#2. still unclear on what kind of shirt he's wearing but that should be fine because it's covered by the poncho

[help-me-or-kelp-me]

WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME NEROSENSEI POSTED A REF SHEET FOR STARLO

[fruitquake]

realizations pt. 1

read it on ao3

James Potter knows he likes girls. In his mind, that has always meant he must be straight. Of course he’s straight. Whenever he sits next to Lily Evans in class, his heart flutters and he gets all useless and flustered. He has kissed girls before, and liked it.

But then, Regulus kissed him, and he’s pretty sure a straight guy wouldn’t have liked it as much as he did. He’s pretty sure a straight guy wouldn’t be up all night, replaying it in his head, a hopeless burning sensation is his chest.

Regulus kissed him. Or did he kiss Regulus? He’s a little fuzzy on those details. But crystal clear is Reg’s lips on his own, the feeling of being featherlight as everything else faded into the background, leaving only him and Regulus.

James sighs, pressing both hands against his eyes until he sees stars, and once again, Regulus is there, a crystal clear image of soft lips and silky black hair that James messed up with his hands as they kissed. Just as he isn’t sure who initiated the kiss, it’s also a bit unclear to him who broke it off. Only that he had been absolutely speechless, staring into Regulus’s eyes for a hint that he had felt what James had felt during that kiss. Then Regulus had muttered some obvious excuse about a curfew and he had been off, leaving James with a warm, confusing feeling bubbling in his stomach.

Regulus is practically family to James. When Sirius ran away from home, Regulus stayed, and for over a year they didn’t talk. Reg avoided him at school. James remembers how hard that was on Sirius. But now, things are good between them. Reg comes over almost every day, without his parents knowing. He’s almost as much a part of the family as Sirius.

It hadn’t occurred to James, before today, that the way he feels about Regulus, the soft affection that makes his cheeks warm, could be anything other than platonic. But that bloody kiss...

James slides out of bed and gets dressed, careful not to wake Sirius, who sleeps in the top bunk. There’s one place he goes when he needs to clear his head. He tiptoes over to the window and opens it as quietly as he possibly can, glancing over his shoulder to check that Sirius is still asleep. He seems to be, so James slides out of the window and onto the roof. He sits down, careful not to step on the loose shingle. His mum doesn’t want him or Sirius to go onto the roof, of fear that they will fall down, but they do it anyway, because there really is no better place to just… sit and be. He looks down onto the street below him, the streetlights the only thing shining through the night. A cool breeze caresses his face, tugs at a rogue strand of hair. James closes his eyes.

There’s no way he isn’t straight. He has spent years watching Sirius and Remus pine after each other like idiots, and the past six months watching them be all gross and lovebird-y. And if he is… anything other than straight, wouldn’t he have realized sooner? He remembers asking Sirius, after his coming out, when he realized he was gay. Sirius had told him that, in a way, he had always known, but he had fully realized it by the time he was 12. For Remus, it was when he was 14, and similarly to Sirius, he had sort of half-known for years before that.

James had never questioned his sexuality before. Surely if he wasn’t straight, the thought would have occurred to him sooner, and not just after kissing a boy. A very, very pretty boy with very soft, kissable lips, who hadn’t left James’s mind ever since.

He sighs, leaning back his head and looking up at the sky, as though some God, if there really is one, is going to come down and give him all the answers.

“Oi.”

James starts and looks over his shoulder. Sirius is leaning against the window sill, squinting up at him. He’s wearing boxers and one of Remus’s t-shirts, which is slightly baggy on him.

“Oh,” James says, his voice a little hoarse. “I didn’t hear you get up.”

“What kind of 2 AM crisis are you having up here, and why didn’t you invite me?” Sirius asks.

James huffs a nervous laugh. “I…” he begins, but trails off, not knowing where to even start.

Sirius heaves himself up, crawling through the window and out onto the roof besides James, and James can’t help but worry that he will catch a cold, sitting out here with bare arms and legs. “Come on, spill the beans, Potter,” Sirius says, nudging their shoulders together.

“Sirius…” James looks down at his hands, nervously fidgeting. “You always say that your gaydar is flawless.”

“Uh-huh,” Sirius says. “And I have yet to be proven wrong on that.”

“Well, d’you think… could I be… anything other than straight?” He’s too nervous to look at Sirius, so he keeps his eyes on his own hands.

“Oh. It’s that kind of crisis,” Sirius says. James’s eyes dart up to meet Sirius’s. He’s leaning back a little, looking at James with thoughtful consideration. “I mean…” he begins. “I’d be lying if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind.”

James blinks, a little perplexed. “Really?” He had expected Sirius to laugh and tell him how ridiculous that was. That James was the straightest person he knew.

“Yeah,” Sirius just says, tilting his head back to look at the sky. It’s cloudy. Almost no stars. “I mean, I’ve caught you staring weirdly at guys several times. And you always used to get flustered around the older teammates when you first joined the football team.”

“Well,” James says hurriedly. “That was because, you know… They were older and so much more experienced and…” Really fucking handsome. He sighs, dropping his face into his hands. “I’m honestly so confused.”

“What exactly sparked this sudden confusion?” Sirius asks. “You’ve always seemed rather confident in your supposed heterosexuality.”

James pushes up his glasses, which had been falling down the bridge of his nose. He hesitates, carefully watching Sirius. When it comes to his brother, Sirius is incredibly protective, and James isn’t entirely convinced he won’t get pushed off the roof for telling the truth.

“I kissed Regulus,” he says finally, deciding that Sirius probably won’t push him off the roof.

A beat. “What?”

James swallows nervously. “I… kissed your brother. Or maybe he kissed me. A kiss happened, between me and your brother.” He watches Sirius for several agonizing seconds. “Please, don’t be mad.”

“I’m not… mad,” Sirius says. “If you were anyone else, I probably would be grabbing you by your shirt collar and threatening your life right now, but… You’re James Potter. I’d trust you with my bloody life.”

James releases a breath of relief. “Right,” he mutters. “Thank you, Sirius.”

There’s a stretch of silence between them, which Sirius is the one to break. “So… you kissed Reg,” he reiterates. “And you liked it?”

The kiss forces its way back into James’s mind, and he lets out a strange sound between a sigh and a groan. “I… think so,” he says. “I mean, whenever I think about it, I get this warm, bubbly, incredible feeling in my chest, and… Well, I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Sirius grins, shaking his head in amusement. “Yeah,” he says. “Doesn’t sound very straight to me.”

Well, yeah. James knows he’s right, but he can’t quite wrap his head around it.

“It’s just,” he says quietly. “I definitely like girls. I’ve always known I like girls. I mean, for goodness’s sake, I’ve been crushing on Lily for years.”

“Yes.” Sirius nods. “But that doesn’t automatically make you straight, J. You can like girls and guys, you know.”

“I know…”

Sirius covers his mouth, stifling a yawn. “I think you should talk to Re about this,” he says. “I mean, he’s the expert, really. Like… A Bisexual Messiah or something.”

That earns him a laugh from James. “Yeah, he is, isn’t he? You’re right. I’ll… talk to him tomorrow, probably.”

“Lovely,” Sirius says. “Can we please go back inside now? I’m freezing my bloody ass off.”

“You could’ve put on some trousers and a jumper, you moron!” James scolds him, and Sirius shoves him gently.

-

“Babe,” Sirius says over lunch the next day, taking Remus’s hand in his own. They share a disgustingly sweet look. “I think James had something he wanted to talk to you about.”

Remus looks at him, chewing a bit of his sandwich. He swallows. “Oh?”

“Er...” James looks around the crowded school cafeteria. “Can we talk somewhere more private, maybe?”

Peter looks up from his lunch. “What’s it about?” he asks James.

“Nothing,” James says, a bit too fast. “There’s just something I wanted to ask Re. It’s nothing interesting, don’t worry, Pete.”

“Then why do you need to go somewhere private?” Peter presses on.

Sirius opens a canned soda, looking around to check that no teachers are close by. Every day at lunch, he plays the same game of “Can I drink my soda before a teacher confiscates it?” Most days he’s not quick enough to actually finish it, but it doesn’t stop him from trying. “Damn, Petey,” he says. “Maybe it’s none of your fucking business. Shut up and eat.”

If someone else talked to Peter like that, they would probably end up with Sirius’s fist in their face, but apparently, it’s fine when Sirius does it himself.

Remus takes another bite of his sandwich, before putting it down. “Well,” he says to James. “We can go find an empty classroom if you’d like.” He looks intrigued, and James guesses Sirius hasn’t told him anything yet.

“Yeah, that’d be great,” James says, suddenly feeling a bit nervous. It was one thing, telling Sirius last night. He has always told Sirius everything, and there’s something about that spot on the roof that makes late-night talks feel… almost sacred. Telling Remus will be a bit more daunting. But he follows Remus out of the cafeteria and into an empty classroom, anyway.

“So,” Remus says, shutting the door behind them. “What did you wanna talk about?”

James realizes he probably should’ve thought this through beforehand. He has no clue what to say. “Well,” he begins awkwardly. “You’re bi.”

For a few long seconds, Remus just looks at him, confused. “Yes?” he says. “I… know?”

James sighs, leaning back against the teacher’s desk. He combs a hand through his hair, messing it up at the back. “Yeah, it’s just that, er… I think I might be bi, too?” He looks up for Remus’s reaction.

“Oh!” Remus says. “But you aren’t sure, or…?”

“I don’t know,” James mumbles. “I’m bloody confused. And Siri said I should talk to you because you’re like… The Bisexual Messiah. I think that’s how he phrased it.”

Remus grins. “The Bisexual Messiah? Huh. I should get that on a t-shirt.” James must look quite miserable, because Remus clears his throat, looking a bit more serious. “So you’re questioning if you might be bi?” he asks softly.

James nods. “I kissed… someone,” he says. “A guy. It was Reg, actually.”

Remus arches an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything, so James goes on:

“And it felt really, really good. I practically haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. But I’ve just always thought of myself as, you know, completely straight. But, well, as Sirius pointed out to me yesterday, there’s not really anything straight about the way I felt when I kissed him.” He bites his lip, looking up at Remus.

“Right,” Remus says thoughtfully. “What exactly did you need me for? Sounds like you’ve got it figured out alright.”

“I have?” James asks in bewilderment.

Remus chuckles. “Okay, maybe not, then,” he says. “I just meant, you know… You’ve known for a long while that you liked girls. And now, after kissing Reg, you’ve realized that you like guys too, right?”

Does he like guys? James lets his mind wander, filtering through memories he didn’t realize he had archived. A gym locker room, all of them sweaty after football practice. One of the older students, shirtless, slinging an arm around James and telling him he played well, and James getting light-headed and flustered. He had told himself it just felt good to be acknowledged by an older, more skillful teammate, but looking back on it, it was possible that some of the heat rushing to his cheeks had been because of their bare skin touching. And then there were the dreams, which he had dismissed as not meaning anything, but… Perhaps dreaming about kissing boys did mean something.

“Huh,” he says finally. “I’m… lowkey stupid.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I’ve somehow managed to ignore loads of signs that I wasn’t straight. And I didn’t even realize it before now!”

Remus’s face softens. “Jem, that’s… completely normal. I think a lot of queer people at some point look back and wonder how they didn’t realize sooner. I certainly did.”

“Oh.” James laughs breathily. “Well… Shit. This is interesting.”

Remus laughs with him. “You know,” he says. “You can take as much time as you need to figure all of this out. And if you have any more questions, I’m here.”

“Thank you, Re,” he says. “But… I don’t think it’s necessary.”

“Oh, okay.”

James lets the silence stretch for a moment. His palms are sweating a little, and he wipes them on his trousers. “So, er… Can I tell you something?”

Remus smiles a little. “Yeah.”

“I’m bisexual,” James tells him, and… wow. Saying it out loud feels incredible, like a weight he didn’t know he was carrying being lifted off his shoulders. He grins.

Remus nods, grinning back at him. “That’s great, James, thank you for telling me!” Then, after a short pause: “Have you talked to Regulus?”

The mention of him brings the memory of the kiss back in full effect, and James can feel his cheeks heat up. He’s grateful that his darker skin makes it almost impossible to tell when he’s blushing, though he guesses Remus still senses it. “Not since he practically fled yesterday, after we… you know.”

“Ah,” Remus says. “Well… Maybe you should. Talk to him, I mean.”

James sighs, ruffling his hair with one hand. “Yeah,” he mumbles. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“I usually am,” Remus says with a grin. “That reminds me, Siri owes me ten pounds.”

“What? You and Sirius had a bet running on my sexuality?” James asks, slightly indignant, but more curious than anything.

Remus shrugs. “Well, no. We had a bet running on whether you would realize before we graduated. And you did!” He throws his hands up in a little gesture of victory, and James groans.

“You’re the worst,” he says. “You’re both the bloody worst.”

[xofanfics]

Swipe Right - Part 5

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Genre: angst, fluff, smut

Pairing: Hansol x Reader

Word Count: 2.6k

Summary: You’re bored, swiping on Tinder and you happen to find one of your classmates on the app.

You hadn’t heard from Hansol since that day. You didn’t expect to and you should’ve been able to move on since he’d fucked you over, but you found yourself thinking of him more often than you should. Why were you still thinking about him when two weeks had passed already? You were sure that you were the last person on his mind. He was probably seeing other people in the meantime, since things didn’t work out with you. You were sure he had a few girls on the back burner, to bring out when it was convenient for him, to bring out to play a game that only he could prevail as a winner.

But Hansol was a thing of the past. He texted you once and you left him on read. Since then, he didn’t text you and you didn’t text him. You deserved better than to be chasing after some entitled man who clearly wanted to have a roster of women to pick and choose from when he felt like it. He was no different from any of the other guys out there, which sucked because you thought you clicked. You thought things would go somewhere, that you could at least be friends. But even that was out of the question. 

Things with Alex were going okay. And you went on that date he planned. He picked you up, a single rose in his hand, before whisking you off to a dessert bar. The two of you split a cake sampler platter and had some spiked cider. You talked about any and everything. You enjoyed his company but you still felt like there was something missing that you couldn’t put your finger on. Alex was a good looking guy and he was nice to you, not to mention the fact that he was so thoughtful to plan such a cute dessert date. 

Your friends were happy for you, happy that you met someone like Alex, happy that you didn’t try to get back with Hansol. As a friend, you understood. The last thing you wanted, as a friend, was for any of your friends to end up with a guy that treated them like shit. The last thing you wanted was for any of the girls you cared about to be led on and played around with by a man who had unclear intentions. It wasn’t fair.

“Y/N, isn’t that event soon?” called Cam from the kitchen. A moment later, she appeared in your doorway. 

“Yeah,” you said, “I was just deciding which shirt to wear.” You pointed to the shirts on the bed, one dark red and the other navy. 

“Go with red,” she said, winking. “You look cute in red.”

*

As you approached your senior year, you couldn’t help but feel behind. Everyone had jobs, internships, and just seemed to have their shit together overall. You decided that you wanted to get an internship over the summer. And a couple industry leaders from well known companies were coming to speak at an event at your school. If there was any advice they could give, you’d take it. You figured that you could use as much help as you could get at this point.

You expected the event to be pretty small, since most people didn’t seem to care about campus events. But, as you got inside the hall, you realized that today that that was totally not the case. The space was starting to get a bit crowded. Luckily, you grabbed a seat in the middle row.

Your phone vibrated in your pocket.

Alex [1:51PM] : What time is the event over? Are you busy later?

Y/N [1:51PM] : It’ll be over at 3. I’m going to dinner with my friends later.

Alex [1:56PM] : When are you going to let me make you dinner?

You smiled at the message. It was nice to be courted like this. And for once, a man told you what his intention was from the beginning. It was comforting. You weren’t sure if you and Alex would date for real but at least knowing his intentions with you was good enough for you. You were excited by the idea of having a man like Alex as your boyfriend.

You felt like you were being watched. Someone’s eyes were on you. You looked over your left shoulder to look behind you. In that short span of time the room was filled, people standing in the back of the room as all the seats were taken. And when you looked to your right, your eyes met with the very man you’d been trying your hardest to avoid. 

You let out a sigh. “Why here, Hansol?”

He cleared his throat, nervous. “There’s nowhere else to sit.” 

He hadn’t planned to see you here, to be honest. He hadn’t assumed that the two of you would ever be in the same room, breathing the same air, again. He knew that after that last conversation he had with you, that his chances of reconciling with you were very low. And when he saw you sitting here, he couldn’t help himself. He made an impulsive decision to sit next to you, unsure of how it would all turn out. Like last time, it could go left or it could go right. He doubted he could make things worse than they already were so he figured, “Why not?”

You rolled your eyes and didn’t say anything else. You weren’t going to let him ruin the event for you before it started, so you didn’t entertain him with another reply. You let the event roll out, taking notes where you could. From your peripheral vision, you saw Hansol typing too. But to your dismay, your phone vibrated with a text from him; you hadn’t blocked him and now you were wondering if maybe you should’ve. 

Hansol [4:36PM] : Can we talk?

Y/N [4:36PM] : We have nothing to talk about, Hansol.

Hansol [4:36PM] : I just need two minutes, Y/N

Hansol [4:37PM] : Please

Hansol [4:37PM] : I know I don’t always say or do the right things but I really want to talk to you properly, if you’ll let me

“Fine. We can talk by the garden out back.”

Hansol’s heart skipped a beat. He assumed you’d say no and that you wouldn’t want to talk to him but, with this interaction, there seemed to be a small sliver of hope left for him. You got up, passing in front of him. And he followed behind you, past the people standing and out of the door. Hansol walked behind you in silence and you didn’t open your mouth to say anything to him either. He didn’t blame you. After all, he was the one that wanted to talk to you.

You sat down at an empty table in the garden. It was quiet here. This was one of the most peaceful places to hang out on campus. You liked to come here on sunny days. Today was sunny despite the cool fall air blowing through campus. The table was covered in fall leaves, shades of orange, red and brown. Hansol brushed the leaves off of the chairs so that you could sit. 

“Thanks,” you mumbled, sitting down across from him. A few seconds past, as Hansol tried to figure out where he should even begin. “So...what is it that you wanted to say?”

He said, “I’m selfish. Everything that’s happened between us is because I was selfish. I know—”

“You’re pissed because I’m seeing Alex, right?” You let out a laugh, leaning back in the chair and crossing your arms over your chest. “You men are so ridiculous, you know that? It’s like you can do whatever you want with little to no consequences. But the second a woman does what she wants, it’s suddenly unfair. You know, it’s fucking nice to have someone who’s interested in me for more than just sex...”

“Y/N…that’s not all I want from you. Believe me, it’s not. It never was. I know that might be a little hard to believe since things started out with us hooking up...but I felt a connection with you right away and I still do. I know we never talked about where we stand or what we’re even doing and I know I don’t have the right to even feel the way I do. I saw you with Alex and, at the time, I was jealous. I just knew that I didn’t want you to be with him and I guess I got a little carried away.”

You felt so frustrated. You didn’t know if you could believe his words. Things just didn’t make any sense anymore. Things were just so complicated. Feelings were just so...complicated. You were so frustrated that you didn’t even realize you were tearing up. Upon seeing the tears building up in your eyes, Hansol reached across the table to take your hand in his. To his surprise, you didn’t snatch your hand away from him. To his surprise, you actually let him hold your hand. His hand felt warm--no, perfect–on top of yours. He couldn’t stand to be the reason you were crying. “Don’t cry, Y/N. Please don’t cry…”

Even though you refused to look at him, he decided that now seemed like a good time to confess. Plus, if he didn’t do it now he wasn’t sure if he could get the words out later on. “I know I’m an idiot and I hurt you and I suck at communication…” You nodded. “I like you, Y/N...and I was too stupid to realize it sooner.”

At that moment, you looked up at him. You were completely confused and you didn’t know if you could trust his words right now. You were vulnerable and tearing up outside of the campus center. A few people had walked by as you and Hansol spoke and you were sure some of them might’ve noticed your swollen eyes. 

How could you believe him right now, after everything?

“Liar,” you said, wiping your tears. You said this with no emotion on your face. Hansol couldn’t read you. He didn’t know what kind of reaction to expect from you but it wasn’t this. He was prepared for all sorts of reactions but what he didn’t expect is for you to call him a liar. 

Hansol blinked. “I’m not lying to you. I do like you.”

“If you like me, why would you ignore me for days?”

He sighed. Maybe it was time for him to be vulnerable. Maybe it was time for him to be honest, not only to you but to himself as well. Maybe it was time to say all the things he could never bring himself to say out loud before. Being genuine was more important than his ego, he decided. He needed to tell you. If he didn’t tell you everything, he might lose you for good.

His breathing became unsteady. If he was standing, he felt like he’d collapse. And soon enough, he blinked away tears of his own “I’m scared, Y/N. Maybe it’s stupid but I’m scared. Liking someone opens the door for heartbreak. My ex hurt me in the worst way possible and I know you’re not her but I’m scared, Y/N. I’m scared that you don’t like me back. I’m scared that I’ll have to watch you date someone else. I’m scared that in a couple weeks, we’ll be like strangers...” He continued. “I want to take you out to a nice restaurant to get Italian food because you said it’s your favorite. I want to pick you up from class with a single rose because you said you’d rather have one instead of a bunch. I want you to sleep over at my place and try to make you breakfast in bed even though I’m not good at cooking. I want so much more than just sex from you.”

You blinked away another tear. Hearing this made your heart ache for him. But, for some reason, you still couldn’t find words. Wasn’t this what you wanted to hear? Wasn’t this what you’d been hoping for for the past two weeks?

Hansol felt rejected as you pulled away from him, taking a deep breath. “I know it’s over but I thought that I could at least tell you that…'' He stood up from his chair. It was over. He failed, again. “Thank you for letting me talk...and, um, take care.” 

As he turned his back to you, prepared to never see you again, you reached across the table to grab his hand, “Wait.” You stood up, never letting his hand go. “Don’t go…”

Hansol turned around, a bit confused at you rejecting him and then suddenly embracing him again. 

You blinked away another tear, your heart aching for him. “I like you, too…”

Hansol’s lips parted. These were the words he wanted to hear but didn’t expect. On his walk over, he thought of all the bad things that could come from this conversation. He expected you to reject him, to send him away with a scowl. But things took a turn for the better, he could see. All he needed to do was allow himself to be vulnerable and to open up, letting you read him like a book, letting you turn the pages and deciding what to do with the information you found.

He leaned in to kiss you and you let him. You kissed him back because your heart was pounding so hard in your chest and might’ve burst if you didn’t. You kissed him back because you’d nearly forgotten what his lips felt like, what his mouth tasted like, and how it just seemed so perfect. He pulled away and held your face in his hands. 

“I like you,” he said, looking into your eyes. “Please believe it…”

You nodded, your eyes still a little red and swollen from crying. You did believe it. You knew in your heart that he wasn’t lying to you. You could feel it. 

He pulled you into him and wrapped his arms around you. “I’ll give you time if you need it but I just wanted to be honest with you. I don’t know if I’m too late or what but I want to start over. Not as friends with benefits. I want to at least start over and be friends.”

In the midst of these emotions, you remembered Alex and the fact that you had planned on seeing him later. He was a nice guy but you didn’t feel as strongly about him as you did about Hansol. You’d choose Hansol over Alex in a heartbeat and you knew that you needed to let Alex know that you just wanted to be friends. If you were going to start over with Hansol, that meant that you both would have to establish some boundaries.

You shook your head. “I don’t want to be your friend, Hansol...”

Hansol smiled, the widest you’d ever seen. “I don’t want to be your friend either. I want you to be my girlfriend and I want to take you on a real date. Are you busy on Friday?”

You returned his smile. “Yes. I’m going out with you.”

He laughed and put his arms around you, holding you close. He held you tightly, as if you’d disappear if he let go. But this time, he’d be damned if he let you slip through his fingers. Not again.

Tag List: @happiestgirlontheeastcoast @gyulx1​ @starsfly01091711

FIN.

[eltanin-malfoy]

Hard To Swallow (Kill Or Be Killed III)

pairing : draco/fem-collegestudent!y/n 

word count : 2.7k

warnings : swearing, mentions of murder/poison/drugging, angst

Chapter 1 2

a/n : super sorry this took sooooo goddamn long. This is my first work that wasn’t betaed, so any errors or as such are all thanks to me :P any and all feedback is highly appreciated. requests are still open! also if you’re a med student or a doctor or work as an emt or just have a lot of knowledge on drugging, pls pop into my dms! am going to need a lil help for the next chapter. 

Chapter 3 : Hard To Swallow

It had been a.. surprise, to say the least. Really. To say the absolute least. What the fuck is happening? I haven’t told.. a single.. person around here my last name. I could never have. He threw the letter down to the floor, still holding his bleeding finger tightly. The only ones who know are my boss and the landlord. But I think he remembers it wrong.. after all, it isn’t.. He almost retched. Mafcoy. 

But there was absolutely no reason for the elderly missus to try to freak him out, was there? No reason at all. Right? She definitely wasn’t one of the people who his father had stolen from, right? She wasn’t some criminal mastermind who was secretly looking for revenge? No! Of course not! That’s.. ridiculous. Totally! That’s comical! It’s.. 

Insanely perfect! 

What better way to poke at someone than to appear absolutely vulnerable? He would try and do that with.. Y/N but he didn’t have the figure for it. Tall. Lanky. Sharp-featured. Not to mention, ridiculously handsome.. Okay, he was getting ahead of himself here. Someone was watching him. Who? Who?

Had one of his dad’s old colleagues figured out where he’d moved? Were they just trying to shock him into being nicer? Or to leave the country altogether? Or was someone planning to kill him?

Why would anyone want to kill him? He was clearly just in over his head! Goddammit, Draco. Shut up! It’s.. just some stupid prank! Of course! Some stupid git has found out your name and just wants to freak you out! He sighed and walked to his bathroom, pulling off the cap and sunglasses. He opened up his cabinet and took out a bandaid. He opened the packaging and began wrapping his finger in it, then began to stare at himself in the mirror. 

He’d been focusing on the wrong detail this entire time.. Someone had said that they were watching you! Jesus Christ, Draco! He could feel goosebumps forming at the back of his neck and he shuddered. Had they planted hidden cameras in his home? Was there someone stalking him? Had someone actually managed to hack into his devices and watch him from the cameras? He felt jittery and decided to calm his nerves with another fag, reaching into his pocket for the pack.

***

 Unfortunately, even after Draco decided to take every precaution possible (put duct tape over the webcam of his computer, do in all the blinds of all his windows, check cabinets he normally didn’t open for bugs), he wasn’t any closer to figuring out who it was that was watching him.. He could only hope it was the same for Y/N, but of course, she wouldn’t even know he was following her in the first place, he didn’t send her an ominous note saying that he was.

Some people are just too.. over the top. He decided. Better to work hard in private than try to scare your target.

And so, he decided to put in the hours. He had several until his shift, anyways. Further research (or.. checking Y/N’s Instagram account for updates, rather) managed to work out for him a bit. He managed to lay out the locations where she’d most recently posted from in hopes of figuring out her usual hangout spots. It had been fairly easy and ridiculously predictable. Every location she visited was in close proximity to her university campus. Of course. It definitely wasn’t creepy for a random guy to walk around a campus, even if it was in the middle of a bustling city, not attending classes and just searching for a certain someone. Goddammit. Why did there have to be so many people everywhere all the time? Makes everything that much harder.

He groaned, instead getting up to grab some lunch.

*** 

He managed to make no real progress until suddenly, as he was sitting in the Employees Only room, it was as if an angel heard his prayers.. Okay, no angel, it was just Y/N. 

It was too cold to head out for just a smoke that evening. The regular breeze had worked itself up to a strong, blasting wind which threw icy air at anyone in its path, and no matter how badly he wanted a puff, he wasn’t ready to risk getting winded for it. So, for his good old break, he just had to gussy up and hang around in the room where his, now suspicious, boss hung around. He kept himself as far as he could from her, sitting down in a corner and pretending to look busy on his phone.

Soon enough, he decided to check his soon-to-be victim’s account and saw an update on her story. There was some kind of a poster for a club he recognised seeing on maps. 

Carts & Horses.

Singles Night! 

Free pints up for grabs for the winners of our Karaoke Competition!

Happy Hours are from 7 to 9!

She’d added a short caption underneath it, “Does anyone wanna join me?” Jesus Christ. She moves on quick, doesn’t she? He stared at it for a few seconds before shutting his phone and thinking about it. It was for this coming Friday.. A good four days for him to ready everything. He just had to find a way to prick her with the needle without anyone noticing him do it. That was all it had to be. And what was good was, her little question made it clear she wasn’t going to go with anyone she was close to. 

Now, he could actually get to setting out a concrete plan for that fateful Friday night.

***

Everything was ready. Mostly. 

He’d sorted out everything to do with the injections, i.e. managed to sneak into the pharmacist’s section of the store and take out what he needed while modifying the online inventory. He’d then combined them in his own kitchen! Of course, it was a bit difficult getting everything into those syringes and then capping them without creating too much of a mess.. but it seemed to have worked. Obviously, he didn’t have a test subject. Although.. he supposed Y/N was technically one. 

He’d need enough time and a secretive place in which to conduct his plan out without being noticed.. and this was hard. The whole procedure, if it was to be conducted, would take at least take ten minutes. What to do.. What to do.. 

He couldn’t attempt to seduce her and bring her to his house (which, admittedly, might not have worked because of their spat from earlier) because.. people might notice and remember. He’d have to try his best to stay undercover and go unnoticed.. but how could he do it while still trapping her while she was fishing for someone to hook up with? This was going to be hard..  

***

The day finally approached. Draco managed to get out of going into work for the day by feigning a strong head-cold. Easily done, what with Draco’s brilliant acting skills and.. his boss being the slightest bit hard of hearing. He spent the day planning what to do. 

He realised that lurking around or in the corners of the pub likely would not sit well with any of the actual patrons, so he’d have to enter it and hang around a bit. Obviously, he’d keep his distance and try not to attract attention to himself. (Although, he couldn’t help it if people did swoon over him..)

Draco tried his best to pick out something that would make him.. fit in with his surroundings. What did blokes wear to pubs again? It had been a while since he’d socialised, especially in a setting like this. He decided on a black button-up shirt and a pair of tight fitting dark trousers. I mean, I can’t exactly go in looking badly dressed, can I? He remarked as he looked himself over in the mirror, a slight grin on his face. Okay! You aren’t trying to get laid, you idiot. He took a deep breath.

He shook his head as he packed everything carefully into his thick coat. Okay. Run it over again. He shut his eyes tightly. When she’s by herself, make sure she doesn’t see you and grab her from the back. Give her the midazolam and then gag her and blindfold her. Tie her hands up as soon as she loses control. Then, after five minutes, give her the vecuronium bromide. Then, as she stops breathing, give her the good old potassium chloride, then get out of there as soon as you can. Jesus Christ, it did sound ambitious. But, with a bit of luck, it would work out just fine.

***

Draco managed to make it to the pub a few minutes past 7, which was when he thought the bitch would decide to show up. Even spoilt kids search for discounts sometimes, don’t they? He didn’t enter the pub at first and just gazed in, looking around for her. 

And there she was. Sitting by herself at the bar. He felt that same slight annoyance at her presence, but she looked.. good tonight. She wasn’t that bad to look at if she didn’t open her mouth, really. She was wearing a red shirt and some jeans, which all looked.. fairly tight, even in the distance. She was looking towards the entrance now and then, seemingly waiting for someone while she sipped slowly at a drink. So.. maybe she is here with someone? Or maybe waiting for someone? It was unclear. Either way, I should be able to grab her when she’s getting in or out of the ladies’ room.

He stepped into the pub, staring down at the floor as he found a seat by the bar. It wasn’t too far from where she was sat, but enough that she wouldn’t see him unless she tried, and if he tried hard enough, he could ignore whoever it was singing like an absolute tosser. “Grey Goose on the rocks, please.” He muttered, looking to the bartender so he didn’t look like a total creep. And of course, a little liquid courage certainly wouldn’t hurt.

“Ten pounds. Lemon?”

“No need, thanks.”

Draco slid over a note as the bartender passed him his drink, then looked over at Y/N.. who was now.. looking at him. Shit! His eyes widened but he quickly glanced to the side, hoping to play it off as just a.. casual.. scan of the room. But no! She’d seen him staring right at her.. Fucking hell.

He grit his teeth and turned to the side, covering the side of his face with his hand. Hopefully she didn’t realise it was him...

Who was he kidding! Of course she did! He should have gone ahead and dyed his hair darker to blend in, as much as he would have hated it. He should’ve actually bought some makeup and done something to his face to look different. God-fucking-dammit! He almost slammed his fist onto the table as he felt himself grow all the more frustrated. 

He felt his ears turn red and shook his head. It’s not that big of a deal. Of course not. He just had to avoid getting into any conflict with her. If he just sat here and avoided her, she definitely wouldn’t approach him, right? She was looking for someone nice, right? Although.. her last affair did seem questionable. He quickly glanced over at her again and thankfully, she’d looked away. He wondered what had prompted her to take such quick action.. or not really, seeing that she was just sitting by herself, drinking whatever it was she was drinking. She seemed to shrug off people coming over to talk to her as well, instead just staring down at the counter in front of her. Suddenly, she turned to look at him again with an eyebrow raised.

He felt color flush his own face and he looked to his glass, internally whacking himself in the face with it. Why would he make the same mistake twice? What was he doing? He soon heard the light tapping of heels near him and shut his eyes tightly. Draco, it’s over now. You’re going to have to plan for some other day. Or.. pick another victim. If enough people see this, they’ll know she hated you.

“What were you just.. doing?” She was almost uncharacteristically soft, like she was trying to hide something. 

“Nothing.” Draco murmured instinctively.

“Come on.” Y/N sighed. “I caught you staring at me. Twice.” Could it be.. ickle Y/N was ashamed to be spotted here? On ‘Singles’ Night’? He clenched his jaw to force the corners of his mouth not to curl up into a smirk.

“Just.. curious.” He uttered, still staring at his glass. Y/N put a hand on the counter next to his glass and he almost shuddered. 

“Are you here.. for.. Singles’ Night?” He turned to look up at her and froze, staring into her eyes. “What? What is it?” She drawled out, squinting slightly at him.

He stared at her for a few seconds and it suddenly hit him. This.. this girl. How was he supposed to kill her? She was a person, just like him. A person with memories, with loved ones, with goals. No, stop it. He shuddered and looked to the side, face growing hotter. She’s abused her lifestyle enough, she has to pay, doesn’t she? He almost jolted upwards as he heard a slight clunk on the counter beside him. 

“Um.. are you alright?” She was still looking at him, her hand falling back on the counter.

“I’m fine.. and.. yes. I am.” He managed out, gulping nervously. 

“Oh. Um.” Whatever retort she had planned seemed to suddenly fizzle out of her mind. “Okay.”

“Are you.. as well?”

“Yes.” She seemed to turn pink herself. She suddenly turned towards the counter herself. “Excuse me.. Could I have an iced water please?” The bartender nodded and walked to the side, grabbing a glass.

She swallowed softly herself, pressing her red-painted lips together in a way which made Draco want to touch them for himself. He felt that same pang of guilt all throughout him. He could feel those syringes in his coat weighing him down, pulling him towards the floor, almost. 

The bartender slid a glass over on the counter, right next to Draco’s. He turned to look.. and surprisingly, they were hard to tell apart. Both were clear.. and iced. He guessed which one was hers and handed it to her, after which she took a few sips from it, absolutely silent. It certainly was growing a bit awkward between them.. Draco didn’t really have anything unpleasant to say to her and frankly, he wasn’t exactly sure what to do in front of her like this. 

Her.. almost murderer, am I? He looked over at the counter again. His drink.. was a little fuller. Had the bartender refilled it for him? Gee, he hoped he wouldn’t be charged for that. 

Suddenly, Y/N pressed both her hands against the counter and let out a deep, deep breath. His eyebrows furrowed and he looked up at her face, which was steadily turning a deep shade of red. She brought a palm to her face and felt her cheek. “What..? Oh-” She mumbled out, then started walking away from Draco. She continued to speak but began to slur her words, and her steps grew more and more sluggish. Funny. Very funny. Is this her idea of a joke? This seemed.. unlikely, considering her usual.. turbulent nature. Or, is she just bad at handling her liquor?

SLAM!

He heard the loud thud across the floor from him almost before he realised Y/N had fallen to the floor. Her arms were on either side of her torso as her face lay on its side, her lips slightly parted. Her legs shook slightly but then lay flat on the floor, spread out on the floor. What? What was going on? He quickly got off his bar stool and rushed over to her, while the crowd nearby her hushed up. Whoever it was singing karaoke shut up as well. Someone yelled something over at him but it just.. faded away. 

Was this because of something he’d done? Or.. was someone else trying to attack her.. as well?

Chapter 4

[thefinalcinderella]

Tsurune Book 1 Chapter 1-Yata no Mori (Part 1)

It’s finally here!!! It took such a long time, but I finally finished it! This chapter, like all the chapters in this book, are very long so I will be splitting them up into two parts. Also my scanner won’t work for some reason so get ready for some insert pictures in very bad quality.

Now you may notice that some kyudo terms have the translation right next to them in brackets. That is because there are way too many terms right in this first chapter, and to prevent people from having to scroll up and down I decided to put them right there. I hope it won’t be too intrusive. I also put numbers next to the Eight Stages of Shooting whenever they come up, since you have to have a good picture of the pose to understand what’s going on (thinking of replacing the gif with the still frames.)

So, anyways, I hope you enjoy this. I should have the second part up soon.

Translation Notes

1. Owl in Japanese is “fukurou”, so it’s like naming an ostrich “Os”.

2. A gi is the white uniform martial artists wear, so a kyudogi is the kyudo version of it.

3. So this word was originally “穹天” (kyuuten) which seems to be a Chinese word rather than Japanese. It apparently means “the vault of heaven” and I’m 50% sure the author chose this word because the 穹 character because it has the 弓 radical in it

Full list of translations here

Previous | Next

When he looked up, Minato’s eyes reflected the hazy blue sky.

His graceful body, fitting for a fifteen-year-old, was wrapped in training clothes, and he advanced along the straight mountain path where snow still remained. When he passed under the tunnel of treetops, he could see the three-car train travelling slowly in the distance. The surrounding mountains were sprinkled with yellow-green, the mountain cherry blossoms spreading out here and there.

It was the mountain in springtime. The budding trees were dazzling.

The final point of his running route every morning was the neighborhood park. He washed his face with water from the water fountain in the corner, then lifted the hem of his T-shirt to wipe it. A long, white scar was briefly exposed on his uncovered left flank.

Because he didn’t wipe himself up properly, water dripped from his bangs. If it were the old him, he wouldn’t have done such a lazy thing. It was an act of sensing that he had forgotten his towel, and because the reason that he must leave was approaching.

A boy in casual clothes, seeming to be taking a walk in the neighborhood, stood next to Minato. His full-rimmed, plastic glasses frame was familiar, and one of the objects that symbolized him as intelligent and calm. One got the impression that he was more mature than Minato, and not just because he had already celebrated his sixteenth birthday.

A smile appeared on his face, like he was making fun of his companion.

“Morning, Minato. Even though it’s spring, it’s still cold in the mornings.”

“…Seiya, good morning.”

It wasn’t that Minato didn’t want to see Seiya. If anything, he was the only person he could call his best friend, and he had known him the longest. However, he did not want to meet him during training if possible.

Seiya, upon realizing that, spoke with an innocent look on his face. “It’s usually my dad’s job, but he was busy this morning, so I took his place.”

“Oh, are you walking Bear?”

If someone only listened to that exchange, they might have gotten frightened. “Bear” was the name of a dog. He was a Bernese mountain dog, a mountain dog that originally came from Switzerland. They were weak to heat, so this area, which had a high altitude and was relatively cool even in Japan, was perfect.

Even though there were those who would take the “Bernie” part of its name and name it “Bunny-chan” like a rabbit, there weren’t a lot of people who would name it “Bear”. Seiya’s naming sense may be in doubt, but a family who allowed him to give that name was also worthy of respect.

Minato also greeted Bear, and Bear waggled his tail. He had long fur with a black, white, and brown luster, and the round, light-brown tufts of fur above his eyes resembled eyebrows. When he was embraced, his transmitted body temperature felt good. Bear licked Minato’s face. He then brought his nose close to his left flank, gesturing for him to show it.

“Hey, Bear, you’re tickling him. That spot’s already fine.”

Having been chided, Bear immediately stopped, and sat next to Minato. Four years ago, he had been a mischievous puppy, but he grew up kind and smart. Just like his owner.

The two people and one dog went to the back of the park, entering the forest there. Bear was a dog who enjoyed being useful to people, and went to the front as though telling them to follow him. There was a wide paved road which could be reached by car, but this way was a shortcut, and on the way, there was a narrow path that one person could barely squeeze past. It was a path made by the denizens of the area coming and going—an animal trail, so to speak.

Seiya grabbed Minato’s arm, who seemed like he was about to faint from the tone of the morning that was so different from usual.

“Are you alright? If you collapse and miss the entrance ceremony in the morning, that’ll be a spectacular high school debut.”

“Shut up.”

“Well, at that time, I will offer to nurse you faithfully in our special hospital room.”

“And I’ll politely turn you down. I don’t know what you’re going to do.”

“I’m not going to do anything. Right, Bear?”

Bear made an answer that was unclear as to whether or not it was positive or negative.

Seiya’s house was an orthopedic clinic, and right behind Minato’s house. For Narumiya Minato and Takehaya Seiya, today was their entrance ceremony at the same high school. As this was a small town in the mountains, it wasn’t unusual for their high schools to be the same. But Minato hadn’t known this until just a few days ago. Unlike Minato, who chose the neighborhood public high school for financial reasons, Seiya could have chosen the best school in the prefecture or a challenging private school.

While feeling something muddled, Minato thought about the new life that would be beginning from now on.

The Kazemai High School’s entrance ceremony.

Cherry blossoms that weren’t supposed to bloom yet in this region greeted Minato and the others.

It wasn’t just the plants that were making merry early with the arrival of spring. What lied in wait after the new students finished the ceremony was recruitment for club activities. All of the groups were shouting, including the girls from the cheerleading squad holding colourful bonbons in red and orange, and the well-built boys holding a cheering banner that read, “Passing is love!”

Immediately, there were freshmen who were caught by the soccer club. The glints in their eyes were only things indiscriminately sharp upon their suntanned skins. Next to them, there was an idol-like boy who attracted gazes, frequently waving at the female manager.

Giving a sidelong glance at Seiya, who was looking around with interest, Minato quickly passed through the area. However, suddenly, a large boy placed his arms around their shoulders from behind, and two of them couldn’t move.

What an obnoxious recruitment. Minato gave the attacker an indignant look. Then, before his eyes, he gave a friendly smile. Minato felt something similar to deja-vu.  

“Aren’t you Minato? And here’s Seiya! It’s been a while. I didn’t expect to meet you guys here again at high school. This is awesome!”

“Wait, you can’t actually be Ryouhei!? Haven’t you gotten too big? I didn’t recognize you for a moment,” Seiya said, then continued. “Minato hadn’t noticed, but I found your name on the class register.”

“I knew that you were being sworn in as the freshman representative. You’re still as smart as ever, that’s expected. That’s great. And Minato, you’ve gotten cooler and cooler since the last I saw you.”

“Stop talking like you’re an uncle flattering your nephews,” Minato said. Ryouhei had a truly strange expression on his face as he stretched.

“I am? But I was looking at you when I said it.”

Yamanouchi Ryouhei was their childhood friend who transferred schools when they were in fifth grade. His body grew bigger, but he was still a simpleminded child on the inside. When other people said words that were taken as sarcasm, Ryouhei said them with a smile. There were few people who could get seriously angry at a puppy that they had become attached to.

That nostalgic face caused Minato’s tense-looking face to break into a smile. They couldn’t stop recounting their childhood stories, like when they lost their shoes swimming in the river after school, or when they got scolded for sneaking into Seiya’s family’s hospital when it was closed and playing with the athletic tape. They were a gang who spent time together like brothers. There was a strange sense of solidarity.

Although there was lingering excitement between the three of them, a small man approaching them caused them to break off their conversation. He was an acquaintance of Ryouhei’s.

“What’s up, Tomi-sensei?”

“Tomi-sensei?” Minato asked.

“Yeah, he’s my homeroom teacher, Morioka Tomio-sensei.”

Tomi-sensei was an old man teacher. He stood on tiptoes to survey the three of them, moving his face closer with effort.

“I have received a certain incognito order. Expecting that all of you are close, I come to stand for the white-feathered arrows. An incognito order is a mission.”

“Mission!? What is it, what is it??”

While Minato was thinking about how suspicious that was, Ryouhei’s eyes shone with curiosity.

“Ah, actually, this school has a kyudo club, but it has hardly been active recently. It received the order to be rebuilt from the principal. Kyudo tends to be thought of as an individual sport, but when everyone’s breathing doesn’t match perfectly, it won’t go well.”

Minato’s heart beat faster at the word “kyudo”.

“And? And?” Ryouhei said, completely on board. “At the middle school I went to, I chose kyudo as my compulsory martial arts course. My kyudo teacher praised me, saying that I had ‘good muscles’. I thought I’d do it seriously when I went to high school. Plus, I might have been influenced by Minato and Seiya.”

“Are these two experienced in kyudo?”

“They are. Narumiya and Takehaya were in the kyudo club in middle school. Narumiya in particular wanted to do kyudo, and I heard that they took the entrance exams for a private middle school with a kyudo club. He’d been talking about the bow since forever.”

Tomi-sensei smiled broadly.

“There are few junior highs with a kyudo club, so people with kyudo experience are valuable. However, It would seem that I have found three all at once. These old eyes are not mistaken. This mission is nothing but a success. Well then, everyone, shall we head for the kyudojo (place where kyudo is performed)?”

Minato panicked. He was troubled by the conversation continuing on without him.

“Please wait. I don’t plan to join any club. My mother died, so I have to do most of the housework, and I also have to make dinner for my father…I’m sorry.”

The white mark on Minato’s left flank was the scar of the injury he had sustained when he was involved in a traffic accident with his mother, which happened one month after Seiya got Bear. However, four years had passed already. The innocent Bear, time, and the passions that they had devoted themselves into had healed the wounded Minato and others. The whitening scar was the proof of that.

Then, why do you keep running every morning…?

Minato felt like he had heard Seiya’s voice. However, Seiya hadn’t said anything.

“I’m so sorry to hear that. Well, if your situation changes, you can just come by and visit us anytime. How about Takehaya-kun and Yamanouchi-kun over here?”

“I’d certainly like to join the club.”

“Me too, me too!”

Seiya, who was supposed to be right next to him, looked to be far away.

Minato wasn’t going to do club activities. Seiya was joining the kyudo club.

Even though there shouldn’t be any problem, his perturbed heart felt unsatisfied. Seiya turned back to look straight at him.

“I’m going to go ahead to the kyudojo.”

“I’m not doing kyudo anymore.”

“I know you’re carrying around your treasure.”

Minato grabbed his bag in spite of himself. And when he realized he fell for Seiya’s bluff, Minato could only make the meager comeback of simply leaving that spot.

Refusing other invitations from his classmates and girls, Minato returned home alone.

Although he lived only with his father, he never felt very lonely or inconvenient because Seiya and his parents were kind. He told Tomi-sensei that he was busy with household chores, but his father often didn’t take dinner at home, so that was the perfect excuse. When he confirmed that the pouch with the dragonfly pattern was in his bag, he flew out beneath the darkening sky.

He loved riding his bicycle.

The wind was frosty, sweeping away the words that he was saddled with, cooling down that aching heat. After a while, he hit a long slope. While standing to pedal up the hill, a car coming from behind honked its horn. Although he quickly went to the side, the honking was completely unexpected.

After riding around aimlessly without deciding on a destination, when it was soon time to go back home, a small yellow bird flew out before his eyes. It was a grey wagtail that flew before him as he rode. Although both sides of the road were lined with forest, it glided along the surface of the endless paved road.

Before he knew it, Minato was in an unfamiliar place. The yellow bird disappeared, and in its place, an old sign board reading “Yata Shrine” caught his attention. He stopped his bike before the torii gate, and climbed the stone steps.

This forest was called Yata no Mori, where deciduous trees like pin oaks and Mongolian oaks thrived. Minato looked up, and as if trying to test him, the trees swayed, making a rustling sound. In the dim light, the new sprouts shone, looking like hands clasped together and dedicating prayers up to the sky. The red-violet buds of the mountain azaleas were stiff, and wearing light brown caps. From somewhere faraway, a crying sound could be heard.

After passing through the forest, he arrived at Yata Shrine. There was a cherry tree there, dying the ground beneath in pale pink. The shrine was snug in that old way, and there was no sign of people.

It looks like a place where ghosts would come out… When he thought that, he was startled from hearing a sound.

It’s tsurune, I heard a tsurune—.

From somewhere, he heard a high bang sound.

Like bamboo sprouts shooting up from the earth towards the sky overnight, the sound was carefree and crisp. He couldn’t believe that it was possible to create that metallic-sounding timbre with a bow. It is said that tsurune was the sound made when the bowstring hit the bow after firing an arrow; and the sound that occurred when the arrow left the loosened bowstring and tension returned to the original form of the string, was also considered tsurune.

It overlapped with his old memories. He wondered if it was the same archer that he saw with his mother when he was little, pulling back the bow.

The light was on in the building next to the front shrine.

There was a built-in mailbox at the entrance of the traditional Japanese house, where a signboard hung with the words “Yata no Mori Kyudojo” on it. It was considerably aged, and the wood was corroded and covered in moss. Suppressing his fast-beating heart, he went past the entryway, heading for the right side of the building.

He didn’t think that there would be someone drawing a bow in the forest in the evening. Maybe it really was a ghost. No, it didn’t matter if it was a ghost.

Please don’t disappear.

Don’t disappear until I get there.

While praying that silently in his mind, he passed through the trees, and went around to a corner where outdoor viewing was possible. When he peeked forward through the bamboo fence that acted as a partition, he saw the spacious shajo (building where the archers shoot from) illuminated by fluorescent lamps.

There was a lone young man there, clad in a white kyudogi (2) and hakama.

As expected, it was a different person from the archer he saw back then. The mysterious figure looked like he was in his twenties, and his shoulder-length hair was tied back.

The man nocked an arrow to his bow, then looked to check for any problems with the string or the arrow. He took the string with his right hand, and held the bow with his left. Facing the target, he lifted the bow and arrow with both hands. His stance—like a column of smoke loosely rising up to the sky on a windless day—was textbook perfect.

He pulled back half the length of the arrow and stopped briefly, then pulled it even further back from there. This was the daisan stage (midway point), of the hikiwake. In everyday language, this would be called “drawing back the bow,” but the Japanese yumi was a bow which was lifted up and pushed open equally on both sides.

The climax was called kai. The kai was the term for drawing a bow all the way back to the length that was most suitable for the archer. It was the moment when bow and archer became one, for a long time until the arrow was released. It was the very moment when bow and archer met. In Minato’s eyes, that man was as elegant as an actor performing in a program that was a marvel… As his skin got chills, the arrow was breathed in by the target.

It hit the target right in the center. And what’s more, that wasn’t the only shot. All five of the arrows he had shot before had pierced the target. After that, he finished collecting the arrows and shot six arrows again, all of them hitting the center.

Twelve hits.

If this was a competition, he had won. No, more than just winning, his shots were beautiful. The man placed his bow aside, got into seiza, and took off his yugake, the glove used in kyudo.

When he saw the man going towards the target to collect the arrows again, Minato heaved a big sigh. He rubbed his sweaty palm against his jacket. Wondering whether he should try to call out, he suddenly heard a “Gyaah!” sound above his head, and his body spontaneously shivered.

“…Was that an owl? Don’t get so scared.”

“What are you doing?”

It was a person’s voice.

The man from earlier was standing right in front of him when he had looked back at the strange phenomenon. He had clear eyes, a high nose bridge, a tall stature, and was blessed with a well-balanced body. But he approached me without making a sound, so who the heck is he?

The man wrapped the indigo-dyed hand towel he carried around his left arm, and held it up towards the trees. “Fuu,” he called out, and something with large, spread-out wings flew down, stopping on the man’s arm.

Its flapping created a wind.

Glancing sideways at Minato, who was standing stock-still, the man addressed the being with a heart-shaped face.

“Fuu, you were the one who was more surprised. Who knew there was a person over here.”

“…Excuse me. Um, could ‘Fuu’ be the name of that owl?”

“Yes, it’s a good name, isn’t it? (1) A long time ago, it was injured and I took care of it, and so I gave it that name back then. I had thought about it carefully. Oh, and I did have permission to look after it.”

Is it my imagination, or does that name seem like it was incredibly easy to come up with? It’s better than naming a dog “Bear” at least.

The owls of the true owl family were as big as the falcons used in falconry. Fuu play-bited at the man’s long fingers. When he caressed his mottled wings, it comfortably closed its large eyes.

“It’s really attached to you.”

“It’s more like it got used to me rather than getting attached. It thinks that when I call it, it’ll be able to get food. Today, I called it even though I don’t have any. Sorry, Fuu.”

“Food?”

“Pink mice. Mice that were skinned.”

“I see…”

“Do you want to try touching it? But you are forbidden from making loud sounds. Owls have good ears.”

Doing as he was told, Minato reached out fearfully. When he stroked the feathers on its head, Fuu suddenly shrunk its body, looking like it was withdrawing itself.

“It’s kind of fluffy.”

“Owls can fly noiselessly thanks to their soft feathers. But leaving that aside, you’re bleeding from the back of your left hand.”

“What?”

When he looked, sure enough, blood was welling up. Maybe a branch or something cut him.

“Come with me to get some medicine for that.”

“No, um, I…”

“No way, are you suspicious of me? I’m not going to charge you extra for the medicine, so don’t worry.”

The man narrowed his eyes and grinned.

He followed the man, who seemed like he ruled over the shajo, to there. The judge’s area was at the side of the shajo, with tatami flooring spreading as wide as twelve tatami mats, and the floor one level higher. It was equivalent to the kamiza (higher position) so the household shrine and the national flag were enshrined there. Passing through the judge’s area to the back-right corner, they arrived at the waiting room of the dojo.

The man placed Fuu on Minato’s left shoulder. It was lighter than he had expected, and along with a pleasant weight, Fuu gripped his shoulder tightly. Since its talons weren’t clipped, he’d probably get holes in his clothes. While he was focused on Fuu, the man opened the accessory drawer.

“So, where’s the medicine…ah.”

An unpleasant bang sound rang out, and the contents of the entire drawer flew out. This caused Fuu to tremble with a jump. The man had been trying to retrieve the medicine in the back of the drawer, and pulled it out.

“Oh no, I did it again.”

He said he did it again, so does that mean he pulls open that drawer and cause stuff to fly out a lot?

“Um, are you okay?”

“Yeah. This is because it’s sturdy, unlike the poorly built stuff made nowadays. Oh, there it is.”

The man found a worn-out tube from among the scattered items, and held it out to Minato. He doubted the efficacy of the ointment, which was considerably aged.

While rubbing on the medicine, the exhausted fluorescent lamp flickered. Minato and Fuu looked up at the ceiling, which the man noticed.

“Sorry, your eyes must be pretty irritated. I have a replacement tube but it’s quite a bother. Someone would change it eventually.”

“…I’ll do it.”

Returning Fuu from his shoulder to the man, he took the new fluorescent tube and got out the stepladder in the corner of the room. It was also an antique.

The man spoke in an easy-going way, “Thanks. I always neglect it until it goes out.”

“I think your entire house should have LED lighting installed, so you won’t have to replace it so much, sir”

“Indeed. You’re pretty smart.”

Even though he meant for it to sound sarcastic, it didn’t seem to have gone through at all.

The man went to the edge of the shajo, and shook his arm towards the outdoors. Fuu disappeared into the nighttime forest. After seeing it off, he took out something from his bag.

“Having a drink after work is the best. Here’s a thank-you gift. Go ahead and take it.”

“No thank you. The law states that the drinking age is twenty years old, and if I drink alcohol, my brain will shrink.”

“…You are amazing. I want to compliment you on how honest you are, but just come and take a better look.”

The man was holding a can of coffee with a picture of a snowy mountain on it.

When he finished drinking, he put the can aside and headed for the targets again. He repeated the entire process of shooting the arrows on hand and retrieving them, all over again.

Still holding his can, Minato watched his beautiful movements. He never paid heed to Minato’s watching, nor told him to go home. Before he knew it, the pain of his wound faded away.

He asked him a question when he saw him jotting something down in a notebook.

“How many targets did you hit?”

“I’m not keeping track of how many I hit or miss. Just the number of arrows.”

“How many did you shoot as of now?”

“Eighty.”

“Eighty times? Do you always shoot that much?”

“Yep. I’m shooting a hundred arrows every day, and aiming for a total of ten-thousand arrows. Today’s the seventy-ninth day.”

“What’s your goal?”

“Nothing in particular. Just a whim, so to speak.”

The man narrowed his eyes and smiled his crescent moon-smile again.

A tsurune that glowed against the deep blue heavens (3).

As he placed his feet on the pedals of his bike, the moon was shining above his head.

Previous | Next

[jiminie-agustd]

Tell me, what is love?[Taekook]

University AU Taekook (Taehyung/Jungkook) Fluff, Tiny bit angst

‘It was a hell week for Kim Taehyung as he getting through crowd of people in the hallway, he just finished another experiment, don’t get him wrong he loves experiment but when it never goes the right way, or to be exact the chemicals reaction he got it all wrong because he been working on other assignments among other things, it took a toll on him.

He finally gets out from the hallway to outside, ahh fresh air never been so good! And now he needs to find coffee and a friend to tell all his problems as he walks to the café near the campus which also where his best friend work.

“JIMIN!” Taehyung shout as he walk towards his best friend who try his best not to acknowledge that Taehyung shouting like 5 feet away but of course he is known as Jimin so cannot avoid that as he sigh

“What do you want Tae? And you look like death, the usual?” Jimin ask knowing fully well but just in case.

Taehyung nods making a sad face and Jimin roll his eyes knowing that face, that face that will make a bitchy whiny story as usual, nothing out of ordinary since it’s their second year already.

“You know me so well chim, but oh my god I am dying, you know! I just make a wrong chemical mixture and guess what it almost blow up at Professor Kim but thankfully he accept my pleading sad look though I am not sure how can I make those grades up but ughh I don’t even want to think anymore and the essay assignment that I did last night is trash but guess what I handed in anyway, I am doomed !”

As Taehyung keep on rambling Jimin works on his drinks luckily there’s not too much customers at this time and although he won’t say some of the students inside the café is happy with the way Taehyung keep on rambling like a mad man.

Jimin handed Taehyung drink as Taehyung savors it taking a sip, “UHH! This is heaven you always got the best drink! “

Jimin smiles softly, “I know but you probably should keep it down they literally glaring at you, I know it’s frustrating but you got this”

Taehyung sighs, “I know, I just I am regretting taking double major, I know before you told me , ‘ I told you so’ but hell no, this is what I love I just want to let it out sometimes ya know but I still can’t find my partner for the project and I don’t know who to ask” Taehyung look at Jimin giving his best puppy eyes but we know Jimin got the best one when it comes to persuasion but Taehyung is a close second.

“Taehyung, I told you I already partner with Yoongi hyung and you know he won’t agree taking you in, you know how he gets” Jimin said

Taehyung huff and roll his eyes, “Of course, so possessive, he knows we are best friend, he just wants you all to himself”

Jimin blushes, “It just how he is, you know he is soft hearted, hey you know what let me ask around maybe there some sophomore you can take, I’m sure they will be thrilled to have you Tae”

Taehyung sighs, “I guess, cause honestly right now I can’t think of anyone and if you could find me one I owe you, if you managed to find one text me, I will be at the lab as usual.

Jimin smiles, “Okay, don’t you worry just get the chemical thingy right!”

Taehyung chuckles and nods as he waves goodbye.

He walks back and the hallway is a bit emptier since the classes is already over but not for him, he sighs softly as he taking a sip on his drink, as he walking towards the lab he look over an art class that he thought empty but he sees a guy who seems busy painting, he feel intrigued as he slowly walk towards the class, the door seems not close as he walk in the boy still not noticing him busy drawing something. He sees some kind of portrait but it’s unclear as the boy seems to notice him, the guy quickly turn his drawing as he stands up surprised.

Taehyung pout, “Aww, I wanna see it, you seem really good”

“Uh, well yeah. I guess so?” the guy answer timidly, he seems shy but Taehyung can work with that, he is friendly after all.

Taehyung walk closer as the guy step backward nervously, Taehyung chuckles

“Calm down, I’m not doing anything, I just want to introduce myself, I’m Kim Taehyung and you?” as Taehyung hold out his hand.

The guy stares at his hand and then his face, “I know”

Taehyung furrow his eyebrows, “Your name is ‘I know?”

The guy shook his head, blush, “my name is Jeon Jungkook” as he takes his hand and shakes it.

“See, that wasn’t so bad is it Jungkook-shi?” Taehyung gives a bright smile and Jungkook feels a flutter in his heart though he’s trying to keep a straight face.

“…Yeah”

After 10 seconds, awkward silence…

“Well! It was nice to meet you, but I have to go to lab now, I hope to see you again Jungkook”

Jungkook nods as Taehyung waves and walk out from the classroom, Jungkook let out a relief sigh as he looks over at his drawing.

--

-2 days later-

Taehyung feels so much better; the assignments seems getting along pretty well except maybe there’s few experiments a bit disaster but nothing that cannot be fix but there’s one assignment that been bothering him which is a pair project for the music subject which he absolutely love but how can he come up with a new song or dance or whatever related to it but hopefully his savior Park Jimin will managed to get him a partner although he is a social butterfly and friendly with almost everyone and he mean everyone in the university but it does not mean easy to find a partner and a good partner for the project but he trust his best friend.

< Chim>

I got you a partner!

<Tae Tae>

You did? !! you are the best! *heart eyes*

< Chim>

Really? >_<

<Tae Tae>

Don’t be sour, sunshine :D

< Chim>

Ew, no only Yoongi hyung can call me that

<Tae Tae>

* roll eyes * When can I meet this partner of mine?

< Chim>

Oh! I told him to met you at the café but I won’t be there cause I have to work my project too, so be nice to him okay, he’s a shy brat

<Tae Tae>

Oh, interesting! A shy brat huh, he must be getting on your nerves eh?

< Chim>

You have no idea, but he’s a good kid and all around talented and I think you two would be a great combo just go easy on him

<Tae Tae>

Like you don’t know me, chim don’t worry!

< Chim>

Alright, just wait at the café at 3 pm, he knows you so don’t worry about it, I gotta go so bye!

Taehyung sighs, why even he does this, just because the kid knows him doesn’t mean he knows the kid, oh well guess he just to wait, he look over the clock, it’s noon, still early he could probably read some web toon for releasing stress purpose.

Jungkook been pacing in his room, it just a meeting for music, oh god he can’t believe he’s pairing with Kim Taehyung! Okay he is calm he is not calm!

Crap! Abort mission!

Before he can panic even more, Jin walk in seeing the state of his little brother pacing around like a mad man.

“Kook –ah would you please calm your butt down and actually choose something to wear, I know you have solid body but he ain’t seeing it on the first date” Jin smirks

“It’s not a date! Hyung!” Jungkook said flustered thinking it might be a date making his heart pound, geez what even happening?!

Jin sighs, “as much I love you suffering, now let’s focus you are partnering with Taehyung is a good thing he might notice you and then it will be all cliché love story and you two dancing around –“ Jungkook cuts him off, “Hyung!”

“Okay, okay, since I am a good brother and don’t want you to embarrassed yourself, let’s pick some clothes and teach you not stutter through you word though I am surprise when you met him before you did pretty well, just do that”.

Jungkook sigh, “It’s not that easy! but I will try I guess, just he is so gorgeous”

Jin roll his eyes, “I am gorgeous he is alright but oh well, I guess it can’t be helped.

“Hyung!”

“Okay, okay I will help and now calm down and let your great brother help fix you up”

“Okay, just nothing weird”

After an hour of Jin helping and Jungkook contemplating whether the outfits is okay or not they finally come to decision, with black leather jacket with white shirt and black skinny jeans, not too bad and just a nice style hair courtesy of his brother Jin at least he is good even sometimes his outfit is too pastel for his taste but it works for him that he is fine with it.

“Aww my baby brother is growing up trying to woo a guy, I’m proud” Jin said shedding fake tears.

Jungkook rolls his eyes, “It’s not a date, I gotta go now okay, I see you later”

Jin smiles, “Alright, if anything happens you know the code”

“Nothing will happen, we just meeting for a project” Jin just give a smile, “Okay kookie, go on now don’t want to be late!” as Jin pushes Jungkook out the door after the door closes Jungkook let out a breath, he is not nervous okay maybe a bit, he takes a deep breath as he goes.

Taehyung walk in the café that is all too familiar and he loves the comfort feeling it brings, the smells of the coffee always a fresh scent, he goes straight to order some coffee they might need to talk first and see what they going to do for the project, he can only hope they will get along well since his pair is Jimin friend too as he just finishes have his order, he finally looks around and he tilt his head when he sees Jungkook look pretty nervous and doesn’t seem to notice him…wait could he be his pair partner? That could be interesting he think as he walk over hoping that is true he clear his throat as Jungkook look up and look like a bunny caught eating a carrot, well who cares, he is cute.

“Hello there? Are you by any chance my partner for the project?” Taehyung ask a bit nervous.

Jungkook nods slowly as seems unsure, “Y-yeah , I am you are also Jimin friend right?”

Taehyung nods smile as he take a seat, “shouldn’t you say Jimin hyung though? Aren’t you younger than us?”

Jungkook rub his head a bit embarrassed, “Uh, yeah it slips out sometimes”

Taehyung smiles amused, “It’s alright, I won’t tell him”

Jungkook nods as he mumbles a thank you. Taehyung eyeing him and he definitely looks great when they met before, he dresses pretty simple but this one he looks really handsome but his expression is too cute, he seems so shy though he guess he can’t judge when they just met 2 times and only take for a few minutes.

“So, I just wonder how come you don’t have a partner because I heard you are pretty talented a dancer, singer and even do art really well” Taehyung start to ask question

“Uh, I wasn’t that talented and well Jimin hyung mention you and he said you are really talented but don’t have a partner and you seem like an easy-going guy, so I thought why not” Jungkook said nervously

“Aww, that’s cute well I don’t mind being partner with you though we should start to think now because we need to practice and everything and we both still have classes and all so we need to arrange time and stuff, do you have ideas ?”

Jungkook blush when hearing Taehyung says cute but managed to composed himself, “Yeah, I was thinking we can sing together and maybe have a bit of dance like make a remix, I have few ideas for songs and the steps if you don’t mind”

Taehyung look at him with full concentration somehow it makes Jungkook inside making a somersault, he usually would see Taehyung looking goofy and just carefree but he looks so good being serious and oh he is staring, he clear his throat.

“Well, I think that’s a great idea honestly, let’s go to my dorm now, we can start to think how to divide the song and everything if you don’t have anything to do?” Taehyung ask

Jungkook did not expect that at all, after a minute of not answering Taehyung look at him, “Um, Jungkook?”

Jungkook look at his eyes wide and Taehyung can’t help to think how cute is this boy!

“You still did not answer my question?”

“Oh, uh…. sure!” Jungkook said

Taehyung nods a bit weird out but let it slide, “Alright, let’s go then, don’ worry, first date is never perfect we can make it work”

Jungkook look at him shocked, “Uh…what? I—but “

Taehyung laugh loudly, “Oh gosh, you should see your face! You are so adorable Jungkook! Come on I am just kidding, let’s go we should focus on our project yeah”

Jungkook nods slowly following behind Taehyung, “right…just kidding” if only Taehyung knew he sigh softly as he catches up to Taehyung and he proceed to rambling a bunch of things, who knew he is such a talkative but Jungkook doesn’t seem to mind at all as he listens.

As weeks pass by, Jungkook is officially screwed as he watches over and over his and Taehyung rehearsal performance, he couldn’t explain it but Taehyung voice is like a breath of fresh morning air and it’s beautiful and soulful he can feel the emotion of his singing that every day he can’t help to fall for him and it hurts because he can’t even confess cause he is a coward.

Suddenly someone takes the phone from him, he looks up and sees it just Jin as he sit beside him, “Is there reason why my little brother looking at this video for the past half an hour nonstop with starry eyes because of certain someone ?”

Jungkook just look down, “No…”

Jin roll his eyes, “I am so convinced, honestly I think you should told Taehyung, he doesn’t remember, does he?”

Jungkook sigh, “No…”

Jin look at the younger sympathetically, “You can’t keep going like this, maybe if you say something he would remember, I just don’t like seeing my baby brother sad like this you so close to him but felt so far how is that will help you?”

“I don’t mind..I just want to be closer to him, that’s enough for me” Jungkook said

“I know but you will never know till you try, just think about it okay” Jin said as he ruffles the younger hair and walk out.

Jungkook lay on his bed thinking that it couldn’t hurt to try right? He just scared Taehyung would be away from again…after so long he found him but somehow he did not have courage to talk to him or anything and now it seems there’s hope, being close to Taehyung make him the happiest he can be.

It’s the weekend and Taehyung is bored out of his mind, he finally settles his lab work and most of his assignments and he couldn’t be more happy and it’s almost break and with the upcoming project show coming it makes him feel excited and with Jungkook…it’s weird that he feel Jungkook is so familiar he can feel a memory comes up but it seems hazy and it makes him wonder if they ever meet? But Jungkook never mention anything if they known each other before.

He decided to call Jungkook just to hang out, why not he shrug and call Jungkook and of course Jungkook agreed and he smiles as he hangs up, maybe I should get some snacks or we should order some food and play some games that would be fun he went to the kitchen and rummaging through the cupboard well he did have some snacks and drinks so that’s good.

Then the doorbell rings Taehyung quickly gets the door revealing Jungkook looking good as always, he can’t to check Jungkook outfit and as always he look really good then he notice he shouldn’t checking out his friend as he smiles and let Jungkook in.

“Uh, I got the snacks and drinks so thank god for that, we can just hang out cause I am bored and out of my mind, I hope you don’t mind?” Taehyung said

Jungkook shrug, “I’m fine with it and it’s fun to hang out with you”

Taehyung a bit taken aback as he feels blush on his cheeks, “Oh, cool! Me too, just let me get the snacks just see what’s on the TV, be right back!” as he quickly goes to the kitchen , he think to himself, he did not just blush as he slap his cheek, he just says it’s fun to hang out no big deal at all but why it feels different when Jungkook said it?

Jungkook just look at Taehyung quickly goes to the kitchen and he’s not sure if he is mistaking but Taehyung blushes and somehow that make his heart beat faster, honestly whenever they are close he always feel that, he just doesn’t know what to do but he gotta admit, he is cute maybe he could tell him.

After all the snacks and drinks is set up, they decided just to put on some movies since somehow the xbox is not working, Jungkook look over Taehyung that is seem to be absorbed by the movie, it’s now or never he thought to himself.

“Uh, Tae hyung?” Jungkook said timidly, Taehyung turn to him with a question look

“I need to talk to you about something, very important” at that Taehyung turn to him as Taehyung paying full attention to him he feel nervous but he have made up his mind.

“I know we just met like few weeks ago and in passing maybe we bump to each other but I was wondering if you remember we have met before?”

Taehyung blinks at Jungkook question as he try to go through his memory and he look at Jungkook intently…his face is very handsome but have that boyish look and that bunny teeth that make him so fond and he is such a living meme but he is not sure if they have ever met before…he frown

Jungkook notices this, “It’s okay, I just need to know, it’s okay if you don’t remember” even he say this, the older knows that Jungkook is upset, he seems so hurt and that make Taehyung sad, then Taehyung put his hand over Jungkook and somehow he feel different, the touch seems different, it remind him of warmness of sunlight.

“Tell me Jungkook, have we ever met before?” Taehyung needs to know maybe he will remember something.

Jungkook is hesitant but it doesn’t hurt to try and even in the end Taehyung doesn’t remember he have faith they can still work it out.

“ We meet when we were 16 back at your hometown Daegu, I was on vacation with my family for the summer, we met at the beach you were running with your dog and you trip and drop your ice cream on me and we did not start out nicely but of course you feel so guilty that you give your shirt and take my dirty shirt to wash and you were so persistent that we become fast friend even I am shy and quiet but you don’t even care”

Jungkook breath out and continues…

“Everything was great and at that moment I felt something for you and you did too but we don’t want to put any label and that’s fine with me, it was a week before my summer vacation over and you were so eager to show me a nice hiking mountain and I went with it but at that time it just after rained the trail is pretty dangerous but you insisted it’s fine and you assured it was fine but then accidents happen, you fell and hit your head but luckily you were saved but the doctor said you don’t remember our times together and I was sad and just went back home cause I couldn’t face knowing you don’t remember me…” Jungkook trails off and Taehyung feels his heart in pain, he squezzed Jungkook hand, “I’m sorry…I think I know about the accident but my parents didn’t say anything at all so I assume it’s nothing important”

Jungkook smiles sadly, “your parents pretty mad so I just don’t want to bother you when it becomes like that”

“You are not a bother, we-we must have something special right at that time? Since you still haven’t forgotten till now and now we in college you watch over me don’t you?”

Jungkook blushes at Taehyung remark, “Uhm, I guess you kind of special to me”

“Aww, kookie…”

Jungkook look into Taehyung eyes, he misses those eyes, those unique smiles of his and that attitude, it’s like he never changes just get mature over the years well as mature as he can be.

“I just want to say, I might not remember about our past together…but we can make a new one don’t we?” Taehyung said smiling

Jungkook smiles back, “Yeah, we can honestly I don’t mind, I been waiting for this moment for quite a while I am so relief you are okay with…this.”

“Honestly, how can I not like you, I have crush on you but I thought someone like you wouldn’t’ want someone like me”

Jungkook shook his head, “I think you mean how can you like me”

Taehyung giggles, “let’s just call it even I was just wondering have we ever kiss in the past?”

Jungkook sputters, “Uh, I—umm”

Taehyung smirks and he scoot closer, “Because we did or not, we should try it now, maybe a kiss can make me remember something…”

Jungkook feels like he is choking how can Taehyung be so nonchalant about this while he’s having a hard attack.

“Are you always like this kookie? Calm down it’s just a kiss, you have kiss before right?” Taehyung ask

“Well, yeah but not a lot and honestly you were my first back then…” Jungkook blushes

Taehyung coo, “oh my god, you are a cutie! Wow I am your first kiss well, let’s forget about the past and think about this moment”

Jungkook nods and he decided he should be a man about it as he pull Taehyung closer grabbing his waist and in turn making Taehyung surprised at this,” I hope you don’t mind”

Taehyung shakes his head looking at Jungkook as he closes his eyes leaning on Jungkook and Jungkook smiles as he kisses Taehyung lips and it was so wonderful, even they have only kiss once in the past but it feels the same, it feels like warm and he can imagine back when they at the beach the feel of the sand and the waves of the sea so calm and just gorgeous and Taehyung is indeed gorgeous.

They pull away a little taking a breath but Jungkook then kisses him back, he feels like he could never get enough of Taehyung lips, he misses those lips, he misses Taehyung everything even they only spend few weeks together but he felt something for the older and even Taehyung don’t remember he knew that Taehyung do like him as he is now and he couldn’t be happier with that and for that he is content pulling Taehyung closer.

----

A/N : I hope the person who receives this and whoever who read this enjoy it, I do apologise of any kind of errors whether in grammar or sentences since English is not my first language but I hope you do love it and enjoy taekook as this is my first time writing this couple, I will do my best next time, thank you! :)

@btsbound #btsboundMarch

[thisdaynews]

Beto O’Rourke’s Campaign Found New Meaning in the Gun Debate. But Is He Hurting the Cause?

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/beto-orourkes-campaign-found-new-meaning-in-the-gun-debate-but-is-he-hurting-the-cause/

Beto O’Rourke’s Campaign Found New Meaning in the Gun Debate. But Is He Hurting the Cause?

DENVER—Tom Sullivan, a Colorado state lawmaker whose son, Alex, was killed in the Aurora theater shooting in 2012, met Beto O’Rourke one cloudless morning in September and, inside a glass-and-brick office building in downtown Denver, introduced him to several other people whose friends or relatives had been killed in mass shootings.

They were seated at a table in a third-floor conference room of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, beside a largely untouched basket of bagels and a box of Starbucks coffee. Jane Dougherty, whose sister Mary Sherlach was murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, brought up the moment, at a presidential debate in Houston the previous week,when O’Rourke had said, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”

Story Continued Below

“I think I was jumping around in my family room, because my sister was murdered by an AR-15,” Dougherty said.

Coni Sanders, whose father, Dave, was killed in the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, where he was a teacher, said she had rushed toward the television in her living room, hurting her head on a door jamb before sitting down on the floor and watching in disbelief. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” Sanders said. Brandon Kellogg, a student at Columbine during the massacre, said that, sitting on his couch watching the debate that night, he cried.

O’Rourke swallowed.

In March, when the former Texas congressman entered the presidential race amid soaring expectations, his biggest liability was a perceived lack of solemnity. That perception was reinforced by a meandering road trip throughout the Southwest, a “born to be in it”Vanity Faircover story,and a penchant for standing on tables and chairs. Then, he sank in public opinion polls, watched his fundraising fall off and drifted throughout the early stages of the primary, overwhelmed by a field of more experienced competitors.

But now O’Rourke, while still running far behind in the 2020 field, finds himself at the center of one of the Democratic primary’s gravest and most divisive policy disputes. After the shooting massacre at a Walmart in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, in August, O’Rourke proposed a mandatory buyback of all assault weapons—a kind of eminent domain for guns. The proposal—and the pressure it has put on his competitors to respond—has amplified the gun control discussion in the 2020 primary and pushed it further to the left. And O’Rourke’s intense focus on the issue, including events like the one in Denver, has given his faltering campaign new meaning.

“We have to continue to keep this issue front and center if we’re going to make any progress on it,” O’Rourke told me recently over pasta at Fish Nor Fowl, a restaurant in Pittsburgh’s east end, during a campaign swing through Pennsylvania on the day he turned 47. “And I have an opportunity to do that.”

How long O’Rourke will have that opportunity is unclear. He is polling at 2 percent or 3 percent nationally in the primary. And, he told me, “I cannot fathom a scenario where I would run for public office again if I’m not the nominee.”

Barring upheaval in the primary, O’Rourke’s focus on gun control will not make him president. More than that, he might be hurting his own crusade. His buyback proposal thrust him into conflict, not only with President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association, but with some of his party’s leaders, who fear O’Rourke will alienate moderate voters and hinder Democrats’ ability to negotiate more modest gun reforms in Congress, especially if the Senate remains in Republican hands after the 2020 election.

“Dummy Beto made it much harder to make a deal,” Trump tweeted last month, and many Democrats on Capitol Hill agreed.

O’Rourke acknowledges that calling for a mandatory buyback “may be politically difficult” and “might diminish our prospects in the next election, whether you’re a member of Congress or whether you’re a candidate for the presidency.” But he also believes his critics are misreading shifts in public opinion. Near the end of the meeting in Denver, he pledged, “I’m in all the way.”

Lonnie Phillips, whose daughter was killed in Aurora, told O’Rourke that he had “stepped in shit.”

“They’re going to come after you,” Phillips said, while assuring O’Rourke that he has “an army behind you.”

“You don’t back down,” he added.

***

O’Rourke no longer owns a gun,but he grew up around them in West Texas. He told me his father, Pat, kept a handgun in his sock drawer and an inherited “arsenal” of handguns, shotguns and rifles in a basement closet. O’Rourke used to take a .22-caliber rifle into the desert to shoot bottles and cans, and he has gone hunting with friends.

Early in his near-miss Senate run against Ted Cruz last year, a friend advised O’Rourke to “make sure that you’re seen in church every Sunday, make sure that they get a picture of you wearing boots and carrying a gun around,” O’Rourke said. “And I was just like, you know what, none of that is me. I don’t go to church every Sunday. I don’t carry a gun. I don’t have a gun.”

During his Senate campaign, O’Rourke supported renewed efforts to pass an assault weapons ban. But running in a Republican- and gun-rich state, he repeatedly said he had no desire to take weapons from people who already owned them. Early in his presidential run, O’Rourke pursued a standard Democratic menu of gun reforms, including universal background checks and red-flag laws.

The idea of a mandatory buyback, he said, “just was not part of the dialogue. And it doesn’t justify the position or make it OK … but that is, perhaps like a lot of people, where I was.”

That changed after a gunman wielding an AK-47-style riflekilled 22 people in El Paso. On the morning of the shooting, O’Rourke was speaking at a labor forum in Las Vegas and became shaken when the first reports of deaths came in. “Keep that shit on the battlefield,” he pleaded, before suspending his campaign and returning home to mourn the victims and meet with survivors.

Then he asked himself, “What is the most that we could possibly do?”

Gathered around his dinner table one day, he said he told a clutch of advisers, “I can’t escape the conclusion that if we want to stop selling these, then we should also buy the 10 million or more that are out there off the streets. I said, ‘Give me the best argument against this.’ And the only real argument against it was a political argument.”

Until the El Paso shooting, O’Rourke told me, “I never forced myself to answer the question, ‘If it’s important to stop selling these, then shouldn’t we do something to address the fact that there are those weapons of war out on the streets or in people’s homes that can and will be used against us?’ And I don’t know how to say it other than, ‘The reason I never asked myself that question is I just never entertained the possibility that it was possible.”

O’Rourke is now calling for a mandatory buyback for assault weapons and a voluntary buyback for handguns. The funding for the buybacks, he says, would come from increasing the excise tax on gun manufacturers and increasing fines on traffickers. People who do not sell back their assault weapons would be fined.

The proposal is similar to a policy advanced by one of his former competitors, California Congressman Eric Swalwell. Now it is O’Rourke arguing, as Swalwell did with less notice, that Democrats have approached gun control negotiations all wrong, by allowing gun rights activists to frame the parameters of the debate. At a recent campaign event, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, an early O’Rourke supporter, told me, “I’m proud of the fearless way that my candidate is speaking the truth to people.” Swalwell said O’Rourke’s “Hell yes” answer “gave me goosebumps.” And David Axelrod, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama, said on Twitter that O’Rourke “is really moving on this issue of banning assault weapons. Very, very powerful.”

At his rallies, O’Rourke still swivels from impeachment and climate change to immigration and jobs. He is not a single-issue candidate. But it is on gun control that he is distinguishing himself. He told me he “can certainly tell from the way that people have responded and their passion around gun violence, that this has resonated, and that they associate me with this issue.”

During an early October town hall at Casa del Mexicano, a cultural center in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood, an elderly woman in the crowd winced when O’Rourke described the impact of an AR-15 or an AK-47, saying, “You talk to the surgeons who treat the victims, and they say it just shreds to shit everything inside of your body.” A high school student told O’Rourke that “all of my friends are scared” that they will be shot at school, and asked him, “What do we do?” O’Rourke, sweating through his shirt, his sleeves rolled up, told her, “We are not going to accept what is happening right now,” and he suggested that young people would alter the politics surrounding the issue. A cheer went up when he repeated his “Hell, yes,” refrain.

For the purposes of the election, an adviser to one of O’Rourke’s competitors told me, “He did the smart thing, which was to take the pure position.”

The adviser added, “I don’t know quite what it’s adding up to.”

***

For a Democratic presidential candidate,taking a stand on gun control would appear to be advantageous.

Bulletproof backpacks hit the market, active shooter drills have become commonplace in schools, and gun policy ranks among Democratic voters’ top concerns. Forty-five percent of Americans worry they or someone in their family will be victimized in a mass shooting, according to Gallup. In the midterm elections last year, Everytown for Gun Safety, the pro-gun control group founded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, spent millions of dollars, and gun control advocates claimed a number of victories in congressional swing districts.

“The myth that gun safety is the ‘third rail’ of American politics, I think, is buried,” says John Feinblatt, Everytown’s president. “Candidates are now running on their gun safety credentials from Day 1. … That’s just a seismic shift.”

A Quinnipiac University poll released in August found that 60 percent of voters support a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons, and 82 percent favor requiring people to be licensed before purchasing a gun. Support for a mandatory assault weapon buyback program is more mixed—46 percent, according to Quinnipiac, or 52 percent according to aWashington Post-ABC News poll. But support for a mandatory buyback soars among Democratic voters, reaching 71 percent in the Quinnipiac poll. Even in Texas, 49 percent of the state’s voters support a mandatory buyback, according to a University of Texas, Tyler, poll released after the Houston debate.

O’Rourke, who frequently cites the Texas poll, told me, “That’s amazing. That’s without any money being spent to support that position. That’s without—with the exception of Eric Swalwell—without a single national political figure advocating for or endorsing the idea. So that’s just where people are.”

Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris have expressed support for a mandatory gun buyback, but the vast majority of the Democratic candidates have not. The field’s early front-runner, Vice President Joe Biden, came close to endorsing the idea over the summer, in a CNN interview, before his campaign clarified that Biden supports a voluntary—not a mandatory—buyback. He has since proposed giving people who own assault weapons or high-capacity magazines a choice: sell them back or register them.

Other candidates don’t just oppose buybacks; they also criticize O’Rourke for advocating one. At a gun control forum in Las Vegas in early October, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said buybacks have had “mixed results” and questioned the utility of pursuing them.

“We’ve got to do something now,” Buttigieg said. “And we have a way sometimes as a party—my party—of getting caught just when we’ve amassed the discipline and the force to get something done right away, a shiny object makes it harder for us to focus.”

When O’Rourke appeared at the forum that same afternoon, he condemned Buttigieg’s rhetoric. To “those who are worried about the polls and want to triangulate or talk to the consultants or listen to the focus groups—and I’m thinking about Mayor Pete on this one, who I think probably wants to get to the right place but is afraid of doing the right thing right now—to those who need a weatherman, let me tell you that in this country, mandatory buybacks are supported by a majority of Americans,” he said.

O’Rourke told me, “I think that the political leadership, including Democrats, has not caught up to where the people are on this.”

The reaction to his “Hell, yes” moment underscores his point. Congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island said on Fox News after the debate that O’Rourke’s “message doesn’t help,” while Senator Chris Coons of Delaware told CNN, “I frankly think that that clip will be played for years at Second Amendment rallies with organizations that try to scare people by saying Democrats are coming for your guns.”

“The issue that a lot of gun owners have is that they think Democrats want to take away their guns,” says Mathew Littman, a former Biden speechwriter who now supports Harris and works on gun reform. “So, saying that you want to take away their guns may prove that they’re right. And the problem with it is gun owners and non-gun owners agree on so many things that we could do—universal background checks, red-flag laws. Why don’t we start on the areas we agree upon?”

Sure enough, Republicans pounced on O’Rourke for his buyback plan. A GOP state representative in Texas tweeted, “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis,” while the state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, rejoiced that O’Rourke “will never be a threat in Texas politics again.” John Thomas, a Republican strategist, told me he is using O’Rourke’s remarks to raise money for congressional races in New York, California and Michigan.

“Beto has fundamentally shifted the messaging on guns in the Democratic primary going forward,” Thomas says. “If you’re a second-tier candidate in the next debate, why wouldn’t you go even a step further than that? Say, ‘Yes, why stop there? We’ve got to do the sin tax on guns, tax ammunition and guns, and give the proceeds to gun victims.’”

O’Rourke could have expected blowback from the right, but he was incredulous at the Democratic criticism of his plan. After Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader with a long record on gun control, brushed aside mandatory buybacks, saying, “I don’t know of any other Democrat who agrees with Beto O’Rourke,” the candidate responded by telling reporters to “ask Chuck Schumer what he’s been able to get done.”

***

“Somebody told me—I don’t know if this is true—that the average attention span nationally on gun violence after a horrific mass shooting is three weeks,” O’Rourke said at our dinner in Pittsburgh. He said he does not sense that this time—not for the electorate and, he added, “Not for me.”

Yet it is possible that national attention has already moved past O’Rourke two months after the El Paso shooting and one month after the Houston debate. After the impeachment inquiry into Trump engulfed Washington, Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who had been in talks with the White House on gun control, acknowledged that the turmoil “may temporarily be the end of the road for a lot of legislative initiatives,” including on guns. In the presidential campaign, the topic has reverted from its once-charged status to its usual, less prominent place among other priorities.

O’Rourke, like many congressional observers, was never optimistic for negotiations with Trump on gun control. Long before Democrats opened their impeachment inquiry, the Republican president spurned a universal background checks bill passed by the House. Talks between Democrats and the White House, O’Rourke said, “never seemed on.”

O’Rourke’s own proposal has been criticized as politically impractical or potentially unconstitutional. When CNN’s Chris Cuomo told O’Rourke last month that he doubted the legality of mandatory buybacks, O’Rourke replied that under the Second Amendment, “the government does have a power to regulate those kinds of weapons that are extraordinarily unusual or deadly.” He told Cuomo he is “willing to fight that one all the way to the end.”

The measure O’Rourke is proposing, he says, is not unlike laws banning any other illegal weapon or substance. “We don’t go door to door to enforce any part of the criminal code,” he told me, “nor would we in this case.” When asked whether penalties could include imprisonment, he said, “A fine, certainly. I don’t know about imprisonment. But it’s something that I’d like to listen to.”

In its uncertainty—surrounding the specifics of the legislation that O’Rourke would support, as well as its prospect of passage—O’Rourke’s proposal is not unlike plans advanced by Democrats on any number of issues, including health care and climate change. And politicians of both parties have long found political value in advancing agendas that are not immediately likely to pass.

Although O’Rourke’s buybacks proposal has had little effect on his campaign’s weak polling, it has allowed him to “put a mark in the book on something relevant,” says Doug Herman, a Democratic strategist. “It takes him out of the abyss and puts him on the trampoline to another office.”

O’Rourke, for now, rejects that possibility. When I pressed at our dinner in Pittsburgh whether any other political office might appeal to him—if not a run for Senate, which he has consistently resisted, perhaps Texas governor, even mayor of El Paso—O’Rourke said no. “I can’t tell you all the reasons why,” he said. “I just can’t even imagine.”

“No,” he said. “I’m running for president.”

If he doesn’t win the presidency, O’Rourke said that “in whatever way I can contribute, I’m going to do that.”

He recalled Lonnie Phillips telling him in Denver that if O’Rourke stopped talking about gun control, he would be “pissed,” and Sean Whalen, a pediatric dentist whose patient was shot to death last year, warning him that “if you lose this election or you don’t get the nomination, if you walk away from this, I would be personally offended.”

O’Rourke told me, “I’m in this for the long haul.”

Read More