#I’ll share more general pics from the trip later but i think this is good just for the taj | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

revisionaryhistory · 4 years ago

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Three Days ~ 57

~*~Emma~*~

Before jumping in the shower, I pulled up the naked picture, put a peach (I was in Georgia, after all) over my ass, and posted it on Instagram along with one of Amy and I floating and holding hands. I drew a heart around us and captioned it “Sister love”. When I got out of the shower, I had a text.

Sebastian ~ Imagine my sad face when there wasn’t a peach free version in my texts. Nice bikini.

Emma ~ You mean the version with my bikini bottoms that my sister took.

Sebastian ~ Ok, maybe not. Still a sad face.

I sent him a posed bikini shot.

Sebastian ~ I’m not going to complain. What a beauty. How is it going?

Emma ~ Five minutes and I'll call you.

Sebastian ~ Should be just enough time... with my new bikini pic.

Emma ~ Now I know why your biceps are so big.

Sebastian ~ Foreams.

I pulled the towel off my hair, threw on clothes, and opened my iPad. Didn't take him long to answer. "Ce mai faci, Sebasti-an?" <How are you?>

“I was having a good day, now it's even better. How about you?"

I caught him up on the day and plans for the long weekend.

"You're going to be busier than me. I’ve got dinner with the guys. Then Canada. Sounds like our Sunday date may need to be postponed."

Our phone sex date. "Hell, no. Do you think after a day with family I'm not going to need to release some tension?"

Sebastian sighed, "That's all I am to you. Tension release."

"More of a perk than a purpose."

"I can live with that." He shrugged with a smile.

“That’s good because dad introduced to an eligible doctor today. He wanted to invite him to dinner. I told him my boyfriend didn’t like me to go on dates with other men.”

“Damn straight.”

“I call him bait.”

“To his face?”

I snickered and shook my head, "We've got pizza coming for dinner. Wanna meet the fam now? Natural conversation ender."

"Whenever."

I stood up, "Now, then I'll call you later. Unless you're falling back into your hole."

He held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart, "A little hole. I’m all yours whenever."

"Won't be too late." I opened my door and headed down the hall. I could see everyone in the family room. "Hey guys, I’ve got Sebastian. Want to meet him?"

Amy yelled, "Yes."

I put the iPad on the coffee table while they squished together. I stood behind them. "Family, Sebastian. Sebastian, this is Katie, Amy, mom is Andrea, and dad is David."

"Nice to meet all of you."

Katie got very close to the camera like she did when she talked to me, "Do you have a dog?"

"I don't have a dog. Do you have a dog?"

"No, but I want one. What about a cat, do you have a cat?"

He shook his head with a pout, "They make me sneeze. I have a fish. He lives with your Aunt Emma. His name is Mycroft."

"That's a stupid name."

Sebastian crinkled up his nose, "I know. Emma named him.”

Amy pulled her away, "We don't say stupid."

"She's a cutie." Sebastian looked between us. "I’m about to sound like I’m sucking up. All four of you are beautiful and carbon copies. Love the new hair, Amy."

Amy ran her fingers through, "Thank you."

Mom added, "Sucking up or not, always nice to hear. Amy said you're on your way to Canada."

Sounds like Amy had told our parents about our conversation.

"Yes. I have a movie showing at the Toronto Film Festival. I’m doing some advance press and meetings."

"And Rome," from Amy.

"Female spy movie."

My dad spoke up, "I‘m a history buff and have read about the units, mostly in Europe during World War two."

And they were off. Sebastian had been researching and dad directed him to a couple of books. They were animated and their conversation bounced back and forth. Sebastian managed to guide the talk around and asked mom about the mini-family reunion going on Sunday. Mom talked about the menu before she started sharing embarrassing stories. Sebastian told a few on himself. I pulled Amy in and she retaliated with a particularly embarrassing story that ended with me peeing by the side of a road. Maybe this meeting thing was a bad idea.

Sebastian looked at me, "So when we take a road trip you can point out the best places."

His words were teasing, but his expression was adoration. I felt it all over and smiled in return. "I imagine you’d block me from view instead of advertising a roadside strip show like she did.”

“I would.”

Fifteen minutes in the doorbell rang. I was starving but wished it had taken a little longer. I had been a little worried at first when it felt like they were interviewing him, but like he’d told me and I’d seen, after a few minutes they went back to normal and talked to him like he was anyone else. I was still standing in the back and went after the pizza, putting it on the table before returning to my spot. He and Amy were laughing about something.

Sebastian glanced up at me for a second, “I don’t want to keep you from dinner. Emma’s bragged on the pizza place. Go eat while it’s hot.”

Amy and dad said it was nice to meet him and mom said, “Fingers crossed things continue and we get to do this again or in person.”

What the fuck!

Sebastian saw me make a face and throw my hands up. He smiled and spoke to my mom, “I’m not going anywhere.” He glanced up to me, “I’ll talk to you later, Em?”

“Yep, I’ll text to make sure you’re still up.”

I used the time it took me to walk around the couch and close the cover on my iPad to calm myself down. What an absolutely strange thing for my mother to say to my boyfriend. By strange I mean bitchy. I wasn't willing to let it go but now wasn't the time. I'd like to say because I didn't want to confront her in front of the whole family, but it was because I was hungry.

Amy was buckling Katie in her booster seat, mom had the plates, and dad had multiple bottles of beer. I had no function. I sat down and opened the pizza boxes. The first bite was as good as I remembered. The combination of flavor and the happy memories made me smile. I chased the bite with beer and was in heaven.

I was content to sit quietly enjoying my pizza and beer. My twin was not, "Sebastian is nice and funny. He tells great stories. His expressions. I mean I know he's an actor, but this was him as a person. I like him."

"Me too," came from Katie.

"And he is gorgeous." Amy’s eyes were huge, "Gorgeous."

I pulled my lips to the side and nodded, "Yes, he is."

From the end of the table, my dad spoke, "Amy, tell us what's going on at the lake?"

Mom added, "Is Max going to be there?"

The rest of dinner was my parents talking to Amy about tomorrow and asking questions about her and Max. Not one word from either of them about Sebastian. I could tell they knew a lot about Max by the questions they asked. Zero questions about my boyfriend, who they knew next to nothing about. They knew next to nothing about how we met or what we’d done. They were asking about Amy and Max though. I wasn't even included in the conversation. I didn't have a function here either.

I wonder how much beer is in the fridge or tequila in the bar?

I’m angry. Sebastian was charming, self-effacing, and knew enough about them to ask questions. I don't expect them to gush all over about him, but how about a "he seems nice" or even "it was nice to talk to him.". But no. Nothing. Zippo.

One of the first things I learned in rehab was anger is a secondary emotion. Equally as valid, but still derived from another emotion. Something comes first and triggers anger. My feelings are hurt. They can talk to Amy about Max at any time. Literally at any time because she lives here. I'm here for five days and we just had him on FaceTime. Silence. I feel discounted.

I volunteered to take the garbage out. I needed some air. Instead of coming back inside, I sat down on one of the loungers, putting my phone on the side table. Closing my eyes and focusing on my breathing I tried to slip into calm. I was almost there when I heard the doors open and close. The calm disappeared. I was guessing it was mom. Dad wasn't one for confrontation and there was no mistaking there was going to be confrontation. Imagine my surprise when it was both of them.

"Hey, sweetheart." Dad sat on the foot of the lounger next to me. I pulled my feet up, making room for mom.

"Hey, has Katie gone to bed?"

Mom shook her head. "Amy's reading to her."

"We wanted to talk to you about Amy."

"OK." I was a little confused. "She seems really good. The last few months we've been texting and talking more. Today was nice. Laying here in the pool talking like we were teenagers again."

Mom put her hand on my foot, "I’m glad. Amy told us some of it."

My dad had his hands clasped between his knees. "Amy has been doing well. She has a good job, has been going out with friends, and she likes this Max."

“I remember him from high school."

"We'd like to keep her doing well. This is the longest she's been sober. We need you to tone it down a little."

I cocked my head, "Tone what down?"

Dad said, "Talking about Sebastian."

In an interesting twist, mom tried to lessen that blow. Sort of. "In general too. How good things are going at work and your social life. She compares herself to you and we don't want Amy to feel bad about herself."

I needed to know, "Did Amy say something? Have I said or done something for her to feel inferior?"

"No, not all. She said the same as you about how good it felt today."

Amy saying she felt less was completely different than what was going on here. I fought back angry tears. "First, I have barely talked about Sebastian. Amy asked questions from the hospital to here. I was excited for you all to meet him, but did it before dinner so it was time limited. That’s all I’ve said about him. You two don't even know how we met. Your disinterest is pretty clear.” I looked at dad, "I wasn't going to bring him up until after dinner, but you were trying to set me up." I turned my head to my mom, "And you straight up said if you two don't break up maybe we'll talk to you again."

"Emiliana, you're overreacting. Sebastian seems very nice and seems to be quite taken with you. My comment was more for Amy. He's a movie star. Of course, she's jealous, but she needs to remember dating doesn't mean forever."

"But you said it to Sebastian. Why would you say that to either of us?" I had my hand up with all fingers pointing at my chest. "Sebastian is the first relationship I’ve had in forever and you're forecasting the end. I’m happy and you're saying maybe it’ll last. That’s hurtful and mean."

"I’m happy for you. We're just asking you not to rub your sister's nose in your happiness and success."

Had I thought there was the slightest bit of truth to that statement I would have backed down. But there wasn't. "I've done no such thing. I've intentionally not done that. There's so much I could be saying, but haven't."

"Thank you. Please keep it that way." .

I stared at her. The correct response would have been they wanted to hear all about him.

My dad's voice cut the silence. "I didn't know you were dating anyone. I wouldn't have mentioned Frank coming to dinner if I had. What's so wrong with wanting my daughter to come home?"

He did well until the last sentence. It sucked the anger out of me and left sadness. "But you don't want me home. You want a version of me who isn't excited about a new boyfriend, or celebrates winning a volleyball tournament, or has friends who enjoy hanging out with me, or is proud of how she does her job. Or is at least is willing to pretend she isn’t."

Neither said anything. They couldn't because they knew I was right. I picked up my phone and stood up, "I'm going to go sit by the lake for a bit. Watch the water."

Mom didn't move, but Dad stood up. "Emma, Amy has struggled and worked hard to deal with what happened that summer."

I curled my lips in tight, refusing to cry. "So did I."

I walked along the wooded path and to the end of the dock. I sat dangling my legs off and called my other dad.

Ed picked up on the first ring, "It's too soon for you to call. You haven't been there for twelve hours."

I jumped right in. "I had a fight with my parents. The day with Amy has been great, like we were kids again. We’ve laughed and talked and even had this moment where we connected about what happened. Then my parents literally told me to stop being so happy. I might make Amy relapse."

"I love you, Emma.” He gave me a smile that was more sad than happy. “Tell me what they said. Exactly what they said."

Tears rolled down my face as I relayed the conversation.

Ed was silent until the end. He has always tried to be objective and not say anything negative about my parents. "Fuck them, Emma."

I started laughing. "I knew I wasn't overreacting. It’s not even that they want me tone it down because I do that with Amy all the time. I always check what's going on with her before I tell her what's going on with me. I'm always careful."

"I know you are."

"It's that they don't even consider me. Not a word. Had they said they wanted to hear all about Seb, but things were rough with Amy it would have been alright. But Amy's doing great and I can't be too happy in case she might not be. I have to be half of me so they can hope she'll be whole. I want her to be ok too, but not at the expense of me. To throw out they want me home. Why would I ever even consider moving back here with people who want me to diminish myself? And that she struggled. What do they think I did?”

“You could tell them.”

“Tell them? Are you crazy? So next time Amy is feeling bad about herself they can tell her then she relapses and tells whoever. No, thank you.”

Ed laughed, “I didn’t say it was a good idea. Don’t forget it’s your choice. You always have a choice. Even if it’s the best choice there are consequences. For the record, I think you made the right choice.”

I laid down on the dock. I know it’s not about sides, but I needed somebody on mine. Ed was on mine. “I want to go home.”

“Call an Uber and go to the airport. You need money, I’ll send. Or call Sebastian he’ll fly you home.”

That made me laugh, he was clearing the way for whatever I needed. “It’s my choice.”

“Always.”

I thought a second and Ed was good with the silence. “The only reason I’m not going home is that I don’t think this is Amy and we’re spending a day out with friends tomorrow. I don’t want to miss a good visit with my sister because my parents are assholes.”

“You said that, not me.”

“I read your mind. I love you. Thank you. I’m better.” I groaned, “I’m supposed to FaceTime Sebastian. I’m sure I’m a mess.”

“Don’t lie to him. Don’t pretend everything’s ok. Let him support you. I think he’ll be good at it. Doesn’t mean I’m going to quit giving him shit.”

“He doesn’t think you’re going to kill him anymore.”

“I’ll have to work harder.”

We hung up and I headed back toward the house. It was nearly pitch black out here and I wanted to see Sebastian.

#sebastian stan #sebastian stan fanfiction #fanfiction #sebastian stan X ofc #marvel actor fanfiction

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gwoongi · 5 years ago

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acts of love

bts / reader, all members / reader genre: best friends au, fluff + crack rating: general words: 9.6k warnings: platonic relationships, smoking, so much fluff you might need to book an appointment with ur dentist for tomorrow morning ASAP a/n: if u want 2 be bts’ best friend, raise ur hand *thousands of hands raise*. this fic fuels my genuine need to be their bff. i saw this post last night + wrote this immediately. hope u love it like i do :D

➸ As long as you’ve got a good group of friends, anything is possible. Thankfully, you’ve got the best group you could ever ask for.

(01) taking pics of ur friends without them asking u to bc they looked so pretty in that exact moment

“Well, at least the views not so bad. Honestly, I thought it would be a lot worse.”

Beside you, at the top of the bleachers that surround the large football pitch below, Taehyung huffs and kicks his feet up onto the empty row in front of him. It would be easy to just move rows, considering the game’s due to start in ten minutes time, and there’s plenty of empty seats closer. But, he’s bought these seats, and by the looks of things, Yoongi and Hoseok are already comfortable where they are, sharing a big bag of sticky popcorn between them. Casting a look to the right, you notice that Sana and Seunghee are making their way up, dressed in jerseys and caps, and you suddenly feel very out of place.

“Tell me why I came again?” you ask, not looking away from the pitch below. The grass is bright green, and every wandering body down on the pitch is just a small speck.

“Because,” Taehyung starts, unlocking his phone and checking his messages. You snoop- one missed text from Jeongguk and two off his Mom, which makes you smile. Taehyung’s always been a Mommy’s boy. “You love me, and you know that I worked my ass off for two whole months saving up for these tickets. And, since Jimin’s sick and couldn’t come, you decided to be a good friend and take his place.”

With a frown, you look back towards Taehyung. “I don’t know shit about football.”

“Cheer when we do,” Taehyung suggests honestly.

Yoongi perks up, patting your arm roughly. “Do what I do, and cheer for the team with the prettier uniform.”

“Don’t!” Taehyung hisses, grabbing you back. “The other team have a prettier uniform, but if you cheer for them on this side of the stadium, you’re going to get mobbed. Hey, Yoongi, don’t tell her that, she doesn’t know any better.”

“Just football,” Yoongi shrugs.

“Just football…” Taehyung scoffs and shrinks back down in his seat.

You laugh quietly, petting Taehyung’s leg with faux sympathy. As you move your body to glance around the stadium, strangely anticipating the start of the match, a flash out the corner of your eye makes you look over in Hoseok’s general direction. Hoseok holds his phone up, taking a photo, and then smiles as he checks it on the screen.

“Jung Hoseok, delete it now!” you gape, realising what he’s done. “Oh my God, I bet I look so ugly...you could have warned me.”

“Sorry,” he laughs sheepishly. He then shows you the screen, “you looked pretty! And it’s your first live match ever, we had to document it. Yoongi, look. Wow...I’m sending this to Jimin for proof that you’re having fun.”

“What if I’m not having fun?” you ask.

He glances up, “you are.”

Well. If he says so.

(02) randomly giving tiny gifts (a comic book that ur friend likes, a heart-shaped piece of paper with a sweet message on it)

“Can anybody here share the exact chemistry behind Elephant Toothpaste?”

Chemistry is the absolute bane of your life. It’s only been a few weeks, and you’re already regretting taking additional classes in it. Technically, it was Jimin’s fault you were here in the first place. If it wasn’t for the fact that Jimin was afraid of enrolling into classes alone and therefore had guilted you into taking advanced chemistry with him, then you wouldn’t be here. You sigh for the fourth time in the last ten minutes and shove your chin into the palm of your hand. The clock above Professor Han’s head seems to be still, taunting you with zero movements.

Can boredom kill you? You wonder about that, letting your mind wander as Professor Han continues to quiz the front two rows on the exact chemical formula of the affectionately named Elephant Toothpaste. You’re so close to finding the answer when you feel somebody poking your upper arm. The finger that pokes belongs to Jimin, and you angle your head to look at him with a questioning glare.

Jimin smiles, his hair falling into his face. Like you, he rolled out of bed this morning and tried his best to look semi-presentable; if you counted borderline pajama wear and a serious case of bed-head to be presentable and acceptable for a 9am lecture. Jimin says nothing, just smiles and pushes something towards you with two fingers. The sound of the paper sliding towards you brings your gaze down, and as you look away to stare at it, Jimin returns his attention to Professor Han. Bare in mind, his notebook is empty, save doodles of Yewon on the front row, occasionally losing focus and staring around the room for long periods of time.

What Jimin has pushed before you is a small little piece of paper, smoothly cut into a heart shape. Now the sound of scissors makes sense… It’s just scrap paper from the back of his notebook, decorated with tiny stars and circles, a pathetic hand drawn galaxy on the front like a book cover. You slowly pick it up, more interested in this than the lecture. You turn it over curiously, your heart thumping endearingly and a smile picking up on your face as you read what he’s written on the back.

you and me have some serious chemistry. love u

Jimin refuses to make eye contact again. He’ll say something along the lines of, “you’re taking it too seriously” when you’ll no doubt ask him about it later, but really, Jimin’s just a softie, with the sudden need to tell his friends that he loves them. You’re not complaining.

(03) handwritten letters with cute stickers

Something’s been left in your shared kitchen, something with your name on it and closed in an envelope with a small Gudetama sticker. You set your cup of tea to the side, sliding up onto a stool near the breakfast bar to read it. The front is in a bold font, in handwriting you don’t really recognise. Careful of the time and effort put into the appearance, you carefully open the envelope and take out the contents.

Y/N

Good morning. I hope you slept okay - when I came home last night after judo, you were actually passed out on the couch in the common room so I piggy backed you up to your room. Hehe, your room is so dirty though...I think I definitely tripped over a plug that connected your fairylights, so sorry if that doesn’t work anymore. Anyway. I left this morning and left you some nice tea and some tablets (Yoongi said that I should put them in your bathroom, so I literally just left them on your sink). I know you haven’t been having a fun time with midterms and you need to take care of yourself! If you get too sick and can’t do anything, then how will we eat?? You’re our uni mom!!! We need to live too!!!!! D:

I also rented out Harry Potter for later. I know you get really sad and lonely when you’re stressed out, and so we can watch it together when I’m home after my shift at work :D

Hehe, feel better <3 Just remember that Jeonggukie loves you!!!

Drink tea and stay warm :)

Lots of love, Jeongguk :D

The paper is signed with Jeongguk’s messy handwriting, like he ran out of time as he was writing it. The page is littered with tiny Gudetama stickers and the sight of it makes you smile. Along with other little notes Jeongguk’s left for you over the last few months, this one earns a spot on your cork board above your desk.

(04) remembering what ur friend likes or dislikes

You were so late.

Almost getting run over by a bus in the process, you sprint across the small road that separates your flat and the University central campus, missing a deep puddle as you step up off the road and onto the pavement. It pours, your hair soaked and makeup no doubt running and staining your cheeks. Holy fuck, you were so late.

Every Friday, without fail, Flat 6 (aka the large and slightly stinky flat you share with two of your best friends) host an annual movie night, inviting literally all of your extended friendship group which definitely is not allowed, but who cares? You noticed Namjoon’s car pulled up in the car park next door and curse again, knowing you’re the last one to arrive to a movie night you’re technically hosting.

You rush up the stairs, since the elevator is still down for maintenance, and burst into the flat with an announcing groan. From somewhere in the living room, Jeongguk looks up with happy surprise and jumps up off the couch, approaching the hall.

“Y/N! You made it.”

You wince, smiling as you hang up your coat to drip dry on the mat near the door. “Yep. I made it. To my own movie night. That I’m technically helping host.”

“No sweat,” Jeongguk shrugs. “It’s okay. Here, I’ll dump your bag in the closet. Get changed, I think Yoongi’s still preparing snacks, anyway.”

“Okay. Thanks, Jeonggukie.”

He gushes, smiling and raising his shoulders cutely. “It’s okay, Y/N.”

Jeongguk swiftly takes your bag from your clutches, faking the weight with the droop of his knees just to hear you laugh, and then he turns to shuffle down the hall to quite literally toss it into the shared storage closet. You’re not too worried; on days like today, in which you have one 1 hour seminar to attend at 5pm and nothing else, there’s nothing inside your bag worthy of being broken by Jeongguk throwing it to the ground. As he does this, you shudder out of your shoes and make your way to your bedroom, to change into something warm and comfortable for the movie.

The sound of laughter makes you hurry to change, one leg out of your damp and cold jeans whilst simultaneously fishing for some old jogging bottoms out of your bottom draw, a jumper from Yoongi that he thought he lost left for you to grab on your bed. What he doesn’t know and will find out in five minutes won’t hurt him. (Yoongi also doesn’t care, because he’s a whipped best friend who lets you do what you want, including steal clothes he actually needs and can’t really afford to replace. Oh well, sharing is caring!).

Your hair is still soaked, and you move towards the single bathroom squeezed between two bedrooms to ring it out in the sink. Once you’re done, and your hair is thrown up into a scrunchie-decorated pony, you pace back towards the kitchen where, rightly so, Yoongi stands with his back facing you, filling up a glass with Pepsi.

“I thought we threw that shit out,” you announce as you walk in. “You know this flat is Team Coca Cola, those are the rules.”

Yoongi sighs, not looking up. “Yeah, I know, but Namjoon is a monster.”

“He’s so annoying...why can’t he just admit that Coca Cola is better?” you sigh, moving towards Yoongi to see the small bowls of snacks he has ready to be taken into the living room. It’s full in there, people stuffed onto the sofas and the floor where a bed of blankets lies like a mattress.

Yoongi’s outdone himself; the bowls are neatly organised by colour and ingredient, and you smile. Yoongi was a lot of things, one of them a secret perfectionist. Even when it concerned bowls of snacks. God, you love to love him.

“Namjoon’s a man of unpopular opinions, I mean, he really thinks the live action of Attack on Titan is good, like, who actually thinks that?” Yoongi rants, and then he glances to the side towards you, is silent for a moment, and then asks, “is that my jumper?”

You look down at it with a smile. “Yep. It’s comfy.”

Yoongi hums, like he’s bored. “Whatever, looks better on you than it did on me. Who the fuck lied to me and told me dark green was my colour...?”

“Every colour is your colour,” you say, patting his back and reaching for the bowls. “Should I take these in?”

Yoongi then nods, humming again. “Yeah. Yellow bowl is for you, by the way.”

You look to it. “And why is that?”

“Cause I know you don’t like the barbeque flavour chips that are in the red bowl, but everyone else does, so I went out and got you the salty ones. Oh, and there’s a bar of Galaxy in the fridge. Don’t tell Jeongguk, cause he’ll get pissy about how I didn’t get him something.”

As Yoongi tells you this, your heart flutters. You had told him that when you first met, after he offered you some of his chips noticing you were the only person not eating.

“You remembered that?” you wonder, and Yoongi looks at you like you’ve lost your mind.

“I’m a good friend,” he states, as though it were obvious. “Don’t get it twisted, though. I only did it because I don’t want to hear you complaining about it all night.”

You’re sure that’s a lie, but if it makes him feel better, you’ll accept it. You’ll also ignore the embarrassed tinge of red on his cheeks.

(05) inside jokes

[15:16PM] jeongguk: alright fuckers 🔪😡 [15:16PM] jeongguk: who left the kitchen window open all damn night [15:17PM] jeongguk: there’s three spiders in the sink and it rained so the work surface is all wet [15:17PM] jeongguk: [1 Image Attached] not happy bois [15:23PM] jine: i dont even live with you why are you asking the gc this [15:24PM] jeongguk: yoongi has the flat gc muted and idk how else to yell at him [15:28PM] y/n: blame me,,,,i have failed u,,,,,,,im sowwy [15:29PM] jeongguk: hehe its ok ❣️💘💕💓 i’ll clean it up 🥰 [15:32PM] haseul: eye….. [15:39PM] jimin: YALL LMAOODIUGJFKDSLJ [15:39PM] jimin: guess what TF just happened in my maths class [15:41PM] jimin: i forgot that on one of my assignments me and y/n had drawn a camel in the library on the back and he saw and asked me 2 stay behind after class so he could have stern words with me or smthn…..anyway so i go to the front of the class at the end and he’s like “mr park what the hell is this camel doing here” [15:42PM] jimin: and i said sir thats not a camel [15:42PM] jimin: thats my WIFE [15:43PM] y/n: HA HA HA… [15:45PM] yoongi: IF YALL DONT STOP [15:47PM] taehyung: THIS IS THE THIRD TIME YOU’VE MADE THIS REFERENCE AND I DONT KNOW WHAT IT MEANS [15:47PM] taehyung: this inside joke stinks….someone explain to me please what this means 😭😭😭 [15:48PM] hoseok: i hate this damn gc

(06) long phone calls

[Incoming Facetime Call From: Seokjin 👪]

“Hey.”

“Hey. Y/N, are you sitting down because I have some major tea on Professor Kwon and Professor Kim and I’m not supposed to be saying anything and it’s killing me.”

“Oh shit.” Audio shuffles. “I’m lying down now, bitch. Tell me everything.”

“Okay. So…”

[Five Hours Later]

“I’m still in shock about Kwon and Kim.”

“Me too. What’s Kim gonna do, lie and say she had heat rash on her titties?”

“Hopefully she doesn’t get them out for people to see.”

“Literally. God, I hate how our life has resorted to teacher gossip. Are we those students?”

“Yup. Two students bitching about teachers at...like ...midnight?”

“Oh, shit, it’s midnight already??”

(07) facetiming while ur both doing something else (study dates like that are on another level of intimacy)

Jimin’s had the same cold for about two weeks now, and nobody knows what the hell’s up with it. He walks around his flat, according to Hoseok, wrapped up in a blanket and surrounded by a necklace of matted tissues. To be honest, it’s not as bad as he’s making it out to be, but he’s a guy, and so anything that involves a slight stomach pain and a blocked nose instantly translates to man flu, which is almost as bad as the plague.

That being said, Jimin’s set himself under “house arrest” and is therefore glued to his bed or desk chair, still managing to move his sore and aching joints to write a few words on his lab report. With the first round of finals creeping up, Jimin actually wants to go to the library, but, man, what with his man flu and everything, he just can’t seem to do it.

On the other hand, he has you to set the mood for him. After snagging a corner table in the library near the big windows, you make a barrier out of your bag and books to watch the sunset, Taehyung opposite using minimal space with his laptop and headphones, watching a documentary he’ll need to cite for his essay. Jeongguk naps next to you, having exhausted himself from his shift last night that ran into the early hours and Sana secretly paints her nails, blowing them dry as she takes a break from writing.

Once you’re settled and comfortable, you reluctantly peel away the slice of tape covering your webcam (because Black Mirror has forever scared you into thinking 4Chan are watching you and will hold your endless hours of Games2Girls dot com against you) and open up Facetime, ringing Jimin who waits patiently back home.

After a few rings, Jimin’s bright and tired face pops up on the screen and you both silently wave. Jimin has his mic muted, but yours is on, allowing the ambience of the library trick Jimin into believing he’s actually there. It’s not quite like an ordinary study date, but for now, it’ll do. He opens his textbook and starts to work, comfortable and happy now that he’s listening to his friends discuss work, like he’s there. He smiles, occasionally glancing up to see your face working or Jeongguk unintentionally leaning into frame. It’s comforting. He works well.

(08) cooking something for ur friend

“Merry Christmas, Tae. Oh, wait, I have something for you.”

Taehyung is hosting a Christmas party this year, in the apartment he shares with some of the girls in your group and Namjoon. His flat is lit up with lights, draining the electricity, the tree sparkling like diamonds in the front living room that looks out onto the Seoul city. The sound of Michael Bublé sings out festively and Taehyung leads you through to the kitchen, out of the loud madness of the party that’s getting into full swing. In one hand, you have a big bag of presents that both Jeongguk and Yoongi kindly left for you to haul all by yourself to Taehyung’s flat, and in the other, you balance a box across your arm, the corner sharp on your inner elbow.

“Cool. Your gift is under the tree,” Taehyung says.

“Oh, yeah. No, this is an early gift.”

“Just for me?” he asks.

You set down the box. “Well, you can share if you love us all a lot. But, it’s for you.”

Taehyung wastes no time in opening the box, a smile widening across his face as he reviews the contents. The box is stuffed full with cookies, baked big and crumbly for his tasty pleasures. They’re decorated too, because you love him so much and you know he liked them last year.

“Last year you ate nearly all of my batch, so I just decided to make you some of your own this year,” you tell him casually. It’s really no big deal, but Taehyung feels like he might actually cry because the thought is so sweet. You notice this, the glassiness of your eyes. “Ew, don’t cry.”

“I’m sorry, I’m touched!” he exclaims. Taehyung turns on his spot and wraps an arm around your neck, pulling you in for a hug. With your arms wrapped around his torso, Taehyung smiles with a thrilled sound and kisses the crown of your head. “Thanks, Y/N, you’re the best.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

(09) sending texts when u randomly think abt them

[11:15AM] namjoon 👨🏼‍🚀: i stopped by at kyobo’s today and found a cards against humanity add on pack that was harry potter themed and i thought of u lol [11:15AM] namjoon 👨🏼‍🚀: i bought it for u btw 😊

(10) listening without judging

When the front door slams shut, you know that something’s wrong.

Having opted for sitting in the natural light of the living room to finish your lab report, the sound of the door echoes loudly throughout the empty house. It’s only you home, since Yoongi has volleyball practise until six this evening, which means it’s Jeongguk who’s home and apparently, not in a very good mood.

Jeongguk doesn’t realise you’re in the living room until he enters it, stopping suddenly in the doorway when he sees you cross-legged on the carpet near the coffee table. His eyes are red and swollen, his nose shiny from where he’s been crying and sniffling. The sight makes your stomach churn with an indescribable feeling, and you immediately rise to your feet.

“Jeongguk? What’s wrong- did something happen?” you ask him, not stepping forward until you know he’s okay.

Jeongguk’s sensitive, the baby of the friendship group, and sometimes you forget to go easy on him. He sighs loudly and drops his backpack to the floor with a thud. His books curl inside loudly and he drags his feet across the floor to get to the couch. He moves as if he’s going to sit down and then stops, turning to you. His bottom lip curls like he’s about to cry, and then he opens his arms for a hug. You immediately move forward.

“Oh, Jeonggukkie,” you coo, stroking his hair and moving to sit on the sofa. Jeongguk comes down with you and you rest his head on top of your breasts, granting him this once in a lifetime opportunity and he doesn’t even register it. He just cries, loudly and comfortably, his arms around you as he sobs. “Oh, my baby. What happened?”

Jeongguk hiccups. “Do-Doesn’t matter. It’s dumb.”

“No, it’s not. Something hurt your feelings, and your feelings aren’t dumb,” you tell him seriously. Stroking the hair out of his face, you peer down at him. “Come on. Tell me, I won’t judge or tell anybody else. You can trust me.”

He sniffs loudly, but you don’t cringe. He blinks, tears falling and he embarrassingly wipes the tears away, nodding. “Okay.” And then the words come out like vomit.

“I just. You know how I liked Sooyoung, right? Well, we were talking- everyone knows we were, but still, we were talking, and I just really liked her and wanted her to like me. I did all this stuff for her, planned all these dates and got her flowers. I thought she liked flowers, girls like flowers. I know we joke that you’re one of the guys, but even you liked those flowers I got for you. So, I got her this pretty necklace with an S on it and was going to give it to her and so I went to her practise room. She does dance, you knew she does dance, right? Yeah. And so I went to the room and was in the room talking to her when the door opens and this guy comes in and he comes up to her and they kiss and I just. She. She told me she didn’t want to rush into dating and that she liked me, and then she suddenly started dating someone else and I’m just really hurt and confused. Did I do something wrong? Am I ugly? Am I annoying, I just...I don’t know what I did. I really liked her.”

You don’t say anything as he talks. You just listen intently, nodding against his head with a low hum and stroking his hair gently.

“I know it’s silly and stupid that I’m crying over a girl, it’s just…” He sighs. “It hurts.”

You sigh, too. “It’s not silly and stupid. What Sooyoung did was really shitty and it’s natural that it hurt your feelings. You did absolutely nothing wrong, though. The flowers were pretty, and you didn’t force her into anything, and you were so kind and patient. Any girl would be lucky enough to have you as a boyfriend. Sooyoung missed out! You’re so good, Jeongguk, one of the best guys I know. And you’re not ugly! That’s an insult to actual ugly people! If you’re ugly, then what are we?” He laughs shyly and you smile, “Huh? What are we?”

“Okay, sorry,” Jeongguk laughs, pressing his cheek into your torso with a wide smile. His hands loop together behind your back, meek and timid, and he sighs, this time less sadly. “Maybe I’m destined to be alone forever…”

“You’re being dramatic, now,” you sigh. “The right person is waiting for you. Just give it some time.”

Jeongguk thinks about that for a moment. “Wanna date me if I end up alone and single aged thirty?”

Loudly, you let out a laugh. “Yeah right. You know what, fine. Even though I know you won’t be, if we’re both single by thirty, I’ll marry you. How about that?”

Jeongguk hums. “Cool. Is it safe to have kids after thirty?”

You let out a wheeze, taken aback by Jeongguk’s question. “Woah there. I said I’d marry you, not birth your children! Besides, you’re acting like thirty is ancient! Lots of women have kids aged thirty.”

“Okay, sorry, I didn’t know! My Mom was only young.”

“I can’t believe you just asked me to have kids with you when we’re thirty…”

“Might as well make our marriage interesting,” Jeongguk shrugs.

You quite literally have nothing to say to that.

(11) making someone laugh so hard that their whole body shakes

“Ow- stop! I’m going to pee!”

You don’t think you’ve seen Seokjin laugh at a joke that’s not his own in quite some time. Tonight, across the table in the retro diner that’s been converted and opened in town, he has surprised you. The entire booth shakes with laughter, from all sides and directions. Seokjin leans up against the window, clutching his side with Jimin, Mina and Yoongi all stuffed next to him on the skinny one seater. Next to you, on either side, is Hoseok and Taehyung, with Jeongguk and Namjoon at the counter ordering more drinks.

“What?” you ask, laughing. You’re not laughing because it’s funny, but more so because you have no idea what it is you did to make him laugh so hard. “What did I say?”

Seokjin can hardly get his words out, choking halfway on air and having to reach for his drink which shakes in his hand. He sips and gasps for air: “Just-your...face!” Then he cracks up again, like it’s the literal joke of the century. You just don’t get it.

“What did I do?” you ask. “What’s so funny?”

Seokjin can’t breathe.

“Oh my God,” Yoongi comments, smiling with disbelief and covering his mouth as he laughs. Mina’s french fries are stone cold as she laughs and leans into Yoongi’s side for support.

“Fuck. Y/N, you’re so funny, I love you so much,” Seokjin cries. Cries, literally; there are tears pooling out of his eyes, and he wipes them, sighing loudly as he laughs a few more times.

You’re going to take the compliment happily, and move on. To this day, you never found out what was so funny…

(12) hanging out in furniture stores and testing every couch there is

“Take a picture of me so we can pretend this is our house for Instagram.”

You sigh, taking out your phone and snapping a photo of Taehyung, lounging his legs apart across a lime green sofa that looks like it’s been hauled out of a 70’s magazine. One of the best things about Taehyung is that he’s easy to please, eccentric and adventurous just like you. Taehyung could be taken to a junkyard for a first date and somehow he’d still find it fun. He didn’t watch Bottletop Bill and his best friend Corky and leave not taking some inspiration on what to do with scrap junk.

It slowly became a tradition to go to the weirdest places with Taehyung as your date. On weekends or free weekdays you shared, you’d text Taehyung and get him to come with you to somewhere new. On today’s list, IKEA. It’s not totally crazy, or weird or wacky, just something you don’t think you’d do with Yoongi for fun. Taehyung loved the idea.

Taehyung’s making it a mission to sit on every bit of furniture he can find. As he takes a ride up the elevator to the first and main starting point of IKEA, he immediately notices the display couches and stares at you excitedly: “Let’s pretend we’re about to buy our dream house and test all the couches.”

Your eyes light up. “Yes! We can pretend we’re on a TV show reviewing them.”

You don’t think you’ve ever seen Taehyung more excited. “Oh my God, yes!” Then he grabs your hand, tugging you towards a cream themed living display. “Let’s go, wifey! Time to review.”

(You very nearly leave IKEA with a bright red sofa that looks like it’s been handmade and the bottom pillows are patterned with tiny cherries. Sadly, you’re both broke and you don’t have a car to take it home.)

((Taehyung’s devastated.))

(13) deep conversations when it's deep in the night

Sometimes, Yoongi stays awake until the early hours in the living room and kitchen. On days where you can’t sleep, you can hear him pacing around, softly grunting as he walks, something he does without really realising and something you love about him. On occasion, you join him. Like tonight, for example.

Yoongi’s curled up on the kitchen counter when you wake up and leave your room to find him. He sits with his back up against the cupboards, the kitchen window open with a cigarette out the window. Catching your gaze wide-eyed, he moves as if he’s going to put the cigarette out but you stop him.

“I told Jeongguk I’d stop,” Yoongi explains. Inside, he’s just grateful you’re not Jeongguk tonight. The cigarette lets off steam. He doesn’t smoke as often as he used to, just when he needs to. Yoongi looks away from the window as you pick yourself up to sit on the cupboards parallel to him. A bottle of wine is out, and you quietly take off the top and take a large swig.

“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” you tell him honestly. “It’s okay. I won’t tell Jeongguk, too. There’s a new air freshener in the cupboard under the sink. Use that when you’re done.”

Yoongi nods. “Yeah. Thanks, Y/N.”

“Why’d you go back to smoking anyway? Didn’t you tell Jeongguk that you were stopping because you didn’t want to die, or something?” It’s a joke, Yoongi snorts in reply.

“You know how he feels about it. I do too, and I guess I just felt bad about it. It was bad enough for him growing up and at home, and he told me about his brothers asthma attacks because of it and how he almost died, and how his parents smoked religiously and it made them act a certain way.” Yoongi sucks in his breath, like he’s realising what lighting the cigarette means. “It’s not weed. Not what his parents did, but. Still, fuck.” He decides to put it out.

For a while, you don’t say anything to Yoongi. Staring at him is telling enough, and you watch as Yoongi regrets what he’s done so much that he pales, his eyes watering.

“I don’t want to let him down,” Yoongi admits truthfully. “He’s like my little brother. I don’t wanna hurt him, fuck.”

He rocks his head back, sighing into the night. Down below the window, over the small little cliffside that he can see from his window that looks down onto the freeway behind the flat, he watches the lines of traffic whiz by, like long white lights, the honks like ASMR in his ears.

“If you’re going back to bed, can you go in my room and take the rest of my cigs out? Don’t wanna feel tempted by them. Toss them out or something, will you?”

You nod immediately, taking another drink of wine. This gulp stings. “Course. Yeah, I’m gonna go now actually.” You hop down off the counter, handing the bottle and placing it next to Yoongi. “Don’t stay up too late, mkay?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

You shrug in reply, Yoongi frowns. As you walk towards the doorway that separates the kitchen and the hall, you turn around and look back at Yoongi, calling his name. Yoongi looks over and raises his eyebrows expectantly.

“Love you,” you tell him. A smile follows, and Yoongi blinks tiredly.

“I love you too. Goodnight, Y/N.”

He watches as you disappear into the darkness of the hallway and then faces the nighttime again. The smell of cigarettes lingers, and his stomach churns. Yoongi reaches for the air freshener you mentioned and sprays it generously, sniffing and then turning off the lights to the kitchen. Jeongguk will wake up and complain about the window being open, and might even notice the ash on the windowsill, but, like you, he still loves his big brother regardless.

(14) holding hands while jaywalking so that u Both get hit by a car

“Now!”

A squeal leaves your mouth as Jeongguk grabs a hold of your hand and literally pulls you across the road. A car that speeds down the road presses the horn loud enough to turn a few heads and Jeongguk grins boyishly, raising his hand as if to say sorry even though you’re far enough away to not get hit. Jeongguk’s motto for jaywalking is We Hold Hands, Because We Go Together Or We Don’t Go Down At All, or something. You know he stole half of it from an All Time Low song, but it works, and the song slaps.

From across the road, on the side you and Jeongguk are running towards, Hoseok gapes at the both of you and his eyes bulge out of his head.

“You two have a death wish!” he yells.

“But we lived, bitch!” Jeongguk replies, raising a gang sign to which Hoseok pulls a face at.

“I literally cannot stand you,” Hoseok seethes, walking away even though he’s supposed to be going out for dinner with the both of you. You and Jeongguk share a look that ends in a burst of giggles and run after Hoseok, capturing each of his arms with your own. He complains all the way to the restaurant, even though he loves it.

(15) randomly buying a flower for someone

“Delivery.”

Namjoon’s voice lifts your head. He stands behind the reception desk of your flat complex with a small bunch of flowers in his left hand. If he didn’t already know that you were working your two hour shift today, then he’s lucky he caught you. The sight of a bouquet of wildflowers makes your heart soar curiously.

“For someone special?” you wonder. Maybe he’s delivering to someone in the complex. Namjoon’s a sweetie like that.

Namjoon blinks. “Yeah. You.” He holds the bouquet outwards, with a bright smile. “They were for sale outside as I got off my subway. Thought of you, again. Happy early birthday.”

“My birthday’s in, like, seven months,” you say.

“That’s why it’s for your early birthday,” Namjoon replies.

You don’t know what to say. “They’re so pretty, thank you. Hey - can you go up to my flat and put them in a vase? I’ve still got an hour here, they might dry out if they’re kept down here.”

Namjoon nods instantly. “Sure. Gimme your key?” You slide the key across the desk towards Namjoon and he takes it swiftly. “Cool. Glad you like them. Enjoy your shift, Y/N.”

“Unlikely,” you groan. “Thanks, Joonie!”

He smiles as he reaches the door, sticking his tongue out to you as he prepares to climb the stairs. That elevator needs fixing urgently, and all you can think about is how much you love your friends.

(16) letting ur friends taste ur food and also tasting theirs to the point where u basically ate a fair amount off of each plate on the table

“What do you mean you’ve never tried a steak before?” Yoongi sighs so loudly that it turns a few heads. “Okay. Take a bite, it’s called charity and I’m generous. Come on.”

Yoongi even cuts you a slice and leans over the table to let you taste it. Beside you, Namjoon cringes when you close your teeth around the fork and pull the steak off, taking several bites and widening your eyes with wonder a Yoongi. You have just unlocked a taste sensation!

“Like it?” Yoongi asks.

“Mhm! It’s so easy to eat,” you observe. You look at Namjoon, “try his.”

Yoongi sighs. He willingly shares his food out. You glance down at your own meal, a pretty pasta dish that Jeongguk looks at from next to Yoongi.

“What is that? It looks good,” Jeongguk asks.

“Spaghetti Al Pomodoro,” you quote from the menu. Jeongguk laughs, because who goes to a restaurant and orders spaghetti? “Stop, I don’t know the menu, I played it safe!”

“Lemme try,” Jeongguk invites himself to try the taste, twirling his fork around the pasta and sucking it up like a scene in Lady and the Tramp. This sets off a sequence around the table, something you can’t help but snigger at. Namjoon lets you try some of his curry and Yoongi tries Jeongguk’s burger. By the time everybody on the table has tried everybody elses meals, you finally look back at your plate and notice that literally half of the meal’s now gone. Yoongi has about one bite of steak left, and Jeongguk could easily finish his burger in one bite.

“I hope everyone enjoyed my meal,” Yoongi says sarcastically, and he angrily chews his last piece of steak.

Namjoon looks up with a bright smile. “Yeah I did. Thanks!”

(17) "give me that I'll carry it for u"

Sometimes, Hoseok stops by at the reception to help out, especially during finals or midterms when you could really use those two years of monitoring an empty email inbox to study. Today, one of the newer residents, Somi, is on the desk and is playing Club Penguin on the computer, and you’re shoved into the back storage room with Hoseok, filing everybody’s mail and parcels.

It’s so messy in here, and looks like it hasn’t had a good clean out since it was first built, which might sound ridiculous, but have you seen all of this dust?

“Can you guys take out the trash?” One of the other workers, Siwon, pokes his head into the back room.

“You only just asked us to do this, though,” Hoseok points out with his hands on his hips.

Siwon shrugs, “Okay. And? Get to work.”

He turns and leaves as Hoseok gives him the middle finger, groaning as he arches his back to relieve pain that’s developed from being hunched over for too long. The trash bags are enormous and bulky with weight, shoved into a single room that absolutely honks. Hoseok grimaces as he opens the door and drags some bags out, deliberately ignoring a suspicious juice leaving a trail behind one of the ones he’s just brought into the back room.

“That literally stinks,” you complain.

“Yep.”

While Hoseok continues to haul bags out of the trash room, you take it upon yourself to drag the bags out to the back, towards the giant tip that’s collected by the bin-men the following day. After two or three trips, Hoseok steps out of the room and notices you struggling to pick a big bag up off the floor over your shoulder, like Santa’s sack.

“Give me that, I’ll carry it for you,” Hoseok offers, already stepping forward.

“No!” you protest stubbornly. “I’ve got this.”

“You’re so full of bullshit,” Hoseok howls. He ignores you and snatches the bag out of your hands. You’ll never admit it, but it feels good to not have the twisty material burning your fingers. “Sit down. You’ve worked hard.”

“Don’t patronise me,” you scold.

He giggles, “sorry. You’re too cute. Keep filling in those forms, kill two birds with one stone?”

You wait until Hoseok’s out of the room to cradle your fingers. Fucking hell, that hurts.

(18) helping ur friend decide what to wear while also reminding them that they look amazing no matter what

“You’re not going to the Met Gala, Jimin. Just wear jeans, my dude.”

“No. No, no, ignore him.” You throw a glare in Jeongguk’s direction and shift on your stomach, watching Jimin frantically search through his wardrobe. “This is important. This is serious. He’s going to see a potential employer, Jeongguk.”

“Yeah,” Jimin taunts, “so go be jobless and broke somewhere else.”

Jeongguk snorts, “I have a job, though…”

“Okay, get out of my room. Y/N, help me.”

“You looked good in the last four outfits,” you say to him honestly. “What’s wrong with this one, hm?”

You stand up, moving to one of the outfits laid out on the floor. It’s a pretty combination of clothes; a patterned white shirt that’s both formal and casual, with black trousers and brown shoes.

“I don’t like the shoes,” Jimin mumbles, continuing to search.

“Okay...Why don’t we just…” You crouch, moving a pair of black shoes from outfit number three to outfit number two. Now the shoes are black, and the outfit looks great. “Do that? What do you think?”

Jimin looks down at it, biting his bottom lip. “Is it good?”

“Yeah, totally,” you nod with enthusiasm. “It shows your personality whilst also remaining professional. And you looked super handsome in it.” Jimin faces you with a shy smile, “Trust me. It’s the one.”

It takes some reluctance and convincing, but Jimin eventually settles on outfit number two. All it took was some convincing and abuse of his praise kink.

(And he got the job.)

(19) being involved in every bad hair decision (dyeing ur friend's hair grey in between playing with their switch)

Three games into Mario Kart, you realise that you urgently need to email Nintendo and play I’m-Karen-Let-Me-See-The-Manager. Nintendo Switches are so dangerously addictive that Seokjin has you watching him play as grey hair dye bleaches his scalp. You can’t help but watch as he wins race after race, a streak of ten to beat tonight with King Boo as his racer every damn time.

“Fuck, your hair!” You must have said that so many times that Seokjin’s bound to get sick of it. He glances up at his reflection and eyes the sight on his head.

“Looks fine,” he shrugs.

“Let me remind you that it looks fine because the colour’s okay at the front. It looks kinda...patchy at the back.” You reach for the dye, “We’re low. Seokjin, we’re in trouble.”

He shrugs again. “Whatever. We can make a new trend.”

“Hell no. If it looks shit, I’m paying for you to get it done professionally ...which, you should have just done in the first place. I'm not a hairdresser!”

“And thank fuck for that!” Jimin steps into the living room and laughs nervously. “That looks hideous!”

This time, Seokjin’s eyes raise icily.

“It’s not that bad…” you mutter. “It’s okay. I’ll fix it.”

“The only way to save your hair is to just sacrifice it all,” Jimin sighs. “You know what, I’ve got a razor in my cupboard, let’s bring forward bald Seokjin.”

“I’ll take the patchy scalp,” Seokjin threatens.

“It’s really not that bad,” you pout quietly, attempting to fix the mess at the back of his head.

Okay - you’re lying. It’s awful. It’s a total disaster. But when Seokjin gets a good look at it, and he does take a good long look, he just shrugs and puts down the mirror.

“It’s a trend,” he decides. Mario Kart resumes and you’re rendered absolutely speechless.

(20) paying attention

When forced into a group of friends outside of your own, you always had a tendency to stand out in the worst ways possible. It’s not as if you stood out for being different, or funny or pretty. No; outside of your close circle of friends, you were the obvious outsider. You stuck out like an imposter, like a red flower amongst white ones.

This get together hosted by one of Jeongguk’s other friends, Joshua, takes place in his crazy expensive lake house in the countryside, owned by his parents and left to him when he turned eighteen. It’s remarkable that you got invited, to be honest. But, when Jeongguk’s your best friend, you get vouched for, granted permission to stay for the weekend in the one of many rooms, with the exception of sharing a room with two other guys. Jeongguk doesn’t mind sharing a bed for the weekend with Jimin, as long as you’re comfortable in your own.

And you’re not blind - it’s not hard to figure out why a big group of girls who had managed invitations were clinging to your circle of friends. You had lucked out in a way that ensured your entire group were visuals, everybody stunning in their own unique way. Joshua and his friends are here too, obviously, but their eyes are only on a certain segment of the group. From this angle, one of the girls who made her way over to the sofas sits with her back in your general direction, and it sort of feels like primary school all over again where you were the odd one out.

You try not to let it bother you, though. As the guys play polite and laugh when needed and talk casually, something slips up in conversation: “Well, actually-” One of the girls is talking, blinking repetitively in Namjoon’s direction with a sweet smile, “I think I have more guy friends than girls. Girls are so hard to talk to sometimes.”

“Right?” one of the others says with a sigh. “I wish I had more male friends. I want to move in with some in the future.”

You inhale. This is a good conversation to jump into. “Same,” you say. The girl in front of you turns around slightly, perhaps only just remembering that you were there in the first place. “I’ve been friends with these guys forever now, and living with them is so…” You notice after a short ramble that the girls turned back around, and she’s not even listening. You trail off, looking bored, “who am I even talking to?”

But from across the coffee table on the other couch, Yoongi furrows his brows and sets his glass down. “Y/N’s right,” he announces, and you look up at the same time as the other girls. Like they’re confused, they look at the group and then back at you, as if wondering the connection. “You know, guys are always told being friends with girls is impossible, but Y/N’s the glue that keeps us together.”

Jeongguk nods, “Mhm, exactly! You know, they said that it would be hard being friends with girls because you’d catch feelings, but Y/N’s so repulsive that it’s not even that hard...”

You glare at him, “Ha-ha. Very funny.”

“Trust me,” Chaeyoung pops up, having been sat silently in between Taehyung and Mark for the past twenty six minutes, “it’s not all that.” The girls look at her, “Men are disgusting. I don’t know how Y/N does it. These guys are the repulsive ones...I was in their flat for five minutes and I think I caught three diseases.”

“Hey, don’t drag my apartment into this,” you pout. Yoongi shakes his head with a smile and watches you, happy that the frown that was once on your features had disappeared into a smile. Hey, in a weird way, this was a good conversation to jump into!

The girls around you share glances, as though they’ve just clocked on to how important you are to these guys and how ignoring you won’t make them like them more, and eventually, you’re included in the conversation. You make a mental reminder to thank the fuck out of Yoongi for paying attention to you, even when you’re silently in the background.

(21) being aware and understanding of someone's financial situation ("dw I'll pay for u")

“We all need matching ones. Look, one each!”

Jeongguk excitedly crouches in front of one of the display cases, marvelling at the sight of tiny little charms on foam boxes, smiling up at you all. It makes you weak seeing how childlike Jeongguk actually is, how he gets excited over shiny things like a little magpie. Today is one of those rare afternoons where you’re all miraculously free, and it had been Namjoon’s idea to go out somewhere and hang out. Seoul is filled with beautiful and secret places to explore like a tourist and he takes up the opportunity.

This shop is dinky and in a weird place between an ice-cream shop and a fish market, probably scammy and has definitely seen better days. But Namjoon likes it, and Yoongi vouches for it because he’s been here before with Namjoon when they brought a watch for Jimin. Okay, yes, it was a designer watch, but it was way cheaper from this shop and, wait, who cares if it’s fake? Nobody noticed until now.

You stand behind Jeongguk, peering down at the charms. They’re all so cute and cartoon-like, each charm you view immediately reminding you of another friend. For Jeongguk, the rabbit. Taehyung could have the paintbrush or camera, Jimin definitely could have the apple because of the fact that his new favourite thing to say is An Apple A Day Keeps The Demons Away. It makes no sense, but he learns to roll with it.

“They’re cute,” Hoseok comments, smiling widely.

“They should be cute, for thirty dollars a charm!” you gape, pointing out the price. “I thought this was a shop that sold things cheaper?!”

“They’re usually around sixty,” Namjoon shrugs.

“For why?” you exclaim.

Nobody hears that, or if they do, they ignore it. With a sigh, you turn away from the case and start looking at something else. Thirty dollars for a small charm is insane, and you don’t have that kind of money. As Taehyung and Jeongguk start picking charms for everybody, your heart rate quickens.

How can you tell them that you don’t want a charm because you can’t afford a charm without disappointing them and sounding like you’re asking one of them to buy you one? In your panic, Seokjin worms his way up behind you and rests his arm up on your head like an arm-rest.

“Have you picked a charm?” he asks, and you look away instantly. “Hey,” he says, noticing that, “what’s up, buttercup?”

You sigh reluctantly. “I can’t afford to get one of those…”

Seokjin blinks and frowns slightly. “Oh. Well, that’s okay. I’ll pay for you.”

“No way!” you hiss at him, poking a finger into his chest. “Kim Seokjin, don’t you dare-!”

“Hey, I owe you, it’s cool,” Seokjin assures you.

“Owing me because I paid for your McDonalds is not the same as spending thirty dollars on a tiny charm.”

“They’re friendship charms,” he explains. “It’s symbolic for our friendship. Look, stay silent and pretty and let me get you something nice. Please?”

In this one instance, Seokjin doesn’t take no for an answer and invites himself into the small huddle of guys around the charms and picks one out for you. Seokjin picks you a love heart, because he knows that no matter what, there’s a love between the guys and you that nothing can pull apart.

(22) looking stupid in public together (dancing in stores to overplayed pop songs)

You hear it at the same time as Jeongguk.

One thing you don’t mind that much about Korea is that the sound of random K-POP groups follows you around everywhere you go. You actually kind of like it, because the songs are catchy enough and Jimin and Hoseok like it for the dances. But, my God, if you have to hear Momoland’s Bboom Bboom one more time, you might explode.

Over the hum of the refrigerators in the small GS25, where you and Jeongguk are examining the surprisingly large collection of flavoured milks, you hear those guitar strums and just as the horns roll in, you and Jeongguk share a glance and immediately do The Thing.

The Thing is recreating the entire dance routine to the song, which you had both decided to learn when you were bored and procrastinating during midterms. Everybody else in your friendship group deems it the single most embarrassing thing that you and Jeongguk do in public next to jaywalking, and maybe you can see why. The chorus rolls by and you’re both shimmying, pointing finger hearts to each other, and it’s rolling to an end when one of the cashiers turns the corner with a big tray of iced coffee in her arms.

She pauses and so do the both of you, in an intense stare off until she cowers and scurries to put down the tray and carefully shelf the drinks. Jeongguk looks at you with the urge to laugh and picks a random milk off the shelf, urging you out of the aisle to pay. When you’re outside and free from the judgement of the cashier, Jeongguk laughs on the floor for about five straight minutes.

(23) looking stupid in public together (singing loudly in ur car)

“JUST GO AHEAD AND HATE ON ME AND RUN YOUR MOUTH!”

“So everyone can hear!”

“HIT ME WITH THE WORST YOU GOT AND KNOCK ME DOWN!”

“Oh, baby, I don’t care.”

“KEEP IT UP AND SOON ENOUGH, YOU’LL FIGURE OUT!”

Both of your voices: “You wanna be, you wanna be, A LOSER LIKE ME!”

In the backseat, Yoongi shrinks further down until his bum is hanging off the chair, in the footwell where his knees are. “Please kill me.”

(24) hugging people when u say hi and goodbye to them

Hoseok is one of the best friends you could ever ask for. One, he’s friendly. Two, he’s funny. Three, he’s cute. Four, he hugs you when you arrive somewhere and again when you leave, and you absolutely love it.

“Y/N, hi!” His voice is the first to call out to you when you walk into the Open Day fair at your Uni. You look awful, overslept and still half asleep, but he comes towards you with a smile and engulfs you in a hug. “You look cute. Sleep well?”

That’s not to say the other guys don’t hug you, because they definitely do. But, Hoseok’s always the first.

(25) being there for someone even if u can't help them

“Go ahead. Laugh at me like everybody else.”

Jimin and Jeongguk are the ones who are unfortunately tasked with dealing with a tragically grieving Y/N. It’s unfortunate to you, but they don’t mind one bit. The last thing they expected to see when they came back to Jeongguk’s apartment to watch more episodes of Mindhunter on Jeongguk’s TV, was you curled up on the window seat with red eyes and a runny nose.

“Why would we laugh at you, baby?” Jeongguk asks, rubbing your back. He’s sat next to you and Jimin is by your feet, rubbing them and your legs with his soft hands.

You sniff uglily, but none of them say anything. “Cause. Cause it’s just a fish, I guess.”

“It was still your pet,” Jimin points out sadly. “Susan was a great fish.”

You sniff again, crying some more. “I just feel like a bad owner. Maybe the bowl wasn’t big enough, and maybe I didn’t feed her enough...I don’t want her to have died because of me.”

“Hey, now,” Jeongguk assures softly, “I’m sure she died peacefully. You were the best fish Mom ever. Susan’s in a better place now.” He glances over at Jimin nervously, “Like, fish heaven?”

For a moment you don’t say anything, and Jeongguk thinks maybe that was too much. But then you turn to him with a hopeful expression. “You really think so?”

“Yeah, of course,” Jeongguk replies.

“Susan’s still with you in your heart,” Jimin adds. He’s not too great at the comforting thing. “You were so good to her. If I was a fish, I’d want you to be my Mom.”

Jeongguk looks at Jimin with a deadpan face. Maybe that was too much, but you smiled, and that’s something to Jimin. Even if he doesn’t know what to do to help, the least he can do is be there for you.

(26) "this reminded me of u"

[03:15AM] namjoon: hehe [03:15AM] namjoon: this reminded me of u ^__^ [03:16AM] namjoon: [1 Image Attached]

[03:20AM] y/n: there r no words….

(27) allowing people to be human, with everything that this entails

University truly has been the best years of your life. There’ve been rough spots financially and mentally, but your key support system has been the circle of friends you’re proud to love and live with. Even when they’re a little bit chaotic, sometimes really annoying and loud and tiring, you still love them, and every quality that comes along with loving them.

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allurefm-blog · 5 years ago

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hey ! my name is link ! i go by he / they pronouns , am 21+ & live in the cst timezone ! i’m an obnoxious aries , but i promise i’m nice for a clown . i’m excited to be here ‘cause i’m a slice of life h*e . & this here is my weirdo tommy , who i hope you’ll like a lot . under the cut , you’ll find some misc. info & wanted connections , but here’s his dossier & pinterest board , which has more information for you . feel free to like this if you’d like to plot & i’ll swing by in your ims ( or ask for discord which is honestly easier for me but it’s okay if you don’t ) !

☕ . ˚ ◝ ( kim jongin. genderfluid. he/they. ) thomas “tommy” song is a twenty-five year old gemini. the deja brew barista’s go-to order is matcha lemonade and grilled cheese. they like to listen to tempo by lizzo feat. missy elliott while they wait for their order. the employees of the deja brew think they are inconsistent but swear they’re totally versatile as well. maybe that’s why collected sketchbooks that remain empty, horror movie marathons, band tees paired with perpetually messy hair remind me of them.

misc. info : ( content warning for : emotional abuse & neglect, negative religious imagery )

they’ve always lived in the la area & don’t really see themselves leaving even if they hate it here sometimes for whatever reasons they made up in their heads

their father owns several businesses & is generally well off. he has people convinced that he’s a really good guy but in private he’s an unbearable asshole. just really nitpicky about everything & overbearing in forcing his opinions on his family

their mother was a struggling actress & the few projects she was in flopped & then she became too old by society’s standards to get work & tommy’s dad ragged on her for it, poking at her appearance / weight until she finally gave up & settled for being his assistant

not only is their dad just a dick he’s also extremely catholic which intensified his already aggressive personality. for as long as tommy can remember their dad nagged him for anything possible. they never seemed to be “enough of a man” for him which absolutely tainted the way they viewed themselves

this plays a large part into why they decided to dump the idea of being a man period. all their life they never felt comfortable with being masculine & felt like a failure any time they tried but it wasn’t until their late teens that they felt comfortable identifying as nonbinary

they also suffer from a lot of catholic guilt. their dad was that typical shitty religious guy who went on homophobic rants at random so those views affect them even now

while they consider themselves closeted & default to saying they’re straight when asked they don’t keep up with it very well. any time a pretty guy makes eye contact with them they’re gonna go for it then beat themselves up for it later

they’re a thot. they enjoy physical intimacy but don’t really believe in the idea of romantic love ( yep his dad ruined that for them too ) so they prefer to sleep around than try to get close to anyone

whatever relationships they’ve been in they probably ruined it by not being affectionate or caring enough because they never learned how to be like that with another person ( whatever feelings they and their mother shared were more out of pity than actual love )

also they might be a cheater. i haven’t fully decided if they have or not but they definitely consider it constantly when they’re dating ( if you want some kind of plot like this let’s goooo )

so basically they struggled growing up but just emotionally & mentally. they were great in school but they hated the experience & everything along with their parents caused them to become pretty anxious & introverted in their adulthood

they can & will go out but they prefer not to & they’re terrible at socializing. things can be pretty awkward with them without them meaning to. & their sense of humor is very dry so it can come off as mean ( again without meaning to )

they’re really interested in drawing & painting but they went to college for computer science & honestly it makes them pretty miserable but they’d rather suffer than deal with their dad jumping down their throat

they took a couple of years off from school to gather themselves mentally ( basically had a breakdown in the middle of a semester & their dad still drags him for it ) but are in their senior year now

they only answer to tommy. if you call them tom or thomas you’ll just get a scowl in response then ignored

basically they’re both a fake goth & art hoe. they wear black sometimes but not constantly but always refer to themselves as a goth & they buy more sketchbooks than they need ‘cause they never draw in them ( they prefer using napkins & their textbooks )

they roll up their jeans and their sleeves because they’re bisexual

dogs are some of the only things that will make them outwardly happy if you want them to lose their mind then just show them a dog or even pics / videos

they love matcha it’s their favorite flavor but they actually hate coffee despite working in a cafe. but they’re really good at making latte art & getting tips because they’re pretty & and good at flirting with customers

they’re obsessed with horror movies. they relate a lot to movie monsters for trans reasons & find them comforting even when they’re super gory. currently their favorite movie is midsommar so you can catch them going off about it a lot

they love slushies & smoothies. if it’s blended & has a lot of sugar then they fuck with it heavily. also most of the time they’re too lazy to make their own food so they use drinks a lot as meal replacements

they can’t cook worth a damn. they probably get most of their food from deja brew

they love plants a lot & keep a bunch of them at all times

they’re a hipster they love collecting vinyls & patches for their many denim jackets

they love going on drives to anywhere everywhere at random. they don’t need a destination they just wanna drive

they sleep in small four hour bursts & are pretty much always tired

they love pizza & pasta. if it’s italian they’re a stan

they’re super clumsy. probably run into things or trip five times a day

they’re secretly dramatic & gets upset when their friends / lovers don’t give them enough attention but they will never bring it up other than through playing it up

they collect band tees even for bands they don’t listen to & they don’t care if they get called out for it

wanted connections :

rooommates ( one or two )

exes ( any gender. it can be messy or friendly. i’m willing to have tommy be the issue since they can be rather uncaring & we could even do a cheating plot if you want maximum angst. also bonus points if they’re exes that are still “involved”. )

hookups / fwbs ( any gender. singular experiences or regular type things )

childhood plots for those who’ve lived in la ( childhood friends, first kisses / crushes, all that good stuff )

high school sweethearts

their first sexual experience with someone masculine. i want the awkward teen ( or early twenties whichever ) experience & it’s probably something that tommy gets ( dare i say it ? ) shy about even now

flirtationships that don’t go anywhere

maybe a regular customer that they keep flirting with & the customer thinks they actually have a thing for them but they don’t & it’s weird & awk

maybe they fuck up your drink and your muse is mad about it but they try to flirt their way out of it with either good or disastrous results

your muse is the person that has to deal with this behavior

one-sided crushes ( don’t mind who has the feelings ! )

mutual pining but they’re both idiots & have no idea

anything from this tag

party buddies. horror movie buddies. video game buddies. road trip buddies. any of these can be combined

tinder date ( it can go well or not )

literally anything you can think of i’m probably down for it

#hqbrew:intro #⟨ * o13 . ━━━ 𝑳𝑰𝑽𝑬 𝑫𝑬𝑳𝑰𝑪𝑰𝑶𝑼𝑺𝑳𝒀 ╱ ooc ⟩

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lightsandlostbells · 6 years ago

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Druck season 2, episode 3 reaction

Manfred-Wolfgang is gonna haunt my dreams, I’ll never see a tractor the same way again.

Episode 3

Clip 1 - Road trip!

The girls are loading up the car for their trip, and of course Kiki rolls up with a large suitcase rather than the overnight bag or whatever that everyone else has.

We have this exchange where Kiki’s like, “Unlike Amira and Sam, I need all these hair supplies.” Kiki, what the hell? You can chalk it up to ignorance on her part (and I mean, it is ignorance) but she does come out with such racist remarks. I did say I liked Kiki a few episodes ago, and that it wasn’t because I thought she was a great person, but because she felt like a real person, and I want to stress that idea is solidly in effect here, lmao. Because I do think she feels like someone you could plausibly meet in real life, so as a realistic character she works - but when she says stuff like this, it’s whether you would want to meet her.

I think Kiki comes across a lot harsher or more mean-spirited than Vilde because the actress plays her as more assured, less naive in the crap she’s saying. Vilde could say some very ignorant things, but Ulrikke played her as more sheltered and unsure. Sometimes she did come off as more confused rather than judgmental about issues related to Islam. Which is not to let Vilde off the hook, or Kiki either, just why Kiki strikes a lot of people as worse.

Amira asks Kiki whether she thinks she doesn’t groom her hair because she wears hijab. Sam chimes in talking about how expensive her hair care is. I’m glad that they had them respond to Kiki’s comment - her remark was probably there in the first place as an educational moment for the audience. I do think Druck could stand to let their messages affect Kiki more, show her reconsidering or taking it all in, so we see she’s actually learning. Like we don’t see Kiki really reacting to Amira and Sam’s responses, so for all we know they just flew right over her head.

Mia points out that they’re going to a cabin, no one’s going to see them. Kiki says Hanna and Mia don’t get a say in this - I guess because she thinks they have great hair? I get why Sam would say this about Hanna and Mia (which she does) because they have “acceptable” white girl hair and don’t face the same level of scrutiny and judgment, but I’m not sure why Kiki would say that since frankly she also has “acceptable” white girl hair. Although in her eyes, her hair is probably anything but acceptable, so that’s why she said that, I guess.

The girls talk in the car. Kiki starts talking about Alex again. Oh God, I forgot this is the part of the story where Vilde is just like … unbearably hung up on William. More than usual. Kiki starts talking wistfully about Alex’s party, She’s hoping girls from another school aren’t invited to the party, probably jealous and paranoid they’ll steal Alexander away. Oh, the irony, when the real threat to her relationship with Alexander is behind the wheel!

I get the feeling Mia said breast surgery was passé as another attempt to dissuade Kiki, since that seems like something Kiki would care about.

Sam says there’s nobody in the area on Tinder. Amira mentions the Muslim dating app, Minder. Lmao, how much does Amira know about Minder?

Sam got a Tinder match with a 47-year-old farmer looking for love (but no one-night stands). LMAO. I assume Manfred-Wolfgang will be playing the role of Kasper this episode, although I hope that he will NOT show up to creep on the girls or make out with Sam in the season finale.

I wonder if the pic they used for Manfred-Wolfgang is some dude who works on the show or is related to someone, or else he’s some hapless stock image model who doesn’t know he’s been used as a thirsty farmer.

Hanna didn’t know ONS meant “one night stands” so it feels kinda like a departure from party girl Eva of S2 Skam. Though I guess it took a few episodes for her to get on Tinder, lol. In general, I have a hard time seeing that route for her. Unless this is meant to be foreshadowing of a sort, and Hanna is gonna go for those ONS to get over Jonas.

Mia is texting Axel about their deal, asking when he’s going to break up with Kiki. Kinda risky texting when Sam is right next to her in the passenger seat. Also, damn, this is gonna get messy if Alex breaks up with Kiki, and it’s gonna be messy if he doesn’t.

The girls dance in the car to Drake’s “In My Feelings” which contains a direct shout-out to a Kiki. It’s extremely cute, though sometimes you gotta wonder why some of these girls deal with Kiki (like Sam and Amira).

There’s a new scene during the credits. It’s of Mia walking through the halls of the school, texting, a small smile forming on her face. So that could be anything, really, but it’s probably from Alexander.

Clip 2 - Sweet potatoes

We’re at the cabin! Mia is peeling sweet potatoes. Kiki walks in, complaining that Alexander isn’t replying. GOD. If his method of breaking up with her is just to ghost again….

Kiki is excited about the raclette cheese, except, as Mia points out, it’s not vegan. Kiki seems disappointed. Seems like that vegan thing isn’t working so great in practice as it is in theory for Kiki.

Now we have Druck’s take on the famous potato scene. Kiki asks whether sweet potatoes have a lot of sugar, and Mia explains their nutritional benefits. I so approve of Druck’s continued endorsement of sweet potatoes. Maybe Big Sweet Potato is what’s funding the additional promo and production this season.

Kiki gets especially excited about hearing that they help you have a good complexion and fewer wrinkles. That’s always seemed a smart inclusion of Noora/Mia, since Vilde/Kiki cares so much for appearances.

Kiki wants to know how Mia knows all this about sweet potatoes, but before she can reply, Hanna comes in and says the girls are contacting Manfred. DUDE. I kinda don’t approve of that. No good can come of that. You think he’s just a harmless lonely middle-aged farmer and then suddenly this cabin trip becomes a horror film because he’s actually a serial killer.

I think my favorite version of this scene is still the original, because Noora’s slow way of talking really helped, actually - it made it feel like every piece of information was sinking in for Vilde. But I’m really glad they kept in this scene, because clearly Kiki needs to hear this.

Clip 3 - The future is full of dongs

The girls are doing this fortune telling activity where they drop lead into water and read the shapes for their futures. Mia gets some kind of penis looking object which sends the girls into giggles. Kiki says that it looks exactly like Alexander’s penis and OH NO, Mia gets a little less giggly, it seems. Kiki tells us a little too much about the shape of Alex’s dick for my liking.

Amira says it means more sex, please. Mia is like, nah, it’s an eggplant, it means more vegetables, please. Eggplant is maybe not the counter argument to penis you think it is, Mia.

We get a shot of Mia twirling that eggplant/penis between her fingers and girl I hope you’re just really hungry for aubergines. But really, the lead has predicted the probable outcome of S2.

Amira reads the meaning for eggplant - you’re a sensitive person, the world is bad and everyone wants to do you harm. Hmmm. Well, that’s a little extreme, but does fit a little into Mia’s worldview. Or at least we’re supposed to think it fits into Mia’s worldview, and she’s inclined to think poorly of Alex or whatever, except he actually IS a creep and she is right sooooooo.

Kiki says it fits Mia, no doubt thinking about Mia being so unfair to poor Alexander and his eggplant penis.

It’s Kiki’s turn. She gets what she thinks are obviously breasts. Kiki is looking at Mia but Mia does not seem thrilled with Kiki’s prediction, either.

Mia says they’re supposed to be metaphors. Amira’s like, what deep metaphors, penis = sex. LMAO.

Mia reads off Kiki’s meaning: “It’s easier to implement one’s ideas if you really support it. You can make honest promises as well.” Kiki has a revelation: of fucking course this has to do with Alexander! She supports him but has never truly told him! Oh, Kiki, no. Amira shares my reaction.

Sam’s like, I think Alex got the picture by now. Personally I think everyone in the world has the picture by now.

You know, even apart from Alex being Alex, Kiki automatically relating the prediction to ANY dude instead of relating it to herself is pretty sad.

In other sad but expected news, Hanna shows the girls that Jonas has been posting pics with a girl. Okay, we knew this was coming, we gotta get through this separated phase, but damn, this is like the Eva/Jonas remake pairing I most want back together.

Time to break out the vodka! Side note, but I wonder what the idea was to have Mia drink alcohol in this remake? I don’t mind it at all, it’s just a notable difference from the source material, especially in this season when it’s a mild plot point. Are we going to find out later?

Sam’s turn has her getting a mansion. Hanna reads the definition for house: Even though life is exciting the way it is, there’s a wish for more reliability and stability. Your wish will be fulfilled soon. Clearly that means Manfred is coming to sweep Sam off her feet!

OK, seriously though, I kinda do want to see Sam hook up with a Kasper-like figure. I think it’d be fun. Maybe behind her party girl ways, Sam wants something a little more stable. I mean, that would kind of fit! In the first season, she said she’s never slept with the same dude twice.

Clip 4 - Alex ruins everything

It’s almost midnight! The girls head outside, light some sparklers. Mia gives a speech about the year is almost over, the year that they all met each other, and the year they might depart already after they graduate. Awww.

You know, even outside of us as viewers maybe not getting more Druck (FINGERS CROSSED) it’s sad in-universe that these girls didn’t get more time together! I mean, the Norwegian girl squad met toward the beginning of their first year. They had three years, almost their whole high school experience to hang as a squad. German girl squad met last March, basically, so they’re just having a little more than a year together.

Mia’s speech on their different paths: Amira might become federal chancellor, Sam studies fashion design, Kiki will become an influencer? (said with some uncertainty, and the girls kinda laugh about it, so it’s not that serious), Hanna … Mia doesn’t know what to say for Hanna, and Hanna chimes in that she’ll be unemployed. Which fits with her character, and tbh I don’t think it’s terrible for her not to have a game plan for the rest of her life right now. A lot of people don’t have it all figured out at 17 or 18.

When asked about herself, Mia hands off the “mic” to the crew boss. Kiki says all the girls are so important to her and she can count on all of them (lmao, the irony is potent). Group hug time!

With only a few seconds left, the girls count down to midnight and pop open the champagne. They hug and kiss and it’s a beautiful, triumphant moment for the girl squad - not that they really did anything, but that they’re all together and happy. They were losers and alone and they found each other. They light sparklers and celebrate, it’s lovely and joyful. Nothing can ruin this moment!

Hey, you know what could ruin this moment? Alex. He messages Kiki, who goes off to read it. Mia looks after her, concerned.

As the girls head back to the cabin, they hear Kiki crying. Not just crying - outright sobbing and wailing as if in immense pain. They run to her. Kiki gets out, red-faced, that Alex broke up with her. That’s right. On New Year’s Eve, at midnight, he sent her a message saying he was interested in another girl. The girls are appalled and take Kiki inside to get her a drink. Mia stays behind, looking distraught and muttering, “Shit.”

All right. Dudes.

First of all … Mia knew this was going to happen. I’m not letting her off the hook because this was the end game of her actions. BUT I doubt she expected Alex to break up with Kiki in such a bad way. I mean, via a voice message, on New Year’s Eve, at midnight? I’m sure she thought he would at least talk to her in person, and not with such poor timing. Like frankly she expected too much of him.

Second, how the FUCK is Mia supposed to fall for Alex after this? How the fuck are we supposed to like Alex? What the fresh hell is wrong with him? This is cruel. Look, people celebrate on New Year’s Eve, they cheer and drink and party at midnight. It’s meant to be a feel-good time, a moment of hope for the coming year, and Alex knew Kiki would be celebrating with her friends, I’m sure. It was wrong and insensitive of him to send that message when he knew she would be in a celebratory, happy mood. Either he’s dumb as fuck and didn’t realize she’d be upset, or he didn’t care about ruining her fun evening. He should’ve broken up with her BEFORE the trip, when he knew he was supposed to, to give her time to recover with her friends, OR saved it until after she’d come back and the high of the party had faded a little.

Also, what is that mention of the other girl doing for Mia? That’s clearly a nod to her, but does she think Alex just said that as an excuse or is there meant to be more behind it?

Clip 5 - Kiki goes swimming

It’s the morning after and we see the remnants of the party, lots of empty bottles. It’s raining, I’m sure no doubt reflecting the mood of the party - symbolic of the celebration getting rained on by Alexander’s breakup message.

Mia wakes up. The other girls are still in bed - I think that’s Amira with her hoodie pulled over her hair, which is a nice way to respect the actress being a hijabi while showing her asleep with the other girls. However, Kiki’s the only one missing, so Mia gets up to look for her.

She goes outside calling for her, and has a moment of panic when she sees Kiki in the lake. Yeouch? That must be cold as hell? Kiki’s awake and conscious, though. She calls out gleefully to Mia.

Mia’s like, are you crazy? But it’s Kiki’s New Year’s resolution to go ice swimming/swimming in cold water, because the balance of the temperature burns more fat. Mia’s like, what fat, because (as we see Kiki in her swimsuit) Kiki is clearly very thin. Kiki says it’s not about weight, but fitness and strength. New year, new me!

Mia says, here’s your cape, Superwoman, handing Kiki her robe. There is a shot of them that would be perfect if they were gonna kiss, just saying. She tries to warm Kiki up as they go inside. Again. Just saying.

I liked that they used the cover of “Where Is My Mind?” at the start of the scene - besides any deeper meaning, the song was inspired by the writer’s experience with scuba diving, and the lyrics refer to swimming.

Yeah, right now? I feel like the best outcome of this season is that Mia essentially chooses Kiki in the end, not Alexander. I don’t even mean that in a romantic way (although I wouldn’t say no to that). But Alexander has been a major ass to Kiki so far this season in a way that William wasn’t to Vilde in S2. They’re going to have to do such major work to get Mia and Alexander to a place where Mia can be with this dude. I mean, admittedly, I’m not a fan of this pairing in any incarnation, so it’s already an uphill struggle for me. I think we’ll get Mia/Alex endgame but right now it feels like such a jarring outcome. But I’m also aware that we haven’t gotten most of the major scenes with them, such as the More Than This clip, or ... hm, that’s kind of the biggest one until they’re supposed to kiss for the first time, lol. And the one where William decided to give some money to refugees in exchange for Noora’s attendance at his fundraiser, which was supposed to be him showing that he’s a decent person, I guess.

I think we see here too that Kiki’s body issues didn’t go away once Alex broke up with her, although it’s the morning after and he did it in such a hurtful way that I don’t think you can say it didn’t contribute to her doing this. Like it’s too recent, too raw. But I’m aware that Kiki’s going to keep this up with or without Alexander in the picture.

Clip 6 - The party fizzles out

It’s later in the afternoon and the girls are huddled outside. Turns out Jonas didn’t get back to Hanna, either. Disappointing, not surprising. They are broken up so he can do what he wants, I’m just rooting for these kids in the long run. He still has her nose.

Sam says, I’m never drinking again. The girls smirk, but Sam is serious. She sexted with Manfred yesterday. YIKES. She did it while drunk and has now deleted Tinder. Good idea.

Amira gets a text as Mia suggests a hiking trip tomorrow. Amira says she has to leave tomorrow morning, as she forgot about an appointment with her family. When Hanna asks what kind of appointment, Amira doesn’t really answer. Hmmm! So is this like Isak’s “family dinner”? It’s not really a family issue, but something else?

They were supposed to stay the whole week so there’s some disappointment. Kiki says she’s going to exercise one way or another, either it’ll be here hiking or she’ll be at the gym tomorrow. Hanna says they don’t ALL have to leave, clearly bummed. Sam says if they leave, they can go to Carlos’ party. Kiki has a special invite! I bet Hanna didn’t want to go back so she didn’t have to go to Carlos’ party and see Jonas there.

Sam’s like, uhhhh, I have another reason for leaving. She sent Manfred their location and he may be showing up any moment. Tbh if I were those girls my ass would be flying up off the chair and throwing my shit in the van so I didn’t have to deal with the awkwardness of Manfred, or you know, not wanting to find out if he was a murderer, but they’re just like, OK, we’re leaving, and keep chilling and drinking their coffee/tea/whatever. You guys are going to stay in this cabin when Manfred’s on the loose? None of you are surviving that horror movie.

Clip 7 - Amira has a secret

It’s the drive back the next day. The mood is considerably less upbeat than the way there. Hanna looks at the picture of Jonas and his girl on IG again. Sam blocks Manfred. Kiki looks at the message notification from Alex.

Amira gets a call. It’s “Pavel.” Who is that? Pavel wants to talk about something. Amira quickly hangs up. The girls look at each other but don’t say anything or ask Amira who was that. Amira doesn’t seem like she wants to talk about it. Soooo … place your bets. Does Pavel have to do with the Jamilla storyline? What about German Even - it’s around the time he’d be going through heavy stuff, would Amira be aware of that through her brothers? Or is he connected to the German balloon squad somehow? Is it some dude she met on “Minder” (doubtful, but just throwing it out there because who knows)? Something completely different?

Cool that Amira has a subplot this season, though! Hopefully not a replacement for an actual Amira season. Druck is doing well enough that they’d be foolish not to renew the show. Case in point, this scene was trending on YouTube and non-viewers were deeply, deeply confused as to why, since not much happens in this clip, lmao.

I love Hanna and Sam blatantly and immediately texting each other about Amira’s mysterious call when they’re sitting right next to each other.

Clip 8 - Laser tag party

Disappointingly short Friday clip, though I can’t complain too much since Druck has been feeding us so well during the week. I just want more of these squads!

Mia and Hanna suit up for laser tag. More tension with Hanna about Jonas. Hanna mentions that she heard Carlos has a crush on Kiki - which seems obvious to anyone paying attention - and Mia says it’s a good match. She’s probably like THANK GOD, ANYONE BUT ALEXANDER.

Kiki fixes herself up, checking her teeth and hair in the mirror, so you know she probably had seduction in mind.

Where’s Matteo? I realize it probably came down to actor availability, but in-universe what if Matteo is going through some shit now? What if this is when he leaves home?

We see Kiki drinking out of a flask - I hope that doesn’t mean she had to get a little drunk in order to make a move on Carlos, like she wasn’t comfortable doing this otherwise. (Liquid courage was probably a factor.)

Laser tag! Hanna and Jonas knock into each other AND SHE TAGS HIM OUT. She was pretty merciless.

Kiki tags Carlos out and he puts a hand over his heart, lmao. Then Mia tells him where Kiki is and Kiki pulls him into a kiss. She wishes him a happy birthday and then tags him out. Cold! But OK, not the worst thing in itself. It’s in the spirit of competition? IDK.

After the game ends, Carlos calls Kiki over and says they could hang out, and she says no, we couldn’t. She just wanted to make out. Did he think they were a couple now? Oh, Kiki, no.

Look, she’s not obligated to get into a relationship with anyone - she is free to make out with whoever she wants and keep it at that, but it’s a thoughtless move to do that to Carlos on his birthday. She’s doing what Alex did to her, dragging someone down when they’re supposed to be celebrating. I get why she’s doing it. She’s acting out, trying to regain some power over the hurt and helplessness that she feels. She probably feels desirable getting Carlos’ attention like this, after Alex snubbed her.

I think Mia looks at this and thinks, YES, Kiki’s strong, she’s moving on! She doesn’t realize that it’s a symptom of the hurt she’s feeling.

Social Media/General Comments

We got lots of happy, cute NYE pics and videos. Matteo posts something that’s tagged #burn2018totheground which might be a joke and might be an indication that his year sucked. Not much fun considering the latter option, which we all know is accurate.

We do get to hear Alex’s breakup message to Kiki. He said he wanted to tell her so she can start her new year right. Ummm, more like she can start it depressed and miserable, but OK. He said if there was a misunderstanding, they were never together, it was always casual. He likes another girl, it’s something serious. He doesn’t want to see her for a while, but wishes her a happy new year.

HE GAVE HER A MAJORLY EXPENSIVE VOUCHER FOR BREAST SURGERY. DOES THAT NOT INDICATE SERIOUSNESS IN A RELATIONSHIP. WHO GIVES A VOUCHER LIKE THAT TO A FLING. I’m sorry but talk about mixed signals.

And the other girl he’s talking about is obviously Mia, and I mean, if he has real feelings for Mia and not for Kiki, it’s fair of him to break up with Kiki, although that doesn’t mean he should expect anything from Mia.

Lmao, wishing her a happy new year after that. I guess we know Alex thinks it’s best to hurt people to drive them away, and he wanted to make it as bad as possible for Kiki so she couldn’t forgive him or whatever. But … this is selfish as fuck. When he said that before about thinking it’s better if Kiki hates him, it’s about hurting her to make it easier for HIM, not for them. He’s okay with causing them extra pain FOR HIS SAKE. This is not some benevolent gesture on his part to get Kiki to move on, because if he had her best wishes in mind, he would not be going on a date with Mia behind her back.

I mean we have to acknowledge Mia’s role in this but we can’t let Alex off the hook just because Mia was instigating a lot of this drama. He went along with it. He could’ve kept being like, “Fuck off, Mia,” when she told him to stay away. He never had to bring a date with Mia into it even as a suggestion.

Carlos’s invite to Hanna for the laser tag party singles out the blonde with the ponytail aka Kiki. Hanna wanted to know if Jonas would be there. When Carlos asks if there would be a problem, Hanna’s like, nope. Lol. Bullshit.

The Druck team got drunk and gave us Sam’s sexts with Manfred.

Manfred complimented Sam’s “exotic looks” in his chat with her so lol, don’t feel sorry for him for getting ghosted. And he did flirt with an 18-year-old, which may be legal but is still creepy when you’re a middle-aged man.

Sam’s sexting with Manfred consists a lot of her asking about his tractor and if she can drive it, what color it is. He says it’s a green John Deere. They are really into this tractor talk. I’m sorry but LMFAO.

Sam drifts off for a while and OH GOD when she comes back she asks him what he’s wearing. Manfred: Pajamas, but I can change that real quick ;))) I hope he means change into some farmerly overalls.

Ugh, and Manfred talks about how he’s always wanted to hook up with someone dark-skinned, ewwwww. Even as the conversation moves away from the tractor talk, we still get a lot of metaphors as Sam compares her breasts to the humps of a camel (pretty sure she was cuddling up to Carmen as she wrote that) and Manfred compares his dick to a grain silo. I am both entertained and scarred.

Not a fan of how Carlos and Jonas talk about Kiki in their text but OK, as long as it’s all talk and not reflected in their actions, I am going to set that aside for the moment. For now.

There’s a text about the graduation magazine committee, which includes Jonas, Matteo, and Amira. Amira seems to be doing some organizing for the group. That wouldn’t be her big secret, would it? That seems pretty straightforward and not something she needs to hide from the girls. It might have something to do tangentially to that, but not the whole thing.

I continue to be on board with this season. I seriously don’t know where it’s going: I’m sure it’ll end up with Winterberg, but on a clip by clip basis, I don’t know what to expect, and that makes it so much more exciting! Feels like when OG Skam was airing and we had all our predictions on what would happen next; with Druck S2 we do have a general outline of what to expect, but we’re more actively engaged than if this season was more of a close remake. I think it especially helps for the section of the fandom that dislikes Noorhelm, because we’re still waiting to see what happens instead of being like, ugh, that scene again.

It was cool that they managed to center the cabin episode around another holiday. That’s a feature of S2 that kinda just doesn’t work if you’re redoing it, like Skam France did their version and it was cute, but also ... is it necessary in the remakes, really? Here they got in the cabin girl squad bonding while making it relevant in real time, as well as adding their own spin on the events. No Kasper, instead we got Manfred. No Ouija board and spooky happenings, but some plot-related development.

Now I’m curious about how the remaining episodes will proceed. If we go off Noora’s season, we have some big Mia/Alex scenes where they get to know each other. What about the sexual assault aspect? Is that going to be featured or will that be a victim of only getting 10 episodes rather than 12? I think OG S2 is overly long, personally, and you can easily cut some elements for a neater, more focused story (like I think you can cut the whole thing with the Yakuza dudes, and that would reduce some of episodes 7, 8, and 12). I think the sexual assault storyline would be a shame to lose, but I also would want it to get the right amount of focus and not be shoehorned or rushed.

We did not get the slumber party scene this episode! When is that coming?

I’m not German so feel free to correct me or clarify stuff.

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

#druck reactions

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beardyallen · 6 years ago

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8 Crazy Nights (Part 1) - Captain Marvel, Work, and Food

Not sure if you all saw, but I tried to write this on Saturday...It did not go well. And now it's two days later, more stuff has happened, and documenting everything seems just a million times more daunting.

Nevertheless, he persisted.

However, I'm learning from my past mistakes and posting this in several pieces. Hopefully this isn't being read out of order.

If memory serves, and my memory is sufficiently muddled after the celebrating yesterday, I left off on Thursday, March 7th. The next day, I spent a goodly portion of my day in my office, cracking away at my random pedigree generator algorithm. Super (duper) exciting stuff, I know.

But R showed up that night to go see Captain Marvel at the nearby mall! And, as is apparently tradition when you visit someone's apartment, she brought me a gift. And what sort of gift do you bring a guy like me, you ask? Authentic German beer, obviously! Oh, and mangos, as I had divulged that I've only ever had dried mangos and mango-flavored things. Sadly, the mangos are still sitting in my fridge because I'm not entirely sure how one is supposed to eat them. *shrug*

The mall itself is quite strange (from my limited perspective), and I don't think I've described it yet. In a standard American mall, the jewelry shops are always on corners; here, the jewelry shop (as well as several other shops) are posted up with no walls in the middle of an open space. And approximately 25% of the shops are bakeries or coffee shops. This place really knows how to entice your sweet tooth! R picked up some mini cheesecakes for the trip the next day!! Super (duper) yummy!!

One of the other interesting aspects of the first floor is the manner in which one would buy shoes (there are like...10 "shops" that sell shoes). Once again, the shops have no walls, so you just kind of wander over to a display, the attendants hover around you to see if they can help (presumably?), and after you've picked your shoe, they give you carbon paper with an order, you walk to a desk 5 shops over to pay, then carry the receipt back and attendant who was helping you wipes off the shoes again and exchanges them for the receipt. I suppose it keeps clutter down and eases the shopping experience if you're trying on shoes from different displays? When I bought shoes a few weeks ago, it was quite an ordeal given that I had no idea what the expectations were and we couldn't really communicate with anything other than hand signals, nods, and shrugs.

The second (of five) floors has the supermarket and a plethora of men's clothing shops, half of which are athletic-themed shops like New Balance, Adidas, or knock-off-Air-Jordan, and the other half are more "high-end" clothing shops. Nothing in between. Oh! And more than 80% of the models in the pictures and spreads on the walls are white. Not sure how effective that is when 95% of your clientele doesn't look like that. *shrug* There _does_ seem to be a strong desire here to appear Western, but still...

The third floor is mostly women's clothing, and the fourth floor is partially empty. But the fifth floor has the cinema and food court. One comment about the phrase "Chinese food"...It's immensely inadequate. I don't know how many different cultural regions there are in China, but there's for sure at least 6 unique cuisines, all tied to a particular region. And when I say 6 _unique_ cuisines, even my uneducated, narrow American perspective (and palette) can distinguish between them. That, to me, is probably the biggest problem with describing a restaurant in the States as serving "Chinese food." But hey, I'm just an ill-informed American, so my opinion probably doesn't carry much weight.

The cinema itself was quite impressive as well. You know how when you walk into a cinema in the States, and you get hit with that theater-popcorn smell? It's buttery and savory and only sometimes kind of stale? Well, that didn't happen here. And not because they don't have popcorn, or that they don't serve as much popcorn...I think it's mostly because, as seems to be the case with everything here, the popcorn isn't of the buttery, salty variety. No, this popcorn is green or pink or caramel covered. Drizzled with chocolate syrup or some other sort of confectionary (is confectionary a real word?).

Oh, and it's not just the popcorn that got a make-over. The nachos here are...borderline unrecognizable. And that's not the say that you wouldn't recognize what was placed in front of you, because I think you would, but you just wouldn't recognize it as "nachos." Instead of warm tortilla chips with a cup of hot, sometimes-mildly-spicy cheese sauce and jalapenos and other nacho toppings, here you get a bowl of...warmed up Doritos. That's it. Just Doritos. That have been sitting under a heat lamp. R ordered them and offered me some. I said thanks-but-no-thanks. It was a strange experience, watching someone happily munch on heated up Doritos.

Captain Marvel was exceptional, though! The classic Marvel opening was modified a bit for this film, and if you've seen the movie, you know what I mean. For sure shed some positive number of happy-sad tears. The actors were all exceptional, and I was thoroughly impressed to see how seamlessly the special effects made it look like Samuel L. Jackson was 25 years younger and had both eyes! Crazy!!! Also seeing Phil Coulson return to the big screen was dope, and I loved the post-credit scenes! The music was perfect, too! I just wish the theater had the volume high enough to trigger the strong emotional reactions I'm used to feeling in Marvel movies.

After the movie, I stopped by the beer shop across the street where I met The One to buy a couple bottles of Founders beer. I swear, I had ever intent of enjoying them on St. Patrick's Day...but one of the two was consumed a couple days later, and the other wasn't opened until I got back from the celebration yesterday...and I don't think I would have really been able to appreciate the KBS in that particular state. So I have that to look forward to when I finish teaching tonight!

The next day was spent traveling with my coworkers to the Great Wall, and this seems like a decent place to pause the narrative.

Actually, we'll skip the Great Wall for a minute, and I'll describe the past week. It wasn't terribly eventful, but there are a few mildly-interesting pics. My work week consisted mostly of prepping my students' first exam, along with a practice exam (which I don't like doing, especially at this level). In fact, on Friday, after I finished writing and testing my random pedigree generator, I spent a good portion of time trying to get the numbers of a particular probability problem to work out.

I totally don't look like a crazy math fanatic at all..

When I wasn't working, I spent much of my time reading or playing video games. There's a Communications grad student here who also plays Super Smash Bros. We intend to maintain the friendship State-side as he has a few gamer friends in Denver who play SSB as well. And who have guessed that Petey Piranha would actually be an entertaining fighter?! Like..he's a glorified potted plant, but his attacks are interesting, effective, and rather distinct (see: he's a potted plant). *shrug*

Several of those nights involved take-out from KFC...which just released a new item. Or at least new to me. You'll note some orange fibrous material on the top, some sort of white cream in the middle, and the base is a waffle. Cuz nothing says "Kentucky Fried" quite like whatever the hell that is...(Not that KFC can even call themselves Kentucky Fried, nor is their chicken even real chicken! Sorry guys, someone's gotta say it!! lol)

The waffle itself is quite sweet, as is the white cream. Not sure the intended flavor of the cream, but my best comparison is the sugary drizzle stuff you put on toaster streudels. Struedels? Strueueudels? Not sure how to spell that, and Googling it would require a smoothly operating VPN which I just don't have the patience to deal with right now. And the orange stuff on top? It's dried crab. Which I knew in advance as I'd had it on the hike to the underground river and caves. All-in-all, it surpassed my expectations, but I don't think I'll get it again...

Oh, and dinner on Friday night consisted of lamb spine. Yup. The spine. Of a lamb. Technically, it was lamb spine hot pot, but let's be real: the stand-out contributor isn't the heat or the pot or the brine. It's the spine.

You can see a bunch of vertebrae just boiling away in there. You still use chopsticks, but one of your hands has a plastic glove. Oh! And you can push your chopstick through the hollow center of the vertebra to get at some of the marrow and what we could only assume was part of the spinal cord. I ate mine, but the only other person who was lucky(?) enough to find one didn't partake.

Other than some rather standard beer, CB ordered us a bottle (half a fifth) of some sort of herbal liquor. E, another instructor, mentioned a commercial for the product which seemed to suggest that this was the perfect gift from a marrying-age girl's new fiance to her father upon their first meeting. "Made for the man!" It was somewhere between a whiskey and an amaretto, but the sweet taste was distinctly floral or herbal or something. It was pretty good! Definitely something you sip to enjoy.

I have one more food experience to share, but it fits better in a different part of the story, so I'll stop here and pick up with The Great Wall in my next post.

Sláinte,

BeardyAllen

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btsrabbithole · 6 years ago

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Hello Dear~!! Newark was great!! I wish I went to the Sat. one but Friday was still wonderful!! I met so many armys. I wish I was able to sit with the friends I made while standing in line. It was definitely lonely watching alone. My flight was delayed two hours so by the time I reached BTS studio, they cut the line off. 1/13

It’s okay!! I am ot7 anyway. If I got a pic of me and Jin I would then feel sad that I didn’t get one with the other 6. After they closed the BTS line, I ran to line where you can take a picture with the HUGE LY banner and that had all 7 of them :). A lot of the armys dressed up. My favorite was a girl wearing a wedding veil, another girl made a Yeontan headband (it looked legit), there was a girl with a bts military jacket, and there were two girls who had a tshirts. One tee had “I like Hamburgers” with a pic of a hamburger and the other tee had “And SPRITE!!!!” with sprite cans. There was a group of boys with HOLO bts shirts too. There were so many armys handing out free things and their artwork. It was a great and positive atmosphere. Honestly the army was the highlight of the concert. The energy, love, and kindness of the army was EVERYTHING. My Ticket I bought worked (YASS). The food was so expensive. I paid $5 for gatorade.The tickets I bought was for wheelchair (I made sure to ask the venue if that was alright). In a way I am glad. Despite having seated seats, everyone was standing. WC is a bit raised so I could enjoy the show without having the need to stand (25yrs and standing for 5+hrs doesn’t mix). But I really couldn’t get wild. I really wish I was able to sit with the people I met.I sat next to a mom who bought her excited daughter. She was so supportive of her daughter’s love for BTS - Tae and Jin are her moms bias. I also sat next to a much older women (60s) from South Carolina. She and her husband drove for 10 hours. V was her bias. She was so cute. She had a really sexy pic of V as her Lockscreen. She recorded everytime Tae was on screen and giggled. It was a great show. I couldn’t stop staring at the screen. I had to keep reminding myself to look at the stage to see the boys. I saw JK and Joon doing the shoot, Taejin love, Jimin standing the corners of the stage, Hobi JUMPING, and Yoongi tripping while singing SEESAW. I forgot all about the fact that I was gonna hear Seesaw. After the Yoonjin VCR, I was so excited to hear Epiphany live (I was saving my voice for this) but then Seesaw started and I LOST MY MIND. Seesaw is my favorite song and it didn’t occur to me at all that I was gonna finally hear it. It was wonderful. Perfect. Extraordinary. I can’t believe I heard Seesaw. I HEARD IT LIVE. After Yoongi finished, the room became very quiet. All of the Sudden I screamed “KIM SEOKJIN!!!” as loud as I could and then 10 secs later other people started it too and then the entire stadium. I heard the high note. Wow. I heard that. After Joon’s Trivia, they perform their old songs for 15 mins. That was my favorite part. I advise you eat a HEAVY breakfast. There is so much to do (like meeting other armys) so try to get their moderately early. Bring a bottle of water and stay hydrated. Once you’re inside you can use the restroom and completely empty your bladder. Bring cough drops I made sure to pop one in after every 3 songs. It gets really loud so maybe earplugs to protect your ears. Be prepared to stand the entire time. I tried not to record much and just focused on them. half way through though it’s hard not to record. I would bring a phone stand with a bendy arm. That way you can clip it your seat can it can record when you want to but you don’t have to focus on holding a phone. I tried to record the general atmosphere of the arena or the stage instead of zooming in on the boys. My iphone will never take as good of a pic as someone in the pit or a fancam. Like I didn’t bother recording Jk’s and Joon’s shoot cause I know someone wil post a better video and I just want be in the moment. I hope you enjoy Amsterdam!!! I really liked the experience. I hope that by the next concert, I have a army friend or friends that I could go with. Make sure to print your ticket and keep it safe. There are a LOT of scalpers in the crowd.

Anon!!! Sorry for replying so late, but I just had a couple of super busy days and I wanted to be sure I read everything you wrote thoroughly. A 13-part ask.. well that’s a first 😝!! But thank you for sharing your experience! It sounds like you had the best time ever. The armys you met sound so cute, and the one in her 60s with a sexy Taehyung as her lockscreen made me giggle (BIG MOOD). As for your description of the concert.. I got the chiils! I can’t believe I’m about to experience it myself in 10 days. 10 days!!!! Ah!!! And yes, I so know I’m gonna die during the Seesaw-Epiphany combo as well. Who allowed it?? I can’t believe I’m seeing Min Yoongi and his lil dance with my own two eyes, and I’m listening to Kim Seokjin powerful voice with my own two ears (and btw, thank you for hyping him up.. it’s what she deserves). I also know I’m gonna ascend to another dimension after Singularity, and I don’t know how I’m gonna survive Tear… I won’t… I can’t even think about it without getting overwhelmed. Regarding all of you advices, thank you so much!! I actually got a General Admission ticket, so I’m gonna be in the pit (even if I’m 25 as well.. so help me god), but I’ll for sure try a couple of the things you suggested. And yes, I agree that filming the whole thing is not worth it.. we see them through our screens all the time, if for once we can see the real deal we should not waste our chance. I sincerely hope the people ahead of me decide not to film all the time, I’m pretty tall but I don’t want to see the concert through somebody else’s phone! In general I hope I’ll survive the pit.. I’m gonna be alone too because the friend I’m going with has a seating ticket.. and I really don’t wanna go line up too early.. so pray for me lol. Anyways, thank you again for sharing all of this!! If possible it got me even more excited for Amsterdam. -10!!!! 😭😭😭

#ask #*txt #bts #bangtan boys #bts army #bts love yourself tour #bts us #bts newark #day 1 #anonnn i don't have much time but i hope what i wrote makes sense #thank you again for sharing your experience!!!#i'm glad your ticket worked lmao #and i'm glad you had so much fun!!#🌸🌸🌸#i can't wait for amsterdamm aaaaa #(bonus point if you get the meme)

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this-is-hunting · 6 years ago

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Driven boar hunt. Novska, Croatia

15-16 December 2018

When I got the invite from my good friend Max from Austria I was very excited and started planning my trip immediately.

The advert in waffengebraucht.at posted by Walter from Klagenfurt was inspiring, showing the picture of a mighty Keiler (male boar with big tusks). The promise was a rustic 3-star Hotel with big rooms, breakfast and a swimmingpool. The advert stated that many beaters would be there and 30-40 dogs and last year‘s bag was 35 boar for 25 guns.

The reality was sobering.

I didn’t see more than 6 beaters and 10 dogs. The accommodation was a 2-star hostel without breakfast, the transport from and to the hunting lodge and breakfast was dangerous in a borderline legal mini-bus.

The preparation

Because this was my first driven boar hunt, the choice of clothes and weapon were essential for me for this hunt. It is the first time for me and I wanted to make sure I’ll get it right. 2 days in the forest at any weather conditions can be challenging and I didn’t want to get caught out. I already have the Harkila Pro Hunter X jacket and added the hunting trousers and cap to it. This completed my outfit and waterproofed me. For shoes I decided to take the Meindl Winter boots. I didn’t want to take my Le Chameau wellies because of their bulkiness.

An important aspect of a hunt is the gun. I decided to take my Benelli Super Black Eagle II semi-automatic shotgun with Aimpoint S1 using Rothweil Exact 32g Cal.12 slugs, an excellent combination for a driven hunt in Croatia. All Croatian hunting videos I watched and the areal map of the hunt suggested short distance, dynamic, fast shots, ideal for a shogun hunter. This turned out to be absolutely true for each and every drive. No successful shot further away than 15 m.

Travelling with a gun requires an European Weapons pass, which is easily available from your firearms department, they simply print one off and post it to you free of charge. I booked KLM from Leeds that take guns. The flight included a transfer in Amsterdam and the second leg of the journey from Amsterdam to Zagreb by Croatian Airlines, which also takes guns. A great solution and I rang each airline to make sure the gun is booked for each leg of the flight. Full of optimism, I checked-in my gun in Leeds, which went smoothly and after filling in a form and having someone check over the gun’s serial number, all was done. Arriving in Zagreb was less joyful because the gun didn’t make it into the flight to Zagreb. It stayed in Amsterdam and was booked onto the next flight, arriving in Saturday at 13.00, while the hunt was already in full flow. I was disappointed because of all the effort and training that went into my preparation with my gun and I knew that I had to borrow an unfamiliar gun for the hunt. According to Miljenko, the Croatian hunting owner and organiser, and my mate Max, it happens a lot that the gun arrives with the next flight. None of them were under the illusion that the transfer would be smoothly. Looking back, I should have factored in an extra day for arrival.

Max picked me up from the airport and the adventure was set to start. Our first stop was CineLov, a shooting cinema near the airport in Zagreb, where we put 60 training shoots through Max’s Steyr Mannlicher .30-06 with Swarovski 3-12x42 scope. Even though the gun was completely unfamiliar to me, I hit very well. Max struggled a bit and had some flyers that were well off the target. This was shot standing onto a cinema screen with the gun in position, looking through the scope at 3x magnification. As a shotgun shooter the balance is very odd and the weight of the heavy scope is weird.

My high shooting score was encouraging and I felt ready for the hunt.

We then drove to Novska while it was lightly snowing. About 5cm snow was had already fallen, with more snow predicted for the next 24h. We arrived at the hunting lodge with the rest of the shooting party of 30 hunters, mainly from Germany and Austria. After a drink and general Hallo we were shown our accommodation, Restoran Babić in Novska, a 10min drive from the hunting lodge. This BnB had been given 2-Star and was clean but very basic and old. Not more than a bed for the night and by no means better than the most basic hostel. The info sheet in the room said that it cost 200 kr (£24) per night for 2 twin room which can only be considered too expensive for this place.

After a change of clothes we drove back to the shooting lodge for dinner, which was marinated chicken, pork and Cevapcici with cabbage salad, Ajvar and beer. Heavy, archery clogging grub for real hunters. Many hunters in our party were very overweight and drinking beer and brandy at every opportunity. I had serious doubt about their ability to shoot dynamically, or even last the day in the forest. I was later reassured, when I saw hat they all had their comfy fishing-chairs and got chauffeured to their peg.

Our excitement for the next morning lead Max and me straight to bed, leaving the shooting party behind, drinking and telling each-other their favourite hunting stories. The hunting experiences and shared interests brings many people from different walks of life together and onto common ground.

I had a wonderful night sleep because I brought my sleep ear plugs with me, but everyone else was woken up at 4am by the neighbour's noisy cockerel. I’m surprised no one opened the window and took care of the shouty bugger, giving everyone was heavily armed.

Day 1

We met at 6.45 to drive to Breakfast which was organised in a different restaurant in Novska, called Pivnica, but shifting 30 hungover hunters can take time and there was a lot of waiting around. We got picked up in a very old and borderline legal people carrier van, squeezing 15 people and equipment into a very small space. The breakfast was entirely protein based, consisting of ham and eggs, chipolatas and boiled eggs. The 6 litres of juice also didn’t go very far and the bartender struggled to make espressos and put the food out at the same time. Though unhealthy it was tasty and set me up for the day. One of the hunter there had been to the hunt before and brought his own breakfast, wise man. The obesity-crew loved it and got their fill.

It was still snowing in the morning and more snow had fallen over night. By now about 15 cm were already on the ground. It looked very picturesque but everyone knew that it would be a challenging day for everyone.

After the shooting party had been shifted to the hunting lodge here was unfortunately more admin to be done. Croatian hunting licences were issued and Miljenko started the payment procedure, something that could have been done the day or weeks before. Some hunters were on the spirits again and toasted to a good day's shooting.

Pic 1: The hunting lodge on the first morning.

At around 9am we got a move on and drove into the forest. Excitement was in the air. There was no apparent structure on who was positioned where, as no numbers were pulled. Some people were assigned based on their ability to walk or sit, others were driven to their stand by Miljenko himself, not that anyone shot anything anyway, but there was some apparent favouritism with pushy and long standing hunting clients. I really didn't like it and would have hoped for a more transparent process.

Pic 2: the road into the forest

First drive

Under snowy conditions we made to our pegs in the east end of the forest. Each hunter was stood about 50m apart along roads or paths, pointing into the forest where the beaters came from. Because of the snow it was easy to see the contrasts on the floor and any animal would have been easily visible.

My peg was quite a walk from the car at the east end of the hunt. I was on a slight hill looking down into the shrubs. My visibility was about 5 to 10 meters. I was gutted that I didn’t have my shotgun with Aimpoint, but instead a heavy rifle for long distance shooting. Max was to my right but I couldn’t see him as he was behind a big tree. I saw the hunter to my left who brought his seat which was very smart. It was a very long drive and totally quiet for over 1 h. Then we heard the dogs coming closer. I never heard working pig dogs but it was obvious to me that they were on the trail of a boar. I heard 3 different barks, between high pitch yells to deep barks. I could hear them coming closer and they couldn’t have been further away than 20 meters in the thick shrubs. I had my run in position, waiting, any second anticipating to see anything appear in my vision. Then boom. The hunter to the left fired a shot straight in front of him. The dogs went totally quiet. It was eerie. Had he shot a dog? If he shot a pig, the dogs would have kept on it. He kept looking into the shrubs to where he shot but I had no indication if he had shot anything. The dogs kept running back and forth but had lost their trail. They were quiet and trying to pick up scent again, but without success.

After 2.5 h the drive was over and I was eager to talk to my neighbour and find out what happened, so close to me. He explained that he saw a boar being chased by dogs and fired at it though the branches. The boar run off and he didn’t think he hit it. Exciting for me that a pig got so close and it could have easily been my chance to shoot.

For the first drive I counted 6 shots, but only one small pig got shot, by Miljenko himself. Most people hadn’t seen anything and there were long faces all-round.

We went to the hunting lodge for tea and brandy, then off to the next drive at 13.00.

Second drive

The second drive went to the north of the hunting ground and we were positioned in a line on a road at the starting line of the drive where the beaters set off. The drive was over quickly and I didn’t hear a shot. The faces of the frozen hunters got longer.

Third drive

At 14.30 we got into position for the next drive and I had a peg on a small forest track near a feeding place for the pigs.

Pic 3: walking to the pegs at the 3rd drive.

The dogs came closer and the excitement was big but I didn’t see anything.

A few hunters saw a jackal, a slender long-legged wild dog, and one got shot.

At this point you could tell that the hunters were really pissed off. Many had expected to have a bag of 15+ boar by this point.

First day evening

After a change and hot shower we had dinner in the hunting lodge, which was pork, cooked on the bone with paprika sauce and cabbage salad, washed down with 2 frustration-beers.

The hunt organiser’s excuse was that because this was the first snow of the year, the pigs have dug themselves into the undergrowth and stayed put until the are hungry. The dogs can’t pick up their scent and flush them because the snow has covered all tracks and scent.

The hope was that the boar would come out at night to feed and the dogs could pick up the scent better the following day. Max and many other hunters wondered if it was worth going out again the following day or just go home. Max mentioned that I hadn't been there, he would have left.

Many hunter washed down their sorrows with beer and brandy and I wondered how they would get up for the next morning.

Day 2

I had an amazing sleep after all that fresh air and the 4am cockerel didn’t disturb me at all.

The same breakfast routine and menu was presented but there was more sense of urgency to get the hunt started. At 8.45 we were all in position for the first drive. To my surprise all hunters looked fresh and keen with little signs of a hangover.

4th drive

Pic 4: my view to the right down the line of fellow hunters. The beaters were coming from the direction of the forest (left) towards us.

We were positioned along a forest road looking into the woods with little undergrowth. The visibility into the woods was about 15 m. There were plenty of wild boar tracks from the night before. I was at a peg where a big boar had gone into the forest in front of me and I saw a patch of dug-up snow behind me. I was excited and hopeful that something would happen at my stand. Wild boar had clearly been here during the night.

To my left was a very overweight hunter on a raised hide, who just about managed to make it up the ladder. He had the best spot and he was clearly put there by the hunting guide as a special favour, which I found annoying and felt uneasy about. I stood on the ground and because he was on a raised stand, it also meant that I had a wider range to shoot safely, should anything bolt out of the forest and across the path to my left.

Pic 5: my view to the left with the high stand at a distance of about 50m.

About 1 h in and with no dogs or shooting noises, I looked to my right, where Max had his peg, 2 down from me, about 100 m away. He must have been cold and started to do push-ups which amused me. As I looked into his direction I saw about 500m down the path 3 pigs bolting across the path at an area where no hunters were lined up. An amazing sight that got me excited and hopefully that something would come at our stands soon. A short while afterwards I looked to my neighbour who was crouched into his comfy 4-leg camping seat. I thought he was one of the piss-heads from the night before and had fallen asleep when I suddenly heard “boom” …a single shot fired. He shot a boar right in front of him, maybe 10 m. It came without dogs or any noise and because of the snow it was perfectly visible. It collapsed in the shot.

Only a few moments later Max fired a shot, right in front of him and shot a Jackal at close range.

Looking down the line of hunters after all the shenanigans and 300m down the path, where the 3 boar crossed earlier, 2 red deer crossed calmly and gracefully, then stopped and looked at us, well knowing that there were save today.

5th and last drive

After some lunch we went out for the last drive at 12.30 to the south end of the hunt. By now several hunters had left the shoot because they were pissed off and didn’t think this hunting trip could be saved. They cut their losses and at least got home sooner.

I was on my first raised hide overlooking some 2 meter tall growth with the back to the forest. Max was next to me along the road, also on a raised hide. The sun had just come out and although a blistery wind blew us in our necks it was the setting I was hoping for when I dreamed about this hunting trip (see the panorama picture at the top of the page).

I was stood up again and my shoulders were aching from holding the heavy gun all weekend.

The drive started quite far away from our peg and it was a while before we heard the first shots and dogs barking. Some dogs were barking from the same spots for ages without moving which indicated that the boar were dug in and couldn't be moved from their hiding places. A great sight were the white-tailed eagle circling above our heads during the drive.

After about 2 hours when the beaters and dogs came closer I had a sense that I could hear something in the undergrowth in front of me. I gripped my gun with both hands and my senses were in high alert. Then, a boar ran out of the shrubs on the left. I turned, raised the gun and had the boar in my scope and squeezed the trigger. Immediately did I realise that I had missed, but you don't get a second chance. The boar run off into the forest and was gone for good. An exciting split second experience that got my juices flowing. I was grateful that I had a chance, much better than most in our hunting party, and annoyed that I missed. The distance was no more than 40m.

Pic 6: The position where the boar crossed the path and in the red circle is where I later found the signs of the bullet hitting the ground. (The beater in the picture was not there when I fired the shot, however the car was still parked there).

Could I have hit it with my own gun? Could I have placed a second shot with my semi-automatic? We'll never know, but the excitement of the experience and the chance of a shot was amazing. The what if, is that keeps you going and makes you go back, again and again. More luck next time, more training for next time, better gun next time. The thoughts and mind games don't stop.

Pic 7: The disappointing bag. Not much to show for 30 hunters and 10 beaters with dogs.

The final bag of 6 boar and 4 jackal was embarrassing and Miljenko felt very uncomfortable, trying to explain what went wrong and they tried their best to make this a good a hunt as possible.

He offered to give a free hunt to me and Max for that night and we took him up on the opportunity. If was free to go out but we would have to pay a discounted list price for anything we shot. I wanted to see if I could get a jackal or fox and Max wanted to shoot a boar. We were driven to different areas of the hunt and too our place on one of the fully enclosed raised hides, with silently openable windows. I had the Blaser R8 again, but this time with thermal vision scope. A great set-up but I saw nothing at my spot in the 2.5 hours that I waited there.

Max had his normal scope and because of the half-moon and snow a night-vision or thermal scope was not necessary. After about 1 hour I heard a shot and Max shot a 100 kg young male boar, which cost him €250. A great finish to an otherwise disappointing hunting trip.

Pic 8: 100 kg male wild boar (Keiler) shot under moonlight.

Pic 9: The hunting ground and the positions of my pegs.

On the way back to the airport we dreamed about our next hunting adventure and hunting trip we'll do together, ranging from Islandic goose hunting to UK rabbit shooting.

Good hunting and waidmanns heil

#wild boar #driven hunt #novska #aimpoint s1 #keiler #treibjagd

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hithelleth · 6 years ago

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The Originals 5 x 12 “The Tale of Two Wolves”

This got long, but it’s mostly just a recap, so I don’t forget everything, rather than meta, because this show is what it is and I’ll just end up shoving the bad somewhere out of my memory once it ends instead of losing my energy to perpetual rants. I’ve already said what I had to multiple times before.

So, to find a solution for Hope’s predicament, Klaus decided they take a trip to Mystic Falls with Elijah as her babysitter. Which was such a great idea, not stressing her out at all, but Elijah’s the only one Klaus trusts – which was nice to hear, still, after everything.

Ah, so we do remember that the Crescents can control transformation – but apparently with the exception of the first one. Okie dokie.

The way this show is pulling twists to their mythology this season. I swear.

The SBH has a lot of tales of Klaus being the big bad wolf. Although, Elijah did his fair share of damage, but no mention of that, eh?

Oh, Klaus has a ‘genius’ self-sacrificial plan that involves Caroline’s witch daughters to syphon the dark magic from Hope into him and then he would allow them to implement the long ago forged plans of chaining, cementing, and throwing him in the Atlantic.

You want to tell me that Elijah would walk past the office of Elena Gilbert, pardon, Salvatore, MD, and not drop by to say hello? Pfffft.

Also apparently she has a plaque to commemorate her death in the moonstone ritual?

And more horror stories about Mikael, because of course. While Elijah reminisces of their old home.

Hope got asked out on a date by a painfully oblivious boy who mistook Elijah for Mr. Marshall. She turned him down because she is going to be dead soon.

LOL, Josie and Lizzie are negotiating their help with getting new cell phones, a permission to go out, and striking the school skirt length rule.

Caroline gave in to maybe going out and yes to the skirt rule. A+

And then just as Klaus was about to ‘patiently, kindly, and without even a hint of a temper or frustration’ (Gah, this was best! The boy is whipped!) explain what he needs, Alaric shot him with a crossbow, because of course. Damn, it, Ric! And then he threw him into the cellar. UGH.

Yeah, Hope isn’t dumb enough to not figure out she’s dying. And she thinks it might be for the best because she wasn’t supposed to exist, as the universe has been trying to kill her since before she was born and she knew might die when she took the power back.

In the meantime Hope’s wannabe suitor, Landon, was being bullied by some jocks who didn’t even pay their entire bull, but Elijah tipped very generously – as is the Mikaelsons’ way – instead and then let Hope drive his Bentley.

She followed the bullies to the school parking lot and busted the chief bully’s car’s windows, Elijah-style, but with witchcraft. A+

Where the fuck has Klaus suddenly pulled out yet another last remaining white oak stake to be killed with after he absorbs the dark magic?

FFS, this mythology has gone completely off the rails.

And you say you can’t bring Hayley back, because ‘rules’. When there seem to be no more fucking rules!

Well, of course he secreted it away decades ago. Because in fiction we can retroactively fix the corners we wrote ourselves into by charming things in and out of existence when we want to. GRRRRRR.

Also Caroline lent him Stefan’s clothes since Ric ruined his. :( (I’d like a bit more acknowledgement at any point in this season of Stefan’s death, tho.)

And, yeah, Klaus has become a good farther/person.

Hope blames herself for Hayley’s death… Well, she’s definitely contributed a little bit, but my poor baby. And of course she misses Hayley.

Then she fainted and her heart stopped, so she could cross over to the other world (IDK anymore, does the other side now exist or not? I guess it does?) where she saw Hayley and talkt to her and Hayley forgave her and told her to fight and live and she saw Hayley was at peace and not alone, hanging out with the dead Crescents, including her parents, Mary, and Jackson (yay!).

Well, that’s nice. Still sucks that she died at all, though.

At least Hope got to say goodbye to her.

Of course Klaus is not telling her the truth about his intentions to sacrifice himself or she wouldn’t go for it.

Hope and Elijah also bonded over having too many responsibilities too early in their lives. And she told him about seeing Hayley and Hayley telling her she’s still waiting for that dance (meh). *scowls*

Then Hope did get a date with Landon after all. 👍

Well, everyone is riff-raff in comparison to a Mikaelson. ;)

Caroline told Klaus about her visit to NOLA to search for him when she was in trouble, because he wasn’t the villain of her story.

Look at Klaus not being homicidal at his daughter dancing with a townie!

Of course Elijah figured it out and offered his life for Klaus’s, but Klaus wouldn’t have it. And his plan worked with the episode ending on a cliff-hanger just before he’d plunge the white oak stake in his heart with Elijah looking and asking him not to do it (we know from the promo pics for the finale that he doesn’t, though, but I’m still afraid he won’t survive.)

(Also, I think I’ll only be able to properly enjoy Klaroline once the show is over and I can forget/re-headcanon the shitty parts. But thanks for giving to fodder for later feels, I guess. ;))

#The Originals #to s5 #5.12: The Tale of Two Wolves #the originals meta #my meta: the originals #tho really just #notes to self #so i don't forget #(and a disclaimer if you like hayley/hope and haylijah parts/references i'm happy for you)#(and there's not need to jump on me and my feeling bitter about it since it has nothing to do with you)#(i mean the general 'you' because i have a feeling things got that far one needs to put such disclaimers on posts)#(*sighs*)#also beware of random reblogging sprees that will ensue soon-ish

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toonstarterz · 7 years ago

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BECAUSE I’M NOT POPULAR, I’LL READ WATAMOTE: CHAPTER #130.2

When a series like Watamote needs to conclude an arc, there’s a delicate balance you need to take between developing the characters and keeping the status quo. As well as deciding how far on either side of that spectrum the characters should fall on. Question is, who will be affected the most by this Disneyland escapade in the end?

Chapter 130.2: Because I’m Not Popular, The Field Trip Will End (Part 2)

One of most admirable (and frightening) traits about Nemo is how socially savvy she is. Now I wouldn’t say she’s terribly manipulative to the point where she’d feed Tomoko snacks just to be reciprocated later on. Her forethought isn’t that good. But she has a good memory, which makes it very easy for her to twist social conventions to suit her desires right in the moment.

Take a shot whenever gritted-teeth Ucchi appears.

I’m clapping right now.

I can see two reasons for Nemo’s refreshingly surprised reaction. One, she probably just expected Tomoko to go along with it, considering how unconfrontational the girl usually is around her. And two, for the first time, Tomoko was right on the nose about her motives, to the point where Nemo might not have fully realized it herself. Being called out is a rare experience for Nemo, and it makes her dynamic with Tomoko skyrocket with potential now that the latter is almost on equal footing with her.

Oh, Tomoko. Smart as she is, she’s still naive when it comes to recognizing how people view her. Can’t exactly blame her, though. Tomoko has always had this implicitly low self-value as a friend, so it must be difficult for her to comprehend that there are people now who are emotionally attached to her. In these situations, she tends to assume the selfishness in people first, never realizing the sentimental value of material goods.

A part of me worries that Tomoko’s desire for some easy money is indicative of how she views her future career options...

It’s telling that we don’t see Yuri’s face here because it signifies just how meaningless it is to Yuri that her keychain matches Nemo’s. In this case, a lack of visual reaction actually says a lot as opposed to a reaction we can see.

It’s sweet that Katou is close enough with Okada that she already knows the latter will agree to join them.

Shakes my head in disappointment.

You’d think that with Yuri asking her if she knew her name, Tomoko would have caught on to how important it is that she call her “Yuri”. But, nope. Perhaps old habits die hard, or that Tomoko simply has an incredibly high standard for calling people with an affectionate name. Currently, Yuu is the only one with that “privilege”, and “Nemo” lacks delicacy. The way I see it, the hierarchy for Tomoko is Last Name → Face → First Name, with Yuri still square in the middle.

Yuri taking the path of least resistance, as always. Many others would’ve gone out of their way to find their friends, but that would require a level of proactive closeness that Yuri hasn’t internalized. She’s getting there, but seeing as her social stamina is probably very low at this late in the day, this is all she can do.

I lost count of all the cute Yoshida pics we were blessed with during this arc.

I’m assuming that someone must have vouched for Yoshida’s absence, as I’m sure Ogino wouldn’t have just let a student go missing. Also, the idea that Yoshida packed a blanket just for this occasion is so adorably diligent of her.

Poor thing.

Is Yoshida actually making her plushie wave at the fireworks? I can’t take much more of this...

At first, it didn’t make sense to me story-wise for Nemo to go looking for Yuri instead of Tomoko or Yoshida, but as was suggested by Tomoko, Nemo’s moves are almost always calculated. If she went out to look for Yuri, she must be looking to accomplish something.

She says “Not really.”, but knowing Yuri, and her inability to be upfront about her feelings, as well as being generally polite, I don’t think that’s true. She most definitely feels closer to Yoshida and Tomoko than Nemo, but one thing we’ve learned about Yuri is that she refuses to look needy.

Nemo being Nemo, is far too intuitive for her own good.

After chapters upon chapters of mixed signals revolving around Nemoto’s motivations, we finally get something definite, and it honestly puts all of her passive-aggressive actions in a whole new light.

Knowing that Nemoto has always had these thoughts even when she was hiding them I feel is a lot more organic than her being upfront because some outside force, a.ka. Tomoko suddenly changed her. It emphasizes her autonomy and makes it easier to sympathize with Nemoto, which was much needed in my opinion.

Thing is, Nemoto is also walking a fine line between being honest and being rude, and at this point, she could easily tip over to the latter if she isn’t careful.

This is such an impressive facial expression because it’s loaded with personality, especially in the eyes. The gradients in her pupils reveal a raw honesty, as if we’re seeing Nemoto’s true, undisguised self for the first time. It’s unnerving to be sure, and a bit dangerous, but she still has the highlights, which radiates a degree of safety should Yuri fall into the abyss by answering her.

Would you trust this face? Y/N?

I’m so proud of Yuri here. It’s incredibly easy to be all “No, I don’t hate you.”, or “What makes you say that?”. She gave a straight-to-the-point, un-sugarcoated reply, even when it could potentially put herself in a negative light in the eyes of Nemoto. It’s reassuring, knowing that Yuri isn’t afraid of being judged for her less-than-pleasant traits, but at the same time, it’s also put her at a disadvantage when it comes to making friends.

Nemoto laying out the whole truth about never talking to Yuri is exactly what I meant when I said her upfrontness is a double-edged sword. By itself, it seems unnecessarily harsh, but it becomes acceptable as context for what Nemoto says next.

The next few dozen chapters are going to be a riot.

Nemoto’s reasoning fascinates me because if you think about it, she really has no obligation to be friendly with Yuri. Part of Nemoto’s character is that she likes to talk in a way that doesn’t always hold her accountable. I don’t think it’s intentional, just that in her mind, having a mutual friend makes it an inevitable destiny that they’ll be talking a lot with each other. And while there is some truth to that, it does give off an eerie premonition that if Yuri does end up hating her, it’s not going to stop Nemo from doing what she does.

But for now, it’s good to know that Yuri is considerate enough to affirm that she doesn’t hate her...for now.

I wonder at what point will calling Tomoko a “moron” or “idiot” be considered affectionate rather than incisive. Or maybe it already has...

Seeing Yoshida be so sincerely gracious is a rare sight that should be appreciated while it lasts.

How ironic. Usually, it’s Minami trying to drag Mako around to wherever, but now it’s Mako doing the dragging. You’d think Minami would be more comfortable with a large crowd, but then you remember that it's being connected with others that Minami craves, not random strangers. And seeing as she only has Mako by her side now, all this waiting around must make her feel antsy.

Great view, huh Ucchi? Something tells me she ain’t talking about the fireworks. (I’m almost certain she persuaded her five friends to go see the fireworks as her excuse for when she “coincidentally” bumps into you-know-you.)

I spy with my little eye, a Lethal Chef we haven’t seen for quite a while!

The Power Trio!

It would be a grievance of the highest caliber if I didn’t include a shot of the Magic Kingdom at the end of such a splendid arc.

Mako’s little wave to the rest of the group I feel is important when establishing the dynamics that have been set. Even though she’s Yuri’s best friend, Mako doesn’t have the sort of relationship with her that Tomoko and Yoshida have provided. The Power Trio have a history that Mako wasn’t a part of. But that’s fine, because it works both ways in that Tomoko and Yoshida won’t ever play the role Mako does. So even if Mako isn’t with them in this instance, her waving back at them indicates that she’ll always be an honorary member of the Kyoto group.

And of course, we couldn’t possibly end this arc without everyone’s favorite ninja stalker, Emiri Uchi.

If I’m not mistaken, Ucchi’s claim that “It’s so pretty,” holds much more meaning in a Japanese context. The words she uses in the original text doesn’t actually designate that it’s the fireworks she’s talking about. So if you wanted to, and I’m sure many people have, you could say that she’s talking about Tomoko. Additionally, her specific dialogue alludes a statement commonly used in manga to imply a romantic confession.

Yeah, that’s right. Ucchi just called Tomoko “pretty’.

...

internally screams.

Those glossy emoji eyes had me rolling for a good five minutes.

Much like Mako, Ucchi’s last-minute cameo here is reflective of her role in the story thus far. Despite having increasingly more screentime, Ucchi’s presence in-universe towards the other characters is ancillary. She doesn’t really register on any of the girls’ radar, other than her own group of course. But even though Ucchi has always been two steps behind everyone else, she will never be left behind.

Let me try my hand here:

Yoshida: Today was freaking awesome! I–

Mako: ...

Yuri: We couldn’t spend the whole day together, but I–

Ucchi: They were all a bunch of disgusting creeps, but still I–

Nemo: Thanks to Kuro and everyone else I–

Everyone: Had a lot of fun!

I’ve seen countless manga end their chapters with some variation of the characters’ saying how much fun they had, but I’ve never seen it quite like this, so props for that Nico Tanigawa. It’s really effective this way because it emphasizes the girls’ individual characteristics while still letting them share the same, emotional takeaway. It’s also the inverse order of the speakers at the end of chapter 125, further establishing the Disneyland trip as a full-circle experience they won’t soon forget.

To end off this glorious arc, I’d like to say what I feel the Disneyland setting says about Watamote and its cast. Call it a corporate monster, but Disneyland is a universal excursion. If you can go, then you will go at least once out of a sense of obligation. The people who go there are definitely not all the same. You’ll have hardcore Disney fans, families who are just there on a trip, and others who didn’t even really want to be there. But whatever the reason, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have some degree of fun there, and that’s exactly what Tomoko and the others represent. As lonely, violent, popular, kind, mean, or fucked up as you are, we are all in the same boat, and that’s exactly the human connection which as helped Tomoko, and the series in general, come this far.

Thank you for joining us at The Happiest Place on Earth.

#watamote #watamote review #no matter how i look at it it's you guys' fault i'm not popular!#chapter 130.2 #tomoko kuroki #hina nemoto #yuri tamura #asuka katou #masaki yoshida #akane okada #mako tanaka #koharu minami #emiri uchi #review

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rhiminee · 7 years ago

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a tale of two pictures :)

so maybe you noticed i’ve been quiet on here the past few days. that’s because i took myself on a roadtrip to knoxville, tn to see a certain guy in concert! it was such a good life decision. there’s been a lot going on with work and personal life and just the world in general lately that has me stressed and anxious. so much that i almost called this trip off -- which if you know me is VERY unlike me like hello. it was not until 5pm on monday before I knew for sure i was going. i left at noon on tuesday to start the drive. nothing like last minute lol.

but honestly it was just what i needed. even all the hours driving did me good. the time alone to just be me. but really it was seeing this ridiculous light-filled unicorn princeling named david archuleta that did me the most good. there’s honestly no one like him. i’ve never met someone so completely full of light and gentle kindness. and also full of energy and intense singing and joyous dancing.

but let me get to the pictures! so the first pic. i did vip and it’s was kind of odd because for some reason when the knoxville show went on sale there was no vip option so people understandably assumed there would not be one. but then just a couple weeks before the show -- after regular tickets had been on sale for the longest time -- they decided to add a vip option. however most people didn’t even realize it was added there at the end. so the result of that was a vip with only 9 people! it was kinda amazing and kinda terrifying lol. there is definitely safety and anonymity in numbers but also it was pretty neat to see david where you didn’t feel rushed to get through questions and pictures because there were so many. after the soundcheck part they always do a q&a session where david takes questions from the people at vip. so when ours started, everyone seemed really shy to ask a question. i think because there were so few of us. david’s like...anyone? anyone? haha. so then he goes, wait maybe i’m intimidating being up here on this tall stage let me just get down on my knees so i’m not so tall. THIS LEGIT HAPPENED. his brain. this is the way it actually works. so yeah, that’s when i took the first picture. he did the entire q&a kneeling down like that for us. to make us feel more comfortable. who even. what’s funny is actually everyone asked questions after that. ha. david knows.

{and just look at his sweet little smiley face there!!}

so now onto the second picture. fast forward a few hours and the concert starts and david is absolutely killing it he was so on fire in knoxville i cannot even deal (i’ll post some of my really bad quality videos later) but he always makes a point to tell these little stories during his shows. it’s what makes this whole music career worth it to him...being able to connect and share and amplify for those who need a voice or need to hear a voice. during the part of the show when i took the second picture, david talks about visiting china last year and meeting kids at a special orphanage for children with life-threatening illnesses. he’s just so earnest and real when he talks about it and about how he wanted to help these kids and find a way to help others too. he’s holding up a picture of himself with one of the orphans he met there. he knelt down on stage to be closer to the crowd and so they could hopefully see the little boy in green.

like. who does that. who stops their concert to kneel down and talk about helping kids in need? and asks the audience, if they have the means, to consider helping these kids in whatever way they can through sponsorship. he brings all these kids stories on tour with him. kids hoping to be sponsored. honestly going to a david concert is like half rocking out and half motivational moments. i adore him. there. is. no. one. like. him.

[i have more stories from knoxville but that’s for another post.]

#david archuleta #he is the most beautiful human being ever #knoxville

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coffeeschim · 7 years ago

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bts ➸ as boyfriends

seokjin: • a prince who’ll definitely treat you like his princess • loves taking you out to eat • thats basically what most of your dates are • likes to go out during midnight, to also get more food • wraps his arms around you and pulls you close to him so your face is in his chest • never wants to let you go when he hugs you • takes nonstop selfies bc he thinks you guys are too cute • waking up next to him would be so nice • you’d see his sleepy face, and a tiny grin appear when you tell him good morning • and he’d get up immediately to make you guys breakfast • sometimes while he cooks you’d see his toned back when he doesnt have a shirt on • which you never complain about • kisses all day !! • he loves kissing you • every kiss would be sweet and soft • always always always makes sure you’ve eaten • if not he’d be super worried and frantic bc he wants his baby to be well fed and healthy • “have you eaten today ?” • “no, not y-” • “WHAT - give me sec i’ll make you something really quick !!” • then lectures you to start eating more often and that it’s unhealthy to skip meals, etc • when he gets upset he comes home and pretends nothing is wrong • but you know something is up, because he isn’t as smiley as he usually is • so you give him the biggest hug and tell him how much you love him repeatedly • and he always wonders how he ended up with someone as wonderful as you and how lucky he is yoongi: • days would usually be spent at home or in the studio • loves it when you stay up with him while he works even though he knows you’re tired • finds it cute when you’re sleepy • likes sitting down with you and sipping on coffee • a smol softie when its just the two of you alone • LOVES CUDDLING • a huge cuddler and loves snuggling in bed and being really close • just likes having you in his arms in general • and if you fall asleep in the studio while he’s working on some things • his eyes always glance back at you every 2 sec to make sure you’re sleeping well • his gummy smile never fails to appear when you do something incredibly cute • “what are you smiling for ?” • “you can be really cute sometimes.” • likes making you blush bc he finds it amusing • gets flustered and blushes even more when you compliment him back tho • when he writes lyrics, he always tends to think about you to inspire him • sometimes writes letters to give to you to write in words about how much he loves you • he fave place to kiss you is on the lips or the back of your hand • loves holding your hand • tries to hold back a smile after every kiss you have

namjoon: • having namjoon as your boyfriend would be so wonderful • very aesthetic • would have you take his kim daily pics • does anything with you • like is down to do whatever, as long as you’re having a good time • casual & cute dates • he’s a really selfless person so he tries to be the best boyfriend • holds your hand tightly when you walk side by side • hugs you so tight and tells you about how cute you are to him and how much he loves you • he’s soooo smiley with you around • your presence just makes him so happy that he can’t help but smile • the two of you could literally be watching something he doesnt really find interest in, but you did and he sees that you’re interested in it • and smiles bc you focusing intensely on it is adorable to him • deep conversations or meaningless topics • there was no in between • reads you his favorite sections of his favorite books • kisses on the cheek, bc he thinks your cheeks are really soft • shares his hoodies with you, and is never surprised when they’re missing the next day • he’s really clumsy, so when he hurts himself he hesitates to tell you bc he doesnt want you to worry about him • even tho you find out anyways • finds you irresistible as you try to aid his wounds • “how did you even manage to trip and fall like that ??” • “i guess i cant stop falling for you” hoseok: • will make you happy 24/7 • his bright aura shines so much when you’re together • and he gets 10x happier when you’re around him bc he’s just so in love with you • always gives you kind words of affection • likes to bring you into the studio so he can show you new choreographies he came up with • and gets shy when you compliment the dance and tell him how much you loved it • “omg hoseok that was so amazing !!” • “do you really think so?” *face turns to a tomato* • isn’t afraid to be himself around you • when he’s self-conscious about himself, he has that pouty face shown • and never wants to talk about it so you two always end up cuddling with you telling him how great of a person he is and that he shouldnt worry if people try to say otherwise • likes it when you play with his hair bc it feels nice • library & cafe dates for sure • cuddles are so nice and warm • likes being the big spoon, bc he loves hugging you from behind so much • matching pjs • noSE KISSES !! • like you’d both give each other gentle pecks on the tip of your noses • and it’s so cuteeee even strangers in public would admire the love they see you have for each other • but also neck kisses in private • always shows skin ship and is never afraid to show it • before you two go to sleep he’ll sometimes offer to sing to you • and ofc you accept bc hoseok’s singing is beautiful

jimin: • so. many. giggles. • like that one cute little laugh that comes out ? • yeah that’s the one • you’ll ALWAYS hear it bc he just thinks you’re so dang adorable and cant help it • loves back hugging you and resting his head on your shoulder • and then he tends to kiss your cheek in the process • his camera roll will be filled w a bunch of pictures of you together • he likes to cherish every moment you two spend together • cuddles are the best with him • when he’s away, he always makes sure to call you every morning and night • deep conversations always somehow end with him explaining all the things he loves about you and how he wouldn’t know what to do without you by his side • ice cream dates !!!! • midnight runs just to go get ice cream tae tags along sometimes • also walks on the beach to watch the sunset • is so overly sweet to you, it’s like impossible for him to ever get mad at you • “please don’t get mad, but i lost your favorite hoodie” • “ahh, i’m not mad. it’ll give us a reason to get matching ones now !!” • “omg jimin” • he’s very touchy with you, so he’ll have a hand on you at all times • sneakily grabs your butt from time to time • in the morning you’d wake up and see him sleepily laying there with a smile on his face as he says “good morning beautiful” • and then he lightly brushes his lips against yours and gives you a morning kiss taehyung: • big hugs every time he sees you • he’s such a teddy bear that he’d be the best cuddler ever • likes caressing your cheek softly • in the morning when he wakes up you’ll be able to hear his super raspy voice • when you’re laying down he tries to be as close as possible to you • feels the need to always be around you • when he’s away he’ll video chat you and text you every day if he’s not busy • he’s really into art and photography at the moment • so expect loads of candids of you on his phone • and most of the time you don’t even realize how much he takes pictures of you • he does it bc he finds it your beauty so breathtaking • “why do you have so many pictures of me tae?” • “because you’re the definition of art in my eyes” • staying up late playing overwatch together • just staying up late all the time in general • they’re usually spent with you two laying next to each other in bed and sharing your deepest thoughts and wonders about the world • or maybe late night walks while holding hands and enjoying each others presence • loves kissing you anywhere • but while hugging you from behind, he’d kiss you on the neck • lots of laughs between you two over nothing • but its cute • your favorite songs would be playing in the background and he’d grab you by the hand and start singing to you • reminds you how much he loves you everyday • you’d be so important to him, that he’d always make sure you were okay when he’s not able to be with you

jungkook: • you would be like best friends • very competitive when it comes to games and sports • so when you did either of the two, he’s not gonna go easy on you • sometimes lets you win bc he loves seeing how happy you get when you finally beat him at something • bowling dates for sure • loves loves loves kissing you • loves it more when you kiss him • if you kiss his nose, he’ll smile widely and his nose would scrunch up • very protective of you • he’d get jealous if he saw you getting too close with another guy and then do that tongue thing • or if another guy was getting too close to you, he’d step in right away and take you away from him • he wouldnt get too mad over it bc he knows hes better • sings you to sleep !! • before you two go to bed, he’d be holding you in his arms • and then he’d start singing your fave slow songs softly until you fall asleep • hugs would be gentle as he wraps his arms around you • caresses his thumb against your skin lightly as he holds your hand • gets shy when it comes to saying his feelings out loud sometimes • tells you he loves you whenever he plants a kiss on your forehead • SEEING YOU IN HIS CLOTHES IS HIS FAVE THING • like he’d see you walking around one of his many white t-shirts • and the boy will forget how to breathe • “jungkook are you okay??” • “yeah, i’m fine - totally fine. no worries.” • but then a few sec later he’d be so egotistical • “so you seem to like my shirt huh?” • “i had nothing else to w-” • “i happen to think it looks better on you than on me. you should wear it more often”

#bts #bts headcanons #bts scenarios #jin #seokjin #hoseok #jhope #jimin #taehyung #v #jungkook #rap monster #namjoon #yoongi #suga #bts imagines #bts boyfriend #bangtan

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steamishot · 5 years ago

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Changes

~4/21? I think my mindset shifted a lot this past week, especially after staying with Matt and his family for a few days. Admittedly, I used to be very fearful of going outside to public spaces and be extra cautious every time I did take out. For example, my family and I have “outside clothes” and “inside clothes”. I would immediately toss my “outside” clothes into my laundry basket when I arrived home from the market or picking up food, even if I was out for just 5 minutes. My parents were against me doing any uber eats or takeout. They believed home cooked food was the best during this time and refused to eat non-homemade food. My mom left the house less than 2 times this past month. My dad is less fearful - he’s gone out multiple times a week (to buy food and for work) and doesn’t really care, but my mom and I always gave him shit for doing so. I felt like a huge hypocrite going out to see Matt, and was afraid of how my family would react.

I’m really awkward whenever talking about love or romantic partners with my family - especially after what happened with my last parter. I’m avoidant. So I ended up only telling my mom I was going to leave to see Matt 30 minutes before I actually did pack up to go, which was very bad on my part. She was heartbroken and was super fearful and asked “can you not?”. She later called me during the car ride and told me not to come home for a month. Hearing that made Matt feel guilty, and he called my mom’s idea stupid. We got into a huge argument, with me trying to defend my family. I found out later there was some underlying resentment, where he felt like my family treats him like second-rate, which is probably my fault because I choose not to talk about partners to my family.

4/25- it’s now been over a week that Matt has been home and I’ve seen his family every single day even on the days that we were staying at the Airbnb. Things have been kinda tense between us (I think he’s being mean to me, he thinks I’m mean to him). I realize that this is due to several issues:

- Quarantine/pandemic stresses: he’s a frontline worker in the epicenter of covid and working at one of the hardest hit hospitals. Even though he doesn’t verbally acknowledge his feelings and pretends he’s ok, he’s definitely more stressed out than usual. During this time, he’s even more sensitive to any criticism I have. He used to take it all (mostly), but he’s been retaliating more often recently. On his end, he feels that his whole life is a sacrifice, and he’s working extremely hard especially during this scary time - why do I have to criticize him during his vacation? I should just let him enjoy himself.

-Attention: We’re staying with his family during this time, so it’s his time to catch up with everyone. He’s also catching up with his friends online. Because these are the people he rarely talks to (he calls me everyday vs. calling family for like 5 min once a week, and never calling/texting his friends), I have become last on the priority list in attention during his vacation. I keep telling myself it’s fine. However, because I’m also the person he is closest to, I feel like it’s me who puts up with his shit the most. Then I question, why do I have to be so nice to someone who is not very fit as a good partner (due to residency, especially during a time like covid), and on top of that has to be rude to me? I started feeling salty about that.

- Lack of comfort: not to be ungrateful, but I realize that staying at someone else’s home for an extended period of time is stressful, even more so under quarantine. I’m not carefree at his home, and I feel like I have to be on my best behavior/ “professional” around his parents. I lose structure in my daily life and I always have to depend on someone else. I have a few articles of clothing I’m wearing over and over lol. His dad generously gave us his room (because it’s attached to a restroom). However, we’re sleeping on an old spring mattress that creeks with every movement. We’ve had to have quiet, inhibited sex lol.

Anyway, I’m PMSing - 6 days before my period. I hate that I tend to PMS during the times that we have to spend together. I know my concerns are legit, but PMS can make it seem worse/more dramatic than what it is. I was watching Insecure season 4 yesterday, and there was a scene that stuck out to me. Issa’s best friend Molly (who has been single for quite some time) started dating a guy that she really likes. A few weeks later, she got upset that he wasn’t opening up to her. Issa asked something along the lines of “do you actually wanna be happy? you keep looking for problems.” Hearing that kinda put things into perspective for me, as I tend to focus on the negatives than see things as a whole.

Let’s focus on positive things:

- Having a partner in healthcare feels like having the fastpass in an amusement park. Going to costco and beating the line. Free stuff/food everyday. His mom is a PT at USC and she’s received free food, free orchids, free tangerines, etc. I stopped feeling guilty about being out for non-essential things (like going out for take out multiple times a day), because my doctor partner deserves it. When I return to my life at home, I’m not going to do this anymore. Also, he had a healthcare worker discount at the north face, and bought a jacket for me, his mom, and himself.

- Running. The men in his family are all into running. His dad is almost mid-60s and runs 5 miles multiple times a week. His teenage brother runs 7-9 miles like everyday. Matt used to run a lot too, and was the top runner in high school. That’s why even though he’s fat now, it’s only his upper body that is actually fat. His lower body still has that runner’s physique. I went out to the trail with them 3 times already. It’s hard because I have allergies in this weather, and also it’s damn hot. But I was able to run 3.5 miles last time. I’ll try for 4 today.

- Everyday, his parents always ask him what I want to eat. They’re so accommodating, especially his dad. Tea is sacred to his dad, and he never really shared before. No one else in his family was interested in tea either. But because I showed interest and love tea, he’s been asking me multiple times a day - do you want tea? Do you want wine? LOL. He buys breakfast everyday - dimsum, burger king, mcdonalds, chinese breakfast, etc. They always make sure I am fed.

4/30 - after I wrote my last blurb, everything started going uphill. We both became more understanding of each other, and more forgiving. He became more relaxed, I became more relaxed. We were able to have fun again. to highlight the fun times that i had with him and his family:

- the first or second day i was over at his parents house, his dad offered me some tea, but i declined because it was already late and i was afraid i wouldn’t be able to sleep. i asked if we could take some tea leaves to go since were staying at an airbnb at the time. matt says he’s protective of his tea. i think he was a little shocked when i first asked him, because no one in his family is interested in tea, but he gave me like 2 bags initially. his mom was like GIVE HER MORE, GIVE HER 10. SHE IS LIKE FAMILY. i felt a little awkward but i love me some tea.

- did so. much. takeout in 13 days. the first couple days I was still kinda paranoid about going out, but by the last day it felt like NBD to me. Got to eat poke, sugarfish sushi, nabemono hot pot, pho x3, banh mi, boba everyday, ramen x2 (men oh, ramenhood), burgers x3 (in n out, bunz, the win-dow), sugar cane x2, taro cake, yin ji chang fen, thai, philz, dim sum etc. it was reminiscent of our lifestyle whenever we went on vacation. we were still fatasses during quarantine.

- played board games with his brother and mom. played poker with the family and his dad. his younger brother and i lost early on cause we suck, but he and his dad continued playing for another hour and a half or so - matt ended up winning. but it was very nice to see them spend time together as spending time playing games like that was never a thing in their family

- i helped his family take some cute family photos (with and without masks on). his mom likes taking family photos and usually gets to do so on family trips, but said they didn’t get any this year because of the quarantine. the boys aren’t big fans of photos either so she took advantage of me being there. i was also part of a few family photos!

- made charcuterie boards for his family. they really enjoyed it.

- i spent some quality time with his 88 year old grandma. she mostly does her own thing (which is being babysat by an ipad), but one day i made her draw with me by following youtube tutorials - we drew a flower, mickey mouse, a cat, and a monkey together. she asked me to save a video so she can continue doing it and get better. another day, i wanted to have her write/read in english and chinese. his mom found an elementary chinese workbook and she ended up teaching me. the material was very easy and she was like “uh you’re already very good” lol. i then switched the roles and asked her to write in english - she was surprisingly very good and could write quite quickly. as an assignment, i asked her to write a letter to matt. it was precious. it took me back to the days where i would teach english to chinese seniors. i took a pic of them using my instax camera, and she really loved it.

- watched farewell with his grandma, brother, and mom. we already watched it once before so he was sitting in the back only paying half attention. his brother was immediately into it and got emotional at times. at one point, he had to stand up and go towards the back of the room because the emotions were too much to handle. matt said his brother was tearing up. his mom said that watching their family was very relatable and it reminded her of her own family. i tried watching this film with my mom and grandma, but they didn’t get it and found it boring. it was nice to watch a chinese-american film with a chinese family to get that commentary.

- ran/walked/jogged at the trail a total of 20 miles during my stay there

- did home work outs - yoga, blogilates and peloton HIIT with him, his family and friends. we did echo park steve’s yoga one day too. his mom enjoyed peloton yoga and blogilates and asked me to save the videos for her.

- in the first few days, his mom kept repeating “life is beautiful”. the first day, we cheered to him still being alive lol. (not funny and his mom was sleepless a few nights due to worrying, but i think it’s gonna be ok)

- news so I can remember: 3 programs in cali reached out to matt during his vacation, asking if he’s still interested in interviewing for a PGY-2 program. loma linda was one of them and would have been an amazing program to be a part of. it was a very hard decision, but he declined. he had already signed a contract with brooklyn, and this would require him to speak to his program director about his interest in switching programs. not a good look if you don’t actually get into the program.

- his parents (moreso mom) is an avid, adventurous traveler. they had plans to go to africa this year and talked about rescheduling. she included matt and i in the plans to go next year and said “the four of us”. matt brought up norway instead, since that’s more doable. so we settled on going to norway as a family.

- went with matt’s dad to drop him off at LAX yesterday morning at like 6:30am. he then dropped me at home, and officially met my mom for the first time. they shook hands and he told my mom “connie is so nice”. LOL.

After coming home yesterday, my mom bombarded me with questions about matt and his family. and then asked about our future and whether we are thinking of marriage. she is against me moving to nyc during this pandemic, and i hate how uncertain everything is right now. she also thinks that i should be engaged before i uproot my life to move over to be with him. i agree to an extent, but i also understand if he is not ready. it is crazy that we have now been long distance longer than being together in person, and with this pandemic, i’m not sure how long that’s gonna continue. i found out that my mom feels ashamed of me going to stay at a boy’s house for that long. a boy i am not engaged/married to. she doesn’t say it but the actions make me seem slutty to traditional people. she hid the information from my brother and SIL - i think because she would be ashamed if the info leaked out to her parents. that is why she keeps pushing the idea of marriage/engagement on me.

I took yesterday to kinda get used to being back at home, and felt quite sad to detach from my “second family”. In a way, even though it wasn’t always comfortable or easy, I at least felt I wasn’t stagnant. It was like a “bootcamp” to fit in with someone else’s family, their routines, and their daily lives. I’m also happy that I was pushed to run. They eat pretty heavy food, and they all overeat, but they also exercise a lot. My family portions well and eats very clean, but has milder workouts. Sometimes they intentionally skip meals to lose/maintain weight, whereas my family would throw a fit if we didn’t have food at a certain time. Their family is larger (130-190lbs), whereas my family is like (110-150 lbs)? After coming back home and eating my mom’s very clean food, I felt it wasn’t as tasty and I started craving heavier food lol. I think it would be beneficial for me to eat/live like their family for a few months (to gain weight and be stronger), and for matt to eat like my family to lose weight.

When we were eating takeout ramen one day, his mom mentioned that he never used to eat carbs. When he was at home and had a workout routine, it was just protein and veggies. I realize that without me, he probably wouldn’t be such a fatass lol. He said he would probably be too lazy to go out to eat, especially if he didn’t have a partner. I remembered that before meeting me, his diet would be soylent and protein bars. We’ve come a long way.

Anyway, I’m finally getting back into my routine at home. It’s kinda boring now, but I’ll adjust. I did only the minimum for work these past two weeks, and now UC Path is down for a week, meaning I can’t really do much work. I’m taking a half day tomorrow, using COVID admin pay. My tomato plants grew a lot. My ginger may have sprouted a little, but my strawberries seem like they’re a fail. Finally applied for PUA for my uncle, hope he will be receiving a paycheck soon. Supposed to get my period really soon so I’ve been feeling pretty lazy. I may start running outside on my own.

I’m worrying less about covid now. I used to freak myself out by reading the news everyday and following the subreddit, but looking at statistics, I feel ok.

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hokkaidodo-blog · 7 years ago

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there’s snow business like hoe business

In my life so far, there have been many things that I have started to do. Many things that have interested me greatly and captured my intrigue and thus, I have made it my mission to accomplish said things. This process usually includes equal parts of both impulse buying tat from the Internet that I am convinced will be beneficial to me in some way for my new hobby and also developing slightly obsessive behaviours with regards to the aforementioned new hobby and putting every second of my spare time into it. This undoubtedly all occurs before the dawning realisations that I was, in fact, unfortunately born with the attention span of a goldfish and that either 1) I’m bored shitless of my new hobby and can’t believe I was ever interested in it in the first place, or 2) I have a huge tantrum because I’ve started something new and difficult for 10 minutes a week but somehow I’m not automatically a pro at it immediately. The third step is the abandonment of my new hobby never to be seen, mentioned or eluded to in any way, shape or form for the rest of my fickle existence. My current list of personal pathetic pursuits includes – but is by no means limited to – the following things:

Learning German. Ask me what I ate for breakfast and as long as it’s cereal or an apple, I can tell you in German.

Dance aerobics classes. Lol.

Intricate adult colouring books. My eyes go fuzzy after colouring one leaf and my friends think I’m mad when I turn around and “hey guys, look at this cool art-nouveau squirrel I just spent three hours colouring in 47 shades of brown.”

Going to the gym. Cried for two weeks solid when I pulled a toe muscle and then was appalled and disgusted when I didn’t wake up the next day after one mild workout with a toned tummy and arms like Popeye.

Eating healthier. People who say they prefer a green smoothie over a share-bag of pretzels and a pot of cheese and chive dip are fake. Steer clear and do not trust.

THIS BLOG. Somehow, it’s been two months since I last posted my last post which ALSO started out similarly by saying something along the lines of “omg lol how has is been so long since I’ve written?!” lol.

Anyway, this time I present to you another smattering of pictures and verbal diarrhoea (is this still verbal?) digital diarrhoea and stories and stuff and a bunch of I-don’t-even-know-what from the past two months.

To start with, the season here turned faster than my stomach when sometimes I would get home from a terribly draining and emotionally tiring day at school of playing with poster paint and lentils in GSCE Art BTEC and ask Mum what we’re having for dinner, to which she’d reply with the dreaded: “mackerel salad”. One day I was still in my T-shirt and jumper, walking to campus wading through piles of golden foliage and then suddenly two days later and I’m skating to school on sheet ice covered in bruises from spectacular tumbles and a good three feet of snow on either side of me. A lot of my friends in sunny Spain or France or even Tokyo say to me (whilst surprising smug giggles) “how’s Sapporo, Ross? Enjoying the snow?” to which I adamantly reply, “It’s not that cold!” and then rummage for a third pair of socks and my thermal undies. It’s beautiful though and I don’t regret a thing!

Snow business like hoe business, amirite

As for Christmas, – and no I am not a Scrooge – I am not feeling at all Christmassy this year. People still work and have classes on the 25th - which is gross for me - but there are still decorations and huge light displays up until midnight on Christmas Day, when as soon as it is over every trace of the festive season is torn down and everybody gets ready to welcome in the New Year.

“can you take a picture of us, we’re a couple”

This being said, I will definitely miss getting plastered with my Grandma on Christmas eve by glugging a bottle Amaretto and then waiting for her to request that the entire family sings “O Come Let Us Adore Him” in five part harmony whilst accompanied by Grandpa on the stylophone; sitting around in my pajamas on Christmas morning, laughing for thirty minutes because the puppy gets present opening priority and then Mum gets the black bin-sack out because he’s covered the living room in wrapping paper confetti and glitter; and then also eating Iceland out of their entire supply of frozen duck spring rolls, mini pizzas and garlic mushroom bites on Boxing Day, before complaining about how full you are yet still continuing to inhale a quarter pound of the leftover turkey, half a block of cranberry Wensleydale (with pickles), some coleslaw, a pile of bubble and squeak and some Mingles whilst the same annual festive episode of Top of the Pops lulls you gently to sleep with Fairytale of New York and Slade.

OTARU

I didn’t realise how much I missed the ocean until I hadn’t seen it for a couple of months and the sea was longer than a 15 minute drive from my house. Luckily, the seaside town of Otaru is just a train ride away from Sapporo and it felt so good for my soul to be back by the water. (Hippie child alert.)

Otaru is a picturesque little town famous for glassblowing and its beautiful canal which is lit up with candles every year for it’s winter festival. Ironically (yet gruesomely hilarious to me), after visiting the aquarium which is apparently super famous, and admiring all of the fab fishies and strange creatures, we went to a seafood restaurant and had some of the best sushi and sashimi that I have eaten so far. In other news: the demolition of a seven-tier soft-serve ice cream that left me questioning my lactose tolerance; the discovery of yet more face-cut out standees that left us all with a questioning outlook on Japan; and a two-storey shop stocked full of music box pieces. Who knew the demand for that was so high?

“Hey guys, can one of you Google whether or not you can die from eating too much ice cream because I don’t feel all that hunky dory right now”

A bear in his pants holding tissues! Japan!

Yes! It’s meant to be a penis! Awesome!

Why is it that when it comes to telling people about what you’ve been up to that your brain just turns to porridge and you can’t help but reply with the bog-standard “Oh the usual; you know, not much”.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

So, three months in (eek) and what are my thoughts on Japan? Well…

1) Japanese people (in general) seem to be very organised and structured. Take for example, the rush hour on the underground. In London it wouldn’t be unusual to have an unwashed armpit of a local hipster thrust under your nose on your morning commute whilst a lady next to you gossips loudly on the phone to her girls about the chlamydia disaster that happened with Tony last night. This may or may not be accompanied by the gentle pitter-patter sound of some 90s trance music seeping out from underneath some headphones somewhere; twelve people standing on your foot; a distinctive scent wafting from the gentleman opposite you who forgot to eat breakfast so decided to delight everyone with his loud munching of a Lamb & Mint from The Traditional Cornish Pasty Company; and occasionally the fleeting anxiety that comes with frantically patting yourself down and hoping that you haven’t dropped your wallet.

The Japanese subways are deathly quiet, however. Sometimes it’s peaceful in the morning, and sometimes it’s unnerving. You’re awkwardly scared to breathe in case it tickles someone’s neck and you’re all in a line facing the same way and you daren’t get in the way of the station attendant with the big wooden shield who squeezes you in so the doors can close. There’s no crazy rush or crowd on platforms, just two neat lines and an unsettling calmness for someone who is used to (and who quite enjoys) mild chaos and hecticness.

2) Went to the Asahi Beer factory; the most lit class field trip ever. With free beer. 10/10 would recommend.

3) Japanese staff in restaurants, ticket offices, libraries etc absolutely will NOT speak Japanese with a non-Japanese person. It’s incredibly frustrating. As someone who’s main focus here is to improve my language skills, it is tough to do so when you struggle to get natives to treat you like anybody else. Whether some Japanese people just assume that there is categorically no way that a non-Asian person could become conversational in Japanese, I have no idea. For example, you will order in a restaurant in near-perfect Japanese to which you are just started at blankly. The waitress turns to my Japanese friend who repeats word-for-word and accent-for-accent exactly what I just said, and everything is fine. This usually continues for a few minutes and each time leaves me questioning my intelligence, my language competency and my foreigner-ness, and also just what do I need to do to try and win over the Japanese? (Video link)

I think that’s it for now. I’m sure I had more thoughts so I’ll try and write them here more often when I remember them (part 2 of me saying that). Nothing much is happening in the next few weeks, it’s that kind of winter jaded-ness that happens every year. BUT – everything is beautiful, I’m still smiling and I’m still in Japan and very lucky to be alive. I’m looking forward to January where things will kick-start again, and I can start travelling and exploring some more. Just got to finish 2017 with as much love as possible and give it a good end.

BONUS PICS: Some pretty skies at the Hokkaido Historical Village and me riding a humpback whale at the museum. You’re welcome.

Every single typewriter stamp from an old Japanese printer press.

I'm putting on my shades to cover up my eyes, I'm jumping in my ride, I'm heading out tonight ;)

#Japan #Hokkaido #Sapporo #travel #blog #year abroad #study abroad #experiences #personal #winter #snow #beer #museum #Otaru #Japanese

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kennethherrerablog · 5 years ago

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The Ladder of Freedom

I was walking home from the gym in NYC and I had to stop and take a video of this.

I call it HELLSCAPE ON EARTH.

Watch the entire video here

Looking at this building full of people working at 7pm, what do you feel?

I feel TRAPPED. Ever since I was a kid, I never wanted to work in a cubicle with fluorescent lights. I certainly never wanted to have people walking outside in the fresh air, looking at me through the glass in my conference room window like a zoo animal.

I know it’s irrational, but I’ve hated this since I started working at 14 years old.

Now, I don’t mind working hard and I don’t mind putting in lots of hours when times are busy. But I hate the idea of HAVING to go into an office.

“Dear Boss, can I please take a 2-day vacation? Can I please use the bathroom?” NO!

I remember telling my college friends this. They all looked at me like I was insane. We were all going to go work in cubicles…that’s what you do, right?

Actually, no. You don’t have to.

When I was offered a job at Google, I ran the other direction. I took a massive pay cut, lived in a house with 4 other guys, and chose a different path.

YES — it’s an amazing privilege to even be able to think about what “our path” is. So many people have to work at whatever job they can find to provide for their families. My immigrant parents came here and my dad took what job he could get. But together with my mom, they learned enough to give the next generation — my siblings and me — enough freedom that we could choose what we wanted to do.

I’m very grateful for that opportunity. And now I get to share what I’ve learned with you.

As I’ve met more IWT readers, I’ve asked what your Rich Life is. I’ve learned it’s not simply to make more money (not even $1 million per year).

It’s also to choose the LIFESTYLE you want. For me, it was never having to go into an office with fluorescent lights and people wearing Patagonia vests. What is it for you?

Is your Rich Life…

Never having to wake up to a blaring alarm clock?

Being able to travel for 3 weeks at a time — and flying business class?

Being able to buy something without worrying about the price?

Here’s what I decided for my Rich Life.

I run my business from my home office — no commute, no fluorescent lights. I can wake up, have a leisurely morning, and walk 10 feet to start working.

BTW I splurged on a dual-monitor setup:

I HAVE FINALLY MADE IT

I wanted the freedom of traveling now, not 40 years from now. So I built it into my life. Every year, I travel for 6 weeks.

Here’s my office for the day at The Oberoi Vanyavilas in India. I worked for one hour per week — over a 6-week trip — and my business kept growing.

Fun fact: When the picture was taken in India, I checked on the daily sales for my business. Here’s the sales receipt from the previous day that was waiting in my inbox:

On that day in India, my business brought in $14,591 No office, no conference rooms

I know this is unusual — but it’s not an accident.

It’s the result of building a business that supports my Rich Life.

What would yours look like? Would you have a home office? Would you travel more? Would you take the afternoons off to spend it with your kids or a workout class?

Your Rich Life is yours. But it means you have to decide, then create it.

This is a totally different way of thinking about lifestyle. Most people take a random job, look around longingly at travel pics on Instagram, dream of “freedom,” then shrug and walk into a brown-carpeted conference room with lukewarm coffee and a conference room speakerphone. That’s my personal hell.

We wonder why we have a hard time getting out of bed and motivating ourselves to get things done. No, taking a 2-day vacation to “recharge” won’t change anything. 5 minutes of meditating won’t change it, either. You have to be courageous enough to confront the system you exist in…and decide to change it.

We all want freedom. We all want the flexibility to be spontaneous. We all want the ability to say YES when someone or something we love comes along.

Are we willing to make the changes to get it?

Once you start, you’ll discover there are lots of different levels of freedom. And you choose where you want to be.

I call this The Ladder of Freedom.

LEVEL 1: Freedom from $3 worries

This is the ability to stop sweating the small stuff.

A reader told me about taking a taxi in NYC and staring at the taxi sign ticking up by $0.50…block after block after block.

“God,” he said. “I could see the price going higher, knowing I was going to have to skip lunch the next day. I was thinking to myself, ‘Should I just get out here? I could probably walk from here. But it’s raining…’”

I remember being in my early 20s and thinking EXACTLY the same thing. I went to a restaurant and saw an appetizer that looked so good…and then turned the page and just got an entree.

For lots of people, that’s just how life goes.

It’s easy to be worried about small expenses when we’re surrounded by so-called “experts” lecturing us about how our $3 lattes will destroy our lives. (Which is why it’s still surprising to most people to find out that you could cut back on $3 lattes all day…and even over 50 years, it wouldn’t add up to much. You can see the math in my post about multimillionaires lecturing you about avocado toast.)

At a certain point — as you get older, as you earn more, and as your time becomes more scarce — we all reconsider the calculus of is it worth it? For example, my mom would have NEVER bought pre-cut vegetables: They were too expensive. Now, I do. An extra $2 means nothing to me, and the 20 minutes saved is valuable.

Put another way: Would you worry about the cost of a $0.25 piece of candy? No, because it would have no effect on your life at all.

Same with $3 expenses.

This first level of freedom is freedom from worrying about $3 expenses. You never have to worry about coffee or appetizers or picking up a round of drinks for your friends — because the money will not affect your life at all.

LEVEL 2: Freedom to ask $30,000 questions

This is the ability to buy the things you love, guilt-free.

At this level, you’re not worrying about $3 questions — you’re actually leaning into $30,000 questions.

You don’t have to cut back on tiny expenses. Because you’re keeping your eye on the Big Wins, tiny $10 or even $100 expenses are irrelevant.

In fact, you can splurge on the things you love:

Not just getting flowers once a year for your anniversary — getting a fresh bouquet delivered every week

Traveling for 3 weeks every year — and sorting your flight by “direct flights only,” not by “cost”

Treating your friends to dinner, saying, “I’ll get this”

I talked about moving beyond $3 questions for CNBC

If you could spend $5,000/year on something you love, what would it be? Get really specific. Don’t just say “travel.” Say: “I’d fly to Mexico for 10 days with my girlfriend, fly business class (points), stay at this resort I’ve been keeping my eyes on, and take a tequila tour.”

Now think bigger: What if you could spend $50,000/year on something you love? What would you do? Most of us have never thought about this because we’re mired in the $3 weeds. But at this level, you can think bigger.

Here’s what I did:

How about you?

If you had freedom from $30,000 questions, what would you spend more on? What’s the thing you LOVE spending on? Eating out? Travel? Fitness?

LEVEL 3: Freedom from location

This is the ability to work and live wherever you want.

At this level, you have the ability to travel anywhere. You could work from Starbucks or a home office. Or Japan.

And you’re not locked into any location, no matter how cool it is. You can work from Spain for a month, then try someplace else.

You’re not limited to two weeks of vacation a year, either.

Here’s how I use this level of freedom:

Annual CEO trip: Every January, I take a trip with a small group of CEOs. We get a house with a chef and a view, then spend 4 days planning out our year, talking about what worked/what didn’t, and share advice with each other. (If this isn’t your thing, you could do it with a group of friends.)

Annual CEO trip, where we ask for advice, share our lessons from last year, and plan out this year

6-week extended vacation: At the end of every year, my wife and I take a 6-week trip. The trip gives us time to connect with each other, reflect on the year, and most of all, eat the world’s best food!!! I’ll post food pics on my IG account later.

India, Kenya, Italy, Japan…and more trips coming up. Each year, I work with my team to set up more systems that allow me to be off the grid. Last year, I only checked in for 1 hour a week. The rest was pure vacation.

Don’t be limited by my choice. What would yours be? Some would love a beach trip…others would move to Colorado for ski season…and others would take their kids to Europe for the summer. Dream big!

If you had freedom from location, where would you go?

LEVEL 4: Freedom from time limits

This is the ability to do what you want, when you want to do it.

No endless string of meetings that you didn’t schedule. No alarm clocks. No having to remember “that one thing” to buy from the store.

At this level, you can use money to buy back your time.

Note that if you still love something, you can still do it! For example, I love reading emails from my readers, so I continue to read every single one (though I can’t respond to every one). I also love ironing my clothes. But I hate having to sort through travel options, so I’ve outsourced that.

Here are 30 examples of things my assistant handles and that I no longer have to spend time on thanks to my assistant and the systems we’ve built:

Altogether, this saves me 20 hours every week.

If you had freedom from time, what would your mornings look like?

LEVEL 5: Freedom from expectations

This is the ability to completely craft your own Rich Life.

Maybe you want to buy a house — or not.

Maybe you want to have kids — or not.

Maybe you want to travel around the country in a trailer!

I love this!!

It’s not my Rich Life — I live in a Manhattan high-rise — but it’s Steve and his wife’s Rich Life.

This is true “freedom from expectations.”

Guys, if I had followed society’s expectations, I would be wearing an ill-fitting XL t-shirt working at Cisco Systems. That’s my idea of hell on earth.

Freedom from expectations means you’ve mastered the $3 level, the $30,000 level, the freedom from location, AND the freedom from time limits.

This level is the culmination of the others — the top of the ladder — because you’ve truly earned the right to be free from expectations.

Now you can choose the life you want.

Here’s how this worked in my life: When we were planning our wedding, my fiance (now-wife) Cass and I were out to dinner with some friends. We were talking about wedding planning and our friends asked us what we were thinking for a honeymoon.

I told them we were probably going to go on a safari for 7 or 8 days. It was classic American thinking: we’re probably going to go for 7 to 10 days, have a nice time, come back, go to work. We were excited!

Our friends were excited too. One of them said, “That sounds amazing. You know, when we went on our honeymoon, we took three months off and it was amazing.”

Cass and I looked at each other. What?

Then the next couple (also older than us) told us that they took a year off and traveled the world when they got married.

Cass and I walked out of that dinner looking at each other, saying “What the hell just happe—”

We thought they were normal people. But who the hell takes that much time off?

Then we asked another question:

What if?

What if we decided to take a different path than the usual 7-day honeymoon?

What if we decided to stay at some of the world’s most amazing places…and also visit locals and eat street food?

And what if we brought our parents with us for part of it — to create memories we’d truly never forget?

In retrospect, I feel a little dumb because my entire business is advising people how to think bigger, but when it came to our honeymoon, I “bought into” the usual 7-day trip like everyone else.

But I’m so glad we had that dinner. And I’m so glad we asked that magical question, “What if?”

We realized we could do this, too. We have the flexibility. We have the finances. We just needed the courage — and the mindset of freedom from expectations — to say YES.

On a horseback safari in Kenya, surrounded by giraffes. Our relationship rule: If we’re ever on the fence about doing something — a dinner party, an event — we just say YES.

We ended up taking a 6-week honeymoon to Italy, Kenya, India, and Thailand — and having the time of our lives.

One of the big mistakes that people just starting out make is assuming they have to accomplish all of these rungs at the same time. Wrong! You can start methodically and slowly. These can take a lifetime to truly master, and each step up is a win.

Now I want to hear from you:

I shared some of the changes I’ve made moving up the Ladder of Freedom. I’ll share mine on Instagram, too.

Where are you on the Ladder of Freedom?

Where would you like to go?

Be specific — is it visiting a certain place? Is it never doing your own laundry again? Is it spending 2 hours volunteering every Wednesday evening?

Send me an email (I read every one) or post on Instagram and use the hashtag #ladderoffreedom. That way we can all find and learn from each other.

See you on IG,

-Ramit

The Ladder of Freedom is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

The Ladder of Freedom published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

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