 2 angels tangled together with smiles etched on their sleeping faces. Reminding her of own younger days.

She leaves the mug on your desk, quietly shut the door. Once out on the hallway, she quickly makes her way to her husband, eager to tell him what he just saw and excited to come up with more questions they could interrogate George with-only the best for their granddaughter!

--

 Taglist [All/General]: @gruffle1

[seungcheolsbodyharness]

heart shaped: III

wc: 4.7k

summary: you and jihoon are both full of surprises.

genre: fake dating, fluff, minor angst

a/n: it’s june!!! have some christmas fluff

part one || part two || part three || part 4 || part 5 || finale (in progress)

you find yourself standing in front of jihoon’s door a few days later. it’s christmas, now, and maybe you should have asked first, but you’d decided that morning that it’d be nice to surprise jihoon. you already know he doesn’t have plans.

besides - it’s what a real girlfriend would do, after all. surprise her boyfriend with something sweet, romantic.

so you knock on his door, hear him call out that he’s coming, smile at his surprised face when he sees you standing on his tiny porch.

“did we have plans today?” he asks, surprise rendering his words sharp. he coughs, and tries again. “sorry. were we supposed to hang out today?”

“nope!” you bring your hands out in front of you from where they’d been hidden behind your back and present him with an envelope - nothing big, a pretty card with gift certificate to the record store he’s mentioned once or a few hundred times in the brief time you’ve known him. “just wanted to surprise you. merry christmas, jihoon.”

his eyes go wide and he silently motions for you to come inside. you take off your coat and shoes and settle onto his couch while he remains in the entryway, eyes staring at the card and its contents.

“you didn’t have to do that.” he mumbles. you shrug and smile at him. jihoon dismisses himself to the small office he has off the kitchen, presumably to put his present somewhere safe, but when he comes back he has a small box in his hands. he holds it out to you, not quite meeting your eyes. “sorry it’s not wrapped.”

it’s your turn to be surprised. you take the box from his hands and open it to reveal what appears to simply be a piece of fabric, but as you pull it out of the box you realize that it’s a scarf. it’s beautiful and soft, covered in delicate flowers. you aren’t sure what to say.

“my friend minghao helped me buy it.” you look up at the sound of jihoon’s voice, almost like you’d forgotten he was there. “i’m not very good at buying presents, but i thought i should get you, i dunno. something. it matches your coat.”

blinking, you turn your gaze towards the entry and think that he’s right. the scarf is same color as the coat you’d worn every time you’d met up with jihoon.

“thank you, jihoon.” you smile up at him and wrap the scarf around your neck despite the warmth of jihoon’s living room. “so - um, i was thinking we could go out and do something.”

jihoon thinks for a moment and then nods. “okay.”

the streets are unsurprisingly filled with people. everywhere you look you see couples: matching outfits, leaning closely to share quick kisses, hands clutched tightly together. for just a moment, you’re reminded of spending christmas with your ex, and then jihoon squeezes your hand and asks you if you want to get some coffee. clearing your head, you nod and allow him to lead you to a cafe that isn’t fit to bursting full of people. he tells you to find a seat and that he’ll get your drinks.

you pout, insisting that you’ll wait with him but he declines, giving your forehead a gentle flick as he laughs. “go find us a table before they’re all gone.” you pout again and insist he buy you something sweet as well. he nods, smiling, and you give in, leaving him in line while you peer around for a table.

being alone without jihoon to distract you brings back the thoughts of your ex-boyfriend once more. christmas had always been his favorite time of year, which made spending it with him that much more enjoyable.

which had made it worse when he’d broken up with you on christmas eve.

thinking back to that moment now, you know it’s for the best that you’re not together anymore. this is only your second christmas without him, immediately after not included, and while you were mostly fine throughout the year, spending christmas day alone was still hard for you.

not for the the first time, you’re tempted to check his social media - see if he’s doing something romantic with his new girlfriend. well, she isn’t new. they’d gotten together pretty quickly after your relationship’s demise.

“are you okay?”

jolting, you look up and see jihoon seated across from you. the look on his face isn’t quite worried, but it’s close enough. you laugh nervously and wave it off, “just thinking about something, don’t worry about me.” you smile at him, hoping you’re convincing. “what’d you bring me, hoonie~?”

jihoon blanches and immediately you wonder if you’ve misstepped. he blinks a few times and shakes his head as if to clear it, letting out a long breath. “my ex used to call me that. like, almost more than my name.”

“god, i’m sorry, i won’t say it again.”

jihoon waves a hand, eyes pinched. “no, no, don’t be. you can say it. i just - i dunno, i guess with all the real couples around i couldn’t help but think about her, yknow?”

you hum, nodding slowly. “yeah, i know. so - hoonie is okay? because it’s a very cute nickname.”

jihoon’s cheeks tinge pink and he shrugs. “if you want, i guess.” he slides a mug towards you, whipped cream heavy on the top. “i hope you like caramel hot chocolate.”

“i guess i’m going to find out.” you couldn’t imagine disliking it, and with that you gently bring the cup to your lips and sip slowly. the overwhelming sensation is that it’s hot, so hot, but it tastes delicious nonetheless. you swallow and set the mug back down, and jihoon’s shoulders shake with what you’re assuming is restrained laughter. “what?”

“oh, nothing.” he takes a sip of his own coffee, smirking against the rim, and you frown. using the front-camera on your phone, you realize just what it is he finds so funny.

huffing, you take a napkin from the dispenser on the table and wipe the whipped cream decorating your upper lip. “so…do you want to grab dinner, maybe? i’m sure there’s places doing couple specials tonight. we could probably get a pretty good deal.”

jihoon does laugh, then. “yeah, you’re probably right.”

the two of you finish your drinks and set back out into the cold, immediately bombarded with people handing out fliers for restaurants doing just like you’d thought - advertising couple specials for the holiday. you and jihoon take a few as you walk, figuring you can walk around some more before deciding on where to eat. the walk leads you both towards the park in the center of town, where there’s a light display. it’s nearly dark despite being late afternoon, so you both head down to see things close-up.

the lights reflect prettily on jihoon’s face as you look at several light-up santas, and you wonder if they look as nice on your own. you look over at jihoon and find him looking at you, expression unreadable. you smile at him softly, and he looks away. you follow him on the path through the displays out to the other side, where he stands waiting for you. he holds his hand out for you to take, and says, “i’m feeling in the mood for dumplings. sound good?”

you nod and let him lead you once more.

the evening goes smoothly - you and jihoon manage to keep each other distracted from your respective thoughts, laughing together over dinner and enjoying the buskers out even in the cold. jihoon gets a special, fond look on his face as you stop to watch a young man with his guitar, and you smile.

on the way back to jihoon’s, you ask him about it.

“did he remind you of yourself?”

jihoon hums. “yeah, a little bit. that’s how i got the job i have now, believe it or not. i had sent my resume and my application, of course, but on a whim i attached a youtube video of me busking from a few summers ago. the hiring manager was impressed, so here i am.”

“wow, jihoon, you’re so cool.”

jihoon lets out a little noise, almost as if he’s unused to the praise. “shut up.”

jihoon pulls into his driveway and walks with you back to your car. “for our next fake-date, i wanna take you to the record store. sound good?”

you don’t have to think before responding positively. “do you wanna do that before soyoung’s party?”

“mmm, like go to the shop and then swing by the party? we could do that.” he nods. “i had a good time today.”

“yeah! we’re getting pretty good at this date thing, huh?” you laugh and jihoon chuckles as well.

“okay, well, get home safe. i’ll text you later, okay?” you nod and he moves out of the way of your door so you can close it and drive home for the night.

finally alone with your thoughts, you find them drifting back to jihoon.

december is nearly over. the year is coming to a close.

you wake up on the thirty-first with a strange sort of dread sitting heavy in your chest, but you can’t figure out what it wants. you can’t figure out why thinking about the night ahead makes your heart clench tight.

you go about your day as if on auto-pilot: breakfast, shower, dishes, laundry, texting back and forth with jihoon and soyoung. both of them seem excited about tonight’s party. you don’t have the heart to tell them you’re not sure you feel the same way.

jihoon promised to pick you up around noon - in time for some lunch before heading out to the record shop, and then “there’s something else i want to show you.” that’s what he’d said in response to you wondering if maybe noon was too early - the party wouldn’t start until nine pm at the earliest. you’re eager to see what he has planned, though. jihoon seems too blunt to prepare surprises.

but then, he’s already disprove that.

noon rolls around and once again, jihoon is punctual and you’re running around trying to find something last minute - you let him in at the sound of the doorbell and motion towards the couch while you move quickly back to tearing your room apart.

“can you call my phone, please?” you ask, desperation obvious. “i haven’t been able to find it on my own and i don’t want to leave without it.”

jihoon nods and does as you ask, and you can hear your ringtone pinging in the living room. you scoff, annoyed because you’ve already pulled the cushions from the couch, even looking underneath, to no avail.

when you come into the living room you find jihoon on his stomach, peering into the dark abyss beneath your sofa. “it’s underneath.” he says simply, standing up and brushing himself off. he sets his own phone onto the coffee table and looks at you. “i’ll lift it up, you get under and grab your phone.”

“that’s all well and good, hoonie, but that couch is super heavy and -” jihoon ignores you in favor of doing just what he’d said he would and lifting the couch off the floor. you stand still for a few moments, shocked, before collecting yourself enough to dive to the empty space between the lifted furniture and the floor and retrieve your phone. gently as he can, jihoon sets the couch back into the floor and turns back to you, smirking. holding your phone to your chest, you can’t help but stare at him, mouth agape.

“ready to go now?”

you nod, speechless, and hurry for your coat and your purse.

jihoon will grant to himself he’s happy to see you wearing the scarf.

you get into jihoon’s car, and he drives out of the city.

“hey, you’re not taking me far away to like, kill me, right?” you’re mostly joking. mostly.

jihoon raises an eyebrow but keeps his eyes on the road. “why would i do that? people are expecting us at a party later.”

“that’s a joke, right?”

jihoon peers over at you, face blank. there’s a few beats of silence, and then he bursts out laughing, eyes turning back to the road. you slump back in your chair, immediately relieved, pouting at him.

“you think you’re so funny, don’t you?” you whine, and jihoon continues chuckling. “so where are we going, then?”

“my friend seungcheol told me about this place that has like, the best kimchi jjigae he’s ever had. and,” he draws the sound out, smile bright and mischievous. “there’s a branch of that record shop here too. it’s the original.”

you make a little ‘o’ with your mouth, nodding slowly. “i’m always down for some good jjigae.”

jihoon hums and taps his fingers on the steering wheel. “yeah, when i told cheol i wanted to head out this way he recommended it pretty quick. said he’d brought his girlfriend there once or something.” jihoon doesn’t mention the weird, suggestive faces cheol had made when telling him about the restaurant, nor does he mention the way seungcheol had kept repeating how glad he’d been he’d taken his girlfriend there.

the drive goes quickly enough - you and jihoon chat about a lot of things, somehow managing to avoid altogether the topic of the party. jihoon pulls up to the restaurant and you walk inside, and upon entry, jihoon realizes something. he keeps it to himself, in hopes that he’s wrong, but as the two of you find a seat and a woman comes up to the table to take your orders, jihoon realizes that he’s not.

“first date?” the woman asks, smile small but somehow knowing.

“oh, no.” you tell her, smiling. “we’ve been together a few weeks now. it is our first trip out of the city together, though!”

“ahh, i see. are you here for the kimchi jjigae?” her smile is warm and reminds you of your mother, but jihoon can only think of seungcheol’s smug, knowing face.

“yeah. a friend recommended it.” jihoon’s voice is low, almost sullen. the woman raises an eyebrow at him but quickly returns her attention to you.

“our kimchi beef dumplings are also the best in the area. you’ll have some of those?” she says it like a question, but it doesn’t carry the feeling of one. which is fine. you’re always down for good dumplings, too.

“that sounds great, thank you.”

she leaves the two of you alone at the table, so you turn your attention to jihoon. “are you…like, okay?”

jihoon sighs. he’s about to say something before the woman is back, setting side dishes down onto the table.

“you know,” she says, “our restaurant has a reputation among couples.”

“oh?” you ask, raising your eyebrows at jihoon.

“that’s right. couples who eat here and eat the kimchi jjigae never break up.” she smiles slyly at jihoon, who isn’t looking at you or the proprietor, and then walks away promising to bring your dumplings soon.

“i didn’t know, i swear.” jihoon blurts. your eyebrows remain raised at him, and he continues. “okay, so, i realized it like, as soon as we got here because i remembered cheol talking about it over and over and fucking over again after he came here last year, and then we got here and i saw his stupid picture on their couple wall. i wasn’t - it’s not like that, i swear.”

you laugh a little, and then it turns into a full stomach laugh. jihoon’s eyes go wide and he’s not sure if you’re laughing at his misfortune in the misunderstanding or at something else, but he figures it’s probably best to wait your laughter out, hoping that you’ll tell him. eventually it subsides, and you sigh before a few residual chuckles slip out. “it’s - it’s okay, jihoon, i’m not mad, it’s just that it seems like even after we’ve ‘gotten together’ people can’t stop interfering in our relationship.” you take a sip of your water and smile at him. “besides, if the jjigae is magic, it won’t work on us. we’re not really a couple.”

jihoon’s face lights up and he says “oh. you’re right.” even as a ‘couple’, seungcheol had seen fit to nose his way into your relationship. “i’ll probably kill him tonight. maybe. maybe some other time.”

“definitely after the jjigae though. magic or not, i bet it’s delicious.”

jihoon laughs. “i bet you’re right.”

your food gets brought out, dumplings and jjigae both, and the woman smiles sweetly at you as she sets it down. “it’s meant to be shared, of course. enjoy.”

you and jihoon smile politely back and then dig in, food just as delicious as you’d been promised. relationship magic be damned, the taste of it could be described as nothing other than magical.

“so, before you kill seungcheol for meddling,” you say after the meal is done, the two of you on your way back out to jihoon’s car, “you should still thank him for sending us here. that really was the best kimchi jjigae i’ve ever had.” you pat your stomach happily - you felt too-full, but in the good way.

jihoon huffs, tapping the address of the record shop into the gps on his phone. “i’ll keep that in mind.”

it’s only a short drive from the restaurant to the record shop, which despite the early saturday afternoon is nearly empty.

“good,” jihoon says when you mention the lack of shopgoers. “it’s easier to think and find something good when there aren’t people hovering around.”

you stand back while jihoon does his thing - thumbing through records with a concentrated look on his face: brows drawn together, lip stuck between his teeth. his mouth quirks to one side and you think he may be biting the inside of his cheek, eyes flitting up to a nearby shelf before he walks over to it. he searches through the stock here, too, and you wonder if maybe he’s looking for something specific. he finishes at the shelf and when he turns to look for more, he catches you watching him.

“aren’t you going to look for something?” he asks, eyebrows raised.

you shake your head. “records aren’t really my thing. i just knew you really wanted to come. besides, i like watching you look. you’re so…in your element here.”

something twists in jihoon’s chest and he turns away from you before you can see the blush rising on his cheeks. sensing that you’ve embarrassed him, you turn away and begin thumbing through the collection of records behind you. you get distracted looking at the cover art, careful not to treat any merchandise with disrespect, and it’s quite a few minutes later that you peer out of the corner of your eye you and notice that jihoon has left this section of the store, wandered off somewhere else, but you’re enjoying yourself where you are. jihoon knows where he left you, you figure, he’ll come find you when he’s done.

he does exactly that a few minutes later, after you’ve moved to another rack to look at more albums.

“i thought you weren’t into records?” he asks, tone soft.

you shrug your shoulders, still looking at the album in your hands. the art is so simplistic - just a small cloud on a blue sky background and nothing more. “i don’t.” you respond, putting the record back and turning to face him. “but i liked looking at the covers, i guess.”

jihoon knows this, though. while you’d been absorbed with cover art and he’d been wandering, he’d come back by the section you’d been in to check on you, make sure you weren’t standing there alone and unsure of what to do. unintentionally he had gotten stuck watching you browsing just like you had watched him, and he had seen you poring over a particular cover for a number of minutes before putting it back. and even after that, you had ended up going back to it, fingers tracing delicately over the artwork.

jihoon had wandered off again after that, deciding it best to leave you to it until either you sought him out or he finished his shopping, whichever came first.

which brought the two of you to the moment at hand. jihoon stood before you with a few bags in his hands, one of which he wordlessly holds out to you. assuming he just wants you to hold it you take the bag from him and start heading for the exit, and jihoon follows you back to the car, where you both place the shop bags into the backseat. checking the clock on the dashboard, it’s already a little after four, and the drive back to the city will take about an hour and a half which leaves you with hours still to go before the party. the two of you settle in, jihoon sets up the gps once more, and you hit the road.

“so was there anything else you wanted to do before the party?” you ask. “there’s not really a point in you dropping me off at home just to come pick me back up later, you know?”

“yeah, i told you earlier, remember? there’s something i want to show you. i don’t know if it’ll take like, three hours, but…we’ll see.”

oh. you had assumed the “something” had been the restaurant, or perhaps even the original branch of the record shop he loved so much in seoul. “what is it, hoonie?”

jihoon looks at you from the corner of his eye and smirks. “you’ll see.”

you groan. “haven’t you surprised me enough for one day? first the day trip, then the magic jjigae, now what?”

“you’ll see.” jihoon repeats smoothly. “also, the magic jjigae wasn’t - i already told you i didn’t realize where cheol was sending us.”

“i’m just teasing, hoonie. i trust you.” you smile at him brightly before turning back to your phone, scrolling through your twitter feed. smiling to yourself, you turn quickly and snap a picture of jihoon to post online.

jihoon drives deep into the heart of the city, into the underground parking lot of a building you’ve never seen before - not before saying hello to the man working the security gate. he pulls the badge hanging from his rear view mirror and throws it over his neck, taking you by the hand as he leads you to the elevator. he swipes his badge to get the elevator going to a specific floor, absentmindedly rubbing his thumb over the back of your hand as the two of you travel upwards.

you step out once the doors open, jihoon leading the way. the guard working the desk looks up from his book and smiles big and wide at the sight of jihoon.

“evening, mr. lee!” he waves and jihoon waves back as he comes to a stop in front of the desk. “and who is this?”

“ah, this is my girlfriend.” he introduces you to the guard, who introduces himself as “dongsoo, miss!” and exclaims at how nice it is to meet you.

“dongsoo only works weekends, lucky bastard.” jihoon grumbles goodnaturedly.

dongsoo laughs. “that may be so, but no one forces you to come in on saturdays, mr. lee.”

jihoon shrugs. “i work best here. i get too…comfortable at home. and will you please just call me jihoon.” dongsoo smiles at that.

you raise an eyebrow at jihoon but say nothing. the two of you say goodbye to dongsoo as jihoon leads you down a long hallway lined with doors, going down until he reaches door 0526.

“this is me.” he says, voice soft, sliding up the keypad and putting in the passcode. he opens the door and leads you inside, revealing a small studio lit only by soft purple neon lighting.

“do you always work in the dark? that’s bad for your eyes.” you say it without thinking, but it’s true, and when jihoon doesn’t respond to turn towards him to see if you’ve maybe made him mad. he’s looking at you, clearly shocked. “what?”

he blinks, cocking his head back and scratching the back of his head. “no, it’s just that no one has really ever said anything like that. i mean….i don’t really bring people here, to be fair. woomin has been once or twice…seungcheol comes up and bothers me constantly even though he definitely has better things to be doing in his own department. a few others here and there. but everyone just talks about how cool the neon is.”

“well, yeah, it’s cool, but i bet you get headaches all the time.” you take a seat on the couch as jihoon plops himself into his computer chair.

he hums. “yeah…i do, actually.” you put your hands up as if to say “see, i told you.” and jihoon laughs. “yeah, okay, i’ll look into getting some better lights.”

“good. i’m glad.” you play with your scarf as jihoon logs into his computer and opens a few programs before turning back to you.

“i want to play something for you, if that’s okay.”

“oh!” you probably shouldn’t be as surprised as you feel. you are in his studio, after all. “okay, sure, go ahead. i mean, you should probably know i can’t give the kind of feedback you really need, since i’m not like, into music, but -”

jihoon puts up a hand to stop you. “it’s okay, you don’t need to give me any sort of feedback, i just…i just want you to hear it.” you nod, and jihoon clicks a few buttons, and the small room fills with music.

the tune is slow, and sweet, and you recognize jihoon’s voice immediately as it comes in over the instrumentals. jihoon’s voice and the music behind it build slowly, a quiet force by the time the chorus comes in for the first time, followed by a decrescendo of the music as jihoon’s voice stays strong. the instrumentals rise once more as the chorus approaches again, jihoon singing words of anguished adoration. the song ends softly, gently, fading off into silence followed by the click of jihoon’s mouse. he turns to look at you, almost shy. “so, i know i said you didn’t need to give me feedback, but um - did you like it, at least?”

you bite at your lip, blinking a few times before you answer. “ye-yeah, jihoon, it -” your eyes meet his and his face is like stone. clearly your opinion on this means more than he lets on. “it’s beautiful. it’s - it’s so sad, jihoon.” he nods, biting at his own lip. “is it - it’s about -?” you can’t bring yourself to finish. it doesn’t matter, he knows what you mean.

“yeah, it’s about her.” he runs his fingers through his hair and sighs. “i’ve written dozens of songs since our breakup, but…this one, this stupid song, has been giving me nothing but trouble. i’ve been determined to finish it but i kept getting stuck.” he turns and looks at you. “until the other day. uh, christmas. after you left i went back in and poured…a lot of feelings into this stupid song. so much came bubbling up i…i worked all night at it but…it’s done. it has no power over me, anymore.”

you get the feeling he’s referring to more than just this song, but you keep it to yourself. “so…can i ask? why was it so important to show it to me? i would have heard it eventually, probably. in the top 40s or something.”

jihoon laughs. “because without you and the christmas date, i don’t think i ever would have finished it. i wanted to…thank you, i guess.” he checks the time on the computer monitor. nearly six-thirty. he turns back to you. “do you want to see what else i’m working on? we can get delivery if you get hungry, and then we’ll go at like nine. soyoung won’t forgive us if we don’t show up. or we can go do something else. it doesn’t matter to me. at all. really.”

you laugh. he’s definitely right about soyoung.

“no, jihoon, it’s okay. i like watching you work. show me everything.”

[thetravellingvagrant]

Day 12- Krakow: In Which I Visit Bitch City

dI awoke surprisingly well rested for having slept in a hostel dorm. If there's one thing Krakow does better than Warsaw, other than everything, it's have hostels with comfy beds that don't feel like they're going to cause my death during the night. My ridiculously quiet and conscientious room mates had also been a rather pleasant surprise. It was a joy, as it always is to realise that, bar one forty five second bout of incredibly loud snoring from a Malaysian man, I was the loud one in the dorm.

I catapulted my body down my bunk's ladder, shattering both knees and stomping a hole in the floor in the process and wandered through to the hostel's kitchen for the free breakfast they had offered. This breakfast turned out to just be some toast and a bit of cheese, but I'm not fussy. I'll eat toast and cheese for free. Hell, I'll eat from a bin, for free.

I endured the awkwardness of the communal breakfast as best I could (i.e. poorly) and bolted back to the comfort and solitude of my room as fast as humanly possible, to plan my day.

There was nothing in particular that I really felt like I absolutely had to do in Krakow and additionally, I had, now, only a single day to experience the city, which did rather make this planning process tricker than it needed to be. I decided in the end to have a quick walk around the Christmas markets before venturing further afield.

The market here was pretty excellent and boasted some truly top notch tat as well as very delicious smelling bits of animal. I spent some time bibbling around, weaving through crowds as best I could (i.e. poorly) and buying souvenirs, but before long had grown tired of being around so many people, so utterly unable to comprehend the space that their bodies took up and left to wander the rest of old town.

Krakow is a very nice city; every bit as lovely as I remembered it being on my last visit, ten years prior- if perhaps a little more modern and homogenised, now- but there honestly isn't all that much to say about my tour of it. I went around old town, which was lovely, though full to bursting with tourists, past the castle, also lovely but full of tourists

If you squint, you can see them.

Through to the Jewish quarter to see the funny jews with the long hair, less touristy but also substantially less interesting. Apparently if you get there at 3pm sharp though, you can see their keepers feeding them bagels and matzah balls, though. (...if this is for some reason, the first entry you have chosen to read of this blog, I would suggest you scroll back by one to make the previous few lines seem far, far less hateful.)

I had been recommended a restaurant by the hostel staff in the Jewish quarter, though, when I got there, discovered that it was just a bar and so, instead, I bought a sausage from a stand and ate it in the cold. It wasn't nearly as terrible as it sounds.

I pressed on across the river to reach the last of my planned attractions for the day; Oskar Schindler's enamel factory, though, I don't think I really got the full effect of the place, to be totally honest. It was swarming with tourists, with lines for entrance so long that it didn't even cross my mind to wait in them and the building appeared to have been substantially modernized (though I may be mistaken about that), so in essence it was really just kind of like...walking past quite a busy factory. I haven't even seen the film, so I couldn't even recognise parts of it from that.

Hey, look, it’s probably that bit from that film or whatever...

All in all I give it a 3/10. Try harder, Oskar. It's not that difficult...

I trudged back to old town, my pedometer reading in excess of 20,000 steps (as before, the lack of quality in this entry was not through lack of trying...) and stopped off at a ridiculously cheap 24 hour pierogi restaurant, where I had some genuinely fantastic pork and cabbage dumplings. I had the time of my life, though I am well aware of exactly how well enjoying a very basic meal translates to text (i.e. poorly) so I shan't dwell on it.  They were great, though.

After my very excellent pierogi (which where honestly just top notch), I returned to my hostel having failed to have the patience to breech the solid wall of people that now populated the Christmas market. Once settled back into my bed, the Malaysian man (Ing? I think his name was? Ng? Something like that) struck up a conversation. He continued telling me facts about things I had barely even a passing interest in; how many Scottish people there are in Malaysia, how Dutch people are good with money, how boring Australia is. Soon, though we were joined by a new addition to the room, an Italian man with an exceptionally shiny head, and the conversation turned slightly more seedy.

I mentioned that I had just been in the Ukraine. Ing was apparently a fan. He went on to tell me about Odessa, which he visited in the summer.

“Oh, yeah. You would not believe the girls there!” he said, middle aged and awkward.

“mm.” I nodded in faux interest, not particularly enamoured with the idea of imagining how attractive eastern European women are through the filter of a pervy old asian dude.

“They wear almost nothing at all!” he continued, edging closer and closer to full stereotype. “It's bitch city, man.”

“Mm” I nodded agai- wait a second. “Bitch city?!” I laughed, half out of shock, half out of awkwardness and an additional half because “bitch city” is just a genuinely funny phrase.

“yeah!” he nodded enthusiastically, adding an quick “I'm not kidding!”

I didn't quite know what to do with this turn of events other than say “wow...”, which Ing immediately mistook for enthusiasm.

The Italian man piped up “I've never heard this phrase before, Bitch City”. He was also laughing.

“You no hear it?” Ing said, incredulous. “It just means city next to ocean”

“ohhhh!” myself and the Italian man echoed in unison “beach city!”

Ing nodded, laughing as he finally came to understand what had transpired. Boy, let me tell you, I was sure glad that he didn't say 'Bitch City', as up until that point, I had actually quite liked In-

“But you might as well call it Bitch City, anyway to be honest! So many girls and they wear so little!”

...Ah, there it is. I chuckled once more out of awkwardness and quickly excused myself to go and make dinner.

“make dinner” may be a bit of a grandiose term for what I actually did, which was sit in the hostel's kitchen for an hour and a half, waiting for a string of other people to finish cooking, before finally giving up entirely, having had quite enough of the truly vapid conversation that two American girls sitting across from me at the kitchen table with me were having and heading to bed, hungry, angry and early in order to be up in decent time for the journey to the next leg of my trip, tomorrow: Brno.

[jeremystrele]

A Drool-Worthy Day In The Life Of Instagram Food Sensation, Ellie Bouhadana of Ellie’s Table

A Drool-Worthy Day In The Life Of Instagram Food Sensation, Ellie Bouhadana of Ellie’s Table

A Day In The Life

Sasha Gattermayr

Ellie Bouhadana of Ellie’s Table lives in Balaclava with her partner. Even without lockdown restrictions, this is where she gets all her work done! Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

She spends the start of her day collating off-the-cuff ideas stored in the ‘Notes’ app on her phone into a cohesive recipe plans. Then she tackles the daily admin of a small business: emails, budgets and contacting suppliers! Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

A trip to local fruit and veg store to gather supplies is essential for a day of recipe testing. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

Researching dishes consists of reading lots and lots of cookbooks -the dream! Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

Selecting produce at the local fruit and veg store in Balaclava, just down the road from Ellie’s house. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

On days when she hosts her pop-up trattoria, Ellie contacts her local supplier to talk through the best seasonal produce and order large quantities for service. But for recipe testing days, the local shop will definitely do! Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

Inside her light-filled, dreamy kitchen. The kitchen overlooks her garage and driveway, which was the location for her summer crostini bar. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

The open pantry is filled with Mediterranean pantry staples. Aperol Spritz, anyone? Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

Ellie has Israeli, Moroccan and Jewish heritage, and her cooking is a fusion of them all, with a healthy dose of Italian thrown in! She calls it Italo-Mediterranean, which also captures the way she wants her food to be eaten (communally!) as well as the cuisine itself. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

Though pasta is traditionally associated with Italy, dough is a central part of Jewish cuisine. Ellie’s grandmother used to watch her mother hang sheets of pasta between two broom handles, and has now taught Ellie how to make Jewish dumplings (kreplach) out of dough and drop them in soup. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

‘The women in my family don’t really work with recipes so much, they cook with instinct (and a lot of cumin). This is how I love to cook. I really want to preserve their style of cooking which is so innate and relaxed. It really is based on feeling.’ Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

A light and bright corner of the large kitchen. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

Preparing homemade spaghetti alla chitarra with vongole. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

Fresh pasta alongside ripe peaches and uncooked prawns. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

Ellie doesn’t generally take a lunch break because she’s tasting food all day as she tests her recipes. Sometimes a chunk of bread with butter and an anchovy will do! Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

Ellie Bouhadana’s family is from Haifa, an Israeli city on the skinny stretch of coast between Tel Aviv and Beirut. When she was growing up, there was always streams of family and friends filing into her household to eat dinner on a Friday night. Later on, she would discover the same mode of eating in Italy, where a whole village would gather together at restaurants in search of good food and good company.

‘I would say my take on food is influenced by a mix of my Moroccan, Jewish and Israeli heritage; I call my style Italo-Mediterranean,’ she says. ‘When I lived in Haifa, I would watch my aunty make beautiful Friday night family Shabbat feasts from her tiny apartment – I would ask her questions, take notes on recipes. I really want to preserve their style of cooking which is so innate and relaxed.’

When she returned to Melbourne, she was so inspired by this philosophy of communal eating that she launched Ellie’s Table – a place for her to work through all her ideas and inspiration for food-oriented projects. It hit a culinary nerve. Beginning with the enormously successful ‘Doorstep Deliveries’ during lockdown, and expanding to a pop-up trattoria in Ripponlea late last year, Ellie has come a long way from a makeshift kitchen in a semi-demolished church (the first dining event she ever hosted for her friends!).

Without any formal training, she is now a cook, producer, art director and event manager all rolled into one! What does such an indefinable job description mean for her day-to-day life? Funny you should ask…

First Thing…

I usually wake up around 7am because of the light that streams directly into my room. In saying that, when I have the time I can wake up much later, and love spending part of the morning relaxing in bed.

A ritual I’ve always stuck by in the morning is making my bed – it makes me feel like I’ve already accomplished something in my day! I then put a podcast on and go for a walk, ending the walk most days at my local coffee shop in Balaclava. Or I skip the walk for morning yoga.

No matter the weather I love sitting outside the cafe, it feels fresh and is always nice to have a bit of sun on my face while I have a coffee, read or check emails/write a to-do list for the day. I’m usually not really hungry in the mornings, but if I am it’s hunger for a pastry of some sort.

Morning…

My work schedule isn’t super regular, as my weeks often look quite different. On a week where I have a pop-up, I start working at around 8.30am. I’m not the most efficient person, so I try to start early so I can get a lot done.

When I am planning a pop-up I usually sit at my dining table and untangle the inspiration I have messily collected in my ‘Notes’ folder on my phone, writing/drawing my ideas down properly. Embedded throughout my morning is doing research in cookbooks, or sometimes speaking to my mum and grandmother to chat through food ideas.

One morning a week I’ll speak to my fruit and veg supplier to see what he recommends at that moment, based on the season. I’ll then buy a few ingredients and test recipes in my kitchen at home.

Lunchtime…

I know it seems weird but I don’t often take a proper break for lunch. I snack all day during recipe testing, so I don’t really have proper meals unless my partner is home and forces me to sit down with him. It’s the nature of my work because I’m testing food/creating new dishes all the time. Especially when I am cooking for a Saturday pop-up, I am constantly on my feet, tasting food, which makes it hard to take a moment to sit down and make myself a whole meal.

Some days I will tell a couple of friends or my sisters to come by for lunch and try the dishes I’ve been working on. Other days I will slice off a chunk of bread and eat it with butter and an anchovy – that satisfies me for a while.

Afternoon…

After testing recipes I sit down and break the dishes down and create a menu for that weekend’s pop-up (often the dishes aren’t where I want them to be and I’ll need to do more testing the following days). Once I have a menu I am happy with, I begin on all the admin side of the pop-up. There is a huge amount to work through. I begin contacting my suppliers, create the budgets and online booking forms, and organise the overall running of the event.

I actually feel energised at this time! I do a lot of my best work in the afternoons and into the evening.

Evening…

I don’t have a consistent time that I finish work, I always feel like I could do more. If I’m having friends over for dinner I close my laptop between 6 and 7pm and start cooking.

After testing and thinking about food all day, I like to finish the night with simple food. Recently I’ve been enjoying lentils cooked slowly in a sofrito base glistening with extra virgin olive oil. I sear it off with cured meat like pancetta/salami, herbs and wine. I also find myself craving steamed mussels with crusty bread.

I’ve always loved having people over for dinner as a way to unwind. I know that sounds like a lot of effort after a big day but for me throwing a little “casual” dinner party with my partner gives me a way to do something other than think about my projects. I can just immerse myself in the food I’m making for dinner, drink a glass of wine with friends, and relax.

If I’m not in the mood to cook I love going out to eat at either of my two favourite local restaurants (Claypots or Cicciolina) to have a bowl of pasta, or our favourite cajun flathead, and finish with ice cream down the road.

Last Thing…

Depending on the night I usually get into bed between 10.30 and 11pm.

I would say I normally get a lot of sleep just because I love my bed, but at the same time I have learnt that I can function on almost no sleep when I am doing pop-ups. The adrenaline gets to me, and even if I’ve been up cooking until the early hours I somehow still manage to get up at 5am, bake off 15 trays of focaccia in my small oven and throw a super fun pop-up trattoria party that evening!

Art direction and styling is as much a part of Ellie’s business as her food. Her eye is impeccable! Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

One luscious spread! Pictured is grilled sardines, salsa verde and chilli; fresh focaccia; heirloom tomatoes with marinated figs, local basil and extra virgin olive oil; buffalo mozzarella with thinly shaved melon; Wagyu bresaola with guindilla peppers and parmigiano; fennel and baby pea salad, anchovy, olives and lemon. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

What are your favourite dishes to cook?

My favourite dishes to cook usually involve anchovies, white wine and good extra virgin olive oil. One of my favourites is thick spaghetti with vongole (clams) and lots of fresh chilli and garlic. Artichoke are also a nostalgic favourite. We used to eat them as kids at my grandfather’s house – my Dad would show us how to peel back the layers until you reached the artichoke heart. Now I boil them whole for dinner parties. I usually make a buttery lemon vinaigrette or salsa verde to dip the leaves into.

If borlotti beans are in season I gently boil a bunch with herbs and add them into the marinade to eat with fresh buffalo mozzarella and the artichoke hearts. An indulgent weeknight staple for me is ragu bianco (a luscious meat sauce cooked low and slow with white wine and pure milk).

Right now I’m listening to, watching, and reading…

Listening: I listen to The Daily every morning but I also love Modern Love the podcast, it’s so good!

Watching: I am currently watching Shtisel on Netflix. I am also always in the middle of an episode of Seinfeld – it’s the best!

Reading: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

I get my best work done when…

I get to create a food event that I would love to attend myself; I can be as creative and free with my menu ideas, set-up and location.

My productivity tool/tip is…

When planning a food event/pop-up for over 100 people I often get super overwhelmed by the amount of tasks I need to get through in a day. I know it sounds simple, but writing down lists of things really helps me envision my day and work through my tasks. Also calling someone you’re close to (for me it’s my sister) to talk out your plan helps to make things less daunting and build confidence in getting started.

A philosophy I live and work by is…

Eat beautiful food and drink wine with friends, family and loved ones. Be generous and host meals. You don’t need to spend a lot to throw a lush feast.

Something I’ve learned the hard way is…

Let go! Don’t overthink your work or projects too much, it’s not worth the stress. Obviously work hard to achieve your desired outcomes, but don’t get too heavy about it. I am still learning this and I definitely doubt myself most of the time, but I am working on it!

Loving Ellie’s food and writing? Her fortnightly newsletter, ‘Ellie’s Notebook’ was launched today. Subscribe here for more intimate musings on what she’s cooking, where she’s eating, rough recipes + bits and pieces from her camera roll. Keep up with all the Ellie’s Table happenings on her Instagram here.

Even though she’s been cooking all day, sometimes Ellie’s favourite way to unwind is to cook for friends. Being surrounded by people and food is the best way to relax.  Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

‘I know that sounds like a lot of effort after a big day but for me throwing a little “casual” dinner party with my partner gives me a way to do something other than think about my projects,’ she says. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

[rosesnvines]

Little Mouse & Komainu: Keith’s POV

Keith’s side of this post, though it starts after school, there is a quick backstory and more details about the Voltron team. And man oh man, @kalluralove, now I really want pics of the two with their arusins! I’m just squealing at how cute Keith and Blachu got!! XD This can be for the Lion and Mouse prompt, as well as Lost and Found, maybe? But it’s mainly only a mention made by Keith about finding his place. Anyway, without further ado, enjoy these adorable babies!

The drive home was unusually quiet. Shiro usually liked to talk about the other grades he taught science to and their antics. But right then, Shiro kept glancing oddly at Keith. Keith let out a groan and gave in.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that for?”

“Just wondering if it’s the same Keith, that’s all. Whenever Allura was around, you changed, you seemed . . . different.”

“Different how? Allura was the only thing that was different about today.”

“Hmm . . . maybe you’re right.”

“Well of course I am, today was only different because it was Allura’s first day. What more did you expect? Romelle to come rushing into your classroom to greet her cousin?” Keith let out a snort when Shiro blushed slightly.

“Oh, alright, fine, just cut it out. I’m sorry, but, it was just so odd to see you act so . . . soft and kind around her.”

“Hey, remember, you keep drilling into me that as class rep, it’s supposed to be my job.”

“Alright, glad to hear all that drilling finally paid off.” But when they came to a stop at a red light, Shiro leaned in. “So, you’re absolutely sure you’re not falling in love with Allura on her first day here?”

“What? No . . . yes! I’m sure! Now cut it out!” Keith pushed Shiro back, only for the two to turn it into a playful brawl, until Shiro yelped. “Shiro! I’m so sorry! Are you alright? I didn’t mean to . . .”

“Oh, no, the light turned green. And man, you fall for that every time,” replied SHiro with a grin as the car lurched forward.

“Shiro! Come on! How do you expect me to know when you’re actually hurting?”

“Oh believe me, you’ll know,” quipped Shiro.

Keith crossed his arms. “I’m not sure if I want to know. I just don’t to go back into the system.”

“I know, Keith. Just two more years, and you won’t have to worry about it anymore. Except maybe helping me with my diapers every now and then.”

“What?” exclaimed Keith. Shiro merely laughed. “Oh come on Shiro, that’s disgusting!”

“What? Admit it, you were seriously wondering if I did, didn’t you?” Keith just grumbled in reply. Shiro just laughed as he pulled into their driveway. It was a pretty small house, just three bedrooms and one bath, with one of the bedrooms turned into Shiro’s office. Keith immediately walked off towards his room, but not before Shiro called him.

“Hey, Keith! You feel like Chinese or pizza tonight?”

“Chinese, I guess,” replied Keith with a shrug before he closed his door. It didn’t matter to him, they didn’t have many options thanks to Shiro’s medical bills. Thankfully, a couple of the lunch ladies would sneak them whatever leftovers they had. Sometimes it wasn’t much, but for the weekends, it usually was all they had. Shiro found out that they really weren’t supposed to do that, but they told him it was better than letting all that food, little as it sometimes may be, go to waste and tossed when someone could have it. They were also the ones who told them about the food drive that the school district did over the summer, and the two had never been so happy. With as much food as they got every week, they practically feasted that summer. Shiro didn’t have to worry about purchasing food and could save up that money for something else. Now, they were getting back into the old swing of things, lunch at school, take-out for dinner. Keith let out a sigh as he slumped on his bed. Well, this year should be interesting, what with a new Altena at school. Keith just hoped that she would come to understand why he and Lance wouldn’t let her near Lotor. He pictured Allura in his mind, she was so pure and innocent, yet he could sense a fire burning within. He didn’t want Lotor to tarnish her, to put put that fire. Keith unknowingly watched it happen with Avok before finally realizing what was happening, but by then, it was too late. He liked Romelle, he liked Bandor, he had even liked Avok too, before Lotor got to him. And now he simply refused to let another Altena fall to the influence and clutches of Lotor. He didn’t know what Lotor wanted with the Altenas in general, that not only drove Keith nuts, it also worried him. As such, he swore to protect the other three, if not for Avok’s sake, for Shiro’s as Keith did notice how close the two teachers had been getting. A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

“Hey Keith? I’ve placed the order, the driver should be here in a few minutes. Keep an ear out for him, please? I’m going to take a shower.”

“Alright.”

“Thanks! Money’s on the table!” Keith heard Shiro walk into the bathroom and start his shower. Letting out a sigh, Keith rose from his bed, and paused. Was that there when he came in? A rectangular box was sitting on his desk, one he had never seen before. Did Shiro get him something? But that wasn’t right, Keith’s birthday wasn’t until October. So then, what was it for? Curious, he opened the box. Inside was a belt buckle with the image of a lion etched in black. OK, it actually looked pretty cool, and Keith tried it on, it fit his belt like it was made for it. But then, a flash of light emanated from it, and the next thing Keith knew, a little lion with a black mane and violet eyes was floating before him.

“Ah!” yelped Keith as he fell backwards, onto his bed. “Wh-what are you? Shiro!”

“No, sh! You can’t tell anybody about me!”

“Then what are you?”

“I’m a magical being called an arusin, my name is Blachu. I merge with the belt buckle to give you superpowers!”

Keith blinked in surprise. “Say, say what? Superpowers?”

“Yes! I can make you go faster, leap higher, jump farther, than you have ever done before! My tail can even turn into a sword!”

“A sword?” asked Keith, perhaps with a bit too much longing in his voice.

“You like swords? Nice! Yes, my tail can turn into a sword! I think we’re going to have lots of fun!” Blachu quickly covered his stomach with his paws when it grumbled and grinned sheepishly. “Um, do you have anything to eat?”

Keith’s eyes widened. “The Chinese food!” He dashed out of his room, just in time to hear some knocking at the front door. He rushed over, grabbed the money, and rushed to the door, flinging it open. “Uh, hi.”

“Hello, here is your order. That will be twenty-five dollars and thirteen cents.” Keith quickly counted out the money, and realized Shiro rounded up to twenty-six and added four dollars.

“Right, um, here you go,” said Keith, handing him the wad of bills.

“Thank you, have a wonderful day!” replied the driver quite cheerfully as he exchanged the food for the money.

“Thanks, and the same to you!” replied Keith as the driver walked away. He knew Shiro would kill him if he wasn’t at least somewhat cordial. He quickly shut the front door, locked it, and let out a breath. He set the food on the table as he glanced at the clock, it was pretty early, not even five yet. Then he noticed the sad, hungry little face of Blachu. He reached into the bag, fished around for a bit, before pulling out a dumpling and handing it to Blachu. “Here, try this.” Blachu inched forward and sniffed it.

“What is it?”

“It’s a dumpling. You haven’t been out for long, have you?” asked Keith as Blachu took a few licks.

“No, it’s been several years since any of us has been out.” Blachu decided that dumplings tasted good, took the food from Keith, and began chewing on it.

“Any of us?”

Blachu nodded as he swallowed before replying with, “Yes, there are seven of us total, five cats and two mice. We cats do the majority of the fighting while the two mice, though they are excellent warriors, are better off using their powers, the power of quintessence. They can revert all damage done by a monster, like nothing had happened. We cats must protect them at all costs because without them, nothing could go back to normal.”

“And, what are these monsters? Do you have a special power?”

“The monsters vary, sometimes they are true monsters and must be completely destroyed, sometimes they are people being controlled by an evil entity, and we must find the symbol of their controller to break the spell and enable the mice to revert them back to normal people. And yes, we do have a special power, it’s called forming Voltron!”

“Huh?”

“When the five cats are together, we can form a giant robot! I am the head and chest, the cheetah is the right arm, the lynx is the left arm, the panther is the right leg, and the tiger is the left leg. Then there are the two mice, the white house mouse and the brown field mouse.” Blachu paused as he took another bite and glanced at Keith oddly.

“Uh, what? Why are you looking at me like that for?”

“Oh, um, it’s just that, the holders, or the paladins, of the black lion and the white mouse tend to fall in love and get married,” blurted Blachu.

Keith blinked. “Say what?”

“Keith, is everything alright?” Keith and Blachu paused and slowly glanced at the bathroom door before Keith snatched up Blachu and the dumpling, rushed into his room and began taking out the few homework assignments he had.

“Uh, uh, yeah, yeah, everything’s fine! Just, just one of the problems was worded weird, that’s all!” Keith quickly shouted back. He and Blachu let out a breath when they heard Shiro laughing.

“Alright. Did the Chinese food come?”

“Yeah, about a couple of minutes ago,” replied Keith.

“Good. I’ll be out in a minute to take care of it.”

“Alright!” Keith let out a grin as Blachu chuckled softly before letting out a satisfied sigh.

“Dumplings are good. Can I try the rest of the Chinese food?”

“Alright, I’ll see if I can sneak it in here for you.”

“Thanks! Oh, aren’t you wondering?”

“Wondering about what?”

“You haven’t asked why you yet! Everyone else I’ve ever been with asked that question.”

“Well, would it be weird if I said because this felt right, like, I’m meant to do this?”

“Whoa, you’re already thinking like that?” asked Blachu.

“Yeah, well, before, when I was in foster care, I felt . . . lost. I wanted to know what my purpose was. When Shiro came and got me out, becoming my legal guardian, I thought I had something of a purpose, making sure that he was alright, but, it didn’t seem like it was what I was meant to do. Then I met some people, I got it the most when I met this girl today . . .”

“Ooohhhh,” said Blachu.

“Hey, don’t you start either,” Keith mumbled.

“But you do like her,” said Blachu with a grin.

“Didn’t you say that whoever’s with you gets together with the white mouse?”

“Yeah, but you don’t know if she is the white mouse,” quipped Blachu. The two became quiet as they heard the bathroom door open and Shiro’s footsteps walking into the dining room as he hummed. Keith moaned.

“I’m so glad he’s not a music teacher.” Blachu snickered. Just then the phone rang. “Oh good.”

“Hello? Oh, hello Mr. Holt! I actually wanted to talk to you . . . wait, what?” There was a pause. “No, I haven’t seen Katie since school ended.” Another pause. “Say what? A robotic what is attacking the city?” Keith and Blachu glanced at each other in alarm.

“A robeast,” whispered Blachu. Keith jumped up and walked to his door. “No, no, I’ll head out right now to look for them. I’ll bring them to my house until everything passes over, alright? And I’ll call you when I get back. You’re welcome sir.” Keith opened the door to his room as Shiro returned the phone to its receiver.

“Shiro? What was that about?”

“Apparently Mr. Holt is worried, Katie’s not back yet, and there’s some kind of robotic beast attacking the city. I’m going out to find her. You’re staying here.”

“Wait, what?”

“In case anyone else calls. If Katie’s still out, that means she’s still with Lance and Hunk. If their families call, I want you to let them know I’m looking for them. I’ll be back in a bit.”

“But, Shiro!” began Keith, only to be cut off by Shiro closing the front door behind him. “Ugh! Blachu!” Blachu zipped around the corner. “How do you merge with the belt?”

“You have to say, Blachu, roar out!”

“What? Oh, never mind, we’ll talk about that later. Blachu . . .” Keith was interrupted by the phone. “Well, at least it’s now rather than later,” he mumbled as he quickly picked up the phone. “Hello, Takshishi residence.”

“Hello, is Shiro Takashi there?” came a female voice.

“No, this is his brother Keith. May I ask who’s calling?”

“This is Mrs. McClain, I’m Lance’s mother. I’m with Hunk’s folks right now, neither one have come home! And there’s a monster on the loose!”

“Yes ma’am, I know, that’s why Shiro’s not here. We just got a call from Principal Holt, Katie’s not back yet, and since she tends to hang out with Lance and Hunk, well, we’re on our way to look for them. As soon as we find them, we’ll bring them here and call you to let you know that they’re fine.”

“Oh thank you so much! You’re such an angel! I could just hug you!”

Keith bit his lip to keep from sounding disgusted. “Yes, I’m sure you would. Um, could you please pass the word to Hunk’s folks? We’ll be sure to call you when we’re back.”

“Thank you again so much!”

“You’re welcome. Um, bye!” said Keith with a smile, trying to get her off the phone. Not to be rude or anything, but, he needed to go.

“Good bye, and good luck!”

“Right,” he said, before he hung up the phone. He turned to Blachu, “Let’s do this. Blachu, roar out!” Blachu flew into the belt buckle, and the changes happened instantly. Keith was in a red and white suit with a black mane-like hoodie. But he didn’t pause to glance at his new outfit, he rushed out the door, leaping and bounding through the streets. Where should he go first? How was he going to find the robeast? Was a mouse already on the scene? He hoped not, as Blachu had said, they were good fighters, but they were needed to repair the damage the robeasts, or any monsters, had caused. Apparently none of the cats could do it, only the mice. Which did make them pretty important. With a grunt, he leapt to the top of the buildings to try and get an idea of where to start looking. It didn’t take long to see the path the robeast had carved out of several buildings, and the throngs of screaming people running in the opposite direction. “Well, that was easy,” he muttered as he took off in the direction the screaming people were running from.

“Katie!” Keith paused, was that the Katie Shiro was looking for? He glanced around, sure enough, it was Katie Holt, dangling from a twenty-story building. How did she get up there? Lance and Hunk were running towards her. “Hang on!” shouted Lance. Keith let out a soft growl, they weren’t going to make it in time, she was about to lose her grip.

“Lance, Hunk!” Katie called out, right as she lost her grip and fell. Keith jumped for her, grabbed a hold of her, flipped in midair, and landed on his feet.

“Whoa, that was awesome!” exclaimed Hunk as he and Lance approached the two.

“Team Voltron! I have your precious mouse lady! If you don’t show up when I get to zero, I will cut her in half!” came a voice over the din. Keith let out a gasp, that was the robeast, and it had a mouse! He practically shoved Katie into Lance’s arms.

“Take care of her!” he shouted before turning and rushing off in the direction of the voice.

“Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six!” That’s right, keep counting as loud as possible, lead me to you, even though it’s a trap, though Keith. He rushed down a couple of streets and turned a couple of corners, he could tell he was getting close. “Five! Four! Three!” He turned another corner, and saw the robeast, looking like an odd contraption of robot and bat. He had his sword out, over the spot where the mouse lady, the white mouse, in fact, was struggling with two poles wrapped around her. She just about had enough room to squeeze out and drop to the ground. Keith unclipped his tail and rushed forward as it changed into a sword. “Two! One! Zero!” The white mouse dropped to the ground and the sword came crashing down on her. But Keith had arrived.

“Stay down!” he ordered as he lifted up his sword to meet the robeast’s sword, hoping that it could take it. A sharp clang rang out as the two blades met, but Keith’s sword stayed intact, and Keith found he could match the robeast’s strength.

“The black lion of Voltron,” muttered the robeast as its lips curled into an evil grin. So, it was looking for the Voltron team, but why? Keith quickly glanced over its form, he couldn’t see a symbol that indicated that this robeast was under control of somebody, but Keith had a feeling it was, and whoever was controlling it was looking for Voltron for some reason. Keith pushed up on his sword, sending the robeast’s sword up, and kicking it as hard as he could to give him and the white mouse some breathing space. He turned to give her a hand up.

“Are you alright?” he asked her. She took his hand and stood up.

“Yes, thank you,” she replied with a smile. She paused, and the two gazed into each other’s eyes. Did she know that every other person who had had the white mouse would end up with whoever had the black lion? But that wasn’t the only thought in Keith’s head. Why did she seem so familiar? He snapped out of his thoughts, they had a mission to finish.

“Were you expecting to take care of the robeast yourself?” he asked.

She seemed to shake herself from her own thoughts before replying with, “No, just keeping it from hurting innocent civilians until you arrived, that’s all.” She pulled her hand from his and crossed her arms. He didn’t even realize he had still been holding it. “Though, if you hadn’t gotten here when you did . . .” she began.

He walked towards her, finishing the thought, “We would have lost you, and from what my asurin was telling me about the mice, that’s not a good thing.” The robeast could be heard groaning, reminding Keith that they weren’t out of danger yet. He readied his sword, and noticed that she had a whip. “Wait, is that a whip?”

“Uh, yeah,” she replied. Keith thought fast, if the robeast’s symbol wasn’t on the front or that sides that he could see, then maybe it was on its back. An idea began to form in his head and a grin began to form on his face.

“I think I have an idea. You see those poles there and there?” he asked, pointing out two poles opposite of each other.

The girl let out a gasp. “You want me to trip him?” Keith’s grin grew bigger, she was smart and caught on quick, he liked that.

“Yup, but keep your whip slack until I give you the signal, alright?”

“Right, but, what’s the signal?”

Keith thought quickly. “I’ll nod at you.”

“Got it,” she said before taking off for the poles. Keith kept his focus on the robeast, he didn’t want it to guess at what his plan was, nor did he want it to catch the white mouse again. The robeast finally got up and locked eyes with Keith.

“Hand over the belt buckle of the black lion, and I will stop rampaging this city!”

Keith scoffed, “What are you talking about? We’re just getting warmed up.” The robeast let out a roar and charged, but Keith didn’t move a muscle. He was waiting for the robeast to reach the right spot before signalling the white mouse to pull the whip taut. He waited and watched, and when the robeast finally reached the right spot, Keith glanced over at the white mouse and nodded. She pulled, and the robeast went tumbling over. Keith jumped up and took a quick look over the robeast’s back. Ah-ha, there it was! A glowing purple symbol, there, on the left side of its back, though, it looked oddly familiar. Keith brought his sword down on the symbol and heard a distinct snap. He glanced at the white mouse as he jumped off, shouting, “Use your powers now!”

The white mouse raced forward and raised her whip high, shouting “Power of Quintessence!” Keith watched in amazement as the whip detached from its handle and whirled around the robeast in a pale purple whirlwind before expanding to include the entire city. When it returned to the white mouse’s hand, the city was back to normal and the robeast was a normal, yet confused, person.

“Whoa!” Keith whispered. He shook himself out of his stupor and ran towards the white mouse. “That, that was amazing!”

She grinned at him. “Thank you! Whoa.” Keith reached out his hands and grabbed her shoulders to steady her as she stumbled. “I guess that’s why we need two mice,” she chuckled.

“Are you going to be alright?” asked Keith, worried that she had used too much power. They had better find the rest of the team and fast if they were expected to make it through the day without collapsing, especially her.

“I, I think so, just need to sit for a minute,” she replied as she allowed him to steer her towards a chair. Keith tried to figure out what made her so familiar to him when they were rather rudely interrupted.

“Oh wow! That was so cool! How did you guys do that?” Keith nearly blew his cover by letting out a soft growl when he realized it was Lance who had spoken as he recorded them on his camcorder. Katie and Hunk weren’t far behind him. Of course, they had followed Keith. But he only got even more annoyed when Lance tried to get close.

“Hey, back up! Can’t you tell she needs some rest?” Keith snapped as he pushed Lance back from the white mouse. Why couldn’t the idiot just leave girls alone?

“So, you’re superheroes, huh? What are your names?” asked Lance, training the camcorder on Keith. Keith let out a moan, he really hadn’t thought of a name. Well, wait, what about all those Japanese stories that Shiro’s family liked to tell? Wasn’t there a lion creature? Oh yes.

“Ugh, you can call me Komainu.”

“Komainu?” asked the others. Clearly only Shiro and Keith really knew that much about Japanese mythology.

“Yes, the guardian lions of Japanese mythology. You must know your Japanese mythology quite well,” came another voice. Keith’s eyes widened as Shiro walked on to the scene, he just hoped Shiro didn’t recognize him.

“Mr. Takashi!” blurted Hunk.

“Just Shiro outside of school, Hunk,” came Shiro’s reply. Keith quickly thought of a way to get out of there, Shiro had found the three he had been looking for, it was only a matter of time before he’d take them back to their home.

Keith quickly spoke, “Yeah, well, I need to go, have a lot of other things to take care of today.” He paused and turned to Allura, he was still worried about her. “Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

She nodded at him, a soft smile on her face. “Yes, I will be, thank you.”

“Oh, we didn’t get your name!” blurted Lance. Keith rolled his eyes and bit his tongue, someday, that kid was going to get it.

“Oh, um, I’m sorry, I’m a little too tired to think right now. I think I should head home and sleep. I’ll get back to you on the name.”

“Hmm, how about . . . Little Mouse? I mean, no offence, but you look like a mouse,” said Hunk. Keith had to agree with that, she looked really cute as well. But, what about the other mouse? What name would the other mouse have?

“Well, that is the idea, but there is going to be another mouse joining our team, so, I don’t know if that will really work,” she replied.

Keith shrugged, the name was already growing on him. “We can figure that out when the other mouse arrives. For now, I think Little Mouse works.”

“Hey, shouldn’t you be going somewhere?” asked Lance, somewhat annoyed.

Keith shot him a glare. “And I will be, once I make sure that you stop annoying Little Mouse long enough to go home and get some rest.”

“Um, I didn’t agree to the name . . .”

“Hey it works,” said Lance with a shrug.

“It is kind of catchy,” remarked Keith. He just didn’t want to admit just yet that he thought it was as cute as she was.

“Oh, alright, Little Mouse it is. You’re right Komainu, it is kind of catchy.”

“Glad you agree. Now, are you going to go home, or should I carry you there?” he asked as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

“No! No, no, no, thank you, I’ll, I’ll go home now, thank you.”

“But can’t you stay a little longer? There are so many questions I want to ask!” quipped Lance.

“You’re going to have to wait for a time when she’s not so tired, alright?”

“Komainu has a point, you should let her go home and try again next time, alright?” said Shiro as he placed his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“Oh, alright. As long you promise me an exclusive!”

“I’ll consider it,” replied Little Mouse before she lept away. Keith quickly followed suit, going off in one direction before quickly changing course and following Little Mouse from a distance. He could tell that she sensed him following her, but being a black lion meant he could use the shadows to his advantage and managed to keep out of her sight. When he noticed that she seemed to be getting close to her destination, he quickly turned and rushed back home. He had to get back before Shiro and the others! Panting, he realized with a grin that he made it back before them and dashed into the house.

“Um . . . Blachu, roar out!” Blachu came flying out of the belt as Keith’s suit disappeared. Keith took the Chinese food, fished out two dumplings, and placed the rest in the fridge. “Whew, that was close!”

“No kidding!’ replied Blachu between happy mouthfuls of dumpling. “And we still made it back before they did!”

“And before that robeast could kill Little Mouse!”

Blachu seemed to shiver, “That was a real close call.”

“So, how did I do for my first day?” asked Keith.

“Awesome! You’re really good! Almost as good as my last paladin!” Blachu paused and seemed to grow sad.

“Blachu?”

“I really miss my old paladin, we had such great times. You remind me so much of him. But, I guess that’s part of the reason why I like you a lot, Keith.”

“I like you too, Blachu. And it’s alright, you can still miss him.” Blachu flew to Keith’s cheek and rubbed his cheek against it. Keith let out a soft sigh and rubbed back. The two paused, there was the sound of a key turning in the lock. “Quick, Blachu, my jacket!” whispered Keith as he held it open. Blachu ducked in before Keith made his way to the door and opened it. “Shiro!”

“Hey! Sorry it took so long, but, we kind of had a little adventure,” said Shiro as he ushered in Lance, Hunk and Katie.

“There were two superheroes!” blurted Hunk.

“And Komainu saved me!” Katie quickly added.

“And Little Mouse is so adorable!” cooed Lance.

“Wait, what?” OK, first Allura, and now Little Mouse. Did this guy ever take a break?

Shiro let out a soft chuckle. “I’ll let them explain, I have some phone calls to make.”

“Oh, Mrs. McClain did call, she was with Hunk’s family.”

Shiro nodded. “Thanks Keith.” He went to making the calls while Lance, Hunk, and Katie explained everything that had happened. When the robeast had attacked, the group had been on their way to the mall to take a look at the new game system being shown that day. But then the crowd running form the robeast came in, broke them up, and Katie retreated to the closest, tallest building to see if she could find her friends when the robeast walked by, smashing through the building, leaving Katie trapped with nowhere to go but down. From there on out, Keith knew the rest, but it wasn’t hard to add in exclamations of awe or astonishment as Keith had no idea how awesome he looked when he moved, he just acted, thinking only of the mission, destroying the robeast. They also convinced Keith to instruct them on some Japanese mythology, eventually learning not just about the komainu, but also about a few other large cat-like creatures. Shiro eventually interrupted them with a little announcement.

“Listen up everybody, I’ve called your folks, they’re going to meet us at Olive Garden.”

“Alright, food! I’m starving!” quipped Hunk, the first one out the door.

“Don’t you ever think of anything else besides food?” quipped Lance as he followed him.

“Don’t you ever think of anything else besides cute girls?” Hunk shot back.

“Uh-oh, shots fired,” quipped Katie.

“Well, I’m taking Hunk’s side, I’m hungry. Three dumplings isn’t exactly very filling.”

Shiro blinked as he locked the door. “Then, where’s the rest of the food?”

“In the fridge,” replied Keith. “Hey! No, you’re sitting in the back!”

“But I called shotgun!” replied Lance as Keith dragged him out and practically tossed him in the back with Hunk and Katie.

“Too bad, this is Shiro’s car, I own shotgun.”

“If you two are going to fight about it, I’m giving it to Katie!” stated Shiro firmly. The two sat down and buckled their seatbelts grumbling. It was a little while after Shiro had pulled out of the driveway that Hunk attempted to break the tension by talking about Italian food. Katie soon joined in, being Italian herself, and the conversation eventually got the other three to open up about what they were going to get. And though Lance was still annoying, talking about how cute both Allura and Little Mouse were in one breath, Keith’s spirits were still high. He had found his place, and quite possibly a future girlfriend, according to Blachu, but he had never been happier.

[the-coconut-asado]

Goodbye Veganuary, Hello Prague

Veganuary came and went and I can’t say I mourned its passing. And for those trying to make Febru-dairy a Thing, leave it out and stop crying over spilt milk.

For someone who auto-smells barbecue whenever a cow walks past and has to start the day with two eggs, I do actually love eating plant-based dishes provided they taste delicious. And since watching Game Changers on Netflix, Adam and I have been trying to eat less meat and dairy during the week so we can improve our fitness. I’m not so fussed about the phallus-lengthening properties of celeriac, but each to their own. If you are bewildered by this reference, just watch the programme.

But I must admit, a surfeit of vegetables and a scarcity of sunlight in January did make me think alot about my trip to Prague last summer, with its abundance of sunshine and array of macho meat dishes.  I went with my daughter Lara and best friend Sue, bucking the trend of the wave of stag weekends that spill over into the city when Amsterdam fills up. That said, we saw but a handful of stag-celebrants on segways sporting a mix of bravado and embarrassment, and that was about it.

First thing to say about this extraordinarily pretty city - and this may be a nod to its Men Behaving Badly heritage -  is that it ain’t PC. A Picture-Post ‘buxom wench’, embonpoint spilling out of her dirndl top, cheers to you from a poster with two flagons in each fist as you walk through the arrivals lounge;  two hours later and the first bar we went into was adorned with discarded bras, mounted on the wall in a possible imagined tribute to Carry on Camping.

More agreeably, the next thing to note is that everything in Prague comes ‘with a twist’. You may be happily surprised by the tourist-to-cocktail-bar ratio in the city. You will be even more happily surprised by the quality of cocktails on offer, just don’t expect business as usual. My Negroni came with a ‘twist’ of passion fruit at Bon Vivants, a cosy little bar with an attentive waiter who made you realise where Borat got the inspiration for his accent; the Winter is Coming cocktail in the legendary Hemingway Bar came in a flagon straight off the Games of Thrones ‘set’.

Perhaps the biggest twist of all is that Prague boasts a vineyard in the middle of the city. St Wenceslas Vineyard (Svatováclavská vinice)  sits at the foot of Prague Castle, with its restaurant perched on a hillside at a slightly challenging gradient, a vine arboretum sheltering us from the scorching early September sun. 

Wines - delicious. Service - offhand verging on the affronted. But as Flambeed Chorizo was featured on the menu, we took the dodgy service in our stride. Properly torched and served with french fries (of course) it was a meaty treat, and went well with the Estate’s highly alcoholic white varietal.

Lara had managed to seek out some intriguing things for us to do and places for us to eat. Pork Knee featured on the menu at Mlejnice,  a classy little bistro on the verge of town - succulent as only a fall-of-the-bone, slow cooked cut can be. And if you craved something sweet, a tiny courtyard tucked off the main tourist trail to St Vitus’ Cathedral offered herbal teas and a toothsome slab of carrot cake, meltingly moist and jam-packed with nuts, raisins and spices in a ‘don’t even mention a light sponge’ kind of a way. 

Did I say that the biggest twist of the trip was the St Wenceslas Vineyard? Well,  I lied. Lara’s top find was, wait for it…. the Beer Spa. Literally a day spa where you sit in a barrel of beer while swigging pilsner straight from the tap, to the strains of a Czech cover of “Better Love Next Time Baby.” Take a look at their website and you are whip-lashed back into a 1970’s soft porn flick, the men all droopy moustaches and bright grins, the women looking like they are having the most fun you can have in a bath of Budvar while waiting for the ‘plumber’.

Here’s how it works: you book a room for two, three or four for an hour. You sit, alone or in pairs,  in a barrel filled with warm beer and beer minerals. Two beer taps are only an arm’s reach away, together with two chilled pint glasses. And there you sit for 30 minutes, drinking and giggling. When the timer goes off (classy touch),  you disembark, wrap yourself in a towel and recline on a bed of straw for another 30 mins (you’re barking with laughter by now), before dressing and departing. You’ve no reason to feel shamefaced, but somehow you do, and your punishment is that Dr Hook earworm for the rest of the evening. But the beer was damn good and our mood was upbeat.  

We stepped out into an early evening bathed in sunlight and, with skin pleasantly smoothed by all those minerals, we headed for a kerb-side Italian restaurant in one of the achingly lovely cobble-stoned squares that make up the Old Town. This Italian trattoria specialised in gluten-free everything, and their bread basket could almost persuade me to leave gluten alone for the rest of my days. Or at least until I next walk past the sourdough counter at Ole and Steen.

If meat and cocktails with a cakey pudding (or puddingly cake) are your thing, then try out my alternative Sex-in-the-city menu. An otherwise Hungarian Beef Gulyas with a now-legendary Prague twist: parsley dumplings and a helping of flavour-bomb smoked paprika ; mop up the juices with a spicy if gluten-full Turmeric and Shallot Soda Bread. Then let that all settle before you cut yourself a slice of  a homage to the carrot cake - this time with Butternut Squash and Ginger.

And flame yourself a chorizo while you’re at it.

Beef Gulyas and Dumplings

This is the perfect Saturday night, curl-up- in-front-of-a-good-movie dinner. It cooks in a couple of hours, tastes even better the next day and freezes superbly. Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 kilo stewing beef, cubed

2 tbsp. Plain flour

2 tbsp. Olive oil

2 tbsp. butter

2 red onions, sliced

2 garlic cloves, chopped finely

1 tbsp. Sweet paprika dn 1 tbsp. Smoked paprika

Handful of fresh lemon thyme leaves, stripped from their stalks

2 tbsp. Tomato paste

½ litre red wine or beer

½ litre beef stock

1 tsp caraway seeds

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

For the dumplings:

15g plain flour

1 tsp. Baking powder

30g salted butter

75 ml milk

Generous handful of flat-leafed parsley, roughly chopped

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

How to make:

Toss the beef cubes in a bowl with the flour and season generously.

Heat the butter and oil in a large casserole, and when hot, shake the flour off the beef and add the cubes in small batches to the pot, turning them and letting them brown before removing transferring the meat to another bowl before adding the next batch.

When all the meat is browned. Add the onion and garlic to the casserole dish and saute for about 5 minutes, until softened and starting to brown. Add both paprikas, caraway seeds and lemon thyme, then stir before returning the beef to the pan and giving another stir.

Add the wine or beer, the stock and the tomato paste, bring to the boil then reduce the heat to low. Season again then cover and simmer for 11/2 - 2 hours, or until the beef is tender. At this stage you can cool and leave the gulyas overnight, allowing the flavours to steep, or press on with the dumplings.

If you are going to eat this as soon as it is cooked, then start making the dumplings 10 or 15 minutes before the end of your cooking time.

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat, then add it into the well of flour, along with the milk and the chopped parsley. Stir everything together until a dough forms, then divide the dough into 7 or 8 portions and roll each portion into a ball.

Remove the lid from the gulyas, pop the dumplings on top of the beef in a single layer, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes, until the dumplings are cooked through - wobbly yet firm.

Serve with some buttered, braised savoy cabbage and mop up the juices with a slab of Turmeric and shallot Soda Bread (see below)

Turmeric and Shallot Soda Bread

This loaf, based on a recipe by Sarah Cook, looks like a large yellow rock and tastes of crackling fires (almost like the one burning in our Beer Spa cabin). It has a fair bit of turmeric and that’s a good thing. Serves 6-8.

Ingredients:

225g plain flour

225g wholemeal flour

2 tsp. Coriander seeds

2 tsp. Ground turmeric

1 tsp. Bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp kosher salt

25g butter, diced and chilled

75g Jumbo oats

2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped

375ml kefir or buttermilk

How to Make:

Heat the oven to 200C fan or 180C/ Gas 6.

Toast the coriander seeds in a small pan for a couple of minutes until they start to smell aromatic, then crush in a pestle and mortar. Leave to one side.

Mix together all the dry ingredients except the jumbo oats, then rub in the butter until you have a crumbly texture. Add the oats, chopped shallots and coriander seeds.

Pour over the kefir or buttermilk, then cut into the dry mixture with a metal spoon until just mixed, then get your hands in and knead gently until you have a relatively smooth dough (it will be a bit gnarly, but that’s the nature of soda bread).

Form into a ball and pop onto a baking sheet. Cut a wide cross quite deep into the loaf - almost all the way down. This will allow the loaf to fan out into the classic sourdough shape as it cooks.

Pop into the oven and cook for 30-35 minutes, or until the base of the load sounds hollow when tapped. Cool and serve with your Gulyas and lashings of butter.

Butternut Squash and Ginger Bundt Cake

I slavishly subscribe to all known foodie magazines and am forever ripping pages of inspiration out of them. This recipe is based on one from Waitrose Magazine. I tried it out once and couldn’t believe the texture and depth of flavour. It’s now a household regular and to my mind, much more moreish than it’s carrot cousin. 8-10 slices.

Ingredients

200g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

225g plain flour

300g butternut squash, peeled and diced

2 tsp fresh ginger, grated

50g golden syrup

1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda

11/2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. Ground ginger

½ tsp. Kosher salt

50g ground almonds

250g dark brown muscovado sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

150ml buttermilk

For the icing:

150g icing sugar

25 ml buttermilk

A generous squeeze lemon juice

Pieces of chopped, crystallized ginger

How to make:

Heat the oven to 170C/ Gas 3, and grease and flour a large bundt tin.

Steam the squash, or boil, for around 15-20 minutes, then mash with the grated fresh ginger and golden syrup.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, spices and salt into a large bowl, then add the ground almonds and mix. In a separate bowl beat the butter and sugar for a few minutes until pale and fluffy. 

Add half the beaten egg, mix again, then add the second half of the egg and beat again. Fold in the flour and almond mixture, the mashed squash mixture and the buttermilk until you have a smooth-ish batter.

Pour the batter into the bundt tin, level out and then pop into the oven for 40-45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15-20 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a cooling rack and leave until cool.

To make the icing, whisk the icing sugar, buttermilk and lemon juice (adding more lemon juice as necessary) until smooth. Pour over the cooled cake, and keep scooping up the pools of icing to re - drizzle over the top. Decorate with chopped crystallized ginger.

[noheroes-allowed]

11/15

I was so annoyed when my flight was delayed by 2 hours. and then getting stuck in traffic for longer bc I got there during rush hour. the hotel room was nice af though. like I remember I had a king size but I forgot it came with a kitchen with a fucking fridge and microwave and dishwasher. like a full ass kitchen. it’s fucking nicer than my place and any hotel I’ve been holy fuck. it cost $228 though so. and the plane tickets were $370 like I feel bad how expensive it was. I mean I guess they can afford it but like. damn cannot imagine

I went to chinatown to get dinner and got duck rice and dumplings. I picked something off the lunch specials menu and didn’t know so she was like it’s gonna be $12 and I was like oh that’s fine. bc they’re covering $75 a day. but then I was dumb and forgot my receipt. bc the people seemed annoyed people weren’t dining in. and I felt rushed trying to sign after I paid. but I called my mom when I got back to my room and she was like call them to see if you can pick it up tomorrow.

then I was dumb again bc I forgot my toothbrush so I had to buy them. but I should’ve gone across the street to Safeway bc then they could’ve reimbursed me but I was lazy. and dumb and bought them from the hotel so I didn’t have a receipt.

I told myself I would sleep at 12 and wake up at 7 but I’m dumb. I slept at 1:15ish and woke up at 7 and snoozed until 8:30. breakfast was good. there were eggs and sausages and potatoes. I packed pastries for saturday breakfast. I had coffee and orange juice and it was nice. I prepped for like 4 hours.

when I got there we had like a brief intro session where we had to introduce ourselves. what sitcom would you be in. what’s your favorite app. what’s the age you’d like to stay at. for some reason I was a lot more vocal than I thought I’d be. like I kept trying to talk to people lmao. I asked where they went to school and where they came from and when they were answering the icebreakers. I asked if he was 21. I said you’d be dead in the good place. it was interesting. I was surprised at myself. also I’m glad I had the balls to ask the question I prepared to ask for the intros. how do they choose their clients and have there been any instances where priorities didn’t align. I think it was a good question.

toni was intimidating but I think that was just naturally her demeanor. connor was nice. ben was nice but I think I didn’t make enough eye contact answering questions for the case. ana was nice. she reminded me of angela. she stayed like 15 min after answering my questions. I hope that’s a good sign. I was kinda awkward when she walked me out though rip. also I was awkward saying bye on the debriefing call. I hope it’s not too bad.

they had a cup that said make a life not just a living. the place was really cute and chill. sigh. I wish you know. I wish.

I wandered a little bit around afterwards. I picked up the receipt and tried to buy something from a bakery but it was like $2.50. and then I didn’t eat my leftovers until like 10. bc I bought too much the night before. and the duck was so fattening I felt bad after I ate. but then I had three fruit roll-ups and chocolate and a bite of ice cream sandwich and two crackers with cheese. soda pressing. gus johnson. I bled so we tried something new and I’m like excited but also annoyed at myself. well actually tried two other things too. one was great but the other was good but I got self conscious. anyway I’m annoyed bc it could’ve been better this entire time but I just am dumb I guess and didn’t try to fix the problem. but at least I know how it could be better in the future. and how close it could be. I wish I didn’t leave so early. we could’ve tried two things at the same time. but I thought there’d be traffic and security was only 5 min so I’m dumb. oh well now I’m just watching tv even though I said I would study.

sometimes he was lame and I was like why’d I ever. but that’s not fair to me or him. and then he was like next time we should actually smoke to get you high. and in my mind I was like what if this is the last. idk

maybe winter. if I can drive. I need to learn how. maybe summer.

I don’t know if I got high. like at one point I thought I was looking through a pillow but it was just bc my head was tilted a way and my eyes were out of focus but I knew I was being stupid. and then I thought it was really fun leaning and then falling on the bed. but I can’t tell if I was just being weird or if it was me being tired or what. idk

[asterinjapan]

Stars over Sendai

A good evening after a long day again!

I had agreed to meet up with my Japanese friend at Sendai station, so I got up early and drove the (this time correct) train to Omiya in Saitama, from where I caught the Hayabusa shinkansen to Sendai. It took slightly over an hour then to make it to Sendai at 10 AM, just when all the festivities would have started. I met my friend and together we quickly already reserved train tickets for the way back, since the Tanabata festival draws in about 2 million visitors each year… Obviously not all at the same moment, but the trains were definitely busy.

After that, travel time! We sought out the bus stop for the loop bus, very creatively called the Loople Bus, which looks like a cute retro bus and loops around the main attractions in the city in one direction. You can get a day pass which also gives you discounts, so naturally, we went with that.

Our first stop after early lunch was the Zuihoden mausoleum. It’s actually a complex of several mausolea of Date Masamune, a famous samurai lord, and his heirs. Masamuna was known as the ‘one-eyed dragon’ (since he had one eye, you see), and was one of the most powerful daimyo (lords) in the region. He was the founder of Sendai city, so it’s a name you see a lot here. His traditional appearance is very striking since he’s known for his golden headgear, shaped like a crescent moon. He’s also the one who appreciated the Tanabata festival so much that it became such a big deal in Sendai, though we’ll be getting to that later.

Actually, the Zuihoden and the other buildings are all rebuilt: at the end of World War 2, Sendai was bombed and the buildings burnt down. The reconstructions were done in the original style, and though that does mean they look very flashy and new, it does give off a genuine feeling.

It is quite the uphill walk to the Zuihoden, the actual mausoleum of Masamune where they’ve enshrined a wooden statue of him. On the corners of the mausoleum, you can spot dragon heads, true to his nickname. There’s also a museum right next to it, which opened with information about Tanabata until you got into the real exhibition: that of excavated items found when the mausolea for the second and third Date lords were reconstructed. This was super interesting, because they’d found remains of both the three lords as well as their swords and armors. No replicas, but the real deals, and in pretty good condition at that. They also had replicas of their skulls on display along with facial reconstructions, and actual bone and hair fragments of Masamune, which is both a little creepy as well as fascinating, because he lived in the 17th century. And here we were, four hundred years later, and they had been able to tell from his bones exactly how tall he’d been and what his blood type was. Masamune also sympathized with foreign causes, meaning he was interested in technology from outside Japan and didn’t exactly like the presecutions of Christians that the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu insisted upon, although there was little he could do about it. (Make no mistake, he was still a brutal warlord.) Anyway, it also meant that they’d uncovered the remains of a pair of glasses for one of the other two lords. Impressive.

We made our way to the other two mausolea next, the Kansenden for Date Tadamune and the Zennoden for Date Tsunamune, second and third daimyo respectively. They look pretty much alike, and these too are rebuilds after being destroyed in the fires. There were also stone tablets for numerous other Date lords, including one that only lived to the age of 17. Nice times, you can tell.

Anyway, after the interesting history lesson, we made our way back out again, past the now put up Tanabata decorations and the warning plates for wasps (understandable), snakes (… right, we’re on the other side of the planet here), and bears (wait, come again?). The Loople Bus had just arrived, so we ran for it and made it, along with the fifty or so other people who wanted to get on. I’m still amazed that we all fit, because these buses look tiny, but I guess the Japanese are just used to being crammed into vehicles? Anyway, we got off two stops later, to something I had been really looking forward to: Sendai or Aoba Castle.

Truth being told, not a whole lot is left of it. Very unsurprisingly, Date Masamune started the construction of this castle, although a main keep was never finished. The whole castle mostly served as headquarters and administrative center rather than a defensive force, and it was destroyed a couple of times in earthquakes and fires. By 1870, most of the castle was dismantled after the downfall of the shogunate, and in 1945, whatever remained was destroyed completely.

All that’s left is the outer stone walls and a guard tower, and it’s quite a climb to get there as it’s on a mountain top (Aoba mountain), looking out over the city of Sendai. Atop is a statue of Masamune on horseback, which is a pretty iconic statue you’ll see constantly if you visit Sendai.

The view was great, and we could actually spot the great Kannon statue in the distance once the clouds shifted a bit (it was cloudy all day, but not a drop of rain). It’s white, so that was a startling sight, haha. (I wanted to visit it, but it’s on the opposite end of the city. It IS the second tallest statue in Japan though, at 100 metres tall. Maybe next time!)

Walking around the premises, we came across a group of actors carrying a paper mached version of Masamune over to the main area, where they re-enacted one of the famous battles, haha. It was fun, though mostly for the kids present. Instead, we made our way to the Aoba Castle museum, which has assorted artifacts and scale models of the castle. It’s a bit tricky if you don’t speak Japanese (or are too tired to really focus at this point, like me, haha), because there’s no information in English at all. There’s a movie playing with more information about the castle, which is really interesting, even if it’s narrated by two talking birds and a talking soy bean, haha. Apparently head sets with English audio were available, but I missed out on those. Just for the record!

I was getting pretty tired, but I really liked the visit to this castle, even though not a whole lot is left of it. (It still made the Top 100 anyway, because half that top is ruins, I swear.) With it being close to 5 o’clock, all major attractions were closing anyway, so it was time to go into the direction of the station – time for Tanabata!

The Tanabata Festival finds its roots in a star-crossed lovers story, literally. It involves the stars Vega and Altair, or Orihime (the weaving princess) and Hikoboshi (cow herder). Orihime weaved clothes for her father the sky king, but once she fell in love with Hikoboshi from across the river known as the Milky Way, she neglected her weaving and Hikoboshi let his cows run wild. Thus, Orihime’s dad separated the two using the river, but struck a bargain with them: if they fulfill their duties, they’d get to meet once a year on the 7th day of the 7th month, when a group of magpies will make a bridge with their wings so Orihime can cross and meet Hikoboshi. Unless it rains during the festival, in which case they have to wait another year. During this time of the year, the stars Vega and Altair are shimmering on opposite sides of the visible part of the Milky Way in the skies – that is, if you’re in an area with a clear sky and no light pollution, haha.

So that’s why it’s the star festival! It’s also a summer festival, so that means a lot of food and game stands, open air musical performances and lots of people in yukata. It was a fun sight and I really enjoyed being able to attend an actual summer festival in Japan, because I’ve always missed out on them by a hair (never been in Japan at July 7), and the fireworks festival at Asakusa is so huge that you kind of lose the feeling of an actual festival.

After lingering around this park area for a while and having a super responsible dinner (I had an omelette-clad sausage, takoyaki (octopus dumplings) and a chocolate covered banana, and it was pink too), we slowly made our way back to the station, but traveling the decorated shopping roads.

This was pretty amazing! The streets were lined with countless kushidama, large paper balls with long streamers. Those streamers are meant to represent the string Orihime uses in her weaving. They are donated from all over Japan; I just read up on it and found out that the ones featuring cranes most likely came from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as paper cranes symbolize the lives lost in the atomic bomb blasts. And well, Sendai was the biggest city hit by the earthquake in 2011 – no doubt there were decorations for them, too.

On a more cheerful note, these decorations were amazing and seemingly endless; all colourful, some simple, some extraordinarily detailed, and some featuring historical figures or well, Pokemon, haha. You can also find racks of bamboo, where you can write a wish on a slip of paper and hang them on the bamboo. These will be either burnt or set adrift down the river at the end of the festival to carry your wish.

Just talking about it doesn’t really do it justice. I realize that saying ‘yay food and pretty decorations’ doesn’t really sell a festival, but actually being there made me realize just why this is considered one of the biggest festivals in the country. I really loved it and I was super glad to have made my visit to Sendai in this time.

Sadly, our train was scheduled to depart, but I’m far from done with Sendai and I’ll definitely be back here, whenever that might be.

And now, time for bed, although I have no idea yet what I’m going to do tomorrow. I’m getting kind of worn out, haha. Tomorrow is the last day I can use my JR pass, so I might go do my Kamakura-Ofuna-Enoshima route, or just skip around Tokyo a bit, who knows. On Wednesday, I’ll be meeting up with my friend one last time in Yokohama, and then Thursday is my last full day in Tokyo… I think I’ll use that time to go visit Shibuya once more and say my goodbyes to Ikebukuro. It already makes me sad thinking about it, actually. Let’s not and let’s just enjoy these last couple of days to the fullest!

[victakestaipei]

WEEK 4 RECAP: “Power, Chase Bank Complaints, and TYPHOON SEASON”

As I stated in my previous posts, I’m really really really sorry for the delay here on my WEEK 4 RECAP. Granted, my weeks have started to become pretty routine; But I still like to keep my word with you guys and blog every weekend, despite the topic being my humdrum weekdays.

Anyway, let’s get to it:

Monday: 

My monday was one for the books, honestly. I stayed in bed all day long blogging and doing homework and just being a bum. It felt awesome. We got in from the Philippines early this morning, and I didn’t actually get in the bed until about 4am, so I took the liberty of playing hooky, and NO RAGRETS! 

I only left the house to get breakfast with Bunny... We went to this breakfast joint by our house and I splurged on an egg scallion pancake, a breakfast sandwich, orange juice, and a hash brown patty. It was bomb, but who am I kidding, it’s always bomb. I didn’t end up doing my homework until later in the evening, which ended up backfiring because I had SO MUCH HOMEWORK TO CATCH UP ON. It was actually pretty insane, but I still got it all done. For dinner Bunny and I picked up some potstickers from the place right outside our dorms that you all have already heard SO much about because we literally go there multiple times a week. Like I said in my intro... HUM. DRUM. 

Tuesday:

Today we went to the bakery before class, I had my daily tea, and barely survived the 3 hour period. After class we went to the gym, and I did leg day today. My legs were shaking so much, it was like they had turned to jelly over the weekend. I think this is due to the fact I took 4 days off🙄 but I managed to get my mile down to 8:30 today!!! Y’ALL!!! BASK IN THE GLORY!!! Progress!!! Slowly but surely!!!  

After the gym we went to a restaurant on the Shi Da market for lunch, and ordered fried chicken curry with rice and veggies. It was super good, and only 100 NT! (About $3.35 US).  

Afterwards, we went home and I took the longest shower ever, and then a nap (I really really needed it). I got up just to do homework, and then crawled back into the bed. I found a website that lets me watch Power online so that I can FINALLY catch up to the new season. BLESS UP!!! I started watching this show over the summer, but then I got caught up with other stuff so I never caught all the way up. I last left off on Season 2 Episode 7, but I heard the new season 4 is BATSHIT CRAZY so I need to catch up PRONTO. (Also, can I just take a minute and say I freakin’ hate Angela??? Ugh. Tasha is a ride or DIE and Angela comes waltzing in and I’m just mad as hell. Ghost is such a punkass. I literally cannot deal. Let me shut up while I’m ahead before ya’ll comment and spoil something for me.)

...He still fine as hell though... :-’)

For dinner we went to the Gong guan night market to get Gua Bao (remember those pork hamburger things from my “WEEK 2 RECAP” post? “Gua Bao? Gua BOMB!”) and egg scallion pancakes. We didn't leave the house until after 11pm, so alot of our options were closed at that point. 

Wednesday: 

I actually got up on time to head to the bus, and I was WELL RESTED!! Wow, such a rare occurance. In class I got a 95% on my dialogue quiz today. I’m getting used to pulling these A’s, but our lessons have gotten significantly harder so I find myself reviewing the characters twice as much as usual. Ew.

At the gym I did chest/shoulders/abs. I wore the wrong leggings to the gym today... I wore my normal black leggings instead of my work out leggings, so I didn't do cardio because I didn't want to be all sweaty in my normal cloth leggings... I don’t know I'm weird I guess?? But my ass was looking PHAT at the gym since I had normal leggings on hehe

After the gym Bunny and I tried this Italian spot by our school. They have a lunch menu where you can get a dish AND a side for 99 NT!!! (3-4$ US). What a deal!! I ordered pesto penne pasta and pumpkin soup as my side. Pretty plain, but still super yummy!

After lunch I went home to shower and do my homework and relax. Bunny and I got dinner around 9 because we were STARVING more than usual. I guess the soup and pasta didn’t do it for me. We hopped on the bus to head to Gong guan, but we missed our exit so we ended up taking the bus all the way to our school to go to the Shi Da night market there. MIND YOU I LOOK LIKE A CRAZY CAT LADY. I twisted my hair up and put on two bandanas after taking a shower and putting product in... and I had on a long flowy printed dress I got from the Philippines. Needless to say I looked crazy, in my shower flip flops. We got the soy sauce noodles to-go, with green beans, udon, cabbage, broccoli, and tofu. I also got to chat with my mom on skype tonight which was nice, after struggling to get her speakers to work (for like 20min) so she could actually hear me. I stuffed my face while on the phone with her, and she cheekily said “how come whenever I get you on skype you ALWAYS EATIN??” Then proceeds to laugh hysterically and say “you gonna regret it!! It’s gonna go straight to your hips!!!” ......So charming *eyeroll*, gotta love her lol.... 

I went to bed super late because I had the migraine of a lifetime. I think it might have been because I didn’t get a tea this morning... Caffeine headaches will be the death of me.

Thursday: 

I woke up with the same migraine, and was moving slow because I was so tired and my head was banging!! It was like the drummer guy from Whiplash was putting in WERK on my forehead. I was about 10 minutes late to class... I tried to rush because I knew we had a test in class, but I just couldn’t bring myself to get out of the bed on time. Kokoro (the Japanese student in my class) and I rode on the same bus to class, he was late too because he had gone clubbing last night! On a Wednesday??... Turns out, it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is here, it’s lit at the club every night. 

Class was good today. It didn't feel like it dragged as much. But, I was starving the whole time because I didn’t have time to grab some food before strolling into the class. Our teacher referenced the upcoming typhoon today! Meaning, it will be pouring, dumping rain all next week, starting this weekend. There will also be fierce winds. She told us how many people stay home and grocery shop a lot beforehand because transportation and a lot of businesses are closed. For those of you who don’t know, a typhoon is basically a hurricane. I'm not mentally prepared. Our teacher said that typhoon season lasts three months, starting in August. I’m nervous about the food aspect because we don't have a fridge in the dorm so I'm about to be eating perishables all week... canned beans and rice? God, I’m not excited. But maybe class will be cancelled a few days this week? A girl can dream!!!

In the gym it was leg day yet again! My legs weren’t half as shaky as tuesday so that’s good. I ran a 8:45 mile, after almost DYING on the first treadmill I hopped on. I was adjusting the speed and the treadmill skipped and I almost flew the fuck off. My arms were flailing and I let out this loud/awkward noise and everyone was looking at me. I caught my balance and didn't die, but I definitely quietly turned off the machine and moved to another treadmill shortly after. I think that messed up my mojo because while I was running I was constantly paranoid of the same thing happening on the machine next door. 

After the gym the three of us went to Shi Da market. I pulled out cash from the ATM but was pretty bitter about it because I looked at my bank statement and my bank (Chase Bank) charges a $5 FEE WITH EVERY NON-CHASE ATM WITHDRAWAL that I make... THAT ADDS UP?!!! Are u kidding me??! I’M BROKE AS IT IS CHASE, CUT ME SOME SLACK!!! I'm so salted. I hate Chase Bank. They suck ass. Do you know how many WITHDRAWALS I’VE HAD TO MAKE WHILE HERE??? I need a Charles Schwab account because it seems like they’re the only bank not trying to PLAY US.

I tried a new place for lunch where they had these small fried dumplings. I would show a picture but I inhaled it so fast that I didn't get to. So here's a picture of the box...hehe

I also got some more dragonfruit today    V   so so good.

After the gym I came home, showered, and relaxed. I ended up napping around 8 and woke up at like 10:30pm... I did my homework in class so I'm probably just going to eat something small and crawl back into the bed. I got a banana at the Family Mart convenience store and some apple juice and a pack of yan yans. Yan Yans are those pretzel stick things that come with the chocolate dip and they’re super good?? I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. I talked to Karis on the phone, and then Paris shortly after that. It was SO GOOD to see Paris’s face and hear his voice after so long. :-’) I miss you roomie!! I knocked out again after hanging up with him.

Friday: 

This morning I woke up to a power outage on our Gong guan campus. If this is any tell of how the rest of the weekend/next week is going to be with the upcoming typhoon, I am not ready.

I got a 99 on my quiz today... I. AM. HURT. It was so so close I could taste the perfect score!!

Today I brought my umbrella to class because the typhoon starts this afternoon/evening. Class breeezed by because there was only 7 of us today. It was back day at the gym, and it was great! I’m definitely going to be sore. And I did some booty workouts on the floor afterward. After the gym we went to Gong guan market (the one by our house, not the Shi Da one by campus) to get some food and look for a SIM card for Bunny’s phone (so that she can have a local phone number and consistent data). We stopped and got pork buns and mango before heading home. 

When I got home I finally was able to decompress from the long week. I relaxed for a few hours before leaving the house at 10pm to go to the grocery store with Bunny. When we got to the grocery store, it was about an hour or so before closing, and it looked like the apocalypse hit. All the shelves were sweeped, but we got some food to get us through the weekend.... Like wine and rice and potatoes and eggs and snacks. After the grocery store we headed home to relax and shelter away from the upcoming typhoon.

Saturday: 

I made breakfast this morning after finally leaving the bed at 1:30 pm. I made eggs and papas!! - An old fave. (Jaylene I miss you). I also cut up some apples too to eat with peanut butter. It was good, but the papas weren't up to par because I only had two seasonings... Sad day. 

The rest of the day was spent in bed, watching Power and being a couch potato. At 8:30pm our power went out again, but only for a few minutes. It was getting pretty crazy outside at this point. You could hear the wind howling and tree branches swinging and water pushing its way through the cracks in the closed windows of the bathroom/bedroom. 

At 9pm is when I spilled my Pink Moscato on my laptop. HOW COULD SOMETHING SO SWEET BETRAY ME SO HARSHLY?? My computer immediately died after letting out this depressing noise and became completely non-responsive...and so did I. I was on the brink of a meltdown. To keep from succumbing to panic, I put my phone on DND and went to sleep at 9:30pm. I literally knocked the hell out. That’s the best way to avoid problems/conflict right? Take ya ass to sleep.

Sunday:

I woke up by 4:45/5am, and reality set in. I spoke to my mom on the phone, and she helped calm me down and rationalize the situation. I was a mess. I still am a mess. I cannot afford a new computer right now, and I'm nervous about going to get it fixed because I don't want to be taken advantage of, and I wouldn't know the difference either way... I'm clearly foreign. But I have 8 years of memories and information stored on this laptop, so I'm not letting it go without a fight. I called a few places that claim to fix Apple products on Google, but none of them turned up with any real answers. So after 12pm, I ended up going to the Apple Store at Taipei 101. I took a quick shower and brought a bunch of stuff I figured I might need: my laptop, external hard drive, a flannel, umbrella, towels, a hat, and snacks. I've never been outside when there was a typhoon brewing so it's better safe than sorry right? As soon as I walked outside I could tell something was off. There weren't a lot of people bustling about, and there were countless fallen branches and leaves covering the sidewalks and roads.

I hopped on the bus, and then the MRT, to head to Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper in Taiwan. I had this lingering thought in the back of my mind... let me illustrate... “Is it a good idea to go to the tallest sky scraper in Taiwan when there’s a hurricane with strong winds/ pouring rain just waiting to happen?”... All i could picture is the structure toppling over with all of us inside and causing this huge disaster, similar to something straight out of an Apocalyptic movie like 2012.... Anyway, I arrived just before 1pm, and come to find out, the Apple Store is CLOSED. I’m salty. All the lights are on and the store would otherwise look open, it's just that there's no one inside. It's completely empty. Even all the devices on display are powered on. It was kinda errie... Like those paper towns the military sets up, where it looks like a normal town and everything, just no one lived there...  I looked online (again) and went to their actual website where it says today (and only today) they open at 2pm instead of 11am. So I just waited around the mall for an hour until they opened. I found a bench and an outlet so I was just sitting here chilling....Glad I brought my snacks. ;)

When the time finally came to go back to the Apple Store, that overwhelming feeling came rushing over me again. I ended up crying like a PUNK to the customer service lady. So annoying!!! Ugh. I was a fragile mess. I spoke to two different managers who both spoke perfect English, and they helped to reassure me that they would try their best to help me. I have to come back tomorrow for a walk-in appointment with the Genius Bar. Fingers crossed they can help me, or at least retrieve/save my information. 

I left Taipei 101 feeling pretty defeated, so I got some McDonalds on the way home... I know it sounds silly but I needed comfort food and something that felt like home. I ordered the filet o fish (which I crave daily), with fries and a coke. This was not my best moment, but the whole meal only cost 95 NT!! (Less than $3.20). CRAZY! 

I came home and that’s when I started reading my book that I keep mentioning, “You Are A Badass” By Jen Sincero. It helped me to feel better and get into a better frame of mind. 

I took a break from reading to help Bunny make curry for tonight’s dinner. It was BOMB and came out fairly well if I may say so myself. I’ll definitely be making curry more often when I come back to the States.

I finished reading my book just before calling it a night. SUCH a good read I cannot stress this enough!!! I learned so much from Jen’s words and she adds funny stories/anecdotes and the way she describes things is just so relatable. If you have a chance to read it I definitely recommend!!!

I went to sleep pretty late, I was laying in bed catching up with Jay (via text) and other friends from back home. Before closing my eyes, I decided to practice meditation, which is one of the key concepts in the book. I wasn’t very successful the first time, because it was hard to clear my mind and just be still. I know it takes practice, so I’m going to try to dedicate time every day to meditate for at least 5 minutes! Feel free to join me on this challenge, it’s supposed to reap unprecidented benefits!

Also, please pray that when I take my laptop in tomorrow to the Apple Store they can fix whatever’s wrong!!! I need all the prayers I can get. I’m speaking it into existence now: MY COMPUTER WILL LIVE. IT WILL RISE AGAIN. IT WILL POWER ON.

Until next time,

xoxo

[jjkfire]

Wrapped Around; pt. 3

Jimin x Reader x Tae // College!AU // 12264 words

Summary: Freshman year was a mess and sophomore year doesn’t seem to be looking too good either. You know boys like them are no good for you but maybe they’re just your kind of type

Genre: Fluff, Smut

A/N: Man feels good to finally post this. Thanks for being patient ya dumplings (: ICYMI, there was a part 2.5 so check out part 2.5 before reading this!!!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 2.5 | Part 3.5

Previously…

You were meant to be someone he’d use to get good grades and if all went according to plan, you were going to be a simple hump and dump but hell, he hadn’t even slept with you yet and he was already so hung up on you.

Your mind is all over the place, your hands shaking and your heart pounding but you try to push through. You pick up the next practice exam, exhaling deeply to get yourself to calm down but it doesn’t work. Glancing at the amount of work you had left to get done, you simply groan internally. You’re not sure what kind of luck it was to have 3 midterms in one week, each one a day after the other. Sighing, you set aside the papers for a while to unwrap the sandwich that was sat on your table.

You’ve put off sleep for a while now, not like you could really sleep to begin with but you get a maximum of 2-3 hours of sleep a day and it really was taking a toll on your body. Your anxiety interfered with everything from your ability to sleep to your ability to study. You distanced yourself from everyone you knew and that included Jimin, Solji and Hoseok. The library was basically your home now and you only returned to your dorm to shower and grab the books you needed. You chose to go back at odd times, making sure you would never bump into Jimin. The only person you saw from time to time was Taehyung when he’d drop by your desk to hand you a sandwich or a snack. You know every time he comes around, he had that look in his eyes. It was those puppy eyes, full with concern but he never asked you anything and you were glad.

He knew all of this well enough, having seen you done the same thing the previous semester as finals week approached. This time around though, he was slightly more concerned only because you still had 2 and a half weeks till finals but right now you already looked… for the lack of a better word, horrible. You often forget to eat meals when you’re stressed so he takes it upon himself to drop something off when he could. His heart hurt watching you abuse yourself but no matter what he did, he could never get you to stop and tell yourself that maybe you needed to take a breather or seek out help.

He remembers perfectly well the way you had snapped at him last semester when he pulled you out of the library to get you to wake up and see that your body wouldn’t be able to hold up if you continued.

“You won’t understand, you’ll never understand how much my parents are expecting of me,” You shout, tears almost falling out of your eyes as you pointed to yourself. “I have to do this, I have to do well so, stop with this fucking bullshit!” You screamed as you pulled your wrist from him and headed back into the library.

After that, he understood that you wanted him to pretend like he didn’t see it all, like he didn’t see that you were slowly breaking down.

He was the only one you allowed to see you like this. You didn’t want to seem weak, you didn’t want people to see you struggling and you trusted him enough to keep this all to himself and luckily enough, he has. Maybe that’s why you still had lingering feelings for him because he was the only one who has seen you for who you truly were, the only one who has seen you at quite literally your worst. You liked him because after that day you had screamed at him, he had every right to walk away and yet he didn’t.

The thank yous and sorrys you whisper to him over a hushed apologetic meal you had bought for him could never make up for the way you had lashed out at him for caring but you didn’t really know how to put into words how grateful you are for him. So, instead of telling him how you truly felt you decided to disappear during the summer break, letting the friendship wither so that he wouldn’t feel obligated next semester to take care of you and yet here he was. Your attempt to drive him away, to eradicate any form of feelings or attachment you felt for him had failed miserably and here you sat with the sandwich he had bought for you in your hand while your heart felt heavy. You didn’t deserve him, you could never be with someone as kind as him, you sighed. He deserved someone who had a smile that matched his, he deserved someone who had the same heart, that unbelievable kindness and joy that radiated from within him and you were quite simply not that person but your heart didn’t seem to understand that.

Dragging your feet down the carpeted hallways of your dorm, you let out a loud sigh as you think of the last long night you would spend in the library this week. The last midterm you had for the week was tomorrow and you were so close to just giving up but you push that thought away and instead think about how you were finally going to have some time to unwind tomorrow. You frown as you hear those walking by you talk about their party plans for this wonderful Thursday night and their subsequent ones for the night after. No, no! You had promised yourself you wouldn’t be partying until the end of the semester. You couldn’t afford another night like the one you had two weeks ago.

“Nerd?”

You purse your lips. You knew you shouldn’t have come back to the dorm at this time, you knew you shouldn’t have but you needed to grab a book from your room. You look up at him and you know that look in his eyes, it’s the same one Taehyung gives you and you cringe at the sight.

“Jimin,” You smile and he tries his hardest to keep his smile on his face despite how worried he is as he takes in the way you look so… tired.

“It’s been a while huh?” He laughs. “Library?” He asks, gesturing to your bag and you nod.

He waits for you to say something, anything, throw a light jest at him but you stay silent, so uncharacteristically silent. In these 2 weeks alone, you’ve truly become so different. Sad, was the only word he could think of when he looked at you.

“Nerd, have you had dinner? We can go to the dining hall—“

“I-I can’t, I’m sorry,” You say as you shift your feet awkwardly. “I have to study, I have an exam tomorrow night.”

“Ah, all the best!” He smiles. “You’ll do great,” He says as he ruffles your hair.

“Thank you,” You whisper before you take your leave.

He watches as you walk away and he feels his heart break a little at the sight of you. It was the first time he had spoken to you in two weeks and that should’ve made him happy but he only felt sadness envelop him. You were on a downward spiral and he didn’t know what to do. He was watching you quite literally dwindle before his very eyes.

Bright and early at 5 am, Jimin wakes up to the sound of his alarm. He shuts it off immediately and goes through his social media like he always does, as if it was the morning papers. A little notification pops up on his screen and he sits up immediately, eyes wide as he reads it.

It’s Y/N’s birthday today! Send them good thoughts!

He clicks on your profile to see that a few of your friends have already wished you and his heart drops when he thinks that you’ll be spending most of your birthday stressing out over an exam. Knowing you, you would’ve had nothing planned and you would let the day pass quietly but Jimin wouldn’t let that happen, especially not with how down you’ve been feeling lately.

After dinner, Jimin makes his way to the local grocer and looks at the cakes on display carefully. You have a thing for desserts and he knew that. He’s caught you standing in front of the dessert bar in the dining hall telling yourself that you didn’t need another slice of chocolate cake. You would repeatedly reach out for it and then retract your hand immediately while shaking your head. So damn adorable, Jimin would think as he watched from afar, trying to hold back his laughter.

His feet bring him to the florist and he stops in front of it, wondering if he should get you something, if you were a roses kind of girl or maybe you liked lilies better… but he quickly walks away before he makes a decision he regrets. You were simply a quiz partner, a quiz partner in need of some cheering up. Quiz partners do not get each other flowers. In fact, he didn’t want to do all of this, he was only doing all of this because he owed it to you for helping him with all those quizzes. He doesn’t like you, of course he doesn’t. You were just his quiz partner, that’s all you were. It would be absurd for anyone to think that you were anything more than that to him. Yes, Jimin nods to himself, glad with his justification even though he could feel this unfamiliar feeling creeping up his chest when he thought about you. He simply chalks up the sensation to heartburn. Man, he really should start eating at regular times.

Jimin stands confidently in front of your room, cake in hand and his gift for you in the other. For a few minutes, he just shifts his weight from one foot to another but then he feels uncertainty creep up on him. What if you thought this was weird? As more time passes, he feels increasingly unsure of what exactly he was trying to do. This is stupid, he tells himself. After having some time to think, he sets the cake and the gift down, choosing to leave it in front of your door and to walk away.

He stands up and turns around to find you trudging down the hallway, earphones in and completely occupied with your phone. He stands there, frozen with surprise for a while before he quickly picks the cake and his gift back up. You were halfway to the door now and he could feel his heart starting to pick up its pace. He didn’t understand why he was feeling this way, why the sight of you made him so nervous. It’s just a cake and a gift, he chanted in his head over and over again. You are just a quiz partner, he repeated to himself mentally.

The exam had drained you completely and you were exhausted but you were glad it was all over for now. On your walk back to your dorm, you tried your best not to think about the answers you had written down and tried to think about what you wanted to do now that you had time to think about something that wasn’t academically related.

Scrolling down a list of feel good movies on your phone’s browser, you mentally note down a few that piqued your interest. What an interesting birthday, you thought. Definitely not how you usually celebrated them but you didn’t really mind, especially not after the week you had. As you approached your door, you pulled out your earphones and placed it in your pocket along with your phone.

“H-happy birthday,” You hear someone say softly and you jerk your head upwards, completely surprised to see a very shy Jimin standing in front of you.

“Jimin…”

He extends his hand, handing you the cake and you stare at it in amazement then back at him to see him looking down at the floor, avoiding eye contact.

“Wow, I… Thank you,” You smile as you give him a side hug. “Chocolate cake is my favourite,” You laugh as you pull away. He knows.

You open your door, waiting for him to follow you but Jimin is still just standing there and you’re starting to think there’s something wrong because he hasn’t said anything since he wished you happy birthday.

“Doucheface, you coming in?”

“Right, yeah, sorry,” He laughs as he steps in.

You set the cake down on your table and take out the paper plates along with a knife to cut the cake into smaller pieces. Just as you remove the plastic covering, Jimin grabs your shoulder.

“Wait!” He exclaims as he fishes around his pocket for something. He takes out a single candle and places it in the middle of the cake, using a lighter to set it on fire. “Make a wish,” He smiles.

Shutting your eyes, you make a short wish and blow out the single candle.

“You wished for a night with me, didn’t you?” He smirks.

Ah there he is, the Jimin that you know.

You roll your eyes at him and he smiles because he’s missed seeing that.

“Why would I wish for something I know I can get without trying?” You ask, eyes twinkling with mischief.

He laughs, a melodious sound you realized that you haven’t heard in a while now.

“Wow, confident are we?”

“Very,” You smile.

Jimin spots a small present on your table, your name written in messy handwriting. One that he recognizes as Taehyung’s and he feels jealousy nipping at him from the inside.

“Here,” He says handing his wrapped gift to you, pushing away Taehyung’s gift to the far end of your table.

“A cake and a gift? Jimin, I didn’t know you were capable of thinking about others,” You laugh.

He brings his hand up to his chest and scoffs dramatically.

“You know, people usually say thank you when someone does something nice for them.”

You laugh and mumble thank you as you unwrap his gift but your laugh stops abruptly and you look at him disappointedly when you realize what it is.

“What? You don’t like it?” He asks. “It’s sold out! You should be glad I even managed to get one for you.”

A calendar. He got you a calendar of his rowing team. It wasn’t just any calendar but it was one of those highly anticipated ones that was for charity. You know the ones where they all posed naked while holding something that strategically covered their privates? You laugh as you flip through the pages. Only Jimin would get you something like this.

“Yes, because god knows I always needed a calendar full of naked rowers.”

“Yeah but not just any rower,” He says as he snatches the calendar out of your hand. “You’ve got me front and center because I know how much you want to see me naked,” He smiles, pointing to himself on the front cover where all of them stood in a V formation and Jimin was standing proudly in the middle, the apex of the V. He flips the calendar to your birth month and presents it to you proudly. “Lucky for you, your birth month has the best picture too!”

You snatch it from him to look at the picture, your eyes scan it quickly and you hope Jimin doesn’t see how your gaze lingered at the picture of his well chiseled body a little too long.

“Woah, is that Jungkook? He’s new to the team right?” You say pointing to a boy in the picture. “Damn, who knew he was hiding all that muscle under those baggy t-shirts he always wears.”

Jimin frowns, obviously displeased that you had pointed out Jungkook instead of him.

“Yeah,” He huffs, annoyed. “But I look good too, right?” He says as he circles himself with his pointer finger, looking at you desperately.

Cute, you thought as you laughed at him.

“Hmm, yeah, I guess,” You say dismissively and he lights up instantly, a bright smile on display.

The two of you spend the rest of the night laying comfortably on your bed, eating cake and watching movies that you picked out. It’s the first time in a long time you’ve laughed this much and although you’ve had many wild birthday nights, this chill one could definitely contest as one of the best ways you’ve celebrated your birthday. Blessed, that’s how you felt. You look over to your right to see Jimin smiling along with you and despite his reputation, you’re so glad that he took the time to spend his usually busy Friday night here with you. It was a small simple gesture but you appreciated it all nonetheless.

It’s way past midnight now and you see Jimin struggle to keep his eyes open. He must’ve been so exhausted, having to go for rowing practice, classes, then getting your cake and finally staying up to watch movies with you. It honestly warmed your heart that he’d done all of this for you. You felt so undeserving, especially after how you’ve been deliberately trying to avoid him. As the credits for the last movie roll, you set aside your laptop and switched off the lights before returning to bed where Jimin was already waiting patiently for you to join him. The moment you sink down onto the bed, his hands wrap around you automatically, pulling you close into his chest. You’d be lying to yourself if you said you didn’t miss this… miss his warmth, miss his company.

Jimin sighs sweetly as he feels you settle against his body. It’s been two weeks since he had the chance to hold you like this and as much as he tried to convince himself that cuddling with you was something he didn’t particularly care for, he knew it wasn’t true. Despite having to sleep on a tiny single rickety dorm bed, there was something so comforting about falling asleep next to you.

Jimin felt himself slowly drifting to sleep, a calmness taking over him but then he feels a tugging sensation, bringing him back to reality. He opens his eyes, letting it adjust to the darkness before letting out a light laugh. He whispers your nickname, tapping you softly, but there’s no response. He glances at you to see your eyebrows furrowed and your face twisted in what seemed to be pain.

“Nerd, you okay?” Jimin asks softly. “Nerd?” He says as he shakes you lightly.

“Huh?”

“Are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah… why?”

He glances down at your hand on his shirt and you follow his gaze, pulling away with a gasp. You had his shirt balled up tightly in your fist and you release it immediately, spewing out numerous apologies as you do so.

“Crap, I’m so sorry!” You exclaim as you smoothen out his shirt against his chest and Jimin laughs lightly at you. You groan in frustration and turn onto your back as you let out a deep sigh, apologizing again to him.

“What’s bothering you?” He asks after some silence. “And don’t say you’re fine because I know you’re not.”

You turn to look at him, swallowing nervously and you find him staring back at you with concerned eyes, nodding as he encourages you to answer. You stay silent for a while, twiddling your thumbs as you try to organize your thoughts.

“I… It started a month or two ago I think,” You start nervously. “I don’t know how to explain it but I feel like I’m in a constant state of worry and it just gets worse whenever I want to sleep…”

There’s a long pause and the air in the room suddenly feels thick. You’re not sure if you should continue talking but Jimin silently urges you to continue. You take in a deep breath, ready to finally let out what you’ve been holding in for months now.

“I don’t know… whenever I try to go to sleep, it’s like my brain won’t shut up, then my heart starts going crazy and I start trembling,” You sigh. “Honestly, I don’t really remember a time I’ve had a good night’s sleep without the help of alcohol and I just—“ You stop yourself when you see Jimin with his eyebrows knitted.

“I’m rambling, I’m sorry,” You sputter, quickly turning away from him, almost embarrassed that you had said all of that aloud. It all just sounded so stupid.

“C’mere,” He says softly and you turn around to stare back at him, confused. “Come here,” he repeats as he pats his chest, laughing silently when you shake your head, no. He only nods his head, smiling at you as he beckoned you to come over. You let out a deep sigh and approach him cautiously, hesitantly placing your head on his chest and when you finally snuggle closer to him, you hear a low laugh rumble in his chest.

His hand wraps around you naturally like it always does except this time he draws calming circles onto your back.

“Just take deep breaths you know… breathe in and—“

You pull away from his chest to look at him. “Jimin, trust me. I’ve tried this before and it doesn’t work,” You huffed, annoyed.

“Shh, just listen to me,” He coaxes, gently pulling you back closer towards him.

“Okay, just continue taking in deep breaths and now, clear your mind—“

Now you’re just frustrated. You break away from his hold, head perking up to stare at him. “Jimin if I could do that I would’ve alread—“

“Oh my god, just listen to me for once won’t you?” He says with a light laugh as he slams your head back down into his chest.

You scowl at him and shut your eyes as you try to empty your mind but it doesn’t work, in fact you feel worse now. Jimin senses your frustration and he sighs heavily.

“You need to let it all out, just say whatever you need to, whatever’s on your mind.”

You don’t reply, only staying silent and he knows you’re just scared, afraid to open yourself up to others. He guessed as much when you started pushing people away.

“Nothing you say tonight will leave this room, I promise,” He whispers. “If it makes you feel any better, my memory sucks so I won’t remember most of this conversation anyway,” He laughs.

You let the offer hang in the air for a while, unsure of what to do. You know talking it out would help you feel better but you didn’t like anyone to see you so vulnerable, especially someone you didn’t exactly know well. Jimin continues rubbing calming circles onto your back, shutting his eyes disappointedly when he concludes you’re not going to say anything.

Inside, your mind is racing, weighing the pros and cons of letting Jimin in and you decide you’re tired, tired of keeping all these thoughts to yourself. You had asked the universe for a sign a few weeks ago, a way to lighten all of the anxiety you were feeling and maybe this was it, maybe this was your chance and you decide you might as well take it.

So you do, you spew out all of your heart’s contents. You talk about your family and wanting to do well in school to make your parents proud. You talk about the struggle it took to get into this college, how you worked your ass off in high school to secure your place here. You talk about how every semester you start to feel more inadequate, you wonder if you really belonged in this place, if you were actually cut out for college. Though Jimin has much to say, he holds it in and allows you to speak, only humming occasionally to let you know that he was listening.

It hurt him to know that you’ve been feeling so lost, so sad for the past semester and he hadn’t realized even when he was right next to you. He figured out over the past few weeks or so that you were feeling a little down but he had no idea that you were this stressed. He continues to draw gentle patterns against your back as your quiet voice tells him everything that you’ve been keeping in. Your expression seems to lighten up with each sentence though, your eyebrows no longer furrowed and Jimin can’t help but smile to see you finally looking much happier.

Your throat feels dry now having talked for what felt like more than an hour. You were exhausted but you feel like a weight had been lifted off your chest. You felt like an idiot for not have doing this sooner. Your thoughts had been weighing you down and now that you’ve shared them, they didn’t bog you down anymore.

You whisper a quiet thank you when you’re done talking and the room returns to an awkward silence. You shift against the sheets and gulp nervously. The feeling of happiness starts to fade, a certain feeling of regret starts to creep up and you worry that Jimin is secretly judging you, probably laughing at you and your silly thoughts. You’re about to pull away, to tell him to leave because you completely regret your choice now but he lets out a low sigh before beginning his sentence.

“I get it you know… the pressure,” He sighs. “Maybe mine’s not as bad but being an athlete really sucks sometimes.”

He talks about how his parents had made his rowing career a priority for him. He loved rowing because it made his parents happy and he genuinely liked the sport too but sometimes he despised it. He especially hated it when he sees the disappointed looks on his parents’ and coach’s face when he didn’t perform too well in any of the competitions. Sometimes he wonders if it was all worth it. To be waking up at 5 am almost every day to train and practice only to mess up on competition day. He has to convince himself every week not to quit, that no matter what other said, he was good enough. You reach out, fingers curling around his waist to provide a gentle, comforting squeeze and he smiles at the gesture.

Jimin decides to lighten the mood, telling you stories of his childhood instead and what it was like to cause mischief back in high school with Taehyung and Hoseok by his side. Funny, you didn’t know they had all attended high school together. You listen intently, smiling fondly when he described himself as a chubby child because you can’t imagine that. Chubby or not, you bet he was one good looking kid.

He continues speaking, his voice ever so calming and you feel the noise in your mind being reduced to mere whispers. The steady rise and fall of his chest helps you keep your breathing in check and you feel yourself starting to calm down, your hands no longer shaking, your mind no longer racing.

You drift in and out of sleep, his voice slowly fading into the background. Your heart beat starts to slow down and your mind feels at ease, for once you felt at peace. You want to listen, to hear his stories and you try your best to stay awake but somewhere between his soft touches and the sound of his calming heartbeat, you fall asleep.

A light laugh escapes Jimin when he glances down to realize that you’ve already gone to sleep. How long had he been talking to himself? He tugs you closer towards himself and you curl inwards, closer towards him as you buried your face into his chest. He smiles, letting his hand rest on your waist as he shuts his eyes to finally get some much needed sleep.

Cuddling was something Jimin enjoyed but no one other than you knew that. At first, Jimin thinks it’s just the gesture that he likes, that he could replace you with another body and it would all be the same to him but as your fingers curl around his waist again, he’s not so sure anymore.

Over the next week, you spend all your free time at the library with Jimin, Taehyung and occasionally Hoseok. Considering that it was the week before finals, almost everyone was in one of the libraries scattered around campus. You never thought you’d see the day where you would be sat in the library studying alongside the 3 people whose weekend only consisted of parties and more parties and yet here you all were.

Taehyung notices that you’ve returned to your cheery self which surprised him really but he still takes the time to bring you extra snacks which you devour happily. It’s stupid, Jimin knows, but he finds a slight sense of jealousy bubble within him when he sees you laughing at Tae’s jokes or sharing snacks with him. He tells himself to ignore it, that he really shouldn’t care but goddamn it his brain never listened when it came to you.

Jimin starts stopping by the dining hall to pick up cookies or some of your other favourite snacks before joining you at the library. When he sees you biting on your bottom lip as you cautiously peer at his snack stash, he smiles to himself knowing that he’s already reeled you in. It doesn’t take long before you prod him, shyly asking if you could take a bite and he shoves it towards you nonchalantly like it didn’t matter to him, not even bothering to spare you a glance. You smile widely as you teeth sank into the cookie and you turn to him to thank him to which he replies with a bored nod but inside, he was smiling like a child.

Every time the clock strikes 12, Jimin drags you back with him to the dorms despite your protests. You beg him to leave you alone, to let you burn the midnight oil but he hears none of it and you begrudgingly pack your things with a frown on your face. You notice that Jimin’s a lot more comfortable with skin contact now, always adding a fleeting graze or the occasional tickle. Perhaps it’s something he picked up from Taehyung, perhaps it’s something that came with being friends with him.

You don’t tell Jimin but really the only reason you agree to returning to the dorms is because you got to fall asleep with his arms wrapped around you. Silly, you know but despite your cold exterior, you craved affectionate physical contact. You just liked being held in the arms of another, was that so wrong?

If having a sleep coach was a thing then Jimin would be yours. He would slowly coax you to sleep by letting you talk about whatever it was that was on your mind and just like clockwork, you’d fall asleep whenever he began talking. Whenever you wake up in the morning, he’d jokingly scold you for not listening to him and although you promise every time you’d listen the next time, you never do. Jimin doesn’t mind really… He quite enjoyed getting to know you better. Actually, no. That irked him a little. He’s starting to feel like he’s already in too deep, already completely caught up in your personality, completely caught up in you.

Finals week. The week you dread, yet loved. Finals week meant stress central for you but it also meant that the end was near and good god you couldn’t wait for this semester to finally be over. The campus is in a complete frenzy, frazzled students all running about, everyone studying day and night for what was their final chance to pull up their grades. You lose track of day and night, only catching some sleep between your papers. Your body clock is a complete mess and you’re not really sure when your last proper meal was but it was all going to be worth it. It had to be.

You exited the hall after taking your last paper with a large smile on your face. You skipped all the way back to your dorm, finally glad that you had reached the end. You looked like an idiot for sure, but damn nothing beats the joy of knowing that you didn’t have to worry about classes until after winter break. You let out a squeal of joy as you packed away your clothes and cleaned up your room. Another semester down, another semester closer to your degree. You let out a relieved sigh to see your room no longer looking like a war zone. You were prepared to sleep for a whole week now because you’re completely exhausted but no you couldn’t do that just yet. You still had that campus-wide end of the semester bar crawl to attend. A beloved unofficial campus tradition of visiting every bar on the main street, one your university has actively tried to get rid of but nothing can beat a student’s will to party come semester end.  

You meet up at Solji’s place and you hug her for what seemed like forever because it feels like you haven’t seen her in months. Aside from the random bump-ins you had on campus, the last time you had seen her was the night you had had too much tequila aka the night you never want to remember. You felt like a horrible human being, a horrible friend for always pushing her away when your anxiety got the best of you but she was always so forgiving, so nice. The two of you take forever to get ready, stopping every few or so seconds to catch up and you wonder how you’ve been so lucky to have a friend like her.

At 10 pm, the both of you bolt down the main street of your campus town that were littered with bars, shivering as the cold winter breeze bit at your skin. The two of you had opted to leave without a coat because you didn’t want to pay for coat check and by the time you leave the second bar, you’d probably be too drunk to even realize you’re skipping about in sub-zero temperatures.

Every semester, you & Solji would promise each other that the two of you would stay sober enough to at least make it past the 5th bar but that never happens. Somewhere along the line someone would say that drinks are on the house and before you know it, Taehyung would be dragging both of your half passed out asses home.

Maybe this semester would be different because you’re at bar number 4 and you’re only tipsy, still completely aware of what’s happening around you. Here at bar no.4 you finally run into the boys who seemed to have had a rather early start to their night. Hoseok was already passed out in the corner booth while Jimin and Tae seemed like they would be joining Hoseok soon enough. You only manage to greet them with a wave before Solji drags you to the dancefloor. The flashing lights and blaring music fills you with euphoria and for the first time in a long time you felt truly happy.

The bar starts to fill with more people and you lose Solji somewhere along the way when you stop to greet someone that you had met at that party that one time or maybe he was actually that one kid in one of your discussion classes you had actually bothered to attend… you’re not sure because the alcohol was making your mind hazy.

Jimin sneaks his way past the crowd to look for you and he finds you tiptoeing, glancing around worriedly.

“Jimin!” You shout, when you spot him. “Have you seen Solji?” You ask over the blaring bass

Jimin nods, telling you that she had found her way back to the booth already.

He had barely finished his sentence when you squeal in delight, a party favourite blaring over the speakers. Hollers echo throughout the bar as people rush to the dancefloor, everyone packing tightly together when the familiar tune rings around the bar and you find yourself pushed up against Jimin but honestly, you’re too happy to give a damn.

You dance your heart out, dramatically lip-syncing to the song and Jimin smiles as he watches you sway about. It’s starting to get a little too rowdy in the bar and Jimin wraps his hands around you protectively when you stumble forward, into his chest. When you’ve regained your stability, you simply continue bopping to the music, completely unfazed and Jimin follows along, laughing with you. As the night progresses, you let your arms hang over his shoulders and Jimin’s hands soon find its way to rest at your waist. The buzz from the alcohol was starting to kick in and Jimin finds himself pulling you closer and closer towards him. He feels your body move against his and it takes all of his willpower to keep his hands at your waist and not let it slip down any further. You hold his gaze, staring darkly at him before you smirked, throwing your head back as you bit your bottom lip. He wondered how you did that, how with a single look you had him hooked on you.

There was barely any space between the two of you. Both of you are sober enough to know what was going on but neither of you seemed to be against the idea of it. The room starts to fade in the background as you felt the tension between the two of you grow. You moved your hips expertly against him, rolling your body inwards towards him and you hear him curse under his breath as he gripped your waist tighter. He inched forward, his lips graze against the shell of your ear as he whispered compliments that made shivers run down your spine. He pulls back, letting his lips hover above yours as the two of you sway to the music. You challenge him, letting your lips momentarily brush against his and you watch as something flashed within his eyes as you pull away with a laugh. His lips curve up into a devious smirk and he pulls you flush against his chest with one hand. You feel the palm of his other hand rest at the stem of your neck, his fingers slipping among the strands of your hair and he tugs you forward, his lips almost touching yours. You shut your eyes, feeling his hot breath against your lips, the excitement building in your chest.

“Hey, we gotta go. Hoseok may or may not have thrown up on himself,” Taehyung says as he jerks Jimin away from you but not before sending you a disapproving look.

In an instant, the tension dissipates and you pull yourself away from Jimin’s hold.

Wonderful, thanks Taehyung… and Hoseok.

Back at the booth you confirm that Hobi has indeed thrown up himself and the sight has you holding back a gag. You look at the other end of the booth to find Solji passed out and you sigh. Amateur. Guess that means that’s another semester added to the list where you didn’t get to make it past bar no. 5. Oh well. You pull Solji up and get her to stand up. She’s an easy drunk thankfully and she mumbles incoherently as you drag her out of the bar, behind the boys who were half carrying Hoseok at this point.

Thankfully, it’s a relatively short walk to Taehyung’s but that doesn’t mean you’re not completely exhausted when you get there. You set Solji down on one couch while the boys set Hoseok down on the other. You had hoped that the walk to the apartment would’ve helped Solji sober up but she’s already curled up into a ball, snoring lightly so you grab a spare blanket to drape over her. Jimin and Tae really had their work cut out from them and you watched as Hoseok thrashed around, lunging at them as they tried to get him to stay on the couch. By the time they finally get Hoseok to calm down enough to get him out of his vomit drenched shirt and into some fresh clothes, the bus service had already stopped working for the night.

Taehyung seemed extremely unhappy throughout the whole time you were at his apartment. He gives you short one word answers and he barely looks at you in the eye. Truthfully, you’re still a little tipsy, the buzz from the alcohol still quite apparent so Taehyung’s attitude didn’t really bother you.

Jimin calls a cab for the two of you and you get up to leave along with him. Just as you’re about to walk out the front door, Taehyung pulls you back into his apartment.

“Y/N, you know what he’s like, you shouldn’t—“

Oh now he speaks

“Don’t worry, we’re just having a little fun that’s all… nothing more,” You smile as you hug him goodbye but you feel him bore holes into the back of your head with his icy stare.

The two of you sit in the back of the cab, an awkward stuffy silence suffocating you. Jimin hasn’t really said anything to you since the two of you had left the bar which worries you a little. Maybe he regretted the fact that he almost kissed you and suddenly you’re glad that Taehyung had interrupted the both of you. You take out your phone to mindlessly browse through your messages, hoping that it would make time pass faster.

A tingle runs up your back when you feel Jimin’s fingertips graze the inside of your thigh, his hand slowly moving further along, hiking up your dress in the process. You press your lips into a thin line as you look at the mirror to see if the cab driver was looking back. You turn to look at Jimin to see a hint of a devilish smirk on his face, his eyes dark and full of lust and you respond with a smirk of your own.

“So, this is what I have to do to get you to pay attention to me, huh?” He whispers and you keep your eyes trained forward, too afraid to open your mouth in fear of the noises that would leave. You grip onto his thigh tightly as you felt a flush of excitement run through your body.

He continues dragging his fingertips gently across the skin of your inner thigh and you clamp your thighs together, biting down on your bottom lip to silence the whimpers threatening to leave your lips. You hear him chuckle in response and you pray that the cab reaches your dorm soon before Jimin’s hand finds its way further up, closer to your core.

The cab finally comes to a halt and you find yourself being hauled out of the backseat by Jimin. His hand sat gingerly on your waist as he guided you to your room with urgency. You fumble with your key, finding it difficult to concentrate on fitting it into the keyhole when you can feel Jimin leaving a trail of wet kisses down your neck.

When the lock finally clicks open, he wastes no time pulling you into his body as he leans on the door to slam it shut. You have no time to react, his lips moving roughly against yours and you rest your body on his, letting him set the pace. His hands leave your waist, slipping further down to curve of your ass and you moan quietly against his lips when he leaves a playful pinch. He takes advantage of that, his tongue slipping into your mouth, twirling around yours, both of you fighting for dominance. At this point, both of you are completely sober and despite to quiet little voice in your head that tells you to stop, you just can’t bring yourself to. Your hands move by their own volition, unbuttoning his shirt as your tongues dance around each other.

The room is filled with nothing but sounds of heavy breathing as the two of you continue, lips moving ferociously against each other. Your hands slip into his hair, tugging harshly at the ends of his strands and the moan that leaves his lips has you wanting more. The room starts to feel like a furnace, tension growing between the two of you and you roll your hips inwards, once, twice before he tugs you away by your hair.

“Jesus, someone’s eager,” He smirks.

God, you hated that smirk.

You don’t answer only choosing to reconnect your lips to his and you can feel him smiling against you. That smile soon fades when you let your hands slip between the two of you to palm him through his pants. This time he moans, audibly so and you allow your tongue to glide into his mouth, taking your time as you traced every inch of his mouth. You continue massaging him softly through his pants and you felt him grow harder under your touch with each passing second. His hands grip at your hips tightly as he fought to keep himself under control, his mind already drifting to the thoughts of having you underneath him.

Jimin pulls away, tugging at your bottom lip as he did so.

He rests his forehead on yours, panting as you continued your ministrations, his bottom lip tucked between his teeth in an effort to stop the soft moans from leaving his lips.

You feel his hand around your wrists as he pulls it away from him.

“Are you sure you want this?” He asks between pants.

“Yeah,” You answer. “Why? Are you having second thoughts?”

“God, no,” He laughs. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?”

Wait, you mean he wasn’t joking all this time?

“Do you know how many times I’ve thought about you?”

You shake your head no, nibbling on your bottom lip as you watched Jimin’s expression grow dark, almost feral-like.

“Do you know how many times I’ve thought about what it’d be like to see your pretty lips wrapped around my cock?” He asks as he removed his belt and rids himself of his jeans while his eyes were still trained on you.

He steps closer towards you and you could see it now, the outline of his member clearly strained against his boxers. In the pit of your stomach, you feel excitement starting to build.

“Look at what you do to me,” He snarls as he tugs his boxers down, kicking it away to some corner of your room. You ogle at his member as it springs up, tip already red and angry, leaking with precum.

“On your knees,” He demands and you sink down immediately, heat rushing to your core at the tone of his voice. Seeing Jimin like this, eyes dark and voice husky made your eyes glow with excitement, so different from the lame, adorable sleazebag you were used to.

You wrap your palm around his member, feeling it pulse under your hold as your hand moved up and down his shaft slowly. Jimin’s fingers tug at the strands of your hair as your thumb came around the tip, digging in slightly at his slit as you spread the bead of pre-cum leaking out of it.

“Faster, love,” He growls and you pick up the pace, moving faster along his shaft as your thumb rolled over his tip every few pumps.

His moans grow in urgency and he grips your hair tighter, your scalp burning as he tugs on the strands harder.

“Your lips,” You hear him beg but you ignore him, letting your thumb dig into his slit as you brought it round his sensitive head.

“Baby, p-please,” He begs again and you smirk when you see Jimin loll his head backwards, eyes shut in frustration.

You lick a few strips down the length of his member and you hear him growl as he tugged your hair harshly, obviously displeased with your teasing. You hum against his length, laughing silently as he grew increasingly frustrated. Without warning, you let your lips wrap around the tip of his cock and you hear him suck in a deep breath at the sensation. Guiding your lips expertly down his shaft, you let your tongue swirl around his tip before you flatten it to lick long wide stripes down the underside of his member. You feel Jimin’s thighs tense under your touch, his lips slightly parted as you feel his lust filled eyes stare at you.

Bobbing your head up and down, you let your tongue trace the veins that lined the side of his member, sinking down as far as you can go.

“Fuck, babe you take my cock so well,” He moaned.  

You felt his tip brush the back of your throat and your eyes start to water but you let him continue, one hand gripping at his thigh while the other fondles his balls lightly. Jimin’s moans and grunts grow in volume and it isn’t long before his hips start rocking forward, begging you to take in more of him.

You let your jaw slack, allowing Jimin full control as he thrusts into your mouth. You swallow once around him and a myriad of curses leaves his lips, ending with a high-pitched moan. You’d do anything to hear that again, to hear him moan like that so you swallow once more around his length and his fingers dig into your scalp as he lets out another moan. He rocks his hips sloppily, his breathing ragged as he felt his high approaching. With a little more coaxing, you feel his hot seed spill into your mouth, a long moan following after and you make sure you milk every last drop of his pleasure, licking your lips after pulling off of him with a pop.

“Jesus, who knew these lips would be good for more than just talking?” He asks before smashing his lips against yours fervently.

He walks you backwards towards the bed as he expertly unzips your dress. With a light tug, your dress falls to the floor, pooling at your ankles and he breaks away from the kiss to stare at your body. Even in your dimly-lit room, you could feel his orbs slowly rake over your body, scrutinizing every inch of you. Instinctively you wrap your arms around yourself and you gaze downward at your dress as you begin to bend forward to pick it up.

Jimin lunges forward, stopping you from doing so and pushes you onto your back, your head landing among the pillows.

“Perfect,” He marvels as he lets his hands roam the expanse of your body, following each and every curve. His touch set your skin fire, each fleeting graze sparking a flame within you.

“Condom,” You whisper and Jimin reaches for the back pocket of his jeans that was at the foot of your bed. In a swift motion he tears the package open, and rolls the condom down his length. You clamp your thighs together, the sight alone making you all hot and bothered.

“Jimin, quick I need to feel you—“

“Not so fast, love,” He smiles.

He nestles himself between your thighs and you sit up slightly, tugging at his hair as he placed teasing kisses down your inner thigh.

“Stop fucking teas—“

He interrupts you with a kiss on your lips, silencing you as his hands slip behind your back to undo your bra. He pulls it off, letting it drop to the floor as his hand kneads your breast. A whimper leaves your lips as his thumbs play at your nipples, your head tilting backwards as he leaves a trail of breathy kisses down the valley of your breasts.

He works his way down, slowly leaving kisses as his fingers tease at your folds, sliding up and down the length of them. Jimin looked like pure sin, his body proudly on display, coated in a light sheen of sweat and you could feel every rational thought you had leave your mind. You feel his digits push into you slowly, curling upwards as his thumb rubs slow circles into your mound.

“So fucking wet for me already,” He smiles as his fingers come around to scissor at your clit. Your hip bucks forward, a muffled moan leaves your lips and Jimin laughs, his other hand holding you down as you struggle to keep yourself in place.

You chant his name over and over like a prayer as he sinks down onto his belly, his tongue teasing at your clit. Your hips buck up again, essentially begging for more as you grind down on his tongue and Jimin complies, sucking at your nub harshly before letting his tongue swirl around it. Your vision starts to blur as pure pleasure takes over your body, a knot starting to build at the bottom of your stomach.

“Fuck, Jimin, don’t stop,” You cry as you shut your eyes, hands gripping at the sheets as wave after wave of pleasure hits you. His fingers thrust into you at a faster pace and his tongue swirls around your nub again, sending your body into a frenzy, thighs shaking with excitement.

“You taste so good, baby,” He hums against your folds and you can barely hold back your moans, the sensation lighting a fire at the pit of your stomach. Your high was fast approaching and your breathing grows ragged as you felt yourself almost tipping over the edge, your fingers grasping helplessly at the sheets beneath you.

All at once, you feel Jimin’s fingers pull out of you, your walls clenching against nothing. You sit up on your elbows, ready to shout at him when you see him kneeling, his member lining up to your entrance. He reaches for your face, cupping your cheek with one hand while his other guided his length into you.

“Look at me baby, I want to see your face,” He says as his tip grazes at your entrance.

He slowly pushes into you and a long moan leaves your lips as you stare at Jimin with completely blown out pupils. His length stretches out your walls and you clench your fists as you felt him fill you up.

“So tight, fuck,” Jimin groans as he pushes into you completely, his head resting in the crook of your neck.

“Jimin, god,” You moan as he draws out slow, long strokes while his hands fondle at your breast, pinching your nipples lightly. “F-Faster, please,” You beg as your fingers sink into his hair blindly grasping at his soft locks.

Jimin gives into your command, thrusting into you at a hurried pace, your breasts bouncing up and down as his hips met yours. Every so often, Jimin almost pulls out completely only to slam into you harder, pushing you higher up, your head almost hitting the headboard. You feel your walls clench around his member, wanting to feel more of him as muffled moans leave your lips.

“Just like that, Jimin, fuck!” You scream, the knot in your stomach starting to build again as he whispers nasty compliments into your ears. His hand slides up your body to wrap around the sides of your neck, squeezing it lightly and you feel yourself grow lightheaded, a shiver of excitement running through your body. You clench around him again and Jimin growls, telling you not to repeat that as he hooks one of your legs on top of his shoulder, thrusting deeper into you. His tip hits the spot that has you biting down on your bottom lip to keep from screaming his name, the back of your eyelids painted with stars as your body shakes with excitement. You can’t help it, pleasure takes control of your body and your walls clench around his length, despite his warning.

“I told you to stop that,” Jimin snarls as he pulls out of you and you open your eyes, anger burning within you as you’re denied your high 

“I—“

“No,” He barks. “Get on all fours now.”

Jimin shows no sign of backing down and really, all you wanted was to reach your release so you oblige, bending down onto all fours for him. Truthfully, the look he had on his face, his eyes dark as his dominance surfaced was all you needed to get you on your knees.

“Why didn’t you listen?” He asks as his hand rubs smooth circles over the cheek of your ass and you lick your lips, unsure of what to say. “I warned you, didn’t I?” He asks before you feel a sharp pain ripple across your ass as his hand smashes down harshly against your cheek. You bite your lip, the sensation sending shivers up your spine and you felt heat pool at your core.

His length rubs against your fold and you feel him breathe against your ear, “Don’t you dare clench around me until I say you can, understood?”

You nod eagerly as you moved backwards wanting to feel friction against your heat. Soon enough, you get what you ask for when you feel his arm wrap around your waist as he pushes past your folds. A long line of expletives leaves your lips as your walls stretch out to accommodate him and it takes all of your willpower to keep yourself from clenching around him again.

This time, he barely gives you time to adjust, grunting as he thrusts into you furiously. Your arms begin to grow weak as you approach your high, hot white flashing behind your eyelids as pleasure ripples throughout your body.

“Are you close baby?”

You moan a long yes, barely able to even get that out as you concentrated on holding yourself up.

From behind Jimin pulls you up, flush against his body as he pushes deeper into you and your free hands now roam your body, kneading your own breasts. Jimin’s free hand sneaks down towards your core to rub mini figure eights into your clit and you bite down hard onto you lip to stop the scream that was about to leave your throat.

You reach backwards, hands tangling into his hair as uncontrollable pleasure takes over your body. You press your lips shut, your moans becoming muffled and Jimin groans disapprovingly.

“Don’t,” He whispers. “Barely anyone’s left in the dorms. I want to hear you scream my name.”

He thrusts upwards into you, his tip hitting the spot that comes close to unravelling the tight knot within you.

“Jimin,” You scream, fingers pulling at the tufts of his hair.

“That’s it babe, louder,” He grunts, his thumb working furiously at your clit.

“Jimin, oh my god!” You screamed, your body growing limp as your high was up on the horizon, almost within reach. Jimin heaves you higher, pushing into you with a new dound passion because fuck, he loved the way his name sounded as it rolled off your lips.

“Fuck, babe you feel so good. Cum for me,” He moans, pulling out until just the tip was inside of you before thrusting into you again. His motions grow sloppy and you know he must be close now too. He repeats the motion a few more times before you’re sent toppling over the edge, your head lolling backwards as you cummed all over his cock, leaving you a mangled moaning mess. Jimin curses as he picks up the pace, rapidly chasing his high and with the remaining energy you had left, you clenched against his length which is all it takes to send Jimin over the edge, his cock twitching inside of you as his seeds spill into the condom.

You crash down onto the bed as Jimin loosens his hold on you and you feel him slip out of you to discard the condom into your trash bin. He moves expertly around your room, grabbing a clean towel in order to clean you up and you let him wipe down your thighs and at your sex, too tired to even move. Quietly, he hands your undergarments to you while he puts on his boxers.

Upon slipping into your undergarments, you turn to your side, curling into yourself as you feel exhaustion take over. You jump slightly at the sensation of your bed dipping and a warm pair of hands wrapping around your waist. You were quite sure Jimin was going to bolt the moment he had gotten what he wanted because rule no. 1, Jimin never stayed the night and rule no. 2, Jimin never cuddled after sex but maybe he was just staying with you until you fell asleep. He was going to slip away into the quiet night soon enough, that you were certain and truthfully you had no qualms about that. You knew the type of man Jimin was. One that had trouble with commitment, one that never called you by your name during sex and even outside of sex just so he could escape that intimate bond. You’re not sure he even knew your name anymore actually, he hadn’t called you by your name ever since he coined the lovely nickname he had for you. One thing you were sure of though was that he was going to be gone by sunrise and that was fine with you, after all your short-lived friendship with him had had a good run.

Sunlight filters through the blinds as the morning sun begins to rise. You feel an aching sensation tugging at your muscles and you stretch, pushing your arm behind you.

Ouch!

You hear a groan as your hand connects against Jimin’s jaw. You turn onto your back, completely shocked at the noise you just heard.

“I’m so sorry,” You laugh. “I thought you already left.”

“It’s Saturday,” He yawns, rubbing at his jaw. “We always sleep in on Saturdays.”

“Yeah, but we don’t always have sex with each other on Friday night,” You snort.

“I mean, if you’re interested, that’s an arrangement I’d gladly partake in,” He smirks.

You laugh, smacking him across the chest playfully before stretching again, your bones popping into place.

“Anyway, what’s the point of having rules if you don’t follow them?” You ask. “You’ve already broken two of them by being here.”

“Rules are meant to be broken, nerd.”

Gross. There was that nickname. You had much preferred last night when he called you everything but that.

Stupid, he hears you mumble under your breath and he laughs lightly.

“You’re right though,” He hums. “Now that I’ve broken two of them, don’t you think it’d be a shame if I didn’t break all three?”

Ah, rule no.3, Jimin never slept with the same girl twice.

You smirk at the notion of the statement and Jimin approaches you slowly, giving you plenty of time to back out but you stay perfectly still, almost as if you were inviting him.

Jimin hovers above you, staring back at you with a smirk of his own on his lips. His head dips into the crook of your neck leaving lazy kisses down your jaw and the rest of your neck. His hands slip behind your back to rid you of your bra and you laugh once he starts leaving a trial of wet kisses on your collarbone.

“Why are you laughing?” He asks, confused.

“Nothing, it’s just… you’re smart,” You say, slightly amused. “This is how you trick all the girls into having morning sex with you isn’t it?”

He laughs lightly, a smirk threatening to show as he feigns ignorance.

“You tell all these girls about your rules and when they see you in their bed the next morning, they feel so special so they gladly give into another round with you, right?”

“You think you have me all figured out, don’t you?” His signature smirk gracing his lips.

“Well, don’t I?” You wink.

Jimin doesn’t answer, he only presses his lips against yours lazily and the two of you smile into the kiss. You knew you were right, his silence told you that you had discovered all his tricks. You played right into his hand but maybe that’s because you wanted to. Jimin was good, there was no doubting that and since you’re never going to see him again after this, you might as well enjoy it.

You’d never really been a fan of morning sex but it was so slow and gentle with Jimin that you think maybe all the other guys you’ve done this with were just no good. It surprised you how this contrasted compared to the person Jimin was last night. How does he do that? Go from seductive to adorable in the matter of seconds? Last night was filled with nothing but heated passion and lust but this now felt so different. It was lazy and filled with more laughs than anything, a deserved break after the events of the night before. In fact, it felt a little too intimate. He spent time making out with you slowly, tongues lazily twisting around each other as his thumb stroked the apple of your cheek. Perhaps it was a parting gift he always left for his poor victims, a taste of what could have been.

After getting dressed, Jimin settles down next to you, arms wrapping around you as he pulls you closer towards him, entangling his legs with yours. He smiles when he feels you respond, slowly inching backwards to feel more of his warmth. God, had you been worth the wait, it was better than anything he had ever managed to picture. He simply couldn’t get enough of you. He didn’t know how to tell you that this was the first time he had broken any of his rules. That he doesn’t really know why he stayed the night, why he brought up the idea of morning sex and why he was still here, lying next to you. All he knows was that he was comfortable, that he had always felt so when you were in his arms. He rests his chin on top of your head, nuzzling himself against you, warmth spreading across his chest at the feeling of you resting against him. This was a dangerous road he was heading down but what could he do when his confused heart kept pulling him towards you.

He stays like that with you for another hour or so before he pulls away reluctantly, watching as you whined incoherently when he lifts the blanket up to slip away. If he had a choice, he wouldn’t leave the comfort of your bed but he had to attend his rowing team’s final meeting of the semester. Responsibilities, he sighs.

Jimin sits in the meeting, barely able to focus as all he wanted was for the meeting to end so he could return to your room and join you under the comfortable, warm sheets. He watches the clock eagerly, painfully waiting for the hour to pass by. He turns his attention to the front of the room from time to time, nodding attentively to pretend like he’d been listening but truthfully all he’s been thinking about was how your lips felt like on his.

The sound of your ringtone jolts you awake and you hurriedly click answer upon seeing the caller ID. Your aunt’s cheery voice informs you that she’s just about 20 minutes away from campus so you quickly jump out of bed and run to the bathroom to freshen up. You shove all the clothes you can fit into your luggage bag, silently thanking yourself for having the decency to clean up your room the day before. By the time your aunt pulls up to the curb, you’re hauling your bag to the entrance, sweat already dripping down your back.

Your aunt jumps out of the car, rushing towards you to engulf you in a hug and you can’t help but smile lovingly at her. Words fly out of her mouth at a mile a minute, asking question after question about your semester and you can’t help but think about how good it felt to see her, to see family. You’re in such a rush to put your bag in the car and to see the rest of your family that you don’t realize how your phone was sitting at the edge of your pocket now.

You heave the bag upwards into the trunk of the car and you hear a light crash, the sound of your phone hitting the edge of the curb. Your phone lied on the ground, screen down and you chanted a silent prayer as you bent down to pick it up.

Completely cracked.

Your screen was a myriad of weird colours and glass was chipping off, great. Guess what you’re going to be spending your holiday money on?

Tough luck, you sigh as you place it delicately into your pocket.

The first half of the car ride was enjoyable, your aunt catching you up on family gossip while you told her all about your semester, skipping over a lot of details, of course. She continues speaking, telling you about how your second cousin twice removed had gotten herself into trouble with the loan sharks and you listen, occasionally nodding to show your interest. The light music in the background calmed you as you enjoyed the barren winterscape and your aunt’s stories, the car zipping down the highway back to where the rest of your family were waiting, eager to finally start celebrating the holiday season.

The conversation dies down after a while, a comfortable silence taking over and suddenly you’re left alone with your thoughts. Finally, you were miles away from campus and your heart felt so light at the thought of that. With no phone to distract you, your mind reels, playing back the whole semester, the countless nights in the library and the rare ones where you’re in that dingy frat house. You sift through memory after memory and finally it lands on the events of last night and this morning.

Jimin, you sigh.

Oh, lust.

It was truly a shame that your friendship with him had to end so abruptly but that’s just how boys like him work. When you woke up to the sound of your phone ringing, alone, it hadn’t surprised you, you knew he probably slipped out the moment your quiet snores filled the room. Now that the semester had ended, you were of no use to him, for there were no more Physics quizzes he had to take. It was clear to you now that he had waited, buttering you up the whole semester just for that one night and at end of it he had left without a single word. You’ve heard countless reiterations of Jimin the asshole who never even bothered staying for breakfast and you knew fairly well what you were getting yourself into the moment you responded to his kiss, the moment you allowed him to strip you off your clothes.

You were just another number to him now and you were fine with that, you had enjoyed the night and that’s all that mattered to you. Yet, a dull pain sat at the pit of your heart, one akin to heartbreak and you laugh it off, thinking it can’t possibly be true. You’d miss his dick maybe but not him, no. That’s what it was, the pain you felt floating in your chest was the fact that now you’d have to find someone who could please you better than he did. It had nothing to do with the fact that you had let him in, spilling everything from your heart wrenching worries to your theories about the universe, of course not. Obviously, it had nothing to do with how he had made your heart burst with warmth on your birthday night, him standing there with your favourite cake in hand, no of course it didn’t. It definitely didn’t have to do with how his soothing touches managed to calm your heart and silence your worry-filled mind because that would just be silly now wouldn’t it? You tell yourself lie after lie, to convince yourself that no, you weren’t falling for the player that was Park Jimin, it simply couldn’t be because boy, would you be in trouble if that were true. Big trouble.

The coach claps his hands, signaling the end of the meeting and Jimin bolts out of the boathouse, jogging back to the residence hall excitedly. He rushes past the entrance and heads straight for your room, a smile already on his face. Turning the door knob quietly, he sneaks into your room not wanting to disturb you from your sleep except he finds that you’re no longer there. Your bed was made, your clothes all gone and your belongings all sat on your shelf neatly. Was your room this clean last night? Had you left without telling him? You wouldn’t, would you? He leaves for just an hour and you’ve already left, probably to your home which was a few states away, you had told him once and Jimin felt sadness envelop him. Had he known you were going to leave so soon he would have… He would have… done… nothing.  His mind was a pure mess, all over the place and he didn’t know what to do with these ever-growing pesky feelings that he seemed to have for you. He didn’t know what he was supposed to say or do. Well, he never really did when it came to you.

A/N: As always, thank you for reading! Feedback is always welcome (: In case y’all are wondering just what kind of calendar I’m talking about, check out the Warwick Rowers (heart eyes x100)

Part 3.5

[somewhatfiltered]

kind of a diary entry?

today was an interesting day:

i went to the dentist and the optometrist, all by myself, to appointments that i had made myself. this made me feel like an Adult.

dad and i grabbed lunch at a new shanghai cuisine place, and in trying to make conversation i learned a lot of things like: my mom was a working woman who didn’t want any kids. my grandmother tried to drown herself when she was a teenager. my other grandmother’s mother remarried when she was little, and having one child by blood and one that is not makes a big difference when you don’t have enough food. my great-grandfather slept around when my grandfather was growing up, and my great-grandmother was so infuriated by this that she died. when she passed, she’d taken my grandfather to go begging several counties over, and they’d walked for days and days, and he walked the days and days back by himself. my dad and my mom fought a lot before i was born, and they still fight a lot, mostly about how much money my dad still sends to my grandmother in china, because my mom thinks we should be keeping more for ourselves. it’s not her fault, dad said, it’s because we grew up poor, so you want to save what you have, and anyway it’s not her mother. “everything is a tragedy,” he said sagely as we blew over our hot soup dumplings to cool them off.

one of my aunts and my uncle on my dad’s side are still farmers; my uncle also holds some sort of leadership position in the--village? district? which my grandfather also held; my two other aunts work as clerks; my cousins do blue-collar work. two of them work as elevator repairmen in the city. one of them is in the army. a couple might be in the farming business? i don’t remember. my mom’s sister is a preschool teacher, and from what i understand, my mom’s sister’s husband is an uneducated bum and doesn’t have a stable income, which drives my grandma nuts.

my uncle just got married. he brought over his new wife a couple of days ago and my parents tried to make her feel at home but it was awkward, and she spent a large part of her time staring at her phone.

i asked my dad if they were going to have kids. my uncle’s in his late forties and my new aunt is in her thirties. dad looked surprised. “of course! that’s what your uncle has been aiming for.”

i guess when you become an adult and feel the slow but crushing onset of age, “i want kids” becomes a justifiable reason for getting married. 

it seems like my uncle’s had a string of relationships, all of them failed--he was even married before at one point, but they divorced in the end. my parents say my uncle isn’t an easy person to live with, because he’s stubborn. at around this time, i had discovered r/relationships on reddit, and suggested half-jokingly that he post his problems on there to get some perspective.

how do you preserve things so that they’ll never be lost or thrown away? i’ve always started a ton of notebooks but stopped writing after the first few pages.

i asked dad what it’ll be like for my kids--it seems inevitable that i’ll have kids, though i haven’t decided if i really want to, yet. but i said it like it was something inevitable. i asked whether they would know their family in china. i asked what the future looked like for a family tree that had effectively been split into two. he looked at me and said, “do you feel like you want to know your cousins?”

“no,” i said, startled. “not really.”

he nodded sagely. “then it’ll be like that for your children,” he said, scooping up another wonton. “it’ll be just like that. if they forget, so what? that’s how the world goes.”

after my appointments i took the public rail to the city, a process that always makes me feel more like an adult--sophisticated? knowledgeable? but also makes me feel smaller. i am wary on the train, a little tense, a little anxious, never relaxed. i eye people here and there, wondering about them--curious about their lives, but also with my mother’s warnings ringing in my head: be aware of your surroundings. never let down your guard. the city is dangerous. bad people are out there. does it make me a worse human being, to be cautious? have i lost anything in the process?

my boyfriend and i are on a date in the city. at night, on the way back to the station, we pass a street that is always full of homeless men. 

“should we--cross the street?” i whisper. he glances down at me.

“do you want to?”

i eye the woman in front of us. alone, in a dark sweatshirt with the hood up, she walks fearlessly forward, putting one foot in front of the other with purpose. i wonder whether she’s really speeding up, or if it’s just my imagination.

“well, i guess, if she’s doing it--”

we walk straight through it. what am i trying to prove? am i afraid that turning away will make me look childish, petty, judgmental? cowardly? i accidentally kick one man’s hat as we walk by, and walk on to keep pace with my boyfriend but turn back to glance at it, a half-formed, “wait, i should...” on my lips. 

on the way there during the day we had passed dozens of homeless people, begging or singing or just lying on the ground, exhausted by something i’ll probably never comprehend. one of them pleaded as we walked down into the underground station: “please, please, please...” one of them was young--maybe in her 20s or 30s--sitting next to a sign: PREGNANT AND HOMELESS. i made an involuntary whimper in my throat when i saw her and her distended stomach, wanting to help, not sure if i was allowed to, not sure how. 

if that makes me sound pathetic, it’s probably because i am.

i rode the rail home by myself and happened to sit down right behind some old high school classmates. classmates and neighbors--we grew up together, played on the streets in the afternoons, carpooled to get to school. one of them, m, was on the student council and as a result her house was used to prepare for the senior homecoming skit on the night before; almost-not-teens-and-not-quite-adults blasted hip-hop music until early in the morning, and noise complaints came from the whole neighborhood. 

once, on the longest day of summer, all the kids came out after dinner, as if on some unspoken signal, and we played tag until the sun finally went down. i remember that day: the red-and-orange glow, the cooling heat, the sudden realization that i couldn’t see my hands anymore.

after about two seconds of hesitation i make the decision not to say anything, because the ride is an hour long and i don’t want to spend the majority of it trying to make small talk over the roar of the train. i stare at the back of their heads, wondering: did they notice me? are they texting each other about me, or just looking through their phones? is this a date? (the theory is quickly discarded when i notice m is falling asleep, but doesn’t feel comfortable leaning against w as she does.) is w going bald, or has his hair always been this thin?

at this time my friend sends me her creative writing honors thesis. it is, coincidentally enough, about high school. i read the short story that preceded and sort of seeded this, so i know vaguely what emotions to expect. it is full of her very unique snark and chinese poetry and idioms and references to people i know who are just different enough to be characters but not really. 

it feels a little like drowning. which is exactly what high school felt like: drowning. i wonder if that’s what she meant to convey.

after that i didn’t really know what to do, so i sat down and typed all this up.

[tonyduncanbb73]

Boston’s Top Restaurant Standbys of 2018: Dumpling Cafe, Bar Mezzana, and More

Local food writers discuss their regular haunts of this past year

As is Eater’s annual tradition, we’re closing out 2018 by surveying local food writers (including our own staff and contributors) on various restaurant-related topics, and we’re publishing their responses in these final days of the year. Readers, please feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comment section below, or hop into our Facebook group to discuss — we’ll post a thread for each survey question.

Keep an eye on the Year in Eater archive page for other stories in this series.

Up first: What were your top restaurant standbys of 2018? (See the 2017 responses here.)

MC Slim JB, restaurant critic for The Improper Bostonian:

“The reconnaissance and research required for my biweekly restaurant reviews for The Improper Bostonian don’t leave much time for discretionary dining. But when I did take the occasional night off from professional eating, I found myself at a few favorite hangouts, including J.J. Foley’s Café in the South End (my local for nearly 20 years), Island Creek Oyster Bar and the Hawthorne in Kenmore Square (for Sox pre- and post-gaming), Bar Mezzana in the South End (great Italian fare, especially the crudos, and the neighborhood’s best cocktails, now tied with their new kid sister Shore Leave), Estragon in the South End (great romantic atmosphere, fabulous Madrid-style tapas), Dumpling Café in Chinatown (it has my favorite soup dumplings in town), Sichuan Gourmet (for numbing-hot, traditional Sichuan fare), and Khao Hom Thai in Billerica (superb traditional Northern and Southern Thai).

But my number-one-with-a-bullet standby was Erbaluce in Bay Village, which does Piemontese Italian, a rarity in the US. I’ve often called it my favorite fine-dining restaurant in Boston, so was gutted to learn it is closing on New Year’s Eve, effectively a victim of gentrification. I’ve been packing in more dinners than usual there since, and will get some more before year-end. I know Chuck and Joan will land somewhere soon, but goddamn it, that was the worst dining news of the year to me.”

Jacqueline Cain, deputy food editor at Boston magazine:

“Flour Dalton, Render Coffee, Chilacates, the Corner Tavern, the Behan, Parlor Sports, Row 34, Eventide Fenway.”

Erin Kuschner, food writer for Boston.com:

“Exodus Bagels in Jamaica Plain became my go-to breakfast spot this year, though if you want their Everywhere bagel on the weekend (essentially an Everything bagel but with seeds on all sides) you have to get there early. Sometimes I make it, sometimes I don’t, but I love everything that comes out of their kitchen. Whenever I need a sweet treat, I find the nearest Flour and order the carrot cake. And the Brendan Behan Pub is my favorite watering hole. Their beer selection is great, and the music is on point every single time.”

Jolyon Helterman, contributing editor/food writer at Boston magazine:

“My apartment overlooks the Chinatown gate, meaning that neighborhood figures in to my weekly rotation in an outsize way. I am not complaining. This year I racked up double-digit loyalty points at Dumpling Cafe (pork soup dumplings, sizzling Sichuan-style flounder), 5 Spices House (mala anything, cumin lamb), Shojo (shadowless fries and the stupidly good stir-fried greens, of all things), China Gourmet, Great Taste Bakery, and New Shanghai. In my household, we treat Kaze, the shabu shabu joint on the corner of Essex and Harrison, less like a restaurant choice than a daily dining-mode option (“Hey, babe, you want delivery, Kaze, leftovers...?”). Once upon a time my go-to order was prime ribeye–meat bouillon–rice plus one à la carte supplement. Lately, I’ve been on a short-rib kick, plus a side of one of the homemade shrimp or fish pastes, which, when splatted down into the gurgling cauldron, immediately turn into dumpling-ish blobs that soak up the concentrated tallow-beaded broth in a super-satisfying way.

On date-night rotation: Bar Mezzana, Erbaluce, Terra, Cafe Sushi, the Butcher Shop, Branch Line, Grill 23. For impressing visiting foodies: Waypoint, Myers & Chang, O Ya, Uni, Little Donkey, Select Oyster Bar, Tiger Mama, Bisq, Saltie Girl. On delivery speed-dial: Cafe Jaffa (lamb-beef shawarma salad with house-made green zhoug!), Tiger Mama, Sweet Cheeks, Sumiao, Dumpling Cafe, Mamaleh’s, Little Donkey, Coppa, Pho Pasteur, Ruckus, Area Four.”

Eric Twardzik, contributor to The Food Lens, Boston.com, and more:

“I can’t get away from Chinatown. The wild flavors at Gene’s Flatbread continue to turn pedestrian weekday lunches into special events. (I stick to the hand-pulled noodles in spring and summer and slurp the house noodle soup all fall and winter long.) Gourmet Dumpling House and Shojo continue to be my go-to spots for group dinners or friend visits. This year I began spending more time at Dumpling Cafe (I found their soup dumplings to be slightly more manageable) and finally discovered the wonders of Wai Wai as well.

Outside of that neighborhood, I spent countless mornings at Tatte, where ever-new pastries and specials staved off potential breakfast fatigue. Select Oyster Bar was a favorite destination for date nights: I think I had their whole-roasted, “taverna style” sea bream on all but one visit. 13 years in, Toro continues to be amazing, and my girlfriend and I make a beeline for it when we’re hungry early enough to get in. And whenever I felt indulgent, I’d make it over to Drink for one of their near-perfect burgers and a Vesper.”

Marc Hurwitz, founder of Boston’s Hidden Restaurants and Boston Restaurant Talk, restaurant critic for Dig Boston, and more:

“As always, it’s tough to do repeat visits to dining and drinking spots when you’re trying to review so many places, but I did find myself going to Cagney’s in Quincy quite often (in part because they do whiskey flights and have chicken tenders smothered in cheddar cheese and bacon), and I also got to Santarpio’s in East Boston several times for their old-school pizza and Newbridge Cafe in Chelsea for their steak tips and absurdly huge steak fries/potato wedges. As for takeout, Qingdao Garden in Cambridge and the Restaurant in Woburn were a couple that I hit a number of times for their Chinese fare and Greek food, respectively.”

Oset Babur, co-founder of The Thirty-One Percent, food (and more) writer for a variety of publications, and digital strategist/editor/staff writer for Harvard Magazine:

“Pammy’s: If I had a restaurant, I’d want it to feel exactly like Pammy’s. In fact, I have to actively encourage myself to go get drinks and dinner at places that aren’t just Pammy’s. I’m working on it.

Cafe Sushi: Great sushi doesn’t have to be pretentious, and Cafe Sushi figured that out. Their lunch bento box is my favorite way to treat myself at the end of a particularly rough week — it’s a ton of fresh seafood, dumplings, and miso soup for less than $15.”

J.Q. Louise, blogger at http://jqlouise.com and food writer at the Boston Herald:

“Since opening a couple years ago, Pagu has become a go-to whenever I’m craving that blend of east and west. I said it in my book, Boston Food Crawls, and I’ll say it again, ‘If you have one meal to eat in Cambridge, it must be at Pagu.’ Sitting at the bar at No. 9 Park with a plate of steak frites is always a cozy way to spend a winter’s night. Gourmet Dumpling House is one of my absolute favorite places in town: Consistent, mouth-watering dishes are exactly why I head there after a long day. And finally, Carmelina’s belly-warming Italian cuisine truly soothes the soul any day of the week.”

Sam Hiersteiner, contributor to the Boston Globe and more:

“Brassica Kitchen & Cafe, Eventide Oyster Co., Waypoint, Alden & Harlow, Pammy’s, Commonwealth, Mamaleh’s, Smoke Shop BBQ, Little Big Diner, Chilacates, Sichuan Gourmet House, Woodman’s of Essex, Flour.”

Dana Hatic, associate editor of Eater Boston:

“Darwin’s Ltd., Saloniki, Longfellows/Lamplighter, Moona.”

Terrence B. Doyle, reporter for Eater Boston:

“I don’t want to see how much money I spent between Deep Ellum, Lone Star, Habanero, S&I Thai, and Coreanos in 2018. My appetite is happy to have so much good food in Allston; my bank account is not.”

Rachel Leah Blumenthal, editor of Eater Boston:

“Due to the nature of the job, I don’t end up having time/appetite/budget to turn too many full-service restaurants into standbys, so my list is casual and close to home. I joke that I find myself at Somerville’s Bow Market daily, and that’s not far from the truth: I spend a fair amount of mornings drinking tea, eating pastries (from Salem’s excellent A&J King!), and using wifi at Remnant Brewing; I’d happily eat ‘nada dogs at Buenas and pizza and roast beef sandwiches at Hot Box on a near-daily basis; and I’m currently writing this on a champagne hangover from Rebel Rebel, the amazing little wine bar I’ve visited the past two nights in a row.

Outside of Bow but still in Union Square, Capone Foods is probably my most frequent lunch choice for the sandwich of the day (hint: Tuesday is meatball day); I also get to Ebi for sushi as often as I can, and Casa B for cocktails.

Outside of Union Square, my heart belongs to Thai newcomer Dakzen. I get cravings for it every day and generally manage to get there a few times a month. I also make it to Yume Ga Arukara for udon whenever I’m willing to wait in the epic line. And I’ll throw in a shoutout for my go-to cheap pizza spot, too: Newtowne Grille.”

Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater

Udon at Yume Ga Arukara

[opepin]

august: week two

07: i took my time getting ready in the morning but i also woke up on time. kevin actually woke up at the same time as me :O i did a 30 minute cardio dance workout and then showered and ate breakfast. kevin got up and ate breakfast with me and then i left for work. we moved offices last week so now i am closer to south station. i checked in with security and they failed to let me know how to use these damn elevators at wework... so i got on the elevator, took me to the 2nd floor, and then i tried using the touchscreen pads to get to floor 8 to get my ID. i waited for like 10 minutes and no elevator came so i tried using the stairs and i basically got locked out because the stairs only led to an emergency exit. so then i slacked dave and he got me from the 3rd floor stairwell and sent me up the correct elevator...LOL x_x; i got my ID and then spent like 15 minutes downloading the wework app and putting in my information to get my card activated...

after all of that, i spent like 15 minutes finding the product team office @_@; lol i messaged cole and after finding out where the numbers on the doors were (tiny stickered numbered on the door latches), i found my way. then i spent a good amount of time setting up, plugging everything in, setting up my desk, and then cole stopped by and he gave me a small tour. i got to catch up a bit with the dev team, and then i hopped on my 11 am call. cole tried to get me for lunch but i was still on the call and i just ate lunch in the office. they went to south station for some reason... haha there is pretty much no good food there. :P i got on my 1 pm call and then went on stand up and got on to another call until 3:30 pm. so yeah... then i went upstairs the main floor and used the ‘honesty market’ and got some kinda overpriced unreal almond butter cups because i wanted a snack. then i worked while watching ‘love connection’ and ended my first work day at wework. i flipping hate the elevators right now. oh, i also had to go back and get office keys... the wework staff was off their game or something today. @_@;

i got home and snacked a bit before doing some ab hiit workouts lol. then i showered and bummed around until kevin got home. he came back from climbing and then he cooked a really late dinner. i ate leftovers from yesterday and ate a bit of dinner at like 9:30 pm...haha. i massaged my neck with the back massage pillow and i got really sleepy. i ended up sleeping sitting upright after eating because i didn’t want my stomach to hurt from just eating and then going to sleep xD kevin tried waking me up an hour later and then i think i slept for another hour before getting up and sleeping in bed at like 11:40 pm... i was so tired for some reason.

08: i got the best deep sleep i’ve ever gotten LOL, but my resting heart rate has increased again to 59?? idk, sometimes it skyrockets up when i change the band? but i don’t think that has anything to do with it? my heart rate for the past two weeks have been consistently in the low 50s. i even made it to a 49 resting heart rate at one point. hmm idk. i was well-rested but still physically tired so i did a low-impact workout in the morning. i took my time getting ready and eating breakfast. i found two holes in my bombas socks and decided to email them and ask how long their socks are supposed to last?? they’re all jacked up from my europe trip for some reason ;( i got to work at 9:30 am and then went straight to work while catching up with tv shows: love connection, masterchef, world of dance, and more love connection haha. it was a pretty dull day at work. i got to talk to charles for a bit though but he left after lunch since no dev was in the office today. i stayed at work until 6 pm to go to happy hour with the team at les zygomates after work.

we got an email saying that the room with the den is now available for us to look at. deco did us wrong when we told them we were interested at looking at it before and then they had someone sign the lease before notifying us? what? but, we’ll see if we move apartments to a bigger space ;D anyway, the product team walked over to the bar and we met up with everyone else. i got to talk to dave cowing and also, talked to dave about wine and etc. i got to talk with cait about traveling and jim kept making fun of me because i ended up holding the fries basket and i ate the rest of them in there haha. cait asked how old i was and i got everyone to guess. guesses ranged from 16 (LOL) to 26/27 but no one said 23. i think most of the boston team thought i was older than my age :P it was a lot of fun talking to everyone! i stayed until 7:40 pm or so and then went home. dave and joe kindly let me borrow a battery pack and mini usb cord so i could charge my dying phone on my way back home.

kevin finished eating when i got back so we ate blueberries for our dessert. then i rested a bit before doing butt exercises. my heart rate went up to 153 bpm :O i burned a lot more calories than usual today and i could tell i was going to be sore tomorrow... i showered and then ko’d on the bed with my glasses on... why is this a thing? i woke up an hour later and then brushed my teeth and went to sleep again. i’ve been so exhausted after working out these past few days? idk why. lol, like how did i sleep at 10 pm yesterday...?

09: i woke up at 8 am and then did weighted standing oblique exercises. i’m kinda bored with just my body weight right now so mind as well try to do exercises with these 2 lb weights i took from hillary a while ago hahaha. so appreciative of bae for letting me keep these. kevin also woke up pretty early and went for a run :O i showered and then ate breakfast and i just snacked so much throughout the day. is my period coming or something? lol. i just feel extra snack-y. i couldn’t bring myself to be really productive so i made goodie bags for the t7 boston office with the chocolates i got from my trip and made a nice guide to what they are with illustrator ;D kevin went to get a haircut and when he came back, we ate lunch, and then i went on stand up and right into another meeting, where i was just soooo confused. lol, phil asked me where i stood and i couldn’t lie so i told him i was just extremely confused about what they were talking about??? then phil went out for lunch and i took a break to watch some dota with kevin. oh, kevin wfh’d today too and he watched the tournament on the tv the entire day. hehe, reminds me of last summer~

then we went to view the apartment and right as they asked if we wanted it, kevin said ‘yes, probably.’ he was so excited, lololol. i was pretty full from snacking all day @_@; so i wasn’t concerned about dinner. i started reading my botm and then got myself into making the perler bead snorlax we got from the spelmuseum in stockholm. lol man, perler beads move around too much x_x; kevin tried ironing it, but he did it unevenly and i fixed it by spot heating the areas the best that i can. we did this all while watching dota. then i went to exercise and kevin irritated me by asking me questions while i was working out and also yelling at me for putting socks on his mouse pad? they were clean socks first of all .___. calm yo shizz dude. i showered and then hit the hay at like 11:45 pm. i went to sleep pretty irritated with kevin...

10: i did some hip hop cardio today so that motivated me to exercise this morning ;D then i showered and ate breakfast. i was out the door earlier than i expected and i filled my charlie card with money before hopping on the train, woot! i was very social today @_@; i stopped by the dev offices to give everyone their nordic chocolate goodie bags. i talked with the devs and michelle for a bit before getting to the office. dave wouldn’t be in until noon and joe always comes at random times. then i switched from contacts to glasses because i wanted to test my glasses out in my work environment. the switch was weird because my contacts are slightly less than my glasses (still have a good amount of contacts left). most of my team mates said they didn’t recognized me but really liked my frames :) cole said i looked intellectual and that they were super shiny. i got to work while watching masterchef and then joe came in and i talked with him a bit while working. then i had to figure out where to eat for lunch. it was tech time today so the devs got food from dumpling house -- i stopped by to see what everyone got.

i decided to check downstairs and see what restaurant was downstairs today. it was u&d kitchen (restaurant nearby the old office) and i got dumplings with pad thai. i ate lunch in the office and then tried working but my mouse was out of battery and i had to charge it. apple mice cannot be used while they are charging -_-’ so i did work very inefficiently. then i got started on my next assignment and got really confused about my deliverables and i got it cleared up during stand up. i showcased the work i just finished on stand up and then got off right at 2:30 pm. cole stopped by and we went to gracenote, a coffeeshop. i got their ginger chai latte with almond milk and cole was also interested in that and got it as well. we took our first sips without mixing it (LOL) and realized we needed to mix it in order for it not to taste like only milk. so we walked back to wework and then sat down in the kitchen and talked and drank our lattes -- they were good! i updated him on my trip and then cait and raj stopped by and we chatted with them along with joe.

i think like 40 minutes passed by and we went back to our offices. i felt all productivity leave my body and slacked cole the rest of the afternoon while trying to work on my project. at 3:30 pm, joe went to get smores from the 8th floor and cole messaged me to go up there. i didn’t want to eat one but peer pressure got to me (charles and cole tsk tsk) and i ate one. it was fun talking to cole and charles up there though. charles decided to leave afterward and cole went back to the office where steve was working very hard :( lol i walked in earlier and kind of joked that i was going to be john for the next few hours because john left already ...and he was on the phone with john... awks. he was still on the phone with john when we came back from eating smores. i went back and did some digging to figure out how to continue with my project and then it hit 5 pm. i stopped by and asked cole if he was ready to leave and then i went back and packed up and changed into my contacts.

we walked to cvs in south station because my lays flavor competition chips’ shipment got delayed >:( i wanted them now so i went to see if i could buy them at this cvs -- no luck. we walked to our sides of the tracks and then i got on a cart with no a/c...but i stood strong and got a seat and the train restarted and the a/c turned on again hehe. i got home and then continued talking to daniel about cross training / work out shoe recommendations. my fitbit needed a firmware update and missed reminding me to take 250 steps at 6 pm... at around 7:15 pm, i started working out and then kevin came back from climbing. i finished up my work out, showered, and kevin set up our spring roll dinner. lol he forgot to buy cucumber and also forgot to make the noodles so the rolls were pretty empty but i didn’t mind because i was full from the pad thai. then we cleaned up and i decided not to get any shoes... they’re too ugly or they don’t have enough support. x__x; kevin watched dota for the rest of the night and then gamed. 

then he tried to plan how we’re gonna move our stuff and where what furniture is going to be. i wasn’t 100% convinced about his placement choices but then he didn’t accept mine either and he got frustrated at me because of the way i was acting. i told him that it’s because he has a vision and i don’t want to interfere with it anymore :/ lol. he’s more excited about moving than i am ahha. then i did some surveys and we apologized to each other. i stayed on my phone doing random stuff before going to sleep at like 12 or 1 am... i had a 9 am meeting so i had my alarm set at 8:00 am to fit in my exercise session before the meeting.

11: lol i slept in and started my work out at 8:20 am. i was a bit rushed for time but the call went really well. i answered some questions and cleared things up. then i showered and realized there was nothing i could really eat for breakfast... so i decided to do my home errands first before heading to the office and also eat my spring rolls that were packed for lunch for brunch instead. i filled out the application for the new apartment and then contacted nike support about my roshes. it’s been less than a year and they have holes in it so last night, i learned that they have a 2 year warranty on them and you can file a claim and they inspect the shoe and refund you your money. so i contacted support to make sure that i could do this, and i could! they sent me a return label and everything. so after all of that, i had to go downstairs and troubleshoot the application. everything went through though so i packed up and headed over to the office.

dave was the only person i knew that was in the office today. he was on a call when i came in so i just went straight to work. i had a call with phil about my struggles and we figured it out together. i managed to complete half of the assignment and then moved on to the next only to bump into another problem, which dave helped me solve! i’m so grateful for my awesome supervisors T_T i got hungry at around 3 pm so i went downstairs to la colombe to see if they had any pastries; they didn’t so i walked to the nearby dunkin’ donuts and got their oatmeal, LOL. dave left at around 4 pm and i stayed behind to finish up my assignment. amazingly, i got it all done right before 5 pm and then i waited in the office for kevin to get to south station so that we could go to fogo de chao for restaurant week! lol, i had to rush to the station because kevin thought i was closer to south station than i really am... but no worries because i made it to the train (:

it felt like a really fancy restaurant but it is a buffet basically. kevin got food without me so i was mad at him for a bit but then food makes everything better so i forgot i was mad after getting cuts of meat. we basically tried all the meat except for lamb in 30 minutes LOL. their cheese bread balls are the best; kevin put some in his tupperware and took some home :x i only liked the prime sirloin. fogo de chao is alright... we got dessert and they were the thinnest slices of pie / cake ever. they were like a few cm thick... i went to the bathroom and when coming back, a waiter stepped on my shoes and left scuff marks on it... wtf? we left right after that. i am pretty upset about it. the experience was underwhelming and i’m probably never going to a fogo de chao ever again. anyway, we took the train to downtown crossing and walked to uniqlo to pick up my pants i ordered. i found white wide pants too and tried those on. i got the white pants for only $10 ;D then we took the train back in the humidity. we were saved by a/c though.

i picked up my thredup package and then opened it when i got into the apartment. i’m really liking the crop top i got and the madewell blouse. the eva longoria tank is made with a really interesting stretchy heavy material but i like it. the asos top is my cheapest find and will work on dressier occasions. i like that the fake necklace is removeable. i got a silk shirt for final sale and it could be worn as a night gown but it goes really well with my uniqlo black jersey pants. i love all of the pants i got at uniqlo. i’m most excited for these white pants though because i haven’t worn white pants in such a long time! i’m leaning more and more towards buying the jeffrey campbell doshi flat mules too because they would go with all these outfit ideas i’m thinking of! well, after i put away everything, i chilled for a while and then did back exercises and found an interesting ballet back video that hurt like crazy...

i did some internet errands and then did my best to clean my shoe. T_T some of the sole has been stepped off and the material is gone in that area... oh well? after that, i went straight to writing my fogo de chao review and left them a personal note to let their servers know to slow down and look at their surroundings when they’re moving around the space. i know that they have a job and have places to be, but i do too and as a customer, i don’t want to be constantly worried that someone is going to run into me with a skewer of hot meat, ya know? then i showered and kevin and i went to sleep at like 2 am or something ahaha. :P

12: i woke up with grody hair but today was a “rest” day. i was pretty inactive all day watching dota with kevin and also just online shopping like a mad woman. daniel hasn’t been helping me either because right now he’s a shopaholic and we’re just online shopping together basically LOL. well, after the end of liquid vs. lfy, kevin and i planned our meals for the week and went to kam man. we got another rice box from there as well as some yummy buns for breakfast tomorrow. then we came back just in time for the grand final, which was total crap btw. it was the first time in ti history that a team lost 3-0... newbee had 3 chances!!! lfnjksndkjgfjd. they were all pretty one-sided games, which is what made it crappy. then kevin went to play some dota, lol, and i did a 40 minute workout. my legs got real itchy after because i was a sitting blob all day... then i took a shower and washed my hair. i stayed up a bit browsing the web and stuff and then went to sleep at 1 am.

13: i got up at like 10:30 am but i woke up at like 9:30 am. then i made a list of what i needed to get done today. i ate a delicious scallion roll bun for breakfast (sweet and savory) and then started cleaning out my closet. lol, i realize that i don’t even have a lot of clothes here, but i still have items of clothing that i don’t wear often... i am going to try thredup’s clean out bag solution and i also got a donation bag for kevin’s clothes. i was thinking of selling it on ebay but it’s too much of a hassle to keep up with it; plus, buying shipping packages is a big hassle and printing out labels and etc. i’ve been there and done that. it did work well with my collectible toys though! anyway, i only took out a few items of clothing (4-6?) and i am going to put in my forever21 flats and maybe my black steve madden flats. we’ll see. after figuring out that and looking into donation organizations -- it’s so hard to figure out where your clothes are actually going and it’s so sad that some donations get thrown out, etc..., i did a 30 minute low-impact cardio workout, showered, and then kevin and i headed to bj’s to get more groceries and household stuff.

when we got back, we put everything away and then i read a bit and did my chores. i cleaned the kitchen, bathroom, and dusted everywhere. after that, kevin cooked some chinese broccoli and i ate the leftover tonkatsu and he ate two hot dogs. then i spent my evening finishing my book of the month... uhh, i didn’t like it when i first started reading it and i didn’t like it even more when i finished it. the description did not match the story at all and i one-starred it. i want to give this book away... we ate pork and noodle soup while watching agents of shield. i think kevin wants me to get into it so he can also remember what happened and catch up with it as well xD i agreed to watching more. after reading to digest dinner, i did ab workouts and my heart rate spiked and my abs hurt like crazy -- they’ve never hurt that bad in a while x__x; it felt good but it was a hard workout. then i showered and hit the hay at like 1 am... i messaged mindy for a bit and then went to sleep. i need to start sleeping earlier :(

[littlelilybigworld]

Beyond Words: Studying Abroad in a Place That Should Be Called Home

Before I left, I mentioned that the other American students and I would only be in Harbin for a little while longer before we left for Shanghai, and eventually the USA. For the next two days, Auntie and Uncle gave me breakfast for free, and on the day I left they gave me fresh dumplings and two hard boiled eggs to take with me to the airport. I’m still in contact with them; they ask me about America and when I’m going to come back to China…Original post here.

I was so excited to go back to where I was born. Maybe nervous was a better word, as I was adopted and brought over to the United States when I was 7 months old. Studying in China was going to be a new experience, filled with feelings of being welcomed into the Chinese culture that I had longed to be a part of for the past 19 years!

However, when I arrived in China for my 10 week summer semester, I felt far from welcomed or accepted in the way I expected. I watched Caucasian American and African American students get doted on by our ‘Chinese partners’, who were students we were paired up with at our Chinese university. In public, the locals asked me to take the photos of them with my fellow American students, and wanted to ask REAL American students about life in America!

I felt completely out of the loop, until I realized that this actually was acceptance. I was treated as though I was truly Chinese: no one gave me a second glance, storekeepers wouldn’t look up when I walked in, and people would come up to the street and ask me for directions as if I lived there. That was the first relief; but then I encountered a bigger issue: communication.

I was at the highest Mandarin level of all of the American students because I had been fortunate enough to go to a high school that offered a strong Chinese language program. However, one hour of class, Monday through Friday, can only teach you so much…

Being Asian, many storekeepers and security guards would speak Chinese to me, and then expect me to translate to my American counterparts. At first, it was terrifying. I would be mortified every time I would have to reply in Chinese with “I don’t know” or “I’m sorry, I’m adopted — I’m American.” But I quickly realized that this is why I opted for study abroad in the first place; I wanted to learn the language that was ripped away from me as an infant. In class, I talked a lot because that’s what MSU-James Madison-Social Justice kids do.

It was when other international students invited me out to eat that I would begin to lose confidence.

The first day I entered Chinese language class I met fifteen international students from all over the world (from Spain to Mongolia). I managed to do fine in class, and was thrilled when the international students invited me out to eat with them afterwards. I soon understood that Chinese was the common language used for social interaction on campus. I could recite dialogues out of the textbooks like a pro, but when it came to talking about “What’s life like in America?”, “Does everyone eat fried Snickers?”, or “Tell us about yourself!” I got tongue-tied and stuttered. It was easy for the teachers to understand us — they were used to a variety of international accents. International students were not used to each other’s accents.

The other students had no idea what I was saying, and I was trying my hardest to get my points across in a language I was barely competent in. On the flip side, other international students would speak Chinese with a Korean or Spanish accent; it would take me about thirty seconds to figure out what they had just said in Chinese, and then another thirty to translate it into English.

As my study abroad trip went on, I slowly realized an extremely important culture point: English is actually known worldwide. At my school, teachers taught us it was “普通语” (Pǔtōng yǔ), or the “standard language [of the world]”. I’m a huge proponent of “understand your privilege!” but not once did I ever think that language could be a privilege.

One day, a 6’3” Korean kid named Hemu who intimidated me mightily, walked up and said “Hello, how are you?” in English. Speaking English was banned in the classroom, and I was so startled that I forgot to be nervous and replied, “I’m alright, and why are YOU speaking English?”

One of his friends explained that Hemu was going to move to Canada soon and he wanted to practice his English. Hemu asked me to dinner and said he’d pay; how could I turn down free food and a conversation in a comfortable language?

It turns out that using Chinese to teach English is actually quite difficult. The dinner was great, but consisted mostly of us using Pleco (a widely known Chinese-English dictionary app) and his Korean-Chinese-English dictionary app to learn new words and explain articles of speech (which don’t exist in Chinese). Hemu turned out to be one of the most enthusiastic people I have ever met, as well as caring and funny. As we walked back to my dorm, he asked if I could translate his Korean name into English and I told him sure. I looked down at my screen for a second before smiling: “Harmony. Your name means ‘Harmony’.” I explained that it was considered a feminine name, but I still thought it was a great name for him. Harmony is in Canada now, and we’re still in touch. Sometimes he asks me to help him with his English homework.

Students weren’t the only people I had to speak to in the language I was actually studying. At the cafeteria, all of the workers spoke only Chinese. On the first morning of classes there were only two food stations open at the cafeteria. One looked like you had to tell the man what ingredients you wanted in the breakfast burrito, the other had fresh egg pies sitting out. That meant that we would be able to get served by gesturing, so day one started out great by pointing at what my friends and I thought looked decent. A middle-aged couple was working the station, and they smiled and tried to speak to us; we replied with nods and smiles, and with not a clue to what they were saying.

I went back for breakfast every day after that. Sometimes I went with others, but mostly by myself. I’m an early bird, and the rest of the American students weren’t willing to get up any time before 7:50 AM for our 8:00 AM classes. I was in Harbin for eight weeks, and for seven of those weeks, my only communication with 阿姨 (auntie) and 叔叔 (uncle) were “Two, please” and “Thank you.”

Three days before I left, I wrote them a note.

It was so much easier (and less scary) to write in Chinese and check for mistakes than to speak and be caught off guard when they tried to ask me questions. I wrote a thank you letter, saying that I know I didn’t say much, but I appreciated them a lot and considered them my first friends at my Chinese university. I gave it to them the next morning before leaving for class. When I checked my phone during break, I found that Uncle from the breakfast place had added me on WeChat (a combination of texting and Facebook that is widely used in China). He texted me to come get dinner later, so I did.

Miscommunication struck me down again!

I bought dinner because I thought he said to come visit for dinner, but I later realized that the text had said we’ll make you dinner. And they did. They put the special breakfast mix that was usually in the egg pies (scrambled eggs, leeks, and bok choy) into dumplings, and gave them to me for free. I decided that if they could take the time to make me a special dinner, I could take the time to ask them about their lives, despite the fact I was pretty sure they couldn’t understand me. However, we talked for awhile and I found out how they worked from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM every single day, and all about their two children who were now adults. I found out how much they loved to cook and how much they loved watching college students grow up and graduate. I found out that they weren’t so different from the adults in my life.

Before I left, I mentioned that the other American students and I would only be in Harbin for a little while longer before we left for Shanghai, and eventually the USA. For the next two days, Auntie and Uncle gave me breakfast for free, and on the day I left they gave me fresh dumplings and two hard boiled eggs to take with me to the airport. I’m still in contact with them; they ask me about America and when I’m going to come back to China…

The language barrier is huge on study abroad trips. It’s scary to speak to a native speaker. Trying to pay for things at the grocery store in China gave me a new perspective on what it must be like for non-native English speakers when they try to navigate America.

Being surrounded by a language that you are not confident in is absolutely terrifying, but if you push yourself through the language barrier, you’ll find that we’re all human. People understand emotion, they understand smiles — and embarrassed laughs. Communication and empathy bypass language and culture and personal histories, because we’re all just trying to fit into a community that is bigger than ourselves.

[modayzapatos-blog]

Travel Guide: Weekend on Catalina Island

First trip of 2017 under my belt and now I have wanderlust like whoah! Who am I kidding, I always have wanderlust. If you followed our trip on IG then you know we did ALL. THE. THINGS. As one person commented "you pretty much did everything but ride a bison!" which btw, you can't do! If you are interested in planning a trip to Catalina then you are in the right place. So happy to bring back my travel guides and this is probably the most comprehensive because, well, you'll see:

Last weekend was actually my 4th time visiting Catalina, however, this was my first time staying for a few days as an adult. It's truly the perfect weekend getaway, especially for those of you that live in LA. Can you believe it's only an hour boat ride away? Avalon is about 2.9 square miles; the community is very intimate but it has so much to offer in terms of food, activities, and fun. As long as you are staying somewhere near the main drag, Crescent Ave., you will have access to everything! It's all walking distance.  So how did we spend our 3 days in Catalina?

Day 1 Andy and I took the early boat out of San Pedro on my birthday (btw, the Catalina express is free on your birthday!) and arrived in Avalon around 10:15am. I was honestly so happy that the waters were calm because when I visited in high school almost my entire class got sick on the boat! Once we got there we checked our bags at the Aurora Hotel which to me is like a little modern B&B. We instantly became bff's with the front desk staff who were beyond helpful in giving us suggestions and tips for navigating the island. 

After we got settled we picked up a golf cart to explore the island. I really suggest doing this on day one so you have a grasp of how big yet small the island really is. It's built pretty far back in the mountains but it's mostly residents, a few hotels, and a golf course. A 2 hour rental is really all you need to get a lay of the land.  

For my birthday dinner we dined at Bluewater Grill which was sooo delicious. Andy is obsessed with crab cakes and we decided that Bluewater has the best crab cake we've ever tried. I got the prawn pasta which was very yummy; the portions are huge, so I got to take some home for a midday snack the next day.

Speaking of birthdays, aside from getting a free ride on Catalina Express everyone on the island treats you like a princess. There's a ton of great promos like free ice cream that make it such a special day!

Day 2

The island is pretty sleepy (at least it is in the winter time), so we ended up going to bed pretty early and getting up early to explore more. We grabbed a coffee and walked the via Casino; a beautiful beachside path that leads to Descanso beach. 

Descanso Beach Club is the sh**t - the weather wasn't so much in our favor last weekend but the two day trips I've taken to Catalina have all been to go lay on the beach at Descanso Beach Club. Think of it like any beach club: lounge chairs, cabanas, drinks, and good food. If you're going in the summer definitely reserve a chair or cabana ahead of time! 

After a little exploration we did the Taste of Catalina Food Tour which was incredible. I highly suggest the tour if you like food (everyone!) and are interested in learning more about the island. We went to 6 different restaurants and cafes and tried the best things on their menu (I'll list them at the end). We also got a serious history lesson on Catalina  - did you know Marilyn Monroe lived there before she was MM? 

I was really hoping to get some beach time, but since it was pretty chilly we decided to check out the Island Spa Catalina which feels like a tranquil Spanish paradise. The spa was the perfection solution to my "I just want to be in a bikini" because they have a pool and jacuzzi. A few glasses of champs and a steam room later... I was one happy girl. 

You'd think we couldn't eat anymore after our food tour but Luau Larry's was calling our name. I'd heard from many people that it was a fun spot to grab a drink and dinner and it didn't disappoint. The crowd was lively, music hopping, and the tiki drinks were DELICIOUS. Andy ended up moon walking for some older ladies at some point - it was hilarious! And that wasn't the craziest part. Our server was the SAME server from Bluewater Grill the night before. Yup, how nuts? That's how small of a town it is!

Day 3

I woke up Sunday feeling like I could stay in Catalina forever. Like any vacay, the only decisions to make are "what should we eat?" and "where should we play? " but there's also something about the island that's so peaceful. The only way I can describe it is simple. Life just seems simple there and in the most positive way. 

Anywho, on Sunday we were scheduled to go parasailing but it was pretty rainy and cold, so Andy and I chickened out. Instead we walked down Crescent Ave. to check out the little stores and boutiques. We found ourselves at the Catalina Museum which is a beautiful building with so much history inside. They've laid out the history of the island in really cool visual timeline that brings it to life. Honestly, from the museum and the food tour I now feel like a Catalina expert! 

To round out our trip, we joined a bunch of football goers to watch the Superbowl at a local bar. Followed by a 1 hour trip back to reality on the Catalina Express! {eats} Bluewater Grill - delicious seafood spot on the water. I would definitely consider it the fanciest eatery in town but keep in mind everything there has a very casual, island vibe. Get the clam chowder and crab cakes.  Mr. Ning's Chinese Garden - potentially the only Chinese food on the island and it's delicious. Get the crab and cream cheese dumpling. Maggie's Blue Rose - bomb margaritas and mexican food! Even though we just had a teaser of this on our food tour, I am craving it like no other. Get the coconut margarita and chicken quesadilla.  The Lobster Trap - yummy seafood lunch spot. They have some exclusive beers on tap that you can't get anywhere else and an awesome seafood selection. Get the yellowtail!  Luau Larry's - tiki bar vibes. All around fun place to get a little tipsy (or more)!  {play}

Descanso Beach Club  - beach day the fancy way! If the weather is nice, definitely plan to spend an afternoon a whole day vegging out at the beach club.

Island Spa - beautiful and peaceful spa. Definitely hit the spa up if you're there with your significant other. Ask about half day deals! 

Catalina Island Museum - super informational about the history of Catalina. It really provides perspective on the island that you can't get anywhere else. Also a great "rainy day" activity! 

Golf Cart Rental - it's a no brainer! The perfect and only way to fully explore the island. 

We had the most amazing time and now I'm dying to go back when the weather warms up a bit! I have a Catalina photo diary and some more info coming next week! Stay tuned. 

Wanderlust got your brain? Check out more of my travel guides: 

LA Westside | Eastern Caribbean Cruise | Weekend in Chicago | Big Sur | New Orleans 

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