#NCT GAME PART II | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ihavethedreamies · 28 days

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From Afar | What the Heart Wants (1)

Qian Kun & Nakamoto Yuta (NCT)

Rating: Suggestive (18+) MDNI

Nothing explicitly is said or done, but sexual interactions are implied.

The beginning of this story has the reader underaged, but nothing happens or is implied to happen before she turns 18.

Word Count: ~14.2k

Pairing(s): Kun x AFAB!Reader x Yuta, the primary pairing is Kun x Reader, but it's kinda both for the first part.

Genre: Reader-Insert, Altered History AU!, Royalty AU!, Plot! (wow), Fluff? (not for sure that's what to call this), not quite smut (yet), Angst (but angry)

!!There are mature themes discussed…if that much isn't clear you should probably leave now!! MDNI!

Warnings: She/Her pronouns used, Arranged Marriage (ish), Harems/Multiple Wives (more fiancées…), Bullying (see Caution), Some Swearing, Borderline Misogyny/Sexism (you'll see, not from the boys, just like…society), Favoritism, Love Triangle, Jealousy, Pining, One-Sided Crush/Infatuation (or is it?)

Caution: This story is a bit darker than my normal stuff. There isn't bullying throughout, just one intense scene. It's not in a school setting, but I do want to warn anyone reading this that it could be triggering. I'll be real and admit that there is definitely toxicity here, and I know that's what it is, I try to be realistic with my stuff. There is also a part where the reader has a severe allergic reaction, so if that is something that is hard for you to read, be aware. Please let me know if you think I need to add in any more specific warnings or cautions.

Author's Note: This is based off of a dream I had while I took a nap a bit back. I changed some details because what happened in the dream was a little too unrealistic. But, most of it is pretty much the same. I have a lot of Kun dreams, but most of them I can't write a story with because there are weird cross-overs with my real life and often the video game Mass Effect (lol), so…

P.S. Kun is my Ultimate Bias and so…I held back for so long of going down the rabbit hole because I knew I wouldn't be able to crawl out once I did. I am working on another much longer series so that's why I don't have much posted for him yet since I want to get it mostly done before I post any of it.

P.S.S. The reader has a bad allergy to coconut, which is one I have. So, it might seem a bit extreme with her reaction to it, but I know from personal experience how bad I can be with it. I haven't had the same thing happen though.

I split this into two different parts because I hate reading a long story, and then the app or page somehow gets closed, and then you have to scroll to find your spot… The second part is just smut, literally just the smut part, but it was so long I needed to separate the two parts.

Part 2: Up Close (Smut)

I am cross-posting this on Archive. Please reblog! If you know anyone that would like this or future fics but they aren't on here my name and icon are exactly the same on the other site. Happy reading!

Your life seemed to end before it really began. Things like harems for royalty and royalty itself should be in history books and old stories, not modern times. Yet here you were. Historians often talk about how much different the eastern world might look had Japan been successful in taking Korea nearly 100 years prior. Would they have ruled East Asia rather than the Korean Monarchy? Would China be its own country still? Siam? All you knew is that if World War II had gone much differently, you wouldn't be in the situation you were.

In order to keep the commoners and everyday folks of each country of the Korean Empire in line, the Emperor would marry a noblewoman from each land, therefore forming his Harem. When he was a prince, he had his little group of girls that followed him around and did everything with him, almost like some kind of harem anime or even American dating show. One would be picked to be his 'main wife' and the rest were concubines. That's what you were. Well, almost. You were 'in training' to be a possible concubine or wife. The king had five wives, and a son with each woman. The eldest was Taeyong, from the king's first Korean wife; then Prince Yuta, whose mother was Japanese; third born was Prince Kun, from a Chinese mother; second youngest was Prince Ten with a Siamese mother. His birthname was not used very often since most people didn't know how to pronounce it, and finally the youngest Prince was Prince Doyoung. His mother was Korean as well and since he was the youngest, he had the least responsibilities. Not necessarily in a bad way, but he was quite lazy and didn't go out very often. Each prince had a symbol that then was used to name his girls. Taeyong's was a rose and so his girls were The Petals. Yuta's was the Cherry Tree, so his girls were The Sakura. Kun's was a Bear, and his girls were The Ursas. Ten's symbol was a cat and his girls, The Tabbies. Finally, Doyoung's symbol was a rabbit, so his girls were The Bunnies. The name he chose somewhat showed how little he cared for formality. It was too much effort, and he was actually considered the best prince to follow. None of the princes were bad, though, it was simply that Doyoung was the least strict, and there were less rules overall. Taeyong's group was the most prestigious since he was the Crown Prince, and so it was hard to stay in The Petals.

Many different things could make a girl leave or get kicked out. It was pretty easy to get kicked out actually, but most of the time it was by the other girls. Jealousy and competition were rampant, but if sabotage or cheating was ever even just suspected, you were out. Each prince got their initial set at the age of eighteen, and the girls would be at the most two years younger, never older. So, when Prince Yuta hit the proper age, they sent out the search committee. Your father had told you as a little girl that he would never, no matter how much money was offered, let you go. Unfortunately, he didn't get to make the decision because he passed two years prior. Your mother couldn't manage the family estate and business well either, so she remarried, and of course your stepfather was more than willing to hand you over. You never learned how much he was paid, but you knew, to him, it was more than you were worth.

There were always five girls, two from Korea and one from China, Japan, and Siam as well. When you were escorted to the royal palace, you looked up at the tall arch allowing entry onto the grounds. Due to historical preservation laws, no one actively lived in the palace, but there was a modern campus built for the royal family. The guards let the fancy black car you were being escorted in through and it continued down the road past the elegantly preserved palace. Finally, after nearly five minutes of driving, the vehicle stopped in front of what appeared to be an extremely fancy hotel. You were told the main estate was further into the campus and was where the King and Queen lived with the Concubines. Where you were to live was where the princes and all of their entourages lived. Shakily, you got out of the car when it came to a stop, the heels of your black Mary Jane's clicking on the stone pavement. Your suitcases were removed from the trunk, and they went off to your room as you were led down the opposite hallway. Looking around at your surroundings, the building felt less like a royal residence and more of a luxury apartment building, there were even a few restaurants. Finally, after a long walk in very uncomfortable shoes, you were told to enter a large ballroom and you stood in line with what seemed to be twenty other girls. That was a surprise, you thought for sure you had already been chosen. While you wanted to pray you wouldn't be chosen, you also feared being sent back to your stepfather. Your soft yellow and white dress was probably just as expensive as the other girls’ but seemed much plainer. Standing straight, trying to remember your etiquette training, the line of girls all did the same, stiffening when a door on the other side of the ball room entered. At least, you thought it was a ballroom. There was a stage on the opposite wall and that was it. No tables or chairs, nothing. You felt the girls to your left and right turn their heads to try and see who entered, but you just stared ahead. The three people that entered stopped in the middle of the room, a bit to your left since you were toward the end of the line. The other girls were whispering, and curiosity took over and your eyes flicked to look at them. It was a servant, most likely since he was in a butler's outfit, a man in a business suit, and who you assumed to be the prince. He was beautiful, and that was an objective fact. His dark brown hair was longer, hitting his shoulders and he had it tied back into a half-ponytail. He was not dressed like a prince really; he had on a black T-shirt or tank top with a soft-looking grey sweater over it. He was in jeans and sneakers, and you looked down at your dress, then at the others. You were sixteen, but you felt like a little girl then, with your high-collared, long-sleeved white button-up with a yellow sundress over top. Though, it seemed he preferred casual, and you were the closest to that. His stance was casual as well, arms behind his back, leaning his weight on one leg as he lightly swayed, looking over the line of girls. The servant cleared his throat, and it was like some kind of primal instinct took over, and you placed your hands together over your stomach, and bowed low. No one else did. Panic set in when you realized this, hearing the other girls whispering. Now too nervous to stand back up, you pressed your lips together, but stayed bowed.

"It seems she was the only one raised correctly." A new voice, a woman's, cut in and you heard another person walk in. The woman stopped in front of you, and you only saw the bottom of her dress and shoes, she was dressed in the traditional dark green and blue hanbok.

"You may look up, dear." She prompted and you straightened, looking up slightly at the much older woman. Her hair was graying at the roots, but she was still quite beautiful. Her hair was tied back in a bun with a simple wooden pin and you swallowed under her sharp gaze.

"Prince Yuta, please come here." Her tone changed, and she bowed, stepping to the side and you froze as he left his original position and strode over to you. He stopped before you and you dropped your gaze. Don't look at his face. That was clearly something no one else learned and you were a bit worried about that, though, his handmaiden seemed pleased with you. Didn't mean he would be.

"How old are you?" His voice was soft, deeper than you thought it would be.

"Sixteen, your highness." Your hands still rested over each other, flat against your stomach and you tried not to flinch when his finger went to your chin. He lifted your head, but your eyes stayed down, no matter how badly you wanted to look at his face better.

"Look at me." He prompted and you obeyed. He was even more attractive up close, more handsome than you thought, still pretty. He tipped his head and a similarly pretty smile spread on his face.

"Her."

After that, you were quickly whisked away.

"What will happen with the other girls?" You asked the maid that was taking your measurements after you reached some sort of dressing room.

"He will pick the other nine and you will begin training." The same older woman from before entered then and you nodded jerkily, trying to process everything.

"Training?"

"It seems you have begun on etiquette already, unlike the other girls. That will help. Ten girls will start and after your four years the final five will graduate up. You will all learn everything you need to, to be a good woman of the royal family and possibly a future princess."

"I see." The same maid began holding up different swatches of fabric next to your face, flipping through different colors. Seemingly making a decision, the maid nodded to the head handmaiden, and you stepped off the small pedestal you had been set on.

"Let us go child, I will escort you to the dormitory."

~*~*~

Over the next four years, as you were told, you trained. Ten girls all lived in a four-bedroom apartment, three in two, and two in two. It was miserable. You really didn't mind the training and tutoring itself, it was the clique-like mentality the girls had even within the dorm. Let alone in the other training groups. You felt like an outlier the whole time but staying quiet and laying low helped. You yourself were not bullied, but you weren't friends with the other girls either. Not in any of the groups. Prince Taeyong's girls were a few months ahead of your group and the other three were not even a year younger. The eldest prince was only about four months older than Yuta, and he was only a month, maybe two, older than Kun. The youngest were each a month after. It seemed the King had gotten to work quickly…

For the first year you almost never saw any of the princes, not even Yuta. It seemed the first year was really used to weed out girls, and that was when some of the original twenty made a return. If one of the ten got kicked out or left, they replaced her. That was not what you expected at all, but it seemed you were relatively safe. You only got one demerit over the first year, and it was minor. The rules were strict and after your first dink you never messed up again. What did you mess up? You forgot to put in your earrings before the morning check.

After the second year, you would have more interactions with Prince Yuta, and sometimes the others. That was when you first met the third-born Prince. Kun. Your eyes widened when you saw him, it was like some kind of rose-colored filter hung around him. He was…perfect. You weren't sure exactly what drew you to him so heavily, but it was nearly backbreaking, the weight of your crush. It didn't help that your infatuation was with the completely wrong prince. Most of the girls were good at staying loyal to their boy, and if they weren't, that was grounds for expulsion. It was your first true hinderance and possible snare. The only one, really. Luckily, he wasn't around too often in the second year. For no reason, really, you hated the girls in his group. They were so incredibly fortunate in your eyes and didn't realize how much so. Was Yuta bad? Not in any way, shape or form. He was extremely sweet and kind, generous…but he wasn't Kun. To you, that was his greatest sin. Your obsession was a bit worrying, honestly. Though the girls were given a therapist they could talk with, she was there for things like homesickness and anxiety. Not near yandere-levels of love for a Prince not their own. Okay…it wasn't that bad, but you feared that if your mind ever got too weak, if you broke, it would be that bad. When third year rolled around… It got so much worse. The princes did a lot of things together and if a girl made it to year three, then she got to as well. On the new year of year three, the girls remaining were the final ones. One could leave, but she wouldn't be replaced. So, what most often happened, is the gaggle of fifty girls would each take turns with which five would go on an outing with their prince. What killed you about those, was when you were picked, and Kun would be there. It was hard to keep your wistful stares off of him and you prayed he would stick near Yuta for as long as possible, so you could look at him all the more. He was what most considered to be the handsome one among the half-brothers. Taeyong was what the girls defined as cute-hot. Could be either. Yuta was handsome-pretty, Ten was just pretty and Doyoung was just cute. Kun was handsome to the rest, but to you he was also the cutest, prettiest, and hottest. He was by no means buff, but he was able to build the most muscle tone out of all of them and you couldn't help but stare when his pants were just the right amount of tight around his thighs. When you finally got close enough to really look at him the first time, you cataloged every little feature you could. Especially the beauty mark under his right eyebrow.

~*~*~

You were truly a goner when you attended a causal tennis game the princes were engaging in. Doyoung sat off the side with his girls, and they were literally playing some kind of board or card game instead. You sat with the four other Sakuras on a bench, not even watching the tennis ball fly between Yuta and Taeyong's rackets. You were staring off into the distance, messing with a stray string at the top of your knee-high socks. If the head handmaid saw it… Wrapping your finger around it tight, you yanked to try and pull it away, the elastic tightening with each tug. You were so preoccupied with your sock that you didn't even hear the warning call, but something thunked against the back of your head. You yelped, falling forward off the bench, managing to catch yourself with your hands, but you scraped your knees up badly on the court-floor.

"Hiyomi!" Yuta immediately called and was at your side. You weren't even sure if you would have known he was calling you if he had said your real name. You hadn't heard it in such a long time.

"Good job!" Ten shouted sarcastically and you heard another come to your side.

"Hey, you okay?" Yuta helped you sit up a bit, letting your rest your forehead on his shoulder as he looked at the back of your head.

"I'm so sorry, Hiyomi." Your body froze when the other person's voice seemed to speak right in your ear and another hand rested on your upper back.

"Does it hurt there?" You hadn't even realized Yuta had pressed on your neck at the base of your head. He must have taken your sudden rigidity as a pain response. Carefully, slightly, you turned your head so you could glance out of the side of your eye, through your hair, at a red shirt. Only one of the princes was in a red shirt that day. You were sure your face turned about that same shade when you realized the other boy so close to you was Kun, and that the hand on your back was his.

"Hiyomi?" Yuta prompted again and you flinched back to reality.

"Uh, no." Your own hand came up to run over your head, wincing as you felt the small bump forming under your hair. The hand left your back and you felt Yuta move your hair so he could see where you pressed. You gasped when Kun's hand came back, his fingers gently running over the bump.

"She should probably go to the infirmary." The younger prince decided, and Yuta hummed in agreement.

"I'm so sorry, Hiyomi." He apologized again, and even though it was your alias, hearing him speak your name twisted your insides around.

"I-It's okay." You were too scared to lift your head as Yuta helped you stand, knowing that if you met Kun's gaze then you would fall back to your knees.

"Come on, sweetheart." Yuta wrapped an arm around you so he could lead you toward the building and you felt the glares of your team boring through you. It was evident even before then that Yuta favored you, and it made the girls mad. You never made more of an effort to woo him like they did, you just lived your life naturally, and that seemed to be what appealed to him.

"I guess the nurse isn't here right now." Yuta had helped you sit on the edge of one of the two cot-like beds and then he kneeled in front of you.

"Do you mind if help with your knees?" He had noticed the scrapes, and you shook your head with a hum, and he left to get the first aid kit. It was then you really felt the pain in your head, but you hadn't even seen stars, so you doubted you had a concussion. The tennis ball hadn't been going that hard, it had bounced on the court before it hit you, slowing it down pretty good. When the prince came back, he cleaned the scrapes and you winced at the sting. He was so gentle and put ointment on as well before the band-aids. As his thumb smoothed over the bandage, he opened his mouth to say something, but the nurse decided to return right then. He went back out to the tennis court as she looked you over and she suggested you rest for a bit, there was no concussion evident, but you did still get hit in the head.

You had managed to drift half-way to sleep, and you somewhat registered hearing the nurse step out, and someone not too long after coming in. It was a different person for sure, they weren't in heels, and you wondered if it was the head handmaid. Flittering your eyes open when you felt them move to your bedside, you jerked in shock.

"Sorry, did I wake you up?" You tried not to panic, eyes falling quickly to the white logo on his red shirt. You were allowed at that point to look at Yuta's face, but you weren't sure about the other princes. Plus, if you did, you might just explode.

"N-No." You shook your head against the pillow and shuffled under the light blanket. Fuck. You tried not to wince when he kneeled down so he could meet your gaze. He smiled. You were done for.

"Sorry, I really didn't mean to let the ball hit you. I tried to go after it, but I'm not very fast." Kun huffed bashfully and you just gaped. Speak! Say something, stupid!

"I-It's okay."

"Can you tell Yuta you're not mad at me? He looked like he wanted to kill me." You knew the look. Yuta was definitely the scariest of the brothers.

"Y-yes." He sighed in relief at that and stood back up.

"I should probably go before you get in trouble for me being in here." He huffed in annoyance and then waved as he left the little infirmary. You were truly and royally, ironically, screwed.

~*~*~

Of course, it got worse through the third and into the fourth year. All the teams had been narrowed down to the final five, the girls that were weeded out were essentially turned into the reserve team. You didn't know what that meant until after you graduated. And you did. You were in the final five for The Sakuras, the little junior harem of Prince Yuta. You were also the forerunner, the informal leader despite being the youngest, but you were the least popular. Out of all twenty-five girls, they all either hated you or didn't care to acknowledge your presence. To them you put in very little effort to get to your rank, well, how you ranked to Yuta. In actuality, you put in the most effort, and had no demerits and never had to make up in any of your training. All of the other maknaes, the youngest, were the favorites of the other girls. Not you. You didn't fit the cutesy, sweet image you were supposed to it seemed. The graduation wasn't going to be until April. Because the princes were so close in age, they decided to just do everyone at the same time, and that just made the internal competition even worse. Though, your favor with the head handmaiden granted you a privilege. Early information. You knew things before anyone else, you were warned. That's how you saw it anyway. It seemed that there would be another year of training after graduation. Everyone was of age by then, which meant the sexual teachings started. It had to wait till you were finally assigned to your prince, since he would head your 'studies'. You were to learn what he liked, how he liked it and so on. It was a rumor by that point, and many girls were unbothered by this. It made sense and they were okay with it since they would be future wives anyway, and some were even looking forward to it. You didn't hate Yuta, not anything close. You did like him, but… You decided then that you had to give up on the younger Prince. You were Yuta's, and that was final. You also learned that the girls that fell through the cracks more or less joined a brothel, modern day gisaeng for the princes and their friends. Not only did the girls graduate in April, so did the princes. And that meant everything changed. You wouldn't say that they turned into scoundrels, but finally they were more-or-less unrestrained, so they let loose. Parties. Drinking. Sex. Lots of it. You never asked about the other princes, not wanting to learn that your beloved prince had fallen into debauchery as well. Their personalities hadn't changed, they weren't abusive or even rude, but they turned into animals. You heard that Ten and his friends had full orgies with his girls and the extras. You knew when Johnny showed up that something utterly filthy was about to go down.

Taeyong seemed to be more restrained, but he was somewhat selfish. He didn't want to share his Petals, but that didn't mean that it wasn't just as naughty what happened in his quarters. Doyoung preferred more low-key engagements, but just because there was only one girl in his bed didn't mean they weren't going at it for hours on end. The only first-hand knowledge you had was with Yuta. Obviously. Honestly, you seemed to be corrupted more and quicker than the other girls. It was one of the few times you felt like you could be yourself, not constantly worried about doing and saying the right things. It was a good outlet as well for all the emotions you pushed down and hid. You were open to most things, mostly because Yuta was by no means selfish. You preferred the more carnal and kinky acts honestly; you weren’t sure you could ‘make love’ to him. The only thing that first gave you pause was when he asked if you would be okay with two of his friends joining. No other girls, just the three guys and you. It was a bit scary at first, and you wondered if your future husband had some sort of fetish, but his reasoning shocked you.

"You let me do whatever I want, Hiyomi. I want to spoil you." He spoke between kisses along your neck, your shoulder exposed from where his shirt had fallen over it. Yuta wasn't that big for a man, but he was bigger than you, his clothes baggy on your body. If you asked him, he probably would be okay with just one wife. And it would be you. You wished it wasn't though. Even with the comparatively few interactions you had over the years with Kun, you had hopelessly fallen for him, and you were content to pine after him in the distance for the rest of your life. That was better than nothing at all.

"W-which friends?" You shivered as his fingers ran over your back under the garment you had on, one finger slipping under the waist band of your lacey panties.

"Jungwoo. Mark?" His arms wrapped around you and pulled you down further into his lap, his hard cock straining against his pants. It seemed the thought alone turned him on. Those two? That was fine. Most of the princes' friends were shared, but Yuta was the closest with the two he offered. It made sense. It was odd at first to think about it, but if you weren’t sleeping with Yuta out of love, then it wouldn’t be too much different with them. And, based off what you knew the other girls did, it was actually relatively mild.

"You don't have to, sweetheart." Yuta nuzzled under your ear, and you sighed.

"That’s fine." It became a somewhat regular occurrence. And, as far as you knew, the other girls were not in a similar arrangement. But they knew, or at least, knew parts. This made them hate you more, they saw it as favor. It was one thing for a prince to indulge himself in three women, it was another for one woman to get ravished by a prince and his two friends. That was the ultimate sign of favor, you were good enough to not just get solo access to Yuta whenever but get the same treatment from his two just-as-attractive friends. The other girls knew, but they didn’t realize it was a common thing, just once in a blue moon. You didn't talk about it, because you knew how the others would be with it, and it honestly made you want Kun more. Somehow. Even with three men only wanting to please you, you wanted more… Not more, just someone else.

~*~*~

You had a close call though, you almost got found out. There was some big event that the princes were having, some formal party. It wasn't a drunken orgy or anything, almost like some kind of game night with all their friends. All of the girls went as well, it was supposed to be childish fun. You hated it. Not minding cuddling up with Yuta, you hated doing it with all the girls glaring at you. Mostly the other four in your group, because it made his favor toward you all the more obvious. You managed to get through the night, taking the chance to watch Kun without restraint when they decided to start some karaoke. He was the second-best singer after Doyoung, but none of the brothers were slouches. Some of their friends were pretty good themselves, could have been their jobs. It wasn't you ogling him while he sang that gave you away though. And, either fortunately, or horribly, Kun was the one that noticed. The guys were all taking random pictures together, and you stood at the side watching, honestly enjoying the random things they were doing. At some point Kun ended up sitting on the floor, holding up his closest friend, Chenle, so he didn't fall off of Jeno's back where he stood. You covered your mouth and giggled, eyes flicking to Kun as they tried to hold the pose for the picture. His eyes flashed to meet yours and you felt yours grow wide. He smiled, straight at you, and not the sweet one he normally gave at formal events or to diplomats and other public figures. It was a smirk, and it was the sexiest thing you had ever seen. You knew your face was once again red as a cherry, you could feel the heat leaving your skin. You quickly avoided his look; hand going to try and cover your face as you slipped away from the crowd and toward the restroom. You splashed cold water on your face, then met your own frazzled gaze in the mirror. Taking a few deep breaths, you moved to leave but heard voices in the hall, so you halted.

"You know that Jingxian girl is a bitch, right?" The voice was familiar, but quieter than you were used to, so you almost didn't recognize it was Chenle.

"That's harsh." Another person replied. Renjun?

"It's true." That was Yangyang.

"Wait, was she the one who threw her soup at that maid while they were in Europe?" Renjun asked.

"Yeah. She also apparently pretty much stole some girl's necklace that she liked when she went to Japan with…I think her name is Eiko?" Chenle replied.

"Kun-ge told me that she had taken some book from one of Yuta's girls and threw it in a fountain. It was signed or something. He made her replace it and she had to pay like a million won." Your arm jerked away from the handle then. Yuta told you a maid had done it on accident…

"Was it the quiet one he got the leather satchel for?" You shook your head a bit in shock. Yuta got that for you…you thought.

"He told me he tried to get Yuta to let him have her in the beginning, but he said no." Chenle continued, and their voices faded as they continued down the hall. Your head was swimming and your heart had started to race again. There was nothing you could do if all that was true. You were Yuta's, and that was final.

~*~*~

There was a final straw for the other Sakuras though. At it would be their downfall it seemed, and they only fell because they weren’t careful when trying to push you over the edge first.

You were in the lounge, the area big enough to easily accommodate all of the girls and let them have all kinds of fun. Your favorite place was on the top bunk, of essentially a bunk-couch. Instead of a bunk bed, there was a nice soft couch with a wooden loft over it, and another couch on top with ladder-like staircase to get you up on. That was your favorite place. It was removed from the central conversation-pit-like area where most of the girls gathered. They would play drinking games and tell all sorts of lurid stories and secrets, while you would sit under the dim light of a lamp and read.

"Hiyomi, come here!" The girl that called you, Eiko, was the second eldest of your group. She was the only one that was actually Japanese herself, but even then, she was given a different name. You each were granted one from Yuta himself, you weren't even sure he knew any of your real names. Your birthnames didn't matter anymore.

Sighing, you reluctantly put your bookmark in your novel and trudged over to the group. Not everyone was there, Ten's girls were probably off getting drunk and defiled, and three of Taeyong's were with him abroad. Sitting down gently in an armchair, you smoothed your skirt down as you did and stiffly rested back.

"We're playing truth or dare." Of course they were.

"Okay?" They never invited you to play anything or do anything with them unless they were forced to. The competition had gotten much worse lately. As the Princes all approached the grand age of 25, they would finally choose their main wife. You were in the lead, to no one's surprise, but to everyone's chagrin. Yours included. You shot a quick glance at Jingxian. She was the forerunner of the Ursas…Kun's favorite seemingly. She was refined, elegant, beautiful. To many she was kind, sweet, but she was cold to you. She was never rude in person and as far as you know, after the book incident she didn't do anything. That was better than cruel though. She was close with Eiko, and you assumed that was why she disliked you so much, since Eiko cared so little for you. You didn't associate much with any of Kun's girls, but still you hated them. No, that wasn't the right word, you envied them. The worst thing was, you knew that Jingxian didn't love Kun. Just like you didn't love Yuta. She was enamored with Taeyong. Well, maybe not him, but his status. He was the crown prince, which would mean she could be queen if she was chosen. You weren't sure who else knew this, but you knew it was grounds for her to be more-or-less banished. If you really wished, you could out her, and get her kicked out, but what was the point? That wouldn't help you any, and there was no point in lashing out at her out of jealousy. That would make you just like all the others.

"Come sit here." Eiko was being way to friendly, which made you way suspicious. You followed her prompt though; you were the youngest after all. There was an empty soju bottle in the middle, the girls clearly having finished it off earlier.

"I'll start." One of the Petals started; her name was Anjeong. She spun the bottle, and you held your breath, only sighing gently in relief when it landed on Eunhwa, the eldest Bunny.

"Truth or dare, unni?"

"Hm." Eunhwa tapped her finger on her chin, "truth."

"How big is Prince Doyoung's cock?" She prompted and the girls chattered with curiosity. You zoned out then, knowing how this whole thing was going to go. Your eyes drifted to watch the gas flames in the fireplace. As you glanced back at the bottle as it was spun again, not even hearing her answer, your eyes passed over Lumei. She was the maknae of the Ursas, and you hated her the most. You could have been her; she was only about a month younger than you. She didn't seem to notice your glare and she giggled when the bottle landed on her when Eunhwa spun it.

"Truth or Dare, Lumei?"

"Dare!" She decided quickly and Eunhwa looked thoughtful for a second, looking around. She smirked and cast a devilish look at Jingxian before looking back to Lumei.

"Show us what Prince Kun's favorite position is." You wondered if they noticed you go still. Completely. You couldn't show a reaction, you didn't want to let any of them know your secret. They would use it to assassinate you. Jingxian scoffed at the question, over-dramatically.

"I don't think she's can." She grinned coyly, taking a sip of her wine and Lumei sent her a playful sneer.

"Honestly, I can't really show you, because I myself can't do it. But…" Lumei looked around and then climbed onto the couch behind her. She sat on it backwards, knees on the back of the couch, back to the cushion, her head hanging over the edge, hair flowing to the floor. She opened her mouth wide and just sat there a second, the other Ursas giggling. Your jaw clenched, eyes stinging, but you still didn't move.

"Her gag reflex is too sensitive." Jingxian pressed on her throat, and she hacked, sitting up to catch her breath around laughs.

"I can't even open my mouth that wide…" Mianyu mumbled, and the girls chattered and giggled. Your tongue ran over your lips, and you pondered if you could. You were all too familiar with that position Lumei mimicked, and at first you had been disgusted at her pose. But now you would enjoy it with Yuta more, you could imagine Kun instead. Like you often did. Your gag reflex was practically nonexistent, whether it was genetics or a fluke, it had always been that way.

"Okay!" Your eyes flicked to the bottle as Lumei spun it, still giggling, clearly tipsy. You sagged in relief when the bottle landed on Aikiro then. She was your biggest rival…in her eyes anyway. She outright despised you, she felt she should be the favorite just because she was the ‘leader’. Okay…whatever.

"Trush or dare?" The Ursa maknae hiccupped and you wondered if the blood going to her head made her drunker.

"Truth." She leaned back against the couch she sat in front of, sending a wry look your way. What did you do? You rolled your eyes and looked back at the fire.

"How many times have you done it with Yuta, and Jungwoo and Mark?" she asked, and silence fell over the group. Your eyes widened a bit, but you didn't look back to the group.

"You idiot!" Mianyu slapped the back of Lumei's head, and she yelped.

"What?" Aikiro nearly growled.

"W-well. I mean, everyone knows that Yuta invites them over a lot. Jinyu said…"

You felt four heated gazes fall on you and you licked your lips, looking slowly back at everyone else. Your eyes flicked to Jinyu who was staring at the floor, zoned out.

"What do you mean, a lot?" Aikiro looked back at Lumei who shriveled under her glare, pressing closer to Jingxian.

"E-every Friday." She replied. Before you could look back to your fellow Sakuras, you flinched as Aikiro stormed over, dumping her wine all over your head. You exhaled in shock, closing your eyes to prevent the alcohol from running into them.

"You fucking bitch! You told them? I bet you brag about it." You grit your teeth, reaching for the nearby tissue roll, but Eiko snatched it from your reach, her own drink joining. The fruity scent of whatever kind of pre-mixed cocktail she was drinking stung your nose and your hair started to drip.

"H-hey!" Gyuri, the kindest one there, the maknae of Doyoung's bunnies, tried. She really did try, but… You winced and grunted when a hand grabbed the back of your hair, yanking your head back so were forced to look up at the owner. Keiho was the oldest, out of all the girls actually, but she was the most cruel. She was the most two-faced as well. Your eyes flicked to her drink, expecting her to dump it on you as well, and your face fell. It was a bottled pina colada. Coconut. Everyone knew you were super allergic to it, couldn't even eat anything made in the same factory as coconut products.

"Hm, I wonder if you would like the taste of this?" Keiho took a sip before looking at the label on the bottle and she let go of your hair just long enough to let Eiko take over.

"Wait, Keiho-" Mianyu stood then, trying to go forward. Before she could get very far though, Jinyu grabbed her wrist, halting her. No one but you seemed to notice Gyuri slip away from the group and out the door. You prayed she was going to get help. Your heart was pounding, you were scared, legitimately. This wasn't a joke, not a game anymore. They were seriously out to hurt you. Keiho swirled the bottle a bit, and let it tip slightly, a drop falling from the mouth and landing on your cheek. It didn't take any more than five seconds for your skin to start itching, and the girls around you could see the skin already starting to redden, following the path of the drop before it landed on the floor. You tried to wiggle free at that point, out of Eiko's grip, but the final Sakura, Yumi, sat behind you in the chair, holding you in place. She giggled, leaning down to whisper in your ear.

"Should I tell them about Kun?" Her voice was so soft you almost didn't hear her. You froze then, eyes wide, looking toward Jingxian.

"She knows too, you know." Yumi whispered and then you saw the other woman smirk. The other girl still didn't let Mianyu go and help you. Aikiro kneeled then, joining Yumi in restraining you, her hand going to your face and pressing on your cheeks to force your mouth open. A tear fell from your eye, and you tried to shout, but Eiko's hand left your hair and landed on your throat. Not enough to cut off your air, but in just the right spot to silence you. Keiho swirled the drink again and was just about to tip it again, but she hesitated. Why? Your eyes met hers and she seemed to realize how bad it would be to do what she wanted, seeing the raising red welt on your face from just a drop. It wasn't like your tongue and throat would slowly swell shut, it could shut your body down faster than anyone could get help.

"Don't be a fucking coward." Jingxian snapped, slamming her wine glass down onto the side table so hard it sloshed from the glass. She snatched the bottle from Keiho, and she tipped it-

The sliding door slammed open, the loud noise startling her. The girls all looked in horror at the door, and you watched in terror as the bottle fell from her hand, the alcohol splashing onto you, and a swig or two fell into your still open mouth. You choked, trying to spit the liquid out, your mouth already burning, and the girls let you go as Yuta stormed into the room and straight to you.

"Hiyomi!" You spat more out, nearly tempted to force yourself to throw up…if you even could. Your mouth and face burned, your skin and eyes itched, and tears fell from your eyes as your head grew foggy. You were already wheezing, and Yuta was at your side immediately. A second person landed on your other side.

"Sit her up." You let Yuta move you, slumping back into him and watching blearily as the nurse brought the EpiPen down and injected the medicine into your thigh. You felt some relief at the moment, and you grew tired quickly but your breathing was still shallow. The nurse went ahead and injected the second shot and your body seemed to get enough relief that it wanted rest then.

"Hiyomi!" A third voice hit your ears and you blearily looked to see someone else dash in, heading for you as you fell unconscious.

~*~*~

You awoke to the sound of beeping, and distant voices. You blinked to clear your vision and it was clear you were in a hospital. You cringed, looking down at the IV in your arm…You really preferred it in your hand. You felt like you couldn’t bend your arm, and they had put it on your dominant side to boot. Groaning, you adjusted in the bed, your body and head felt heavy. The voices got louder; you could recognize one was Yuta's.

"They did it on purpose, everyone knows how allergic she is to coconut."

"I'm not saying what they did wasn't bad, but are you really okay with getting rid of your entire harem but Hiyomi?" It was another man, a voice you only ever heard in person once. It was the King.

"Father, if I had to pick only one wife, ever, it would be her. She was going to be my main wife anyway. I think having five of them is ridiculous anyway."

"Yuta-"

"I'm not the heir, anyway, so why does it matter?" You didn't hear a response if there was one.

"What about Jingxian and Jinyu?" Jinyu? She was there, but she hadn't done anything that you remembered.

"Get rid of them." Kun's voice was clear. And sharp.

"Didn't you tell me Jingxian was most likely your choice?"

"Not anymore."

"Jinyu too, then?"

"Wasn't it her idea?" Silence.

"Yuta, did what those six tell you not matter?"

"What?" Kun asked then, confused. You strained to hear Yuta's response.

"Yumi. She…she told me that Hiyomi likes you." Finally, your prince spoke. You heard the beeping of your heart monitor increase and felt it in your chest.

"Your highness, I found it!" A maid's voice joined, and you furrowed your brow, listening.

"There's a lock on it." What?

"Just snap it off." Your mouth went dry. Your journal. How'd she know about it? You were more than careful. Or so you thought.

"Did Miss Janyeon have the key to her lock box?"

"Yessir." Fuck. But, if the King requested, it wasn't like she could refuse. That was it. You were out. At least you didn't die.

"I knew all this." Yuta's soft voice was loud in your ears and your breath hitched. What?

"You did?" Kun and the King asked at the same time.

"She's careful. But I know her too well by this point."

"Why didn't you say anything?" the King prompted.

"She was mine, that's all I cared about. It was selfish, but… It is a bit worse than I thought." Yuta huffed.

"What do you want to do, Kun?" Their father moved on.

"It's up to her." It was hard to read his tone, and even in the other room, you could feel the tension rise just by the lack of response from Yuta.

"She's mine." His tone was harsh, you had only heard him angry one other time. Right before you passed out. It felt like minutes of silence passed.

"If that's what she wants." Kun spoke finally.

"I think we owe her a decision, since she went through such an ordeal. It’s impressive she kept it hidden so well, and didn't ever act on it, or act out against the other girls. I might not be around much, but your mothers are, and they tell me everything. She's brave and strong for all the shit the other girls put her through. For now, let's keep it hidden we all know, let her choose her next actions without interference. If she chooses Kun, what will you do Yuta?"

"If you love something, you gotta learn to let it go." His defeated tone made your throat clench. You didn't want to hurt him, you really cared for Yuta. You also knew that your feelings for Kun were borderline insane, if not straight-out irrational. It was infatuation, you weren't allowed to get close enough to him to call it love. You were starting to realize then, that it was probably Yuta's doing. Especially if he knew. Maybe that was why he kept you at his side if the others were around, you thought it might be to protect you from the other girls…

"That's a lot different than what you said three years ago."

"Fuck off."

"Yuta, if you allow her to choose Kun instead, you won't have anyone. It would look bad on me." their father pressed.

"If she leaves me, I'll abdicate." You gasped at that. Yuta was second born, even if he wasn't the crown prince, he was closer to the throne than anyone else. He was right after Taeyong, which would put him in a high position when the eldest became King.

"Yuta-"

"If Kun ditches his girls. If Hiyomi chooses you, you can only have her. She deserves the world, and you better fucking give it to her." You closed your eyes, a tear leaving your eye as you made your own decision. No matter how desperately you had wanted Kun the last four years, Yuta was willing to risk everything for you. You couldn't let him do that.

"Would it look bad for the third-born to have one wife?" Kun asked then and you clenched your jaw, the beeping on the machine picking up. You glanced at it, not sure how to read the numbers, worried if you got any more emotional it would set it off.

"I'm going to tell you boys something that no one else can know. Doyoung already requested that he only marry Gyuri. He's tired of dealing with the girls' drama. Ten doesn't care much for an actual marriage to anyone. Taeyong is willing to have the harem if he's king, since it was the deal for the imperial alliance. He already chose Sooyoung to be the crown princess. I remember when I was your age, all of the crap the girls did to each other, the backstabbing, the gossip. The only girl I've seen that hasn't played into any of it was Hiyomi. Even your mothers love her. If she chose Yuta, what would you do Kun?" More silence.

"If that's what she wants-"

"What the fuck do you want?" Yuta spat.

"Honestly? I want to take her from you. I have for years. I know you said, father, to let her decide without us interfering, but… I'm not going to just sit by." The King sighed so hard that you heard it, your head was spinning trying to process everything.

"If she feels safe with it, I want to bring those six to her. Make them apologize. Hiyomi can decide if they will simply be expelled or if she wants to press charges legally." Your mind ran rampant in that moment. The king was letting you decide? All of your hurt and anger, resentment, jealousy; everything bubbled inside.

"I will have someone speak to Mianyu and Lumei as well. I have a hard time believing they had no part to play, or at least that they didn't know." The king finished and the conversation died, and you assumed they left. A door opened and you realized they had been in the room next door, sharing the wall that was behind your head. Your own door started to open, and you partially shut your eyes, pretending that you just woke up.

"Miss Hiyomi?" A woman spoke a nurse entered, with Yuta behind her. No one else.

"Yes?" You opened your eyes more, continuing the act.

"Do you know where you are?"

"The hospital." You hadn’t hit your head, why wouldn’t you know?

"It was good the nurse had those EpiPens ready, you had a very quick and severe reaction. We're going to keep you here overnight and if all is good, you can go back tomorrow." The nurse smiled and then left after taking note of your vitals, leaving you with Yuta. He sat in the chair next to your bedside, taking your hand in his.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like crap." You admitted and he couldn't help but sigh with a defeated smile.

"I would think. Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"Could I have some water first?"

"Oh!" He got up and went to get what you requested, probably from a vending machine or something. You hated tap water… Yuta returned, and he helped you sit the bed up more as you took a swig from the bottle. You noticed his brow furrow, and his thumb rubbed over your cheek, it must have been a bit red still.

"What happened, (Y/N)?" You nearly choked, luckily you hadn't taken a sip.

"W-what?"

"(Y/N)." He reiterated and you closed the bottle, lip quivering a bit. It had been so long since you heard that name…

"I didn't know you knew my real name." you whispered.

"I shouldn't. But I asked." You had a hard time meeting his eye, so you just rested back, eyes closed.

"I was stupid. I was just reading, and they invited me over to play truth or dare." You huffed in annoyance, "I was suspicious immediately, but I went along with it. I…" You didn't want him to know you heard their conversation, or that you knew he knew about your feelings for Kun.

"I hadn't even been picked, but Lumei asked Aikiro about…about Jungwoo and Mark." You finally looked at him and he nodded, realization painting over his worried expression.

"It was clear that only I get the…privilege." You weren’t sure what else to call it.

"Aikiro got pissed and so she dumped her wine on me. Eiko dumped her cocktail on me and they with Yumi held me while Keiho threatened to make me drink her pina colada." His brow instantly furrowed, anger clearly taking over. But he was the quiet, scary angry type.

"Keiho hesitated, so Jingxian grabbed it from her and decided to do it herself…" You shivered a bit, feeling angry yourself. You never felt so mad. Sad, upset, hurt, frustrated? Yes. Not anger, not the rage you felt taking over.

"What about Jinyu?"

"Jinyu?" You played along. Yuta sighed.

"Apparently it was her idea. We decided that those six need to go. Father wants them to apologize first. He said it was up to you if they get expelled or if you want to get the police involved." You knew all of that already, but you were able to put on a bewildered expression.

"I can decide?" Your prince didn't say anything, and you wondered if he was thinking about his willingness to let you decide about him, or Kun.

"Yes, of course."

"What…what about you and them?" He didn't look at you and you wondered how he would word what you already knew.

"I only need you." He told you softly and you tried to hide your wince.

"Will you meet with them? You don't have to."

"No, I want to hear them apologize. And I want to tell them they're expelled. And I want to press charges." You turned your determined gaze to Yuta; he had never seen you look so harsh. But it made him smile.

"Good."

~*~*~

The doctors determined you were good to be discharged the next day and when you got back to the Sakuras’ dorm, it didn't look any different. You then remembered you wanted to be the one to tell them they were expelled, so you got to. The rest of them weren't in there, but there were maids scurrying about in their bedrooms, packing up their stuff.

"Hiyomi!" You turned as the head handmaiden came in and her hands went to your face, looking you over.

"You poor child." She sighed after you told her in detail what you went through.

"I'm sorry I had to help them find your diary." She pulled the journal out of the top of her hanbok, the lock had been broken off.

"It's okay." You took it from her, "did you look at it?"

"No, child. I know how to respect someone's privacy." You nodded in thanks, and she left to attend to other duties and so you entered your own room. Nothing had been touched, at least it seemed that way, but you still checked. Finding everything was in line, you got changed into something a bit more formal for the rest of the day. Looking in the mirror, you put on the brown and black plaid jacket that matched your skirt. Adding the beret of the same pattern, you pulled it further back, then readjusted your thigh-high socks. After, since you had about an hour to kill before you were supposed to confront the girls, you rummaged through your things. Many of your nicer accessories and little trinkets were from Yuta. Your mind went back to the conversation you had overhead nearly three years prior. Plucking the familiar book off your shelf, you looked over it, the spine was wrinkled from many read-throughs and the signature was in a slightly different spot than the original. It was your favorite book, and it made sense why Jingxian targeted it, but how did she know? Probably Eiko… You then looked at your leather satchel, you used it constantly, and you had nearly forgotten that apparently, Yuta hadn't got it for you. Did Kun really get it instead? Or did he suggest it? Get it for Yuta to give you? You didn't know. The other little gifts started to leave a sour taste in your mouth, making you wonder if he had lied about any of the rest. Your glass paperweight in the shape of a cat went missing, and supposedly a maid found it in your laundry, so he brought it back. A set of manga you liked had a limited edition only sold in Japan that he got for your birthday. But…he hadn't been in Japan when they were on sale. Kun had been though. Letting your thoughts loop into the negative, you gathered all of your gifts, minus the bag, and piled them on your desk. The bag was a practical item, so it was allowed some grace, but you wanted to ditch the rest for some reason. Why did you feel so mad at Yuta? It wasn't like he did anything wrong, technically, he just continued to act like he didn't know about your feelings for his half-brother.

"Lady Hiyomi?" A soft voice called after a knock on your door. A younger maid had come to escort you to a sitting room where you were to meet with the girls. Swallowing the few nerves you had, surprisingly, you followed after her and entered the room. It was empty, no one else was there-

"(Y/N)." You startled, only noticing Kun as you got further into the room. He was sitting on the couch under a window, and you wondered why Yuta wasn't there. He looked gorgeous as always; his hair dyed a dirty blonde and slightly wavy, and he had on a navy and white letterman jacket.

"(Y/N)?" If Yuta wasn't supposed to know your real name, how did Kun? That didn't matter, you were there with him, alone. And he was coming toward you. That's when you got nervous, and you gripped your hands together to hide their quaking.

"Yuta told me. I…I needed to show you something before everyone else gets here." He pulled his phone from his back pocket, and you glanced up at his face to see his clearly upset expression. He tapped on the device, and you heard an audio recording start.

"Can you help me or not?"

Yuta?

"I can, but what's in it for me?"

Was that…Jinyu?

"I'll make it so you can leave. Get out of here." "What do you want me to do?" "Come up with the plan yourself but figure out a way for the other four Sakuras to get expelled." "Can't you do it yourself?" "Not without a reason. Public image and shit. I really don't care about the rest of them, I just want Hiyomi. Can you do it?" "Probably. You wanted me to drag Jingxian too, right?" "Please. She's gotten on my last fucking nerve. She has to know about Hiyomi and Kun, why else would she be such a bitch?" "I know that's it. What was the last thing she did again?" "Something petty, poured bleach on her favorite dress. I got her a new one and she didn't even notice, but…" "How many things have you replaced?" "Like seventeen or something crazy. Those are just the ones she doesn't know I did, too." "You know, if you weren't my cousin, I wouldn't do this." "Bullshit, you know that's not why. We're only second cousins." "I'm serious, Yuta. I couldn't care less about the others." "Even Kun?" "Kind of hard to like your future husband when you're a lesbian."

It was clear there was more to the recording, but he cut it off. You were silent for some time, trying to process everything you just heard. You stumbled and Kun quickly pocketed his phone and reached out to stabilize you, then led you to the couch.

"Did…did Yuta know what the plan was?"

"I doubt it. But…it still was partly because of him." You slumped against the back cushion, resting your cheek on it, mind swirling. Your hat fell from its place, and you just pulled it all the way off.

"W-what do you make of it?" You needed more information; your emotions were so turbulent you couldn't even decide for yourself what to feel.

"Well…I know Jingxian was such a bitch because I like you." He just straight out admitted it and your body froze, your default response. He must have noticed the jolt you gave as your body stiffened and his hand went to your chin, prompting you to look up at him. Being so close to him, it took your breath away, he was even more stunning up close. And his eyes were so gentle and warm, not the same sharp heat you normally got from Yuta.

"Honestly, early on I tried to get Yuta to let you go, so I could have you instead, but he refused." Kun sighed, then huffed with dry amusement, "I'll admit I'm a little crazy when it comes to you."

"Birds of a feather…" You mumbled and he let your face go and you just slumped against the couch again.

"You know how Yuta gets you two presents for your birthday?"

"One's from you, huh?" You guessed accurately it seemed.

"How-"

"A few years back, I overhead your friends in the hall. They said that you made Jingxian replace my signed book. I know my bag was from you. Looking at it now, those gifts make a lot more sense. They would be so different from each other. Yuta would get me a pretty set of earrings and a necklace, but then there would be a full book series. Or instead of nice shoes, it would be a galaxy print. The year-long pass to the planetarium?" Kun was more of an intellectual than Yuta for sure, he was the only one of the princes that went to college. That was part of the reason you liked him so much, he was more similar to you than anyone else there. You knew that even with the restricted amount of time you had around each other.

"How did you get that recording?" You asked when it seemed he was struggling to find a response. He glanced up at you, head still bowed, dirty blonde bangs falling over his brow.

"Jinyu sent it to me with a caveat. She made me promise that you wouldn't press charges against her. She doesn't mind the expulsion, would welcome it…"

"Did you know that she was…?"

"Yeah. She told me early on."

"Yes, it was her idea, but… Yuta prompted her, and if you promised her that, I'll respect it." Your expression hardened then, so quickly it made Kun raise his brow in surprise.

"I can't believe him. I know…" You swallowed hard, "I guess he did it because he loves me. Or that might be what he says, but for all this time…" You exhaled hard through your nose, brow furrowing.

"Yes, I want to get back at the girls even past kicking them out, pressing legal charges. They put me through so much shit for so long…And I shouldn't be this mad at Yuta, but… I want to get back at him too." Your last sentence was much quieter, you felt ashamed of your rage toward him, but that recording just bubbled everything over. You looked up then, fully to make eye contact with Kun.

"I just…I don’t know how. Help me?" The other prince hummed, leaning into the back cushion himself, looking pensive.

"I shouldn't be as sadistic as I want…" Your phone alarm went off then, meaning the others would be coming rather soon.

"Think on it, I'll go with what you plan." You told him, standing to adjust your clothes. Stepping over to a mirror, you put your hat back on, fixing your rumpled hair as well. The king was coming too after all. As you primped, Kun stepped up behind you so you could see him in the reflection as well. He wasn't any taller than Yuta, but that did still put him nearly a head taller than you since you weren't in heels. You gasped, watching his arms wrap around you from behind, his cheek pressing against the side of your head. The black fabric of his sleeve smelled amazing, like him of course. Your heart started to beat so hard you were sure he could hear it, maybe even feel it where his chest met your back.

"Tell me, what does Hiyomi mean? Do you know?"

"Something with sunlight and beauty." You had learned Japanese in your training, but that didn't mean you knew name etymology. Yuta had mentioned it before though.

"How do you like Yuhua?" You assumed it was something similar…was he already thinking of picking a different name for you? Honestly, it was the next best after your birthname.

"Perfect." You whispered and nearly whined when he pulled away abruptly, the door opening not even thirty seconds later. Your posture immediately corrected itself, and you bowed your head as the King entered, followed by Yuta, then the six girls were escorted in by a few of the royal guards. Though, they looked more like federal agents…

"Sit." One of them ordered and the clearly dismayed girls followed. There was still evidence of mascara running and their faces were blotchy and red. They weren't in their fancy clothes either, having been dressed in clothes similar to the uniforms worn as trainees. Plain pleated skirts and button ups with a cardigan. For once, you weren't the plainest dressed one in the room, and you felt more smug than angry looking over them.

"Come here, child." The king prompted and you stepped to his side at his prompting, head still bowed to avoid looking at his face. You didn't notice the glare Yuta had sent Kun's way when he realized he had arrived there early. And that he had access to you without your prince being there as well.

"Tell them, Hiyomi." He motioned with his hand, and you turned to face them fully. They were clearly shocked by your cold gaze, and your eyes met Jinyu's. She looked significantly less nervous, and it was clear she was putting on an act.

"Expel them, please, your highness." The five other girls had various reactions, all forced down and if glares could kill, Jingxian would succeed in her mission.

"Of course. Now, you six. Apologize." The King's tone was hard, and the girls shakily stood and moved to face you. They clearly didn't want to do what followed, but they had little choice. They fell slowly to their knees, and bowed low, foreheads on their hands pressed to the floor. You barely registered the clearly scripted words they spoke, and you turned to look over your shoulder at the princes. Your gaze first went to Yuta, and it was clear he had no idea that you knew everything. He gave you his classic smile, but it just pissed you off then. You then looked at Kun and he gave a subtle nod.

"Jinyu can go." You then noted and the King was curious why you only let her go, but he allowed it. He knew there was something unspoken since Jinyu seemed to sag in relief as she left.

"We'll tell them the rest, father. Would you mind leaving us to it?" Kun stepped forward and his father turned to look back at him. They exchanged something unspoken through their gaze.

"Very well." He nodded and he left along with the guards, who stayed stationed outside the door as it closed.

"Hiyomi?" Yuta stepped up closer, but you ignored him, going to where the girls had sat back down. The other Sakuras looked a bit more nervous, but Jingxian was steaming. All of her hard work over the years, desperate to get whatever wealth and power she could, gone. The sneer she shot you pissed you off, hand flying up without thought, smacking her hard enough to snap her head to the side. She just sat there, not looking back at you. Not sure what to say to them, you turned and looked at Kun who was in the same spot, a little behind his slightly older brother. A smug look fell on his face, and he stepped around the other prince, shedding his letterman-style jacket and laying it on the table. You wanted to swoon as he rolled the sleeves of his white button-up, so they bunched above his elbows. Paired with his watch and the ring he had on his index finger, it was so little, but so hot. Yuta must have noticed how your expression changed, recognized it even, but you knew it was different than anything you gave him.

Kun sidled up next to you and he raised a brow, silently asking if you were ready. You nodded so slightly, with a tiny hum and you gasped as his hand grabbed your chin. The move was a bit rough, but your gasp was of delight, not fear or shock. His eyes were still warm, and he had the sexy grin back, your thighs twitched along with your core.

"You know, it’s a shame that only Yuta could get a girl so good." His grip softened, and he cupped your jaw instead. The room was so quiet you could hear Jingxian's jaw clench and made her teeth grind against each other. Kun's face was so close to yours that you felt his breath on your lips.

"Kun, what are you-" Yuta started, coming closer.

"But it's also a shame that she got stuck with him." His tone was incredibly patronizing, derisive and you just took the chance to bask in his presence and attention as he pulled his phone back out, stepping back slightly. He still had the audio clip paused where he left it off before, and you saw then it was half-way through.

"At least you only have to deal with one guy. He also knows. I have to get it up for four other sluts I couldn't care less for."

The four other Sakuras gasped, and your eyes flicked to look at Kun's phone, but his hand at your jaw turned you back to focus on him. It was hard to get mad with the following audio while looking over him, so close to you. You didn't even care to look and see what Yuta's expression was. He had frozen, just behind his half-brother, almost scared to move.

"Viagra?" "No, I just pretend they're Hiyomi. Hard to do though. Eiko's so fucking annoying and won't shut up. Sounds like a bad porno. Aikiro still doesn't know what the fuck she's doing even after training for a year and more. Yumi has no stamina and is selfish to boot. Keiho-"

Your eyes flicked to the phone again, waiting for him to finish. It seemed he paused to take a drink or something, because the audio kept progressing.

"Keiho is a fraud. She thinks I don't know that she goes to Ten's little orgies or whatever. I know she's slept with half of the guard too."

All the girls looked at Keiho then, her cheeks that were bright red with anger were now horribly pale.

"She acts like she wants stuff vanilla, loving. I know she can only get satisfied with two cocks in her."

Kun shut it off then, only a few seconds left but you had heard enough. How dare he criticize Keiho when he was the one that brought his friends in to fuck you at the same time? Did he think it would be flattering that he only thinks of you when he's with the others?

"Hiyomi-" Yuta tried to start, and you wanted to push around Kun, smack his stupid pretty face. But you trusted the other prince to come up with the best thing he could. He already tore down the girls, that much was obvious from their faces and the devastated looks they sent Yuta.

"Despite his supposed love for you, sweetheart, it’s a shame you don't feel the same." Since it wasn't directed at you, and it would still be incredibly hot if it was, the smug sadistic grin he had riled you up all the more. Kun hummed, prompting you to respond and he chuckled at the dazed look you had.

"No, I don't." It was like he was some kind of drug; your thoughts were foggy, and you needed more of him. He had taken out the girls, they looked like all the fight had been ripped from them, slumped on the couch. It had hit Yuta too, but not enough, not yet. Though, Kun needed to finish Jingxian first.

"Do you know how hard it was for me? From the moment I saw you, I wanted you. The only reason I was going to choose Jingxian was because I hate her. I couldn't live with myself if you weren't my wife, my princess, but I didn't want to hurt the other girls. They didn't deserve the hurt like her. She's a horrible human being and she seemed all the worse compared to you, (Y/N)." Hearing him say your real name again did it, you were head over heels in love with him and you thanked whatever higher being finally graced you with something good. All of the shit you had put up with came to the best moment of your life, knowing Kun wanted you just as badly as you wanted him. Even if you both knew it was crazy, even sick; at least you could be lovesick together. The final hit to the girls, hidden from Yuta since Kun blocked you from his sight, was the extremely gentle kiss he pressed to your forehead, followed by him gently brushing his nose over yours.

"Guards, take them to the police." The prince let your chin go, just enough so he could step back so as not to shout in your ear. The door opened and the suits came in, quite literally hauling the girls away, Jingxian now just as broken as the others.

"Only one left." You whispered when Kun came back to you. He shifted where you stood with a hand on your lower back, making you visible to Yuta then.

"Show him you're mine." He told you and it seemed your minds were linked. At graduation, each girl would kneel before the prince and swear their loyalty, almost like being coronated. You sank to your knees, but you looked up at him instead. The normally practiced display of reverence for a girl's monarch was corrupted by the desire you looked at him with, and he you. You were submitting to him as a man, not as a higher-up, nor a prince. He grinned when your hands gripped his belt, not moving to remove it, but the implication was clear-

"You fucker." Yuta shot forward, hand burying in Kun's shirt and yanking him away from you. You flinched back as Kun was pulled away and you quickly stood as the brothers stared each other down.

"You lost, Yuta. Move on, she's mine now. Ready to abdicate?" You flinched back with a gasp, hands covering your mouth as Yuta's fist moved toward his brother's face. Kun deftly moved his head the little bit he had to for the blow to miss.

"Wait!" You tried to weasel your way between them before the elder landed a punch on the younger. Even though they were the same height, Kun was bigger, Yuta had a hard time gaining any kind of bulk and he looked like a twig next to the other prince. While he wasn't the most muscular man you knew, he was outright perfect to you, and it was clear he was strong because Yuta barely budged him with his tug on his shirt, he moved with the pull. That was beside the point… You got back at Yuta, what happened was enough, you could tell by the hurt etched into his face. Your anger had immediately dissipated, a better solution hitting your mind. Neither of them knew you had heard the full conversation the day before, but that didn't change that you had.

"Don't abdicate. You already are losing your harem, but you told Kun to only have me, right?" Both men were clearly shocked that at your words and you took the chance to shove Yuta off, standing in front of Kun, clearly in a show of protection. Like you could really do anything…

"Y-yes." Your prince's voice was soft and rough. He didn't deserve how much you really wanted to wreck him. Your rationality had kicked in, logic taking over, he was already defeated.

"We’ll tell the press that the other four turned against me because I didn't want to be involved with you. Turn it on me. You take the three from Kun, and I go to him. You're second born, you can't just give up those rights-"

"(Y/N), I don't want to be a prince without you as my princess." Your chin quivered a bit at his tone, his eyes glassy.

"And I don't want to be a princess without Kun as my prince." You countered. You needed to break his heart for him to let you go. You didn’t turn to look at the other man even though Yuta's eyes flashed to look over your shoulder.

"Take the other three, add two more from wherever, do whatever. Wouldn't you rather move on and find someone else than love me and know I don't feel the same? If you love something let it go? Do you think I want to be restricted to you, when I love someone else?"

"You love him?" You didn't respond to his question. It wasn't the real definition of love, it wasn't that pure, but you had some twisted loyalty to Kun that you never did for Yuta.

"Do you love me?" You pushed back. You weren't sure, it seemed somewhat like you were a trophy, a luxury item that he might adore, but…

"You're supposed to be mine." He didn't answer the question. Not directly.

"You don't love me, I’m just your favorite. You liked that I didn't fight the other girls tooth and nail just to get your attention. You liked the challenge. If you really cared you would have told me all the shit that Jingxian did, and the others, I'm sure. You never even bothered to learn who I was, getting me pretty, girly things. You played up the romance but never did anything I liked with me. I might have been in your bed the most, but I wasn't in your heart."

"And you were in Kun's?" Yuta nearly spat, not trying to defend himself, because you were right.

"What's her favorite thing?" The man behind you cut in and you turned to look at him. You didn't answer, genuinely curious if Yuta knew, because he never acted on it…

"Books."

"Wrong. Space. She goes out at night to watch the stars. All her books are science-fiction. Her favorite sweatshirt is of the milky way and if there's ever a special event at the planetarium, she's there." How did he know all of that? The other prince was silent, clearly not sure what to do or say next. His eyes went back to you, and you couldn't meet his look, and stepped closer to Kun.

"Favorite animal?" Kun continued.

"Dogs-"

"Goats. She just can't have one as a pet, she asked. The keychain on her bag is a goat. So is the plushie she takes with her on out-of-country flights. She tells people she likes dogs because it's more accepted.”

"Her favorite color is dark purple because it looks like the night sky. She loves snow but hates rain. She's the only girl fluent in all four languages. She hates moths and loves fireflies." He kept going and you wondered how he knew all that. Though…it was all things that were more or less common knowledge, things your friends knew. It wasn't creepy, just observant, and it should be things Yuta knew. But, based on his face, he really didn't.

"He loves planes. He took lessons to learn to fly one. He loves cats but doesn't have one because Lumei is allergic. He wears a lot of black and white, but he always uses a blue pen because he likes blue too. He hates cold weather; he knows how to cook, and he even is scared of butterflies." You smiled softly, realizing all the things he knew about you, you pretty much knew about him as well. It was things you overheard while near him or figured out by watching him from afar. After an uncomfortable silence, you finally looked up to meet Yuta's gaze.

"I'll go talk to father. I'll… if you ever break her heart, I'll fucking kill you." The prince exhaled, seeming to get some kind of closure and he stepped closer, reaching for you. Midway though, his hand stopped, and his eyes flicked to the side, at your earrings.

"They're moons." He noticed.

"Yes." Your voice was quiet, and the prince dropped his hand, cast one more look to his brother, and left. Watching him go was…a relief. You thought you might feel something else, be a little sad, or hurt, but you just felt at ease. As you turned to face Kun once more, he was already there, his hands at your jaw and he pulled you to him, kissing you so hard your teeth clashed against his. The force of him pulling you into him knocked your hat off, falling to the floor. You whimpered, hands holding his wrists as you try to meet his fervor. Your butt hit the table when he turned you with his leg wedging between yours. One hand left your jaw to cup the back of your head, blunt nails scratching your scalp. The other hand found its way to your waist, then his arm snaked around your middle, helping you up to sit on the table. Kun finally pulled away, both of you panting and your dazed eyes met his sharp ones.

"Fuck." He sighed, leaning forward and resting his forehead on your shoulder. His hands rested on the table, holding him up so he didn't rest his full weight on you, and he stood there for a while. You pressed your cheek to his soft hair, basking in him finally being so close to you. Slowly, you brought your arms up, shaking, and wrapped them around his shoulders. The hug was quickly returned, Kun enveloping you back, and you pressed your face into his chest. With your ear over his heart, you closed your eyes, listening to it beat, soaking in the scent of his cologne. Neither of you really wanted to pull back, but never-the-less did so. He took your hands in his, bringing them up so he could kiss them.

"I need to talk to father as well, sweetheart," his hand cupped your cheek, thumb rubbing your soft skin, "wait for me."

Due to formalities and legalities, you weren't Kun's right away. Because of all the rules, you both were moved into a guest house more or less, still on the royal campus, but not one of the official palaces. You had to wait for nearly a week as the ministers convened, trying to figure out what the hell to do. Taeyong remained the heir and was the only one that kept the harem as promised. Yuta didn't abdicate, but he didn't rebuild his harem either. He ended up moving to Japan then, becoming the ambassador for that part of the empire. Kun adopted most of his roles and rights, and it was well received by the public that he wanted to marry for love instead. He wasn't the heir, so the ministers didn't mind too much. Ten had some of his privileges revoked when it was revealed how debaucherously he was living, but he didn't mind. Doyoung too gave up his harem, minus Gyuri. A lot of things changed fast, but it was welcome. Finally, once everything was official, you stood in the middle of the foyer of your new home, watching people mill about as they moved the final things in. Looking around, you startled when someone snuck up behind you, hugging you.

"It's done, sweetheart." Kun nuzzled behind your ear, and you bit your lip, giggling.

"Once everyone leaves, I'm going to take you, since your mine now."

Part 2: Up Close (Smut)

Master-Master List

NCT Master List

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sona-verse01 · 1 year

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MAIN INTRO PAGE

💚 I'm Sona, 03 liner, She/her.

💚 I'm an tarot/oracle/intuitive reader. Also, a fanfiction/imagine writer. I'm not professional.

💚 I like: Chocolates, Collecting cute stuff, watching asmr videos (like journaling, unboxing, packing, etc), stationeries, trying different cuisines, etc.

Wattpad: @sona-verse01

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Feel free to send asks/requests/suggestions whenever you want.

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It is divided into 4 parts.

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Want to introduce me about a group? See this

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TXT, Stray Kids, Enhypen, Blackpink, Itzy, BTS, Ateez, ZB1, NCT

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stayarmytinyzenmoa-l · 2 years

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Covalence [Ch. 2]

University AU

TW/CW: Language, Mentions of a Previous Toxic Relationship (Lack of Trust), House Parties, Drinking/Drunk Behavior

Pairing: Qian Kun x Reader

Genre: Fluff, Angst

(Y/N) Pronouns: She/Her

Word Count: 5.7K

(Part 2/4) [Previous] | [Next]

[NCT Masterlist] | [Covalence Masterlist] | [Full Fic Version]

Notes: This fic has been here for a while but I've decided to break this up into chapters since I had a couple of people say they prefer it as opposed to a full fic for pacing reasons, but just for y'all I'll include the link to the full fic! I hope you all enjoy! That and I also want to get some traction on the blog again hehe

Disclaimer: Please remember that this is an AU and a work of fiction, obviously the idols mentioned/written about in this story would never partake in or condone these actions. I would never wish any of these actions to occur to the Idol(s) mentioned in the writings of these stories, nor do I wish any harm on them.

II. Friends

One drink soon became many, and even sooner you bought his coffee as well. It got to the point where you knew each other’s coffee orders. You took yours simply, light sugar, medium creamer, and in medium roast. His was a bit more complicated, no sugar, light creamer, two pumps of hazelnut, and dark roast. And both of your preferred sizes depended on how long you stayed up the night before, and as of late they’ve all been larges.

It was nice, whoever got to Coffee Bean first would buy the other’s drink, which soon became a little competition between the two of you. It would get especially amusing when you’d both walk out at the same time and sprint to the cafe, and it even got to a point that the baristas would run bets on who would make it first. Although it must have been strange to see two students bolting from a lecture hall and across campus but, certainly, somewhat entertaining regardless. The first time this happens, you’ll admit, the sudden realization of everyone in the cafe staring at you was embarrassing, but when Kun simply laughed it off it was like nothing else mattered.

The world was looking a little brighter, you thought, but surely that was just because it was beginning to warm up again, nothing more. But how could that have been possible? It was nearing the winter season, if anything, it should’ve been the opposite. Then again, whenever you would look up all you’d see is clear skies and a bright sun despite the nearing end of the year.

You would also say that you were happy with how this friendship continued on, branching out past the original defining similarity of O-Chem and intertwining with other interests like music, cooking, television shows, video games, and so on. You both even started meeting in other places aside from the cafe, which originated when Coffee Bean was simply filled to the brim and forced the both of you to seek elsewhere for a functional electrical socket, a surprisingly rare occurrence in such a large campus, and a passable amount of shade. Sometimes, when you met up, you wouldn’t even be working on O-Chem, sometimes you’d both just sit together and enjoy each other’s company. Or work on another class, and oftentimes you would end up helping each other regardless.

He learned that you had big dreams for breaking through in the medical field, but under that, you had a secret desire to explore the world. But again, you knew that it wouldn’t pay the bills alone.

You learned that although he’s a neuroscience major, he truly found his passion with his minor in music, he was looking to become a producer, but he knew that it wouldn’t pay the bills alone.

You were his certified beta listener when it came to his assignments and he was your certified work-checker when it came to classes. It was a rather symbiotic relationship, each person benefitting from the other. You had to admit that your grades have been on a steady incline since your friendship with Kun started. It was something you were thankful for, and you had hoped that he could say the same, not that you’d ever ask. Your pride was a fragile characteristic of yours, and you weren’t ready to risk more embarrassment than you already had.

You never really noticed how long it’s been since the start of this friendship until you realized that finals were a mere two weeks away. With study groups suddenly getting serious and study guides being thrown left and right, you found yourself staying up later and later than usual to get caught up with all the work you had mistakenly left for the end of the quarter, something you promised yourself to never do again but here you were. Doing Biology homework that should’ve been done on Week 2. When you felt the table wobble slightly, you looked up and waved hello to your newfound friend.

“Ah, Kun! Funny running into you here,” you exaggerated in a friendly manner when Kun sat across from you.

“Come here often?” He easily matched the tone while he placed his laptop on the table.

“Ahh, you brought the chunky one today.”

“Sadly, yes, and my back certainly made that clear,” Kun laughs. He took the coffee next to yours and chugged it down.

“Long night?”

“You don’t even want to know,” he rolled his eyes. “God, I could pass out right now,” he shakes his head and opens his laptop.

Kun had two laptops, one specifically for music and another specifically for school, the “chunky one,” as you put it, was for music, he got it broken and second hand then had Yangyang, a mutual friend you both surprisingly had, repair it instead of investing into a completely new one. Though you found it as redundant, you understood it from a storage viewpoint. Also, although you’d love to think about the initial shock that was Yangyang running into both of you at this cafe and him getting excited that two of his friends knew each other, you were a bit busy at the moment with the mind boggling mix of phylogenies and punnet squares in the document in front of you.

“Here, listen to this,” he passes his headphones to you and you placed it over your ears without another word, taking a sip from your coffee while waiting for him to play the song. In a few moments, you heard a sweet tune start to play. It started with a simple piano and it soon grew to include more instruments as the melodic ballad played.

Now you didn’t know much about music, you were, at the very least, a casual listener. And despite making that clear to Kun, he only stressed why your input was more than necessary as a ‘casual listener.’ And he had a point, when people listen to music, who is the general audience? The great majority are people who casually listen, people who don’t exactly have a trained ear to piece together the sentiment behind a score. You had always applauded Kun for being able to perfectly capture and display the story of a piece with or without lyrics, and you had always been proud that you got the message every time.

But this piece was different, you were having a hard time reading it. It’s not that it wasn’t pleasing to the ear, it was quite the opposite actually. But you couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it is that he’s going for, and yet at the same time you didn’t want it to end. He was preoccupied with texting someone, so you could probably sneakily rewind the track to the beginning. Slowly moving your hand up to the right side of the headphones, your fingers just barely grazed the replay button when Kun looked up at you and raised an eyebrow, wordlessly signaling that he is fully aware of what it was that you were planning, and you slowly moved your hand back down, listening to the rest of the track. As soon as it was finished, you took the headphones off and nodded.

“Sounds great,” you affirmed. Kun had slight suspicion in his eyes, but nodded regardless. “Great enough for me to want to play it again if you didn’t give me that look.”

“What look?”

“That look, Kun.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the amused smirk contradicted his words and your jaw dropped slightly. “But, aside from my apparently famous “look…” What do you think it’s about?”

“Hmm,” this was normal for him to ask. He always said that if someone who wasn’t in the music program could interpret the song then the score would be finished. “It’s a ballad.”

“It is.”

“No lyrics yet.”

“Not yet, Dejun’s been busy.”

“It feels kind of… nostalgic? Is that the right word for it?”

“Sure, we’ll go with it,” he drinks more of his coffee and scrolls through the score. “What else?”

“I feel like it’s a kind of song that would be addressed to…” you trailed off, trying to think of the right words to describe it. You pursed your lips slightly, going through a list of nouns in your head to finish the sentence, but regardless, none of them truly fit except for one that you just couldn’t feel confident in. You figured that more of the song fit the nostalgic element, leaving something you once loved behind. But what it was that was left behind is something that you just couldn’t understand.

“Huh? What’s wrong?” He instantly turned his attention to you.

“No! It’s embarrassing,” you laughed, realizing that it must’ve been easily read on your forehead how hard you were thinking about the meaning of the score.

“Are you sure about that?” He pries.

You wanted to say that it was about lost love, that’s the vibes that you got from it. But at the same time, you felt like it wasn’t exactly there. You couldn’t exactly feel that from the score, but you knew that was what he was going for. You couldn’t exactly explain it, well, you could, kind of. It felt like a song you would’ve listened to when you and your ex broke up, at least. But at the same time it was just missing something. Maybe it was because you just hated your ex, so you couldn’t really relate to a song that was a callback to the old days of a relationship, or maybe there was some aspect about it that was missing from the already beautiful score.

“I was going to say childhood lost,” you cooled yourself down and went back to your notes. You figured you’d go for the safer and less embarrassing interpretation.

“Is that so? I’m going to have to rework it then,” he bit the inside of his cheek and went to the beginning.

“How come?” You asked.

“The assignment was to make a breakup song, ironically,” Kun answered absently.

Well, turns out your initial thoughts were correct after all.

“Let me guess, you’ve never been in a relationship?” You teased.

“No, actually,” he admitted. You nearly choked on your coffee. Now you’ve known Kun long enough, you’d think, he was an attractive person with an equally attractive personality, you were surprised that he wasn’t taken, or ever taken at all, to be honest.

“Well, you’re not missing out on anything,” you scoffed thinking about your ex. Your phone buzzed on the table and Kun naturally looked at it, as most people do when a phone goes off, but you were quick to flip it over, and maybe too harshly at that. Perhaps it was some kind of reflex from your last relationship. “Oh, sorry,” you cleared your throat.

“No, no, it’s fine, I don’t know why I looked anyway,” Kun had on an awkward smile.

“No, really, I was a bit brash. I’m just, I don’t like it when people try to look… at my phone…” your voice faded off as you realized how ridiculous each word that came out of your mouth was. “Wow, that sounded ridiculous,” you snickered to yourself.

“Oh, no, not at all! I get it, I have a friend who’s the same way,” Kun explains. “If you don’t mind me asking, is that just a you thing or…?” You could tell that he meant well.

“My ex used to demand that he was allowed to go through my phone whenever he wanted, and after I denied him so many times he got impatient and just did it while I was asleep. So I guess my trust issues when it comes to my phone are some kind of residual effect of that,” you answered him easily, again, you’ve known each other long enough to be somewhat comfortable with things like this. “Oh, don’t worry about it, though! I’ve effectively cut him out of my life,” you reassured him.

“Oh, okay, I was about to say you should be more careful… people like that tend to try to stick around,” Kun says. “I’d know from a similar experience,” he mentions. You chose not to continue that conversation.

“Before I forget,” you reached into your bag and pulled out a small box, holding it out to him with an expectant look.

“What’s this for? My birthday isn’t for another month and a half, you know,” he takes the small box and shakes it gently.

“Just a thank you for that time in the convenience store,” you whistled. Embarrassingly enough, you never really remembered that it was him who paid for your friend’s latte until recently, when your friend was borderline blackout drunk and telling you how thankful she was for you buying her things while she was running late. The spiel she continuously rambled on about brought back the previously insignificant memory to you, and you had become horribly self-conscious at the thought that Kun most likely remembered it when you didn’t.

“Oh really? I thought you forgot about that,” he joked with you.

“Ugh, I knew you’d remember,” you pouted slightly and he laughed a bit louder, still aware of the other cafe goers.

“I just figured that you were in such a rush that you didn’t notice,” he opens the box and pulls out a small pin. It was a standard black music note, an eighth note if we’re getting technical, that had a thin gold border around it.

“I know, I know, it’s not much, and it’s kind of lame, but I never properly thanked you for helping me out that day. I figured that since you love music so much, and you have a tendency to kind of neglect your natural musical talent when you get stressed out, maybe you needed a reminder every now and then. I didn’t want to get you anything too flashy, so when I saw that simple one I thought, ‘Oh! Kun would love this!’ and I bought it right away.”

“I love it, thank you, (Y/N),” he pins it onto his backpack right away, and although you felt some strange feeling of exhilaration in your chest, you brushed it off to be that normal feeling of gratification when someone accepts your gift, especially when you’ve put much thought into it.

As you and Kun continued to have your weekly meetups, which quickly became more frequent than once a week, you could say that you were confident in the friendship that was blooming, it was one that you welcomed if anything. You both even started branching out to other areas aside from the cafe, just to shake things up a bit, you know? Soon, face to face conversations became texts, texts became phone calls, and phone calls became face times. The two of you got closer every day.

“Hey!” One morning, your friend stopped you. “I got invited to a party yesterday, and I can bring a plus one, wanna come?” She asks. You thought about it for a minute, you were never the type to go to things like these. But, then again, you also haven’t relaxed and let loose for a while. Your friend was kind enough to ask, so who were you to turn her down? She probably just wanted you to relax a little, and you couldn’t fault her for that.

“Sure. I’m down.”

It turned out to be one of those “end-of-the-quarter-but-before-finals” parties. You just wanted to have some fun for once without having to worry about anything else, really. You could always study for those exams when you got home and had time to clear your mind. Though you had to admit you were more of a wallflower when it came to these, you weren’t one to really get into the party, tended to stay away from the mosh pits and the clouds of smoke, but you also weren’t the kind to just watch what was going on. As long as you stuck by your friend, it would be fine, you figured. It’s not that you weren’t a social person, per se, it was just that the odds of ever seeing these people again were nearly zero to none, why waste the effort?

But you did keep your drinking to a minimum, you still had to walk home, and it’s dangerous at night. You’ll never forgive your parents for drilling into your head that you didn’t need a car since you lived so close to campus. Pepper spray can only get you so far if you weren’t careful. You checked the time on your phone, it had already gotten late, fifteen to midnight, aka there was a 90% chance of you getting kidnapped if you left alone right now.

“So, yeah, I’m not really sure how we should—” you looked up to your friend to ask her what she thought was the best option to get home, only to realize that your friend was missing. The empty spot where she once stood led to the noticeable red rising up your face, how long had she been gone? You must’ve looked insane talking to yourself. You leaned against the wall with a huff, looking around the room for where the drunk as fuck girl could have gone, but instead, your eyes caught a different familiar face.

“Kun?” You walked up to him and shook his shoulder. Another person approached you.

“Hey, do you know him?” He asks. You were fully ready to tell him to back off if he made a move on you, wouldn’t have been the first time someone tried to take you into a private room at this party.

“Yeah, we’re in O-Chem together,” you explained.

“Oh, hey, nice to meet you. I’m Sicheng,” he introduces. Something told you he wasn’t going to try to shoot his shot, which you greatly appreciated after having to tell six other guys to fuck off in the last hour alone. “I’m sorry to ask you this, but could you bring him back to his place? I’d do it myself, but I’ve got… other things to deal with…” He gestures towards the two drunk boys dancing on the countertop to whatever trashy beats the DJ was playing. Next to them you watched your friend walk into the hallway with her ex-boyfriend, and admittedly the two had a notorious on and off relationship, and you had to weigh your options. Next to you was a passed out Kun, probably drunk out of his mind if he fell asleep here, and across the room was your friend looking like she was having the time of her life.

Well, she’d probably tell you to go with the former option, actually has before in different contexts, you knew which one you had to do the most.

“Oh, yeah, I can do that. Good luck with whatever that is,” you said. He handed you the keys and airdropped you the address.

“Thanks, I owe you a ton,” he says. “Yangyang! Hendery! Get off the table!” He shouts, walking up to them. You sighed and held onto the keys tightly, shaking Kun’s shoulder to try to get him to wake up.

“Kun. Kun, let’s get you home. Come on, now,” you said softly. He stirred slightly, but remained passed out.

“Here, let me help you with that,” Sicheng comes back. You look over his shoulder and see that Yangyang and Hendery were back on the floor, still drunk, and still dancing, but at least safer.

“Yeah, thanks,” you both slung one of Kun’s arms over your shoulders and started to make your way through the party. Right as you turned a corner you ran straight into someone and, after stumbling slightly and with the help of Sicheng, you were luckily able to prevent Kun from falling at the expense of your now drenched shirt.

“Oh fuck, I’m so sorry,” the man in front of you was quick to react, stepping away from you and giving you your space.

“Don’t worry about it, I was just on my way out,” you waved your hand in front of you.

“Oh, shit, what happened to Kun?” The man turned his attention to the half-asleep man in between you and Sicheng.

“Drunk himself to sleep,” Sicheng rolled his eyes. “That’s Ten, by the way, (Y/N). Man of the hour,” Sicheng introduced the two of you.

“So this is (Y/N)? Kun talks about you a lot,” Ten had a drunken smile on his face, and you had no clue how to interpret that.

“All good things, I hope,” you laughed awkwardly.

“Only good things,” Sicheng reassures you.

“Too many good things,” Ten winks at you. “Though, if you’re looking for someone funner than Mr. Supposed-To-Be-Our-Designated-Driver-But-He-Accidentally-Drank-Hendery’s-Jungle-Juice here,” Ten poked Kun’s forehead but he remained semi-asleep.

“Hendery made that? It doesn’t even look drinkable,” Sicheng grimaces.

“Yes, I will admit I failed our younger friend in that sense, but nothing practice can’t fix,” Ten sighs and drapes himself along the wall.

“Right, (Y/N) here is going to drop Kun off at his place for me,” Sicheng explains.

“Oh yeah?” Ten raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, because if I left the other five of you here alone I’m pretty sure we’d have to run from the cops again.”

“Fair enough,” Ten nods.

“Right then,” Sicheng clears his throat.

“Why’d I know that Kun was going to be a lightweight?” Ten rolled his eyes. “Looks like you’ve got him handled, anyway, Dejun’s yelling at my house plants again so I should stop him before he does anything stupider. Be careful, it’s late out,” Ten walked past you and into the room next to you, muffled shouts came from within but you had more pressing matters to take care of. You both dragged him out of the house and out into the cold winter night.

“His car’s that one over there,” Sicheng nods his head in the direction of it and you both made it there. You unlocked his car and Sicheng pushed Kun into the passenger’s seat. “Thanks again, I had no clue that Kun wasn’t good a drinking. If I knew I wouldn’t have pressured him into coming with us. He just seemed so tense lately, so me and the guys figured he could take a break. Plus I’m afraid of what might happen if we just left him alone in there…”

“Oh, it’s all good, I’ll make sure he doesn’t hurt himself.”

“Sounds great, thanks,” Sicheng waves at you. “I’m going to get back before the others break something.”

“For sure, bye,” you watched him leave before entering the car yourself.

You pulled out of the house’s street and listened to the directions from your phone. You drove slowly, whether that was because you yourself had minimal alcohol in your system or if it was because Kun as asleep next to you, you had no clue. Well, it was more likely because of the sticky… whatever that was dripping down your black shirt, good thing you didn’t opt for white tonight, you couldn’t wait to get home and wash it off. Eventually, after what you felt like was double the expected time, you pulled up to the apartment and now came the harder part.

You ended up trying to wake him up again, and when he finally opened his eyes you didn’t ignore how they were slightly glossed over.

“Kun, we’re here at your apartment now, let’s get you to bed,” you explained to him.

“Ten?”

“(Y/N),” you corrected him.

“Oh, (Y/N), what are you doing here?” You helped him out of the car and slung his arm over your shoulder again, walking over to the elevator. “Oh… would you look at that,” his words were slightly slurred.

“Talk about luck,” you read through the ‘Out of Service’ sign again just in case you read it wrong the first time. “Is there another elevator we could take?” You asked, not really wanting to walk up the dauntingly steep stairs. He shook his head and you resigned yourself to your fate.

“Alright then, one step at a time,” you didn’t know if that motivation was for you or for him, but you began to slowly guide him up the concrete staircase. You both stumbled a few times, but not enough to fall down. You make it to the apartment unscathed, and he opens it himself. It was then, when you saw the clock inside, that you realized how late it had gotten, and how your apartment was on the whole other side of campus. It was dangerous right now, but you didn’t really have a choice.

You led him inside to make sure he doesn’t slip and hit his head anywhere, and you let him collapse on his bed while you looked around to see if he had any Advil and water to leave out for him tomorrow. If he was this drunk he was going to need it. You were surprised that you’ve never been here, actually, he’s been to your apartment a number of times already. You shook that thought out of your head when you finally found the medicine cabinet.

You finally found what you were looking for and placed it onto his nightstand. You were about to walk off when you noticed something attached to the lampshade, it really only caught your eye because of the way the moonlight reflected off of it, but you were surprised to see it. You grazed your finger over the small music note pin softly. Next to the lamp was another surprising keepsake of his, at first glance you would’ve thought it was trash, but when you flipped it over your messy handwriting was the first thing you saw, you didn’t expect him to keep this at all. But you found the gesture to be sweet, one thing you learned about Kun was that he always appreciated the smaller things.

You grabbed your bag, pulling your pepper spray out to have it ready, and you were about to leave when Kun reached out and grasped onto your wrist gently. You almost pepper sprayed him out of shock, but thankfully you had forgotten to unlock the darn thing before you brandished it.

Yeah, he doesn’t need to know about that any time soon.

“It’s late right now,” his words weren’t as slurred as earlier, but they had a rather lazy tone to them instead. “You should stay the night.”

He had a point.

“No, I couldn’t impose,” you insisted and tried to pull away, but Kun tugged you back slightly.

“I’d never forgive myself if anything happened on your way back. This area’s dangerous at night…” he continued. You immediately thought back to what you saw while driving over here, it was a known fact that, despite how prestigious your university was, the neighborhoods around it weren’t as… safe.

“Yeah, you’re right. Fine,” you conceded. You had to admit that part of you wanted to stay anyway, it was only your upbringing that held you back.

He pulls himself off of the bed, shaking his head slowly to regain his senses, and walks over to his dresser, pulling out a shirt and joggers then handing them to you.

“Sorry, they’re going to be big, but it’s better than wearing your clothes from earlier,” you could tell that he was slightly sobering up, but not enough to be fully aware of what was going on, you think. You didn’t think he was conscious when you ran into Ten but he was always one the surprise you.

“It’s good, I’ll take the couch.”

“No, no, I can’t let you do that. I’ll sleep there, you take the bed. It’s better for your back.”

“Alright, whatever you say, Kun,” you didn’t feel like arguing. You went to the bathroom and changed into the loose fitting clothes, you didn’t want to bother him about showering so you did the next best thing and used the basin instead, you could pay him back for all the paper towels you used later. Once you were finished, you walked back out only to find that he had ended up passed out on the bed anyway, and you definitely didn’t have the motivation to wake him up for a third time tonight, so you defaulted back to your previous plan. “And, to the couch I go.”

You didn’t want to overstep your boundaries, even though you’ve both known each other for quite some time now, you didn’t know where you stood with him. So you curled up on the surprisingly comfortable couch and knocked out.

When you had woken up yourself you had already noticed hushed sounds coming from the kitchen, alongside the unmistakable aroma of pancakes, you could tell that he was probably trying his best to stay quiet so as to not wake you up. You were surprised that Kun had woken up before you, considering how out of it he was last night, but at least you knew he was okay now. You combed your hand through your messy hair and walked into the bathroom, putting on the same clothes from yesterday and folding the ones you had borrowed. Then, you walked into the kitchen right as he plated the eggs and pancakes.

“Hey, good morning,” he greeted. There was something about him that early in the day that made your heart drum against your chest.

“Hi,” you waved your hand slowly. You took a seat at the table and he put two plates down. Maybe it was your slightly buzzed brain but you couldn’t stop glancing over at him, there was something about him that you didn’t notice before.

“Sorry, I don’t remember much last night, did something happen?” There was a bit of worry in his voice.

“Nope, you just passed out after drinking too much then your friend asked me to take you back here,” you explained.

“Which friend?”

“Sicheng, I think his name was.”

“Oh, that’s it?” He sat down and put a hand against his head, you could tell he was trying hard to remember what happened last night.

“Yeah, aside from the fact that the host Ten ran into me and spilled whatever concoction that jungle juice was all over me… But yeah, don’t worry about it, Kun, you’re lucky you have such good friends,” you said with a smile. “Honestly, my friends probably would’ve left me passed out,” you finished with a tired laugh.

“Some friends.”

“Right?” You both fell to silence while you finished up breakfast. “Well, I should probably get back to my place now,” you cleared your throat and grabbed your purse from the seat next to you.

“I’ll walk you to the door,” Kun grabbed the plates and placed them in the sink before following you to the front.

“Thanks for the breakfast, Kun,” you didn’t know what else to say in this situation really. But, part of you wanted to cross that line, the point of no return. Maybe you should say something? Maybe you should try taking things one step further with Kun. You could comfortably say that, despite how awkward this morning has been, you’ve actually never felt more, well, comfortable.

“Wait,” he stopped you. You’d never say this aloud, let alone tell anyone this, but you were secretly hoping that he was thinking the same as you.

“Hmm?”

Neither of you knew this, but your thoughts were synced, you both thought of the same thing at this very moment, you both wanted the same thing, but you were both too scared to say anything.

“Do you want me to drive you home? I think you mentioned something about your apartment being on the other side of campus.”

You didn’t know what he was going to say but you really weren’t expecting that. You weren’t disappointed, no way, if anything you were grateful that he offered.

“I’d like that a lot, thanks,” you nodded your head.

You didn’t know why you psyched yourself up, expecting him to say something else. The two of you were only friends, after all, you couldn’t knock that out of the ballpark, there’s no way he’d reciprocate your feelings romantically, right? That’s not how things worked, it was never that easy.

You thought that you understood love, having gone through it before and having to reel yourself back in from losing it after. But you never really understood how simple and how easy it was to fall into it. And you were more afraid of how you were going to recover from it. Humans are, in their basic DNA, social creatures. Even the most introverted of people craved to at least speak to someone once in a while, maybe that was your explanation there.

To love and be loved, one can deny it all they want, but every person experiences it one way or another. The mentality could be applied to anything, to want friends, to want validation, to want familiarity, it’s a basic necessity. So basic to the point that no one truly acknowledges it until it’s lost, and it’s so necessary to the point that once it’s gone it could completely break down a person.

You shook your head, why were you even thinking about that? You looked at the clock on Kun’s dashboard, it read 8:00 am.

Oh, that’s why.

The ride was silent, save for when you’d tell him directions on how to get to your apartment, and once he pulled into the parking lot, you both exchanged quick goodbyes.

“Thanks,” you finally said.

“It’s no problem. Thank you for making sure that I didn’t make a fool out of myself at that party,” he says. You both stayed like that for a while, sitting still in his car, and with no words exchanged. You didn’t want to leave. And, truthfully, you hoped that he didn’t want you to leave either.

“I’ll go now,” you pointed towards the door and opened it, taking your seatbelt off and stepping out of the car.

“Bye.”

“Bye,” you closed the door and walked into your apartment’s gates.

The next day played out as you expected it to. You both had met up in the cafe as usual, but you had to admit that something felt different. It was very subtle, but you could feel the awkward undertones. It was like that first day the two of you had met and, how fitting, it was at the very same table too.

It was near the end of this time you usually spent together, right before you left for class, when he spoke up.

“Hey… do you want grab dinner tomorrow night?”

General Tag List: @stopeatread @bat-shark-repellant @raeincitizen @umbralhelwolf @yangsrose @kazooms

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If you want to be added to either tag list or removed just send me a reply to this post, and ask, or a DM and I’ll add you as soon as possible!

#nct #nct x reader #nct x you #nct x yn #nct u #nct u x reader #nct u x you #nct u x yn #wayv #wayv x reader #wayv x you #wayv x yn #kun x reader #kun x you #kun x yn #my writings #covalence

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kflixnet · 9 months

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PART I | PART II | PART III | PART IV

• abby / abigail, [ enhastolemyheart ] “everything's a game. the only thing we get to decide in this life is if we play to win.” ↳ she/her | en-

• aki, [ stuck-in1 + seamlessabyss ] ↳ she/her | en-, svt, tbz “if i wanted someone like me, i’d hang out with myself. i’d hang out with myself❄️🌑.”

• alexia, [ lvoire ] ↳ she/him | txt “yeonjuns actual wife! (100% true!!).”

• arya, [ idubiluv ] ↳ she/her | en-, svt “is this due at 11:59pm too?”

• ashley, [ gyuwrites + reveriescloud ] ↳ she/her | svt “this road seems so familiar, yet so unfamiliar.”

• ayis, [ seosracha ] ↳ any pronouns | en-, zb1 “ijboling through life.”

• bea, [ beahae ] ↳ she/her | bts, svt “i have a lot of biases.”

• cho, [ yours-lovingly-cho ] “my bed is a magical place, where i suddenly remember all that i forgot to do” ↳ she/her | en-

• coco, [ enluv ] ↳ she/they | en-, txt, skz, tbz “promise i’ll post my new fic tonight! *coco indeed did not post her new fic that night*.”

• cubbs, [ bbybearcubbs ] ↳ they/them | en- “autocorrect you're the worst, did you know that?”

• davin, [ d20inthefranxx + karasuno-o + fukurohoshi + aobajohsan ] ↳ she/her | en-, svt, atz “i write thinking i’m kim eon sook or something lol .”

• ele, [ facioleeknow ] “i was born tired and i live to nap” ↳ she/they | skz, svt

• elv, [ userseokmins + userelv ] ↳ she/her | svt “seokmin is the loml.”

• em, [ hyeosi ] ↳ any pronouns | boynextdoor, en- “eat, sleep, kim chaewon, repeat!”

• heather, [ seungkwan-s + soonyoungblr ] ↳ she/her | en-, skz, txt, svt “a tea a day keeps the stress away.”

• isa, [ isawritesss ] “wanna live y/n's life soo bad” ↳ she/her | en-

• izzy, [ from-izzy + from-m-izzy ] ↳ she/her | nct, tbz “isn't it ironic how time never waits for us, but we always wait for time?”

• j (jia, jules), [ kyufilms ] ↳ she/her | en-, txt, trsr “i’m warning you now, i haven’t proofread anything.”

• jasmine, [ uwuheeseungie + jeonsbun ] ↳ she/her | en-, skz, tbz, atz, txt, svt “live your life to the fullest. don’t let anyone hold you back.”

• jiseol, [ wvnkoi ] ↳ she/her | en-, zb1, txt “why be scared when you breathe the same air as the lee heeseung??”

• june, [ junkissed + onlyhuis ] ↳ she/her | svt “number one wen junhui lover.”

• kaira / kai, [ hanverse ] “daydreaming about all the fics i want to write” ↳ she/her | atz, en-, skz, svt

• latrii, [ latriii ] ↳ she/her | en-, zb1 “the day gyuvin gets more than 20 secs in a song will be the day i rest.”

• leela, [ kisstuals ] ↳ she/her | nct dream “a total 5% of my ideas actually come into fruiton.”

• lexi, [ midmourn ] “careful, or you’ll end up in my novel” ↳ she/her | nct dream

• lina, [ beomqutie ] ↳ she/her | txt, en- (hyungline) “let’s run away together <3.”

• mei, [ hoonfever ] ↳ she/her | en- “gimme a sec, i need to walk my fish.”

• mia, [ ohmytyong ] ↳ she/her | nct “daydreaming in neo pearl champagne.”

• missy, [ qqtxt + an-exotic-writer ] ↳ she/her | txt “whatever you do, do it with love.”

• miya, [ jungwonize ] ↳ he/they/xe or any | en-, txt, skz, ive, lesserafim “wake up, cry, and think about nishimura riki.”

• nihyun, [ nihyunluvskookie ] ↳ she/her | svt, skz, mx, bts, nct “escaping the reality right now.”

• nish, [ nishloves ] ↳ she/her | svt, bts, txt, en- “the world sees the displacement they don't care about the distance.”

• nova, [ thediaryofalover + love-is-sourgrapes ] ↳ they/she | skz, itzy “i think i can manage.”

• ny, [ ksnfangz ] ↳ she/her | en-, zb1, boynextdoor “i like waffles?”

• plymmie, [ kimchicollardgreens + vvh0adie ] ↳ they/them | bts “fics made with love and -oops- chemical-x too now ;)”

• rie, [ pyeonghongrie + pyeonghongrie-main + pyeonghongreations ] ↳ he/him | atz, txt “i may have girlbossed too close to the sun..”

• sarah, [ gyu-effect + woosuns + rutonabae + nishimuraas + chandulset + honeyseob ] ↳ she/her | nct, exo, shinee, sm, svt, tbz, treasure, en-, skz, p1h “famous i’m so fabulous.”

• savv, [ savventeen + nsavvfw ] ↳ he/they | atz, skz, txt, en- “there are two wolves inside me: one wants to be poetic and beautiful while the other wants to be a f**king meme.”

• shay, [ en-zen ] “spoiler: we don't make it in the end... it started when...” ↳ she/her | en-, svt, txt

• sheep, [ wonsheep + heatrache ] ↳ she/her | en- “well, that surely was something.”

• sonata, [ flwoie ] “i break my laptop twice a day because of reading.” ↳ she/her | en-, txt, tbz, gncd, zb1

• soph, [ hanniluvi ] “no one likes sweet by tbz like i do.” ↳ any pronouns | en-, txt, tbz

• stili, [ garlichoisan + min-inu ] “jeong yunho's strawberry darling 🍓.” ↳ she/her | atz

• sunny, [ sunoksunny ] “carry on, dreamer, you are the only one who can.” ↳ any pronouns | en-

• tee, [ hyunnows + jeongcake ] “uncoordinated insomniac navigating through life” ↳ she/her | bts, skz, txt

• vidia, [ heecrush ] “no ac in the crib but i got plenty of fans >:).” ↳ any pronouns | en-

• vira, [ envirae ] “everything i do i do for jake sim.” ↳ she/her | en-, txt, nct dream

• viv(ian), [ orochxi + ujunxverse ] “i aspire to be the a24 of this hellsite (mission failed).” ↳ she/her | en-, txt, atz, aespa

• xan, [ tbzloonar ] “reporting live from eric’s business” ↳ they/he | tbz, loona, txt

• xian, [ forlix ] “always thinking about that damn felix tiktok…” ↳ she/they | skz

• zai, [ scrrra + samudan ] “wizone and zerose before human.” ↳ any pronouns | zb1, en-, txt, le sserafim, ive, nwjns, aespa, iz*one, boynextdoor

• zerda, [ a1sh1teruu + ssanssang ] “mom told me not to talk with strangers.” ↳ she/her | atz, svt

#kfn: memberlist

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yessadirichards · 1 year

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What to stream this week: 'Indiana Jones,' 'One Piece,' 'The Menu' and tunes from NCT and Icona Pop

LOS ANGELES

”Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and the second season debut of the third “Power” spin-off “Power Book IV: Force” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you

Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are the new musical game for the Nintendo Switch called Samba de Amigo: Party Central, the fine-dining satire “The Menu” being served on Hulu and a new album from the 20-member K-pop super group NCT.

— ”Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” Harrison Ford’s last outing as the adventure-seeking archaeologist, is finally available to watch at home starting on Tuesday via video-on-demand. This fourth installment might not be quite as great as “Raiders” or “The Last Crusade,” but it’s also more fun than many gave it credit for on its bumpy release this summer. Veteran director James Mangold took the helm from Steven Spielberg and does his best to capture all the things we love about Indy, including a possibly too-extended flashback featuring our hero de-aged to 45. It’s really not necessary because Ford, at 80, is firing on all levels — as funny, vibrant and game as he ever was. Plus there’s the added bonus of a great new character played by “Fleabag’s” Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

— It being the beginning of the month, Hulu has a lot of great new offerings coming on Friday, Sept. 1, including the Coen brothers “Hail Caesar!” and “Raising Arizona,” Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” and the always re-watchable “The Devil Wears Prada.” And on Sunday, Sept. 3, Mark Mylod’s fine-dining satire “The Menu” arrives, too, with its terrific ensemble, including Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult, and sharp critiques of wealth and privilege. In his review, AP Film Writer Jake Coyle wrote that while it may be aimed at “somewhat low-hanging fruit,” that Mylod brings an icy, stylish flare in another kind of cleverly staged eat-the-rich comedy that — particularly thanks to the elite eye-rolling of Taylor-Joy and Fiennes’ anguished artist — is still a very tasty snack.”

— And if “Gran Turismo” has you feeling the need for more speed in your life, The Criterion Channel has the answer with a '70s Car Movies anthology pulling into your living room starting Friday, Sept. 1. Among the offerings are Steven Spielberg’s 1971 nail-biter “Duel,” Lee H. Katzin’s Steve McQueen racing classic “Le Mans,” Michael Cimino’s Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges crime caper “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” and the original “Gone in 60 Seconds.”

— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

— They came from Sweden by way of outer space and now the explosive electropop duo Icona Pop return with their third full-length album and first in 10 years, “Club Romantech.” Members Aino Jawo and Caroline Hjelt made sure the wait was worth it. The release is stacked with post-hiatus cosmic pop, earworm hooks as addictive as the one in the Charli XCX -penned hit “I Love It” that put them on the map in 2012. That’s evidenced in their single with Galantis, “I want you” and the playful chorus “I want you/We don’t have to play these games, play theses games/ ’Cause I want you.” It pays to be direct.

— In their lead single and title track from their fourth full-length album, the 20-member K-pop super group NCT announce they’ve entered their “Golden Age.” Who could argue otherwise? The track, which serves as the LP’s closer and its thematic anchor, is an eclecticist’s dream: absurdist trap, glossy vocal harmonies, and an interpolation of some Beethoven — Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, “Sonata Pathétique” II. Adagio cantabile — in one. And that’s not even the best part: all 20 members are heard on it, a rarity and feat in itself, which of course includes NCT’s famed subunits, NCT 127, NCT DREAM and WayV. No matter your bias, there’s a lot to love.

— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

— “One Piece,” a new live-action fantasy series coming to Netflix has been adapted from a beloved Japanese manga and anime series. The graphic novels by Eiichiro Oda have sold more than 516 million copies across 103 volumes in 61 countries, making its success similar to the “Harry Potter” book series. The story follows a protagonist named Monkey D. Luffy who sails the ocean in search of treasure with his band of pirates. “One Piece” debuts Thursday on Netflix.

— The fantasy series “The Wheel of Time” returns to Prime Video for its second season on Friday, Sept. 1. Rosamund Pike stars as Moiraine Damodred, a member of the Aes Sedai, a group of women with magical gifts. We meet Moiraine on a quest to find the Dragon, a long dead leader with the ability to save or destroy the world. “The Wheel of Time” is based on a 14-book series of the same name created by Robert Jordan. A third season has already been ordered.

— The third “Power” spin-off, “Power Book IV: Force,” debuts its second season on Starz on Friday, Sept. 1. It centers around Joseph Sikora’s Tommy Egan character, a convicted drug dealer who leaves New York for Chicago to continue his criminal enterprise.

— Alicia Rancilio

— This summer’s Final Fantasy XVI brought dramatic changes to the storied franchise — and made some of us a little nostalgic for the FFs of the 1990s. Canada’s Sabotage Studio aims to scratch that itch with Sea of Stars, its new retro-inspired adventure. Its pixelated, top-down graphics and turn-by-turn combat are designed to induce flashbacks in fans of old-school role-playing games. And then there’s its story: Two mages, the Children of the Solstice, team up with other do-gooders to stop an evil alchemist, The Fleshmancer, from destroying the world. It even has fishing and cooking minigames! You don’t need to travel back in time 30 years; this epic begins Tuesday on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S/One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

— Speaking of old-school, Sega has decided it’s time to revive a long-dormant character from the ’90s: Amigo, the sombrero-wearing, maracas-shaking Brazilian monkey. He’s back in Samba de Amigo: Party Central, a new musical game for the Nintendo Switch. It turns the Switch’s palm-sized Joy-Con controllers into a pair of maracas, and your challenge is to shake them in rhythm to an assortment of dance hits. The 40-song soundtrack ranges from current stars like Ariana Grande and Carly Rae Jepsen to geezers like Culture Club and Gloria Gaynor, with more downloadable tunes on the way. Amigo is ready to bring the fiesta to your living room on Tuesday.

— Lou Kesten

#yessadirichards

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poems-of-helios · 1 year

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Chapter I: The Overture

I'm a lithe lad who goes by the name Esaiah Abellian and oftenly addressed by Abel or whatever nickname based on everyone's preferences. I use masculine pronouns: he/they and my personality's identified as ISTJ-A. If by any chance you're wondering about my astrology signs, it is Taurus Sun, Virgo moon and Capricorn rising. I mainly use NCT's Haechan as my pfp on twitter.

I'm also the owner of several roleplay handles on LINE and closed agencies on twitter.

Past aliases and muses on LINE

Gregoireous Harries Heisenberg - NCT's Haechan

Gregoireous Noah - NCT's Haechan

Marceus Casperion - NCT's Yangyang

Joaquin Miles - ZB1's Ricky

Closed agency handles

Chapter II: Chamber of Interests

Besides being a k-pop fan, i put my interests to a lot of other things such as western series/movies, animangas and several poems from some poetry such as Pablo Neruda and Atticus.

K-pop

Girlgroups: LE SSERAFIM, STAYC, aespa, newjeans, etc

Boygroups: NCT, EXO, etc

KHH/KRNB: DPR LIVE, slchld, wave to earth, etc

A casual listener of

Harry Styles, 5SOS, RINI, SZA, NIKI, Taylor Swift, Laufey, Arctic Monkeys, ONE OK ROCK, Daniel Caesar, Novo Amor, Reality Club, The Weekend, Chase Atlantic, Sleeping At Last, etc.

Hindia, Fourtwnty, Kunto Aji, Banda Neira, etc.

Some classical songs

Watchlists

K-series/movies: Goblin, Tale of the Nine Tailed, My Mister, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Happiness, All of Us Are Dead, 2521, Vagabond, Black Knight, Anna, Golden Spoon, The Uncanny Counter (s1 & s2), Moving, A Time Called You, etc.

Western series/movies: MCU, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Grey's Anatomy, The End of The Fxxking World, Elite, Inventing Anna, Bridgerton, The Queen's Gambit, Harry Potter, Divergent, The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, etc.

Animangas: Kakegurui, AOT, The Promised Neverland, Your Lie in April, Horimiya, Kaguya-sama, Fruits Basket, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, KNY, Diabolik Lovers, Moriarty the Patriot, Spy x Family, etc.

Chapter III: Cautions

All of the shared interests and our similarities might lead us into a great acquaintances, but the most important part lies here.

BYF

I'm tweeting a lot of random things and i prefer interacting via timeline rather than on DMs, please mind my slow-response when you're trying to reach me out through DM. I'm mostly a huge chatter-box for my mutuals, please do tell me if you don't want me to reply to your tweets. My tweets sometimes consists a lot of harshwords but you can mute or soft-block my account if you're not comfortable with it. Lastly, please put content/trigger warning to anything that will trigger my thalassaphobia.

You can contact me through my Retrospring or my Tellonym if you want to ask some things anonymously.

DNI

Please don't follow me without consents even though i open my account for public. Do not interact if you're a grammar police, problematic, homophobic, hate my faves and throwing hate speechs towards anyone.

0 notes

cafehyunji · 1 year

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About Me!

Welcome to my blog! On here I mostly write, repost ff I like, and just in all post random shit post. I go by the name Hyunjin (hun-jin) you can also call me Hyunji, or Jin. I’m a black (Soulaan), non-binary, who studies digital photography, and film making. I do other things besides writing like editing and art, but like writing I try and find the time, and mindset to do those things.

Dislikes !

Pro-Shippers (Some of y’all niggas are nauseating as hell…. and I mean it), Fatphobia, Racists, Homophobia (a bunch of bitches tbh…), ignorant questions, bananas, and a lot of other things.

likes !

Green and brown colored items, Photography, Photocard collecting, digital journalism, Reading, cooking, kpop ( kinda fell off..), volleyball, soccer, hello kitty and friends items, music, pins, cars, flowers, legos ( I have a bad obsession with their collectible sets), funko pops (own mostly marvel ones), baggy clothes, converse, astrology things, and more

Favorite Things (At the moment)

Artist

Rema, Brent Faiyaz, New jeans, A$AP Rocky, Ambre, Ari Lennox, Ayra Star, beabadoobee, Laufey, Beyomce, Childish Gambino, Chloe, Halle, Chloe x Halle, Daniel Caesar, Cigarettes after sex, Tierra Whack, Dean, Victoria Monet, Don Toliver, Frank Ocean, Giveon, Her, The Internet, Iyla, J cole, Kendrick Lamar, Kehlani, Knxwledge, Koffee, Lw Sserafim, Lucky Daye, Luci4, Mac Ayres, Megan Thee Stallion, Metro Boomin, Nct, odd Future, Ph-1, Pinkpantheress, Red Velvet, Sir, Seventeen, Snoh Aalegra, Sonder, Steve Lacy, Solange, Summer Walker, Tyler The Creator, Syd, Tame Impala, SZA, Rihanna, Flo, and more.

Books

Grown by Tiffany. D. Jackson, Concrete Rose by Angie Tomas, Men who hate women by Laura bates , The Girl With Stars In Her Eyes by Xio Axelrod

Games

The Last of Us : Part II, Fifa 23, Red Dead Redemption 2, Final Fantasy, animal crossing, Genshin Impact (the shit is still mid-way kinda fun…)

#new beginnings #the starting line

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jungwoothings · 6 years

Photo

When your friend has a joke but his face makes you laugh than the joke itself.

Qian Kun Everyone...

#NCT #NCT KUN #NCT GAME PART II #nct chenle #NCT Jungwoo #let kun debut

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ah-ga-seven · 3 years

Text

M. List

Requests are closed. However you can always send me an ask with ideas for stories/drabbles and reactions for the groups mentioned in my bio; though I can’t guarantee i’ll use them.

✔ - 𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚗 ✘ - 𝚌𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚍

multi-fandom/content related asks ✔

smut/angst/fluff drabbles, reactions or scenario requests ✘

✨ Latest projects: Sneaky Link - Choi Yeonjun & Naked Neighbor - Choi Soobin ✨

the rest of my works are under the cut.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER

Choi Yeonjun

Till The End of Summer (2020)

Type: Series. (completed)

Genre: College!AU, Friends to Lovers, Drama, Angst, Fluff, Smut (skippable),

Synopsis: You and Yeonjun are caught up in a cat and mouse game because of unspoken feelings and endless pining for each others’ attention. With the summer break approaching and lots of college parties, will you finally get a chance to explore your feelings for each other; even though the world, Yeonjun’s family, past and reputation makes things complicated?

Sneaky Link (2021)

Type: Mini series (completed).

Genre: Smut (skippable), Angst, Fluff, Toxic!Jun, ft. second male lead Juyeon (The Boyz).

Synopsis: The story picks up after having met Yeonjun through a mutual acquaintance. You quickly bonded over your similarities and basically fell for him on the spot. As your relationship progressed you found out that you weren’t the only woman in his life, but no matter how hard you tried or whoever else tried to love you, leaving him was harder than you thought it would be.

I Was Wrong (2021)

Type: One Shot.

Genre: Smut, Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort.

Synopsis: Insecurities from your past relationship come back to haunt you and you stupidly reflect them onto Yeonjun who doesn't deserve any of it. Luckily he is quick to ease your mind and show you just how much he loves you with both words and actions.

Choi Soobin

The Naked Neighbor (2023) (I) (II)

Type: two parted mini series.

Genre: Smut, Fluff, Angst

Synopsis: Life is dull, until a new neighbor moves in across the street. His name was Soobin, a mysterious loner who lived in his own bubble and was incredibly hard to get close to. One night, as y/n was in her bedroom, she saw Soobin through the window, freshly out of the shower in full view, which accounted for a series of interesting events as she notices a pattern in his nightly routine.

Choi Beomgyu

02.32 AM (2020)

Type: One Shot

Genre: Smut.

Synopsis: Your boss is a dick, and your boss is Choi Beomgyu. After having worked at a night club for over a year, you’ve just about had enough with Beomgyu’s attitude towards you when all you did was make up for his incompetence on the job. Will all of that anger and tension finally lead to the unimaginable?

Reactions:

Choi Line Reaction to Nipple Piercings.

NCT 127

Jung Jaehyun

No More Pain (2021)

Type: One Shot

Genre: Angst.

Synopsis: The lingering wounds of your miscarriage have reopened. Now that you are broken up, an unforseen change in Jaehyun’s life has brought him back to your doorstep. Will he be able to fix you this time? Or will he fail just the same as before?

Fucking Up the Sheets (2023)

Type: One shot Genre: Smut, slice of life, fluff, a dash of angst.

Synopsis: You’ve moved in together after four years of dating, and are getting used to a new dynamic in your relationship. Your friends warned you it wasn’t going to be easy, but they didn’t tell you it was this much fun either.

Solo Artists

Christian Yu (DPR IAN)

Just Friends (2017)

Type: One Shot

Genre: Fluff, Smut

Synopsis: Despite mutual jealousy, Christian and yourself have never spoken about your feelings; afraid that it’d ruin your friendship. However, your usual movie night with your best friend escalated once Christian found the courage to test the waters.

Let Me Explain (2018)

Type: series (completed)

Genre: Angst, Fluff.

Synopsis: Being a choreographer for DPR sounded like a good plan, but developing feelings for your boss, Christian Yu, was not one of them. Unspoken feelings, miscommunication and Kim Yura, an upcoming YG artist who you work for make things especially difficult.

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straykidsreactions · 4 years

Text

Reaction To: NCT Dream Flirting With Their S/O

STRAY KIDS REACTION TO : You, their significant other, being hit on backstage by a member of NCT Dream.

A/N: This was a popular request! Sorry for the delay, hopefully this makes up for it, (I added gifs for skz and dream bc yall deserve it) also I had to use 1 dream member twice so I picked Jeno bc that’s who was mentioned in the request (+ he’s my dream bias oops)

Genre: jealous/possessive!skz ( I wouldn't call it angst, it's cute I promise )

Chan:

When you'd agreed to accompany Chan to the award show and watch his performance live from backstage he'd been so excited and filled with pride.Taking you anywhere, especially when he'd be performing, gave him a huge boost of confidence- so knowing that you'd be right there by his side cheering him on from backstage made the whole evening more enjoyable for him. He had to admit there was also a small part of him that felt pretty cool introducing you to other idol friends of his after the show- since your relationship wasn't public amongst the fans and idol industry it always took people by surprise to see the two of you together and so comfortable with one another.While generally liked that your relationship was private and low-key,there were definitely times when the unspoken status of your dating life would drive him absolutely insane.That, when other guys tried to flirt with you.

In a way he could understand it, you had an infectious personality and you certainly were stunning, especially all dressed up for the award show you looked like you belonged on a runway, but that didn't change the fact that Chan's blood would begin to boil whenever he noticed someone being a little too friendly towards you.

When Chan originally noticed you in the hallway outside Stray Kid's designated backstage room having a casual conversation with a few idols he'd felt an immense sense of pride, not wanting to interrupt your conversation he'd leave you to make new friends on your own .It wouldn't be until a handful of minutes later, just before they were getting ready to take the stage, that he noticed the other idols surrounding you had now disappeared- and you were alone with none other than Mark Lee.Mark was a generally sweet and personable guy and, though Chan wasn't particularly close with the younger man, he'd heard only positive things about him.

At a glance the conversation seemed simple enough, but just as Chan was about to call you over he noticed Mark's arm press against the wall behind him,leaning over you slightly as he laughed and adjusted his mic set- clearly having just finished his stage performance with the rest of NCT. Chan's jaw would tighten; on one hand as the eldest and the leader he has a responsibility to be diplomatic and polite to other people in the industry, but on the other hand Mark's body was hovering a little too close to yours and your demeanor had quickly shifted into one of slight discomfort.Before could overthink his decision, Chan had calmly walked up beside the two of you, placing a firm hand on Mark's shoulder and easily pulling him away to create distance between him and you .Sliding his hand around your waist, he'd give Mark a small smile that let him know he was anything but pleased to see him.

“Ahh, it's Mark, right? I'm Chan, I don't think we've formally met before.”

*extending his free hand for mark to shake, which he reluctantly did- looking between the two of you in slight confusion*

“Uhh, y-yeah it's nice to meet you too, man.”

“Hyung.”

*Chan retorted coolly, correcting the younger idol who was already slightly flustered that he'd clearly misread the situation*

“Uh, oh sorry- Hyung. Uhm, sorry...are the two of you-?”

*Chan's gaze never wavering from Mark's as he nodded, looking over at you and flashing you a cheeky smile that let you know he had everything under control*

“Oh, my bad mate, I didn't properly introduce you- this is my ( girlfriend/ boyfriend ), Y/N. ( She/He ) was just going though, isn't that right love? Our performance is about to start, you wouldn't wanna miss it, hmm?”

Bonus gif, Mark:

Minho:

When you'd agreed to go with him and the other members to the award show, he'd honestly hadn't even thought twice about the possibility of other idols coming up to you.It wasn't that he'd never seen someone hit on you before, but it had never happened with a fellow idol and Minho had assumed that because you'd arrived together everyone would've known that you were clearly together.His thoughts were clearly mistaken, however, when he saw Renjun approach you backstage.

Out of all the members, Minho is easily one of the most confrontational and because of this there was very little doubt in his mind when it came to handling situations like this in an upfront manner.He becomes possessive over you quickly, even between his other members there are times when he'd feel the need to pull you away and keep you to himself (though he was usually able to restrain himself on those occasions because he fully trusted his members not to step out of line).When it came to other guys outside of his close group of friends, however, there was absolutely no way that Minho would hold back.So when he saw Renjun talking to you alone, smiling at you sweetly as he asked you for help touching up his makeup, Minho's entire body would grow tense.

*walking over to wear you were standing, reluctantly adding a facial jewel to the stranger's cheek as he tried to make conversation*

“Baby, that's enough. Why don't you head back to our dressing room- I'll be there in a few minutes.”

His voice was stern and unwavering as you quickly stood, giving him a look that warned him not to go overboard on the man who had clearly been trying his luck with you.Minho patted your head reassuringly before gesturing for you to leave, to which you obliged.Once you were out of sight, he turned his attention back to the man in front of him, who's expression was nothing short of utter confusion.

“Hyung, II don't think that's really an appropriate way to talk to a stylist.”

*Minho scoffed lowly, willing to play along for a minute as he gestured in your direction*

"Who, Y/N?"

*watching at the younger man nodded, running a hand through his hair*

“Mhm. I get it though, ( she's/he’s ) pretty...did Y/N do your makeup too?”

*Minho's eyes darkened slightly at this as he took a step closer to the younger man, who at this point was getting a strong feeling that he was missing something*

“Since you're slow, I'll spell it out for you- Y/N isn't my stylist, ( she's/he’s ) my date. So I'd appreciate it if you didn't make comments about ( her/ his ) appearance. Actually, I'd rather not see you around Y/N again unless ( she/he ) wants you there.”

*pausing as he watched Renjun's face become cautious, leaning in slightly to finish the conversation in a low voice before heading back towards the dressing room*

“Let's not have this conversation again, ok?”

Bonus gif, Renjun:

Changbin:

While Changbin was usually the first to invite you to music video shoots, livestage tapings and plenty of other events, he wasn’t a big fan of bringing you along to award shows- for exactly this reason. There were so many idols in close quarters for the entire night, many of whom he didn’t fully trust around you considering the two of you weren’t publicly out as a couple. As long as you were with him and his members he was fine, but he’d be quickly grow tense and become on edge whenever you were out of his sight, and when him and the other members had to.get ready for their performance it wasn’t hard to tell that he wasn’t fully comfortable leaving you alone. Of course you tried to assure him that you were fine, but he also knew you didn’t always have the best gauge for knowing when people were flirting with you.

For the most part no issues arose, that is, until all of you were moved into the large waiting room for upcoming performers. Several groups of idols were finishing up last minute practices and mingling with one another before their respective performances- Changbin had opted for sitting down and quickly going over the difficult lyrics for his part in the new song they were going to perform. You hadn’t wanted to disturb him or the other guys while they prepped for their performance, so you’d quietly placed yourself in the corner to take in your surroundings- but it didn’t take long for a certain somebody to take an interest in you and Changbin could tell.

The instant he noticed Donghyuck walk up to you he had a gut feeling that it wasn’t just to say ‘hello’. He had a reputation for being harmlessly flirty, and though Changbin isn’t the type to get up and step in over-protectively he’d certainly hoped that you would leave the stranger and come sit beside him instead. Mostly he’d just become frustrated, completely unable to focus on his lyric sheet as his eyes kept drifting upward to watch as Donghyuck laughed at something funny you’d said, slowly edging himself closer to you- something you hadn’t yet picked up on. In all honesty he’d probably observe the situation from a distance for a while, letting his frustrations build the longer Donghyuck monopolized your time. Changbin might talk a big game and have the on-stage persona of a tough and confrontational guy- but when it comes to your relationship he’s actually very soft and mild mannered so getting him to the point where he’d say something in a bothersome situation took a lot. That being said, after 15+ minutes of watching his dongsaeng flirt with you- he’d had enough. He wasn’t one for a lot of words, you knew the tones of his voice well enough to understand that when he spoke it was something important.

*clearly his throat as the looked up from his paper, having a better view of the two of you now that the room had emptied some*

“Yah, baby, come over here and sit with your boyfriend, ok?”

*not waiting for you to respond before dropping his gaze back to his lyric sheet, preserving the face of an unbothered man despite his inner feelings*

“I don’t like you talking to strangers.”

Bonus gif, Donghyuck:

Hyunjin:

As shy as Hyunjin can be sometimes when it comes to be complimented himself, there’s definitely a part of him that loves showing you off and receiving compliments from others on how good the two of you look together. He takes a lot of pride in you, so when he’d invited you to come with him and the members to the upcoming award show there hadn’t been a shadow of a doubt in his mind. He loved the way you were dressed to the 9′s just to watch their rehearsal and performances from backstage, so much so that he insisted you come out into the mostly empty arena to watch them do soundcheck before they went into hair and makeup to prepare for the show. There were only a few other groups there that early to do soundcheck and no media had arrived yet, so he felt comfortable bringing you out, knowing that it gave him a boost of confidence to make eye contact with you while he practiced. What didn’t boost his confidence, however, was glancing over into the rows of mostly empty seats to see that you were no longer alone- someone had approached you and was sitting a little too close for Hyunjin’s liking.

Hyunjin didn’t know Jaemin well, they’d only met in passing at a few other shows, but it wasn’t hard to tell that his outwardly charismatic personality and flirtacious attitude were translating into his conversation with you. Your boyfriend wasn’t one to stop group practice in the middle of a routine, he’d continue with the choreography but his eyes would never leave you as he watched the NCT member shamelessly flirt with you- though perhaps it wasn’t entirely his fault since you and Hyunjin weren’t publicly dating. It wouldn’t take long for the other members to catch on to the fact that you’d been semi-cornered by the overly-friendly idol, unsure of what you were supposed to do. It wasn’t that you didn’t enjoy meeting new people, but you couldn’t be sure if he was just an overly-friendly person or if he was genuinely flirting- and Hyunjin was clearly not happy about it. He watched from the stage, putting his hands on his hips as the other members gave him a look of confusion. Hyunjin wouldn’t say anything in the moment, he knew Jaemin was harmless but it didn’t mean he was comfortable with the situation- it was more the fact that he didn’t want to embarrass you or make you feel as though he was being too over-protective. In the moment he’d try to shake his frustrated feelings- but he’d only truly feel comfortable after you’d excused yourself from the conversation with Jaemin, quickly walking up to your boyfriend and cutely wrapping your arms around him as you pressed a kiss to his cheek.

*blushing profusely as a wide grin spread across his face*

“What was that for, Jagi?”

*smiling sweetly as you let go of him, making your way back towards the viewing room backstage to let him finish practicing*

“Just because...Hyunjinnie?”

*smiling as he put his arms on his hips, noticing Jaemin’s confused look out of the corner of his gaze as he watched your interactions with Hyunjin from a distance- clearly beginning to connect the dots*

“Hmm?”

*blowing him a reassuring kiss to make sure he knew that you were his and his alone*

“I love you! Fighting!”

Bonus gif, Jaemin:

Jisung:

Jisung is easily one of the more possessive members of the group, his general demeanor is of course very sociable and sweet but there are certain things that set this boy off and because he has a little bit of a hot temper he wouldn’t always be the best at keeping those possessive feelings at bay.

He’d had a few reservations about inviting you to the award show, he loves when you come and support him at events and knowing that you’re by his side gives him endless confidence, but he didn’t like exposing you to any kind of potential harm or unwanted attention- whether that be from publicity or other guys. Nevertheless, your excitement regarding the upcoming show and his love for seeing you by his side won over and in the end he’d happily invited you to join him and the other members. The first half of the evening had been everything he’d hoped for- you watched them rehearse and kept him company through hair and makeup- you’d even met a few other idols who had been so friendly and understanding when it came to keeping your relationship with Jisung low-profile. The issue arose when Jisung and the other members stepped into another room to take some promotional photos, leaving you alone backstage amidst a hoard of strangers and celebrities who you didn’t know all that well.

it wasn’t that you minded, you were perfectly content to find a comfortable seat out of the way and just observe, but Jisung would be a little on edge from the moment he let you out of his sight. This was his world, he was used to how things worked here, but you weren’t and that alone was enough to worry him.

He’d only been gone from the backstage room where you were seated around 15 minutes when he came back to grab his phone, but it didn’t take him long to spot you- or the person who was talking to you a little too closely.

He hadn’t noticed the members of NCT Dream when he’d left earlier, but they were all there going through hair and makeup now and it wasn’t hard to tell that one of them had taken a particular interest in you- Jeno. He was sitting beside you, having what could’ve been a perfectly normal conversation- but Jisung knew better than that. Though he wasn’t particularly close with Jeno, it wasn’t hard to tell by his body language that he was a little too interested in you. The way he leaned closer every time you spoke and laughed so effortlessly at the things you said would make Jisung furious, his usual effortlessly fun-loving persona completely gone as he walked towards you without hesitation. Unlike some of the other members, Jisung wasn’t the kind to hesitate, even if it was slightly rash. You hadn’t spotted him until he was directly in front of you, but once your gaze found his it didn’t take you long to realize that he was angry.

*giving the two of you a stern look as Jeno smiled up at your boyfriend from his seated position*

“Hey man, you’re Han Jisung, right? I’m Lee Jeno, from Dream..it’s nice to meet you.”

*Jisung’s firm gaze never wavering as he rejected Jeno’s extended hand, instead helping you up from the sofa and guiding you to stand beside him*

“Were you hitting on my (girlfriend/boyfriend)?”

*his straightforward question took the other man by surprise, giving him a confused look before his gaze fell on you and your cautious face as you glanced between the two of them*

“Oh, I- you mean Y/N? I didn’t realize you two were dating.”

*glancing between you and Jisung with a slight smile*

Maybe it was the fact that it had been a long night and he was tired, maybe it was the fact that he’d just seen one too many guys hit on you under the assumption that you were single, but whatever it was Jisung was suddenly very over the entire “low-profile relationship” situation. Scoffing lowly under his breath, he picked up his phone from out of his nearby bag, opening Instagram and pulling up a photo the two of you had taken on a recent date night. You were both dressed well, standing outside near a cherry blossom tree with his arm around your waist as you stared at each other lovingly. Your face was mostly covered by a mask and your boyfriend’s baseball cap so people would have a difficult time discovering your identity, but the message was clear- Han Jisung was in a relationship. Without much more thought, he added a straight forward and to-the-point caption, “Happy With You.❤️” before quickly uploading the photo to their official Stray Kids instagram account. Your eyes widened in shock as you gave him a worried look, knowing that the post would inevitably cause some backlash for him at the company. Without hesitation, Jisung leaned over towards Jeno who was still looking slightly confused, showing him the uploaded photo.

*tilting his head slightly and giving him the same unwavering stern glare as Jeno’s face fell slightly into shock at the bold move*

“Well it’s official now, got that? So I wouldn’t get involved with (her/him) unless you’re ready for one hell of a scandal.”

Bonus gif, Jeno:

Felix: jeno

Felix loves, and I mean loves, bringing you along to events, concerts and award shows. If he was performing- hell even if he was just going to practice at the studio, he wanted you to be there. Obviously you couldn’t come to every single practice and performance because you were busy yourself- but you did your best to be there for the big moments, and this award show was one of them. Not only were Stray Kids performing their latest comeback, they were also up for a couple big awards this year- and more than anything he wanted you to be by his side.

As far as jealousy goes, Felix isn’t one to get possessive and upset over the little things. He wouldn’t say something unless he felt like he needed to, but he also has an innate inability to hide his emotions. If he was hurt or frustrated, it was apparent on his face. That being said, he’d honestly never expected to leave you alone that night in the first place. Aside from the actual performance and award ceremony where you’d watch from the viewing room with the other idol’s guests, Felix hadn’t planned on leaving you alone backstage with a sea of strangers. It wasn’t until their manager announced that they’d been asked to do some additional promotional recordings prior to the show that Felix realized you’d have to wait backstage on your own. It put him on edge a bit, but another idol hitting on you wasn’t his main concern- more than anything he just felt bad for leaving you alone when you didn’t know many people around. Nevertheless, you assured him that you’d be fine and reluctantly he left you backstage- swearing that he’d try to finish as quickly as possible.

He’d only been gone around 20 minutes, but he still made a point to get back to you as quickly as possible. It wouldn’t take him long to find you and when he first noticed a couple other idols talking with you he’d feel excited and proud to see you making friends so easily- that is until he saw the person standing closest to you, handing you a bottle of water and making comments on how cute you looked. He knew he shouldn’t let it get to him, of course it was possible the NCT Dream member was being nothing more than polite, but something inside him didn’t like the way he was smiling at you and it must’ve been obvious in the way his generally happy and loving expression shifted into something darker. The other idols who were talking with you had excused themselves at this point, leaving only you and Jeno who didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving your side- that is until Felix walked up to you, doing his absolute best to keep his breathing steady and voice calm.

*Jeno smiling at him cluelessly, giving him a nod of introduction*

“Oh, hey man how are you? I’m Jeno, I don’t think we’ve met before- oh! And this is (Y/N)-”

*scoffing slightly as his patience began to wear thin, glancing in your direction as you gave him an apologetic frown*

“I know who (she/he) is..but yeah, um..it’s nice to meet you- I’m Felix.”

His deep voice felt calming, even when he himself was anything but relaxed. He shook Jeno’s hand begrudgingly, giving him a small smile as his gaze never wavered from you.

“Oh really? Don’t tell me you came over here to ask (her/him) out too! Wahh, you must be so popular tonight, (Y/N)...”

*Jeno laughing playfully as he teased you, your face going flustered and eyes widening at his bold statement, your shock nothing in comparison to the look of absolute rage in Felix’s eyes as he scrunched his eyebrows momentarily, trying to maintain composure*

“Nah, actually I came over here to get my (girlfriend/boyfriend)...Jagi?”

*turning to you with the slightest hint of a smirk playing on his lips as you blushed, not daring to glance in Jeno’s direction as his face fell into slight shock and embarrassment*

“We should get going now, it was nice to meet you though.”

*taking your hand in his and effortlessly guiding you out of the room*

Bonus gif, Jeno:

Seungmin:

Some people would find it slightly odd how close the two of you were, because despite being in a relationship with Seungmin the two of you were also like best friends. You shared everything with each other and though your relationship was, of course, different from the kind of friendships he had with his members, he’d worked hard to make you feel as close and comfortable as possible. In all honesty he got a little nervous performing in front of you, mostly because he felt an added pressure to do well and show you his best side- but it fueled him to do better on stage so he was happy to hear that you’d agreed to accompany him and the other members to the upcoming award show.

Seungmin isn’t naturally an overly jealous person, if instances did arise where someone was flirting with you it’d certainly bother him- but he isn’t one to step in unless he feels like it’s absolutely necessary. He trusted you and didn’t want to make a situation confrontational if it didn’t need to be, but he wouldn’t mind saying something if he thought you were at all uncomfortable.

The guys had just finished going through hair and makeup, where you spent the majority of the time talking with your boyfriend, and they were getting ready to do a last minute sound check before getting ready for their performance. He didn’t think it’d be a big deal to leave you backstage for half an hour or so, flashing you his signature smile and giving your hand a reassuring squeeze before letting you know that he’d be back soon and to make yourself comfortable. He’d suggested you get a bite to eat from the food stations backstage, but after he’d left you quickly realized you had no idea where any of that was located. After searching and maneuvering through the crowded and hectic backstage green rooms for what seemed like an eternity, not only were you discouraged and hungry- you were a little bit lost. Stray Kids’ designated room was no where in sight- and at this point you were wandering aimlessly. Aimlessly, that is, until a helpful stranger approached you with a smile and a sandwich in hand.

Seungmin did his best to get back to the dressing room as quickly as possible after finishing sound check, eager to see you again and tell you about all the funny little mishaps that had happened since he’d last seen you- but he’d quickly realize you were nowhere to be found. He tried calling you, but after getting your voicemail a couple times he started to grow concerned. It wasn’t until he’d been looking around for a few minutes that he happened to find you near the sandwich station talking to someone. Not just someone- another idol.

You couldn’t be sure if Chenle had just happened to have a sandwich in hand when he found you or if he’d noticed you earlier searching for something to eat, but he was quick to offer you the packaged snack which you had politely accepted- striking up a conversation about the event. You weren’t sure how long the two of you had been talking, but after a while you’d noticed your boyfriend out of the corner of your eye- and he didn’t seem pleased.

Maybe it was the fact that you hadn’t answerd his calls, a mixture of worry and sudden frustration seeing that you were perfectly fine and otherwise engaged in a conversation with NCT Dream’s Chenle, but Seungmin could feel the annoyance bubbling inside him. Walking over to the two of you, he politely introduced himself to Chenle, before turning his attention back towards you.

“(Y/N), we should get going, our performance is coming up soon, ok?”

*nodding as you turned towards the man you’d just met, preparing to say goodbye and thank him for the food*

“It was nice meeting you! Thanks again for the sandwich.”

*smiling cheekily as he nodded, waving in your direction*

“It was nice meeting you too, and hey- if you’re free after the show, call me.”

*smirking as he pointed towards the wrapper of the sandwich, before turning and walking away*

A confused look was exchanged between you and Seungmin as you glanced at the underside of the wrapper, noticing that he’d written his phone number in small, neat handwriting. Seungmin just rolled his eyes, pressing his tongue to the inside of his cheek in frustration to keep himself from calling out to the other man who was already walking away. Instead, he’d take the sandwich wrapper from your hands, balling it up and throwing it in the nearest garbage can before turning to you with his usual smiling face. You could tell he was frustrated, but he wasn’t going to let it bother him.

*taking your hand in his and pulling you closer to him as he smiled at you sweetly*

“You ok, baby? Did you get lost?”

*nodding as you blushed, feeling apologetic for making him frustrated even if it wasn’t your doing*

“I’m glad I found you, should we head back now? I wouldn’t want my pretty (girlfriend/boyfriend) to miss our big performance.”

Bonus gif, Chenle:

Jeongin:

Jeongin would easily be the most giddy and excited to hear that you’d agreed to come to the award show- having you by his side would make him light up like nothing else and knowing that you’d be cheering him and his members on from backstage would make him fill with pride and confidence. He knew it was difficult for the two of you sometimes since your relationship wasn’t out in the open, but for the most part the two of you kept to yourselves and there weren’t too many instances that either of you had experienced firsthand of another person coming up to you and shamelessly flirting. You spent so much of your time together that he wouldn’t really know how to react- Jeongin is generally a very lighthearted and goofy person, but he also has a habit for letting his quippy comments and fiery attitude shine when something is comical or annoying to him. That being said, he isn’t a terribly possessive person, but he doesn’t mind a little confrontation if he feels like it’s necessary.

You’d been at the award show venue for a while at this point, watching as more and more famous groups were guided through the backstage area into various dressing rooms while you stayed beside Jeongin before he had to go through hair and makeup. A few other idol groups were mingling about and a few had started conversing around a fairly empty lounge space with a few of the other members of Stray Kids. Jeongin had walked over to take a seat beside his hyungs and introduce himself to several other idols talking with them, and though he’d encouraged you to come with him you felt a little awkward butting into the conversation so you chose to stay seated a little ways a way- not wanting to encroach on his time with other friends and colleagues. It wasn’t until a handful of minutes later that you got a text from your boyfriend, asking if you could bring him a coffee. You smiled, knowing it was just a small excuse to bring you over to where he was sitting, but happily taking the bait nevertheless as you rolled your eyes teasingly in his direction.

You brought over a few cups of coffee, not wanting to look conspicuous by only bringing one, handing them to the other members of stray kids who gave you a questioning but grateful look. You were just about to step away when another voice from the group stopped you.

“Wahh, you’re so helpful- would it be alright if I got a coffee as well? Only if it isn’t too much trouble.”

You turned towards the voice, recognizing it as Jisung from NCT Dream, who was among the idols sitting and talking with one another casually. While it hadn’t been your intention to come across as an assistant, you had to give him credit for asking so politely- so you just smiled in return.

“Actually (Y/N)’s not-”

“Sure, of course. What would you like?”

Jeongin gave you a confused look, but you silently reassured him that it was ok. Neither of you wanted to come out as being in a relationship, and it was just a simple coffee. Jisung kindly asked you for an Americano and thanked you despite being clueless to the fact that assisting idols backstage was, in fact, not your job. This alone was enough to put Jeongin on edge, of course he knew Jisung didn’t know better, but he still didn’t like the idea of you fetching things for people you weren’t even friends with. He didn’t plan on saying anything, though, since he knew you were only putting up with it to save your relationship’s private image.

You returned with the coffee, smiling softly as you handed it to the stylish and beaming Dream member. You were just about to walk away, however, when he did something that took you by surprise. Without a second thought, Jisung lightly took your wrist in his hand, smiling as you turned to face him and patting the seat beside him with his free hand.

“No, please! Have a seat!” You glanced cautiously towards Jeongin who’s face was blank, but he didn’t say anything so reluctantly you sat beside the perfect stranger.

“So your name’s (Y/N), is that right?”

*nodding as you asked for his name, to which he introduced himself*

“I’m sorry if I startled you- I just thought maybe it’d be nice to sit down, I’m sure you’re very busy...”

*laughing slightly as you tried to find a way to explain that you weren’t an assistant, without outing yourself as being in a relationship with Jeongin*

“Uhm, well actually-”

“Are you a model by chance?”

*your eyes widening as you gave him a confused look*

“W-why do you ask that?”

*Jeongin’s face growing stern as he listened intently to your side conversation with the overly friendly man beside you*

“I just, I’ve never seen anyone with your kind of beauty before...I like it.”

Jeongin’s face quickly went from intent listening to one of extreme confusion as his brows raised and head tilted, giving the man a look of obvious judgement and disapproval. Before you had a chance to respond to the forward compliment, however, Jeongin was quick to speak up.

“Are you serious?”

*Jisung turning towards him with a look of slight perplexity as why he’d been listening in on your conversation*

“Oh, um- sorry I was just-”

*Jisung’s cheeks growing flushed as Jeongin laughed slightly, trying his best to hold back from sharing anything regarding your relationship while still telling him off for flirting with you*

“Yah, don’t be so cringey- you don’t even know (her/him)! And...don’t ask strangers to get you coffee, ok? (She/He) isn’t your assistant.”

Bonus gif, Jisung:

#stray kids reactions #stray kids #bang chan #lee minho #lee know #seo changbin #hwang hyunjin #han jisung #lee felix #lee yongbok #kim seungmin #yang jeongin #i.n #stray kids x reader #nct dream #kpop reactions

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hunnyuwu · 4 years

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My Baby Don’t Like It || NCT Jaehyun+Mark [part I]

Premise: What went wrong along the way? After everything we had been through, you still chose to leave me?

Pairings : Dad! Jaehyun x fem! reader x Friend! Mark

WC: 2.1 K

Warnings: explicit language, some extreme fluff

Part I || Part II || Part III

"Hey baby! How are you today?" You were crouched down on your knees, shooting a silly smile as the most adorable four year old in the world ran straight into your outstretched arms, worming his way into the crevasse of your neck. You cooed into the kid’s ear, happy to see the boy happy and healthy. He withdrew from his squirmy snuggles to plant his tiny, moist lips on your soft cheek as his little greeting to his beloved Noona.

"I'm happy to see you, Noona!" A smile lit up his round, chubby features before he nuzzled back into the crevasse of your neck. You rubbed the top of his head a few times, messing up his short black locks, before getting up so that you were finally standing at your own height.

"Thanks for looking after him today, Y/N."

Your heart beat slowed down to a steady, rhythmic pace immediately. The slow, heavy thrumming taunted you as it rattled in your within the hollow shells of your ears. You interlocked hands with the small boy beside you before lifting your chin to see the person before you.

A gentle smile blossomed over your lips, a wave of calm washing over your body as you examined the familiar face before you, "Of course, Jaehyun."

"Remember Y/N, I changed my name." Jaehyun gave you a teasing jab, a dumb grin occupying his eyes. You flinched a little backwards, knives stabbing your poor heart as memories flashed at the forefront of your mind.

‘Yeah, but you changed it for her.’

"A-Ah, right! Sorry, have a good day, Yoon-Oh."

You released a breath that were holding for a little while as you saw Jaehyun hop into the driver's seat of an extremely expensive, luxury car. The flashy woman in the passenger seat threw an overstated air kiss to the little boy beside you, glancing your way soon after. A scowl replaced the smile you were holding onto desperately as she simply smirked with triumph. Your free hand curled into a tight fist as you watched the car whiz away, to the point that your knuckles turned white and your nails threatened to puncture the flesh of your palm.

She removed Jaehyun from your life,

And he allowed it to happen.

You and Jaehyun had known one another since primary school. On a bitter, cold day in the autumn of your second year, Jaehyun nervously approached your lunch table to ask if he could sit with your group, which you guys obviously said yes. While the friends you had in that group all eventually slipped away from your life through your years of schooling, Jaehyun and you had managed to maintain a close friendship. The close bond and chemistry the two of you had was undeniable to the public and private eye. Everyone thought the two of you would eventually get married, which you didn't mind them thinking in the slightest. Jaehyun had always thought the same too, even though there was no official romance. Just adoring looks, sweet gestures, lovely memories, and tense atmospheres.

In university, you finally confirmed your feelings for him, ready for that next step with him. You finally realized that he was your destiny, and you thought you were his as well.

Next thing you knew, Jaehyun found a girl from his economics class and the rest is history. They had an accidental child early on in their whirlwind romance, the one you were currently watching playing with stackable plastic blocks. Anger boiled your blood... you still loved Jaehyun to the depths of your heart, to the point that you regularly questioned whether you would ever be able to move on, but you couldn't understand how dense he was when it came to his girlfriend: Jimin.

Jimin wasn't your average, plain Jane college gal. She was simply receiving a business degree for the sake of having the piece of paper that she didn’t even work for. Jimin had her daddy's money and company waiting for her once she deemed herself ready for the role. When Jimin set her eyes on Jaehyun the very first class of economics, it was game over for anything between you two. Jimin made it her mission to claim Jaehyun as her own personal property, in other words her personal boy toy, basically making it her life’s mission to rid of you in his life. Or as she specifically explain it, 'spending quality time with boyfie while they were young.' You saw through her sugary sweet act from the moment you laid eyes on her when Jaehyun introduced the two fo you.

She was a brat, a snob, a snake, and any description with negative connotation that you could think of. You hissed as you remembered that the woman even convinced him that 'Yoon-Oh' was a more handsome name than Jaehyun. ‘How could he be so under her spell to not see the sort of shit she puts him through?’ You wondered.

‘The least she could be is a sweet, decent person to make Jaehyun happy in life.’

That would have satisfied you, but in the end, you knew that people never really get what they want. You were left high and dry while a snobby rich whisked Jaehyun away like he was never there to begin with. And the fact that the woman barely paid any attention to her child made you absolutely sick to your stomach. Hot tears pricked at your eyes as you watched the innocent boy giggle as he was currently in the midst of building a little block boat.

‘Taking random selfies with your extremely adorable child for your dumb Instagram page does NOT count as parenting, Jimin.’

As you reminisced on all of the times that you had to deal with Jimin's endless childishness and her possessiveness over Jaehyun, you felt a little tug at your sleeve. You smiled tearily as you saw one thing that significantly brightened up your bleak life.

"Noona?"

"Yes, Baby?"

"Why do you look so sad today?"

Your heart constricted like someone was squeezing it tightly, already feeling regret as you had been too absorbed in your own thoughts to give him your full attention. You didn't have an early education degree for nothing.

"Ah, just little things, Baby. Don't worry about it."

"But I don't want Noona to be sad! We should get you ice cream like you do when I get a boo boo!" Jaehyun's son, Jeno, happily suggested, probably just wanting to eat some ice cream himself. You were put into a bout of laughter as you lovingly looked at Jeno get up to 'go get you some ice cream to fix your inside boo boo.'

You complied as you simply couldn't ever say no to the precious boy, so you were on your way out to the local grocery store near your house, which you hadn't gone to in awhile. You peered down to the eye smile prince himself who was happily skipping alongside you, his tiny hand wrapped around the middle three fingers of your hand, a gesture that you you screaming in an internal maternal mess.

Jimin and Jaehyun have been so neglecting of this poor child lately, always going out on day long dates and luxurious overseas trips, obviously as per Jimin's request.

You had to say, you were extremely disappointed at Jaehyun for forgetting his caring, sweet roots. The child you were currently leading into a small grocery store was basically your own, you were more of a mother to him than Jimin could ever be.

"Hey, Y/N!"

You looked around to see who called out your name when you spotted a familiar face, causing you to stumble back with pleasant surprise.

"Oh hey, Mark! I didn't know you worked here! Master's degree yet?" You led little Jeno over to the cash register to greet him, gushing over seeing the adorable guy once again. You knew Mark when you were a senior in college, him being a spry sophomore at the time. While he was a music major and you were an early education major, you two fatefully ended up in the same science requirement classes, leading to a beautiful, supportive relationship to blossom between the two of you. You hadn't been able to see him as of late as you were busy with your job.

"Yeah, I’m here part time. Needed some money so I can pay off my college debt as I'm looking for a gig at the moment. But anyways, uhhh, y-you look beautiful as ever, Y/N. Is he your child?" You blushed at his compliment while looking down at little Jeno who Mark was gesturing to gently. Jeno was shooting Mark a suspicious glare causing you to giggle as you dropped a hand to pat his head.

"No, this is Jeno, Jaehyun's son. I regularly babysit him."

Mark gave you a confused look, something wasn't adding up for him.

"You and Jaehyun aren't together?"

You were taken aback at his lack of knowledge. You even told him about Jaehyun's girlfriend a long time ago, but it seems like he didn't remember. Besides, you and Jaehyun were very, very not together.

As you were about to explain, Jeno took the spotlight.

"Daddy should date my Noona! She's a lot better-"

"Shh, you shouldn't say stuff like that, Jeno." You cooed to comfort the pouting kid as you hoisted him up onto your waist to rock him a little. He was getting a little heavy for this, but you didn't mind throwing your back out for him.

Mark laughed to himself, throwing a loving gaze your way as you and Jeno bickered for a little. His insides turned to goop as he fell down the tempting rabbit hole once again.

"Well, if you're not with anyone right now... c-could I ask to maybe take you out on a date sometime?"

You abruptly paused your conversation with Jeno to whip your head to the blushing male. A little blush to match his crept up to your cheeks as you reeled over what he just said in your mind like a broken cassette.

"You want to... go out with me?" You whispered with a tilt of your head, needing a firm confirmation from him before you let your mind start playing tricks on itself.

"Yeah, if that's fine with you." Mark restated, biting down on his bottom lip as he awaited your answer.

Thoughts of Jaehyun’s beautiful, warm smile plagued your mind like a disease; you were still very much in love with him. Even if his actions gave you a whole list as to why you should give his ass up in a heartbeat.

You looked back into Mark's eyes, finally making up your mind.

"I'd love to, Mark."

"Really?" He choked out, already expecting a rejection coming his way. You were oblivious to it, but Mark had the largest crush on you ever since you became partners for your science class. Whenever he even thought of asking you out, he remembered how close you were to Jaehyun, so he always chickened out.

This was finally his chance.

"Yeah, of course I would." You said sheepishly.

"But what about Daddy?"

You looked back to Jeno who was inches away from your face with round, glassy eyes. You sighed as you gave his cheek a quick little peck.

"Your Daddy is happy with your Mommy, Jeno. Don't worry, you will always be the number one man in my heart, okay? We will have a bunch more playdates!"

Mark watched as you comforted Jeno, feeling his heart thump violently against his ribcage. He knew you were the one for him, and he truly pitied Jaehyun, for he couldn't even see the true beauty that was sitting in front of him for so many years. Mark prayed above, thoroughly thanking fate to bring you to him today.

"Excuse me, but are you checking out right now?" An elderly woman appeared behind you with a harsh glare, a sharp tongue to match her tapping foot. You bowed quickly, not too much so that Jeno wouldn’t fall off, muttering small apologies as you moved out of the way.

"You better give me a discount for the ice cream, Mark!" You yelled as you walked away with Jeno over to the ice cream freezer. Mark gave you a cute little smile before diving back into scanning the items that that woman gave to him. Though it has been hard in your journey to give up on Jaehyun, there may be just as amazing men that would be better for you out there. You sighed out happily, maybe things were going to improve for you in the future.

~~~

Part I || Part II || Part III

This mini fic is the result of when I learned that Jaehyun said he would have basically been a teenage dad if he wasn't an idol 👁👄👁

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oneletterelliot · 4 years

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The Misconceptions of Us (SHINee) - liveblog reaction, part 2

Part One: Dream Girl - The Misconceptions of You found here.

Part Two: Why So Serious? - The Misconceptions of Me

Nightmare - What a difference between this and the last song! Is this song basically “Dream Girl” reprise? Auto-tune, but this album is from 2013, so I’ll allow it. Oh no, this is more like “Spoiler,” isn’t it? The lyrics seem to be shouting out some of the upcoming songs’ titles. I haven’t counted it to check if it’s really a tango, but it has the right Vibe™ to be a tango. I doubt this song will be fave of mine, but I like it well enough.

Why So Serious? - Hard to see this title without thinking about the Joker. I’m liking this opening. The instrumental is nice. Unexpected vocal transition into “why so serious?” I legit turned into the blinking white man meme for half a second. I actually don’t love the chorus of this song? I think the vocals sounds mismatched from the instrumental, I guess. The bridge also feels like it sticks out a little bit. Why did the ending remind me of a platformer video game right before you get wrecked by the mid-level boss?

Shine (Medusa I) - Cinematic. My dramatic ass loves it. I would dance to this. That’s basically my big metric when it comes to kpop songs lol. I like this a lot actually. Very catchy chorus. I like the vocal ad libs in the background. Ooh, I like the ending instrumental fade out.

Orgel - Why does this intro make me think about tiptoeing around Sneakily™? I like this call and response vocal in the verses. The harmonies feel so smooth. Background vox! Okay, I feel like the song drags on a little too long considering how little it varies musically. (Note: I accidentally had shuffle turned on at first and originally heard this song immediately after “Spoiler.” Second songs on albums are traditionally the hardest hitting ones, so I was judging it by that standard. I still think the song is a little long for what it is, but I’m more forgiving of it placed in this spot on the album.)

Dangerous (Medusa II) - “We’re on a mission. SHINee.” I guess it was pretty in vogue to fucking shoutout your own band name in the late 00s / early 10s. I like this “all right” background vox. Good harmonies in general. Oh, this countdown. Hmm. I feel like the song could’ve done without it. AGAIN? WHY?! God, I quite like this song, except for the fact that it keeps getting interrupted by this goofy countdown! I’m enjoying the instrumental. I already complimented the harmonies, but they’re so good.

Like A Fire - Whoever opened this song, I like your voice, dude. (Edit: I looked it up, and it’s Jonghyun. Well, he was the main vocalist for a reason.) I like this song’s vibe thus far. This guitar kinda reminds me of one of Garageband’s built-in loops. This might be a contender for favorite song off the album. I like the repeated part with the background vocals that go “ha ha,” then “my love.” Holy head voice in the background, damn! Damn, vocal flex at 2:40ish. These falsetto vocals at the end remind me of Earth, Wind & Fire.

Excuse Me Miss - Ooh, funky vibe from the instrumental. Okay, so far, I think the song is fun but not all that interesting. Unfortunately, the phrase “excuse me, miss” just makes me think of some guy bothering a poor lady on the street. Okay, I kinda dig the chord progression at the very end.

Evil - I like this opening. This low guitar(?) power chord makes me think of Britney Spears? And I could not tell you why. The harmony on “evil, evil” is one that I’m already in beginning to associate with SHINee (probably because the same interval definitely shows up “Lucifer”). I’m liking it. Okay, I know this song is a cha cha, but wouldn’t it be such a cool tango?

Sleepless Night - Is it ballad time again? Yes, it is. Based purely on this song’s placement on the album, I am thinking about “Long Slow Distance” off NCT 127’s Awaken album. Oh, cello!! Very nice. I’m not really a ballad person (with a big exception for WayV’s “面对面” because I am in love with that song), but I am rather enjoying the combination of instruments used in this song. This feels like the song that would play in a movie right as the main character realizes their feelings for the romantic lead and rushes to find them before it’s too late, then they get together are mushy and smoochy with each other.

Better Off - Please don’t be another ballad. Why would you end an album this way? Wow, this is very boy band ballad. “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys, anyone? Sorry, I just think this song is kind of boring. All right, I will give kudos for doing that low rap underneath high vocal harmonies thing I like. A FADE OUT FOR THE LAST SONG ON THE ALBUM? REALLY?!

Based off the title, I’m guessing “Why So Serious?” is this album part’s lead single, which is unfortunate, because it was nowhere near my favorite.(Edit: Yeah, it is.)

#e has thoughts #shinee #the misconceptions of us #e liveblogs shinee

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kflixnet · 9 months

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PART I | PART II | PART III | PART IV

• abby, [ enhyqenn + luvsellie ] ↳ she/her | en- “simply existing on the knowledge that i got to see enhypen irl.”

• ace, [ hyuukais + sun-of-ghosts ] ↳ they/it | txt, skz “god gave me hueningkai as apology for everything else in my life.”

• aisha, [ jenotapes ] ↳ any pronouns | nct “in a mental relationship with we go up mv mark.”

• aiya, [ aisclosed + aisopen + aisnextdoor ] ↳ she/her | en-, nct dream “feeding into my own delusions.”

• alexa, [ cherryhanji ] ↳ she/her | skz “i know i'm a handful, but that's why you got two hands!”

• ally, [ winterchimez + midnightfantasiez ] ↳ she/her | tbz “jesus take the wheel.”

• amanda, [ lee--felix ] ↳ she/they | skz, oneus, txt, atz “fics write themselves actually, i’m just the middleman with computer access.”

• angel, [ dadonbabysworld ] ↳ she/her | skz “wait did i just fail?”

• anne, [ bikerjongho + applejongho ] ↳ she/her | atz, skz “i just think that jongho in a leather jacket.”

• aries, [ ninihoons ] ↳ she/her | bp, bts, en- “stream daydream.”

• ariku, [ arikiu ] ↳ she/her | en-, txt “are you wi-fi? because i feel a connection.”

• artai, [ seokminded ] “artai is the name, delulu is the game.” ↳ she/her | svt

• artemis, [ ctrlemis + ddeonusbf ] ↳ they/them | en-, ive “sunoo will never be your bias the same way he’s** my** bias.”

• ash, [ ethereal-engene ] ↳ she/her | atz, en-, svt, txt, tbz, nct, cravity “free falling into another universe? sounds about right.”

• august, [ sunboki ] ↳ she/her | skz, en- “...it's a crying scene again isn't it.”

• autumn, [ smileyerim ] ↳ she/her | nct, skz “if you make me the banker in monopoly i will cheat and steal all of the money, that is a promise.”

• avis, [ yoongimooni + avis-writeshq ] ↳ she/her | bts, en-, skz “stay sexcie besties 🫰”

• ayzie, [ hyubcore ] ↳ any pronouns | d6, n-flying, nct, onewe, the rose “the angst connoisseur! for anyone who needs to just feel something.”

• bai, [ hwaightme ] ↳ she/her | atz “in my chaotic era.”

• bee, [ heecyon ] ↳ she/her | en- “loving ourselves can be a tough journey, but we will get there.”

• benny, [ jakes-tummy + jisungs-tummy ] ↳ he/him | en-, txt “might just make out with your mom and become your stepdad.”

• betty, [ totalbetty ] ↳ she/her | nct “can someone go to my settings and turn off anxiety mode?”

• bii, [ bichaeng ] ↳ she/her | twice, svt, atz, nct dream, skz, en-, ive “i think i just lost my last two braincells.”

• boo, [ horangboosadan + ladybugsfanfics ] ↳ they/them | svt “there exists as many definitions of love as there are stars in the universe.”

• bree, [ jaeminri ] ↳ she/her; svt, en- “a hopeless romantic has heart shaped, pastel pink brain cells with sticky white accents.”

• brooke, [ lebrookestore ] ↳ she/her | nct, en- “taeyong’s bitch (it’s true).”

• cai, [ ohvu + one16core ] ↳ she/her | en-, txt “why so complicated.”

• cait(lin), [ sw1mmingfoolz + svtsunshine ] ↳ any pronouns | skz, svt, nct, wayv “tch, hairband 😏.”

• carmela, [ carmelakimtodoroki ] ↳ she/her | atz, txt, tbz, en-, nct (all), svt, skz, p1h, bts “there are no enemies in life. only friends and lessons.”

• cath, [ magicshopaholic + deathcabindiagonalley ] ↳ she/her | bts “till watching grey's anatomy in the year of the lord 2022″

• chaerin, [ whoschr ] ↳ she/her | en- “playing: strawberry moon by twice.”

• charlie, [ 2009-jooyeonly ] ↳ any pronouns | skz, txt, enha, p1h, svt, bts, xdh, nct, bnd, zb1, ooo, riize, ive “pasta.”

• cherry, [ staranghae ] ↳ she/her | svt, ateez, skz, txt “studying can wait but this fic can't.”

• cien, [ hacien ] ↳ he/him | ghost9, svt “xu minghao is so 🤭.”

• cin, [ cinnabunhwa ] ↳ any pronouns | skz, atz, svt “park seonghwa owns my entire life.”

• dala, [ jluver + urh20gf ] ↳ she/her | en-, txt, skz, svt “i have no social skills but one time someone told me i'm funny (it was my mom).”

• d(r)ea, [ yuyusuyu ] ↳ she/her | atz, tbz “i love men (yunho)! men are so slay (yunho)!”

• ej (or jj), [ tzyuki ] ↳ any pronouns | en-, txt “i can’t write angst if my life depended on it.”

• eli, [ peachyho ] ↳ anything but she | atz, en- “hey wanna see my collection of skulls ?? maybe we can add yours to the collection haha jk... unless?”

• ella, [ nomniki ] ↳ she/her | en-, skz, txt “let’s play forever i just wanna be your dog.”

• eve, [ hwaflms ] ↳ she/her | atz, nct, skz, tbz “men who aren't hwang hyunjin, stfu <3.”

• fae, [ haerinz + jangwonie ] ↳ she/her | en-, ive “wonwon cross enthusiast !!♡.”

• faith, [ keiwook ] ↳ she/her | zb1 “i don't think park gunwook is real.”

• hanny, [ koroktsuya ] ↳ she/her | en-, bts “searing heart, take me now.”

• jella, [ moonjella ] ↳ she/her | skz “day [???] of missing han jisung.”

• jiah, [ okwonyo ] ↳ she/he | en-, lesserafim, svt, txt “from my heart to yours”

• jj, [ jj-stay ] ↳ any pronouns | skz “life is not a fairy tale so if you lose your shoe at 12 your drunk.”

• kai, [ honeyhuii ] ↳ they/she | every group and soloists “gotta blast choo choo train.”

• kaira, [ woobly ] ↳ they/she | atz, tbz, p1h “the devil works hard, but i - don’t, sorry.”

• kalli, [ cherryeoniis ] ↳ she/her | nct, txt, en- “if we never try, how will we know?”

• lana, [ kazmura ] ↳ she/her | en-, txt “delusion k*lls.”

• lela, [ hwasdollie ] ↳ she/they | txt, atz, bts “park seonghwa. that’s it, that’s the quote.”

• lia, [ angelwonie ] ↳ she/her | bts, en-, skz, txt “i’m in my delulu era <3.”

• mai, [ maiwon ] ↳ any pronouns | en- “snorts.”

• moon, [ moonlighthoon ] ↳ she/her | en-, txt, &team “coming up with a story idea and images of how i want it to be is easy. now if i could just get the words to write themselves, that'd be great!”

• mya, [ myaheartsmarkie ] ↳ she/her | nct “wait....what were we just talking about again?”

• nala, [ celestialgyu ] ↳ she/her | itzy, txt “wdym i can't pay off my student loans in yeonjun pcs?”

• nani, [ xfirebenderx ] ↳ she/her | svt “i will soon forget the color of your eyes and you’ll forget mine.”

• nyx, [ dreamyyeosang ] ↳ she/her | atz, skz, txt “brb, getting a degree in making bad desicions ;).”

• pearl, [ eumppattv ] ↳ she/her | en-, zb1 “being delulu is my job.”

• rae / raena, [ reikaryu + raevyng ] “your local starbucks and seungkwan enthusiast” ↳ she/her | nct, svt, tbz

• rie, [ pyeonghongrie + pyeonghongrie-main + pyeonghongreations ] ↳ he/him | atz, txt “i may have girlbossed too close to the sun..”

• rose, [ yyawnjun + nxtsnw ] ↳ she/they; en-, svt “fluff and delusional over the moon <3.”

• s, [ moonlightjongin + taexkai ] ↳ she/her | exo, shinee, superm, bts, atz, skz “cuz when 🥳 we jumping 🤸‍♂️ and popping 🎉 we jopping 💃.”

• sab, [ icysab ] ↳ she/her | en-, txt “i was a lesbian until choi beomgyu.”

• seol, [ wvnkoi ] ↳ she/her | en-, zb1, txt “why be scared when you breathe the same air as the lee heeseung??”

• tia, [ myonos ] ↳ she/her | en- “i am winging it.”

• tori, [ qianinterprises ] ↳ she/her | nct “exploring worlds and universes through the safety of a computer screen. that’s what fanfiction is.”

• val, [ fairybinie ] ↳ she/they | txt “let’s just assume everyone in here doesn’t like me.”

• yen, [ yenqa ] “can u can a can as a canner can can a can” ↳ she/they | en-

• yeonie, [ wonryllis ] ↳ she/her | en- “kkakong! ^#^.”

• z, [ kmgkmg + fairyzar ] ↳ they/them | svt, nct “assa hongsam, everybody hongsam!”

• zoe, [ zi-ever ] ↳ she/her | svt, ive, skz, en-, txt “follow your dreams yea ofc but follow me too.”

#kfn: memberlist

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perfeggso · 4 years

Text

Noir (yutae)

Week II pt. 1

Tokyo – fall of 1983: Nakamoto Yuta is quickly rising in the ranks of one of Japan’s most notorious yakuza families, and he’s poised to climb even further if he can stop himself from being ruined by the pretty Korean boy who’s shown up out of nowhere.

Glossary of Japanese words

Characters: Yuta x Taeyong + NCT ensemble, Twice J-line (for funsies)

Genres: Gang!AU, angst, smut, fluff, 1980s!AU

Warnings: graphic violence, swearing, minor character death, alcohol use, mentions of drugs, period-typical homophobia, xenophobia, BDSM

Rating: 18+

Length: 4.5k (will progressively get way longer)

A “foot soldier,” as it turned out, was the smallest of small fry in the syndicate. They were mostly responsible for manning the many front businesses that Inagawa used for small change, low-level intimidation, and charity work. Taeyong found that he did get to carry a revolver around with him but was forbidden from using it in non-life-threatening situations because he had only been a yakuza for about a week and had only gotten the opportunity to practice firing the thing twice. This was both for his own protection and for the protection of the gang; almost nothing could have been more damaging than the misfiring of an illegal gun by a rookie.

All Taeyong had needed to do to leave his mechanic job was to submit a letter of resignation, which in honesty was the most obvious solution. People were allowed to resign without a specific reason – his boss didn’t own his soul. And Taeyong wasn’t too sad to leave since he hadn’t been close to anyone working there.

After a week, Taeyong found himself leaning over a yellow plastic desk at the entrance to a miscellaneous electronics shop in Akihabara, bored to death and resigned to people-watching. Taeyong usually avoided Akihabara because he wasn’t particularly interested in electronics nor in otaku culture. More than that, he hated how the few times he had come to the neighborhood in the evening he’d been approached by creepy middle-ages men trying to entice him to go “chat” with some “lovely young ladies.”

But now he was here among the neon lights with nothing more to do with himself but try to look inviting to customers. If he was being honest, part of him wanted to sabotage the whole racket by looking purposefully glum and driving people away. Despite his sweet face, Taeyong did have an aggressive streak in him but he always considered himself principled about those who got hit by it. For instance, swindling major corporations out of millions of yen, as he was vaguely aware that Inagawa did, seemed perfectly ethical to him. Selling faulty electronics to innocent working-class people on the other hand…

“Taeyong!” Mark yelled from behind him, forcing him out of his contemplative rabbit hole of Robin Hood ethics.

Taeyong turned around to see Mark walking up to him, a stack of colorful business cards in one hand and a badminton racket and shuttlecock in the other. What a fuckin’ weirdo , thought Taeyong, although he couldn’t help but like the guy.

Mark had been the first person Taeyong had spoken to as an unofficial member, he supposed, of the Inagawa-kai, as he was the one responsible for escorting Taeyong back to his apartment and spending the night there to ensure that he did not try to run away or go to the authorities. Taeyong didn’t sleep that night because his head was full of too many questions, and Mark wasn’t allowed to, so the two instead got to talking – as much as they could given the supreme awkwardness of the situation, anyway.

“What do you need?” Taeyong asked and in response, Mark passed him the stack of cards as if that were an explanation. Before he got around to illustrating his intentions with words, he began bouncing the shuttlecock against his racket, twisting the string bed 180 degrees between each contact.

“I need you to stand on the sidewalk and hand these out to people,” he finally said, still focused on his game. “They say we’re having a promotional sale. It’s supposed to drum up more business which we can handle with the three of us here instead of two. But for this to work, you need to stop scowling. Show off that charming smile of yours.”

Mark was sure a cheeky bugger. If Taeyong did stick around in this gang, he’d eventually use his age advantage to mess with the kid once their gap in experience wasn’t so large.

“Was this your idea?” Taeyong asked.

Mark shook his head no, pausing his game of hand-eye coordination. “It was our Shategashira ’s.”

“Nakamoto?”

“Hasn’t he told you to use his title? Or just Yuta if you want to use his name.”

Taeyong huffed a sigh. This ‘ Shategashira ’ of his had really become an exasperating figure in his life over the past week. They’d barely interacted, but the coolness and ease with which Yuta always addressed him made him feel funny; as if he truly had no control over the trajectory of his life anymore simply because he was dumb enough to follow some sounds in an alley. But who was he kidding? His life might as well lead him to being in a gang. Wasn’t that what he’d always wanted? And anyway, there was a reason the Inagawa-kai had an entire Korean division and some Korean leadership. Taeyong had just imagined more bombastic motorcycle rides and fewer junk computers.

“Yeah I remember now,” Taeyong said, shuffling the business cards in his hands and making his way out from behind his desk. “So how do I get people to take these?”

Mark walked with him to the front of the shop, his hand on the older man’s shoulder. “Just smile and say ‘promotional sale: premium consumer electronics. This week only,' or some shit and try to get these into the hands of everyone who walks near you. I think you can handle it.”

“I will try,” said Taeyong.

He found it was easier to get people to take the cards than he had expected, although his success didn’t seem to go further than that, as most people who took a card only regarded Taeyong with a confused scowl once they had it in their hands. After about an hour, a woman came walking towards Taeyong on his side of the street, and she was truly the first person Taeyong fully noticed his whole shift. He noticed her because no one could have not: she was slightly taller than average, especially in heels, with long black hair blown out, a green bodycon dress, black heels, and a gold chain necklace. Taeyong thought she might have the prettiest face he’d ever seen on a woman. He also noticed her because she was staring right at him as she approached. Taeyong wasn’t fazed because he was used to nice looking girls coming onto him. They would inevitably be put off either by his ethnicity or by his lack of interest in them – whichever they perceived first – and then bad things would happen. However, the intensity in this woman’s gaze felt different as she came to stand just a few feet away.

“Momo-hime??” Taeyong heard Mark yell from somewhere within the store. Huh? Soon enough both he and Jungwoo had emerged and were greeting the gorgeous young woman. Taeyong stayed frozen to his post because he didn’t know what to make of the situation nor of his role in it. She was a ‘princess’ anyway. What business did a street rat have introducing himself to her?

Soon, though, Taeyong found he didn’t have to. She exchanged a few words with his coworkers, and they nodded, pointing her his way.

“Lee Taeyong,” said the woman, bowing once she had finally gotten close enough to greet him. “I’m Hirai Momo. It’s good to meet you. Yuta told me you had been brought on.”

Taeyong was so confused he felt like he was floating, but he bowed back despite himself. “Nice to meet you too.” The name Hirai sounded familiar but Taeyong took a moment to place it. Then, like being slapped in the face, his brain found the missing puzzle piece that allowed him to make an association. The Hirai family ran the entire operation, didn’t they? Shit .

“Why are you here, Neechan ?” asked Jungwoo.

Momo smiled. “Yuta sent me to retrieve you, Taeyong,” she answered, causing Mark and Jungwoo to raise their eyebrows in unison.

Taeyong could feel the blood rush through his veins, and it felt cold. “I – did I do something?”

“Don’t worry,” Momo assured. “Everything’s alright. Yuta-san just wants to make sure you’re adjusting alright and to have you get some more target practice in with your new piece. How does that sound?”

Yuta was turning out to be the most involved boss Taeyong had ever had. He still had no idea what was going on, but at least he wasn’t in trouble and if he was being honest, he liked firing the gun and looked forward to another sanctioned opportunity. Taeyong chided himself as he noticed a piece of his mind wondering churlishly what this girl was to Yuta. That doesn’t pertain to you , he told himself.

“That’s fine,” he said.

“Great,” said Momo, winking like a girl from an animated television show or something. “So, you’ll go to headquarters and meet him right after your shift, got it?”

Got it.

***

The Inagawa-kai Tokyo headquarters was located in a simple, box-shaped black building on the edge of Aoyama. It wasn’t a short structure – it had about seven stories – but compared to much of Tokyo’s architecture it remained strategically unassuming. Once inside the building, a tall man with dark hair and a patchwork of tattoos and scars across his exposed skin approached Taeyong and told him he would escort him to the meeting. At first Taeyong didn’t recognize him because he hadn’t gotten a good look the first time, but he soon realized that his companion was one of the men who had essentially arrested him a week ago, a fact which made his throat tighten. Taeyong also cautiously noted that the man had a fresh stump of a pinky finger on his right hand covered in bandages. Must have gotten in a bad fight.

The man led Taeyong down a series of identical concrete hallways until they reached a sliding door made of oak, at which point he left Taeyong to enter the room by himself. Taeyong hesitated for a moment but was stunned into action when he heard Yuta’s expressive voice anticipate his presence from inside with the simple utterance of two syllables.

“ Douzo .”

Within, Yuta sat at the same desk where Taeyong had first met him, surrounded by expensive Scandinavian furnishings, walls of glass and concrete, and a pristine bonsai tree on a ledge behind him. Yuta himself wore black pants, a silk shirt, and a yellow velvet smoking jacket of all things. Taeyong felt something twist in his gut at the sight of him and his intent gaze but decided to file the feeling away somewhere very deep for the purposes of later contemplation.

“ Shategashira !” Taeyong greeted with a salute, as he was now pretty sure he was expected to. “Would you like me to sit, sir?”

“At ease,” said Yuta, waving him off and letting Taeyong relax a bit. “No need. I’ll accompany you to the range right now, if that’s alright.”

“Of course, Shategashira .”

And with that, Taeyong let himself be led back under the florescent lights of the complex’s maze-like hallways.

“How are you adjusting, Taeyong?” asked Yuta.

Taeyong was constantly surprised that the couple times he had seen Yuta since their initial meeting, he always made sure to check up on him. He didn’t know what to make of this. He guessed it was just standard practice – a measure to make him feel protected and ensure his devotion, or something of the sort.

“It’s alright, I guess,” Taeyong responded. “I like Mark and Jungwoo. Johnny seems like a good guy too. In all honesty, I don’t have a lot to do right now. But I do appreciate having the position at all!” Taeyong’s tone was absolutely all over the place, not knowing where to stand between familiar and deferent. Taeyong thought he saw his little speech provoke a smile in Yuta, and suddenly that knot in his stomach was back. Well, fuck.

Yuta spoke. “I acknowledge that you don’t have the most exciting posting. But that’s partially why I wished to speak with you today. After you.”

Yuta left that tease there. They had come to the end of a hallway to an orange door with chipping paint and a black symbol indicating that protective equipment for eyes and ears was recommended inside. Yuta held it open and Taeyong passed through.

Once in the vestibule of the shooting range, Taeyong set himself up where he was supposed to stand and aimed his revolver at the target on the other end of the room as Yuta leaned against an acid-white wall with his arms crossed and his chin raised slightly.

“Relax your shoulders,” Yuta said, and Taeyong cleared his throat, shimmying his shoulders lower on his back in response. He took a deep breath and focused on the red bull’s eye placed on the heart of a human-shaped target, both hands on the gun. He had to refrain from grinding his teeth.

“Wait until you’re ready,” Yuta coached, voice low and commanding, “then focus your energy and count down from three before you pull the trigger. Simple as that.”

“Yes, Shategashira .” Taeyong did as he was told, steadying himself, focusing his eyes on his target, and counting 3…2…1… BANG!

Taeyong felt himself sway backwards for a moment after firing but regained his balance quickly – something he had not done the first time he had shot the thing. That time, he ended up on his butt, confused and embarrassed as Mark thrashed around on the wall in a fit of performative laughter. The practice he’d had since then had helped, but so did the pressure of Yuta’s gaze.

After a moment, Taeyong heard clapping coming from next to him and he realized he had been closing his eyes. When he opened them, he saw that a chunk of the wooden target was missing on its inner thigh.

“We can work with that,” Yuta remarked, finishing his short round of applause. “Certainly enough to cripple, and that’s important. However, I get the sense you weren’t aiming there, hm?”

Taeyong’s breathing fumbled when Yuta began to stalk towards him. “What we need is to teach you some precision and confidence,” he explained. “We’ve got to work on your kill shot. Do you mind?”

Yuta was asking for the gun, so Taeyong handed it over with an “of course, Shategashira .”

Yuta took a sideways stance, holding the revolver out with one arm, and proceeded to shoot five times in fast succession, obliterating the plywood head of the target cutout until it was nothing more than splinters. Taeyong did not care to imagine it as belonging to a real human. When he had finished, Yuta turned to regard Taeyong, and to Taeyong’s surprise and horror, he broke out into a wide grin. God , thought Taeyong, I’m alone with a psychopath and a gun . Although, once that thought had passed, Taeyong couldn’t help admiring the princely charm of the way the smile had spread like a sunrise over Yuta’s face. What the fuck was going on?

“You see?” said Yuta, ebullient, “you’ll be doing that soon enough.”

Soon enough . Right, Taeyong would need to sort out his future, and soon.

“Let’s try again. Go back to your stance. We’re going to stay with two hands for now.”

Taeyong took the gun back and repositioned himself in his starting position, holding the weapon with his outstretched arms and lining it up with his sternum. Yuta came up beside him and held his hands over Taeyong’s shoulders.

“May I?” he asked, and Taeyong nodded, allowing Yuta to press down onto his shoulders and straighten his spine. Taeyong could feel the other man’s breath and it was sending his nerves into a state he did not need them to be in, heat crawling up his neck.

“Do the countdown again,” Yuta instructed, “deep breath, and then fire. Don’t let your eyes close, alright? And try to stay still as much as possible. You can if you really engage your core.”

Taeyong nodded at all the advice and tried to follow it – attempting also to avoid noticing the watchful smile blooming on Yuta’s face in his peripheral vision. He took in a deep breath of the room’s stale air and counted down again, eyes trained on the cutout’s heart and intent not to shut.

A BANG rang out once more throughout the vestibule.

Taeyong did narrowly refrain from closing his eyes, but they seemed to have gone out of focus. Once he blinked the fuzziness from them, as if erasing an etch-a-sketch, he could see that he’d succeeded in blowing a hole through his target’s crotch.

Yuta giggled and slapped Taeyong over his right shoulder. Taeyong’s head spun. Was he supposed to be scared of this literal mob boss or not?

“I have a hunch you weren’t aiming there either, huh?” Yuta asked, and Taeyong shook his head no. “That’d definitely be an effective shot though, wouldn’t it? Might actually be better than aiming for the heart in some situations because you can make them talk while they bleed out.”

Holy shit. In an instant, Taeyong became painfully aware of his reality. He was practicing shooting because he might be in a situation where he’d need to – where others would be aiming at him the same way he was aiming at this outline of a man. What if it was him who got shot in the heart, or worse, shot in the dick and forced to bleed out horrifically? Taeyong felt lightheaded but managed to squeeze enough air from his lungs to speak.

“Do you mind me asking you a question, if it’s not too forward?”

Yuta raised an eyebrow. “Shoot,” he said, obviously amused by his own word play.

“Why am I here?” asked Taeyong. “What am I doing here now? What am I training for?” That was three questions, but oh well. Taeyong didn’t feel like being measured.

Yuta sighed and cocked his head, eyes fluttering to regard the floor.

“I had a feeling this would come up,” he said, smiling wryly this time. “Keep practicing and I’ll fill you in.”

Taeyong nodded and prepared to shoot again, hitting the target’s left shoulder this time when he pulled the trigger.

“Getting closer to the heart,” Yuta observed, appreciative. “You see, Taeyong, there are only two favorable outcomes for you now that this ball has gotten rolling.” Taeyong relaxed his arms and watched Yuta begin to pace, his face steeled by caution.

“The first, which would be preferable to the family, is that you stay on with the Inagawa-kai and devote yourself to our line of work. However, I understand that what has happened was not your choosing, and you may want to return to your normal life as soon as possible. Whichever path you choose eventually matters little to what I need you to do for now, so don’t worry about it yet.” Yuta paused, giving Taeyong a moment to recover from the way his emotions had just gone topsy-turvy like his image in a funhouse mirror. Then Yuta gestured towards the gun Taeyong was now pointing at the rubber floor. “Please continue,” he said. Taeyong hit the target in its stomach and caught a hum of approval from Yuta.

“Either way,” Yuta went on, “you will need to establish trust here. Even if you want to leave, you will have to stay on long enough and perform well enough to prove that we can trust you to be an ally even in the civilian world. Does that make sense, Taeyong?”

Bang! Left hip.

“It does,” Taeyong replied, resigned. This was all his own fault anyway. He couldn’t help his curiosity though. “Is this something that happens often?”

Yuta chuckled slightly. Bang! Sternum. Taeyong was quickly gaining enough balance and confidence to keep himself still while firing.

“Similar situations have occurred although we obviously try to avoid them. For instance, the two men who brought you in to me have been duly reprimanded for their carelessness.”

Taeyong was preparing to fire as Yuta said this and was immediately thrown off when his mind returned to the image of his abductor’s freshly severed finger, putting two and two together. Is that what a mistake gets you here? Worse, did Yuta purposefully assign that guy to escort Taeyong as some kind of warning? Taeyong was already pressing down on the trigger when this thought came to him and it caused him to misfire wildly, hitting the wall on the other end of the range a few feet from the target.

“Fuck!”

“Do you need me to stop talking?” Yuta asked.

Taeyong held the gun in his left hand while shaking out the wrist of his right, as if the problem had been purely physiological. “No! Er – sorry, just give me a moment please, Shategashira .”

“That’s alright,” said Yuta. “You’re doing pretty well for a beginner. Take a break for a bit.”

Taeyong nodded, feeling defeated but somewhat relieved.

“Similar situations,” he mused “Like what? If you don’t mind telling me.”

“Take Jungwoo, for example. He worked for a circuitry and computing firm that was under our thumb. He knew nothing about it – he was simply a technician and didn’t have access to the books – but when the small company had defied our understanding with them one too many times, Jungwoo happened to be unlucky enough to witness the consequences. We gave him the option to make it up to us by working for us. It was difficult for him at first, but now his closest friends are in our ranks and he gets to do what he loves while never needing to worry about money. So, it worked out in the end.”

Jungwoo, huh? Taeyong had thought the guy seemed a bit too cheery to be a natural gangster.

“I see. I don’t really have a thing though, that I love doing, you know?”

Yuta shrugged, then smiled in a way that was meant to be reassuring.

“Well, you may not love it, but you know about vehicle mechanics, right? That will be useful to us. However, to be honest I do feel for you, Taeyong, I really do. You caught my attention immediately and have weighed on my conscience. I want to help you make the best of this, and the best thing you can do now is quickly prove your loyalty both to me and to the people I work for. That way, you will get the most flexibility in the least time. That’s why I’m scheming to fast-track you to that point.”

Taeyong was mystified as to why his superior, who had implicitly threatened him into becoming a yakuza in the first place, was being so nice to him; so reasonable.

“What does that mean?” Taeyong asked, eyes going wide in anticipation.

Yuta leaned back against the wall and watched Taeyong from under his bangs. “I’m in the middle of a project that it would be nice if someone helped me with. It’s not inherently dangerous and it’ll give you a good idea of how we operate. If you do a good job you will both understand the world you’re now living in and if you want to stay in it, and hopefully, gain enough trust to be allowed to make that decision when the time comes.”

Taeyong’s thumb skimmed nervously over the textured handle of his revolver, eyes searching the vestibule for some sense of reality. He felt almost dizzy with exhilaration at the idea of helping Yuta out and spending more time with him - studying him. “What’s the project?” he asked.

“An investigation.”

“An investigation…” Taeyong repeated. What did he know about investigations?

“Yes,” said Yuta, “I’m gathering information on a certain executive at one of the nation’s largest companies. For blackmailing purposes.”

Taeyong almost laughed at how upfront Yuta was about this.

“Okay…”

“Is that a yes?”

“Do I have a choice?” Asked Taeyong. Yuta smiled, something almost predatory in his expression. “What would I have to do?”

“Accompany me when I go out following leads, be my lookout and my sounding board for ideas when no one else is free to help. You can be more involved depending on how well you do with that. Think you can handle it?”

That didn’t sound too out of the box for things Taeyong could do. Besides, Yuta had said “lookout” not “bodyguard” or something. Taeyong was used to fighting, but his dustups were usually with hoodlums from Shin-Ōkubo, not with armed career criminals.

Taeyong nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah I can.”

Yuta pushed himself off the wall. “Perfect. Before we finish here though, I’d like to get you to hit your target.”

The way Yuta said it so flatly made it clear to Taeyong that this was a command, not a suggestion.

“Yes, Shategashira .”

“I think I know how to help,” said Yuta, “it’s something I used to do when practicing. Do you have someone you want that to be? Someone you hate so much it makes your toes curl? Makes you want to smell their blood?”

Taeyong pictured the leader of the Specters – the boy who’d beaten him black and blue until he couldn’t hear or think; the boy who had only refrained from dragging Taeyong from a chain on the back of a car when he heard sirens coming for him, and all because Taeyong had dared to be zainichi . Sure, Taeyong wouldn’t mind a little payback. He nodded at Yuta, both men’s eyes going dark and focusing on the target.

“Good,” said Yuta, placing his hands on Taeyong’s shoulders and squeezing. This time, Taeyong’s mind had gone too cold to let the contact affect him. “Now, don’t let them get away with anything less than a bullet to the heart.”

With that, Yuta pushed away and Taeyong imagined his victim, ugly smug face and rising sun headband appearing in his mind’s eye with chilling detail. Relax, breathe out, 3, 2, 1, BANG!

Taeyong was steady as the bullet passed an inch or so from the bullseye and the sight caused a great sense of relief to wash over him, like stepping into a hot tub on a snowy day.

When he turned around, Yuta was watching him with a smirk, arms crossed over his chest.

“When do I start, Shategashira ?” asked Taeyong.

Yuta’s smirk morphed into what Taeyong could only describe as a proud grin. “You start now.”

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