#Like I will never go to a high school dance or sports event and that’s in my mom

[makkie-is-screaming]

mourning all the normal childhood/teenage experiences I never had and never will because of my mom

[bloodreinasbathwater]

Xo Xo Gossip Girl

Pairing: Jack Hughes x Gossip Blogger! Reader

Part 1

a:n The way I find myself digging for the perfect chapter gif only to scroll for five minutes and save my favorites is so embarrassing. I'm gonna need his girlfriend to hand over that game card... anyway hope u like this chapter.

word count - 4k

Masterlist Link

GIF by wyattjohnston

...

HOCKEY HEARTBREAK: THE REAL REASON BEHIND THE HUGHES-DEGREGIO SPLIT

Posted by Y/N @ The Daily Whisper | 11:42 PM

Settle in, Whisper Warriors, because do I have some piping hot tea for you tonight.

You know those moments when the universe just hands you the story of the year? Well, last Saturday at Vibe, somewhere between my second cosmopolitan and watching Matt Rempe fail at dancing (yes, that's tea for another day), I quite literally bumped into none other than Serena DeGregio. And let me tell you, after a few shots of liquid courage, Hollywood's newest "it girl" was ready to spill everything about her recent split from hockey's favorite bad boy, Jack Hughes.

Now, we've all seen the headlines: "Hockey Heartthrob and Rising Star Call It Quits." But the real story? It's juicier than your mom's Thanksgiving turkey.

According to Serena, our beloved hockey star couldn't handle being the second name in the relationship. While she was booking Netflix specials and selling out concert venues, Jack was sidelined with a shoulder injury that kept him off the ice for three months. And apparently, watching your girlfriend's face on every billboard in Times Square does things to a man's ego.

"He's still stuck in that high school hockey star mentality," Serena told me, twirling the olive in her martini. "You know the type – peaked at eighteen, never had to grow up because everything came easy."

But here's where I have to play devil's advocate (and maybe it's because I've seen those ice-blue eyes up close at press events). Having covered Jack's career since his rookie year, there's more to him than Serena's bitter pill would have you swallow. This is the same guy who started a youth hockey program in underprivileged neighborhoods. The same player who spent his injury rehab volunteering at children's hospitals. And let's be real – anyone who's seen him handle a puck knows he definitely hasn't peaked.

Maybe it's the journalist in me, but something about this story feels... incomplete. There's always two sides to every breakup, isn't there?

Update coming soon... if I can track down Mr. Hughes for his side of the story 😉

...

Y/N stretched back in her purple velvet office chair, admiring her latest post on the screen. Her "lair," as she liked to call it, was her happy place – fairy lights twinkling across the ceiling, framed magazine covers featuring her biggest stories adorning the coral-painted walls, and her trusty mini-fridge humming softly in the corner, stocked with Diet Coke and chocolate-covered almonds.

The story was already gaining traction, comments pinging faster than she could read them. Her phone buzzed – Alyssa's face lighting up the screen. Y/N smiled, knowing her best friend had probably already devoured every word. As the head of corporate sponsorships at Manhattan's largest sports marketing firm, Alyssa always had the best insider information – and opinions to match.

"Y/N! Have you lost your mind?" Alyssa didn't even wait for a hello. "That post about Jack and Serena is everywhere! My entire office is buzzing about it. The PR team for the Rangers is having a field day."

"Good evening to you too, bestie." Y/N spun lazily in her chair, a satisfied smirk playing on her lips.

"Never mind pleasantries. I have information that's going to make your next post even bigger." Y/N could hear the smile in her voice. "You know that charity gala at The Plaza next weekend? The one my firm is coordinating with?"

Y/N threw her head back and groaned dramatically. The motion made her neck crack, and she absently rubbed it while whining, "Don't rub it in. I've been trying to get press credentials for weeks. Even my usual connections couldn't get me in."

"Well, guess who's not only attending but is being honored for his youth hockey program?"

Y/N shot forward so fast her chair rolled back and hit the wall, rattling her framed cover of Time Magazine. "Jack Hughes."

"Bingo. And since I'm basically running the whole event..." Alyssa paused for dramatic effect. "I happen to have an extra ticket with your name on it. Perks of being best friends with someone who has to make sure all the corporate sponsors play nice with their hockey darlings."

"Shut up!" Y/N leaped out of her chair, nearly tripping over her discarded shoes in excitement. She caught herself on the edge of her desk, sending a stack of press releases flying. "Alyssa Martinez, you beautiful genius! How did you swing that?"

"Let's just say I convinced the foundation board that having an influential blogger there would be good publicity for their youth programs." Alyssa's voice took on a more serious tone. "Though after this post, I might have some explaining to do. You better make this worth it."

Y/N's heart raced as she glanced at her blog post still glowing on the screen, her mind already spinning with possibilities. "Trust me, this is going to be the story of the year."

"I'm counting on it. My reputation is on the line here too, you know. These athletes might be my clients, but you're my best friend. Don't make me regret mixing the two."

"Have I ever let you down before?" Y/N was already opening her notes app, fingers flying across the keyboard.

"There's a first time for everything," Alyssa teased. "So, are you ready to get the other side of the story?"

...

One Week Later

Y/N stood before her full-length mirror, smoothing down the silk of her black dress. Beside her, Alyssa was applying a final coat of mascara, her own black dress a perfect complement with its off-shoulder design.

"Stop overthinking it," Alyssa said, catching Y/N's distant expression in the mirror. "I can literally see the gears turning in your head."

Y/N sighed, fiddling with her delicate silver necklace. The blog post about Jack and Serena had exploded over the past week, becoming her most viral story to date. But something about it had been nagging at her, keeping her up at night as she replayed Serena's words in her mind.

"It's just..." Y/N paused, carefully considering her words. "What if we got it wrong? What if Serena isn't the victim she's making herself out to be?"

Alyssa raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you second-guess a source?"

"Since something doesn't add up." Y/N moved to her vanity, pretending to touch up her subtle smoky eye while her thoughts raced. "I've been doing some digging. Every charity event, every hospital visit, every youth program – Jack Hughes doesn't publicize any of it. His team's PR doesn't even push it. What kind of attention-seeking bad boy does good deeds and keeps them quiet?"

"So you think Serena's lying?"

"I think..." Y/N turned to face her friend, determination settling over her features. "I think she's a scorned ex trying to control the narrative. And maybe... maybe I helped her do it."

Alyssa's lips curved into a knowing smile. "And this sudden crisis of conscience has nothing to do with those ice-blue eyes you mentioned in your post?"

"This isn't about that," Y/N protested, but she could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. "This is about the truth. The real story." She grabbed her clutch, checking one last time that her phone and recorder were inside. "Every good journalist knows there are two sides to every story. It's time I found out his."

"Well then," Alyssa linked their arms together, leading them toward the door. "Let's go get your story, Lois Lane."

As they stepped into the waiting car, Y/N's mind was already racing with possibilities. She'd built her career on exposing the truth, even when it wasn't pretty. But tonight felt different. Tonight, she wasn't just chasing a story – she was chasing redemption. And maybe, just maybe, she'd find out who the real Jack Hughes was in the process.

The Plaza Hotel beckoned in the distance, its lights twinkling against the Manhattan skyline like a beacon. Y/N took a deep breath, steeling herself for what was to come. Bad boy or misunderstood hero, she was going to find out the truth – even if it meant admitting she got it wrong the first time.

...

Jack's pov

Jack's knee wouldn't stop bouncing under the pristine white tablecloth, making the water in his parents' glasses ripple like tiny earthquakes. Luke, ever the annoying little brother, flicked his ear.

"Dude, you're making the whole table shake. What's got you so worked up?" Luke's grin was nothing short of devilish. "Could it be a certain viral blog post about your 'high school mentality'?"

Jack pinched the sensitive spot under Luke's bicep, earning a satisfying yelp. "Shut up, man. At least I didn't trip over my own skates at practice yesterday."

"Boys," Ellen Hughes' warning tone cut through their bickering. She smoothed her navy dress with one hand while giving them both the look – the one that had stopped many locker room fights in their youth. "You're at a charity gala, not the rink. Act like grown men, please?"

"Yes, Mom," they chorused in unison, sharing a quick grin that made their father Jim chuckle behind his menu.

Jack let out a heavy breath, tugging at his bow tie. It felt too tight, like everything else lately – the press, the expectations, the endless questions about Serena. His leg started bouncing again.

"That's it." He pushed back from the table, his chair scraping against the floor. "I need a drink."

"Water," his mother called after him. "You have a speech to give!"

Jack waved in acknowledgment, weaving through the sea of evening gowns and tuxedos. His shoulder twinged – phantom pain from the injury that had started this whole mess. Or maybe it was just his body's reaction to stress. The blog post had been everywhere this week, his phone blowing up with messages from teammates asking if he'd seen it.

He had. Multiple times. Each read made him want to throw his phone into the Hudson.

Reaching the bar, he slumped against the polished marble, pressing his forehead to the cool surface for just a moment. "Water, please," he groaned to the bartender. "Still, not sparkling."

"Trouble in paradise?"

The voice was unfamiliar, tinged with curiosity and something else he couldn't quite place. Jack lifted his head to find a woman in a black dress perched on the barstool next to him, stirring what looked like a cosmopolitan with delicate fingers. She wasn't looking at him directly, but he could see the hint of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

Before he could respond, a flash of red appeared in his peripheral vision, and he had to fight the urge to groan out loud.

"Jackie!" The voice was unmistakable – Rebekah Chen, Page Six's most persistent reporter. Her red dress matched her lipstick, both as bold as her personality. She latched onto his arm like a barnacle, fake nails digging into his jacket. "I've been trying to reach you all week!"

Jack threw his head back, closing his eyes as if that might make her disappear. "Not today, Rebekah," he muttered, feeling every muscle in his jaw tense. His hand curled around the water glass the bartender had just set down, knuckles white.

"Oh, come on!" She pressed closer, her voice dropping to what she probably thought was a seductive whisper. "Just a few questions. I can help you clear the air about that nasty blog post. Make that gossip guru eat her words." She batted her eyelashes. "All I need is a teensy exclusive about what really happened with Serena."

Jack's laugh was hollow as he extracted his arm from her grip. "Right, because that worked out so well the last time." He took a long drink of water, adam's apple bobbing as he tried to maintain his composure. "No comment, Rebekah. Same as yesterday, and the day before that, and—"

"But Jackie—"

"Not happening." Jack's voice was firm as steel. "There's nothing to say, Rebekah. Not to you, not to anyone."

Rebekah huffed, her red lips turning down into a pout. She opened her mouth to protest again, but something in Jack's expression must have finally gotten through. With a dramatic sigh and flip of her hair, she clicked away on her stilettos, no doubt in search of easier prey.

Jack's shoulders dropped as tension bled out of them. He turned back to the bar, catching the mystery woman in black watching him in the mirror behind the bottles. When their eyes met, she didn't look away.

"That happen often?" she asked, taking a slow sip of her cosmopolitan.

Jack let out a dry laugh, running a hand through his carefully styled hair. "More than I'd like. Apparently, 'no comment' is journalist-speak for 'try harder.'" He paused, studying her reflection. "Though you don't seem like the pushy type."

"Maybe I'm just better at playing the long game." The corner of her mouth quirked up, and she turned to face him properly. "Besides, the real story usually isn't found in ambushing someone at a bar."

"Exactly." He found himself leaning against the bar, angling toward her. There was something about her that made him want to keep talking. "Like this blog post that went viral this week. Everyone's got an opinion about who I am, what I did wrong, but—" He stopped himself, shaking his head. "Sorry, you probably haven't even seen it."

She hummed noncommittally, that almost-smile playing on her lips again. "I might have caught it. Though I tend to be more interested in the stories that don't make headlines."

"Like what?"

"Like why a professional hockey player spends his injury rehab teaching kids to skate in Harlem instead of lounging on some beach somewhere."

Jack blinked, caught off guard. He'd been careful about keeping that quiet. "How did you—"

"Just someone who pays attention," she said, gathering her clutch. "The real story isn't always the loudest one, is it?"

Before Jack could process what she meant, Luke's voice carried across the room. "Jack! Mom says get back here. Speech time!"

The woman in black slid off her barstool with practiced grace. "Sounds like you're needed elsewhere."

"Wait," Jack said, suddenly not wanting her to disappear into the crowd. "I didn't catch your name."

"Y/N," she offered, and for a moment, her smile was full and genuine. "Good luck with your speech, Jack.”

She moved past him, the subtle scent of her perfume lingering. Jack found himself watching her weave through the crowd, his mind replaying their conversation. There had been something different about her – the way she'd asked questions without really asking them, how she'd known about his volunteer work but hadn't tried to use it against him like Rebekah would have.

"Dude." Luke appeared at his elbow, poking him in the ribs. "Stop staring into space. Mom's going to kill us both if you're late for your own award."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." Jack followed his brother back to their table, but his eyes kept scanning the crowd. He spotted her finally, sliding into a seat near the back beside another woman in black. As if sensing his gaze, she glanced up, raising her cosmopolitan in a small salute.

For the first time in weeks, Jack felt himself genuinely smile.

...

"...and with your continued support, we can make sure every kid who wants to play hockey has that chance, regardless of their circumstances. Thank you."

The ballroom erupted in applause. Jack's shoulders relaxed slightly – public speaking had never been his favorite part of the job, but at least this speech was about something that mattered.

Near the back of the room, Y/N leaned toward Alyssa. "We should go," she whispered, gathering her clutch. "We're not gonna get anything else tonight."

Alyssa nodded, already standing. "At least the champagne was good."

They slipped out as the crowd continued clapping, their heels clicking against the marble floors of The Plaza's ornate lobby. Y/N's mind was already spinning with how she'd write this up – not the puff piece everyone would expect, but something different. Something true.

"Y/N!"

The call echoed through the lobby, making her freeze mid-step. That voice – she'd just been listening to it give a speech about youth hockey programs and second chances.

She turned slowly, Alyssa's hand gripping her arm in surprise. Jack Hughes was jogging toward them, bow tie slightly askew, still slightly breathless from his speech. His hair was ruffled like he'd been running his hands through it, and there was a slight flush to his cheeks that hadn't been there at the bar.

"I—" he started, then seemed to realize he was still slightly out of breath. His hand came up to rest gently on her bare arm, the touch surprisingly warm. "Hey."

Y/N's eyebrows rose. "Hey yourself. Shouldn't you be back there accepting congratulations?"

He waved his free hand dismissively, though he didn't move the one on her arm. "They'll survive without me for a few minutes." His ice-blue eyes darted between her and Alyssa, a mix of nervousness and determination crossing his features. "You should come out with us. Both of you," he added quickly, offering Alyssa a genuine smile. "My teammates are headed to this bar just down the street. Nothing fancy, just... drinks. And conversation."

The way he said 'conversation' made Y/N's pulse quicken. There was weight behind it, meaning she couldn't quite decipher.

"I don't know," she started, but Alyssa cut her off.

"We'd love to," her supposed best friend said, ignoring Y/N's sharp look. "Lead the way, Hughes."

Jack's face broke into a grin that transformed his entire appearance. Gone was the serious hockey player from the podium, replaced by something younger, lighter. "Great! I just need to grab Luke and dodge my parents." He squeezed Y/N's arm gently before letting go. "Don't leave, okay? Five minutes, tops."

He was already backing away, that grin still in place. "Wait for me," he called out, just before turning.

Y/N waited until he was out of earshot before turning to Alyssa. "What are you doing?"

"Getting you the real story," Alyssa smirked, already typing on her phone. "Isn't that what you wanted?"

Y/N opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. She thought about Jack's smile, the warmth of his hand on her arm, the way he'd said 'conversation' like he was offering something more than just drinks and small talk.

"Five minutes," she conceded, trying not to smile at Alyssa's triumphant expression. "But if this backfires, I'm blaming you."

"Honey," Alyssa linked their arms, steering them toward the bar's entrance. "Something tells me this is going to be the best story you've ever written."

...

The bass thrummed through Y/N's bones as they approached the club, the line wrapping around the building like a snake. Jack stayed close to her side, his presence warm and solid as they bypassed the queue entirely.

"Mr. Hughes," the security guard nodded, unhooking the velvet rope without hesitation. "Welcome back."

Inside, bodies packed the dance floor, but Jack navigated them through the crowd with practiced ease. His hand ghosted over Y/N's lower back, guiding her through the maze of people until they reached a raised section cordoned off with another rope. Several men Y/N recognized from hockey highlights were sprawled across the plush booths, drinks already flowing.

"Look who finally made it!" Luke called out, now free of his bow tie and jacket. "We were starting to think Mom trapped you in conversation with the Vanderbilts again."

"Barely escaped," Jack laughed, helping Y/N up the small steps before following. "Everyone, this is Y/N and Alyssa."

The team welcomed them warmly, shuffling to make space. Y/N found herself wedged between Jack and the booth's arm, hyperaware of every point where their bodies touched. Her notebook felt like it was burning a hole in her clutch.

"I'm telling you," one of the players – Miller, according to his heated gesture at his teammate – was saying, "game seven, '94 Finals. Best hockey game ever played."

"You weren't even born yet!" Another player – Thompson – argued back. "2010 Olympics, Canada versus USA. That's peak hockey right there."

"You're both wrong," Luke interjected, leaning forward. "2018 World Juniors, outdoor game. Nothing beats playing in actual snow."

"That's because you scored the winning goal, you biased little shit," Jack laughed, his arm sliding naturally along the booth behind Y/N. The movement brought him closer, his cologne mixing with the lingering scent of his aftershave.

"What about you?" he asked, turning those blue eyes on her. "You follow hockey long?"

"My dad used to play," she found herself saying truthfully. "Nothing professional, just beer league, but he loved it. Taught me to skate before I could walk."

Something in Jack's expression softened. "Mine too. Well, him and my mom..." He shifted, angling toward her more fully. "It's different now though, isn't it? The pressure. Everyone watching, waiting for you to mess up. Luke and Quinn, they get it, but we're barely home at the same time anymore. Summer's all we got, really. And even then..." He trailed off, vulnerability flickering across his features in the dim light.

Y/N's chest tightened. This wasn't the cocky player from the tabloids or the bitter ex-boyfriend from Serena's story. This was just... Jack. Raw and real and trusting her with pieces of himself she had no right to.

"I need a drink," she blurted, already sliding out of the booth. "Excuse me."

She practically fled to the bar, gripping the edge of it when she reached it. "Whiskey sour," she managed when the bartender looked her way. "Strong."

"Oh my god, Y/N!"

She turned to find Rebekah Chen stumbling slightly, clearly several drinks in. Her red dress was slightly askew, her lipstick smudged at one corner.

"Is Jack here?!" Rebekah's voice pitched high with excitement.

"No," Y/N said firmly, accepting her drink from the bartender. "He's not."

"Ugh." Rebekah deflated, then perked up again almost instantly. "But oh my god, you'll never believe what Serena told me about him." She leaned in conspiratorially, alcohol heavy on her breath. "He's a total player. Like, major cheater. She said he was always sliding into girls' DMs when they were together, coming to places like this..." She gestured around the club. "Getting with random girls behind her back."

Y/N's eyes widened despite herself. The Jack she'd just left didn't seem capable of that kind of betrayal, but...

"Yeah!" Rebekah pressed on, encouraged by Y/N's reaction. "Serena has receipts too. Screenshots, dates, everything. She's just waiting for the right moment to release them." She swayed slightly. "Guess the golden boy isn't so golden after all, right?"

Y/N's drink suddenly felt heavy in her hand. Behind her, she could hear Jack's laugh carrying over the music, warm and genuine. She thought about how carefully he'd helped her through the crowd, how softly he'd spoken about his brothers.

How absolutely screwed she was if she was starting to believe in him.

...

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[ladyloveandjustice]

Running the Gauntlet: A Natsume Yuujinchou fanfic (Part 1)

Part 1 of my fanfic based on the idea I had in this post about Natsume's running abilities making his life at school difficult that blew up.

Includes a couple silly footnotes!

Running the Gauntlet

“I wish Natsume wasn’t our anchor,” a classmate complained.

Natsume flinched. It’s not like I wanted to be, he thought glumly. He pretended he hadn’t heard, hunching over and tying this shoe. So many students and teachers milling around on the grass, waiting for the big event, whoever it was probably hadn’t noticed he was nearby.

But then, Nishimura’s response made him feel even worse.

“Man, shut up. You haven’t really seen Natsume run. He’s friggin’ fast. We’re lucky to have him.”

Natsume appreciated Nishimura standing up for him, but inwardly he was screaming at him to please stop talking about this.

Then Kitamoto chimed in, “Yeah, one of the first times we saw him outside of school, he basically dashed out of the woods at warp speed. So don’t be rude.”

He saw Kitamoto glance quickly at him, clearly aware might be in earshot.

“Fast? Come on you two, I know he’s your friend, but the guy is sickly. You’re expecting me to believe someone who collapses every other day is a good runner? I’m not saying he’s a bad guy, I’m just not counting on him to win this”. The classmate, who rarely spoke to Natsume, adjusted his glasses.

“You’ll see,” Nishimura said smugly.

Natsume groaned inwardly, straightening up.

He eyed the various students hanging out in different colored headbands, the boy handing out water bottles from the tent, and some teachers talking off to the side.  There was even a chattering crowd on the small set of bleachers. A crowd that included parents.

But worst of all was the looping black track, sizzling in the sun before him. He, Nishimura, and the rest who’d been chosen for the relay race would be lining up on it soon.

He hated Sports Day.

To be fair, this was his least hated sports day so far. He’d never actually experienced sports day while having friends before. When he was a kid, he could expect being pushed to the ground and mocked, or having classmates complaining loudly to teachers about being paired up with the liar. Best case scenario was he’d merely have to feel lonely as he was left out of class celebrations, watching parents and friends cheer others on when there was no one to cheer for him.

But this year he’d been able to cheer wildly for Taki during the bean bag toss, laugh at Tanuma as he was forced to dance awkwardly with the rest of his class during their group performance, and smile as Tanuma got some sweet revenge by beating him at the scavenger hunt. He’d gotten to high five Kitamoto and Nishimura after every victory, and even Sasada once.

So many parents being here was still a little intimidating, though. He kept expecting one of them to yell at him to get away from their kid, even though he knew it wasn’t like that anymore. The Fujiwaras hadn’t been able to come, as they had a relative’s wedding to attend today. Natsume hadn’t even told them today was sports day, because he didn’t want them to feel bad about it. He was also kind of relieved they couldn’t come, because he would have been even more nervous if they were watching.

Overall, it had been a good day. He was basically enjoying himself.

But there was no getting over the dread of his biggest obstacle yet—the relay race. He was really going to have to pay attention to his running. It was such a tough balance…he didn’t want to let down the class, but he also needed to think of…

“Natsume, are you okay?” He blinked, noticing Sasada was suddenly next to him. “You were spacing out a bit.”

“I’m fine! Actually, are you okay?” She looked pale, and she kept fiddling with her glasses. It was strange to see her without the usual air of confidence.

“I’m nervous,” she admitted. She’d been chosen for the relay race too, and was looking at the track with almost as much trepidation as he was.

“Sasada! Natsume!”  Nishimura ran forward before Natsume could reassure her. “It’s all up to us!”

“Yay,” Sasada said blandly.

“Whar’a wrong, Sasada?” Nishimura grinned smugly at her “Worried you’re gonna be the sports day cliché?”

“The…what?”

“You’ve seen it on TV, right? In anime and stuff? There’s always the one person who trips during the relay race. They scramble to their feet, tears in their eyes, and pass off their baton…” Nishimura imitated the gesture dramatically. “But don’t worry! You can trip all you want, I’m so fast it won’t matter! No need to be nervous!”

Sasada shook her head, putting her glasses back on. “You know what, your stupidity has calmed my nerves a bit, thank you,”

“Glad to be of service.”

---

Considering all that, Natsume wasn’t exactly surprised when Nishimura was the one who tripped.

Natsume winced when his friend went down, hoping he wasn’t hurt. It would be okay, right? Nishimura was so good-humored. This wasn’t a big deal or anything. He’d just laugh it off and…

Nishimura stumbled up, his knee bleeding, his face burning with shame. Natsume could see his eyes were brimming with tears. Of course he was devastated. Nishimura may act carefree, but he hated letting people down.

Natsume sighed.

Fine then.

“Nishimura!” He called out, offering his hand. “Don’t give up! I’ve got this!”

Nishimura’s face lit up instantly. He jogged as fast as he could and slammed the baton in Natsume’s hand. Natsume faced forward. The others had a massive head start, but that wasn’t enough to make him give up.

A yokai is chasing me, he told himself. A big one with sharp teeth.

And next thing he knew, he was crossing the finish line.

Cheers exploded around him as the other runners caught up, lagging after him. And then, suddenly, what seemed to be the entire class was rushing towards him. He had to resist the urge to put his hands up defensively.

Nishimura slammed into him from the side, embracing him. Tears were streaming down his cheeks and he was whooping and laughing. Heat spread up Natsume’s neck and face. It was the first time Nishimura had ever hugged him. Or cried so openly in front of him. He knew it was considered fine for guys to cry and hug only when it involved sports for some reason, but it was still a surprise.  He wasn’t used to that kind of intimacy. Not that it was bad. It was kind of nice.

 The rest of his class gathered around him, yelling things like “way to go” and “that was amazing!” Even Sasada, her face still red and sweaty from her run, was screaming her head off and jumping up and down. Kitamoto clapped Natsume on the back and soon several classmates followed suit. Natsume was sure a red handprint was permanently etched on his back now.

“Dude, I knew you were fast, but I didn’t know you were that fast!!” Nishimura yelled through his tears.

“Seriously, do you have a secret running regimen I don’t know about, or is it just natural talent?” Kitamoto said.

Natsume heard some more cheering explode behind him, and looked over his shoulder to see an uncharacteristically excited Tanuma waving at him from the other side of the track, “Congrats, Natsume!”

“Tanuma, you could at least… pretend to care… that our class lost,” said the boy Natsume had gone up against, still doubled over and panting.

“Sorry.”

There was loud whistle from the stands and Natsume saw it came from Taki. The girl next to her had covered her ears. Taki didn’t notice, and let out another impressively strong blast, waving at him. She removed her knuckles from her mouth and shouted “Woo, Natsume!”

Natsume was torn between being happy his friends supported him and so embarrassed he could die.

“I owe you an apology, Natsume,” said the boy with the glasses, whoever he was.

“Hell yeah you do!” Nishimura responded.

“Nishimura…” Kitamoto’s said scoldingly, his eyes flicking to Sasada.

“Ah…I’m sorry too, Sasada,” Nishimura said sincerely. “You really showed me.” (Sasada had been fast enough to give Nishimura a head start, as Natsume suspected she would be, she’d certainly caught up to him out of nowhere plenty of times in the early days of their relationship).

Sasada wasn’t listening, she was looking at a fit girl with short black hair from another class, who was also still panting from the race. “How about that, Chiyo!” she called over to her.

“You win this one, but I’ll get you next time, Jun! Just you wait!” Chiyo called with a matching huge grin and an excited look in her eyes. For some reason Sasada blushed delicately in response*.

“Okay, okay, give him some room to breathe,” Kitamoto said, shooing at the others. They all stepped back, though Nishimura remained by Natsume’s side. Natsume was grateful for Kitamoto, he was dizzy and overwhelmed. He’d had no idea races like this were such a big deal to people. He was more grateful than ever the Fujiwaras weren’t here to add on to all this.

“Look Natsume!” Sasada had finally torn her eyes away from the other girl and was pointing at the stands. “Even the track coach looks impressed!”

“No wonder, you’re faster than half her team,” Kitamoto said. “Bet she tries to recruit you!”

Natsume’s stomach dropped like a stone. Indeed, the track coach, a woman with short brown hair and sharp eyes, was looking at him with interest. This was exactly what he’d been afraid of. His personal hell had returned. Had winning a measly race been worth it?

Natsume looked over at Nishimura, who was still jumping up and down and hollering about how he was going to treat Kitamoto, Sasada and Natsume to some manju, not even minding when Kitamoto snarked at him about it how it must be a cold day in hell if the man who sponged off everyone was paying the tab for once. He flashed Natsume another ecstatic grin, and Natsume smiled back.

Yeah, it had been worth it.

--

Natsume had experienced a lot of reoccurring horrors, but the most annoying of them was being hounded by track coaches at every school he went to.

Apparently, spending most of his life running from yokai had made him faster than the average person. He’d been unaware of this until his first year of middle school. When it came time to run the track, Natsume had heard whispers around him, a couple of the kids placing bets on when he’d collapse. One boy had even smacked him on the shoulder and screamed “The liar’s gonna come in dead last!” in his ear.

Natsume hadn’t really done much racing against other kids on the playground, and he’d been sick during a lot of gym classes, so he’d also figured he’d struggle against the other kids. It had completely shocked everyone, himself included, when he blew past them all with ease. He’d reached the finish line only to find the other kids several feet behind him, panting and gawking.

The gym teacher’s eyes had gone wide, and he’d immediately started urging Natsume to join the track club. The man had even gone to Natsume’s current guardians about it.

His guardians had resented that he was getting attention while their real kid was an overlooked benchwarmer on the baseball team. They’d thrown lots of snide comments Natsume’s way. And…well, he hadn’t had a good time on the track team at all. When he’d inevitably had to move again after those same guardians got tired of him, leaving the track club behind had been the silver lining.

Upon transferring to a new school, he’d decided to keep his speed under wraps. But then a coach noticed him running when he was late for class one day and his troubles started all over again. At first he’d avoided the coach by coming up with excuses about responsibilities or detention or headaches, but eventually he was just reduced to hiding under the bleachers when he saw the man.

At another school, a coach tried to recruit him for her team SO aggressively he’d made the stupid mistake of running away when he saw her—and naturally, seeing how fast he could book it had just increased her interest.

So, when he was gathering up all the extra water bottles from the hydration station tent at end of the day, and saw the track coach approach him, his heart started pounding, He fought back his urge to bolt, even a flashbacks filled his brain.

“Natsume, right? I’m Sakuragi, if you don’t remember,” The woman had a wide, genuine smile. He’d only spoken to her a few times, but he was pretty sure she was Taki’s homeroom teacher. “You showed some impressive hustle today! Have you ever thought of joining the track team?”

Fortunately, Natsume had his excuses pre-prepared. “Oh wow, that’s such an honor, Sensei!” He said, continuing to gather up the water bottles while still maintaining polite eye contact. “But, you see, I get sick very easily, so joining a team is a bad idea. I’d just end up being absent a lot, and I’d let the team down.”

“That’s not a problem.” To his horror, the teacher bent down and started picking up the water bottles herself.

“You don’t have to trouble yourself—” He began quickly, but she cut him off, saying “ I’d never require you to come in when you’re not feeling well. You wouldn’t need to worry about calling out sick. We’re a fairly large team, so other students can easily sub in for you if you can’t make a race.”

What kind of laid back track team was this? Never mind, Natsume had a backup excuse. “Well, that’s great, but I’m also concerned about making trouble for my foster parents. It’s a lot to ask them, and I don’t want to put them out. I’d be around to help them less. They’d have to pay for expenses, like when overnight trips at the inn when we go to other towns, or shoes—”

“The school supplies the shoes and other essentials, and we can cover trip expenses if need be. Also, I chat with Ms. Fujiwara at the grocery store often, and she loves bragging about you. I can’t see her turning down a chance for you to develop your skills and enjoy some team spirit!”

Natsume looked down at his shoes, sure that he was tomato red right now. Touko bragged about him? What did he even do worth bragging about? “He only missed ten days of class this month”? “His grades were perfectly mediocre again”? “He hasn’t come home covered in dirt in a while”? “He made five whole friends in school, somehow?”*

Still, through his embarrassment, he felt a little warm inside. She was proud of him. It was a still a new feeling, and he wasn’t sure what to do with this strange, shy happiness.

“Natsume?” The coach’s voice snapped him back to reality. “Is there anything else bothering you, or would you like to come do a practice session with us? If you don’t like it, you don’t have to join. I’ll respect your decision.”

“I…” Natsume was searching for another excuse.  

 Nishimura jogged up. “Natsume, do you need any—" He noticed who Natsume was talking to and his eyes widened. “Oh, sorry to interrupt, Sensei! Natsume, are you being recruited? That’s so cool!”

“Ah, you were his teammate today, right?” Sakuragi smiled at Nishimura kindly.

Nishimura flushed a bit, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, Natsume really saved me out there. He’s a dependable guy! And he’s a great runner!”

Nishimura flashed a grin at Natsume, who was wishing he had telepathy so he could tell him to stop. He tried to send a signal by shaking his head slightly, but Nishimura wasn’t looking now.

“Well, that definitely sounds like track team material,” Sakuragi said jovially. She turned to Natsume. “Looks like your friends vouch for you. But it’s up to you, Natsume. Would you mind just stopping by?”

Natsume couldn’t bring himself to directly say no to a teacher in the first place, and now Nishimura and his enthusiasm had been added to the mix. “I’ll give it a try,” he mumbled, forcing a smile.

“Great! Just come to the track after school tomorrow. I think you’ll find it’s a lot more fun than you’re thinking.”

Natsume kept the smile fixed on as they carried the water bottles back into school. When the coach departed and they came ouside again, he and Nishimura met Taki and Tanuma. As always, Nishimura immediately started blushing and fidgeting , but as always, Taki failed to notice.

“I saw you with Sakuragi-sensei!” she said with a smile. “Impressing her is a big feat, Natsume! And don’t worry, she’s really nice.” She put her hand on Natsume’s shoulder, and Nishimura let out a strangled squeak. “She won’t get mad at you, whatever you decide.”

“Are you okay?” Tanuma said softly. Clearly both he and Taki had noticed he wasn’t actually happy right now.

“I’m fine,” Natsume said, letting the fake smile drop away and replacing it with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’ll just check it out. No big deal.”

---

“I don’t get why you’re whining so much about it,” Nyanko-sensei said, trotting beside Natsume as he walked to school the next day. “It’s just one measly meeting. What’s so bad about this running team thing anyway?”

“The people who took care of me when I joined the track team the first time were really bothered by it. They didn’t like having to drive me places, or the attention I got—”

“The Fujiwara’s aren’t like that, so that’s a stupid excuse.”

“That’s true, but it’s more than that,” Natsume sighed. “Last time, I was constantly late or absent. A yokai would attack me or I’d get sick...”

“Wimp.”

“Shut up, Sensei. Anyway, whenever that happened, the coach yelled at me for flaking out. I let everyone down.”

“But this woman said it doesn’t matter if you’re sick and can’t come, right?”

“She says that now, but she might change her mind,” Natsume mumbled.

“You’re so gloomy,” Nyanko-sensei shook his head. “It’s annoying.”

“Look, even if what she says is true, my teammates probably won’t like me. They didn’t last time. And I just…I just hated the feeling of all those people looking at me.”

He’d struggled a bit with just the sports day crowd watching him, but being on a real team was a million times worse. All those people judging, all their hopes riding on him not messing up… He shivered, remembering the way his skin had crawled, the way his breathing turned funny, the way his hands had shook. All those eyes on him…the weight of their gaze had made him want to curl up so small they couldn’t see him anymore.

“And there’s the actual reason. You’re bad with other people and you get stage fright. Boring.” Sensei yawned. “Just get over it. You have yokai trying to eat you all the time, why’s this scary?’

“I’d rather deal with yokai than the track team,” Natsume said emphatically.

Nyanko-sensei scoffed.

“A couple years ago there was this coach who was always chasing after me to recruit me. I was running from her, trying to get off school grounds so she couldn’t follow me, but then I saw that there was this huge yokai on the path out of school. Big fangs, sharp teeth, claws, all that.  I’d have to double back to avoid it, and the coach would catch me. So… I took the better option, and I ran past the yokai.”

“Idiot. Did it attack you?”

“I took a swing at me and knocked me out. But because of that the teacher was reprimanded for making the sickly kid collapse and they threatened to fire her if she ever chased a student again. She stopped trying to ask me after that. So it all worked out.”

“I don’t understand humans,” Sensei sighed. “Anyway, I’m in favor of the track team. If it helps you run faster, that means less of you getting snatched by yokai and less work for me.”

“Stop being lazy and trying to skip out on your bodyguard duties, Sensei. Yokai shouldn’t be chasing me down in the first place, it’s your job to take care of them.”

“I’ve got my own life to live! Stop being so selfish!”

“I’m the selfish one?”

They bickered all the way to the school gate, and though Natsume would never admit it to Nyanko-sensei, it did make him feel a lot better.

---

Part 1 complete! Part 2 to come. This is probably about halfway there, if not more.

Footnotes:

*Yes, Sasada has a sports and academic rival yuri storyline in the background. Yes I'm being self indulgent. It's what she deserves. It probably won't come up much more, I just thought it would be funny. Sasada's having this whole romantic epic while Natsume's worrying about track.

*Touko has been bragging about how kind and helpful you are, Natsume, you dummy. And about the garden he made and how it was good it was and other things Natsume does really well he hasn't noticed. She's also probably noticed he's fast and relatively strong for his size, he's always fetching and carrying stuff for her, but Coach thought she was exaggerating. UNTIL NOW.

[graysnetwork]

What kind of dads I think the 141 tf would be

༻━━━━༺❀༻━━━━༺

𝒥𝑜𝒽𝓃 '𝒮𝑜𝒶𝓅'  𝓜.

❀ Deffo a girl dad

❀ He has three girls with you and always rough housing with them—throwing them in the air and doing anything to make his little girls giggle

❀ ALWAYs giving you heart attacks with the trick he does with them

Once pushed his daughter abruptly into the pool after swimming lessons to see if they payed off (they did)

Then one of your daughters wanted to try a yoga tick and she definitely flipped when she wasn't supposed to.

❀ Always trying to make them happy

Takes them to the daddy daughter dances, takes them on daddy–daughter dates

Buys them anything they want whether it be food to the latest toy

❀ Takes pictures of them all the time!!! What can he say, he likes proof

❀ After a year of taking a break from kids you two try again and finally he gets a boy

He’s so excited

𝒮𝒾𝓂𝑜𝓃 '𝒢𝒽𝑜𝓈𝓉’ 𝓡.

❀ Girl dad all the way!

❀ Obsessed with his little girl and never lets her out of his sight.

❀ Gets teary eyed when she grows every month

❀ He was hesitant to have a kid but you two got the case of baby fever (and horniness) and made one. Now he's in love.

❀ Cherishes her and makes sure she's always happy.

❀ The burly man is suddenly so gentle and always doing peek-a-boo to make her smile

❀ You two wait at least three years to have another kid

Now he’s a girl and boy dad!

❀ Makes sure to treat the two of them so well and make sure they never experience what he did when he was little.

❀ Even with his son hes gently

Sees how Soap plays with his daughters and has a heart attack at the thought of them being in the air

But when his son grows up a bit and starts getting more “tough” (aka punching Simon with his little fists and Simon just thinks it his muscles spasming until he turns around and sees the little guy) he starts playing with him somewhat more rough.

Teaches him Krav Maga

Takes him to the shooting range (only after hes 15)

Also teaches his daughter Krav Maga and gives her enough self protection items to protect herself and the whole school

❀ He tries to not over do it but he's always spending his money on them (and u obvi)

❀ Takes them by base sometimes just to meet their “uncles.”

❀ He just loves them so much

𝒥𝑜𝒽𝓃 𝒫𝓇𝒾𝒸𝑒

❀ Girl dad.

❀ Doesn't have a boy—wouldn't be mad if he had one but he doesn't care, hes ecstatic with his two girls.

❀ Cherishes those precious little girls with his whole heart

❀ Very strict and tells them once they can understand words that they cant date until they turn 30

When they grow up it gets annoying but he's very insistent that they cant date—at least not in high school

❀ He does all the things “normal families do” when he's back home

Disneyland trips, road trips, dinners anywhere the family wants

Speaking of dinners—everyone votes which restaurant sounds the best and that's where you guys go

❀ Almost cries every first day of school

Always posting/sharing photos in family and friend gc’s to show off his daughters achievements

Example:

Price: (Photo of him next to his daughter after getting an award) My daughters amazing

Ghost: 👍

Soap: good kid, congrats

Gaz: let her know we’re proud!

❀ If he posts a picture i believe the caption would go: My little girl is always putting in the work! Best student I know!

He’s always having proud dad moments 🥺

𝒦𝓎𝓁𝑒 "𝒢𝒶𝓏" 𝒢.

❀ Two boys and then one girl

❀ Loves all of them so much!

❀ He’s always teaching them new things

​​He’s a teaching dad

Teaches them how to cook, play sports, bake, swim, ect.

❀ Takes them to sports events and concerts

He’s the kind of guy whos always giving them reasons to post pics

❀ Soaps a cool dad but he's a rowdy cool, Kyle on the other hand is cool chill dad

His kids are never embarrassed by him and their friends also love him

❀ (He’s the dad who the moms like)

❀ Not as strict on his kids but he is very protective

❀ He also teaches his kids self defense

༻━━━━༺❀༻━━━━༺

[gyubaseone]

han yujin. intertwined

❛ no matter what, i'll be here for you ❜

pairings — han yujin x f!reader

genre — fluff, childhood friends to lovers

synopsis — highschool can be quite hectic but for these two, nothing could get in the way of their feelings.

warnings — none! third person pov, lowercase intended, not proof read thoroughly.

word count — 2,143

notes — i'm so sorry to pull the f!reader once again, i'm still getting used to writing with gn pronouns since i dont usually do imagines.. but i hope this was okay ! thank you for all the love on my gyuvin fic <3

★ ( please fill out this form to be on my taglist ) ❕

starting high school was hard, especially as someone who is perceived as quiet. but it was easier for y/n knowing that she had her childhood best friend, han yujin, by her side.

they had been friends since diapers basically, their families being close friends for years. every big life event, they went through it together. all the times y/n cried, he was there for her even if he never truly knew how to comfort her. he was always the bestest friend someone could ask for.

so why was there this envious feeling that pitted in y/n's stomach when he started getting caught up in school events and gaining more friends than her when they entered highschool?

she should be happy that he's fitting in, he deserved all the attention he got. han yujin was one of the most liked students in the grade. with his popularity, soccer and dance skills, and — of course his good looks ; who wouldn't want to be his friend?

but that envious feeling kept on coming back whenever he had to skip out on eating lunch with her because "the soccer team is going out to eat" or whenever he told her to go walk home alone since "his friends wanted to hang out".

she was happy for him, but the idea of him slowly slipping away from her grasp made her heart ache. because the truth was, y/n had a crush on yujin. she had been having those feelings for a while now, maybe before she even realized it.

he was always there to cheer her up and gradually became one of the only things she enjoyed about going to school. whenever he took her to buy snacks, when they played games together, when they went to the park together, and his smile. especially his smile.

y/n sat down in the library since she hadn't fully adjusted to being in the cafeteria. sure, she had made some friends — but she wouldn't call them her close friends. even so, she hated loud noises and the cafeteria was filled with them.

just about now, she expected that yujin would enter the room to tell her about any plans his soccer team had made up to get him off campus for the period which left her all by herself.

as she took a bite out of her triangle gimbap, looking up from her notebook — there he was. the dark-brown haired boy who had been able to swoon her without even knowing it, walking through the doors in a black t-shirt since he most likely just got out of gym.

"y/n!" yujin called out, waving his hand in the air as he jogged over to her, "sorry i'm late, the showers kept being hogged. i didn't want to stink up the library, y'know."

"uhm, i think i know?" y/n questioned her answer, she knew absolutely nothing about sports. "wait, so you're actually going to eat lunch with me today? surprised you don't have anything going on, you've been so popular recently."

"what can i say? i'm quite the catch," yujin shrugged his shoulders with such a smug look on his face, "and i cleared everything! i feel like i haven't seen you in forever, i missed you."

he missed her. han yujin missed her. why was she freaking out on the inside? it's not like they haven't had a conversation before. but it felt different, like his tone had changed from the last time they had spoken. "cool," was all y/n could mutter as she tried to cover her rosy-tinted cheeks with her lunch.

but just as y/n was lost in her own world, yujin had gotten a message on his phone. here it goes. "oh my gosh... y/n, i—" he attempted to speak up before y/n shut him down, already knowing what he was going to say.

"go, it's okay," y/n assured even though her heart was breaking little by little. he had friends, other friends than her. it's not like he could spend all his time with her, it was ridiculous. but why was there this feeling inside her that wished he did?

"i'm so sorry, gyuvin hyung broke his leg and now we have to go over the plays again before the game," yujin explained, getting up while stuffing his phone into his pocket, "you'll be at the game on saturday, right?"

"well, i have nothing else to do," y/n slightly smiled, attempting to relax her back from all the tension she felt, "i'll be there for sure."

"great, i'll see you later!" yujin waved at her as he started walking away before he slowly disappeared into the hallways.

y/n was more used to it now, and she would probably have to accept it at one point. yujin was moving on with his life, experiencing new things. high school is meant for new experiences and it seemed like yujin was going through many things.

what she didn't expect to see? him and one of the cheerleaders hitting it off after he scored the winning goal during the soccer game. oh, how she wanted to shout his name after seeing the way he rebounded the ball and got the last goal ; but then she saw him with her.

she never really tried to learn the names of the people surrounding her, another flaw y/n had. all y/n knew was that yujin was hugging her and that she was jealous? envious? oh, same thing.

and from that day on, y/n would attempt to distance herself from yujin as much as she could. it wasn't like he would notice right? he had all his soccer friends and that girl he hugged. can she give up on the girl already?

it's not like yujin was her property, he was his own person. maybe in a way, to let him flourish ; she had to find her own path without him. maybe, this was just her way of masking her feelings for him in a way where she wouldn't have to get hurt.

one thing y/n didn't think about was how yujin would react to this. all this time, she was in her own world overthinking every single little thing. her bestfriend, who knows her and could read her like a book, was upset to say the least.

he thought she was acting weird at first, but didn't think anything of it until it constantly kept happening. all she would do is greet him and suddenly walk off without saying anything else. it was unlike y/n, she would always be the brightest girl whenever he was around.

it was one of the things he liked most about her, her smile. the way her eyes became cresents like the moon whenever she smiled, her lips curving up and the way her nose scrunched up in the most beautiful way.

maybe there were many things he liked about her. yujin could probably go on a tangent about everything he liked about y/n, the reason he smiled so brightly. it was her. so there was no way it was all in his head that they could've possibly had a spark there, right?

so when yujin found the girl asleep in one of the classrooms after failing to study for her biology exam ; he knew what he had to do.

oh how yujin slowly regretted his decision. he didn't want to wake her up, seeing how peaceful and pretty she was when she slept even if she was drooling all over her textbook.

but he knew if he didn't do it now, he would probably be even more distanced from you and he did not want that one bit. so he did what he dreaded doing and woke up y/n from her nap.

"y/n... psst— wake up," he whispered softly, poking her shoulder in an attempt to wake her up but nothing, "there's free food in the cafeteria!"

"huh? free food?" y/n suddenly jolted awake, looking around the room in a daze before her eyes landed back on yujin, "oh... it was a lie, wasn't it?"

"yeah, i knew that would wake you up though," yujin let out a laugh, sitting down in the chair next to y/n, "i'll get you something after school, i just need to talk to you for a bit."

god, there was that smile again. the smile that could make all the problems in the world disappear. why did he have to be the one with it?

"yeah uh— what did you want to talk about?" y/n snapped out of her thoughts, shaking her head slightly before fixing up her hair, "is it important?"

"you could say that..." yujin fiddled with his fingers for a moment, hesitating for a moment, "i just.. i feel like we haven't talked in a while, is everything okay with you?"

"yeah... everything is fine," y/n nodded her head in assurance. no everything was not fine. but she couldn't say anything about him hugging a girl, that would just be crazy. "i've just been a little busy, that's all."

"are you sure?" yujin questioned once again, "i feel like i barely see you now, i missed you and talking to you.." gosh, there it was again. he always knew the words to say.

"yeah, i'm sure... everything is fine," y/n repeated once more, giving yujin a smile that made him feel fuzzy on the inside. she watched his shoulders suddenly become tense before speaking up, "is there something else you wanted to talk to me about?"

"gosh, am i really going to do this now..." yujin looked to the side, taking a deep breath before searching for something in his pockets. "can you close your eyes for me?"

y/n looked at him confused before closing her eyes, feeling yujin's touch on her hand as he pulled it out and opened it up. right after, he placed something on her palm. "alright, you can open your eyes now."

this wasn't real right? this moment was just a figment of y/n's imagination. because why was yujin's nametag in her hand at this moment? she truely thought she was hallucinating, staring at the nametag with 한유진 embroidered on it.

"when we went to get our uniforms fitted, i had an extra nametag made.." yujin spoke in a shy tone, "and i just decided to... give it to you."

"so what does this mean?" y/n asked, wanting clarification for the sudden gift, "do you...?"

"oh so you're going to make me say it? the nametag was supposed to say it for me," yujin joked, hearing y/n's laugh that he loved so much, "fine, y/n... i like you, like a lot."

"that's better, i guess i like you too," y/n grinned, glancing at the sour look on yujin's face when she spoke, "i'm kidding! i like you a lot... and your smile too."

"truth is.. i thought you had a thing for that cheerleader you hugged on saturday," y/n admitted after all the time she spent hiding away, feeling a sense of relief after letting it out. "i was... jealous, okay? that's why i haven't talked to you."

"wow! i knew there was something behind it!" yujin pointed a finger at y/n like a little kid with his mouth gaping, "that's so silly... she's a senior, why would i date someone that much older than me. if anything, she gave me dating advice."

"oh.. yeah well— you've been so busy recently and i don't know what to think anymore!" y/n got off her chest, letting out a sigh after the long sentence she spoke without breathing.

"oh, now you wanna say all of these things? see, i can read you like a book, i knew it!" yujin clapped his hands at his knowledge of his best friend, laughing while y/n looked away out of embarrassment.

as y/n was looking away, she heard yujin's soft laughs slowly fade away before feeling him take a hold of her hand which made her look his way. gosh, he was looking at her with that cheekily smile again and those shining eyes.

"no matter what, i'll be here for you," yujin spoke sincerely, intertwining their hands together, "even if i can't spend time with you, i'm always here for anything you need. i'll drop anything for you."

"well..." y/n opened her mouth to speak but no words came out, leaving her with only one choice. she looked at her uniform, taking off her nametag from its spot and placing it onto yujin's other hand that wasn't holding her hand. "you better get me another one before i get scolded."

and that was it. or maybe, it was just the beginning? they're young, who knows where their relationship could go from there. kind of cute if you think about it, two students intertwined together. she fell for a smile that she gave.

© gyubaseone — please refrain from copying, translating, reposting, or claiming my work as your own.

[bitterie-sweetie]

Set it up

Pairing: Seokmin (DK) x reader Genre: fluff WC: 6.2k A/N: happy bday and seokmin day nat @syuperseventeen !! this is the fic that i've been writing in our dms foreverrr and now it's finally here (*´∇｀*)

You have absolutely no idea how to get closer to your crush, but perhaps asking his best friend for some advice is the way to go.

The whole point was to get close to Mingyu. That’s really all you wanted.

You don’t remember when you first met him, exactly. For the longest time, he’s just been someone who’s there—the tall one at the center of the group, the one cheering for you when you finally scored a strike during bowling night, the one waiting for you by the bathrooms when the rest of your friends have already headed out the door. He would smile at you and ask how you were doing, but otherwise, the two of you have never really talked. Truthfully, you’re not sure he even knows your name.

But despite that, you do end up learning a lot about him at all these events your friends drag you to. You know he's a lefty, and that he's good at bowling and just about any sport under the sun. You know he's an amazing cook, or so everyone says, and on top of that he also likes to clean. Though what really sealed the deal might have to be the time he let you walk on the inside of the sidewalk, as if he were a character straight out of a drama.

Now, months later, you’ve finally acknowledged these budding feelings for Kim Mingyu. But while acknowledging is one thing, the problem that remains is how do you get closer to him? You’ve tried to strike up a conversation many times already but what is there to talk about? At the pizza place a couple of weeks ago, you nearly mentioned the Marvel movie you saw the previous weekend only to stop yourself—what if he’s also a fan and you accidentally spoiled the entire thing? Or maybe he's not a movie person at all and would just smile awkwardly and pretend he didn’t hear you. Is he a book person then? He might be. But you also couldn’t ask about that when you haven't read a single book since high school, and there's no way you'd be able to keep up with the conversation if that's what gets him talking.

So here you are, finally turning to his best friend, Seokmin, for advice. Saturday morning has you out at a cafe instead of getting your eight hours, but such sacrifices are necessary for the sake of love.

Seokmin comes back from the counter, carrying both of your drinks and setting them down on the table in front of you. He’s wearing his usual bright smile that you’ve seen a few times before, and it calms your rapid heart a little. You try to smile back at him.

Out of the people you know to be Mingyu’s friends, Seokmin seemed the most approachable. He’s friendly and outgoing, loves to laugh, and during your group outing at the arcade, the two of you even played a few games together. Besides, you definitely weren’t going to ask the one with the glasses when he hardly spoke and never looked your way once, and the one that dances—Minghao, according to Soonyoung—might just laugh at your request more than he’d help. Thus, Seokmin was the obvious choice. You thought that if anyone could help you out, surely it’d be him.

“So?” He looks at you, unblinking. “What is it that you wanted to talk about?”

You open your mouth, and then close it again when the words feel like they’re sticking to your throat. Maybe you shouldn’t have done this. Is it too late to turn back? But you remind yourself that it’d be a waste to have come all this way just to not go through with it. “Um, you know your friend Mingyu?”

“No, who’s that?”

“Well, I wanted to ask you how I could get closer to him. Like, maybe you can tell me what his ideal type is? What are his interests? Does he have siblings and is he close to his family? Do you think you could maybe put in a good word for me the next time you talk to him? Maybe even… set us up on a date or something?”

Seokmin simply stares at you for a while and then blinks. Silence lingers in the air and each second that passes only makes your cheeks heat up more and more. Great, you said way too much. What kind of person bombards their crush’s friend with a random session of rapid-fire questions anyway?

And then, just as you imagined in your worst-case scenarios, he laughs. "Oh? You want me to be your wingman or something?" He manages to squeeze out.

Oh.

You don't laugh with him.

He stops laughing. "You can't be serious?"

"Well, not exactly a wingman but you're Mingyu's friend. Maybe you could give me some advice? Help me out a bit?"

“Hmm,” Seokmin considers for a moment. "Yeah, I've known Mingyu for a long time..." He raises a brow, and the corner of his lip lifts a little. "He's a tough person to get to know; usually he’s so friendly with everyone that you'd never know what he actually likes.”

“Right, that’s exactly why I need your help.”

“Are you sure about this? Because you're going to need some intensive training."

You don't know what he means by that. Is he saying you’re unworthy? That you’ve got no game? That—well, actually, he’s probably right. You’re here begging for his help after all. But despite this being a slight bruise to your ego, you’re sure whatever advice he can give must be better than the things Soonyoung has been telling you to do.

“Yeah,” you give a firm nod, “I’m sure. Let’s do it.”

“Okay!” Seokmin lifts his cup, holding it out for you to bump yours against, and then the deal is sealed.

And so, the plan begins.

After the initial meeting at the cafe, you meet him every few days when the two of you have time. Tuesday afternoon at the library is when Seokmin tells you where Mingyu usually hangs out—at the lounge in the finance building—and then Wednesday is when you swing by and entirely miss him. You get dinner with Seokmin on Thursday, just in time for your next opportunity, which presents itself as another group outing. This time at a board game cafe.

“I’ll create an opportunity so that you can sit beside him,” he says nonchalantly like it’s the easiest thing in the world, then proceeds to shove nearly the entire sandwich in his mouth.

“Right… but then what? What do I do after that?”

He looks at you mid-chew. You wait. Ten minutes go by. “The rest is in the hands of the OTP gods, Y/N.”

You do end up sitting next to Mingyu, with Seokmin on Mingyu’s other side, but that turns out to be the least of your worries. Sitting there has you picking up a stack of twelve cards during a game of Uno, when the two best friends stack their plus four cards to pass the punishment along to you. So much for sitting beside Mingyu. At least it gets him to laugh, though it’s Seokmin who’s having a good time at your expense, eyes sparkling and lip curling automatically when he meets your gaze.

Then the Saturday cafe session comes around again.

Seokmin sits down and crosses his arms, face unreadable. "Y/N, I barely pay attention to what’s going on around me and I still managed to see the way you tried to not-so-subtly get Mingyu's coffee order out of him yesterday. Please tell me it’s something you’ll never do again. You’re way too obvious. I am embarrassed for you."

Oh. So that’s what this is about.

"Okay, well," you frown at him, "if that was so bad then how would you do it then?"

"For starters, maybe don't mention it five times in a row while intentionally staring at him like you're waiting for an answer." He gives you a pointed look.

It was more like three times! Not five! "I wasn't staring," you mutter under your breath, though you know he's right. You're probably a lost cause at this rate and you still don't know what to do with the information that Kim Mingyu likes americanos.

As if he can sense your displeasure, Seokmin stops with the teasing after that. "Okay, first you just have to act natural. None of the googly eyes, the strange walks by his table when we're hanging out, and especially no interrogation questions."

“Uh huh.” You're skeptical. He’s making it sound way too easy. “And then what?”

“Then you talk to him like he’s just some guy.”

In the next moment, Seokmin puts on an impression of Mingyu so awful that it makes you entirely forget that you’d embarrassed yourself this time.

Soonyoung picks the arcade for the next week’s outing, and Seokmin tells you about all of the games that you could play with Mingyu. Shooting games, he says, are especially a good team bonding experience. Or you could battle it out on the DDR machines. But two rounds into the shooting game, Mingyu’s character is already dead, and while you manage to score a D on the DDR game, he ends up failing halfway through the song.

“So much for that plan,” you mutter, putting down the gun from the shooting game you’re about to quit. “Do you think I should’ve picked something easier?”

“Nah, that wouldn’t be fun.” Seokmin shakes his head and then takes out some tokens from his pocket. He puts them into the slot, then joins you by the spot where Mingyu left a moment ago. “We didn’t get to the end of the story last time, remember?”

You nod, feeling the grin creeping onto your face already. Seokmin is a good shot based on when you played this with him last time, and the two of you have perfect teamwork. “Let’s get it,” you say, high-fiving his outstretched hand. And before long, the night flies by and the two of you have used up all of your tokens.

Just like that, the two of you fall into a routine. Seokmin would give you a piece of advice, you’d attempt to use it the next time you see Mingyu, and then it’d fail. Then rinse and repeat.

It’s far from terrible, though. Seokmin might tease you a bit about your embarrassing moments and lack of progress, but you can’t be mad about it at all when spending time with him is ultimately a mood booster. He’s great at distracting you from not only your failure of a love life but from all of your school stresses as well, and more often than not, your hangouts tend to derail into something crazy and fun.

Sometimes you find yourself joining him in doing the awful impressions of your favourite Marvel characters, and other times you’re going to the convenience store to get late night snacks while having the world's largest debate over which kimbap flavour is the best. At some point you even dare each other to slurp the last of your bubble teas in the library as quietly as possible (spoiler alert: it doesn't go so well).

Even when it’s not so crazy, there’s never a dull moment with Seokmin. You get to learn a lot about him—after getting kicked out of the library, he shares his secret spot on campus with you and the two of you end up studying together there into the early hours of the morning. When you ask for a drink recommendation, he shares his extra customized Starbucks drink recipe. And when the sunrise slowly appears on the horizon and the two of you have given up on studying for the next midterm, he doesn’t shy away from telling you what he aspires to do after graduation, what he’s always dreamed of.

You end up falling asleep on his shoulder, and you think he’s going to make fun of you forever for it, but he simply smiles at you. An extra warm smile, washed by the golden rays of first light.

Then the two of you part ways and promise to meet each other again in a few days, although it never takes that long before he texts you a meme and you swing by his secret spot.

It does, however, make your friends notice your absence. Soonyoung corners you after your shared class one day to ask you where you’ve been, what you’ve been up to, and why he doesn’t seem to ever see you when you’re supposed to be best friends.

“Y/N, you’re not even going to study with us?” Soonyoung stands there, jaw dropping and mouth open in shock when you stand up to leave. Beside him, his girlfriend wears a milder version of the same expression. “Where are you going? We barely get to see you these days.”

“I have to go meet Seokmin now,” you say, picking up your bag. “I’ll see you guys next time, okay?”

He gives you a strange look. “Seokmin? Why are you meeting him? Did you guys become besties or something? Is that why you’ve been so MIA lately?”

“Yeah, kind of. Something like that.”

“Something like that,” Soonyoung repeats, unconvinced. “Are you guys dating?”

“What?” It’s your turn to give him a weird look. “No, Seokmin is just a friend. We’ve been hanging out and studying together, and he’s helping me with—”

Mingyu.

Kim Mingyu.

Even his name sounds unusual in your head, as if it’s a word you’ve repeated so many times that it has lost its meaning. But you know it’s the complete opposite of that: Mingyu’s name is unfamiliar to you because it hasn’t come up in a very long time.

“Y/N? You good?”

“Um, never mind. It’s a long story,” you quickly say, forcing a smile on your lips to hide the way your world has abruptly flipped upside down. “I’ll hang out with you guys next time, okay? I’ll even treat you to coffee.”

At the sound of that, Soonyoung’s frown turns into a grin but you barely have time to glance at it before you’re taking off.

The student center looks the same as it did last week and the week before that, and yet, it feels completely different this afternoon. You’re taken back to the first day you stepped in here to meet Seokmin, months ago, long before your memories of this place were filled with laughter and his funny impressions and all of the silly inside jokes you share.

Because how could you have forgotten the reason why you started all of this in the first place? How could Mingyu have slipped from your mind? You like him, for goodness’ sake! Perhaps you should be glad that Soonyoung’s questions served as a wakeup call and yanked you out of whatever reverie you were in, but now your stomach feels all queasy at just how far you’ve managed to stray from your original intentions.

“Hey,” Seokmin greets with his usual bright smile. He takes a seat across from you, and you can feel the corners of your lips instantly curving up. It really is that easy to forget, you think. One look at that smile and you’re in a bubble, with the outside world melting away. But you can’t forget any longer.

“Hi.”

He nearly does a double take. “Everything okay?”

“Um, yeah.” You need to figure out how to bring this up without making it weird, but at this point, it’s going to be weird either way. “I was just thinking about, um, well, we haven’t really gone out as a group for a while since everyone’s been busy and all. Maybe we can go after midterms.” You throw in a shrug to keep it nonchalant. “And maybe you can tell me if… Mingyu would be interested in that trendy restaurant we went to last month.”

You’re bringing that time up because it totally could’ve been a test run, or at least that’s what you tell yourself. That day, the rest of the group had cancelled on the original plans since some of them were busy, and so you and Seokmin spent the night looking for something fun to do followed by some good food. But maybe it’d be a good date spot with Mingyu; it was a great place after all. Maybe you wouldn’t feel like throwing up if you keep telling yourself that all of these activities you did, all the time that you invested over the past few months were for Mingyu.

You can see the moment Seokmin realizes it. The light that’s ever present in his eyes slowly fades until it completely disappears, and for the first time ever, his smile is gone. It makes one thing clear—you weren’t the only one who’d forgotten about Mingyu. Seokmin had forgotten about him too.

“Right,” he nods slowly, “I can ask him about that.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

There’s a silence that settles between the two of you, but not in the way it’d felt before. This time it’s dense, suffocating, foreboding, although you can’t exactly tell why you feel it and what it’s leading to. What’s the big deal about having gotten off track anyway? You can just correct your route and continue.

“Seokmin? And Y/N? Wow, I haven’t seen you guys in so long,” a voice comes floating over.

And when you look up, it’s Mingyu. Right in the flesh.

You can tell that his hair has grown out a bit and he’s dressed far more casually than you’ve ever seen him, but he still looks as good as always.

The two of you mutter your hellos but when no one seems to pick up the conversation, Mingyu ends up looking between you and Seokmin in a way that might lead to the same kind of misinterpretation that Soonyoung experienced.

No, you can’t risk having him get the wrong idea. “Mingyu,” you impulsively say, “do you want to go out for dinner with me this weekend?” There’s a slight emphasis on the me, so he doesn’t think it’s an us question.

A questioning look briefly flashes across his face, but to your surprise, Mingyu ends up nodding. “Yeah, okay.”

If it were the you from last term, there’d be no way such a bold question would ever come out of your mouth. But now, things are different. Now you can rashly throw out such propositions all for the sake of correcting yourself and getting back on track before more people get the wrong idea.

After chatting for a while, Mingyu leaves the two of you and says he'll talk to you soon. Oddly enough though, you barely feel any satisfaction afterwards—you're not jumping for joy or squealing in excitement like you once thought you’d be when in this situation. But isn’t this what you wanted?

Well, it’s no big deal. You tell yourself it’s because you’re still dumbfounded over his answer, especially when the two of you haven’t connected recently. Yes, that must be it. That must be why he slipped your mind in the first place; it’s not that your feelings for him faded, but just that you’ve been too busy.

You pack away the other thoughts into a box and seal it tightly. What would you do with the fact that you asked Mingyu the question thinking he’d turn you down, and weren’t upset at the thought of being rejected?

Across from you, Seokmin also appears to be taken aback by this whole encounter. He's quiet for once, almost as if he doesn't know how to react, and there’s a neutral expression on his face that you’ve never seen before. When you meet his eyes, they’re missing their usual warmth.

“Congrats, Y/N. You won’t be needing my help anymore.” Then he looks down to check the time on his phone. “Ah, I have to go for my tutorial session now,” he mutters, standing up and then slinging his bag on his shoulder without giving you another glance. “Have fun on the date.”

“Yeah—” you start to say, but he’s already out of earshot.

It’s only after you get back to your dorm that you realize: Seokmin doesn’t have a tutorial session today at all.

The rest of the week passes by quickly. You don't get a chance to see Seokmin when you're wrapped up in assignments and latched onto by Soonyoung, who insists on dragging you from store to store to pick an outfit for your date. And while you’re looking forward to the date and you’re content that everything is back on track, for some reason the stone in your chest doesn’t disappear. You feel it pressing down on you every time your eyes drift to your phone and see the lack of notifications.

Soon enough, the weekend approaches and it’s time for your date with Mingyu. You end up reluctantly wearing what Soonyoung picked out, figuring it can’t be any worse than what you have in your closet, and then head out to meet Mingyu at the restaurant you agreed on.

The night starts off just a little awkward—he speaks so quickly that you only end up catching half of each sentence, and the noise in the restaurant definitely doesn't help your case. Is it too much to hope he doesn't ask any questions and that your half-laugh is enough to cover yourself? Oh and you end up dropping a fork. Unintentionally. But it turns out to be the best thing to happen, for when you meet Mingyu's eyes after bending to pick it up, the two of you burst into laughter and it's like all the ice between you melts away.

After that point, it's pretty much what you expected: the food is good, the vibes are nice, and it's everything you could've hoped for. Mingyu is really nice and talking to him reminds you of what caught your eye in the first place, and the night seems to quickly fly by.

But if you expect your heart to flutter at every smile Mingyu shoots your way, and for your cheeks to heat up when you accidentally bump your knees against his, then you’re left hanging. This feeling is like the same, strange emptiness you felt the day he agreed to go on the date with you.

Perhaps it could very well be due to how distracted you are, though. Every embarrassing moment, every funny joke—they all turn into stories that you save in your mind to tell Seokmin the next time you see him. It’s all too easy to picture him gawking at some and then laughing until he’s crying at others, and it’d be a fun time. Plus you’re acting natural just like you practiced, and when you tell Seokmin, he’d be so proud of how far you’ve come.

At the end of the night, Mingyu walks you to your dorm and even gives you his jacket to wear when the wind becomes colder than you anticipated. You thank him for a good time, and then you say your goodbyes and that’s that.

Afterwards, life goes back to a time before you ever knew Mingyu or Seokmin.

You find yourself studying in the library with Soonyoung instead of going to any secret spot on campus, and when he asks for all the details about your date, you have nothing to say.

There’s only one person you want to talk to about it, and he’s nowhere to be seen. He doesn't answer your texts, leaves them unopened, and stops posting on social media entirely. You can't even tell if he's purposely avoiding you or if he's just caught up with school work or other things going on in his life.

“You know what’s funny?” Soonyoung abruptly sets down his pencil, the noise of it making you flinch. He’s probably had enough of your endless sighing all throughout the hour that you’ve been at the library.

“No.”

“I haven’t seen you this miserable before,” he says, narrowing his eyes at you. “And that includes the time you didn’t get into your exchange program and when you failed the midterm in first year.”

“Are you done yet or—”

“That also includes all the times you got ignored and rejected by Mingyu.”

You stop typing. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Y/N, you went on a perfectly good date with him and you’re about to go on a second date, yet you’re here, more miserable than before when he used to barely look at you.”

Yes, you’re willing to admit that you’re miserable. But Soonyoung likes to talk around the point a lot instead of directly addressing it, and you’re tired of trying to figure out just why you feel this way when everything should be perfect by now.

“So?” You heave a sigh. “Soonyoung, what are you trying to say?”

“Y/N.” He turns so that he’s facing you, rolling his chair forward so that he can put his hands on your shoulders like he’s giving you a pep talk. “You’re miserable because you think you’re supposed to like Mingyu, but really, you’ve completely fallen for Seokmin instead. And now you have no idea what to do about it, hence your state of denial.”

You’ve completely fallen for… what? You study Soonyoung’s face, trying to tell if he’s cracking another one of his jokes, but nothing indicates that he is. He’s completely serious which makes it all the stranger why he’s saying you’ve fallen for Seokmin. Because how can it be true? Seokmin is a great friend and you’re really missing him since he’s been avoiding you and all, but having feelings for him? Is that possible?

“Wait, are you for real? You actually didn’t know until I told you just now?”

“Um…” You don’t know what to say to that.

Soonyoung looks at you for a moment longer before smiling and patting your arm. “It’s okay to not know. Take some time to think about it—what is it that you really want? Who do you think of when something good happens to you and you want to share it with someone? And don’t lie; I know it’s not me.”

You give him a weak smile, unable to deny the last bit, and then the two of you part ways to head to your respective classes.

Over the course of the week, you do give it some thought. You slowly go through all of your past interactions with Seokmin, examining them from different angles to try to pinpoint whether you might’ve actually developed feelings for him. And when that doesn’t give you enough information, you take a closer look at the moment Soonyoung inadvertently reminded you that Mingyu was the start of all of this.

Why did you feel so disappointed at the time? Was it really because your brilliant plan had been derailed, which meant no progress with your crush, or was it because Mingyu was simply the excuse to keep meeting up with—

A loud ring cuts through the silence of the room, pulling you out of your thoughts. It’s your alarm. Great, if you don’t head out right now, you’d be late for your date with Mingyu, so you quickly grab your things and leave the house.

This second date has your stomach in knots. You don't know why you agreed to it, but at the same time, you didn’t exactly have a reason not to. Truthfully, you never expected him to ask for a second date, and you didn't expect to see him again. And it’s not that the first date went badly at all; no, it was fun and enjoyable and just an overall good date. But that’s all it was. You could probably be having an even better time with Seokmin—

Seokmin.

Already, Soonyoung’s words are echoing in your mind again. Okay, maybe he really was onto something.

This time your date with Mingyu is at a new cafe a block away from campus. By the time you get there, he's seated at a table and looking as handsome as always with two drinks in front of him.

“Hey,” you greet, sliding into the seat across from him.

“Hey, Y/N.”

It’s far more awkward than the first time. The two of you exchange small talk and you ask about how school is going, what he’s been up to lately, and he tells you he started that show you recommended. You tell him you tried his favourite food stall. Then the conversation dwindles, and you can’t help but feel held back by the thoughts swarming your head. Should you talk about what’s really on your mind? Should you, Y/N, ask him, Kim Mingyu, about his best friend, Lee Seokmin? When you’re supposedly on a date? Should you—

"So... you and Seokmin, huh?” Mingyu says slowly.

Oh.

You can't believe what you're hearing.

“W-what?”

He lets out a sigh, a wistful smile appearing. "Yeah, I know all about it. The two of you weren't exactly subtle."

"What do you mean?"

"The way you were talking about Seokmin that night when we had dinner, and when I saw the two of you in the student center that day. It's pretty obvious that the two of you have a connection."

You open your mouth to deny it, but you can't.

You can't, because it's true. There's no doubt that this is why you've gone through the five stages of grief or whatever just because Seokmin hasn't texted you back in weeks. This is why the first date with Mingyu seemed underwhelming, and why you feel slightly reluctant to even be sitting here with him now. Beyond the initial favour you'd asked of Seokmin, none of this was ever about Mingyu. It has always been about Seokmin.

Soonyoung was right, and it seems like everyone around you could see it perfectly clearly. And now, it all makes perfect sense.

You swallow nervously. “Um, yeah. I guess you could say that.”

“Look, Y/N, I’ll be straightforward and tell you that’s why I asked you to come here today. We had a great time the other night—don’t get me wrong—but I think we both know that’s not where your heart lies.”

You nod, and it’s like the weight in your chest lessens just enough that you can breathe again. That had been part of your worries—how were you supposed to tell him that you’re no longer interested in him? That maybe you never really were in the first place because you’ve fallen for his friend? The last thing you wanted to do was to mess things up between friends, so hearing Mingyu say that this date isn’t a date at all is truly the light at the end of your tunnel.

“I don’t know what happened between the two of you specifically, but he hasn’t been himself lately, and I get the feeling that it has to do with… us.” He grimaces. “I talked to him, but I think this is something you should clarify.”

“Trust me, I’ve been trying. He’s been avoiding me though; he won’t reply to my texts and I can’t seem to find him on campus anywhere.”

Mingyu stares at you for a moment and you can’t tell at all what he’s thinking. “Tonight at seven. Meet him at your usual spot.”

“What?”

“He’ll be there.” He nods firmly, and then stands up. “Go for it, Y/N.”

“I’ll be there. Thanks for letting me know.” You stand up as well, picking up your unfinished drink. “Oh and—Mingyu?”

“Hmm?”

“If you knew that there was something going on between me and Seokmin, why did you agree to the dinner that day in the first place?”

Mingyu hesitates for just a moment as if the question takes him off guard, but then a smile starts to appear. “I thought you wanted to talk to me about him.”

“Ah. Right.” You give him a quick smile, wave, and then leave the cafe.

You’re never asking a crush’s best friend for advice ever again.

You practically count down the hours, staring at the clock on your phone every few minutes.

There’s still no word from Seokmin himself, and your heart pounds like crazy over the fact that you’d have to blindly trust Mingyu and believe that he’ll show up. What should you even expect from this meeting? How could you possibly prepare for it, having no idea what Mingyu has told him?

And what’s more than that is the other thought that pops into your head: what if he doesn’t feel the same way? Sure, everyone may have implied there was something going on between the two of you, but what if his avoidance was because he thought you used him? That the two of you were becoming friends—nothing more—and that you tossed him away the moment Mingyu looked at you? What if all of this is yet another misunderstanding?

Well, you figure it doesn’t matter anyway. You’ll go in there and tell him the truth regardless of whether you get rejected or whether he never wants to see you again.

So you get to the student center and then climb the stairs two at a time, unsure of whether you want to get there faster or slower. Because this time, there’s truly nothing to hide behind. This time when you see him, you’re no longer using Mingyu’s name as your shield or excuse, nor is Seokmin your crush’s best friend.

When you step into the room, you immediately see him curled up on the couch. It’s just as Mingyu said—Seokmin doesn’t look like himself. The usual brightness is missing from his face, seemingly replaced by the dark circles under his eyes, and the smile that he attempts when he sees you is just an attempt.

You gently take a seat at the opposite end of the couch. There was some sort of speech you practiced on your walk here, but after seeing him, everything leaves your mind at once.

“Hey,” you start. “How have you been? I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Seokmin nods. “Yeah, um. It’s—sorry. I have no excuse for avoiding you. Just needed some space and some time to think.”

“Yeah, of course.” Then silence. “Seokmin—”

“Um, I—”

You stop. “You can go first.”

He hesitates, but ultimately continues. "I'm assuming your date with Mingyu went well? That things are going well between the two of you?" He doesn't wait for a response and simply nods to himself. "That's good. The two of you are good for each other."

"What?" You're almost worried for him because what exactly did Mingyu tell him? Nothing, judging by the sounds of it, or it’s that Seokmin has decided not to believe any of it. "What are you saying?"

He turns to you. "I know you were trying to get Mingyu to fall for you, but I think it worked on me too."

Oh.

Suddenly, it's like his confession makes everything click. You aren’t the only one who thought it was way too easy to forget Mingyu's name over the course of your hangouts, or to not have him cross your mind entirely until you were reminded. And you’re not the only one who was disappointed when his name was brought up again, or who wasn’t excited about your date with him.

Originally, you might've wanted to get advice from Mingyu's best friend and then developed feelings for said best friend along the way, but now you know that said best friend has also fallen for you.

“Too?” You shake your head. "No, it didn’t work on Mingyu. It never did; he only went on the date because he knew I—” you pause to take a deep breath, “he knew I liked you. He thought I asked him out because I wanted to talk to him about you.”

Still, Seokmin doesn’t say anything.

“But I'm not here to talk about Mingyu. Our hangouts might've started because of him, but we've spent more time forgetting about him than talking about him. And I think I must've spent more time talking about you than about myself during my date with him."

“Why would you do that? What do you mean…” he trails off and then meets your eyes, and you can see the moment it clicks for him. The light in his eyes—it seems to come back gradually like a candle flickering back to life or colour restoring in a monochrome landscape. “Do you really mean that?”

“Yeah, Seokmin. I don’t know when it started to happen, but the whole asking you for advice thing turned into an excuse to see you. I didn’t know it at the time when I asked Mingyu out and just—I freaked out and messed things up.” Your pulse is racing at this point, and it’s hard to swallow but you have to push on and ask one last thing. “So maybe… you can give me some advice on how to win your heart instead?”

“You already have, Y/N,” he says softly, and the warm smile that you missed so much is now back and glowing more than ever.

Then a moment later, as per typical Seokmin behaviour, he bursts into laughter. He laughs like he's finding the whole situation absurd—which it is—and soon, you join in too. You laugh at how Mingyu is the one who unknowingly brought the two of you together, how asking Seokmin for a mere favour has bloomed into an unlikely friendship.

And now, maybe into something more.

[winterhawkhood]

It is TIME to countdown!

Winterhawkhood-tober starts October 1st! To prepare for this incredible event where we will flood the world with winterhawkhood content, check out:

-The SEVEN bingo theme cards

-Prompt Request list (will be updated as requests come in)

-31 Days of Prompts Master List

The AO3 Collection

Friends, foes, family - this is going to be epic.

Bingo Cards:

Prompt Requests:

Prompt Requests from fellow fans! These are free to use and can be used as much and in as many ways as possible:

If you send in requests to this blog we will continue to update the list!

From blubblesandink 

-Mr. And Mrs. Smith AU/ mistaken identity

-soft spot for animals(willing to act heinous towards humans, but saves a puppy)

-Bro you really live like this? (Ie, break into their house and then make it better)

-Eiffel Tower

From Taxi-cab-to-slowtown:

-Jason/Clint/Bucky/plus one or more

From Claraxbarton:

-Rule 63: different gender(s)

------

31 Days Prompt Masterlist

Below are 31 Days worth of prompts. These are very general, with each day featuring one (1) dialogue prompt and three (3) other prompts. Feel free to respond to as many or as few as you like! There is some overlap from bingo cards to these prompts.

Day 1:

“You were right.”

-Different Robin

-On the run

-Friends with benefits

Day 2:

“You lied to me.”

-Royalty

-Friends to lovers

-Breakfast in bed

Day 3:

“How long have you known?”

-Healing

-Karaoke

-High School Reunion

Day 4:

“I wish I’d never met you.”

-Fake dating

-sex toys

-stakeout

Day 5:

“Wait, are you ticklish?”

-Wedding

-Avengers Team

-bad pick up lines

Day 6:

“Do you trust me?”

-Enemies to lovers

-backstory connection

-seeking/wanted ad

Day 7:

“Miss me, sweetheart?”

-cardigan

-kissing in the rain

-being in a crowd

Day 8:

“Please.”

-shaving

-stargazing

-mission

Day 9:

“You don’t have to say it”

-clothes sharing

-picnic

-beach

Day 10:

“I’m not a monster.”

-dating app

-baking

-identity porn/mistaken identity

Day 11:

“I told you not to touch that.”

-Sleeping

-canon divergent

-late

Day 12:

“You weren’t supposed to laugh.”

-sexting

-time travel

-co-workers

Day 13:

“Did you hear that?”

-autumn

-one bed

-matchmaking

Day 14:

“I deserve it.”

-coffee

-dancing

-secret dating

Day 15:

“I want to take care of you.”

-house/pet/baby sitting

-meet ugly

-hobby

Day 16:

“Is that my gun?”

-sex work

-modern/canon fusion

-love triangle

Day 17:

“I don’t remember.”

-size difference

-historical

-bets

Day 18:

“I remember.”

-Accidental

-military

-hand holding

Day 19:

“I’ve missed this.”

-Urban fantasy

-neighbors

-intimacy

Day 20:

“It’s three in the morning.”

-Sports

-horror

-vacation

Day 21:

“I can explain.”

-Writer

-shopping

-movie night

Day 22:

“I thought you were dead.”

-FUBAR

-arranged marriage

-hugs

Day 23:

“Then tell me the truth.”

-parent

-haunted 

-sacrifice

Day 24:

“How much of that did you hear?”

-Academic AU

-bad luck

-savior

Day 25:

“I hate this feeling?”

-Olympics

-injury

-conflict resolution

Day 26: 

“Don’t you dare walk away.”

-ballet

-allergies

-family

Day 27:

“Tell me a story.”

-Gotham

-costumes

-apologizing

Day 28:

“One last kiss.”

-pornography

-uniforms

-platonic

Day 29:

“Go fuck yourself.”

-blind date

-holiday/special occasion

-Western AU

Day 30:

“You left me.”

-surprise party

-bar

-drunk

Day 31:

“I can explain about last night.”

-pining

-lingerie

-one night stand

[poussacha]

My 2023 Fanfiction Wrapped

Hi everyone! It's ya boi spreadsheets back with another fanfiction wrapped! This time I actually took the time to make it look really pretty (see: I half assed this in Google Slides for my discord server's swampmas wrapped event lmao).

Without further ado, here's what I read this year.

2023 Fanfiction Mini Guide

These are fics I rated 7/7 stars on my guide that I would FULLY recommend everyone read if you're into these fandoms or ships.

Stranger Things

Gen (Steve & Robin)

As He Sinks Just Like A Stone by saintmares | Rated T | 5k

The words "Steve Harrington is sooo strong" had always made Robin Buckley roll her eyes. After all, what did it matter if some stupid jock just so happened to use his muscles a bit more than other people? But when her life comes crashing down inside a secret underground Russian elevator, Robin finds a new appreciation for the strengths of Steve Harrington... at least until she has a startling realization about her best friend and his fleeting mortality as the Party patches up his demo-bat bites.

Steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson)

Black Out Days (Fairground Nights) by OonionChiver | Rated E | 140k (background Ronance)

‘I think,’ Steve says slowly, reaches for Eddie’s abandoned, untouched beers. ‘You don’t know me very well.’

‘I don’t know you at all, man. I don’t really want to.’

Steve’s throat works. It’s subtle, but Eddie sees it. He hides it with a swig of beer, but when he sets it down, his smile isn’t quite so bright. Twice as sharp, though.

‘The self-centred asshole who can only be decent to a single human being, I get it. It works for you.’ Then he takes a thick, heavy breath. The alcohol is hitting him, Eddie can tell. ‘And I am being civil. I’m here, aren’t I? You have any idea how hard it is for me to be here?’

‘In a bar?’

Steve doesn’t answer.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

Stomco (Star/Tom/Marco)

Monster Carvers by Raikim4Never | Not Rated | 70k (unfinished, but I think about it every day of my fucking life)

Fourteen years after Princess Star Butterfly is kidnapped from her cradle, a terrorist attack on The Underworld results in Prince Tom Lucitor being sent to stay on Earth. Meanwhile, the Monster Carvers plot to bring an end to all non-Mewmans, and Ludo learns of rumors that Tom was given the Butterfly wand for safekeeping…

High School Musical

Chyan (Chad/Ryan)

I Still Don't Dance by Rozavie | Rated G | 20k

Chad Danforth never thought that he would find himself here—washed up, past thirty, teaching at a high school, and divorced. Basically, everything in his life has gone up in flames. No longer being able to play his favorite sport, and coming off of an exhausting (although amicable) separation, Chad decides that it's time to focus on what he can control. Primarily, raising his daughter. As long as she's happy and healthy, Chad thinks that he can manage to be as well.

But when an old friend from high school stumbles back into his life, Chad's world gets just a little more interesting.

Boy Meets World

Cory/Shawn/Topanga

For a good time, call by feyrelay | Rated M | 3k

This headcanon lives rent-free in my head, constantly, and I was so disappointed in how GMW handled a lot of the adult relationships and stickier topics, that I just had to write this. It just might rot your teeth.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Zukka (Sokka/Zuko)

like the sun inside you by ofherlionheart | Rated M | 200k (Unfinished)

Sokka's expression is caught somewhere between determined and pissed off when he says, “I know you think this is your responsibility. But you’re not going to be alone in this. This is why we’re building you a council.”

“I know,” Zuko says.

“And the only way you’re going to die having done nothing but sit in meetings is if you let yourself do that. You’re not a bad leader if you take a break now and then.”

Zuko scowls. “What, so people can then say at least my father wasn’t lazy?”

Sokka tilts his head. “Don’t you think there’s a difference between laziness and, I don’t know, choosing life and happiness in spite of a terrible dad who tried to take both from you?”

----------

Zuko is sixteen years old when he’s handed a crown, a throne, and a hundred-year ancestral legacy of colonial imperialism. He’s not scared of the work; he’s scared of being consumed by the responsibilities and burdens he’s claimed. What Zuko doesn’t quite realize, yet, is that he’s not alone in this.

(do you take this jerk to be) your one and only by jatersade | Rated T | 55k

Under the leadership of Fire Lord Iroh, the Fire Nation has made every attempt to restore peace and make amends for the harm they inflicted during the Seventy-Year War. Their newest proposal is a literal proposal: a marriage to unite the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes.

The Fire Nation offers Prince Zuko’s hand.

The Water Tribes offer Princess Yue’s.

Sokka is apparently the only person in the world who has a problem with any of this.

Will We Last the Night by CSHfic | Rated T | 144k

Chief Arnook never assigns Sokka to protect Princess Yue, so he goes to fight the Fire Nation with the other men. When the moon dies, and the ocean spirit takes its revenge, Sokka is caught standing on the deck of a Fire Nation ship. Sokka should have drowned… and he would have drowned, if not for a certain Fire Nation raft fleeing the North Pole.

[An enemies-to-lovers season 2 rewrite, where Sokka is separated from the gaang during the Siege of the North, and travels the Earth Kingdom with Zuko instead].

War Crimes by Lovely_Elbow_Leech | Rated M | 90k (MAJOR CONTENT WARNING FOR SA, CHILD SA, TORTURE, MURDER, AND VIOLENCE - PLEASE READ THE TAGS AND CONTENT WARNINGS)

Book one ends with two major diffrences: 1. Sokka went on the mission with Hahn (it did not go well) 2. Zhao survives the North Pole and that proves unfortunate for everybody (except Zhao, obviously) 

Imprisoned on Zhao’s war ship, Sokka and Zuko have to work together to survive. They are not very enthusiastic about this prospect. 

And they argue. 

A lot. 

War games by Lovely_Elbow_Leech | Rated M | 428k (MAJOR CONTENT WARNING, TORTURE, VIOLENCE, MURDER - Unfinished)

After the events of War Crimes, Sokka and Zuko have escaped Zhao’s warship and are fleeing across the Earth Kingdom. As well as unfamiliar terrain, they have to navigate their shared trauma, work out where they fit into the war, and their place in each others lives.

Sokka is aware that being friends with the enemy is going to bring complications, but he probably should have guessed that being friends with Zuko in particular, was going to be a bit like dunking your head repeatedly into a bucket of angry Fire Ferrets.

Katara is also grappling with the confusion of befriending an enemy, something that doesn’t prove as difficult as she had expected with the bond of shared, furious grief bridging old wounds. (Learning a new way to look at her bending doesn't hurt either)

Azula, struggling with the Fire Lord’s mistrust, encounters a few nasty surprises and has to make some difficult decisions. Luckily, she is a great deal better at making sensible choices than her brother.

Her father may have made a slight tactical error.

In the Soft Light by CHSfic | Rated T | 84k

As the newly appointed cultural liaison to Northern Water Tribe, Zuko is the first Fire Nation Citizen to step foot inside the city's walls in nearly a century. He's determined to prove himself—to the Fire Lord and to his father—even if the Water Tribe's spirit-touched prince seems to want nothing to do with him.

or

Moon Spirit Sokka AU

These Things Written by Erisenyo | Rated E (Underage) | 222k

The letter was never supposed to be read, least of all by Sokka. But then, things happen every day that aren’t supposed to, in war.

Or,

On a particularly hopeless night, Zuko sends out a messenger hawk to nowhere. He didn’t realize that his messenger hawk is deeply committed to completing the job. And that Sokka happens to be traveling straight through nowhere, at the time.

These Things Known by Erisenyo | Rated E (Underage) | 400k (Third in series! There is a second one between These Things Written and These Things Known)

[Aang cuts him a quick, guilty look. “I didn’t mean to imply that you…”

Sokka raises his eyebrows. “That I…Focus on the present to the point of blindly committing to enormously questionable courses of action with significant long-term ramifications because they’re gratifying in the immediate moment, which is particularly concerning as our chief Maker of Plans?”

“Uh—That’s basically…Yeah.”]

Surrounded by danger and doubts, separated by war and one irrevocable decision—after the world of just-Sokka-and-Zuko crashes into the world of everything else, what comes next?

Or,

What happens when trusting someone suddenly means something far different out in the world than it did in the space of a Ba Sing Se teashop?

I'll Share the Moon, if You'll Share the Sun by anarchycox | Rated M | 400k

An alternate world where Iroh leads a coup against Ozai on the eclipse and wins the throne for Zuko. The southern water tribe hadn't sent men to fight in thirty years, instead protecting their home, laying traps, using guerilla tactics so the fire nation gave up fighting them.

Sokka and Katara found Aang, but being frozen in ice for a hundred years has ramifications and for almost four years the tribe focuses on healing the avatar.

Zuko is advised for continued peace to have an arranged marriage outside the fire nation. The best option is a the child of the chief of the southern tribe. Katara is in love with Aang and is heartbroken, but will do her duty for her people. Sokka finds a loophole that they can carefully and craftily exploit.

Aka they lie. They lie so hard and Sokka becomes the one betrothed to Fire Lord Zuko. He is sure there will be no consequences to the plan. Certainly not going to fall in love with the man he is lying to. At all. Nope indeedy, no love on the menu. Dang it.

Everything That I Am Not by Benedick | Rated T | 85k (Unfinished)

Sokka isn’t stupid. Not that his sister is, mind you (at least, he’d never call her that to her face now that she’s honed her waterbending), or any of the rest of Team Avatar, although sometimes it feels like he’s living in a different world from the rest of them — a world where running out of food means starving, and walking into a town full of firebenders with the Avatar in tow will get you killed, rather than help you free a beaten-down Earthbender colony.

Anyways.

Sokka isn’t stupid, which is why he laughs directly in Aunt Wu’s face when she tells him that he will marry the Fire Lord.

As always, if you're curious how I get my data or how to do this yourself, shoot me a DM or come bother me in my Discord Server (It's called The Swamp, we're all queer and neurodiverse with various interests and are currently having a pokemon themed Swampmas)

[knightyoomyoui]

LE SSERAFIM Chaewon x M & F Reader - “Hardwork Pays Off”

Heyo and welcome to my NEWWWWWWW one-shot book where you can expect that in these stories of yours, you will be paired with various K-Pop idols! Hope you enjoy reading and please give it a vote and add it to your reading list!

Let's kickoff this book with this story of you along with the leader of LE SSERAFIM and one of the former members of IZ*ONE, Kim Chaewon!

The urgent meeting for the campus' 40th anniversary of its foundation has just ended. All of the members walked out of the room from their respective sections, which they held as representatives.

Among those who attended the meeting was Kim Chaewon, a freshman student from the first and highest section, where most students that obtained passing and high grades could only get there. She is a very smart woman, which only explains how she was able to be a part of it.

Her rich family background also qualified her to be an auditor of the student council, with the members instantly choosing her to take the position.

But not only that, she is also a figure in other organizations, including the Festivals and Ceremony Committee, which is the one that gathered together to talk about certain issues to be discussed prior to the foundation day of the campus.

This day is well known for everyone to be special and remarkable each year, and as usual, they have to keep the streak that way. That's why, after the class, all the members went to the room and talked to each other about what their plan was to execute everything that revolved around the said celebration.

There were only three who suggested their own ideas: the treasurer, named Miyawaki Sakura, who said that they have to invite the previous administrators and other personnel who worked on the campus before and left their own legacy here, and the chairman of the committee herself, named Nakamura Kazuha, who said that they can move the sports fest into the foundation day so that everyone can be entertained and spend the class-free day more enjoyable.

Lastly, it was Chaewon herself who joined them in sharing what was on her mind. After Kazuha gave her own, she asked for anyone who wanted to take the turn. Chaewon raised her hand afterwards.

"Chaewon, I see you've got something to recommend for us. Go on." Kazuha granted her request to speak.

"Thank you, chairman", Chaewon politely said. She stood up from her seat; now everyone's eyes are on her.

"So for me, I think, what if we arrange a mini-concert or a talent fest in the event?" Chaewon began her suggestion. The rest were revealing their interested looks as they heard it.

"We could invite everyone who wants to perform, whether they could be students, teachers, janitors doing a band, dance performance, cheerleading, anything. We've never done that before. There can also be booths where students can sell products that can be a souvenir for the event or simply foods, beverages, and photographs. And then, when the night comes, I wonder if we could set up some fireworks."

The members were nodding their heads, pursing their lips, or whispering their approval and liking for Chaewon's suggestion. The school rarely does a concert, especially allowing everyone in the school to join, not only students and teachers; that's what Chaewon piqued their interest in.

Without anyone trying to follow up with Chaewon, the chairman then placed the three options into decision-making. The members expressed their insights about the possible advantages and disadvantages it may hold.

"Alright, now that we heard from everyone how they perceive the choices, let's go to the voting procedure, Kazuha said, picking up the whiteboard marker on the table.

"So first, who's in for Sakura's suggestion?"

Out of the 20 members of the committee, only five raised their hands.

Kazuha tallied it on the side of the writing on the board. "Five for Sakura. Next, to my suggestion?"

7 of the committees raised their hands.

"Cmon guys, don't be scared; I won't eat you all alive if you all don't pick me, Kazuha joked, which earned laughter from the members present in the room with her.

"That's all? Five? Are there others who want to catch up?"

Kazuha saw that no one came out for an addition.

"Okay, seven it is." She marked it on the board. "Lastly, to our Chaewon here: Who here approves her plan?"

The rest of the members who didn't vote from the previous two quickly raised their hands in unison. There were eight in total who were in favor of Chaewon's side.

Kazuha counted it noisily and nodded. We've got 8 remaining who haven't voted yet, she labeled Chaewon's name. Oh, it looks like we now know who owns the majority."

"I guess it's safe to conclude that, Chaewon, your idea will be our main plan for the preparation of the foundation day concert. I am also allowing you to join in leading the group since you have the whole idea of what the event should look like, okay?"

Chaewon nodded and smiled at Kazuha's remark. She stood up and bowed to everyone who supported her proposal. "Thank you everyone; let's do well and spread fun on the campus!"

The group clapped their hands for her to express their happiness for their fellow members. As Kazuha ended the meeting, Chaewon received congratulatory messages from her co-members in the hallway.

Returning to her locker, she finally let go of the heavy feeling of anxiety that was putting pressure on her. She appreciated and was happy that her creative and fascinating idea was chosen, but she wondered about the possibility that the students would barely participate or wouldn't view the organization of the event as much as she expected, leaving them disappointed.

In addition, her belief that she is the most underrated and least popular figure in the school government could get her into trouble if the public learns who is behind all of it.

Chaewon sighed and shook her head to remove these thoughts from her head and make her unbothered for at least a while. So far, her main objective has been to execute and finish this new task that she applied for on her own.

The next day, the Festival and Ceremony Committee worked really hard almost the entire day to review Chaewon's event proposal, publicize the event to the higher-ups, prepare everything they'll need for the construction, manage the equipment, and compute the overall cost of how much they'll spend for the event.

Chaewon was glad to witness her idea slowly become a reality. Despite how nervous she is still feeling, the excitement is trying its best to oppose and battle the negativity within her. That's why she is pouring her efforts to their full extent into this event.

The perfect time has finally arrived for the school's annual foundation day commemoration. Luckily, the set is all prepared on the open grounds of the campus. Everyone was walking through and capturing the good luck of the stage where the students who applied to perform with musical instruments are practicing their performance later.

Chaewon is monitoring everything along with Kazuha, who is walking beside her. While she was invested in staring at the stage, thinking about what could happen later when the concert officially starts, she wasn't aware that Kazuha was calling her.

"-won... C-Chaewon!"

"Y-yeah?!" Chaewon exclaimed frantically.

"Are you okay? You seemed to be spaced out." She asked her worriedly.

"I'm good. Sorry, I wasn't able to respond quick." Chaewon sheepishly looked away.

"It's okay." Kazuha smiled. "Are you ready for later, Chae?"

"Yup. I just hope everyone will like what I did for them."

Kazuha patted her friend to the shoulder. "They will, trust me. After all, you're our master strategist and the brightest mind in our council. You rarely commit mistakes, but this won't be one of them."

"I'll head back to the council; you can relax for now. You've done enough, Chae", Kazuha said and smiled before leaving Chaewon alone in the middle of the open grounds.

Chaewon continued to wander around while eating her waffles until a certain person drew her attention when their eyes met.

"Hi Chae!" You greeted her after walking towards at her.

"Hey, YN." Chaewon smiled. What are you doing so far?"

"Ahh, well I'm just talking along with my friends there." you pointed at the guys on the stage. "So basically, I'm just here for nothing. Duties are cleared for now anyway." you shrugged.

"You're right." She nodded. "I see that they'll perform later."

"I encouraged them. That's my way on helping them to promote their newly formed band." you proudly said to her.

"Ooh, supportive friend huh." She smirked.

"Ofcourse I am, especially if they've been like that for me too. If it wasn't for them too, I won't be standing here right now as your fellow committee member who contributed in the production of what we have in here." You said roaming your eyes around while spreading your arms.

"How about you, don't you have anything to do?" You asked her.

"Kazuha lets me to do what I want for now, like you said we are done here so I'm just looking around the place." Chaewon said after biting a piece of her waffle. "But I'm going to the library now. I'm craving for some novels to read."

"Okay then, see you later I guess and have fun on reading." You smiled at her.

Chaewon returned the same nice gesture. "You too."

She was about to walk away and head to her next destination when you called her once again.

"Wait, Chaewon!"

She turned around and hummed in confusion.

"How is that waffle? Is it good? What flavor?" You asked in curiosity as you pointed at the booth distance away from them.

"It's cheese and yeah, it's delicious." Chaewon answered.

"Nice, I'll go buy one. I want to try it too. Thanks!"

You were about to walk away when Chaewon spoke behind you. "Y-you can have mine i-if you want."

Stopping in your steps, you slowly faced Chaewon to see her quite shy as she tightlipped while pushing her hand holding the waffle closer into you.

"You s-sure, Chae? That's your food?"

"I don't mind. I'm not hungry anymore and the library doesn't allow foods anyway... so you can have it. Also, I'm sparing your money to be spent less."

You looked at the bitten waffle, which now has exactly half of its length remaining. "As you say, I mean... I won't try to refuse such a free offer."

Both of you chuckled. You became surprised when Chaewon pushed the waffle even closer to you, including what she said along the way. "Take a bite first, and you'll find out."

Your eyes widened as you stared at Chaewon, cheekily smiling in front of you. Slowly directing your mouth at the food, you opened and bit another piece of waffle as you munched to discover how it tasted.

Chaewon watched you eat patiently, and she listened to the sounds of your hums and groans. "Mmmhmm... wow. Yeah, it's good. I love how they didn't go easy on the cheese and they stuffed it on the waffle that much", you said as you clicked your tongue to depict the taste if left on there.

"Told you. It's yours; grab it. I'll be going now, YN."

She handed you the waffle before she separated from you. You looked at the waffle again and smiled at Chaewon's kindness.

As you returned to your friends, you caught them all staring at you with teasing smiles and reenacting your moment with Chaewon there, making you threaten them in annoyance while being embarrassed at the same time that they caught both of you there as you realized how close you went through Chaewon.

It was 5 p.m. in the afternoon when the concert officially started. Everybody is gathered around the open ground, occupying most of its space as they go on to visit the available stalls, while others are now watching, cheering, and vibing along with the performances brought by the volunteered students, teachers, and other personnel involved in this wonderful event.

The student council partnered with the festival and ceremony committee and the security team to guard and ensure that the event would progress smoothly and establish a safe environment for people to be unharmed.

However, there is only one person who belongs in the group who is absent, and that is Chaewon, who is using her phone after resting from reading her chosen novel for so long.

She is currently hiding herself from them after coming up with the decision not to join them out there and see her idea. Although she has to follow, it wasn't intentional because she has to do this without any other choice.

Her family had already notified her that her driver would pick her up soon because they had to prepare early for their flight early in the morning.

Since it's their semester break afterwards, her parents decided to visit their relatives living in another country for a short vacation.

She couldn't wait and stay here for longer, so she made an excuse in the group chat along with an additional request for them to make sure that everyone in the school should be kept prioritized in the afterparty for the sake of the regulations before she sneakily left the campus.

Despite how sad and unfortunate the situation is for her, what's important to her now is that she showed assistance, and hopefully everyone can acknowledge the amusement she has supplied for them.

As she was walking through the alleyway, she heard the noises of the crowd starting to erupt along with the upbeat music being played by whoever was performing there.

"Everyone's having a blast, Chaewon said, smiling at her observation. "Good for them."

Her phone beeped, and she checked the notification. It was her driver who informed her that he was now close.

While typing her reply message to be sent to her driver, she was too oblivious to sense your incoming presence as you tried to run ahead and catch up to her.

"Chaewon!"

"Y-YN?" She asked astoundingly. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be there."

"Yeah, I know, but I excused myself also," you said between her slightly heavy breathing from sprinting. "Look, I saw your message on the GC. I hope you and your family have a safe flight tomorrow."

"Thanks."

"You did a good job for today's event; me and the rest want to say it personally again, but since earlier, after you went to the library, I couldn't search for you anywhere", you said to her.

"I was actually going to give this to you. Now that I find you, here you go."

You grabbed her hand and opened it on your own, startling her. You placed a small object in her palm. Chaewon looked at it and identified it as a small girl doll above the blooming flowers.

"What's this?"

"It's one of the souvenirs being sold by the students there at the stall earlier. While I was checking there I just found this one cute. I don't know, something brought me to buy it and... give it to you because this somehow reminds me of you."

Chaewon stared at you. She was petrified how she just came across in your mind randomly.

"W-why did you think so?"

"I just found you to be the type of person that wherever you go, you make everything bloom just like you. That's what you're like this doll and we, the people around to you; are the flowers who grows from the sunlight of your happiness."

Chaewon was left speechless by your own definition of her character. She had shivers all over her skin when she felt as if time had just paused after hearing that from you. The only thing that is moving so fast is the heart rapidly beating from your uplifting words.

"And also, I also recorded this from you."

You pulled out your phone from the pocket of your pants. You opened it and showed the screen to Chaewon. To her astonishment, she can view the recorded video of what's happening in the concert right now, where her thoughts were proven wrong.

Everyone was enjoying and loving the event. It all worked right.

"Those were all because of you, Chae. We're happy for your accomplishment of making another yearly foundation day of our campus successful and memorable", you said to her as Chaewon continued to watch the video intently. "When you sent your goodbyes to us, I figured you wouldn't be here with us, so I came up with a way for you to be able to see them still because you deserved it."

Chaewon looked at you and let out a soft smile from her lips. "This is beyond wonderful, YN. I appreciated your thoughtfulness so much. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Chae." You smiled back at her.

She returned her gaze to the phone and watched the remaining time left in the video. She didn't control herself anymore; she presented the biggest grin she ever had so far in front of you.

"Ahh... look at them. They're so cute! So many smiles and laughters around in their faces! I love it, I'm so happy!" She said as she cradled the phone in her hands along with her ecstatic sways while giggling and sighing in relief.

You just watched her be the usual positive version of herself, and if only Chaewon knew how much you loved and were content to see her like this. You hope that this never ends and she never changes because this... This is a gem of a sight for you.

Her smile when she looked at you didn't fail to make you react the same way. It was like you also caused her to brighten her mood more.

Right at the time when the video came to an end, the fireworks popped into the night sky after being launched.

Chaewon and you looked above to gaze and watch the colorful show presented in your eyes.

Chaewon became even happier than ever...and she has you on her side.

You glanced at her side profile, and oh, how breathtaking it is to see her illuminated face sparkling with various bright colors that blend well with the beauty she possesses and that lovely smile she wears.

Again, this has become one of the best days of your life, and you're glad that she was the cause of it.

The fireworks disappeared before the event proceeded inside, with the roaring crowds going crazy again.

You remembered that Chaewon is about to leave now, so you were contemplating escorting her on her way home for safety precautions since it's already nighttime and you don't trust the streets in this state.

Unfortunately, you were prevented from doing so when a car emerged at the end of the hallway. "My driver is now here; bye, YN!"

"Bye, Chaewon." You said with a mix of sincerity and sadness that she had to go without you.

Before she leaves, she gave you one last gift of appreciation for you to cherish when Chaewon quickly hugged you tightly and pressed the side of her head against your chest. "Thank you so much for today; goodnight, and see you again after the semester ends, YN."

"You're welcome, Chae. Have fun on your vacation, you commented as you melted and smiled wider at being in her arms, accepting it by placing yours around her too.

She let go of you and waved her hand at you before she started to walk away further from you.

You remained there to wait for her to reach the car, while Chaewon was all assured that this day had become more than complete and special for her. Not only did she get to share moments alone with the guy/girl she secretly admires, but she was also now confident that all of her hard work had indeed paid off.

[callmejudgement]

UA University Script

About Me

Name: Mako 魔子

Trickmaster hero – Miss.Magician

Age: 18

Birthday: ??? Letting fate decide fr.

Height: 5ft 7in

Quirk: Magician - which provides me with 8 tricks to fool reality. Flame jumping,illusions, historical projections, damage transfer, steel card, air bullets, paper figurine substitutes, underwater breathing trick (more on my quirk here)

Physical abilities: incredible balance, coordination, flexibility and agility. Danger intuition.

Backstory: I literally just grew up in a happy family. Living rich and lavish. My dad is a retired top pro hero and my mom is an underground hero that works for the government. I have an older sister following in my mom’s footsteps and older brother whom is a researcher. My family often trains together and we do a lot of family activities together. I’ve been friends with Shinso since middle school and I was close with Shotō for like a year in elementary school. We’re literally twins with our heterophobia and dual color hair 👁️👅👁️.

My goal in this reality it literally to be my silliest, most autistic self. Literally me if I never started masking so people wouldn’t call me weird.

Plot (or the lack there of)

The war arc doesn’t happen. I’m not dealing with allat.

Bakugou doesn’t get kidnapped and faces appropriate consequences for his actions and behavior (I’m talking about him being a bully).

The other students quirks are stronger (I hate that Bakugou had it easy. I’m a purebred hater).

Momo was trained and is more skilled at using her quirk (she’s rich why didn’t her parents hire a trainer for her canonically?)

Tenko’s mom leaves with the grandparents and his sister before he loses control. He now attends UA.

OFA is still out there plotting I guess.

Fusions (borrowed idea from priicklleshifts on tiktok).

Overhaul is good and works at UA in support heroes/medical.

Eri is not abused and has a decent relationship with Chisaki even though he is an overworking germaphobe.

Events like the sports festival only starts to happen at the second trimester (bc why tf did it happen on like the 2nd week of school?)

Japan

Due to its high safety and previously low birth rate, Japan now has many immigrants from all over

Super high tech I’m talking holographic screens, robots in the streets, virtual reality, etc

There’s a National and international tournament where schools compete to see who has the best upcoming heroes.

UA

UA is a university because why are them kids fighting?

Amenities

Along with what appears in the anime there is:

A spa on campus that is free for hero course students. They offer normal and medical massages, mud baths, meditation, sauna, steam room, lounge, ice fountain, treatment rooms and other beauty and wellness services (yes, I'm going to abuse this).

There is practically an extra little town on the mountain with the school due to all the school amenities and staff.

Massive library with study rooms n stuff.

Lots of school festivals, dances and other events.

Classes

UA Departments: Hero, Support (fashion, tech, etc), Business, Gen Ed.

There’s home room which is where you spend most of your time. We do gen Ed and hero law stuff with our home room.

Students can take any electives ranging from costume design to home ec, Solo training to costume engineering.

Students are encouraged to try out things through electives and clubs.

There are free lifestyle classes on weekends so you can take a quick class on cooking, sewing, gardening, first aid without the commitment or worry of grades.

Everyone gets a free holographic tablet thing for the schedule, note taking and to access the school app thing.

The app lets us access the dorms if we don’t have a physical I’d on us, order at the school restaurants with free delivery from the campus delivery bots. It’s just has a bunch of handy features.

Class 1A

Shinso replaces mineta.

There are also 5 exchange/international students in our class.

We go on a few international field trips throughout the year.

There’s a pool table and conversation pit in the dorm.

Mina is blasian, Midoriya is half Yemeni and Sero is Latino because I said so.

Merch

School spirit became a big thing with the influence of American immigrants and exchange students (America ya! :D).

UA has school jackets, shirts, jerseys, etc.

The gym uniforms come in different styles and lengths to suit the wearer.

Food

Instead of one lunchroom there are many dining halls around campus. If you’re a boarding student then food is free.

The restaurants have a certain numbers of items you can pick from to create a reasonable meal. Anything extra you have to pay for.

Some of the halls have larger portions or all-you-can-eat to accommodate for stunner quirks and different bodies.

Diverse food culture. (Indian, American, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and other style foods)

There are mini break rooms around campus for students to relax,study or mingle between classes. They have free snacks (onigiri, chips, fruit, juice,etc).

There are self driving busses that drive students to the area in 10min max.

There’s also food trucks on campus (I am not being greedy. This is 100% necessary).

[correctproseka]

enstars is a whole uh. its a whole thing alright

it does have some of the same costume issues that proseka does with like vaguely southwest asian outfits but... i mean that might be some of the most outright malicious stuff in enstars, but it doesnt even scratch the surface of the weird shit in that game

as for sexualization, i dont have any real experience with the first game (where basically all the characters are in high school), but in enstars music most of the characters are around 19 years old. some characters are still in high school, but they're almost never sexualized - the only sexualized cards of them i could find were tomoya's optimistic sports festival card and airas napping serval card. in some cards hajime, aira and kohaku act a bit flirty to the viewer as well, and kohaku does sing and dance in some songs with very sexual themes (rinne could you write one (1) song about something other than penises please)

the real weird shit in enstars, though, comes from the story. oooooooooooh boy it is. it is something

so starting with our cast of characters we've got four entitled rich boys who bullied half a school into suicide in an event known as The War, an actual terrorist who tried to blow up said school (hes the mascot of the games!), a guy who can talk to fish and was worshipped by a cult as the god of the ocean, a guy who lives in the ceiling, a christian missionary with a body count, a guy whose only friend is a haunted talking doll named mademoiselle who also abused his bandmates, a guy who was sent into the idol industry by a priest to impersonate his half brother who was killed by the christian missionary dude, a 15 year old assassin who is also a part time cowboy, two actual literal vampires, a guy who thinks hes a wizard who can kill people with his mind, and a full-time cowboy who calls himself mama and whose mission is to destroy aforementioned cult.

yeah

its uh

its a game alright!!!

Yeah i knew most of the sexualization of the characters came from the story/talks rather than the cards.

And i finally understand that these characters did not go to actual war oh my god i literally thought they did. Im. Going to ignore the rest. For my sanity

[mod-kyoko]

school au headcanons!! pt. 1

fandom: danganronpa: trigger happy havoc

type: school au, no-ultimates

a/n: just how the characters would act in an au where ultimates don't exist!

if it seems like i'm being mean to any of the characters i'm literally not (except for hifumi i can't defend him but other than that i have nothing but love in my heart for them all)

♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧

makoto naegi

friends with a bunch of theatre kids but not actively involved, sees every show

doesn't really have any after school activities

spends his free time reading comics and playing video games

very extroverted but not popular, but despite that no one has beef with him

usually active in pep rallies and social events like school dances, but not any clubs or sports

sayaka maizono

choir kid - soprano

everyone in the choir loves her

she always gets the solos

on top of that she has the highest grades in every subject and is on the student council

literally everyone loves her

takes a lot of fine arts classes

always the female lead in the musicals and theatre kids are tired of it but no one says anything

byakuya togami

rich kid

so god damn intolerable

straight A's across all classes, primarily chooses social studies related electives

president of his class and student government

everyone kisses his ass hoping to get invited to his mansion or receive gifts of some sort

captain of model UN

parents definitely donate a fuck ton of money to the school

kyoko kirigiri

top 10% of her class, straight A's

not the most popular, but well-liked enough, no one has beef because she stays in her lane

in the archery club

favorite subject is english

gets so many guys but doesnt look their way

girlie is focused on her studies so she can get into a top university and go into law

celestia ludenberg

another born rich popular kid

everyone kisses her ass and she takes advantage of it

extremely smart without even needing to study

mommy and daddy donate money to the school

probably the single most popular girl

her favorite subject is social studies, specifically history

on the student council, national honors society, and part of the chess club

chihiro fujisaki

responsible for reviving the programming club

super well liked with the less popular students, but not paid attention to by the populars

volunteers for a program that teaches kids to code!

part of the school's GSA

super smart! often tutors people for free in all subjects

all of her time is spent in the computer lab

hifumi yamada

started the anime club

widely hated

does well academically but not socially

does have quite a few members of his club though

also on the creative writing team but gets the lowest scores because his style is more suited for comics/manga/fanfiction

mondo owada

popular with the guys and the girls

on the baseball team

former bully but mellowed out in high school

cannot go a month without getting a detention because he speaks his mind

bro's grades are kind of suffering

that guy who gets dropped off at school on a motorcycle every day

his teachers don't have a lot of faith in him

kiyotaka ishimaru

tight ass student council member who never breaks a single rule

not a super-narc anymore but occasionally reverts to his snitch ways

he isn't even popular with other student council members

but he is very popular with the teachers

straight A's

king of extracurriculars, part of model UN, the GSA, honors society, student council, government, and volunteers for many different organizations and charities

is well aware people don't like him because of the stick up his ass, but he is passionate and respects every single one of his classmates and teachers. truly doesn't dislike a single person

junko enoshima

equally as popular as sayaka

takes cosmetology

doesn't even need to study to maintain her good grades

she is a model and influencer, and often gets followed/recognized at school

she never gets tired of the attention though

she does equestrian!!! loves horseback riding and competes with other schools

mukuro ikusaba

poor girl lives in her sister's shadow, no one even knows her name

everyone knows her as "junko's sister"

she tries to join independent activities

she runs cross country

her grades are good because she spends a lot of time studying

her favorite subject is math, she is naturally gifted with it

doesn't really talk to many people besides her sister, but she has a very small circle

toko fukawa

carries the creative writing team to states every single year

everyone kind of just overlooks her, but with her modest style she is prone to teasing sometimes

is also a writer/editor for the school newspaper

all her time is spent in the library devoting herself to one of her extracurriculars

is one of the few people who actually enjoy studying

struggles in math

tutors english because her teacher begged her to

yasuhiro hagakure

floats around between social cliques because he's so extroverted and liked by most people

doesn't do too well in academics but studies and goes to tutors because he actually cares

does improv

in the culture club

in student government due to how popular and easygoing he is

leon kuwata

captain of the baseball team

has a garage band with his buddies

super popular with everyone

does alright in most classes, but not math

tenor in the choir

somehow has a new girlfriend every week

sakura ogami

first female student at her school to join the wrestling team, and be captain

super popular with the boys

also part of the culture club, and takes spanish

favorite subject is math

works on the school newspaper

aoi asahina

played so many sports before she settled on swim (soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, softball, track and field)

she is the captain of the swim team in the winter and on the basketball team in the spring

part of the honors society because her grades are great

super popular with the other girls

the kind of person who's nice to everyone, especially the kids who seem lonely or sad

she won't let a single person feel left out

♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧♤♧

[ladyloveandjustice]

Running the Gauntlet: A Complete Natsume Yuujinchou Oneshot Fic

My full fanfic based on the idea I had in this post about Natsume's running abilities making his life at school difficult that blew up.

Includes a couple silly footnotes! ao3 link here if you want to leave kudos

Thank you to @schrodingersauthorii for saying something in the comments to my post that inspired parts of this!

Running the Gauntlet

“I wish Natsume wasn’t our anchor,” a classmate with a sour face and square glasses complained.

Natsume flinched. It’s not like I wanted to be, he thought glumly. He pretended he hadn’t heard, hunching over and tying this shoe. So many students and teachers milling around on the grass, waiting for the big event, whoever it was probably hadn’t noticed he was nearby.

But then, Nishimura’s response made him feel even worse.

“Man, shut up. You haven’t really seen Natsume run. He’s friggin’ fast. We’re lucky to have him.”

Natsume appreciated Nishimura standing up for him, but inwardly he was screaming at him to please stop talking about this.

Then Kitamoto chimed in, “Yeah, one of the first times we saw him outside of school, he basically dashed out of the woods at warp speed. So don’t be rude.”

He saw Kitamoto glance quickly at him, clearly aware might be in earshot.

“Fast? Come on you two, I know he’s your friend, but the guy is sickly. You’re expecting me to believe someone who collapses every other day is a good runner? I’m not saying he’s a bad guy, I’m just not counting on him to win this”. The classmate, who rarely spoke to Natsume, adjusted his glasses.

“You’ll see,” Nishimura said smugly.

Natsume groaned inwardly, straightening up.

He eyed the various students hanging out in different colored headbands, the boy handing out water bottles from the tent, and some teachers talking off to the side.  There was even a chattering crowd on the small set of bleachers. A crowd that included parents.

But worst of all was the looping black track, sizzling in the sun before him. He, Nishimura, and the rest who’d been chosen for the relay race would be lining up on it soon.

He hated Sports Day.

To be fair, this was his least hated sports day so far. He’d never actually experienced sports day while having friends before. When he was a kid, he could expect being pushed to the ground and mocked, or having classmates complaining loudly to teachers about being paired up with the liar. Best case scenario was he’d merely have to feel lonely as he was left out of class celebrations, watching parents and friends cheer others on when there was no one to cheer for him.

But this year he’d been able to cheer wildly for Taki during the bean bag toss, laugh at Tanuma as he was forced to dance awkwardly with the rest of his class during their group performance, and smile as Tanuma got some sweet revenge by beating him at the scavenger hunt. He’d gotten to high five Kitamoto and Nishimura after every victory, and even Sasada once.

So many parents being here was still a little intimidating, though. He kept expecting one of them to yell at him to get away from their kid, even though he knew it wasn’t like that anymore. The Fujiwaras hadn’t been able to come, as they had a relative’s wedding to attend today. Natsume hadn’t even told them today was sports day, because he didn’t want them to feel bad about it. He was also kind of relieved they couldn’t come, because he would have been even more nervous if they were watching.

Overall, it had been a good day. He was basically enjoying himself.

But there was no getting over the dread of his biggest obstacle yet—the relay race. He was really going to have to pay attention to his running. It was such a tough balance…he didn’t want to let down the class, but he also needed to think of…

“Natsume, are you okay?” He blinked, noticing Sasada was suddenly next to him. “You were spacing out a bit.”

“I’m fine! Actually, are you okay?” She looked pale, and she kept fiddling with her glasses. It was strange to see her without the usual air of confidence.

“I’m nervous,” she admitted. She’d been chosen for the relay race too, and was looking at the track with almost as much trepidation as he was.

“Sasada! Natsume!”  Nishimura ran forward before Natsume could reassure her. “It’s all up to us!”

“Yay,” Sasada said blandly.

“What’s wrong, Sasada?” Nishimura grinned smugly at her “Worried you’re gonna be the sports day cliché?”

“The…what?”

“You’ve seen it on TV, right? In anime and stuff? There’s always the one person who trips during the relay race. They scramble to their feet, tears in their eyes, and pass off their baton…” Nishimura imitated the gesture dramatically. “But don’t worry! You can trip all you want, I’m so fast it won’t matter! No need to be nervous!”

Sasada shook her head, putting her glasses back on. “You know what, your stupidity has calmed my nerves a bit, thank you,”

“Glad to be of service.”

---

Considering all that, Natsume wasn’t exactly surprised when Nishimura was the one who tripped.

Natsume winced when his friend went down, hoping he wasn’t hurt. It would be okay, right? Nishimura was so good-humored. This wasn’t a big deal or anything. He’d just laugh it off and…

Nishimura stumbled up, his knee bleeding, his face burning with shame. Natsume could see his eyes were brimming with tears. Of course he was devastated. Nishimura may act carefree, but he hated letting people down.

Natsume sighed.

Fine then.

“Nishimura!” He called out, offering his hand. “Don’t give up! I’ve got this!”

Nishimura’s face lit up instantly. He jogged as fast as he could and slammed the baton in Natsume’s hand. Natsume faced forward. The others had a massive head start, but that wasn’t enough to make him give up.

A yokai is chasing me, he told himself. A big one with sharp teeth.

And next thing he knew, he was crossing the finish line.

Cheers exploded around him as the other runners caught up, lagging after him. And then, suddenly, what seemed to be the entire class was rushing towards him. He had to resist the urge to put his hands up defensively.

Nishimura slammed into him from the side, embracing him. Tears were streaming down his cheeks and he was whooping and laughing. Heat spread up Natsume’s neck and face. It was the first time Nishimura had ever full-on hugged him. Or cried so openly in front of him. He knew it was considered fine for guys to cry and hug only when it involved sports for some reason, but it was still a surprise.  He wasn’t used to that kind of intimacy. Not that it was bad. It was kind of nice.

 The rest of his class gathered around him, yelling things like “way to go” and “that was amazing!” Even Sasada, her face still red and sweaty from her run, was screaming her head off and jumping up and down. Kitamoto clapped Natsume on the back and soon several classmates followed suit. Natsume was sure a red handprint was permanently etched on his back now.

“Dude, I knew you were fast, but I didn’t know you were that fast!!” Nishimura yelled through his tears.

“Seriously, do you have a secret running regimen I don’t know about, or is it just natural talent?” Kitamoto said.

Natsume heard some more cheering explode behind him, and looked over his shoulder to see an uncharacteristically excited Tanuma waving at him from the other side of the track, “Congrats, Natsume!”

“Tanuma, you could at least… pretend to care… that our class lost,” said the boy Natsume had gone up against, still doubled over and panting.

“Sorry.”

There was loud whistle from the stands and Natsume saw it came from Taki. The girl next to her had covered her ears. Taki didn’t notice, and let out another impressively strong blast, waving at him. She removed her knuckles from her mouth and shouted “Woo, Natsume!”

Natsume was torn between being happy his friends supported him and so embarrassed he could die.

“I owe you an apology, Natsume,” said the boy with the glasses, whoever he was.

“Hell yeah you do!” Nishimura responded.

“Nishimura…” Kitamoto’s said scoldingly, his eyes flicking to Sasada.

“Ah…I’m sorry too, Sasada,” Nishimura said sincerely. “You really showed me.” (Sasada had been fast enough to give Nishimura a head start, as Natsume suspected she would be, she’d certainly caught up to him out of nowhere plenty of times in the early days of their relationship).

Sasada wasn’t listening, she was looking at a fit girl with short black hair from another class, who was also still panting from the race. “How about that, Chiyo!” she called over to her.

“You win this one, but I’ll get you next time, Jun! Just you wait!” Chiyo called with a matching huge grin and an excited look in her eyes. For some reason Sasada blushed delicately in response*.

“Okay, okay, give him some room to breathe,” Kitamoto said, shooing at the others. They all stepped back, though Nishimura remained by Natsume’s side. Natsume was grateful for Kitamoto, he was dizzy and overwhelmed. He’d had no idea races like this were such a big deal to people. He was more grateful than ever the Fujiwaras weren’t here to add on to all this.

“Look Natsume!” Sasada had finally torn her eyes away from the other girl and was pointing at the stands. “Even the track coach looks impressed!”

“No wonder, you’re faster than half her team,” Kitamoto said. “Bet she tries to recruit you!”

Natsume’s stomach dropped like a stone. Indeed, the track coach, a woman with short dark brown hair and sharp eyes, was looking at him with interest. This was exactly what he’d been afraid of. His personal hell had returned. Had winning a measly race been worth it?

Natsume looked over at Nishimura, who was still jumping up and down and hollering about how he was going to treat Kitamoto, Sasada and Natsume to some manju, not even minding when Kitamoto snarked at him about it how it must be a cold day in hell if the man who sponged off everyone was paying the tab for once. He flashed Natsume another ecstatic grin, and Natsume smiled back.

Yeah, it had been worth it.

--

Natsume had experienced a lot of reoccurring horrors, but the most annoying of them was being hounded by track coaches at every school he went to.

Apparently, spending most of his life running from yokai had made him faster than the average person. He’d been unaware of this until his first year of middle school. When it came time to run the track, Natsume had heard whispers around him, a couple of the kids placing bets on when he’d collapse. One boy had even smacked him on the shoulder and screamed “The liar’s gonna come in dead last!” in his ear.

Natsume hadn’t really done much racing against other kids on the playground, and he’d been sick during a lot of gym classes, so he’d also figured he’d struggle against the other kids. It had completely shocked everyone, himself included, when he blew past them all with ease. He’d reached the finish line only to find the other kids several feet behind him, panting and gawking.

The gym teacher’s eyes had gone wide, and he’d immediately started urging Natsume to join the track club. The man had even gone to Natsume’s current guardians about it.

His guardians had resented that he was getting attention while their real kid was an overlooked benchwarmer on the baseball team. They’d thrown lots of snide comments Natsume’s way. And…well, he hadn’t had a good time on the track team at all. When he’d inevitably had to move again after those same guardians got tired of him, leaving the track club behind had been the silver lining.

Upon transferring to a new school, he’d decided to keep his speed under wraps. But then a coach noticed him running when he was late for class one day and his troubles started all over again. At first he’d avoided the coach by coming up with excuses about responsibilities or detention or headaches, but eventually he was just reduced to hiding under the bleachers when he saw the man.

At another school, a coach tried to recruit him for her team SO aggressively he’d made the stupid mistake of running away when he saw her—and naturally, seeing how fast he could book it had just increased her interest.

So, when he was gathering up all the extra water bottles from the hydration station tent at end of the day, and saw the track coach approach him, his heart started pounding, He fought back his urge to bolt, even a flashbacks filled his brain.

“Natsume, right? I’m Sakuragi, if you don’t remember." The woman had a wide, genuine smile. He’d only spoken to her a few times, but he was pretty sure she was Taki’s homeroom teacher. “You showed some impressive hustle today! Have you ever thought of joining the track team?”

Fortunately, Natsume had his excuses pre-prepared. “Oh wow, that’s such an honor, Sensei!” He said, continuing to gather up the water bottles while still maintaining polite eye contact. “But, you see, I get sick very easily, so joining a team is a bad idea. I’d just end up being absent a lot, and I’d let the team down.”

“That’s not a problem.” To his horror, the teacher bent down and started picking up the water bottles herself.

“You don’t have to trouble yourself—” He began quickly, but she cut him off, saying “ I’d never require you to come in when you’re not feeling well. You wouldn’t need to worry about calling out sick. We’re a fairly large team, so other students can easily sub in for you if you can’t make a race.”

What kind of laid back track team was this? Never mind, Natsume had a backup excuse. “Well, that’s great, but I’m also concerned about making trouble for my foster parents. It’s a lot to ask them, and I don’t want to put them out. I’d be around to help them less. They’d have to pay for expenses, like when overnight trips at the inn when we go to other towns, or shoes—”

“The school supplies the shoes and other essentials, and we can cover trip expenses if need be. Also, I chat with Ms. Fujiwara at the grocery store often, and she loves bragging about you. I can’t see her turning down a chance for you to develop your skills and enjoy some team spirit!”

Natsume looked down at his shoes, sure that he was tomato red right now. Touko bragged about him? What did he even do worth bragging about? “He only missed ten days of class this month”? “His grades were perfectly mediocre again”? “He hasn’t come home covered in dirt in a while”? “He made five whole friends at school, somehow?”*

Still, through his embarrassment, he felt a little warm inside. She was proud of him. It was a still a new feeling, and he wasn’t sure what to do with this strange, shy happiness.

“Natsume?” The coach’s voice snapped him back to reality. “Is there anything else bothering you, or would you like to come do a practice session with us? If you don’t like it, you don’t have to join. I’ll respect your decision.”

“I…” Natsume was searching for another excuse.  

 Nishimura jogged up. “Natsume, do you need any—" He noticed who Natsume was talking to and his eyes widened. “Oh, sorry to interrupt, Sensei! Natsume, are you being recruited? That’s so cool!”

“Ah, you were his teammate today, right?” Sakuragi smiled at Nishimura kindly.

Nishimura flushed a bit, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, Natsume really saved me out there. He’s a dependable guy! And he’s a great runner!”

Nishimura flashed a grin at Natsume, who was wishing he had telepathy so he could tell him to stop. He tried to send a signal by shaking his head slightly, but Nishimura wasn’t looking now.

“Well, that definitely sounds like track team material,” Sakuragi said jovially. She turned to Natsume. “Looks like your friends vouch for you. But it’s up to you, Natsume. Would you mind just stopping by?”

Natsume couldn’t bring himself to directly say no to a teacher in the first place, and now Nishimura and his enthusiasm had been added to the mix. “I’ll give it a try,” he mumbled, forcing a smile.

“Great! Just come to the track after school tomorrow. I think you’ll find it’s a lot more fun than you’re thinking.”

Natsume kept the smile fixed on as they carried the water bottles back into school. When the coach departed and they came ouside again, he and Nishimura met Taki and Tanuma. As always, Nishimura immediately started blushing and fidgeting , but as always, Taki failed to notice.

“I saw you with Sakuragi-sensei!” she said with a smile. “Impressing her is a big feat, Natsume! And don’t worry, she’s really nice.” She put her hand on Natsume’s shoulder, and Nishimura let out a strangled squeak. “She won’t get mad at you, whatever you decide.”

“Are you okay?” Tanuma said softly. Clearly both he and Taki had noticed he wasn’t actually happy right now.

“I’m fine,” Natsume said, letting the fake smile drop away and replacing it with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’ll just check it out. No big deal.”

---

“I don’t get why you’re whining so much about it,” Nyanko-sensei said, trotting beside Natsume as he walked to school the next day. “It’s just one measly meeting. What’s so bad about this running team thing anyway?”

“The people who took care of me when I joined the track team the first time were really bothered by it. They didn’t like having to drive me places, or the attention I got—”

“The Fujiwara’s aren’t like that, so that’s a stupid excuse.”

“That’s true, but it’s more than that,” Natsume sighed. “Last time, I was constantly late or absent. A yokai would attack me or I’d get sick...”

“Wimp.”

“Shut up, Sensei. Anyway, whenever that happened, the coach yelled at me for flaking out. I let everyone down.”

“But this woman said it doesn’t matter if you’re sick and can’t come, right?”

“She says that now, but she might change her mind,” Natsume mumbled.

“You’re so gloomy,” Nyanko-sensei shook his head. “It’s annoying.”

“Look, even if what she says is true, my teammates probably won’t like me. They didn’t last time. And I just…I just hated the feeling of all those people looking at me.”

He’d struggled a bit with just the sports day crowd watching him, but being on a real team was a million times worse. All those people judging, all their hopes riding on him not messing up… He shivered, remembering the way his skin had crawled, the way his breathing turned funny, the way his hands had shook. All those eyes on him…the weight of their gaze had made him want to curl up so small they couldn’t see him anymore.

“And there’s the actual reason. You’re bad with other people and you get stage fright. Boring.” Sensei yawned. “Just get over it. You have yokai trying to eat you all the time, why’s this scary?’

“I’d rather deal with yokai than the track team,” Natsume said emphatically.

Nyanko-sensei scoffed.

“A couple years ago there was this coach who was always chasing after me to recruit me. I was running from her, trying to get off school grounds so she couldn’t follow me, but then I saw that there was this huge yokai on the path out of school. Big fangs, sharp teeth, claws, all that.  I’d have to double back to avoid it, and the coach would catch me. So… I took the better option, and I ran past the yokai.”

“Idiot. Did it attack you?”

“I took a swing at me and knocked me out. But because of that the teacher was reprimanded for making the sickly kid collapse and they threatened to fire her if she ever chased a student again. She stopped trying to ask me after that. So it all worked out.”

“I don’t understand humans,” Sensei sighed. “Anyway, I’m in favor of the track team. If it helps you run faster, that means less of you getting snatched by yokai and less work for me.”

“Stop being lazy and trying to skip out on your bodyguard duties, Sensei. Yokai shouldn’t be chasing me down in the first place, it’s your job to take care of them.”

“I’ve got my own life to live! Stop being so selfish!”

“I’m the selfish one?”

They bickered all the way to the school gate, and though Natsume would never admit it to Nyanko-sensei, it did make him feel a lot better.

---

The atmosphere of the meet was a lot nicer than he expected. The other students were kind to him, many complementing them on his sports day performance. The team members and Coach Sakuragi were less, well, mean to each other than the team he’d briefly been part of, cheering each on rather than acting sullen when anyone outperformed them. The coach at his old school had always responded to any mistake with a torrent of frustrated criticism that made Natsume tremble in shame. But Sakuragi never acted disappointed or angry. She came off like she was giving friendly suggestions, and she pointed out what they were doing well at lot too. The team responded to her advice eagerly, rather than fearing her.

It was nice, and Natsume almost wished he was the kind of person who could be a part of this. But he knew himself too well. He’d feel terrible each time he missed out due to being sick or waylaid by yokai. And that would happen a lot. The nicer these people were, the worse he’d feel about letting them down. It didn’t matter if they were fine with it, he wouldn’t be. And to be honest, even if he liked his teammates, he didn’t like thinking about huge crowds watching him, he didn’t like the idea of watching other people cry in frustration when he beat them, any of it.

So when Sakuragi asked him if he wanted to do a practice run with the others, he agreed, all while planning to run much slower than usual. He’d explain to her after that the performance on sports day was a fluke, and he usually wasn’t that fast, and there was no way he’d be able to pull it off consistently. Sakuragi would hopefully stop wanting him to join the team, and even if she still asked him, she and the others wouldn’t feel bad when he turned her down.

He took a deep breath, as he stood at the starting line, closing his eyes and blocking the gaze of Sakuragi and the other students out. If he didn’t imagine a yokai was chasing him, running slower was pretty manageable, and he was experienced enough with doing it in Phys Ed that he knew he could pull it off without looking like he was holding back. It would be fine. He’d be fine.

He got himself into position, taking off when Coach blasted the whistle. He lagged way behind the others, while doing his best to look like he was really giving his all. It was going pretty well, he thought, until he looped around on the track and saw a yokai directly in his path.

It wasn’t a big one, not even coming up to Natsume’s knee. It was black, so it had blended in well with the track. It was sort of blobby and shapeless in form, like an inkstain, with beady eyes and a wiggly head.

Natsume’s heart raced and his mouth went dry. It might look small, but he knew better than anyone not to trust a yokai’s appearance. It could be dangerous. Was it here to get the Book of Friends, or was it trying to do something to the people here? It didn’t matter. He had to do something. He couldn’t just slow down, that would give it time to attack.

Instead, he vaulted over the creature. His ankle twisted under him when he landed. He fell, knees and hands scraping the ground. He immediately sprang to his feet and ran as fast he could. He had to lead it away from everyone else.

His sneakers pounded on the rubber and intense vibrations raced through him with each step. It felt like his bones were shuddering. Somone was calling his name, but it was muffled and distant, everything was. He has no room in his brain for anything but his goal. I have to protect the people here. I have to protect the Book of Friends. He crossed the finish line and veered into the grass, ready to grab his bag and sprint out of school grounds. But he looked over his shoulder, he saw the blobby yokai hadn’t moved after him at all. It had simply flattened and spread out on the ground. It’s eyes were closed.

Was it…taking a nap?

Relief filled Natsume as he skidded to a stop. Yes, it was sleeping. Its breathing was even, and as sounds came back to him, he could hear some faint snoring. But he also heard something else, which was Coach Sakuragi screaming at him.

“NATSUME! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? WHY WOULD YOU RUN ON A SPRAINED ANKLE?” She shouted while running toward him.

Sprained…? Natsume looked down and saw his ankle was swelling. Suddenly, intense pain shot through his leg, his ankle folded under him, and he crumpled. Sakuragi caught him under his arms before he could hit the ground. She lifted him up easily.

 Wow, she’s strong, Natsume thought dazedly. Bet I look pretty pathetic right now. He could see students had gathered around to stare at him, expressions worried or shocked. One girl called “Are you okay??”

“Y-yeah,” he said as his mind screamed in humiliation.

Sakuragi could have probably carried him, but thankfully she chose to simply pull his arm over shoulder. “Don’t stand on that ankle, keep it raised.” She commanded. She turned to the cluster of team members. “We need the chairs, the ice bag from the cooler, and the first aid kit. Go get them.”

The student’s responded quickly, three of them running off.

Soon they all came back with all the supplies, including two folding chairs. Sakuragi eased him into a chair. Natsume couldn’t help groaning in pain when a student propped up his leg on the chair in front of him, resting his ankle on a folded towel. Sakuragi quickly cleaned out the minor scrapes on his hands and knees with some medicine.

Natsume hated that he was disrupting the entire track meet and making so many people fuss over him, but he knew protesting would be ungrateful, so he softly thanked the other students instead. They smiled back at him.

Sakuragi placed the ice bag on his ankle. Natsume sighed in relief as the numbing cold broke through the pain.

 Sakuragi bent down to examine his foot. “It don’t think it’s broken, but you’re going to need to check it with a hospital. It’s badly sprained because of all the weight you put on it. Hopefully you didn’t tear the ligament completely.”

“A-a hospital?” Natsume’s stomach dropped. That was really going to worry Touko and Shigeru. He felt so stupid, putting them through all this because a harmless yokai was taking a nap.

Sakuragi straightened up and clapped her hands. “Okay, this isn’t a show, people. Give us some space and get back to practice.”

The team dispersed, and Sakuragi crossed her arms, frowning down at him. Natsume winced, thinking she was going to yell again. Instead, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath. “Natsume.” she said calmly. “I don’t understand what you were thinking. This was just a practice run. Your first one, too.  I’ve seen students try to run on injuries before, but this wasn’t even an actual race!”

Natsume’s looked at his ankle, which was rapidly turning purple, burning with shame. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

“You don’t have to apologize. I just want to know what’s going on. Why did you run on that ankle?”

“I-I didn’t do it on purpose. It was just kind of…instinct?” Natsume said. He instantly realized that how weird that sounded, and so, apparently, did Sakuragi.

“Instinct?” Her frown deepened and her eyebrows drew together. “Your instinct is to keep running even when you’re hurt?”

“No, no, it’s not like that, I’m just used to—!” He snapped his mouth shut.

What was wrong with him? He was usually better at covering things up. He’d almost said he was used to having to run while injured. He’d twisted his ankle running from yokai plenty of times, and at some point he’d learned to just block out the pain until he got to safety. But obviously he couldn’t tell the coach that.  He desperately searched for another way to end the sentence, but before he could, the coach bent over, looking him directly in the eye.

“Natsume, you looked very frightened when that “instinct” kicked in. Like you were being chased down. Are you used to being chased? Is it something that happens a lot?”

Natsume’s blood froze. Did she know? Why? How? What was going on? His ankle was throbbing so badly now, it was hard to think the haze of pain. His breathing got faster, his ears buzzed… He had to say something, anything to throw her off…

 Sakuragi put her hand gently on his shoulder, “Natsume, you can tell me anything. Is it someone who goes to this school? Or even more than one person? Have they been hurting you? I know it’s scary to talk about it, but I promise I can help--”

Natsume’s shoulders slumped as relief flooded him. She’d was asking if people were chasing him. Obviously she’d meant people.  What was wrong with him? Sure, his ankle felt like it was being hit repeatedly with a giant hammer, but that was no excuse to lose his head.

Doing his best to come off as relaxed, he said “Oh, It’s not like that, Sensei, you don’t need to worry. People don’t chase me at all anymore.”

Sakuragi narrowed her eyes. “Anymore?”

He clearly should just stop talking forever. Maybe he’d sprained his brain along with his ankle.

Yes, he’d been chased by people, of course he had. And not just enthusiastic track coaches. He’d had to run away from plenty of classmates looking to teach the liar a lesson. Running from bullies was usually a lot easier than running from most yokai though, since people eventually tired out. He’d only been caught a few times.

At least this slip up didn’t put his secret in danger, it just made every inch of him cringe. He didn’t want to talk about any of this with her. But he had to make her understand everything was okay. Even if it meant embarrassing himself.

“Sensei, ever since I moved here, things have been so much better. People are so kind to me, my friends are amazing, the Fujiwaras are so warm and giving…” He ducked his head, unable to meet her eyes. “I feel like I belong here. Actually belong. I’m happier than I ever thought I could be….”

Sakuragi was listening to him intently, and when he trailed off, she smiled at him. “I’m glad to hear that. Sorry for the interrogation.”

She took some bandages out of the first aid kit and started wrapping his ankle with a steady practiced hand. “It sounds running is really connected to some… difficult experiences for you. I’m a teacher who’s supposed to look out for you. I shouldn’t have pressured you to run. I should have listened and understood your feelings. I apologize.”

“No no, it’s not your fault Sensei, you’re honestly the nicest track coach I’ve ever—"

But his reassurance was cut off by a shout, “Natsume! What happened?!”

Natsume looked over his shoulder, and saw Nishimura, Tanuma, Taki, Kitamoto and Sasada all coming around the corner of school building

 What the heck are they doing here? His stomach dropped at the expressions of worry on their faces. Nishimura led the pack as they rushed toward him.

“How did you get hurt already?!” Nishimura exploded the second he was within talking range. “It’s been fifteen minutes since school let out! Fifteen! I bet you were doing some kind of crazy thing again, don’t you realize-?”

“Nishimura, calm down,” Kitamoto said, smacking his arm. “But seriously, Natsume, what happened?”

“I—"

“Did somebody trip you?” Sasada asked, fixing the scattered team members with a hawklike glare while they looked baffled in response.  “Are there bullies here?”

“No—”

“It’s not broken, is it?” Nishimura was wincing as he looked at the ankle. “It looks so swollen—”

“Guys!” Taki cut him off. “Why don’t we stop freaking out and let Natsume get a word in edgewise?”

“Well said. I know you’re worried, give him the chance to explain,” Sakuragi said in a slightly amused tone.

Nishimura, Sasada, and Kitamoro jolted, like they hadn’t noticed the teacher before.

“Sorry, Sensei,” Sasada said immediately, bowing her head,

“I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to yell at you, Natsume,” Nishimura mumbled.

Tanuma, who’d been quietly watching, stepped up and put his hand on Natsume’s shoulder. It was a timid, gentle touch, but Natsume could feel the weight of Tanuma’s concern through it. He smiled reassuringly at him, and then looked at the others.

“I just tripped, guys, that’s really all. I was doing a practice run and I stumbled and twisted my ankle. Though I, uh, also…” He was going to freak them out if he told them he’d kept running on it, and he wasn’t sure how he’d explain it, but—

“He also bumped it a bit while I was guiding him to his chair,” Sakuragi cut him off, giving him a small smile. “That one was my fault.”

Natsume blinked at her, shocked she’d covered for him. She shook her head at him slightly as if to say ‘Just this once’.

“See, Nishimura?” Kitamoto elbowed him. “You of all people can’t be mad at him for tripping!”

“Yeah…” Nishimura said sheepishly.

“No, I’m really sorry for worrying you all,” Natsume said, guilt racing through him. “But, uh, what are you guys even doing here?

“We wanted to support you. The plan was just to meet you when you were done and walk home together,” Taki said.

“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you before,” Tanuma squeezed Natsume’s shoulder slightly, looking bashful. “You just seemed kind of stressed about it, and I was a little… It was a last minute decision. I was thinking if you wanted to, we could even hang out at my place. I probably overstepped.”

‘It was one of those times his friends' kindness and care filled him up so much he thought he would burst. Those times where he  wondered how he’d found people like them after all these years. When he ached to give them even a fragment of what they’re given him.

“No…” Natsume said, hoping he didn’t sound choked up, “No, I would have liked that, thanks.”

“That’s really sweet,” Sakuragi said with a grin, resuming with wrapping Natsume’s ankle. But then her grin dropped, and she looked at Nishimura questioningly. “Does he get hurt a lot?”

“Kind of. It’s all because he’s reckless, Sensei. He doesn’t think things through!”

“A lot of time he’s trying to help someone, though,” Tanuma said hastily. “It’s not his fault, really.”

 “You always go way too easy on him, Tanuma. But yeah, he’ll do things like shove a girl out of the way when a bunch of heavy boxes are falling on her and get conked in the head. He’s too good a guy—"

“Come on, you’re embarrassing him,” Taki admonished, which immediately silenced Nishimura.

Sakuragi seemed to relax at this, and she finished up wrapping Natsume’s ankle. “Okay! Now, can one of you go fetch crutches from the nurse’s office?” Sakuragi took a key out of the first aid box and tossed at Nishimura, who caught it with a startled expression. Kitamoto went with him. Sasada looked around awkwardly, and then did a double take.

“Chiyo, what are you doing here?” Sasada’s hand immediately jumped to her hair, and she started twirling a lock around her finger.

The short-haired girl walked up, wiping her neck with a towel and flashing Sasada a crooked grin. “The track team lets me practice with them sometimes. Gotta train to beat you next time. What this I hear about you threatening everyone and calling them bullies?”

“I didn’t—”

“Oh, now I remember, Natsume, that’s your friend, no wonder you were all aggro!”  Chiyo waved at Natsume, who waved awkwardly back. “Sorry she’s so overprotective, man. She means well.”

“You—come on!” Sasada grabbed the other girl’s hand and dragged her away. Chiyo looked unreasonably happy about this.

Sakuragi had stepped away to chat with some other students too. Taki squatted next to Natsume and Tanuma leaned closer to him.

“Was there yokai trouble?” Tanuma whispered.

Natsume shook his head. “Not really. I basically overreacted. I saw a little yokai on the track, freaked out because I thought it was dangerous, and tripped. It’s harmless, though. It was just napping. I feel pretty stupid.”

“Did anyone notice anything?”

“Yeah, they noticed I was acting really weird. Especially Coach Sakuragi. She’s…intense.”

“Oh, I should have warned you about that,” Taki sighed. “It’s really hard to keep a secret from her, especially if she thinks you’re struggling. Her heart’s in the right place, though.”

Natsume nodded. “I can tell. I feel bad that I worried her. I ended up saying some bizarre things while I was trying to throw her off. I think she thinks I’m traumatized from my childhood or something now.”

Tanuma cleared his throat and looked away. Taki studied her shoes carefully.

“Uh, what’s wrong?” Natsume asked, trying to figure out if he’s said anything strange.

“Nothing,” Taki said quickly. “Hey, what does the little yokai look like?”  She looked off in the wrong direction.

 “Oh, uh…kind of blob-like…” he squinted at the sleeping yokai, examining it more closely. “Oh wow, I couldn’t pick it out before but it has ears actually, Oh, they’re kind of shaped like cat ears…”

Takis gasped excitedly “Is it cute?”

“Uh…maybe ugly cute?”

“Then it’s cute,” Taki said firmly. “I wish I could see it.”

Natsume suddenly realized that it was probably for the best Taki couldn’t see yokai, otherwise she’d be terrorizing every weird looking little monster non-stop.

Tanuma looked around at the team members looping the track, as others chatted and laughed on the sidelines. “Were you having a good time with everyone? You know, before everything happened?”

“Yeah…it was nice. Everyone was really great. I feel bad I ruined things.”

“You didn’t—"

“We’re back!” Kitamoto and Nishimura arrived carrying the crutches.

A shock of pain went up Natsume’s leg like lightning when Tanuma and Sakuragi eased him onto his crutches, but he gritted his teeth, refusing to cry out. He couldn’t worry everyone even more.

“Okay, you’re good to go now," Sakuragi said to him. "But make sure your parents to get you checked at the hospital right away. I will be asking Ms. Fujiwara about that our weekly grocery store chats.”

Natsume nodded meekly, filled with dread at the thought of Touko’s panic and distress. At the same time, he noticed she’d called the Fujiwaras his parents…not foster parents or guardians…just parents. It kind of felt nice. Really nice.

Sasada was still talking with Chiyo, laughing and swatting at her playfully. She noticed that Natsume was up, and reluctantly pulled away, giving Chiyo’s hand a quick squeeze before she left.

Sakuragi smiled as Sasada rejoined the group, observing all of Natsume’s friends clustered around him. “Take care of him, all right?”

“Don’t worry, Sensei, we won’t let anything happen to him,” Nishimura said confidently.

“We’ve got his back!” Kitamoto assured her.

“He helps us a lot. It’s the least we can do.” Tanuma chimed in unexpectedly.

“Of course!” Sasada and Taki finished things off.

Natsume stared at the ground, hoping nobody could see the expression on his face. Taki patted him on the back.

“You’re right, you do have good friends.” Sakuragi ruffled Natsume’s hair. “Do you need me to get you a ride home? Or can your parents come get you?”

“Oh, it’s fine, I can just walk.”

“You’re seriously going to try to hobble all the way to the Fujiwaras?” Taki asked severely.

“Okay, maybe to the bus stop…”

“That’s not coming for another hour.” Sasada tapped her watch. “You can’t wait that long.”

“The Fujiwaras don’t have a car, right?” Nishimura said. “My parents have a car, and Mom should be home. I’ll call her to pick us up.” He pulled out his cellphone, glaring at it. “If I can ever get service in this stupid town…can’t believe I begged for a phone and it’s useless…”

“Nishimura, no, I don’t want to drag your Mom into this…” Natsume said in a panic. “I really can just—”

“Natsume.” Tanuma said quietly but firmly, holding out his arm in front of him before he could hobble away. Natsume’s voice died in his throat.

“My Mom would be mad at me if I didn’t call her about this” Nishimura held his phone high in the air, face screwed up in concentration.

“Oh yeah, that’s right, you get your nosiness from her,” Kitamoto said lightly.

“Man, shut up. Aha! I got some bars!”  And just like that, Nishimura was on the phone with his Mom, and Natsume could do nothing to protest it.

Sakuragi laughed and started to turn away. “Great, I’ll see you—"

“Sensei, wait,” Natsume called quickly.

 She stopped, looking at him questioningly.

“I just wanted I wanted to say, I did have fun here. And, well, I don’t think I can join the team but…would it be all right if I came here once in a while? Just to practice, or I could help with whatever… unless that’s…"

Sakuragi’s face split into a huge grin. “Of course, Natsume! Just having someone like you to race against is a huge help! But are you sure you--?”

Natsume nodded. “I want to.”

“Well then, do your best to heal up and we’ll look forward to seeing you.”

Nishimura got off the phone. “Mom said to wait out front. We'll head to the bench just outside the entrance.”

Waving goodbye to Sakuragi, Natsume’s friends flanked him as he slowly made his way around the school building.

“I’m happy for you, Natsume,” Taki said.

“Yeah, that’s cool that you'll have a place to practice!” Kitamoto agreed.

Thanks,” Natsume said. “I’m sorry I ruined the plans to get snacks and hang out…but maybe we could do it another time? Touko would probably be okay with you all coming over.”

“Of course!”

They all busied themselves planning  the get-together until they reached the bench out front, though Nishimura was oddly quiet.

After Natsume sat down, his friends gave their well wishes and reminded him to check in with them after the hospital, before dispersing to walk home. Taki caught up with Sasada and as they walked away, Natsume heard her say “So you and that Chiyo girl, huh? Do I detect some romance?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sasada said primly.

“Come on, it’s me. Come over to my place and tell me all about it.

“Fiiiine, if I must.”

Natsume laughed slightly. He looked over at Nishimura to see his reaction, but for once in his life, he didn’t seem interested in what Taki was doing. He was staring stonily into the distance.

“Nishimura, is something wrong--?”

“I’m sorry, Natsume,” he said abruptly, still not really looking at him.

“Huh? What are you sorry about?” He wondered if Nishimura was still feeling guilty about yelling earlier, and was prepared to reassure him, but—

“You’re hurt because of me.”

“What? What are you even talking about?” Natsume couldn’t help but laugh but stopped when Nishimura glared at him.

“It’s because of me. You don’t like  running in front of people, I know that, but then you had to because I screwed up. And when you were talking to the coach, I could tell you were nervous, I could tell you didn’t want to go. And instead of returning the favor and helping you, I pushed you to do it anyway.” He put his head in his hands. “It was such shitty thing to do.”

“Nishimura, come on, you didn’t--

“I did. You were trying to say no, you can’t pretend you weren’t.” He dragged his hands down his face. “I just…got carried away because you were so cool when you won the race! And you’re kind of down on yourself sometimes,…so I thought maybe if you joined the track team, you’d see how amazing what you can do is and people would see you’re…ugh, it was stupid.”

Natsume’s cheeks burned. “That’s.. it sounds like you were really thinking of me, Nishimura, thank you—"

“No, don’t thank me!” Nishimura said fiercely. “I wasn’t looking out for you or your feelings at all, I just decided what I wanted for you without asking you. And God, I didn’t even think about injuries!”

Natsume stared at him in bafflement. “Why would you need to think about injuries? It’s not like I need special protection. I knew what I was getting into. People get hurt in sports all the time. It’s normal.”

“No, it’s different with you.” Nishimura slammed his hands down on knees, red blotches spreading on his face. “Because when you get hurt, you downplay it or try to hide it, and if you do that in track, it can mess you up for life!” Nishimura was talking faster and faster, the words just pouring out of his mouth. “It’s dangerous because you act like it doesn’t matter, like you don’t matter, and that you don’t get why we all care so much, and I know it’s because you’ve been through a lot and I don’t want to pry, but it makes me so---"

He stopped short, blanching. “Oh shit. I didn’t mean to say all that. U-uh, sorry, just forget it, It’s none of my business…”

A lump formed in Natsume’s throat as shame welled up, hot and bitter on his tongue. “No, I’m sorry, Nishimura,” he said hoarsely. “I didn’t realize you were thinking all that, that you were worried. I never wanted to—”

“Natsume, no, I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad. I know it’s not on purpose, I know it’s not your fault.” Nishimura pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is about me saying sorry, not you. I really am sorry. And I know you told Sakuragi you wanted to come back once in a while because you didn’t want to disappoint her, but you don’t have to go back there, I’ll talk to her—"

“You don’t have to talk to her.” Natsume swallowed his shame for now, determined to set things straight. “I liked the team. I really do want to come back.”

“You don’t have to pretend, I told you, don’t lie if you don’t have to—”

“Nishimura,” Natsume interjected gently, putting his hand on the other boy’s shoulder. Nishimura finally looked over at him, eyes downcast. “It made me really happy. When we won, and everyone was cheering, and I saw how excited you were…I don’t know. Running is just something I do sometimes, and I don’t think it’s special or particularly like it. But being able to help you was the first time I felt like it was something…more.” More than survival. More than something I’m forced to do.

“Really…?” Nishimura hesitated, looking disbelieving.

“Really. And I really am glad I came here. I enjoyed it, you know, until I tripped. But even then, everyone was nice and helped me. It made me want to come back.”

Nishimura stared at him for a while, expression unreadable. Then he sighed and leaned back. “Okay, well, good.” Natsume could see Nishimura’s shoulders slump as the tension drained out of him. “But I still pushed you. You don’t have to make excuses for me. I’m just sorry I did it and I won’t do it again.”

“Okay, apology accepted.”

Nishimura looked startled, like he’d expected Natsume to keep fighting him on this, then his face broke into a grin. “Thanks, man.”

“You don’t have to make excuses for me either. I’m sorry I’ve been stressing you guys out when I get hurt. I’ll stop hiding it or trying to downplay it. I mean, I do want all of you to understand I…” Natsume knew better than to say he was “used to it” now, so he searched around for a less alarming but still honest way to phrase it. “I have a high pain tolerance, so sometimes it really doesn’t seem like a big deal.

“Dude, that doesn’t make me feel better.” He could tell from how Nishimura looked at him he’d heard the “I’m used to it” even though Natsume hadn’t said it out loud.

“No, I know. Look, from now on, I’ll admit when something hurts.” He looked down at his ankle, wincing. “Like my ankle really hurts right now. I don’t want to go to the hospital but I’m kind of looking forward to getting painkillers.” He looked over at Nishimura. “Did that work? Or did it just sound whiney?”

“Nah, you need to whine a little more, man.” Nishimura punched him lightly on the arm. “I’m telling you, it feels good. When I sprained my ankle a couple years ago, I whined to everyone I knew. That whine was weak. Try harder.”

“It’s…uh, agony. I…might die? Was that good.”

“You need to work on your delivery, but it’s a start.”

They both laughed. Just laughing soothed something in Natsume, his stomach unknotted, and his racing heartbeat slowed. His ankle even hurt a little less.

When the laughter settled, Natsume looked down, twisting his fingers in his lap. “Look, I know I… kind of lie and hide things as reflex a lot. But I’ve been trying to be more open with the people I care about.”

Nishimura shrugged. “It’s fine. I mean, Kitamoto and I aren’t that stupid, we know there’s something going on with you, but you can take as much time as you need. I know you must have your reasons.”

“Thanks.”

Nishimura chuckled suddenly, looking past Natsume.

“Uh oh, here comes your cat. He looks mad! It’s almost like he knows something happened.”

Nyanko-sensei was indeed stomping towards them, his eyes narrowed.

“Agh, I’m really in trouble this time,” Natsume said. Nyanko-sensei jumped into his lap, making sure to throw his heavy weight around as he landed. “Oof.”

“Oh, your troubles have just begun. Don’t forget Touko!” Nishimura said cheerfully.

“Like I could.”

“I wouldn’t use the “I could die” line on her, she might believe you.”

“Amazing advice, thank you.”

Nishimura smirked. “I’d tell you to run, but, you know.”

Mmm…” Natsume said, stroking Nyanko-sensei, who was making faint, irritated noises. “That’s okay. There are some things I don’t want to run away from."

---

*Yes Sasada has a sports and academic rival yuri storyline going in the background. Yes I'm being self indulgent. It's what she deserves. I just thought it would be fun and maybe funny. Sasada's having this whole romantic epic while Natsume's worrying about track. *Touko has been bragging about how kind and helpful you are, Natsume, you dummy. And about the garden he made and how it was good it was and other things Natsume does really well he hasn't noticed. She's also probably noticed he's fast and relatively strong for his size, he's always fetching and carrying stuff for her, but Coach thought she was exaggerating. UNTIL NOW. I hope you enjoyed this! It was way longer than I thought it would be. And I wish I could have made it funnier. But I had a fun time with my first Natsume fic!

Here's the ao3 link again:

[amedamnee-m]

1983

⏤𝘴𝘺𝘯𝘰𝘱𝘴𝘪𝘴: Years after missing her senior prom, Clara gets a second chance when her best friend organizes a retro-themed celebration. As old feelings resurface, she reunites with her high school crush, Adam, for the night she never had—but always dreamed of.

⏤𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘦: Romance, Short Story

⏤𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵: 985 words

⏤𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴: N/A, this is a clean short story

************************************************************************

A single sparkle of a runaway glitter speck disappears under the engine red of my lipstick. I give my lips a few more audible pops in the rearview mirror. My forehead, down to the high of my cheekbones, shimmer as if it were contour against the rounded pink blush of the apples of my cheeks. Clashing it is, with the bold, bright green eyeliner and thick black false lashes.

“Should I tease my bangs some more?”

“No, hunnie, it’s already going to take a week to wash out those three cans of hairspray.” Malik pops a bubble with his chewing gum between his own, black-painted lips. “I’ve got your hair as voluminous as it’s going to get.”

I give my crimped hair one more glance over in its high-side ponytail before nodding, “Okay, let’s go.”

Getting out of the car, I run my sweaty hands down the black velvet of the bodice of my dress. I give my off-shoulder, deep green puffed sleeves a quick fluffing. I couldn’t help but admire the black lace that trimmed them, matching the high-low hemmed skirt. The perfect dress, even back then it would have been. 

“You nervous?” Malik raises a brow.

“No,” I say, blowing out a puff of air. “I’m just bubbling over with excitement.” I clasp my lace-gloved hands.

Malik’s eyes softened, taking my laced hands in his. “Remember, this is just another firm celebration, not your actual senior prom.”

I curtly nod. “Don’t worry, I know.”

“Good.” His smile flashes. “Let’s get moving then. I’m dying to know if the spiked punch is as good as Debbie says…”

I hook my arm with Malik’s, the steady click-clack of my heels steadying the beat of my heart as we approach the entrance to the event center. Shimmering neon pink and green cobwebs glow from the blue hue of the black lights in the windows. We pass through the arch adorned with orange, purple, and black balloons into a vast open floor sprinkled with metallic confetti. Colorful laser lights bounce off the pumpkin lantern-shaped disco balls hanging over the center of the dance floor. Fog swirls around my coworker’s feet as they dance to Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” pulsing through the speakers. 

Malik throws his head back with laughter. “Hunnie, you’re goin’ to catch flies like that.”

I snap my mouth shut, shaking my head. Everything around me was just bringing that teenager inside up to the surface. I couldn’t help but gasp and squeeze his arm tighter when my eyes landed on the photo station. The dark backdrop sports a haunted abandoned house with a graveyard as its front lawn. More colorful glittery cobwebs decorate the edges.

Just then, the original “Sweet Dreams” begins to play through the DJ’s tall black speakers. I spin on my heels, coming face to face with Malik, my eyes wide, matching the grin that’s plagued my face since walking in.

“This soundtrack is perfect!”

“Mhm…Thank your premium, Spotify.”

“I don’t have a premium account?”

“You do as of last week,” he smirks.

“How…?” I wave it off. “You know what? I don’t even care. This is amazing. My old high school could never.”

Malik nods. “You closing that deal gave us the budget for this. And I love you, but I am so tired of hearing about your missed chance at going to prom, so I put all this together just for you.”

I felt a pinch in my chest, “Awe, Malik…”

“Listen, after everything you’ve done for this firm and most importantly for ME, as a friend…I felt you deserved this second chance.”

“Oh god, I think I’m going to cry…”

“Don’t you dare!” he joins in, fanning his hands at my eyes. “I worked too hard on this look!”

“Clara…?”

I freeze, my heart palpating. Are there defibrillators in this building? I know that voice. The deep timbre of the man I had crushed on all through my high school years. The man I was finally going to have a chance with. Only when he showed up to pick me up for senior prom was my house long empty. Where I had to up and move to go take care of my grandmother, who had fallen sick. There wasn’t even a note left with an explanation.

“Second chances…” Malik winks at me before sauntering off in his silver tux towards the cauldron-shaped punch bowl.

Slowly, I turn around, my eyes locking with his like magnets. His light blue eyes, a striking contrast against his ebony slicked-back hair and velvet tuxedo. I expected to find disdain or disappointment, but not the weight of their attentiveness soaking me in, as if I might not be real before him.

“I didn’t think you could get more beautiful.”

 I look away, heat flushing my cheeks. “Adam…I’m sorry. I should’ve called.”

Adam gives me a gentle smile, reaching out to give my elbow a light squeeze, “It’s alright…” He looks past me, his soothing voice calming the deep thrumming within my bones, “A little birdy filled me in on the missing pieces.”

Warmth fills my heart, knowing Malik was this little birdy. What I did to deserve a friend like him, I’ll never know. Adam straightens his spine before extending his large hand to me. “What do you say? Would you like to make the memories we never got the chance to make before?”

I bite down on my bottom lip to keep my smile from splitting my face in two. I slide my hand into his warm one, my voice a little breathless. “Yes, please.”

Adam’s eyes never leave mine as he guides me to the dance floor. “Every Breath You Take” by The Police begins to fill the air around us as the world dissipates, with my head lying against his chest and his chin resting atop my head. The steady beat of my heart syncing with his.  

[innocent-diamond-2090110]

Rating Dreamcatcher's "JUSTICE" Stage Outfits (Siyeon on hiatus)

As the heading says, Siyeon has been on hiatus since DC dropped their 10th mini-album "VirtuouS" on July 10, & the girls' goodbye stage was July 20 with Music Core. Two major reasons for their short promo period are SIyeon's hiatus (meaning the other girls become more fatigued) & the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics (meaning most major shows will be canceled). Since the girls couldn't earn any wins during this short period, I decided to offer my input on their stage outfits! Thankfully, SIyeon was able to record these two performances (1theK + it's Live) with the others before going on hiatus. Her vocals (HIGH NOTES) are no joke!

Full tracklist is here on YouTube!

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M! Countdown 2024-07-11 (generalized black & white theme)

JiU: Our lovely leader looks great! I would've straightened the bottom edge of her halter top (instead of the diamond-shaped cut right now). The black slit skirt accessory should be optional, IMO.

SuA: I think she's worn this outfit several times for other comeback stages as well as in other event appearances. It's definitely comfortable since SuA's the main dancer.

Handong: Everything looked great except for her sweater (especially since she had the hood on). It looked a bit weird when combined with her inner crop top & black shorts.

Yoohyeon: I ABSOLUTELY LOVE her little black dress with long black gloves & black boots. Her half ponytail is on point too!

Dami: She looks like a gangster that you should never mess with (referring to the whole virtuous/justice theme).

Gahyun: I ABSOLUTELY LOVE her long black hair with straight bangs & monochrome school-girl-esque dress outfit. Gahyun looks like she came straight out of some anime/manga!

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Music Bank 2024-07-12 (hippie theme???)

JiU: This rancher-themed outfit looks cute on her! (that's all I can think of)

SuA: OMG her hair is in a bun! I like the coloring of her one-piece dress & how the layered skirt portion is very flowy (very much suits her as the main dancer).

Handong: Her half-tied hair, choker collar, & tank top are all so gorgeous! But what are those pants...?

Yoohyeon: Sorry, but I'm not a fan of the untied permed hair & the layers of fur on the shin portion of her pants...

Dami: Some give the stylist a rise/bonus for assigning that sparkly black vest to Dami! But why do the pants make me think of pajamas/sleepwear???

Gahyun: This is her first "JUSTICE" stage with blonde hair! Gahyun's outfit makes her look cute too! Although I wish it was a one-piece dress instead of a separate top + skirt…

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Music Core 2024-07-13 (office-esque black & white theme)

JiU: This is the famous stage where JiU wears a translucent white shirt with a black tie & only the top 2-3 buttons attached (black crop top underneath), which means you can see her torso when she dances vigorously. All that plus her black shorts, black shoes, & stockings are just… I'M DEAD.

SuA: Everything is white except part of the crop top… or is that a sports bra? Anyway, today is SuA's turn to be the virtuous gangster of justice!

Handong: This is the first ENTIRE stage outfit that I like! (again, I would've preferred a one-piece over a separate tank top + skirt) Handong's permed periwinkle hair looks great too!

Yoohyeon: EXCUSE ME?! Wavy ginger hair with bangs?! Black-rimmed glasses?! Basically all black?! I'M DEAD AGAIN.

Dami: I'm not saying that her outfit is totally bad, but I can't help but laugh when I see shorter pants (they end at her shins) with her multi-layered cropped shirt.

Gahyun: Good lord… White long-sleeve blouse + short black pencil skirt + STRAIGHT BLACK HAIR WITH BANGS = MY 3RD DEATH OF THE DAY

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Inkigayo 2024-07-14 (generalized brown/white/black theme)

JiU: Everything is white today except for brown boots & black rosary. That long trench coat looks AMAZING. Thankfully it didn't impede her dancing!

SuA: Looking great in general! Things that stood out were the black fringe on her top, double black belts, & also the slit skirt design.

Handong: This is my favorite outfit by far! I love how the long brown skirt separates at her left thigh to show the black layer underneath. AND DO YOU SEE THAT BUTTERFLY BELT?!

Yoohyeon: I like the multi-layer design of her long-sleeved crop top (including the straps across her torso), but the pants looked kind of messy.

Dami: Today is her turn to be a rancher! That long-sleeve shirt with all the black designs makes Dami look like she has several tattoos (pretty cool).

Gahyun: Her outfit today is rather simple compared to others (just a tank top & a skirt), but I love the red/pink highlights underneath her blonde hair.

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Show Champion 2024-07-17 (another office-esque black/gray/white theme)

JiU: Sleeveless white collared shirt?! Long black pencil skirt with right slit?! Half-tied hair with glasses?! TOO EARLY FOR ME TO DIE (AGAIN).

SuA: I love her flowy gray skirt! My only suggestion is to make her gray sleeveless top a bit longer, because the edge of her off-white blouse looks a bit messy.

Handong: I love her high ponytail & bespectacled look! Her gray outfit looks nice too!

Yoohyeon: Something about her ginger hair today makes her aura completely new & different from the previous stages… Anyway, everything looks great… Maybe make the slit on her tank top a bit shorter?

Dami: I like this outfit way better than the one from Music Core 2024-07-13. Give the stylist a raise/bonus for the upgrade!

Gahyun: LONG BLACK HAIR WITH BANGS AGAIN! My only suggestion is to make her black crop top longer so that the white top can be longer (right now, the white part looks really weird).

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M! Countdown 2024-07-18 (school-esque black & white theme)

JiU: This is the famous stage in which (according to the comments) JiU just absolutely couldn't keep her outer shirt (jacket) on her shoulders XD. I love the flowy black skirt way too much…

SuA: I'm just a bit confused about the purpose of the black fabric across her chest (shirt is white & pants are black). I think SuA would've looked great anyway without it.

Handong: School uniform jacket?! Sports bra underneath?! Flowy black skirt?! Handong is your all-rounder head prefect & girls' sports captain here! (I have no idea what I just said)

Yoohyeon: Never knew I needed to see Yoohyeon with ginger braids & GLASSES again. She looks like a cheerleader!

Dami: Is this her first stage wearing any kind of skirt?! AMAZING! Now it's Dami's turn to look like a schoolgirl… also one that could be the gang leader (forgive me for saying this).

Gahyun: Her hair looks more silver or periwinkle now (sorry bad lighting). Either way, her golf outfit is cute too!

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Music Bank 2024-07-19 (another generalized gray theme)

JiU: Nothing could go wrong with a gray two-piece outfit! She looks pretty comfortable.

SuA: I'm not hating on SuA or the backup dancers, but SuA's outfit (not bad BTW) almost looks like a gray version of the backup dancers' outfits… Maybe should've added some arm/hand accessories?

Handong: That oversized black leather jacket actually looks good on her! Today's super straight periwinkle hair makes Handong look even more like an ice princess.

Yoohyeon: OMG the stylist who clipped that black bow into her hair deserves bubble tea for life! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this little gray dress look… But the stockings look really odd. I would've assigned plain ones that have no designs.

Dami: Back to pants again but THAT PONYTAIL changes everything! Look at Dami showing off her oversized gray blazer like she doesn't care!

Gahyun: Speaking of her golf outfit from the day before… Today's outfit looks like another very casual golf outfit & makes her look cute again! That necklace & her wavy hair (too many colors to identify) look great too!

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Music Core 2024-07-20 (another generalized black & white theme)

JiU: That asymmetric top is just out of this world. I'm speechless.

SuA: Looking great in general with that half-tied hair & gray multi-layer skirt!

Handong: Permed twintails look great today! Her outfit is a bit plain but otherwise looks comfortable.

Yoohyeon: Braided buns?! The stylists went all out for the goodbye stage! The top looks great, but the skirt looked a bit weird with only a small patch of blue against black (like it's missing something).

Dami: That single-sleeved jacket with long fabric trails is also just out of this world. Speechless again.

Gahyun: I get what the stylists were trying to achieve with the see-through lace tank top, but I would've added sparkles &/or other shiny objects to make the front design stand out more. Black on black is difficult to see from certain angles.

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Thanks again for reading my research report! Please wish all the girls a healthy rest & recovery!

[wooahaes]

best friend's older brother/older brother's best friend–there’s rarely fics where the reader plays that part

Another rare one is fake dating but it's the idol needing the date, not the reader

ohhhh anon ur onto somethin here...

usually for any sort of sibling relationship i just go the adopted route for whoever it is so my first thought is 'seokmin's adopted brother, chan, being in love with seokmin's best friend' because i feel like chan would just sit there with heart eyes and be obvious to like 90% of ppl except seokmin and reader.

(the rest is under a read more bc i cannot stop rambling im sowwy!!)

could even go with reader being chan's first love in a sense where he's basically been in love with them his entire life (even before he figured those feelings out) w seokmin and reader being childhood friends. reader who always came to his dance showcases (alongside seokmin n his family) and any sports meet-ups he had in middle and high school. chan who shows up to all of your events to be your cheerleader, even when seokmin can't be there just so u know u have someone there to support u. its 100% reciprocated but its chan who keeps it all a secret bc he doesn't know how seokmin would react to it.

obvs seokmin would be 100% fine with it but its the 'i dont know if it'll be weird for him and i dont want to make him feel out of place' etc etc and readers like. boo ur overthinking literally all of it.

as for the other idea...

ngl i kinda had a fic w a (chubby fem) reader where she and seokmin were fake dating for mutual reasons. reader basically asked him to go on practice dates w her, and he comes back around to it after he blurts out that he's dating her to get someone else to leave him alone after the person won't take no for an answer. hopefully thats kinda in line with what u were thinking???

but for something thats purely 'he needs a date, not the reader' hmm.... jihoon. idk why but i get the vibe that jihoon would accidentally get himself caught up in something. ppl he's not friends with bothering him about the fact he never goes on dates or seems to be dating anyone, and he just gets fed up with it and blurts out that he HAS been dating someone for a long time, he's just private about it... and he just names you, his neighbor. and he just gets a plus one to some work event, saying that he should bring his partner around like everyone does :) he comes home to his roommate and soonyoung laughs his ass off over it like really??? i never thought u would get so fed up over something lmaooo and jihoons like this is mortifying and they'll never say yes if i ask them to do it

and then soonyoung is like no point in saying that when we could find out!!! and basically drags him over to ur apartment. and jihoon shows you the thing and hes like i can lie again. its ok. i'll just say you got sick. and ur like is there gonna be like... good food there. and hes like uh yeah we have nice catering and ur like im in lol i love free shit <3 and jihoons like aughgh what??? what??????? do u mean????

and basically he and reader hatch this plan to fake date for a while. his coworkers know his social media, so they'll hard launch a relationship, go on dates, make posts about each other, etc. and then they'll break up in a month or so--as long as it takes for it to not be super suspicious that jihoon just mentioned his relationship.

and then idk kiss kiss fall in love

(also know if u want skz versions of this.......... return to me sdkfhdsf i will absolutely ramble abt skz versions of these)