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yuta-nakamots · 4 years ago

Text

Playing Games - n.yt

Pairing - Frat Boy!Yuta x Reader

Genre - College!AU, Fluff, Smut, Slight Angst

Warnings - Safe sex, swearing, alcohol consumption

Summary - Yuta is a notorious frat boy known for sleeping around with tons of girls yet never getting into a relationship. You never would have thought you’d become entangled with him until fate ends up placing both of you in the same beginner guitar class during your spring semester.

Word Count - 11.2k

A/N - i do not condone or promote the behavior or fraternities or sororities, especially during COVID-19, read a bit about it here. i am simply writing about my own fantasy in my own ideal world. with that being said, please remember to wear your masks and stay safe out there. this one shot will be my first work with smut in it so i’m open to pretty much any and all feedback. special thank you to @neocitybynight for helping me work out some of the plot!

Tag List - @jisungismymom @jikooksgirl19 @jungcity @boiolay @yasmini24

Written for the Bingo Collab hosted by @legendnct. Check out the masterlist here.

Prompts;

"Baby, I’m afraid to fall in love. ‘Cause what if it’s not reciprocated?” – Pink Sweat$ - Honesty

“So won’t you say my name, say my name?”– summer walker - playing games

“Don’t follow me, you’ll end up in my arms” – Joji - SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK

“Can you focus on me? Baby can you focus on me?”– H.E.R - focus

“Oh, how I love you. I just feel so lost without you.”– McKay & Jeff Bernat - Angel 2 Me

It’s the first day of your second semester of college and you’re starting to rethink your decision of signing up for Guitar 101 as you step into the classroom. You don’t remember what pushed you to add this course to your schedule other than the fact that it would knock off two off your graduation requirements, though surely there were other courses that could’ve done that as well.

You were quite the beginner to guitar, having only touched one maybe only a few times in your life and you were sure that you absolutely would not have ever thought about taking Guitar 101 if it wasn’t for your friend Mark, who had suggested it to you.

Mark is a sweet guy and you just so happened to have the pleasure of meeting last semester in your math class. He had walked in late on the first day and took the seat next to you as he muttered something about the campus being too big and not having building names displayed clearly.

Your friendship truly started the day he came in without any of his belongings, not even his backpack. “I, uh, woke up late and ran to class. Literally.” You could tell from the way sections of his hair were standing up and how his white t-shirt was inside out, but you didn’t tell him that.

“If it’s okay with you, can you send me your notes later?” He asked, his eyes resembling that of boba. Mark let out an audible sigh of relief when you agreed and handed him your phone to type in his number. As soon as he gave it back to you, you sent him a message to make sure he typed it correctly and it was at that moment that Mark realized, after a whole month of sitting next to you and occasionally working together, he had yet to remember your name.

‘Hey, this is y/n. Still can’t believe you forgot your backpack’

The two of you fit together like puzzle pieces and you always did your work together at any given opportunity, finding that two heads are definitely better than one when it came to calculus. Sometimes working on projects together often led to you and Mark spending more time together and eventually leading both of your guys’ friends to speculate that you were dating, to which you insisted was not true.

Your friends seemed to understand and leave it be, though Mark’s friends were a whole different story. He was part of one of the newest frats on campus which had come to fame due to their good-looking members, not a single one of them falling even a hair short of having god-tier visuals. You recognized a few of them, having been to their frat house a couple of times to work on projects with Mark though most of them were older than you so it came as a surprise to you when you saw one of them in your beginner guitar class.

You didn’t know his name but he was easy to remember with his long black hair and his ever-changing fashion sense. Today, he resembled something out of a motorcycle magazine with his maroon leather jacket, black ripped jeans, and the bandana tied around his head.

You watched as he took a seat in the front of the room though you had enough sense to turn your attention back to the professor who had started class and was displaying a list of names with corresponding locker numbers that housed the guitar you’d be using.

Standing up with the rest of the class, you went to go find your own locker and let out a sigh of relief when you saw it was on the bottom row because that meant less effort to take it in and out rather than if you had one on the top row.

Right as you popped your lock open, a shadow was cast over you and you turned around to see Mark’s friend who was even more stunning up close. He flashed you a quick smile along with an apology as he moved to the side to give you more room and allow you to grab your guitar out from the locker.

You were just slightly irritated at the guy. People with good looks knew how to use them to their advantage and this man obviously knew what he was doing. Had he been sane, he could’ve just waited for you to get your stuff out before getting his own, but instead, he chose to tower over you as you were crouching down on the floor.

Your eyes followed his figure as he made his way back to his seat in the front of the room, sitting down in front of the professor and you rolled your eyes knowing that he’s going to have an ego as tall as a skyscraper.

Aside from your encounter with the nameless e-boy, your first class went pretty okay though you were already having a little trouble remembering which chords were which so you sent a text to Mark asking for tips. He responds a few minutes later with fingering charts and even offers to tutor you, which you gladly accept.

You and Mark had appointed Wednesday afternoons and Sunday mornings as your lesson times and the first time you visit him is on the former. It was February so the weather was still quite cold though it wasn’t cold enough to make you regret not wearing a thicker jacket.

Before you could even text Mark that you’re outside the frat house, the door opens and he pulls you in, visibly shivering due to only being in a t-shirt and basketball shorts. “Not so Canadian are you, huh?” You joke at him, seeing the once thick-skinned boy now struggling to warm himself up as he practically ran up the stairs to his room.

You followed him up, greeting his roommate, Taeil, when you passed him in the hallway. Taeil was the oldest member of the frat and was set to graduate at the end of the semester. He had you absolutely fooled when you first met him. His personality reminded you of a golden meadow or a sunny beach but he was a total animal when it came to parties though Mark had told you that you’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.

Having seen Taeil out in the hallway, you thought you and Mark would be the only ones in the room so you weren’t expecting to see the same guy from guitar class lying around on Mark’s bed. “Yuta, this is y/n, y/n meet Yuta.”

Yuta gave you that same smile you saw on the first day of class as he told Mark, “oh, I know her, she’s in my guitar class.”

“Dude, that’s so cool. You guys can work together on projects and the playing tests then. Man, that course would’ve been way more fun if I could play with someone I knew.” You shot Mark an awkward smile as if telling him to move on because you highly doubted that you’d ever want to work with Yuta, especially if his ego was as big as you thought it was. He’d call you out left and right for even the tiniest mistakes and you didn’t want to put yourself through that.

Mark cleared his throat while grabbing his guitar and handing it to you, and Taeil’s guitar to Yuta. “Yeah so, uh, anyway, I thought it would be better to teach you guys at the same time since you both are at the same level if that’s okay with you.” Mark’s question was obviously aimed towards you however Yuta answered first without any hesitation.

“Works for me.” Yuta looked over to you, strands of his white locks falling in front of his eyes though it didn’t dampen the intensity of his gaze in the slightest.

You didn’t exactly like the idea of playing with an audience, even if it was just Yuta. But if he was a beginner like you, then theoretically the playing field should be even. It was only because of this did you nod your head, telling Mark, “sure.”

Your first lesson with Mark consisted of his retaught both you and Yuta the fundamentals and basic chords you had already learned, making sure that your hands and fingers were placed the right way. Yuta, who was having a harder time than you, let out an exasperated sigh as he leaned back against the wall next to Mark’s bed while he ripped open a bag of gummy bears. “Whoever gets the fingerings right first gets a gummy bear.”

“Okay, bet.” Not really one for competition, you wanted to refuse his proposal, but this guy was really getting on your nerves. It was as if he had no interest yet all the passion in the world. And that’s aside from the fact that you simply wanted to continue showing him up and proving that you weren’t such a pushover and he can’t simply bend you to his will.

The three of you became so wrapped up in the competition that you didn’t even notice that you were supposed to leave to get to your last class of the day, which was now starting in five minutes. When you glanced over at the clock on Mark’s desk, you practically jumped out of your seat, “holy shit, I’m gonna be late to class.”

“I can drive you if you want.” Yuta offered.

“No, it’s okay, I’ll be fine.” You weren’t exactly lying but you weren’t entirely telling the truth as you declined him. It was an eight-minute walk away but you could probably make it in six if you did your Black Friday walk and surely your professor wouldn’t mind if you were just a minute late.

Mark helped you gather your belongings and held his door open for you. “Alright, see you y/n. I’ll set an alarm next time so we don’t forget.” He said with a slight laugh in his voice.

As you stepped out of the frat house, you just couldn’t stop your mind from wandering back to Yuta. He barely even knew you yet he had offered to drive you to class, even though your campus wasn’t particularly large. There was something about that man that made you want to run for your life but also just stop and stare at him all day.

The second time you had a lesson with Mark is on a Sunday morning and you’re pleasantly surprised to see that Yuta is nowhere to be found as you set foot into Mark’s room. After placing your bag down next to Mark’s desk, you pick up Taeil’s guitar and join him on his bed while he quietly plays a song to himself.

“Yuta’s still knocked out from the party we had yesterday so I doubt he’ll be joining us.” Mark informed you, and his statement rang true as Yuta did not come in during all of the three hours you spent next to Mark, much to your relief. Instead, Taeil had come in, looking terribly hungover.

“Hey, what’s up man.” Is all Taeil got to say before rolling into his bed, putting in a single Airpod before falling asleep, much to both you and Mark’s amusement.

Mark had tried to teach you basic chord sequences and strumming patterns but your brain just wasn’t having it. He kept giggling at seeing you frustrated and you had to repeatedly tell him to shut up in fear of waking Taeil so eventually both of you decided to call it a day as you put the guitars back on their stands.

You got back onto the bed next to Mark as both of you played on your phones for a bit before he turned his off and turned to talk to you. “Hey, y/n, so the guys are throwing this party next week Saturday and I was wondering if you’d want to come.”

“Next Saturday...Valentine’s Day?” You ask as you check your calendar on your phone.

“Yeah. You don’t have to though if you already have other plans.” Mark blurted out.

You laughed at the thought of actually going on a date on Valentine’s Day. “Didn’t have any plans besides ordering take-out and watching Netflix.”

Mark laughed along with you. “So is that a yes?”

“Sure.”

“Do you wanna sleepover too since you’re gonna be here on Sunday morning anyway?” You raised an eyebrow at Mark, wondering if he was actually serious.

“Sounds convenient but then where are you gonna sleep?” You countered.

“Uh, in Taeil’s bed.” Mark said, the gears in his head almost visibly turning.

“And where is he going to sleep?” You ask, not wanting to cause the kind senior any extra stress from having to deal with Mark as a roommate on top of his impending graduation.

Mark reached up and scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know, probably somewhere on the floor downstairs.” Your eyes grew wide at his statement. “Okay wait, before you yell at me, Taeil always gets too hammered to make it back up to the room until like, Sunday afternoon as you clearly just saw.” He explained, gesturing to his sleeping body on the other side of the room.

“Okay, then. But if he gets mad, it’s your fault, your idea, not mine.”

By the time Valentine’s Day came around, you were more than ready for it to end, having been annoyed by all the lovey-dovey advertisement and the couples posting on Instagram and holding hands and kissing wherever you went. You had always heard that love finds its way to those who are least expecting it, which is why you gave up the thought of ever pining over a guy who was likely to reject you anyway. Though, sure enough, love really did find a way of messing with your life in more than one way.

When you arrived at the party, you had first gone up to Mark’s room to drop off your bag that held your change of clothes and personal hygiene supplies. You don’t know what you were expecting to see when you entered his room, but you certainly weren’t expecting to see Mark’s bare ass while he was fucking into a girl in his bed, the same bed you were supposed to sleep in at the end of the night. “Oh, shit, fuck, sorry y/n, can you just uh, come back in a bit-”

You were pretty sure you were just as embarrassed as Mark, shouting “alright, have fun dude” as you closed the door. You turned around to search for somewhere else to go, pondering on the idea of just going back to your dorm after the party and walked right into Taeil.

“Should I not go in there?” He asked, having seen the way you backed out of the room and closed the door.

“Not unless you wanna see Mark’s butt.”

“Eh, I see it from time to time, can’t be any worse than usual.”

“Taeil, no” you exclaim, grabbing onto his arm and pulling him away before he could open the door.

“Oh, you mean to see his butt while he’s doing that kind of thing, I get it now.” He said with a playful glint in his eyes. “Were you planning on sleeping over?” He asked, having noticed the duffel bag hanging from your shoulder.

You let out a sigh before answering. “Yeah, I was gonna sleep in Mark’s bed and he was gonna sleep in yours since he said you apparently get too fucked up to make it back to the room.” At which Taeil laughs as he nodded his head, acknowledging the statement.

“He’s certainly not wrong,” Taeil confirmed, “did you want to put that down somewhere? I can let you keep it in our lounge room during the party. It’s a members-only room so you can just ask one of the guys to open it for you later in case I’m already out.”

You can’t help but giggle at Taeil’s joke as you accept his offer, following him down the hallway to a door where he punches in some numbers onto a keypad before opening it. Your jaw dropped when you looked inside, being met with a huge U-shaped couch facing the back wall where a large TV was mounted. “What do you guys even do in here?”

“Usually just gaming, sometimes watching big sports matches. Just normal guys stuff. We agreed to no sex, drugs, or alcohol in here so it’s like a safe room of sorts I guess.” Taeil explained to you.

“Huh, didn’t think you guys would have something like this.” You told him as you placed your duffle bag against the wall near the door.

“Frat life isn’t just all about getting high and drunk you know, y/n,” he said, playfully scoffing at you, “but speaking of, would you like to get a drink downstairs?” You nod your head before walking alongside Taeil as he places an arm around your shoulders, guiding you down to the party.

As you pass by Mark’s room along the way to the stairs, both you and Taeil share a laugh as you could hear the faint noises of sex through the door, though you really just wanted to erase the image of Mark’s ass from your head. Taeil seems to understand this much as he takes you to the kitchen and tells Doyoung, the frat’s resident entrepreneur with a side hobby for mixology, to get you something strong.

You’ve met Doyoung a couple of times, though you only exchanged short greetings since you were always doing something with Mark. “Where’s your boyfriend?” He inquired.

“Who?”

“Mark.”

“Oh, we’re not dating. He’s in his room though.”

“Sure seems like you’re dating. Why isn’t he here with you?”

Taeil responds, saving you from having to explain to Doyoung. “He’s getting lucky with some other girl.”

Doyoung’s eyes go wide as he responds, “that’s a first for him.”

You were about to ask what he meant by that but you’re interrupted by loud yells coming from the living room, causing you to turn around and see what was going on. You spot Yuta standing up on the makeshift DJ booth in the corner of the room with Johnny, who you recognized as your TA in your English class, as he grabbed the microphone and shouted “let’s get fucking drunk” before Johnny could manage to yank it out of his grasp and turn it off.

“What’s with that guy?” You mumble to yourself, not really expecting Doyoung to overhear you.

“Oh, Yuta? He’s just like that sometimes.” Doyoung states, shrugging his shoulders as he wiped the kitchen counter with a towel. “He’s that one friend who does really questionable things but you can’t get rid of them because deep down they’re actually pretty nice.”

You raised an eyebrow at him. “You think he’s nice?”

“He is once you get to know him.”

You look at Taeil for reaffirmation only to find that said man is long gone, the only evidence of him ever being there is his yellow phone left lying on the counter next to Doyoung’s own drink. “I’ve gotten to know him and I wouldn’t say he’s nice, per se.”

Doyoung shakes his head at you, “you just haven’t cracked him open yet.”

“Why do you talk as if he’s an egg or something?” You joke laughing to yourself and watching as Doyoung fights back a smile.

“He is, in a sense. He’s got a tougher exterior along with his own inner issues that come tumbling out once he trusts you.”

“Like?”

Doyoung hums in thought before speaking. “I’m not gonna say too much because it’s his life and his own story to tell, but let me just ask you this one question. Don’t you ever wonder why he constantly sleeps around with girls yet never gets into a relationship with any of them?”

You ponder on the question before asking one back. “So are the rumors true?” Yuta’s reputation did precede him and you had, in fact, heard from other girls who had their own stories and adventures with Yuta but you didn’t necessarily believe them completely, not wanting to assume anything about Yuta.

“Some, not all...but yes, most of the ones I have heard were true, but maybe that’s just because people know I live with him so there’s no sense in trying to lie around me.” Doyoung responds to which you nod your head, acknowledging the accuracy behind his statement.

Three shots later of whatever Doyoung was making you, you were already starting to feel hot and lightheaded so you went back upstairs, as per Doyoung’s advice, and made your way to Mark’s room hoping he’d be done by now. You cracked his door open and peeked around it, grumbling to yourself as you saw your best friend and the same girl from earlier wrapped up in his blanket. You weren’t too sure where you were going to sleep tonight and you weren’t too keen on walking back to your dorm this late at night, especially when you were already starting to feel tipsy.

Closing the door quietly, not wanting to disturb the two people inside, you step away from the room, only to run into someone behind you. You spun around, ready to apologize until you realized who it was. Yuta, a quite drunk Yuta too.

“Taeil told me Mark got lucky-” he stopped to hiccup, “but I didn’t fully believe it so I came to-” he hiccuped again, “see for myself, but I think your action speak-” he reached up to briefly rub his eyes, “louder than words” he finished, letting out a yawn at the end. “Need somewhere to stay?”

“How did you know I was sleeping over?” You ask, wary of the man and his intentions.

He waves his hands as if dismissing your preconceived notions. “Taeil told me that too. Makes sense anyway since you’re here on Sunday’s as well.”

You sighed, not wanting to let yourself give in to Yuta yet again and give him another thing to hold over you, but it wasn’t as if you had many other options. “Taeil let me leave my bag in the lounge, can you unlock the door for me? I think I’ll just ask Doyoung to drive me back to my dorm or something.”

Yuta hummed as he grabbed your wrist and led you down the hallway to the lounge. He unlocked the door for you and held it open, but once both of you were inside, he closed the door behind him and turned on the mood lighting and watched as the room began to glow purple.

You picked up your bag as Yuta threw himself over the backrest of the sofa and tumbled onto the cushions. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re beautiful?”

“Well, yeah?” You stuttered, taken aback by his sudden comment.

“Damn, I wanted to be the first.”

“Okay?” You said, questioning his antics as Doyoung’s words floated through your head about Yuta and his trysts with girls, not wanting to become another victim.

As if Yuta could hear you thinking, he sat up and peered over the couch just enough to make eye contact with you, his eyes mischievously shining in the low lighting. “Were you gonna sleep with Mark?” He asked, raising his eyebrow suggestively.

“What? No,” you exclaim, “he’s my best friend, I would never do that.”

“Not like that you sicko,” Yuta said as he chuckled at your flustered state.

“Oh,” realization dawning upon you, “uh, yeah, I was planning to just sleep in his bed and he was gonna take Taeil’s but now I’m pretty sure that’s not happening tonight.”

“You can stay in my room if you want.” Now it was your turn to raise a suggestive eyebrow at him. “No, it’s not what you’re thinking. My roommate is away in China so his side is open. You can sleep in my bed if you’re not comfortable being in a stranger’s bed.” You were surprised he made it through such a long statement without any hiccups.

“Uh, thanks, I guess I’ll take you up on that offer.” You say, finally unrooting yourself from the floor and making your way towards the door.

Yuta begins haphazardly pulling himself over the back of the couch seeing as how you were ready to leave the room. “I’ll show you to the bathroom.” He would’ve face planted straight into the floor if it weren’t for you standing right in his path of destruction, barely catching him before he nearly sent both of you to the ground. “Sorry” he giggled as he regained his balance and pushed open the door.

You couldn’t mistake the way his body felt against yours, how warm and comforting it was. He smelled nice too, which was odd for someone who partied like an animal and lived with god knows how many other guys. You shook yourself out of your thoughts and grabbed your bag, following Yuta out of the lounge.

He led you to the bathroom and instructed you on how to use the shower and lock the door before telling you how to get to his room once you were done. The bathroom was surprisingly neat but you were sure it was thanks to Doyoung and Taeyong, the only two people you thought had their heads on straight in this house. Even if you had only briefly met both of them, it was enough to let you know that those men were the reason why the house somehow looked presentable within just a few hours after a raging party.

You showered quickly, the effect of Doyoung’s drinks really hitting you now, making you want to just pass out. Once you were done showering you threw on one of Mark’s shirts that you had previously stolen, intending on giving it back to him tonight, but you weren’t comfortable wearing your normal beat up sleepwear in front of Yuta, so you opted to wear Mark’s shirt instead.

Not quite wanting to have another incident like the one you had earlier with Mark, you knocked on Yuta’s door just to be safe. You heard him laugh from the inside as he called out “it’s unlocked, just come in.” As you let yourself in, he got off his bed telling you “I’m going to shower now. Just make yourself comfortable in whichever bed you want. I’ll sleep in whatever one you don’t choose.”

After he left the room, you looked between the two beds. One was neatly made and had pictures strung up on the wall next to it, the blankets and sheets folded nicely and placed alongside a few pillows near the foot of the bed. The other, which Yuta had just rolled out of, had wrinkled sheets with the blanket half falling off the bed, not a single pillow within a whole six-foot radius of his bed.

You didn’t really want to mess up the organization of whoever his roommate was, so instead, you just took one of the pillows and plopped it onto Yuta’s bed as you grabbed the blanket from the floor and pulled it over your head, allowing his scent to flood your nose. Just as you were about to drift into sleep, you heard the door open and close followed by rapid footsteps coming your way.

Before you even had time to react, Yuta was flinging himself on top of you and laughing as you gasped for air under his weight. “Somebody looks comfortable.” He teased as you continued squirming, trying to push him off you.

You wouldn’t take him to be a clingy drunk after seeing how rowdy he was during the party, but you suppose this is the side of him that managed to charm so many other girls into thinking they’d be that one lucky girl to finally win over Nakamoto Yuta’s heart. “Get off of me.” You uttered forcefully as you tried to make him move over and relieve the pressure on your chest and stomach.

“You silly, this is my bed” he cooed, letting another round of giggles leave his lips before rolling off you towards the wall, leaving you on the outside of the bed. He threw the blanket over himself, humming as he felt the warmth of it, that you had made, on his freshly showered skin.

Yuta kept his distance as he laid on his back with his eyes closed, his hands reaching up to ruffle his damp hair, speaking of which, “you know people say you can get sick if you go to sleep with damp hair?” You asked him quizzically.

“Yeah, but I’ve never gotten sick from it so I don’t really care.” He said dismissively.

A few moments passed before either one of you spoke again. “Didn’t you say that you were going to sleep in the other bed?” You questioned, remembering your conversation from not too long ago.

“Yeah, but I’m too lazy to unfold everything and put it back in the morning so here I am.” Yuta beamed, smiling over at you. You rolled your eyes at him, scoffing as he continued playing with his hair, making it stick up in different directions. “I can sleep somewhere else if you’re not comfortable with me being here.”

You wanted to say ‘yes, please move’ but you didn’t have enough strength in you to tell him to get out, not when you enjoyed his presence next to you so instead you simply told him “it’s fine” before tugging over more of his blanket and turning to face away from him.

He let out a whine as now half of his body was uncovered and exposed to the cold winter air and he yanked his blanket back, inadvertently pulling you with it, causing you to face him with your forehead nearly resting against his chest. “Why are you hogging my blanket?” Yuta whined.

“I’m not hogging it, you just keep trying to take more than your fair share of it.” You fired back at him.

“This is my room and my blanket.”

“You’re the one who offered to let me stay here, and might I add, you said you were going to sleep in the bed that I didn’t choose.”

“I can always retract my offer, you know.” You shook your head, the idea of asking Doyoung to drive you back to your dorm at 3am wasn’t exactly appealing to you. “Okay then come closer so we can actually share the blanket instead of leaving one of us to freeze.”

You let out a huff and scooted closer to Yuta. “Are you happy now?” Yuta let out a hum as he smiled down at you, the corners of his eyes crinkling underneath the strands of bleached white hair that had fallen in front of his face.

Closing your eyes again, you tried to fall asleep, hoping that you wouldn’t have any further interruptions from Yuta, but you couldn’t seem to fully relax with the main light of the room still on. “Yuta can you turn off the light?” He looked over you, clearly unhappy. “Please?”

“You’re closer.”

“God, why are you so difficult.” You remarked as you slid out from under the blanket, walking over to flip the light switch.

“I’m not difficult, you’re difficult.” He fired at you as the room became dark, illuminated only from the light of the moon. “You’re always so uptight and on edge about getting to class on time and being prepared.”

“Because that’s what a good student does, and unlike you, I actually want to graduate from college in four years.” You spit back as you rolled back into the bed next to him.

“Hey, not everyone graduates within four years, some of us just have a different path in life. And what makes you think that I’m not trying to graduate soon?”

“Your attitude and your seemingly nonexistent care to even make it to class on time.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t do my work though.”

“But you totally miss the instructions that the professors give at the beginning of class.”

“It’s not hard to figure things out when you’ve got a brain as big as mine.”

“You’re so annoying, just let me sleep.” You grumbled as you moved closer to him, wanting more of the blanket.

Silence falls upon both of you again but you let out a huff when Yuta starts talking again. He sure was annoying as hell when he was drunk. “Do you have feelings for Mark, or like, any other guys...like at all?”

You stared up at him, praying he’d feel the daggers coming from your eyes, “no.”

“Good, I was hoping you didn’t so I could do this.”

“Do wha-”

You hadn’t even finished your sentence before Yuta tilted your chin up and brought his lips to yours, eagerly molding his to fit the shape of yours.

You didn’t know what you were thinking when you started to kiss him back, in fact, you probably weren’t thinking at all. Yuta took it as a green light and let the hand that was against your chin find its way to the back of your neck to pull you in closer. You didn’t realize your body had shifted until you were now completely pressed up against him. It soon became all too hot and suffocating, forcing you to pull away and break the kiss.

Your eyes met his and held his gaze as you came to your senses. “Yuta, I’m not here to have sex with you.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.” He replied almost nonchalantly.

You rolled your eyes at him, “no, I mean, like ever.”

“Okay. Who says I can’t just kiss a pretty girl because I want to?” He asked, the attitude in his voice was almost enough to make you want to slap him.

“I do?” You quipped. “I didn’t tell you that you could kiss me either-”

“Says the person who was definitely not kissing me back.” Yuta teased as he cocked an eyebrow at you, daring you to continue.

You flung the blanket off of you, not wanting to put up with any more of his antics. “Don’t use your fuckboy charms on me, I’m not here to become another one of your girls.”

“Y/n, wait, that’s not what I meant to do,” he whined, grabbing your wrist before you could fully get out of the bed, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to come off that way and for your information, I am not attached any of the ‘girls’ you are alluding to.”

“You attached yourself to them the moment you put your dick inside them and gave them something to talk about.”

“That's not what I intended to do.”

“Then what is it that you intend to do, Yuta?”

He paused with his mouth slightly open and you took this moment to separate your wrist from his grasp before he spoke again. “I don’t try to ‘charm’ them or whatever you call it. I’m not even looking for a relationship, trust me.”

“And why should I trust you when you have girls practically throwing themselves at you?”

Yuta let out a groan as he flopped onto his back. “Look, I never wanted to be this blunt with you but I’m not looking for a relationship because the last one I was in ended with me getting cheated on.” He paused as if letting his words sink in. “I don’t want to fall in love again because I don’t want to risk going through that same pain another time. I’m scared to fall in love because what if it’s not reciprocated? Is that enough to make you believe me?”

You stare at him in shock, barely managing to stutter out “I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

“It’s fine, let’s just go to sleep, I said too much already.” He interrupted, wrapping his arm around your waist and pulling you back under the blanket. Once you were close enough for his liking, Yuta let go of you, retracting his arm back to his half of the bed though he stopped when he felt your hand on his forearm. He looked up at you with wide eyes as you pulled his arm back over you and allowed your forehead to rest against his chest.

Yuta stayed like that until you fell asleep, finding it hard to do the same. It took him awhile to find himself in the familiar lull due to his thoughts running rampant in his mind as his eyes traced over your features. If only you could read his mind, you’d know of the dilemma he realized he had wrapped himself into that he was too scared to admit on his own.

You woke up with a pounding headache, to say the least. Reaching up to massage your forehead, you tried to roll onto your back only to find that you weren’t able to. You jerked around, finding Yuta’s sleeping body as you remembered the events and conversations that took place just hours prior. You stilled as you took a moment to admire the way the golden rays of sun seeped in through the window, falling across his face and causing him to have an ethereal glow. He’d be quite attractive if it wasn’t for his attitude.

However, his face alone wasn’t enough to distract you from the fact that he was practically spooning you and you weren’t confident that you could get out without waking him though what really irked you was the fact that part of you didn’t want to leave from his warm embrace.

You stayed in his arms for a few minutes longer until your headache became unbearable and your throat was begging for something to drink. You tried your best to gently extract yourself from Yuta but much to your distaste, he woke up. He caused you even more displeasure when he pulled you back towards himself and whined “where are you going?”

“I’m thirsty and I have a headache.” You stated plainly, your voice void of energy.

Yuta whined once more before trying to reason with you. “But it’s cold, it’s cuddle weather.”

“I didn’t say that I wanted to cuddle with you.” You pointed out, at which Yuta finally forced his eyes open as he yawned and stretched before sighing.

“I’ll get you water and some ibuprofen if you stay for a little longer.”

“Fine, but that’s only because I don’t have anywhere else to go.” You were trying to convince him of this as much as you were trying to convince yourself of the statement while he gave you one of the brightest smiles you’ve seen from a full-time college student as he climbed over you and let himself out of the room.

You took this time as an opportunity to use the bathroom and peek into Mark’s room as you made your way back. You were surprised to see there was no one in the room and nearly jumped when an arm wrapped around your waist from the back. “Are we spying on Mark?” Yuta whispered into your ear.

Scoffing, you answer “he’s not even in there, you idiot.”

“Huh, I wonder where he went,” Yuta contemplated, “might as well grab the guitars while we’re here.” He handed you the glass of water and pills he was carrying as he walked into Mark’s room and picked up the two guitars from their stands.

“What are we supposed to do without Mark?”

“Practice? What else are we supposed to do?” The man in front of you asked rhetorically.

You shook your head at him, not liking the sound of his idea. “We won’t know if we’re doing anything right, we’re literally both beginners.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t help each other.” Yuta countered.

“Ugh, whatever, you’re so irritating.” And with that, you down the pills and turn to walk back to his room.

Playing guitar with Yuta wasn’t actually all that terrible. He knew more than he let on during your shared sessions with Mark and he offered you some tips every so often as he led both of you through the chord progression sheet. The whole scene of it was quite surreal, the way you and Yuta were both simply clothed in plain t-shirts, hair still roused from sleep, the way the sun gently lit the room and warmed it up.

You were genuinely enjoying yourself and didn’t even notice when Mark came into the room. “You guys started without me?” He whined cutely.

Yuta looked at you and you gestured at him to respond. “Y/n went to go spy on you in your room but you weren’t there so we decided to steal the guitars and have fun on our own.” You shot Yuta a look, hoping he understood the ‘I will strangle you’ glare you were giving him.

“Wow y/n, why were you spying on me man?” Mark asked dejectedly.

“I was just checking to see if your girl was still with you because I didn’t want to barge in on anything, again.” You tease.

Mark groans and covers his face out of embarrassment. “Oh gosh, don’t remind me.”

“Wait, wait, you saw Mark naked?” Yuta questioned with his eyes wide. “He has a big butt doesn’t he?” He added, smirking, at which both you and Mark yell at him to shut up. “Just saying facts.” He claims, raising his hands up in defense.

“Anyways,” Mark said a little too aggressively, “are you guys doing okay on your own? Or did you want me to join?”

Again, Yuta turned to you for a response, though this time you really hated yourself for what you answered with. “No, I think we’re fine, thanks though.”

“Better go wash your sheets bro, you were wild last night.” Yuta called out as Mark left the room.

“Dude,” Mark exclaimed, “don’t ever say that again, please bro.” And just like that, I was only you and Yuta again.

“Speaking of parties,” Yuta began, “we’re thinking of holding another one in March before spring break. Wanna come?”

“I can’t believe you guys are already planning another one not even a whole day after getting drunk out of your mind.” You joke, the disbelief obvious in your expression.

“Hey, you have to let loose every once in a while,” he states, “but my offer still stands.”

You hum, faking getting lost in thought, “ask me again in a month and I’ll let you know.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” you tilted your head to the side, the look on your face clearly ridiculing him, “for now.” He adds on.

You went back to looking over the chord progression sheet and tried again to go through the one you were on before Mark came in. You almost succeed this time until you place your fingers one fret away from where they were supposed to be. “Yikes” Yuta comments as he reaches out and shifts your hand over for you, causing you to stick your tongue out at him.

It seemed only reasonable that when the guys continued having parties every so often, that you were invited to every single one of them whether it be through Mark or Yuta, and the one time Johnny had hit you up not knowing your involvement with the frat already, or even when Taeil invited you though it was really because Mark needed help sorting out his relationship issues.

Everyone except you was surprised that Mark had found himself a girlfriend, especially one that wasn’t you. You were happy for him, even if it meant having to respond to his panicked texts at 2am asking what something meant in ‘girl language’ accompanied by numerous screenshots.

Mark often ended up leaving you and Yuta on your own on Sundays because that was the only day when both he and his girlfriend were free. You certainly didn’t mind spending more time with Yuta now that he stopped being such a cocky asshole all the time. Whatever absence Mark had left, Yuta was there to make up for it whether it be his lingering touches, shy kisses, and even the offering of his clothes to you when you accidentally ended up sleeping over again, though this time you voluntarily shared a bed with him.

Yuta was becoming a necessary presence in your life, though you didn’t mind. You didn’t mind it when he moved to sit next to you during class. You didn’t mind when he asked to work with you for the upcoming playing test. You didn’t mind when he found you during parties swept you away from the dance floor to take you elsewhere.

You especially didn’t mind when taking you elsewhere resulted in your current situation, your hands tangled in Yuta’s now orange-colored hair, as you lay under him while he kissed you breathless.

“You look so fucking hot, you had all of them staring at you.” Yuta growls out between kisses.

You bite his bottom lip, causing him to groan slightly. “Mmm, you like that though. You like it when I look like this.”

“Not when other men get to look at you the way I do.”

“And why is that?”

“Because you’re mine.”

The use of the word caused you to stop in your tracks, Yuta pulling back as your lips stopped moving against his. “What are we?” You ask him, your voice shaking.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, this relationship?” You say, gesturing between the two of you, “What is our relationship to each other?”

“We’re friends.”

“But are we just friends? Because I don’t think friends kiss each other like this.”

“They don’t, but that doesn’t mean we can’t.” Yuta interjected as he leaned in to reattach his lips to yours.

“No, Yuta, stop,” you declare, pulling away from him, “I told you I’m not someone you can just play around with. If you want to keep me as a friend, then that’s all we will be. No kissing, no flirting, none of that.”

“I’m not playing around with you-”

“Then why is it so hard for you to place a label on us?” You questioned him, unintentionally raising your voice ever so slightly.

He rolled off of you, throwing an arm up to cover his eyes as he let out a sigh of exasperation. “I...I don’t know.”

“We’re clearly more than just friends but if you’re not willing to commit to being something more, then I’ll leave it at that.”

“Y/n, I- fuck, I don’t know what I even want-”

“And that’s okay,” you interrupt, “I’ll just give you time to think then, but for now,” you pause as you stand up from his bed, “just friends.” And with that you let yourself out of his room and ventured back downstairs to the party without turning back, finding comfort in the common sight of Johnny manning the boards, Doyoung in the kitchen with the drinks, even down to Taeyong and Taeil drunkenly swaying with each other on the dance floor.

“Here, something sweet to get rid of that sour look on your face.” Doyoung joked as he slid a drink across the counter.

You let out a chuckle as you raised the glass to your lips. “That obvious huh?”

“It is when I know whose room you just came from and who you’ve been spending all your time with.” He was really too intelligent to be stuck with these idiots.

You could only sigh as you took a large swig of whatever it is Doyoung made for you, relishing in the burn it gave you as it went down your throat, wishing for the alcohol-induced pain to overtake the one in your mind caused by the one and only Nakamoto Yuta.

Needless to say, you and Yuta ended up changing songs for the playing test and performing alone. Yuta moved back to his previous seat in the front of the room, though you still felt the way his eyes practically pierced through you as you played your chosen song, which albeit, was on the easier side since you wanted to give yourself a break.

Unbeknownst to you, Yuta wished so badly to be the person you were singing about. “Can you focus on me? Baby can you focus on me?” You sang, and he mentally beat himself to the ground.

Yuta still wanted to give you the world more than anything but he didn’t trust himself to do so, not when he’s already hurt you more than he should have. He became so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice you finished playing until he heard the applause coming from your classmates.

You actually did end up going to their spring party, but it was due to a request made by Johnny as he told you about Mark’s current post-breakup state near the end of your English class together. “He’s pretty much been in his room all the time. Not like the normal kind where he just prefers to chill in his room, but like, the kind where he doesn’t even come down to eat with us and Taeil has to bring food up to him.”

“Did Mark say anything about the breakup? Like why or how it happened?” You questioned, not wanting to have to ask Mark himself in case it was still too sensitive a subject to talk about.

Johnny hummed in thought, cocking his head to the side. “He didn’t say much to me, but he told Taeil that she wasn’t looking for anything serious but he thought that she was.” Johnny paused to take a sip from the Starbucks cup on his desk. “In my opinion, he should’ve waited to get to know her instead of just fucking her and deciding to date her y’know? But, I mean, that’s on him, so as they say, not my problem.” He shrugged his shoulder before taking another sip of his drink.

“Literally who says that?” You joke, enjoying poking fun at the older guy.

Johnny turned to you, a mock look of offense plastered onto his face. “Y/n! You don’t know? The famous Johnny Suh says it all the time.” You rolled your eyes at him as you packed up your belongings, promising to be at the party later that night, not exactly fancying the thought of running into a certain someone at the party as well.

Mark’s fiery whirlwind of a romance had left him to become a mess of all sorts and you spent your time with him at the party in his bed, watching tik toks and animal video compilations to get his mind off of things. You felt a sense of relief as you heard one of his faint snores, realizing that he was asleep, allowing you to slip out of his room and head downstairs to grab a drink from Doyoung.

Right as you were about to head back up, you saw the all too familiar head of orange hair glowing under the dim lighting as he looked down across the party from the bottom of the staircase. He didn’t seem to notice you as you made your way towards him until a small “hey” left your lips.

His eyes darted over to your face, offering a simple nod of his head to you to acknowledge your presence. You stood next to him, leaning against the wall until you broke the silence “how have you been?”

“Fine. You?”

“Pretty good I guess.” You could tell he didn’t want to talk to you, but you didn’t want to leave him, just feeling so drawn to him. Finding comfort in his presence, you closed your eyes and let your head fall against the wall as you lost yourself in the music that Johnny had going.

“I’ll get going, this party isn’t as exciting as normal.” Yuta stated as he turned to go back upstairs. Starting up the stairs after him, wanting to check in on Mark again, but when Yuta heard you following him, he turned around and called out to you. ”Don’t follow me, you’ll end up in my arms.” You froze as he turned back around and continued his way up while you processed his words, allowing him to escape from you yet again.

You watched from an outsider's perspective and through the narratives of the other guys as over the next few days, Yuta replaced Mark as the resident vegetable. He fell into the same state Mark was previously in, said boy having slowly come back to his senses with your constant nurturing and care.

Party after party, Yuta was no longer down on the dance floor with one hand holding a red solo cup, another around the waist of a girl he had just met. You wanted so badly to speak to him, but whenever you spotted him off to the edges of the crowd, he’d disappear seconds later like he knew you were watching him. As much as it was nice to have Mark back and go back to your normal best friend activities, Yuta had lodged himself in your heart without you knowing it.

Countless parties more and it was already nearing the end of spring semester. Yuta had stopped showing up to class, appearing once or twice a week, at most. Even at parties, he no longer came out of his room, according to Taeil. You had been meaning to talk to Yuta for a while now, but with finals looming right around the corner and his ability to hole himself up in his room, it was nearly impossible to find the time and place for it.

You were sick of worrying about him and if he was eating and sleeping okay, often finding yourself wondering what he was currently doing while you were studying or eating your own meals. You hated how often he occupied your mind. You truly wanted to believe that you were different to him, that someday he’d come around ready to commit to something but you ridiculed yourself for thinking that you’d have enough power to change someone as stubborn as Yuta. Little did you know, you were more than capable of doing so.

You had just entered the last week before finals and your school was generous enough to allot students a two day period to study before finals started. Of course, the frats and sororities took it as a last-ditch opportunity to party before their seniors graduated. You attended the party thrown to celebrate the graduating Taeil, Johnny, and Taeyong, but you were there for a different reason.

Throwing a quick greeting to Doyoung in the kitchen as you entered, he offered you a drink, which you told him to save for later before storming up the stairs. You were tired of all the hours you spent thinking about Yuta. If he wasn’t going to do anything about this, then you were whether it ended your friendship with him or not. You were done thinking about all the what-ifs, you wanted a definitive answer and you wanted it now.

Stopping in front of Yuta’s door, having enough manners to think about knocking before entering, you raised your hand to knock. Though before you were able to, you heard the music coming from inside. It didn’t take a genius to recognize that it was his voice singing the words. You froze with your hand against the door as you continued to listen to him. “Oh, how I love you. I just feel so lost without you.”

You opened his door slowly, knowing fully well that he wouldn’t be able to hear you knock over the loud noise coming from the party and his own blue-toned song. Both of you stood there in shock as your eyes met. Yuta was sitting on his bed with Taeil’s guitar in his lap and a notebook laid open next to him while you stood in the middle of his doorway, hand still on the knob.

Oh, how you missed the sight of him, even when he was dressed as simply as he was right now with just a grey t-shirt and black shorts sporting the logo of his favorite soccer team. “Yuta, we need to talk” you blurted out, stopping yourself from ogling him any further.

“Alright.” He complied, closing the notebook as you sat at the foot of his bed.

You take in a deep breath before starting. “I’m pretty sure you know this already, but I like you,” pausing to regather yourself and push through the rest of the speech you practiced in your head, “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about you recently and I just want to settle this whole thing once and for all.”

Yuta nodded while picking at his fingers which you could see were now raw from playing the guitar so much, making you wonder just how often he was on it. “I’ve been thinking about you too...a lot,” he said as he looked up at you, “and I think I have an answer for you.”

You plant your hand down next to you on his bed, resting your weight on it and letting your head loll to the side as you raise an eyebrow at him asking him to continue. “I like you too, and I know the way I’ve been acting doesn’t really show that but I’m just scared.”

“Of what?”

“Of getting hurt again.” Yuta said, letting his head rest in his hands.

“Yuta, you know I would never cheat on you.”

“That’s what she told me too, but people can be deceiving.”

“Look, I’m not her,” you pointed out to him, “and I’m telling you right now that I would not even think about cheating on you.”

“Yeah, well, things can change.” Yuta let out exasperatedly.

“So you should change with them. You’re not going to grow unless you accept those changes.”

He went silent for a bit before looking up at you. “Teach me how to accept them, then.”

“What do you mean by that?” You ask him, your eyes meeting his.

“Show me that you’re different. Prove to me that not all change is bad.”

You moved closer to him as he spoke, swinging a leg over his lap and straddling him. “I will.”

Yuta’s eyes fluttered shut and you felt as he shakily exhaled before he reopened his eyes. “Can I kiss you?”

You nodded, and this time it was your eyes that closed as Yuta connected his lips to yours. Within a few seconds, you felt his tongue brush against your bottom lip, asking for entrance, which you allowed and gave him a sense of dominance before letting your tongue dance with his while gently pushing him down onto the bed.

He whined as he broke the kiss and rolled both of you over, switching your positions, preferring to smother your body with his, making you giggle at his actions. “Thank you for asking this time.” You told him, referencing the first time he had kissed you.

“I was drunk, okay? I wasn’t thinking straight and I just wanted to kiss you so badly.” Yuta groaned, grinding his growing erection on your hip at the last part.

“Oh you wanna kiss me so bad huh?” You teased.

You could’ve sworn he let out a growl right then before responding “fuck yeah I do” and reconnecting your lips to his. After fighting your tongue yet again, he pulled away and slowly opened his now lust-filled eyes. “Are you sure you want this?”

“Yes,” you let out breathlessly, “I want it.”

“Who do you want?” He questioned as he slipped his hands under your shirt, gently kneading your breasts while kissing along your jaw and down your neck.

“You.”

“Baby, say my name.”

“Yuta, I want you.”

“Fuck, I love it when you say my name.” He said as he pulled his shirt off, throwing it down to the floor as you sat up and did the same.

The second your shirt was off, Yuta’s hands were already undoing the clasp of your bra, tossing it to the side as well before pushing you back down and running his hands over your breasts. His mouth latched onto one of your nipples as his hand played with the other.

You let out a whine as he pushed his erection against your clit, making you feel your own arousal that had started leaking out onto your underwear. Yuta glanced up at you, smirking, as he heard the sound you made. “Someone’s getting needy.” He kissed his way down your abdomen, sitting back once he reached the waistband of your pants, pulling them off along with your underwear.

He groaned as he took in all of your naked beauty, telling you “you’re so fucking hot” as he spread your legs and brought his face down to your folds and licking a long strip upwards. He repeated this motion a few times before you let out a frustrated moan at his teasing.

Yuta laughed at your desperation until your hand wove it’s way into his hair and pushed him closer to where you wanted him most. He seemed to get the message as he dove in, allowing you to get lost in the feeling of his tongue swirling around and pressing at your entrance.

You weren’t expecting it when you suddenly felt him pressing a finger into you, though you enjoyed the sensation of it and raised your hips to feel more, only to be met with Yuta’s free hand coming down on your stomach, holding you down. He waited for you to relax before inserting a second digit, then a third as he started to speed up and finger fuck you open.

He was reaching places inside of you that you had never reached before but you still wanted more. “Yuta,” you breathed out, “just fuck me already.”

“Well when you say it like that, there’s no way I can resist” he said, a sly smile creeping onto his face as he sat up, his erection bobbing as he tugged off his ripped jeans, freeing it from its confines.

“Condom” you tell him.

“Oh, you’re one of those girls,” he snickered, earning him a smack on the arm from you, “I’m just kidding, jeez, I don’t want to have to be responsible for a child just yet.” He defended as he reached over and stuck his hand into one of the drawers of his nightstand.

“I’m not risking getting pregnant when I can barely pay my tuition.” You quipped back at him.

“Fair enough.” Yuta remarked as he ripped open the package and rolled the condom over his already leaking cock.

He crawled over you, his elbows coming to rest next to either side of your head. “Are you sure you want this?” He asked as he lined himself up with your entrance.

“Are you sure want this?” You countered to him, both of you knowing fully well what you meant since once he went through with this, there was no turning back. Yuta was promising himself to you just as you had done to him.

You watched as his eyes found yours, “I want this, I want you, I want us.” With that he pushed himself into you, both of you letting out sinful moans as he bottomed out.

He barely gave you time to adjust before he started slowly rocking his hips as your legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer while your hands found their way into his brightly colored locks. Just as he began to accelerate his movements, thrusting harder and faster, his door swung open.

Mark walked in casually, “hey, Yuta have you seen Taeil’s- holy shit i’m so sorry” he exclaimed once he realized the situation.

Yuta didn’t even pause as he told Mark “it’s on the floor.”

If you weren’t struggling to hold back your lewd sounds in the presence of your best friend, you would’ve laughed at how Mark snatched up the guitar and bolted out of the room, muttering “guess we’re even now, y/n” as he shut the door.

You let out a whimper as Yuta hit your spot the second the door closed. “Fuck, right there.”

He pushed himself into you a few more times before suddenly rolling over, bringing you to straddle him. “Ride me” he commanded, one of his hands coming to rub your clit. You began bouncing on his lap and clenched around him, drawing a moan from him. “I won’t last long if you keep doing that.”

“Good, I'm not going to either.” You informed him, already feeling the knot in your stomach begging to be released.

Your thighs were starting to become sore though you didn’t want to stop. Yuta noticed your change of pace, bringing both his hands up to your hips as he began thrusting up into you. You let out a cry as he managed to brush against your most sensitive areas, causing an orgasm to wash over you.

His movements slowly only for a bit as he let you take control, riding out your high before firmly grasping your hips again and bouncing you on himself, relishing in the feeling of your tight walls fluttering around him.

Staying true to his word, Yuta came shortly after you, filling the condom with his cum. He continued to push himself up into you until it became too much and he pulled out with a hiss. Yuta gently you down on his bed before getting up to dispose of the condom in the trash bin next to his nightstand.

You welcomed him with open arms as he climbed back into bed, his own arms wrapping around your waist as he began pressing light kisses across your collarbone as he broke the silence. “So does this make us a thing?”

“Depends on what you mean by that.” You tell him, wanting him to clearly voice his thoughts.

“Are we official?” He clarified.

“Only if you want us to be.”

Yuta smiled up at you. “y/n, Yuta’s girl, I like the sound of that.” You leaned down to press a kiss to his lips before he spoke again. “That song was about you, by the way”

“I figured that much.” You stated as you pushed his hair out of his face.

He giggled as he told you “I wrote it after jacking off to the thought of you.”

“Okay, you didn’t have to tell me that.” He let out a full laugh this time as he rolled both of you onto your sides and brought his forehead to rest against yours.

“Gosh, as if you weren’t clingy enough before this.” You joke, playfully kissing his nose.

“I’m all yours now.” Yuta cooed, his arms pulling your still naked body impossibly closer to his.

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marshmallow-phd · 6 years ago

Text

Innocent Intentions

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Supernatural, Wolf Au

Pairing: Tao x Reader

Summary: There was one thing you couldn’t stand in all your years at college: playboys. And the campus was riddled with them. So when Tao - a player with a particularly well-known reputation - inserts himself into your life, you come up with a plan to get rid of him, whether he makes your heart race or not. But the more he’s the around, the more you just might find there’s a hidden layer underneath all the rumors, including a secret you never could have guessed….

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11 I 12 I 13 I 14 I Final

You tapped your pencil against the table impatiently as you watched the door to the lab. It was about five minutes past the designated meeting time with this “Z” person and yet, there you sat, alone at the workstation. Five more minutes and you were going to walk out of here. Part of you was contemplating pulling a favor out of Jace in the front office just to get “Z”’s information and give him a piece of your mind for wasting your time.

When you checked the doorway for the millionth time, your eyes nearly bugged out of your head. Tao walked into the lab, searching the room like he was looking for someone. Your instinct was to immediately sit your textbook up while slinking down in your chair to try and go unnoticed. Hopefully he’d find his tutor soon and not catch even a glimpse of you, although you weren’t sure exactly why you were hiding from him. You didn’t do anything embarrassing that night, but you still felt the need to make yourself disappear until the coast was clear.

“That engrossed in equations, huh?”

You groaned. Not even internally, you let that irritated sound out for the world to hear. With a loud, attention-grabbing slam, you let the textbook fall to the table and looked up at Tao, giving him the most unimpressed look that you could muster. “Actually, these particular problem are expressions since there isn’t an equal sign present.” Why were you being so hostile? You weren’t normally this snappy. Leaning back in your chair, you folded your arms. “Can I help you with something?”

Tao just smirked at your attitude. “I came here for my tutoring session.”

“Excuse me?” No. No. There was no way. “Last I checked, I was waiting for a ‘Z. Huang’ and I’m pretty sure ‘Tao’ doesn’t start with a ‘Z’.”

Tao slid into the chair opposite you. “Tao is just a nickname. My full name is Huang Zitao. But I’m glad to know you’ve already heard of me.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of you,” you drawled as you leaned forward. “Especially, after you dumped my friend in the middle of your date last Saturday.”

That seemed to catch the player off guard. He swallowed visibly and shifted in his chair. “I had an emergency come up.”

“What kind of emergency?”

“None of your business.”

The two of you were in a standoff, neither walking away when that probably would have been the smart thing to do. But Tao just kept staring at you, a taunting smile in his dark eyes. Your heart was beating at a pace that was simultaneously rapid and timid. You wanted to run out of there, but at the same, stay right where you were.

“So, wait a minute,” Tao said, finally breaking the silence, “were you there at the restaurant to spy on your friend while she was out with me?”

You scoffed, probably with a little much offense added in. “No. Why would I ever-” you huffed. It was way too obvious of a conclusion that he’d reached and you didn’t really have a good argument beyond the fragile “coincidence” stance. “Okay, fine. Yes, I was there to make sure that the guy whose so-much-less-than-honorable reputation precedes him treated my friend with the respect that she deserved.”

“And how did I do?” he asked.

“Not too bad,” you shrugged, hating to admit the truth. “Until you bee lined it out of there, leaving her high and dry.”

“Hey!” Tao snapped. He didn’t seem to take too kindly your description. “I paid for the meal and made sure she got home safe. I didn’t leave her stranded there with the check. Some things I just can’t control, okay?”

You sighed, a little guilty that you riled him up so much. It was plain to see that he didn’t want to talk about it anymore and you couldn’t really argue with what seemed to be a legitimate emergency. Besides, you were supposed to be focusing on math, not verbally swinging at him for not being interested in your friend. Isn’t that what you wanted anyway? For her to have a date that wasn’t notorious for getting with every other girl? “Okay, clean slate. Since you’ve signed up for all my time slots, let’s just focus on what you need help with.”

Tao pulled out his textbook from the fancy, high-end bag he was carrying over his shoulder and moved his chair so he was now next to you, elbow to elbow.

You raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you have to sit that close?”

He smoldered at you and no amount of denial could change the fact that your stomach did a summersault right then and there. “Does it bother you if I sit this close?”

“Yes,” you deadpanned.

For a moment, he didn’t move. His eyes remained steadily on you and so you continued to stare pointedly back. Tao sighed heavily before shuffling a few inches over. “Better?”

“Much.” You took control of the tutoring session once again, sliding the textbook over to your side in order to get a better look. “Okay, business statistics. Not too big of a deal.”

Tao snorted. “You some sort of math genius, then?”

You shook your head, not looking up from the textbook. “No, I struggle with some theorems and equations like everyone else. I just enjoy it a little more.”

“You enjoy math?” There was a hint of disgust sprinkled in with adoration. The usual mix you got when you voiced the unpopular opinion that you enjoyed math, but - you had to admit - the adoration seemed a little stronger in his response.

“Yes, I do,” you grumbled. “I know that makes me a freak, so let’s just move on because of one us here is actually trying to help you.” Right now, you were not in the mood to be gawked at. But the words on the page were started to squish together into illegibleness, throwing off your concentration.

Why was it such a big deal if you actually appreciated this mostly-hated subject? Everyone was allowed to have their own interests. This was a fight that you had with Wyatt, the musical theatre major, and Kendall, the human resources specialist on a nearly regular basis. They were supposed to be your best friends since middle school and yet, even they tended to cross the line of teasing into maliciousness.

Math was an essential part of society’s backbone. It’s what helped create skyscrapers and subway systems and amusement parks. If there weren’t people like you interested in the subject, imagine how drastically the many things people took for granted every day would die out or simply disappear. Bye-bye cell phones and cars and computers. You doubted Kendall would enjoy living like the cavemen.

“You’re not a freak.”

Your eyes snapped up.

The expression on Tao’s face was shocking. Gone was the teasing and the smirking. His eyebrows were pulled together, the corners of his lips drifting downwards. Slowly, as if he didn’t want to scare you, he lift his hand and reached for you. The tips of his fingers came within a hair’s breadth away from your skin. You could practically feel the heat radiating from his hand.

Before he could touch your cheek, however, you pulled away, letting your eyes fall back down to the table. What was that all about?

You heard his hand fall limply back into his lap. He adjusted his chair for a better view of the book, all hints of flirting and obnoxious gestures long gone. And yet… your breathing still wasn’t evening out. It was coming in and out as shallow as a children’s pool. Maybe if you just kept your eyes down you’d be okay.

But your eyes immediately disobeyed and flickered up to Tao’s face, studying it like it would hold all the answers for the final exam for your life. How could his profile be so sharp? You were fighting the urge to reach out and trace the outline of his jaw with your finger just to see if it would cut the pad of your finger. From his nose to his lips was one perfect smooth line. His ears and cartilage were pierced, something that you’d never found attractive on the male species, but somehow it seemed apart of Tao, like he’d look… off if he didn’t have those studs sparkling in the florescent lighting. Even though his hair had to be bleached to no end, it still seemed to keep a silky appearance, soft enough to run your hand through-

You blinked. What the hell was going on in your head? This boy was a flirt from the very second he stepped into the lab. And you hated guys like that.

Math. Math. I need to concentrate on math.

Keeping your focus on your favorite subject had never been this difficult, even when you had Kim Minseok as your GTA for Calculus freshman year. Plenty of your classmates were swooning over his youthful looks and, to be honest, you, too, were paying close attention to every word he was saying. But you could still recite approximately what the lesson of the day had been about.

Right now, though? You were barely able to interpret the words on the page or what Tao was describing that he was having trouble with. Please, let these three hours go by fast so you could get the hell out of here.

Tao wasn’t sure whether to be smug or frustrated.

From the way your body was reacting to his closeness – the way your heart was pounding your chest, the raggedy way you your breath was escaping your lips – he knew you were feeling the pull. The pull that was overwhelming him right now.

It was mindboggling how quickly all his feelings and apprehensive thoughts faded in such a short amount of time. Kris had described how quickly the instinct to protect and be with your mate took over to the point of being unable to fight it. Nor did Tao really want to, he discovered.

He liked the way it felt, being next to you. It was an elated feeling, like his feet weren’t touching the ground. But he wanted to know what it was like to touch you. Would the feeling be the same? Would it be even more addicting? Some of his brothers talked about a pleasing electricity that flowed when they met their mate’s skin. Would both of you feel that, too?

Apparently, Tao was going to have to take it slow. Too slow. You were blocking or dismissing every advance he was throwing your way. His usual weapons were powerless against you. It didn’t help that Kendall was still sour about that date. Tao couldn’t help it. Even if he hadn’t ended it so abruptly, all that would have happened was him dropping her off at her door and driving off.

In the present moment, no other solution was coming to his head. He didn’t know how to approach you without his usual suave aura. You didn’t respond well to it, but it always worked before. What was he supposed to do? Be himself?

He wasn’t even sure who that was anymore.

Tao watched you out of the corner of his eye, careful to make it seem like he was absorbing any of the words that were leaving your lips. He wondered what they tasted like. Not like the others he’d caught before, certainly not.

Maybe he wasn’t so lost in the water after all.

You were staring at him.

Don’t look up. Don’t scare her off.

He fought to keep his gaze down at the blurry pages. He wanted to know what was going through your head right now, what was causing you to stare at him. If only he could look at your eyes to try and read whatever you were hiding behind them.

The next three hours were torture for Tao. He didn’t really pay attention to whatever you were trying to explain he was doing wrong in his homework. It didn’t matter, anyway. He’d correct it to what he knew was right as soon as he got home.

“Welp, times up,” you smiled at him. Were you really waiting for him to have to leave so excitedly?

Tao smirked at you as he put his textbook away and stood up. “Seems like it is. See you on Friday.”

The grin on your face slipped away. “Wait. What?”

Now he had you. If you thought that this was the last you would see of the wolf, you were wrong. Leaning down so he was face to face with you, he whispered, “I signed up for all your sessions on Friday as well. I really need to get caught up on this class.” He couldn’t help it. He added a little wink at the end before sauntering on out of the math lab.

He knew he’d left you stunned in that seat behind him and that’s exactly how he wanted it. Sure, his usual tactics might be suffering, but taking you by surprise like that was a good way to make sure he lingered on your mind.

Out in the parking lot, he met Sehun, who was already sitting in the passenger's seat of Tao’s convertible. The maknae didn’t like driving himself around. If anyone refused him, he’d just shift and run around the forest with a bag on his back, getting dressed on the outskirts of town out of sight. Tao didn’t mind having Sehun ride shotgun, though. The two were best friends, even more so since they got back, and besides, he was the best wing man when it came to grabbing the attention of the girls in a bar on a Friday night. But those days were no more.

“How is the ‘wooing’ going?” Sehun asked monotonously, not even looking up from his phone as Tao slid behind the wheel.

“It might be time for a strategy change,” Tao sighed.

Sehun snickered, “Or maybe you’re just an idiot and she’s not actually your mate.”

Tao growled at that snide remark. He wasn’t wrong about this. The instincts were too strong, too… there for him to be. Besides, what kind of dumb wolf couldn’t discern random attraction from the mate pull? Tao may have his idiotic moments, but he wasn’t that stupid.

Peeling out of the parking lot, Tao sped down the road, letting the wheels in his head take a much needed break. It wasn’t an easy task. You plagued every corner of his consciousness and there was nowhere to find solace. He’d spent so long running from the idea of finding his mate that he never expected it to be this overwhelming. Or hard. He almost wanted to apologize to his brothers for giving them such a hard time before.

Almost.

After pulling into the garage and parking the car in Tao’s self-designated spot, the former dynamic duo sauntered into the farmhouse. Passed the parlor in the living room was Mei surrounded by the already-claimed mates, minus Evie. The girls must be babysitting so the parents could have some “alone time”. As if the pack really needed another pup running around here.

At the sight of the two uncles, Mei giggled and pulled herself up onto her unstable feet, wobbling to and fro as she made her way towards them. Sehun crouched down, arms wide open to scoop the baby up, but she bypassed him to Tao instead. The latter cackled uncontrollably as he picked Mei up.

“What can I say? The ladies love me.”

Sehun stood back up. “Except only one of us can accept that love now.”

Tao frowned, fighting to bite back a growl. He didn’t want to scare Mei and make her cry.

“How did the tutoring session go, Tao?” Lanie asked in a teasing voice. They all knew he didn’t need the lessons, but it was best plan to get to know you that he could come up with at the time.

He was still a little shocked that Kris had been right; he did like what he saw in you. While you were a little prickly towards him, overall you seemed to have a kind heart. And, to him, that was the most important thing a person could own.

“It could have gone better,” Tao admitted. “But don’t worry, there’s plenty more charm up my sleeve.”

“We don’t doubt it, Tao,” Dana chuckled softly. Tao always liked Dana, ever since he met her. She had delicacy about her, not as much bite as the other mates. Not to mention, she was always bringing treats back from the bakery for him.

Just then, Jongin stepped into the living room and Mei went wild, squirming in Tao’s arms until he finally let her down so she could stumble over to the baby magnet. As soon as Jongin started the baby talk, Tao made his getaway, taking the steps upstairs two at a time.

Inside the safety of his bedroom that he shared with Sehun (neither of them particularly liked sleeping in a room alone), Tao flopped down the bed, staring up at the ceiling as he put his headphones over his ears.

Through the small speakers, he allowed himself to drift through the melodies of his favorite ballads, eyes closed and cutting him off from the world, if just for a little while. The soft tinkling of the piano keys paired with the soothing voice that sang of lost love and trying to forget gave him the peace that he’d been searching for. How many times had he listened to this particular song and thought of Lyn? Where was she now? Were there any remnants of her left in his mind?

It seemed that indeed, every last piece of her was gone. Did he remember what she looked like?

Okay, it wasn’t that extreme. He could picture her eyes, her hair, the way she smiled. But its potency was gone. And he didn’t mind one bit. He didn’t feel like comparing you and her; there was no competition. Tao felt… lighter, somehow. He’d been running in the opposite direction for so long, now he was able to stop and breathe again.

When the song came to its end, Tao opened his eyes, only to find a face floating above him. He let out a yelp, crashing down off the bed and onto the floor while Luhan laughed his ass off.

Yanking the headphones off, Tao jumped to his feet. “What the hell?”

“It’s not my fault you didn’t hear me knock,” Luhan threw his hands up innocently. “Sehun told me to go ahead and come in.”

Tao looked behind Luhan, but the punk wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Luhan must have bumped into him in the hallway. “Did you need something?”

Luhan shrugged. “Just checking on you. Heard you spent some one-on-one time with your mate.” There was a hint of jealousy in his voice, but Tao didn’t take any offense.

The poor guy was always looking around the corner for his mate. It would happen for him, someday. Tao just hoped it would be sooner rather than later. If this was how Tao was feeling, he could just imagine how high Luhan’s cloud nine would rise after yearning for it for so long.

Tao shrugged. “I wouldn’t necessarily call it a success. But I’ve got time. She hasn’t outright told me no, yet.”

“Good for you,” Luhan nodded, a strained smile on his lips.

Staring at one of his favorite pack members, Tao tilted his head to the side and asked, “Is everything okay?”

The fake smile suddenly became a little too bright. Luhan was putting on a good act, but Tao had spent too many years by his side to be fooled. “Everything’s great. But I should probably be heading out. I picked up an extra shift tonight at the bar. No idea why,” he snorted. “It’s going to be dead. I’ll see you later.” Before he could be stopped, he was out the door.

Deciding that it wasn’t worthy trying to fight it out of Luhan, Tao let it go as he lied back down on the bed. For once, he wasn’t hungry and when he closed his eyes for the second time, he let the music playing in his ears drift him off to sleep….

Tao was doing everything he could to not break out into a sprint towards the mathematics building. His class had let out late and – while on Wednesday showing up five minutes after the meeting time had been a strategy play – he didn’t want you to think he was flaking out on you. Fifteen minutes had already gone by and he had to make sure that he didn’t miss you, but his supernatural strength gave him a faster run than even the track star and he couldn’t risk bringing that kind of attention to himself.

When he finally reached the lab, he eyes searched around frantically for you. Every table was occupied, however, none of the taken seats were being warmed by you.

“(y/n)’s sick today.”

Tao turned to the front desk where Jae was sitting. “What?”

“She called about a half hour ago,” Jae explained. There was definitely a little taunting in his voice. Idiot was still sour that Tao had swooped in and taken up his date time.

Sorry, asshole, but she’s my mate and would never give you the time of day anyway.

With a roll of his eyes, Tao stomped out of the math lab. Sick? Yeah, right. You were avoiding him. It didn’t matter. He was going to squeeze in his tutoring time today whether you liked it or not.

#exo #exo fanfiction #exo fanfic #exo wolf au #exo wolf!au #exo werewolf au #exo werewolf!au #tao x reader #huang zitao #z.tao #tao #exo series #exo supernatural au #Innocent Intentions #untamed wolf universe

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eightmakar · 6 years ago

Text

English Boy | One

(College!Harrison Osterfield AU)

Teaser

Summary: Thank you college for hooking you up with a tutor!

Word count: 1.8k

(A/n: hi guys!!! this is my new Harrison story, give me feedback and enjoy!!!!)

“Venti iced coffee for (Y/N)!”

You grabbed your coffee and sat down in the corner booth of Starbucks. It was just before noon, and you were waiting for this Harrison guy to help you with your English lit. You were three weeks into the semester and already struggling. You had a paper to write on Macbeth, but had no idea what to do.

You looked down to see a text from Harrison.

Hey, I’m here! Where are you?

Corner booth with the laptop!

You looked up and saw a gorgeous boy standing in the line, looking down at his phone and then up around the restaurant. He made eye contact with you, saw your laptop, smiled, and waved. You smiled and waved back, but your heart was pounding.

He was tall and thin, his dirty blonde hair messily styled. All you could do was stare as he got a coffee and walked over to your table.

“(Y/N)?” He asked cautiously.

You stood up. “The one and only!” His British drawl sounded musical when it spoke your name.

“Nice to meet ya! I guess you’re gonna save my math grade, huh?” he joked as he sat down.

You felt your hands start to shake, but tried to keep them as still as possible. “If you save my English grade!”

He pulled out a binder neatly labeled “Calculus” and placed it on the table. “So what are you working on?”

“I have to write an essay about stupid Shakespeare,” you said with a roll of your eyes.

Harrison laughed. You decided right then and there you needed to hear that musical sound every day for the rest of your life.

“Shakespeare isn’t that bad! Which play is it?”

You looked him in the eyes. “Shakespeare is AWFUL. I read a few of his things in high school, like Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing and I hated them. This essay is on Macbeth.”

“What did you hate about them? Macbeth is my favorite of his plays.”

“Romeo and Juliet didn’t think about the ramifications of their actions. They didn’t think, “Oh, maybe we shouldn’t trust this weird Friar guy who is willing to fake our deaths to save our creepy 17-year-old-in-love-with-a-13-year-old romance.” They didn’t think about anything. All they cared about was being in love.”

“So what does that say about life? Does that say anything about young love?” Harrison had a small smile on his face.

“It shows that young love clouds the judgement of people involved in it,” You continued to rant.

“Exactly. That’s exactly what he wanted to demonstrate. You hit the nail on the head.”

Your brow furrowed. “What?”

His smile widened. “I know you were just ranting about how dumb it was, but that’s exactly the point. That’s what Shakespeare wanted to show the world about young love. How fast it comes and goes. At the beginning of the play, Romeo is fawning over Rosaline, remember? He tells his buddies how beautiful she is and how he can’t live without her and all that shit. But as soon as he sees Juliet, he immediately attaches himself to her and forgets all about Rosaline. He tries to woo Juliet instead of Rosaline. Shakespeare did that to demonstrate how stupid it was that teenagers jumped from love to love without any reason or real attachment.”

You thought about it for a second. Had you actually gotten the point of the play? “That’s just a coincidence,” you said.

“Let’s test that, then. What did you not like about Macbeth? What did you like about Macbeth? Is there a particular character you liked or felt bad for?” Harrison’s smile kept getting bigger. His eyes were the most striking color of blue you’d ever seen. The way he looked at you with them made your face feel hot.

“Well, I love Lady Macbeth.”

“Why do you love her?”

“I love her because she’s tragic. She tried everything to escape the role that her society had forced her into, and she hated it. She wished she’d been a man so what she wanted to do was acceptable.”

“Are you sure you need my help?” Harrison asked. “You really have this all down already.”

Your eyes widened. You didn’t want him to leave. “I didn’t know I had it down. Please stay, it’s helpful to talk about it.”

“Oh, I’m not going anywhere until I understand derivatives, love,” he said with a laugh. You melted. You wanted him to call you love again and again and again.

“Well what are you confused on?” You asked, closing your laptop and moving to look at his notes.

“Go over the basics. The power rule, whatever that means.” He took out his pencil, ready to take notes, looking at you hopefully.

“The power rule? Okay, so, let’s say you have a function, something easy, like y = 2x. What does the 2 represent?”

He thought for a moment. “It’s the slope of the line.”

“Exactly! And what’s the derivative of y = 2x?”

“Um, it’s just 2 isn’t it?”

“Yes it is! So one of the things I like to do is visualize what the graph of a function would look like before I ever try to mess with derivatives, because it’ll actually give you a picture of what you’re trying to go for. If you graphed y = 2, it’s a horizontal line, right? So you know the graph of y = 2x has to be something really simple with a slope of 0 and no variability in the Y-axis. In the same way, if you had a function that was crazy and you got a simple derivative, you’d know that was wrong, because the slope of the line definitely wouldn’t be just a simple number.”

You looked up at Harrison. He was lost, you could see it in his eyes.

“No offense,” he started, “but I have actually no idea what the fuck you just said.”

You laughed. “I get that a lot! Don’t worry about it! Here, let me try again!”

You pulled out a sheet of paper to show him what you meant. You drew a few graphs and re-explained in a different way about the relationship between slope and derivative and how you could use it to kind of cheat the system.

“That makes total sense now!” Harrison exclaimed. “So how does that relate to the power rule?”

You smiled. “So the power rule is the easiest way to find derivatives. Let’s say you have the function y = x^3. The power rule says that you can take the exponent, which is 3 in this case, and multiply it by whatever’s in front of the x, which is 1 in this case. Then, you subtract one from the original exponent. So you get 3x^2 as the derivative. Right?”

Harrison furrowed his brow in concentration, biting the inside of his cheek. He looked like a painting, all vibrant colors and soft brush strokes paired with hard lines.

“Right,” he said. You could see the gears turning in his head.

“And then if you graph that, you get a parabola, because it’s an x^2 function, right?”

“Right! Okay, lemme try to explain it to you,” he said, holding up his hands and looking at you. “You have a variable. It has some number as a coefficient in front of it. It has some exponent. To find the derivative, You multiple the exponent by the coefficient, which becomes the new coefficient, and then you subtract one from the exponent which becomes your new exponent?”

“Perfect!” You cheered, clapping your hands.

Instead of cheering with you, Harrison’s brow stayed furrowed. He was thinking about something.

“So what if the coefficient is negative? If you just have an x that’s x-to-the-one, so it’s just X. And anything to the zero power is itself. So the derivative of something like 5x is 5. What’s the derivative of a number?”

You smiled. “Keep talking. You’ve almost got the whole number thing.”

He thought some more. “Would it—would it, no, it can’t be, but, uh, would it just be zero? Since there’s no more exponents?”

“You got it!” You said excitedly. Harrison smiled triumphantly. “If the coefficient is negative, you do the same thing; you multiple the coefficient and the exponent, then subtract. Like 5x^-2. The derivative is -10x^-3.”

Harrison nodded with a smile. “Can you just take over teaching my class, please? You explain it so well. You really love math, don’t you?”

You shrugged. “Numbers make sense. They follow rules and you don’t have to coax anything out of them. You plug them into formulas and presto! You’ve got an answer. None of the read into it bullshit like you have in literature. No offense,” you finished quickly.

He laughed. “None taken. But aren’t there exceptions to the rules sometimes?”

“There can be. But they’re easy to catch, and they have proof and examples you can use to find them. No finagling. No thinking about it.”

You bit your lip, nervous about how he would respond. A lot of people thought you were ridiculous for your love of numbers and math, but you didn’t care. You hoped Harrison wouldn’t be one of those people.

“Can you help me understand?” He said softly.

“Hmm?” You barely heard him.

“Can you show me what you mean? I want to understand and not read into everything. I try to approach everything like a piece of literature, with information and meaning needing to be gleaned from it. But with math, you just needed to know what formula to use. I want to think like you.”

Your hands started to shake again. He wanted to think like you, to understand how your brain worked. That had to mean something, right? Were you starting to think like him now?

“I’ll help show you what I mean if you show me what you mean. I want to be able to read into thinks and not just take everything at face value like everything is a math problem.”

He smiled softly. “What a pair we make, huh?” he said with a light chuckle. “Both wanting to understand how the other person thinks. This is going to be fun, isn’t it?”

Tags:

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#harrison osterfield #harrison osterfield x reader #harrison osterfield x y/n #harrison osterfield x you #harrison osterfield fanfiction #harrison osterfield fanfictions #harrison osterfield fanfic #harrison osterfield fanfics #college!harrison osterfield #college!au #college!harrison

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thirst4fictionalmen · 7 years ago

Text

The Holiday Pt.1 (Billy x Reader)

words: 2700

summary: The reader thinks that Billy didn’t want to celebrate Valentine’s day. Little did she know that Billy just couldn’t afford to give her anything.

You only brought up the holiday once just to figure out if you should schedule something for that day. You asked Billy, your boyfriend of two months (give or take a few weeks), about Valentine’s Day and he fucking scoffed. Like how dare you think about going on a romantic date with your boyfriend. Especially, your first boyfriend since the rest of the guys in towns is bland assholes (besides Steve, of course). At least Billy his a hot asshole (and becoming less of one but now that made you rethink your choices).

That was two weeks ago.

You knew that Billy wouldn’t go all out for Valentine’s Day, but you were at least expecting a date. It didn’t even have to be at a fancy restaurant, but a movie or going to a diner and sharing a milkshake and fries (even if you hate sharing your food because get people should get their own food!). Billy can be romantic if he wanted to be. Hell, he gave you a mixtape for Christmas (even if you don’t really care much for metal music) it was the thought that counted. And you even got him a gift, too for Valentine’s Day. You kind of knew that the day was just a cabalistic scam to increase sales because who should put a value on love? But a small part of you wanted to do something romantic. This is your first Valentine’s Day with a boyfriend. And to make things less stressful for Billy, you even get him a gift because why does everyone expect the guy to be the only one giving gifts?

It was nothing special but you were still excited to give it to him. So when you heard the roar of his Camaro outside your house, you grabbed his gift from the kitchen counter and made your way out the door.

“Good Morning,” you greeted him before giving him a short kiss on the cheek. He looked at you warily as if he was expecting something. “What?”

“…Nothing,” Billy mumbled before driving out the driveway. “Hey, Max. How ya doing?” you asked her. Max was frowning when you looked back. “What’s wrong?” you asked her. She glanced at Billy, so you did the same to see him glancing back at her through the rearview mirror. Something is up… “We just had a talk,” Billy explained. You waited for either of them to elaborate but none spoke any further. You sighed. It must have been about you then since you know what goes on in the house. Max was the one to tell you since Billy did not want to you to think of him as he said: “a weak ass pussy”. “Anyways…” you pulled out both Valentine’s Day gifts from inside your coat. Billy’s eyes widened in shock. “Happy Valentine’s Day.” Max sucked her teeth. “I thought the guy was supposed to be the one to give gifts.” “That’s what they want you to think,” you wink at her as you tossed her the bag full of treats. You then turned to your boyfriend who was frowning with his jaw clenched. “You can’t eat yours until after school.” “And why’s that?” Knowing the Billy can handle his alcohol, you handed him one of the chocolate truffles from his bag of treats. He took his with a bit of hesitation before throwing it in his mouth. His blue eyes widened as soon as he took a bite. “I-Is their booze in this?” You grinned. “Yep, whiskey to be exact. Thought I should spice it up with the chocolates.” You then relaxed in your seat. You felt better when Billy’s hands clasped onto your thigh like usual. And there was no other mention of this dreaded holiday. You didn’t bother asking again about it to Billy since you were not ready to start a silly fight in the morning. But as if Max was reading your thoughts, “So, Y/N, you have any plans for Valentine’s Day?” You side-eyed Billy who kept looking straight but his face was now red with anger. Must have been the secret conversation he had with Mad. Keeping your cool you said, “Nope. Probably doing homework tonight. Do you?” “U-um, just hanging out with Lucas.” “Hanging out? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” you teased her. “We’re just hanging.”

Billy decided if he does not think about Valentine’s Day then his anger won’t flare up. Unfortunately, Max didn’t get the memo. When Neil and Susan told them about their dinner plans for tonight, Susan then asked Billy if he had any plans with Y/N. Billy declined and that’s when he earned a confused expression from his step-sister. “You’re not doing anything for Y/N?” Max asked him as soon as she got into his car. Of course, she wouldn’t let this go. Billy knew that his girlfriend was more than half the reason that Max tolerated him more. Billy had to admit that Y/N simmered down the typical rage he can make him pretty compliant when she gifts him with her shy smile. “And here I thought you were trying to be a decent boyfriend.” “Shut the hell up, Max,” he told her. Billy reeling in his anger that really wants to yell at her but he’s getting better at not taking his annoyance out on her. Too much at least. “She’s gonna dump you if you don’t do anything romantic every once in a while,” she commented. And Max looked seriously scared about the idea of Y/N dumping him as if she’s also dumping Max. It is not like she won’t see her if things don’t work out between them. Max was ‘friends’ with Y/N before Billy even became her boyfriend. She’s babysits that annoying curly haired kid and is fucking best friends with Steve Harrington. She was even there at the Byers’ house when he knocked the shit out of Harrington. That didn’t bode well with her since at the time she was thinking about going on a date with him. That set their relationship back by a couple of weeks. Billy had to apologize to both Harrington and Sinclair before she even glanced at him. It took a lot of groveling but Billy finally got a date with her in the middle of November. It was nothing special. He only twenty bucks to spare that night. They went to a pizza joint and Billy loved that she ate four slices with no hesitation or embarrassment like the usual chicks. When Billy said something about her appetite, she threatened to walk home and that being their last date. Of course, he groveled and paid for dessert.

Billy couldn’t afford much since he’s too busy trying to earn enough money to move back to Cali. He did odd jobs around town since he refuses to work at as a cashier since he only has a limited amount of patience and that’s only for the bitches he wants to fuck. Of course, that patience is gone now since he’s in a committed relationship. So, they went on cheap dates. Went to diners, a movie listened to records and made out like crazy.

“Max, first, fuck you. Two, you don’t know shit,” he said. Billy didn’t know why but he was feeling the need to vent and the only ones he allows to see a snippet of the real ‘Billy’ is Max. “It’s not like I can afford to do anything either.” Because fuck Hawkins’ freezing weather that ruined his baby. Aka the Camaro. Neil wasn’t going to pitch in to fix his car so Billy had to dip into his savings. It’s practically nothing left. Just enough to pay gas and some smokes. Not enough money to take someone out on a romantic date. It was like karma waited for this moment. Waited two weeks before Valentine’s Day. And Y/N had to bring it up a few days after he drained his savings to fix his car to ask if they are doing anything. He didn’t mean to snap at her but he was fucking ashamed and pissed off that his plans were ruin. Fuck anybody that thinks Billy can’t be romantic.

“She wouldn’t care. It’s the thought that counts,” Max told him. Billy scoffed. That’s some bullshit that people say to make one feel better if their gift is shit. Billy rather give nothing than give shit—especially to Y/N. And he said just that to Max who looked at him like he said the most foolish thing. They finally made it to Y/N house. “Don’t say a word about this. Got it?” “Whatever,” she rolled her eyes before climbing to the back. Billy was nervous when she didn’t say anything in particular about Valentine’s Day. He thought he was in the clear until she brought out chocolates. The liquor chocolates did nothing to simmer down his humiliation that his girlfriend got him something but he didn’t even write her a fucking card.

Billy avoided you the whole day. On a typical day in school, his hand is on the inside of your back pocket with his body pressed to yours against the lockers. He snuck kisses in between classes. It was hard to separate yourself from Billy and you would not complain. But who knew that this dreaded holiday would make your boyfriend go MIA. You still see him in class. But other than that, he stuck close to Tommy and Carol. The two people you can’t stand, so you don’t bother with him if he’s with those two. At least you had Steve who was also in a semi-mopey mood (who denies it). “You. Me. Lots of junk food and scary movies. My place,” you tell him at lunch. “Um, no,” he said before taking a bite of the mystery meatloaf. “We have a shit ton of math homework due tomorrow.” You groaned. You do pretty well in the academics’ department which differs from Steve who struggles. But if there is one thing he is stellar at, it’s math. Which you suck at. Because calculus can go suck a dick. “Wanna’ come over and help me? I feel like I’m solving the meaning of the life with this fucking rocket science.” Steve snorted. “It’s math, not science. And you would have a B in class if you weren’t such a space cadet in there.” “Are you calling me an Airhead, Harrington?” you ruffled his hair causing your friend to whine and squawk. “That’s not how you get me to tutor you.” You jutted your lower lip and batted your eyelashes. “How about knowing that I failed and couldn’t graduate and get into college and that all of this could have been prevented if only you tutored me?” “You really do know how to turn on the violins, huh?” he glanced behind you and you just know who he is staring at. “No plans with Hargrove? No romantic date and fucking in the back seat of his car?” You decided not to react to his last question. “Nope. So let’s spend the holiday with junk food movie, and— “—homework,” Steve added. You were glad that he didn’t question you further about Billy. He already questions your choice in men since the very first relationship you had in two years had to be mullet-haired (which you want to cut badly) blue-eyed Cali-boy with anger issues.

It was only once that Billy avoided Y/N when they started their relationship. It didn’t last long. A few hours to be exact. His dad fucked him up one night before school and he picked her up from school. Luckily, his dad got him in easily hidden parts that he can cover. Y/N knew something was up when she got in the car and wasn’t greeted with a kiss. She also noticed that his shirt was buttoned up. Max was in the car but didn’t say anything. She looked dejected but not angry. Meaning that maybe whatever was going on was not really Billy but something else out of their control. Y/N turned down the music much to Billy’s chagrin and asked him what was up. Of course, Billy had to be snarky about it and threw his bad attitude on his girlfriend. By the time he made it to the school, he stormed off and didn’t bother waiting for you. Y/N gave him space until she cornered him during lunch. She dragged him off from Tommy. That’s how she found out that her boyfriend was abused by his father. And this is why Billy loved her, no matter how much it scared the shit out of him to fall so quickly into their relationship. She didn’t show pity. She didn’t cry and say, “Oh, Billy.” And at that moment, he just knew he was head over heels. She was it. Only a month and a half into a relationship but fuck it. He’s dragging her with him to California and have her see the beautiful beaches and warm sun. She wrapped her short arms around him and snuggled close. That day she didn’t ask any questions (she did later that night while playing with his hair). She then unbuttoned two of his buttons before the large bruise was exposed on his right pec. She then kissed him lightly, leaving a lip gloss mark. “Come over, tonight? I’ll make you feel much better.” And made him feel better she did.

So here Billy was. Avoiding his girlfriend again, but this time it’s been a full day of school and she hasn’t sought him out. Instead, she stuck close with fucking Harrington and ruffled his hair while she smiles and teases him. He had basketball practice so he couldn’t drop her off. Instead, Harrington gave Max and Y/N a ride (he quit the team) and now Billy was going to go the whole day without talking to his girlfriend because he was pouting like a bitch. By the time Billy came home, he knew that he would only have thirty minutes to relax before he had to give Max a ride to a bowling alley (Neil thinks it is only going to be Jane there but little did he know that this was a double date with Sinclair and Wheeler with Jane). Billy greeted his father before making his way to his room. By the time he came down the stairs, he sees Max with Susan and Neil. “Max just told us that you’re not taking Y/N out tonight?” Neil told him with disappointment. Billy had to guess that was one of the two things that him and his father have in common. Anger and their fondness for Y/N. It helped that Max always gushed about how awesome his girlfriend his. “And here I thought you were becoming a respectable man.” Billy sighed. “I used up all my money on my car.” Neil just stared at him for a long few seconds before reaching into his back pocket. “Y/N doesn’t deserve to sit at home on Valentine’s Day. Take her to a nice restaurant.” Billy watched in shock as his father held out a fifty-dollar bill to him. As much as it killed Billy to take the money his abusive father gave him, he rather feels like shit taking the money instead of feeling like shit for being the worst boyfriend for not treating his girl. So that’s how he found himself driving to Y/N’s house. What he didn’t expect was the maroon-brown BMW parked outside of your house.

#billy #Billy Hargrove #billy hargrove x reader #billy x reader #stranger things #stranger things imagines #steve harrington #dacre montgomery

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wonpluswonistwo · 7 years ago

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Things You Find In A Book (Wonwoo Scenario)

Pairing: Wonwoo x Reader

Word Count: 1460

Warnings: None

Type: Fluff!

Summary: You’re on the verge of failing Calculus, so your math teacher asks you to check out a supplemental textbook. You are confident in your skills of being organized until you leave behind your textbook in the library. Will you get it back?

A/N: Sorry for taking so long!!! College apps are ASS but, aside from thatn, sorry for any mistakes!

The World of Calculus, it read. To you, it seemed more like, The World of Complete Boredom. Alas, your math grade was...for lack of a better term, terrible. Absolutely horrifying. On-verge-of-failing horrible. And so, this new Calculus textbook, the whole 396 pages, was (supposedly, according to the librarian) your best friend until the end of the school year. I might as well not lose it, you thought as you took a pen out of your bag and wrote your phone number on a small slip of paper.

“837-652-4017. I’m not going to lose it anyway,” you scoffed, crazed at the idea of you losing such a large book. You tucked the slip of paper into the front cover of your book, ignoring the blank name tag on the inside of the cover that you could have used. You didn’t need the whole school to know you needed an extra textbook. What were you? Dumb? Maybe.

You took your arm and swept your belongings from the desk into your backpack and stood up, patting down the crinkles in your skirt. You were just about to pick up your textbook when your phone started ringing, much to the annoyance of the librarians, who glared at you. You nodded an apology and picked up the call, running out the big french doors.

“Hello? Who’s calling?” A loud voice answered your greeting, making you jump in fright.

“Hon-eyyyyyy, you are dead meat!” Oh geez, it was Woozi. He never really called unless you happened to be “dead meat.”

“Woozi? What the heck?”

“(Y/N), you are missing our lunch appointment! Are you sightseeing all the boys in the courtyard?” You groaned internally, remembering the time Woozi caught you puppy-eyeing a popular boy from the balcony above the school courtyard.

“Shut up Woozi, I was studying-” You heard a loud, sarcastic gasp from the other end of the phone before you heard:

“STUDYING? You….you study?” You closed your eyes in frustration, lips pressed together.

“Shut UP Woozi! I’m coming, alright?” You angrily hung up, huffing about how rude he was and began your trek to the school cafeteria.

The moment you stepped into the cafeteria, you regretted promising Woozi to eat in the caf. It was loud, rowdy, and most annoyingly, filled with many of the people you hated. Ignoring several catcalls and staring down some innocent freshman, you made your way toward the brown haired boy who was smirking and sipping an iced coffee.

“Beat it, Woozi. I don’t want to hear your voice right now.” He just wiggled his eyebrows and motioned for you to sit. He placed his head on his hand and asked:

“What were you studying? Calc?” You nodded, rolling your eyes at the same time.

“Honestly, not needed. But my teacher won’t give it up. Some ‘You have to pass this class’ trash talk.”

“Rare! A teacher sees something-” You immediately stood up, as if you were about to leave, but Woozi pulled you down and said, “Hey, whoa, whoa, chill, fam!”

Meanwhile, Wonwoo was trying to find a spot in the library to study his anatomy worksheets. He happened upon a table and sat down before anyone else could take it. As he looked behind him, he caught a nasty look from a student who was about to beeline to his table. Wonwoo sighed heavily and set his papers on the desk when he saw a textbook. He picked it up and a piece of paper fell out, labeled “837-652-4017 Please return to owner!”

Wonwoo looked around, suspicious. Why would someone write it on a paper instead of the designated space on the inside of the cover? What if it was one of those tricks so that you would carry the book outside and trigger the alarm? He shook his head, trying to expel all the worst case scenarios that could happen if he happened to text the number.

He slowly punched in the phone number, one number at a time to make sure he wasn’t making any errors: “8...3...7...6...5...2...4...0...1...7.” He checked it once, checked it twice, and checked it one more time. However, Wonwoo struggled to formulate a message.

“To Whom It May Concern…” Too formal.

“What’s up? I found your textbook today!” Too casual.

“Hi, my name is Wonwoo and I…” I’m not trying to introduce myself.

“Hi, I just happened to have found your phone number in your math textbook today; how should I return it to you?” Seemed like a perfect combination of formal and cooooool. But he was still unsure; would the owner be creeped out? Out of frustration, Wonwoo slammed his phone onto the table only to hear a faint “beep”. The sound of a sent message.

“No! Wait! Come back! No!” Wonwoo frantically pressed on random places on the screen, trying to un-send the message, but the harm was done. The message had been sent.

You were in the middle of stuffing your face with spaghetti when your phone started ringing and spazzing. “Hey, can you stop getting so many messages all the time?” Woozi asked, exasperated. You cringed as you looked at the number. Unrecognizable.

“Sorry, I just need to see it.” You casually pressed the notification, and waited for the messages to load. However, the moment you saw the words, your eyes popped out and your heart began pounding. “Dammit! I forgot it when I told myself not to! Ugh, I’m so stupid!”

“Ha! It’s about time you noticed,” Woozi joked, his head jolting forward suddenly as you knocked him in the head.

“Shut up, Woozi!” You groaned internally. You had to deal with an idiot of a friend, an empty stomach, annoying teachers, and now a forgotten textbook. How much worse could your day get?

Wonwoo stood awkwardly outside of the library doors, your book tucked carefully under his arm. He wondered what you would look like. Would you have long hair or short hair? Fair skin or tan skin? Dyed hair or natural colored hair? The questions floated around until he saw a girl frantically looking around the hallway. Was that her? Wonwoo took a closer look, and his heart literally stopped. She was breathtaking. Panicking, but still beautiful.

Wonwoo froze, not knowing what to do. Should he like....comb his hair with his fingers? Or should he like...walk over and talk to her? Wonwoo chose to do the easiest thing: comb his hair. A mistake. The girl turned toward his direction and tilted her head in confusion, as if she were judging him. He quickly shoved his hand in the pocket, his hair now disheveled.

Perfectly disheveled… you thought as you stood in the middle of the hallway inspecting this person. You shook your head, trying to focus on what you were trying to look for. Your textbook. You were just about to enter the library when you felt a hand on your shoulder. You turned around as you heard a deep voice say,

“Just wondering, did you leave your textbook?” You nodded vigorously, almost desperate. You looked up, and there he was. The boy with the perfectly disheveled hair. “Well, um...here it is.” You were just about to take it out of his hands when he blurted out, “Actually, let me write your name in it so people know who to give it to if you lose it again.” He opened the textbook and opened it to the front page, about to write your name down until he realized...he didn’t know your name.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know you yet. What’s your name?” he asked. You didn’t know how to respond. First of all, obviously, he had the perfect chisled jawline, soft hair, smooth sk- SHUT UP (Y/N)! you thought, scolding yourself for once again getting sidetracked.

“Uh…(Y/N).” He nodded in understanding, starting to scribble in your textbook. When he finished, he handed it to you with a gleaming smile.

“Don’t lose it again! But if you do, you’d better hope the person who finds it is as nice as me!” Wonwoo internally cringed at his own words and just walked away, looking back and waving goodbye.

“Is he asking me to lose it again? I’m so confused…” you said as you opened the textbook to see if your phone number was still in the book. Sure enough, your phone number was there, and your name, and...some small writing. You squinted and read the message, your heart immediately increasing the speed of the beats.

Hey (Y/N), looks like you need help with Calc? I can help tutor you if you want...and since you take my breath away, I’ll tutor you for free :) Call me! 836-879-2286

-Admin Gene

#seventeen #seventeen scenarios #seventeen imagines #wonwoo #kpop #17writersnet #woozi #jihoon

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oselatra · 8 years ago

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2017 Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team

Meet the best and brightest high school students in the state.

The class of 2017, our 23rd, is made up of athletes, coders, budding politicians and brain experts. There's rarely a B on the transcripts of these students — in not just this, their senior year, but in any year of their high school careers.

Back in 1995, we created the Academic All-Star Team to honor what we then called "the silent majority — the kids who go to school, do their homework (most of it, anyway), graduate and go on to be contributing members of society." Too often, we argued then, all Arkansans heard about young people was how poorly they were faring. Or, when students did get positive attention, it came for athletic achievement.

As you read profiles of this year's All-Stars, it should be abundantly clear that good things are happening in Arkansas schools and there are many academic achievers who deserve to be celebrated. You should get a good idea, as well, of how these stellar students are busy outside school, with extracurricular activities, volunteer work, mission activities and more.

They'll be honored this week at a ceremony at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with plaques and $250 cash awards.

Many college plans listed here are not set in stone, as students await information on scholarships and acceptances.

CAROLINE COPLIN-CHUDY Age: 17 Hometown: North Little Rock High School: Mount St. Mary Academy Parents: (guardian) Dennis Chudy College plans: Duke University

Caroline Coplin-Chudy has a 4.4 grade point average — high enough to rank second in her class at Mount St. Mary Academy — and lost her mother to leukemia during her sophomore year, something she told us came to be a source of inspiration and drive during her academic development. "It was a big adjustment. After my mom passed away, it was just my stepdad. It's a weird realization coming to the idea that both of your parents are gone, and it's just you. ... I still think of her every single day. She motivates me to do well in everything, because my whole life I wanted to make her proud." Caroline is president of Mount St. Mary's Investment Club and of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions). She's also been a regular volunteer for several years at the Little Rock Compassion Center, whose recovery branch provides meals and health resources to people suffering from addiction. Caroline said she found healing from her own grief in the friendships she forged there. As the recipient of a Questbridge scholarship, described by Caroline's guidance counselor and nominator Amy Perkins as a program where lower-income students qualify for tuition to schools with which they "match" via an early decision process, Caroline will attend Duke University on a full scholarship. "I'm going to study biology and psych, with a minor in Spanish. My plan is to work at the Duke Center for Addiction [Science and Technology] helping people with drug addictions overcome that sort of thing. It's something that I've had experience with, watching my family go through things like that."

AXEL NTAMATUNGIRO Age: 17 Hometown: Pine Bluff High School: Subiaco Academy Parents: Sixte Ntamatungiro and Sylvana Niciteretse College plans: Rice University, neuroscience

Axel Ntamatungiro grew up among books and maps dispersed throughout his home that "paint[ed] the walls with nuanced shades of knowledge." It shows. Not often can a high school senior explain, as Axel does, his love for studying the brain so easily. "Neuroscience is basically a neuron turning on and off," he said. "The fact that you have billions of these combinations that lead to consciousness, that's unbelievable." To continue learning about the mind, Axel is headed to Rice University on a full ride as a QuestBridge scholar. Maybe medical school or graduate school after that. Axel said his parents taught him a "humble intellectualism" that helped him understand "the irrationality of life." They always told him: "Work hard, but you need to realize you don't always get what you deserve." And life has been, at times, irrational and difficult for his family. Axel was the only member of his family born in the United States — in Little Rock in 1999. The rest migrated from Burundi in the early 1990s. They stayed here as the Rwandan genocide inflicted incredible damage in the area. That past was never hidden from Axel. "Instead of avoiding my questions, my parents level-headedly answered [them], telling me about Belgian colonialism, Hutu-Tutsi tension and the systematic poverty afflicting Burundi," he said. Maybe that is why Axel has never been afraid to ask big questions. He said it also helped to have a diverse group of friends who taught him new things. At his cafeteria table for lunch are kids from all over: Nigeria, Fort Smith, Japan, Bentonville and Russia. Everyone's small stories add to a global perspective, something bigger from something small, kind of like those neurons.

JADE DESPAIN Age: 18 Hometown: Springdale High School: Haas Hall Academy (Fayetteville) Parents: Brenan and Tiffany DeSpain College plans: U.S. Naval Academy, nuclear engineering

For Jade DeSpain, the question, "Where's your hometown?" isn't necessarily as straightforward as it seems. The National Merit semifinalist, swimming star and Quiz Bowler spent much of her childhood in Beijing, where her parents — both fluent in Mandarin — taught her Chinese concurrently with English (and where, she notes, she acquired an "incredible prowess with chopsticks.") "We've moved around so much that I don't really have a 'hometown,' but Springdale is the closest I've ever gotten," she said. She's made her impact there, too, tutoring students free of charge through her volunteer work with the M&N Augustine Foundation and putting in time at the Arkansas Council for the Blind and the Springdale Animal Shelter. Jade is ranked second in her class, and her high school transcript is full of aced courses in trigonometry, physics and calculus. She's also the co-founder of Haas Hall Academy's coding club, so a career in nuclear energy development — Jade's field of choice — isn't just an aspiration; it's the plan. "I have a deep appreciation for nature," she told us, citing Devil's Den State Park as a spot to which she feels closely connected, and stressing the importance of preserving natural spaces and developing more long-term options for sustainable energy. On Christmas Day 2016, Jade checked her email to find that she'd attained something she'd wanted as early as age 12: acceptance to the U.S. Naval Academy. There, she'll major in nuclear engineering and complete her five mandatory post-Academy years in the Navy, after which she hopes to acquire a Ph.D. in the field.

AVERY ELLIOTT Age: 18 Hometown: Cabot High school: Cabot High School Parents: Dan and Melissa Elliott College plans: University of Arkansas, medicine

Though many of our All-Stars seem destined from birth for academic greatness, there is the occasional inspiring All-Star who has had to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. One of those is Cabot High School's Avery Elliott, who was born with nystagmus, a condition that causes involuntary eye movements that can make it hard for sufferers to concentrate and learn. Though it's hard to imagine it now, when she was in elementary school Avery found herself falling further and further behind her classmates in reading because of her condition. "That was difficult," she said. "I was behind schedule until about third or fourth grade. I would have to go home and really work with my parents to keep up with the rest of the class." Even though she struggled early on, Avery said that, in a way, the nystagmus contributed to her success and gave her a direction to follow. "I had to learn to really study even outside of school," she said. "I learned some very good study habits. But I think it also really affected where I wanted to go as far as my career. ... I really learned that a medical team can not only dispense medicine, but can really affect someone's life." A National Merit finalist who has volunteered extensively with Special Olympics and already completed 43 hours of college-level coursework, Avery has been awarded the University of Arkansas Fellowship. She plans to study medicine at UAMS after completing her undergrad degree, then practice in Arkansas. That goal has always pushed her to succeed academically. "I wanted to go into the medical field from an early age," she said, "so I knew starting out in high school that I needed to make very good grades in order to get where I needed to. I had to really learn the material, rather than just trying to ace a test."

JARED GILLIAM Age: 17 Hometown: Cabot High school: Cabot High School Parents: Dan and LeAnne Gilliam College plans: University of Arkansas, engineering

When most young people say they want to change the world, it's easy to believe that's just pie-in-the-sky thinking by someone who hasn't yet been through the Academy of Hard Knocks. When Jared Gilliam says he wants to change the world, however, there's a good chance he might actually pull it off. Jared even has a plan: He'll change the world through engineering. A National Merit finalist and AP scholar with a GPA of 4.18 and a perfect score of 36 on the ACT, Jared is well placed to do just that. A musician who plays percussion with the Cabot High Marching Band, Jared said his favorite subject in school is math. "I think I'm mostly interested in engineering because I've always been sort of a problem-solver," he said. "I've enjoyed math and science, working through things and finding solutions to everyday problems. This year, I've been in robotics, so we've spent time working on a robot to perform various tasks. I've enjoyed that a lot. I think engineering is where my ability would best be used." He'll attend the University of Arkansas, which has offered him the Honors College Fellowship. He said the drive to excel academically has always been a part of his life. "I've grown up being encouraged to do well, and I guess I have my parents to thank for that and all my teachers," he said. "I think knowing that I have the ability to do all of this, I feel compelled to do what I can to make a difference. I think life would be pretty boring if I didn't go out there and do all the things I do. I don't think I could settle for not being successful."

BENJAMIN KEATING Age: 18 Hometown: Fort Smith High School: Southside High School Parents: Drs. Bill and Janice Keating College plans: Undecided

If you were looking for a ringing endorsement of Ben Keating's character, you'd need to look no further than Amy Slater, the guidance counselor who nominated him for our Academic All-Stars roster and who said of Ben, "He is all the things I hope my son turns out to be. ... He really thinks about things, and he practices the trumpet and piano for hours a day. It's crazy, his dedication." Ben probably had something to prove here; he admits to some skepticism on the part of his mother when he announced he'd be pursuing a career in music. He's certainly proved his mettle; Ben is band president at Southside, was a principal trumpet for the 2017 National Youth Honor Orchestra, first chair for Southside's Wind Symphony and for the All-State Jazz Band and was ranked in the top-tier bands for All-State Band and All-State Orchestra each year from 2014-16. The accolades go on and on: Ben has received a Young Artist Award from the International Trumpet Guild, a Gold Medal from the National Piano Guild and superior ratings from the National Federation of Music Clubs competitions for over a decade. He plays for the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra and as a volunteer musician for the Fort Smith Community Band. Ben is still deciding where to attend college, but wherever he goes, he hopes to continue playing with an orchestra. Eventually, he wants to teach at the university level. "Ultimately," he wrote, "I want to use my passion to unite people of all different races, backgrounds and cultures. In today's society that is politically and culturally divided, it is more important than ever to share the universal language of music."

KATHERINE HAHN Age: 17 Hometown: Hindsville High School: Huntsville High School Parents: Shannon Hahn College plans: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, biochemical engineering

Katherine Hahn is ranked first in her class at Huntsville High School, which she attends because her hometown of Hindsville is too small to support its own school system. The population of Hindsville is "about 75 people," she told us. At Huntsville High, Katherine plays bass drum in the marching band and marimba/xylophone in the concert band and runs with the Huntsville cross-country team. Her real passion, though, is science. "I think I've always wanted to go to a college that was science-based and research-based," she told us. Her high school principal, Roxanne Enix, noted her own surprise when Katherine announced that she'd take 10 credits her senior year, instead of the recommended eight. "I thought she had lost her mind," Enix stated. Those credits, over half of which are in AP classes, are what Katherine hopes have prepared her for the rigorous workload at MIT. Aiming for a career in pharmaceutical development, Katherine plans to study biochemical engineering, something she said resonated personally with her as a result of her mother's struggle with skin cancer. "Biology helps me understand why medicine does the things it does," Katherine told us. "Whenever I first started out, I wanted to do environmental stuff," she said, but turned her attention to drug delivery systems after observing so many friends and loved ones battling cancer. "I want to help stop people from being scared of losing people," she explained. Katherine, a native of Tahlequah, Okla., who moved to Arkansas around fifth grade, has served on the Madison County Health Coalition as Youth Leader and was named Student of the Year in 2017 by the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce and Huntsville High School.

GEORGIANA BURNSIDE Age: 18 Hometown: Little Rock High school: Little Rock Christian Academy Parents: Bob and Ann Burnside College plans: Stanford University, biology and public policy

When this reporter mentioned to friends at UAMS that she'd just spoken to an amazingly poised, optimistic and intelligent young woman with a spinal cord injury, they said in unison, "You mean Georgiana Burnside." Her reputation as a teenager who at 16 was paralyzed from the waist down in a snow skiing accident but who considers the event a "blessing" no doubt goes further than UAMS, all the way to Denver's Craig Hospital, where she spent "the most memorable two months in my life," she said, and where she returns to continue her rehabilitation. What is a spinal cord injury? She answers that it is a) a life changed in a split second, b) finding out that a bad attitude is the true disability, c) a time to show off wheelchair tricks, and d) spontaneous moments of unfortunate incontinence. In her essay for the Arkansas Times, Georgiana writes, "my physical brokenness has developed wholeness in my heart about the capacity life holds for individuals regardless of their disabilities." In a phone interview, Georgiana, once a figure skater, talked about her work with Easter Seals, fundraisers for Craig Hospital, and giving talks and testimony about her faith. Georgiana has regained the ability to walk with hiking sticks and leg braces, thanks to the strength in her quads. And, thanks to support from the High Fives Foundation in Truckee, Calif., which sponsors athletes with injuries and which has paid for some of her rehabilitation, Georgiana returned to the slopes over spring break, skiing upright with the aid of long forearm equipment. At Stanford, she'll study to be a doctor, with a goal to return to Craig Hospital as a physician who'll treat other injured youths who, though they may have, like Georgiana, at first believed their life was over, will learn they have "a unique role ... enabling the advancement of society."

MITCHELL HARVEY Age: 17 Hometown: North Little Rock High School: North Little Rock High School Parents: David and Susan Harvey College plans: Likely Mississippi State University, chemical engineering

Mitchell Harvey is a big fan of the periodic table. "The elements are amazing little things," he wrote in his Academic All-Star essay. "They make up everything, yet we hardly see them in their pure form in everyday life." Mitchell decided they needed more exposure, so he started collecting examples of the elements and taking them to school for his peers and teachers to see. He extracted helium from an abandoned tank on the side of the road. He found zinc in wheel weights, grew crystals of copper with electrolysis and made bromine, which he describes as "a blood-red liquid that fumes profusely," from a "crude" homemade distillation setup and pool chemicals. Though you can buy sodium readily, Mitchell made his by melting drain cleaner (sodium hydroxide) with a blowtorch and then passing a current through it, separating the mixture into sodium metal, oxygen and water. His parents were OK with the procedure, he says, because he wore a Tyvek suit, three pairs of gloves, safety goggles and a face shield. While on a college visit in California last summer, Mitchell toured Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and was impressed by the large periodic table display exhibit there. So he decided to build one for North Little Rock High. He got money from the school's alumni group, the Wildcat Foundation, to pay for the supplies necessary to construct the 9-foot-by-6-foot display. He hopes to have it completed in the next two weeks and fill it with examples of elements he has collected, though he may need additional funding to pay for other elements. No. 1 in a class of 687, Mitchell scored a perfect 36 on the ACT. He's also an Eagle Scout, and led a project to plant 800 native hardwood seedlings at Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park. After college, Mitchell said, he might start his own waste remediation business. "The business model I would be going for would be taking some byproduct that's hazardous and turning it into something useful."

CARSON MOLDER Age: 18 Hometown: Mabelvale High school: Bryant High SCHOOL Parents: Kevin and Ruby Molder College plans: University of Arkansas

Not everybody plays the mellophone and likes to draw up better interstate exchanges, but Carson Molder does both. The University of Arkansas Honors College-bound student, No. 1 in his class, likes to create three-dimensional schemes in his head, and has been creating road designs since he was young. But as a musician who plays the French horn in his school's orchestra and the mellophone in the Legacy of Bryant marching band, and who has won a band scholarship in addition to his Honors College reward to the UA, he said that one day he may be an audio engineer. "I'm going to put things together and see what sticks," he said of his future. Meanwhile, Carson said the internet has been his Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, taking him to new places that he otherwise could not get to. "I can count on my hands the number of times I have set foot outside Arkansas," Carson wrote in an essay for the Arkansas Times. But with the internet, "I can gaze into the redwood forests of California and the skyscrapers of New York City without leaving my desk." Without the internet, he said in a phone interview, "I would not be at the top of my class." Carson added, "It's not going to replace going out and visiting these things, but if you're a kid and don't have the money to go out, you can visit Yellowstone." Carson, who describes himself as "really ambitious," is looking forward to studying with Dr. Alan Mantooth, the director of the UA National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission. The UA, he said, "will provide me the tools" he'll need to succeed in graduate school, which he hopes will be Stanford University.

OLIVIA LANGER Age: 18 Hometown: Jonesboro High school: Brookland High School Parents: Kelly Webb and Jonathan Langer College plans: University of California, Santa Barbara, chemistry

You might think that a student who is No. 1 in her class and a National Merit finalist with nary a B on her high school transcript might not consider one of her greatest achievements her selection as her high school's drum major three years in a row. But here's the thing: Schoolwork comes easy to Olivia Langer. "I never had to work hard," she told us. In fact, her style of learning is "conversation-based," she said; she enjoys "debate without argument." But music was different: "I struggled at points, and had to put in extra work to be good." Her selection as drum major was "something I know I've worked for," she said, and she has enjoyed the responsibilities that come with it. "I like to take care of people. The band calls me band mom," she added. Beside numerous academic awards, Olivia also earned a 2017 state Horatio Alger scholarship for students who have overcome great obstacles. Hers, Olivia said, was financial: She's always had a place to stay and food to eat, but she hasn't been able to afford academic programs. "Honestly, I wasn't able to visit any of the colleges I applied to," she said. So she will see the UC Santa Barbara campus for the first time when she arrives this fall. She's considering a double major in chemistry and anthropology; she's interested in the evolutionary side of anthropology, and plans to seek graduate and post-graduate degrees.

REBECCA PARHAM Age: 18 Hometown: Alma High School: Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Parents: Eileen and Rick Parham College plans: University of Arkansas or Hendrix College

On a visit to Hanamaki, Japan, with her school, Rebecca Parham noticed that once a month all the citizens would clean the front of their homes and shops. Folks would give each other gifts, too. "It was clear people tended to think for the whole," she said. "I thought that was really nice." An avid chemist, Rebecca did not just improve her Japanese on the trip, she brought those lessons of helping the community back to Arkansas. Her work has been at the intersection of heady science and community impact. In her robotics club, she noticed that girls were less likely to participate. "I decided that was not OK," she said. So, she designed a day with LEGO kits to encourage women to pursue STEM education. That desire to make an impact goes beyond school, too. For her senior project, Rebecca designed a test for homebuyers to see if meth had been cooked on their property (yes, meth). Her parents, on hearing of this project choice, asked her to "please explain a little bit further ... ." Here's the gist: The method of meth production in rural areas has shifted to something called the Birch reduction; older testing kits would no longer work. But Rebecca thought she could produce one that could. She designed a flame test. It finds lithium compounds left behind. The process of invention was "definitely frustrating," Rebecca said, but you "learn things you never thought of before." Rebecca did not plan to spend senior year in her dorm late at night "searching online" how to identify meth production, but she has a driving curiosity toward science and how it "connects to the world." She hopes to work in renewable energy — to be part of the global community, from Japan to Arkansas — making the world a nice place in which to live.

GRANT ROBINSON Age: 18 Hometown: Searcy High school: Searcy High School Parents: Eric and Lisa Robinson College plans: University of Arkansas

Grant Robinson's father is a cardiologist, and Grant long figured he would follow in his dad's footsteps. But now he's not so sure. Last summer, he was selected, among thousands of applicants from around the world, to participate in a Stanford University summer engineering program. He got to experience a taste of college life, to take advantage of Stanford's decked-out labs and to tour the area to see results of civil engineering. The most memorable part of the program? Grant's small group built a Rube Goldberg machine — a complicated gadget that performs a simple task in a convoluted way — that, by Grant's estimation, was "the most complex and aesthetically pleasing" in the program. It included an electromagnet the group handmade and chemical reactions triggered by the machine. Grant's academic achievements are the byproduct of a natural curiosity. He said he spends what little free time he has exploring YouTube, trying to figure out the way the world works. Another influence: His father, who pulled himself out of poverty to become a doctor, has always instilled in him the importance of hard work. The message clearly stuck. Grant is second in his class of 263, with a 4.27 GPA. He scored a 35 on the ACT. He's a Presidential Scholar. His classmates voted him most likely to receive the Nobel Prize. He also participated in Project Unify (now known as Unified Champion Schools), an effort by the Special Olympics to get young people with and without special needs to come together for activities. Grant helped plan a basketball tournament as part of the project. In the fall, he'll be rooting on the Razorbacks at the University of Arkansas.

JOHN SNYDER Age: 18 Hometown: Little Rock High school: Little Rock Christian Academy Parents: Jill and Steve Snyder College plans: Cornell University, industrial and labor relations

Whatever you were doing by your senior year in high school, chances are you probably hadn't already authored a book, much less a book on the complicated intersection of taxation and politics. John Snyder has, though. His book, "The Politics of Fiscal Policy," explores the political aspects of economics, including the pros and cons of various governmental tax schemes and their effect on government spending. It's for sale on Amazon right now. "It's pretty concise," John said, "but I wanted a way to express all my ideas in economic terms. That was a great way to do that." A history buff who serves as vice president of his class, John has a stunning 4.49 GPA and is ranked first in his class of 129. Though he wanted to be a lawyer when he was younger, his plan now is to go into investment banking. "Ultimately I want to have my own hedge fund — this thing called an activist hedge fund — and eventually I want to be actively involved in politics, whether that's in the midst of my business career or after ... . I'd love to run for public office one day." At Cornell University, John will be studying industrial and labor relations, a field that marries his love of multiple subjects. "Basically it ties in business, law, economics and history all into sort of one degree," he said. "You can do limitless things [with the degree]. Some people go into law school, some go into banking, some go to politics. That's why I chose that degree." John said his philosophy is that we have only a limited amount of time on earth, and so we should try to make the most of our lives. "I think there are a lot of things I can do to change the way things currently are in society, whether it's related to business or in academia or public policy," he said. "If I don't play a role in that and I'm not striving to do my best, I would feel like I'm wasting my potential."

PRESTON STONE Age: 18 Hometown: Benton High school: Benton High School Parents: Haley Hicks and Brec Stone College plans: University of Arkansas, pre-med

Benton High School's Big Man on Campus — No. 1 in his class, captain of the football team, an AP Scholar, straight As — can add to his resume the fact that he helped build his home. Preston, his two brothers and his mother bounced around a bit after her divorce, from Texas to Arkansas, living with grandparents and friends, Preston said. Then the family was selected by Habitat for Humanity, and he and his brothers pitched in to build their house. "It was the first place I could truly call home and it allowed me the stability I needed to grow into the kind of student I am today," he wrote in his essay for the Arkansas Times. Preston, who also helped build a school outreach group called SERVE to help new or struggling students, also credits sports for giving him purpose. He recently volunteered to trade in the pigskin for a basketball, joining a team that played boys at the Alexander Juvenile Detention Center. "It was an awesome experience," Preston said in a phone interview. "We were a little bit nervous at first" at the detention center, he said, but the team enjoyed the game — even though they lost to the Alexander team, formed to reward inmates with good behavior. "They practice every day," Preston said. Preston has received a $70,000 Honors College scholarship at Fayetteville. He won't be playing football with the Razorbacks. Instead he is thinking of following a pre-med track that will lead him to sports medicine. He plans to go Greek, as well.

KARINA BAO Age: 18 Hometown: Little Rock High school: Central High School Parents: Amy Yu and Shawn Bao College plans: undecided

Karina Bao embraces complexity. The Central High School valedictorian (in a class of 636) is a member of the school's back-to-back state champion Ethics Bowl Team, for which she said she spent hours "researching, discussing and sometimes even arguing" case studies. Unlike debate, she said Ethics Bowl is "really about the back-and-forth and considering different caveats and nuances and considerations" in issues ranging from local food to gender identity. As president of the school's Brain Club, she leads discussions on brain diseases, disorders and anatomy. It's a role for which she's more than qualified: She placed first in the U.S. Brain Bee, a youth neuroscience competition in which contestants answer questions about anatomy and make diagnoses based on patient actors. Placing No. 1 in the U.S. competition landed Karina a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, to the International Brain Bee, which happened to coincide with a Federation of International Neuroscientists conference, where Karina got to talk to scientists from all over the world about their groundbreaking research. She placed fifth in the international competition. A perennial outstanding delegate winner at Model United Nations competitions, Karina said Model U.N. has helped her to "not be scared of the complexity and interconnectedness of pressing issues we face today." In her spare time, Karina volunteers on the oncology wing of Baptist Hospital. "You don't get to do much," she said. "But at least we get to talk to people and help them with whatever they need and be there to listen." In her Academic All-Stars essay, Karina echoed the same drive for understanding: "The stories other people share with me become not my own when I retell them, but a part of humanity's collective spirit to understand each other. We grow from hours of listening and crying, to empathize, to have the strength and openness to pop each successive layer of the protective bubble that keeps us from seeing the very world in which we reside."

BRYCE COHEA Age: 19 Hometown: Greenwood High school: Greenwood High School Parents: Mike and Robin Cohea College plans: University of Tulsa or Vanderbilt university, biology

Though he grew up landlocked, far from the deep blue sea, Greenwood High School standout Bryce Cohea knew from an early age that he wanted to be a marine biologist. To reach that goal, Bryce had to start early. "In the ninth grade," he wrote in his Academic All-Stars essay, "I began planning out all my classes for the next four years. I wanted to graduate top of my class, and in order to do that I would need to take every advanced placement class and get an A in every class." That's exactly what he did, too, making nothing less than a perfect grade in every class for his entire high school career. With a 4.25 GPA and a rank of No. 1 in his class of 275, Bryce has volunteered extensively with the Salvation Army and collected shoes for the homeless; he helps unload trucks and stock shelves at the food bank at his church. A National Merit semifinalist, he also has the distinction of having scored the first perfect ACT score of 36 in Greenwood High School history. "I've honestly been a good test-taker," he said. "The first time I took it, I got a 34. After that, I got the test back and I worked on whatever I missed. After a few more tries, I got a 36." Bryce was still deciding on which university to attend when we spoke to him, but he definitely plans to study science. The subject has always interested him, he said. "I'm planning on majoring in biology and then specializing after that," he said.

IMANI GOSSERAND Age: 16 Hometown: Rogers HIGH SCHOOL: ROGERS HIGH SCHOOL Parents: James and Hyesun Gosserand

College plans: University of Southern California, Harvey Mudd College or Columbia University, computer science or environmental science

Imani Gosserand has a journal in which she organizes the many moving parts of her life — competitive gymnastics, AP classes, computer science, Young Democrats, volunteering — into lists. Personal stuff is in there, too: bucket lists, remembrances. The journal combines the creative and the organized; it is problem-solving with an artful flare, which is how Imani operates. "I really like being able to create something of my own," she said of computer science. At a camp at Stanford University, in California, her team won the competition to program a car. Imani, not surprisingly, is good at math: She learned multiplication at age 4 and went on to skip two grades. Imani thinks schoolwork is fun. "We had a huge packet of homework problems we had to do over one of our breaks," she said. "And no one else was excited about it except for me. I was like 'Oh, I'm so excited to do all these problems!' " She brings that enthusiasm for problem-solving to bigger issues, as well. "I feel like there are so many opportunities for me because our world relies on technology, so I think I could go into any field," she said. She's excited to explore and see where she can help. "I want to meet people from around the world and hear different perspectives."

C.J. FOWLER Age: 18 Hometown: Little Rock High School: Central High School Parents: Bobbi and Dustin McDaniel and Chris and Kim Fowler College plans: Yale University

C.J. Fowler has long been around Democratic politics. His stepfather is former Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel. But C.J. said he decided to become more politically involved himself after he came out as gay. "The situation that I'm in is not great," he said. "People are not always accepting. But it's on me if I want to try to change that and make it better for the people who come after me. I have to make sure that my community and all marginalized communities have a seat at the table, because far too often a bunch of old gray white guys are making policies that hurt everyone else." The student body president of Central High, C.J. said he's tried to move the student council, a glorified dance committee, toward advocacy and activism for students throughout the district, whose future is being decided by those "people sitting in dark rooms." He said students too often get left out of the conversation about the district "because we're too young to have opinions. But we're not; we're living it every day." C.J. has been a fixture at Little Rock School District public comment periods. Though he can't point to any policy victories, he said at least LRSD Superintendent Mike Poore knows who he is and that he disagrees with him. C.J., who is also the executive director of Young Democrats of Arkansas, sees the backlash against President Trump as encouraging. "We're realizing that, if we're going to go all in for progressive values, we need to go all in." Rather than join the chorus of progressives in the Northeast after he finishes at Yale, C.J. says he wants to come back to Arkansas and possibly continue in politics. He admires state Sen. Joyce Elliott (D-Little Rock) and says he hopes if he ever holds office that he can follow her example.

SOPHIE PRICE Age: 18 Hometown: Fort Smith High School: Southside High Parents: Claire Price and Scott Price College plans: Vanderbilt University, political science

"Growing up, I would always argue with everybody," Sophie Price said. Sometimes it was just to play devil's advocate, but mostly, it was because Sophie wants to find the capital-t Truth. Some of this digging for truth is class: seven AP course just this year and 12 during her time in high school. But, some of it is also talking with people, discussing issues. "The best way to improve your argument is to hear the counters, to hear the other side," Sophie said, and often she is willing to be convinced. She wants to do the right thing; she believes in justice. Which is why after college at Vanderbilt on a full scholarship, she wants to field arguments as a judge. "My whole life I've followed this ideal that you have to do what's right," Sophie said. "I want to be a judge so I can kind of decide that." Vanderbilt was the only school to which Sophie applied. She knew it was the right one for her. She arrived in Nashville on a rainy day in January, but through the gloom, she knew. "Something about the beautiful campus and the intelligent people and these varying perspectives just sold me immediately," she said. In a few months she was back at Vanderbilt for a camp where she studied law, and it cemented the deal. "There was something so exhilarating about being able to have this case and have the facts and kind of create your own narrative and really advocate for someone that drew me in," she said. Watch out, because "everything I do, I want to give it a 120 percent," Sophie said.

2017 Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team

#2017 Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team

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