#also i love when he’s trying to speak korean and he gets frustrated

[lunarsights]

Heyyy Sun! It’s good to see you on my TL again :)

I was wondering if you can do a reading of the members of ATEEZ, what are their thoughts on dating and /or marrying a foreigner who is a POC if they were not Korean or East Asian? Thank you - 🐚

𝘼𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙯 𝙤𝙣 𝘽𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙍𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙄𝙣𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨

Hongjoong

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Let Me Clear my Throat [Old School Reunion Remix ‘96]” by DJ Kool

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Five of Coins, Two of Wands (Rx), King of Coins (Rx), Four of Coins, Seven of Wands

Final Answer: Page of Wands, Nine of Coins, The Hanged Man

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

hongjoong seems a little hesitant to be romantically involved with a foreigner. this could be in relation to not knowing enough or even this question being too broad; there could be certain ethnic or racial groups he’s had more experience around, so he feels more comfortable, but it’s like he knows there’s a wide “array” of people, so it almost doesn’t make sense to make a blanket statement. most of the foreigners he might’ve had the opportunity of being romantic with might’ve been fans or aware of his career, so there’s a worry of running into people only into him for that aspect that could be making him hesitant also. he could be closed off from engaging with foreigners romantically as a result; “one bad apple spoils the bunch” in this idea, but seven of wands is present showing that if someone was persistent enough “and had/has the right intentions”, then he’d likely be open. he is genuinely interested in connecting with foreigners though! it seems he’d want to be with someone who has something going for themselves though, so he wouldn’t have to worry about being used. 

TLDR; solid maybe

Seongwha

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Be Gone Thot!” by Lil Mayo

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Page of Swords, The Hermit, Four of Cups, The Empress (Rx)

Final Answer: The World (Rx), Knight of Wands (Rx), Four of Coins, Eight of Cups

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

despite the shufflemancy song and the way all the cards seem, seonghwa could actually be interested in the idea of being romantic with a foreigner. it could be the type of things where in his head he’s curious, but he’s apprehensive to actually do it in real life for a multitude of reasons. he could get very caught up in all the ways things could go wrong? like the media could find out and how would he deal with that? how would a nda even work? how would the relationship even work? would they “learn to speak” korean? he seems to be blocking his actual want to interact with foreigners romantically because of these worries. therefore, his answer right now is that he wouldn’t be romantically involved with a foreigner. he could feel he’ll be more stressed and frustrated with all the trials of dealing with the relationship and therefore it would be better to stay away from being interested altogether. 

TLDR; technically is interested, but thinks a lot about the logistical side and therefore would not

Yunho

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Creep” by TLC

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Page of Wands (Rx), The Star, Wheel of Fortune, Three of Cups, The World

Final Answer: The Sun

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

yunho could be a little naïve when it comes to interacting with foreigners romantically (or even in general “sometimes”). he seems interested and hopeful though with the star being present! he could have an idea along the lines of “i don’t know a ton about that, but i’m interested/curious”. he could see things going either way in being easy or hard to deal with. he might be more open to the idea if he was introduced to a foreigner via his friends or family or a gathering; he’d like the chance to interact naturally before trying to flirt or things like that. overall, it seems he has this idea that love can come “from anywhere at any time”. 

TLDR; strong yes

Yeosang

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Monkey Wrench” by the Foo Fighters

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Eight of Swords, Strength, Ten of Swords (Rx), Ace of Wands, Eight of Coins

Final Answer: Ace of Cups, Four of Cups, The Empress

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

at one point in time yeosang might’ve been worried about being romantic with foreigners. this could’ve been out of feeling like they were too different, but it seems more likely it was out of feeling like he himself was too different. it’s not like he necessarily had the idea that he would be “the problem”, but he might’ve been self conscious about showing up in the relationship – maybe in relation to not being culturally sensitive enough, being worried about adapting to someone else’s culture, and things aligned with that. now, he seems to have done away with those thoughts, and he’s a lot more confident. he might believe it’s “inevitable” to interact with people who are different from him, so there’s no reason to bar them from dating him. he also seems to acknowledge he would still need to work on being “sensitive” and “aware”, but it’s something he’s willing to do (if needed). 

TLDR; yes

San

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“the light is coming” by Ariana Grande (feat. Nicki Minaj)

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Ace of Wands, Nine of Coins, The Hierophant (Rx), The Sun, Two of Swords (Rx)

Final Answer: Justice, Ten of Wands (Rx), The Moon (Rx)

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

san could view being romantic with foreigners as a new way to interact with people. he could be in a period of life where he’s in contact with foreigners more than ever (and maybe finding interest in them as result), so he could see his attraction as result of this contact. with the hierophant in reverse he’s definitely open to breaking traditions and doing his own thing although he does “appreciate them”. he could more so be focused on being happy in his life, so suffering or missing out on a wanted love because of tradition may not be his thing; he might be more afraid of not experiencing true joy than the fear of possible ostracization. his focus is on his own personal happiness, and if a foreigner is part of that, then “that’s fine”. 

TLDR; strong yes

Mingi

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Return of the Mack” by Mack Morrison

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

The Empress, The Devil, Eight of Swords (Rx), Nine of Swords, Three of Coins (Rx), Three of Wands

Final Answer: Nine of Wands (Rx), Nine of Cups, The Emperor 

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

he kinda delves into ideal type, but mingi could be into people he can make strong connections with. the idea of “soul ties” and “soul tying” comes to mind. at one point in time he could’ve felt restricted when it came to who he was attracted to or who he “could show attraction to”, but he’s let go of these restrictions despite continued concerns. he might’ve had romantic attractions to foreigners before/for a long time, but viewed them as unrealistic to pursue (or people told him it was unrealistic or “silly” for him to do). now, it seems he’s able to do so freely, and he’s “happy about that”.  despite this, there is still an air of things being unknown? maybe the ideas people pushed on him have stronger foundations than he thought they did? like people around him have been pessimistic for so long that on an unconscious level he’s taken those whispers more into account than he think he has. 

TLDR; maybe; he wants to be able to say yes, but is still reckoning with what people have told him

Wooyoung

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“There Goes My Baby” by Charlie Wilson

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Five of Swords (Rx), King of Swords, The Star, Ace of Wands, Knight of Wands, Six of Coins (Rx)

Final Answer: Wheel of Fortune, The Magician

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

wooyoung could be the type of person who at the end of the day has to “be honest with [himself]”. he really values honesty and being courageous and outspoken about who he is, so this kind of gives the energy that the way he portrays himself is the way he is.”it’s obvious, no?” comes to mind. he could find it engaging to talk with foreigners in general, and he’s definitely an intentional flirt with the knight of wands present. he might be hesitant to fully engage for some reason. it could be similar to hongjoong’s situation in that people try to take advantage of his status, but it feels like something else also. there could’ve been a situation where he tried to “go all in” in some way with a foreigner and ended up getting his feelings hurt, so he could be a little hesitant to settle down with one, but this feels like a temporary feeling. 

TLDR; likely yes

Jongho

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Story of Us” by Tinashe

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Five of Swords, King of Swords, Three of Cups, Page of Swords, Death (Rx), Seven of Wands

Final Answer: Wheel of Fortune, Knight of Cups

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

jongho could feel as if being romantic with foreigners goes against the life he might have dreamed up for himself. he could enjoy the company of foreigners especially in regards to talking with them and learning more about things through them, but his interest could mainly stop there. he might’ve even tried to seek out foreigners he might be attracted to (maybe in that they have similar features or personality types to people he’s usually attracted to who are korean), but he doesn’t necessarily feel compelled to specifically seek out foreigners. this could be a situation where if he came across someone he's interested in he may think about it a little more, but currently he’s not really attracted to foreigners romantically. 

TLDR; maybe, but likely no as he just doesn’t find himself romantically attracted to them

[thoughtsforsoob]

you’re frustrated because you’re struggling to learn Korean - txt

a/n: hello! I thought this post would be a little relatable bc I’m struggling rn with Japanese (but not bc of a man 😋). So much kanji to remember and so many words that they just all mush together. I love the language but it is testing my patience and my memory rn :( please enjoy this and lemme know if y’all speak other languages :) it’s cool to know im not the only one struggling with a trilingual brain🥰 requests are open as usual (no pics belong to me! Found on Pinterest)

yeonjun

It was actually his idea to teach you Korean, starting with basic stuff such as phrases at the convenience store and at coffee shops. He knew it would help when you had to go out places on your own. You’re on the phone with him after he’s hyped you up and refreshed some phrases for ordering coffee. You finally are up to order and while your pronunciation has been good, you mispronounce a word and your face goes red. You apologize to the cashier who was very understanding and helped you say the word correctly. You paid and thanked them for their kindness. Yeonjun heart could burst at how the cashier was patient with you and how you tried your best and finally said the word right. “Oh my goodness! You did amazing! Next time you’re ordering coffee for the both of us.”

soobin

As the days went by, he could see your passion for learning his language was dwindling. You were struggling with your conjugation skills and he was just trying his best to help you learn and eventually practice. You both are sitting at the kitchen table, with your textbook in front of you (giving flashbacks to elementary math homework). He’s giving you example of conjugations your currently learning and how to used them. It’s starts to all mush up and you can’t figure it out or focus. You start to cry into your hands. He pulls you close to him, “don’t be sad. I promise that you’re gonna learn really soon. I believe in you.” That’s all it took for you to keep trying. He also promised he’d take you for a melona pop if you tried a few more conjugations (I love melona I’m so sorry 🤤…melon and banana are the best flavors not sorry)

beomgyu

homie is so serious and you get mad at him because of that. he’s teaching you silly phrases and on one occasion, he purposely teaches you the wrong phrase. So, you’re out at lunch with his members and you try the phrase on yeonjun and he looks so confused. “Did you just call me dumb?” Your face is furiously red and you run off, crying. Your frustration sets in. Why would be do this to me? He comes after you after giving you some time to cool down. “Baby? I’m so sorry. I didn’t think that would make you so upset. I promise I won’t do it anymore. We’re gonna get serious I swear.” He lures you out by telling you he’s gonna start teaching you from a really good Tex ok that was recommended to him. He also explains to yeonjun what happened and yeonjun gives him an earful as well, taking you side.

taehyun

he actually is a really good person to help teach you. He has the patience of a saint when teaching you grammar. If you’ve attempted Korean, you know how challenging grammar can be to understand. Let’s say you’re out at a restaurant and try to order your own food..you make a mistake and the waiter is looking at you like huh? You start to feel embarrassed but taehyun explains you’re still learning and has you try it again. When you get it right this time, he smiled and the waited smiled as well. The pride he feels when he can see your improvement is like no other. “You did such a good job, honey. Tell you what, how about we get some ice cream after? You deserve a little treat.”

huening kai

I feel like he’d be very empathetic and understanding towards your struggle. He speaks many languages too and understands how frustrating when something isn’t sticking or when you forget words or grammar. For example, you’re at home and you’re both working on vocabulary. you messed up a few words in a row and start to feel discouraged. His best tool to keep you motivated to learn was tell you he was proud of you. He would always encourage you the best he could, “you’re for this bub! I’m so proud of you! I’m gonna keep helping you until you’ve got this :)”

[zikariogirl]

‘ 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 ’ — 𝐣𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐚𝐧-𝐬𝐞𝐨𝐤

part one, PART TWO

summary ┆ as vincenzo’s sister, you were asked to help him out with a certain situation he was handling in korea - spying on a evil-corrupted CEO, who has no care for others. you were strategic, smart, and the best of the best. . . but who knew you would fall in love with a psychopath.

warnings ┆ nsfw scenes, violence, HEAVY swearing

key:

normal = english

bold = korean

italics = italian

Ever since you confessed your feelings towards Han-seok, your life has been at a full bliss — not to mention how magical that night felt. The two of you completely ditched the party and checked in at an exclusive hotel where you fucked all night and all morning. You both agreed to only reveal your relationship to Ms. Choi, Mr. Han, and Han-seo, and that it would be better to keep your relationship private and far away from the media.

The only issue now is you don’t know where your loyalty lies anymore. You’re still an undercover spy for Vincenzo right now, regardless on how you feel towards Han-seok. Your duty is to report back to your brother, something you’ve been slacking on a lot, but also because your crazy boyfriend won’t leave you out of his sight at all. Whenever you get the chance to be on your phone — away from Han-seok’s eyes — you would give Vincenzo very little intel, something that he’s starting to grow suspicious of but you kept promising him that’s all you know. You’re not sure how long it’ll be until he realizes the truth.

Hopefully he won’t for your sake.

But there’s also the fact that you’re lying to Han-seok. You’re genuinely terrified of what he’ll do and how he will react when he finds out your true identity. Will he believe you when you try to explain that you actually like him? Is he going to kill you for “toying” with his heart? He’s dangerous and although you could handle him, he’s very unpredictable.

You were too lost in your thoughts to even notice Han-seok driving at an extreme speed. The moment he swerved the SUV to the left to avoid hitting a car, you snapped out of your trance and looked at him.

“Han-seok!” You yelled. “What the fuck is your problem?!”

“That fucking Italian scumbag and Cha-young are going to pay,” he lowly muttered to himself but you were able to hear him.

“What do you mean?”

“I know it was them,” he gripped the steering wheel. “Breaking into the arty gallery. Knowing about the paper company. They know, so. Much. Information.”

He unexpectedly yelled out in frustration, causing you to flinch. Even though you’ve been around him for so much you’re still not fully used to his outbursts.

You also weren’t aware of any plan that consisted of breaking in to an art gallery that held secret information for Babel. Yes, you may have been slacking lately with your information but Vincenzo always made sure to tell you everything about their plans — just in case you needed to keep Han-seok distracted.

Are they keeping information from you now? It’s not like you deserve to know now anyways, but still. You felt a little betrayed.

Speak for yourself.

You ignored your thoughts and held on tightly as Han-seok kept driving at an extreme speed. “Baby, can you please slow down.”

“No.”

“Han-seok.”

“Shut up.”

“You fucking son of a bitch,” you quietly muttered to yourself.

“Hm, what was that?” He stepped on the gas even more. “Did you just curse at me?”

“Han-seok, stop!” Your heart began to beat erratically at how swiftly you were zooming past every car. “You better stop with your fucking tantrum or I’m sleeping at my place tonight.”

He cackled. “As if.”

“You wanna bet? I would love to see you try and stop me.”

His nostrils flared and he slowly lifted his foot off the gas, the SUV finally going back to normal speed.

“Fine. You’re no fun.”

“I would rather not die,” you huffed before crossing your arms over your chest.

He shot you a quick glance before reaching over — definitely to touch your boob — but you just smacked his hand away and he scowled.

“You lost your boob touch privileges for the next hour.”

It wasn’t long until you both arrived at the art gallery, heading inside and making a direct bee line into the director’s office. Ms. Choi and Han-seo were already waiting for you, and you took notice of a red-head lady facing down. The three of them snapped their heads towards your direction, and she looked mortified when her eyes landed on Han-seok. The stillness in the air made the atmosphere very suffocating, letting you know that something bad was bound to happen in a few seconds.

Han-seok put his best poker face on as he took a seat in one of the chairs. “Well?” He faintly smiled up at Ms. Choi.

“They managed to steal the file that holds all of the information about the paper company, sir.”

You bit the inside of your cheek. “Was it Vincenzo and Cha-young?”

“Yes. We looked through the security cameras. It was confirmed to be them, along with a few other suspicious people. We’re sure they were all working together.”

They did it. They actually did it. A few months ago you would’ve been internally cheering for them and then invite them for drinks after.

But you’re the complete opposite right now. You’re hurt. Betrayed. Angry. Probably because you feel a small ounce of protectiveness against Han-seok, and also because Vincenzo — your brother — never told you about this little heist they had planned out. You felt Han-seok’s hand touch your arm, signaling you that he wanted his emergency gummy bears.

Yes, this psychopath has a secret stash of gummy bears he likes to carry around.

You pulled out the bag and handed it over. His silence spoke more than words, and you already knew he was a ticking time bomb, with just a few minutes left until he blows up.

“Why would you hold such a stupid event and cause so much trouble?” Han-seo began to scold the red-head. “The gallery is not your playground!”

She immediately got on her knees and began to bow at Han-seok, causing you to lift an eyebrow in her direction. “I’m so sorry, sir.”

But Han-seok remained unbothered, if anything, Han-seo was the one who seemed furious as he slammed his hand on the table. “This won’t end with you.”

His little outburst made your boyfriend speak up. “Be quiet. I’m thinking.”

“This is ridiculous,” Han-seo answered. “It’s like she doesn’t think at all!”

You’ve never seen him so angry before. It was definitely a sight to see, a rare one as of matter of fact. You were just about to speak until Ms. Choi beat you to it.

“You should leave the country before they bar you from going abroad,” she suggested.

What?!

“Why? Go where?” You asked.

“Yeah, why?” Han-seo jumped in. “I’ll take the fall for him. Why bother?”

“All the evidence they have points to you. They will be able to track the IP address from the gallery back to your home,” Ms. Choi explained the situation.

You felt yourself clenching and unclenching your fists at the thought of the police arresting Han-seok. Was that actually possible? Maybe there could be a way around it. Your mind began to wander at any possible ideas that could save him from going to prison, but while you did this, you took notice in the way Han-seo’s facial expression changed at the information. He almost looked…relieved. You narrowed your eyes at him, waiting for him to look in your direction, and the moment he locked eyes with you he swiftly looked away, showing clear signs of being uncomfortable.

You returned your attention back to Han-seok who was already looking up at you. A part of you wanted him to stay, but if whatever Ms. Choi was saying is true and whatever was on that file can send him to prison, you did not want to risk it. You shot him a sad smile, letting him know that you’re okay with him going away for a bit.

“Han-seo. Get me and ______ the earliest flight leaving for New York now.”

“Wait what?”

“Yes, sir.”

You and Han-seo spoke at the same time. You could tell Ms. Choi was also caught by surprise at his request, and you furrow your brows down at him. “You want me to go?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

“I feel like I won’t be as much use to you in New York. If anything, I want to track Vincenzo down for you. Just give me the order, please, and I’ll do it.”

As much as New York with him sounds fun, you need to see Vincenzo immediately. Other than giving him a piece of your mind, maybe there’s a way you can delete whatever file they stole, which will save Han-seok from prison.

Look at you, wanting to yell at your brother for not filling you in on their plan but you’re also trying to help the enemy. Hypocrite.

Stop. You need to stop thinking about that.

Han-seok shrugged at your suggestion. “There will be no need for that. New York isn’t always safe either. You’ll be there as my bodyguard, to protect me.”

Of course he would use that excuse.

You noticed Han-seo taking his leave as he began to look for flights for you both. The room grew quiet again, which made Han-seok stand up from his chair and slowly walk towards something that you assumed was a piece of marble. Your eyes followed his form, eyeing him suspiciously, before he suddenly began to angrily stomp on the marble slab on the floor.

Yep, there it is. His angry outburst that was waiting to happen.

He lifted up the piece and began to slam it down onto the floor, causing the red-haired director to silently cry at the sight in front of her.

He bellowed out one last scream before turning his body towards Ms. Choi. “Before I leave, I want to see Vincenzo’s dead body.”

She nodded her head at his demand, but you? You felt your blood run cold at his words. Why is he asking her that? Did the two of them plan something behind your back? Did Han-seok also go behind your back without letting you know? Your body began to tremble at all the questions that spurred in your head, and you didn’t even notice Han-seo walking back inside the room, confirming your flight.

No, you didn’t want to fly with him if he fucking lied to you and went behind your back. Hell no.

You remained quiet, not wanting to say a word. It seemed like everyone else was on edge as well. You weren’t afraid of them killing Vincenzo since it’s nearly impossible to make it happen. Your brother is the best of the best, and Korea is definitely not prepared for his twisted games.

And they’re most certainly not prepared for yours either. The next few minutes will determine if Han-seok lied to you or not, and that’s enough to make you worry, because if it turns out to be true, you don’t know what you’ll do.

The sound of Ms. Choi’s phone buzzing made you turn your head in her direction as she desperately fished out her phone from her pocket. The way her eyes widened from fear already told you enough and Han-seo stole the phone from her grip as he furrowed his eyes at the screen.

“They failed again,” he stated.

You didn’t miss the way Han-seok’s head snapped towards his direction. The younger brother brought the phone over to him, and he looked furious as he stared at the screen.

“He’s so hard to kill.”

You had enough of this bullshit. You angrily marched towards the two brothers, shoved Han-seo to the side, and snatched the phone from Han-seok’s hands. Your eyes focused on the picture and you felt your hand began to shake when you recognized the three men that laid dead on the floor. They’re Paolo’s hit men. They were able to get in contact with him — with your piece of shit brother. This was more than you expected. This was strategically planned out. They kept this from you? Even though you’re the one who’s supposed to be in charge of this?

“Why wasn’t I made aware of this?”

You didn’t even recognize your own voice.

Han-seok raised an eyebrow at you. “Hm?”

“Why. Wasn’t. I. Made. Aware. Of. This.”

“Because me and Ms. Choi had it under control.”

You didn’t even think twice when you angrily threw the phone into the wall, causing it to smash into a million pieces. All three of them flinched at your sudden outburst but Ms. Choi quickly regained her composure as she pointed at you.

“You! What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“You shut up you stupid fucking bitch! I’ll kill you!” You pointed back at her. “As for you,” you returned your attention to Han-seok. “Why the fuck am I here for huh!? Didn’t you hire me to do this shit?!

“You were obviously failing too much so we had to take matters into our own hands,” Ms. Choi barked back.

“Oh wow and look at where that got you,” you sarcastically laughed in return. “You wanna know what you are? A stupid fucking rookie. All of your moves against Vincenzo are laughable. You go for the obvious blow. You always leave fingerprints behind. You’re sloppy. You have no fucking clue how the Italian Mafia works, but I do.”

You began to walk towards her. “I’ve worked so close to these mafia bastards. I’ve been on countless missions for and against them. I know their weaknesses. I know how they think and how they work. Why do you think I haven’t killed Vincenzo yet, huh? Because he’s the best of the best. I’ve heard stories about him back when I was in Italy, and he was one of the top consigliere’s in the country. This isn’t some guy you can simply waltz with. Oh no. If you want to dance with him without having him step on your feet, then you need to learn how to move with him. You need to learn his moves. When he’s going to twirl you around, when he’s going to dip you down, and when he plans to finish his dance. That’s why I haven’t killed that bastard yet, because I’m slowly learning his moves. So when the right time comes, I can trip him in our little dance, causing him to fall completely.”

“Well it’s a little hard trusting a mercenary who turned herself into a prostitute–”

You didn’t even give her time to blink. Your hands wrapped around her neck as you pushed her down onto the floor, the sound of screaming going off in the background. Her eyes widened in fear as she frantically began to swing her arms to hit you in he face, but you quickly pinned her arms down above her head as your right hand began to squeeze hard against her skin. Her face was turning purple, and the feel of her body trashing underneath you in an attempt to escape sent a wild wave of exhilaration through you.

You felt a pairs of hands grab you from behind and you quickly turned around and punched them, not even caring to see who it was. Ms. Choi’s eyes were rolling at the back of her head and you nearly smiled until you felt two different pairs of hands pull you off of her.

“Stop,” Han-seok breathed into your ear. You broke free from his and Han-seo’s grasp, not even caring to check on the poor younger brother who was the victim of your right hook.

You were breathing heavily, from both adrenaline and anger. “Don’t fucking call me for anything anymore. I’m fucking done,” you snapped. “You want to hire shitty people and piss Vincenzo off more? Fine by me. Go ahead and sign your own death wish for all I care. I’m leaving back to Italy tonight.”

You saw him tense up at your words, and you didn’t give him a chance to speak since you continued to ramble on.

“You fucking lied to me. You told me you were laying off Vincenzo for a while and would let me know when you were ready to deal with him. Instead, you went behind my fucking back and planned this all out with Ms. Choi. The least you could’ve done was include me in your little meetings.”

You didn’t have a right to be mad, especially since you’ve been lying to him for the start. You’re crying to him about betrayal yet you’re the biggest snake in this room. Maybe it’s because you felt hurt and betrayed by both Vincenzo and Han-seok, since they equally went behind your back to plan something out. On top of that, they almost killed Vincenzo. You don’t know how exactly your brother survived their attack but one thing you did know was that they were close in taking him away from you. They almost got what they wished for.

“Good luck with your bullshit.”

You left it at that as you began to march out the door, but a firm hand gripped your own. You didn’t even have to turn around to know who it was.

“Stay, please. I’ll explain everything on the flight.”

“I’m not flying with you,” you shook him off. “And I’m not staying. Leave me alone.”

You didn’t want to look at him, because deep down, you knew his pleading eyes will make you stay. Even though you almost killed Ms. Choi, you were thankful in hearing her very hoarse voice speak, letting Han-seok know that they must head to the airport immediately.

You took that as your sign and left, feeling both relieved and upset that Han-seok didn’t try to stop you that time. Your eyes were starting to cloud with tears and you quickly wiped them away as you hailed a cab and began to make your way to Geumga Plaza. It was late at night so everyone must be in their rooms by now, and because of that you rushed up the stairs towards Vincenzo’s. You angrily pounded at the door and he was quick to open it, giving you the chance to storm inside.

“You know, I could’ve easily fooled you as someone else and killed you.”

“I’m not in the mood for your jokes,” you pointed at him. “What the fuck happened today?”

“What happened to you?” He raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t stopped by to say hello anymore. Is everything okay?”

“Fine. Han-seok won’t let me out of his sight. Now, tell me about this plan of yours you had about sneaking into the art gallery and taking a file!”

“Ah, well, Cha-young and I found some information regarding to Babel’s paper company. We needed a team in order to break in.”

“And why wasn’t I told about this?”

He hummed. “You’ve been acting suspicious lately.”

You swallowed at his words. “Suspicious how?”

Vincenzo walked towards one of the cabinets as he poured himself a drink. “Drink?” He asked, which made you shake your head in return. “Well, you haven’t been honest with me. You’ve been keeping information from us.”

“Says who?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, you tell me.”

So he doesn’t know. He’s probably suspicious of you, but he doesn’t have concrete proof that you are in fact dating Han-seok out of your own free will. You looked down towards the floor, taking in a deep breath before exhaling.

“I just don’t understand why you planned this all out with people you barely even know. I’m your sister. We’re family. You always tell me things, but you kept this from me. You kept something this huge from me. On top of that, you almost died,” the image of Paolo’s three hit men flashed in your head, “I felt like you didn’t need me.”

His silence towards your last remark made you want to die, since it felt like he wasn’t acknowledging how you felt. Why can’t he just fucking talk to you? What’s so hard about that? You sucked up your pain and clenched your teeth together as you slightly switched the topic.

“I almost blew my cover when I found out that out.”

“What’d you do?”

So he responds to that? Cue your heart breaking.

“I almost killed Ms. Choi.”

He choked on his drink at your words, his eyes slightly widening. “What did you do to her?”

You slightly smiled at the satisfying memory. “I choked her and almost succeeded until the two Jang brothers pulled me off. If anything she’ll be left with a very bruised neck, possibly some soreness in her vocal chords.”

He chuckled at your response and shook his head in disapproval. “You really do have the worst temper.”

“Well I grew up with you, how can I not?”

Even though you were still upset and feeling betrayed by him, you couldn’t stay mad forever. You did almost lose him tonight, and spending time with him was something you certainly did not want to bypass — even if he’s somewhat disregarding your feelings. You drank a couple of drinks with Vincenzo before crashing out at his place, forgetting about the fact that you told Han-seok you were going to spend the night at your apartment.

It’s not like it mattered anyways, he was most likely already flying to New York by now, and that’s something you debated on telling Vincenzo or not.

By the next morning, everyone oddly seemed to be in a good mood. When Mr. Nam informed you that Prosecutor Jung arrested Han-seok last night with the information they stole, you almost lost it. Another thing Vincenzo forgot to mention when you two were drinking.

But why should you care? You’re the one who walked out on him and told him to never contact you again. He’s on his own now, and his precious Ms. Choi can bail him out if needed. He preferred having her do his dirty work anyways, since the only thing he needed you for was to let out his sexual frustration.

You were feeling betrayed both by Vincenzo and Han-seok, and you genuinely did not know how to feel.

After watching Prosecutor Jung’s speech on how he was wrong for his speculation against Babel and witnessing Cha-young lose it, you felt like you needed to leave. To everyone else, Vincenzo seemed pretty collected, but deep down you knew he was at the brink of losing it too. Their reactions towards his betrayal made you question yourself, and the whole atmosphere was suffocating. There’s no doubt in mind that you’re going to hurt them when they find out about you and Han-seok. How it wasn’t just a front anymore and how you cared about him. How you’re morally fucking this up for everyone — including yourself.

But seeing Cha-young and Vincenzo’s interaction made your heart clench. Only an idiot would not know that there’s blatantly something going on between them. The way he chased after her and was holding onto her arm while attempting to calm her down…you knew. You knew that your brother somehow managed to find love while he stowed away in Korea. It wasn’t planned, you knew he didn’t expect this. You were happy he found someone.

But do you have a right to feel that same happiness? You wouldn’t go as far and say you love Han-seok, but your feelings for him are pretty serious. Your love life is complicated — your fault though — and your boyfriend slash ex-boyfriend wants to kill your brother, and your brother wants to kill him. It’s not the most ideal situation you want to be in.

Maybe you can steer Han-seok away from his corrupted ways? Get him to just leave Babel to Han-seo and move away with you as far away from Korea as possible. You two could possibly move to the States. Maybe you could convince him, and if not, then you can just leave him be and help Vincenzo how you originally planned.

You didn’t even bother to say goodbye to anyone as you left the plaza and went back to your place. Walking in, the place felt a bit eerie since you haven’t necessarily been staying here for the past few weeks. Some of your stuff is still at Han-seok’s place so you were thankful to have left a few items behind. You quickly changed into a pair of black leggings and a white sports bra, adding a thin athletic jacket over you just in case.

Most of your day was spent working out and getting your mind off of things. Your body was mentally exhausted and you needed a breather from the world around you. For the first time in a while, you felt refreshed. You were heading back inside to your place with your headphones playing ‘No Hands’ at full blast.

“Girl drop it to the floor! I love the way your booty go – HOLY FUCK!”

You had a near damn heart attack when you walked inside your apartment and noticed Han-seok standing in the living room. His hair was disheveled and he had a crazed look on his face, but the moment his eyes landed on you, they widened.

“What are you doing here? I thought–”

You didn’t even get to finish talking before you felt him slam his lips against yours. He pulled you close and held your body tightly, and you almost caved in to the kiss but then remembered the whole altercation in the art gallery.

You shoved Han-seok away and shot him a glare. “I thought I told you I was done.”

“I thought you left,” he completely ignored your words as he began to talk. “I came by your apartment last night and you weren’t here. I searched for you and didn’t get any sleep. Then I had to return to Babel to discuss some matters before making my way back here, only to find your apartment empty once again. I thought you were gone, that you managed to leave the country without a trace. I was about to hire some of my best men to track you down…but now that I know you never left, where were you last night?”

“That’s none of your concern,” you turned around to grab a water bottle from the fridge but he rushed to your side and slammed the fridge door shut.

“Wrong answer,” he hummed before cupping your cheeks with his free hand. “Now, where were you?”

“Take your hand off me before I drop kick you,” you threatened.

He whistled and did as you asked. “You were out with some guy weren’t you?”

“No I wasn’t,” you dryly laughed. “All of the men here in Korea are a bunch of liars and not worth the effort, including you.”

“Are you going to continue to whine or will you let me explain why I had Ms. Choi do my dirty work for me?”

“Oh yeah, I would love to hear your excuse,” you responded with sarcasm.

Suddenly, you felt him grab your hand and twirl you around to face him. His eyes were full of emotion as they gazed down on you, and his features were soft, something that slightly shocked you. Ever since you met Han-seok, he’s been a mixture of serious, psychotic, and a dork. There was no in between since he would change his attitude in just a quick snap of his fingers. He was unpredictable — never letting you know what was going on in his head.

But this moment, right now, he was an open book. He looked vulnerable and weak, and that was enough to make you listen.

“Ididntwanthimtohurtyou,” he rapidly spoke, making you squint at him.

“What?”

He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes, giving himself a second before he could respond. “I didn’t want him to hurt you,” he begun, “he’s not someone you can test the waters with and expect to come out fine. He’s dangerous. You’ve seen what he’s capable of and you’ve run into him several times before. I still remember that one time you showed up bleeding almost everywhere. I…I don’t want him to go after you, and having Ms. Choi do my dirty work instead wont put you in harms way.”

Does…does he actually care for you? The Jang Han-seok, the CEO who’s made it clear he does not care about anyone else but himself. The same CEO who never shows any form of emotions — only anger. The same CEO who threatens his subordinates, including his brother, because they fail to do something right or just pester him.

“I need you, okay?”

His words left you stunned. Your brain was trying to process everything that was going on.

“You…need me?” You audibly whispered.

“Yes baby.”

“But do you mean you need my skills?”

He shook his head and tilted your chin up, his eyes meeting yours. “No. Even though you’re a fucking badass, I need you. You have weaved your way into my heart and I don’t plan on losing you.”

You’re literally about to melt right there.

You grabbed his face with your hands and pulled him down to you, pressing your lips against his in a desperate kiss. Han-seok responded almost immediately, and he hoisted you up, making you to wrap your legs around his waist as he began to walk you towards your bedroom.

His lips knew every sensitive spot in your body, and he took his time savoring you, exploring you, and making you feel special like the fucking goddess you are. He wanted to show you how much you meant to him, so he was at your complete mercy tonight. You were currently riding his face while his hands gripped your thighs, his tongue flicking and playing with your sensitive areas.

You writhed above him as you began to reach your high. “H-Han-seok I’m gonna…”

He quickly flipped you over so you were on your back and wasted no time sliding back inside you. “That’s it baby. I got you.”

He began to thrust as he held himself up on his elbows. Your moans echoed throughout your room and all you could do was gaze into his brown orbs. He cupped your cheek and snaked an arm underneath your back, pressing you closer to him.

“You’re so beautiful. My fucking baby.”

He connected your lips together in a passionate kiss as he began to pick up the pace. You wrapped your arms around his neck, kissing him back with so much passion while the two of you moved together in sync, slowly picking up the pace in a feverish way. You felt yourself cum first before Han-seok followed suit, spilling his seed inside you without a care.

The two of you continued to kiss and hold each other close, not wanting to let the other go. You both come from two different worlds, but at the same time, they’re similar in a sense. Unlike everyone you’ve known so far in your life, Han-seok needs you. Your father didn’t want you. The Cassano family accepted you then tossed you aside the moment they found something better. Vincenzo left Italy without thinking about how you would feel and only contacted you when he needed help, because he needed your skills.

You’ve never been put first your whole life, you were always just the person who filled the void in peoples lives, and when you weren’t needed anymore, you were tossed away. Forgotten. But Han-seok? He wants you. He needs you. He���s the first person to make you feel wanted in such a long time.

And honestly, you were not going to let that go.

-

Time has passed and matters were getting much more heated between Babel and Jipuragi Law Firm. Just like Han-seok promised, he has not bothered to send you on a mission to go after Vincenzo, instead, you’ve been doing some of his dirty work for him.

You’ve slowly been losing contact with Vincenzo again. It hurt knowing you two were growing distant, but he seemed to prefer confiding in his new family at Geumga Plaza than you. You might’ve been slow in delivering information but he still could’ve gone to you if he needed anything. Sure, you weren’t being fully honest with him, but you weren’t going to sabotage him in any shape, way, or form.

You also have been trying to grow close with Han-seo, especially since you felt bad after punching him in the face. The younger Jang brother laughed it off and reassured you it wasn’t a big deal, but he seemed terrified talking to you. It was definitely Han-seok’s doing and you know it.

But with everything that’s going on, you should expect the worse to happen.

You were staying at Han-seok’s place, cooking up a quick meal for you since he was out discussing matters with Ms. Choi. You despise that bitch, and you hate how close her and Han-seok are. You don’t care how old she fucking is, but a deep part of you always grew jealous when he had important matters to attend with her.

He can talk it with me too.

You were too busy angrily mumbling to yourself to even hear the front door close. A familiar pair of arms wrapped themselves around you as Han-seok hugged you from behind and began to kiss your neck.

“How was your date with Ms. Choi? You two have fun?”

“Hm, are you jealous baby?”

“Are you drunk?”

The smell of alcohol burned your nose when he spoke. You set the pan aside so the food wouldn’t burn as you quickly turned around to look at him. He didn’t hesitate in slipping his hands underneath your shirt — well, his shirt to be exact — and grazing the bottom skin of your breasts.

“Baby…you’re not wearing a bra?”

“Don’t change the subject,” you cupped his face to look at him. “Why were you drinking?”

“Because I can’t kill that bastard, and he’s been taking everything away from me,” he slurred before resting his forehead on your shoulder. “I need to find his family.”

Your breathing hitched. “Why?”

“Because then I can make him suffer. He must have a mother out there. Someone that’s family to him that he cares about.”

You’re looking at her. You thought to yourself. Even if you weren’t on big speaking terms with him, he still cares.

“I doubt he has family,” you wanted to steer him away from his assumption. “Mafia members usually don’t have any family left, and seeing how he’s Korean-Italian, I doubt his parents are alive. It’ll just be a dead end.”

He hummed at your response. “You can never be too sure.”

“Baby, I have no one left. Anyone I worked with back in Italy is the same.” He began to kiss your neck again, almost distracting you but you couldn’t have any of that. “I know him and Cha-young have something going on.”

He stilled at your words but kept his lips on your skin. “Really?”

“Mhm,” you nodded. “I think you should start with her.”

Even though you feel bad about suggesting Cha-young as a target, you didn’t want them going after Vincenzo’s mom. You met her once and she seems like a sweet lady. She’s been through a lot as well, and you still remember the rage you felt when you found out about what her previous employer did to her. Scummy men who prey on innocent women for their own sexual desires deserve the worst, and you had a mental celebration when you were made aware that he passed away.

He should’ve been tortured by Vincenzo, if anything.

Han-seok pulled away as he looked down at you, seeming to be in deep thought. “Maybe, we’ll see. But for now,” he tore his shirt off of you — like actually ripped apart — and his eyes trailed your body with hunger as you stood there exposed, wearing just your lace underwear.

“Han-seok!” You gasped. “I was making food!”

“Well baby I’m hungry too,” he smirked before ripping away your underwear and setting you down on the cold counter.

Then he proceeded to eat you out and it felt fucking amazing.

-

Life has not been easy ever since.

After articles about Han-seok’s past surfaced, he sent you to kill Oh Jeong-bae, the CEO of Daechang Daily. You finished it without a problem and left as the clean up crew that Ms. Choi sent arrived to pick up his body. What you didn’t know was that they planned to frame Vincenzo, but did it unsuccessfully since he’s always one step ahead of them.

You’ve been going on more secret dates with Han-seok and have practically moved in with him at this point. You were out running some errands when your phone began to ring, Han-seok’s name popping up on the car’s screen.

“Yes, sir?” You have to keep it professional at first, just in case anyone is in ear shot view.

“Baby! Come celebrate with us!”

He seemed to be in a very cheerful mood. “Oh yeah? What are we celebrating?”

“The death of Vincenzo’s mother.”

You slammed on the brakes, not even caring that you stopped in the middle of the road. “What?”

“Ms. Choi did some digging and found his mother. She was admitted to a hospital, and we sent someone to finish the job.”

This is not good. Killing his mom is just asking for a death wish, and knowing Vincenzo, he’s smart enough to figure out who sent the hitman. He’ll go after Han-seok in a heartbeat.

He’s actually probably on his way to kill him now.

“Baby, where are you?” Your voice was filled with panic as you stepped on the gas.

“At the estate. I don’t see why you’re worried.”

Your knuckles gripped the steering wheel. “Jang Han-seok, you just killed the woman Vincenzo loves the most. His own blood. His only family. His mother. I know you don’t care about family, but majority of the world population will go ballistic if someone killed their mother. He’s going to fucking kill you, all because you wanted to get even with him.”

“Either I’m going stupid or you’re actually defending him.”

“Because he’s going to kill you!” You kept swerving past cars. “Why do you have to get even with him! Fucking hell!”

You were not that far from the estate now, but he suddenly went quiet on his end which made you worry.

“What’s happening Han-seok?”

Then a shot rang out, and you felt the blood in your body run cold.

“Han-seok!” You frantically screamed as you tried not to have a full blown panic attack while driving. You heard him breathe on the other line before he spoke two words and hung up.

“He’s here.”

No, no, no, no, no, no.

He can’t fucking kill him, he can’t.

It was as if everything around you was a blur, your hands felt numb even though you were gripping the steering wheel. You could crash into someone right now but you wouldn’t care, you’d find a way to get to Han-seok. At this moment, he’s the only thing that mattered.

The moment you arrived to the estate, your heart dropped at the sight of all the bodies writhing on the floor. It was like something straight out of a horror movie. The ramp leading to the house was caked with a trail of blood, letting you know that Vincenzo is showing no mercy. You cocked your gun and ran out of the car, ignoring the pleas of the injured bodyguards as you made your way past them.

You never felt such adrenaline before, and the moment you saw Vincenzo pointing his gun at Han-seok’s face, you knew right then and now, that this will leave a dent in your relationship with your brother. Vincenzo didn’t seem to know about your presence because the moment he heard the click of your gun behind him, he grew rigid.

“Drop the gun.”

Your voice was low and dangerous.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m not going to repeat myself,” you pressed your gun towards his head. “Drop the gun. Now.”

He stayed silent for a while, contemplating your order. Your eyes briefly connected with Han-seok’s and he looked both relieved to see you but also terrified. He wasn’t scared for his life — not even the slightest — but he was for yours.

“Stay out of this.” It almost sounded like he was pleading you to walk away, to not dig yourself further into this mess that can cost you your life.

“Not until he drops the gun,” you tilted your head. “So, what’s it gonna be, Vincenzo?”

His chuckle caught you off guard. “You really want to do this right now, sister?”

“You know better than to not call me that right now.”

“Why? You’re scared your boyfriend will find out the truth about your identity?”

Your breathing increased. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me,” he pressed. “I’m sending you back to Italy tonight. You’re done.”

No you’re not fucking done, and he will not fucking ruin whatever happiness you found here. He didn’t expect you to kick his legs and force him to the ground, your body moving swiftly to take his gun from his hand. He looked shocked as he looked up at you, a look of betrayal flashing through his features.

“Yes! That’s my girl,” Han-seok clapped as he stood up, walking towards you to plant a kiss on your cheek. “Kill him.”

“She won’t,” Vincenzo answered with a smug look on his face.

Your hands began to shake and your eyes brimmed with tears while your lip quivered, the intense emotion of betrayal sitting with you as you stared into the eyes of your brother. Your family. The only other person who genuinely cared about you. Han-seok called out for you, but it’s like your mind tuned him out, and Vincenzo was the only other person in the room.

You’re not going to kill him, you can’t and won’t.

“I’m disappointed in you, sister. You really fell for the enemy.”

He actually fucking blew your cover. Your eyes widened in fear at his words, the dread settling in as the room grew quiet.

“S-Sister?” Mr. Han spoke from behind you. “Did I hear that right?”

“It seems we’ve had a traitor all this time, sir.”

“If you want to keep breathing for the next five seconds, I suggest you shut your fucking mouth, Ms. Choi. I will blow your brains out without a second thought,” you threatened which made her shut up real quick.

“You’re a fucking bitch.”

Han-seok’s voice cut you like a knife, and you refused to turn around and look into his eyes. You didn’t want to face him. You didn’t feel worthy of facing him right now.

Instead, you put the safety on Vincenzo’s gun and tossed it to him. “You know, I came here to help my brother out but lately, it’s been feeling like he doesn’t need me anymore. But you want to know who does? The man behind me. He’s made me feel so fucking special Vincenzo and I honestly could care less about what he fucking does and how he does shit to stay on top. You think the Cassano family has their hands clean? You ever sit back and wonder all the people we’ve killed for them, and how many of those people are possibly innocent with families out there? We’re fucking monsters. Every single person in this room is a monster. I’m tired of trying to play the good guy, because I’m not, and you –”

You didn’t even have time to react or simply do anything as Vincenzo interrupted your speech by aiming his gun at Han-seok and pressing the trigger. A silent shot rang out and Han-seok collapsed to the floor, holding his right ear while he groaned out in pain.

“That’s just a preview of what I’m going to do.”

“Han-seok!” You cried out as you dropped down to his side and tore a bottom piece of your shirt off to press it against his ear. He tried to push you away but you resisted as you held him close while everyone else scurried towards the two of you. “Call 911!”

His bloodshot eyes looked at you with disgust and hate, but you didn’t care right now. You needed him to get seen immediately. The ambulance was quick in getting there and took him straight away with Han-seo riding on the back. You wanted to leave with them so bad but you held back, not wanting to stress him out more especially with his wound. Ms. Choi and Mr. Han were not making it easer as they stared at you with intensity.

“My loyalty still lies with Han-seok,” you began, not bothering to face them. “Only cowards run and hide, and I’m not a coward.”

You avoided seeing Han-seok at the hospital, knowing that he will go crazy the moment he sees you walk in. Your betrayal was of course made known to everyone in Geumga Plaza, and you didn’t miss the looks of disgust when you walked inside and made your way to the office. You were currently sitting down at the table with both Vincenzo and Cha-young, your fingers drumming against the hard wood as you avoided eye contact with them.

“Give me my cut of the gold and I’ll be on my way.”

“You deserve nothing,” Cha-young snapped. “You betray us and side with Han-seok? You deserve not even a tiny ounce of gold!”

“Do not yell at me, stupid bitch,” you hissed out but noticed the glare Vincenzo shot at you. “Aw, I’m sorry. Did I insult your girlfriend?”

“He really did get in your head. What a tragedy,” he sighed.

“He didn’t do anything. Whatever I’m feeling? Whatever I did? I did it out of my own free will. Now pay up, brother.”

Cha-young loudly slammed her palms against the table, making you and Vincenzo look at her. “My father was murdered by that psychopath. How can you support that?”

“Save me the sob story, your father knew what he was getting himself into. Vincenzo warned him but he didn’t listen. He stuck his nose where he shouldn’t and paid the ultimate price.”

She shot out of her chair and went after you, and just when you were about to attack back, you felt Vincenzo grab your arm and twist it behind your back. He pinned you down against the table, leaving you immobile as you screamed and struggled against his hold.

“Let me go!”

“You have no shame,” he calmly spoke. “He killed my mother, and you still defend him. I call you to help me, and you betray me. What kind of sister are you?”

“I don’t care.”

That was a bit of a lie but you had to act heartless now. There’s no room for sappy stories or feelings in this field. You either fight to stay on top or roll over on your back and surrender. You were done with everything, and from this point on, you were your own independent contractor. No more Cassano family. No more Italy. No more Vincenzo. As much as it pains you, you brought this upon yourself.

“Just…let me go.”

He did as you asked, avoiding any form of eye contact with you as you rubbed your wrist. “I’m sorry I failed you. I got caught up in my own feelings. I’ve reached my breaking point Vincenzo, and while you found love here, so did I. What I feel for Han-seok feels so wrong but so right at the same time. Give me my cut of the gold and I will try to convince him to flee Korea with me, just don’t kill him, please. Do whatever you want with Babel, but don’t fucking hurt him, or else.”

Then, you proceeded to walk away, not even bothering to look back.

The drive back to your place was quiet and unusually eerie. Your whole mind felt numb at the thought of losing both Vincenzo and Han-seok, but there’s a slight possibility of regaining the trust of one of them. You could either go back now, drop down to your knees, and apologize profusely to your brother.

And also promising to delete that video of him singing to Rihanna.

Then there’s Han-seok, where you could prove your loyalty to him by continuing to betray your brother. You can continue to do his dirty work and help him bring Babel to the top.

So what will it be? Side with the man who grew up to be your brother — who fought by your side? Or with the man you love — who will burn the world for you? Most people will immediately choose family, but, you’re not like most people. Sad truth is you’re just as fucked up in the head as Han-seok. Maybe not on a psychotic level, but you’re still just as evil as him. Unlike Vincenzo, you have no sense for justice. The world will always be morally fucked up, that’s just how life is. Why bother wasting your time trying to fix its wrongs?

You were too caught up in your thoughts as you stepped inside your apartment that you had zero time to react when a hand shot out to pin you against the wall. It wrapped itself tightly around your throat, not enough to kill you but enough to daze you, and the culprit behind the hand was no other than Han-seok. His eyes burned with hatred, no longer showing any hint of affection towards you.

“Are you okay?” Was all you could croak out.

He darkly chuckled in response. “Am I okay? Is that all you have to say?”

“I’m just worried about–”

“Shut up!” He added more pressure to your neck. “I should just kill you right now.”

“Then do it.”

Half of you knew he wasn’t capable of doing it, but the other half believed he can and will. You’re at a point where death wasn’t a scary thought anymore, and if the man you grew to love was going to end it for you, then you’ll welcome death with open arms.

Han-seok seemed to hesitate at your request while his grip on your neck loosened, but he didn’t let go quite yet.

“Fuck you,” he sneered and practically threw you against the wall as he let go of you. “You’re such a clever bitch huh?”

He began to clap really loud, the speed of it increasing by every second.

“Bravo! Such an amazing job in fooling me!” Han-seok bent down to your level and gripped your chin tightly. “So, what’s your real name? I assume you’ve given me a fake one all this time.”

“It’s still the same,” you replied. “But my last name is Cassano, not Marino.”

He huffed out a breath and let you go, walking away as he began to run a hand through his hair.

“Vincenzo called me because he needed my help against you. It started off as a mission, but little by little I fell in lo–”

“Shut up,” he cut you off. “What are you? A mercenary for him?”

“I’m a spy for the Cassano family.”

“Cassano family,” he darkly chuckled and turned to face you again. “I hope you know I have to kill you now. I don’t take kindly to traitors.”

You smiled up at him. “You say that yet you’re the biggest traitor of all.” He stepped forward to say something but you quickly cut him off as you continued. “You’re a traitor to yourself. Your mind says one thing but your heart says another.”

You felt a bit wobbly when you stood up but used the wall as support. He remained quiet at your statement, not wanting to admit that you were right. Instead, he walked towards you and cupped your face with his right hand.

“You have such a big mouth for someone who’s supposed to stay quiet. You lied to me and I doubt any fucking thing you’ve told me was true. Stop with the act, you’ve been found out. If you think I’m going to crawl back to you, I won’t.”

“But I’m being se–”

He grabbed your shoulders and roughly slammed your body against the wall. You went ahead and grabbed his arm, moving your body so you’d be able to twist it behind his back. You kicked his feet underneath you and basically made him drop to the floor with a loud thud. He shot you a puzzled look while you flashed him a smile, but that was short lived when he grabbed your ankle and made you lose your balance. You fell down as well and Han-seok was quick to hover above you as his hands wrapped themselves around your throat. Just when he was about to squeeze, you wrapped your legs around his waist and flipped him over, causing him to lay flat on his back and loose his grip on your neck. You quickly grabbed one of your knives from a nearby coffee table and pressed it right against the skin of his neck, your other hand pinning his wrists above his head.

“Baby, if I wanted to kill you, I could’ve done that in a heartbeat. Especially after that fiasco with Vincenzo’s mother? You were lucky I was on your side instead of helping my brother out,” you noticed the way his jaw clenched out of both anger and fear. “I could easily kill you right here too, and I have sources that can help me flee the country within the next ten minutes. Don’t underestimate a spy from the mafia.”

You pressed the blade a little more against his neck, but made sure not to do it too much to draw blood.

“Why didn’t we try this position before? I kind of like being on top of you and having you at my mercy.”

You were teasing him and you loved it, but it was so hard deciphering what he felt since Han-seok cleared his face of any emotion. You were quick to stand up, keeping your eyes on his form. Han-seok dusted himself off and he looked more pissed than before — probably because he lost since he knew he let his guard down. All he did was shoot you a warning look before leaving your place, not bothering to utter out a single word about what just happened.

-

The next few weeks have been more hell. You lost your brother. You lost your lover. Now you were basically stranded in a random foreign city. You spent your nights at countless of bars, rejecting perverted men, and getting drunk off your ass without a care. It was hard watching the news since there was always something going on with Babel, and seeing Han-seok’s gorgeous face made you miss him even more.

You were currently out and about, a little tipsy since you had a couple of drinks at a bar, when you suddenly felt someone bump into you. The two of you fell to the ground — hard — and you felt your blood boiling at the incompetence of the guy who bumped into you.

“Listen you fucking jackass!” Even though you felt a bit tipsy, you were able to get a good grip on the guy. The alcohol was also definitely a factor as to why you were more pissed than usual. “You better fucking apolo–”

But you were shocked to see Han-seok staring back at you with surprise as well. The sound of several footsteps echoed above you and he gave you zero time to react as he grabbed your hands, pulled you up, and made you stand against a brick wall. You repeatedly blinked up at him, his face was covered in sweat and he seemed out of breath, like he was running away from something.

Or someone.

The sound of footsteps that echoed away indicated that he was in fact getting chased.

“Who were they?”

“I don’t know. They ambushed me back at my place.”

“Those assholes. I’ll kill them.”

You stumbled away from him, only to be stopped when his hand clasped around your wrist.

“Have you been drinking?”

“Mhm. I’ll probably be a raging alcoholic by the end of the month.”

His eyes fixated on you as he remained quiet for a second before speaking. “You’re really doing the most to make me drop my guard around you.”

You blinked. “Huh?”

“Going out to drink. Acting like you’re sad. Aren’t you a little genius?”

“Han-seok this isn’t–”

“I don’t want to hear it,” he began to limp away. “And don’t follow me.”

You ignored his request and stepped forward to provide as much of assistance as you could, but he was quick in shoving you away, a look of disgust resting on his features.

“Don’t fucking touch me and leave me alone.”

And so you did, but little did you know, he wanted you to follow him. He wanted you ignore his remarks, call him an idiot, and just simply take care of his wounds. He wanted you to prove to him that you did in fact care, but he ignored the aching of his heart when you simply let him go without putting up a fight.

-

You were at your wits end.

After drinking your sorrows away and sulking in your own pitiful heartbreak, you decided to take Vincenzo on his offer and leave Korea for good. Turns out him, Cha-young, and a couple of the tenants were hiding away the gold, and you did your best in hiding your anger through the phone when he refused to let you know where it was. Instead, he wired you the amount he promised and ordered you to leave the country. Made you swear on your mother’s grave and everything. You promised him to leave and never turn back.

You promised to leave Han-seok, for good.

Ever since your last encounter in the alley, you’ve tried to contact him multiple times, but he never returned your calls. You last spoke with Han-seo a few days ago, and he informed you that Han-seok and Ms. Choi planned out a fake arrest to protect him from Vincenzo. It was a pretty decent plan, and since his security measure is high, your brother won’t be able to touch him.

But even if he did, why does it matter? You two are end game. You shouldn’t care what happens to him. Whatever you two had was temporary, and you’re bound to meet someone ten times better in the States anyways.

You were at the airport waiting at the security line when your phone began to buzz. Confusion hit you when you noticed Ms. Choi’s name pop up on your screen, and if it wasn’t for your curiosity on Han-seok, you would’ve hung up on her.

“I assume you’re not calling because you want to meet up and get our nails done together,” you scoffed.

You could hear her sigh on the other end. “Desperate times call for desperate measures, I just have one question to ask you. Do you love Han-seok?”

Her sudden question caught you off guard. “Why are you asking me that?”

“Just answer the question.”

“It’s not like it matters if I do,” you snapped. “He wants nothing to do with me and I don’t blame him.”

“Agreed. I always knew you were a bitch.”

Your eye twitched. “Look, if you’re just going to call to insult me then I’m fucking hanging up–”

“Wait,” her tone reeked with desperation. “I hate to admit it but you’re our only hope against Vincenzo. He’s going to kill me and Mr. Jang.”

“I thought Han-seok was in prison to protect him from my brother?”

“Not anymore. He’s been released. We’re planning on fleeing the country but that’s if we’re able to sneak past Vincenzo. He has this whole plan in motion already and..” she paused for a second before speaking again, “he already called me and told me today is my last day. Once he kills me, he’s going after Mr. Jang.”

You have never ran out the airport so fast in your life. Ms. Choi isn’t the one to call you or beg for you help, but the tone in her voice and how urgent she sounds let’s you know that some shit is about to go down. Vincenzo doesn’t play and you know that.

“Do you have a location on Han-seok?”

“No, he wouldn’t disclose it. I’ll send you my address so we can meet up.”

The two of you hung up and you immediately hailed a cab towards her place. Your palms felt sweaty and your throat felt dry as you thought about Vincenzo winning and getting to Han-seok first. Knowing your brother, he will make sure to torture him and give Han-seok the most painful death he can imagine, and that was something that unnerved you.

You arrived to the address that Ms. Choi sent you but stopped on your tracks when you noticed the knocked out bodyguards that laid on the floor.

He was here. He got her.

“Fuck!” You punched the nearest wall, not caring about the excruciating pain that shot up your arm. She was your last resort at finding Han-seok since he could be anywhere in Seoul.

You need to think. Knowing Vincenzo, he must have some form of tracker on Han-seok because how else will he be able to locate him? If he’s out hunting for your ex-boyfriend, then he shouldn’t be anywhere near Geumga Plaza. You had to be fast on this so you wasted no time. You snatched one of the guns off of the bodyguard’s body and hailed a cab towards the plaza.

You charged up the stairs until you made it into the office, where you found Mr. Ahn sitting in front of a laptop. You raised the gun and aimed for his head, making him lift his hands up in the air.

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know what you’re–”

You shot the flower pot next to him and he dropped to the floor in fear.

“Where is he?!”

He was quick in turning the laptop off and picking it up. “I’m not telling you anything.”

“Is that so?”

You weren’t sure if these tenants were just plain stupid or had a death wish, because Mrs. Jang attempted to sneak up behind you, only for her to be placed in a chokehold with your gun pressing against her temple. Mr. Ahn’s face contorted into concern as he hesitated in taking a step forward.

“Now let’s try again shall we?” Your eyes were burning with hatred. “Where’s Vincenzo?”

“H-How could you do this to him?”

Mrs. Jang screamed when you shot her foot, causing Mr. Ahn to yell before running towards you.

“Nah-ah,” you hummed and pressed the gun to her chin, causing Mr. Ahn to stop. “One more step and she’s dead.”

“She’s pregnant,” he pleaded. “Please don’t.”

“Aww, then she should’ve thought twice before sneaking up on me,” you moved the gun down to her stomach, “now give me the laptop.”

“How do I know you won’t kill her?”

“Because I don’t get messy unless I have to. You give me what I want, and she’s free. So will it ping me to Han-seok’s live location?”

“Yes,” he hesitantly answered.

“Then give it to me. Along with your phone as well and some car keys.”

Mr. Ahn was quick to comply and didn’t hesitate in doing the exchange. As promised, you let go of Mrs. Jang and examined Mr. Ahn’s phone before crushing it, in case he decides to warn Vincenzo about you. You did the same to Mrs. Jang’s phone before running out the building and finding Mr. Ahn’s car. You turned the latop on and saw his live signal coming to a stop, and you prayed that he was on his own and was safe from Vincenzo.

But that hope washed away when the signal lead you to a warehouse.

“Please don’t be dead,” you whispered to yourself as you blinked back tears. “Hang on baby.”

You quietly made your way inside the building, having your arms stretched out downwards in front of you while your gun faced the ground. You could heard the sound of distant voices, immediately pinning the two male voices as Vincenzo and Han-seok. Knowing he was still alive made you feel more at ease but the adrenaline was still kicking in as you neared closer, the sounds of Han-seok screaming made you see red.

“…okay? Just shoot me! Shoot!” Han-seok begged but quickly stopped when his eyes landed on you.

The sound of your gun clicking made Vincenzo stop what he was doing, but your brother refused to face you.

“Turn it off and untie him.”

“I see that you decided to stay,” he spoke. “I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s not the first time you broke a promise.”

You were impatient and pissed off. You shot the timer that rested on the left side of the chair, making Vincenzo flinch away and take a couple of steps away from Han-seok as the timer broke into pieces.

“I’m not here to play games or fucking talk! You better disarm that whole contraption and let him go.”

“Or what? You’re going to kill me?”

“If I have to.”

He dryly laughed and shook his head. “I guess karma did get me in the end.” You furrowed your brows in confusion, not understanding what he meant. “The first time Han-seo came to me to help him overthrow Han-seok, I refused.”

Wait, Han-seo betrayed Han-seok?

“I told him I don’t like to involve myself in family matters, because if I help exploit a betrayal within a family, my own family might betray me in the end.”

The look he gave you made your heart break, and you felt yourself almost giving in, but the sound of Han-seok coughing out a bit of blood brought you back to your senses.

“You don’t have to do this,” Vincenzo begged you. “Sister, please.”

You gritted your teeth while remaining silent for a second, but slowly moved your gun towards his direction.

“Let him go.”

He sighed in defeat and tilted his head down. Vincenzo was incredibly fast and unpredictable, because he suddenly pulled out a gun from his waist and aimed it in your direction. A shot rang out and you felt a burning sensation on your right arm, and it took a second to register that he shot you.

He fucking shot you.

You screamed out in pain as you dropped your weapon, and you heard Han-seok call for you before hearing footsteps running towards you. You were quick to move your legs and swipe them underneath Vincenzo, making him fall as well. Your adrenaline started to kick in causing the pain on your right upper arm to diminish. You quickly stood up and ran towards your gun but Vincenzo was quick as he wrapped his left arm around your neck, holding you in a chokehold. He was applying pressure, enough to knock you out, but you used all your strength to move your head back, head butting him right on the nose.

He staggered back and you went in for a left hook but he was quick in blocking it. You were able to move your body away from him as he tried to land a blow on your stomach. Hit after hit, you both were a bloody mess at this point. The two of you were evenly matched; he had the strength but you had the agility. You two have sparred with each other so much that you basically have learned each other’s moves, and it’s only a matter of time until one of you gets tired first or one of you outsmarts the other. You couldn’t use any of your usual moves on him but you just remembered there was one move you never showed him.

Vincenzo managed to make you fall on your back, but you quickly blinked back tears and bent your legs before swinging them forward, causing you to shoot up and stand. You didn’t even give him time to react as you swung your leg up and kicked him right on the jaw. He immediately fell to the floor and you kicked him one last time on the face, almost knocking him out.

“You talk about betrayal but you chose your new family over me!”

You straddled him while pinning his arms against him.

“You fucking left Italy without telling me! No message, no call, nothing!”

Another punch to his face.

“You don’t even call me to let me know you landed in fucking Korea! I had to find out from Paolo that you fled!”

You punched his chest.

“I tried calling you because I was worried and couldn’t reach you. But then you call me when you need my help? Are you fucking serious?!”

You slapped him.

“I didn’t think much of it cause I saw it as my brother needing my help. I missed you and wanted to make you happy so I agreed, but then I started to miss our life back in Italy. I asked, no begged you to move back with me, and what did you do!?”

You slapped him again.

“You chose your new fucking family that you made here! You wanted to help your little girlfriend avenge her dead father!”

You were a bawling mess at this point, but you couldn’t stop.

“I felt so alone,” you choked out. “And guess who was there for me? Guess who made me feel fucking special? Jang fucking Han-seok.”

You punched him one last time, leaving his face badly bruised and bloodied. He choked out some blood and tried to move but you held him down with your legs and body.

“You never bothered to ask me if I was okay. You never bothered to care, but he fucking did. He could tell when something was bothering me, when something was wrong. While I stayed here to make my brother happy, he never once batted an eye in my direction when I felt alone. All my life, everyone expected the most of me. They wanted to use me. My father, the Cassano family, and now you. You never fucking bothered to know how I felt, and only saw me as convenient when it benefited you and your precious gold.”

You couldn’t even wipe away your tears since your hands were caked with blood.

“He makes me happy and I could care fucking less what he’s done. I’ve told you already, we’re all monsters, so stop acting like you’re some sort of saint. You’re just as evil as him.”

The pain on your upper arm was returning, and you felt a bit woozy from the blood loss so that was an indicator that it was time to go. You stood up and staggered a bit, but you quickly caught yourself before walking towards Han-seok.

His eyes somehow softened when they saw you, and you shot him a weak smile while you began to untie him from the chair. It took all of your strength to pull the drill that was beginning to pierce his skin away. You felt yourself almost collapse but Han-seok quickly caught you with his free hand.

“Are you oka–”

He shut you up as he connected his lips with yours, not caring about the taste of blood. A splurge of emotions hit you all at once, and all you could do was cup his face and kiss him back.

He pulled away and tilted his head. “You got shot yet you’re asking me if I’m okay? You’re crazy.”

“Crazy for you,” you giggled before coughing out. “Sorry, that was cringey.”

“No, it was cute.”

You both helped each other out. He kept you grounded and made sure you didn’t collapse while you continued to untie him. He wasn’t too injured, just had some bruised areas and soreness, on top of the small hole that began to drill itself on its chest — he’s perfectly okay. But you? You don’t even know how much blood you lost. You were too busy fighting Vincenzo to even pay attention to your wounded arm.

“C-Can we start over?” You blinked up at Han-seok who watched you with an intense look. “If we’re talking US dollars… I have about 980 million dollars right now. Let’s just… let’s just move to the… States and start over? Please?”

He looked you over and seemed to be in deep thought. He was aware Babel was screwed over and not much can be recovered after everything that happened. He doesn’t have any family, or friends. All he has is you. The United States wasn’t too bad of a place to relocate at, and as long as he’s spending it with you, he can fucking live with that.

“Can we do some side jobs while we’re there? If you know what I mean?” He smirked down at you while tapping your nose.

You grinned. “Of course.”

The two of you began to walk away but the sound of Vincenzo groaning made you stop.

“I hope… you… know… that you’re… not a sister… of mine,” he coughed out with a croak, his eyes meeting yours for one last time. “You’re… no family… to me.”

Your vision fogged up with tears and you turned away while taking a deep breath in. “Goodbye Vincenzo. Take care.”

It was rough, and really fucking hard for you to walk away from your brother. You might be crazy choosing Han-seok over him but you don’t care anymore. Being with him feels right.

But your time with him might just be short lived after all.

You collapsed to the ground as you felt light headed, and Han-seok was quick in catching you, his frantic eyes looking down at you.

“Hey hey, look at me.”

“Oh fuck,” you coughed out. “Am I going… to die?”

“No you fucking won’t,” he immediately took of his jacket and tore it up; wasting no time in bandaging your arm. “Stay with me.”

“I do… care,” you slurred out. “Please understand t-that… I do care about… you.”

“Shh, stop talking baby,” he cooed. “I know, and I’m right here.”

You really lost a lot of blood, and if Han-seok cannot find you treatment within the next half hour, you’re for sure going to be a goner. His voice seemed distant as he called for you, but you couldn’t even respond as you slipped into darkness, the feeling of something wet landing on your cheek was the last thing you remember feeling.

-

1 year later…

The sun was shining high on the horizon as Han-seok leaned against the railing on the balcony, his hand holding a mug of coffee. Ever since he left Korea, life has been amazing. Sure he’s not a top CEO anymore but it’s still fun feeding his crazy side by doing a lot of jobs under the radar. The money that you acquired from Vincenzo definitely helped a lot, and now he’s living the luxury life while owning a huge mansion — more like a manor — on top of a hill in Beverly Hills. On top of that, there’s that penthouse in New York and that gorgeous beach house in Miami.

What more can he want?

He felt your arms wrap themselves around his stomach as you hugged him from behind. You planted a soft kiss on his bare back before pressing your cheek against it.

“Why aren’t you in bed?”

“I wanted to admire the sunrise,” he chuckled and placed his coffee down. “But I might just admire you instead.”

He loves it when you wear his shirts. The way your soft legs are exposed to him and just seeing his stuff on you gives him the satisfaction that you’re actually his. He leaned down and kissed you before moving his lips towards your neck, already loving the feel of you shivering underneath his touch. He pulled you closer to him, his hands reaching down to squeeze your ass while you wrapped your arms around his neck.

“Are you not wearing underwear?”

“We literally had sex last night, why would I put underwear on?”

“Just thought you would, but,” he caught you by surprise by slipping his fingers against your wet folds. “This will make this much easier.”

Neither of you wasted time in undressing the other, and he picked you up and placed you down on the balcony table. He pumped himself a few times before slowly going inside of you, the feeling of your warm walls clasping around his dick caused him to moan. You hooked one of your legs around his waist and placed the other on his right shoulder. Han-seok began to thrust and pound into you, your moans and screams echoing throughout the hills.

You feel so fucking good. He kissed your ankle before leaning down to kiss your lips again, silencing you immediately.

“Fuck, you’re mine,” he moaned out. “All fucking mine. You look so pretty down there. My fucking girl.”

He wasn’t done with you yet — without slipping out of you — he switched positions and sat down on one of the chairs outside. You straddled his lap and began to rock your hips, the two of you becoming a hot moaning mess for each other. Han-seok wrapped his arm around you while using his other to hold your chin, making you look at him. Nothing will ever beat this. He’s got the life he wanted and the girl of his dreams. He has money. A small sense of power still. A great sex life. And gets to travel the world with you.

People like him and you deserve to go to hell, but fuck that, you both were in heaven, and that’s all that mattered.

“I fucking love you, my pretty girl.”

“I love you too, my handsome boy.”

[fallloverfic]

The way folks are, again, unsurprisingly shitting on the Omniscient Reader manhwa while shitting on the live-action based on what appears to be 1-2 posters and a title just says so much.

I also think it's funny folks are stating that the studio who is making the live-action movies didn't read "the source material" when a sizeable chunk of non-Korean fandom has likely only read the unrevised version of ORV, since that's what the popular English fan translation is based on. So when you are furious the movie crew didn't read the "source material", like... who are you mad at, exactly, cause statistically speaking, you probably didn't read it either?

Like it's fine to criticize the live-action stuff, I'm not trying to defend it, and it's fine to not be a fan of the title or the posters or even dislike it when it releases (personally, I'm not into live-action adaptations of most things, especially when they were already adapted into comics; I prefer full animation every time). This is just a bizarre reaction, and little different to how people reacted after the anime announcement and casting announcements/speculation for the live-action. Maybe the movie crew didn't read the source material, or at least not fully. Maybe they just made some very weird decisions. It's live-action, that happens. And adaptations are seldom going to be exactly the same as the source material. They're adaptations. That's what they do.

The only official English translation of ORV of any kind, particularly based on the revision, at this point in time, is in the manhwa. It's not perfect, and it's fine to criticize it or not be into it, but it's fucking hilarious that people think it is ruining ORV in comparison to, what, a fan translation based on a different version of the story? Assuming it's even possible to "ruin" an existing novel that is not going anywhere.

The freely available and massively hyped manhwa brought in a ton of fans to the fandom. It probably brought in a lot of folks who wrote and drew your favorite fanworks. If you think it is somehow ruining ORV, you are the problem, because you just hate other fans. And manhwa-first fans see you. Like it's fine to not get along with other fans, it's fine to disagree with their interpretations, particularly if they're basing it off of a different version of the story. This is not my first fandom where a large chunk of the fandom came first from an adaptation, and I get what it's like to be frustrated with popular fan interpretations from chunks of fandom who focus on adaptations or are adaptation-first, particularly when massive changes are made for the adaptation. But rather than write angry screeds about how the adaptation (one of which we haven't even seen yet, a poster /= a movie, let alone a series of movies) ruined the source material, you can just use your block button. There are in fact plenty of people who have interpretations of the novel you probably don't agree with, too.

But also for folks mad about "The Prophet", maybe you need a refresher?

Also for folks confused, singNsong announced on 3 February 2020 that it was a 5-part live-action movie deal. How Dokja knows what he knows about what's going to happen is an important part of a good chunk of the story, including the opening. He gets questioned about it a lot. It makes some sense they'd title the first part of five about this. I assume the other movies will have different titles.

The live-action is probably going to bring in a new wave of fans. It's a simple reality that some mediums (e.g., an 800 chapter, ongoing novel) is less inviting to people than other mediums, such as film, and folks may be interested when they see the film. A chunk of them will probably check out the novel (and the manhwa). They may even love the novel more. They may write your favorite fanfic or draw your favorite piece of art or write a great essay of thoughts on thoughts. It's happened before, many, many times. Relax.

[staybabblingbaby]

SGAU CH. 3 (Daffodil) Editing Sacrifices

[Caution: These are not full fics, or even full parts of fics for some, these are part of my writing progress archive!]

Concept: Growing up, you knew Soulmates weren't all that they cracked up to be. So when, on your 18th birthday, your skin is painted with a garden of flower buds, you resolve to hide it from everyone. Who had ever heard of someone with 8 soulmates, anyway?

Or; Reader has 8 soulmates and no issue avoiding all of them. It's up to SKZ to show her that while every soulbond might not be made of fairy tales, theirs certainly could be.

Word Count: 254

Notes: As promised from the poll! This is the last of them <3 We are all caught up. As a reminder, from here on out I'll be posting in accordance with the Archive Rules so there'll be a lot more unfinished content. Unfinished parts will link back to their main part or the masterlist <3 Dividers by @saradika

Warnings: She/Her Reader

Leave me comments or questions or anything! Love hearing from folks <3

Masterlist <3 | Main Part

[An alternate version of Reader listening to Lino's conversation. Fun fact! This was the first thing I wrote for this chapter, and I did it on my phone <3 I like some aspects of this version better, but it doesn't flow very well with the rest of the chapter]

You can't help but overhear the conversation of the man in front of you. To be fair to him, he IS trying to be quiet, but from the sounds of it has just become far too frustrated to care.

Or maybe a bit too comfortable speaking a foreign language in America. You can't blame him, you'd used your rudimentary Korean against your sister at every opportunity. It didn't stop when you'd gained fluency in the language either.

It was just too bad for this guy that he was also speaking Korean.

It wasn't like he was saying anything bad. You were just pretty sure you might have to put a tip in to the police if a body was found in the morning. Stabbed through with a straw, maybe. Or perhaps a fork, of that didn't work. You couldn't see his face from where you were stood, but you bet it was a face meant for stabbing.

[Alternate version of Lino trying to order at the counter. poor guy :/]

It's quickly apparent why Stabby had asked for a particular person on the phone, probably an english-speaking friend if you had to guess. He orders in quiet and slow spoken English at first, clearly getting frustrated as he goes through quite the long order, each drink progressively more complicated. Finally, his English skills seem to be bested as he begins to try an explain what you think might be a shaken caramel macchiato. He and the barista go back and forth for a moment, the poor barista looking flustered and Stabby clearly trying to reign in his frustration.

[not-goldy]

1. Pretty sure Jimin said he wanna keep on performing so that doesn't change because he became 30

2. Jimin also said he'll be if he got chance to just sit on a chair and sing for fans when he's not able to perform anymore

3. If he's queer who wants kids.. realistically there's no other option except dumping Jk, marry a woman and have kids.

4. I thought everyone who's approaching 30 feels the same way. Joon had it, jm already started talking about it... so it's surprising to see Tae who's the exact same age being so unbothered about it and living his carefree life

🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

What has same age got to do with anything?

Yes Jimin has said all that- he's also said he's lonely in while surrounded by family and loved ones.

Vmin said they want to grow old together- yet here they are. Couldn't even do the buddy service together🥲

Jungkook has always wanted to be a singer- didn't stop him from trying to yeet himself from the group to pursue dance🥲

BTS knew they wanted to sing and dance and be part of the group- didn't stop them from considering disbanding even though music is what they all dream of making till the end.

Ever bought something you wanted so bad and felt a few seconds later you shouldn't have bought it? Even though you know it's something you've always wanted and something you'll probably always want?

Humans are complex multilayered beings with complex thoughts feelings and ideas.

Life, dreams, goals- our desire for them can be so fluid sometimes and Introspection is a common human phenomenon that accompanies these fluid moments of choice making.

Jimin is just being introspective at this point in his life is all we are saying.

There's nothing too complex about that that it should be confusing. A person can want something or someone and still express fears and doubts uncertainty and anxiety about that same thing.

It's right there in his songs when he sings about how it's begun, that he is in his prime time. I think it's out of such honest introspection that he's able to spit out those beautiful lyrics he pens. His past, his future, he's in the in between. Transitioning, becoming🤭

We act like the concept of 30 thirty is difficult phenomenon to comprehend when 30 is even the age limit for Korean men to serve. If you can't relate to turning 30 think of how idols have to put their careers on hold for 2 years how they have to shift their life goals and plans to factor in serving by 30.

Vmin are same age yes and OF COURSE they both have to worry about serving before 30. Every Korean Male worries about this at the barest minimum if not anything at all. I don't know why people can't seem to comprehend this.

Like you said, the hyungs went through a similar phase- unlike the hyungs, the maknaes don't get to sit with it. They have to do a lot of thinking at base and we can't tell them cheer up, we can't reassure them, we can't give them a unique perspective- we are on different sides of the wall.

Rather than construe the whole turning 30 phenomenon as some abstract Far fetched phenomenon- perhaps let's not. It's not that complicated 💀

These things are very natural and very common among us humans but especially for people who have a culture where turning 30 is a major rite of passage- Besides, late 20's and early 30's is when lots of people's brains fully mature biologically speaking- or so I hear so it makes sense why people would suddenly start being hyper introspective around that age.

To some it's a myth but to some they do very much enter this hyper introspective phase when they reach that point in their life. If you frame the discourse as one of introspection as you should then you'll find it as preposterous as I do the idea that Tae isn't introspecting about turning 30.

Unbothered????

Youve never heard him talk about how he doesn't look as handsome every now and then?

I recall him complaining about Covid and how it's stealing their youth and how frustrating that was for him. I recall him talking about children and how he would love to see each member's kid.

Of course he thinks about his life, marriage, kids, his career and even his changing facial features. Joon tries to shut him up when he talks about these things but he does. For someone who worries about these on a regular a particular age turn perhaps may not make much of a difference don't you think?

Tae can be very introspective as well. It may not be a seasonal thing for him like it seems to be for Jimin and others but rather more part of who he is.

He doesn't say much during his lives but he can be in his feels too- at the most random times too.

They are all human

Aside- do you know you give off "your colleagues are getting married what are you doing with your life" vibes?

It's giving Indian parents, Nigerian moms🤣

"You are the same age as that person why are you depressed when they're happy with their life" 💀

The concept of individuality seems lost on you

[epitome-of-an-openbook]

op I read your steddie fic where post and specifically the part abt Steve being intelligent got my attention bc (and also youre so right abt the whole thing)

-what about the fics where Steve is visibly (?? idk englishs not my thing) autistic? Cause if you're neurodivergent and can actually follow his thought process along he's super smart (unconventionally smart my beloved) but for neurotypicals I'm told it makes him sound some variation of stupid/oblivious/dumb (when he's def not haha)

-what are your opinions about the fics where Steve is _pretending_ to be stupid? Like, plays into the jock bit, and makes people think he's slow to use it to his advantage? not necessarily in a "bad person" way (and especially if you can tell he's smart from the outside/his own pov)? >>>esp if he doesn't even realize he's doing it?

-how about Steve's concussions/neurodivergency affecting the more "conventionally smart" aspects of his brain? like, his memory is shit and he can't spell properly or he can't do complex math, but he knows everyone's expressions and holds a scary amount of talent in physical activities he's never done before type thing (insp after me who got complimented by the "hardass" coach after trying boxing simply because I watch and calculate and how that's easy for me to switch into my own movements)

-opinions on Steve "looking dumb" because he's simply...not American? Like, his English is plenty good but that's because he's been copying speech patterns for so long now, and the Harringtons are tied to some p important Italian families so he almost never speaks English there either, and I personally like the fics where he's frustrated simply because he can't understand (like the story about the Korean immigrant and the lovely teacher) and also the scene in modern family where Gloria says "I know what I meant to mean! do you know how smart I am in my own language?"

-thoughts on someone lifting their head up from nerd shit and realizing Steve's been making like many smart remarks that nobody listens to cause he doesn't know nerd lingo?

(also unrelated but trans!Steve MTF _or_ FTM is so important to me <3)

I've a whole "trope theory" about different types of intelligence groups tend to have, and simply put it goes

book smarts, street (survival) smarts, emotional smarts, social smarts

and how those mix and match to show through in characters that are disregarded as stupid and I personally believe Steve is very Socially _and_ emotionally smart but because he's arguably in line to be the most toxic masculine people by reputation (not personality but the past -both his and his dads- linger) people don't notice it.

I'd love to chat more both abt my theory and Steve in general <3

Hi anon, of course I want to talk about Steve's intelligence - because I am so so so tired of him being written off as the fool, and I am especially tired of people pretending like he is not the most emotionally intelligent person in the show other than potentially Will or Joyce. Also in advance, I totally go on a BUNCH of tirades and rants so I'm sorry if you lose the thread at all, I just have a lot of thoughts and they all FEEL important to me. So yeah, this is a long one.

-what about the fics where Steve is visibly (?? idk englishs not my thing) autistic? Cause if you're neurodivergent and can actually follow his thought process along he's super smart?

I haven't read many fics where Neurodivergent! Steve's divergence is specifically autism and personally I feel that other divergences fit him better such as OCD (see - his need to keep things tidy, instances of reduced impulse control, repetitive/ritualistic behaviors, hypervigilance, and agitation), ADHD (see - his need to be moving lots of pacing and bouncing, difficulty concentrating on the group discussions, impulsivity), Dyslexia/Dyscalculia (personal/popular headcanon), or something that would affect his audio processing (personal/unpopular headcanon; see- being unable to get past the music on the recording, difficulty following along with the group discussions, immediately losing track of the group in the Upside Down Wheeler's house when he thinks he hears Dustin)- but I definitely read him as someone whose brain works in a way that is non-typical which is something we ABSOLUTELY see in season 3 where he focuses in on the music and it seems like he literally can't focus on the Russian words until he knows what the music is.

But what it comes down to is that so many people read the fact that he didn't get into college (which is more indicative of a lack of testing skills than it is for actual intelligence) and his inability to follow along with group discussions about Upside Down stuff (which could point to issues with concentration or audio processing or just a lack of knowledge regarding the lingo being used) as a way to characterize him entirely as an idiot/fool. This of course isn't helped by the Duffers refusing to deepen his character beyond "he was bad but now he's good because now he's interacting with intelligent™ people". So to answer this question, I'm all for fics that explore Steve's intellect through a lens of "no he's not dumb, he just processes information in an atypical way".

-what are your opinions about the fics where Steve is _pretending_ to be stupid? Like, plays into the jock bit, and makes people think he's slow to use it to his advantage? not necessarily in a "bad person" way (and especially if you can tell he's smart from the outside/his own pov)?

I'm not 100% sure I'm interpreting this question correctly but I have some issues with fics where the character of interest is 'pretending' to be stupid so it entirely depends on what the motivation behind doing so is.

If the motivation is "I play dumb so that I can fit in better and not be bullied for being smart" I don't like it that much - I feel like in a lot of media, and American media especially, there is this perpetuation of Smart=Unpopular/Bullied/Unathletic and Dumb=Popular/Bully/Athletic and I don't like that because in my lived experience that really isn't the case - I have friends that were the Valedictorian's of their high schools by gpa that were also class president and soccer captian and genuinely good people and some of the meanest people I have ever met were stereotypical™ nerds. So if the motivation is that he pretends to be dumb specifically to fit in and not get bullied I don't really like it. HOWEVER, if the motivation is "I downplay my intelligence so that people underestimate me" that's different and I can get behind it to a degree - no one is perfect and Steve was not the best person at first so him having a little manipulation bit like this would make sense.

Also this leads into another thing I feel we don't talk about enough - Steve is a jock with a head for STRATEGY and you cannot tell me otherwise. The ability to strategize is something we like to take away from jocks all across media, but as a former athlete myself I can tell you that a LOT of thought goes into athletic strategy and it translates well to other aspects of life. We also see Steve make quick strategic decisions A LOT but we never mention them - some examples include when he leads the scoops troop through the crowded russian base w/o getting caught - some of this is simply poor writing/tracking and i will admit that but if we suspend our disbelief for a second it's Steve that looks at the set up takes in the information and says "Follow me, stay low and be quick" as they navigate that scene, we also see it in season two when him and Dustin get to the junkyard and he says "oh yeah this will do nicely" and then he proceeds to set the stage for catching Dart with a clearing to trap him, a reinforced fort for protection and surveillance and honestly the only reason this goes wrong is because there was more than one demodog. So yeah being good with strategy lends itself well to Steve using his intelligence as a manipulation for others to underestimate him. I personally would love for there to be a fic where one of the kids challenges Steve to a strategy game like chess or risk or something like that and for him to DECIMATE them because strategy is the thing he's good at.

-how about Steve's concussions/neurodivergency affecting the more "conventionally smart" aspects of his brain? like, his memory is shit and he can't spell properly or he can't do complex math, but he knows everyone's expressions and holds a scary amount of talent in physical activities he's never done before type thing

For one I would like to quickly put out there that Steve almost definitely got a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) from the Russian Torture - and probably PCS (Post Concussion Syndrome) from the fight with Billy (I would also like to quickly mention that these are different things with different causes and potential future outcomes/side effects, I feel like they get confused a lot in this fandom which is totally fine but just a reminder that a concussion comes specifically from your brain impacting your skull and how he receives his head injuries from Jonathan and the Russians would indicate to me that he probably didn't have a concussion those times but when he crashes the car in season three he could have easily gotten a whiplash concussion which is something we don't talk about but does actually happen a lot and it's less likely to get treated because people don't realize you can get a concussion w/o hitting your head. Also I am so sorry about this head trauma info dump, it's just a subject I have lots of experience with/knowledge about).

ANYWAY, yeah TBIs and PCS can really mess with your head and are often the cause of things like memory loss - as well as vision and hearing impairment. Also TBIs have been studied a lot in American Football players and sometimes they can even cause shifts in personality. (Also @peter-pantomime has some really good discussions and headcanons regarding Steve's head traumas so I highly suggest their content both here and on tiktok.)

And yes, Steve consistently proves to be extremely socially intelligent. You do not get to the top of the high school food chain by simply being attractive or athletic, you have to be capable of understanding and manipulating certain social interactions - walking into a room and knowing who to talk to and who to avoid, popularity is often just a matter of networking and part of the reason Steve loses his popularity is because he abandons the network he built himself up through and switches it out for a group of people much lower on the social ladder. We also can tell he's incredibly emotionally intelligent through his interactions with others - scenes that really show this are Steve cleaning up the theater sign and going to apologize to Jonathan (some might say this is just emotional maturity but i would like to point out that he was emotionally intelligent enough to realize that it was Jonathan that deserved the apology instead of just Nancy) (s1), when Will comes home and we see him empathize with the worry of Joyce & Jonathan (s2), when he can seemingly tell that something happened between Nancy and Jonathan but instead of lashing out he supports her (also s2), when Robin comes out to him and also technically rejects him but he just treats her like normal (s3), like… every scene with him and Max in S4, and also when he tells Eddie that he needs to stop being so hard on himself when he keeps talking about how much of a coward he is (also S4).

-opinions on Steve "looking dumb" because he's simply...not American? Like, his English is plenty good but that's because he's been copying speech patterns for so long now, and the Harringtons are tied to some p important Italian families so he almost never speaks English there either, and I personally like the fics where he's frustrated simply because he can't understand (like the story about the Korean immigrant and the lovely teacher) and also the scene in modern family where Gloria says "I know what I meant to mean! do you know how smart I am in my own language?"

I have never seen this done before, but I absolutely adore this concept, if you (or anyone else) has some fic recs with this trope 👀👀👀 please share.

-thoughts on someone lifting their head up from nerd shit and realizing Steve's been making like many smart remarks that nobody listens to cause he doesn't know nerd lingo?

Yes do it, caveat: I think it needs to be Robin, Eddie, or Will - I think everyone else is a little too in their own way of realizing Steve has consistently made good points.

For Robin, as a Queer Platonic Stobin truther, I feel like if anyone were to really get into Steve's brain it would be her.

For Eddie, I feel it comes from that same vein that we see people pointing out that Eddie is the only person who directly answer Steve's questions, so it would make sense for him to be the one to say "wait hey - Steve is actually asking incredibly relevant questions that lead to a point he wants to make."

For Will, I simply think that he's the most emotionally intelligent member of the original Party and also the one with the fewest interactions with Steve so if he were to be with Steve in a time of crisis he wouldn't ignore Steve's thoughts the way that sometimes happens and notice something about how he processes information or something and be like "why did you guys all tell me he was dumb, he's making extremely relevant points right now?"

(also unrelated but trans!Steve MTF _or_ FTM is so important to me <3)

<3 Trans!Steve 🤝 GenderFluid!Steve solidarity

I love fics where Steve explores gender identity or at least his relationship with gender presentation, I'm partial to GenderFluid!Steve but regardless I love this.

[acidheaddd]

OC Deep Dive Questionnaire Tag

Tagged by @smulie ♥︎♥︎♥︎ Thank you! I figured I'd do Ian since I haven't done anything for him in a bit.

What uncommon/common fear do they have? Blood. Any significant amount of blood freaks him out and makes him feel faint. He was afraid to get any tattoos 'cause of this -- he thought he'd see more blood. 😂 That and losing his loved ones. Do they have any pet peeves? Ian's typically pretty patient and permissive of things... but he has a very good method to his madness when it comes to organizing (he's most definitely got ADHD, but was never diagnosed), so anyone moving something can frustrate him pretty quickly. What are 3 items you can find in their bedroom? A guitar he rarely plays, his bong, and a perpetual pile of laundry that can be either dirty or clean. What do they notice first in a person? Their ~vibes~. 😂 How easily they'll laugh, how they carry themselves, how they speak, that kind of thing. On a scale of 1 to 10, how high is their pain tolerance? Not high, but not super low... Maybe 5 to 6? The worst he's experienced is breaking bones (his wrist and ankle, due to skateboarding) and he handled that... okay, so long as he didn't look at it. 😂 Do they go into fight or flight mode when under pressure? He's between flight and freeze more than fight. But if he were completely cornered, I'm sure he'd end up trying his luck with fighting. Do they come from a big family/are they a family person? His family's pretty small, and smaller still since his dad died when he was 18. He basically just has his mom left. They talk sometimes and he'll go visit occasionally, but he doesn't really like to. It's a complicated thing... His mom almost always brings up his dad at least once, and he'd just rather not talk about him at all, lest it bring up ~feelings~. He also feels slightly ashamed whenever he sees his mother, feeling like he's let her down and hasn't been there enough for her. So... instead of forcing himself to make a change, he'd really rather just. Run away from it as much as possible. What animal represents them best? Somehow he is both a golden retriever and a cat... though I'd say he's either got Orange Boy Cat energy or Ragdoll energy. What is a smell that they dislike? Super strong perfume. Especially the ones that smell more... chemical-y than natural. How would a stranger likely describe them? Weird, but... endearing? A little awkward, but in a shameless sort of way. What is a flavor they hate and a flavor they love? Ian hates anything too bitter. Super dark chocolate? No. Black coffee? No. Brussels sprouts? Ick. But he loves sweet and spicy. Korean food comes to mind. Though his favourite food is pizza. Do they have any hobbies? Drawing... He did it more as a kid, but he still dabbles in it occasionally. He also is pretty good at coding and could probably create his own video game too, but hasn't tried... Apart from that. Uh. Smoking weed? Eating? 😂 Boom, surprise birthday party! How do they react to surprises? Ian loves surprises... so long as they're good ones. But more than that, he loves surprising other people more. Do they like to wear jewelry? He does. He typically wears rings and bracelets. Sometimes he'll wear a necklace or two. Do they have neat or messy handwriting? Slightly messy... but still completely legible. What are two emotions they feel the most? Does devotion count as an emotion...? I'd say playful and devoted. Do they have a favorite fabric? Not really... Ian gets a lot of his stuff second hand. He does have a lot of cotton and denim though. What kind of accent do they have? Slight New York Bronx accent, but nothing super strong.

[jenyifer]

Pit Babe ep 6 initial reaction

So I recently got back from a trip to Korea and Japan in January (which is why I’m watching everything late cause couldn’t watch it there). Hardcore studied Japanese for 7 years Koran for 3 years. Can read to a decent level in both. Now started my Thai Bl stuff? Maybe 2 years ago when I watched KinnPorsche. I have not actively tried to learn Thai. So why is my auditory understanding of Thai at the same level as Korean. I keep hearing changes from the subs on iqiyi. This is why when I was in Korea and Japan I kept accidentally speaking Thai? 😭😭 anyways onto the photo review.

Is it crazy babe is that good without his abilities? As far as I can tell he hasn’t been using his skill since he started seeing Charlie. Also feel like this is great meme potential.

Very very very harsh Alan. He doesn’t really give Dean any advice on achieving his goals. Also I think Dean was angry when he was racing Babe and Charlie. Seems like if Alan had more practice maybe he’d feel more comfortable

Way is moving through the stages of grief. Acceptance of the enemy. Way kept treating Charlie like he was replaceable. Also babe was looking hella tiny in this scene. Specifically when he was going down the stairs

Couple things that annoy me about this scene.

1. Jeff doesn’t eat or drink. Look at that milk shake and cake. Come on a tiny nibble? It’s good for the baby.

2. Love Actually in my opinion is one of the weakest romance films of all time. It’s sad the porn couple Martin Freeman and Johanna Page were the sweetest one. But the paper holding scene I found fucking creepy? Her husband kids etc are inside and that’s why the guy is doing the paper signs. Romantic? No. Traumatizing kids on Christmas? Yes.

3. Is Jeff a Uni student? Because… I think Way said he’s known Babe for 7 or 10 years. Which means Alan has to be in his 30s and Babe Way are 25 or 28? Idk concerning age diff at least for Jeff and Alan. Also Alan has a bad case of No means No, but I guess very abo.

Babe’s actor is so Beautiful and convincing at being in love with Charlie. He’s so soft and cute. However suggesting babies is fucking weird Charlie. Maybe it’s cause I don’t want any but seems a bit strange but no kink shaming babe and Charlie can have a mommy kink if they want.

“Why don’t we do it in the road?” By The Beatles

I think I’m just too American South brained because my reaction to this is it’s not cute. A rural road would definitely have road kill splatters and broken glass. Also I’d be worried someone would come out of their house and shoot me to death and that’s before they find out I’m of the LGBT+ variation of human.

I actually think the one I like is called Sonic. Oddly not the one who wears blue? But anyways style icon legend got checked by Dean for doing work? They didn’t seem to be doing the social media thing but helping in the garage so not fair he is taking his frustrations out on them. Also Sonic and North should have an opinion on Charlie joining. Wish we could know if they are friendly with Charlie or not. We do see them also at the party but Charlie is so babe focused I guess they don’t exist but they should be closer to his age.

Awwww Babe is taking the boyfriend title seriously trying to look out for Jeff now. But Jeff sees some bad shit but he just doesn’t share it with us. What’s Charlie’s ability? I guess something with his mouth and that’s why he can by pass Babe’s no’s

Babe was a bit heartless to Way. I mean Way made it clear what kind of simp he was for Babe. I get that Way was Babe’s first friend and he’s very attached to Way for that reason but Babe does have Alan too. I feel like when Way asked for Babe’s necklace then Babe should have said hey just so we clear besties. But then again idk how socialized Babe was at that point.

[moonchildlix]

TMNT PIA: character introduction - Donatello

Finally we’ve reached the fourth and youngest of the turtle brothers, Hamato-Teng Donatello. Donnie is a wood turtle, he’s 5’1” (At the start of the series), 14 years old, and goes by any pronouns (Genderfluid), biromantic/asexual. Donnie can most easily be summed as a sweet kid who is a big nerd and can also very sassy and sarcastic. He’s a little bit spoiled, having grown up being protected by three older brothers and also often uses the fact that he’s low-key Splinter’s favourite (Something Splinter will never admit to but everything can see this is the case) to get his way with everything. This however has resulted in his older brothers and father only really seeing him as being just this, the youngest, something Donnie is painfully aware of and is constantly trying to prove to them that he’s more than just the youngest sibling, and that he can be serious/mature/independant.

I would say this version of Donnie is very different from most other versions of the character we’ve previously seen in TMNT media. The ones I would say he is most like are Rise, Mutant Mayhem and 03, having Mutant Mayhem Donnie’s sweet and polite persona but is really sassy/sarcastic and even blunt nature, and 03 Donnie’s very friendly and kind personality with the same thirst for knowledge about anything and everything, combined with Rise Donnie’s recklessness and drama queen attitude. Let’s also not forget the huge undiagnosed autistic nerdiness.

Overall Punks Donnie is a sweet kid who can be a bit of a pain in the ass who loves his family, hates seeing others getting hurt when unnecessary and will not shut up about dinosaurs.

Some fun fact about the character

Donnie, just like his older brothers, can fight with any weapon, but he struggles to fight with two at the same time, because he prefers to fight with two handed weapons. Hence why he usually only fights with a bo, spear or even odachi. The bo staff was the first weapon the turtles ever learned to use, so while the older three spent most of their time learning as many weapons as they could (Though specialising in what suits them best e.g. blades, defence weapons and incapacitating weapons) Donnie spent most of his mastering the basics via bo. He prefers these weapons because they allow him more creativity and strategising in battle.

Because he’s the youngest and most intelligent he’s low-key Splinter’s favourite child and everybody knows it even though Splinter will never admit to it. Because of this, he’s a little bit of a brat who uses this fact to get away with everything, much to Mikey’s frustration. Whenever he does, Mikey will find some way to annoy him e.g. taking the last slice of veggie pizza (Mikey doesn’t even like veggie pizza, but he knows it’s Donnie’s favourite, so he does it anyway) jumping out and scaring him etc. and Donnie retaliates by annoying him back e.g. messing with his Netflix recommendations, taking all the marshmallows out of the Lucky Charms box etc. and it becomes a cycle that never ends.

He can speak twelve languages. He grew up bilingual in both English and Japanese (As did all the turtles, because Splinter wanted them to also know his native language) but Donnie started learning for whatever reason from boredom to actual usefulness. He learned Korean so he could listen to Kpop and understand the lyrics and watch Kdrama’s without the subtitles. He learned Mandarin for a similar reason, so he could watch Cdrama’s without subtitles and read Danmei before the official translations were released. Mikey would sometimes bring him along to meet with Keno, the pizza delivery guy and Donnie learned Italian from listening to the old Italian couple who lived next door to the meet-up spot arguing (And also from discarded restaurant menus). It mainly started off as insults and words Splinter doesn’t like him saying and eventually turned to full sentences. Overall, he’s fluent in English, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Standard Chinese, Cantonese, Spanish, French, Arabic, Italian, Swedish and even Gaelic (Scottish).

He does not feel fear in the face of danger, unless the situation becomes dire. This doesn’t mean he’s immune to fear, because he isn’t, he’s afraid of a lot of things, from more irrational fears like needles, the dark (Based on a traumatic experience as a child) and heights, to bigger ones like failure, abandonment and being worthless.

His snaggletooth is actually the result of an accident when he was very young and had just started training with his brothers together instead of on his own/with Splinter where Raph accidentally hit him too hard with a weapon (Made of wood) and knocked his tooth out.

Due to being a wood turtle, he has incredible enhanced long term memory as well as photographic memory. He’s able to remember things in very vivid details from what day it happened, who was there, step by step of what happened and how it happened, even what the place it happened in looked like at the time (E.g. was the kotatsu pushed against the wall or was it in the centre of the room? What was on the kotatsu? Were there plates on it? What was on the plates? Etc.) This resulted in him getting in trouble a lot for ‘lying’ when he was younger because Splinter didn’t understand how a child so young could remember all these things so clearly so assumed that he had to be lying when he explained in very vivid detail how Leo broke his toy velociraptor. He knows now that he’s just got really good memory and doesn’t question him or accuse him of lying anymore (He realised this when Donnie suddenly mentioned something he should have no memory of because he would’ve been a very young toddler at the time and then turned into a long conversation of asking is he remember this, that and the other, most of which he does all very accurately and ending with Splinter realising his youngest child remember his first birthday.)

He ties his mask into a ribbon instead of knots like his brothers because Raph tied it that way once when they were younger and he liked it so much Raph is still tying his mask this way ten years later.

He’s the most skilled of the turtles with shurikens, kunai daggers, bow and arrow, crossbow and even slingshot. Splinter realises early on that Donnie’s tactical mind, combined with these weapons, which require precision, accuracy and consideration of wind, speed and distance meant that he could be very skilled with these weapons.

Donnie is actually the turtle I had the most difficulty with picking out a voice for, I wanted it to sound clear he is still the youngest brother but not too young, and in the end settled with Walker Scobell, who is the role of Percy Jackson in the new Percy Jackson and The Olympians live action series

[greenteabelle]

just finished watching the frog (2024) and wow i'm surprised go minsi manages to stay so skinny because she absolutely ATE AND DEVOURED her character !!!

spoilerish discussion below

there are some things that i feel like the drama did right and some that were just like ... you didn't have to do that but you did and now we're here like huh ?

for example , i love the fact the yoo seunga is just batshit insane . like , no redemption , no reasoning , just a plain old psycopath who kills like a child throwing tantrums . sure , her childhood probably had contributed somewhat to who she became , like her never receiving the approval or trust from her father who's too busy trying to keep up appearances , but it's so insignificant that you can tell that the drama doesn't try to humanise her at all .

yoo seunga is just purely insane , and i respect the drama for making that decision !

which is why it makes me feel so conflicted regarding the decision for her to ACTUALLY kill off the child . like murder is already bad enough , but the child of your husband ??? like i was genuinely so shocked i had to pause the drama a bit and debate whether i wanted to continue the drama or not , because i felt sick to my stomach .

sihyeon's death proved her lack of humanity from the get-go and ensured that there wouldn't be any redemption for her , yet i still wonder if it's truly necessary .

another thing i feel conflicted about is how yoo seunga died , because i genuinely believe the last showdown should have ended on the night she was surrounded . it was the best timing , and dragging it out to involve her husband and for him to be the one to deliver the final blow was just .... URGHHH IDK IT FELT A LITTLE FRUSTRATING ???

like my guy jeon yeongha was SUFFERING ( which does not negate his responsibility in covering up the crime just because he " didn't want to overthink " (??) btw ) and he doesn't even get to see her locked up and rotting away in jail ??

yeah if i were him i would have ended it all !

speaking of suffering , URGHHH I FEEL SO SAD FOR THE KOO FAMILY !!!!!!!!!! i honestly think focusing on their story alone would have been sufficient , but oh it hurt so bad i just wanted to rip my hair out !!!

like i fully understand that seo eunkyung had it rough , especially since she was the one who found the body , but straight up blaming it on koo sangjun was just RAHHHHHHH !!! not blaming her for it btw , i'm just lamenting the effects of ptsd and what damage it can genuinely cause to people , like they could have been so happy if it weren't for that damn killer FUCKKKKKK

and don't even get me started to koo sangjun getting dementia because i straight up started bawling when he started organising his bed like he used to in fhe motel !!!!!! why can't kind people have happy endings oh my goddddd

but overall , i don't regret watching this drama , even though it is admittedly ridiculous at some points ( like mother yoon bomi was CARRYING the entire south korean police force on her back and how does yoo seunga have so much strength in her tiny body to kill so many people like i need her pilates routine )

also side note i screamed when park mf chanyeol showed up on the screen because HELLO ??? I WAS NOT AWARE WE WOULD HAVE THE STAR OF EXO NEXT DOOR IN THIS SLASHER-ESQUE THRILLER DRAMA ??? that's what we call range !

so yeah 9/10 kdrama for me and if you disagree i think you are correct !

[goldeneyedgirl]

12 Kisses: january: lingering, korean alice.

So I decided I'm going to try to fill one of these kiss prompts each month this year, each with a different one of my fic verses. They'll just be little warm up fics, and hopefully get me over this fic-writing block I've got. Of course, January's is late because I didn't decide to tackle this until three days ago. So you get two kiss fics this month.

Today, Korean Alice and her first meeting with Jasper. A little more world-building, and that first date from her point of view. I missed this verse, it's so different to what I normally write. I hope you enjoy!

twelve kisses. january: korean alice [ lingering ] a long, slow kiss filled with emotion & desire

Alice doesn’t know what she’s thinking, truly.

It started simply - most of her visions, she ignores. They leave her with the memory of a headache and information she can rarely use. And she’s almost always so tired that they can’t get through properly. Ratana and her people always forget that she needs food, water, and rest.

So when she sees it, just a glimpse, she has to grab it.

(How many days and how many nights had she wondered what it would be like to fall in love? For that one person to appear and just… love her. Like her. Care about her. A person who was hers. It was all she had wanted for such a very long time.)

Jasper Cullen is perfect. And the minute she sees him in person, she loves him. Everything about him. It’s worth everything she had to negotiate with Ratana in that moment. And when she sees him smile? Well, she’d pay double.

It takes almost nothing to get him to approach her. He studies her carefully, and for once she feels pretty and desirable and special. She tries to take care of her clothing, to tailor the things she finds and sew new things, but she also knows that no manner of clever sewing or embroidery can cover up how well-loved her clothing is. No tailoring can fix that she’s too thin, too small, for her age.

And he still approached her, his gaze unwavering. He’s so tall, and he moves like all the leading men in the black-and-white films she watches. Like he might be coming to sweep her off her feet.

She’s being ridiculous.

(Maybe she understands all those girls who fell for American soldiers during the war a little bit better right now. He’s perfect.)

It happens just the way she saw, the way he comes over and helps her down and starts speaking in English before attempting some stilted, formal Korean. She’s trying very hard not to blush, but she does giggle at his visceral relief when she answers him in English.

“Jasper Hale, ma’am,” he says. Jasper. It fits him perfectly.

And this is the moment. The one she saw.

“I’m Alice,” she says, a little breathlessly. “You call me Alice.”

“Alice,” he breathes, and it’s beautiful when he says it.

(She has a name. A name he gave her. It’s been eighty years, being known as ‘Child’ or ‘Girl’. Ratana has given her I.Ds and papers in the past with placeholder names that were never hers. The name her grandparents called her before they cast her out was that of the mother she killed, never her own. Not an affectionate memory, but a reminder of the pain and horror she caused. And maybe she should be sad or frustrated that it’s not a Korean name, that it’s an English name. But she cannot make herself care when it’s been bestowed upon her by the one that will love her best.)

“You’re not…” he begins and then stops, ducking his head before she can stop him. She’s not surprised that he’s already picked up that she’s not like him; the hummingbird heartbeat always gives her away - her eyes are dark enough that they pass as black; she works hard enough in the night hours that she has both the pale skin and the dark circles under her eyes. But the heartbeat always gives her away.

“Apologies, that was rude,” Jasper says and she smiles at him, looping her arm around his.

“How about I answer your questions somewhere else?” She offers, more confident than she feels and almost flirtatious. She’s rather impressed with herself; she thought she’d be a stammering mess.

“If they can spare you, I’d be obliged,” he manages.

“For one night, they can.”

It’s the same rigmarole to get out of the market as it is to get in - Hala wiping his memories as they make the trek back to the centre of the city. She knows the deal that Alice made with Ratana, that this will not be the last mind-wipe that Jasper Hale has today.

But she doesn’t want to think about that yet, and lets Jasper escort her deeper into Busan.

There is no food in the market - the girls for sale are fed before it opens, and very few other attendees require human food. Sometimes Ratana will bring her food - she prefers Alice not dine on blood, though she’s never said why. So she’s oddly touched when Jasper takes her straight to the human night markets, to stands piled high with food, with smoke and heat filling the air. Somehow, she manages to find her appetite, and she’s amused at how closely he watches her as she eats.

He’s easy to talk to, and a gentleman - he guides her though the crowds protectively, his hand gently on her lower back. She knows more than one male in the markets that would take the opportunity to slip their hand underneath her shirt or down the back of her skirt, and she’s oddly proud Jasper hasn’t.

(She’s not sure that she’d be upset if he did…)

But the questions fly between them and she’s fascinated that he’s one of the vampires that fought of territory - it seems like a horrific way to spend decades, and she’s been manning a market stall since the 30s. Even more impressive is that he left it all and started anew, with a family that he speaks of with affection and a diet that has left his eyes a captivating, murky gold. He talks of travel and schooling and adventures that she’s only ever seen in film, and it sounds wonderful. He sounds wonderful.

And she talks about the markets and about what, who she is - she tries to gloss over her childhood, before Ratana found her, but he squeezes her hand as she rushes through that story as if he knows the pain that it causes her. She tells him about some of the wilder clients, the funnier moments in the market, to make him laugh. He has a wonderful laugh.

They end up in a park; too dark for humans, but perfect for them. He’s still holding her hand, as they weave between the trees and flower beds. She pauses for a second, to pluck a white flower from the ground - growing out of bounds of the garden bed, it will be cut away when the park maintenance staff spot it so she figures it’s okay to pick it.

She tucks it behind her ear and looks over at Jasper, who is looking at her with an expression she cannot decipher.

And then he kisses her.

Oh.

It’s heartbreakingly slow, his hand cupping her face as he rubs circles on her cheek with his thumb. She’s standing on her tip toes and it’s still not close enough. She’s pressing against him, her hands flat against his chest. His mouth moves against hers impossibly slowly, drawing her in and making her head swim. Maybe she sighs against him. It's the kind of kiss that feels like it belongs in a movie; but better, because watching it on the screen doesn't even come close to how it feels, how he feels.

(She doesn’t count any of the rough hands, faces mashes against hers in a moment of opportunity on rowdy nights at the market as experience. This singular perfect kiss is her first and only. It’s her life, her story, and she can write it exactly as she pleases.)

She feels so warm, even with the cool of his hands against her. She wishes that they were somewhere else, not in the middle of a park, wishes she had the perfect words to explain that she was already falling in love with him the moment she saw him walk towards her. Now she's done, she's fallen head over heals, and her heart is firmly and forever his.

(That she would not at all be upset if he slid one of his hands around her waist and pulled her closer.)

He only pulls away when she needs to breathe; as he steps backwards, her knees quiver and he’s quick to steady her.

She doesn't know what to say to him in that moment, at the way he's staring at her reverentially; the way he runs his thumb over her lips and bends down to kiss her again - softer, fast, just a graze against her that somehow feels impossibly intimate.

And for some reason, that's when she remembers her agreement. That she's Cinderella on the clock and as beautiful and perfect as this moment is, it cannot last forever.

“Let’s get out of here,” she says breathlessly as she makes up her mind, and he grins at her, a proper movie-star grin that makes her melt a little more. He tucks her in at his side, and they leave the park together, back into the streets of Busan towards her apartment.

(She wishes she could stay in the moment. Ratana gave her until four in the morning; and then he’ll forget and she’ll be alone again. But it’s only midnight - barely midnight - and there’s still four hours left of her own love story, of this perfect moment, and she’s going to savour every single one. If this is how her love story goes, well, she's going to make it everything she ever hoped for.)

[lovings4turn]

[ 🪩 ] who's your money on? - send me a little bit about yourself along with a gender preference and fandom(s) , and i'll ship you with someone n provide a few headcanons too !

for f1 please! here's a description of me (tbh idk how much info you want so):

lola, I'm pansexual, she/her, I'm korean-pakistani, born and raised in the uk, 5'5, brown skin, long-ish black hair and black eyes, I tend to dress in a mixture of clothes, very into fashion (I love pintrest) and fashion weeks are the highlight of my year, I love football (liverpool and real madrid fan), I love formula one (ferrari, mercedes, and redbull), and I do archery in my spare time, i'm fluent in 3 languages english urdu and punjabi, i'm also not really in touch with my korean side, which is why I want to try and learn korean some time in the future, also have alot's of family trauma!!, I'm currently in uni studying psychology and I want to become a therapist, I love animals and I have two dogs (salt and pepper) and a cat (bartolomeu the cannible), I love music and spend alot of my time creating playlists, very chaotic (adhd), my fav season is either spring or autumn, I love aesthetic things, and am kinda a perfectionist, very much a people pleaser, kinda nervous around new people, love writing stories, I have a older brother, can't cook to save my life (unless it's instant noddle), also I love spicy food!!

this was the perfect amount of info babes !!! again there were a few different drivers i had in mind but in the end , there can only be one ...

❤︎ . . . i'd ship you with max verstappen !

i just think you two would be a great pairing , honestly . i think your perfectionist tendencies really speak to max , who also loves things to go perfectly , and your chaotic nature is something he finds so so charming . don't worry about being nervous around new people , though , as max is more than used to having to socialise with strangers - he'll take the lead for you both

he also likes the height difference between you two ! thinks it makes for perfect hugs , as he can easily rest his chin on the top of your head , and he can engulf you into his arms with ease

max is absolutely blown away when he finds out you do archery . like . he's amazed . he immediately wants to try it with you (and gets a bit frustrated when he isn't instantly good at it) but can't believe how good you are at it

absolutely adores your animals . i mean , of course he loves jimmy and sassy , but salt , pepper , and bartolomeu the cannible (amazing names btw) also have a special place in his heart ! so many of your guys' text conversations is just various animal pics

the gf effect with max is so real , too . thanks to your interest in fashion , and ability at actually putting together cohesive outfits , max gets somewhat of a fashion glow-up when you two get together , something the fans are forever indebted to you for

[smolwritingchick]

It was a video I saw a while ago, but I think it was Hollywood fix (could be wrong) but the man was being rude towards BTS. Like talking about collars with Ricegum, and in the vid you can see Namjoon taken aback and the others confused (Jhope was smiling and it was disappointing to see). (I think security or the staff was trying to keep the man away). So how would Jennie react in that moment because I know she give them the scariest glare ever.

I remember this!!! Talking about collabing with Ricegum and ect. And I even remember Ricegum’s video about BTS. That whole thing was ridiculous. I believe Bangtan was doing a private photoshoot during that time.

This kind of situation is one of the scenarios Jen warns the boys about and tries her best to prepare them for. Especially when she does media preparation with Namjoon as they practice interviewing for American Media and ect. The American paparazzi is aggressive as hell and she’d be dreading this stuff happening. The last thing she wants to see is these reporters being rude af to her boys but sadly it’s inevitable. The entitlement of these reporters is something else. Smfh.

I’ve been thinking of Namjoon and Jennie having a signal for whenever he needs assistance during interviews and ect. And in this case for out of nowhere situations such as this. Maybe a random word or something. I’m still brainstorming. Like maybe he’d say “Candy,” because of her love for Smarties and she’d step in immediately to assist. So when the media ends up swarming them while they’re taking photos, I see Namjoon turning to her immediately and saying the signal word while Jen would immediately understand what was going on and informs them. These reporters be like the FBI, trying to dig up private schedules and so on to get a glimpse of celebs. This would probably be the case here too.

Best believe she will be giving them the scariest glare. No doubt about that. The constant shouting and disruption of their private schedule is going to irk her soul and she’d turn to the guys to inform them of what’s happening in Korean, to breathe, that everything will be OK and to remain quiet. Who knows if the media may twist their words if they end up saying something or take things out of context. And she’d avoid speaking up herself and cussing out the reporters as much as she really wanted to. That’ll be a terrible scenario. She’d be on her good behavior and keep her frustrations to herself. But the annoyed look on her face will speak volumes.

I even see one of the reporters telling Jennie she should “smile more” when they see her frowning at them. But once she gives him that glare, I see them getting a little nervous. When Bangtan gets back in the van, she’d chat with them about it and ask if they were all right. I see her also apologizing for USA’s aggressive behaviors for celebrities.

“Welcome to the aggressive side of American media. Annoying as hell,” she’d say.

[totaldramafan-lauri]

S-sorry I haven’t been talking the past week or so.....Can confirm that I’m doing OK and I don’t WANNA isolate again, but.....

Wh-what happened was that.....that one singer I talked about before? The one with “one of the best voices I’ve heard in my life”? W-well, he put out a new album this month, so.....h-he’s been taking up the bulk of my thoughts recently again....I-I’m still playing CRK and Splatoon, but I haven’t had much to say, cuz THAT’S where my head’s been.....Not only listening to his music nonstop (and I mean nonstop, like, I’m listening as I type this), but watching videos....over...and over and over again.....

And unlike my other interests, I’m legitimately embarrassed to talk about him. Even just to say his name.....Again, am I not used to feeling so strongly for a real person (even if it’s not THAT different than a fictional crush TBH considering who he is, the f-fantasy aspect is still there, I guess?), and I-I’m worried about accidentally saying something wrong and someone stumbling upon it, or getting c-carried away, s-something like that.....I’m SO addicted to his voice that it’s e-embarrassing.....I HAVE found a lot of other things to like about him, but his voice still affects me in that way, and I can’t pretend like it doesn’t.....I-I’m worried that, if I get too comfy talking about him with no f-filter, I.....I-I’ll regret it, and come off as creepy in some way.....C-cuz I’m so used to talking that way about people who aren’t real....I don’t trust myself.....I know he has many many fans who like him that way, b-but I still don’t....

So, I just.....kept it all to myself, and ended up silent again.....oops.....

But, uh, since it’s almost Eurovision season, I should come back here, so....here I am again!

Um......while I’m here, I just have ONE thing I wanna talk about when it comes to him, before I go back to the normal stuff, so....yeah....sorry.....^////////^;

I-I had a dream about him this week....

And...it’s so f-frustrating.....

Cuz....it was one of those dreams.....where, when you JUST wake up, you remember every detail.....but, you start forgetting REALLY quickly....until you barely remember anything, so suddenly....I-it feels like those are the only kinds of dreams I’ve been having recently. I know what the dream was ABOUT, and that I had it, but not much else....

It frustrates me, cuz I remember how I FELT....and I know it was good....I was happy, and warm....and UGH, I....I wish I could’ve, like, written it all down while I still remembered it, but I didn’t think to, cuz it left me so quickly- ARGH.....

All I remember now is that, I was on some kind of vehicle - a train or a bus of some kind? I don’t think it was a plane - and I met him, and we talked, and it was a positive interaction (which doesn’t surprise me, cuz he’s s-so sweet to his fans....)

I also remember what he looked like, cuz I was looking at pictures before I fell asleep, so he looked like he did in those pictures....and also, even though he’s Korean, we were speaking English cuz all my dreams are in English for obvious reasons.....

A-and that’s all I know for sure....

I-I....I also....I THINK....he might’ve held my hand....? I think....? I vaguely recall some kind of physical touch....Like, he might’ve touched my cheek, or maybe....k-kissed my forehead, or something small like that, but....I think holding my hand is the safest to assume....Like, while I was talking to him, he could’ve done that to try and calm me....

Everything else is just speculation....I-I have no idea of anything we said anymore....Especially anything he said to me...but, I can at least GUESS what I could’ve said to him, based on the fact that I remember how I felt....?

I could’ve....been thanking him, for making me so happy, and bringing me so much comfort.....and how much I love his voice....and how he’s helped me through a hard time with his music....a-and whenever I hear him, I feel warm...Y’know, stuff that I WOULD tell him if I had the ability and the courage to do so....

But again, I dunno what was actually said...He would’ve probably answered, “and thank you for listening to me <3″ or something like that.....>///////< He likes hearing things like that....

But yeah.....even though I feel embarrassed about sharing who he is, I at least wanted to vent about the dream, cuz gosh, I KNOW it was a good dream, and I was lucky to have it, so I don’t wanna forget the parts I still remember.

[jungkookssharpjawline]

Every day I fall more and more in love with Lucas from NCT and it’s becoming a problem