#I’m a spritely young thing myself
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#wanna hear something that happened today to me that I find both viscerally appalling but also somewhat mind boggling#I got fuckin gum surgery#like in my actual physical mouth#like earlier today#I’m not like an 80 year old women either#I’m a spritely young thing myself#but because of modern orthodontia (getting braces)#which I had done#it’s become slightly more common for gum recession to occur on young adults#ain’t that just absolutely fucking freaky#of anybody wants my to tag my tags as anything as I continue to narrate my journey just lemme know ig?#if your not sure maybe just don’t check the tags for the next day or two#basically I won’t explain anything gory#but it will all be revolving around the same#frankly revolting topic#of gum surgery#slav#slav every day#voltron
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GIRLS NIGHT — QUINN HUGHES
quinn hughes x fem!reader
FAITHLYNN’S 500 CELLY!
🌷: “how drunk was i?” with Quinn.
warnings: intoxicated reader, throwing up
my body drips with sweat, my hair is falling from it’s updo, and i think i just lost one of my shoes; girls night is going swimmingly.
“y/n! stop! come put your shoe back on.” Amelia calls out from behind me. i glance back to find her trailing after me as i hobble off the dance floor, my heel in her hand and a frown on her face.
“oh, hey, i was looking for that.” my words are slurred, an aftermath of too many tequila shots and three long island iced teas. i stop, grabbing the lone shoe from Amelia and using her shoulder to stabilize myself as i slip it back on.
“i think it’s time to call Quinn to come pick you up.” she sighs. “let’s go find Ivy with our phones.”
“but the night is still so young.” i whine as she drags me behind her to our booth, where Ivy sits guarding our things.
“y/n, it’s almost two in the morning. the night isn’t young, it’s almost over.” Amelia sits me into the booth, digging through my purse for my phone.
“buzzkill.” i mumble, crossing my arms on the table and laying my head on top of them. Amelia steps away to make a call to Quinn, and Ivy keeps watch over me, though i don’t think she’s much help either; she’s drank just as much as i have, our only difference being that she can handle her liquor better than i can.
i raise my head back up to watch Ivy as she sips at a sprite, her eyes bloodshot and her lipstick faded.
“are you feeling fine? because i feel fine.” i say. she nods, her lips never leaving her straw.
“i feel great.” she mutters around the plastic between her lips. i hum in drunken agreement.
“me too.” i reiterate. Amelia steps back up to the table, heaving out a sigh as she flops down into the seat next to me.
“Quinn is coming to get you.” she tells me. “and then i’m taking Ivy back to my house. i would’ve brought you but i don’t think i can handle taking care of the both of you.”
Amelia was tonight’s DD. she only had one cocktail at the beginning of the night and then switched to soda, leaving her plenty sober by now to drive she and Ivy home.
we sit in silence for about ten minutes before i tried to escape back to the dance floor and Amelia had to pull me back down into my seat, satiating me with the promise of french fries when Quinn arrives. it’s another five minutes after that before my phone lights up with a text from him, telling me he’s here.
“c’mon Ives, let’s go.” Amelia holds a hand from both Ivy and i on our way out, making sure we don’t drift away from her like little children.
i smile when we step out into the chill Vancouver air, the breeze hitting my face.
“huggy!!” i beam when i catch sight of Quinn, leaned up against the side of his Audi. he pushes off, walking over and taking me from Amelia.
“hey, baby.” he coos, pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead. “you have fun?”
“yeah! it was sooooooo fun!” i drag out and he chuckles.
“i’m glad. let’s get you back home, yeah?” he leads me to the passengers side of his vehicle and i whine.
“but my french fries!” Quinn sends a questioning glance toward Amelia.
“i had to promise her you’d get her some in order for her to stay at our table.” she shrugs. Quinn nods in response.
“okay, baby. we’ll stop at mcdonald’s on the way home. how about that?”
a grin spreads across my lips and i nod in agreement, letting him help me into the passengers seat and buckle my seatbelt for me.
“you’re the best boyfriend ever.” i tell him.
“i’m your fiancé.” he laughs, and i inhale a gasp.
“even better!” he bites back a smile, closing my car door and jogging around to his own. bidding goodbye and a safe drive to my friends, he slides into his own seat and starts the engine, pulling onto the road.
“don’t forget my french fries.” i mumble, laying my head against the cool glass of the window. he snickers.
“you can forget where your laptop is while sober, but you can’t forget about french fries when you’re drunk.”
“mhm!” i agree. i study his side profile as he pulls into the drive-thru for the nearest mcdonald’s, ordering me a large french fry and an oreo mcflurry. “you’re so pretty.”
“i’m pretty?” he laughs, handing me my food as he pulls away from the drive-thru window, pulling back out on the road to drive home.
“yeah.” i tell him. “like your mom. your mom is so pretty too.”
“i’ll be sure to tell her you think so.” he’s barely composing himself now as i respond with a ‘please do!’ and his eyes flicker to me every couple minutes to watch me as i eat my fries.
does he want my food?
i hold a french fry up to the side of his face and he grins, quickly turning his head to bite it from my fingers. i giggle as his teeth graze my fingertips and he winks at me.
Quinn turns into the parking garage, parking in one of our two designated spots, the other being taken up by my own car, and shuts off the engine. he slips out of the car, jogging around the back to open my door. i unbuckle myself and grab my mcflurry and fries and he grabs my purse and then helps me out, holding my hand the entire way up to our apartment. he unlocks the door and pushes it open, letting me enter first before he follows, locking the door behind us.
“are you done with your fries?” he asks, and i nod, handing him the rest. we stand in the kitchen in silence as i finish off my ice cream and he eats the last of my fries. when we’re both finished, he throws away our trash before walking over and taking my hand back in his.
“let’s get ready for bed.” he tells me, leading me down the hallway to our bedroom. he proceeds to help me as i get ready for bed; kneeling and taking my shoes off my feet, slipping one of his shirts over my head after i’ve gotten out of my dress, handing me makeup wipes from the package on our bathroom counter, and assisting me in brushing my teeth, before getting ready himself.
i slide under the blanket on our bed, waiting patiently for him to join me, and he does so when he exits our en-suite bathroom. pulling me into his side, he clicks off the lamp on his nightstand and presses a kiss to my lips.
“goodnight, baby.” he mutters.
“goodnight, Quinny. thank you for taking care of me.” i speak through a yawn, my eyes drooping shut.
**
i wake to bright golden rays of sun shining through the open window blinds, and a pounding headache. before i can even open my eyes, i’m hit with a wave of nausea, making me hop out of the warm bed and rush to the bathroom, dropping to my knees in front of the toilet.
i hear footsteps follow behind me prior to feeling callused hands graze my neck as they hold my hair up, one of them slipping down to rub my back as i heave into the toilet bowl. i wait until i’m sure i’m done before flushing, dropping to my butt to sit on the cold tiles.
“thank you.” i tell Quinn.
“of course, baby.” he replies, getting up and retrieving my toothbrush for me, handing it to me so i can wash away the awful taste. i stand, a hand to the wall as i rise, and make my way over to the sink, thoroughly brushing my teeth before following my fiancé back to bed.
i don’t think i can fall back to sleep after that, so i opt for checking my phone instead, finding a message from Quinn’s mother of her saying thank you and that i’m pretty too. i scrunch my face up in confusion but send back a text of gratitude.
“why is your mom telling me thank you and that i’m pretty?” i question, making Quinn chuckle.
“because you told me last night to tell her you think she’s pretty. so i told her this morning when she called me.” he informs me.
“oh.” i mutter. “how drunk was i?”
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#faithlynn’s 500 celly!#quinn hughes#quinn hughes blurb#quinn hughes x reader#quinn hughes imagine#quinn hughes fic#vancouver canucks#nhl imagine#nhl blurb#nhl fic#faithlynn’s writings <3
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So I feel like the world is full of fear and horribleness right now, so I’m going to do what I do best and do my best to be as cute as possible to brighten peoples days.
So I’ve decided, today is the perfect day for me to tell you all how I asked my Daddy to be my Daddy.
So there’s two stories. The first, is a boring one, where Daddy and I were having dinner at his apartment and I blushingly stammered out “will… you…I mean…if you're ok with it…can I call you …Daddy?
He said yes! and we discussed what it would look like for us to become more involved with each other. After all that I said something like “…ok I wanna do something cute for you… sorta like an engagement thing…” and he loved the idea and wanted to do something too… which leads to the actual cute/wholesome part…
So the next week I did the “official” asking… and there were 3 main parts:
Part 1: give Daddy a box with a pacifier in it, so he could put it in my mouth (I know it’s cliche but it’s cute as heck)
Part 2: …have Daddy dress me for dinner, which was at a fancy-for-us restaurant.
Part 3: …have unbelievably fun s*x
So we set the date for “our proposal” for the next week.
Skipping to then, when I arrived at Daddy’s house and he let me in, I could tell He was kinda nervous because I didn’t tell him what I was planning on doing. We hang out for a while and eventually got to cuddling in the couch, which seemed good enough for me, so I laid my head in his lap, looked up at him and handed him a small box with the Paci in it (it was the LFB I ❤️ Daddy one ☺️) and said “I really like how our relationship is going and I want to you to be my Daddy… So will you be my Daddy?
He smiled, grabbed the Paci, put it in my mouth, then kissed my forehead and said “of course I will Beanie” (except he used my real name lol). And I got up and sat in front of him and… we made out for a while…
Then, Dinner! But more importantly, Daddy gets to dress me!
At the time I was (and still am) hesitant about wearing any little gear in public. And since we were going to a nicer restaurant, little gear was kinda outta the question.
…but I was feeling brave and Daddy reassured me it wouldn’t be noticeable.
He picked a Abena L4 for the dip, since it’s thin but still feels like a dip! Then I brought a few onesies, and he picked out for a matching “I ❤️ Daddy” onesie to wear as an under shirt then a back dress shirt to wear in top.
He was nice enough to let me wear my normal (at the time lol) undies so that to help the onesie hold everything in place. Then he helped me get my socks on and tied my shoes for me (to this day still makes my heart flutter 🥰) and treated me like a kid all the way to the restaurant.
He made me sit in the back seat on the way there, asked me what I wanted to listen too, then told me I was too young for that and put on kids bop… which btw is kinda a guilty pleasure of mine… 🙈
When we got to the restaurant he “yelled” at me for opening my own door, saying it was dumb of him to forget the child locks, and told me to hold his hand while crossing the street… which I was already going to do anyway 😂
I was really hoping he would get a kids menu for me, but he didn’t, and later he admitted he wasn’t comfortable with it, which made me very happy that he told me because that’s how you develop trust!
Anyway it didn’t matter since Daddy ordered for me, and got me chicken strips and Mac and cheese with sprite to drink… and considering he got a steak and pasta with wine… it was very fitting for our relationship, which is why he did it. 😊
We finished dinner, got back in the car… and before we left, Daddy made me pee myself… which has since become a habit of ours whenever I wear in public 🙈
We get home and Daddy laid me down on his bed and gently stripped my clothes off leaving me in my onesie and diaper, then tells me that I was a naughty boy for using my diaper and not asking him for a change. When I tried to complain of course the Paci made its way back into my mouth
What followed was said incredibly fun s*x… which I will not repeat because it makes me VERY blushy to think about still. 🙈
At the end of it, Daddy finished all over my diaper area, then re-diapered me and made me finish in my diaper…
…and that was the start of what now is Daddy and I’s 24/7 relationship… and it’s been absolutely incredible ever since 🥰
PS: I am posting this because I cannot fully function with the amount of negativity and fear in my life right now. This is not meant to draw attention away from what’s happening, nearly meant to be an escape for those wanting it. ❤️
#ab dl#ab dl lifestyle#ab/dl#ab/dl boy#ab/dl community#ab/dl couple#ab/dl lifestyle#ab/dl little#ab/dl post#cg/l
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2.02 - pasta
there’s something about opening on a black screen with a catchy, familiar song that just makes me into what i’m watching. i don’t know what it is about that particular edit, i fully recognize it about myself, and i don’t even strongly like the song “she drives me crazy” by fine young cannibals. BUT black screen, song comes on, quick cut to an arial shot of chicago in winter and it’s just got me going, “hell ya. let’s go.”
i liked the quick cut of a printed sign on the bear’s wall as they’re making plans, crossing off things they’re accomplishing and working on renovating the space for their grand opening, but there’s just a little printed sign that says “bear part two”, which is funny. because this is the bear, season two. but it’s also the first iteration of the bear, which makes the “in world” meaning of “the bear part two” kinda odd.
i love the familiarity between carmy and syd. it’s only on this, my 90th rewatch that i realize this is really the first time we see them sort of acting like friends and partners, more than work colleagues, and especially boss and employee. all last season they had friendly moments, but there was always an edge of: carmy is the boss, and syd is the employee. and no matter how friendly they were, and they were pretty nice and friendly, the two did an excellent job of having an element of feeling like they worked together. like if one of them were to introduce the other to a friend or family they would say: “oh, we work together”. even in the first episode of season two, they’re still friendly, and the power dynamic has shifted nicely since season one because they’re partners now, but they still have this air of “work friends”. but right away in episode two carmy and syd are walking through the shop talking about how syd’s dad is sem-supportive but doesn’t understand syd, and i’m only just realizing that it’s the first time they’ve really talked about personal things with each other non-chalantly. this is the first time in the show we’ve ever seen them be “friend friends” not work-friends…and yet, it’s so natural and easy i didn’t even realize the shift had happened until just now.
in one second we received; the first mention of syd’s mom. that she and her dad are going to her mom’s birthday dinner. AND, the fridge guy is on the phone, but because marcus threw the phone without anyone ready, it shattered on the ground. carmy will call the fridge guy back….right….?
i hate that the moment nat comes into the scene casually eating food while walking, my brain (which is so accustomed to stereotypes in media) said “oh! she’s pregnant!” and not “oh! she’s working hard and doing most of the detail work for the restaurant, so she’s eating on the go!” but, media tropes being what they are, my mind went to: PREGNANT
“you feeling okay, nat? you look a little pale”, “yeah. it’s just that sometimes i look like february.”, “….sure…” 1) amazing line. truly fantastic. 2) come on. nat’s pregnant.
fak and natalie’s “mom & son” relationship is so weird and i love it. “yes, my honey?” who actually says thay to another adult in a non-actually being someone’s mom, or a “non-bdsm” capacity? apparently nat.
“you alright? you want a sprite? you look kinda green.” 1) this line that richie says to nat will come back to be important in a few episodes. 2) this is the second time in like a minute that someone’s commented on nat’s appearance and her not looking great. so, she’s definitely pregnant. like, they’re not even trying to hide it, as they hide it.
ebra’s hesitation about going to culinary school BREAKS MY HEART. ugh. i love ebra. sad ebra makes me sad. “i don’t want to wear a uniform” and tina’s immediate “it’s not that kind of uniform.” implying he was thinking of his time in the army in samalia….UGH, EBRA!
however, excited tina, giddy at the thought of culinary school, is such a vibe.
fridge guy debacle continues: carmy calling the fridge guy, but getting interrupted as richie, fak, and marcus are trying (and failing) to move the lockers out of the space right outside his door.
also, (because of stereotypes in media) when carmy gives his number to the fridge guy, my first thought was “…so that’s gonna come up later.” because it’s easy to have written this scene without the phone number. sometimes a scene requires a number to be given and that’s that. but in this scene, it easily could have been different. so when carmy gives it, i knew we’d hear his number again. especially with how easy the number is to remember. (the classic 5-5-5 in the number. that happens in tv shows so often. someone has 5-5-5 in their phone number)
ok….so….again, i’ve watched this season like 100 times, and i think, I THINK, i understand why they have to open mikey’s locker to move it out? because it’s always confused me. the guys are struggling to open the locker, and they realize they have to open mikey’s locker which has been locked since his death. it’s a nice scene, and shows everyone’s acceptance and growth in the time since mikey has died. especially as richie puts a hand on carmy’s shoulder as carmy takes a moment right before he opens the locker. the tenderness and love between these two since season one is just incredible. but my thought was the stuff in the locker was too heavy making it harder to move? but the only thing in the locker is a hat from an event they worked in 2010. so, i’ve always been confused. the hat couldn’t weigh enough to make them not able to handle the lockers. i thought it was a clumsy way to get us to the emotional moment of finding the hat. BUT now i’m realizing that i think fak needed the locker open so he could get a better grip on his side of the locker and maneuver it easier? is that right? does anyone else actually know?
so syd and carmy go to carmy’s apartment. and in repeated viewings i’ve realized that it IS the same apartment from season one. we’re just getting better shots of it. and now i realize that his apartment is A DREAM! i mean, his kitchen is great, but the rest of his apartment is really nice. i’m legitimately jealous. they did a really nice job in season one (whether intentionally or not) making it look kinda like a shitty apartment. but there’s enough things i recognize in shots of his apartment in season two, that it’s definitely the same apartment.
the way carmy and syd avoid saying “michelin” in conversation, so that the show doesn’t have to pay for the copyright, is just fun. but i also love the two sides of the michelin chef spectrum. carmy who has experienced the shit you have to deal with of having them, and syd who is fresh and wants the recognition that comes with having one. in the light of how many restaurants and chefs are abandoning the michelin system, or are returning their stars, i think it’s a fascinating subtle storyline woven in this season. i’d love to see if it carries on into season three. knowing that it costs so much money to have a michelin star and that only one star has to do with the food.
“i will grant you [mold] has gained some traction in recent media cycles. it’s a buzzword, yeah, for sure.” what an iconic line from richie. as someone who has always been scared of mold….how is mold a recent buzzword? richie is unhinged and i love it.
once again, fak and richie getting their faces closer as richie dares fak to call mom (nat), and fak says he will, and they go back and forth just getting closer…..it has a weird sexual energy with it. i didn’t start this show shipping fak and richie, but i think they’d be cute together…
the scenes of ebra struggling at culinary school honestly break my heart. and tina encouraging ebra in his skills and him shakily saying “yes chef”….😭😭😭
i think it’s interesting that there’s a season long arch where just about everything syd cooks and makes tastes terrible. i think watching the show all at once makes the problem seem bigger than it was meant to be (at least to me), because we’ve been told how good of a chef she is, but we see her cook HER OWN creations and they all suck. it made me wonder how good she really was. which is maybe some of the point, but i think it’s showing that syd is still a chef that’s up and coming and learning. like carmy said last season, she’s very green. carmy is a chef with no end of awards and recognition, but we see him struggle with details and management. syd is inventive and quick on her feet, but we see that when she’s coming up with a recipe she fails a lot first. i think it’s meant to humanize her, or it’s a season arch to show her growth as the season continues.
the weird….dynamic of carmy thinking syd’s mom is alive (because she said “it’s my moms birthday dinner” and has never said “she died” or anything, so it’s an earnest and easy mistake). but when carmy asks her about her mom she just kinda….lies…?
i love the detail of signing “sorry” when something happens to just say “hey, let’s move on. this isn’t a big deal, and i’m sorry” is amazing. i’ve had little codes like that in service industry in the past.
nat’s lil’ monologue while sitting next to the messed up toilet while she’s on the phone with the plumber is great. and i love that she reveals that she’s pregnant (which again, easy to guess), but mostly i love that we’re not fulllllly sure if the plumber is a family friend, or a complete stranger. there’s SOME familiarity here obviously, but we’re not told if it’s enough familiarity for nat’s emotional word vomit or not. and that’s beautiful to me.
the pure comedic GOLD of “these ceilings are practically styrofoam, were we to have mold they would collapse when i go like this-“ hits ceiling. ceiling immediately collapses and proceeds to dump a pound of dirt, dust, and mold onto richie’s face. and then a kickball. and then richie looks up and goes “that’s it?” and a firefighter hat falls and hits his head. ugh. i can’t help but burst out laughing.
the reveal that syd’s mom is dead is so well done. the happy story, the smiles, and then lighting a candle on cake and them blowing it out while holding hands. the realization that what we, the audience, assumed was going to be a tense, awkward meal between two parents who had divorced but still got together to celebrate the moms birthday (for some reason), or maybe even the amicable celebration of a couple that divorced because they realized they weren’t good for each other and are “friendly” with each other. but instead it’s two people very much in love with a woman who has clearly died. ugh. it’s beautiful, it’s funny, and it’s heartbreaking, and it’s SUCH a simple and quick scene.
AND THEN, we move onto this scene at the grocery store. ok. here’s the thing. claire gets a LOT OF SHIT from people. a lot. and some of its fair and some of its not. SO. i’m gonna put my thoughts in their entirety HERE about her, and then when those instances come up in later episodes i might talk about them more in depth.
so, firstly, for the people who loved that the bear was a “sexless” show in season one, or that carmy seemed to be ace, or are carmy and syd shippers, or even those who claimed he was queer coded, there’s not much i can say to make you feel better. other than to say that the balance of work life and personal life is a super important one, especially in a show about a guy who has no personal life so that excel at his work life and has become burnt out by that process. so a romance or a deep relationship of some kind was a good choice for the show, because it brought about a storyline that i think is needed on carmy’s mental, and emotional health journey.
BUT the show trying to deepen that relationship with claire does so by simply “saying” it, and not showing it. which is the eternal issue with writers, especially when you have time, money, budget, and length of movie/tv series to deal with. but in a ten episode season, and this is already the end of the first episode when you introduce her, so you really only get to know her in episode three. that really only gives 8 episodes to know claire. and she’s not in like…3 or 4 of the episodes moving forward. meaning you have to: set up their history, set up how important she is, AND deepen their relationship to a place where we, the audience, are emotionally invested in them, AND when it hurts when they ultimately break up. but with only 4 or 5 episodes to do that, we can’t SEE it happen, we have to be TOLD it happens.
so we are told that carmy had a crush on her, to the point that he would draw her in his notebooks and his whole family knew he liked her, because mikey, richie and…john mulaney…tease him for it in the flashback episode. we are told how much claire likes carmy. we’re mostly told how good their relationship is, instead of seeing how good it is (carmy shows up to the restaurant a few times and says “i was talking with claire when….). we’re also told how close claire was to the fak’s and to richie (claire calls fak to get carmy’s number. she calls richie cousin (the only other person to do that other than mikey and carmy). there’s a lot of their relationship we don’t get to see, and it makes some sense because those scenes would be slower, deeper, and take time. and you only have 30 minutes and 4 or 5 episodes to accomplish this.
which makes the sort of hypocrisies in their relationship just not believable. carmy was obsessed with claire growing up, but when they meet he gives her a fake number so she can’t call him, because he knows she’s looking to date him after they run into each other. and he’s a little slow to open up to her, but finally does and she helps him a lot in his mental health and panic attacks. and on claire’s side, she gets labeled a manic pixie dream girl, which isn’t necessarily unfair, but her less than realized character (her main defining character trait is: i like carmy) is only because we don’t get to see much of her, and she was brought in to be a love interest to carmy. so she’s not fully realized, and her only real trait is liking carmy. plus, carmy is so aloof, and closed off that from a writing standpoint we needed claire to have this manic pixie love and attraction in pursuing carmy, because that was the only way they were going to get together. carmy would never have pursued claire, because he sacrifices his own enjoyment and personal life for cooking. but it doesn’t make sense then, that claire has kind of an obsessive love for carmy from the moment she sees him at the grocery store, and she admits that she liked him in high school, but she never made a move and he didn’t even really know she knew who he was.
these sort of conflicting narratives: carmy is in love with claire, but gives her a fake number when they run into each other as adults (he even forgets her name when we’re introduced); claire is in love with carmy from the beginning of them running into each other as adults (which would hint that she was in love with him when they were young) but never paid him any attention when they were young, BUT was so close to them that she remembered the name of their planned restaurant all these years later…they all could have been made possible and been written in a way that was believable. but not with the time constraints the show had and the other storylines the show focused on. so we are simply told a lot of this, not shown a lot of this. it maybe could have worked if they built claire and carmy’s relationship up this season; a sort of will-they-won’t-they, and then once carmy is sold on the relationship, build that up in season three, for the big collapse at the end of season three. but that would have ruined the season long arch and left carmy without a deep, traumatic emotional arch and more of a rom-com, fluffy arch this season and that’s not really the show’s style.
so, i don’t hate claire. i think she, as a character, wasn’t given the time to breathe and grow and show the audience why we should care about her. i would love if they brought her back for season three, to see her grow and get fleshed out as her own character, especially as a character outside of her love for carmy. but since she broke up with carmy, i don’t see much of a road into the show moving on and it would also make a lot of sense if we never really see her again. even despite her “close” relationship to the fak’s and to richie.
as someone who has had to have the conversation with my parents about my weird working situations, like being paid for a month, but then not being paid for six months even though i’m going to work and working 12 or more hours because i’m starting something…uff, i feel syd’s frustration as she tries to explain it to her dad. and the fact that the budget is paying everyone in the shop except carm, nat, and syd (the bosses) is so fucking good. because that’s how it fucking should be. you pay the people who need it, because you need them to be there when you get back. it’s how you keep workers, especially good ones. bosses and leaders of businesses need to actually sacrifice for the shop and for their workers if they want it to work. plain and simple.
but, we see some of that writing magic i was talking about earlier when carmy gives her a fake number. he told the fridge guy his number earlier, and then he gives claire a different number. we know that he wouldn’t give fridge guy a fake number. so we realize he’s giving claire the fake. that’s why we saw him give the fridge guy his number.
AND that’s the episode! episode two down! it’s a great episode. and it sets up a LOT for the rest of season two. looking forward to episode three!
SEASON ONE: Episode One | Episode Two | Episode Three | Episode Four | Episode Five | Episode Six | Episode Seven | Episode Eight
SEASON TWO: Episode One | Episode Two | Episode Three | Episode Four | Episode Five | Episode Six | Episode Seven | Episode Eight | Episode Nine | Episode Ten
#the bear#comedy#the bear fx#the bear hulu#carmy berzatto#carmen berzatto#the bear tv#sydney adamu#the bear series#richie jerimovich#live blog#live blogging
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Get to Know me Tag Game🪽
Thanks for the tag @jiraidere <3 idk who to tag so if u wanna join in feel free & tag me in ur post so I can check it out 💗🪽I added extra stuff cuz I’m just curious about it & would love to know hehe
Name:
Mirai
Your Dream in life:
Ive always knew my life dream since I was very young. I’d love to because a fashion designer and have my own Jirai clothing and accessories brand. I already have so many designs sketched up and I want to attend a fashion school to get the experience before opening my own brand and business. It’s my passion and the only thing keeping me alive rn. No one has ever supported my ideas but idc cuz I believe in myself.
Fav Movie:
Any despicable me/minion movie I LOVEEEEE MINIONS SO MUCH
Fav Food:
Instant noodles & sprite <3
Fav animal:
Red panda & just pandas in general
Fav Music:
Visual Kei, Jpop, Kpop, KRnB
Fav Colour:
Pink, Black, Purple & Blue (I can’t pick one)
MBTI:
umm idk but I will find out and change this 🙏🏼🫡
Height/Age:
5’7 & 22 years old
Zodiac:
Capricorn
Tattoos:
I love tattoos on other ppl but I’d never get them myself cuz I know I’ll regret it and I don’t like the idea of someone using that machine on me lol
Piercings:
I have one on each of my ear lobes I’d loveeee to get more on my ears but they’re too small and I have no room and if I did it they would fall out or get infected:(
#jiraiblogging#jiraiblr#jirai girly#jirai girl#jirai onna#jirai kei#landmineblogging#landmineblr#landmine type#landmine girl#landmine kei#landmineposting#tag game#get to know me#jirai
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update for PGB, I think from now on I will be more private about the story and characters in detail for the meantime as I (slowly) work on it. Things change, and I don't want to keep putting out things only for them publicly to be different entirely therefore making misleading information.
Just know, I have a direction I'm finally happy with, and I cant wait to share it with you guys!
Some information I will give out for now
- It’ll be in a pixel art/sprite style web comic, with potentially animated pages
- I don’t have a time frame. This is something personal to me and I want to take my time with it, although ADHD + perfectionism makes it on hard mode that’s for sure.
- It’s genre if you couldn’t tell right now, is Supernatural(Paranormal Focused) Horror. There will be gore, body horror and mild nudity present so the main age demographic is for young adults like me. I want it to be a fun, yet dark ride of a story!
- Yes, most of the characters will be Lesbians lol, but Romance is not the focus of this story at all.
- Mostly feeding me, myself and I with this one. (yes, that is the Logo, something yet fun I think!)
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Man, today I want to rant about cringe culture. Im not gonna cover the points about children and neurodivergent people, those have been covered a million times already.
First of all, I want to preface this by saying I have always, ALWAYS been a very “cringey” person. My dynamic in all my relationships for as long as I can remember has been that I’m the “comic relief somewhat pathetic one” and that is self inflicted. My own mother told me that I was so obsessed with undertale that she “didn’t like talking to [me] and regrets not getting [me] tested for autism.”
I’ve been in countless cringe fandoms, including but not limited to mlp, fanfic/fandom culture, mha, animation memes, Henry stickmin, minecraft, Pokémon, the furry fandom, cosplay, sanders sides, dream smp, batim, Aphmau, and MANY others. Undertale has always been the really big thing for me, but recently fnaf has been the thing for me. Because of cringe culture, I hate myself for enjoying things. In order to talk about my interests, self deprecating ironic humor was super common from me.
This humor evolved from irony, to self deprivation, to despising myself for enjoying things considered “cringe” (example is Undertale, but many other things, too), all the way to feeling so much shame for liking anything at all that I distance myself from everything.
Genuinely, I had a meltdown because I like hollow knight. That isn’t even a “cringe” comunity!! It’s one of the chillest out there!!! And because I “like it too much” I made myself feel like shit preemptively.
This next section is a specific example, and this is a really difficult thing for me to admit candidly because of what I’ve already said.
I am in the gacha fnaf community. It’s something I enjoy, and I enjoy it separately from how i enjoy fnaf. SEPARATE FANDOMS, PEOPLE!! (Same with undertale and undertale aus, one is significantly less socially acceptable, and people leave it out of discussions in the other context, but not the other way around.)
I stumbled across a video by a large mainstream gachatuber focusing on and making fun of “gacha fnaf cringe”. All the clips shown were people self-insert shipping themselves with various aftons or animatronics. The only clip that wasn’t that formula, was a strange video about Ennard abusing Michael Afton. They didn’t even appear to be shipped together, it was just Mike getting beat up. Idk man.
After each clip, the YouTuber would say a snarky quip and move on, but the big thing that got to me was that they had never played fnaf, and had avoided it to the point that, on their entire time on the internet, never saw the purple guy sprite.
When someone made William a brunet man with glasses, the joke was about how “I did some research, and apparently William is just a purple blob. That’s not very close to the canon design, huh?”. When William was purple, the joke was about how “the designs are all so inconsistent in the whole community.”
This person but absolutely zero effort into research. At first that baffled me, but then I realized that it’s always true.
Have you ever met someone anti furry who’s given an accurate definition of what a furry even is? Probably not. Has anyone ever added any genuine commentary to a single cringe compilation, other than “wow that’s cringe, kys”??? Probably fucking not.
There are issues within the fnaf gacha community that (if any effort was used) they could have talked about, and had an insightful video. For example, plagiarism is rampant, and shipping in a fandom related to fnaf is inherently…. a very tricky subject, if you will.
Were either of those discussed? Nope. Just comments on how weird it is that William’s been called daddy in the fnaf games before. “Maybe that’s where they got these gross aus from” ((the alias is literally referring to William’s young daughter’s dialogue))
After seeing that bafflingly ignorant video, I went to their channel to see what other stuff they make. Many of the videos were along the lines of “reacting to [thing that is cringe] except I ROAST them!”.
It is truly so, so disgusting that cringe culture isn’t dead. Genuinely. I genuinely think it is the laziest form of content. It’s mean, and pathetic and honestly, what’s the point of it?
It’s not funny, it’s not insightful, it’s not kind, it’s just mean and quick.
Who do you think you’re helping?
#cringe culture#fandom culture#long post#cringe culture tw#tw selfhate#tw kys joke#cringe culture is stupid#cringe culture is lazy#oh I didn’t discuss it but#cringe culture is ableist#cringe culture is bullying#seriously what’s the point#be better
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TIMING: Some time after Alex got ouched by that hunter and before Rhett kidnapped Ariadne in his van. (Rude of him tbh :/ ) PARTIES: @ariadnewhitlock & @letsbenditlikebennett SUMMARY: Ariadne comes over to the cabin with snacks and to keep Alex company. They watch Daisy Jones & the Six. CONTENT: Just a sweet lil thread.
In hindsight, it seemed painfully obvious that Alex wouldn’t get a normal birthday party like every other young twenty-something who didn’t moonlight as a lupine monster three nights a month. If anything, the birthday plans only made it more difficult in the aftermath of her run-in with the hunter. There wasn’t really a super chill way to say ‘hey, sorry! I have to cancel that party because I was attacked by a hunter and have to recover’ to all her friends. At least the ones in the know could get a partial version of the truth, but for the others the vague excuse of a medical emergency had to do. Even then, it may not have been a good enough excuse. At least not for someone as sweet as Ariadne who thought she deserved some company and snacks in the wake of her medical emergency. What had she even told Ariadne? Power tool accident? Maybe it’d be best to just not mention even if the limp in her step made the fact there was an ordeal fairly obvious.
It wasn’t like she could just yell out when she heard Ariadne’s footsteps approaching like she had with Cass. The whole super-hearing thing would be creepy without that context… or a dead giveaway. So Alex waited patiently for the knock on her door before moving away from her spot on the couch to open it. “Hey,” she greeted with a smile that she hoped didn’t look as pained as her body felt.
“Welcome to la maison de Bennett,” she joked, “It’s small, but we’ve got a smart TV and a Hulu/Disney Plus bundle subscription. Come in, make yourself comfortable. Can I get you anything to drink? Once I sit back down on the couch, I’ll be pretty stationary for a while.”
—
She was thoroughly done with her friends getting kidnapped or injured. Or having medical emergencies, which was what had happened to Alex. Ariadne didn’t know enough about medical things to help her in any real way, and so offering to be company and give snacks was the best she could manage.
Thankfully, Alex was more than accepting of what Ariadne’d had to offer, and so there was at least that worry off her chest (though admittedly, she felt selfish for even somewhat having had anxiety about anything when her friend had just had some sort of real actual emergency).
“Hey.” She offered her friend a gentle smile.
“It’s your home, I don’t care about the size.” Ariadne offered, “all I mean is, I’m here for you, not your stuff. I can get myself stuff to drink, if you want. But if you have a soda, I’ll take that. Or go get that for myself. Can I get you anything?”
—
“Of course you don’t,” Alex laughed as if it should have been obvious because shouldn’t it have been? Ariadne was never judgmental and was continually kind to everyone she met. It was something she admired about her friend even if she wished Aria stuck up for herself a little bit more. The block button was a friend, too, and she’d remind Aria of that if anyone dared to give her a hard time. “Not sure why I gave you of all people the disclaimer. We have our only judge people for being mean thing which I think is a good motto.”
Given she wasn’t speaking to Andy and she was doing her damnedest to push Kaden away, the werewolf found she was particularly lonely whenever Cass wasn’t there. Alex found it a bit easier to relax into her spot on the couch knowing that Ariadne was there and she’d have some reprieve from her own thoughts which had grown far too loud for her liking.
“We have plenty of soda in the fridge,” Alex exclaimed, “There’s Coke, root beer, creme soda, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, sparkling water, Baja Blast… you can grab whatever. I’ll take a Coke if you don’t mind grabbing me one while you’re in there.”
She hated not being able to be a better host, but deep down, Alex knew that her friend didn’t mind grabbing her own drink or about hosting duties that the werewolf wasn’t able to perform. Aria was there just to be there. “I downloaded all of Daisy Jones and the Six off Amazon Prime,” she told her friend with a smile and patted the sea next to her on the couch, “Have you seen it? It’s totally fictional, but it’s like loosely based on the story of Fleetwood Mac so I thought you might enjoy it.”
—
“I just – I don’t want you to think I’m going to go around judging you and stuff is all.” Not that Ariadne though Alex would automatically assume that, but it was better to just play it safe from the get-go, so as to limit the likelihood of things being misconstrued. Or maybe that was just the anxiety talking. That much of her anxiety had been around even before she died, so even if she wanted to blame it on becoming a monster, she couldn’t. “I think that’s a super duper good motto, yeah.”
She offered her friend a small shrug. “It’s nice to be here.” Which she’d probably already said and probably didn’t need repeating, but she wanted to highlight this. How good being around Alex felt.
“Dr. Pepper’s a win for me, always. Of course, I might put some ice in a glass if you’d like that? Make it… well, I don’t know if that counts as fancy, but you get what I mean. I hope.” Ariadne let out a halfway sort of a laugh, feeling awkward for a moment, if only because this was time for Alex, and not time for Ariadne to be taking up excessive space or making a total fool of herself.
“I actually have,” she buried her face in her hands for a moment, “but it’s super good and I’ve been meaning for a rewatch. Camila in it is so dreamy. I mean, to be fair, they all are, but…”
—
“I don't,” Alex assured. Surprisingly enough, she found that she meant it, too. Not once since she had met Ariadne had the werewolf ever felt judged and this moment was no different. Given, her friend didn't know everything there was to know about her and may have ran the other way if she knew she was a werewolf, but maybe she wouldn't. She seemed pretty big on the not judging people thing. ”It is,“ she smiled.
“I mean, she's a doctor,” Alex joked, ”How could she not win? We love a well-educated... soft drink?“ She laughed a bit at how ridiculous her own joke was and gently smoothed over Puppyeye's fur as she stirred in her sleep. ”If you get out a couple of the wine glasses my cousin bought, I think it totally counts as fancy. I think there's actual glasses now, too... apparently everything isn't meant to be drank out of coffee mugs. Who knew?“
She knew, but they'd always been tight on money, so excess containers to hold their beverages seemed a little bit silly. Alex guessed that wasn't really the case anymore, but part of her still enjoyed her coffee mugs best.
Alex kept her face from falling when Aria mentioned that she'd seen the show. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised since Aria had been the one to introduce her to Fleetwood Mac in the first place, but she found herself grinning when her friend seemed happy to rewatch.
“A rewatch it is then,” she exclaimed, “With a super dreamy cast at that.” She nudged some blankets towards where Ariadne would be sitting and waiting for her friend to join in the spot beside her. “Did you read the book, too?” She knew the answer was probably yes, but it'd be nice to know how much the show followed the book.
—
“Well, I’m glad you don’t.” She was, really. Exceptionally so, Ariadne found herself thinking. Alex was nice and cool and kind, and it was through pure luck that the two of them had met, and she was grateful for that, even if the fact that Alex wasn’t feeling well made her feel a bit (or more than a bit) down.
“Pretty impressive for a soft drink, yeah. I don’t know if any of the other ones have degrees, but I also don’t want to be rude and assume one way or the other.” Ariadne watched the dog twitch in her sleep. “Um – I – Puppyeye might be happier elsewhere? If – if that’s okay.” So that Ariadne didn’t ruin everything because of what she was, and because animals could tell that she was bad. “Coffee mugs are perfect, though, but fancy wine glasses sounds like a fun way to have soda, yeah!” She nodded, enthusiastically. “Also like, you can eat ice cream out of coffee mugs too, so they’re multi-use and get to have fun pictures on them, sometimes.”
Another nod. “Yes! It’ll be just as good as watching it for the first time, though. Because you’re totally right, the cast are all wildly dreamy. Do you have a favorite? Like, dreamiest one? I – only if you wanna share.” Ariadne wasn’t sure if that was too weird to ask, but she’d asked it already and so, she supposed, there was no real turning back now. “I did – well, I listened to it on audiobook, which was such a good way to read it.”
—
“I think it’s safe to say they’d throw doctor in the name if they were doctors,” Alex replied playfully, “That’d be a major marketing bag fumble if they weren’t throwing that in the name. So Dr. Pepper is clearly the genius of soft drinks. And delicious, which is the most important thing.” She heard a soft whimper in her head and saw Puppyeye twitching in her sleep. When Aria spoke, something clicked as she remembered her friend didn’t do too well around pets… and didn’t have a discernible heartbeat. “Oh, right,” she nodded and carefully lifted herself from the couch.
“Here girl,” Alex lightly patted against her good leg for the puppy to follow to their room. Once the puppy was cozy in her bed, she shut the door quietly and made her way slowly back out to the living room, trying not to grimace with each step. She called out from the hallway, “Wine glasses it is.”
She made an effort to not look towards the kitchen as she positioned herself back on the couch. While Alex has her suspicions about what Aria might be, she wasn’t sure she was ready to dive into the whole story of what happened with the hunter. She was tired of explaining… and mostly just tired. Soda and snacks and Daisy Jones sounded better than any of that.
“We love a dreamy cast,” Alex smirked as Aria joined her on the couch, “I think we’re set up for the perfect afternoon of watching a whole season of a show. We’ve got soft drinks, candy, salty snacks… I can probably convince my cousin to bring home a pizza later.” She found herself cozying into the blankets as she pressed play and let herself be taken away by the story on the screen with the quiet and comforting presence of a good friend next to her. It was exactly the kind of afternoon she needed and she felt lucky to have a friend like Ariadne to spend it with.
#wr ariadne#threads; with ariadne#threads; with ariadne; honeycomb sweet#(the moonlight is blinding) ;; season 1 writing#(never been a natural all i do is try try try) ;; writing
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Ace x Family: Mission P1: part 2-1: the trial begins
When last we paused Miles had just learned that his dramatic Matlock impression earned him the position of Defense counsel for the very real class trial, because this elite school feels it’s perfectly reasonable for a grade-schooler’s burden to consist of saving their classmates from expulsion. (Sorry no accessibility text descriptions yet, but whenever I have enough new pages to do the update to A03 they will be there)
~Reminder: These follow the standard manga format with right to left reading direction instead of the American comic book left to right
Apparently it’s been just shy of a year since I posted the any pages of this so now I feel a little guilty and I shall never grouse at half abandoned works on A03 again. I’m not sure what is more to blame: that all of my brain cells have devoted themselves to considering the enigma that is Majima Goro and his slightly smirking soul mate; that I chose to essentially do a case fic trial with the kids which means so much dialogue heavy exchanges to try to make interesting and no fun Barok & Ryuu spy/assassin fun; or that it’s just slow going because the drawing part has never been my strong suit because I get all hung up on how I’m not consistent and have to make little line drawing templates for myself to reuse or use as a guide to make anyone come out vaguely correct unless I want to spend a billion years (and I still want to spend a billion years because I focus on all the stuff that’s not quite right) but the whole reason I kind of talked myself into doing this as a manga instead of just wrangling it into prose (well, let’s be honest, prose wasn’t going to happen probably because I can’t seem to be arsed to write prose anymore, but at least into a written form, most likely just resembling a script) was that I wanted to practice drawing and manga layouts in hopes of getting me to actually work on Teddy Roosevelt’s A Team (which is the thing I started and have giant full arcs of plotting and scripting done for that’s been just sitting for like 13 years now, and still haven’t come up with an actual title for just the stupid working title. I’m hopeless.) My downfall it seems was cross publishing to A03 with the full accessibility captions like a proper thing people might look at instead of into the void of tumblr and then just being pleased whenever I’d get the odd random like. So maybe I’ll just randomly post every time I finish a few pages and only care for A03 when I happen to hit enough done ones to be a big enough update. I’m still determined to finish the episode.
One of these days I’m going to figure Gumshoe out, since I had no reference material for what he should look like young I figured the one out, but it feels like every time I need to have him in a different angle and try to use Gumshoe sprite facial expressions for reference I end up too close to adult facial structure. How did I ever make it through art school in an animation track and yet feel so devoid of basic drawing skills?
#ace attorney spy x family au#ace attorney#no spoilers in this one original story in the au#phoenix wright#miles edgeworth#franziska von karma#dick gumshoe#class trial#aa fanart#aa fanfic#Checkov’s backpack mice#oh look I’m not dead I will finish this arc if it kills me#but I’d better get cracking because Gaiden comes out in November#and then I’ll surely be sucked into Spy Kiryu#hmm maybe I can find a way to have Kiryu and Majima show up in the grownups side of this AU and randomly combine 3 universes
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Day 315,
The nature sprite’s scratchings on the wax tablet are a musical notation! Of the hunting rhythm. I had to stop myself from tapping out or humming too much of it lest it get stuck in my mind once more.
I suppose the nature sprite did read that entry after all. This might be the most direct response to one of my communication attempts that it’s made. Also, as I write this it occurs to me that if it does read all my journal entries (or even just the ones I make while not in the Village proper), it likely knows me better than anyone.
That’s… unnerving.
*******
Not much of note at the house today after that epiphany with the rhythm. That’s fine with me. I enjoyed the slow day. I actually found myself hesitant to leave in the evening. Maybe next week I’ll cancel plans for the telling at the inn to spend dinner with Maiko again. I miss doing that.
I did transcribe the rhythm to something more permanent than the wax tablet though. Both in the event that I find myself needing it and because the fact that the nature sprites have a written system of musical notation is fascinating. In retrospect, I should have asked the others if the Village has something for that. Maybe the nature sprite is simply using the same system. It can apparently read our language afterall. (“Our” language feels a little weird to say with the whole outsider translation bit, but I suppose it’s basically accurate.)
Anyway, once I got to the inn, Cass, Lin, and Vernon were all there waiting for me. We went through the young ritual of dinner, being asked about a telling and then giving one. I’m pretty sure most of the other patrons - and almost certainly the innkeeper - have figured out by now that these tellings aren’t being requested, but everyone seems to be enjoying them all the same.
All in all it was a nice enough night for the most part, but despite the conversation remaining friendly and focused on lighter topics, it came away with the impression that there was some underlying tension going on between Lin and Vernon. When I mentioned it to Cass she told me that Vernon had offered his services as a mediator to Lin for talking to Maiko and Lin hadn’t taken the suggestion well. Not sure if it was because anything regarding Maiko is a touchy subject right now for her or if she was insulted by the unasked for butting in of a third party in mending their relationship. Or she doesn’t want to patch things up with Maiko, but I refuse to acknowledge that as a legitimate possibility.
I should really probably talk to her about it sooner rather than later.
<==Previous Next==>
#writing#original fiction#serial fiction#sliceoflife#Writeblr#daily writing#epistolary novel#writers on tumblr#WIP#creative writing#literature#prose#writers#web novel#novel#journal#isekai#epistolary#fantasy#slice of life#fiction#my writing
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just saw some passenger slander on reddit and man...
to be fair, it’s true that he did the whole “I infected myself because I got angry” thing but the best part abt his character is that he regrets the shit he did when he was young and stupid 22 years ago... The whole schtick in AWAITD was that he was a blooming prodigy, fallen from grace (so sexy of him) and damned to meet his end by oripathy. Passenger (operator) is so great because of that contrast, in 22 years he’s no longer the “Elliot Grover” of the past, abandoning everything down to his very nationality
Rather than loving him because of a meme I really liked him after I saw all the edgy sprites of Elliot, and I was like “damn what happened to this kid?” Cuz compared to most other ops I’m not sure if we’ve really had an op that’s just so... empty, after everything. Someone once described Passenger as the doctor’s yes-man and I think that’s a great description because to be fair, that’s basically all he is after joining Rhodes. He doesn’t have any great goals for his life, and he’s already finished his revenge, but rather than feeling satisfied all he feels is a cold, empty regret. Compared to other tragic ops like Phantom or Eben, Passenger is so empty he’s almost inhuman. I mean, even Mlynar has his nieces and Toland to care about, meanwhile Passenger has no meaningful relationships with anyone left. The Lone Soldier he is, he only has himself, all the lingering regrets and hatred, he associates with not only Sargon, but himself.
#there i go rambling about elliot grover again#anyways i wasn't going to type out a hugeass love letter to passenger on reddit on a post specifically abt ops u dislike but#but it grinded my gears when that guy on reddit was like he's just edgy guy that infected himself#like YES HE WAS STUPID AND ANNOYING AND SIXTEEN THAT IS THE POINT#my brother in christ the oripathy is the LEAST of his problems#otherwise he wouldn't have stayed in the black market for 20 years to get his revenge before actually seeking treatment#for once#oripathy isn't even the biggest problem in a (non AH) story#Well originium was kind of relevant BUT passenger's problems aren't exactly that he's sick wuu wuuw u but that he was a bright light snuffed#And now that he's older and wiser he can reach midlife crisis (best part)#where he realizes that everything he's done is essentially pointless and has to deal with the emptiness of life#i can talk about passenger for another 25 years
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Vent under cut. Be warned. Promise there’s some sunshine at the end of this though lol
I’ve been trying my best to stop being hard on myself but it’s difficult. My perfectionism is gone but my ADHD sure isn’t.
The thought that other people can work perfectly fine [even when they don’t want to] while I struggle to work [even when I want to] makes me upset. I’ve accepted that that’s just a part of who I am and to simply let it pass but nowadays I can’t help but beat myself up for it.
Like I want to have a consistent upload schedule. I want to draw this, I want to draw that, I want to make a video on this, then a video on that, and the list keeps going on and on. Being able to work consistently seems impossible to me...
I think the one thing that frustrates me the most is how I work a lot but also accomplish nothing at the same time. I am drained by basic tasks and can only do little by little every day and to me, that’s not enough.
But slowly, I’m starting to be proud of myself for it. It’s still an absolute pain to struggle with executive dysfunction and such but reminding myself that “hey, at least I’m trying and that’s what matters” makes me feel better.
Also, I’m still 17. That is young. I don’t know why but a lot of people (myself included, obviously) think they should have their life together as soon as they hit 18 and it’s ridiculous. That’s not how that works.
I’m still a minor for crying out loud. I really shouldn’t be stressing over work and all that lol. Actually, I’ve taken a break from Twitter because of this and due to other reasons.
I’ve also been doing what I want to without forcing myself to work. I mean, I still work… I still actively try to finish my character sprites but I don’t go out of my way to make it the main goal of my day. I’m slowly getting to the finish line and that’s cool!
I can’t deny I’m very nervous about coming back to YouTube though. Dunno why but I’ve been more self conscious about my work. I don’t have high standards for myself anymore but I just *FEEL* like my content is lacking something... I also have no clue what video to do first. Nothing’s really made me feel passionate. Minus my OCs. So that might be the cause for that lacking feeling.
Dunno if I'm making sense here but yeah. I swear every time I go on hiatus I feel like I’m going through a path of self-discovery LOL I like it though, it’s nice.
Anyway moral of the story: don’t beat yourself up if you have ADHD. Now that that’s off my chest, back to posting silly shit :3c
#꒰ v’s rambling ꒱#on an even happier note my chronic illness hasn’t acted up in 2 months now#It’s an absolute miracle#it means I’m eating more healthy#and on a different note I’m in the mood to infodump about Lawrence so brb let me just#let me just pull up his google doc and find something to ramble about
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Wings by R + F
Chapter 5
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I startle myself awake with a cough, a thick cloud of smoke floats into the air above me, the sky is dark now; no clue as to when the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Specks of sand litter my skin, river grass sticks to my face. I breathe deeply, my lungs welcoming the fresh air as the fog in my mind clears, I can feel the warmth from what I assume is a campfire as I regain feeling of my body. Groaning I push myself up on unsteady arms, a body in the shadows has me on edge as I try to get up faster, the ground spins slightly and I feel sick.
“Calm yourself…It’s just me.” The voice is light and familiar but it isn’t until she shifts into the light that I recognize who it is.
My entire body relaxes as I lean myself back to sit against a boulder nearby. She leans forward, it’d been a while since I last saw my sister, I almost forgot how yellow her eyes are. Her hair’s longer now, down past her lower back even braided like it is, and it’s darker almost pitch black. Her braid bunches at her neck as she leans towards me.
“How long have I been out?” I question and her eyes dart away before looking up the sky.
The twin moons move by slowly as I wait for her answer.
“Roughly 12 hours, I saw you and that girl go overboard yesterday, but it took me forever to find you out here. It’s a little past midnight I think.” She points a stick into the fire to make it burn brighter before she points the burnt end at my hand. “You’ve got a little something in your hand by the way...”
I glance down at my clenched fist; I hadn’t realized I was still holding anything. My fingers relax, slowly sliding open and stretching from their stiff position, in the center of my palm is what appears to be a water sprite. The poor thing is curled into itself shivering, it’s face is pale and holds the tiniest of tear streaks, its wings are small and bent out of shape as it finally turns its head enough to see me. I hear it squeak in fear as it pushes into the pads of my fingers. My right hand shakes as I bring it up beside the other so it doesn’t fall, I take in more details as it calms itself, but I only notice how badly I bent the wing as it peers over the tips of my fingers.
“I’m not going to hurt you…” The fairy stares at me before nodding hesitantly.
The fire crackles loudly, as if to remind us of the cold beyond its light, and simultaneously the two of us shiver. Shuffling closer I rest the back on my hand on my thigh and the fairy shuffles to the edge of my fingers to warm its hands.
“That must hurt, huh? I do so apologize; I had no intention of grabbing you in the chaos.” The Fairy stares at me cautiously with bright yellow eyes, while I gaze at the dancing amber haze of the fire.
I lose my senses for a moment, the fairies mouth moves but I can’t hear anything, I barely see it past the ghostly memory of the ships wood. Splattered with the fresh blood of the one called Valerie, her wide fearful eyes pleading for mercy, I can still feel the cold leather of the handle in my palm. The man’s hateful words still ring in my mind, my body feels numb, overwhelmed as the images keep appearing.
“Jae?” My name is said with caution but it still has me jumping, fleeing from the sudden warmth of the hand on my shoulder.
“What? …Oh sorry.” I shake my head slightly as I glance down at my palm.
The small sprite stands hesitantly, looking at me cautiously as they look for a way out. “I will not keep you against your will, but at least let me fix your wing.” They nod and slowly turn their wings to me; I had learned this trick from my new mother when I was young.
Feeling the magic rise to life in my veins, I have to focus to separate the will of water from that of the raw power and finally; it pulls through. The magic seeps through the tips of my fingers pure in its almost white light as it reaches over their wings, mending it without issue. I let it fade and as soon as it’s gone the sprite sighs in relief.
“Oh, thank you! I thought I’d never fly again!” The sprite turns away, ready to take off before stopping as they turn back quickly, hand outstretched.
They’re hand is only the size of my pointer finger, I fear crushing it at the slightest pressure, but I accept their offering none the less. As soon as we release each other they turn back towards the woods.
“my name’s Dewy, and I’m sorry for what we did to you.” They hop off my lowered hand, taking flight as they do and start their journey into the woods, little mushrooms lighting up as they pass.
I return my attention to the fire, my sister staring at me over the raging flames, her eyes are sharp and calculating as she sharpens her blade again.
“Ashae…I…” My voice begins to break as the events of the morning before come rushing back to me.
“You don’t have to say it…I know.” She pulls our Father’s Lucky charm from inside her shirt, rubbing the blue metal gently before returning it to its place. “The kingdom isn’t safe anymore…since the two of you disappeared there’s been soldiers roaming through the streets, they’ll stop at nothing to get the princess.”
“Where will we go? Where will she go?” The fire is slowly dying down as I stand in a panic, pacing back and forth, scuffing the sand as I do so. “Gods! I��m such a screw up…all I had to do was call for help, but no I had to play hero, now the entire kingdom rests on a princess who’s lost in the woods! Father’s gone and Mother is who knows where.!” I plop back down, the sand beneath me squishing as I drag my feet up to my chest.
The tears I hadn’t realized started falling are cold against my heated skin, my sister moves over to sit awkwardly by my side, it was her attempt at comforting me.
“We definitely can’t stay here. The closest town is through the woods, so if we’re going to make it there before the last ship leaves, we need to get moving. We might be able to find your princess there. Maybe we can ask your Fairy for help, she might know a quicker way through.” She moves quickly to gather her supplies and put out the fire.
When she’s finished, we rush to catch up to the fairy. Calling out frantically as the mushroom path starts to disappear. The path is gone before we even reach the forest line and we slow down to a walk as any sign of them is gone.
“He walks really fast for his size.” Ash comments exasperatedly.
It’s almost impossible to see anything now, as if the world darkened to further dampen our hope, like it’s trying to pull us into the depths of defeat. I won’t stand for it.
“DEWY! I NEED YOU! Please…” It’s a shout breaking out from my throat, jumping forth with a power I forgot I had, my voices cracks at the end as the woods remain silent.
A white mushroom lights up in the center of a path we hadn’t been able to see, standing atop it is none other than Dewy, his wings now glowing white as well as he waves us over. A sigh of relief escapes my lips. Walking over quickly we stand in front of them, hoping he’ll help.
“We thought you were gone…”
My sister interrupts me, her impatience getting the better of her. “We need your help, can you direct us though the woods to the other side, we need to get to the next town’s ship port so we can get out of here.”
My head snaps towards her quickly. “What about the princess, Ash?”
Ash takes both my hands in hers as she bends slightly to look me in the eye. “It would have happened with or without you, but you can’t save her if your dead too, we have to get supplies and go.”
“No, we’ll get supplies but I’m not leaving her behind, this is my fault. She could be safe right now if I had just stopped to call for help.” Dewy flies up onto my shoulder.
“I can get you almost all the way through, but the spirit woods are off limits to fae kind, so I’m afraid you’ll have to find your way from there.” This is it, the next step into our journey to take back our kingdom, I just wish I had known how much we’d lose along the way.
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Blue Tears
[STORY SOURCE]
“Pardon me, Sir. How much do you want for this?”
“S’free, take it.”
“What? Are you sure? I can pay you f—-”
“I said you can take it! Now get out of here!”
The above was a brief exchange of words between a very edgy young man, possibly in his late twenties, and myself at a yard sale I happened by. I always find the most interesting things at yard sales and flea markets. I’m normally there for books, but I’ll occasionally happen across something else that I find worth my time.
I didn’t find any books this time around; the entire sale seemed to be comprised of children’s toys, clothes for both little boys and little girls, as well as some items I’d expect a young married woman to use. Silken night clothes, stacks of cheesy romance novels that I had no interest in (I can’t read pure romance, I need something like murder or mystery to make it interesting), jewelry, as well as several cases of makeup, most of which appeared to be half used.
I found the used makeup to be in bad taste. If you no longer had a use for it, throw it away. Don’t try to peddle what’s touched your face to other people… it’s disgusting. I kept these thoughts to myself, however, as the man running the small junk sale seemed far from stable.
As I was about to leave, something blue peeking out from underneath a small, grey plush caught my eye. Colors always catch my attention, especially blue, so I lifted the plush to examine it. To my surprise, it was a Pokémon Blue game. Not that I had been looking for one, but I felt like experiencing a little nostalgia… even though the first generation of games wasn’t my favorite, it reflects back to a much simpler time in my life.
The cartridge had the word "Tears" written neatly in black across the image of the Blastoise. I assumed it was a nickname of some sort, perhaps the previous owner of the game cried a lot. It was within a bunch of child things, perhaps they were young enough to be labeled a "crybaby" by others and "Tears" was just a nicer name… I’m not sure. Anyway, I got the game for free, but I left a dollar on the table just so I’d feel better for taking it.
When I got home, I inserted the game in my SP and turned it on. The sound at the start up screen was greatly distorted… it sort of fluctuated from being several tones lower than normal to being nothing more than a low rumble. It was… unsettling to say the least. Naturally, I assumed the game was faulty, but I thought I’d play through until something froze up on me.
The previous owner, this "Tears" person, still had a game on file (as would be expected with a used game) but no information about playtime, character name, or anything else of that sort was displayed when that option was highlighted. Curious, I chose the previously started game, just to see where they were with everything. A child was bound to have an interesting game with creative names… Insight into the innocent mindset that was slowly becoming rarer with each passing year…
Upon choosing the previously saved game, I was met with a black screen and silence. I felt disappointed; the game seemed to already have messed up on me. I was just about to turn it off when a dialogue box popped up.
I began to read, but the text was moving painstakingly slow.
".........."
"I’ve been robbed of everything…"
"My title as champion…"
"My grandfather’s respect…"
"… Even my Pokémon are dead because of you…"
"… I won’t stand for this…"
"I will come to find you."
I was confused… who was speaking? Who were they speaking to? My heart rate had picked up out of what I assumed was fear… it had been a while, but I knew this wasn’t normal… but curiosity continued to keep me locked onto the game.
As the black screen faded away, the music belonging to the inside of the Pokémon Tower began playing perfectly… the sound obviously wasn’t as broken as it appeared to be at the beginning.
The scene revealed when the black faded was that of the appropriate area, the Pokémon Tower. The not-so-familiar-to-me sprite of your in-game rival, Blue, was standing in front of one of the many graves inside the tower. He stayed there for several minutes, the disturbing music continuing to play throughout his silence, before he finally said something.
“This ends today… for the both of us.”
With that, he left the tower, my screen followed him. As he stood outside the tower, the music did not change to Lavender Town’s normal depressing music… rather, the haunting tune from inside the graveyard continued to play through on a loop… as much as I wanted to turn down the music, I couldn’t bring myself to do so.
I couldn’t move the character after that. I couldn’t tell if it was another assumed glitch of the clearly hacked game, or if it was hesitation on the character's part.
After another minute, he finally spoke again.
“… Fly…” Even though there was no voice connected to the character in the game, with the speed in which the text moved, there was an almost obvious feel of depression about him.
I opened the start menu and checked Blue’s party. All he had was a Pidgeot which had no level…
I checked its stats, the only move it knew was the requested action of "Fly," and all its stats (except for health) were at zero. Odd as I found this, I didn’t question it and chose to fly.
When the map opened up, it was black save for one small square that was marked "Mt. Silver"… I knew this was impossible. Mt. Silver was in Johto which had yet to be introduced in the original Pokémon games…
Regardless, it was my only destination, so I chose it.
The typical animation of the trainer sprite turning into the bird sprite and flying off took place and, sure enough, I landed in front of the cave entrance to Mt. Silver.
Rather than having the sprite shift back to Blue’s sprite, his image moved to the left of Pidgeot’s sprite.
They faced each other for a minute before a sound much like that of entering or exiting a room played but in a much higher tone. It sounded as if something had broken.
When Blue spoke yet again,
“Fly away, you’re free…”
I began to assume the noise was the sound of a PokéBall breaking.
The Pidgeot cried out once before doing as its former master commanded and flying away. After his final Pokémon flew away, the haunting music continuing to play, he faced the entrance.
“… I’m coming for you…”
I now had the impression that this was a mission of revenge… and with the way he was speaking, it was a revenge of the darkest sort.
It dawned on me to check the items he had on him. I don’t know why this thought crossed my mind… but given the ongoing circumstances, I felt there would be something there. And there was.
There was only one item in the list, KNIFE, an item that certainly wasn’t programmed into the game under normal circumstances.
When I picked the option to use it just to see what it did, Blue said, “Not yet…”
After that, I was unable to control the character anymore. It was as if he wanted me to get him there and see his single item just to get the gist of what he may be planning, but that was it… the rest was all his own.
Blue stepped into the cave, and as he trekked through the stone maze of the cave, he never encountered any Pokémon, but I could faintly hear distorted cries mixed in with the music… I’m not sure, but I believe they could feel the negative emotions coming off Blue… and they cried out in concern.
Finally, he reached the chamber that harbored Red in the Gold and Silver games.
Blue’s pace slowed a little as he approached his rival, and the music, dark as it was already, lowered considerably making it infinitely darker…
As the two rivals faced each other, Red simply greeted Blue with the silence I had become accustomed to in Pokémon Gold.
However, Blue didn’t take to this very well as he shouted in apparent anger,
“Don’t ignore me like you have everything and everyone else!”
A battle ensued but the normal music didn’t play, the darkened music of the Pokémon Tower continued. By this time, other people were home and were becoming quite annoyed with the volume of my music, so I was forced to put in headphones as I still couldn’t bring myself to actually lower the volume… disturbing as it was, the music had some sort of hold on me.
I stared at the game screen as the battle opened up. Obviously, since Blue had no Pokémon, he never called anything out. Neither did Red.
In the battle option box, the four options of "Fight, PKMN, Item, and Run" weren’t all there; all there was to choose at the moment was "Item" so, obviously, he chose it.
The only item there to use was the one I had mentioned before, the KNIFE. It was quickly selected on its own and went back to the battle scene.
Now, the only battle option available was "Fight."
In the fight menu, Blue only had one attack at his disposal…
MURDER... I couldn’t regain control of the game, there was no option to run, I couldn’t bring myself to turn the game off and end what had quickly become a disturbing experience… the only choice there was to sit there and allow Blue to murder Red.
After selecting the attack, Blue shouted, “This is for everything!” and a typical attack animation much like Tackle played out only, instead of a single strike, Blue attacked repeatedly. The dark music in the background began to pick up its pace and become more high-pitched… it was painful to listen to as it reverberated through my headphones, but I never removed them.
Red’s sprite flickered in and out as he took the damage and, as his health dwindled to zero; a gurgled screeching sound broke through the noise of the music, replacing it only briefly as Red’s sprite faded into something that looked more like a decaying body before fading away completely with the screech.
My heart was pounding, I was beginning to get a throbbing headache, and yet my eyes remained glued to the screen as the remainder of the scene played out. As the music replaced the screen once again, another dialogue box popped up as Blue spoke yet again.
"............................"
"................."
"........."
"See you in hell..."
The battle options box popped up again, "Fight" the only remaining option.
Blue selected it yet again, but instead of "MURDER" the attack option available was "SUICIDE."
There was a moment of hesitation, but Blue finally attacked himself with less fury than he had Red. As his own health fell to zero, a lower gurgled screech replaced the high-pitched Pokémon Tower music, his sprite faded away.
Only when the "decayed" sprite faded in, he wasn’t facing the battlefield…
He faced me.
His screech continued on, growing in volume to the point where the pain it caused equaled that of a migraine... and yet I still kept the headphones in. My eyes locked onto the dead, hollow eyes of Blue as he continued to scream before the screen began to flicker. It was slow at first, but it quickly picked up to a rapid strobe effect. The "scream" grew in volume and pitch one more time before the screen simply cut to black.
I held my breath, my heart pounded so hard against my chest that it hurt. I deeply hoped that it was over but considering the fact that I couldn’t move, or even hear any noise outside of my headphones, I fearfully assumed that it wasn’t… and I was right.
White lettering began slowly typing out across the black screen and, as each word formed, I read,
"I finally got my revenge."
"The life YOU ruined has now faded away."
"But don’t think it’s over yet."
"My suffering has ended, but yours has only begun."
"I’ll be watching your strife with a grin on my face."
"And when it all ends…"
"…"
"I’ll see you in hell…"
Though I had a full battery just a moment ago, the light turned red and the system turned off. My nose began to spill blood for several minutes… and... I… I’ll never be able to describe the terror I felt afterwards… I’ll never be able to describe the terror I still feel…
You see, the very next day on the news, they announced that the very same man I purchased the game from, I won’t release his name, had called the police saying that he had killed his wife three days prior and buried her in the backyard… When they reached his house, they had found him by the phone, dead… he had slit his throat and committed suicide. It was also mentioned that, several weeks ago, his eight-year-old son had murdered their six-year-old son and then killed himself…
I assume that the game had done all this, and I’m next. I don’t know how much longer I have, nor do I know who will die at my hand... but you deserve to know this…
Never play Blue Tears.
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At the rescue!
▂ ▃ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ █ ▇ ▆ ▅ ▄ ▃ ▂
ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : At the rescue!
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⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎… ⋙
Warning: Attempted Rape (and relative trauma), death threat (one), violence
.
Ps:
as you may have noticed I’m using a bit of 1st person POV.
Do tell me if you like it or not.
.
█ █ █ █ █ 100% *Tuning complete*
~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~
-That’s enough!- Shouted Sprite, rolling her eyes at me and Druig, just by my side.
The rest of the Eternals turned towards her for her little outburst.
-I’ve got enough of your flirting! Get together and get a room already!- she told us.
-Watch your tongue, young miss- I jokingly told her.
-Very funny- she said, leaving.
As the others moved their attention elsewhere I faced Druig, our noses brushing against each other, and I smiled: -Why didn’t you tell me we were flirting?-.
He giggled: -I didn’t know either, my beautiful, beautiful Eternal-.
-Is this new?- asked Phastos.
As Kingo passed past us he commented: -I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all-.
.
Now many questions may arise: was I really flirting with Druig?
I’m not sure, he’s always like that with me but we never really did anything more, anything that would change the status quo of “friends”, unlike Sersi and Ikaris.
They were the most romantic and obvious pairing, really.
The most beautiful and kindest Eternal with the strong Alpha Male.
I suppose you could say I felt a bit intimidated, I kind of feared me and Druig wouldn’t work.
That is if he even liked me in a romantic way to begin with.
-Are you coming, dear?- he asked me.
Hurriedly I nodded and followed him and the rest of the Eternals.
And what an evening was it going to be!
.
One thing we must admit is that humans can throw really good parties!
I was in a corner, a bit tired, looking at Druig getting thrown around like a doll between the various Eternals.
Makkari wanted to show him all the humans prepared, Ikaris kept bickering with him and Sprite messed with him.
Looking at that scene my heart warmed.
Oh, how I wished that moment never ended.
.
Unfortunately I was called back to reality by a hand.
A hand that belonged to none of my fellow Eternals, too wrinkly.
Another hand, maybe the same, covered my mouth and I began to panic.
I don’t remember much afterwards but I felt hands all over my body.
On my hips, on my chest and even where between my legs.
Scared I tried unsuccessfully to shout, call for help, kick and wiggle away from the grasp that kept me.
None of that worked.
As I felt a knife near my neck I heard a voice intimating to stay still and my body froze.
I couldn’t tell what was happening but, at the moment, it didn’t matter.
I only wanted to get away from that touch I felt on me.
My clothes began to get torn by whoever my attacker was and then, suddenly, everything stopped.
It was as if time itself froze and I let myself fall to the ground.
Familiar arms, that I then discovered to be Druig’s, wrapped me and I gave into that embrace, stopping my struggle.
My mind felt as flowing, my body heavy and then I felt wrinkly hands ghosting over my skin.
-You’re safe- repeated as a mantra Druig as he entered my mind and I surrendered to his power, falling asleep.
.
-I’ll kill them all!-
-You can’t, Druig- Ajak’s voice resonated.
-They touched one of us!
-Are you sure this reaction is not because of who that one is?-
You heard Sprite say, as you woke up.
-What happened?- I asked.
The others, reunited there with a dark look, exchanged glances.
Sersi came near me and explained everything, Druig storming away, furious.
As I understood the weight and depth of what had happened I began to cry, tears forming and rolling down my cheeks.
I... had no words and an infinite stream of thoughts running wild in my mind.
.
I had no idea how much time had passed but I heard Druig call my name.
I looked at him and I saw his concerned look.
-Are you alright?- he asked.
-I suppose. I’d be worst if you hadn’t helped me.-
-I took care of them. And I’ll take care of you, my beautiful one- he said, gently brushing his hand against my cheek.
-Why?-
-Because I love you- he smiled, leaving me breathless.
-Me too- I replied.
As he neared me, perhaps for a kiss, his image swapped for a second with that of my aggressor and I instinctively moved away.
-Sorry- I soon apologised, trying to kiss him to make up for it.
Druig delicately put a hand on my shoulder: -Don’t worry. I’ll wait for you to heal and be ready. I waited for a long time so it won’t be a problem-.
Hearing that I smiled, relieved.
-We have all the time in the world, my love-
#druig x reader#druig#druig oneshot#druig eternals#animeangsteng#mcu#mcu x reader#marvel#marvel x reader#SFW playlist
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Second Lead Syndrome
Word Count: ~8.7k words
liked this? there’s more on my masterlist!
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Comedy, Female reader insert
Description: Y/n and Minho have been friends for more than 2 years now, but suddenly she begins to see herself as the mere second lead in Minho’s story. Will she be the rare second lead who gets her own happy ending?
Warnings: some crying, themes of unrequited love (if there’s anything that I missed don’t hesitated to let me know!)
I’d only ever encountered Second Lead Syndrome in the dramas I’d watched. Wanting the girl to end up with the second lead who was so obviously the better and healthier choice, but like every avid watcher of kdramas, it's more than likely for the main leads to end up with each other, that was just how it worked. What I never thought I’d encounter was seeing it happen before my own eyes and experience it firsthand.
Life was never supposed to be a kdrama. Life was supposed to be simple, a straight line, going from point A to B with no complications. But life never really went my way did it? It just had to throw in one variable, one man that had too much influence on my life.
I couldn’t remember the first time I met Minho. It was probably sometime in the first grade when his family first moved in next to mine. But alas, we were both too young to remember exactly what sparked our friendship. One day we were strangers and the next we had given our parents a near heart attack when we both went after a stray cat on the way back home (my mom’s words, not ours). From then my memories were filled with him, just us besties hanging out like anyone would with their best friend. First party, first mental breakdown, first drink, all with him. Soon enough we were in our final year of University, and ultimately, adults.
The Minho I knew was laid back, not too extroverted but not too introverted either. While I completely contrasted him, always anxious about something, wanting perfection to the T, and completely and utterly introverted. Our friendship, moving into University, sparked a lot of questions. You wouldn’t typically find the introverted straight-A student with the borderline badboy tsundere walking and laughing in the halls together, spending practically every waking moment together. But Minho didn’t care, and neither did I, so we moved through life pretty easily.
One of the few things we had in common was our love for cats, and when we both foudn out there was a cat cafe just a few minutes walk from our campus, you best bet we spent too much of our time and money there. Studying, hanging out, anything you could imagine. If we weren’t in one of our dorms, we were more than likely to be in the cat cafe.
Every day after class we’d go there and we’d complain about our least favorite professors and how lectures would seemingly last for longer than they should. Additionally, Minho had almost become akin to my own dormmate with how much time he spent in my dorm. He’d come in whenever he wished, stealing my frozen pizzas and sodas, using my Netflix account on my TV to watch weird National Geographic shows and make random comments like “that snake looks just like Kim Seungmin,” or “look its Hannie” whenever a squirrel came on screen. Minho was always there when I needed a drinking partner after bombing a test or assignment, pouring me shots of soju until I passed out and bringing me to my bed and tucking me in whiel he would sleep on the couch to make sure I wouldn’t do anything stupid in the middle of the night.
Although, more people knew Minho’s name than mine, but that didn’t bother any of us. We continued on being friends as usual, and it felt like nothing would change that. Life was moving in a straight line like it should’ve always been.
At least, that’s what it felt like until February, just a few months before we graduated.
I make my way to our usual spot in the courtyard after buying an iced coffee and a snickers bar from the vending machine next to my classroom, I walk up behind Minho sitting on a bench when I find him staring out in front of him instead of looking at cat videos on his phone like he usually does. Slowing my walk, I trail my eyes to the vague direction he’s facing and see that he’s looking at Kim Seungmin and a girl chatting outside the classroom. I ignore the thought, opting to think that Minho must’ve spaced out thinking about how he would irritate Seungmin next class. I plop down next to him when he still doesn’t take note of my arrival, so I get right next to his ear and blow cold air into it, snickering when he jolts in surprise.
“What was that for?” He whines, fake annoyed.
“You got lost up in your thoughts for a certain Kim Seungmin there.” I snicker some more, opening my snickers (hehe) bar.
Just as I’m about to take the first bite of the sugary goodness, the chocolate bar gets snatched out of my hands and a certain Lee Minho takes an obnoxious bite out of it, not even giving it back but eating it like it was his. I pout, watching him devour my snack, knowing that I couldn’t do anything to get it back.
“For your information, I was not thinking about Kim Seungmin.” He says pointedly, slightly muffled by the chocolate in his mouth.
I sigh, knowing I wasn’t going to get that chocolate bar back any time soon, and open my iced coffee. “So what were you thinking about then?” I ask before taking a sip.
“Don’t know, spaced out.” Is all the answer I get and I highly doubt him, but I brush it off anyways and don’t pry.
Minho and I slide into our usual conversation about assignments, plans for the week, and everything under the sun. We talk about how he’s planning to visit home the next day and stay for a weekend and how excited he is to see his cats after a long time, I unknowingly smile at his ramble about how talkative Dori is, and just sit back and listen. I never took into account how healing it was to just watch and listen to him talk, the sultry of his voice and his little exclamations of frustration or excitement that came once in a while. I had to catch myself from staring when he turned to look at me, having asked me a question I didn’t catch.
“Sorry what was that?” I ask.
“Am I that beautiful for you to have lost your hearing to my handsome face?” I couldn’t just tell him that that was basically what had happened, it would inflate his ego by too much and reveal everything I’d hidden thus far.
“The heck? No, I was thinking about how great it would be to get some peace and quiet while you’re not around this weekend.” I lie, having Minho around is the only thing that brings me entertainment that isn’t endless sappy kdramas on my laptop, but he can never know that.
Minho scoffs, says something under his breath that I don’t quite catch, then turns back to me. “You love me.” He says with a pout.
“Unfortunately I do.”
That was the first of many inconspicuous confessions.
It was nearing 3 or 4 am and I was about halfway done with another kdrama when several knocks resound through the small living space. Knowing exactly who it is, I only shout back “you know the code!” and moments later the door opens.
I don’t bother to get up and greet Minho, this exact scene has happened too many times for either of us to care at this point, and it doesn’t surprise me that the moment he enters he shouts, “Honey I’m home!” like we’re in some cheesy romcom.
“Mhmm, welcome home, leech.” I enunciate the last word purposely, but I know he won’t bat an eye at the term. I continue to chew my popcorn while he wanders through my cabinets, looking for snacks. “There’s chips in the cabinet next to the fridge and sprite in there too. If you want more food order Chinese takeout.”
“I don’t have my wallet.” I can practically hear his pout from where I sat, eyes unmoving from the TV screen.
“You know where mine is, but you have to pay me back.” A few seconds pass with no response until suddenly he’s next to me and kissing my cheek.
“I loveeee you!” He says too sweetly, retreating back to the mini-kitchen to order takeout.
“Mhmm, I love you too.” I say, not loud enough for him to hear the confidence missing from my tone.
Continuing to watch the episode of in front of me, I remain in my comfortable position, only moving to lift my legs when Minho comes back to sit on the couch under my legs and the blanket.
“Oh you’re watching this one?” He asks, reaching into the bowl of popcorn I offer him.
“Yeah, didn’t have anything else to watch so I put it on since everyone seems to like it so much.”
“Mm,” he hums while also indulging himself into the scenes playing in front of him. “You’re probably team potato guy, right?”
“What kind of question is that? Of course I am!” I scoff.
“I don’t know, I still think she should end up with Jae-eon.”
“Are you crazy? He literally leads her on like every playboy and is ruining her mentality by not defining their relationship.”
“Yeah, but they’re so cute together, and you can totally tell he feels something for her.” He argues.
“Just cause they’re cute together doesn’t mean they’re good for each other, the entire guy is a walking red flag, I don’t understand why she doesn’t just walk away when she’s had experience with a shit boyfriend.” I sigh.
“You, have major second lead syndrome.” He points an accusing finger at me.
“So what? It’s for good reason, the main lead is toxic as fuck and you can’t change my mind.” I upturn my nose, turning back to the TV and continuing to watch the episode.
The mentioning of the second lead sends a flurry of thoughts into my brain for a reason I can’t comprehend. Sometimes the main leads aren’t that bad but still we want the main character to end up with the second lead, maybe out of our own natural selfishness because we prefer the second lead more. I shake the thoughts away, trying to convince myself that kdramas were only works of fiction and too cheesy to be real, yet for whatever reason I always felt a connection with the second leads, like our emotions directed to our crushes were the same, because I knew that I would always be the second lead in Minho’s story.
Minho’s name was always called out more times than mine was growing up, which I didn’t really mind until our hangout time would be seriously cut down because he had to hang out with other friends. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that he had friends, but there was a little bit of selfishness in me that wanted him to myself.
A new drama and a few episodes later, plus Chinese takeout, lead to our eventual demise. We both fall asleep on the couch in less than comfortable positions and wake up with stiff-neck, us groaning at the pain.
We continue on with our usual morning routines, taking turns freshening up in the bathroom before heading out for breakfast at Paws and Pastries since we were both too lazy to make food ourselves. Besides, hot coffee in the morning plus good sandwiches AND cats? What more could you ask for?
When we enter the cat cafe I notice a familiar face behind the cashier, it was the same girl Seungmin was talking to on Friday, and the same girl I caught Minho staring at. We walk up to the cashier, I order my food first, a simple breakfast sandwich with a coffee to go with it and wait next to Minho to finish ordering.
I made the mistake up glancing up at his face as he was telling his order to her, Ahra, her name tag read. There was something in his eyes that glinted that I had never seen before, not when he talked to Han and not when he talked to me. I couldn’t help but feel a pang of emotion in the middle of my chest before forcing myself to look back down, inserting my card and paying for everything. I sent the girl a thank you and a kind smile after she told us our food would be right over, and both me and Minho went over to our usual table in the back corner next to the cat’s jungle gym and right up next to the window. I get lost in my thoughts while we begin playing with the cats we were so accustomed to.
Like most second leads, I knew exactly what my feelings were. I was practically an adult, how could I miss the fast beating of my heart or my clammy hands whenever I was around him? But again, like most second leads, I knew I’d never get a chance with him, not when everything we did together was purely platonic. It was painfully obvious that I’d be stuck with an unrequited love for who knows how long, and I couldn’t just detach myself from him all of a sudden to get over my feelings because a) he’d notice and force me to tell him what was wrong, ultimately leading me to tell him that I had feelings for him, and b) the moment I would come back or see him for even just a second I know I would develop those feelings all over again. Neither of which were choices I was willing to take so I suck it up and see him every day, ignoring everything my heart was telling me.
I look up from the cat that I’m petting in my lap and look at Minho again, only to find him staring at Ahra who was taking people’s orders with a perfect pearly smile. It was in that moment that I knew, I had just found the female lead of Minho’s story.
3 weeks go by in a similar manner. Minho and I see Ahra around campus a few times and with some twisted fate, she’s on the clock every time we go to Paws and Pastries. Minho, being his smooth self, easily gets himself acquainted with her. They laugh and giggle so naturally and can slip into conversation so easily I’m almost envious of Minho and his non-introverted self.
Not being one to try and stop fate, I watch it all happen. Telling Minho to ask her out already and teasing him about how lovesick he gets when he sees her nearby or at the cafe. I know Minho likes her when he blushes or gets defensive whenever I mention her in our conversations even though he’s never explicitly told me himself. I put on a face in front of him whenever these conversations come up, not wanting to get in the way of his happiness.
One day some of our friends want to meet up outside of campus, we make plans to meet up at a bowling alley, ready to have fun until the late evening hours. Seungmin brought Ahra along with him, asking if it was okay to invite her since they were friends. Everyone agrees and we all meet up as planned. When everyone gets there, including Seungmin and Ahra, we introduce ourselves, Minho not having to introduce himself and easily speaking with her like they always did whenever running into each other. All the the boys have raised brows and mischievous smiles as they watch the interaction between the two, but only one looks at me in concern.
A majority of the night passes by with laughter and teasing, how Chan was terrible at bowling this night and Minho easily beating him despite never doing too well on our previous adventures to the bowling alley. I spend the night with the rest of the boys, while Minho and Ahra spend time getting to know each other even more. There’s a point in the evening where I see Minho hold out his phone to Ahra to exchange numbers, I can hear her giggle when they take a selfie together, probably for her profile picture. I have to turn my head away quickly to ignore the cracking of my own heart when Minho puts his arm on the couch behind Ahra, he does it so naturally, yet he’s never done it with me. I will my thoughts to focus on the game and not on Minho, not noticing the same pair of concerned eyes until they speak up.
“Are you alright?” Hyunjin asks.
“Hm? Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?” My voice cracks halfway through and I try to hide my sad eyes, even though I was fully aware that Hyunjin had probably noticed that something was up.
“‘Cause you seem pretty affected by that scene over there.” He motions to Minho and Ahra with a nod of his head.
“It’s nothing, Hyun, just nice seeing Minho talking to more people.”
“Y/n, you know he talks to people all the time, and you’re not nearly as affected then as you are now.”
“Hyunjin, really, it’s fine.” I try to convince him but he says something that lets me know that he knows.
“You like Minho.”
“What? No that’s absurd I-“ He looks at me pointedly, and I sigh in defeat. “Yeah, okay, you got me.”
“Why don’t you say anything? Clearly it hurts you to see him like that.” He refers to Minho getting cozy with her.
“Hyunjin, it’s clear that everything we have is platonic, he even called me his sister several times. And who am I to get in the way of him getting into a relationship? That’s not my place to say anything, especially when his last girlfriend was 2 years ago.”
“I get that, but shouldn’t he at least deserve to know? He says that he knows everything about you, but there’s one thing that he doesn't. You know practically everything about him, isn’t it a little unfair?”
“We have choices as to what we share with each other and what we don’t, it’s his choice to tell me what he wants to and my choice to tell him what I want to tell him. Besides, he hasn’t even told me that he has a crush on Ahra yet.”
“So maybe he doesn’t then.”
“Hyunjin, just look at him, he’s a puppy in love.” I glance back over to Minho and Ahra sitting parallel to us. Minho is smiling brightly, more brightly than I had seen in a while and I can’t help but let my lips upturn at the corners just slightly in another sad smile.
Hyunjin sighs next to me, and I look back to him. “I’m sorry y/n, I really wish he would end up with you instead of her, it doesn’t seem fair to you.”
“Hey, don’t say that, Ahra seems like a nice girl, she and Minho will get along great. And nothing in life is fair Hyunjin, that’s just something you come to accept.” I say, getting up. “I’m gonna get some drinks, does anyone want anything?” I ask everyone.
“Cola!” “Me too!” “Me three!” “A lemonade please.” A few of the boys shout back.
“Anything for you guys?” I turn to Minho and Ahra. They both shake their heads. “Okay then, I’ll be back in a minute guys.” I smile at the group before going to get the drinks.
While walking away from the group I let a teardrop fall from my eye, wiping it away just before I order.
Life’s unfair, that’s just something I have to accept.
A week goes by and Minho’s talking about how he and Ahra message often, how he thinks they get along well and he’s gonna ask her out.
Another week goes by and they’ve gone on their first date, he takes her to the beach and they have a picnic.
Two weeks after that they’ve gone on several dates and are officially boyfriend and girlfriend, I don’t even find out separately at this point, I find out with the rest of the group over dinner.
A few days after that Minho calls off one of our late night binge watching sessions, texting me an apology and that Ahra needs him. I tell him it’s okay and to send my regards to her.
It’s a week and half after and Minho regularly calls off our meetups at the cafe after school or at one another’s dorms to tend to Ahra. I tell him it’s fine each time and to not feel bad. He did the same today, and I sit alone at our usual table, mindlessly petting a cat in my lap while zoning out into in my mug of coffee.
All while this happens, I watch, and I let it happen. I don’t fight for him because it didn’t feel right, sometimes second leads let their love fall for someone else, and that’s all it felt like I could do.
Fighting for Minho felt selfish, especially when I knew I had no chance and he’d already fallen for Ahra. I couldn’t suddenly come out of the blue and tell him “hey, I have feelings for you,” when he’s already dating Ahra, I’d look like a major asshole if I did. All I could do was watch and see how we begun to drift farther and farther apart.
With Minho being absent more often, I don’t get to tell him much. Like the internship offer I got to continue pursuing graphic design in Itaewon. I got the email almost a week ago, and I had two more weeks to decide if I was going to take the offer. With nobody to consult about it with I continue to push it to the back of my mind, not wanting to deal with more stress just yet.
Just as I’m taking another sip of my coffee a familiar head of long blonde hair enters the cafe. My head tilts to the side in confusion as he scans the room for someone when he meets eyes with me, he makes his way over and sits in the seat in front of me and doesn’t say anything.
“You’re rarely on this side of town, why are you here?” I ask Hyunjin first.
“I heard something from Ms. Kim in our art class and needed to know if it was true.” He says seriously.
“What…” I feel like I know what he’s going to say, but I ask anyways. “What did you hear?”
“That you were offered an internship in Itaewon.”
“Hyunjin I-“
“Is it really true? She said you had two more weeks to decide, how come you haven’t told anybody? Does Minho know? Are you gonna leave? What about-” He begins to spurt out question after question and it’s almost too much for me to handle.
“Hyunjin!” I raise my voice just slightly to get him to stop but I have to turn it down again when the volume of my voice makes a few of the other customers’ heads turn. “Calm down, yes it’s true, yes I have two more weeks to decide if I’m going or not, I didn’t know how I would tell any of you, no, Minho doesn’t know and I don’t plan on telling him.”
“Are you… Are you gonna take the offer?” He asks slowly.
I prop my elbows onto the table as the cat leaves my lap and my head drops into my hands as I sigh in exasperation. “I don’t know.” Tears are gathering in my eyes as I think about it.
“Y/n, have you thought about the offer at all?”
“Yes and no.” I don’t need to lift my head to sense Hyunjin’s confusion. “It’s hard to think about it when you’re watching your crush of 2 years date someone else while you’re also trying to finish up your senior year. But it’s also all I can think about when I’m alone, which I find myself a lot, thinking about having to find a place to live in Itaewon and transfer and mentally prepare to leave you all here, but if I don’t take it then it’ll be even harder to find an offer like this. It’s all I can think about and also something that I can’t bring myself to think about, Hyunjin.” I lift my head and my teary eyes meet his own.
“Y/n…” His voice breaks saying my name.
“I think I’m going to take it.” I pause. “Once I finish all of my final assignments the only thing I have left to really worry about is graduating and finding a job, and I don’t think I can take watching Minho and Ahra anymore Hyun, I don’t think I can stomach it. I’m happy for them, I truly am, but it’s also affecting me and I don’t think I should ignore that anymore. If I’m in Itaewon I have a job and I won’t have to worry about feelings anymore, two birds with one stone.”
I see the hesitancy in Hyunjin’s facial expressions before he speaks. “If that’s what you think you should do, then I’ll support you all the way. But shouldn’t you tell Minho about this?”
“I’m not, because if I do, Minho is gonna find some way to get me to stay and I’ll crumble and stay because he affects me the most.” Hyunjin merely nods in response. “Hyunjin, you are the only one that can know about this, okay? I can’t have everyone else know this, especially Minho, okay?”
Hesitation again, and then, “Okay.”
Hyunjin keeps his promise, he keeps the secret of me leaving from everyone. Even as graduation inches closer and our group begins to talk more about job searching, what comes next, and similar topics, the two of us keep it a secret. Whenever they asked me what I was thinking of doing next I always just told them “oh probably looking for internships nearby,” and no more questions are asked.
Minho and Ahra were still very much in love, even more than before, if the growing absence of Minho’s presence was anything to go by. I barely saw Minho anymore, maybe catching him at the end of the hall every once in awhile, but he was always walking with Ahra so all I could say was “hello” and “goodbye.”
Each goodbye begun to hold more and more weight as the days passed. Even the short ones I would tell Minho after passing him in the halls. I couldn’t even conjure how I would tell everyone, maybe send a letter to each of their places? A text message? Tell them after the graduation ceremony just before I left for the train station? I thought about how I would say goodbye as I begun to pack up my dorm. Graduation was nearing, I had already turned in all of my final assignments, and all there was left was to pack. I would leave after the ceremony ended, sometime in the afternoon. I wouldn’t even get the chance to properly celebrate being graduates with my friends because I was leaving in the afternoon. I’d get situated in my new apartment in Itaewon and get accustomed to new life outside of Gimpo.
The thought of leaving panged my heart harshly, I had never left Gimpo permanently before. Sure, I had gone on trips to the US and Singapore and Seoul before, but I had never moved from Gimpo. I was born and raised in Gimpo, met Minho and all of our friends here, so the thought of moving for the first time did something to my heart. I attended all of our group hangouts with a nostalgic mindset, remembering the first time we all met, when we all got wasted one time on a Friday night after some big exam week. I look around our table of friends and think about how much I’ll miss all of this when I leave for Itaewon.
Another thing that panged my heart, Minho and I distancing. I knew it was coming, Minho and I didn’t text or talk about hanging out anymore. He walked Ahra to her classes now, and had dates with her after class instead of meeting me at our cafe. Eventually I stopped getting apology messages, and stopped expecting him at the cafe anymore. I couldn’t blame him, Ahra was his girlfriend and I accepted that long ago. Instead I just played the supportive friend on the sidelines, and I’d continue to play that role for as long as I had to.
It came to be the night before we graduated, and all of us minus Minho and Ahra were sat around a table in one of the restaurants we frequented, it wasn’t too late in the evening, and we all just sat in silence after finishing our food with bottles and glasses of soju now sitting in front of us. A majority of our meal was full of reminiscing, talking about memories that crack everyone up and left smiles on our faces.
“So, we really graduate tomorrow, huh?” Changbin says when the table quiets down.
“Yeah, I guess we do.” Chan says quietly.
My eyes tear up and I begin to sniff without control, the weight of my department tomorrow weighing heavily on my shoulders. Hyunjin puts an arm around my shoulders and gives me a tissue, whispering “it’s okay, it’s okay” to me while I try to calm down.
Everyone looks at me in confusion before Chan speaks first. “Y/n are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I just…” I trail off, not sure what to say.
“Do you want to tell them?” Hyunjin asks softly.
“Tell us what?” Seungmin says this time.
Hyunjin looks to me first before nodding, and I begin to spill my secret. “I got an internship offer.”
The table erupts in cheers and I get congratulations thrown back at me before I can even continue.
“But…” Immediately everyone silences and looks to me in expectation. “It’s in Itaewon.”
There’s a tense air that falls around us. “What?” Felix says in disbelief.
“You’re not leaving us, right Noona?” Jeongin asks from another part of the table.
I look to Jeongin with sad eyes, smiling sadly. “I leave tomorrow, after our graduation ceremony.” There’s some gasps around the table.
“What?! Y/n, why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Changbin blows up and Chan has to place a hand on his shoulder to restrain him.
“I didn’t want every time we met leading up to graduation to feel like a goodbye, Bin, I couldn’t handle that. So I kept it from you all so there wasn’t this tension every time we met.” I explained.
“Does Minho know?” Seungmin asks this time, and I shake my head.
“Y/n…” Han says worriedly.
“Guys, I know I’m not the only one that’s noticed that me and Minho aren’t that close anymore, so I haven’t really gotten the chance to tell him. But I told Hyunjin this a long time ago, that I wouldn’t tell Minho specifically, because there’s some things that I need to figure out and if I told him he’d find some way to keep me from going, or even worse, follow me. At least with Ahra by his side he won’t follow me to Itaewon.” There’s nods all around the table, understanding where I’m coming from.
“We’re gonna miss you a lot.” Felix sniffs and I coo, getting up from my seat to wrap my arms around him from behind.
“I’m gonna miss you all too.” I sniff with him, a few tears escaping my eyes.
Chan comes to join our hug, then Han, then Jeongin, and soon enough everyone has joined the group hug with me in the middle. All of us are crying, and I had never felt more loved than that moment.
Eventually we break away from the hug and return to our seats, everyone dabbing at their eyes with tissues and sniffing.
“Let’s all stop crying, tonight is a night to celebrate, all of us graduate tomorrow, and our dear Y/n got an internship offer in a big city!” Han holds up a drink and we all do the same, cheering and clinking our glasses together and celebrating the night away.
The next morning I get ready for graduation early, putting on my makeup and doing my hair, and sending a message.
to: [cat dad who’s a leech :D]
hey, can you meet me at p&p in thirty?
My heart picks up the pace as I send the message, I didn’t expect him to answer so quickly yet his message pings my phone within 2 minutes.
from: [cat dad who’s a leech :D]
sure, i can be there
to: [cat dad who’s a leech :D]
sweet, i’ll see you there
I turn my phone off and take a deep breath, we still had a few hours before we had to be at the school for our graduation ceremony, I’d have to leave just a few minutes after the ceremony ended which wouldn’t give me enough time to tell Minho, so, I made the painful decision the night before to tell him in the morning. I’d do it in our favorite spot in the corner of our favorite cat cafe, tell him the news slowly and hope that he takes it well.
I leave my house and 15 minutes later I’m in our usual booth, my coffee order sitting in front of me and the cats all wandering around as there weren’t too many people since it was relatively early in the morning. I already bought Minho his typical Iced Americano and it sat in front of me, awaiting it’s owner.
10 minutes later Minho arrives and makes his way to the table, sitting in front of me, smiling, unknowing of what’s about to happen.
“Hey.” I smile at him.
“Hey you.” He smiles back brightly. “Sorry I couldn’t see you guys last night, I took Ahra out for dinner last night on a date.”
“It’s completely alright, how are you guys?”
“Pretty good, things are going okay right now.” He answers.
“That’s good.” Nervously I take a sip of my macchiato in front of me, my leg bouncing in anxiety.
“Y/n? Is everything alright? Your leg’s bouncing pretty fast right now.” Curse Minho and the fact that he knows so much about me, he reaches out for my wrist and checks my pulse, quickly noticing how fast it’s beating as his brows furrow in confusion.
“Minho, there’s something I need to tell you.” I say, retracting my wrist from his grip. He doesn’t answer me but instead tilts his head like a cat does when it looks at its owner questionably. “I’m leaving.”
“What?” He asks.
How could one look so endearing, head tilted and eyes full of emotion as I break the news to him? I ask myself. “I got an internship offer for a company in Itaewon, I accepted it and I’m leaving for Itaewon, today.”
“You’re leaving today?” He says in disbelief, sounding out of breath.
I nod and continue. “After the graduation today I have to catch my bus. I didn’t have any other time to tell you so I had to tell you now.”
“You’re… You’re just telling me now? Do the others know about this?”
“I only told them last night.”
“You couldn’t have thought of telling me sooner?” He starts to get angry.
“Minho I-“
“What happened to telling me everything, huh? What happened to when we used to know everything about each other?”
“Minho, those days are long behind us, you have bigger priorities now, like putting your focus on your girlfriend, Minho. I couldn’t tell you because I knew you’d do something rash, and I didn’t even tell the others until last night because I knew every time we’d see each other it would be like preparing for the day I leave. You and Ahra have something so great going on for the two of you right now and telling you that I was leaving would take you away from that, and I can’t do that to you or her. Ahra is an amazing girl, and you have her now.”
“Will you at least visit?” His eyes are full of tears, some of the first I’ve seen in years and I hate that I’m the cause of it.
“I don’t know yet, there’s some things I need to figure out myself first, before I can visit. But at some point maybe I will, when I’ve figured things out I’ll try visiting from time to time.” I offer him a sad smile.
After a few moments of silence I get up from my seat.
“We still have a graduation left, Min, I’ll still see you then.” I ruffle his hair and walk out of the cafe, no more secrets but one weighing down on my chest.
The Graduation ceremony passes by in a blur. One moment we were listening to the speeches of each of the professors and the next we were tossing our caps into the air, cheering as we became alumni of our university.
Our friend group met up in the front of the school, taking pictures with our parents and congratulating each other. Eventually, the time comes and I have to go.
Our group stands in a circle, unmoving, as we all look at each other.
“I’m gonna miss all of you so much.” I say in tears as my voice breaks.
“We’re gonna miss you too, Y/n.” Hyunjin says. At his words everyone gathers into a group hug full of tears and the weight of a goodbye on our shoulders.
“You better promise to visit us, okay?” Felix holds me by the shoulders and makes a point to look me in the eye. Not trusting my voice, I nod and he brings me into one more hug.
I hug each of them individually, saying a few words, before I reach the last person.
I hug Minho and look into his eyes for the last time for a while.
“I’ll miss you.” He whispers.
“Me too.” And that’s all I can say.
I leave the campus for the last time, hopping in my car to head to the station and start anew.
Second leads always leave in the end, they leave and let the two main leads have a happy ending. That’s what it felt like I was doing, and I couldn’t tell if I was content with my choice or not.
Two and a half months in Itaewon passes quickly.
The move into my new apartment was smooth, and it was odd to be in a bigger space than a small dorm room. It felt like I had more space than I knew what to do with.
My internship was moving along smoothly as well, everyone I had met so far were really kind and taught me a lot. I was worried about feeling out of place but I had met a few other girls not much older than me who helped me feel at home.
Being alone in a big city was unnerving, but what made it so much more comfortable was the addition of a cat that my parents had bought me as my graduation gift. She was a chartreux cat who I named Luna because I had always dreamed of naming my first cat that. My parents covered most of the costs of basic things like cat toys, a scratch post, her bed, and similar things. I thanked my parents endlessly when they came over to my apartment a week after I had moved in and gave me Luna. I wasn’t gone for too long during the day and always left food for her, she was great company when I came home and worked on projects late into the evening, curling up into my lap like the cats at the old cafe used to. She was my best friend in a city I was still getting accustomed to.
I hadn’t talked to the guys much, I’d talked with them a few times in the group chat about how their job searches were going and trips they were planning to take soon. It was nice talking with them every so often but all of us were still pretty busy moving onto the next chapter of our lives.
I hadn’t talked to Minho since I left, I’d assumed that he and Ahra were doing well, but that’s all that was, assumption. None of the boys talked about him and I couldn’t understand why, but I never asked since I was supposed to be moving on from my feelings in the first place. I thought I had been doing pretty well until something would come up that reminded me of him, like his favorite song would play in the cafe I bought my morning coffee in and spent my breaks at, or snapchat would send me “Today, 1 year ago” memories of him and me fooling around at Paws and Pastries. Whenever that would happen I’d be sent back to square one, and it felt like I’d never move on from Minho.
I was on my way out to grab a coffee and spend my off day walking around, maybe looking into a few shops when I got a call from Hyunjin.
“Y/n! My favorite girl, how are you?”
“Hyunjin? What’s with the call?”
“What? Can I not call my friends from time to time?”
“Not when you’re notorious for calling your ‘friends’ after you’ve done something wrong.” I sigh.
“That was one time! Besides, it wasn’t that bad.”
“You dragged Jeongin to a party! And got him wasted!”
“One. Time. Y/n. It was one time.”
“One time is enough for you to be in trouble for life, Hyun.”
“Okay, whatever, but I was meaning to ask you, what’re your plans for today?”
“Me? I was just planning to go out, today’s my day off so I was gonna visit this one cafe and see some shops, why?”
“No reason, what time do you think you’ll be home?”
“Maybe five?”
“Great, okay, I have to go now, Han’s calling me, bye!” Hyunjin hangs up before I can ask him what’s with the weird questions.
“Hyunjin- Oh great he hung up.” I put my phone in my pocket before looking down at Luna who’s stretching near my legs. “Your uncle Hyunjin is quite the odd one, isn’t he Luna, hm?” I ask her and she meows back in response. “Weird indeed, but that’s just how he is. Mommy’s gonna spend her day out and then she’ll come home and we can watch the TV together, okay? I’ll be home soon.” I pick up Luna and set her on her little bed before ensuring everything is safe and make my way out the door.
I spend the day eating at a large cat cafe that actually had an assortment of books with little reading areas while the cats roamed around everywhere. It was much bigger than the cafe in Gimpo, but I would always correlate that one with home.
After I spent a bit of time reading there I went out and explored the shops for a few hours, bought some new jeans and a few blouses plus some makeup things. I got Subway for lunch and explored just a little bit more before heading home. Instead of going straight home, I decided to take the long way, going through the streets not minding the extra weight the few shopping bags I was holding in my hands gave me. The sun was just barely beginning to set as I walked into my apartment complex, getting into the elevator and pressing the button for my floor.
I walk down the hallway to my door and am surprised when a familiar figure greets me there.
“Minho?” I say as I walk closer.
“Y/n!” He says happily, bringing me into a hug.
“What are you doing here? Actually- Wait- Don’t answer that, do you wanna come inside?” I ask him.
“Sure.” He responds.
I unlock the door and bring my bags in, setting them by the door. “Luna! Mommy’s home!” I call out automatically.
Luna meows and comes out of the bedroom, walking her way up to me before I pick her up.
“You got a cat?” Minho asks.
“Yeah, parents brought her to me about a week after I moved in.” I put Luna back down and she moves to sit on the arm of the couch, her favorite spot to sit when the sun goes down.
“And you named her Luna,” He smiles fondly. “You always wanted to name your cat Luna.”
“I’m surprised you remember that.” I chuckle. “Do you want some coffee?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll get that brewing, just give me a few minutes, you can take a seat on the couch and make yourself at home!” I tell him as I quickly retreat to the kitchen.
I have to take a few breaths when I’m far away enough from Minho, my heart beating just as fast as it would when I was around him back then. It was clear I hadn’t moved on at all.
I brew the coffee as promised and wait next to the coffee machine with two mugs ready. A voice chimes in behind me.
“Your place is much bigger than the dorms.” He chuckles.
“Tell me about it, it was so weird buying more furniture than I was used to.” I laugh with him.
The machine finishes brewing the coffee and I pour it into the two mugs, putting it on a tray with creamer and sugar before bringing it all to the coffee table in front of the couch.
Minho and I take seats on the couch, separated by a bit of space between us while we sip on our respective mugs.
“So,” I start the conversation. “How’s home?”
“Not too bad, same old same old, the guys being annoying as usual, you know?” He says.
“Sounds fun.” I chuckle. “And work, have you found anything yet?”
“Not yet, I’ve got a few applications out, but I’m still waiting on some answers.”
“I’m sure you’ll get them soon.” I respond.
An uncomfortable silence sets over the both of us, and I run my free hand through Luna’s fur who’s situated herself in my lap this time. I take a long sip of my coffee before asking another question.
“How’s… How are you and Ahra?”
“Oh…” He trails off. “We broke up a few weeks ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that…” I had no idea that he and Ahra had broken up, in fact that was the completely opposite of what I thought had happened since they seemed to work together so well.
“Yeah, it was a mutual thing. We didn’t really feel that kind of connection anymore, you know? So we just, broke it off.”
“Are you okay?” I ask Minho.
“Me? Yeah, I’m actually not as affected as I thought I’d be, I don’t know if that makes me a cruel person or not but I was only sad for the first week or two. Nothing too bad.”
“I see.” Another silence settles between us. This one is longer, more tense, there was something Minho wanted to ask but he wasn’t sure, and I couldn’t depict what question he was going to ask.
“Actually, I came her for a reason.” He says.
“And what reason is that?” I ask hesitantly.
“For answers.” My brows furrow, answers for what? “There’s something Hyunjin told me recently and it got me thinking, and I wanted to hear it from you if it was true.”
I finish my coffee and place it down delicately on the coffee table, trying not to show how nervous I was with how badly my hands were shaking. “I’ll see if I have answers for you then.”
“When you told me you were leaving, you said you had some, things, to figure out on your own. What was it that you had to figure out?”
I take a moment to decide exactly how I was going to answer his question. Did I want to expose my feelings to him just yet? “Just, feelings.” I say vaguely.
“For?”
“Just feelings for somebody.”
“Is it Hyunjin?”
“No.”
“Chan?”
“Nope.”
“Changbin?”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Me?”
I pause for just a half second, and apparently that was all Minho needed. “I guess Hyunjin’s big mouth was right after all.”
“Wait- What? What are you talking about?”
Minho takes a long sip of his coffee before finishing letting out a sigh after swallowing, he slowly sets the mug on the table before making direct eye contact with me and silently killing me with the suspense. “Minho please just say something you’re killing me here.”
He only chuckles in response. “Hyunjin told me not too long ago that you took up the offer to work here because you were going to sort out your feelings, for me.” He says sweetly as I suck in a breath at his last words.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Minho-“
“Now now, Y/n, we shouldn’t hide things from each other anymore, should we?” His sweet, sultry voice was affecting me greatly as he leaned closer to me on the couch. I gulp and silently curse when Luna, the only thing keeping me sane, leaves the comfort of my lap for her scratch-post.
“Minho…” I let out quietly.
“Tell me, Kitten, is it true?” He asks once again.
“I-“ My voice catches in my throat when Minho leans in ever nearer, still making direct eye-contact with me. “Yes, it is.” I sigh out and Minho backs away.
“He was right.” Minho whispers while my gaze drops to my hands that I fiddle with in my lap at the secret that’s let out. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m sorry.” I whisper.
“Why are you sorry darling?” He asks softly and uses his thumb and forefinger to tilt my head up by my chin.
“I couldn’t tell you because I knew you didn’t feel the same, and then when you got together with Ahra we drifted apart because it hurt me to see you with her. Then I left and told you about me leaving so last minute. I made you cry, Minho, and I hate that I did. But I couldn’t see any other way out of it. I hurt you because I was cowardly and didn’t want to be selfish by telling you and having your attention move off of Ahra, when I was really being selfish by not telling you and hurting you in the end.” More tears escape my eyes as we look at each other.
“Princess, no…” He cups my face with his hands and uses his thumbs to wipe away my tears. “I’ll admit, it did hurt when you told me that you were leaving the day of, but I understood where you were coming from. Because you were right, I would have done something crazy to keep you by my side. Do you know why?” He asks, and I shake my head, still crying. “Because I need you by my side, kitten, even when I was dating Ahra I felt off but just didn’t pay any mind to it because I had her. But now I know it’s because you and I were drifting apart, I found out when after you left and me and Ahra broke up because I felt empty. I couldn’t text you to just come over anymore because you’re farther away from me now. I lied earlier, I said that I sent out some applications for jobs but didn’t get any answers yet, right?” I nod. “I got offered a job as a software engineer, here, in Itaewon, and I said yes.”
“Why?” I whisper.
“Because I want to be near you, I need to be by your side Y/n, because I love you.” I let out a sob at his confession and he coos, bringing me to rest my head on his chest and rubbing his hands on my back and running them through my hair.
“I love you too.” I say after a few minutes.
Minho brings me out of his hold, and cups my face again. For the first time, he kisses me. His lips brush over mine before deepening the kiss, taking full charge of it yet somehow still being soft with me. His kisses were nothing short of addicting, and I knew I’d be in love with him for a long time.
In that moment, kissing the man of my dreams, I remember that it may be rare that a second lead gets their own happy ending, but it’s not unheard of. Sometimes the main lead and second lead do end up with their own happily ever after.
Notes from the author: I have FINALLY posted something y’all 😂 took a few months but she’s here, and she’s dishing out something at least. I don’t know how often I’ll be posting again, esp with school and whatnot, but I do know I need to drain out my drafts because phew, it’s getting a little full in there.
But anyways, I hope you enjoyed this fic! I’m pretty sure it’s one of the longest I’ve written if not the longest. Hopefully it wasn’t too bad, I’m probably a little rusty but we can fix that (i think)
if you want more I still have my old stuff up on my masterlist on my account! hope to see you around :))
-nyx
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