#artist: mygnolia | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

narsicen · 3 years ago

Text

File 004: A Study on ‘Loneliness’.

Word count: 9k+

Pairing: Hwang Hyunjin (stray kids) x GN! Y/N x Lee Felix (stray kids)

Genre: a slice of life, romance, unrequited love, college au! best friends to lovers au! (Not for one of them tho </3) angst, some fluff, artist au!Hyunjin, med student au!Y/N

Warnings: mentions of food (Please do tell me if something is triggering and I missed it!)

A/N note: soooo, this is supposed to be a Hyunjin x Y/N type of fic..? And this has no relation with an upcoming Felix fic that I’m working on, and you guYS- don’t hold grudges on Y/N or Felix KJKJDFKJH it’s just how it goes, plus I didn’t wanna make Felix seem like someone bAD??? SO- uhm yeah. . . Enjoy!

Special thanks to @kookthief , @mygnolia and @taecup-ontrack for helping beta read this story </3 (and mainly putting up with my dysfunctional story LMAooO)

Writing down the words your professor spoke from the front of the lecture room, his words echoed throughout the space with the help of the mic that was propped on the lectern just on the far side of the big projector screen.

You would look up from your notebook every once in a while to examine the presented PowerPoint up front. Letting your elbow rest on the smooth desk, you lean the side of your head on your hand before finding your thoughts fly out the window together with the endless monotone droning of your professor.

‘That’s all for today’s class, get ready for next week’s exam, have a nice weekend everyone.’ A faint thud from the heavy book that your professor always carried to wherever he was, which grabbed your attention to the front, luckily you were able to catch the last words of farewell your professor granted to all the students in his class.

‘Y/N! Hyunjin’s waiting for you outside.’ Jisung chirped in from the entrance of the nearly empty lecture hall, and you stood up and gave him a small smile and nod that showed you understood him. The boy gave you a thumbs up just above his head with a bright grin to follow before he left.

You sighed lightly, pursing your lips as you packed your things into your bag, swinging it onto your shoulder as you steadily descended the vast steps down to the entrance of the hall to meet your best friend.

The sea of students blocking your face caused you to take a step back to avoid being hit in the face. You balked at the thought of having to fight against the flow just to meet someone.

Hyunjin watched after each passing head or body that bumped into him, pushing him into a corner in the hall to avoid being thrown into the flow. He spotted the familiar cap you wore to school today, and waved his hand in hopes of catching your attention.

Turning your head left and right to spot him anywhere, you hoped the color of his sweater would help you spot him as you turned your head left and right. Unfortunately, nothing came out of you aimlessly trying to find a white sweater with small streaks of red and blue when nearly everyone is wearing white or black and a few others wore something like red or yellow. You soon found a jumping figure in the corners in between the hallway, you saw his familiar brown hair that bounced when he jumped to catch your attention. Sighing in defeat, you made your way through the crowd to reach him.

‘Ugh, that was such a hassle..’ You looked behind your shoulder at the crowd with disdain, you turned back to meet Hyunjin, he met your face with a tight-lipped smile. The cap you wore covered your eyes so you had to tilt your head upwards to meet with his eyes—that looked full of discomfort for you.

‘You look better without the cap,’ Hyunjin gently removed the hat off your head, his other hand patted the stray hair that clung to the hat while he removed it and became a little frizzy, so he decided to flatten it and somewhat fix them back in place. He handed you the cap back, ‘Seeeeee?’

His gestures sure looked romantic from a distance, but his dialogue and the tone only reframed the childish picture that your friendship was always in. You rolled your eyes playfully with a light simpering grin, snatching the hat back and stuffing it into your bag. ‘Aren’t you busy? We could have just met in the cafeteria.’ You took off an early head start walking in the direction of your building’s exit, and he followed with hurried steps to your side, ‘Well, yes, I WAS busy but as a good upperclassman and best friend, I thought, why not pick you up or something.’

You nodded your head while you listened to his explanation, finding it childish but you decided not to act on it, ‘I think I'm old enough to walk to the cafeteria on my own, Mr. Hwang.’

‘I’m just trying to be nice!’ His arms outstretched to his sides as if he was being falsely accused and he was trying to reason out. His eyebrows furrowed, and his steps stopped when you halted as well to look at him. ‘Thank you for your efforts, then.’ You subtly replied to him, turning back to make your way out the building’s door.

Hyunjin’s eyebrows relaxed and instead one of them raised in amusement, jogging to follow you out the glass door. Your conversation was muffled by the doors— which only consisted of the two of you bantering and sarcastically imitating each other.

Flowers grow rapidly.

‘Would you say that my painting looks pretty impressive? Seriously, I feel like I’ve outdone myself again’ Hyunjin stood up from his stool, bending forward with his thumb that pressed against his paintbrush, closing an eye and examining his painting from a few steps back. You looked at him weirdly before turning back to his painting. It was a fully sketched-out drawing of a bouquet, specifically of blooming daffodils.

Beautiful, that’s one word to describe it, and even if the work was unfinished, you always knew better than to expect it to turn out downright bad because it never does, ‘It looks.. okay, I guess.’ You turned from his work back to your own, you’re not an art student but you occasionally find yourself in the art room with Hyunjin, trying to solve math equations or memorizing the steps to perform CPR while he’s painting pictures and scenery. While Hyunjin isn’t the only one who turns up with paint splattered all over him, you had at least half of what he had.

‘Be a little bit more descriptive please, I have to use it to be better!’ He waved his extra hand in the air to emphasize the word ‘please’, you couldn’t (or you just didn't want to) turn to face him, you slowly nodded at his statement with a hum, currently displaying that you were occupied with your homework.

Hyunjin noticed the lack of response from you,frowning at the sight of you hunched over another stool, answering on your notebook, followed by a huff. Hyunjin decided to leave you to work your assignment out before he poked more fun out of you.

Smacking your books on top of each other with a grunt, finally finishing a much-dreaded assignment, Hyunjin was still busy painting, or that’s what it looks like, from your view, you peeked from the side of the canvas to see how he’s doing, he was hyper-focused onto the pigments of paint he would apply along the lines.

You found this as an open opportunity to see something for yourself, and you mused a sneaky grin. Making your way behind him as quickly as possible (and praying he hadn’t heard the light stumble when you tripped on a notebook stack) your smile grew as you slowly raised your arms, with a small laugh of victory, you attacked his sides, his elbow tucked to your hand that poked on his side instinctively, he avoided his paintbrush from the canvas the best he could at the abrupt surprise.

He laughed a little too hard, his chair somehow tipped with him while he had a fit and now he’s on the floor probably still laughing. From the sight, you couldn’t help but laugh at his circumstances, you had a hand on your stomach and you supported yourself on your knee with the other hand.

‘You didn’t need to do that! I could have ruined and tainted my artwork.’ Hyunjin tried his best to sound stern, but the playful scoff he couldn’t control broke his expression, and his eyes crinkled with a grin curling upwards.

‘Yo..u- did you ..’ and you broke out into another laughing fit at the recurring memory of the boy falling, you wiped a fake tear from your eyes after the good laugh you shared with him.

You heaved a quiet sigh, bending over to pick up the scattered notebooks on the floor to put together with the rest of your books, you slung your bag strap onto your shoulder. ‘Are you done, by the way? I just finished and I think I should head back to my dorm soon.’ you glanced at him over your shoulder as you readjusted your bag strap.

Hyunjin looked up from packing away his art materials, the faint cluttering of the paintbrushes and pencils always reminded you that your best friend was an art student, and considering that you’ve heard this same cluttering ever since you started doing your work in an art studio, specifically the one at the end of the hallway of the fine arts building that no one likes hanging around in (they say it could be haunted but it’s really just the open window and the dust-filled room that makes it that way.)

But that’s probably what makes it even better, just about two or three brave students to ever enter and use the room but usually, it’s just you and/or Hyunjin. You liked to come here for the quiet atmosphere, and Hyunjin would find you just sitting in the middle of the room, copying your classmate’s notes from a previous lecture.

The one thing you observed for the past few months that you’ve been hanging around the art studio with Hyunjin was that he actually did not have a case or a bag for his stuff, like his art materials- just a ziplock and a paper bag and he’d just shove it into his bag. You thought it was absurd of him to not have a bag at least for his materials, considering how he’s been an art major for a while now. (he is your senior)

You decided against asking him why he doesn’t have a bag for his paintbrushes and pencils and you brushed it off as “it’s his business, not mine”

‘No I’m not done but I should pack up too, I can walk you to your dorm if you want,’ The boy quickly zipped his bag up and threw off his apron, spreading it onto his stool. ‘Well, it’s not really your choice, I’ll walk you there anyway.’

You scoffed, boo-ing at him jokingly while showing a thumbs down. Hyunjin could only roll his eyes as he threw his bag on his back and headed for the door.

‘Just get out the door.’ Hyunjin gestured to the door with his head.

‘Wanna get ice cream?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

You both stopped walking and turned to face each other, ‘I don’t want to, anyway, you’re old enough to cross a street and get your ice cream.’

‘Yeah, but where's the fun in crossing a street and getting ice cream on your own,’ Hyunjin reasoned with his arms stretched out to the road behind you. ‘That’s exactly something that you’d do!’

‘What do you mean by “something that I’d do”?’ You narrowed your eyes at him.

Hyunjin rubbed the back of his head, wincing at the sharp pain now and then that would return, closing an eye as he continued to try to relieve the pain. Seriously, what do you keep in your bag?

He realized the lack of movement from beside him which caused him to realize your figure that seemed taller than usual, you loosely hung your thumbs on your bag straps, tapping your foot lightly on the concrete steps. ‘No, I am not saying sorry for your “head injury”, and good night.’

Hyunjin gave you a sarcastic frown as he let his other hand drop to his side. ‘For a med-student, you sure do a lot more damage than fixing or caring.’

‘I’m not a doctor yet, which means I don’t need to take up being that nice,’ You averted your gaze to somewhere behind him while shifting your weight on your feet slowly, the slight flickering of the fairly worn out light bulb just above your head at the entrance of the dormitory gained a few moths swarming around it, the cicadas and crickets broke the quiet chilly night that fell upon the city.

‘And I certainly don’t need to be nice when someone indirectly calls me a loner.’ Glaring at him with slightly furrowed brows, this sent shivers down Hyunjin’s spine, and that’s not a treat you’d expect or want after walking your friend home.

‘I said I was sorry.. and I didn’t mean it like that! I just meant that you like it quiet, and I’m not into that quiet stuff.. Ice cream shouldn’t be enjoyed alone, y’know... it’s just more fun that way, at least for me.’ He looked down at his feet, slowly digging his shoe into the gravel on the pavement, the slight crackling sounds gave his action away.

You tried to look at him, but you ended up looking at anything and everything that wasn't him, neither of you would bat an eye to the other, it was true, you admitted to yourself that it did get lonely when you had to eat ice cream alone during your junior days, it might as well be good enough to melt, it wouldn’t taste as good anyway.

‘Whatever.. it’s late, I’ll head inside now..’ You swiftly turned around to make your way in, you hesitated to tell him to get back to his dorm safe, but then again it's all on the campus, what was the worst that could happen at this hour?

‘Ye-ah good ni-‘ He realized the faint bell sounds from behind the glass door to the building, and your figure trudging up the stairs. Hyunjin’s fingers curled down before he let his hand fall to his side, he found a flat smile on his lips before he decided to make his way back to his dorm.

Hyunjin rubbed his towel onto the side of his head, flopping to his bed on the ground, he didn’t mind that his hair was wet and the fact that his pillow was probably going to be drenched in the morning or the fact that his towel was ruining his sheets. Today was tiring, but that’s nothing new to his journal.

He groaned when he realized his lamp wasn’t closed and his desk was a mess, his materials were a mess on the floor and a bunch of old, tainted clothes scattered across his floor. And he wondered why his roommate wishes not to enter his room.

Hyunjin stumbled as he stood up from his bed, throwing the sheets that entangled his foot and tossed his towel onto his chair, he fell back onto the wooden chair in front of his desk that held his notebook open, scribbled out ideas and drawings of flowers were just everywhere on the pages, grabbing his trash can beside the desk to sweep up all the crumpled paper balls on the desk, he was about to finish up by reaching over to close his lamp.

His phone vibrated with a high note, alerting him that his phone was below 10%, Hyunjin grumbled loudly as he pulled his drawer open to pull out his charger. Dismissing the pop-up notification, he realized the small red banner on the top right corner of his messaging app.

Hyunjin blinked twice. Huh? He thought while scrunching his face. This was never a regular thing, and it obviously will not continue in the future. Processing the 4 messages you sent to him was a nerve-wracking experience for you, on the other hand.

You decided to leave him be, opting to worry about it tomorrow, or at least when you aren’t tired. You sighed, dropping your head just as you tossed your phone on the mattress, you hugged the blankets closer to your body, turned away from your phone in hopes you would be forced to sleep without any distractions.

A particular ‘ding’ fought for your attention, you itched to look if it was Hyunjin who answered or something, you labeled it under ‘it might be something important,’ but who were you trying to fool? It was 1 in the morning.

‘Ugh,’ you grumbled while flipping to your side, grabbing your phone to check, if only you knew what was coming your way.

You squint at the brightness of your screen, you curse at your phone while you navigate through your messages to get it over with.

The message itself was the reason why this isn’t and will never be a regular thing. You scoffed, typing a quick reply before tossing it to the mattress once again. Snuggling into the blanket that went up to your chin, drifting off to sleep.

‘Y/N!’ You glanced over your shoulder, shoving your phone into your jacket pocket as you gave the boy who ran up to you an unamused face, you watched him bend down, supporting himself on his hands that rested on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

‘What were you even doing last night, I would have thought you already went to bed when I texted you.’ Hyunjin raised a hand in front of your face, still bent down as a sign to give him a moment.

‘I was going to bed, but my brain told me to clean up my mess on my desk, and that is not my fault!’

‘You basically decided it yourself’

‘Y/N let your senior catch his breath,’ Hyunjin gasped for air while dragging his feet towards the entrance of the main building on the campus. You scoffed before jogging right behind him, ‘Well I have a lecture in a bit, I'll see you later then, Y/N.’ Hyunjin waved goodbye to you, he twirled around to shoot you finger guns before continuing his wave.

You rolled your eyes while waving back at him, ‘Yeah yeah whatever, see you later.’ Nonetheless, you had a grin on your lips.

Both of you parted ways to complete your daily classes and activities. But across the campus, somehow both of you seemed to smile while running on 5 or fewer hours of sleep, starting your day right, always starting with saying good morning to your best friend.

Flowers looked nice under the sun.

‘Y/N you he-‘ Hyunjin opened the door to peek into the art room you two always met up in, the dust that flew around the room became somewhat visible due to the bright lamp at the center of the room.

No signs of you in the room at all, Hyunjin fully opened the door to stare blankly at the rest of the corners of the art room, the quiet atmosphere was disrupted by a small ‘ping’ from Hyunjin’s pocket, with a huff he quickly fished his phone out.

‘Sorry, I don’t think I'll be able to meet up today, but if you really insist on hanging out, we can meet up later like outside the ice cream shop down the street.’ The boy muttered the words that you texted him, he formed a small pout at your text, he was really looking forward to working on his painting with you today.

Hyunjin threw on his apron before tossing his phone to the small table beside the singular easel, he sluggishly walked over to the unfinished painting of a bouquet of daffodils that sat in a corner that the light barely touched, the partially painted petals seemed like it reached out to be in the light.

The others who remained a sketch hid in the dark corner next to other paintings that were left alone, basking in the dust and occasional spider webs. Hyunjin observed the setting his painting was under, he turned his head to the side to watch his thoughts wander silently in his head, he doesn't know what or where they are, he can’t hear them, but he knows they’re there.

Hyunjin scoffed, but it only came out as a faint exhale, he reached down to pick up the painting, relishing the slightly dust-covered canvas and how the oil paint pigments were sunken into all the right spaces.

He faintly smiled at his painting, how fragile the petals looked, the way the stems grew outwardly in the way that it looked like it was being pulled down a little by the weight of the flower itself, if you took a closer look it felt like you could see and feel the subtle swaying as the flower petals were carried by the wind.

What a beautiful feeling.

What a beautiful sight.

Hyunjin brought his painting to the easel, he dropped onto the stool that was stationed right in front of the painting, he side-eyed the cup full of paintbrushes beside him. Hesitantly hovering his hand over them, gosh was it so hard to finally finish the painting?

Was it so hard?

Hyunjin allowed himself to gaze on the soft touch of the petals that lined with the beige-like paint that covered the sketch marks, the stem that grew crookedly but gracefully to its position. He realized the ways it all twisted so beautifully together, but so complicated in a way, you could trace with your eyes and see which stem belonged to which head of the daisies, but you could notice how they grew like vines.

His eyes flickered from the brushes to the painting of the daisies, his shoulders relaxed. He let his hand down to rest just beside the cup on the table.

‘What am I going to do with this?’ Hyunjin mumbled under his breath, he guffawed just as he instinctively picked up his favourite brush from the set.

Flowers are fragile.

‘Y/N!’ You looked up at the call of your name, glancing up from your phone to see Hyunjin waving from across the street, not just an ordinary wave though, it was the kind of wave that eventually would make you sway together with it.

You bit back the smile that grew on your lips, you felt embarrassed to say that this was your friend, your best friend to be exact. You made a gesture to tell him to stop what he was doing, it was currently 10:56 pm, but you being a med-student on their break time would also mean that your other classmates could be wandering around looking for something to eat to pass the time for a bit.

You hated being embarrassed. That’s a given, but it wasn’t helping that Hyunjin always tried to stick by your side. He jogged across the street to meet with you, face to face.

You looked up at him and he looked down at you, ‘So.. you’re paying for the ice cream?’ Hyunjin smiled innocently at you.

‘You kidding me? Their ice cream cones are like 65 bucks, no way.’ You glared at him, crossing your arms to signal that you aren’t going to give up 65 bucks or so for ice cream.

‘Right, right, let the broke to-be artist pay.’ Hyunjin rolled his eyes as he sarcastically waved his hand over his shoulder.

‘That’s right! Good job Hyunjin!’ Your voice went up a pitch higher with a sarcastic grin to follow (though behind that grin was probably your best victory grin at that time)

You both walked to the ice cream parlor just down the street. Bumping each other’s elbows with faint jokes that filled the bubble you two made around yourselves.

Flowers can mean two things.

‘Oh come on, that wasn’t even good!’ You exclaimed, you giggled faintly at the sight of the other, bent down on his knees, still laughing his heart out after his joke.

‘Geez...’ Finding your gaze up at the sky, you leaned on the railing on the edge of the sidewalk, Hyunjin’s laughter died down as he realized you moving on from the topic, he gazed in the same direction, he noticed the lack of stars in the sky and he frowned internally how could people deal with one or two stars in the dark sky and call them beautiful. What’s there to call beautiful when there’s barely anything in the sky?

Hyunjin slowly turned to look at you beside him, you continued to look and admire the twinkling star in the distance and a passing plane. He noticed how the sides of your lips were eager to go higher with the sight of the plane that passed just beneath the star.

Or how your eyes crinkled and reflected the night sky with the singular sparkle of a star, it wasn’t grand, but Hyunjin found himself staring at something so simple, but it made him feel something new, something weird.

Something like what an art piece would offer you, the beauty of the story behind the lines, the strokes and the paint, and the indescribable feeling that it fills you with when you gaze at it.

That’s what he felt -- Would you feel the same if it was me? Or would you feel different because it’s me?

What kind of loneliness would we call it when one of the two feels it, while the other gets to smile at them after all the damage they’ve done.

Would you call it loneliness, even?

‘Y/N,’ Hyunjin called softly to you, you hummed in response without batting an eye to him as you continued to roam around the sky. What kind of loneliness would we call it when one person feels so much from just an answer from someone when the other wouldn't even bat an eye to them?

Calling it damage might be too much, but it was lovely. What kind of artist would make something so beautifully destructive to the heart?

‘I want to get your advice on something, and I’m only going to say it once. Okay?’ Hyunjin seemed scared to even look at you. You hummed as a response to his sudden change of behavior.

‘I have a friend..who I’ve known for a long time now.’ Hyunjin looked down at his feet as he spoke.

He felt like backing out from this, but decided on going for it, he shoved his shaky hands into his sweater pockets. ‘I.. I think I started to like them… along the way.’

You looked at him upon hearing the little confession on his problems, you noticed how he wasn’t staring at you anymore, and he was fiddling with the tissues he had gotten together with his ice cream from the shop earlier.

‘… - If I tell them how I feel.. things might get awkward and I might ruin our friendship.’

If we weren’t in a generation of hate and broken feelings, would I still call this loneliness? Or being too ‘sensitive’?

‘But if I back out from doing so.. And not tell them the truth,’ Hyunjin huffed and looked to the black sky, before muttering the rest of the sentence. ‘I know I’m going to lose them to someone else, and I’ll regret not telling them.’

You were holding back a scoff to brush off the random “confession” Hyunjin gave you out of nowhere, instead of seeing him playfully trying to hold in a laugh, but instead, you saw his brown eyes that had a sparkle or two just like the stars in the sky, but they weren’t shining on their own or reflecting off of his own sun, it was flickering with a hope he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to look first to find it.

He pursed his lips slightly, why do you look so nervous? You’re only asking for my opinion. You thought, pulling away from his gaze, you glared at your, now gray, sneakers that you used to kick a pebble across the street.

Hyunjin observed you from the corner of his eye, noticing you fiddling with your fingers and your serious expression; he decided to brush it off to save both of you from growing tension in the atmosphere.

‘You can give me an answer next time, I have to finish a project. I’ll have a long night ahead so, I’ll see you tomorrow?’ He tried to joke around to leave the night on a good note, you chuckled lightly at his attempt at a joke. Maybe it was the ice cream? Or the feeling of desperation to leave this awkward situation, or the fact that it was 12:35 PM.

‘See you tomorrow, for someone older, you would think you’d be more responsible and not pull all-nighters to finish projects.’ Hyunjin walked backwards as the conversation went on, scoffing at your “joke”, you did mean a little behind the teasing, but it was all in good fun.

‘Yeah yeah, See you N/N.’ You waved to his back as he walked away.

Sort of leaving the night on a good note? Accomplished (?) Definitely a mission accomplished in both of your books.

Flowers are poisonous to us sometimes.

‘Uh-.. is uhm Y/N here?’ Hyunjin leaned over the counter where the head nurse sat, Hyunjin gently lowered a polka dot print randomly decorated the box with a white bow on top beside him.

‘Doctor L/N? Oh, I believe-‘ The nurse stood up from their seat, vaguely pointing off in a random direction as he spoke.

The nurse searched all around the table, hoping you’d come out of the corner from your rounds, ‘Oh, there they are.’

Hyunjin whirled to follow the voice of the nurse, both Hyunjin and the head nurse watched as you aimlessly turned the corner to enter behind the front desk just to slump right into a seat, your back facing the two boys.

Hyunjin scoffed faintly, shaking his head, ‘Here, Y/N seems busy, can you just give this to them?’ Hyunjin slightly nudged the box on the counter as a gesture to the other.

‘Oh.. okay, thank you! Get home safely!’ Hyunjin bowed politely as he jogged to the exit.

Whipping his phone out, he left you a small message in case you would ignore his message in the box.

‘Eat well, Felix made these today, and he asked me to bring this to you :D, it’s supposedly healthier, Felix said, also make sure to share some with the other staff too.’

Flowers are beautifully and thoughtfully crafted.

‘Hyunjin?’

‘Yeah, he asked to give you this.’

You caught the box as it was shoved to you, you curiously opened the box, you hoped this was what you’ve been imagining all week.

‘BROWNIES!’ You threw the cover off and went straight for the chocolate treats.

‘Hey buddy there’s a note for ya, man how could you miss that? it was literally right there, and you ask me why no one wants to give you gifts.’ You rolled your eyes at the nurse, snatching the note that he waved in front to mock you.

‘Whatever, go bother some other resident and mind your own business.’ The two of you exchanged odd faces as the boy left the room to do just as you said.

You heaved a sigh of relief, unfolding the letter to find the familiar handwriting of Hyunjin.

‘Enjoy the brownies, we should hang out more Y/N! Sorry, I couldn’t bring these to you in person, I got caught up in some stuff y’know with the student council and all, but all these aside, You should say thanks to Hyunjin for bringing these! :) - Felix‘

‘So this was what Hyunjin’s text meant, I should tell Felix to take a break.’ you muttered as you scoffed at the letter, stopping midway from tossing the piece of paper off to the side, you decided against it, and instead, you folded it just like before, shoving it into your breast pocket in your doctor’s coat.

‘Doctor L/N, Professor Kim is asking for you.’ The nurse from earlier chirped from the door, you groaned internally as you gave him a hum for a response, you pushed the box aside before heading out.

‘Hey giraffe, am I late?’ You strolled towards the boy who just glanced up from his phone with an unamused smile. You slid right in front of him with added jazz hands, Hyunjin noted that this was probably the most you’ve been all week, or ever, you just never seemed and were someone to do this. ‘By the way, thanks for delivering the brownies’

Hyunjin waved his other hand, dismissing the thanks you gave him, he finished typing something on his phone before glancing at you with a smile.

‘You seem happy?’ Hyunjin shoved his phone into his pocket while he scoffed at your random swats in the air after a mosquito flew into your face, ‘Can’t I be happy to see my best friend after 3 whole months?’ You grunted trying to move to a spot next to him hoping the mosquito wouldn’t bite the tip of your nose or something. You weren’t in the mood to want Hyunjin calling you Rudolph, in this friendship, you were the one calling him names, not the other way around.

You noticed the faint marks of paint that faded into his skin, ‘Did you paint today?’ you asked while nudging his elbow with yours, you both walked down the street to your favorite ice cream parlor. ‘uh - well, I colored a few petals and the sun.’

‘Pft-’ bursting into a fit of laughter, you hit him on the back lightly, for someone about to graduate, you would have thought he could be painting more than a few petals and the sun in the corner.

‘Being an artist is harder than you think,’ Hyunjin waved a hand in the air, you both joked some more on the way down to the same ice cream parlor. ‘Right, and I can eat my elbow.’

Hyunjin scoffed but had an amused grin, to replace his usual eye rolls. ‘Just get on with your order, I am a busy person’

‘Busy painting petals.’

‘Petals are still important!’

Flowers are either too incomplete or too much.

‘Shut up, he did not do that!’

‘I’m not wrong! You can ask him about it! I mean Jisung’s pretty unexpected, and come to think of it, he was bound to do it anyway. He did say he didn’t like it in his department.’ Hyunjin reasoned but you only laughed a little louder at his attempts, Hyunjin chuckled to accompany your laughter, you two strolled around the campus and across streets for a few rounds now.

Both of you refused to go back or end the hang-out early, you both had all the time in the world, or that’s what it felt like.

‘Gosh, Who would have thought he’d want to switch courses now? And just for that reason?’ You stopped to signal you were tired of walking, or you were tired of stumbling every time you two shared a funny joke or a story.

Leaning on the railing at the side of the street, Hyunjin went beside you and did the same, you both sighed softly, had you two actually had all the time in the world, you admit you wouldn't want to trade this for any praise your professors gave you.

And Hyunjin would trade any pencil or paintbrush to stay this close to you.

‘…Hey, Hyun.’

‘Hm?’ Hyunjin hummed in response, giving you a small glance before drawing back to the sky that held one star, if you took up a major for astronomy, you would know the brightest and twinkling star in the sky could be a star called Fomalhaut or, Alpha Piscis Austrinus, the loneliest star known to us.

It’s the only bright star in a wide stretch of sky that gives it the title of being the loneliest star. Hyunjin admired it, he adored the bright glow it gave off into the sky that turned darker as your wristwatch ticked. Was it an artist thing to feel connections with things they can’t explain, even through their works? Gosh, if you think of it that way, being one can be a little sad.

‘I think I can answer your question.’

‘What question?’ Hyunjin tore his attention from the sky, he eyed you curiously.

You gave him a knowing look, surprisingly, he caught onto it quickly. He blurted out a small raspberry. ‘Nah, I was just kidding with you before, it’s fine really.’

‘You sure? I mean I already have my answer and I’ve thought about it for a while sooo..’ You watched him cross his arms to look off in the distance instead of the sky like before, you did the same but kept a steady gaze on him like you taunted the seeker whenever you’d play hide-and-seek in grade 2.

‘Go on, if you already thought of an answer, don’t let it go to waste.’

You nodded slowly in response before gathering your thoughts. You say you’ve thought about it for a while now, but you didn’t have a concrete one, just some thoughts scattered here and there.

‘Well first off.. I don’t think you should confess to them.’ You eyed him for any violent reaction from the side, but you only caught a glimpse of him ‘studying’ a pine tree in the distance.

‘Because… Well, If they are your best friend, sometimes, they wouldn't, you know, like you that way. I mean there are scenarios where it happens but usually or I don’t usually see those happening.’ Hyunjin nodded as you went on.

‘Second.. I think they’d want to stay close to you without the weird tension or awkward feeling or something after, an-and I woul- I mean, I think they would probably say.. that they don’t want to ruin this friendship that they adore and want to treasure with you, I don’t think they would want to lose you because of the awkwardness later on.’ You explained, you kept your gaze straight down at your feet as you kicked a rock or two onto the asphalt.

You felt a slight shiver in your spine as you felt him burn holes into you. You glanced at him. He had nothing but a slightly furrowed reaction, you felt like turning back and explaining further but it made sense not to, you weren’t being rejected or anything like that, you tried to convince yourself, that you were simply giving him an opinion.

Hyunjin’s lips curved into a playful smirk as he threw his head back in laughter, this time you gave him furrowed brows and a slightly-agape mouth — just speechless. Though you were not amused at the reaction.

‘Gosh, look at your face! I said it was a joke. Come on, I don’t like anyone you should know that, since I’m SO in love with the art room like you said.’ Hyunjin wiped a fake tear under his eyes, you glared at him, grumbling to yourself.

‘Hey this is still slightly your fault, I mean it's not like you’re rejecting me anyway, calm down doc.’ Hyunjin patted your head while heading off in the direction of the school campus’ entrance, leaving you to stomp beside him and him teasing you along the way.

Flowers still look like art that was meant to be trapped in poem-filled pages.

Hyunjin chatted with his classmates while waiting for his professor to open the classrooms. A faint vibration came from his pocket together with a little ‘ding’ that chimed after the buzz.

The ongoing conversation that was shared among his friends continued, even with Hyunjin excusing himself to check his phone.

‘Hey, are you free right now? Felix and I wanted to have lunch together or basically just hang out since I don’t have anything planned for school lately. U coming?’

Hyunjin smiled slightly at the set of words, he swiftly snatched a look at the door leading to the art hall, he guessed he had a few minutes to spare.

The boy typed a quick answer, whispering a small farewell to inform his friend beside him, just as he waved to the rest of the group.

‘I can spare a few minutes to say hello :D be there in a sec’

Flowers always look for the sun.

Hyunjin supported himself on the palm of his hands that rested on his knees. He cursed himself for thinking he could run half the campus to the cafeteria just to say hello, then return in time for his lecture.

The boy sluggishly pushed the heavy metal doors to the cafeteria, as soon as he glanced back up to see where he was going, a group of his juniors bumped into him as they tried to leave the cafeteria.

‘O- I- uh—‘ Hyunjin stammered while shoving himself to the side, trying his best to hold the heavy door open for them. He waved and bowed slightly to return the gesture the group gave him as they left.

Holding his shoulder with his other arm, trying to roll it backward. The lesson of the day? Hold the door with your back, not with your arm.

Hyunjin groaned silently as he waddled through the waves of students to find you and Felix.

The sudden burst of laughter from a corner caught his attention, before he could raise his hand to wave to get both of your attention, his grin faltered with the sight.

Gosh.

Was this the definition of ‘what a sight for sore eyes’? Being a few meters from the table seemed like miles to him.

Felix’s smile was glowing, but something made it shine brighter. You were leaning on his shoulder while you laughed at a joke Felix made. Even with Hyunjin, you’d never do something like that.

You just couldn’t miss it. He couldn’t miss it. Hyunjin felt like he shouldn’t have agreed to give the brownies Felix made for you. Hyunjin felt like he shouldn’t be jealous of Felix, but he was jealous.

All these years, and every Christmas and every New Year’s Eve, Hyunjin would have died to be in Felix’s spot right now.

What a sight for sore eyes.

Some would say artists never miss a single detail and call it a blessing to avoid heartbreaks or mistakes. But would you call this a blessing? Had Hyunjin been someone else instead of just your best friend, maybe he’d be here laughing with you.

The boy plastered a newfound smile, he continued his implied gesture of a wave.

‘Lix! N/N!’

Some flowers were chosen to be planted inside the house, while others are left outside

‘Hyung!’ Felix called from the end of the hall. Hyunjin perked up from his phone and looked behind his shoulder.

‘Lix? Yeah, what’s up?’ Hyunjin smiled at the younger boy. Felix held onto Hyunjin’s shoulder for support as he tried to explain himself between breaths.

‘Woah, woah, okay just breathe, I don’t think you need to explain everything in one breath.’ Hyunjin chuckled lightly.

‘What I’m saying is! Do you want to hang out with me and Y/N later? Y/N suggested going to an ice cream parlor just down the street from the university, and I knew how much you liked ice cream, so I thought of inviting you.’ Felix grinned at Hyunjin. The other boy, on the other hand, felt sick to the stomach.

Why would you suggest that place? I thought that was our place to keep?

‘Hyung?’

‘Yeah, sorry, uhm- no I don’t think I can come, I uh- have to get started on a painting for class, hope you guys have fun on your little date though.’ Hyunjin managed to tease Felix just a little more.

Felix looked a little flustered while he tried to bring out an explanation without stuttering, he eventually started scratching the back of his neck while doing so.

Hyunjin softened his gaze at the other. What kind of a friend would he be if he would ruin his friend’s dream like this?

Hyunjin couldn’t help but internally curse at himself for even wanting to do something like that to his friend.

Does the sun ever look for flowers too?

There he was again, it was currently 9:26 pm, the same old position, the same old painting.

Hyunjin blankly stared back at the painting of the daisies, 3 out of 4 daisies fully sketched and colored, the last daisy at the left, bent over from the back of the other three, it seemed like it so desperately wanted to be seen, to be noticed like the rest.

The paintbrush that balanced in between his fingers, his favorite paintbrush, glancing down at the brush in his fingers, Hyunjin furrowed his brows slightly, why, of all brushes, was this his favorite?

The boy gently placed the brush down on the side table beside him. Maybe if he tried to use another one, it would make up for the daisy that longed to be noticed like the rest.

He picked up a new brush from the cup, dipping it in the paint he had mixed onto his palette, hesitantly, he reached for the last flower’s petals.

What’s wrong?

Why did he stop?

Hyunjin wished he knew the answer.

It just felt so wrong to use another brush when he’s been through hell and Heaven with the other one.

He knows exactly how the curves and streaks would look like with the other brush, he knows exactly how the outcome will be, and he knows it’s going to be good.

So how could he ever try another one, wherein he never had an idea how it would affect his work.

Hyunjin sighed heavily. He dropped his hand onto his lap, careful not to paint his pants or the apron. He stood up as he placed the brush down next to the other brushes he had used before.

He trudged to his bag near the entrance of the art studio, grabbing his phone that sat on top of the bag, he pressed the home button hoping he’d get another text from you, or a missed call, or basically anything.

Anything from you.

Hyunjin’s fingers mindlessly switched through apps on his phone, hoping to find something to get his attention so he’d have an ‘excuse’ to not do the painting.

The motivation was scarce these days, and Hyunjin couldn’t find a single fiber in him to even try to hold a brush or a pen to draw or paint a picture.

He found himself scrolling up to your contact. His thumb hovered over the call button, gosh, you wouldn’t understand how much he wants to hear your voice again.

Even if you two met a few hours ago this afternoon, it feels unfamiliar to him to not hear you around this time, teasing and poking fun out of each other while you two went to get ice cream, then talk some more until he’d have to drop you off at your dorm.

If Felix really does like you, this would be one of the last late-night ‘hangouts’ he’d ever get with you. And if you liked Felix back? This might be one of the last late-night calls he can ever have with you again.

Hyunjin retracted his thumb and went against it. This was you and Felix’s hangout, he can’t just intrude it because he feels slightly jealous at the turn of events.

He hastily pressed the power button and let his hand fall to his side, he pressed his eyes closed tight, sighing.

Hyunjin abruptly raised his hand that held his phone and aimed it at the wall, his sudden movements were caught, he stayed frozen in that position, half of him desperately wanted to take out his anger on this throw, and half of him was asking why was he so mad?

Felix did nothing wrong to him, you did nothing wrong to him either. Was he mad at himself?

His phone dropped from his grip and bounced onto his bag, Hyunjin crouched down and his head between his knees, folding his arms around his head. It wasn’t a nice feeling to be mad at someone for your mistakes of being late or doing something wrong.

Hyunjin hated the feeling. He desperately wanted to stop, but he couldn’t?

Slumping down on his chair, Hyunjin found himself in his dark room again, his desk a mess, just a single lamp open and a load of clothes on the floor.

He groaned as he picked up the trash bin beside his desk to sweep the mess into it.

His phone remained quiet and still, on the corner of the table, Hyunjin tried to pay no attention to it, but he couldn’t help but wonder if you were thinking and waiting for his text or call too.

Sure, you went out with Felix but wouldn’t you want to hear from your friend at least? Putting aside his feelings, wouldn’t a normal friend think of that?

He glanced at his phone, no new notifications, and just like the city, it stayed silent. Placing down the trash bin and picking up his phone instead.

Finding himself in front of your contact profile and a thumb hovering over the call button. Maybe you’re trying to sleep? No, impossible, you always drink coffee around this time, you’d surely be on your way to a cafe or something, could you still be with Felix? Most likely not, it was past midnight, and even if you were still with him, your dorm didn’t allow others to enter.

The list of possibilities went on in his head and all the time he tried to look for an answer to say ‘no, that would be impossible’

But nothing seemed to be full-proof ‘impossible’.

Hyunjin tapped the call button, pressing it to his ear, and for the next few minutes, all he heard was the dial tone repeating itself, he swiveled his chair to keep himself busy as he stared at his windowsill that overlooked the small parking lot in front of his dorm.

‘Sorry, the line is busy, please try again later.’ Gee, he hadn’t thought that you could be calling Felix right now.

Hyunjin put his phone down abruptly and sighed, not out of relief, but just out of the feeling of hopelessness.

He returned to the sight of his nearly emptied-out table under the warm tone of his lamp.

Until something caught his eye.

He turned back to his windowsill and watched closely, anyone would have recognized that this was exactly the first day the snow had fallen upon the city.

And Hyunjin witnessed it, at the very first minute the first flake fell from the sky but was it worth anything? To see the first snowfall when he had nothing but doubts and loneliness with him instead of you?

He watched solemnly as the number of snow fell to the ground.

Hyunjin turned back to his desk with a sigh. He wasn’t a doctor, or a physician, or a scientist, but it felt like he went through the worst a lab rat could have gone through, the worst stump in the road a driver has ever come across.

And the smallest mistake that seemed visible on top of an artist’s canvas. He felt as if he spent all his time experimenting to find what seemed to be the loneliest feeling he’s ever come across as a human being.

Hyunjin looked back at the seemingly never-ending snowflakes falling to the ground, at least they have each other? He thought maybe if he’d had someone, he wouldn’t feel like he was alone in the art room, the warm feeling of knowing you have someone that would meet with you even if you spent a whole day being tired and on your own, it’s just something Hyunjin always liked.

And now he’s unsure about that, as days went on, it seemed like he felt even more alone when he’s with you.

Feelings were never his forte either.

Had he painted a clearer picture for you, maybe you would have probably liked him back? Maybe you would have seen his efforts. How cruel of you.

Hyunjin turned away from the window, the desk he sat at seemed so foreign yet so familiar, this was the same table he planned all his paintings here, he had calls and texts with you at this very table, he did his first art homework here. (which didn’t always end well)

He eyed the wooden table-top that his lamp created this circle of a light, yellow hue in front of him. Glancing up, he noticed a notebook with paper pieces poking from the edges and colorful bookmarks that coordinate well with the paper pieces.

Dragging the book in front of him, he flipped through the pages, with each page passing by, a few papers flew out to the side, he paid no mind as he was preoccupied with the artworks filled with notes and notes to himself.

‘You’re doing great!’

‘Keep going!’

‘:)’

‘You did a lot of improvements today.’

He cringed slightly at the little sticky notes he pasted on top of sketches and notes from classes he had before. He held up pretty fine, all these cheesy memories were distracting him from the quiet room he would call his bedroom.

“You should stop eating paint all day and actually get out of the art room :/ If you get lonely eating in the cafeteria, just text me. Take care of yourself, stupid. >:/

-Y/N”

Hyunjin smiled slightly at the note he had come across randomly, he pressed on the pages, spreading out any wrinkles, he accidentally smudged a part of the rough sketch he had, his smile faltered slightly.

‘So there you were the whole time.’ He muttered to himself.

Leaning back in his seat, he examined the rough sketch of his painting, the bouquet of daisies. He saw all the details he tried to fit in the pages. Hyunjin read each thought his past self wrote, the details and ideas with the color palette that he “tried” to custom make.

He sighed.

“Make it beautiful for Y/N.”

“Daisies, probably because it means new beginnings.”

“Daffodils mean unequaled feelings, but on the other hand it also means, “The sun is always shining when I’m with you.” Isn’t that pretty?”

Hyunjin scrambled to put all the pages that flung off to the side of the table, sandwiching them into the book hastily. Slamming the book closed, he frowned at his own circumstances.

Maybe physically, he wasn’t alone, but being with you, sometimes he has never felt so alone, but sometimes you made him feel Iike he was worth it.

He gripped the sides of the notebook, it looked messier than it was before he took a look at it. Gosh, what’s wrong with me? Hyunjin closed his eyes, he sighed heavily, he didn’t know what he felt, but he knew he didn’t like it. If he hadn’t felt like this the majority of the time with you, he didn’t think he’d be familiar with this feeling.

“I think it would have been better if we had never met.”

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ryucakes · 3 years ago

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navi

{ 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐞 }

name :: maple

age :: 19

pronouns :: she/her

star sign :: sagittarius

mbti :: enfj

ult :: kim taehyung

hobbies :: reader, writer, dancer, artist, singer, actress

{ 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐬 }

maple speaks 🎂 :: for any announcements I may make

maple answers 🎂 :: for any asks I answer

m.gfx :: general tags for all of my graphics. you could also search the idol/group of your preference and the specific kind of graphic you want (gifs/moodboards/wallpapers/etc) on my page if you'd prefer

bacon pancakes 🥞 :: updates on life and things

tea time 🍵 :: venting tag

ratatata 🧁 :: random asf posts that have nothing to do with life

candy store 🍬 :: crackhead posts

piping hot ❤️‍🔥 :: SIMP MODE BE ACTIVATED

for my depression :: devastation central

maple's menu 🍒 :: when I'm getting the urge to be a tad bit narcissistic

maple's booster club 🍓 :: my recs and sh*tposts

{ 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 }

spotify :: wattpad :: ao3 :: tiktak

{ 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 }

requests OPEN :: just send an ask and I'll try to get it to you as soon as I can ^^

be respectful :: treat others the way you want to be treated and give respect to gain respect, its not a difficult thing to understand

drama free zone :: I don't like drama and I don't really wanna deal with outside drama, so please refrain from bringing it on my blog

safe space :: however if you need to vent or ask for advice feel free to do so! I'm always open to lend a helpful ear and give the best advice I can

enjoy! :: I hope you can enjoy yourself here and have fun! LOVE YOU ALL ^^

{ 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐬 }

@junepops :: shar up to par

@hyuckworld :: alice the malice

@kabira :: manx to cranks

@soobisms :: 'thena trina

@kookings :: sunny bunny

@soobmint :: chae my bae

@catchujoon :: cat bat

@jeongcake :: tee the pea

@bbanghoonie :: eun my beun

@pearlgisa :: maits crates

@jaeyunverse :: raven cravin

@crispy-chan :: razzle dazzle jas

@enhafika :: aura rora

@eclipxeukkae :: dani mania

@mygnolia :: ren pen

#maple's navi #maple's navigation

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k-labels · 2 days ago

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↬ NEW RELEASE: 'taste of life' (2024) by ren !

TASTE OF LIFE. l. heeseung

THE TALE GOES...heeseung is invisible to everyone, robbed of recognition as people pass through and never acknowledge him. to live as a shadow who observes is hard—heeseung sinks into corners and simply wishes for a chance to be a part of something. but when you finally come to the biggest halloween party of the year and see him, he can’t help but be attached.

pair -› lee heeseung x fem!reader | trope -› horror, literally no fluff | warn -› major character death, violence, stalking | REN SAYS.. first installment! also this is shit guys im so sorry I NEEDED TO GET THIS OUT ASAP ugh writing this much lowk killed me </3 | 3k words | library

---

Mediocre. Normal. Ordinary.

That’s exactly how you’d describe the house that stood before you, with your bags tightly held in both hands as you ascended the few stairs to the porch. It felt like any other house, and you’d even compare it to the old one you were in.

The previous home was different in one major way—it added years of aging onto your parents somehow, as if something had sucked the life out of their minds. It drove them crazy to stay home, and you couldn’t help but be embarrassed every time they mumbled in public about going home.

They looked crazy. You just had to droop your head and pretend you didn’t know them.

Your parents’ eyes lit up when they entered through the door, with wood flooring and a color scheme that reflected on their preferences. It was almost identical to your other house, so why exactly did they choose to move to a home that was no different than the last? If anything, you were just glad they were starting to feel more comfortable within the new space. It felt breathable, and something about the old place you lived in felt dirty and plagued.

It wasn’t much of a struggle as you began to unpack the bags of clothes and boxes of items you brought with you, considering how little you cared about accents and decorations. With furniture already there, your room felt akin to your other one, but something was off. You tried to move the desk over to the window to gauge the effectiveness of the natural lighting, and when your curtains gave way to slightly clouded rays of sunlight in your room, you hummed with some satisfaction. Good enough.

As Halloween came around, you understood how much everyone in the local town loved to celebrate. Houses on your way to school were filled with webs, lights, and jack-o-lanterns, and it made you believe that the pumpkin farm on the outskirts of town had a smart business model. On top of having an abundance of fall flavored desserts, the Yang family held the biggest party of the year, seeing as their son went to the same high school of yours.

You had only heard whispers of the annual Yang Halloween party, rumored to be the best party of all time, was something you were looking forward to every year, even anticipating the post-celebration news to hit you from the town over.

The day neared, and you got more and more excited to finally get to know people ever since you arrived in town. People knew of you as the new girl, but no one reached out, all too consumed in their own cliques to introduce themselves to you.

—

“Taste,” you told the man waiting outside. “The password is ‘taste.’ “

The windows were tinted in red as moonlight streamed through one side of the building. The rest of the house was dark, with only flashing orange, purple, and green lights strung carefully to add to the mysterious ambience. Music blasted from the speakers and shelves were lined with decorations, ones that you were careful to avoid knocking over as you slid your way between crowds. There seemed to be never ending snacks, as people with tattered black cloaks always managed to keep the drinks filled and the rows neat.

It was obvious that the family knew what they were doing when it came to throwing parties—you hadn’t seen one person without a smile on their face. The festivities like horror rooms and games were all through-out the floor, and there was always something for everyone to do.

You fell into conversation with a few people, cutting it short as you excused yourself to the restroom. Down the same hall was a door that was left ajar, and you went to shut it before returning to the boy who you just met.

“Hi.”

You jumped back, eyes darting around as you searched for someone to match the sudden voice, and you heard a small curse in the same direction. Your feet were frozen as you only looked around, your hand still on the knob of the empty restroom as you hoped someone would come to break you out of your stupor.

There was nothing, you promised yourself, and the door shut with a click. Still, your gut swirled with fear as you slowly turned, anxiously rubbing the goosebumps on your skin.

“You can hear me, huh?”

You knew the sound was coming to your left, where the flashing lights were nowhere to be found. All you had was the phone you fished out of your back pocket before you saw a flash of something pale. You immediately turned, trying to find it once more.

You could’ve sworn there was something.

“Hello?” You probably looked insane to any bystander, calling out to the dark when you swore you saw something nearby.

To both your surprise and horror, someone floats through the closet door, his limbs passing through as a grin makes his way onto his features.

You’d think the ghost in front of you was attractive, if it wasn’t for the fact that you were experiencing something supernatural for the first time.

Bile rose in your throat as you became disoriented looking at the figure. With a yelp that caught confused stares from only a few people nearby, you scurried out of the house, bumping into bodies as the door grew closer and closer.

Like a bubble about to burst, the house feels stuffy and humid until you open the large doors, swallowing the cold air of the night like a lifeline. Your head spins with confusion, and you can’t seem to understand what you just saw until he seeps through the wall once more.

“I’m sorry if I scared you.” You yelp at the sound of his voice, taking a few steps back as you look anywhere but his sullen face.

The sound of your heart won triumph over anything else as you kept trying to make space between you and the creature in front of you. When he begins to glide closer, you take it as your sign to grab your small clutch and begin a brisk walk back home, no matter how dark.

“My name is Heeseung. No one’s ever seen me,” he explains, easily drifting behind you.

“Get the fuck away from me, Heeseung.” Your voice sounded shaky as the wind rushes past your ears. You felt hopeless, unable to hear his footsteps or gauge where he could be.

He’s right next to you, speaking directly to your profile all of a sudden. “Please, no one’s recognized me since I died. Please, you have to help me.”

The change in proximity has you jumping from being frightened, and you try to cover your ears to block out his voice.

The worst part of it all was that Heeseung could touch you. You felt the cold of his fingertips without the pressure of his mortality in his fingertips. Effortlessly drifting next to you, he worked to pry your fingers from your ears as a plea for you to hear him out.

“I don’t care. Leave me alone.” You began speeding up, seeing your house in sight and the ghost beginning to fall back in his misery. You didn’t care about it, only wanting to go home and pretend everything was a bad dream. While the ghost wasn’t ugly by any means, the supernatural facet of his identity kept you up as you feared the creature outside your window at any moment.

What you didn’t know was that your gut feeling was right–Heeseung wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted.

—

You didn’t know what was louder–Heeseung’s voice in your ear, or the thudding of your heartbeat.

Your scream echoed around the empty house when he appeared for the second time, your heart dropping as the lack of sleep you got from the night before made you even more on edge now. Everytime you looked down a corridor, shivers racked your body and you were unable to go anywhere without a flashlight. You swore you saw him in the corner of the room, and if not–something was horribly wrong with you.

There he was again, staying by the edge. “Please, get away from me, I can’t give you what you want, Heeseung.” You tried to keep your voice as steady as possible, as if you weren’t shaking from fear that you’d be joined by an intruder everytime you turned the corner.

You couldn’t shower or change without wanting to tear your hair out, and there was no way to quell the anxiety after you saw him stick an arm through your home.

There was nothing you could do. No one who you could go to about this. You were truly all alone.

Class felt like a blur with an ache in your head and an emptiness in your stomach. It was exhausting for you to dart around the room, waiting for him to appear.

He was waiting for something, you knew it.

You felt on edge constantly, like you were going insane. Every small movement triggered some sort of reaction, so much so that your classmates began to notice and snicker.

You felt like your parents–and you had no idea how to make it stop.

—

It was the third day of your sleepless torment. Your parents often left you alone according to their new work schedules, and you were still stuck having to hide from the apparition until you left for school. He looked torn apart, too, but you couldn’t understand why he couldn’t give you space. It got so bad to the point where you heard whispers of him in every corridor. You couldn’t stand it anymore, and your bloodshot eyes and scratched arms were a sign that something had been wrong ever since Halloween.

There was only one person you could tell about this, and you didn’t even notice how bad your fingers had been when you went to pick at the dry skin once more.

“Jungwon,” you mumbled as you passed him. He turned around, immediately recognizing you as someone he didn’t know much about.

“Is everything okay?” He asked, concern knitting his eyebrows as you asked for him to talk with you outside.

Something was off that day. The clouds were gray, dipped with unease. The sky was bathed in dread, and Jungwon could tell something was wrong by the way you couldn’t find the sun no matter where you looked.

“What’s wrong, ____? You’ve been looking horrible ever since Halloween.” You flinched at the word, eyes stinging with tears as you were pushed back into thinking about that night. You never should’ve worn your black dress or added some cute cat ears. You never should’ve left the house.

“There’s something in your house, Jungwon,” you pleaded, your gaze frantically searching for any sign that Heeseung followed you. “It’s like a spirit, something happened and it won’t—“ your words came to an abrupt halt when you heard a chuckle from the boy in front of you.

A laugh tore through as Jungwon crossed his arms and looked at you with a pitiful grin. “You’re funny. Good prank, though,” he smiles, about to turn.

You had no idea what came over you when you went to grab his arm. Jungwon was practically a stranger to you, but one more sleepless night without a cure would’ve made you go insane if he kept following you. You needed to get rid of Heeseung.

“No!” Your voice rang out louder than anticipated, and the sudden shout made you wince, still holding onto Jungwon’s arm. “You don’t get it, something’s following me around, he keeps talking to me and no one else can see him—“

The boy yanked himself out of your grip, suddenly frustrated, and you feared the worst; Yang Jungwon would tell the whole school that you were crazy.

“Please, Jungwon—” you tried once more, “he’s real—he’s everywhere and I can’t get rid of him—it was because of your party,” at this point, your eyes were filled with tears as you begged your only hope from leaving. “You have to help me—“

“I don’t have to do anything for you, ____.” He sneered, growing impatient. “I don’t know who put you up to this whole prank, but you need to stay away from me.” He spun around, paying you no attention as you crumbled to a heap on the ground and sobbed hopelessly on the pavement.

The sky was darker than ever, and it was still afternoon.

Even as you walked down the empty dirt roads to your house, you couldn’t help but hear Heeseung’s voice ring in your ears. As you started running to push the sound out and replace it with your heavy breathing, your eyes began to shut with exhaustion. Slowing to an eventual stop in front of your house, you heaved, gasping for air that felt like it was escaping your lungs any moment as you held into the porch railing

“You’re home. What took you so long?”

Your vision was blurring slightly in the corners, and the corners of your eyes felt puffy. You were slipping out of consciousness, but you remembered that voice anywhere. “Get away from me, please.”

Heeseung pursed his lips, feeling slightly bad for the state that you were in. “I told you, I can help you.”

When you saw his pale shoes in front of you, your body reacted instantly, scrambling back to create some distance. You hadn’t registered that a wooden splinter from the floor cut into your palm until Heeseung saw the blood seep into the planks underneath you. The porch made no sound under his quick footsteps, and it only instilled more frustration at his lack of perceptibility. His sudden approach left you frightened as you waved a hand in the air, unable to feel the wound from the state of your body. “Go away, Heeseung!”

He frowned angrily. “Let me help.” He kneeled next to you and reached out for your wound before you yanked your hand back, stumbling as you got back up and tried to make your way to the entrance.

“Please, stop,” you cried, taking two steps towards the railing before your legs gave out. Heeseung tried to reach out for you again. But you pushed away his hand, the slap of the force making no sound. It was almost humorous how much your torture was one sided, but you had no more energy left to defend yourself.

Heeseung went to grab your wrist, worry etched in his features as your state deteriorated in front of him. You kicked his leg, hot tears staging your cheeks as you sobbed for him to leave you alone, but the more carelessly you moved, the more the large splinter dug into your hand. He begged for you to stop–to let him help you before anything bad happened, but you couldn’t understand through the sound of your own hysterics.

A mix of going days without sleeping, paired with your lack of appetite and delirium left you defenseless no matter how much you tried. You struggled against the ghost of Heeseung’s grip as he tried to stop you from hurting yourself even further. You felt bile in your throat when he was close, and you found the opportunity to yank your arm out of his grip. You underestimated the force, however, and your hand hit the wood behind you. Momentarily distracted, you focused on the blooming pain of the impact and the slowly trailing blood. It was out of body how you couldn’t process the sensation of your fingers tracing the messy wound, and you became a slave to your exhaustion as the boy came back.

You fought against him weakly, the blood from your wound becoming a larger problem the more you used your hands to do anything.

“You don’t get it!” He yelled, tears of his own forming from the anger of having to go against you.

Why couldn’t you just stop? Why did you keep pushing him away? You were selfish, trying to ignore him as if you didn’t understand his predicament. You were the only one who could’ve seen him, and he was the only one who saw you in return. “Even Jungwon doesn’t believe you,” he mumbled bitterly, seeing you slowly slip in and out. “You wouldn’t even help me, ____. It’s all your fault.” He talked as if you could hear him, the life in your eyes gone by the time he wiped his tears and finally looked at you, with your wrist going limp in his hold.

“I don’t get it.” He wept angrily, before getting up and leaving you there on the porch steps in a heap.

Heeseung turned to glance at you again, his semblance of a heart in pain from how things had to end up. “You seemed so nice–so promising. Jungwon swore we could've been friends.”

–

You didn’t know if it was possible to kill a ghost twice. After all, your death turned you into a floating apparition of yourself, as you watched your parents mourn their attempts to shield you from their own fate. Being a ghost wasn’t so horrible, but Heeseung was right; it was lonely.

When a voice calls your name apologetically from where you sit on your rooftop, your gaze settles on him with fury, and the moment you rush over to him and your fingers close around his wrist, you knew that you wouldn’t stop until you properly got rid of Lee Heeseung.

No matter how long it took.

i swear the rest of them will be better. and shorter.

zyvlxqht firstclassjaylee @riribelle @jaylajakey @minfolio @strxwbloody @r1kification @strayy-kidz @mimismenu @jwonistic @haechsworld @machambrx @ririsreverie @hollxe1 @wonnina @heeseungismymanz @cyjhhyj @eunimaybe

#grp: enhypen #mem: heeseung #artist: mygnolia #genre: horror #wc: >1k #warnings: violence #warnings: death #kl: releases

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k-labels · 2 months ago

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↬ NEW RELEASE: 'you make me go crazy over you' (2024) by ren !

YOU MAKE ME GO CRAZY OVER YOU !!

୨୧ -› hey, that boy over there..isn't he the most popular student athlete on campus? how did you two meet, anyway?

pair -› jock/athlete! enhypen x fem! reader | wc -› 3.5k (700 per member) | no warnings! | library

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆ LEE HEESEUNG

im gonna sigh dreamily when i say he’s most DEF basketball captain.

yes ik i wrote about this in wrong number i dont CARE i will say it with my whole chest

DORK DORK DORK but cute dork with lethal face card. smirks after making yet another basket and winks at you

age old question how tf did yall meet!!!

you pass by the gym and some guy on the way stops to talk to you

like “hey i know you from somewhere”

“yes heeseung we were partners from a project two weeks ago how do you not remember..”

he’s embarrassed asf especially because he remembers a lot of people’s names

after that he wants to be in your good graces and be friends

totally not because he remembered how you did a lot of the work for said project no complaints!!

and he doesn’t want you to rat him out to the teacher… or tell other people he’s not friendly

‘hey y/n, come to my game? i’ll do better if you’re there :)”

you go only because you needed to complete an assignment while you were there at school anyways

but sometimes you’d see him laughing with his friends, or how serious he is on court and woah, heeseung looks cool for once

you wait for him after because you figured he needed you for something

“awh, you wanted for me?” “i could be doing much better things.” “awh, come on y/n let’s get some ice cream! my treat since we get to spend time together”

he’s annoying but you let him tag around because he doesn’t bother you LOL

more under the cut!

drags you along when he practices alone so he can have some company

you like the company and the white noise too

you definitely doubt if he likes you because he is SUCH A FLIRT but no he DOES! he writes a confession on a basketball and ‘misses’ so you can catch it

you pass it back without seeing the message

but heeseung keeps missing and it almost hits you on the head and you’re like ‘dude you SUCK hello??” he says ‘oh lol maybe it’s the ball” byee why was he smooth with it!!!!

you check the message and roll your eyes

“if i make this you have to kiss me” you tell him and you’re about to shoot but he picks you up and brings you right next o the next to let you throw it in and then kisses u!!!!

not to be like oh im writing an smau on basketball captain heeseung but.. *tucks hair behind ear*

most definitely tries to be mysterious and cool when you’re dating

dribbles in front of you, trick shots, runs up to you when you’re alone, gives you one kiss between ever basket he makes

teaches you how to play!!!!

ABSOLUTELY lights up when someones mentions you when you two date

“oh yeah my partner in math is ___”

“omg ___?? the love of my life ___??”

you lowk have to drag him away i fear

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆ PARK JONGSEONG

baseball captain *faints*

enhypen x mariners and him speaking in english…so you want me DECEASED

baseball captain jay and you who attends his games because jake aka ur friend on the team knows you have nothing better to do

“i bet you won’t make it even to five games before buying cotton candy” jake says because you have a MASSIVE sweet tooth

you tried really hard because $15 and a burger was on the line

and you kept coming because…well there was a cute captain who always knew how to rally his teammates and get them excited

also great sportsmanship and was super friendly to everyone!

definitely got mad when the umpire makes a wrong call

sharp reaction times. EVEN SHARPER JAW.

of course you stared! of course you were not paying attention to whatever jake was saying about his test after their game..how could you when jay was doing his lopsided smile as his friend pats him on the shoulder from ten feet away??

one time you come early because they’re practicing on the field and you see jay and jake passing to each other

jay just so effortlessly throwing the ball…oh my god

he’s just so perfect and jake cheers from the sidelines because he knows his captain pays attention to every single person who has stepped foot on the baseball field iNCLUDING YOU

you come up to jake after the fourth game, showing him you still had your $5 and your tongue wasn’t stained with any blue or pink

jay comes over, arm thrown around jake’s shoulder as he waves and smiles to you

dark hair with a twinge of sweat as he runs a hand through it, pulling it back to place on his cap

JAY IN A BASEBALL CAP *faints again*

he walks you out to the parking lot and asks what the $5 in your pocket is for because he keeps seeing you pull it out

you explain your whole bet to him and he nods

next game. before it starts. he gets you cotton candy and makes sure it gets to you somehow

you smile and you’re all giddy when you eat it because there’s a p.j. on the cap and he’s just so cute

jake doesn’t say anything he already knows it’s happening between you two.

jay finally writes on a baseball and tells you to catch, and it says ‘let’s date’ and you grab a sharpie and scribble ‘kiss me first’

OH YEAH HE WALKS OVER AND KISSES YOU.

soon every game instead of cotton candy it’s his baseball cap when it’s sunny, his jacket when you’re cold, baseballs with notes on them, and roses for his girlfriend aka youuuuu

jay is such a romantic and he is not afraid to show it

he orders custom jerseys that say jay/n on the back with the day you got together!!!!!

BEST BOYFRIEND EVERRRRRR

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆ SIM JAEYUN

rugby player jake but he has dark long hair let that settle in

campus flirt campus playboy but in reality he doesn’t go on dates and nothing really happens past the smiles, he’s just super popular

you are also pretty well known! a little flirty but super sweet and your charm and how expressive and open you are with other people is what people like!

and he sees you cheering with your friend who he remembers is dating someone from the team

rugby has no gear so he just runs like no tomorrow

smiling in the sun or determined stare as he talks to his team, you never know

he yells either in frustration, victory, or defeat, literally will never be silent

so after a game you follow your friend down to the railing and she has her little moments with her boyfriend

and you and jake kind of awkwardly stand there for a moment

he wipes his sweat off with a towel and smiles at you, cracking the ice

“how long have you had to deal with that?” he points over to them

you shrug and tell him “however long you’ve been dealing with it” he laughs

oh wow his smile when he’s right in front of you is just so pretty

and his little chuckle as he shakes his head and looks back up at you

‘who do you watch on the field?’ he asks, with a little smirk because he likes you

‘whoever catches my attention’ you tell him also smiling

oh its a CHALLENGE. he will make sure to run on the side of the field you’re watching from, winking at you on the field, ugh just everything

you come to a party at the end of the season to celebrate and he sees you

“you came!!” super happy and makes sure you are next to him all the time

“y/n you know the teammates, yeah?” you smile and congratulate them

he leaves to get you a soda/water and jungwon leans in

“jake LOVES to talk about you by the way”

“yeah he always says how pretty you are in the library or in class, he likes when your friend comes because that means you come with her”

heeseung nods, “super into you, no joke”

jake comes back trying to play it off “who’s into y/n?”

you poke at his shoulder and smile, “you” and he’s all bashful and giggly

loves to call himself ‘y/n’s girlfriend’

‘sorry, i can’t i have to buy flowers for y/n’ ‘sorry y/n needs me to help her study’ ‘sorry y/n needs a ride here’ STUCK TO YOUR HIP

ofc he doesn’t abandon his friends but he loves spending time with you :3

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆ PARK SUNGHOON

sunghoon’s reputation proceeds him—cold on the court and just as reserved off of it

ugh he’s so annoying, he always has his bag in the same spot as yours and he always is at the water filling station with hos annoying 32oz bottle before you

also hogs that automatic tennis ball throwing machine like how are YOU supposed to practice tennis too

‘hey i need that’ he furrows his eyebrows and shrugs

‘i was here first’ ‘what are you twelve????’ sunghoon tells you ‘get here earlier next time then

oh yeah. for the next week you ran to the courts everytime to get it before him

one day he sees you and races you to the gates and you beat him

sulky after as if his career is over

definitely varsity and one of the best, but he never approaches girls after his games

one time you go to a men’s game because it’s one of the most anticipated of the season

its neck to neck, third set with 40-adv, sunghoon’s serve

he chases after that ball and sends it over, it barely hits the net and tumbles over, AND HE WINSSSS BRAHHHHH

even if you hate him you will admit that he made the game extremely interesting

you see his friends congratulate him and you notice that he never gets his clothes dirty

always wears white to practice—pristine asf

secretly he loves watching you too

even if you hate him for getting on your nerves some days and almost never doing more than bare minimum, you cannot lie and say sunghoon isn’t a huge inspiration

just as you are to him

sunghoon thinks your tenacity and passion for tennis is what makes you so fun to watch

so even if he has homework, he goes to a game of yours and comes down to the court after the game

bumps your shoulder after, ‘good game, y/n’ and you’re like ?? ‘you’re here?’ and he’s sooo nonchalant when he says ‘of course, i can’t miss a fun game can i?’

there’s a fun mixed doubles tournament for a whole gift basket of things and you come up to him

‘hey let’s pair up’ and he grins

you two play each other for practice and you’ve tied the score so many times you’ve lost count

and sunghoon’s a little annoying but oh lord he’s so attrative??? so maybe he wasn’t THAT annoying…

mixed doubles tourney rolls around and oh yeah. you two win.

you know much he likes natto and you say ‘here you take the natto’ he shakes his head ‘no you eat it all the time’

you two bicker and you say ‘fine lets just share it!’ and to your surprise..he opens the package and just mixes it all in

you two sit and share the natto, then he tells you he thinks you’re pretty cool on court

you raise your eyebrow cuz where is this coming from!! and he rolls his eyes

‘nevermind maybe you’re only bright on the court’

‘hey what’s that supposed to mean!!!’ you take the natto and eat all of it LMFAO and then he pouts because noo his natto!!!

you kiss his cheek. it’s ok everything is ok now he is a happy boy

“you’re my match” you write on a tennis ball pin and he keeps it on his bag like his life DEPENDS on it

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆ KIM SUNOO

THE CUTEST VOLLEYBALL SETTER EVER

i hate to be like oh you’ve had the fattest crush on him for like two months BUT ITS TRUE

you’re on yearbook and you make an excuse to go see sunoo play!!

you two met when you were at a volleyball game and you told him to smile, but he’s one of those guys who says “wait delete that take another one!!”

and ofc you agree, snapping a few cute photos of him

he posts to his social media, tagging you with a cute song saying ‘thanks photographer :3”

and so you it begins, your small little crush on him..

he loves seeing you at his games, always makes sure to wave to you on the court

hey so setter sunoo is insanely good at what he does

so graceful when he places a NASTY setter dump on the other team, a glare shot at one of the other team’s members bad-mouthing him, but a glowing smile as he high-fives all his teammates!

super supportive, and you loveee that about him!! he cares so much about everyone it makes your heart warm

“here, let’s eat together,” you tell him, and you bring him some noodles you made because he said he was craving some

he smiles at you and sits down, beginning to slurp slurp slurp and SCOREEE he loves it

“thanks y/n, let me treat you some time :)” UGH DEAD DEAD

KIM SUNOO KING OF FLOAT SERVES

huge smile on his face when it lands where it needs to, he loves that feeling of satisfaction and soaks up all of your praise after his games are over

he slips out of practice sometimes to see what you’re doing in yearbook, and he’ll take your camera to tell you to smile as he takes pics

someone in your class tells you too to look overfor a photo , so he loops an arm around your shoulders to pull you close and smile

AND OH EM GEE UR LIKE TOTALLY GEEKING OUT OVER IT HELLO??????/

you ask her to print you a copy of it to save in your scrapbook, but sunoo cuts in and asks for another one

“i like seeing you” DEAD IN A DITCH esp when he smiles at you and then runs off to practice before he gets in trouble

so competitive on the court and it makes him a little sulky when he loses

“argh i did so bad today” he’d tell you, but in your eyes hello kim sunoo could do no wrong!! and you share your snacks while reassuring him

he swears tho, “nooo, i had to look cool for you!” and you’re tired of hearing him say and do all of these sweet things and straight up

“why?” “what do you mean, y/n?” “why do you want to look cool for me?” “well i liked you duh!”

but sunoo never wanted to confess, he was too scared he wasn’t good yet at showing you all of his perfect bf traits

WELL HE THOUGHT WRONG!! he’s been perfect from d1 so now he just sneaks in like 40 kisses before every game

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆ YANG JUNGWON

see so jungwon, he’s been a little FLIRTY as of recently.

“you like older guys? but im a younger guy with rhythm” WHAT THE FKSCNHDJFD

whatever. anyways jungwon focuses on badminton like it’s a lifeline

hitting birdies in his sleep would be smth he would do if he could, he loves how aggressive he can be in the sport without moving too much, lots of strategy involved

you come to one of his games because your friend is on the other team, and you want to cheer him on

but jungwon notices you’re literally from his school??

isn’t it weird you’re going to a game for someone on the other team…

so he sets off a plan

he goes to you after the game before your friend can

“hey, how come you don’t support anyone on our team” so straight to the point help

and you tilt your head in confusion because “well i don’t know anyone from the team and you’re all scary”

scary??? jungwon makes it his personal mission to debunk that cuz no one is SCARY

maybe sunghoon but that’s because he’s varsity 1 and the best player within 150 miles but whatever

he makes it his mission to wave to you when he sees you and when he’s sat next to you in one of your classes he’s like yay perf

“you’re the guy from that badminton game huh?” “is that a good or bad thing”

you shrug “whatever you want it to be”

and he asks you to go to his next game but if he wins, you have to support the team and if he loses

and you stare at him like “wtf do i get out of it”

jungwon did NOT think about that

he promises to buy you a snack after

and it’s free food so you can’t complain

you two talk more and he finds out you used to play badminton before you hurt your ankle and wanted to focus on school

so he takes you to practice and gives you one of his expensive rackets

lowk falling in love everytime you laugh and chase the birdie

jungwon pretends to hate chasing after it but he’ll still hit it back even if it’s out of bounds because he doesn’t want to waste your time picking it up

you two sit down and you tell him how fun it was to be able to play, and how much you missed it from your childhood

your school holds a small festival where other school athletes go against your team modified lighting rounds

paired with vendors and fun carnival stands, but the main attractions are always the variety of sports to watch

jungwon is one of the representatives from your school but so is your friend from the other school, so it’s heated when they play

you tie a ribbon around his racket (curtesy of sunghoon for helping you out) and write a note saying “if you do good ill cheer for you”

AND HE WINS. so you keep your end of the bargain and cheer for him after the game is over, giving him a high five and a hug

he walks with you and asks about what you two are BECAUSE THIS IS A DATE this is date behavior

“of course i like you won who wouldn’t”

let’s just say he gives u little kisses all over when you two are alone sigh so cute

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆ NISHIMURA RIKI

he’s been on the soccer team ever since he was a freshman and even before, retaining his cute features and mischievous personality

when you became assistant manager you were scared but your brother heeseung was on the team and your mom told you to look after him at school

and riki takes after heeseung a LOT when they play and heeseung even goes as far as inviting riki over

so riki’s super good at soccer by the time heeseung leaves, but he also has this small crush on you that heeseung’s told you about

you just never said anything because you never had a reason to nor were you uncomfortable with it

but junior year hits and riki comes back from winter break with pitch black hair all styled

also…a lot taller than you. and no more baby fat

and you paid attention to some of it because you saw him for practice, but the hair really did it

during practice he loves to mess with you saying things like “can you fill up my water y/n pleaseeee” “no you have two feet” “ill win the next game against ____ if you get me water” “i’ll kick you off the team if you don’t win”

he sighs and gets up, glaring down at you and you try not to let his playful stare affect you, but SOMETHING was different something was in the air

if riki doesn’t play good, it’s because his team manager aka you is NOT there

you come back the next day to find out he was sulking and didn’t play super well because you weren’t encouraging him

“go run a lap, riki” and HE DOES JUST THAT “go practice on the field by yourself”

“how about you ask me to date you next” he grumbles

and you HEAR him. loud and clear.

but you’re like agh what if he doesn’t mean it what if he’s just joking

at the next game he does super well and you congratulate the whole team

yas team hybe eats

you two are getting ready to go home when he finally brings it up

“you heard what i said on tuesday” and you know exactly what he means

“yep.” “so why didn’t you say anything back” “i didn’t know if you were being serious”

he scoffs “y/n when have i ever not been serious about you”

he opens your door even if he’s passenger princess

makes fun of you for how much closer you need the wheel to be to drive

YAYYYY Y/NKI IS REAL

he loves to drape an arm around your shoulder walking around school

acts as if he’s older when you two are literally the same age HELP

reblogs/interactions are appreciated always!

have some shameless self promo for my spiderman!riki fic!

and my upcoming jake fic!

#grp: enhypen #mem: ot7 #artist: mygnolia #genre: hcs #wc: >1k #warnings: none #kl: releases

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k-labels · 1 month ago

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↬ NEW RELEASE: 'for the rest of my days' (2024) by ren !

FOR THE REST OF MY DAYS

୨୧ -› how enhypen loves you + love languages :)

pair -› enhypen x fem! reader | wc -› 600 | no warnings! | library

lee heeseung loves you before he even realizes it himself. he craves for you when he pushes back your hair and wipes away a smudge of your lipstick before his heart grows incredibly tight. he loves you like it’s second nature, because it’s easy to care for you, but even easier to simply exist around you. he loves you because you bring him comfort, like a warm spring day accompanied by a sprinkle of rain and descending petals. if eternity was a choice, he’d spend the rest of it with you ~ quality time

park jay loves you with quiet ardor, wanting to keep you all to himself. his hands trickle by your waist, his touch as a sign of your proximity, and you feel his breath ghost over your skin when he gets close. jay loves to love you, and he’s happy when you’re happy. he grins at you like you hang up the stars in the night sky, his eyes twinkling with affection whenever you’re around. jay promises that he’d do whatever you want, swearing to run marathons or cross oceans to be with you for a lifetime. ~ acts of service.

sim jake falls hard and fast, tumbling to kiss the earth you stand on (metaphorically!). he loves you like he loves the air and smiles when he sees you anywhere, finding you perfect in every way. people don’t lie when they say jake would be the best boyfriend, because he seeks you out in every crowd like an unspoken lifeline. his gaze always makes sure you're safe and sound; he clings to your touch like it’s law and runs his thumb over your knuckles to soothe your unease, anywhere, anytime. ~ physical touch.

park sunghoon loves you through his reassurance and promises. his pinky connects to yours for the first time when he tells you something unimportant, and yet something in you knew that he was being genuine. he laughs around you like there's no weight on his chest, effortlessly basking in your shared smiles and shared memories. he promises to cherish, appreciate, and love you, and something about the raw devotion of sunghoon's love makes you believe that he will forever be honest with what he tells you--always. ~ words of affirmation

kim sunoo gives himself to you in full, with his heart on his sleeve and his emotions all on display. there's never a dull moment on your mind when you're reminded of all the sheer adoration he holds in his sparkling gaze when he glances over at you. even when your fingers are intertwined and he feels your heartbeat thrum from underneath him, he takes it as a symbol that your love is real, and palpable, and absolute. and knows that he would spend the rest of his time with you, in the quiet of your love. ~ quality time

yang jungwon notices all the little things about you, his lips pursed every time he becomes an observer in your life. he looks out for you in more ways than one--catching you when you stumbling, wiping the condensation off your cup, or covering hard corners in case you don't notice. he cares in his own way, always attentive to how you feel and making sure you're okay; you're safe in jungwon's arms, with a security blanket of love around your shoulders whenever you're with you. and jungwon will always look out for you, no matter what. ~ acts of service

nishimura riki pours his feelings into everything he gives to you. his joy comes from your face when it lights up, and your appreciation for his little gifts is a treasure he holds close to his heart. he's not the best with words, getting flustered when you pour your feelings out for him or when it comes to crafting romantic paragraphs in response, but he’s attentive to everything you gaze settles on. he saves your smiles and pockets your happy moments with him as a reminder that you're content in his embrace, and he craves for you in every room you're not in ~ gift giving

—

love languages don’t exactly pair w the passage it’s more of what love language they have

#grp: enhypen #mem: ot7 #artist: mygnolia #genre: hcs #wc: <1k #warnings: none #kl: releases

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k-labels · 1 month ago

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↬ NEW RELEASE: 'mine to keep' (2024) by ren !

💋 MINE TO KEEP ! park sunghoon

୨୧ -› after your best friend goes viral over his looks, you realize you want the internet to know one thing; he’s yours.

pair -› bestfriend!park sunghoon x fem!reader | trope -› best friends to lovers | warn -› kys jokes, mentions of a confessional, they're both stupid, jjk spoilers (gojo) | REN SAYS.. I HAD SO MUCH FUN WRITING THIS LMFAOO | library

hope u enjoyed hehe i will now be working on my jake fic

#grp: enhypen #mem: sunghoon #artist: mygnolia #genre: smau #wc: none #warnings: language #kl: releases

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k-labels · 1 month ago

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↬ NEW RELEASE: 'turning you into a real catch' (2024) by ren !

TURNING YOU INTO A REAL CATCH!

꩜ .ᐟ in a hopeful attempt to show your ex of three years that you're moving on, you turn to sim jaeyun, aka hybe’s most popular jock, with expectations that he’ll boost your status in your school's social hierarchy. only problem is, jake's gone 18 years without dating, so how do you get him to up his game for his first real girlfriend? this certainly was not on your bucket list!

꩜ .ᐟ PAIR -› soccer player!sim jaeyun x fem!reader

꩜ .ᐟ GENRE -› fluff, banter ꩜ .ᐟ TROPES -› fake dating, strangers to lovers

꩜ .ᐟ WARNINGS -› cursing, kms/kys jokes, stereotypical hs culture bc i am writer

꩜ .ᐟ TAGLIST -› open! comment on this post or send an ask! LIBRARY

꩜ PROFILES .ᐟ ball toucherz | 6ft eco-friendly feminists

00. teaser!

01. business? yeah i stand on that

02. ghosted like a side chick

03. one direction typa over

04. more to be added...

05. more to be added...

꩜ .ᐟ REN SAYS... i'm rlly excited to start this tbh also first non hoon smau like WHO CHEERED???? HELP??? i hope u likey and i actually have a fleshed out idea for this don't play..

꩜ .ᐟ TAGLIST (if you're tagged here you'll be tagged in future chapters!) -› @pinknjm @planetkiimchi @wonsdoll @dreamiestay @dismaldiary @duckling-niki @miszes @50-husbands @jakeyverse @heartheejake @t0asterexe @sirens-dreams @nshmurarki @i03jae @sol3chu @jiyeons-closet @thesassy-mia @tocupid @coqhee @riribelle @heartedmessages @haechsworld

#grp: enhypen #mem: jake #artist: mygnolia #genre: masterlist #genre: smau #genre: fluff #wc: none #warnings: language #kl: releases

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k-labels · 2 months ago

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↬ NEW RELEASE: 'love on a fresh slate' (2024) by ren !

LOVE ON A FRESH SLATE ༄ TEASER

༄ SYNOPSIS -› Sim Jaeyun might not have many critically acclaimed films in his IMBD, but if there’s something to change that, it’s his upcoming film, ‘diving in love,’ a fresh summer romance that’s caught the attention of everyone on the internet. The only problem is, no one believes the chemistry will be up to rom-com standards. Maybe he’ll save his career by fake dating his cold-hearted co-star, aka you, to sell it?

༄ PAIR -› actor!sim jaeyun x fem actress!reader

༄ GENRE -› fluff, banter, angst, comfort ༄ TROPES -› enemies to lovers, fake dating (i LOVE fake dating) ༄ WC -› estimated 15-20k idk lolz

༄ INCLUDES -› will be added!

༄ RELEASE DATE -› hopefully november or december!

༄ REN SAYS... me when summer also haha get it slate cuz they're actors but also it's e2l so misunderstandings heheheh am i funny (im not) | LIBRARY

i don't have a taglist for this fic but feel free to ask to join my permanent taglist! I will add you to the permanent fic taglist but if you'd like to join my permanent smau taglist as well, feel free to ask!

“You’re going to tell me you signed me up for the cult of Scientology, I assume,” You introduce yourself, shaking hands with the man next to Sunoo.

Once again, there is just one empty seat before Jake Sim walks in, out of breath. “Jungwon, please don’t tell me–” He notices you after he barges in, taking in your poised manner as you wait for him to continue. But he doesn’t. The words die on his tongue when he sees you and the same manager from last week's meeting.

“Please don’t tell me what?” Jungwon asks, raising an eyebrow as Jake sinks into the only chair left. The latter shakes his head, not wanting to elaborate any further.

Sunoo sits up, putting his hands together after he finishes the last sip of his drink. “Open up the files, ___.” He motions to the manila folder on the table, and with much confusion, you peel back the cover to find a neat stack of black and white articles.

Jungwon, who you can only assume is Jake’s manager, gets Jake to lean in and read what’s on the pages. “This,” he starts, spreading out the rest of the articles, “is every article in the past week with a negative outlook on whether or not the film will be up to par with the standards of the 2000’s.”

You scoff, eyes trailing over an article with your face as the cover. “Really? People hate me that much?” Your dry humor really only resonates with Sunoo, who sends you a look before trying to organize the flurry of papers.

“I doubt they’ll keep going,” Jake tries, fidgeting with his ring. Maybe his second rich person problem was figuring out how to get the media to like him again if the movie turns into a failure and he has to scour for another source of income.

“Unless I solve world hunger, I doubt the media will turn away from the wine scandal any time soon.” Jake considers dropping out and cutting his losses early with the way you comment on your impending future.

Jake’s manager shakes his head, closing the manila folder and essentially blocking it out before coming up with the worst possible plan in existence.

“You two can fake date. Then, no one will question your chemistry, because they’ll think you’re in love.”

The silence almost turns awkward before Sunoo speaks up in agreement. “I like it, it’ll give them a chance to pretend to bond more. Plus, they’re both young and attractive, and Jake is a change of pace from all of her shitty ex-boyfriends.” If Jake still wanted to jump off a building after hearing their proposition, you’d unknowingly want to join him.

You cough in your arm, hiding the embarrassment of his last comment before nodding to look at your co-star. “You think just because I’m dating someone, it’ll make the movie more watchable?”

Sunoo rolls his eyes. “I’d much rather watch a rom-com if it was confirmed that the actors found love on set. It’s a good story.”

Jungwon interjects. “Good publicity.”

The actor beside you finally speaks up. “And you want to start this arrangement…when?”

“As soon as possible,” your manager answers, and his response might be some of the worst news you’ve heard in a while. “Hear me out, ‘___ ___ and Jake Sim falling in love the moment they’re casted. It’s fate. They’ve been in love since the beginning. I have to see it, their chemistry will be so good.’ ”

Before you nor Jake are able to come up with a rebuttal, Jungwon adds, “I know both of you can act, and even despite this fake relationship, the movie will be good. But if you can get away from the negative thoughts surrounding the film’s pre-release, it’ll generate so much more hype around it.”

“Better for your conscience, ____. You don’t need angry Sunghoon fans sending you anymore death threats.” If Sunoo kept airing out your problems like that, you’d drag him out by the ear without any fake boyfriend in tow.

You really think about it, questioning if one PR stunt could get you out of the nepo baby ditch you’ve been trying to fight for years; it wasn’t even that you were bad at your job, your mother just never had anything nice to say to anyone. If anything, she was Hollywood’s actual mean girl.

“Fine.” You agree begrudgingly.

Jake shrugs and pinches his nose bridge momentarily before sighing. “Where do I sign?”

You thought that Jake had been oblivious to the whole thing as much as you were, until Jungwon fishes out a crisp white sheet of paper from his bag. “You know me so well, and I didn’t even tell you anything.”

Suddenly, the next year of your love life is signed and tucked away into two identical copies for Jungwon and Sunoo, before the two shake hands and smile. “I’m excited for how things will go,” your manager comments before you two leave.

The moment the door shuts behind you, you let out a long exhale, suddenly finding interest in your manicure.

“You’re annoying, Sunoo. But I don’t doubt you.”

The boy smiles and links arms with you, walking to the entrance of the studio building before you both catch wind of the paparazzi.

A swarm of reporters and cameras catch your casual outfit and sunglasses when you emerge with your manager behind you.

Questions bombard you, and you hear amongst the commotion a few reporters who are desperate for their next article to feature you. ‘Is it true that you’ve hated Sunghoon for years?’ ‘What do you have to say about your new film?’ ‘Do you have anything to say about Jake Sim?’

You pause momentarily on the way to your car. “Me and Sunghoon have never had a disagreement, and I know he appreciated the Prada we sent him a few weeks ago.” Smiling at the memory, you choose to answer a few more questions before you have to go. “As for the new film? I’m fairly excited. Me and my boyfriend are more than ready to be filmed together."

The gasps from the crowd leave you content as you slip into your car with Sunoo. “But don’t tell anyone I’m dating!” You yell out for good measure, knowing that by morning, everything will have changed.

#grp: enhypen #mem: jake #artist: mygnolia #genre: teaser #genre: fluff #genre: angst #wc: >1k #warnings: none #kl: releases

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k-labels · 16 days ago

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↬ NEW RELEASE: 'fic or treat' (2024) by ren !

MYGNOLIA'S 2024 “FIC OR TREAT!”

୨୧ -› as the new girl in a small town, you don't settle in the same way everyone else does. a group of boys with a bit more than what meets the eye is ecstatic to make you feel just at home, all on the night of the biggest party of the year; halloween.

CONTAINS: HORROR, MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH, FRENZY, MANIPULATION, VIOLENCE, SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS .

walk through the woods with caution. all works are fiction.

if you read more than one installment, read jungwon's last.

lee heeseung wants you to know, he’s really sorry for what he did.

THE TALE GOES...park jongseong sees himself as monster crafted from mistake all days of the year except for one. and when you’ve come to like him with and without his disguise, he puts a little too much trust into your newfound friendship. only problem is, jay has plans to stay in this town—even if he’s not human. even if it means removing you from it.

park jongseong wants you to know, you need to keep quiet next time.

THE TALE GOES...jake lives for the chase, and when there’s no one around in the quiet of your town, he roams free. the unfortunate problem is, you start rumors of horrible accusations towards him and his kind, and he’s bothered beyond belief. and what happens when you dress up as red riding hood, boasting about how you won’t get eaten on halloween night?

sim jaeyun wants you to know, you should’ve kept your mouth shut.

THE TALE GOES...sunghoon’s gone years without a drop of blood on his tongue, and even the last time was an accident—he swears. when he meets you at the one and only party on halloween night, there’s something about your attempt to run away that makes him snap, wanting to try everything from a pierce in your jugular.

park sunghoon wants you to know, at least one of you went home smiling that night.

THE TALE GOES...sunoo can’t stay away from the pier, and apparently, neither can you. while you’ve always been drawn to the water, sunoo’s reliant on it, observing from afar and striking when the urge resonates within his vocal chords. he just couldn’t help himself—after all, you told him you wanted to take a dive that halloween night.

kim sunoo wants you to know, he only did what you asked him to.

THE TALE GOES...riki claws through the inevitable for the search of vigor that's spurred him. something about him sets you off, and although you both know you're planning for escape through the trees, for someone so...undead, riki's not as brainless as you think.

nishimura riki wants you to know, he came back because you were worth it.

THE TALE GOES...jungwon’s clever, but there’s someone who uncovers his tracks one at a time. you’re a newcomer at his party, and he always notices when someone digs a little too closely into his life. as both a blessing and a curse, your presence around his house leaves him with no choice but to take what’s precious to you.

yang jungwon wants you to know, don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong.

REN SPOOKS...WE'RE SO BACK WITH A HORROR HALLOWEEN EVENT????? also!! debating on not telling you what the supernatural figure each member is to see if you can guess, obviously some more easy than others, but i hope this is fun!!!

FIC OR TREAT TAGLIST -› OPEN. IF YOU ARE TAGGED IN THIS MASTERLIST, YOU WILL BE TAGGED IN ALL INSTALLMENTS.

#grp: enhypen #mem: ot7 #artist: mygnolia #genre: masterlist #genre: horror #genre: au #wc: none #warnings: violence #warnings: death #warnings: language #kl: releases

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k-labels · 3 months ago

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↬ NEW RELEASE: 'late night when you need my love' (2024) by ren !

LATE NIGHT WHEN YOU NEED MY LOVE | l. heeseung

୨୧ -› when the distance is long and the fondness too great, you ask your boyfriend, heeseung, for a simple favor.

pair -› idol!heeseung x idol!reader | trope -› established relationship | wc -› 480 | library

you’re lucky he’s on tour not so far away from you, and when he comes back from tonight’s concert, he’s exhausted. while your group was working on recording songs for your upcoming comeback, heeseung had been touring the world with his members, and during your free time, you calculated the best times to call each other, even if it wasn’t every night.

one ring. two rings. “hi, baby,” you murmur, smiling unknowingly when you hear him pick up.

“hello my love.” heeseung finds his heart pounding, as if it were the first time he met you again. “how was your day?”

and you tell him all about the vocal training, about how you love your new song and your concept, and about how some of the photos you took in the studio might be your best ones yet, and how you’d show him when you get the chance.

he chuckles, feeling sleep drag him down as he changes and gets ready for bed. “you’re always beautiful, angel. i’m excited to see them when they come out.” you feel heat rise to your face, never not flattered by your boyfriend’s kind words.

“and you, love? how was the tour?” you can hear the tiredness in his voice, and hope that he catches enough sleep tonight.

“our stop was so energetic,” he gushes, slipping into bed as he tells you all about the fanbase he adores so much. “i was so happy to perform, they always seem to love our songs, but i’m also glad to talk to you now.” and you continue to talk to him about the little things, feeling yourself also grow sleepy as the phone counts minutes upon minutes of your call.

“sleep, baby.” he says, turning over. his heart melts when you whine about wanting to stay on the phone with him longer, until he forces you to tell him about how your schedule looks for tomorrow. “shhh, how could i help from all the way over here, hm?” he responds, laughing quietly when you ask for the impossible task of him showing up to cuddle you to sleep.

“sing for me, yeah?” you ask, a honey-sweet feeling in your voice, and heeseung can’t deny you.

he sings quiet enough to not disturb the other members who are minding their own business before bed, and you feel yourself slipping into dreamland when he starts to sing the unreleased ballad he wrote himself, as well as a few others that ENHYPEN had previously released.

and when the line goes quiet, heeseung smiles to himself, his chest filling with care for you. and although you are hundreds of miles away from each other, he sends his love, even if it’s through the line.

#grp: enhypen #mem: heeseung #wc: >1k #genre: fluff #warnings: none #artist: mygnolia #kl: releases

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k-labels · 2 months ago

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↬ NEW RELEASE: 'to weave my love' (2024) by ren !

to weave my love ⭒ n. riki

⭒ SYNOPSIS -› Riki is good at many things- dancing, making fun of his friends, playing it cool (debatable.), Hell- he’s even good at saving people from falling buildings without getting whiplash. But the things he’s bad at? Well, it’s asking you out to prom, and trying to balance the shared assignment he has with you…while being Spider-man.

⭒ PAIR -› spiderman!nishimura riki x fem-pres!reader

⭒ GENRE -› fluff, banter, action ⭒ TROPES -› classmates to lovers, idiots to lovers ⭒ WC -› 17k (i’m sorry idk why either.)

⭒ INCLUDES -› SPOILERS FOR GREAT GATSBY, cursing, non-graphic injuries (reader discretion advised), yes i made the patching up with first aid kit trope SUE ME!! takes place in a busy city similar to new york never specified, reader is rich, jake and heeseung are seniors and riki’s a junior, is riki stupid? yes… jake reveals stuff because he is also a little silly, reader wears a red dress!

⭒ GREAT GATSBY -› basically jay gatsby has this weird amt of money but no one rlly knows how he got it (nefarious reasons) and hes been in love with this girl daisy for five years but then she got married to tom buchanan but he gets rich so he can get the house across from her and wistfully watch her and he pines after her like CRAZY but he dies at the end

⭒ REN SAYS...special huge fat kiss to thena @sensitively-taken you will be in the will when im a millionaire THANK YOU for helping me with so much of this I WUV U AND I WLL BE WAITING FOR UR HUENING FIC!!! | LIBRARY

NISHIMURA RIKI MIGHT DIE FROM PRE-ADULTHOOD STRESS, IF THAT’S EVEN A THING.

What exactly does Riki have to worry about as a seventeen-year-old junior in high school? Right now, his most daunting responsibility is catching up on the chapters of The Great Gatsby because the only thing Riki’s actually read from the novel is that the main character shares a name with his best friend and senior, Park Jay. His second most daunting responsibility is handling the fact that with the new seating chart in his Literature class, it means he’s sitting next to the object of his very subtle affections, you.

See, the problem with having a crush on you is that Nishimura Riki’s committed to thinking that you’re way out of his league, and unfortunately, the boy believes that almost too well. Not only are you minted beyond his wildest dreams (having seen your posts on social media), but you’re hardworking, helpful, and dedicated to your role as student body treasurer. He’s already understood that you’d never go for a guy like him. Maybe someone more like Park Sunghoon, whose parents’ salary matches yours. If Riki lived in a rural estate with generational wealth, handling the whole ‘Spider-Man’ thing might be a bit easier for him, considering he wouldn’t have to try so hard in school. It might even change the fact that Riki dealt with some alleyway criminals last night and is currently catching up on lost sleep, as your English Literature teacher goes on and on about a project on the book you’re reading.

In class, and even sometimes outside of the classroom, your small tendency to not pay attention to your surroundings has landed you in some awkward situations—like now.

“I don’t really tell anyone this, but I hate Daisy.” And instead of getting a response, you glance over to see Nishimura Riki slumped on the desk. Without trying to make preconceptions about what could land him in a situation like this, you poke his arm, stifling a smile at how his eyes widen when you’ve caught him rubbing the very obvious sleep from his eye.

“Sorry,” he whispers, still fighting the post-nap grogginess, “Did I miss anything?”

(Nope.)

Shaking your head, you return your attention to your teacher as he continues to answer questions. The second Mr. Yoo assigned a report, you wanted to die even more considering the work you had to do on top of the impending due dates. But for it to be partnered? And for you to get seated and paired with the one boy who's known for not caring about school? Maybe things are a little stacked against you, but there has to be a reason why Riki’s somehow still passing all his classes…right?

Considering it’s the last assignment about the book, you’re glad that you already read it so many times to know what you want to put into words. And in retrospect, answering a few open-ended questions about it can’t be that hard—the hardest part would be getting your partner to stay awake in class.

A small tap at your side makes you turn to face Riki, who you see has frantically written a page full of notes about the project in the past three minutes and how he can succeed. “Can you go over the first part? Sorry…I was…y’know.”

“It’s a partner project. And we’re partners.” You wince at the awkward wording.

Great! Riki was caught sleeping and that was your first impression of him for your paired assignment? Riki feels so stupid in front of you right now—in front of your meticulous notes with annotations and proper highlighting. He wants to curl up into a ball when he sees you glance over at his haphazard attempt to look like he was paying attention when, in truth, he was trying to remember the dream he had just ten minutes prior. When you offer him a small smile and nod, leaning over with your notebook in hand, he sighs in relief, thanking whoever it was that let him get away with his naps without the consequence of irritating you afterwards.

The bell rings when Mr. Yoo stops talking, and you pause, startled by the sound. Instead of leaving, however, you pack your bag and shuffle to his side of his desk, continuing to parrot details about your report in hopes that it all makes sense. You need to make sure he knows what he’s doing.

“I think one of the questions he mentioned was like ‘Is Gatsby a good person?’ and do you remember how in Chapter Eight…” The rest gets zoned out and forgotten in the boy’s head, because he in fact does not know what happened in Chapter Eight. He doesn’t know what happened…in any part of the book. But he agrees anyway, pretending like he understands what scene you’re trying to explain. What he notices is how thorough and dedicated you are towards ensuring he comprehends what you’re explaining, and although it could be because you don’t want him to fail you both, he chooses to believe you’re doing it because you tolerate him.

You’re so engrossed in covering all the little details and telling him random tidbits regarding the book that you don’t realize your feet have made it all the way to the cafeteria. “But here, let me get your number. I’ll totally explain more over text.”

Riki is definitely not freaking out when he silently grabs his phone and hands it to you with the contact page, staring a little longer than necessary at the cute smiley face you added to your name. “Thanks,” he mumbles, forcibly tearing his eyes away from the ten digits of your number, “For helping me with this, too.”

“Of course! The Great Gatsby is a fun read for me. A little hard to read sometimes because of some of the characters, but still easy to understand.” And Nishimura RIki realizes that he has to do well. He’ll read the book five times over if it means gaining your approval.

Jake notices something a little different about the tuft of black and blonde hair when his friend walks in. The first thing is that he’s actually here, and that you’re next to him, smiling. The boy rubs his eye to make sure he’s not dreaming somehow, but when he looks up again, you’re waving goodbye and joining your friends across the room.

“Did you get hit with something while fighting a villain that makes you more bold? I feel like I just saw you and ____ talking,” Jake starts when Riki finally joins him with his lunch.

Riki laughs, shoving Jake’s head out of embarrassment and opening his chips. “It’s just school. Got some project in English and she says we’re partnered.” He looks over at his friend chuckling, rolling his eyes at how Jake pokes at his side and wiggles his eyebrows.

“I better hear you two are dating by next week.”

“Who’s dating by next week?” Heeseung places his bag of food in front of them and takes a seat, opening the fast food he got last period and stuffing a fry in his mouth.

“Riki and ____. Let me have one,” Jake answers, reaching inside the bag.

Heeseung looks over at his junior curiously. “You asked her out?” And the two older students hear a groan from the boy in question.

“Me and ____ aren’t anything, for your information.” He prods at the vegetables on his tray and takes a bite before a look of displeasure washes over his face. “You’re both way too excited for two guys who do not have girlfriends.”

“Hey! You know the girl I’m always fighting with is the reason why I’m single. I have to focus on studying to do well in school to do better than her.” Heeseung’s whining falls on deaf ears as Riki smiles victoriously, seeing how defensive the former got.

Jake offers him a shrug of defeat. “I got nothing.”

The three of them fall into normal conversation and Riki finally explains everything that happened during English. “So you’re telling me your plan to ask ____ out went down from 18 months to 6?” And with a nod from the younger, they both groan once more. Heeseung exclaims, “We’re both going to graduate, dumbass. Make the plan go down to like…two months? Please?”

Jake cuts in before Riki has a chance to respond. “Make it one and a half, so we can see you with a prom date before leaving forever.”

“You act as if you’re going to die after graduation. It’s like you’re begging to be a super senior.”

And they’re silenced immediately.

“Do you think the guy I was with earlier hates me?” you ask on the other side of the room. Minjeong stares at you blankly, waiting for your explanation. “I don’t know if you saw when I walked in but I was talking to this really tall guy with blonde hair and black tips. He seemed really out of it, like he kept staring at me and nodding. I think I scared him off by talking about the book too much.”

Sunghoon, who is also listening in, opens his neatly packed lunchbox and begins mixing his noodles. “I think you did scare him off, ____.”

“Not helping,” Minjeong interjects, “Just talk to him more and maybe he’ll warm up to you. You two sit together in class anyways, so hopefully he’ll talk more?”

“I know him,” Sunghoon comments, “Well, sort of. I’m friends with Jake who’s friends with Riki, and it seems like all that boy does is sleep.”

“Maybe he’s really good at subconscious in-class comprehension?” you try, taking a bite of your sandwich. “I just hope it doesn’t interfere too much with treasurer stuff.”

NISHIMURA RIKI MIGHT DIE IF HE SWINGS INTO ANOTHER WALL AT 100MPH LIKE HOW HE ALMOST DID TONIGHT.

All he’s had on his mind since school ended till now is how he should probably text you, if he really discarded the slimy acid monster from last week properly, and when the prom theme is going to be released, but there’s something amiss that confuses his spidey-senses and makes Riki much more alert.

He snaps out of whatever train of thought he had before, focusing on the situation at hand and looking around to follow his instinct. Riki cautiously plants himself on the side of a random apartment building to get a sense of what's going on. A tingle of some sort of in the air permeates the material of his suit and leaves him shivering from the cold.

He doesn't like it one bit.

Moving to the side of the building to the top, the boy finally catches a glimpse of something when he gets a decent view of the city and highway systems. Riki knows something’s wrong with the bridge the closer he gets. He zips from one side of the tall, metal tower to the other, crawling down on all fours making sure he isn’t caught. He feels the electric feeling once more, only amplified. It runs up his spine and he wants to slap it, almost like a frantic, summertime bug. The air around him is charged with something he has never recognized before. With a puzzled expression under his mask, Riki continues to investigate the surrounding area.

Riki finds a lone figure with some sort of attachment to his left arm, like a long glove made out of metal. The bulkiness of it seems to have no impact on his body as the man fiddles with the contraption, and the boy watches with bated breath as the machine fizzes and spurts with electricity. It begins to glow as power concentrates on his plated palm and the superhero sees it for the first time. It’s like a fizz, like a match striking at fire only to produce a quick burst of friction, but it almost feels liquid when he watches the person play with the flickering blue ball of electricity. It dances in the dark in a hauntingly beautiful way, with bolts jutting out from the metal as it spurts and buzzes with a life-like manner.

A spark.

“Hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” The sound of Riki’s voice from the end of the bridge causes the stranger to look up with wide eyes. Although Riki fully expects it to simply enhance strength or block damage, the immediate strike of blue that flies straight towards him is anything but defensive. With a yelp, he jumps away, this time refusing to show himself.

What the hell was that?

He knows he should go back down there to change things and get the person and the metal pieces away before it escalates, but when he goes back down to watch, it's ten times worse. The bright blue illuminates the scarred face of the villain as he’s picked up the metal arm–but this time, it’s no longer clunky and sparking, but fused into his arm.

Riki’s face pales at the sudden change before his body acts on its own and he shoots out a web to stop the man.

The villain is shocked by the intrusion, but quickly yanks free from the webbing and flicks another bolt of electricity, one that flies much faster now that the metal flows into the arm instead of simply resting on the skin. It’s unlike something Riki has ever seen, something that is so controlled in motion and yet so erratic in nature, and it instills a deathly fear when it grazes his arm he hisses in pain. The sharp feeling springs Riki into action as he jumps away. He’s lucky another bolt isn’t sent his way, seeing how the villain’s too busy marveling at the power of his new gadget.

“You know that fucking hurts, right?” He yells out, cupping his wound. “Maybe leave the gadgets to the kids!”

The man scoffs. “It better have hurt. I sacrificed half my body for this to work.”

“But why?” All Riki wants is answers. Some sort of explanation.

The man charges up yet another bolt, almost like a laser gun is built into the machine. “Less talking, more running, Spiderman.”

That scared the shit out of him.

The boy doesn’t have time to think as he jumps out from the dark tunnel to the bridge and up the metal towers—he hates having to fight with people right below. The villain follows in pursuit, almost crumbling the metal with his engineered arm as he hoists himself quickly. Riki continues to jump between the structure to avoid the flashes, trying to get out and apprehend the man as quickly as possible. When he reaches the top, however, he feels death is near as he glances down at the villain below who’s quickly gaining on him. He shoots out webs to slow him temporarily, letting himself fall and swing from the side of the tower to escape.

What he doesn’t see on the way across the bridge is the flash that misses his cheek and hits his thigh instead. It burns, and mid-air, Riki gives the wound a quick assessment before he lands on the metal, immediately forcing his body to climb. While dealing with his wound, he fails to notice the villain swinging from the bridge support lines to meet him.

He needs to end this fast before he becomes burnt toast.

Riki doesn’t often rely on instinct to carry him, but he can tell that the villain he’s facing isn’t just a criminal.

“Land another hit, would you?” he tries to say, his voice strained from the pain in his arm and leg. It doesn’t do much to deter the man in front of him as the arm continues to destroy and bend the metal on the way up. “What are you going to do now, Sparky?”

The man says nothing, charging energy into his metal glove again before aiming and focusing on the target: him.

Riki jumps off, not able to properly land his web in the right spot as he goes from one section of the bridge to the other. The man behind him looks enraged at the boy’s attempt to escape—so much so that he reaches out with his normal hand to try to grasp the suit when Spider-Man swings past him. Instead of the feeling of fabric, the villain feels sticky spider fluid on his fingers. Riki shoots out a web, one that curls around the villain’s wrist and drags him off the tower. Instead of being able to launch him into the surrounding waters, the man slips from the poorly shot-out webs and falls from mid air into the sea of frantic cars, including one semi truck that collides directly with his arm. In the air, the boy winces when he hears honks and shouts from the impact, hoping it’s the last time he’ll have to witness it.

With his gaze trained on the falling figure, the weakly attached web breaks, and Riki all of a sudden starts falling down as well. He curls up defensively before bracing for impact, curling into himself when he feels the metal dent and the truck driver scream from outside of the parked vehicle, the body of the villain right in front of it.

Riki staggers, holding onto his arm and thigh the best he can before getting up. With wobbly steps and a small jump, he lands near the unconscious man, whose metal arm is cracked and fizzling—something that Riki knows is bound to leave more scars.

“Call the police. I’ll get rid of the pieces.” Although Riki wants to figure out who the criminal is and make sure he’s properly apprehended, the gashes in the boy's limbs leave him winded and exhausted. With hot metal scraps bound together by webbing in his hands, Riki swings out and dumps it somewhere rural, trying his best to cover the pieces with the pounding headache that

Riki revisits the secluded spot under the bridge, looking for clues to the man’s identity, and his expression falls when he notices a lanyard dangling near a trash can.

His name, his position, and the company. FLiGHT Corp. The company name caught the boy’s eye, and he pockets the item before leaving.

It seemed like he was a normal research scientist, but Riki’s recollection of the scars and tattered skin leaves him retracting his last thought. He heard something about the failure of a time travel machine at FLiGHT, and if the mass of the incident was anything to go by, he was in the center of it.

No matter how many times Riki tries to get it out of his head, on the way home, all he can think about is the inexperience he displayed and the lack of response he gave Riki during the whole time. But Riki can’t bring himself to really take away someone’s life—and maybe for that, he’s a horrible superhero.

He knows he should stop the man before it's too late, and especially with how many self-proclaimed villains there have been, it's not easy to see so many innocent people ruin their lives chasing a power that inevitably consumes them. He knows it’ll only get worse if he lets them run free.

And while the superhero has never been fully honest with himself, there are many times where Riki hates his role as Spider-Man, and wishes that he was just some teenage boy who didn't have the lives of others in his palm. He wishes he didn't have to sacrifice so much to stay behind a mask—and he wonders deep down if there’s anyone else who felt the same.

His swings lead him across the city above hundreds of lives he has to protect, and he tries to find some semblance of peace. He thinks about how he has his homework due despite having just risked his life, he thinks about how your project is going—and about you.

In the night under the stars, Nishimura Riki wishes for something just a bit normal. He wishes a good night for himself, but also for you, wherever you could be.

NISHIMURA RIKI MIGHT DIE FROM TRYING TO READ THIS BOOK IN ONE NIGHT.

The Great Gatsby is exactly like how you described it; a little hard to get through but fun with the plot’s eccentric characters. He’s pretty sure he could’ve just used a detailed SparkNotes explanation for the book, but having a crush can make someone do weird things. And in Nishimura Riki’s case, his infatuation has got him reading a novel about morally-skewed characters and rich society to impress you.

When you come into class barely on time, Riki gives you a confused look when you sit down, but doesn’t comment on it any further. Instead, he takes out his book and tries to act like his eyes weren’t closing shut from exhaustion by the time Daisy was finally confessing how she loved Gatsby.

The moment Mr. Yoo stops talking, however, Riki isn’t asleep—much to your surprise. He has his book out, pages filled with sticky notes and a whole section of his notebook dedicated to characters (written in bright red to keep him awake) and their traits.

“I got it.” It’s the first thing he says when you two are left to do in-class work. It’s ominous, and maybe a little too enthusiastic in a high school literature class for a boy who doesn’t even care that much for school, but you’ll accept it with open arms if it means you get a helping hand on your project.

“Continue,” you tell him slowly, leaning back in your chair to listen to him. And you don’t know why, but a small part of you thinks that the boy who sleeps every period the book was discussed wouldn’t have much to say or contribute to such an open-ended prompt, but life is full of surprises.

What you fail to notice is how Riki is nervous and his stomach does at least twenty flips before he swallows dryly and starts rambling in hopes to impress you and redeem himself from his embarrassing slumber a few days ago.

“So you know how our prompt is based on one character and basically all their actions?” he asks, and you nod, absentmindedly thumbing a sheet in your journal. “I’m thinking we should talk about Jay Gatsby because so much is revealed to us about him that we might as well use it to our advantage. Y’know, talking about how the theme of exploitation and secrets is veiled under Gatsby’s desire for Daisy.”

“You don’t think Gatsby’s a good character?” Riki wants to tell you that Gatsby is more relatable than good or bad, but he shakes his head.

“I mean, not really.” He feels like with those four words, he’s completely changed the trajectory of his relationship with you from a positive slope to completely downhill—and a wave of panic washes over him. “Should I? I mean, I could see him as more redeemable if you gave me examp-“

You wave your hand to quell his worries. “To be honest, I don’t like him either. But he’s an interesting main character to write about, so I think we should go with your idea.”

To win your approval feels like he’s won at least three fights against a villain in a row without getting any bad injuries—it feels good. And for the rest of the period, you are able to finish a detailed outline of your work for the next few weeks, mapping out sections for each other, and he even gets to see a part of prom planning on a word document you had open. He considers your shared productivity a win when he packs up and bids you goodbye before leaving for lunch.

One wave doesn’t catch Riki’s attention from across the room. Not even two, or three calls of his name could get Nishimura Riki out of his thoughts, and Jake frowns before moving up in the lunch line.

“Something’s caught your eye again.” Jake feigns innocence and sighs dramatically as he places the food down next to Riki’s plate. “Could it possibly be our school treasurer?” Jake laughs, leaning over to catch a glimpse of what’s got his friend so entranced and non-responsive.

Riki scrunches his nose, annoyed, but never breaking his gaze from where you’re sitting. “We talked in class–like, a lot,” is all he says, paying his friend no mind. “She’s genuinely so understanding.”

“God, I don’t think you can be any more down bad for her than you are right now.” Jake picks at his food, and despite his concentration directed towards the olives on his pizza, he’s able to dodge the flying loaded nacho that goes his way, even if he wasn’t the one with superpowers.

“Can you shut up?” Riki grumbles, laying his head on his arms as he notices you smile and point to something. “I just got pummeled into a semi truck last week. Let me have this before I die tomorrow.”

“Very grim,” his friend notes, ruffling the younger’s hair, “I think this is exactly what all of those mental health assemblies that we get are for.” And Riki basically tunes him out, too tired to fight and too used to the teasing remarks to come up with anything useful in response.

Riki sits up a bit, letting his head rest on his propped elbow as he looks at the school food and touches another nacho gingerly. “Y’know, I read the book for English so she wouldn’t think I’m an idiot.”

His friend snickers, successfully pulling out yet another sliced olive from the cheese, much to the disgust of Riki. “She probably already thinks you’re an idiot.”

The superhero debates throwing another cheesy nacho in Jake's face, before deciding to eat it instead. “Don’t say that asshole! You make it seem like I have no chance with her.”

Jake shoots him an exasperated look that makes Riki break eye contact. “That’s because you don’t.”

“I’ll prove to her that I’m worth her time.” Riki says somewhat wistfully, still stealing glances from a few tables away. “Maybe I’ll ask her out to prom, show up in my suit. Do that cheesy upside down kiss shit people say Spiderman does.” When his friend raises an eyebrow at him, Riki shrugs. “I will! Well-maybe not the Spider-Man thing, but prom definitely.”

Jake continues to look at him unconvinced as he takes a bite out of a slice of pizza with mangled cheese. “You barely talk to her in class and you think you can ask her out to prom as Nishimura Riki?” And the younger grins, eyes still stuck on how your eyes crinkle and how your shoulders shake with laughter.

“Yup.” And his fate is sealed, just like that.

“What’s your project about, anyways? Didn’t you tell me last night that she gave you her number? Must be pretty serious if she wants to text you.” Riki furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head.

“It’s just tying the theme of the book to one character and writing about how they show it. So we did the theme of money and Gatsby, because it’s easy and mentioned so many times.”

Jake gawks. “You must really like her,”

“I was planning to read it regardless of who I was partnered with.”

“Okay- that’s debatable.” There goes another one of Riki’s nachos.

“Gross.”

He thinks things are going pretty well for you two. The report is being written and your quotes are basically finding themselves, so Riki should give himself a pat on the back for pitching the initial idea for how to go about your assignment. Maybe reading the whole book offered him a few useful pointers, and he goes to sleep that night satisfied with your progress. Maybe Heeseung and Jake were right—maybe he could finally ask you out by prom.

NISHIMURA RIKI MIGHT DIE TRYING TO SAVE THE CITY FROM YET ANOTHER MONSTER TERRORIZING THE STREETS.

He wakes up the next morning, not expecting his alarm to alert his senses to danger. It rings in his head and makes him feel delirious, trying to shake sleep off as he looks out the window for any visible sign of what's wrong. If he could hear the danger in his head then that meant someone could be hurt, and he could go to school without a few hours of sleep if he worked fast enough, right?

Riki slips into his suit without much thought and goes to crack his window open, only to look back at his clock and read the horrific time of 6:23AM.

Who the hell picks a fight with a teenager at this ungodly time?

Then, he shoots from his wrists, once, twice, and suddenly, he's off, covering more ground through the air in just three seconds than he ever could while walking or running for minutes on end.

The source of his tingling spidey-sense is some large metal centipede creature that was setting off car alarms in a neighborhood near the market. Thankfully, no one was really awake to be caught in the crossfire, but he has to figure out how the hell he's going to catch that thing in...he checks his watch…twenty minutes?

Hopefully, his instinct will help him win this time—again.

The web he shoots out does nothing to stop the monster, and considering how it connected them both, the threads only drag the superhero to the edge of the building he was initially watching from. With some yelling and pulling, he finally detaches, and realizes that the odd sizzling feeling in his bonds must be from the same source as a few days ago; Spark.

He had this gut feeling that a villain as strong as him wouldn’t have been destroyed so easily, but his wounds were so deep and the blood loss so bad from a few nights ago that he couldn’t have truly dumped him in the ocean without fainting or suffering something permanent, and although Riki hoped things in the universe would work itself out, the presence of the giant fifty foot insect alone is proof that things were not in his favor.

He jumps off the building onto another, working quickly as he strings up a few webs between the houses as a wall for the monster, watching it slide and knock over cars in its wild pursuit. The monster spends a few seconds breaking down the wall of webbing and climbing over it, the many legs easily breaking through. As the superhero jumps across buildings and keeps track of the centipede’s movement, he has no idea why it isn’t going for him, and that makes his job much harder without the attention of the monster. One glance at the direction the centipede is headed in sets off another ding in Riki’s head—but this time, it finally clicks why the centipede is headed away from the boy.

It’s attracted to the power plant.

Riki immediately jumps and swings off of a lamp post, using the momentum of gravity and the force of his swing to propel him faster than the slithering creature. Squinting, he holds out his fist and points his pointer and pinky out, following the movement of the centipede as he aims.

Bam.

He sends clusters of silky white threads down precisely at the first pair of legs to pin it down. The webs stop the creature momentarily, and Riki doesn’t have time to watch how the body shrinks up and fizzes out with blue shocks as it tries to wiggle loose and malfunctions. This fight would be over soon, and the boy smiles when he jumps down to shoot more webs to apprehend the centipede. It wiggles and sends electricity out through parts of its body, trying to pry itself out. He expects it to simply be a robot of sorts following a mission considering its avoidant behavior, but as he approaches the tail, the monster suddenly swings at Riki, and its mass and speed is incomparable to the boy’s reaction speed.

Riki lands into a tree and someone’s garage, feeling the crumbling wall falling all over him and the sudden pain blooming in his lower back.

This fight will, in fact, not be over soon.

With his superhuman abilities, Riki grabs onto the metal of the car beside him to hoist himself up, coughing from the dust, and jumping over the rubble to see how quickly the centipede creature can get out, without regard for his current state. The sound and rumble of the giant monster is all he needs to know that the traps are effective, but not at the previous capacity.

The plan is simple: apprehend the legs and crush the head, where Riki assumes the decision-making and programming is taking place. But the monster’s angry and erratic actions throw a wrench in his plan. Its legs move faster, digging into the cement and leaving ruin in its wake as it continues down the road. While both the villain and superhero are fast, the distance between the power plant is finite—and only grows smaller and smaller.

Although Riki can feel the bruises coming, he runs and swings, hearing the wind in his ears as he catches up to the centipede in no time. He tries the same tactics again–aim, shoot, stick, all the while keeping his distance. Although the monster’s body spans incredibly long, and should carry an immense amount of weight, the way it snaps at Riki’s flying body and sends shockwaves through his core leaves him shivering as his body slams into the ground, coughing. It hurts all over, and it feels like there’s weight on his eyes when he tries to open them and get up. His head is spinning as he staggers onto his knees, clutching his chest as he watches the centipede shrivel and crackle.

It seems like the voltage produced is a double-ended sword, one that burns up the centipede body as much as it deals damage, and with the way the mutant creeps towards the electricity of the plant, Riki gets the feeling there’s a magnetic pull that forces the mutant to continue to crawl even against its instinct to stop.

Despite his waning strength, however, Riki knows better than to half finish the job like last time. He creates a net from experience, weaving together the thickest and most durable threads to trap the entirety of the slowly approaching creature. It seems to crawl slowly up the makeshift barrier, knocking its head against the white and spreading the bright blue waves of its energy throughout. The boy watches as the thin white mass absorbs all of it and clings to the creature. It works, finally, after his attempts to nullify its movements, and he knows that despite the ache in his every step, the almost mummified centipede that hangs between several roofs for all the neighbors to gawk at is his sure sign of victory.

All he remembers is hearing a familiar call of his hero name before his legs give out and his head hits Jake’s chest.

Holy fucking shit is the first thing Riki thinks when he wakes up.

He’s not out of his tattered suit and he feels grimy all over, but his body has done wonders in reducing the otherwise fatal injuries he got. No human body should be able to withstand two energy-filled blasts, but his suit and superhuman healing are of greater help than ever in alleviating the damage from his wounds.

He knows why he’s in his bed with bandages thrown over his open wounds. He knows that every time something like this happens, it’s Jake who shoos away the concerned civilians, telling them he’s a medic. Jake is not a medic—rather, he’s a seventeen year-old boy who knows about his friend’s double life and with all the times he’s saved Riki, someone might as well dub him the greatest medic of all time.

The clock on his bedside table has only served as a bearer of bad news. He looks over to see how it’s practically midday, and he’s missed yet another day of school from fighting crime. He’s in no condition to get up or get his bag, seeing how his hair is frizzy and his cheek has a cut that would warrant questioning. It seems only fair that he stays absent, and before he falls back asleep, he only prays you aren’t too mad at him for leaving the seat next to you empty.

But you aren’t mad, just worried. The soreness in his muscles doesn’t go away though, and he groans when he sits up in his bed, with bandages around his arms and an ice pack discarded next to him.

He’s most definitely not coming to school like this.

While you bore holes into the clock hanging off the wall, that doesn’t speed up the time. Two minutes pass, then another minute. As your classmates find their partners and begin discussing, you notice how the room gets louder with the due date looming near. It’s the first time you’re alone without the familiar boy beside you, and something hangs low in your chest when you put in a pair of earphones and open your laptop.

Riki’s absence should have no effect on you. After all, you’re both just high school students who’ve talked once or twice, and yet you still look over at the empty chair. Staring doesn’t make Riki appear, though, and you return to your edits. It feels empty without his insight, or without him asking you to help him with a passage. Riki was your solution to all things boring. If he wasn’t doing his work, then you two were laughing at something on his phone. And if you agreed to both do something other than the report, then you could ask for an extra opinion when deciding prom details. There was something freeing about working with him that attracted you. Riki knew how to lighten the mood on days that weren’t so good for you, but he also worked hard and let loose at the same time. There was a perfect balance in Riki’s life that you aspired to have; it was a good mix of playful, dedicated, and fun all in the same vein.

The words blend together on your screen. Jay Gatsby this, Tom Buchanan that, it all looks monotonous the more you keep trying to read and comprehend what exactly you’re talking about.

Before class is dismissed, Mr. Yoo steps to the front of the classroom to gather everyone’s attention. He introduces your new novel for the next month, explaining yet another large assignment associated with the text.

Truth be told, you don’t pay attention to any of it.

The only thing you remember to do is to grab extra copies of the printed graphic organizers, as you get out of your seat and rush out when class ends in pursuit of one specific boy.

“Sim Jaeyun!” The call of his name diverts Jake’s attention from his phone to your waving arm as you weave through the students and finally reach him.

“You can just call me Jake,” he explains, “what’s up?”

You begin to reach into your backpack, trying to feel for your folder, and pull out a few sheets. “These are for Riki.”

Jake cheers internally for his friend who’s busy recovering at home. “What, you got a crush on him or something?”

He tries to play it cool by teasing you, but the smile you bite back leaves the boy questioning if there really is anything going on. Jake knows better than to tell you anything about Riki’s feelings, and opts to instead grab the papers and to thank you for looking out for his friend.

“Is Riki okay?” You have to know, just to make sure he’ll be here tomorrow to cure your boredom.

What Jake says is much different than the nonchalant wave and half grin he gives you. “He’s just bedridden.”

“That’s pretty serious! Did he come down with anything?” He seemed fine yesterday, so what’s the catch?

He blurts, “He just got badly hurt.”

Immediately, Jake knows he’s fucked up.

Your confusion and silence answers him far more than words ever could–he basically hears the gears turning slowly in your head.

Jake weakly defends, “His parents had a fight with him because he hit his head or something. He’ll be fine by tomorrow. Just bedridden from sadness, y’know?”

The look you give him is unconvinced, but when Heeseung pats him on the shoulder and waves to you, the boy realizes that maybe staying quiet would’ve been the better decision.

“I’ll see you later, ____.” And he’s off, waving half-heartedly and dragging a very confused Heeseung out of the cafeteria.

NISHIMURA RIKI MIGHT DIE TRYING TO WAKE YOU UP AS GENTLY AS HE CAN.

Ever since March started and flowers began to bloom, your energy seemed to do the opposite, dwindling until Riki catches you mirroring his frequent in-class action: sleeping. And it worries him beyond belief, because you’re not the type to fall asleep like… ever. However, Riki does not have the heart to wake you up, even if it’s with a little nudge that you probably barely feel with how light he taps. It breaks his heart to have to ask you to review what he has done, because the bell is about to ring and the teacher might just send you to detention if he catches you off-task.

The allergies always make Mr. Yoo irritable, and Riki knows not to get on his nerves.

Your eyes flutter open to the pokes and prodding from none other than Nishimura Riki, who gazes at you softly when you adjust to the bright classroom setting once more.

Panic settles in. “Wait- how long was I sleeping for?”

He shrugs and scrunches his nose, not giving you an answer as he finishes scribbling something in his notebook.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Your hand squeezes into a fist at the frustration that you’ve let your partner down.

And yet, Riki seems to be unfazed, frowning when he sees you stressing out. “Don’t ever sweat the little things, yeah? If there’s anything you ever need to talk about–trust me, I know what it’s like to have a lot of pressure on your shoulders.”

Smiling at him, you respond with, “Thank you, really.”

Being treasurer is daunting in the spring. It’s full of requests, forms, and small tasks that leave you spent by the end of the day. “But,” you glance at the clock to see just how much time is left, “how’d you know?”

He motions to your open computer with a now dark screen. “I saw your document pulled up. ____’s tasks or else she will be kicked out of student government,” he taunts, snickering when your eyes grow wide with embarrassment and you lightly nudge his shin with your foot in warning.

“It’s not polite to snoop,” and although you say that, you catch something in your peripheral vision. It’s a few drawings of a figure and gadget drawn, shaded from rigid shapes with small descriptions pointing to different places. You weren’t sure what was more surprising; how good the drawings were, or the subject of his imagination.

Weird. Inherently, there was nothing wrong with Riki drawing a villain, and you chalked it up to him being creative. Nothing more, nothing less.

He puts his hands up in surrender at your last comment, his grin showing anything but. Just one look at the boy makes you realize that everything you’ve just thought about is foolish.

There’s no way he’d have time to be a villain and a student. With one final thought, you let your raging thoughts rest and focus on the present; him. You’ve seen his hair messy, especially after his naps, but when Riki tries to style it like how he did today, you pay more attention to the streaks of blonde and how he often hides behind his bangs and scrunches his nose. It’s cute. He’s cute.

The truth is, you enjoy being around him like this, joking around and never worrying too much about your responsibilities and expectations. It’s refreshing. Being around Riki gives you the feeling that things will be okay in the end.

You snap out of your thoughts to see that his desk is empty, while your’s hasn’t changed one bit.

“You’re going to sell prom tickets now, right?” He makes small talk before leaving for lunch, closing the notebook you were suspiciously eying before slipping it into his bag.

“Yup,” you answer, popping the ‘p,’ “I’ll see you later,” and you two part ways.

All the long lines and constant distribution of change doesn’t allow much wiggle room for you to daydream. As time goes on, the ticket-selling line grows smaller and smaller, but the only thing you truly care about is eating the lunch your parents packed you. Your sandwich is probably sad and soggy now that there are only a few minutes of lunch left. When you finally sign off one last time after triple checking the forms are all correct, you let out a sigh, leaning back and finally getting a break.

Then, it hits you that you’re not even sure if the boy you’re fawning over is attending the biggest event of the year, and you feel stupid for forgetting to ask.

Yesterday was a rookie’s mistake–today, you’d make sure you get an answer from him.

“Are you going to prom, Riki?” is the first thing you ask when he sits down, grabbing his book and laptop with a little too much enthusiasm.

“I’m thinking about it.” Yeah, whatever confidence he had when convincing himself he’d ask you out isn’t serving him well at this moment. Quite frankly, Riki feels lame as ever trying to be nonchalant around you. “You?”

“I’d have to set up, so I would be there, yes. But whether or not I have a date is another story.” You smile to lighten the mood, but Riki watches you and nods, focusing back on signing into his laptop and getting his notes for the new book you’re reading.

“Well, you’re not the only single one here.” And he wants to reprimand himself for saying something without thinking. “If someone asked, would you say yes?”

You think about it carefully, really because you don’t have anyone in mind when it comes to prom if Riki’s not planning on going. “It’d have to be someone I know—someone I talk to somewhat regularly. I’d be nice to be with someone who doesn’t make it awkward.”

Nishimura Riki might die from over-thinking if he keeps on wondering whether or not he fits that description to a tee.

RIKI'S TO-DO LIST BEFORE PROM

☐ talk to ____ regularly

☐ don't make it awkward

☐ be..cute?

The boy decides that his superhuman responsibilities might be easier to complete than any of those three things.

He switches the subject to stop his head from hurting too much. “Did you finish the report?”

You still, and Riki’s question reminds you of the report looming over your head. In your defense, you two hadn’t brought it up much in the past week, and he didn’t seem to worry over how much of your time was spent emailing teachers or making spreadsheets. Although caught off guard, you’re quick to respond with, “What did we have to finish? I thought we were done since last week, but if there’s anything else-”

“Sorry,” he rushes out, biting his lip, “I meant, if you finished reading it.” And the answer is no, you haven’t read it since your last edit on it three days ago.

Within a few clicks, you find the document and scroll to the bottom, seeing the small note that Riki left that said ‘let me know how it looks.’ It’s sweet to know he thought about your input as much as you did his.

“While some can agree that Gatsby’s rise into high society was sketchy, Gatsby still retains the same reserved character from years ago, and doesn’t manipulate others into success or use his money for nefarious purposes. It’s not like he changed after his wealth, and it could be argued Gatsby loved Daisy until his last breath and was willing to die as long as she was happy, emphasizing the theme of sacrifice.

So, is Jay Gatsby a good person? The question targets the morality of a character who many can empathize with. Those who are charmed by his overwhelming love for Daisy would say that he’s committed textbook crimes, but focus more on the intent behind it. To pine after someone from a distance isn’t easy, but to pursue her after years of separation is even harder. It’s universally agreed, however, that love as a driving force doesn’t nullify what he’s done to others and the dirty schemes he’s enacted to gain the power he has. Therefore, Gatsby makes for an interesting main character, and highlights just how twisted a system around money can be.”

The last page is–for the most part–his writing, and your admiration for him grows when you finish reading and scroll to hit your Works Cited page.

“It’s good,” you tell him wholeheartedly, “Didn’t think you had it in you.”

Riki cracks a smile at your light teasing, soaking up your praise.

“Now you know.” He shrugs. And he can only hope that you like him as much as you like his literary skills.

NISHIMURA RIKI MIGHT DIE WHEN HE COMES TO THE REALIZATION THAT HE IS EXACTLY LIKE JAY GATSBY,JUST WITHOUT THE MONEY—DESPERATE FOR THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS, DYING YOUNG, AND A FRAUD HIDING BEHIND SECRETS.

Nevermind the last one, he has to hide when he has an identity to protect as the city’s only superhero, but Riki feels his heart sink to his heels when he read a few weeks ago how much Gatsby simply adores Daisy. When Gatsby died, he scoffed, closing the book with a sudden disinterest. If he were the male lead, he wouldn’t have been laying in a pool for target practice. Maybe being a superhero teaches you how to avoid being easy bait for all your enemies, or maybe Gatsby was too carried away with love to think straight.

Fighting crime gives you insurmountable experience with sneaking around, but it wasn’t something he could just teach to anyone. When he gets this horrible gut feeling that something’s happened to you, he just knew something was wrong. He might not be easy to catch, but for anyone else? Definitely.

For everyone else, prom was a month away, but for you, it was three weeks of talking to your advisor and president, arguing with your other board members, and sitting behind that damn money box for another five days to sell tickets. For you, it was realizing that you were supposed to buy streamers and balloons yesterday on your way home from school. It was the thinly veiled disappointment in your board member’s texts when they told you they were at a loss for words. ‘I’m sorry, and I know you’re busy, but how could you forget? Prom is so important for all of us. What if they don’t have what you need anymore?’ It all repeated in your head as you bit your lip in frustration and slipped on the first pair of shoes you could find. Although it was dark and dangerous, you could care less if it meant avoiding the passive aggressive comments you’d get tomorrow during your meeting.

There it is again: that little tendency to not pay attention to your surroundings.

You yelp when you feel someone grabbing your wrist and pulling you in, muffling your screams as he pulls you along. To see him on the news was worrying, but to see Spark in person with your life on the line is even worse.

Tears spring to your eyes as you struggle against the metal to no avail, and you curse every previous moment you spent worrying about balloons rather than your safety.

Spark suddenly stops, shoving you against the wall before his hand grabs a brick with his metal arm, beginning to climb. “Don’t let go.” And you don’t think twice before holding on.

The city view would be beautiful if you weren’t hearing your heartbeat in your ears or if you weren’t dangling from the railing of some company building, trying to wiggle yourself free of the rope around your wrists.

Spark speaks up, drumming his fingers on the railing next to you. “You wouldn’t happen to know where your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is, would you?” And you furrow your eyebrows, genuinely questioning for a moment if he really knew how the superhero operated.

A voice from across the street puts a temporary hold on your thoughts, and you glance up to see a flash of blue and red soaring through the air, followed by a groan and a beam of light next to you. Seeing Spark’s powers right in front of you spurs you into action, yanking at the rope and trying to take tiny steps away from where they were fighting.

“From what I’m seeing, you wanted to hold someone hostage because you’re not feeling too good, huh?” Spider-Man shouts as he shoots out webs and blocks hits. You shake your head in partial disbelief of how unserious he is, but also how unbelievable all of this seems. “You tried to take a potion or something? I’m going to tell you this now, but these usually don’t work.”

Riki’s assumption is right, and considering how Spark now has a leg and arm from metal instead of just the arm, the procedure for the additional limb couldn’t have been easy. The superhero still proceeds with caution, making sure to pay attention to anything new as he dodges and fights back.

The villain immediately gets back up, stumbling for a moment before he regains his stance and runs towards the boy. You hear the clanging of fist hitting metal from their fight, and considering the difference in height and build, you’d expect Spider-Man to be easily flung to the side, but he holds his weight in battle.

Riki aims for around the left shoulder, where an abundance of stitches cover the skin and fuse the metal into muscle. He lands a hit, and almost another one, before a punch to the side knocks him from his momentum. The boy wheezes when his back makes instant contact with the ground, rolling and getting up before Spark has time to shoot.

He notices how quickly the gadget generates electricity now. Before, the beams took longer, and were easily predictable, but now, it glows bright for a moment before it fires directly in Riki’s path. The boy dodges the first, but the second one almost hits the top of his head before he ducks and creates distance.

From the roof-top, Riki scans his surroundings before making the split-second decision to jump.

He swings to the other side of the building, keeping you in his peripheral vision as he works on apprehending the villain in front of him. They spring into yet another fist fight, with Riki’s agility easily letting him avoid punches and land precise hits to make the previous injuries even worse.

You think Spider-Man has the upper hand in this, seeing as how none of Spark’s punches seem to slow down the superhero, but you hear something loud before you can register it.

You figure out what happened after Riki stumbles and suffers a blow to the stomach, sending him tumbling to the edge of the building. Spark knew that Spider-Man was avoiding his left arm—he knew that one wrong move paired with the tungsten material would have a lasting effect on the superhero’s fist.

Riki coughs from the impact before his spidey-sense rings, pulling him back into battle as he runs as fast as his body can take him.

You. He still needs to save you.

With renewed vigor, he continues to avoid the flying sparks as he ducks between structures and uses the terrain to his advantage. He can tell, though, that the villain is slowing down. The shots are less accurate–a telltale sign that the enhancer Spark tried is working against him.

Between all of the chaos, Riki finally lands a proper web, yanking as hard as he can to pull Spark to the ground. He stumbles, grasping at thin silk before Riki lets go on his side. The villain’s balance is off, giving the boy an advantage as he closes the distance, hopping over a thrown slab of metal and landing a solid kick into Spark’s ribcage. As he stays down, Riki continues to aim for muscle and flesh, his head spinning as he packs punch after punch to keep the villain apprehended.

Spark’s body–curled into itself to absorb the hits the best that he can– hides the growing blue flash that he’s slowly charging up with his remaining power. The moment it escapes from under his abdomen, Riki directs his efforts towards avoiding the electric glimmer. The villain rolls over, his body tattered from the consistent injuries, and he fires what seems like an intense bullet of energy. It zips by the boy’s cheek, cutting the mask and leaving blood to run down in its wake. Time slows down as the superhero tries to process the unlocked speed of the burst, and Spark loses focus marveling at his new abilities. Never before had either of them seen power so concentrated, and it inflicts both fear and excitement.

He lifts his arm, the other holding it up for support, and Spider-Man notices the fizzle of bright blue. Riki’s about to jump out of the way, preparing for yet another high-speed bullet, but before Spark fires, something clicks. The arm doesn’t directly point to Riki–but it skews off to the right.

Except, he’s no longer aiming for Riki in the split second that the boy blinks. He’s suddenly aiming at you, where your hands are tied to the railing and your feet are dangling from the bent metal that holds you precariously over the edge, leaving a fifty foot drop in its wake. When you see the blue energy in the villain’s palm growing slowly bigger, you pull at the rope desperately with zero regard to the tender rawness of your wrists.

In your attempt to somehow break the rope, your cry of fear snaps Spider-Man into action.

Riki pushes his sore body to jump as quick as he can, leaping across the rooftop to the building over. He easily avoids the metal railing, grabbing onto your arm as he yanks hard on the rope, the force of it separating a piece of metal from the railing. He immediately jumps, sending out a web to swing him back up. It all happens in a flash–first, you were bound to the edge about to fall to your death, and all of a sudden, you’re tightly pressed against Spider-Man’s chest with your bound wrists still attached to the metal. Shutting your eyes, you trust Spider-Man entirely, closing your eyes to avoid seeing just how far up you were. Wind rushes in your ears and leaves your stomach fluttering with butterflies until the superhero sets you down on a secluded rooftop.

“Please,” he begs, “don’t leave. I’ll be right back.”

You’d be a fool to do anything but wait.

Riki checks on you one last time before diving down, springing himself back up with another web. The damage from the blasts is recognizable even from far away, and yet, he notices the reflective shine of a metal arm on the edge of the building before Spark lets go.

To Riki, Spark is dead after dropping from a fall having taken that much damage, but he hears no impact. Making haste, the boy fails to find any figure no matter how hard he looks, but Spark’s laboratory has to be here somewhere. The badge from a week ago was stuck on Riki’s mind, and he could only imagine the reasons why he pursued this life. Was he recreating something? If he needs to power some sort of machine, then the heart of the city is a perfect place to harness the electricity for any large scale project. As much as he wants to dedicate the rest of the night to searching the city for some sort of clue, the fact that you’re still stranded on that rooftop after having just experienced a life-changing event blares like an alarm in his mind.

He quickly leaves, returning to where you’re seated.

Without the fear of falling to your death from earlier, you were able to focus on undoing the knots from the rope. Red scratch marks and irritation bloom on your wrist, and the reality of it all happening still hasn’t settled in. Despite not being harmed once, the fear and incessant pounding of your heart overwhelms your senses, and it leaves you heaving with confusion.

A pair of footsteps only become apparent as Riki walks closer, taking a seat beside you and letting out a large sigh. He stares at the stars silently as if he doesn’t have a cut on his cheek and bruises waiting to paint his skin purple–as if he isn’t hiding his true self under a facade.

“You’re not hurt, are you?” You shake your head, grateful that Spider-Man was the reason you got away without a real injury.

“Thank you, really, for saving me. I don’t know how you manage to do it.”

Riki chuckles under the mask. “Eh, you get used to it,” you hear Spider-Man say. “You fight a couple bad guys, get over a fear of heights and eventually you get the hang of things.”

Scoffing, you gently rub at your wrists to ease the redness. “Easy for you to say. I haven’t been taught a crash course on how to avoid being supervillain bait just yet.”

“Maybe you should learn it sometime,” Riki responds absentmindedly, “someone like you shouldn’t have been out so late doing whatever it could’ve been.”

Sighing, your mind drifts off to think about the balloons and streamers that are not in your hand. “I had stuff for my upcoming events.”

He knew about all of it when you’d explain your cryptic reminders and notes on your computer, but he still feigns curiosity. “What upcoming events?”

“Just prom,” and he hears just how strained it makes you.

Riki tilts his head in faux confusion. “What do you have to do for prom?”

He notices how you immediately slump, as if the mere mention of prom deflates your happiness. “It’s only a few weeks away, and I was supposed to get decorations for our venue yesterday. I just wanted to slip out before my parents noticed.”

Despite the fabric over his eyes, Riki’s expression shifts from surprise to pity when he understands your stakes. “You still need to be careful. Is your student council strict?”

“Not strict necessarily, but judgemental–I ran for the position because I thought I could help my school raise funds and find more opportunities, but it just feels like no one truly wants to try anything new.” You wave it off as if it’s not that important, as if it isn’t the reason why you find yourself stressed so often. “I just don’t want to disappoint or give people something to talk about.”

Despite not being involved with school the same way you are, the boy next to you resonates with the fear you currently face. The fear of letting people down was a large part of why Riki continued to put on that mask and step into the most dangerous situation of his life; he never wanted to sit down to hear the news that Spider-Man quit.

So he keeps doing his job, even if some days are harder and some fights aren’t worth winning–just like what you do.

“Yeah, I get that,” he tries to console, “You must be doing a lot for everyone around you, and I’m sure a lot of people appreciate what you’ve done. Don’t beat yourself up too much, yeah? You’ll always have me.” He smiles, but he knows you don’t see it. You’re looking at the stars, trying to calm your mind and return to your life before everything happened.

You glance over at Spider-Man, wondering if he’ll truly be around for you when you need it. “If I need to talk to you, should I step out of my house past 8PM again?”

Riki chuckles, watching clouds slowly dim the moon’s glow in their path. “If I’m not fighting crime, I’ll show up at a moment’s notice.”

There’s no way he means it, but you grin, feeling a lot of the pressure and stress of earlier slowly wash away. After all, nothing happened to you–Spider-Man made sure of it. Maybe things really were going to be okay.

“Let’s get you home, yeah? Don’t you have stuff to do anyways?”

You shrug, nothing really coming to mind. As you get up, you remember having to run a plagiarism check on your work, and how Riki told you to text him when you got home after your student government meeting.

Riki. Spark. Spider-Man.

“Wait,” you tell Spider-Man, sitting back down on the cement, “I need to talk to you about something else, too.”

“It’s not like my dinner’s getting cold,” the superhero mumbles quiet enough that you can’t hear.

“There’s this guy,” you start, paying no mind to how dirty your clothes are getting when you cross your legs.

Spider-Man scoffs, looking off into the distance, and it makes you believe he has to be your age or older. “You have a crush on him, or something?” And a whole tidal wave of deja vu hits you in the chest.

‘He must be badly hurt’ isn’t just something people say. People don’t just draw insanely detailed drawings of Spark’s arm and machines without notes to follow unless they knew. People wouldn't just randomly miss school without any impending signs. You’re sure of it–the tired naps in class, the random drawings of superheroes and superhumans alike, or how awkward he could act–it all makes sense.

Your classmate, aka Nishimura Riki, aka the guy who you’ve questioned if you had a crush on for the past few days, might be a villain.

The swirling feeling of trepidation in your stomach leaves three words running around your head.

What. The. Fuck.

Although you tried so hard to stop thinking about it, Jake’s comment from before rubbed you the wrong way. It was sometime last week where you couldn't get your mind off of the implications of his words, but that feeling was brushed underneath your responsibilities.

Until now.

“Yeah, there’s this guy,” you breathe, feeling your chest constrict, “Nishimura Riki. I think he’s Spark.”

His blood runs cold.

“You think this…why?”

You take a deep breath, trying to organize all your thoughts. “Well, first, it was his friend, Jake. He said that Riki was badly hurt, and I was really confused at first, but tried to let it go.”

Riki was going to strangle his best friend.

“And then, I was looking at him in class, right? And keep in mind, he’s pretty cute, and we sit next to each other, so I just noticed how good his hair looked that day, but his notebook was out, and I saw all these drawings of Spark. Like, the arms, the metal things, even the projectiles! Who would know the ins and outs of that thing if it wasn’t Spark himself?”

He didn’t know what to think about first; the fact that you gushed about him for the first time, or if he should even tell you that Spider-Man would know those things, too.

“And sometimes, I notice he’s a little awkward around me. I can’t explain it. It’s like he’s paying attention to me. That must’ve been why he captured me.” He wants to laugh at how damn close you are to figuring it out, but in reality, nothing is funny about the situation.

Nishimura Riki is actually listening to this, right now, as Spider-Man–not Spark. The awkwardness, though? It was his crush on you, and was not superhuman related in the slightest.

“I don’t know,” he attempts to divert, pretending to focus, “I saw a badge for FLiGHT. You know the company that’s been making time traveling machines? I saw a glimpse of his name and face. It’s not that guy you mentioned.”

You raise an eyebrow. “And you haven’t gotten him caught?”

“Villains aren’t easy to find, y’know. It’s not like playground hide and seek,” Riki defends, crossing his arms.

You shrink in your spot, feeling sheepish for questioning a superhero so bluntly.

“Plus,” he continues, “Spark has never had a hostage. Wouldn’t it be pretty mean of that friend of yours to kidnap a girl from his class?”

“Yeah—that makes sense. Thank god,” you breathe, closing your eyes momentarily. “Then what do you suspect all that evidence leads to? Maybe he’s a secret agent?”

“I think,” Riki continues to keep up his clueless facade, “Your friend might just be clumsy. Or creative. I mean, maybe he went through a break-up?” Nice one, Riki.

You shake your head. “No, there’s no way he has a girlfriend. You’d think I like guys who are taken?” Scoffing lightly, you then remembered that Spider-Man really would have no idea who any of you are.

He shrugs and stands up stretching before motioning for you to follow him. “I have no idea what you high school kids do. Come on, let’s get you home.”

As you hug him tight, the cold air whips around your body and leaves goosebumps in their wake. You barely open your eyes from the fear of seeing yourself inches from hitting a building or up in the air. Spider-Man only yells his confirmation after asking how to get you home, finally placing you on the ground outside of your large gate.

“Thank you for saving me tonight.”

“Anytime. Figure things out with that friend of yours, and don’t go out late, okay?” You nod and take his words to heart.

“Goodnight, Spiderman.”

—-

Nishimura might die. One, because he has this horrible guilty feeling in his stomach, and two, because of a villain.

Yesterday, he ignored the salmon and rice bowl that waited for him back at home, choosing to follow the coordinates he saved on his phone after he took you home. It led him to a seemingly harmless auto-shop, with an arrow on his GPS pointing to a garage that was shut down completely with nails and blocked with boxes. The exterior pointed to it being abandoned, but Riki suddenly saw some light coming from a makeshift above.

The boy scaled the wall as quietly as possible, glancing into the source of the whirring. He caught small glimpses of something–metal, glowing, blue.

Or at least, for a few seconds it was on until the power went out.

The voice that complained from inside the room sounded identical to the man Riki fought. Spark grumbled, turning on a flashlight and quickly waving it around. Riki ducked from the window and held his breath, waiting for the man to suspect something.

Nothing.

One lightbulb slowly flickered back on, and then the other dingy light followed. The space was cramped with the metal equipment in the middle, resembling what Riki had seen in the news.

He was right–it was the same time travel portal that was ruined from a few months ago.

Spider-Man continued to observe the man as he worked and drilled, plugging certain wires or pausing momentarily to read from a journal. To anyone, it’d seem peaceful, like some sort of renovation project. But in reality, it was so much more than that.

Riki searched for any sort of information about the machine, trying to see what exactly was left to do until his gaze landed on something.

There was some sort of date on a bright pink sticky-note, and Riki’s eyes widened when he finally comprehends it.

The machine was scheduled to be completed tomorrow.

A street lamp next to Riki dies out—which was a clear sign that something was powering up. From the dark, he hears the metal from the same place as last night moving again, and he knows that Spark has left. His presence sends anyone down the street and immediately running, leaving the area for only them two.

Riki finally sees the completed metal build. Half of his body is wrapped in or replaced with metal parts as he sets down the metal portal, beginning to push it in the direction of the power plant.

A truck or car would make things much easier, but whatever.

Riki wants to cry from fear and run away. He wants to leave and pretend he never saw anything from last night.

He’s going to die fighting Spark and he will quite literally a) never finish highschool and get that stupid diploma, b) finish explaining how Gatsby is not a good person and is naturally selfish, and c) he’s never going to tell you how he’s had a small crush on you ever since he saw your cute campaign video as to why you should vote y/n l/n for student body treasurer last spring.

“You sure that thing works?” Riki asks, jumping into action as he sends webs to immobilize the machine.

“You’re annoying, you know that?” Spark sends a projectile in the superhero’s direction, hitting the wall behind him instead as Riki jumps out of the way.

With another duck mid-air and the roof of a flying car dangerously close to his nose, Riki thanks the dance practice he does for his flexibility as he shoots another web and swings away.

Spark is uncontrollable by now, sucking the light from street lamps and fizzing wires in his wake. He has no idea how he’s supposed to get in contact with the villain like before. The body of his suit fizzes with bright electricity that sizzles and pops. It illuminates Spark’s figure, making him easy to spot, but not so easy to defeat. It’s an overload of power, causing the voltage to escape between the joints and gaps of the metal pieces in his suit. And Riki can feel it; the air is heightened and so are the stakes of this fight—and with how the man that stands in front of him looks upgraded and menacing, he knows only one person can make it out of this fight alive.

“You injected the city’s ‘Gas and Electric’ into your system or what?” Riki calls out, making light of the situation. If he’s being honest with himself, he’s scared out of his wits seeing the six foot figure with blue and white shooting from every crack, looking like a nightmare to touch.

Riki avoids a few more angrily thrown objects, using the momentum of his jump from the side of the building to zip from the top of a yellow fire hydrant to go from one side of the street to the other. “You’re slow!” He taunts, tucking in his legs to avoid a shot of electricity directed at him.

The screech of metal from the nearby hydrant can be heard as the top flings off, making Riki lose his anchor/ Before he can process it, instead of smoothly landing on the building, he crashes into it faster than expected, groaning when his back makes contact with the glass and he tumbles into the living room of someone’s apartment.

“Fuck,” he curses, fighting his aching limbs to get up once more.

And the solution hits him. Literally.

When he steps out and quickly attaches a web to the top of the building, he’s met on the way up with a splash of water from the hydrant to his face, and Riki splutters as he wipes his mask, regaining focus as he lands on the concrete and hides behind the ledge.

Water. If he can get it in contact with Spark and pour enough water on the right spot, the excess of electricity blazing from his mechanical body should work against him.

“Too scared? You should know better than to run away.” The superhero rolls his eyes, crawling away silently to avoid being seen by Spark. Riki does his best to look around for something, and finds a black flower pot in the corner, using a web to grab it before he scales the side of the building and runs away while Spark is distracted as the villain also climbs the wall to face him there. But when Spark climbs the ledge and scans the premise, Riki is nowhere to be seen.

Instead, Riki swings across the street and fills the pot with water, heaving the extra weight as he shouts out from the sudden pain in his side. He stumbles on the pavement, crying out from the injury as the pot falls with his whole plan.

Maybe this is where Spider-Man dies.

He sucks in a deep breath before rolling from his back onto his knees, ignoring the wound to pick up the flower pot. The hydrant still shoots out water, and the superhero rushes towards it, causing Spark to follow. He narrowly avoids another shot from behind him, reaching the yellow hydrant before dropping the pot on the ground. Spark is th

While Spark has always been intelligent, Riki could tell that the man didn’t fear the water, believing he’d be invincible to the elements now that his suit was perfected. There was something off, Riki could tell, and he would make sure to use it to his advantage. Spark was uncontrolled, and his powers drastically decreased the more he used them. There’s no way his body isn’t in overdrive with how recklessly he’s been letting himself get hurt.

Riki uses a web to get himself on higher ground instead of fighting, waiting for the supervillain to follow. If he could get Spark off the edge and fall into the growing puddle of water, it should slow him down.

Spark scoffs. “Run away, then. Like you always have.” Riki hears the wall crumbling under the villain as he climbs within seconds, immediately preparing to fight when he makes it onto the rooftop. But Spider-Man was also prepared, jumping from his crouched hiding position and attempting to catch Spark off guard.

All he can focus on now is pushing him off. There’s no way it’d be easy, considering he had to focus on his touching any of the electricity off of his suit. Riki delivers a kick to Spark in the ribcage near his heart, where he’s fused metal into flesh. The villain coughs before taking a step back, his metal arm reaching for Riki’s outstretched leg. He grabs it, twisting with anger before the boy meets the ground in a violent throw. Not only is the slam greater because of the enhanced strength, but the power seeps into Riki’s skin, leaving it hot from the energy radiating off of his palm.

The boy groans, flipping to his side to avoid a fatal hit to the chest. He reaches for Spark’s normal arm, swinging the villain’s body away with as force as he could to create distance between them.

Riki has been in enough fights to simply know when to run, even if he doesn’t know what’s coming. He could feel the tingle of the charge as it powered up, and with its energy so unrestrained and its user so unstable, the large attempt to hit Riki sends the villain stumbling back from the force. The more Spark uses his powers, the more likely he’s going to end up dead.

“Your skin can handle that anymore!” he shouts, getting ready to swing himself closer as a plan manifests itself in his head. “You’ll die like this!”

Spark seems to know that too as he wipes his mouth and recovers from Riki’s attacks.

“You think I care?” He shouts, desperately pressing his wounds to stop the bleeding. “You think I have anything else for myself?” The vulnerability of his character shines through as he clutches his bleeding wound without regenerative powers to help. “You think I didn’t know that when I did it to myself--what they did to me?”

Riki doesn’t respond, grimacing as he continues hand-to-hand combat. Although he takes a solid punch to his jaw that’s forming a deep purple bruise, he manages to trip Spark onto the ground.

The man stumbles back from the head injury, the pounding from earlier not letting him to think straight. Riki doesn’t try to injure him anymore, but he instead blocks an incoming punch and tries to force Spark towards the edge.

The villain barely notices how much space there is left, and the boy lunges with full force. They tackle each other into the ground, and Riki gets off after apprehending him once more.

The city's a mess, and Spider-Man’s eyes want to shut down so badly, but he takes a few steps in Spark’s direction, pushing him off the side of the building as quickly as he can. Riki hears the thud before he peeks over the edge, seeing the water erode all of the engineering from the machinery. He slowly descends from the rooftop.

“You were in the accident, huh?” Riki shouts on top of the plethora of sounds. Pain, buzzing electricity, splashes of water as he lands next to Spark; it all echoes in his ears as he pours the water from the pot on Spark’s body. “Why did you try it? Why did you want to go back so bad?”

“If I could go back,” Spark coughs, trying to get away from the large pool of water, “I could’ve prevented the accident from taking the lives of the people around me. I could’ve saved them.”

Spider-Man understands loss, and he understands the regret that comes with failure. He understands how the man in front of him feels after having everything taken away from him, but his emotions could never justify his actions.

“You know you can’t change things,” Riki responds, “You tried your best, Spark.” It’s the last thing Riki tells the villain before his body slumps and police sirens grow louder and louder. It’s the last thing that he continues to think about, even if the medic quickly assesses the severity of his wounds.

“I’m fine- really,” he pushes away the hands of a concerned woman as she holds a roll of bandages. “There’s something else I need to do.”

Riki knew he had to tell you about this–he couldn’t just let you confide in him about..well, him, without your knowledge. And Riki wasn’t morally perfect, but he knew an explanation would be the only way to fix things.

Your house looks different when jumping over the fence instead of standing in front of it. When he realizes he has no idea what room belongs to you, he racks his brain, suddenly remembering how yours was the only one with a gray balcony over the pool. And so he climbs, slipping from the exhaustion creeping into his body.

You’ll understand after he explains everything, right?

“____, a little help?” And what the fuck is Nishmura Riki doing outside of your door? You go to investigate the muffled sound, inching towards the curtains and pulling them back to expect him there. When you hear a half yelp and a hissing sound that follows right after, without a person anywhere in sight, your heart drops to its stomach.

Do not say it’s true.

“Riki, where the fuck are you?” you ask, traversing out when you don’t see him anywhere across the glass.

“Down here.” You run in the direction of the voice, and your eyes grow comically large and you gasp, staring down at the sight before you.

“Holy shit.”

There Nishimura Riki is, with his mask half burned off his face and his blonde and black hair messy and matted to his forehead with sweat. The suit is ripped in multiple locations with gashes and purple replacing the healthy skin underneath. His face is in more of a grimace, as he holds onto the web with both hands and one foot planted on the stone of your balcony—read; the bottom of your balcony.

“A little help?” And you see his sheepish emotion through the tattered fabric, embarrassed after you had to find him in such a compromising situation. “I’m a little worn out and I think my webs are getting weaker.”

You’re a little frustrated with him for being out so publicly, but more scared and worried for his condition. Your gaze narrows on the mask, tattered and covered with scratches, but clearly visible. It was Spider-Man’s mask. The material gives way to a familiar face, and your mind almost blocks you from putting the pieces together. It’s impossible, almost horrifying to think of the implications of what it means to wear the blue and red suit.

Instead of being the villain, Riki is, in fact, the savior.

The harsh truth is that your classmate, who you spent the last month working on a project with and suspected was a villain, is the same superhero that went out and risked his life every night fighting crime. It’s jarring to see him like this, breathing heavy and straining against the stone of the balcony, and his cough snaps you out of it. “What the fuck do I do?”

Riki tries to put his hand up in surrender and shuts his eyes at your harsh tone. “Okay, okay, I get-“ and he cuts himself off with a yelp as his footing slips.

He holds out his hand, and you immediately bend over the smooth railing to grab it, leaning back on the heels of your feet to help him up the most that you can. You’re filled with confusion when the boy hobbles over the cool surface of the balcony and lets his head rest on the stone, not saying much as he catches his breath. You watch the rise and fall of his chest and how his right arm goes to nurse the left side of his ribcage, wincing and sucking in a pained breath as he assesses the smear of red on his fingers.

Sitting there with your mouth agape, you’re not really sure what to think about first; to check if RIki’s alright, to think about how your city’s greatest superhero is your English project partner, to yell at him for going to your house instead of his house to fix himself up, or to think about how good his side profile looks in the moonlight. Maybe you should’ve just been relieved that the boy you started to like wasn’t a fear

“Okay, first of all, we need to have a huge talk. But I’m not a medic Riki- I’m going into accounting for fuck’s sake.” He hears the amount of curses flying from your lips as you ramble, and sees how stressed you look watching him sit against your railing.

“I don’t know how to help you. And also,” you lower your voice and scoot closer, looking around at the large property to really make sure no one’s listening. “you’re Spider-Man?”

The information all hitting you at once is worse than when your history teacher told you your essay was horrible. At least then, in her office, you could process everything. But here? You’re about to faint.

“I’m pretty cool, huh?” And of course Nishimura Riki says such a thing, taking deep breaths as he shallowly presses on the blossoming bruises on his skin and wipes the sweat from his brow.

“Pretty fucking stupid is what it is, Riki.” You cross your arms and try to take a look at where he’s been hurt, hoping that at least he has some sort of regeneration ability that helps him heal much quicker—because there’s no way he could deal with all of this on top of school.

“I have my reasons,” he says, his voice quiet.

You pause. “For being Spider-Man?”

“No,” he shakes his head. “For coming here.”

“What could possibly make you want to come over to my house instead of the nearest hospital? What’s that important to you?”

“I really want to ask you to prom.”

You simply stare at him, surprised.

“You came to my house, even though you’re like, a punch away from passing out, to ask me out? And you couldn’t have, I don’t know, asked me anytime during the classes we have together?”

Riki somehow finds it in himself to frown and shrink from your angry piercing gaze. “I can’t because talking to you makes me nervous–so yeah, I’m sorry I’m half conscious on your balcony in my suit instead of at your door with a poster.”

You’re conflicted, your mind still reeling from the recent discovery and your flood of emotions. Ever since you questioned his identity on top of your feelings for him, you had a hard time really knowing if you could like Riki if he turned out to be a villain, so to know that he proved both of your theories wrong leaves you quiet as you think. If possible, the color in the boy’s face drains even more when you go back inside, but the door stays open, and he thinks he hasn’t ruined things after all. You emerge with a bottle of isopropyl alcohol, a bowl of warm water, and a pristine white towel.

“I’m not mad about that, you idiot,” you reprimand him, setting everything down as you examine the cuts on his face. You squeeze the towel and start to dab at his skin, avoiding the cuts as you clean it. “Who does this for you if not me?”

“Jake.”

“Seems like a pretty good friend.” Riki nods in response.

“I’m sorry,” he sighs, sitting up to properly address you, even if you weren’t able to meet his gaze.

“For what?”

“For putting this on you–all of it. Not just the whole Spider-Man thing.” He knew he’d have to tell you at some point, or else it’d eat him up inside to know he kept all of it from you.

“Look at you, saving me mid-air and talking to me as if you didn’t know who I was.”

You notice a flash of regret through his wince as you clean up a cut with antiseptic. “I meant it when I told you I knew what it was like to have a lot of pressure.”

“Guess I wasn’t so far off, then. If we never talked, would you have told me?” Riki shakes his head, and the simple motion leaves you somehow disappointed.

“How do you ever tell anyone you’re…y’know, Spider-Man?” Even if it’s a hypothetical, you shrug, not being able to answer. “How’d Jake find out?”

Riki chuckles and hisses at the same time before trying to remember. “I think I just kicked his window in after a nasty poison got hold of me. He was a little too excited to have Spider-Man on his bedroom floor, and less excited to know it was me. I’m not really supposed to tell anyone, though.”

“Then why’d you tell me? You could’ve just gone back to your friends.”

“I felt guilty–I know, I know, it sounds stupid. I’d definitely get my identity revealed at this rate.” You shake your head.

“Not stupid. Keep going.”

“I didn’t care that you suspected me, or if anyone else did, because I knew it was never true. But I felt so bad knowing you were sharing to me how you felt without even knowing it was me who was listening–like I was holding something from you.”

You admire his honesty, and when you look at his furrowed brows and his lip that he’s been gnawing from worry, you can’t even imagine what he’s had to hide and do for this. In a way, you look up to him more, for trying his best even if he’s gotten all odds stacked against him. Riki’s commendable in your eyes–he always had been, ever since you woke him up in class.

“I like those things about you, Riki. That you’re honest with yourself and the people around you as much as you can be, and you try to help others when you can. I’m glad we got to know each other more this past month.” Talking to him feels different than talking to Spider-Man from a few days ago; it feels raw, like you’re not just confessing something to a brick wall anymore. If none of this ever happened, you doubt you’d get the chance to tell Riki any of this properly.

The boy stays silent, taking deep breaths while processing what you’ve told him. “I’m glad I could help you out.”

You furrow your eyebrows. “I hope you know I don’t like you because you help me out. I like you because you’re attractive, and because you’re genuine,” you blurt.

Riki laughs despite his ribcage hurting everytime he does so. Riki nods and mumbles a ‘thank you,’ also glad to truly get to know you. While his crush was more of an infatuation with your hard work and amiability, the past few weeks really opened his eyes to who you were. You never wanted to disappoint, and even if your recklessness left you in some dire situations, Riki could see how much effort you really put into things.

There wasn’t anything else he needed to tell you–you were smart enough to see how much he cared about you.

You’re so close, your lips glossy with lip balm as you watch him carefully. You hear and see it all; the heavy, labored breathing from his body healing itself rapidly, and the way his hand is full of rough cuts and calluses as his fingers intertwine with yours. But your eyes catch a glimpse of his mask tossed to the side, the blue shining in the corner of your eyes as you’re reminded of who he is right now, and what role you play. You are still ____ ____, but he’s a superhero.

It makes you momentarily forget whose suit you're peeling away, whose skin you're cleaning. It reminds you that he’s just the boy in your English class that you fell for. “What does that make us?”

“Prom-goers,” he answers with a slight nod.

You smile, wiping a cut before placing the towel back into the bowl for the last time and getting up. “We can be prom-goers, yeah.”

You’re not sure if you’re ready for anything, and you’re thankful that he understands that, too. As much as it warmed your heart to see him again and hear his confessions, the blaring truth still hangs over your head. You grab his mask, finally looking at him before handing it back and grabbing your things. His secret identity wasn’t something you could just ignore.

“Go home, Spider-Man,” you turn your back on him, and time slows when you falter before sparing him one more look. “I want you as Riki, not like this.”

MAYBE NISHIMURA RIKI DOESN'T NEED TO DIE–OR ALMOST DIE–ANYMORE.

He went home that night with his scars somewhat cleaned and his bruises miraculous healing on their own, and even if slipping through the window left him clutching his side in pain, Riki silently jumped up to celebrate his multiple victories before slipping out of his suit and finally getting some rest.

Riki’s scared of how he’s affected your relationship. He’s worried you’ll avoid him in the halls, and he’s worried you’d never want to see him again after putting you through all of it. As much as he'd understand how upset you'd be towards him, he hopes he did the right thing by telling you.

But you see him on your way to English, and you call his name. His eyes search for yours in the crowds, and you two see each other before you crush him in a hug.

Riki isn’t sure how to feel at first, but eventually wraps his arms around you as relief settles in his stomach.

“Thank you for saving me, Spider-Man,” you whisper, loud enough for only him to hear.

He smiles at you, ruffling your hair as you go to English together. “Anytime, ____.”

NEVERMIND, NISHIMURA RIKI MIGHT DIE WHEN HE SEES YOU IN YOUR RED PROM DRESS.

But first, he has to try something out.

He curses to himself when silently zipping from a tree outside your family property to the top of your house, staring past the ledge two and luxurious stories to your well decorated porch light and door. He just prays that Google Maps is right about how secluded the area is, so no one can see him pacing around your rooftop, with flowers elegantly wrapped in his hand (courtesy of your mother’s sleek envelope from a few days ago).

“Fuck it,” he says to himself, shooting a web and dangling himself down. Riki’s upside down figure watches swirled window frames and meticulously designed accents as he descends, and he wonders what kind of shady business your parents could’ve done to afford something so grand.

He faces your door—hanging down instead of rightside up, but he’s still here on time like he promised.

The door opens at 6:00PM like he instructed you to, but what he didn’t tell you what to do was shriek and slam the door. On his nose. With a loud yelp, Riki clutches his nose, rubbing the spot you hit and trying to apply pressure to alleviate the pain.

When the door slowly creaks open again, you face with the image of Nishimura Riki, aka your boyfriend, aka your English partner, aka Spider-Man, curled upside down in the fetal position as he cradles the sore spot on his face and swings slightly from the breeze.

“You scared me, dumbass! How was I supposed to know it was you? It was so hard to see!”

Although muffled, Riki’s able to mumble, “You have a porch light for this reason, _____,” and a jab at his stomach from you follows his sarcastic remark. Finally, his nose feels better, and he straightens out to finally look at you.

Pretty, pretty, pretty, and the boy wonders how you look even more stunning with a glittering red dress and perfectly done make-up. “I like the red,” he says, trying not to freak out over your beauty. “Reminds me of a certain neighborhood superhero.”

“I have some blue spider earrings to match.” With a beautiful smile, you turn to show him the little accent, and it melts his heart. “Are you okay, though?”

“I’m fine. I should’ve probably put more thought into that.”

You snicker, sliding into your heels and closing the door behind you.

“One of us is better at romantic gestures, it seems.” It warrants a scoff, and Riki brings a gloved hand to poke at your forehead teasingly.

“Let me have a do-over, then?” And the way your lips curl up into a bright smile leaves him quiet and in awe.

“What, were you going to kiss me? Very original, Spider-Man.” With the way the fabric shifts over his features, you can tell he’s pouting.

“I thought girls liked this.”

You shrug, pretending you aren’t swept off his feet by the effort he’s put in. Taking a step in his direction, your hands reach up to gently pull the mask over his chin, ears, and then his nose.

Whispering quietly, you ask, “You’ve kissed other girls upside down?”

Riki’s quick to shake his head. “You’re the only girl I’d withstand a head rush for.” And god, you just can’t stop yourself from grinning at his sweet, genuine words.

You lean in, placing a small kiss on his nose as a silent apology. Then, you close your eyes and lean into him once more, feeling his hands carefully holding the side of your head and his lips on yours. Your kiss with Riki is saccharine and slow, making you pull away when the urge to beam at him is too much. Your cheeks definitely hurt by how romantic he’s being, and you can’t resist kissing him once more.

“I’m not gonna lie,” he starts, finally letting himself down, “It feels weird.”

“You ruined the moment.” And he really didn’t, but you enjoy his subtle reactions to your light digs at him.

“Whatever.” Riki laughs. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

You nod, sitting down on the porch and dragging a manicured nail over your lips with the ghost of his affections, thinking about how you literally just kissed Spider-Man.

Riki comes back, dusting off his suit and smoothing out the wrinkles, with a large bouquet of red roses and one blue one snuck in there. Your lips stretch into a grin and you accept the bouquet, keeping a mental note to read the card in there.

“You never cease to amaze me, Riki.” It’s the last thing you mutter to the air before you loop your arms around his neck, urging him to lean down as you kiss him once more—this time rightside up, but still as sickly saccharine as the one before it. Your heart is fuzzy with fondness and your eyes glitter with adoration.

“So, which kiss was better?” he asks when you pull away, a little breathless and dizzy.

You swat his arm and walk past the gates, seeing the sleek limo waiting by the curb. “I don’t know, Spider-Man. Maybe show up in your suit and we’ll try it again.”

REBLOGS AND FEEDBACK ARE ALWAYS APPRECIATED AND ALWAYS READ!

RIKI FIC DONE!!!! ngl y/n u were right there how did u not know riki was spiderman but whatever idc she's a hard worker not smart LMFOAOAO. my first ever action fic so i hope you enjoy! also i hate the ‘oh he pined after her for 4 years she liked him for 2 months’ bs because I WAS IN IT. and it sucks so i tried to deviate from it :)

꣑ৎ permanent fic taglist (TAGGED IN TEASERS, FICS, HEADCANNONS, DRABBLES, ETC.): @dimplewonie @minleeeknow @heeheesang @mintpjzroll @llvrhee @firstclassjaylee @in-somnias-world @rairaiblog @suneng @mavlogist @sensitively-taken @sumzysworld @simpjay @moons-v @riksaes @txtari @jungwonscatcus @tya0 @sasfransisco @woorcve @shypen @pinkriki @rikisluv @saranghaohoshi @lilifiedeans @wonmyheart @k1ttyluvr @nikisgfff @ramenoil @laurradoesloveu @lvcky-g1rl-syndr0me @ikeulims @missychiefs1404 @qwonyoung23 @yangjungwonnie @onementally-unstabel-kid @microwvdstrawb3rri3s @blooqz @anormieee hi permies hope u enjoy! kith

#grp: enhypen #mem: niki #artist: mygnolia #genre: fluff #wc: >1k #warnings: violence #kl: releases

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