#and genre can definitely also be a determining factor

[dykesynthezoid]

If you haven’t seen much cable tv in a few years you might not know this but the editing on most of those shows is so absolutely crazy now. God it sucks so bad. And like some of those shows do appear to be genuinely well written and made by people passionate about what they’re doing!! But the pacing and storytelling and character beats all seem so strange.

And it’s clearly bc they’re supposed to be made for an audience who’s expected not to be paying full attention/have zero attention span. So everything comes at you way too fast and both vulnerable/revealing character moments and larger plot developments seem to come out of nowhere w very little buildup. Honestly it makes me wonder how many of these shows are having genuine effort put into them but are then totally chopped up in the edit anyway.

Like as an example I really enjoyed Brilliant Minds, but if you compare the editing in that show to what they were doing over on say, House MD? It’s night and day, and it feels even more apparent bc they’re in the same genre of medical investigation drama, albeit w different central themes. Like I loved the writing and it felt like a lot of sincerity and passion went in to making it; but the editing is so break-neck and disjointed it can be hard to enjoy those positives.

(And the flipside of this is prestige television shows being pumped out that don’t have the same time constraints and so can take their time meandering and don’t have that super fast edit, but a lot of the plot and character development are still just like. Playacting at storytelling. Just vague gestures in the guise of plot or character moments. And still so many tropes.)

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #70: 2019

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Lil Nas X, Post Malone and Swae Lee, Halsey, Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Marshmello, Ariana Grande, Khalid, Travis Scott, Jonas Brothers. End description]

More information about this blog here

And here we are with the final full decade featured on this blog. All throughout the 2010's retrospectives, we have been focusing a lot on how streaming and internet culture in general is shaping pop music. Now, that can be seen more than ever. Especially with the number one song this year, Lil Nas X's Old Town Road -- one of the first viral TikTok songs we'll be seeing. Old Town Road isn't just notable for how it took off through meme culture or how TikTok would soon come to be one of the main forces behind pop success, but the track was also controversial for how it blurred the lines between genres. Not through aesthetic or sound (which is nothing new), but through marketing. After reaching number nineteen on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the magazine disqualified the song from counting as the genre. It should be mentioned that country circles have a history of drawing clear lines around what counts as their genre. There was a time when many country music tastemakers considered artists like Johnny Cash or John Denver to be too rock or pop for country. In fact during the 1975 CMAs, Charlie Rich burned John Denver's card after announcing him as the winner. And if it even needs to be said, this tension is even more noticeable when you factor race into the mix. Especially when you factor in how country being classified as a "white" genre was a marketing strategy less than a hundred years ago. Here's an article that went more in depth on the issue in response to the Old Town Road debate.

“Determining which chart a song lives on is an ongoing process that depends on a number of factors, most notably the song’s musical composition, but also how the song is marketed and promoted, the musical history of the artist, airplay the song receives, and how the song is platformed on streaming services.” - a representative from Billboard for Rolling Stone

Obviously, this is a lot of discourse and debate to drop onto a short TikTok meme song. But since this blog is essentially about how music is marketed, I couldn't not bring it up. Because Old Town Road wasn't controversial just because it was a song that used both country and rap influences (country had been incorporating more hip-hop production into their sound all decade), but it was largely controversial because Lil Nas X wasn't a country artist. This is a concept I touched on briefly during the rise of nu metal, but the definition of a genre can change depending on whether you're evaluating the sound as music or as marketing. And if you're in the world of marketing, the definition of "country music" is "music performed by country artists within the country music industry". But with the internet making it more possible than ever for people outside the industry to gain pop success, the lines are allowed to become even more blurred.

Unlike the start of the decade, the pop music now is much more low-key and moody. The popularity of trap lends well to a darker sound, and even pop tracks like Billie Eilish's Bad Guy and Ariana Grande's 7 Rings are taking influence from this production style. Lo-fi music and "bedroom pop" are now becoming the go-to sound. More production styles that encourage more individual, introspective listening. Music that sounds like it could have been produced by one person in their bedroom. And maybe the timing was just right. Because soon, most people would have to make their music out of their bedrooms.

See you all in 2020.

[solomiracle]

i am curious on your thoughts on ruri tunes...I personally like it quite a bit but it definitely makes it harder to binge through chapters as i get tired of playing the same 7 songs lol. I also wondered how they'd keep it interesting, considering I'm only on ch 12 and am dreading having to go to 30 with the same songs on the same normal level

OH BOY OH BOY ANON IM ABOUT TO BE SO ANNOYING >:D

On it's own, I like Ruri Tunes! I love the gameplay and the chibi characters are so cute!! But as a whole... it just doesn't work. Ruri Tunes is a rhythm game that's awkwardly shoved in, then forced to be important in a completely different kind of game.

Outside of mini-games or events, rhythm games aren't a thing you can just slide into your unrelated game with no warning. They're a genre, after all. You can't just put one into a visual novel dating sim, make it the defining factor of gameplay, and think players who never would've expected nor voiced want for it to be happy. It'd be like if you wanted to play a board game, but after setting everything up, found out that you have to play a first person shooter to determine how many spaces your piece moves. They clash, it's awkward, and most importantly, a lot of players don't like it.

Luckily, I enjoy rhythm games, so Ruri Tunes isn't that much of an issue to me. But it is to a lot of others. I've even seen some people say they've dropped Obey Me because of it. And I get it!! Ruri Tunes is incredibly time consuming (though the devs have clearly stopped caring about that, since non-VIP players can't skip event dance battles in SWD without using devil points), repetitive (as you mentioned, anon, they only have so many songs to use), and not to mention disability unfriendly! If you're going to make it mandatory, at least do something like D4DJ and include an auto mode!! It's like Solmare hates making money or something.

And the worst part about this is that there's genuinely no way to change Ruri Tunes (at least, no ways I can think of) without either making it the center of the game or pushing it to the side entirely. In rhythm games like Bandori or Enstars, you can actually ignore the story and only focus on the songs. You can do this in D4DJ as well, but thanks to the auto mode, you can actually just view the game as a visual novel with a rhythm game mechanic. If the devs were determined to make a full fleged rhythm game in Nightbringer, they should've done something like that. But because they were too afraid to let go of SWD's clunky ass story and gameplay shoved together deal, we got an "evolved" version of dance battles basically... for the worse.

TLDR: Don't mix two drastically different game genres together, unless it was intentional (and advertised as such) from the start. You'll make some people happy, some more people just okay, and a lot more people dropping your game.

[wordmediavission]

How to Choose the Right IPTV Service Provider for Your Needs

Are you ready to elevate your TV viewing experience? Start exploring your options today and find the perfect IPTV service provider for your needs!

The way we consume television content has transformed significantly. Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) has emerged as a leading solution for delivering TV content over the internet. But with so many IPTV service provider available, how do you choose the right one for your needs? In this blog, we’ll guide you through the essential factors to consider when selecting an IPTV provider.

What Is IPTV?

It's important to understand what IPTV is before diving into the selection process. Unlike traditional cable or satellite TV, IPTV delivers television content via the internet. This means you can stream live TV, on-demand shows, and movies directly to your devices, including TVs, smartphones, tablets, and computers.

Why Choosing the Right IPTV Provider Matters

Selecting the right IPTV service provider ensures you get the best experience for your money. A reliable provider offers high-quality streams, minimal buffering, and access to a diverse range of channels. On the other hand, choosing the wrong provider can result in poor service, frequent outages, and wasted money.

How to Choose Best IPTV Provider: Expert Recommendations

Key Factors to Consider When Choosing an IPTV Service Provider

Here are the most important aspects to evaluate when selecting an IPTV service:

1. Content Selection

The first step is to determine if the provider offers the channels and content you want. Some providers focus on specific genres, like sports or movies.

Live TV: Check if they provide access to local, national, and international channels.

On-Demand Content: Look for a library of movies and TV shows.

Specialized Channels: If you’re interested in niche content, such as sports leagues or foreign-language channels, ensure they’re included.

2. Streaming Quality

Streaming quality is critical for an enjoyable viewing experience. Look for providers that offer high-definition (HD) or ultra-high-definition (UHD) streams. Ensure they have minimal buffering and lag, even during peak hours.

Stable Servers: Providers with reliable servers offer consistent streaming.

Adaptive Streaming: Some IPTV services automatically adjust the stream quality based on your internet speed.

3. Device Compatibility

Ensure the IPTV provider supports the devices you plan to use. Most reputable providers work on:

Smart TVs

Streaming devices (e.g., Amazon Fire Stick, Roku)

Smartphones and tablets (iOS and Android)

Computers (Windows and macOS)

Some services also offer dedicated apps for easier access.

4. User Interface and Experience

A user-friendly interface can enhance your overall experience. Check if the provider offers an intuitive electronic program guide (EPG), easy navigation, and customizable features like favorite channel lists or parental controls.

5. Pricing and Packages

Compare the pricing structures of different providers. While some offer monthly subscriptions, others may provide discounts for longer-term commitments. Keep an eye out for hidden fees or charges for add-ons.

Free Trials: Opt for providers that offer a free trial to test their service before committing.

Value for Money: Ensure the price aligns with the quality and quantity of content provided.

6. Customer Support

Reliable customer support is essential for troubleshooting issues. Choose a provider with responsive customer service, available via multiple channels such as live chat, email, or phone.

Availability: Check their support hours and response times.

Guides and FAQs: Some providers offer comprehensive guides and tutorials to help you set up and troubleshoot issues.

7. Reviews and Reputation

Research the provider’s reputation by reading customer reviews and testimonials. Look for feedback on:

Service reliability

Streaming quality

Customer support

Overall satisfaction

You can find reviews on forums, social media, and review websites. Beware of providers with consistently negative feedback.

8. Legal Compliance

Ensure the IPTV provider operates legally and holds the necessary licenses to distribute content. Using illegal IPTV services can lead to service interruptions and legal consequences.

Top IPTV service provider for your needs

Here's a quick look at the best IPTV provider reviews:

1. Aris IPTV

Over 18,000 channels and 88,000 VOD options

Compatible with most devices

High-quality 4K streaming

24/7 customer support

2. IPTV Trends

15,000+ live channels and extensive VOD library

Affordable pricing plans

Supports multiple connections

Excellent EPG and user-friendly interface

3. King IPTV

Comprehensive sports and entertainment packages

High-definition streaming

Works on all major platforms

Free trial available

4. Sapphire Secure IPTV

Affordable plans with a wide range of channels

Reliable streaming with minimal buffering

Supports multi-screen viewing

Excellent customer service

Benefits of Choosing the Right IPTV Service Provider

A well-chosen IPTV provider offers several benefits:

Cost Savings: Enjoy premium content at a fraction of the cost of cable or satellite.

Flexibility: Watch content anytime, anywhere, on your preferred devices.

Variety: Access a vast library of live TV, on-demand shows, and movies.

High Quality: Enjoy smooth, high-definition streaming with minimal interruptions.

Top Tips for Finding the Best IPTV Service Provider

1. Test Multiple Services

Take advantage of free trials or short-term subscriptions to test several providers. This will help you compare their content, streaming quality, and user experience.

2. Verify Internet Speed Requirements

Check the provider’s recommended internet speed for optimal performance. Most IPTV services require a stable connection of at least 10 Mbps for HD streaming.

3. Ask for Recommendations

Join online forums or communities related to IPTV to get recommendations from other users. They can provide insights into reliable providers and share their experiences.

4. Check Refund Policies

Ensure the provider has a clear refund policy in case the service doesn’t meet your expectations.

5. Consider Scalability

If you plan to share the service with family members or expand your viewing options, choose a provider that supports multiple simultaneous streams.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Choosing IPTV Provider

Choosing Based on Price Alone

While affordability is important, the cheapest option may not always provide the best value. Balance cost with quality and features.

Overlooking Legal Issues

Avoid providers that operate without proper licenses. Illegal services may result in poor reliability and potential legal trouble.

Ignoring Reviews

Skipping research can lead to frustration. Make informed decisions by reading reviews and testimonials.

Best IPTV Subscription Services You Can Trust in 2025

Final Touch

Choosing the right IPTV service provider doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By focusing on factors like content selection, streaming quality, device compatibility, and customer support, you can find a provider that meets your specific needs. Take your time to test services, read reviews, and ensure the provider operates legally. With the right IPTV provider, you can enjoy seamless streaming and a world of entertainment at your fingertips.

[music-industry-updates]

Which Music Streaming Service Reigns Supreme? Amazon Music vs Apple Music

In today’s digital age, music streaming services have become an essential part of our daily lives, providing instant access to millions of songs at our fingertips. Among the numerous options available, Amazon Music and Apple Music stand out as two of the most prominent platforms, each offering unique features, vast music libraries, and user-friendly interfaces. However, with so many similarities and differences, choosing between the two can be a daunting task. This article aims to provide an in-depth comparison of Amazon Music and Apple Music, helping you determine which platform best suits your needs as a music lover.

Feature Comparison:

When it comes to features, both Amazon Music and Apple Music offer a variety of tools designed to enhance the user experience. Amazon Music is known for its seamless integration with Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, allowing users to control playback with voice commands. Additionally, Amazon Music HD offers high-definition and Ultra HD streaming, which is a significant draw for audiophiles looking for superior sound quality.

On the other hand, Apple Music is renowned for its curated playlists and innovative features like Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, which provides an immersive listening experience by simulating 3D audio. Apple Music also excels in its integration with the Apple ecosystem, making it the go-to choice for users of Apple devices. The service’s seamless synchronization across iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches ensures a cohesive experience for users deeply embedded in the Apple environment.

Pricing Structure:

Pricing is a crucial factor when choosing a music streaming service. Amazon Music offers several tiers, including Amazon Music Free (with ads), Amazon Music Prime (included with an Amazon Prime membership), and Amazon Music Unlimited, which offers full access to the music library without ads. Additionally, Amazon Music HD is available for an extra fee, providing higher-quality streaming options.

Apple Music, on the other hand, offers a straightforward pricing structure with three main plans: an individual plan, a family plan (which supports up to six users), and a student plan at a discounted rate. Unlike Amazon, Apple Music does not have a free tier (except for a limited trial period), but its pricing is competitive, especially for users who are part of the Apple ecosystem and can benefit from Apple One bundles that include other Apple services.

While Amazon Music might be more appealing to those who already have an Amazon Prime membership, Apple Music’s pricing may be more attractive to students and families looking for a comprehensive music experience.

User Experience:

User experience is a key consideration when selecting a streaming service. Amazon Music’s app is clean and straightforward, with easy navigation and quick access to playlists, albums, and songs. The integration with Alexa enhances the hands-free experience, making it ideal for users who prefer voice commands.

Apple Music, however, takes user experience to another level with its polished interface, seamless integration across Apple devices, and an intuitive design that makes music discovery a breeze. The For You section provides personalized playlists and recommendations based on listening habits, while the Browse section offers a curated selection of new releases, playlists, and more.

For users who value a well-organized, aesthetically pleasing app, Apple Music might be the better choice. However, if voice control and simplicity are your priorities, Amazon Music could be the winner.

Music Library:

The size and diversity of a music library are crucial for music enthusiasts who enjoy exploring different genres and artists. Both Amazon Music and Apple Music boast extensive libraries, with over 90 million songs available on each platform. However, the difference lies in how these libraries are curated and presented.

Apple Music is known for its expertly curated playlists, which are often tailored to specific moods, genres, and activities. This makes it easy for users to discover new music that aligns with their tastes. Additionally, Apple Music offers exclusive releases and early access to albums from popular artists, which can be a significant draw for dedicated fans.

Amazon Music, while also offering a vast library, focuses more on breadth rather than curation. The platform provides various stations and playlists, but they may not be as finely tuned or as personalized as those on Apple Music. However, Amazon’s HD and Ultra HD tracks give it an edge in terms of audio quality, which may appeal to audiophiles.

If you’re looking for expertly curated content and exclusive releases, Apple Music is the better option. However, if high-quality audio and a vast library are your priorities, Amazon Music may be the way to go.

Device Compatibility:

Device compatibility is another factor to consider, especially if you use multiple devices to listen to music. Amazon Music is available on a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and various smart speakers, particularly those powered by Alexa. This makes it a versatile option for households with diverse tech ecosystems.

Apple Music, while also available on various devices, truly shines within the Apple ecosystem. The service seamlessly integrates with iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, and even CarPlay, offering a consistent experience across all devices. Additionally, Apple Music is also available on Android devices, smart TVs, and some third-party speakers, making it accessible to non-Apple users as well.

For those deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem, Apple Music provides unmatched compatibility and synchronization. However, for users who prefer a service that works well across a broader range of devices, Amazon Music is a strong contender.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, both Amazon Music and Apple Music offer excellent services, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Amazon Music excels in its integration with Alexa, high-quality streaming options, and broad device compatibility, making it a solid choice for users who prioritize these features. On the other hand, Apple Music stands out with its curated playlists, seamless integration within the Apple ecosystem, and innovative features like Spatial Audio, making it the preferred option for Apple users and those who value a polished user experience.

[roselynchin]

The Truth Beneath (2016) - Lee Kyoung Mi

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J9iTbly_sLC2ldB-IXBDzhaXZYJYCb3f/view?usp=sharing

The Truth Beneath, directed by Lee Kyoung-mi and released in 2016, tells the story of the disappearance of a politician's daughter fifteen days before election day. Yeonhong is gravely worried by Minjin’s disappearance but her husband, Jongchan is preoccupied by his campaign and insists on waiting before publicly announcing what Minjin has done and starting the search. Yeonhong relentlessly tries searching for her daughter and then for the truth of what has happened to Minjin when her body is discovered. Yeonhong learns about her daughter’s only close friend, Mi-ok, and gains more insights into their lives through their teacher, Son So-ra. 

Genre is one of the many factors of whether audiences look forward to seeing a movie or why they might heavily avoid it. Some may love romantic comedies while others call them too sappy and favor exciting horror films instead. As Leo Braudy states, “the critical understanding of genre films therefore becomes a special case of the problem of understanding films in general” (663). With how crucial genre is to an audience's experiences, reactions, and interpretations, it is of the utmost importance to discuss what constitutes the genre of a film. 

According to Rick Altman, genre theory should consider both semantic and syntactic elements in order to determine this. The semantic elements are “common traits, attitudes, characters, shots, locations, sets, and the like” while the syntactic elements are the “definitions that play up instead certain constitutive relationships between undesignated and variable placeholders” (Altman 556).

Using The Truth Beneath as a film example, Sam Altman’s genre theory can be implemented to provide us an in-depth look into the essentials of semantic elements and the effect of those syntactically.

Jongchan and Yeonhong’s spotless image must be preserved due to Jongchan’s political campaign. As Korean society is rather patriarchal and its politics dominated by men, charming and assertive Jongchan with a loving wife and daughter is a popular candidate. However, this also results in many attempts to break that image. Throughout the film, it is evident that the Korean people are constantly scrutinizing their family as anything and everything is crucial, even Yeonhong’s hometown of Jeolla-do. Yeonhong still being Korean but being “othered” by her husband’s constituents for being from another province shows the clear regionalism present in Korea. Any imperfections are unforgivable, a theme that is emphasized by the lack of urgency following Minjin’s disappearance which only worsens Yeonhong’s concerns and desperation. These political contexts contribute to the created syntactic structure and affect how the film’s semantic elements are incorporated. 

Yeonhong as a Korean woman is expected to perform her roles as a loving, perfect wife which surprises the viewers even more as they see Yeonhong’s desperation grow and her feminine rage is fully expressed. Asian women are typically boxed into having meek and subservient personalities which Yeonhong shrugs off in favor of fulfilling her responsibilities as a mother. Yeonhong does all she can to bring her daughter home and gain justice for her when she is found dead. This ranges from aggressively confronting all the suspects such as Mi-ok and forcing Jongchan’s campaign manager to help her solve the case by stabbing her own hand with scissors (after brutally and savagely snipping her husband’s flyer face up, of course). Yeonhong remains persistent. She is no longer the perfect Korean wife but one who will no longer tolerate the empty promises and fake condolences given by politicians and enemies. The audience is hoping for Yeonhong’s success and restoration of her wellbeing throughout the film even when her happiness is unrecoverable after her daughter’s tragic death. 

The intersection of the genre and culture can further be seen in the syntax/semantics of The Truth Beneath by focusing on the characters’ societal roles and relationships. One of the factors behind Minjin’s death is her and Mi-ok’s blackmail of their schoolteacher’s affair. In return for keeping her secret, they received test answers and their grades were able to skyrocket. In Korea, academics are of the utmost importance and its education system’s funnel to success is especially cutthroat. The blackmail done that enables the girls to obtain the test scores speaks to the pressure of academic achievement and contributes to both the gravity of the overall situation and the film. This pressure to conform is also present in the ostracization of the girls due to their own music tastes and dreams. This social commentary appeals to the audience who have likely experienced these struggles for themself and increase how emotionally invested they are. This is also crucial to this film as emotional investment is already important for overall film and media but especially in thriller mystery where so much relies on the suspense and anticipation gained by caring about the characters’ wellbeing which is already hanging in the balance. Viewers are on the edge of their seats waiting to find out what happened to Minjin after seeing how dedicated both Yeonhong and Mi-ok are to her. Closure is received as those responsible are fully punished and revenge is fulfilled but all parties are still utterly devastated and lost by the tragedy. Peace does not exist and the social situations that haunt Yeonhong and Mi-ok at the beginning of the film still continue by the end. They are stuck and as a result, the semantic elements of tension, anxiety, and suspicion are left with them even after they are over their anticipation and relief of avenging Minjin. 

Another claim by Braudy is that “the joy in genre is to see what can be dared in the creation of a new form or the creative destruction and complication of an old one” (666). This film embodies this perfectly especially with its hybrid genres and its further exploration into societal and gender norms. The film embraces the thriller mystery genre and presents unexpected yet strong and distinct characters and plotlines. From the typical trope of a politician’s daughter going missing and the expectations of thrillers and mysteries, audiences start this film thinking they know what is about to happen. However, The Truth Beneath certainly holds its own and utilizes its situations, characters, and elements to incorporate twists and shock the viewer with its imagery and revelations at every opportunity. The Truth Beneath uses the genre truly amazingly and produces a refreshing interpretation of the thriller mystery genre. 

Braudy, Leo, Marshall Cohen, and Rick Altman. “A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre.” Essay. In Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Braudy, Leo. “Genre: The Conventions of Connection.” Essay. In The World in a Frame. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1977. 

[iptvalue]

How to Choose the Best IPTV Subscription

With the rising popularity of IPTV (Internet Protocol Television), choosing the right IPTV subscription is essential for a seamless and enjoyable streaming experience. An IPTV subscription allows you to access a vast array of TV shows, movies, and live events over the internet. However, with so many providers available, it can be challenging to determine which one is the best fit for your needs. In this article, we will guide you through the process of selecting the best IPTV provider to meet your requirements.

Content Variety When choosing an IPTV provider, consider the variety and availability of content. Look for providers that offer a wide range of channels, including popular networks, sports channels, and international content. Ensure that the provider covers the genres and types of programming you enjoy the most. Additionally, check if the provider offers on-demand content, catch-up TV, and the ability to record shows for later viewing.

At IPTValue, we offer a diverse collection of IPTV subscriptions that provide access to a wide variety of content. Explore our best IPTV plans to find the perfect provider for your streaming needs.

Streaming Quality Streaming quality is a crucial factor in ensuring an enjoyable viewing experience. Look for IPTV providers that offer high-definition (HD) and 4K Ultra HD streaming options, as well as support for HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology. Reliable providers should offer consistent streaming with minimal buffering or lag, especially during peak viewing hours.

At IPTValue, we prioritize the delivery of high-quality streaming experiences. Our IPTV subscriptions feature excellent streaming quality, ensuring you can enjoy your favorite content without interruptions.

Device Compatibility Consider the device compatibility offered by the IPTV provider. Check if the provider supports the devices you intend to use for streaming, such as smart TVs, streaming devices, smartphones, tablets, or computers. Ensure that the provider offers dedicated apps or supports popular streaming platforms, making it convenient for you to access your IPTV subscription.

Our IPTV subscriptions are compatible with a wide range of devices, allowing you to stream your favorite channels on various platforms.

Customer Support Reliable customer support is crucial when selecting an IPTV provider. Look for providers that offer prompt and helpful customer support channels, such as email, live chat, or phone support. A responsive customer support team can assist you with any technical issues, subscription inquiries, or general assistance.

IPTValue prides itself on providing excellent customer support. If you have any questions or need assistance, our dedicated support team is just a click away. Reach out to us through our contact page, and we’ll be happy to help.

Pricing and Payment Options Consider the pricing plans and payment options offered by the IPTV provider. Look for providers that offer flexible subscription plans to fit your budget and streaming preferences. Additionally, check the available payment methods to ensure they are convenient and secure.

At IPTValue.com, we offer competitive pricing options for our IPTV subscriptions, providing flexibility to choose a plan that suits your needs. We also offer secure and convenient payment options for a seamless subscription process.

Reputation and Reviews Research the reputation and reviews of the IPTV provider before making a decision. Look for customer feedback, testimonials, and reviews to gauge the provider’s reliability, streaming quality, and customer satisfaction. Consider joining IPTV communities or forums to gather insights and recommendations from fellow users.

At IPTValue.com, we value the trust and satisfaction of our customers. We encourage you to read our customer reviews and explore our best IPTV Reddit providers in 2023 page to discover the recommendations from the Reddit community.

Choosing the best IPTV provider is essential to ensure a fulfilling streaming experience. Consider factors such as content variety, streaming quality, device compatibility, customer support, pricing options, and the provider’s reputation. With careful consideration, you can find an IPTV provider that meets your expectations and offers an extensive selection of content to suit your preferences.

At IPTValue, we are committed to providing high-quality IPTV subscriptions and excellent customer service. Explore our website to find the perfect IPTV subscription for you, and if you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to reach out to us through our contact page.

[tracinginwardinvestigation]

Note #40: Prelude to the Stupid, Silly Detective Fiction

“Rather what we are categorizing as stupid media pertains to form more than it does to content. Stupid media is stupid precisely because it fails to meet the criteria of an established category—be that genre conventions, narrative structure, formal cinematic syntax, or an uneasy tension in emerging media and storytelling” (Kerner and Hoxter 9)

I have been reading the introduction of Theorizing Stupid Media: De-Naturalizing Story Structures in the Cinematic, Televisual, and Videogames by Aaron Kerner and Julian Hoxter, and the concept of stupid media reminds me a lot of my usage of the term “silly narrative”. As someone who has grown up reading more manga than novels, I used to call the content of many manga “silly” compared to its supposedly counterpart, high literature. I did not use “silly” here to imply negativity (wellll, maybe a little), but more so to refer to works that do not confine to conventional storytelling convention. When I stumbled upon Theorizing Stupid Media and saw Kerner and Hoxter’s unusual usage of the term “stupid”, I could not help but think: “Hey, this looks like my thing!”

Although the book’s introduction mostly talks about stupid narrative in new emerging storytelling mediums such as cinema, TV shows, and video games, I wonder if I can consider detective fiction, a very classic genre, as stupid narrative? Detective fiction does fit the definition to some extent. For one, it is a rigid, formulaic genre, in which most stories tend to follow a specific plot structure with minimal deviations; this rigidness is also where most of the genre’s criticism directs toward. Secondly, these stories tend to appeal to a need for escapism as the main subject explored in these texts are less about dealing with controversial societal topics, and more about solving an arbitrary clue-puzzle in the form of an “unrealistic” mystery. And while these stories do have a linear engaging plot, they tend to appeal “to the body, rather than to emotion” (9), a common characteristic of stupid media; the WOW factor when the culprit gets revealed, for example, definitely relies more on bodily excitement than deep emotions (of sorrow, of heartfelt, of gut-wrenching, ...). Especially, what Kerner and Hoxter considers to be a main characteristic of the stupid narrative—“[t]he stupid pertains to the (in)stability, the integrity, the understood bounds of categories (e.g., narrative conventions, genre)” (13)—seems to be a common characteristic in detective fiction also. After all, not many people would consider detective fiction to be high literature back then and even till now, in part because of its unconventional storytelling. I think it is safe to say that detective fiction is surely a stupid media.

But why do I need to categorize detective fiction as stupid? For one, it would be nice to use theories I learn from this book to apply to detective fiction, but the other reason is that the term “stupid” compels me. Stupid is a strong word, but in a way that it is so normal and everywhere. When I used to browse social media a lot, seeing people calling unconventional narratives as “stupid” or “dumb” was a frequent occurrence. They were not wrong with their assessments if they were to examine those works by referring to criteria used to determine high literature. In a way, the usage of the word “stupid” in a discussion about a text often leads the whole discussion into debating about how the work is not high literature, and less about what the work is. Take detective fiction for example, detective fiction is itself a genre that has always been met with disdain. Indeed, if we go by the definition of high literature, most detective fiction rarely meet the (supposed) criteria; hench, stupid media. End of discussion? No. The more intriguing conversation I am interested in is how to analyze these works in their own terms, without relying on a comparison to high literature. To enter that conversation, however, will require me to first understand what makes detective fiction stupid in more depth, or in other words, what makes the unconventional writing style of detective fiction discomfort readers of high literature.

Of course, it goes without saying that the purpose of my attempt to understand stupid media is not to debate whether stupid media is “better” or “worse” than high literature. What I care most about is exploring more alternate ways to analyze a text. Once I am done reading Theorizing Stupid Media, it might be fun to write a whole essay on its application to detective fiction.

[writingmochi]

Imma be honest, I mostly spent my teenage years home anyways because of depression so I didn‘t really mind the lockdown haha. But i definitely get how hard it was for others. What is ttrpg? I don‘t think i have heard of it before.

🍄 anon

lissie: i relate to you so much! i was very depressed in year 11 because i was overwhelmed with the social culture shock and expectations from the teachers, the school, and my parents. i was miserable that time that i even wished i don’t exist. but covid lockdown helps me to heal in a way that make me feel better about myself and discover external factors that could help me heal (eg: my erasure from social media other than my internet persona) and i still am healing right now, taking step by step to be better for myself…

this is gonna be geeky for a moment lmao *playing the critical role soundtrack*

ttrpg is an abbreviation of “tabletop role-playing game”. role-playing game is a game genre where you play as characters in a fictional world (hence the roleplay aspect) and ttrpg is a subset of that. ttrpg is played on the table top which is face to face (or directly with people even though you play online) where usually the players will describe what the characters are doing through speech. each game under this umbrella usually played almost the same way but they each have different role-playing game system which includes statistical numbers for your characters and the usage of things that determines chances, which can be coins, dices, cards, and even a jenga tower. players are usually divided into two: character players (the one who embodied the character) and game master (gm; the storyteller and create the world-building, etc)

the most famous example of ttrpg is probably dungeons and dragons (dnd), which is a fantasy-based trrpg where you are encouraged to make your own characters. its system use dices from 4-sided dice to 20-sided dice (also known as the d20 system) and the game master is called the dungeon master (dm). i made a few ocs for dnd but the one i’m currently playing is an elf sorcerer who is chaotic neutral. i also have been learning to be a dm and a gm for another ttrpg game, cyberpunk: red (which is in the same franchise as cyberpunk 2077 and cyberpunk: edgerunners)

[voredere]

no one listened last time i made a post about this, so here's my thoughts adding onto the point stated above, copypasted:

"

i took a break from tumblr to articulate this better but heres why i think being scared of AI or worse, wanting AI to be legislated in some way is bull: there is absolutely no reliable way to determine if AI was used in art or writing. none. like some programs for visual art will leave behind watermarks but if they dont, and the artist doesnt specify, theres absolutely no way to reliably determine AI from human made art. its all vibes.  now this ofc means ai art would be really difficult to prosecute for indie artists, it also means something more dangerous: literally anyone can be accused of using ai at any time on basis of vibes (anatomical mistakes, surreal imagery, weird phrasing in writing, etc), and punished for it if they cannot produce proof to the contrary (ie, speedpaint footage, assuming no one claims thats also AI generated). this has already happened at least once on a private community scale with visual art, and you may have heard of a recent scam going around on ao3 where commenters claim a fic was AI generated and advertise a “scan” service for screening other pieces of writing. 

this kind of witch-hunting is already highly destructive to digital art as a genre, but i want you to think, for a moment, of what would become of digital art if, for example, anyone were allowed to simply accuse any piece of digital art they like as being AI generated for the sake of disqualification from contests, major art galleries, sales, etc. What if any corporation could launch a copyright strike on principal of “this is too close to our branded style, so we suspect it was generated from a dataset that contains our trademarked images”, again based on VIBES, and it were up to you, the artist, to prove definitively that AI at no point factored into the work. Imagine if every digital artist, in order to post any work, had to provide full video evidence of their process and a layered PSD file to be evaluated before their work could be considered. Imagine if every transformative work or original piece of writing could be instantly flagged as ‘plagiarism’ because you cant definitively prove you wrote it without using any AI system. imagine how these laws may be disproportionately applied to artists and writers of colour, as these cases would almost certainly be determined by “who has more lawyer money to waste”. 

THATS why disney-funded groups like the copyright alliance are pushing for legislation for AI generation. its not for protecting indie artists. never has been. but theyre more than happy to use your outrage and fear as a tool to pass these laws. "

an intellectual colleague of mine giovan_h has written an extremely good article that summarizes well my thoughts and views on the ai art copyright disk horse, but better than I could. here's a screenshot. go read it.

[clockworksteel]

So I was half joking the other day when I mentioned the possibility of writing a post about the distinctions between "Roguelike" and "Roguelite" but I actually want to write that post so here goes. Rather than providing a definitive answer for what the difference is, it seems more practical to discuss the common opinions and usages you're likely to encounter. Like all debates about definitions, rather saying one way is correct, I think it's more important to recognize what someone else might mean so you can understand what they're trying to communicate. In this essay I will

discuss 4 general perspectives I've noticed regarding the distinction between these two genres.

1. Trying to use The Berlin Interpretation The Berlin Interpretation refers to a set of factors that a group of players and developers (who, according to Wikipedia and its sources were "at the International Roguelike Development Conference 2008 held in Berlin, Germany") decided were related to a game being a roguelike, which would be useful for say, explaining the difference between Diablo and Angband (or if you don't want to just point and go "they're obviously different", the difference between Rogue and Super Mario World). These factors were based on "five canon roguelike games: ADOM, Angband, Linley's Dungeon Crawl, NetHack, and Rogue" (Wikipedia: Roguelike Key Features). At this point I'd refer to those five as "true roguelikes" while the actual term "roguelike" is somewhat more loose these days.

As far as I know there was no attempt at this time to differentiate between "roguelike" and "roguelite". This is possibly because Rogue Legacy, which probably is what popularized the term "roguelite" (and maybe Cellar Door Games even coined the term?), wouldn't be released until 2013. However, some use "roguelite" as a way to say a game isn't quite "roguelike" but shares enough qualities to at least be in the same conversation as them, and may be using the Berlin Interpretation in some way to determine that.

While the above wikipedia link has all the factors and describes them, for a shortened list of the important factors, roguelikes: -Have random dungeon generation -Have Permadeath -Are Turn-based -Are Non-modal (you can do any of your actions at any time if you have the resource for it) -Are Complex -Have resource management (eg food, healing items, identify scrolls, keys, bombs) -Focus on fighting monsters -Require exploration (including not only the map but also what unidentified items do)

The factors that I've noticed are most commonly used as a reason for something being a roguelite while still falling in the rogueli_e umbrella are a weakening of Permadeath by allowing players to keep some sort of permanent progress even through death (referred to as "meta-progress"), or a weakening of complexity because a game is just kinda casual (eg SNKRX, Luck Be a Landlord). Other factors like being turn-based and non-modal tend to be more used in the split between "true roguelike" and "roguelike". How much the rules can be weakened and which ones are most important is, of course, very subjective, but if something is being called a rogueli_e, you can still expect some sort of "run-based gameplay" either way. (I think I got the term "run-based gameplay" from a Youtube video about Roguelike Design I watched once (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM588ci-sMQ))

2. It's Meta-Progress, Of Course This is a very common view in my experience. While you could describe this as the view that I just described above, but focused only on the Permadeath aspect, I've noticed people who take a hardline stance that Meta Progress is What Matters also tend not to like The Berlin Interpretation at all. To be fair, in any discussion of the genres The Berlin Interpretation is a bit of an elephant in the room and they're probably tired of hearing about it. This stance's popularity probably comes from it being less subjective than others, however it's still subjective, since there are different types of meta progress and some will argue that only some types count. The major types of meta progress you can find are:

Direct stat upgrades: You simply start each run stronger because of your previous progress. It definitely makes the game easier if you have more and is basically always agreed that these belong in roguelites but not roguelikes if people are discussing differences. This form of progress is prominent, for example, as upgrades in Rogue Legacy or Hades.

Character unlocks: Just getting different characters/ships/loadouts to start your runs with. It's generally agreed these can be in roguelikes, even if there are definitely better and worse characters, because the point of the unlock is a different way to play rather than clearly making things easier. For example, Unlocking ships in FTL: Faster than Light or squads in Into the Breach.

Unlocking the possibility for new things to be found in runs: A definite gray area. Diluting the item pool can make specific strategies harder even if the new items are generally good. For example, unlocking items in The Binding of Isaac or unlocking cards/relics in Slay the Spire.

Unlocking new difficulties: Doesn't seem to get brought up as meta progress, although it kinda is because it's a permanent unlock that's persistent between runs. For example, Slay the Spire's "Ascensions" or One Step From Eden's "Hell Modes".

And then there's stuff like unlocking shortcuts in Spelunky that allow starting a run farther into the game than the start. It's definitely meta progress but doesn't fit cleanly into one of the above categories. I also feel like even if you have the shortcuts unlocked the expected way to play is still starting from the beginning. The shortcuts are useful for practice, but you often want items/gold from the early areas anyway. So... it's a bit of a weird case and I haven't had much opportunity to get a feel for what most people think about it.

3. What difference? Sometimes, especially when referring to multiple games at once, one term or the other will get used as an umbrella term. Or due to differing perspectives both terms will get used for a single game even if everyone talking about the game individually believes there's some difference. Or for marketing purposes both tags will be put on something. While this doesn't seem to me to be a position that people tend to explicitly hold if questioned about the difference between words, it's also true that in my Steam library currently there are 70 games if I filter to "Roguelike", 66 games if I filter to "Roguelite", and 60 games if I filter to both. I feel as if I don't have to say a whole lot more there. For the curious, though, here are the games in my library that only landed in one category according to Steam:

Roguelike Only

Touhou Library Survivors - A couple updates ago they added meta progress so this is probably on its way to having both tags. I'm not actually sure what determines the tags the library filtering considers but I think it's what's commonly submitted by users?

Sundered: Eldritch Edition - Huh? It's a Metroidvania where dying always returns you to the same save point, where you also spend your experience to level up. I sort of get how this is a roguelite, but this doesn't make sense here.

Trillion: God of Destruction - Never played this, but I thought this was a strategy RPG?

Chasm - I wouldn't put this in either category, personally. It's a Metroidvania where the world is generated at the start of the game. You can turn on permadeath I think, but it doesn't feel like the default way to play the game.

Ghost 1.0 - Huh? It's a Metroidvania that doesn't really fit in here at all.

Dungeons of Dredmor - Makes sense, even if you can turn off the permadeath. It's actually one of the closest to a "true roguelike" I have on Steam. Indeed, it's one of the two games I have tagged "Traditional Roguelike" (the other is Desktop Dungeons, although if Desktop Dungeons counts then I'm a little surprised Crown Trick isn't there).

Hammerwatch - More of an Arcade game, but I thought you could save your game and retry from saves and stuff? I don't think this fits in either tag, but I could be wrong. I played for 14 hours back in 2014 and am relying on memory.

Don't Starve - Makes sense to me, although at a bit slower pace than many games within the genre. Well, maybe it's a bit faster once you know what you're doing, especially if you're looking to progress through the worlds in the story mode.

LUFTRAUSERS - I know nothing about this game, maybe got it in a pack?

Receiver - I know nothing about this game, maybe got it in a pack?

Roguelite Only

SNKRX - Yeah, I mentioned this above. It's how I felt about the game even before checking the tags. You could also consider unlocking extra difficulties to be meta progress, especially since playing on harder difficulties lets you make a longer snake, which has advantages, but I don't think you have to think this has meta progress for this to be a roguelite.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 - I feel like the fact that none of the terrain is randomly generated and there being a level select screen rather than starting each run at some sort of beginning is a bit weird here. I guess there is that roguelite DLC but it still uses premade maps and honestly the moment to moment co-op action is still most important. If someone said they liked roguelites it wouldn't occur to me to mention this.

Tallowmere 2: Curse of the Kittens - Well, it's clearly a rogueli_e, but I don't remember anything that would clearly push it into roguelite only for me.

Metal Unit - Yeah, fair enough. I think you could stash equipment for future runs or something.

Catacomb Kids - I think this fits somewhere in the rogueli_e categorization but my experience is that I played for 14 minutes in 2015. I vaguely recall something in the controls feeling awkward.

Don't Starve Together - I think I read something about being able to turn off permadeath for a more chill hanging out with friends in a survival game sort of experience, so fair enough. I've never played this so I could be wrong.

So, as we can see. People are very confused, including me.

4. One person I saw on a forum that was just wrong Once I saw someone claim something couldn't be a roguelike because it was turn-based. While there is no one correct answer there are certainly wrong answers. You can disagree that The Berlin Interpretation is the best way to determine if something is a roguelike, but outright stating the opposite of one of the factors just isn't right. They literally describe Rogue. However, it is interesting to consider how far the genre as a whole has come. I feel like The Binding of Isaac, Spelunky, Rogue Legacy, and Slay the Spire were all highly influential, but will not be elaborating at this time on why I feel that way.

In conclusion, words are dumb and whether hotdogs with buns are sandwiches depends on whether we're within 100 yards of Goodburger home of the Goodburger, which incidentally is the determining factor for whether "dude" is gender neutral as well.

[defdaily]

GQ Korea Magazine June 2021 issue featuring JAY B: in transition

To prove himself, JAY B is constantly changing. Because he has so much to show.

Translated by defdaily

Your greeting from the video earlier was new. You said “This is GOT7’s JAY B and H1GHR MUSIC’s JAY B.” After GOT7 parted ways with JYP Entertainment, you told fans that you were a freelancer and I guess you’ve found your spot.

Yes. It has not been announced officially yet but I’m H1GHR MUSIC’s JAY B. I told fans I was a freelancer as a joke. I like communicating with fans as if we’re friends. But I was looking for a company at that time too.

How did you make your decision?

Of course I thought about it a lot. I talked with various companies, but when considering the freedom and synergy, I felt like H1GHR MUSIC fit me well. That seemed like the best decision.

What kind of synergy and effect are you looking forward to?

I don’t think “I’m definitely hip-hop!” just because I joined a hip-hop label. I think that through the label I can show R&B, dance and pop genres too. I want to attempt different things without any boundaries.

What did you talk about with H1GHR MUSIC’s CEO Jay Park?

From my point of view, it’s a new challenge so I was a little anxious. But Jay Bum hyung’s thoughts were similar to mine and said I could do music comfortably and didn’t wish for any certain colour, because if you keep focusing on one thing, you’ll slowly be locked in it, and said it’s good to try out different things. That’s what he told me.

Will this period of time divide JAY B of the past and future?

Of course it will. If previously it was a situation where I mainly received benefits from the company, now that I have the autonomy, I feel that I should do things myself and I grew a deeper sense of responsibility in that way. I think there’s a need to be more proactive. And I plan on prudently moving forward one step at a time with an appropriate amount of nervousness. Because this is the process of starting from the beginning, I am very careful about every decision.

What factors influenced your decision the most?

Feeling/intuition. I have a feeling of whether I think I should do something or not.

It feels like you have a pretty good sense of the direction you want to move forward in.

I asked Jay Bum hyung why he recruited me and he said that skills were of course a factor but that I seemed like I would work hard consistently. It’s a given to be working hard on your own things but the most important thing is consistency. I've been doing that for a long time, and I'll continue to do what I've been doing.

Do you have any values that you’ve held on for a long time?

I’ve always thought that it’s important to never forget the things that I’ve done and have been doing. I debuted as GOT7. I cannot just suddenly say “I’m not an idol,” and I do not want to disappoint the fans. I’m very thankful. While promoting as part of GOT7, I never forgot the fact that I started as a b-boy at first and that I’m a person who likes hip-hop.

People’s expectations are high because of GOT7’s achievements. On one hand, there must be people viewing you thinking ‘let's see how well it could go.’

I am mindful of that. But it’s just GOT7 JB that was that big, JAY B as an individual isn’t that great. To be honest, sometimes I think that I’m nothing. If you ask people my age which idols they know, even if many people know about GOT7, they might not know me very well. It’s important to be acknowledged for my music but I feel like I have to get my name out there first. There is someone called GOT7’s JAY B, H1GHR MUSIC’s JAY B. I feel like this is just the beginning for me.

It sounds like you are at a point where you feel the need to prove yourself. Do you not worry that fans might not be accepting if you do what you like and want to do?

Rather than being worried, I see it as something that could happen. For example, I could use profanity or harsh expressions if I feel that they’re needed for better musical completion. I can’t help it if some fans who used to like me as an idol hear that and turn their backs. I also don’t want to give up or lose my own standards because of such reactions.

I see you're very determined to make creations of your own. I heard that you're going to release a new song soon. How is it?

The title is Switch It Up. Should I say it’s close to Hip-Hop Dance? It’s a different style from what I have been making consistently under the name Def. You could say it is a little similar to the solo songs I’ve included in GOT7 albums before. I focused on the purpose of informing the public and the music scene that “I think I will do this sort of music in the future." I’m also sending a message to fans saying that I’ll be starting to promote actively again so look forward to it.

I'm curious. Is there any image that came to mind while working on it?

A sexy image. If I use Def. to freely express my personal stories in any genre, I made a distinction that JAY B does cool and sexy music. Regardless, they are both me, but JAY B is more like a fictional character who can show various sides of me.

What do you think are your strengths as an artist?

There is no such thing. I never thought that an artist should be a certain type of way. I think an artist is one who lives the same life as others, but feels differently, and knows how to express that well. As a matter of fact, anyone can do that. Even everyday office workers, when their stress piles and piles and they scribble down their emotions then toss the paper out, I think that can be a way of art too.

I like that. In any form, what do you want to talk about the most now?

That’s what I’m contemplating a lot right now. I think I’ve been pouring out too much. When writing songs, making the melody or arranging the music isn’t that hard but I don’t know what to write about. The same goes for coming up with titles too. No matter how hard I try to come up with an idea, I can’t think of one. I just think, “ I guess it'll just come out gradually.”

Not as JAY B but as Lim Jaebeom, what have you been thinking about or trying to do?

I try to think positively.

Ah not long ago, we saw you posted on your Instagram “Let’s try to think positively.”

I had quite a lot of worries and a negative mindset. A lot of people may live with unnecessary worries but I’m a little worse. I guess it’s my nature. So I try my best to relax my heart/mind and say “it’s good,” “everything will be okay.”

In introspection, what is something that you are most satisfied with?

That’s hard. No matter how hard I think about it, I feel like there's nothing I like about myself at the moment.

Why? Did something change?

No, it’s not that. Even with one thing, one day you could like it and another day you could dislike it. It’s natural to change your mind. So when I speak, I often use the terms “always” and “at the moment.” Anyways, it’s not that I think that my current self is completely bad, but I’m not satisfied to the point where I would go “wow.”

Then, among the various images that you embody, which do you feel is the piece of clothing that fits perfectly?

I think naturally, the clothing of the name Lim Jaebeom is the most natural and comfortable. Because I’ve got a good hold of the side that is most like me, there can exist Def., JAY B of GOT7 and JAY B of H1GHR MUSIC. Oh, I could explain it like this. If Lim Jaebeom is the earth, just as there exists oceans, mountains, and cities within it, there are various sides of myself that are making up my life.

What will happen to GOT7 in the future?

We probably will not be able to promote as actively as before, but the members and I are trying our best to do anything. I often look up and watch videos of when we were promoting and I miss the GOT7 from those days. The overflowing passion and energy as well. Looking back, it was really fun. It's similar to the feeling of reminiscing about school days.

What did you gain personally from the past 7 years promoting as GOT7?

Should I say, I think I’ve gained expertise? People around me say I’ve become much more relaxed now. But I still get nervous. I was nervous even before today’s shoot. But in turn, I’ve gained ways to overcome the nerves. I guess that comes to show that I’ve become experienced

What kind of person does Lim Jaebeom want to be?

I wish I could be endlessly kind and do only good things, but in reality, that’s impossible. As you live you could unintentionally make mistakes and cause disappointment. Nevertheless, I definitely do not want to become a shrewd person, I despise being scheming and fooling people. I don’t want to be that kind of person and neither do I want to be on the receiving end. But it’s still a bit of a mystery if it’s okay to say "I'm going to be this kind of person." Because as I mentioned before, my current feelings and thoughts change frequently just as trends do.

I guess those words right there can change too.

That’s right. That's why I'm cautious about doing interviews. If I talk about something, there will be articles pouring out that say JAY B said this and JAY B said that. Although we’re doing an interview today like this, if I was asked the same question tomorrow, I could have a different response.

How should we wrap up this interview for you to sleep soundly?

This was the story of Lim Jaebeom on May 4th, 2021. I think this will be okay.

Translated by defdaily.

[caseeeli]

A brief guide to the art of writing blurbs

[Note: this is a plain text version of the guide I formatted as a PDF, which is available for viewing/download here. This version is lacking the visual aids from the original pdf. To view them, please view the linked file!]

Warning: very long post

So, you’ve done your outlining, and your writing, and your editing, and now, it’s time for the most exciting part of any writing journey: the publishing! Whether you’re making a pitch to a publishing firm, or simply uploading your work online, everyone needs to have a good summary.

A summary serves a lot of purposes, which we’ll explore later, but the most important one is to draw readers in, and make them want to read your work. It’s not always an easy task, so it’s best we figure out how best to appeal to the demographic you’re targeting.

So, let’s get into it! Happy reading, and happy blurb writing!

I - The Purpose of a Blurb

Before we establish how to write the blurb itself, it’s very important to understand the basics: what is a blurb, and what is the purpose it serves?

A blurb is a short summary of a story. The amount of detail it provides about the story is entirely up to the author, and blurbs can vary in length and form very wildly. Generally speaking, a book blurb is usually between 100-200 words. Any shorter can run the risk of not providing enough information to a reader, while any longer can pose the opposite problem.

So, what is the purpose of a blurb? As we said earlier, the main function of a blurb is to engage readers and generate interest in the story it summarizes. But how exactly do blurbs do that?

When writing a summary of any story, you need to hit a few major points to make sure that readers have a good idea of what they’re getting into. Which means that you need to answer a few questions they might have.

The most important of these questions are the following:

What is the genre of this story?

What is the basic premise of this story?

Who is the main character of this story?

What is the primary conflict of this story?

These questions (and the answers we have for each) are going to help form the basis of a strong blurb, and make sure that anyone who eyes our work is going to want to read it as soon as possible!

So, now we know all that, let’s definitively answer this question: what is the purpose of a blurb?

The purpose of a blurb is to entice the reader in by posing a set of questions…and answering only some of them.

So now we know what a blurb and the purpose of one is, and we know what questions we have to answer, let’s go into how we do that!

*

II - The Elements of a Blurb

II-I Establishing genre

One of the easiest and fastest ways to categorise books is by their genre. Without saying a word about the story or conflict, a genre can give a reader a good idea of what elements might be present in the book. Science fiction? They know to expect high-level technology, aliens, otherworldly planets, or a combination of all of the above. Fantasy? They can walk in waiting to see magic, mythology or fantastical creatures of all kinds. Romance? It’s in the name!

Not only is genre a very easy way to set expectations, but it’s also one of the quickest things a story can do. For published books, this can be done even without a blurb – the front cover can usually do it for you! For works published online, it can also be done via use of tagging systems or genre listings.

But we don’t want to have to rely on covers or tags to establish our genre, we should be trying our best to do it ourselves.

So Step 1: figure out what genre your story is!

This is usually something authors know right at the start of any project, before they even put the first words on the page. But for stories where genres can overlap and merge, this can sometimes be more challenging to determine.

If you don’t know what genre your book is, then you should know four of the factors that contribute to make genre: plot, setting, narrative conventions, and the style and form.

Basically everything in a novel establishes the genre! The actual plot, the setting your novel takes place in, any present narrative or genre conventions, and the style and form of the work, can all help establish what genre it belongs to.

Generally speaking, the setting is one of the weightiest factors to consider when deciding genre. A book set on a faraway planet will almost always be sci-fi, just like a book set in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by a tyrannical government will usually be dystopian.

Look at some familiar fiction and the settings they boast: Lord of the Rings spearheads fantasy as a genre, and offers the rich world of Middle Earth. Dune introduces us to the planet Arrakis. The Hunger Games told us about the horrors of Panem. Examining these settings shows off similarities and consistencies among genres.

In addition to setting, genre conventions can also give good clues about what genre we’re dealing with. Genre conventions are tropes, events or other elements which appear consistently or are considered ‘staples’ of said genre.

For example, in a detective story, a genre convention would be a red herring, where misleading clues are planted for both reader and character to be deceived by. A genre convention of a fable would be the lesson that the story is intended to teach, like the benefit of patience in The Tortoise and the Hare. Identifying and researching these conventions make it easy to tell what genre your story belongs to.

Plot is another good indicator: if your plot centres around a grisly murder, then you know you’re writing a crime/mystery novel. If you wrote about the last magic-user in the kingdom, you’re working with fantasy.

It’s important to note that genres are not mutually exclusive. You can have a story which ends up being sci-fi mystery, or western romance, or gothic comedy. What matters is identifying the major genre elements of your work, and then making sure that genre is clear in your blurb. This can be done easily by referencing the conventions you identified in your work. If you have dragons, or aliens, or a serial killer stalking the streets, mention it!

For example, Dune establishes its genre by use of genre conventions such as the story spanning multiple planets and there being the presence of highly advanced technology. The references to the setting, Arrakis, also emphasise this, as the reader has been informed that Arrakis is in fact an alien planet.

With just a few words, we know that Dune is science fiction. The genre has been established.

*

II-II        Establishing the premise

Now that we’re aware of the genre and basic genre conventions that our work subscribes to, and know how to include them, it’s important that the blurb establishes the premise of our story.

The premise of a story is its most foundational idea. The meat and bones of your story – the absolute most basic elements that every other part of it stems from.

The basic premise of Percy Jackson would be something along the lines of, “a boy discovers he is half-Greek god, and is thrown into a world of quests, monsters and chaos.” A premise doesn’t need to be detailed; it just needs to be descriptive.

Generally, the premise is closely intertwined with the genre and the main character. The premise of a political thriller novel will be political in nature, just as the main premise of a fantasy novel might focus on some element of the fantasy world in which it is set. If the main premise of the novel surrounds the main character – i.e., they’re the grizzled detective in charge of a murder case, or the princess trying to save her land from invasion – then make sure to intertwine these elements in your blurb.

Generally speaking, the premise can be tied back to an inciting incident, the same incident that kicks off the plot of your story. This is what you need to communicate to the reader.

Does your story start with an assassination? Talk about it. A dramatic revelation between two long-term friends? Tell us what it is! Your premise is what should fundamentally draw people in. Readers don’t look for new books to read based on what the characters are like, or how good the prose is – they look for the premise, and if it excites them, they take a look.

Check out the blurb for the first Harry Potter novel. We are told in short that Harry is a wizard, which results in him being rescued and taken to Hogwarts, a school of magic. With less than 50 words, the premise which underlines the entire series has been succinctly explained. We now know the basics of Harry Potter. Your blurb should be much the same: do your best to distill the most basic essence of your plot down to it’s essentials (try to make it less than 50 words, to leave room in our 100-200 word blurb for everything else) and integrate it into the summary.

*

II-III       Establishing the protagonist(s)

Now that we have our genre and premise down, it’s time to get into the person or people moving your story forward: the main character.

Everyone knows how important a main character is. They are the one that keep us reading a book after the plot and genre have already drawn us in. Their traits, flaws, experiences and struggles are what make us turn each page. Main characters are hugely important to the conception and production of a story itself, and similarly, they are also important to the summary you give of it.

When it comes to explaining protagonists in a summary, there are three things to consider:

Who are they?

Why do they matter?

Why should we care?

Now, you don’t need to go super in depth on all of these things – keep in mind, our word count for our blurb is still short and snappy, so we should try to fulfil these three requirements in as few words as possible. But it might help to examine what we want from each of these questions.

Who are they? This is the simplest of the three. You usually need little more than the character’s name to fulfil this element. Tell the reader who your main character is, so that when they open your story, they can get right into it!

Why do they matter? This one also isn’t too difficult! Establish what role your character has in the story. Are they going to be a plucky young hero? A grizzled war veteran? The noble knight committed to good? Why is the protagonist this character in particular?

Why should we care? This one sounds a bit blunt, but it’s the most important of all. It ties into the introduction of the story premise. What kind of journey does your character go on? Why are we following them specifically, and why should we be excited about it? This element ties in closely with why do they matter?, so if you can combine them, go for it!

It can be difficult to figure out how to gracefully and succinctly answer all three questions, but don’t worry, time and practice are your friends! Try as much as you want until you come up with a finished product that you’re happy with!

One issue that arises here, however, is a simple question that may have come to many of your minds while reading this section: what if I have multiple protagonists?

Quite simply, it depends on what kind of split you’ve established between the members of your main cast. After all, in many novels, not all protagonists are created equal.

Books with multiple protagonists can be classified one of two ways: completely equally focused, or; multiple main characters but only one protagonist.

Like I said, not all protagonists are created equal; some quite literally are not! What you have to do here is look at your work and make a decision: are all of the main characters truly given equal focus – i.e., would an outside observer not be able to classify any of them as the main main character – or is it possible to identify just one as bearing a bit more importance than the others?

Note this: having multiple points of view (POVs) does not necessarily make your protagonists equal.

For a literary example, see Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Throughout the duology, all six of the main cast get significant focus, POV chapters, and plenty of time on the page, but when pressed, every person who has read the books will name Kaz Brekker as the real protagonist.

Go take a look at the blurbs for the following books:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

As you might see in these blurbs, the ways that the protagonist is distinguished from the other main characters is interesting. The blurb for AGOT

takes a curious approach; despite having eight characters other than the single one named in the blurb that have POV chapters and major roles to play, they are only alluded to (see red highlights). This is one option you can absolutely take! Its especially effective where you may begin a story with only one POV character before branching out. But it’s important to note this is not your only option.

The blurb for SOC opts to briefly describe all six of the main cast, with due focus still placed on the actual protagonist (as seen via the emphasis provided by describing Kaz twice, rather than once like the other five). Both of these approaches work well when you have one character who has greater focus, so feel free to pick one or the other, or even combine them!

But what if all of your protagonists truly are created equal?

In that case, the basic advice for introducing characters remains solid; this time, you just have to do it multiple times. Try to provide the same rough amount of advice for all of your protagonists.

Now go take a look at the blurb for The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, a book with three protagonists with roughly equal focus. This blurb is great because all three main characters have the same focus – we get their names, backgrounds, and the stakes which start off their stories. There is no clear ‘real’ protagonist of the three, and if your characters are all made equal, this is a good example to refer to!

Note: if you do take this method, make sure you still are framing the characters within the premise and genre conventions your story adheres to. Don’t get so caught up introducing everyone that you forget to establish what the story is actually about!

Now that you know how to introduce your characters, its important to exercise restraint: when it comes to answering those three major questions about your protagonist(s), it’s better to do the bare minimum.

We don’t need to know the details of their backstory, or what they look like, or if they might have a budding romance with a side character – it is possible to do too much in a blurb, and the longer it gets, the more it will drag to the average reader. Leave the poetic waxing about your main character for the story itself!

In short, if your reader can start to draw up a basic profile of your characters that has anything more than their name, age, and role in the story…you might want to cut things down a bit!

And now that we know how to introduce our characters, it’s time for the last element of blurb-writing to fall into place!

*

II-IV      Establishing the main conflict

And now for the final element we need to have in a blurb: establishing the main conflict!

Much like the premise, the main conflict constitutes the bulk of what a story is all about. It drives plot momentum and gives our protagonist(s) some kind of adversarial person or force to face off against. Whether that adversary is an evil despot, a force of nature, or even the dismal state of one’s love life, it’s important to be able to communicate to the reader what conflict they’re investing in! The premise and conflict go hand in hand – usually because one leads directly into the other – so writing them so that they are in fact conjoined is fairly common!

Check out the blurb for the book Eragon by Christopher Paolini, and try to identify the premise, and the primary conflict! This blurb is a nice example because unlike in many others, there is a clear divide between the two.

So how do you cut down the depth and breadth of conflict in your novel to fit into your blurb? Quite simply, give yourself a ‘two-sentence rule’: describe your main conflict in two sentences, no more, and try to see how you can work those sentences into a blurb.

It’s wonderful if you’ve written an 800-page epic full of twists and turns, but for now, rather than agonising over the details, tell us the basics.

Who or what is causing problems for our main character(s) and why? What are the stakes? Will the whole world fall if the protagonist loses, or is the only thing at risk of being lost a $20 bet? Let us know!

Keep in mind that a conflict does not have to be between two characters: as stated earlier, the conflict is simply the main thing against which our protagonist is struggling. If you’re writing a romance, the protagonist’s struggle to accept their feelings could very well be the conflict of your story, so don’t worry about having to identify a character as the adversary!

*

III - Fine-Tuning a Blurb: What Else Do You Need?

So, you’ve read all of the above. You know what the elements are, and how they’re written into blurbs. At this point, it might be beneficial to write down your story’s iterations of each of those elements separately. but before you move into combining them into a single blurb, it’s important that we note a few more things first.

So, other than the content of a blurb itself, what's important for making sure they work? Well, there's three main things!

Tone

Detail

Open-endedness

Tone Tone is something that falls to the wayside in one’s mind when writing a blurb, but it’s a very important element: your blurb must maintain a consistent and story-accurate tone for its entirety. Making sudden tone changes can make a reader feel jarred, and in a very unpleasant way. If your story is comedic, make sure your blurb is light-hearted in nature.

If it’s a dark, swelling interpersonal drama, don’t drop sudden jokes or make a sudden comment about a character’s love life. Make sure that the tone of your novel is carried across, because readers will pick up on the tone through the synopsis, and seek to either continue or abandon a story based on it!

Detail A less major detail, but one that’s important nonetheless: don’t overload the reader with detail in the first line of your blurb! Ease them into it a bit more gently. Don’t mention intergalactic wars or tragic backstories right off the bat – start off with more general statements and then get more specific as the blurb goes. Most blurbs follow this formula, so take a read of your favourites to look at how it’s done!

Open-endedness As you remember back in Section I of this guide, we stated that one purpose of a blurb was to pose a set of questions to the reader, and answer only some of them.

Do not give us the entire plot. Do not tell us how it ends, or how the big twist unfolds, or that one revelation that happens halfway through. Make the readers ask, ‘what happens next?’

Making a blurb too straightforward is the death of curiosity – we’ve all seen trailers for Hollywood movies that essentially give the whole movie away. The goal is to not do that. Make sure that though you give readers enough to go off, so they know what they’re getting into, they don’t know every nuance of the story up ahead. Give a direction, not a map.

In summary...

Remember, blurb-writing does not come easily to everyone. There is no shame in practicing, and rewriting your summary over and over. Nor is there any shame in asking others to do it for you.

This guide is just a way for people to be able to identify the elements of a blurb if they choose to create their own, or just understand blurbs as a narrative form better. There are also countless helpful guides, articles and blog posts online which can help flesh out your understanding if desired, so don’t hesitate to check them out!

I hope this has helped, and once again, happy writing!

Novels I referenced here, many of which have good blurbs to check out and analyse:

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Published 1996.

Dune by Frank Herbert. Published 1965.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Published 2002.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. Published 1997.

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Published 2008-2010.

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio. Published 2017.

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Published 1950.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. Published 1954-1955.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan. Published 2005-2009.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Published 2019.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Published 2015.

Good luck!!!

[xbunnybunz]

Chocolate Confession [Link x Reader]

Summary: You decide to repay the Legendary Hero of Hyrule with a box of chocolates, and he repays you with something else entirely.

Genre: Fluff

Date: June 19, 2014

-----

If you had learned one thing about Link after all these years of traveling with him, it was that he had an gargantuan sweet tooth.

You had paid close attention to the young man as you both strolled through Castle Town. (And it definitely was not because you liked him!) You would watch as his gaze restlessly touched over everything in sight, examining all of the wares for sale with tireless curiosity. Even though he so-eagerly drank in his surroundings, he never stopped to admire anything up close. It was almost as if nothing meant enough for the busy hero to stop him in his tracks... Well, except for one thing.

Whenever you passed by a candy shop or a vendor selling sweets, Link's cerulean eyes would sparkle like aquamarine jewels, glistening with both awe and lust for the treat. Like a child, his facial expressions would shift to convey his desires. For a split second that others would never notice, Link's breath would catch in his throat, his feet failing to move for a minuscule of time.

Although any other normal person wouldn't have been able to pick up these subtle clues, you noticed the blond's small hints and knew what Link's body language meant.

He was infatuated with sugary snacks.

However, there was a small problem with his sweet tooth; the problem being that he was a traveling hero- which meant he didn't have the time to settle down and get a job. That wasn't the only issue here. The blond hero also had to take care of you, his loyal sidekick, as well as his horse, Epona. With these two factors in mind, it was quite obvious that there were never extra rupees to spare.

In the past few months, however, you managed to snag a job at the renowned Lon Lon Ranch. You had gotten the idea to work at the ranch after you heard the townspeople of Castle Town speak about it. Epona had long run out of carrots and Link had decided that it was time to restock on his beloved horse's treats. Both of you had gone shopping in the marketplace, seeking out carrots for Epona when you overheard two men discussing how much they yearned for a bottle of fresh, ice-cold Lon Lon milk.

While Link was busy paying for the carrots, you rushed over to the men and asked them what "Lon Lon Milk" was.

They had initially laughed at you for not knowing what the famous Lon Lon milk was, but once they realized you were serious, they pulled you aside and explained to you in thorough detail about what the delicious drink was, disbelief in their eyes.

”I can’t believe you’ve never heard of Lon Lon Milk before!” One said, blinking back tears. “What a poor child!”

The other man slapped the back of his friend’s head, but looked close to crying himself. ”Aw, be quiet you idiot! You’re attracting attention!”

Apparently, the milk was a product of Lon Lon Ranch- which was famous for it's scrumptious milk and creamy butter.

Intrigued, you asked about the job opportunities there. The men simply pat you on the back and told you that if you asked Malon, the ranch-owner's friendly daughter, you would be guaranteed a job there.

The following night, while Link and Epona slept, you sneaked away to Lon Lon Ranch, using the directions the men in Castle Town had given you. Luckily for you, you had arrived right before Lon Lon Ranch closed for the night. A girl about the same age as you was huffing and puffing, working on pushing the gates closed, but once she saw you, she gave you a warm smile and asked you how she could be of assistance.

The girl, you assumed, was Malon. You were determined to get the money to repay your friend.

'Link deserves something special for everything he's done for me.' You argued in your mind, still hesitant to take the job. It would require you to sneak away from Link each night and work at the ranch, sacrificing your resting time- which was something you valued more than gold. You shook off those thoughts with a scowl. 'He's always taken care of me and helped me in all ways possible- sometimes even saving me from monsters! He deserves this, at least.'

In the most polite manner possible, you asked her if you could work here for a while. “I need certain amount of money to buy a gift for a friend.” You explained, twiddling your fingers. “I want to buy the perfect present for one of my dearest friends- one that was always there for me. That’s why I need this job, so please, could I work here?”

With that reason, Malon immediately gave you the job.

"I think that you're a wonderful friend." She praised, taking you inside the ranch. "I'm sure your friend will love the present she gets!"

"’She?’ Oh, my friend isn't a girl." You clarified, chuckling quietly.

There was a moment of brief silence after that.

Malon had slowed her footsteps and turned her head slightly, sending you a knowing, yet mischievous look over her shoulder.

"Oh? Is that so?"

You stared at her, dumbfounded, before you finally realized what she was implying. A thin layer of pink dusted your cheeks as you quickly tried to rebut her assumptions.

"W-what?" You stuttered, "Like I said, we're only friends..."

It was Malon’s turn to chuckle as she wached you falter over your words and turn a fiery scarlet color. The auburn-haired girl turned away from you, humming when the cow stables came into view.

"Ah, this is where you'll be working!" She smiled, gesturing to the sleeping cows. "Don't worry, it's not a hard job. All you have to do is milk them enough to get three buckets of milk a night- and you're done!"

You thanked her and accepted the bucket happily, glad that your job didn't require you to lift heavy boxes or shovel horse poo.

And thus, for a month and a half, you managed to creep away from the sleeping hero and his chestnut-colored horse, spending two to three hours in the ranch before returning to sleep for a couple of hours. Finally, after all your hard labor, you had saved enough money to buy Link what he yearned for this whole time- chocolates.

This morning, you were ecstatic to hear that the Hero of Time wanted to head to the marketplace to pick up his repaired shield. You had just enough money to buy the chocolates that he craved.

As he groomed Epona with gentle hands, he addressed you. "I'll be visiting Castle Town sometime in the afternoon," he said, turning to face you. "The repairmen should be done fixing my shield; I'll pick it up today. You can come with me, if you want?"

Soft blue eyes turned to take in the sight of your kneeling form, rolling up your sleeping mat with utmost care.

Your reaction was nothing short of excitement. Your head snapped up, startling the blue-eyed boy in front of you. "Yes!" You shrieked immediately, your eyes wide with delight.

A moment of silence passed between the two of you before you realized what you did, and you blushed, embarrassed.

Link sent you a questioning glance, and you felt your cheeks turn pink. "Er, I mean-" You quickly added, trying to redeem yourself, "-I mean, I'd love to go! I've been wanting to buy something there for a while now."

Link smiled at you, lips turning up into a playful grin. "That sounds great! It's always a lot more interesting when you come to Castle Town with me."

You hastily turned around and pretended to fold up your sleeping mat, hiding your reddened cheeks. "S-sure..." You stammered, feeling a bit foolish for the effects that the blond-haired, sapphire-eyed boy had on you.

It was true that you had developed a tiny amount of feelings for Link, but you tried your best to suppress them. Of course, he would never like you. You knew that in the competition for the hero's heart, you were already beat. Princess Zelda- possibly the most beautiful and talented girl you've ever encountered, had you down in the long run. What madman would pick girl like you over a princess?

You sighed quietly under your breath, folding your sleeping mat in half and strapping it onto Epona. The horse huffed out of it's nose lightly, as if it knew what you were thinking. (She was probably just protesting against carrying the extra weight, but it was a comforting thought anyway.) You pet her white muzzle, running your fingers gingerly over her mane. "Friends." You muttered under your breath, watching as the graceful horse pressed it's nose into your hands. You take a deep breath, eyes darting over to the teenage boy that stood a little ways from you. "Just friends..."

Soon after you and Link had finished strapping your sleeping gear onto Epona, you both took off to the marketplace. As both you and Link walked, there was a comfortable silence between the two of you. You chuckled, remembering how awkward you were around the hero the first time you traveled with him. Blue eyes met yours, and you offered a lopsided smile. "What were you laughing about?" Link asked, sending you a curious look. You looked up at the sky, tilting your head slightly to catch a breeze. "Nothing, just some old memories." He didn't get a chance to ask what they were about, because you had already arrived at the drawbridge to Castle Town.

Soldiers greeted the both of you as you walked in, you nodded at them before closing your eyes, soaking in the sounds of civilization and life. Traveling with Link often meant being secluded from other folk, and although you loved his company, it got lonely quite quickly.

You were snapped out of your thoughts when Link began to speak to you. "We'll meet up in Central Plaza after we've both found what we want, alright? If you need anything, I'll be in the Gear Shop right next to the Hyrule bakery." You nodded, your eyes already glued to the fancy store across from the Gear Shop. Even from where you were standing, you could already see the sweets inside of the store, beckoning you to go in.

As soon as Link departed, you hightailed to the shop, admiring the treats through the window first. The shop put it's best chocolate on display. A variety of chocolates laid in front of your shining eyes, tempting you to hurry up and buy them. The display of dark chocolate swirls, caramel drops and pure white chocolate made your mouth water- you were standing there for so long that people were beginning to give you funny looks, so you decided to walk inside the shop.

No words could describe the smells that had wafted over your olfactory senses as you stepped into the store. For a second, you felt as if you had gone to heaven and back; because it seemed humanely impossible for smells so wondrous to be on Earth.

"Hello?" You heard a voice call, and suddenly, you noticed that there was a hand waving in front of your eyes. "Darling, are you quite alright?" You looked to see the owner of the arm, a woman that was dressed affluently and twice your age stood in front of you, looking worried.

"O-oh no! I'm fine!" You reassured the lady, peering at the boxes of chocolates that lined the shelves. "I'm just amazed at all the chocolate here, that's all."

The woman laughed heartily, placing a hand on your shoulder. "Oh dearie, chocolate seems to be a gift from the gods above, doesn't it? Everything about it seems perfect!" She gestured to the merchandise around her, adding in a hushed voice, "Sometimes I think I love this place more than my husband- don't tell him that, though! Ohoho!"

You diverted your eyes and peered behind the counter, seeing a burly man twirling his mustache, analyzing the boxes of chocolate across from him- that, you concluded, was probably this woman's husband.

"Anyway, dear, was there anything you needed?" The woman asked. You scratched the back of your neck, offering a nervous smile. "Yes, I came to buy this specific box of chocolates. I've had my eyes on it for quite a while now, and I'd really appreciate it if I could buy those."

You still remembered the box that Link had eyed a couple of times while you passed by this shop, it used to be in the window display, but now, alarmingly, it was gone. The top of the box was transparent and allowed you to see the contents lining the inside. You remembered the features of all the alluring chocolates, there were even carvings on the chocolate! Each tiny swirl and flower engraved in the thick, creamy treat looked as if a professional carver had worked their magic on it.

"Oh, that would be no problem! Pray tell, how did the box look like?" The woman asked, clapping her hands once in enthusiasm.

"The cover of the box was transparent, and the chocolates inside looked like they were created by a woodcarver." You recalled, placing a finger on your chin. "There were also multiple colors- it was very pretty."

The woman seemed to be in deep thought for a second, thinking about the description you had given her. You heard her mutter a couple words under her breath before she suddenly sprung into a frenzy. "Oh no!" She cried, hands flying to her face dramatically, "I do, indeed, think we sold that box of chocolates last week!" Your eyebrows furrowed, and you felt a twinge in your heart. Link really seemed to like those chocolates... And you had worked so hard to get them, too.

Suddenly, a gruff voice is heard from the counter. "Millie, I think we have one of 'em boxes left in the back."

Both you and the woman look up at the man behind the counter, still twirling his mustache. He jabbed a thumb in the direction of the storage room, and your face filled with surprise; the woman's full of glee.

"Oh, sweetie! I knew that I was right to marry you! You're even sweeter than one-hundred chocolates combined! I knew I could rely on you to be organized with the merchandise!" As the woman bounced her way to the storage room, she leaned over and pecked the mustached man on the cheek, and look of satisfaction washed over his features, chuckling. "Right back at ya Millie."

In moments, the box of chocolate you had seen Link admire so many times was placed in front of you on the counter. The man told you the price, and as you were basically emptying out all your life savings onto the table, he gave you a sly look and questioned "Would the person you're giving this to like this wrapped?"

You were about to answer when Millie interrupted you, a shocked expression on her face. "These expensive chocolates are for someone else?" She began fanning herself, as if it were the most incredulous thing she's ever heard. "Tell me it is not so! Look at you, all your rupees have gone into this box of chocolates- and it is not even for you? Give me the joy to hear that it is your most precious receiving this gift!"

Your face reddens, and you can only look down at the shining marble floors, unable to find words to speak. For your "most precious?" Well... You wouldn't go that far, right?

The man behind the counter sighed, "Ay, Millie, it must be. Look at her face!" He turned to you, and small smile on his lips. "Tell you what, I'll wrap this for you for free- just to make up for all the drama we put you through."

You nodded meekly, your face still burning red.

It didn't take long for the man to finish wrapping the box. When you saw the material they had used to enclose the box, you almost cried.

"This is silk!" You said in awe, feeling the expensive fabric under your fingertips. You traced the golden-hued ribbon with wonder. "...I cannot thank you enough!"

The couple only smiled at you and thanked you for your purchase, urging you to run along and give your present to your lucky "friend."

You carefully placed the beautifully wrapped present in your bag and decided that you'd give the chocolates to Link sometime later, since he would probably be busy checking out his shield after you met up with him.

You spotted the golden-haired boy immediately after leaving the chocolate shop. Calling his name and waving to get his attention, you both reunited and made your way back to Epona, who was waiting for you both in the middle of Hyrule Field.

You stopped walking as soon as Epona came into sight, coughing lightly to get Link's attention. His cerulean eyes turned to you, a pinch of concern shining through. "Is there something wrong, ______?"

You diverted your eyes and slowly pulled out the present, holding it out to him.

"T-this is a thank-you-present for looking after me all the time..."

You watched his reactions out of the corner of your eyes, seeing his face go through an array of emotions. First, he seemed stunned, then puzzled, then finally, grateful.

You turned your head toward Link, lips trembling slightly from the oddness of the situation. His eyes locked with yours, something you've never seen before brewing in his blue orbs. "_-_______... You shouldn't have..." Link muttered, pressing the package closer to his chest. "Where did you get the rupees to afford this?"

You bit back a shiver upon seeing his expression, a blush threatening to spill crimson all over your face. "Well, it doesn't matter as long as you like it!" You choked out, quite rattled at the situation. The words came out a bit sharper than you had intended, but Link didn't seem to take them to heart.

The Hero of Time gave you a gracious smile before carefully pulling at the golden ribbon, admiring the silk fabric.

“Wow…” He whispered in awe, eyes darting up to your ever-reddening face. “This is amazing.” You gulped, trying to steady your heartbeat.

Once he had finally unwrapped the gift, a soft look of surprise touched upon his handsome features, his eyebrows arching up in disbelief and the corners of his mouth pulling northward. You watched as he blinked several times, just to make sure he was not being deceived. His eyes took in every elaborate detail on the chocolates through the clear texture on the front of the box in amazement.

Once you decided that he liked the chocolates, you looked away, your face feeling like it was lit aflame.

"_______... How did you...?" Link spoke your name like it was a sacred prayer. You could feel his eyes back on you, however, you refused to meet his gaze.

"I saw you admiring them in Castle Town," you tried to explain, the temperature on your cheeks increasing steadily. "...And I thought that maybe you'd like them."

You decided to sneak a glance at Link; and you regretted doing so immediately. His eyes were so full of admiration and love that you felt as if you would faint if you looked into them for a second longer. In a flash, he held you in a tight embrace, pressing his body flush against yours.

"I love it, _____. Thank you so much."

You could barely react to his sudden act of affection, and although you wanted this embarrassment to end, you never wanted Link to let you out of his loving grasp. Gingerly, you wrapped your arms around his torso, returning the hug gently.

It seemed like only seconds had passed before he pulled away suddenly, leaving you feeling vacant and also a little neglected. As soon as you saw him open the box of chocolates, however, you watched him with renewed interest.

Link observed every piece of chocolate in the box, appreciating the time and effort put into each individual candy. After what felt like an eternity, he picked up a chocolate in the shape of a rose, small flecks of bright red dotting the edges. You watched keenly as his slender fingers turned the chocolate over, taking in all the details on the petals; before raising it up to his barely parted, slightly chapped lips, enveloping half of the sweet in his mouth...

Your head snapped to the side violently, a dark blush igniting in your cheeks. That was so... Hot... You suppressed a shudder, reminding yourself to contain your thoughts.

While you were battling with your inner turmoil, you had not noticed Link's sneaky expression as he glanced at you. Unknown to you, Link had seen your reaction to him eating the chocolate, and soon, an idea formed in his mind.

Of course, he had an itching feeling that you had liked him before, but he had never acted out on it because he was unsure. Now, however, it was quite obvious that you had more than just a little "thing" for him- and you'd be thrilled to find out that the feeling was mutual.

With that in mind, he purred your name, not unlike a way a cat would, and you clenched your jaw, trying not to look at him. "W-what?" You asked, peering out of the corner of your eye when you didn't receive an answer.

Your eyes widened slightly when you realized that Link was sauntering closer to you, and you attempted to gain space immediately. "Uhm, Link, what are you-Woah-!" You fell backward, landing on your backside rather painfully.

‘Way to go.’ You thought, swallowing thickly as you looked up at Link. Aquamarine eyes watched your every movement and didn't miss a beat. Without hesitation, Link kneeled between your splayed legs, placing his unoccupied hand on the floor beside you. The blond leaned in close, his eyes holding an emotion that almost looked like untamed hunger.

You were too stunned to speak, feeling his hot breath cascade over your lips.

"Why don’t you try some?" He asked, his voice low and airy. He held out the half-eaten chocolate to your flushed face, watching in satisfaction as red blossomed even further down your face. "It's delicious." He smiled, his eyelids lowering seductively. “…And if it’s not, we can try the others in the box, what do you say…?” You were frozen at his words, unable to speak yourself. Instead, you took notice of how long his golden eyelashes were. You felt a gossamer touch on your own lashes, and you swore that they were touching yours.

Link leaned into your body, holding the chocolate rose against your trembling lips, tempting you to open your mouth. Your mind was dizzy with embarrassment. You could feel the chocolate pressing against your mouth, as well as the small grooves and saliva that Link had left behind when he had eaten it. The scent of the chocolate wafted up to your nose, and you felt like you were being put under a heated spell.

You were entranced as you looked into his aqua-eyes, opening your mouth just enough for him to slip the chocolate in. Link gave you a small smile, pressing the sweet into your mouth with a satisfied look.

Your taste-buds set off fireworks in your mouth. The chocolate slowly melted in your mouth, the taste of bitter dark chocolate mixed with foreign spices gave the treat a dark, but tangy flavor.

Your eyes never left Link's as you savored the chocolate, his half-lidded eyes nearly causing you to melt yourself. You were unable to suppress a shudder when he shot you a sultry look, darting his tongue out to lick his lips.

You watched, hypnotized as the hero raised his hand up to his lips, lapping at the chocolate that had melted on the tips of his fingers.

“Link…?” You whimpered, watching him with clouded eyes. You blinked as he pressed a finger to your lips, silencing you. Slowly, his hand slithered behind your head, tangling into your hair.

All the while, the blond moved closer to your face, gauging your facial expressions. You shook in anticipation, almost leaning toward him as well. When Link was finally a few centimeters away from your lips, he watched you lowered your eyelids slowly, following in suit, his eyes slipped shut as well.

Gently, he pressed his lips against yours, your mouths molding together perfectly.

After a while, he pulls back and placing his forehead on yours, looking content. "I love you, so much..." He hums, opening his eyes.

You let out a shaky sigh, still flustered, but at the same time, thankful. Your mind began to wander, wondering how a box of chocolate had resulted in this.

"I love you too, Link."

[gukyi]

the courtship chronicles | ksj

summary: dating has never been anywhere near your list of priorities, but kim seokjin is nothing if not determined. and when he comes to the rescue and accompanies you to your friend’s wedding, he decides to request only one thing in return: for you to let him take you out on fake dates and shower you in fake affection, and show you how much fun dating can be. he just needs to remember to keep the part where he’s been in love with you under wraps.

{friends to lovers!au, fake dating!au}

pairing: kim seokjin x female reader genre: fluff, comedy, and emotional hurt/comfort! word count: 20k a/n: big, big, big thanks to @aurawatercolor for commissioning me for this piece!! i honestly am so happy with this fic and even happier to give my main man kim seokjin the love and attention he deserves!!! this fic is pretty much slow burn from start to finish, so enjoy!

check out the post-script drabble here!

“You’re bringing a plus one, right?” Cynthia demands on the other end of the line, voice frazzled and breaths quick. “You better, because I already factored it into the wedding budget. There will be food meant for a plus one for you which I already paid for so you better bring one. I paid for it already.” She’s running in circles, trying to make her point. It’s clear she’s got an awful lot on her plate as it is. 

“Can’t I just eat their serving myself? You know I’m a growing woman,” you plead. Cynthia and the rest of her bridesmaids have been on your back about bringing a plus one ever since she got engaged. 

“No, you have to bring a plus one. Even if it’s your mom, Y/N, I don’t care,” Cynthia says. She makes to say something else, but then pauses. “Actually, I do care. Can it please be a date? Even like, someone you met off of Hinge. I don’t know. Not your mom. Don’t bring her. That would be only a little weird,” she corrects herself. 

“Weirder than some stranger I met off Hinge?” You ask pointedly. 

“No. At least they’re around your age. I want to see you applying yourself, Y/N!” Cynthia scolds. “Go out there and find a man! Pick him up off of the street if you have to! Anything!” She rallies. “Being single is cool and everything but being in love is just as fulfilling!”

“Of course you would think that, you’re getting married tomorrow,” you tell her, sighing. Can’t she just accept that you aren’t really looking for a relationship right now? And haven’t been looking for one since you graduated college three years ago?

“I love my future husband, thank you very much. We plan on leading a very full and extraordinary life with our fifteen dogs and eighteen geckos.”

“Okay, Miss We Bought A Zoo,” you tease. 

Cynthia laughs. “Pretty soon it’ll be Mrs. We Bought A Zoo, thank you very much!”

You hear a knock on the door, turning to check the kitschy cuckoo clock you had found at a flea market for five dollars for the time. It’s six on the dot.

“I have to go, Cynthia, Seokjin’s here,” you tell her, already making to hang up the phone as you head towards the door, using your shoulder and ear to hold it in place. “We’re making a family dinner for two, tonight.”

“Bring Seokjin! He’ll charm the shit out of my mom, I just know it,” Cynthia tells you. “Bring him! Tell him to clear his fucking calendar for tomorrow.”

“Bye, Cynthia,” you say as you reach out for the doorknob, twisting it to reveal your grinning best friend with a bag full of goodies on the other side. “I have to go.”

“Send Seokjin my love! I don’t even expect a wedding gift from him! His presence is enough!” Cynthia shouts, loud enough for Seokjin to hear everything despite the phone not even being on speaker. You hang up before Cynthia can say anything else to goad Seokjin into accompanying you to her wedding, sending an apologetic smile his way. 

“Sorry, that was—”

“Cynthia?” Seokjin finishes with a grin. You usher him into your apartment, letting him place his bag on your kitchen countertop as he pulls out two wine glasses to get the party started. You sigh, helpless. “Yeah, I figured. She’s getting married tomorrow, isn’t she?”

“She’s uber stressed, if that’s what you mean to say,” you correct, joining him in your kitchen as you start to unpack what he brought, countless tupperware containers filled with vegetables, meats, pastas. There’s even an entire bag of rice. Does Seokjin really think you have no rice in your apartment? Seriously? 

“I can imagine,” Seokjin agrees with a laugh. “Thank god you and I aren’t getting married anytime soon, right?” With a flourish, he produces a bottle of red wine you had been saving in your fridge for this very occasion, filling up half of each wine glass. 

“I’ll toast to that,” you say, smiling as you hold up your glass. Seokjin swirls the wine around in his own before holding it out. 

“Here’s to not being romantically involved whatsoever!” Seokjin hurrahs, and you laugh at his honesty as your glasses clink together, the sound echoing around your kitchen. “Who says you need to be married to prepare a kickass meal together.”

“You’re in charge of the meat,” you immediately tell him. You’ve never been the biggest fan of handling it. Vegetables are much more your speed. They also don’t get angry at you when you make a mistake cooking them. Besides, Seokjin’s always been the better food mediator between the two of you. 

“Like always,” he teases, giving you a nudge as he pulls the pots and pans from the cupboard beneath the counter and hands you one of the seventeen different cutting boards you have in random places in your kitchen. You don’t know what it is about them, but every single month you find yourself buying a brand new cutting board. They may as well be drugs. “You should really branch out and try cooking beef sometimes. I’ll teach you, hey? So you don’t have to be scared of it.”

“I am not scared of cooking beef,” you tell him sternly, flinching when Seokjin places the meat in the oil-slick pan and it begins to sizzle and pop. 

“If you say so, Y/N,” Seokjin singsongs. “You know, I’d make a pretty good teacher. I reckon I could show you a thing or two about cooking.”

“Okay, Mr. Cooking Is My Passion,” you say, scrunching up your nose. “Just because I can’t make a damn filet mignon does not make me a bad cook,” you tell him, “whose soup do you ask for when you’re sick and in bed with a cold? That’s right, mine!” You poke his chest for good measure, making him put his hands up in surrender. 

“Alright, alright, I concede,” he says with a laugh. “Your soup is delicious.”

“Thank you,” you say, proudly. “How about I make a couple of servings while you cook the meat?”

Seokjin blows a kiss your way. “Y/N, You know just the way to my heart.”

An hour later, you and Seokjin have whipped up an impressive set of dishes, from your homemade vegetable soup to his traditional bulgogi bibimbap, a small bowl of kimchi in the middle of the table accompanied by some sauteed vegetables and a serving of glass noodles. There’s enough to feed a family of four (one of whom could be a ravenous high-school football player) on your table, and yet, you and Seokjin never fail to finish it all. 

Seokjin takes one bite out of his bulgogi bibimbap and moans in delight, tossing his head back as he holds out two thumbs up, chopsticks clanging onto the side of the bowl as he drops them. “Wow,” he says loudly, patting himself on the back. “I’m amazing. Gordon Ramsey wants what I have.”

“There’s no way it’s that good,” you tease, even though it most definitely is that good. Seokjin is, without a doubt, the best chef you have ever met, the best chef whose food you have ever had the pleasure of eating. If he weren’t employed by a publicity company he would almost certainly be the owner of the best restaurant in the city. The New York Times would visit his restaurant and write a five-star review to be published in the paper the next morning. You take a bite of it yourself, chewing it slowly and pretending to ponder its flavor. It’s delicious. It’s never not delicious. “Hmm… it’s alright.”

“‘Alright’?” Seokjin shouts, slandered. “Just ‘alright’?” He slams a fist onto the table in anger. “This is blasphemy! It’s amazing!” Grabbing the knife beside his plate, he holds it under your chin dramatically, glaring into your eyes. “You better retract that statement, or else!”

“Or else what, Mr. Kim?” You say, desperately resisting the urge not to burst into laughter. Seokjin’s not doing much better, lips pursed tight in an effort not to cackle aloud. 

“Or else I’ll have no choice but to eat all of your bulgogi bibimbap for you!” He cries, reaching over with grabby hands to take your plate away from you. 

Just as he suspected, you hold on tight to your plate, refusing to let such good food go into the mouth of someone who has his own plate. It’s then, as you’re playing tug-of-war with your food, that Seokjin finally breaks into chuckles, hiccuping out his laugh as he concedes and lets you eat your food in peace. 

“Just as I suspected, peasant!” He says proudly. “It’s delicious!”

You put a heaping chopstick-ful into your mouth. “It really is, Seokjin. You always do such a great job.”

“I’m honored,” he says, bowing slightly. “Food is what brings people together.” He holds out a piece of kimchi in front of your mouth, and you eat it obligingly. “Speaking of bringing people together, what was Cynthia shouting about on the phone?”

“Oh, just her wedding, you know,” you tell him with a shrug. “The usual. She’s desperate for me to bring a plus one,” you say. Marriage is disillusioning her. She thinks everybody around her should have a love like her own. And while it is a wonderful, fairytale-esque thought, you just aren’t really on the same wavelength. You never have been. “She even factored it into the budget to guilt-trip me into doing it.”

“Why don’t you?” Seokjin asks, downing a spoonful of soup. “Going to a wedding alone can’t be too much fun.”

“I won’t be alone,” you protest. “I’m one of her closest friends. I’ll know a bunch of people there.”

“Yeah, but you won’t have brought someone who, by way of how plus-one’s work, will be obligated to be by your side the entire night. Who are you gonna dance with when Crazy in Love comes on, huh?” Seokjin points out. 

You frown. “I can dance by myself.”

“Yeah, but a plus-one would make it more fun! You guys can dougie, or whatever it is the cool kids do these days. Is dabbing still a thing?” He dabs, just to make a point. It’s cringey and awful and hilarious, all at once. 

“Stop, stop, you’re embarrassing yourself and I’m the only other person here,” you plead. “You and Cynthia are so on my ass about bringing a date, God. I just—I’m not really interested in anybody right now. Dating just isn’t my thing.”

“Has dating ever been your thing, Y/N?” Seokjin asks, even though he clearly knows the answer already. “I don’t think you’ve been on a date since sophomore year of college. Do you even know what dating is, anymore? Love?”

You roll your eyes. If there’s one person who’s a bigger hopeless romantic than Cynthia, it’s Seokjin. The man has an entire bookshelf of romance novels in his bedroom. He waxes poetic about falling in love every other day, about coming home to a significant other, a family, to cook for, to spend time with. He’s been on more Bumble dates in the past year than you can count on both hands and feet. 

“I know what it is,” you defend yourself, “I’m just—I don’t really believe in that, for me. I don’t ever see myself having it. I have friends. My family. That’s good enough. I don’t need romantic love.”

Seokjin scoffs. “What? You mean to tell me you don’t ever want to fall in love? Never ever? Come on, Y/N. Love is great! It makes you feel warm and happy, like one of those giant Costco teddy bears. Those are the material equivalent of love. Haven’t you always wanted a giant Costco teddy bear?”

“When I was five, yeah,” you tell him. “Listen, Seokjin, I get it. Love is great and amazing, I’m just not that interested. You and Cynthia have been trying to get me to go on a date for years and it doesn’t appeal to me whatsoever.”

“What about dating is unappealing?” Seokjin inquires. He’s determined. And you, the best friend, are weak. 

“I don’t know, having to meet new people, talk about yourself, try to see a future with them. It seems so tiring,” you say, sighing. Seokjin looks positively bewildered, because of course he enjoys dating—he’s so charismatic, charming, and outgoing. Even if a date goes poorly he still ends up with a new friend. “I’m just not that into doing that stuff.”

“Psh,” Seokjin says casually, skeptical. “I bet that if you just gave the whole dating thing a try, you might actually like it. You haven’t gone out on one in so long—maybe it’s different than what you remember. The last time you did it, we were all just college students.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” you groan. “How exactly do you expect me to ‘give the whole dating thing a try’, then? Last time I checked, I wasn’t particularly interested in anybody.”

Seokjin pauses, pondering for a moment as he taps his chin with his pointer finger. Then, like a smack to the face, it hits him all at once, and in his excitement, he pounds his fist right onto the prongs of the fork by his plate. “Ow, holy shit!” He shouts, excited nonetheless.

“Oh my God, are you alright?” You ask, a little concerned and a lot amused.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he assures you, rubbing the side of his palm. “But what I was about to say, is why don’t we go out?”

You sputter, choking on the soup you had just taken a sip of. “I-I’m sorry, what?”

“Why don’t we date? It’ll be fun!” He says happily. 

“Seokjin, we’re friends,” you say. 

He shrugs, carefree. “Yeah, sure we are. But think about it: since we’re already so close, you won’t have to worry about introducing yourself to someone new. You won’t have to go through the whole tell me about yourself thing, we can just jump right into the dating part! It’ll be fun and you’ll get to see what dating is like past the introductions. How about it?” He asks. 

He thinks it’s brilliant. 

You think it’s ludicrous. 

“But, Seokjin, are we actually going to date? Like, be a couple? Because I don’t know if that’s what I was really aiming for with our friendship today,” you say hesitantly. You love Seokjin, sure, but you aren’t in love with Seokjin. You’ve been best friends since college. Won’t it be weird if you suddenly start dating? And doing other couple-y things?

Seokjin waves a hand around like a nonchalant businessman. “No, we won’t actually be boyfriend and girlfriend, or anything,” he promises. “It’ll just be fake. Make believe! Think of it as a dating test-run. What do you say?”

“You sound too enthusiastic for me not to be worried,” you tell him tentatively. He’s like an energetic salesman. It’s a little frightening. There must be some fine print you aren’t looking at. Something that you’re missing. “Are you sure about this? Like, do you want anything in return?”

“Anything in return to help my best friend find love?” He asks, scandalized. “Of course not!”

You frown. 

“Okay,” he gives in, “maybe some more soup. I’m about to visit my mom and she loves it.”

“Why don’t I just come with?” You suggest. Seokjin’s mom is the second-best chef you’ve ever met. Somewhere along the line, Seokjin took what he learned from her and improved it ten-fold. 

“Even better! Mom’s been begging me to bring you around sometime. How about it, do we have a deal?” He asks, holding his hand out. 

You sigh. He’s your best friend, and all he wants in return is for you to visit his mom with him. What’s the worst thing that could happen?

“Sure,” you say, conceding. “Why not?”

Seokjin’s first order of business as your self-appointed brand new not-real boyfriend, is to accompany you to Cynthia’s wedding as your plus-one. He does actually find a wedding gift on such short notice—a fairly new cookbook from which he had memorized the recipes already, so it was no longer of use to him. Because of course, Kim Seokjin is the only person on Earth who memorizes the one hundred recipes in a book just because he wants to. Where does he find the time?

[May 18th, 3:18PM]

Seokjin: Are we wearing matching colors? Seokjin: Or is that too senior prom?

You: As long as you don’t show up wearing white you should be fine

Seokjin: >_> Seokjin: You know that if I wore white the groom would drop everything and marry me instead ;-)

You: Only because of your charm You: I’m wearing pastel pink! I don’t suppose you have anything in your closet to go with that, do you?

[Seokjin is typing…]

[May 18th, 3:20PM]

Seokjin: Oh, Y/N, you don’t even need to ask twice

An hour later, Seokjin pulls up to the curb outside of your apartment complex in his Volkswagen, which is every bit as charismatic as he is, right as you’re scrambling to tug on your most comfortable heels (as if such a thing could exist!), running late, as per usual. The ceremony begins at 5:30 and you and Seokjin were meant to leave for the venue at four. 

It is 4:19. 

Frazzled, you rush around your apartment movie-montage style, tweaking strands of your hair in the mirror in the hallway and nabbing your bottomless bag on the coffee table. It’s not even really summer yet, but your apartment doesn’t have air conditioning and it’s becoming more and more of a curse as the globe slowly warms multiple degrees over the years. The true loser of climate change, rather than the polar bears, the bees, and coastal cities, is you, who thought renting a place with no air conditioning would be just fine. 

Desperate not to open the door to Seokjin with your forehead dripping, you dab off the beads of sweat gathered by your hairline with the skirt of your dress—whatever, you were going to sweat in it at some point—right as you hear the first knock. 

Seokjin’s fashion choices are usually rather conservative. He does work a somewhat menial half-office job, so he can’t roll up to his desk wearing the exceedingly stylish and exceedingly adventurous clothing that Namjoon and Taehyung wear, which, in turn, limits his closet. Lots of plain or argyle sweaters pulled over dress shirts with the collars peeking out, lots of navy jeans, lots of white sneakers and loafers. The only clothing item Seokjin does experiment with is socks, of which he has an impressive collection, ranging anywhere from corgi butts to Santa Claus. 

You didn’t really know what you were expecting when Seokjin said you didn’t need to ask twice after mentioning that you were wearing a pastel pink dress. He does own a couple of pink things, but as far as you’re aware (and you’re pretty aware, considering you’ve been best friends with him since the beginning of college), it amounts mostly to his sock stash and a couple of sweaters, which he most often wears under denim jackets or over dress shirts. 

What you most certainly aren’t expecting when you open the door is to see Seokjin standing on the other side in a full-on suit, a light grey color that complements the peach in his skin tone perfectly. More so, however, you hadn’t at all anticipated for him to be wearing a perfectly-matching pastel pink dress shirt underneath, complemented by a rather obnoxious bow tie with red hairs littered all over it. 

“Wow, okay,” you say, blinking just to make sure that your eyes are working perfectly. “It’s May, why do you look like Valentine’s Day threw up on you?”

Seokjin opens his mouth to send a witty response back to you, but the moment he lays his eyes on you, it’s as if all of the words have fallen from his lips. He swallows, hands fumbling with the bouquet in his hand. “Don’t say that to me like you aren’t also wearing the most Valentine’s Day dress I’ve ever seen.”

“It’s a pastel pink midi dress,” you tell him, frowning. “At least I’m not wearing something that has cartoon-y red hearts all over it,” you accuse, pointing to his bow tie. 

Seokjin gasps, offended. “Hey! This is my lucky bow tie. It’s never steered me wrong when it comes to love.”

You scoff. “I don’t think Cynthia and her fiancé need your bow tie’s help today. Have you ever seen someone more in love with another person than they are with each other?”

Seokjin pauses. He sighs a little bit, like there’s something weighing on his mind he refuses to divulge. You won’t press. You may be best friends, but you aren’t mind-readers, and sometimes, there are some secrets that have to be kept even from each other. Yours is that when you guys were juniors in college and Seokjin was running late for class because he was desperate to find the last Pop-Tart in his apartment, you had actually eaten it the night before when he was in the bathroom. 

You wonder what his is. 

“You never know,” he finally says, “we could always use the extra luck, don’t you think?”

You nod, “I suppose. What’s with the flowers? You know you aren’t supposed to bring them to a wedding. They probably have enough flowers as it is.”

As if caught off guard by the flowers held in his very own hand, Seokjin turns his gaze down to look at the bouquet, a collection of baby’s breath, tulips, and carnations. “Oh,” he says, speechless. “Well, I was dropping by the flower shop anyway to bother Hoseok, and he said that they had some leftover stock that nobody wanted because they were a little smaller than the other flowers, so he gave them to me at a discount. They’re for you, I guess.” Like a nervous high schooler going on his very first date, he shoves them towards you, making you step back to avoid getting punched in the chest. 

“Seriously? You didn’t have to do that, Seokjin,” you say happily, pleasantly surprised at the bouquet. Sure, some of them are a little wilted, a little dehydrated, but you get flowers so infrequently (in fact, you don’t think you’ve gotten any since Seokjin sent you one of those singular rose grams during your first Valentine’s Day at college), that the gesture is as good as gold. 

“Eh,” he says, shrugging casually. “I don’t really have anybody else I would want to give them to.”

Gleefully, you take them from his outstretched hand and immediately rush to put them in some sort of vase. You, like the piece of millennial trash that you are, end up using a random empty mason jar you find in one of your kitchen cabinets. 

“What time is it?” Seokjin asks, looking around for a clock. 

“Late, we have to go,” you instantly respond, shooing him out of the door and darting down the stairs because the elevator in your apartment building is about four hundred years old and doesn’t even have a light bulb inside of it. You cram into Seokjin’s tiny white Volkswagen, which just screams hipster-mom-in-her-forties, and he speeds off at a velocity that tiny Volkswagen beetles were not meant to go at. 

Surprisingly enough, you make it to the wedding venue with a few minutes to spare, which you largely attribute to the fact that Seokjin was driving faster than some of the SUVs on the highway on the way over. He isn’t a bad or reckless driver. He’s just a driver with certain priorities that rank higher than the act of driving itself. 

“Ah, the smell of nervousness and love,” Seokjin says as you step out of the car, inhaling dramatically. “Smells like a wedding.”

“Smells like the ceremony is about to begin,” you say, and you both rush over the pebbled path to the entrance, giggling like a bunch of high schoolers as you stumble through the front doors very ungracefully. 

“Wow,” Seokjin says, impressed at the extent of decoration. Cynthia had been raving on and on about how she was aiming to have a sort of romantic, Impressionist art painting vibe to the wedding, lots of pastels, flowers, twinkling lights. “This is very impressive. One hundred out of ten.”

“Cynthia’s been planning this for months, so I’m sure she’ll be pleased to hear it,” you say, ushering yourselves into the main wedding hall as the rest of the guests file in from chatting outside as the clock ticks down. There are two seats close to the front that Cynthia’s saved for you and your plus-one, which she most certainly will be very happy to see you have brought with you, in the form of your best friend, Seokjin, of course. 

“Aren’t you excited?” Seokjin whispers as everyone settles down. “Can’t you feel the love in the air?”

“It’s not in my genetics to feel that sort of thing,” you retort back, earning a pout from your best friend in return. 

“Well, it’s in mine, and let me tell you, Y/N, it feels like love!” He exclaims happily. “You should be basking in it.”

“Are you?” You round on him. No point in not practicing what you preach. 

“Always,” Seokjin says, gazing at you happily. He seems so content, in this very moment, about to watch a ceremony that will bond two people together for the rest of their lives, devote themselves to each other, wholly and completely. “I’m always basking in it.”

Then, the officiant steps up to the microphone at the front of the room. Seokjin reaches his hand over to grab yours, letting it rest in his palm on his lap, and the ceremony begins. 

Going to weddings as a child, even as an adult to a fairly distant coworker, they’ve always felt so detached from you as a guest. Sure, the ceremonies are wonderful and you’re happy for the newly-married couple, but it’s almost as if you’re watching a movie and instead of being another character, you’re part of the audience. When you leave the wedding venue, when all of the dancing and eating and celebrating is over, you forget all about it, and you move on with your life. 

But knowing the two people standing up at the altar as more than just coworkers, or a distant relative, knowing them as friends, as near family, tints everything in a rosy pink. It’s the most beautiful wedding ceremony you’ve ever had the pleasure of attending. It’s humbling and real and unrehearsed, romantic and funny and meaningful all at once. It makes you feel warm inside, truly, truly happy for your friend and for what is to come in the next chapter of her life. 

Crying was pretty much unavoidable. It was mostly on Seokjin’s end—he’s not as close with either of them as you are, but he certainly loves love much more than you do—but some tears were shed on your end, as well. This is the sort of thing you’d want to talk about for years to come, even after you walk out, in the hopes that a constant reminder will prevent it from ever fading from your memory. 

As weddings go, the next part is the best part: free food. You get to your tables and Cynthia’s fancy (and expensive) caterers come whooshing around with bottles of wine and pitchers of water, filling up the glasses on your tables as the wedding party prepares to enter. You’re seated next to some other old friends from college, ones you recognize and ones you don’t, and ones that Seokjin is very happy to start chatting up the moment you take your seats. 

“Are you here together?” One of the men—you think his name is Nathan(?)—asks, pointing to the two of you. 

“No,” you say. 

“Yes,” Seokjin says. 

You both turn to glare at each other as Nathan—no, maybe Noah—furrows his brows, clearly having not received the response he was aiming for. Seokjin makes a bunch of aggressive and dramatic facial gestures to remind you that you two are fucking dating, remember? Even though it’s not actually real, and that was the part you were focusing on. The not real part. 

“We are,” you correct awkwardly, even though Whatshisface seems to have moved on from the topic. “He’s my plus-one.”

“I’m not as tight with the bride as I am with one of her closest friends,” Seokjin says jokingly, even though you’re the only one who laughs. 

“Yeah,” one of the girls chimes in. “You guys were best friends in college.”

“Still are,” you say, grinning. At least you don’t have to lie about that. 

“So cute,” the same girl says romantically. “I wish I could fall in love with my best friend,” she turns to the man she’s with who clearly doesn’t want to be here whatsoever. “You guys must be so happy.”

“It’s not always a walk in the park,” Seokjin warns, and you don’t have time to smack him in the chest and ask him what the hell he means by that, as the officiant taps onto the microphone to begin to announce the entrance of the wedding party. 

As each couple, each bridesmaid and groomsman, walk through the door, you can’t help but wonder why Seokjin said it wasn’t always a walk in the park to be together. Are you that awful to fake date? 

“Can I have everyone’s attention, please?” Cynthia’s father asks, tapping his teaspoon against the wine glass in his hand. “I’d just like to make a toast.” He turns to where Cynthia and her fiancé are seated, and he looks on the verge of tears. “For as long as I’ve lived, I’ve never seen two people love each other so selflessly. When they’re together, they make grey skies turn blue, turn night into day. All I can wish for you both is that you will forever be each other’s best friend, each other’s rock. There is no greater joy in life than to get to spend the entirety of it with your best friend. Congratulations, Cynthia and James. We are so lucky to know you both.”

Everybody begins to clap. 

Everybody, except Seokjin. 

You notice that his hands are resting in his lap, and when you turn to look at him, you see his eyes welling up, his smile soft and wistful. 

“You alright?” You ask quietly, giving him a nudge with your shoulder. 

Seokjin looks back at you like you’ve caught him off guard. “Me? Yeah.”

“You’re crying,” you point out. 

He shrugs, blinking to let the tears roll down his cheeks. “I just love that,” he explains. “Love knowing that some of us can be so lucky to spend the rest of our lives with our best friends by our sides.”

 According to the ancient law of weddings, the reception is where all guests are mandated to get out of their seats and boogie-oogie-oogie. At least, that’s what Seokjin says, when the food gets whisked away and the space morphs into a dance floor, tables in the center cleared as the bride goes to change in her mandated second dress, because one just isn’t expensive enough as it is. Seokjin just seems to know everything about weddings. It’s almost as if he’s planned one himself. 

“Just wait until all of the stuffy, traditional dances are over,” Seokjin whispers into your ear as Cynthia and her father share a dance. Seokjin looks like he’s about to jump out of his seat, desperate to get onto the dance floor. “You’ve never seen me dance at a wedding.”

“I’ve never seen you dance at all,” you correct, excluding all of the dabbing he did in 2016 when it was still a cool thing to dab. 

“Then you’re in for a real treat,” he says smugly. 

Sure enough, the moment the rest of the guests are invited onto the dance floor to drop it low, Seokjin is the first one out of his chair, and you, the second, begrudgingly dragged to the center by your over-enthusiastic best friend. He’s always been absolutely shameless in everything he does, which makes for high confidence and low embarrassment, two things you are certainly not the strongest in. Which is exactly why you end up side-stepping awkwardly like a geek at senior prom, while he uses every single one of his limbs to express his passion for whatever generic pop song is blasting through the speakers. 

Cynthia’s never been one for niche, hipster music.

“Come on, Y/N, have a little fun!” Seokjin encourages, grabbing onto your wrist and rapidly waving it up and down, making you shake. 

“You can have enough fun for the both of us,” you tell him, still just as aware of everybody else’s opinion of you as you were in high school. Some things really never change. 

“Impossible! Come on!” He says, and you have no idea what dance move he’s about to break into from his positioning, and then you suppose you’ll never know, because the song immediately switches to an acoustic one by Ed Sheeran, which is the most generic type of slow song you could possibly think of. 

“Grab your boys and girls, everyone,” the DJ says, a random white guy who definitely would prefer to make mixtapes in his basement than do this shit. “This one’s for love!”

You don’t even have time to take another step before Seokjin is grabbing your hand with his own and pulling you in close to him. He holds your one hand out and places his other on your waist, and instinctively, you rest your hand on his shoulder. 

When you went to senior prom in high school, your date was this terribly nervous friend of a friend, who asked you because you both didn’t have a real date to go with, and you figured it would be better to go with an acquaintance than nobody at all. And it was sort of fun, because you sat at a table with all of your friends and ate decent senior prom food, and it wasn’t in your stinky high school gymnasium but a fairly nice country club. But when the only slow song of the night came on, thus ensued the most awkward three minutes of your entire high school career. 

This is by no means an exact science, but you figure that the people you are closest to are the people you can slow dance with without it being terrible and awkward and awful. You did it with your parents when you were a little girl in the living room of your family home. You did it with Cynthia at two in the morning one night when she had just gotten dumped by this absolutely rotten boy. 

And now, you’re doing it with Seokjin. And it isn’t terrible or awkward or awful at all. You sway to the soft strums of the guitar and it feels just right. The feeling of his hand in yours, on your waist, of yours on his shoulder. There’s less than a six inches of distance and you feel as close as you have always been. Seokjin feels so natural. He always has, and you know that he always will. There’s no doubt when it comes to him, no regret. 

“Isn’t this nice?” Seokjin asks, grinning at you. 

“Only because it’s with you,” you say back with a smile. Seokjin beams. 

Later, when the slow dance is over and you make your way back to your table so you can watch your best friend make a fool of himself from a distance. Cynthia drops by, blissful. 

“I knew you’d bring Seokjin! He’s charming the pants off of my mom as we speak,” Cynthia says happily. You both crane your neck to see him teaching Cynthia’s mom the floss, outdated as per usual. 

“Yeah, I mean,” you say with a shrug, “who else was I going to bring?”

“He makes you happy, doesn’t he?” Cynthia asks. She looks proud. She deserves it. 

You turn back to look at Seokjin, on the verge of tears of laughter as Cynthia’s mom successfully flosses for the first time. He’s so wonderful. The light of your damn life. “Yeah. He does.”

When the fair comes to town, you don’t find out from posters stapled to utility posts and taped to traffic lights. Nor do you find out from word of mouth, from the two strangers in your favorite (slightly overpriced) coffee shop ahead of you in line. It’s not even your coworkers who mention it to you in passing one day because their eight-year-old has been begging them to go but they can’t because they have a dentist appointment.

It is, because who else would it be, of course, Seokjin, who texts you at 4:18PM on that Saturday and says:

[May 27th, 4:18PM]

Seokjin: I’m on my way over to your apartment to pick you up Seokjin: Don’t ask questions

And it is, in every possible way, the scariest thing you have ever received on your phone. Seokjin’s always been one for spontaneity, but ever since the two of you graduated and stopped feeling the urge to go out to McDonald’s at three in the morning, random activities have become less of a rule and more of an exception. But it’s a Saturday, which means you don’t have to go to work, and it’s near-evening, which means you’ve been sitting at home doing absolutely nothing all day as it is. And it’s May, which means that the sun only sets at seven at night and there is so much to be done in this wonderful weather. 

So, Seokjin’s on his way. 

You spend the next seven minutes (Seokjin lives approximately eight minutes by car from where you live, not that you’re counting, or anything) changing out of the yoga pants you’ve been wearing since you returned from work Friday evening and trying to make yourself look as presentable as possible. You don’t know where he’s taking you. He could be bringing you to an alley to murder you for your inheritance. He’s definitely on your will, that’s for sure. You want to look nice. 

Seven minutes later, you see his tiny white Volkswagen pull up outside your apartment complex as you’re slipping on some sandals. He hops out of the driver’s seat and scurries into the lobby, which signals to you that he is a man on a mission, and you are simply the best friend who gets roped along for the ride. He knocks on your door thirty seconds after that, and you linger for a few moments so as not to seem like you’ve been anxiously awaiting his arrival. 

“Let’s go,” Seokjin declares in lieu of a hello. He reaches out to grab onto your wrist, pulling you out of the door as you frantically make sure you have your bag with you, otherwise you’ll be phone-less, key-less, and lip-balm-less. Three equally terrible fates. 

“What? Now? No explanation, nothing?”

“I parked in the no parking fire lane with my blinkers on, which means we have to go right now. We also have to go because I am very excited about where we are going,” Seokjin elaborates, though it does nothing to clarify the situation at hand. Other than the fact that if you don’t get into his car right now, he’s got a ticket to pay. 

“But where are we going?” You ask again, as Seokjin and you scramble down the stairs to make it to his Volkswagen before the security guard in the lobby starts shouting at him for his illegal parking job. 

“The fair!” Seokjin says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Did you see it was in town?”

“No,” you say dumbly. 

“Oh,” Seokjin says awkwardly. “Well, it is, and I feel like we haven’t seen each other in a while—”

“It’s been three days.”

“—and we haven’t gone out on a real date yet, you and me.” Seokjin explains as you get to his car. Luckily, there is no angry security guard nor a ticket underneath his windshield wiper, so you slide into the passenger seat and he drives off. 

“Yes, we have,” you object. “Cynthia’s wedding counts as a real date.” He was literally your plus-one. What more could define the word ‘date’?

Seokjin scrunches his nose up in clear disagreement. “No, it doesn’t,” he argues back. “Cynthia was going to tear your arm off if you didn’t bring me with. That was a date out of obligation.”

“Aren’t all of these dates out of obligation?”

You expect some sort of witty response, but instead, you’re met with silence as Seokjin opens the driver’s side door, the two of you looking over the top of his Volkswagen wordlessly, each waiting for something. 

What? It’s not like you’re wrong. Seokjin is taking you out on dates to get a feel for what a real, blossoming relationship is like. Except this isn’t real, and your relationship is far from blossoming. It’s bloomed, already. Into an irreplaceable friendship. 

“Yeah, well,” Seokjin sputters, for once in his life, speechless. “It doesn’t matter,” he says, sitting roughly in the driver’s seat as you get into the passenger side, watch as he fumbles to put the keys into the ignition. “Don’t you want to know what a first date is supposed to be like?”

“You don’t have to take me on a fake first date just to spend time with me,” you tell him, the two of you facing forward, staring at the road in front of you as he drives. The radio is playing, some generic alternative rock song that neither of you are familiar enough to warrant turning up the volume for. Seokjin’s always preferred listening to the radio over his own music. Something about ambience while he drives. “We can spend time together wherever. Even if we’re just in my apartment.”

Seokjin’s wonderful and the best and one of the (if not the) greatest people you’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, but he doesn’t need to do all of this for you. It’s enough for him to text you in the morning to remind you to drink a glass of water before you eat anything to wake your body up. Enough for him to leave leftovers from your dinner nights in your fridge, so you can savor the taste of his food after he’s gone home. Enough for the two of you to be as you used to be, as you always have been and always will be. 

Seokjin scoffs, honking at a driver who sped through a red light. “Those aren’t dates, Y/N,” he explains like it’s the most obvious thing in the entire world. “They’re just ways that we spend time with each other.”

“So then what makes this a date? What’s the difference?” You demand. Seokjin’s not making any sense. Sure, you aren’t nearly as well-versed in the dating scene as he is, certainly haven’t been on as many as he has, but from your limited knowledge, you’d always thought that what makes a date is not the setting, not the time or location, but the person you spend it with. 

Arguably, that would mean that all of the nights and days you’ve spent with Seokjin could, by that definition, be dates, but that’s obviously not the case. You’ve always just been friends. 

“It’s a date because I say it is,” Seokjin declares. “You wanna know what makes a date? It’s when the two people—or more, depending on how you swing—decide that it is a date. It’s just a label.”

“If it’s just a label, then why are you making such a big deal out of it?” You ask. You know you’re being a bit annoying with all of the questions at this point, but who’s to say you couldn’t have spent the evening curled up in your apartment and called that a date as well? 

“Because,” Seokjin begins, sighing. His hands are gripping the steering wheel so hard, his knuckles are turning white. “Because,” he repeats, “if someone really wants to impress you, then they will make a big deal out of it. Because you deserve it.”

Eventually, Seokjin pulls into the giant open field designated for parked cars, and expertly squeezes into this tiny space between two absolutely massive SUVs, likely once filled with five children and two very, very tired parents. Sure, you both only have about six inches of space to shimmy out of his car, but it was a good parking job nonetheless. 

“Get you a boyfriend who can park as well as I can,” Seokjin says, patting himself on the back as you head towards the entrance. 

“Why would I need a boyfriend when I have you?” You tease back.

You wait for a cheeky response from Seokjin, turning to look at him when he delivers the blow, but it never arrives. Instead, Seokjin reaches a hand down to grab onto yours, and you walk hand in hand towards the entrance, wordless. He pays, which makes you angry, but he tells you that you can buy a funnel cake for you to share to make up for it, and that’s good enough. 

In movies and books, a fair is a very high-school event for people to attend. Lots of bright flashes of color, loud noises, and junk food, which are three things that society believes deters anyone over the age of nineteen from attending. You can’t name a single piece of pop culture that features two fully-grown adults eating cotton candy and sitting in a ferris wheel carriage. Because the moment you turn twenty, your back starts to permanently ache and noises louder than the sound of your refrigerator making ice give you a headache, of course. 

Seokjin, of course, has never been one to let the media define him. 

He lights up like New Year’s Eve the moment you walk through the gates. Like a child on Christmas day. 

There’s a difference between being immature and being youthful that people often fail to realize, confusing the two, or worse, thinking they’re the same thing. But there are sixteen-year-olds out there who are more mature than middle-aged adults, and there are middle-aged adults who still act like they’re going through puberty. Seokjin was immature when you first met him, the same way all college freshmen are, but over the years lost that mindset while still never parting with the youthful part of himself, the part filled with childlike wonder, with innocence and hopefulness. It has always been part of him. 

When Seokjin looks at the world, he sees it bathed in light, in color. He sees people in their most wonderful form. Sees every day, every moment, as something worth remembering. Sees the future as something worth looking forward to. 

You’ve always envied that about him. Perhaps it’s just in your nature, but you’ve always been jaded, a little cynical. 

A realist and a dreamer. 

And they always say that opposites don’t really attract. 

Here at the fair, Seokjin is more than prepared and willing to have enough fun for the both of you, even as you pull up to one of those impossible-to-win water-squirter games. He’s already pulling out his wallet to hand a couple of bills to the angsty-looking teenager behind the booth. 

“You know that these are totally rigged, right?” You ask, chuckling to yourself as Seokjin rubs his hands together with a wide-eyed excitement. 

“Just because they’re rigged doesn’t mean winning is impossible,” Seojin says confidently, taking a seat and gearing up to begin. You stand to the side, arms crossed, waiting to be sufficiently unimpressed. “What are you doing standing there? I paid for both of us.”

Before you know it, Seokjin is pulling you down into the seat next to him as the teen counts down, giving you a very monotonous three seconds before the bell rings and you have to aim weakly-pressurized water into the mouth of a faded plastic clown. 

You’ve never had the best hand-eye coordination. On multiple occasions, Seokjin has tossed you a fruit, a bag of rice, something non-dangerous and relatively large, and on multiple occasions, you fumble to grab it and it eventually ends up on your kitchen floor. It takes you about half of the minute you’re given to blow up the balloon to get your aim straight, and by then, Seokjin’s balloon could eat yours for lunch. 

“Pick up the pace, Y/N!” Seokjin teases, relishing in his lead. This is embarrassing, and you’re better than this. And yet.

“It’s working against me and you know it!” You defend yourself. Because their unfairness is the reason Seokjin’s about to win and you’re about to lose. 

“How can you say that when I’m doing so well?” Seokjin laughs, and his balloon pops the moment that the sixty-second countdown ends, an underwhelming blare of celebratory music playing through the speakers at the corners of the tent. 

A sad little “Better luck next time!” echoes from the clown in front of you, and you slam your water gun on the table as Seokjin gloats in your face, the teenager coming over to hand Seokjin his prize, looking dead on his feet. 

“What should I get, hmm?” Seokjin asks. 

The selection is pretty weak. A lot of Frozen merchandise, two-dollar stuffed Olafs and capes with Anna and Elsa’s faces on the back. A couple of nondescript stuffed animals, from glittery lizards to pastel teddy bears. What looks like a generic-brand Whoopee cushion. 

“You don’t want a stuffed Olaf?” You ask innocently. The design is a little off, so it looks like Olaf is staring into your soul, Mona Lisa-style. 

“Hmm,” Seokjin says, pretending to think about it. The poor kid looks like he’s about to faint from boredom, desperate for two fully-grown adults to stop acting like they don’t know what prize to pick from an amusement park booth. “How about the pink teddy bear?”

Very on-brand for him. The teen hands it to Seokjin and the two of you go on your merry way, Seokjin demanding the two of you go to stuff your faces with funnel cake before rounding out the night on the ferris wheel. 

“For you,” Seokjin says, holding the teddy bear out to you as the two of you stand in the surprisingly-long line for funnel cake. 

“Me?” You ask, eyebrows raised in disbelief as your fingers curl around the fluffy fabric. It’s softer than you thought it would be. 

“Yeah,” Seokjin says, certain. “To remind you of me.”

You grin, holding the bear close to you. Sure, it’s a little bit kindergarten, like the cute boy on the playground placing a quick kiss on your lips before the teacher calls everybody in after recess ends, but the gesture is more than enough. To know that Seokjin won something, even something as plain and inexpensive as a prize from a fair, and his first and only thought was to give it to you, well, that makes you happy. “I don’t need a bear to be reminded of you,” you muse. Not when there are pieces of your friendship lingering everywhere you walk, from your apartment to your old university to your mind. 

“Can’t hurt to know you’re always thinking about me,” Seokjin says, and it’s not greasy or smug or weird. It’s honest.

You laugh. “When am I not?”

Funnel cake starts with a black t-shirt and the two of you arguing over who’s going to foot the ten dollar bill, much to your dismay. Even though Seokjin had explicitly said that you could pay, since he covered your entrance ticket, he still makes a big deal about doing it himself in front of the poor funnel cake girl, who definitely doesn’t get paid nearly enough to watch two grown adults fight over a ten dollar funnel cake. Eventually, you get your way and successfully hand the girl a ten dollar bill and she hands you a paper plate piled high with funnel cake as you begin to search for an open place to sit. 

“Just because I said that you could pay for the funnel cake doesn’t mean I actually meant it,” Seokjin says with a frown as you scope out a place to sit. At evening’s peak, it’s nearly impossible, which leads the both of you to a curb next to a recycling bin piled high with plastic cups, stained with Coca Cola and Fanta, knees up to your chin as you crouch over a single plate of funnel cake.

“Isn’t this cozy,” Seokjin says with a grin as a burly middle-aged dad steps on Seokjin’s clean white sneakers to throw something away. 

“We’ve been in more cramped quarters before,” you say. One of the many instances that immediately comes to mind is when the two of you were trapped in a closet in a frat house for nearly two hours because two people on the other side were having sex, the entire time. It was a good bonding experience. The two of you got very acquainted with each other’s scents. 

Seokjin’s hasn’t changed. Still sweet, sugary and vanilla from all of the baking he does, and a little bit like raindrops.

You wonder if Seokjin thinks the same about yours. 

“You know I don’t mind where we are and what we’re doing when I’m with you,” Seokjin says, and it sounds like a line straight out of a Hallmark movie, cheesy and cliche and rehearsed. But it’s none of those things. Seokjin says it and it’s real. And it’s the sort of thing that makes you wonder if you’re ever as true with him as he is with you. 

“Even when we’re sitting on the ground and eating funnel cake next to a recycling bin in a fair filled with messy children and their deadbeat parents?” You ask. 

Seokjin nods, taking an enormous bite of funnel cake. “Yes, even then.”

“True love,” you muse. Very few people would you do this for. Seokjin is one of them. 

Seokjin coughs at the words, his whole body shaking, and the powdered sugar from the piece in his hands goes flying, like a tiny little blizzard, falling onto his skin, his shirt, his lips, and everywhere in between. Snowflakes. 

Funnel cake ends with Seokjin trying to wipe the white dust on the front of his pitch black t-shirt away with a napkin, and only smearing it further into the fabric, cotton turning sticky from the sugar. It looks like a cocaine bust gone wrong. It looks only slightly not-kid-friendly. 

“Am I addicted to cocaine or did I just spill powdered sugar on myself?” Seokjin jokes, much to the horror of a family passing by, the mom giving you and Seokjin an alarmed expression as she picks up the pace. “It was powdered sugar!” Seokjin calls after them, making the two of you laugh. “Or it was cocaine. Whatever you want to believe.”

“You’re too soft to do cocaine,” you tell Seokjin, a very strange sort of compliment. 

“Maybe powdered sugar, though,” Seokjin says with a laugh as you heave yourselves off of the curb, tossing out the paper plate and dusting off your hands, flakes of powdered sugar falling to the ground. “Ferris wheel?”

“Anything you want,” you tell him, letting him lead you towards the ride, lit up like a Christmas tree. 

It’s as if every possible holiday threw up on the damn thing, a jumble of rainbow flights flashing erratically as a generic carnival tune plays in the background, sluggishly moving on its axis. It couldn’t have been built before this century. 

You squeeze into the carriage, clearly built to fit a child and their father at most, let alone two adults who both don’t have a regular exercise schedule. In order to fit, you have to stretch a leg over Seokjin’s lap and lean so that part of your shoulder is against his chest. It’s… cozy. It’s most definitely not the most cramped either of you have ever felt. 

“This is the part where I pretend to yawn and then stretch my arm over you,” Seokjin says matter-of-factly, as if that particular action is a mandatory part of the date.

“Oh, is that proper first-date etiquette?” You tease. 

“Only for me,” Seokjin says, cheeky, and it’s the greasiest thing you’ve ever had the misfortune of hearing. Even so, you let him fake yawn, melodramatic and totally contrived, feel as his arm comes to rest on your shoulder, hand swinging down over your side. Instinctively, you reach up to grab it with your arm, letting the two of you sit like this as the ferris wheel creaks, slowly moving you upwards. “Aren’t you having the best first date ever?”

“It’s the only one I can remember,” you admit, especially since it’s still in progress. 

“That means it’s the best.” Seokjin grins. 

“And the worst,” you add on, making Seokjin laugh. 

Finally, finally, finally, you reach the top, overlooking the entire fair, lit up in the night in a warm pink and yellow haze. At this hour, only the teenagers are left, families having gone home for the night, and you can hear the cheers even from up here, hear the laughter and jokes and chatter. it’s a sort of ambience you’ve never had the pleasure of listening to before. One of an active night, filled with people, and you, far away enough to be out of the action but close enough to enjoy it nonetheless. 

“Isn’t this nice, Y/N?” Seokjin asks, the two of you looking out into the distance, wishing you could stay like this forever. “When we’re up here, it feels like I can forget about everything and just think about now.” If only you could stay like this forever.

“And what are you thinking about, right now?” You ask, head resting on his shoulders. 

Instinctively, his arm moves from your shoulder to your waist, tugging you into his side, letting you rest your legs on top of his own. Seokjin’s never needed to be more honest than he already is. He says what he means, and he means what he says.

It’s always been so easy when it comes to him. 

He lets out a breath, and you can feel his chest rising beneath your hand on his torso, feel the subtle beat of his heart beneath your fingers. 

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

He rests his head atop yours. “You,” he says.

Seokjin, a man of his word, holds up his end of the deal like he does everything else: honestly and fully. Little has really changed about your relationship dynamic—he still sends you good morning texts and reminds you that you need to drink your eight glasses of water (which you never do, and he consistently does because he’s an organized man with perfect skin). Still randomly comes to your apartment with two brown bags filled with groceries to last you the next two weeks. Still makes time for you.

But now, it’s all being done under the guise of courtship. Of what it’s like to have someone romantically interested in you. 

Of course, Seokjin’s not actually romantically interested in you, but he does a damn good job of pretending to be. For the sake of this whole thing. Seokjin still has one objective in mind: get you to believe in love again, and that all of these things he’s been doing, from taking you to the fair to dancing with you at Cynthia’s wedding, are means to accomplish an end. 

(The stuff in between, the texts, the calls, the visits, those are just part of your routine.)

It feels completely normal and totally unnatural, all at once. Like a new kind of relationship neither of you have really ever delved in before, toeing the line between friendship and this other feeling, one without a name. Seokjin will do something that you and he have always done, long before any of this was in motion, like ordering Indian takeout to your place unprompted, and then he will say that that’s what people are supposed to do when they’re courting someone. As if he is the end-all be-all of chivalry. 

Truth be told, you can’t wait for this to end, for things to go back to the way they were. You never did set an official fake breakup date (if that’s what it’s even called), but you suppose that that means that you can just call it off whenever you’d like. You don’t feel as though anything he’s doing is working. He treats you just the same. What is there to fall in love with, other than familiarity?

But Seokjin’s diligence makes you diligent, too, which is why you’re standing in your kitchen, outnumbered by vegetables (ten to one, which means they could definitely kill you if given the chance—and opposable thumbs), a gigantic pot on your creaky gas stove, boiling soup swirling inside. Even though your kitchen is nowhere near the level of organized and systematic as the Chopped set, it certainly smells like it. Your cooking can hardly compare to Seokjin’s (you roughly chopped vegetables and put them in broth, he makes kimbap for fun), but, like all other aspects of your life, he rubs off on you, one way or another. 

Seokjin seems to think that this transference of his personality will apply to how he feels about love, too. But time can only work so much magic, and ever since freshman year of college, for the seven years you’ve known him, it’s always been like this. 

You let the soup simmer on your stove as you begin to pack up the food scattered on your counter, unsure when next you’re going to use it, especially since your daily meals usually consist of leftovers and, if you’re feeling exotic, stir-fry. It’s then that you hear the knock on your door, and you don’t even need to think before you’re scurrying over to pull it open, revealing Seokjin leaning over to peek happily into your peephole.  

“Look who it is, for a change,” you say sarcastically.

“You mean your favorite human being in the entire world who is about to take you to see his mom and enjoy a nice home-cooked mom meal?” Seokjin corrects obnoxiously, making you laugh as you let him inside. 

“You blackmailed me into this,” you remind him, pointing an accusing metal soup ladle his way. “You convinced me that you’re doing me a favor by treating me like someone you’d want to court, and tricked me into making an enormous pot of soup for your mother!” A lose-lose situation. 

“I am doing you a favor,” Seokjin defends. “Don’t you love having a doting, attractive young professional taking you out to fairs and ordering you take-out? This is what the beginning of a relationship is supposed to look like.” Emphasis on supposed to. “Also, I accompanied you to Cynthia’s wedding after she had been talking your ear off trying to get you to bring a plus-one, so…”

A dirty, dirty play. 

“Fine, you win,” you concede. You did really appreciate him coming, especially so last minute. “I better hear nothing but pure, unadulterated praise coming from your lips when you eat my soup, or else.”

“I would have showered compliments on your soup even if you hadn’t sent me a thinly-veiled threat,” Seokjin says proudly. “What kind of a best friend would I be if I didn’t?”

Perhaps one that confused you a little less. 

You spend the entire car ride to Seokjin’s mom’s house (who lives forty-minutes out of the city) listening to him ramble on about how desperately his mother wants him to get married, settle down and have kids or a dog or two. The two of you still have half of your twenties to go, but the moment he graduated, Seokjin got a steady job and a nice apartment in the city, which immediately equates to marriage material. 

At least, that’s what his mom thinks. 

But those aren’t the sort of things that make Seokjin marriage material. You’ve known him for years. Ever since he first spoke to you, it was immediately obvious he was always the sort of perfect, dreamboat husband material that teenage girls fawn over, that characters in anime fantasize about. 

At the most basic level, Seokjin is goddamn attractive, and even if you’ve seen him in nothing but tighty-whities as a nervous eighteen-year-old, seen him with tomato sauce in his hair, seen him sick with a cold and strep throat, you can’t deny him that. He’d got the sort of looks that make people on the street take photos of him, thinking he’s a celebrity. 

But not only is Seokjin undoubtedly gorgeous, he’s an entire package. He’s an excellent cook, capable of impressing any and all parents, hilarious, charming and charismatic. Professional but never dull. He does his part in group projects, studies for his exams, listens to the music recommendations you give him even if they aren’t his style. The girls he dated in college knew exactly what they were doing when they went out with him. They were attempting to secure their future. It’s a shame none of them stuck, not like you, Elmer’s glue on his skin. 

Seokjin’s mom, the lovely woman she is, is under the impression that Seokjin became husband material when he graduated, got a job and moved to the city. But you know better than anyone—Seokjin’s always been husband material. Now, he’s just old enough that he knows he could be looking for himself. 

When you pull into Seokjin’s mom’s driveway, a little suburban home with a freshly-mowed font lawn and flowers by the mailbox, she’s already opening the front door and scurrying out, still wearing her slippers. 

“Eomma!” Seokjin says happily, getting out of the driver’s seat as she bounds towards him, the two of them wearing the same smiles on their faces. Like mother, like son. “It’s been a while.”

“Too long!” She chides, smacking him slightly. “You have to come and visit me more often. I don’t live that far away from you.”

“I’m busy, Ma,” Seokjin says with a roll of his eyes. “I have a job.”

“A job and no wife!” She exclaims, though her attitude immediately changes the moment you exit the car, pot of soup still warm in your hands. “Y/N!” 

She rushes over to give you a hug as well, albeit a much more careful one. She looks positively thrilled to see you. Seokjin’s mom has always liked you, even when you were an insufferable eighteen-year-old. They would invite you over for their Chuseok celebrations every year, and sometimes to their New Year’s Eve parties, if you were in the area over winter break. 

“No wife yet, Eomma,” Seokjin says. 

“You look so pretty, Y/N,” Seokjin’s mother tells you. She takes the pot from your hands wordlessly, refusing to listen to your protests as she shoos you both inside. 

The house smells of a home-cooked meal, savory and salty and sweet all at once, and you can see several dishes already laid out on the table. It’s both a familiar sight and scent, something you all too frequently experience whenever you barge into Seokjin’s apartment around mealtime. Seokjin immediately joins his mother in the kitchen, scrambling around to help her finish cooking, as you wait awkwardly by the table, easily the most inexperienced of the three of you. 

“Is this your soup?” His mother asks. 

“Yes, I thought to make some to bring tonight,” you say with a smile. Seokjin’s mother beams. 

“Delicious! Seokjinie always tells me how much he loves having it when he’s sick. You take care of him very well,” his mother grins. She places it on the stove, turning on the heat to warm it up. 

“Only because he does the same for me,” you say, sending a grin Seokjin’s way, one he returns instantly. 

The rest of the meal preparation (which doesn’t take long, especially with an extra pair of equally-gifted hands) goes by like this, Seokjin’s mother heaping compliments onto you as you stand there, helpless, watching as the two add the final dishes to the dining table. Seokjin dodges every question about his lack of engagement, always deflecting and shifting the topic to something you’ve done. Maybe this is why he wanted you around…

Finally, when dinner is ready, the three of you sit down, eager to pick up your chopsticks and dive in. 

“Seokjin’s father is away on business,” his mother explains after you note the empty place setting. “He sends his love!”

“I knew I was missing the dad jokes,” Seokjin says with a shake of his head. “Luckily, I can make up for them with my own.”

Seokjin’s mother laughs. “You must get a lot of this, don’t you?” She shoves an extra serving of fish onto your plate, letting it plop on top of the kimchi she had previously spooned onto the dish. “Eat, eat. I made it for you.”

“Oh, thank you,” you say with a smile. You’ll probably walk out of this house with a food baby the size of Jupiter. You always do. “And yes, but it’s nice. I like spending time with him.”

“Oh, thank God,” Seokjin says dramatically, a hand to his chest. “I was worried about that, for a second.”

“You two have always been inseparable,” his mother comments. “Don’t tell me this is why you haven’t married yet, Seokjin-ah.”

“What do you mean, Ma?” He asks over a mouthful of naengmyeon. “You know that I’m waiting to get married.”

Seokjin’s mother scoffs, shocked. “What? But Y/N’s right here! You two make an excellent couple.”

“Eomma!” Seokjin admonishes, even a little taken aback himself. You had no idea this was the secret plan his mother’s been plotting, all this time. It seems both you and him were just operating under the assumption that she was doing what all mothers do when their children are adults—dreaming out loud for grandchildren. 

“I’m sorry, did I misread something? You two are a couple, aren’t you?” His mother asks, positively bewildered. No wonder she’s been grilling Seokjin so hard about getting married. She had thought he was halfway there, already. 

You open your mouth to correct her, but your mind gets the best of you. Isn’t this what Seokjin wants? For people to think you’re a couple? For the true dating experience—are they, aren’t they? 

“No, Eomma,” Seokjin says, interrupting your thoughts. You turn to him, brows furrowed in confusion. “We’re just friends.”

Nobody mentions marriage, dating, or love for the rest of the meal. 

You excuse yourself to the bathroom once everyone is finished, Seokjin’s mother shooing you away from the kitchen sink, refusing to let you partake in any sort of clean up as the honorary guest. You’re glad to get away, the tension palpable and thick, looming over your heads, a reminder to all three of you that friends is all you have been, and friends is all you will ever be. Strangely enough, Seokjin had seemed the most disappointed out of all of you, even more so than his mother, whose dreams of grandchildren were crushed before her eyes. 

You wonder why. 

If Seokjin had been so adamant about the two of you calling yourselves a couple at the wedding, then why did he backtrack here? Was it his mother? Was it you? What could have made him change his mind?

As you walk back to the kitchen, you can hear the two of them having a conversation, hushed voices so as not to alert you. You take a step back from the entryway, hiding behind the wall to eavesdrop. 

“You must see the way she looks at you, Seokjin-ah,” his mother says. 

“No, Ma, that doesn’t mean anything,” Seokjin says, voice cold. 

“Yes it does, my boy,” she says. “Can’t you see it? The way she cares for you.”

“That’s just how it’s always been.”

“Seokjin-ah, please. You’re being stubborn.”

“Eomma, believe me, I know better than anyone else that we’re only ever going to be friends.”

“You don’t see it, then?” His mother’s voice is sad, helpless. “The way she loves you.”

You hear Seokjin suck in a breath, a deep, heavy inhale, weighed down by his thoughts. At that moment, you decide to round the corner, pretending like you haven’t hear a thing. 

“Y/N!” Seokjin’s mother exclaims happily. “Your soup was delicious. You’ll have to come over more often so I can keep having it.”

“I’ll have Seokjin send home a thermos with it,” you joke, lightening the tension you can still feel lingering in the air. 

“Ah, you’re too kind!” She says, sending you a warm smile. Seokjin hasn’t turned around from where he’s facing the sink, yellow rubber gloves up to his elbows as he scrubs the dishes clean. “Seokjin-ah, you must remember to bring Y/N more often. I love seeing her.”

“Yes, Eomma,” Seokjin says dutifully. When he finishes, he packs up the leftovers his mother is sending him home with, placing tupperware after tupperware into a plain brown bag. “Y/N, ready to go?”

“Yes, it’s getting late,” you say, the words stiff on your tongue. Seokjin seems closed off, bottled up. There’s something he’s not saying, and you can feel it weighing on his tongue. “it was lovely to see you again.”

“Of course!” Seokjin’s mother grins. “You must visit me again soon. I’ll be waiting!”

“Bye, Eomma,” Seokjin says as you head to the front door, pulling on your shoes as he opens the door. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Remember what I said, alright, Seokjin-ah?” His mother says, pulling him in for a hug. “You mustn't ignore what’s right in front of you.” You can’t help but wonder if maybe, you had overheard something you weren’t supposed to. 

In the car, you ask, “What was your mom talking about? When we were saying goodbye?”

Seokjin shrugs, nonchalant and calm. It’s so plain that it’s uncharacteristic of him. “Oh, nothing.” You hate not knowing what really lingers in his thoughts, rests deep in the pit of his heart. You want nothing more than to reach over and promise him that, no matter what, you’ll always be by his side. “She just wants me to look out for myself.”

Even on this clear night, the moon and stars visible above your heads, your mind (and heart) couldn’t be foggier. 

In your freshman year of college, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 had just been released on DVD, digital, and Blu-ray. Seokjin, the eighteen-year-old genius he was, had brought a projector to school that year, and so, one chilly November weekend, you and him set up in an empty lounge with a perfectly white wall and watched (spoiler alert) Voldemort get Avada Kedavra-ed at one in the morning. 

Ever since, monthly movie nights have been ingrained into your routine, even when Seokjin was in London for a semester in your junior year and you used a shady website so you could stream Netflix movies together. You think, that semester, you watched every Certified Rotten movie on Netflix possible, relishing in being able to joke about how terrible the films you were watching with your best friend. You almost thought you would break your tradition, just because of how difficult it was to organize. 

But still, you persisted. 

Of course, now, in the age of platform subscriptions and renting on YouTube, it’s a lot easier. Seokjin has a subscription to every movie-streaming platform under the sun, which means that by default, so do you. One of the many perks of having Seokjin as your best friend. 

As two mostly-functioning adults in the real world, this is how your movie nights typically go: you will alternate apartments as the designated living room of the weekend, the host is in charge of arranging a pre-show dinner, and the guest is in charge of bringing a bottle of wine as a gift. You eat dinner, drink wine, and watch a movie together, either on the couch, or, in emergencies, in bed. The host always chooses. Three years out of college and running, neither of you have been able to come up with a system more foolproof than this. 

Tonight, it is Seokjin’s turn to host, which you always prefer because he cooks dinner on his own instead of giving up and ordering takeout like you always do, and because his couch and bed are much more comfortable than your own. Not that you frequent his bed. Because you don’t. You just know that from your limited experience, it’s much more comfortable than your own bed. It’s probably his mattress. 

When you arrive at his apartment, his door is already cracked open, resting on the door frame as you can hear him whistling a tune you don’t recognize. Almost like he’s been expecting you, or something. 

“If you leave your door open like this, you’re gonna get robbed,” you announce, forgoing a hello as you barge inside, the apartment smelling of smokiness. “Whoa, what the hell are you cooking? Lava?”

“I accidentally set off the fire alarm,” Seokjin explains, back turned towards you as he bends down to pull something out of the oven. “That’s why the door’s open.”

“Oh, not because you were expecting a guest?” You tease, placing the bottle of wine on the counter as you join him in the kitchen. 

Seokjin turns around to reveal a baking dish with four chicken legs, drenched in a sauce that smells of spice and flavor, charred on the skin. Gourmet restaurants couldn’t even compare. 

“No,” he jokes. “I was gonna eat all of this food and drink this wine by myself.”

“Hey, that is my wine!” You shout, making grabby hands towards the neck of the bottle. Seokjin raises a single eyebrow, unimpressed, as he dishes up the food, two chicken legs a piece on some luxurious paper plates. “Fine, I guess we can share.”

“You know you can’t resist me,” Seokjin tells you, and you hate it, because it’s true. 

 As you finish up, washing the pots and pans as Seokjin puts away the various bottles of seasoning on his counter, some of which you can’t even name, he asks, “Couch or bed?”

You turn, scandalized, swatting him with a fork lathered with soap, “So forward!”

Seokjin rolls his eyes. “Ugh, you know what I mean. You know I don’t mind where we watch our movie.”

(So long as he’s with you.)

You give the two options not another second worth of thought. You’re in the mood to lounge around on Seokjin’s terribly comfortable mattress tonight. You’ve had a rough past week at work, and sometimes, if you complain enough, Seokjin will massage your shoulders as you watch the movie. 

“Hmm… bed, please!” You say like a child, wrapping up the dishwashing as Seokjin grabs his laptop from the coffee table by the couch. You skip into his bedroom, giddy and only the tiniest bit wine-drunk, Seokjin following like the heavyweight best friend he is. 

Seokjin’s bedroom space has always felt so familiar to you. Plants along the windowsill, shelves with photos of his family, an enormous full-length mirror for gratuitous outfit-of-the-day pictures. Even in college, it felt this warm, this cozy. When you knocked on the wooden door of his dormitory at midnight to go out and get McDonald’s, coming back and gorging out on your McNuggets, it felt like this. 

People always say that your bedroom should be your little sanctuary, a home within a house. But instead of your own bedroom giving you that comfort, it’s Seokjin’s. Here, more so than anywhere else, you feel safe. Warm. Loved. There’s something magical to it. 

“What are we watching?” You ask happily, jumping onto his bed and grabbing the nearest plushie to hold onto. Seokjin plugs his laptop charger into the nearest outlet and sets it up on a couple of pillows for optimal viewing pleasure, the two of you leaning against a mountain of pillows as he pulls up Netflix. 

“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, have you heard of it?” Seokjin asks, clicking play on the movie. 

You furrow your brows as you curl into him, letting your head rest on his chest. “Really? I thought you were gonna pick something cool, like Interstellar, or something. Not something my fifteen-year-old cousin loves.”

“First of all, your fifteen-year-old cousin has great taste,” Seokjin tells you, offended. “Secondly, just because this is a teenage romantic comedy doesn’t mean it’s any less cool than Matthew McConaughey in a spacesuit, okay?”

You’re still skeptical. The New York Times gave To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before a pretty decent review, but you have long outgrown your teenage coming-of-age romantic-comedy movie phase, even if you still quote Clueless regularly. As you’ve gotten older, your movie nights have transitioned away from young adult books turned into movies and more towards films that people like Lupita Nyong’o star in, movies with sad endings on purpose. So this is very out of character, especially for a movie junkie like Seokjin, who sends you weekly movie reviews of the latest indie divorce drama.

You snuggle in closer, accepting defeat. It is Seokjin’s turn to choose, after all. And you suppose, that after a long week of unforgiving work, you could use this time to unwind, mindlessly watch a movie geared towards high-schoolers instead of analyzing some unknown French historical drama. “Alright then,” you tell him. “I trust you.”

Famous last words. 

You always have a habit of putting your trust into your best friend at the absolute worst times. Example One: In junior year, when he swore that the new salad place on campus was delicious until you got food poisoning from their chicken. Example Two: The summer after you graduated, when he promised you that roller skating was “easy” and “fun”. Example Three: Two months ago, when he blackmailed you into letting him take you out on dates after promising to go with you to Cynthia’s wedding. 

Example Four: Right now, as you’re snuggled up together like two birds of a feather, watching two sixteen-year-olds agree to fake date for personal gain. And even though they’re high schoolers, and even though he’s going through with it to get back at an ex-girlfriend and she’s trying to recover from her disastrously-mailed love letters, it feels too similar to be something that Seokjin just happened to stumble upon. 

You turn to look up at Seokjin, the movie a distant hum in the background, hardly at the forefront of your mind, but he doesn’t spare you a second glance. Instead, he pulls you in closer, wrapping an arm around your torso as his fingers dance across your own, mindless. He doesn’t have a damn thing to say, a rarity in your relationship, letting the movie do the talking. 

I think it’s funny, the boy says as the two main characters sit in this absolutely ancient diner, you say that you’re scared of commitment and relationships, but you don’t seem to be afraid to be with me. 

Well, there’s no reason to be, the girl responds casually. Unbothered. 

Why’s that? He asks. 

She shrugs, nonchalant. Because we’re just pretending. 

You feel Seokjin’s grip tighten, feel his skin pressing against your own, the exposed part of your stomach where your shirt has ridden up. It’s almost like he’s afraid to lose you. The mere sensation, one you have felt hundreds, if not thousands of times before, sends shivers down your spine. 

“You cold?” He asks softly, pulling up the blanket that’s crumpled up by your feet, placing it gently over your bodies. 

You couldn’t care less about the movie playing in front of you. Not when Seokjin’s this close, not when he’s got his arms wrapped around you, not as you feel his soft breaths against your forehead, as he tucks you underneath a blanket. You’re frozen still next to him. You think that even your heart has stopped. 

Dozens of movie nights, but never one like this. Dozens of cuddle sessions, dozens of nights in. But this one feels brand new. 

Seokjin adjusts himself, turning in towards you. You can’t even feel yourself breathing. 

When did this start happening? You ask yourself. Why do your palms feel clammy? Why does his touch leave little embers along your skin? 

Traitorously, your mind responds, a question to a question. 

Hasn’t it always been like this?

Tuesdays have always been your least favorite day, because they’re Monday’s shitty cousin. They’re far enough into the week to have you not complain about it being the beginning of the week, but they’re too soon into the week to warrant any excitement about it ending. At least, when you wake up to go to work on a Monday, you know it’s a Monday. When you wake up to go to work on a Tuesday, you think it’s a Wednesday. Tuesday is the day of the week that wears a mask and tries to make you think it’s something else. 

After the printer jamming, salad dressing getting spilled on your pants, and your coworker losing his cool in the break room and breaking a cabinet door off of its hinges, you think that, when you get called into your boss’s office in the middle of the afternoon, there could be nothing worse for him to tell you. 

Instead, you walk out of his office with a brand new job title and a salary increase to match, positively ecstatic as you bounce all the way to your desk, whipping out your phone to text, well, who else?

[June 16, 2:43PM]

You: I GOT IT!!!

Seokjin: OMG SERIOUSLY?? Seokjin: CONGRATS YOU DESERVE IT !!!!

You: thank u jinie 8) now i can buy us more expensive wine for our movie nights

Seokjin: :D Seokjin: I’m so proud of you, you’re amazing!

And it’s the sort of text exchange that makes your heart soar, even more so than the promotion itself, because there is truly nothing more fulfilling than sharing your accomplishments with the people closest to you. 

You pack up later than usual that day, sitting at your desk for a little bit longer as you wrap up some emails and reorganize the space, determined to make it suitable for someone who just got a kick-ass raise. You’re leaning underneath your desk to gather your belongings, plopping your phone charger and a couple of nice blue pens into your bag, when you feel a sudden tap on your shoulder, scaring the absolute bejeezus out of you.

“Ow!” You shout as you bang the back of your head on the underside of your desk. Angry and in pain, you turn to face the asshole that’s just given you a bump on your scalp for the next week, only to find your expression lightening the moment you lay eyes on Seokjin, fresh from work with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. Shocked and pleasantly surprised, you say, “Oh.”

“Don’t sound so excited to see me,” Seokjin jokes, rolling his eyes as he reaches a hand out to help you up. “You alright? I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”

Rubbing the nape of your neck, you shake your head. “No, no, I’m alright. You just caught me by surprise. What’s all this?” You ask as Seokjin reaches his hand towards you, the flowery scent permeating the air around you. The bouquet in his hand is a collection of various pastel-colored flowers, baby’s breath and lilies, carnations and hydrangeas. 

“A congratulations,” Seokjin says in lieu of any other sort of explanation. “You deserve it.”

“You make it sound like I’m pregnant,” you tell him, grabbing your bag as you double-check your desk, making sure you haven’t left anything behind. 

“Oh my God, are you?” Seokjin asks, eyes wide. 

You laugh, shaking your head as you accept the flowers graciously, immediately holding them up to your nose. “No, I’m not, Seokjin. You’d be the first to know. But this is so sweet of you, you didn’t have to come to my work like this.”

“Well, how else am I supposed to pick you up for dinner?” 

Stopping in your tracks, you knit your brows together in confusion. “Dinner?”

“The reservation is at 5:45 so we’re already cutting it close,” Seokjin informs you, offering no explanation. “Come on. I had to pull a few strings to get this, so over my dead body will we arrive late.”

Seokjin reaches down to take your hand in his own, giving you no time to ask any more questions as he tugs you out of your office and into his little white Volkswagen, the scent of the flowers filling the air in between the two of you. 

When Seokjin somehow manages to get a parking spot a block away from the restaurant in question, your mouth practically drops open. 

It’s a cozy Lebanese place, complete with more plants you could ever dream of owning, and an outdoor patio decorated with warm fairy lights, lanterns hanging from strings above your head. It’s been ranked one of the best restaurants in the city for years now, and it is practically impossible to get a table (that is, unless you book a year in advance). 

“Seriously?” You ask, in awe, as Seokjin leads you towards the restaurant, the flowers resting safely on the passenger seat. 

“Of course,” Seokjin says like it’s nothing. “You deserve it.”

You aren’t a moment too late, the hostess happily seating the both of you at a corner table on the outside patio, the evening breeze sending flutters through your napkins as she hands you your menus and the wine list. 

“How did you swing this?” You ask, blown away as Seokjin grins. 

“Well, you know my friend, Yoongi?” He asks. You remember him, having met him a couple of times at Seokjin’s few-and-far-between house gatherings. He’s a dainty man with colorful hair who’s got the biggest alcohol tolerance you’ve ever seen. “He’s a food critic, so I had him do me a favor…”

“You didn’t have to do all of that for me,” you say. Seokjin probably owes Yoongi his first-born child, now. 

“But I wanted to,” Seokjin says firmly. “What kind of a best friend would I be if I didn’t celebrate something like this with you?”

Seokjin must know, after all of these years, that you aren’t one to make a big deal out of things. That you vastly prefer staying inside, curled up with a good book or an even better best friend, over going out and getting wasted, over eating at a too-expensive restaurant with portions the size of your fingernail, because that’s who you are. And still, he insists, because that’s who he is. Someone who thinks that everybody deserves a little celebration in their lives, a little love from the people closest to them. 

“You’d be my best friend no matter what,” you tell him, because it’s true. Because Seokjin has always been and will always be that person: the one you’ll never second-guess. “Even if you had gone home after work and passed out on your couch, you’d still be my most favorite person.”

Seokjin grins. “I’m your favorite person?”

“Well, other than Yoongi,” you tease. “After all, he did get us this reservation.”

“Can’t believe that I’m second best to a friend you’ve met like, twice,” Seokjin says, mock-offended. “How am I supposed to compete with that?”

“You’ll find a way,” you muse. He always does. It’s incredible—ever since you met Seokjin, you don’t think anyone’s ever quite stacked up to him. Nobody has ever compared. 

“I’m really proud of you, Y/N,” Seokjin says, the two of you clinking your wine glasses together to celebrate your promotion, celebrate the night, celebrate being together. “You deserved that position more than anybody else.”

“You don’t even know half of my coworkers,” you joke. 

“But I know you,” Seokjin reminds you. “And I know that you’re the most hardworking, determined, focused person I’ve ever met. When you want something, you get it.”

“What?” You ask, a hand reaching out over the table to caress his own, thumb rubbing against the back of his hand. “You’re like that, too. You’re honest and real and certain.” They’re traits you’ve always admired about him, things that you wish you could be but know that you’ll never compare to him. 

“No,” Seokjin says, with a shake of his head. “I’m really not. I wish, though.”

Seokjin’s the truest person you know. What secret could he be keeping? Why hasn’t he told you? Doesn’t he know that you’d care for him, stay by his side no matter what? Not a damn thing in the world could ever make you leave him. 

Your waiter comes around to take your order, and you and Seokjin order a variety of appetizers that you fully intend on sharing with each other. You’ve never really been able to keep to your own plates. There is something so genuinely wonderful about sharing. Afterwards, Seokjin launches into this hilarious story about some old college friends that he had recently heard back from, ones that you’d met once or twice during university but never cemented a real friendship with, unlike Seokjin. 

Quite honestly, you couldn’t care less for them or what they’re doing, but Seokjin is so animated, so vivacious and excited to be telling you about them, that his words are music to your ears. Nothing makes you quite as happy as Seokjin when he smiles, when he laughs, when he’s fucking effervescent. His joy brings you joy, and you suppose that that’s really what it means to care for someone. To love them. When even something as simple as being in their presence makes your heart feel lighter. 

In the evening light, illuminated by the warm flame of the lanterns littering the sky above you, the fairy lights along the fence that encloses the patio, the house lights from the building next door, Seokjin glows. The way his body bounces as he speaks makes it look like a yellow halo surrounds him, his gold jewelry glinting when it catches the light, shimmering. He looks straight out of a movie, straight off of a red carpet, warm brown eyes and an honest smile to match, charismatic and golden and real. 

The craziest part is that he’s always looked like this. Always outshined everybody, no matter his surroundings. Every day, you wonder how on Earth you could have gotten so lucky to have been able to meet him. How blessed you are to be his best friend. How fortunate you are to love him. 

When your meal arrives, the two of you take a break from laughing aloud in this ambient, cozy restaurant, likely bothering all of the people within a twenty-feet radius of your table, and dig in, only emitting the occasional groan of pleasure. It’s no wonder this restaurant has been ranked the best in the city for years on end. Every bite explodes on your tongue, decorates your taste buds. You won’t be surprised if, next time you go over, Seokjin’s recreating every dish you have tonight. He’s always had a knack for it, anyway. 

“You know,” he says over a mouthful of zucchini, “you’re my favorite person, too.”

Normally you’d say something cheesy and dramatic, something along the lines of a sarcastic I’m touched or even a self-deprecating At least I’m number one at something, but instead, you smile softly to yourself. You always knew you and Seokjin were entwined with each other, but it makes your heart flutter to hear him say it for himself. 

“I know,” you murmur. “I’ll never forget that.”

“I don’t know, I just—” Seokjin begins, pausing. It’s not the sort of stop where he’s trying to figure out what words to say. He already knows. He’s just waiting to see if they’re the right ones. “You know, it’s always been you, Y/N. A lot of my life has always been uncertain, but you—you’re the only thing I’m always sure of.”

Afterwards, Seokjin walks you to the door of your apartment, the two of you lingering in the doorway, him refusing to leave and you refusing to say goodbye. 

“Don’t forget these,” Seokjin says, handing you the brown paper bag filled with your leftovers, various to-go boxes filled with treats. 

“What? I thought you wanted them,” you say, eyes wide. “Don’t you want them as reference for a recipe?”

“No, it’s alright,” Seokjin tells you with a shake of his head. “I’ll remember.” 

“Are you sure?” You ask. Seokjin nods, certain. He’s got a steely expression to him, one filled with determination. There’s something he’s not saying, and you’re almost positive it’ll come out tonight. Maybe he knows that you ate that Pop-Tart in junior year. Maybe he’s about to get his revenge. To protect yourself, you smile, telling him, “I had a really nice time tonight, Seokjin. You didn’t have to do all of this for me.”

“I wanted to,” Seokjin repeats. He need offer no other explanation. “Any excuse to spend time with you, I’ll take.”

You laugh. “I suppose that that’s what this whole pretend-dating thing is about, right?” 

Seokjin’s face goes blank.

“What?”

“Well,” you say, shrugging as you reach out to grab his hand. “Dinner tonight, isn’t that the sort of thing you’d do on a date? That’s why you took me out to celebrate instead of just bringing over some wine and takeout. I have to admit, you’re pretty good at this whole dating thing. Must be why you offered, right?”

“Y/N, I—”

“All of those romantic things you said, us playing footsie underneath the table, getting the reservation from Yoongi, I mean. You’ve always loved pulling out all of the stops. You’re giving me such unrealistic expectations for dating, you know?” You chide, grinning as you toy with Seokjin’s fingers amongst your own. Looking up at him, he looks frozen solid, gazing at you with an unreadable expression. “Hey, is everything alright?” Your hand trails up to his shoulder, forcing him to meet your eyes with his own. 

They’re swirling in ink. 

And then, he leans down, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you in, and presses his lips against your own. Shocked, you gasp into his mouth, feel the heat of his lips on yours as he kisses you, fervent and desperate, like he’s got something to prove. You feel your heart race, dropping the brown paper bag by your side on your hardwood floor as he presses in closer, insistent. It’s as if your entire body shuts down at his touch, at the feeling of him against you, on you, surrounding you. 

Eventually, your mind comes to, flickering back to life after being entirely short-circuited, and you pull out of his grasp, pushing him away with your palms against his chest, gasping for air. 

“Seokjin, what the—”

“I’ve wanted to do that since I met you,” Seokjin tells you, and no longer does what he say sound like a line straight out of the Dating 101 Handbook. It sounds honest, and what once was something you treasured about him has morphed into fear, into words you dread coming from in between his lips. 

“No, that’s not—”

“What do you mean?” He asks, insistent. He takes a step towards you, and it makes you take a bigger step back. Being far away from him makes you ache, but being close to him is absolutely unbearable. It’s impossible to know which one your heart would prefer. “That’s how I feel. That’s how I’ve always felt.”

“I can’t—I need—” You stumble over your words, backing up into your living room, hand reaching out to the doorknob. You don’t know what you can’t do. You don’t know what you need. All you know is that your heart hasn’t stopped racing the moment his lips met yours, and that you aren’t sure what will happen if Seokjin stands outside your apartment any longer. “I just—”

“I know,” Seokjin says with a nod. His face is beet red and he looks just as breathless, sending your way a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I know that you don’t feel the same. But I just—I wanted you to know.”

“I don’t know what I feel,” you whisper to yourself, eyes boring holes into your shoes. “How could I?”

“Y/N,” Seokjin says, reaching a hand out. “I’m sorry—”

“No,” you interrupt. “Don’t apologize. Just—please, just go. Please.”

Seokjin doesn’t protest. Not as you shoo him away, not as you begin to close the door in front of him. 

The door is nearly shut, barely inches away from the door frame, when you hear him call your name. “Y/N,” he says. If you were any more heartless, you’d shut the door, let the last thing you hear from him be your own name. But you aren’t, and not once have you ever closed the door on Seokjin. Not now. Not ever. 

“Yes?” You whisper, terrified of what he might say but too desperate to avoid it altogether. 

You hear him hiccup. You don’t want to see him cry. 

“You’re my best friend.”

(Kim Seokjin prides himself for being a man of few mistakes. He has good time-management skills, triple checks his entire apartment every time he leaves, and only illegally parks in the fire lane when he knows he won’t get a ticket. He’s got great foresight, makes educated decisions, and generally feels as though everything he does will benefit somebody, in the long run. 

You always tell him that you envy how put-together his life is, how picture perfect it seems—stable job, nice apartment, meals prepped and ready to go in his fridge. And even if you aren’t nearly as obsessed with falling in love as he is (and he’s willing to admit that, at least), you tell him that it’s admirable that he has all of this time to go on dates with women he’s met off of Bumble or through a friend of a friend, making an effort to go out into the world and do something with his love life. 

The truth is, Seokjin has been on more dates in the past year than to work events in the evenings and on weekends, but he’s never seen the same person twice. Sometimes, he ends up with a phone number punched into his contacts and a promise to meet again as friends, but most of the time they pat him on the back after it’s over and tell him that they hope he’ll get over his ex soon. 

Seokjin hasn’t had a real ex, a real breakup, since sophomore year of college, when his long-distance girlfriend from high school told him she couldn’t bear to listen to him how much he loves his new best friend any longer. 

It doesn’t take a genius to guess who that best friend is. 

Seokjin’s always been sort of foolish, a little too forward at the best of times and terribly obvious at the worst of times. Always holding out hope that maybe one day you’ll pick up on all of his slip-ups, and he’ll stop acting like a bumbling idiot around you. 

Admittedly, he had gotten pretty fed-up by the time he invited you to dinner to celebrate your promotion. He rolled up to your office in a silk button down and a bouquet of the nicest flowers Hoseok could find, brought you to a restaurant you had been dying to go to ever since you moved to the city, and told you that you were the one constant in his life. And he thought that maybe, just maybe, you would realize. And he wouldn’t have to do everything by himself. 

It’s a wonder that you hadn’t figured it out. 

At least, not until you said goodbye to him, standing underneath the wooden door frame to your apartment, and he leaned down and kissed you. 

Seokjin is a man of few mistakes, but he’s almost positive that that one was the most costly. He had been psyching himself up in his head the entire ride home, telling himself I can do it, I’m gonna tell her, what’s the worst you could do? 

As it turns out, the worst you could do is reject him. 

Seokjin knows you don’t feel the same way. He doesn’t need to go on any dates, doesn’t need to read any more novels or watch any more movies to know that. Maybe you had known all along, you just never knew how to let him down easy. Maybe you were just hoping that if you never acknowledged it, it would go away, age like fine wine, bottled up for an eternity. 

But when he was standing in the flower shop, lingering behind the counter as Hoseok insisted he knew the perfect bouquet to make, there was a little spark in his heart that thought, maybe. Just maybe. 

“Think she’ll like it?” Seokjin had asked hesitantly, fingers curling around one of the petals of the lilies in the bouquet as Hoseok rang him up. 

“What do mean, of course she will!” Hoseok says. He has long been witness to Seokjin’s fruitless efforts to get you to see how he feels. “She’d be a fool not to realize.”

Seokjin’s never been sure if you were the fool, or if he has been, all along. 

“I don’t know, Hoseok,” he had said with a sigh, handing over his credit card. “I feel like telling her might be the wrong move.”

“Why? From what it sounds like, you two are really close,” Hoseok had asked innocently. He even shimmied in a tulip, squeezing it into the middle of the bouquet with nimble fingers. “Are you afraid she’ll say no?”

“I’m afraid I’ll ruin everything,” Seokjin had told him. He’d rather keep you close as a best friend than lose you entirely in the hopes of confessing. That has always been his priority. It always will be. 

Hoseok had laughed, disbelieving. Seokjin had bitterly assumed that he’s never been in love with a best friend. It sucks hard, but Seokjin was in no position to ruin Hoseok’s day by telling him that. “You won’t ruin everything, Jin. You’re a wonderful guy with a great personality. I think it’s worth telling her, you know?” Seokjin did not know. “Like, if you don’t, you’ll never know what could have been.”

And perhaps that was the reason that he leaned down to press his lips against yours. On the off chance, the miniscule possibility that you might feel the same way. His mother had been absolutely insistent that you were in love with him, and while he trusts his mother’s instincts, Seokjin’s known you much longer and much closer than she ever will. And you were never in love with him. Friends is all you have ever known with him. It’s all that the two of you will ever be. 

You’re lucky, Seokjin thinks as he sulks around in his apartment, having decided to give your relationship some space after he completely annihilated it the Tuesday prior. Unrequited love isn’t something he’d wish on his worst enemy. It’s a ray of sunshine surrounded by clouds. It’s the constant reminder that even though what you already have will never be enough, losing it entirely is a fate much worse. 

On the bright side, at least you still tag him in Facebook memes.

Seokjin gets a phone call from an unknown number that Saturday evening, as he cooks a meal for one and pretends that his apartment doesn’t feel bone-crushingly empty without you to fill up the space. He lets the phone ring all the way through the first time—he’s not in the mood to bait those scammy telemarketers tonight, and gets back to cooking. And then his phone rings a second time, same number, and suddenly Seokjin feels as though it might be something urgent. What if it’s a coworker whose number he doesn’t have? Oh God, what if it’s his boss?

“Hello?” Seokjin asks, picking up the call and holding his phone between his ear and his shoulder. 

“Seokjin?”

It’s Cynthia.

“Cynthia?” Seokjin asks, just to make sure he’s not wrong. “How did you get my number?”

“I looked you up on the White Pages,” Cynthia tells him. Oh, yes. He forgot that that existed. “I would have asked Y/N, but she would have gotten suspicious.”

“Oh, uh…” Seokjin hesitates, chuckling nervously. “Y/N? Have you, uh, spoken to her recently?”

Cynthia lets out a deep sigh on the other end, what sounds like a billion thoughts weighing her down. “Yeah, she and I had a girls’ night last night. My husband’s away on business.”

“Oh, how are you both doing?” Seokjin asks. He has the decency to pretend that he hasn’t been positively miserable the past few days.

“Wonderful, thanks,” Cynthia said. “Seokjin, did you kiss Y/N?”

“It was a mistake,” Seokjin immediately says. He shouldn’t have done it and now he’s paying the price. He has no idea how long it will take to repair your relationship, or, even worse, if you’ll just go back to the way it was before and pretend it never happened in the first place. “I wanted to tell her that, but I haven’t seen her recently.”

“Don’t,” Cynthia says harshly, making Seokjin jump a bit, wincing as some hot steam hits his bare skin. “Don’t tell her it was a mistake.”

“What do you mean?” Seokjin frowns. Isn’t that what you want? It’s blatantly obvious that you don’t really want a relationship at all, let alone with him. Seokjin doesn’t know what he was thinking when he thought he could change your mind. He was just being selfish. The chance to get to date you under the guise of guidance, and he snatched it up at the first opportunity. 

Well, look at him now. 

“She’ll be heartbroken if you tell her that,” Cynthia tells him, and Seokjin nearly pours boiling hot water all over his arm at the words. “You can’t.”

“What do you mean, heartbroken? She doesn’t want to date me. I’m the one in love with her. I’m the one who should be suffering,” Seokjin says into the phone, his heart starting to race. He wills himself to calm down, to act like everything is normal, but he can’t stop thinking about you. About what Cynthia had said. 

“No, you’re wrong,” Cynthia says. “You couldn’t be more wrong even if you tried. You might be in love with her but she loves you back. She does, I swear.”

Seokjin’s brain nearly short-circuits, the power sparking. “What?” He asks, too hopeful for his own good. “She can’t. I’ve loved her for so long, but we’ve always just been friends. That’s what she wanted.”

“She wants you, Seokjin,” Cynthia says firmly, almost as if she’s reaching through the phone to knock some sense into him. “She didn’t realize that she loved you until you kissed her. And then everything fell into place.”

“You’re lying,” Seokjin says, even though he knows that Cynthia isn’t. 

“Want to know why she hasn’t really dated anyone since midway through college?”

Is it the same reason Seokjin hasn’t, either?

“She was waiting for you,” Cynthia tells you. “She just didn’t know it.”

Seokjin’s about to faint. 

He can hear Cynthia smiling through the phone. “She’s always been waiting for you.”)

[June 21st, 1:22PM]

Seokjin: I’m on my way over to your apartment Seokjin: Don’t ask questions

You’ve long learned by now to listen to Seokjin, to never question his methods. And for once, when you receive a suspicious text out of the blue that says Don’t ask questions, you aren’t scared. You’re thrilled. 

The last time you went this long without contacting each other was when you were just starting to become friends in college, during orientation week where you met five hundred people a day and forgot all of them by the next morning. You and Seokjin eventually caught up with each other when you started seeing each other in the halls of your dorm, living onto a few doors down from each other. 

You didn’t want to be the one to initiate contact. Seokjin had kissed you and then instantly looked like he regretted the entire thing. He had been sitting on his feelings long before you knew that yours even existed. He deserved the space. 

You, well. Cynthia, the wise, wedded woman she is, seems to think that communication is key. Perhaps that’s why she’s been so successful in her love life. 

There’s a knock on your door six minutes after you received the text, the fastest he’s ever gotten to your apartment. 

When you open it, you find a familiar sight: Seokjin, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, a bouquet of flowers in his hand, and a nervous grin on his face, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet like a teenager about to ask his crush to the school dance. 

“Long time no see,” you tell him. 

“I missed you,” Seokjin says honestly. “I really, really did.”

“I did, too,” you tell him. It’s impossible to be away from him. You figured that out briefly when he went abroad in junior year, but were brutally reminded this past week what life is like without him to light it up. And it’s dull. Empty. Missing something. 

“These are for you,” Seokjin says. It’s an entire bouquet of tulips, red and yellow and orange and pink. The scent immediately wafts through the air, brightening up your sullen apartment. 

“They’re beautiful, Seokjin,” you tell him, pressing your nose against the petals as you take in the aroma. The flowers are gorgeous, but Seokjin, as always, steals the show. 

“I was going to bring takeout, but then I thought that you might have already eaten lunch,” Seokjin tells you. 

“Then we can do takeout for dinner,” you suggest as an alternative, fishing through your kitchen cabinets for a vase to put out on your countertop, filled with the tulips and carnations and lilies and hydrangeas. The bouquet he had given you on Tuesday is sitting in your bedroom, and you’re giving it all the plant food you can get your hands on, determined to make them last. 

“You want me to stay for dinner?” Seokjin asks, an eyebrow raised. 

It’s high time you were honest, too. 

“I want you to stay forever,” you admit, and it feels as though the dam has broken, like the first droplet has been spilled and the rest is soon to follow. “I can’t tell you how much I hated being away from you like this. Everything in my life revolves around you.”

“I think about you, every day,” Seokjin says as he comes up to you, joining you in the kitchen as you fill an oversized mason jar with water. “Scratch that. Every hour. Every minute, every second. You’re always on my mind.”

“I thought that was just how you were best friends with someone,” you tell him, feeling the warmth of his body as he stands next to you. “I thought that all of the kind gestures, the traditions, the words, that was what being best friends was. And it is. But I never realized that that was what being in love was like, as well.”

“I thought you’d never figure it out,” Seokjin muses, and it sounds so sad but he looks so happy. “I was ready to never tell you. I was too nervous, every time I’m near you I get all sweaty.”

“You were just going to be in love with me forever?” You ask, turning to him. The thought devastates you, the idea that he was willing to never tell you, to love you silently, for the rest of time. He would have never known what could have been, would have never allowed himself that luxury. And he was okay with it.

“I would rather love you on my own than lose you,” Seokjin tells you firmly. “You’re my best friend. That will never change.”

“But—”

“But nothing,” Seokjin interrupts. “I had made that decision. I was willing to live with it.”

“That’s what people do, isn’t it?” You ask, reaching out to hold his hand in your own, as you have done so many times before, and will do so many times more. The feeling never gets old. The spark never fades. “When they’re in love.”

“I don’t know how you never noticed,” Seokjin jokes, laughing more at himself than you. “I thought I was being so goddamn obvious. Any time I said or did anything that even slightly alluded to the fact that I was in love with you, I started panicking because I thought you’d figure me out. And you never did.”

“I think I just needed a bit of coaxing,” you tell him, hand reaching up to turn his face towards you, palms resting on your cheek. “I would have loved you, forever. I just needed you to tell me that you’d love me, forever, too.”

“I’ll do you one better,” Seokjin promises with a grin. “I’ll love you forever and a day.”

Seokjin leans down, big palms resting on your waist as he finally, fucking finally, presses his lips against yours. It’s soft and warm and cozy, the heat enveloping you as you hold his cheeks in your hands, let him push closer and closer, refusing to let you go. The feeling sends warmth through your veins, sparks a fire in your body that you wouldn’t will away even if you wanted to. Seokjin kisses you, and you kiss back, and it feels like a promise. With your lips against his, and his against yours, you tell each other, that you were meant to be together, and that you always will be. 

You had always wondered why you were never really interested in dating anyone. Never wanted to find someone new, a relationship filled with love and laughter and joy, never wanted to go out on fancy dates and tiptoe around each other, a nervous confession on the tips of your tongues. But now, as Seokjin giggles into another kiss he presses against your lips, you know: you already had exactly what you were looking for. 

↳ links are broken, but don’t forget to message me with any thoughts or feedback!

↳ check out the post-script drabble here!