#However many short stories I love dearly and think about constantly are in this camp also

[specialagentartemis]

My favorite genre of sci-fi is “small research team goes to a distant plant/star/space station/black hole/etc to study something weird there, and then the weird thing there Wrecks Their Shit.” Can’t get enough of it. “Small research team goes to a deep undersea research station” and “small research team goes to a deep Antarctic research station” are also very good variants of this as long as they get completely rekt by a weird mysterious alien thing there. I love it every time.

It is also important to note that these stories can range from “TPK” to “lone survivor” to “a few losses but most of the main characters come out of this harrowing ordeal alive, if changed” to “everyone survives this harrowing ordeal and they have a new friend now!” but the more characters survive the better the story better be. If it’s a TPK/lone survivor I eat this up and will love it no matter how bad it is (Underwater (2020) starring Kristen Stewart I am vaguing you here. Stupid movie. Saw it on the big screen and loved it). But if most/all of the cast survives, the writing and the story and the characters better be goddamn amazing (All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Wolf 359 by Gabriel Urbina and Sarah Shachat I am vaguing you here <3 )

[minimonojoon]

night drive | ksj

g e n r e: just pure, unadulterated fluff, friends to lovers!au. p a i r i n g: groomsman!seokjin x bridesmaid!reader w o r d s: 3k+ words. s u m m a r y: coming back from your best friends’ wedding, the last thing you’d ever expect is seokjin confessing his love for you.  w a r n i n g s: it can cause cavities, but other than that, none. a / n: this is just 3k words but to me feels like they’ve been 6k and more, lol. Surprisingly, I kinda like the way it came out, so I’m pretty satisfied with it! I really hope you enjoy it, because I put all myself into it despite its shortness - well, it’s technically a long drabble.. but still. An huge, big, fat shout out to @kyut-tea for bearing with me and hyping me up so much these past days. She’s an angel and she deserves the world, truly. Go read her fics! <3 

This, so far, has been one of the best nights of your entire life.

As predictable as it might sound, the dearest memories you jealousy custody in your heart can be counted in just one hand, and your best friend’s wedding definitely gained a place right there. 

You couldn’t ask anything better for a night to end like this, the crisp air of the late night coming from the window of the black pick-up brushing your hair and kissing your warm skin. It’s like a damn movie scene, one from the comedies about life, love and transition phases, which philosophical quotes everyone on the internet post about and (guilty from hair to foot) you so dearly love.

The content smile on your face slowly surfaces as you outstretch your arm out, feeling the chilly air passing through your fingers and caressing the wind like you’d do with waves in the sea. Fighting the tiredness that threatens your eyelids to close, you recollect the memories of the evening with a soft chuckle, as the loud cheering and the embarrassing chants to celebrate the newly married birds you’ve sing till your voice croaked reverberates in your ears, the tingling of glasses whenever someone proposed a toast – which where many, much to your dismay for your current state of inebriation.

You stifle a laugh, remembering how Taehyung broke an entire bottle of champagne treating the main table where he and Jimin sat like a ship ready to sail. Brushing your morbid lilac dress still sticky with gold liquid, you can’t stop thinking how good you feel.

“Thought you were more the angry type of drunk person, not the crazy one,” Seokjin snorts with a quirk of his eyebrows, as he checks the route in rearview mirror before he overtakes one of the few cars you’ve encountered so far. His eyes are focused solely on the street, but you don’t miss the way his eyes tingles with mischievous amusement.

“I think throwing Friskies at people because they don’t agree with you can be classified as both angry and crazy drunk type of person,” you retort with a smirk on your face, your habits as a drunken person quite well illustrated as stories to embarrass you by your small group of friends. “But in this case, I was just thinking about Taehyung improvising himself some kind of authority ready to inaugurate some ship, like it’s 1912 or something,” you emulate his gesture of breaking the bottle with a very much crazy look in your face, teeth exposed in Taehyung’s typical wide, boxy smile.

“That little shit almost dirtied my clothes,” Seokjin tsks, “sometimes I think he likes to copy Namjoon too much.”

“Nah,” you retort, pointed finger up as an elementary teacher correcting his students, “he just follows whatever Jungkook does. And Jungkook loves imitating Namjoon.” Your laugh erupts inside the car, as well as Seokjin’s, thinking how the youngest of your group have unconsciously chosen the blondeish boy as his guru for life. What a dismay for him, but such a source of amusement for you.

“Can’t believe he’s married now,” Seokjin sighs, as you mold your body to the seat, searching for warmth and comfort. “With Jimin, of all the people,” you shake your head this time, sharing a knowing look with him.

“Could you ever imagine?” He jokes.

Jimin and Taehyung are like day and night. Opposite to each other, yet without the other time wouldn’t be the same, nor the sky would shine bright as it does now. They literally illuminate the whole room with their love whenever they’re around and not in a sicky lovey-dovey style. Although their bickering has always been both frustrating and exhilarating – more one than the other, to your opinion – the love and support they give each other is something that makes you both envious and ecstatic at the same time.  

Smiling bittersweetly, you mentally count all the times your relationships have miserably failed. Out of love, misunderstandings, different plans for the future were some of the reasons you knew, deep down, where just mere excuses for fleeing yourself from what ended up being just distractions whenever you realize the excitement of meeting a new person vanished like a camp fire.

You’ve never looked at one of your lovers with the same passion and adoration Taehyung does whenever he sees Jimin dancing on stage or in class, when he’s teaching new choreography to his students. That look has always been reserved to one person only and right now he’s sitting next to you, driving yourselves home.

Seokjin’s big dark eyes glint in the night, illuminated by the faints lights of the car’s controls in front of him, the first buttons of his white cottoned shirt loosen and his hair still damp from the previous dancing. You can’t help thinking about how effortlessly gorgeous he is and how you seem to be unable to pry your eyes from his form before he realizing you’re observing him.

Despite being friends since college years, having someone else handling with you the volcanoes that were Jimin and Taehyung was much of a relief, especially when the two of you formed a great team to balance your student, social and jimyung life (the nickname is cringy and creepy, yet Seokjin found it extremely amusing when he created it and you, always the soft heart, just let him pass with this one). Yes, to most of the people out there you might sound crazy, yet Taehyung has always been there for you and you know he will always be. And you’re no less, even if it means holding his hand while he’s crying because Jimin said he didn’t like fluorescent turquoise as their bathroom painting color, while Seokjin was comforting Jimin in the other room.

It’s a cycle that always repeats itself, really. You’re sure you wouldn’t survive this alone if Seokjin wasn’t there with you.

“Are you just admiring how the moonlight shine on my flawless handsome face?”

Your cheeks heat up immediately at his teasing, your heart thunders inside your chest because in his cocky and confident remark he’s right. You dismiss your current turmoil with a scoff, rolling your eyes to the ceiling. “I was just noticing how disgustingly sweaty you are,” it’s a big, damn lie yet your grimace seems prettily convincing with how Seokjin’s mouth opens, offended to the heart.

“I went to the bathroom before leaving!” he whines, pursing his lips as you try to hide the giggle that threatens to erupt from your mouth. As a revenge, his hand reaches your tight and squeezes the supple flesh right where your tight meets with your knee. He perfectly knows it’s one of your weak points, because it has you squeaking and jolting in your seat, hitting the dashboard of the pick-up. You flinch from the pain, while Seokjin’s booming and hiccupping laugh fills the although silent vehicle.

Now it’s your turn to be theatrically offended, as you massage the aching point.

“Don’t look at me like that! It’s not my fault karma’s a bitch,” he smirks, but his hand travels upon yours until he manages to be the one massaging your sore point with carefulness, gently pressuring your flesh until you melt into a puddle. You force yourself out of certain thoughts, diverting your gaze elsewhere as you let him do whatever he wants. You don’t realize you’re holding your breath until he moves his hand, searching for yours.

You’re puzzled, speechless when he squeezes your intertwined fingers and you look at him with your mouth opened, while a whirlwind of emotions is currently making your brain completely blank. You stay there, frozen as you follow him with your eyes when he delicately presses kisses on your skin, a faint smile on his features. You can feel his warm breath hitting the back of your hand, goosebumps appearing everywhere. The banter you two were having just seconds ago is now just plain silence.

It’s the intimacy in his gestures that has shivers running down your spine, taken aback by something only your wild imagination could have ever conjured. His casualness he puts in just few movements has the power of making your stomach doing somersaults, the butterflies returning like a tornado unannounced. Partially, you fear them. It always takes your full willpower to not let your feelings for him overwhelm you and trashing years of friendship into the toilet, even when you share moments like this one happening now. For the other part, you hate them. It’s the limbo you find yourself into, the rejection angling right over your head threatening to fall yet the strong desire to just go and kiss him already which constantly clutches your brain and confuses you.

You hear the thump thump thump of your heart in your ears and the trepidation that surges in your veins is like iced water, thinking he might hear it too. However, you remain in silent state as your hands are still interlaced. You’re not sure what to do next as you are unsure on what hell of a meaning you should give to all of this. After all, you’ve always been the best friend of his best friend’s boyfriend. Sharing awkward situations and couple crisis is nothing so important. Seokjin is a catch. You remember girls being head over hills for him, always surrounding the guy whenever he went. He’s a charmer. You’re just… you. A friend, a confidant sometimes. It’s not right for the both of you doing this. It’s intimate.

As you try to untangle your hands to both free yourselves, Seokjin squeezes harder to stop you. You can feel his muscles stiff under your touch and suddenly this feeling of urge coming from him you can’t quite decipher.

“I was thinking,” he says hurriedly, before clearing his throat, “I was thinking how everything could be if we were together.” There’s a bit of silence. “I mean, as boyfriend and girlfriend.” He clarifies. You miss the way he bites his lips out of nervousness, because you’re damn shocked.

What did he just say now?

Your mouth agapes like a fish out of water and your brain has a sudden malfunction before you actually register what just came out of Seokjin’s fully plump lips. It has your eyelashes battle furiously, while you try to wrack your brain on why he has just asked this. He must sense your confusion and your shock, because he laughs, but it’s not a wholehearted laugh. It’s more like it’s forced, nervous. Like he’s trying to hide dust under the carpet hoping no one would see him.

“What, you’ve never thought about us?” his tone is light, as if he’s asking you about the weather today.

He has? It’s the only coherent question that pops in your mind. You don’t know what to say.

“I-I..” Your brain reels while you try to come up with an answer, which inevitably doesn’t come out. You’d have expected anything – from one of his infamous dad jokes thrown here and there more often than not, to some useless fact he heard from Namjoon to start a conversation. Certainly, not this.

“Does the idea has never crossed your mind? Am I that repulsive?” This time, the hurt in his tone does not go unnoticed.

“No! You’re not,” your haste response is quick, frowning as he might be thinking something like that. You glare at him from the corner of your eye. “It’s just… you took me by surprise,” you sheepishly admit, tangling one of your fingers in your hair. Seokjin nods, probably coming to the terms he might has just thrown off a bomb without thinking. He just doesn’t know it has nuclear proportion.

The thick silence afterwards is tense, to the point it can be cut with a knife. You don’t dare to meet his eyes, focusing on the road instead, as he drives. The humming of the pick-up becomes your blanket for a while, shielding your thoughts from hunting you with question unanswered. But soon, the noise became too loud. So you have to ask.

“What would have changed?” You turn your head to him, as you catch the jolt in his shoulders, like he wasn’t expecting you to say something. But he’s quick on catching on and the answer is on the tip of his tongue before you can battle an eyelash.

“Nothing,” he confesses, “it wouldn’t have change nothing much.”

“Why is that?”

He snorts at your question. “We pretty much have everything there,” he says as the most obvious thing in the world. He gulps, then he continues. “You’ve always been there. When I struggled with assignments back in college, or when I freaked out because I thought no one would want to hire me right after graduation,” he recalls, shaking his head. Seokjin has always been the confident one, leading his way with his chin up and a beautiful, charming smile on his face, yet seeing him so downcast was a first. You were sure you had done an awful job trying to cheer him up. “Or whenever Taehyung and Jimin fought. Damn, that one time we went skiing? If it wasn’t for you, I would have lost my shit.” True to his words, the only thing you recall affectionately were the two of you in a random café drinking hot cocoa and laughing at stupid jokes he threw here and there, far from your very stressing friends. You smile fondly, your eyes landing on your hands. You didn’t even notice that you start fidgeting with them.

“Today, tonight… would have been the same. Driving back home, drunk but happy because, god, our best friend finally married. I’d have hold your hand just like I did, probably mocking you because you were so naïve shielding me from that bottle of champagne. But I’d be grateful to you to no end, because this suit costed like half of my salary and I didn’t want it to be ruined. So, I’d say that I love you so, so fucking much.” He finishes with shuddering breaths, like he has just run a whole marathon. His words sound too much like a real confession and you can’t move, can’t breathe as you watch him with eyes full of tears, ready to spill them.

“Pull over,” you say finally. Seokjin starts to panic, looking frantically between you and the street.

“What? Why? It’s late and we’re in the middle of no—”

“Just do it!” you huff exasperatedly and Seokjin can’t do nothing but silently comply your request, stopping the car at the first improvised parked lot he finds. When the engine is turned off, you turn to him the same moment he does, and you notice how his shoulder are stiff and his body weary, as if he’s scared you can run off that same moment.

“You can’t do this.” You gulp, trying to force yourself to a steady tone. It’s fruitless. Your voice quivers and your lips tremble, so you take a deep breath to compose yourself. Seokjin looks puzzled, confused and scared.

“You can’t talk about ifs and maybes. You can’t say we have everything there, Kim Seokjin. How dare you? How dare you built a castle like it’s nothing to you, saying these things? You sure are something, huh? You’re always been a little dense, but I’d never thought it was so serious.” The frantic movements of your hands have Seokjin’s eyes to widen, as you sputter all those words. Angry, exasperated, you’re not sure anymore. “I don’t let you say those things when I do seriously love you, sounding so serious about—”

You don’t get to finish, because Seokjin’s mouth collides with yours, shutting down your little rant.

Breath hitched and eyes widened, you’re motionless. His lips are plump and soft as you’ve always imagined them to be, pressing gently to yours. He cups your face with his hands, brushing his thumbs on your cheeks with loving strokes. You finally close your eyes, letting yourself enjoy his touch as he finally moves slowly his plush lips onto yours. The kiss has your head to start spinning, clutching to the collar of his shirt as his cologne mixed with sweat and alcohol flare your nostrils, making you dizzy. You’ve never been this close to Seokjin in your life, yet this proximity has you already addicted, skin tingling as your pads brush his neck, fingers silently tangling in his dark locks. You feel his hands travelling from your cheeks to your back, pressing you closely to him, his toned arms surrounding you. You feel like you’ve found home after years of hopelessly wandering and you’re sure your heart is going to explode, because you can feel it thundering everywhere in your body.

As the pace of the kiss quickens, Seokjin’s tongue caressing your lower lip gently to enter your mouth, you feel your skin slowly heating up. You tug his hair, eliciting a moan from him that has you growing goosebumps. Time seems to come to a full stop, yet you feel like the fast forward button has been pushed, because the moment you face yourself you want to kiss him again.

You press your forehead on Seokjin’s, as your elaborated breaths are the only sound in the although quiet pick-up. “So, to answer you question, Kim Seokjin,” you begin, whispering, “I do have thought about things going differently.” You finally admit and Seokjin simply smirks, closing his eyes. He pecks your lips before distancing himself, looking at you with a fond smile on his face.

“If that’s so, ___, maybe we can both agree that from now on, things can really go differently.” He solemnly speaks. You nod, stifling a laugh. “I think so, yeah.”

You both fasten your seatbelts then, and Seokjin starts the engine to re-enter the roadway as everything goes back to normal. But it’s not entirely true, not anymore at least. The smile on your faces and your interlaced fingers proves that. You stay like this for the most part of your trip, even when you finally succumb to sleep.

You won’t let go his hand so easily.

And neither will he.