#bri chan

[jeongheart]

super shy

summary: he's been receiving these letters for the past year but, he doesn't know your name, does he?

w.c: 7.1k.

tags: friends to lovers, fluff, slice of life.

a.n: this is the longest fic i ever written omg, i've been playing new jeans latest comeback for a few days and this is the result lol. as always, english is not my first language so sorry in advance for any mistakes. leave your thoughts if you liked it, means a lot!

It was there again.

Sitting immaculately on top of his messy folders, the envelope was white without any type of decoration, the owner of the cursive handwriting wouldn't even risk placing a sticker since it could give a clue, even minimal, about who was behind it.

The classroom was almost empty, since recess ended a few minutes ago and the students were still lazily getting up from the grass where they were lying, not wanting to lock themselves in a room again for hours while the day was shining beautifully outside the building.

However, Chan looked around him, narrowing his eyes as he scanned his classmates for the smallest trace of uneasiness as he took the envelope in his hands. But he didn't find any, unless the author had a master's degree in poker face no one around him seemed interested in what he was doing.

After the failed scrutiny, he sat down again with no care on the wooden bench, eager to read what that person had to say today. This excited feeling was new for him, the letters had been arriving about a year ago, right at the beginning of the new semester and at first, Chan found it funny. Surely one of his friends (he bet his life on either Seungmin or Minho, those two were always up to something no matter how much they said they weren't) found it fun to piss him off this year, after all, it has been a long time since his last relationship and sometimes he felt the need of affection, so the "joke" made perfect sense in his head.

He didn't read them the first few months, he just crumpled them up and kept them in a hidden place in his backpack, to let whoever was behind them know that he wasn't interested. But they kept coming even after that vile act against someone's real feelings; and that was when Chan began to question if there really was a person genuinely interested in him, interested enough to send him handwritten letters as if they were living in a classic romance novel. The person had a beautiful vocabulary, and it was clear that they paid attention to details that he didn't even noticed about himself.

The notes weren't very long since they didn't exceed ten lines, but each word was full of admiration and affection. They always reminded him to eat and take care of his health, in addition to telling him day by day one of the qualities why his mysterious person had fallen in love with him. Chan blushed every time he read those reasons, it was no secret (to himself, since he didn't like others to know) that he didn't think very highly of himself; from his point of view there was nothing nice or admirable about his existence. But this person believed just the opposite, and they had made their life's mission to let him know that every day.

Today was no exception, the lined sheets were a pastel color (pink? orange?) and had small animal decorations at the bottom and top (he noticed that these came in "groups", the representative animal of these last ten notes was a smiling giraffe). It was incredibly adorable, and Chan found himself laughing softly every time he took out the contents of the envelope.

'Mondays are always hard! Especially this time of year (can't the professors trust in me and my knowledge of things? I don't see the need for them to take a test).

Anyway, Channie, this weekend I found myself thinking a lot about you, every time I start writing my reasons I feel like I'm going to be left speechless but then I remember that it's not difficult at all to love you. So here is another one:

Your resilience, I greatly admire your ability to always get up no matter how many blows life throws at you. The vast majority of us feel discouraged by the slightest inconvenience, but not you. And that is something incredible.

I hope you have a beautiful start to the week, remember to eat your meals and feel the sun.

Fondly,'

And that's how all the letters ended, the author seemed to hesitate every time they traced the last line, he could feel the uncertainty even on the paper. Chan knew that they were shy and always wondered when they were going to stop being to finally sign with their name and be able to meet that person who stole his heart with every word.

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He was reading the note, hunched over his things, almost shielding the contents of the paper from the prying eyes of anyone who passed by him. You knew he was going to do it (he always did) but you couldn't stop your heart from racing like it was the first time it happened. You watched him from the hallway, hiding behind one of your textbooks while a silly smile appeared on your face, nothing made you happier than making him happy with your words, it's true what people say about "butterflies in the stomach" because that was what you were feeling right now.

His eyes crinkled in the most adorable way possible every time he smiled and from your spot in the hallway you could almost hear the sigh he let out after finishing reading the letter. After scanning his surroundings one last time, Chan placed the paper back into the envelope, and carefully placed it inside his notebook.

"You and your Shakespeare complex again" The sudden voice of your best friend so close made you jump in your place and drop the book you had in your hands. It hit the ground with a dull sound due to the thickness of its contents, and when you picked up the book again you turned around to face the figure of the perpetrator. He just laughed at you and your reaction, which earned him a closed-fist blow directly to his shoulder.

"You deserve it" You didn't even bother to return his reproachful gaze since he clearly felt like fighting, and instead, you returned your focus to Chan's classroom and his figure. He was no longer in his seat and you didn't want to look weird by leaning out the window door to look for him. So you sighed heavily and leaned your body against the wall while closing your eyes.

Until you felt Jeongin's presence come to your side "Are you going to tell him sometime?"

You didn't answer him.

Well, actually you did, with a growl that could mean either 'I'll do it today, stop bothering' or 'not even dead'. However, the blonde wasn't satisfied with your interpretation of an animal as a response and he began poking your ribs with his long fingers, drawing high-pitched sounds of protest from your lips.

"Stop it, Innie" You moved his hands away from your figure and stood firmly looking him in the eyes like a mother who is trying to discipline her misbehaving son. He crossed his arms with a satisfied smile crossing his face with foxlike features and, with a movement of his head, he invited you to speak.

"What do you want me to say? 'Hello Chan! It's me, the person who has been sending you letters like a fifteen-year-old for a year now. I've been in love with you since the moment I saw you at my best friend's house. Do you want to be my boyfriend?" You rolled your eyes tiredly and didn't wait for Jeongin to tell you what he thought, and so you started walking towards your classroom, with an exasperated five foot seven boy following closely behind you.

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You still remembered the first time you'd seen him, and how couldn't you. His presence could illuminate even the darkest corner, and his personality attracted anyone around him.

It was the summer, and you'd gone to Jeongin's house to spend an afternoon together. The air conditioning in your apartment had broken two days ago, and you couldn't stand being in your room for another second, which was already beginning to feel like an industrial oven. When you arrived at your best friend's residence, you weren't surprised by the fact that there were more people than just the two of you. Jeongin was taking singing lessons at a nearby academy and had hit it off with some of his classmates; so while you didn't know them as well as he did, you had the chance to hang out with some of them a couple of times and you could say that they were the funniest guys you'd ever come across. Especially Hyunjin, who seemed to be like a glove with your best friend.

Jeongin's house felt cold, as if winter had come only for the Yang family and, although you shivered with every step you took towards the kitchen where voices could be heard, this felt like paradise compared to the hell you lived in your house (and you even thought it was cooler in hell).

Reaching the kitchen, you heard Hyunjin's melodious voice followed by his nasal, boisterous laughter at a comment Jeongin made. You shook your head laughing inwardly as you pushed the wooden door open to enter the space, the boys turning their heads in your direction as they heard the hinges snapping back into place.

Your best friend gave you his characteristic smile as he got up from his seat on one of the stools in front of the kitchen island to give you a small hug "I thought you weren't coming anymore!"

From Jeongin's shoulder you saw how Hyunjin gave you a smile and a wave, you tried to return the gesture as best you could considering that you were trapped in the arms of a boy who flatly stated that he didn't like hugs. It was getting long in your opinion, so you patted Jeongin on the back, letting him know that yes, you loved him very much, but you were still sticky with sweat from the walk in the sun and you didn't want to make him uncomfortable when he was so cool. When Jeongin let go of you, he opened his palm to introduce you to a person you hadn't seen before, "I hope you don't mind, that's Chan over there. He also goes to our academy, and he goes to university with us! Although he is a year ahead"

You smiled at Jeongin as you walked further into the kitchen to greet the new guest and in front of you stood one of the most attractive men you'd ever seen in your entire life. He wasn't very tall (you could tell even if he was sitting) but his broad shoulders gave him an intimidating presence, his hair looked messy in a swirl of brown curls, and although he was dressed from head to toe in black (you were sure his nails were painted that color too) on his face was a dimpled smile that took your breath away.

From one moment to the next you forgot how to articulate words and you felt like a fish opening and closing its mouth trying to find something to say, but your brain didn't seem to want to work.

You felt a small push on your right shoulder that took your body forward, towards the table, and towards Chan.

"How rude you are" Jeongin rolled his eyes, and although deep down you knew he was doing it to tease you, your cheeks turned red. You felt your tongue heavy in your mouth as the seconds passed and you were unable to utter a single word.

"Leave her alone, Innie. It's pretty hot outside, isn't it?" Chan's deep voice brought you out of your trance and forced you to look him in the eyes. He had a sincere smile on his face and was watching you with raised eyebrows, letting you know that he was going to listen to you when you wanted to respond.

Your heart did a complete turn in your chest, you were surprised in the best of ways at how friendly he was, the vast majority of boys with his attractiveness made that their only personality trait but he was attentive and considerate of all the people around him, even with complete strangers who hadn't stopped looking or saying anything to him in three minutes.

"Yes...yes, it's horrible! And the air conditioning in my house is broken and you can't imagine how hot it is! I feel like I'm going to die one of these days" The words came tumbling out of your mouth, since you hadn't had the time to stop and think about what exactly you wanted to say, and your nerves were playing the worst trick of your entire life.

Chan laughed again (even his laugh was pretty) and he nodded his head, not at all scared or surprised with the lexical vomit you just made.

"It must be like torture, really. You must be tired from the walk under the sun, why don't you sit down for a bit? The boys and I were planning to watch a movie" The brunette softly kicked one of the stools that were stored under the table in your direction.

You nodded shyly and took the seat he offered you, right in front of him. You left your phone on the cold marble of the table and looked around the kitchen for your best friend, you'd been surprised by the fact that he hadn't gotten into the conversation for five minutes and to be honest you desperately needed to focus on something other than Chan's penetrating gaze you felt on your face.

"Innie?" You called out to him with a small shout, loud enough for him to hear you even if he'd gone into the garden.

After a few seconds, your friend's blonde head peeked out of the left door that led to the living room, and a mischievous smile appeared on his face. "I'm sorry! Since you two were talking, we decided to go prepare things for the movie."

Jeongin paused and looked at you evilly, a look that you knew very well and that didn't give you a good feeling at all "Chan, why don't you prepare something to eat? I bought some snacks today, come when you have everything ready~" And before you could protest, he disappeared from your sight again while laughing and yelling something at Hyunjin.

You immediately tensed up and cursed Jeongin in your mind, how dare he leave you alone with your newfound crush. If he was getting revenge for the time you tried to play matchmaker and failed then he was being very childish, that'd been years ago!

While the insulting thoughts against your best friend and all his ancestors accumulated in your brain, from the corner of your eye you watched as Chan got up from his seat and went to the counter where the mentioned snacks and bowls of colors were located, apparently the prankster you called your best friend had already prepared the trap before you even arrived.

You didn't want to look weirder than you already felt so with your limbs shaking and making even the slightest of movements difficult; you also got up from your seat and slowly approached where Chan was, you stood next to him (close enough for him to know that you were willing to help but far enough not to invade his personal space).

He looked at you briefly and smiled sideways, and didn't say anything as he gently pushed a bowl towards you. The task wasn't very complicated per se, but it did become extremely difficult when the only thing you could focus on were the large, veiny hands of the boy next to you, you hadn't realized how attractive it was to see a man opening packets of potato chips and arranging them in a small container until now.

"Jeongin said we go to the same university, do you study the same as him?" You were startled by the sudden interruption of silence, you turned to look at Chan after finishing preparing the bowl with the nachos.

"Yes, I mean, no. We share some classes because some subjects are correlative in each one's career but I could never do the same as Innie" You smiled shyly and shook your head.

"I study psychology," You finally said and looked at your companion, who had his eyes open and bright like a puppy's (how could it be possible for a person to be incredibly attractive and adorable at the same time? It would have to be illegal), and you wondered what it was that'd amazed him so much, there were millions of other people studying the same thing as you.

Without meaning to, you raised an eyebrow; studying his reaction. He laughed again (it was something he loved to do, apparently) and turned his entire body towards you, resting his left hip against the counter and crossing his arms over his chest.

"That's incredible, the human mind is fascinating. I understand why you study that, for my part, I wouldn't read everything you have to read even if someone paid me."

You laughed loudly, infecting Chan as well. He was doing so with his whole body, his shoulders were shaking to the rhythm of his giggles and you could notice that, from time to time, a small squeak would appear in the sound of his laughter.

When the laughter died down, you looked at him again as you put the last bag of snacks in the cupboard in front of you.

"Yes, I mean, it's a lot to read but it's like you say. I'm interested in knowing the reason for behavior, and I would like to help people in the future. Mental health is something important" This last part came out in a whisper, you weren't used to revealing the reason for your career choice, most people told you that you should have chosen something that would make you rich in twenty years.

"That's incredible, I admire you a lot" Chan said in a soft voice, and you hadn't realized how close he'd gotten until you noticed the small touch of his fingers on your arm, the color quickly rose to your cheeks again and panic took over you, making you choke up when you spoke.

"Y-yes, thank you... not many think that way" And you moved your body away from his space; maybe a little abruptly but you were sure that if you continued in that position you were going to do or say something ridiculous, you couldn't trust your ability to reason at the moment.

Chan cleared his throat at your reaction and took two bowls in his hands, starting to walk towards the living room. You hadn't realized how loudly the other two boys were talking, were you so immersed in the situation to forget the outside world? Apparently yes.

"Are you done yet? The boys must be waiting" He stopped right in front of the door, waiting for you to take what you'd prepared.

You nodded softly, and after grabbing your preparations, you followed him into the living room.

You don't really remember what happened after that, you assume you watched the movies that the boys had already chosen before you arrived. You also don't remember if you had even paid attention, probably not, because you were very focused on keeping your breathing as normal as you could since unfortunately Hyunjin and Jeongin decided to each sit in an individual chair and by coincidence the only place left to sit was in the two-seat chair that your best friend's grandmother had given to his mother at her wedding, and conveniently Chan sat there too. So as the movie played on the screen, your heart raced with every accidental brush of your arms or legs against Chan's.

The only thing you remember clearly from that moment is that you couldn't help but look at his profile, trying to memorize every detail and every peculiarity of his expressions.

The rest of the summer felt like a haze, every time you made plans with Jeongin you knew Chan was going to be there. And that did nothing to dispel the feelings that were beginning to become more present with every minute you spent in his presence.

You liked him a little too much.

His kind nature and the way he treated everyone made you dizzy every time, but you were too shy to act on your feelings and unfortunately you weren't the only one who thought Chan was a good catch. Every now and then different girls approached him to ask him out, and although he always rejected them; you couldn't help but feel a little insecure about the situation. And there was also the small problem that he confessed to you one night in Hyunjin's garden: his last relationship had been somewhat toxic, and although it ended years ago, he was deeply hurt and didn't feel ready yet to fall for someone again.

That confession left a sour taste in your mouth, so you decided not to actively act on your feelings, you really didn't want to make Chan uncomfortable or force him into something he didn't want to do, let alone ruin the friendship you were building. But something as strong as love cannot be contained, and one sleepless night you found yourself scribbling in your notebook the things you wanted to say to him, the things you liked about him, and how he made you feel when you looked at him.

You weren't thinking when you left the first envelope on his desk, it was a completely impulsive decision that you regretted the moment you left his classroom. But when you turned around to go back and throw the letter into the trash, he already found it.

At first he didn't read them, you knew because you'd overheard when he mentioned it to Hyunjin during an outing the three of you made, Chan believed that one of his friends was playing a prank on him.

And that was the last straw that broke the camel's back, although you told yourself that you weren't going to write anymore letters for the sake of your friendship and your own feelings you had to let him know (even if anonymously) that he was someone worthy of love and that he wasn't what the people in his past made him believe he was.

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Once you arrived at the classroom (miraculously before the professor, you didn't think you could endure another lecture and there were still three more hours before leaving the university) you sat down in your respective seat by the window. The day was really beautiful, and from your place you could see the large patio where the entire student body went to relax between classes, it was your favorite place in the entire building and at this moment you wanted nothing more than to be leaning against a tree feeling the warm sunlight on your face.

"I'm not saying you have to tell him that but don't you think it's been too long already?" Jeongin didn't seem to want to drop the topic for today, he'd gotten up from his seat taking advantage of the fact that there was still no sign of the teacher and sat at your table, almost knocking all the things that were on top of it to the floor. You rested your head on the bench and waved a hand in the air, brushing it off in an attempt to say 'leave me alone already'.

Your best friend snorted exasperatedly, "You really are a special case, you've been in love with him for a year, for God's sake."

At the boy's aggressive tone of voice, you took your head off the table and looked at him with a frown. He looked back at you like he always did: challenging and forcing you to speak for yourself.

"It's not as easy as you say, Jeongin" You spat angrily.

"For all I know, if he finds out, he could throw my stupid letters in the trash and confessing would not only make me look weird but it would also ruin the friendship we have" You lowered your face, feeling a little sad "And the last thing I would like to do is lose him"

Jeongin’s expression softened as he realized the depth of your anxiety, and he reached out to place a reassuring hand on your shoulder. "I get it, I really do. You don't want to jeopardize what you have but you deserve happiness too, you know? Maybe it's time to take a risk."

“I don’t even think I have a chance” You sighed, feeling defeated.

Jeongin moved closer and lowered his voice conspiratorially, "You may have more possibilities than you think, but sometimes you have to give destiny a little push."

You raised an eyebrow at his choice of words and just as you were about to question him further, the professor made an appearance in the classroom ordering everyone to take their respective seats and apologizing for the delay. Your best friend flashed you a bright smile with his trademark dimples and snuck over to his table, effectively ending the conversation and leaving you wondering what he meant for the rest of the day.

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If Jeongin's plan was for you to not sleep for a week, then he'd achieved it. His words had been spinning through your head like a whirlpool that seemed to have no end. You knew that he'd been friends with the brunette for a longer time than you, but were they close enough that the youngest knew the secrets inside Chan's heart?

Or was he giving you the advice that all friends gave to their other friends desperate to believe in the illusion that the person they like reciprocates their feelings? No, Jeongin wouldn't do that, he was too honest for his own good and besides you'd known each other longer (your mothers said you were born to be friends). So did that mean there really was a chance?

No, of course not, that was ridiculous.

You shook your head in an attempt to get rid of those thoughts as you rang the doorbell at Hyunjin's house. Your group had agreed to meet to study and you needed to have a clear mind, the exams were around the corner and you couldn't afford to keep your brain preoccupied thinking about something that would never happen.

The minutes passed slowly as you waited for the homeowner, and while you were thinking about ringing the doorbell again fearing that the boys inside hadn't heard you, the door suddenly opened, and nothing could have prepared you to see the person who has been living rent free in your mind, you knew he would be there, but you didn't expect to face him so quickly.

"Hey, you arrived just in time, Hyunjin's mom just brought us some drinks" Chan was his usual self, with his beautiful smile plastered on his face and his relaxed attitude.

You blinked once, twice, three times before you managed a small forced smile and responded, "Oh, great, thanks," and you stood there in silence, unable to look him in the eyes.

Chan tilted his head in silent question at your attitude, "Is everything okay?"

His concern for your well-being was evident in his voice and he struck a chord in your heart. You looked at him briefly, meeting his gaze for a fleeting moment and nodded, still struggling to find your voice.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” You finally responded, trying to sound casual despite the jumble of emotions inside you.

Chan's friendly demeanor never wavered as he led you into the house, you followed him with a notable distance between your bodies and so when you arrived at the living room where the boys were already seated with open textbooks and a monstrous amount of things to eat you almost ran to sit next to Jeongin, an attitude that didn't go unnoticed by the blonde, who looked at you with his eyebrows raised in a telepathic question.

Meanwhile, Chan didn't take his eyes off you as he sat next to Hyunjin on the couch in front of where you and your best friend were.

The afternoon went by slowly, too slowly for your liking, you'd gone with all the desire to study and get your mind out of the anxiety that was consuming you, but that attempt had been futile.

Although your gaze remained glued to your notes and your blue highlighter (which hadn't highlighted anything in the last hour, you'd read the same paragraph five times without getting a clue of what it was trying to say) you felt how two eyes were burning holes in your figure. The room was suffocatingly silent, and you were sure that your irregular breathing was evident to the entire group; your nerves were so on edge that when your best friend's voice filled the void you almost jumped in your place.

"I'm tired, how about we take a break?"Jeongin raised his arms towards the ceiling, stretching his back and then collapsing gracelessly against the soft cushions of the sofa.

Hyunjin nodded while massaging his neck, stiff after so many hours of looking down at his notes and reading "I thought no one was going to say it, I was going crazy."

Chan didn't say anything, he just closed his notebooks and imitated Jeongin in his relaxed pose against the couch. You felt out of place when the boys started chatting about meaningless things to lighten the atmosphere.

You only nodded when you felt your input was necessary, or laughed when you thought that was the reaction you should have but you didn't speak, because in fact, you weren't sure you were going to say anything coherent or at least make your voice louder than a whisper, so you decided that the best course of action was to stay quiet.

If the boys noticed it, they didn't say anything, and you couldn't be more grateful for it.

"You know" Chan interrupted the laughter of the other two boys after a not-so-funny story told by Hyunjin.

Everyone focused their attention on him, the tone of voice he'd used was more serious than his usual; so serious that it forced you to look up for the first time since the recess began and you found Chan's brown eyes looking directly at you, doing it so intensely that you thought he was staring right into your soul.

You held your breath, but you weren't prepared for what he said next.

"My secret admirer hasn't written to me in a few days" He was still looking at you, but there was something strange hidden in his irises, something you couldn't decipher.

Silence once again took over Hyunjin's living room, and the tension could be cut with a knife, it almost seemed like time had stopped when the brunette pronounced the last syllable. Your mouth felt dry, and your palms began to sweat. The weight of his words floated in the air and a thousand thoughts passed through your mind, each one more disconcerting than the last.

Hyunjin snorted, and looked maliciously at Chan "Maybe they are tired of you."

His mocking comment broke the heavy silence like thunder. Jeongin joined in with a playful smile, taking the opportunity to tease Chan mercilessly. “Maybe your secret admirer found someone else,” he joked, his tone light and teasing, “Or maybe they are just playing hard to get.”

Your heart was pounding in your chest, wanting to burst while the boys laughed at Chan's expense while he, in response, rolled his eyes and smiled sarcastically at the jokes that his friends kept saying, he also looked at you from time to time making your discomfort even more evident.

You desperately searched for words to contribute to the conversation, your voice choked by the rising anxiety. But as Jeongin and Hyunjin's playful teasing continued, you remained silent, feeling like a bystander in a conversation that was becoming more cryptic by the second. Chan's gaze never left you, and despite the teasing, there was something in his eyes that betrayed a deeper understanding. His comment felt like a puzzle piece falling into place, yet you couldn't put your finger on what he truly knew.

As the laughter subsided, the room descended into an awkward silence once more, and then Chan finally spoke up, his tone more subdued than before. "Well, whoever it is," he began, his eyes still locked on yours, "I hope they know they've brightened my days with their letters."

The comment hung in the air, carrying a weight that seemed to pull everyone into its gravity. Jeongin and Hyunjin exchanged glances, their playful demeanor suddenly giving way to something more conspiracy.

You, on the other hand, felt an overwhelming mix of emotions. The anxiety that'd been building throughout the day reached a crescendo. You wanted to say something, to respond in some way, but the words caught in your throat.

Hyunjin broke the silence once more, this time with a touch of sincerity in his voice. "Whoever they are," he said, "they must really care about you, man." Jeongin nodded in agreement, and the room seemed to shift, it was a subtle transformation, but one that you couldn't help but notice.

Chan smiled, a genuine one that reached his eyes. "Yeah," he admitted, "They do mean a lot to me."

You desperately needed a moment to collect your thoughts and emotions after that serious conversation, so you mumbled something about getting a drink from the kitchen, excusing yourself with a weak smile and slowly, you retreated from the living room, the voices of the boys fading as you put some distance between you and the group.

In the dimly lit kitchen, you leaned against the countertop, your heart still racing from the tension in the room. The realization that Chan cherished those anonymous letters hit you like a ton of bricks. You'd never imagined how much they meant to him.

Just as you were lost in thought, the sound of footsteps behind you made you jump. You turned to find Chan standing there, a serious yet gentle expression on his face. His presence seemed to fill the room with warmth, and your anxiety ratcheted up another notch.

"Hey," he said softly, "You okay?"

You nodded, unable to form words an he took a step closer, his gaze never left yours.

Chan's brown eyes bore into yours, and for a moment, it felt like the world had frozen around you. You couldn't contain the thoughts racing through your mind any longer. With a trembling voice, you finally asked the question that'd been gnawing at you.

"Do you know who's been sending those letters?"

Chan's expression remained calm, but you could see a glimmer of something in his eyes, a hint of knowing. He didn't answer immediately, instead, he stepped closer, narrowing the distance between you.

His voice was soft as he replied, "I have a feeling I might have a clue."

Your heart pounded in your chest as you searched his face for more hints. What did he mean by 'a clue'? It was clear he was being deliberately vague, and it only added to your curiosity.

"But," he continued, "I'd like to hear it from you. Tell me, do you know who it is?"

You hesitated, the weight of the truth pressing down on you. The walls between you and Chan seemed to dissolve, and the vulnerability in his eyes was mirrored in your own. With a shaky breath, you summoned the courage to speak, your voice quivering with fear and anticipation.

"It's me."

The admission hung in the air, heavy and uncertain. You couldn't bring yourself to meet his gaze, your eyes locked on the floor as you waited for his reaction. The seconds felt like hours as you replayed all the letters, and the emotions you'd poured into them.

Chan's silence stretched, and the tension in the room became palpable. Your heart raced, and you feared the worst — rejection, awkwardness, or even laughter.

Then, he reached out, gently lifting your chin with his fingers, forcing you to look into his eyes. The warmth and kindness in his gaze melted away your fears.

"Thank you," he whispered, his voice soft and sincere. "I've cherished every single one."

As tears welled up in your eyes, Chan reached out to gently wipe them away with his thumb. He pulled you into a comforting embrace, holding you close as your emotions overwhelmed you. You couldn't hold back the tears any longer, and they flowed freely as you nestled into his embrace. He whispered soothing words, his voice a balm to your soul, reassuring you that everything would be okay.

After a moment of shared comfort, you pulled away slightly, looking up at him with curiosity. "But how did you know it was me?" you finally asked, your voice still trembling.

Chan smiled softly, brushing a strand of hair from your face, a knowing twinkle in his eye, and replied, "I had my suspicions, especially after some of the things you wrote. But what really gave it away was your handwriting."

You blinked in surprise.

Handwriting? You hadn't considered that, no, haven't even thought about it when you started this a year ago, and to be honest you felt a little dumb.

Chan continued, "I recognized your handwriting from a birthday card you gave me a while back. It was similar to the writing in the letters. And then, well, I saw you looking at me during our hangouts, and it all just started to make sense."

You blushed, feeling a mix of embarrassment and relief. It seemed like you'd left more clues than you thought. But instead of feeling exposed, you felt a strange sense of comfort knowing that he'd noticed your feelings all along.

With a shy smile, you said, "I guess I'm not very good at hiding my feelings, am I?"

Chan chuckled softly. "No, but that's okay. I'm glad you told me."

As you gazed into Chan's eyes, you noticed something change in his expression. The initial surprise and curiosity gave way to a more tender, understanding look. He cupped your face gently, his touch warm and reassuring.

"You know," he began softly, "I've always appreciated those letters. They made me feel special, like someone out there truly understood me. And I never wanted to pressure you into revealing yourself," Chan continued. "I wanted you to do it when you were ready."

"I was just afraid," you admitted, your voice barely above a whisper. "Afraid of what you might think, of how it might change things between us."

Chan's thumb traced small circles on your cheek as he reassured you, "Don't be. This doesn't change how I feel about what we have. If anything, it makes it even more special."

A tear escaped from the corner of your eye, but this time, it wasn't a tear of anxiety or fear. It was a tear of relief, of happiness. You leaned into Chan's touch, and he leaned closer, his eyes locked on yours, and before you knew it, his lips met yours in a soft, gentle kiss. The world seemed to melt away as your lips met his, you felt the warmth of his body against yours, and the sensation sent shivers down your spine. His hands cradled your face, holding you gently but firmly, as if he never wanted to let you go.

The taste of his lips was sweet and comforting, like a warm embrace on a cold winter's day, you could feel the steady beat of Chan's heart, matching the rhythm of your own. The world around you disappeared, and there was only the two of you.

And just as you were lost in that sweet moment, the kitchen door burst open, and in walked your friends, their playful banter filling the room while wearing grins so wide they threatened to split their faces. Jeongin couldn't help but tease you, waggling his eyebrows playfully. "Well, well, looks like someone finally got the courage to make a move!"

Hyunjin joined in with a mock-sympathetic tone. "And here we thought we'd have to wait another century for this to happen!"

You blushed furiously, pulling away from Chan who chuckled in amusement, still holding you close. "You guys have impeccable timing," he remarked, his voice laced with sarcasm.

Jeongin winked at you, "Hey! We're just glad we won't have to hear you two mooning over each other anymore."

[magicat1337]

[hornyfor-redacted-onmain]

Feelings

Pieces of My Heart - Chapter 19 Stray Kids OT8 x reader, Soulmate AU

Masterlist | Next Part

You found yourself waking up with a jolt. There was a weight on your chest, and your eyes felt glued from crust, but you felt frozen, waiting for anything to let you know what it was that woke you up. Your fridge was humming softly, and besides the soft breathing from next to you, there was no other noise. Until you picked up a soft beeping.

With a sigh, you slowly shifted Jisung off your body so you could slip out of bed, softly padding towards your pants. After a second, you realized it wasn’t your phone that had made the noise. You gave a second to glance back to the boys still sleeping in your bed, looking peaceful. You contemplated it for a second, but another buzz made you shrug.

It was probably fine.

It was in Jisung’s pants that you found the offending phone, a few notifications from ‘Channie-Hyung’. You could only see the most recent messages since you didn’t have his phone password.

‘Let me know’ 1m

‘We might be going over the melody for the bri-’ 1m

‘Feel free to catch up with us later. We’ll be-‘ 2m

You hummed softly, bringing his phone back to your bed with you. You placed both of them on the nightstand and, figuring Chan would have called if it was urgent, found yourself falling back asleep.

Or at least, you tried.

Despite dozing for a few minutes, you found yourself unable to actually fall back asleep. You let your eyes flutter open, about to stretch, when you caught movement in the corner of your eye. You shifted your head slightly up to see what it was.

Minho was awake, his eyes heavily lidded as if he was seconds away from closing them again. He was looking down at Jisung, who had turned over and decided to use his hyung as a pillow in your brief absences, and there was something in his eyes that made your breath catch in your throat. The movement that you had caught was his hand lifting up to brush hair away from Jisung’s face.

The back of his hand softly caressed the sleeping rapper’s cheek with a tenderness that you had never seen before. Except, maybe in movies. And very briefly, between soulmates.

As his actual soulmate, it should have made you feel jealous to see that look in Minho’s eyes. The kind of look he had never shown you. But while it did make your chest clench tightly, it wasn’t because of a jealousy or hurt that you had known quite well from past relationships and unrequited crushes. It was … you weren’t sure what it was.

Minho’s eyes darted towards you, a small smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.

“Hi,” He whispered in English, his voice soft and yet deep from sleep.

“Morning,” You whispered back, trying not to wake up the other boy.

 “What time is it?”

“7-ish,” You murmured.

The dancer threw an arm over his eyes. “Too early.”

You let out a huff, nodding your head in agreement. “Go back to sleep.”

You weren’t sure if he did, since he didn’t answer you. Now that you were sure you weren’t tired anymore, you grabbed your phone to scroll for a while in hopes of passing the time, both because you didn’t want to actually get up for fear of bothering the other two, but also because you had no plans.

At first it was just alternating between videos and social media, catching up on anything new. But then you saw a particular post that made you pause.

It was you. At least, you were pretty sure it was you. And it was definitely Seungmin standing in front of you, even if his face was slightly blurry in the picture. You recognized the outfit as the one he was wearing yesterday.

Someone must have noticed you two on your not-date. The post only had an exclamation mark, with no other information or accusation, but the replies more than made up for it.

‘who are they?’ ‘IS THAT KIM SEUNGMIN?!!!?’ ‘ADFDGSH you saw Seungmin in the wild T.T’ ‘normalize actual captions plz. I have no idea what this is’ ‘lol stay is doing Dispatch’s job for them’ ‘wait is it just me or does that look like stray kids Seungmin?’ ‘oh my god you met Seungmin?’ ‘OP, is this you in pic?’

You knew for a fact that none of the boys had seen this post yet. There weren’t a lot of interactions, and the lack of confirmation from the original poster in the replies managed to keep most people in a stage of confusion. But it made your heartbeat faster, the sudden anxiety that you had been caught in public.

You hadn’t even noticed anyone taking the photo. What if you had been holding hands, or kissing? Right now, even if anyone managed to confirm it was Seungmin in the photo, there was plausible deniability that you were just a friend.

You turned your phone off with a sigh.

Jisung flipped over onto his back with a groan. “Jagi?”

Minho grunted, reaching out to grab Jisung’s hand.

Jisung mumbled something. too slurred and soft for you to make out, but Minho understood perfectly. He said something without opening his eyes, still too soft for you to make anything out except for ‘dinner’ and ‘our’, to which Jisung let out a loud groan as he stretched his body out in an exaggerated way.

You snickered.

“Yah, you’re too far. Come here,” Jisung said, holding out his arms to you.

“You’re the one who left me,” You said, allowing him to pull you close. “Just like I expected. I’m just the third wheel here.” You let out an exaggerated sniffle, dramatically placing the back of your hand over your forehead.

“You’re only now figuring that out?” Jisung joked.

You gasped, pulling away so you could slap him on the arm. “Hey!”

When you tried to get out of bed, he tightened his hold on you. “Noooo! I’m sorry, I was just joking. Don’t leave me!”

“You’re so dramatic,” you sighed, allowing him to pull you on top of him. You held yourself up on your elbow, looking down at him with a fake frown. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Kiss me?”

You pretended to think about it, but at his impatient look, you found yourself caving. You placed a slow, gentle, kiss on his lips, pulling away to affectionately grab his chin with your free hand. Jisung beamed up at you.

“Now I feel like the third wheel,” Minho said.

“Aw, are you feeling jealous Jagi?” Jisung pouted. “Come here, I can give you a kiss too.” He made exaggerated kissy noises, leaning over to get closer to the dancer, but in doing so he ended up pushing you off him.

You landed on your back on the edge of the bed with a laugh. “Hey, careful!”

The boys seemed to be in a wrestling match, both of them laughing and Jisung yelling out that Minho should accept his love, and you rolled your eyes.

“Boys,” You sighed to yourself.

0o0o0o0

Changbin invited you out to the gym the next morning, and you were already starting to regret it. It made you realize that you weren’t exactly in the best of shape, especially when you found yourself struggling to keep up with what was supposed to be a beginner friendly warm up.

At least he was nice enough not to point it out.

Chan showed up about halfway through, looking both surprised and amused when he realized you were there. “He going easy on you?”

“Doesn’t feel like it,” You grunted, letting out a groan as you lifted yourself back up from your squat.

You expected some more teasing, maybe some reassurance from one or both of the boys, but they were surprisingly quiet. You glanced at them in the mirror.

Changbin was smirking, and Chan’s eyes were far too low to be on anything but your ass.

You laughed so hard you almost dropped the bar.

0o0o0o0

Soulmates

Y/N Alright, which one of you gremlins stole my hoodie Felix Not it! Hyunjin It wasn’t me, but now I’m kind of wishing it was Jisung Wait, the black one? Or the grey one? Seungmin Self-admitting to being gremlins? You guys are so dumb. Felix I will bite you Jisung Or maybe the red one …. Sungie, stop stealing my hoodies! Jisung But they’re so soft! You’re the only one who wears them to bed. Felix Yeah, because most of us don’t wear anything to bed ;) Y/N I’m going to start stealing your hoodies as revenge >:( Jisung Don’t threaten me with a good time

0o0o0o0

“Okay, I might not have thought this completely through,” You admitted.

Hyunjin peeked over your shoulder. “Who’s Sophie?”

“A friend of mine,” You said, erasing what you had been typing. “I mentioned that I was in Korean and now she keeps asking me to send photos of all the places I go to so she can ‘live through me’.”

You did the air quotes with your fingers, and Hyunjin blinked at you slowly, looking far too much like Minho in that moment.

“Okay?”

“The problem is, I haven’t exactly been to many places,” You explained.

“We went to the museum,” he pointed out.

“Together,” You said slowly, pointing between you two. “I don’t have any pictures without you guys in it. She’s a Stay.”

Hyunjin tilted his head. “So you need more photos?”

You pouted, looking down at your phone. “Yeah. It would also be nice to visit some actual tourist attractions, you know?”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

You looked up at the dancer to find he was completely serious. He grabbed his phone and started towards the front door, looking back at you to make sure you were following.

“Wait, right now?” You exclaimed, stumbling out of your chair.

“Why not? I don’t have anything else to do today.”

You beamed at him. “Really?!”

Hyunjin reached out a hand for you, and he pulled you in close so he could grab your hip with one hand, using the other to raise your joined hands to his lips. He gave you a gentle kiss on the back of the hand, and then another on your forehead.

“I’m all yours.”

0o0o0o0

You wanted to surprise the boys. They had a long day; a couple meetings to discuss their next release, and then a video they had to film for some variety show program. They had texted you not to wait up, that they were going to be at the company building late that night, so you thought it would be a great idea to pop by to give them some goodnight kisses since you wouldn’t see them until the morning.

You thought you would be fine walking. You had taken the bus with a few of the boys before, knew the routes well, and it was only three actual minutes out on the street.

It just so happened that in those three minutes, the sky decided to open up like some kind of action movie.

To say you were soaked when you finally made it to the cover of the building would be putting it lightly. You were literally dripping, your shoes squelching with every step, and you refused to move from the entrance since it would end up with you spilling water all along the shiny marble floors, and the poor cleaning staff didn’t deserve to deal with that.

The secretary at the front entrance gave you a sympathetic look, offering to make the call for you since your own phone wasn’t turning on.

“Oh my god, are you okay?”

You shivered. “I feel like I almost drowned out there.”

Chan threw a jacket over your shoulders despite your protests that it would just get wet. And when you explained how you didn’t want to get water all over the floors, he proceeded to pick you up and carry you to the public restrooms like you were a child.

You weren’t sure whether to feel embarrassed or impressed.

“I don’t know what you’re hoping to achieve here.” You told him with a sigh as he set you down on the counter. “I’m still wet.”

Chan pulled his phone out, giving you a cheeky look as he dialed a number. You leaned in close to see if you make out who it was. Ever the gentleman, Chan put it on speakerphone.

It was Minho who picked up. “Hyung?”

“Hey, can you get me a change of clothes? Bring it down to the woman’s bathrooms in the lobby.”

Apparently, questions weren’t a thing for the second oldest, because he hung up a second later.

“You guys keep spare clothes at the company?”

“Sometimes we take showers here before heading home. They have better water pressure,” He explained, pulling his jacket off. He then proceeded to tug on your soaked shirt. “Come one, lets get these clothes off before you get sick.”

You helped him peel the wet fabric from your skin, the clothes seemingly having shrunk with the rain. “You just want an excuse to see me naked.”

“Guilty as charged,” He joked, although his eyes never strayed from your face.

He then used some of the paper towels to dry away any lingering moisture from your back and arms as you wrung your hair out in the sink, the strands getting frizzy as you tried to shake it dry. He didn’t hesitate to pull his own dry and warm shirt off for you to wear while you waited, although you didn’t have to wait long.

Minho walked into the bathroom without so much as a knock, acting as if it was an everyday occurrence to find Chan shirtless in the bathroom. From behind him, Jeongin followed like a lost puppy, waving his hand at you.

“Hi!”

“These were the smallest I could find,” Minho said, handing you a shirt and a pair of sweats that would probably fit.

“Thank you.”

You grabbed the clothes, and then stared at the three boys for much too long.

Chan was the first to realize. “Right! Sorry, we’ll let you get changed.”

“Damn,” Jeongin whispered.

“I told you they weren't going to let you watch,” Minho said with a sigh, pushing the younger singer towards the bathroom doors.

Your brain to mouth filters failed you in a moment of weakness. “I mean, I let you watch.”

Chan raised his brows in shock, Jeongin spinning around so hard that he almost knocked Minho onto the floor.

“You what!?”

Minho smirked. “Oh honey, you’re going to give them the wrong idea.”

Already more than aware of how it sounded, you looked away in embarrassment. Jeongin wasn’t backing out without a fight, however.

“When did you let him watch? I thought we agreed to go slow?”

“Ayen, dude. Chill,” Chan warned him. “We agreed to go at their pace.”

“We didn’t even do anything,” Minho added. “We only got ready for bed.”

Jeongin pouted, “Still-“

“Wait, what do you mean you agreed to go at my pace?” You asked, clothes long forgotten. The three of them shared a look that you could roughly translate to ‘oh fuck’. “Have you been talking behind my back?”

“I mean, we just figured it wouldn’t be fair to pressure you or anything. We didn’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Chan explained.

“Seriously?”

Minho titled his head to the side. “Is that not what you wanted?”

“You guys can be real idiots sometimes,” You hissed. “You do realize you guys can just ask me things, right? I mean … I thought since nobody brought it up that maybe ....”

Chan choked. “You thought we didn’t want to?”

“I don’t know! It’s not like we ever talked about this?!”

Finally having enough, Jeongin moved away from the other two boys, pushing his way up against the counter you were sitting on, in between your legs. He then pressed his hands against the counter on either side, leaning up into your space.

“Can I kiss you?”

You blinked, sucking in a breath of air that you held for just a second longer than normal. And then you grinned, eyes darting to the other two boys.

“Take notes, boys.”

For as cold as you had been only minutes before, Jeongin’s lips against yours made your entire body heat up to the point you felt like you were on fire. His skin was equally hot under your palm as you reached up to cup his jaw, tilting his head back farther so you could lean into him. He let out a groan at the sudden change in position, your hand slipping down to the back of his neck, fingers scratching along the skin.

Chan swore, and you smirked against Jeongin’s kiss, more aware of the fact you had an audience now. Something in you was brought to life at the idea of putting on a show, your legs coming up to wrap around Jeongin’s back and pull him in closer. You let out a moan of your own as his tongue pressed against your lips, opening up for him.

There was a hushed whisper, and then the sound of someone slapping the other as Minho giggled. You snorted, pushing away from Jeongin to bury your head in his shoulder.

“Aish. You guys really do have to ruin everything, don’t you,” The maknae complained, his hands sliding up your bare sides. You shivered as cold air reached your skin.

Chan sighed. “Alright, let them get changed. You two can have a good pash later.”

You watched them go with tingling lips, feeling a sense of satisfaction.

0o0o0o0

Soulmates

Y/N New phone, who dis Felix RIP your old phone, it will be forever missed At least it was a Samsung Changbin I know where you sleep Felix Yeah, with me XP Hyunjin Can’t believe your phone died in the rain like that Jeongin Still can’t believe Lee Know-hyung got to see you naked Hyunjin Now im worried everytime it starts to rain that the same thing will happen to my phone Wait, what? Y/N He didn’t see me naked! Felix I thought we agreed to go slow?! Chan We agreed to go at their pace! Jisung HOW COME I HAVENT GOTTEN TO SEE ANYBODY NAKED! T>T Y/N HE HASN’T SEE ME NAKED! Minho Yet Y/N O.O

0o0o0o0

Dinner with the boys was quickly becoming an everyday tradition. While not all the boys were available all the time due to their solo schedules, you could always count on someone inviting you over to eat.

Today, it was surprisingly at the 3racha dorm and not at the maknae’s. Danceracha was busy working on some choreo, and Chan had decided to take the night off, leaving him in charge of dinner. Seungmin and Jeongin showed up early enough to help out, but they were more of a hinderance to the elder’s attempts at fried rice, stealing food and distracting him with random questions every time they strayed into the kitchen.

It only took half an hour before everyone except you and Changbin (the only two who were actually helping) were banned from the kitchen. Jisung pouted at you from the couch when you passed the kitchen doorway. You winked at him.

“Like actual children, I swear,” Chan sighed, taking the salt offered out of your hands. “Thanks.”

You couldn’t keep the smile off your face. “You poor thing. How do you put up with them?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hey, not all of us are bad,” Changbin mumbled, carefully shaking the salad he was working on so that the veggies mixed together without flying out.

You plucked a tomato out of the bowl. “Yeah! Some of us are worse.”

“Out!” Chan yelled at you with a laugh, Changbin complaining about the stolen tomato with a high-pitched whine.

You giggled the entire way out, collapsing onto the couch next to the maknae, who didn’t waste any time latching onto you like an octopus. “I’ve been banished, my fellow thieves.”

Jisung and Seungmin both frowned, the English words unfamiliar to them. What proceeded was the most chaotic English lesson you ever tried to give, with the word banished quickly finding it’s translation, but the concept of ‘fellow’ throwing them off.

“It’s like, something you share in common. We all stole food,” You explained.

“Ahh. So, I can say ‘my fellow friends’?” Jisung tried.

“Mhh, it makes sense. Just sounds weird.”

“My fellow soulmates?” Jeongin tested, his accent heavy against your neck. You squirmed.

“I don’t think that one works. Kind of implies you guys are all soulmates with each other, instead of just sharing one.”

“One soulmate is more than enough,” Seungmin said with a grimace.

“Aww hyung, you don’t want to be my soulmate?” Jeongin teased.

You expected a deadpan answer, something to make you all laugh in the way he normally did. But Seungmin actually paused, tilting his head towards the youngest in thought.

“I guess being your soulmate wouldn’t be so bad,” he admitted.

“Awww.” You and Jisung both teased, and Seungmin rolled his eyes.

“Better than the others, for sure.”

“Ya! I better not be included in that,” Changbin yelled as he poked his head out of the kitchen. “Come help me set the table.”

With the human octopus still clinging to you, it was hard for you to get up. The other two abandoned you with snickers when you cried for their help, and it was only when you agreed to stay with him tonight that Jeongin finally let you go.

He held your hand under the table all night (thankfully not the one you used to eat with), and only let you go to your apartment to change with the promise you’d meet him at his dorm.

Felix and Hyunjin were on the couch when you arrived, both of them watching something on a phone between them. Felix looked like he was already half asleep, only managing to smile at you sleepily. Hyunjin flapped his hands at you.

“Help me get him to bed?”

You glanced at the hallway, and figured Jeongin could wait a few more minutes.

Between the two of you, it was more than easy to guide Felix to his bedroom. It was, however, difficult to do so without alerting the others to your presence, as you discovered Jeongin pouting at you from Felix’s doorway when you finished tucking in the young dancer. Hyunjin immediately took your spot on the bed, wrapping himself around the other boy with a hum.

“Thank you,” He whispered out to you, blowing you a kiss.

Jeongin wrapped his arms protectively around you the moment you were close enough for him to reach. “I thought he was going to steal you.”

“Never. I’m all yours,” You joked, glancing back at the blond-haired duo. Hyunjin was running his fingers through Felix’s hair, eyes soft as he looked down at his friend. “Besides, I don’t to ruin whatever they’ve got going on.”

“Hmm. Maybe they should have been soulmates instead,” Jeongin teased.

You blinked, thoughts beginning to run through your head. “Maybe.”

_o-o_o-o_o-o_o-o_o-o_o-o_

Taglist: (if you wish to be added or removed, please let me know)

@kayleefriedchicken @dessianna1 @tryingtolivelifeblog @luvvvash @purplelady85 @jc003

[gamerwoo]

Bang Chan: The Girl Who Didn't Cry Wolf (Part Four)

Characters: Bang Chan x fem reader

Genre/warnings: werewolf au, fantasy, enemies-to-lovers-ish??, slowburn, werewolf/alpha!chan, (werewolf)hunter!reader, fluff for once wow!!!, angst to balance it out :), mentions of death and murder but nobody actually dies, [dialogue in bold is meant to be korean]

Word count: 3,664

Summary: You've learned to do whatever you can to protect yourself after an incident almost a decade ago had your father and brother dragging you to a new country to start all over even though they blamed you for what happened. After finding yourself stuck in a house of werewolves, you're forced to come to terms with your feelings over what happened back home when the alpha imprints on you and his pack claims they're keeping you prisoner. You know exactly how this will end if you give in, and yet you can't seem to get yourself to leave the sweet and charming werewolf who's willing to do anything to make you comfortable. You're just hoping that maybe there'll be a good end this time.

Previous | Next | TGWDCW Masterlist

“Can you stop instigating with him? He’s never gonna let go of this grudge against you.”

“I never said I wanted him to like me, Christopher.”

“Good, ‘cause it won’t happen,” Minho stated, side-eyeing you from across the room.

While you didn’t know what he said, Minho knew everything the two of you were saying. He would never let you know that, though – except for the one time he told you that him and Seungmin were taking you captive, but he just wanted to make sure he really got his point across. And he also refused to converse with you in the only language you knew, so he’d just make you suffer by never knowing what he was saying to you.

You looked over at him and stuck your tongue out at him, so he flipped you off.

“This is exactly what I’m talking about!” Chan exclaimed.

“Maybe you should imprint on someone who wasn’t training to kill you,” you suggested, tilting your head back over the back of the couch to look at the man standing behind you with a frown. “And don’t give me that look, it’s your own fault.”

It took two days for the pack to manage to coax you out of Chan and Felix’s bedroom and start living like a sort-of-normal person. You were still wary of the pack, but you were mostly just still pissed at the pair who had declared you a hostage, so you eventually took Chan’s breakfast invitation to go downstairs and be face-to-face with the werewolves in hopes of annoying the absolute hell of out them – if they were going to force you to stay with them, you were going to make it their problem. However, since you didn’t have any physical weapons to use, you used any wit you had left in you after slowly going insane over the last few days.

Most of them didn’t bother you except for Seungmin, who seemed to go out of his way all morning to piss you off. Minho was the only one who seemed to ignore you altogether, but you didn’t really think anything of it – even though he attacked you. Twice.

Chan was always around you, though. Surprisingly, you liked it, which sort of made you feel a bit worse considering the circumstances, but you tried not to think about that too much. Without him, you’d probably be a little intimidated by the pack, so you opted to just stay beside him. It clearly pleased him, and it made you feel a hell of a lot safer. You still kind of disliked him, though. Admittedly, you didn’t hate him, but you were afraid of the feeling you got because of him and what would happen if you were to get caught in the situation you were in.

You were afraid of a lot of your feelings, but you were trying to not think about it too much since you were stuck in the current situation thanks to Minho and Seungmin. Since there wasn’t much you could do about it, why worry about it?

“Can you just tell your mate to shut up?” Minho asked the older wolf, which was something he suggested at least three other times that day.

“No,” Chan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, “but even if I did, she wouldn’t listen.”

Don’t get it wrong, most of the pack was being nice to you, but it was hard getting close with a pack of wolves when you knew you weren’t supposed to and you knew the consequences if you did. Still, you were trying to make the best of a very shitty situation.

“Learn to stand up to her, then,” Minho told him. “Be a man.”

“Yeah, Christopher,” Hyunjin giggled from where he was playing cards on the floor with Felix, “be a man.”

This time, it was Chan’s turn to stick his tongue out, aiming it at his pack. You just laughed harder, lifting your head to give Minho a shit-eating grin since Chan was apparently on your side now. You got up on your knees and rested your arms against the back of the couch to face him. He placed a hand on either side of your arms and raised his eyebrows like he expected you to say something profound.

Then again, in his head, everything you said was profound.

“I hate when you look at her like that,” Minho frowned, looking at the two of you since he had nothing else to look at.

Chan looked around you at the grumpy wolf in the armchair, “You mean...how I always look at her?”

“Yes.”

Chan’s eyes flickered back to you, his lips in a tight line that brought out his dimples, “Guess I have to stop looking at you, _____. Minho doesn’t like when I do.”

“If you have a melon baller, it makes for quick and easy eye-gouging,” you noted deadpan.

You heard Felix make a noise of disgust from the corner.

“Ew,” Hyunjin frowned, though you couldn’t see the repulsed look he was giving you. “Why do you know that?”

Chan looked at you like you were crazy, but still had that adoration for you in his golden eyes as he always did, “_____, are you with me or against me?”

You hummed softly as you thought before deciding, “I feel like I can play both sides.”

The smile on his face made your heart melt, but you hoped it didn’t show. You still weren’t completely comfortable showing your feelings toward Chan, but thankfully, you mastered the poker face long ago.

Deep down, though, he knew how you felt. He knew you felt the pull, but you had also admitted to him the previous night that you didn’t want him to know you were leaving. You said you thought it was best if you just left and that was that. A clean break was easiest for both of you. So he knew you at least cared about his feelings.

You were both torn from the moment when fabric landed on your head. Chan had noticed Seungmin enter the room from the corner of his eye, but he didn’t think much of it since you were so close to him and it was all he found himself able to focus on. But Seungmin had tossed some sort of knitted sweater on your head, covering your eyes. You pulled it off of your head to examine the soft, pale yellow material.

You turned your head to see him already leaving the den, “What’s this for?”

“Now we’re even,” he called back, already around the corner of the doorway so you couldn’t see him anymore.

“A sweater doesn’t make up for tackling me, but okay,” you muttered as you picked up the sweater by the shoulders and held it out to look at it. It looked big and warm, which was good since Chan’s room could get a little chilly at night.

Chan poked his head around the sweater, grinning from ear to ear, “Aw, Seungminnie likes you!”

You looked at him like he was crazy, “Does he?”

“He wouldn’t have gotten you anything to apologize if he didn’t,” he explained. “He must feel really bad, actually.”

“At least somebody does,” you whipped your head around to look pointedly at Minho, but he was gone now. 

You figured he must’ve left before Seungmin showed up.

As you turned back toward Chan to fold the sweater, you admitted, “Actually, it’s really nice he got me a sweater. Your room is freezing at night.”

“You know, _____,” Hyunjin spoke up with a smirk as Felix started giggling, “Channie is pretty warm.”

Seungmin sighed as he walked back into the living room with a sandwich in his hand, “We’re all warm, dumbass.”

You frowned a bit. You had considered asking Chan to stay with you, but that would’ve made everything a thousand times worse for you, “I know, but...I like privacy.”

“And you can have all the privacy you need,” Chan promised, tossing a glare in the direction of the pack members giving him a hard time.

Minho appeared in the entryway of the den with an apron tied around his torso, “Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes, unless you two morons want to sit there and feed into Chan’s fantasies a little longer. Chan, make sure _____ isn’t late. You know how we get.”

-

The commotion of dinner was exactly what you expected it to be while dining with eight werewolves, and it was something everyone was used to except you. Chan did make sure that you got enough food, which you appreciated. However, you did end up sharing your food with him when you noticed he still seemed hungry. You didn’t know if it was the weird draw to him that fate made you feel or if it was your own accord but either way, you cared and didn’t want him to go to bed still hungry.

Chan made sure you got ready for bed after dinner. Sometimes you couldn’t tell if he was trying to be your mate or your dad but you weren’t entirely complaining because it was nice to have someone take care of you. Back home, you were pretty much on your own ever since your mom died. It was nice feeling cared for again.

“Do you need anything?” he asked from your doorway as he did every night.

“No, I’m good.”

He nodded and flicked off the light, “Goodnight, _____.”

“Goodnight, Chan.”

Chan went to the living room and laid on the couch like he did every night, listening for your breathing to even out so he could fall asleep himself.

-

A few hours later, you sat up with a gasp. Sweat beaded your forehead, and your hands gripped the blankets around you like they were the only thing keeping you grounded after the nightmare you had. Nightmares had become typical for you the last few days, but it didn’t mean they were any less scary. If they weren’t about your dad yelling at you or your family finding out you were a werewolf’s mate and hunting you down to kill you and the entire pack, it was of the day your mother died. It was like the guilt was trying to bombard you every waking moment and every non-waking one.

But this nightmare seemed real when you saw a silhouette standing in your room. You let out a shriek and, since you didn’t have any weapons on you, hid under the blankets instead. Your door flew open, banging against the wall as someone rushed in, and you assumed it was Chan.

“_____?!” his voice panicked, and a growl grew in his chest when he saw someone in your room. However, it changed to confusion when he spoke again. “Eunjin?”

You pulled the covers down just enough to see the faint moonlight hit the face of a girl you’d never seen before. She had wavy blonde hair, and her skin was pale like porcelain. Her blue eyes were staring off somewhere far away – somewhere that wasn’t physically in front of her.

“What the hell is going on?!” Minho demanded, coming into the room with the rest of the pack behind him. “...Eunjin?”

“Shh,” Chan was quick to hold a finger up to his pack, “don’t wake her up.”

Eunjin stayed frozen in the center of your room, not blinking or moving. You weren’t sure if she was even breathing at this point. Chan slowly moved around her to the open window, the curtains blowing gently in the wind. He poked his head out and looked around before softly calling, “Seungkwan?”

Minho began cowering back, his hands starting to move up toward his ears, “Is she gonna start screaming…?”

Suddenly, all the wolves were clamping their hands down on their ears just to be safe.

“W-why is she here?” Jeongin stammered, eyeing the girl warily.

Chan backed up as he pulled someone in through your window. A man crawled in and let out a sigh as he answered, “I wish I knew. That was a far walk, damnit.”

Then his eyes landed on you and he seemed thoughtful, cocking his head to one side. But then he quickly shifted to a polite but embarrassed smile as he greeted you as sweetly and politely as he could, “Hi, I’m Seungkwan. I'’m Bang Chan's, um...friend. So sorry.”

Seungkwan had heard of you. They were being kept up to date on Chan’s situation thanks to Felix’s close friendship with two members of his pack, but that still didn’t explain why his mate would’ve shown up in the middle of your bedroom. 

Eunjin moved, but you didn’t catch it since it was just her mouth opening.

The wolves did, though, and they immediately braced themselves.

Your eardrums were bombarded by the most piercing shriek you’d ever heard. Your hands flew to your ears, clamping down as hard as you could while also shrugging your shoulders up. Your eyes closed from how loud her scream was, and you couldn’t even open your mouth to ask why she was screaming.

After what felt like an eternity, she stopped. Her scream died out and you slowly unclenched your body and looked up again.

“Jinnie…?” Seungkwan asked as he slowly reached out for his mate.

“What the hell was that?” you asked Chan.

But he didn’t answer you, looking between the strange man that had climbed in through your window, and the girl standing in the middle of your room.

She blinked, and she looked at Seungkwan before she then looked down at you. And her eyes widened slightly, like she recognized you.

“Sweetheart,” Seungkwan sounded relieved to see that his mate was back with them mentally, “what happened?”

“I…don’t know…” she replied slowly in a whisper. Then she turned, seeming to be looking for someone and settling on Chan. “Is that _____?”

He nodded, “Y-yeah. Why?”

Minho’s eyes widened as they locked on you still sitting on Chan’s bed, “She’s gonna fucking kill us.”

“Minho,” Chan scolded him through gritted teeth.

“I’m so sorry about this,” Seungkwan told them, pulling Eunjin closer to him. “We’ll show ourselves out. Again, I’m sorry.”

Eunjin nodded, “Y-yeah, um, s-sorry…”

As Seungkwan began to guide her out, she looked over her shoulder at you one last time while the small pack parted. And once they were gone, eight pairs of golden eyes were locked on you.

“What was that?” you asked again, breaking the silence as you looked to your mate for answers.

Chan took in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then let it out slowly. He didn’t know what to do with this information. He didn’t even know how to interpret it, because Eunjin showing up like that could mean a few different things. He was just hoping it wasn’t any of the most obvious interpretations.

“Okay, uh…” he began before he turned to the doorway. “Everyone back to bed.”

Eyes lingered on you for another moment before the wolves finally began to file out of the room. Chan closed the bedroom door behind them before he turned back to you.

“Care to explain?” you tried again.

He walked over to the bed and sat down at the edge of it. He looked off at the floor for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts before he began talking.

“So…her name is Eunjin.”

“Yeah, I got that much. What the hell is wrong with her?”

“She’s…a banshee,” he admitted, finally meeting your eyes with concern all over his features.

Your heart fell into your butt. Your face fell as you stared back at Chan, wide-eyed.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking,” he said quickly, putting his hands up like he could physically stop you from letting your imagination run wild, “but her scream could mean a handful of things. It might not mean that you…die–” he didn’t even want to say the word, “--it might mean that someone around you does or you cause the death.”

“All of those sound horrible,” you stated.

“She also hears voices on other planes,” he offered. “She might’ve just heard a prominent voice of someone who’s no longer on this plane. She screams to drown out everything else so she can hear better.”

“That–”

You stopped, and Chan’s eyebrows furrowed. When you didn’t continue for a few seconds, he asked, “_____?”

“Mom…” you mumbled.

“What?”

“My mom,” you told him. “She died about 10 years ago, and my family left my home country to come here after it happened.”

He frowned, “I’m sorry to hear that. Can I ask what happened?”

You hesitated, chewing on the inside of your cheek as you debated on telling Chan. Hell, you considered just making something else up. But ultimately, you decided to just tell him. Maybe it would help you figure out…whatever was going on inside your head.

“She…” you trailed off, chickening out again before you cleared your throat and regained your courage. “She was…attacked by…a werewolf…”

It all clicked. Why you were training to become a werewolf hunter but you weren’t quite there. Why you were so against letting the pull take over despite not really being much of a werewolf hunter. The only thing that he didn’t understand was why you weren’t quite a werewolf hunter. If a werewolf killed your mother, wouldn’t that drive you to want to be the best werewolf hunter you could be?

“My dad… Something in him snapped when she died,” you continued even though he wasn’t prompting you to. It was just all coming out of you like a waterfall and you couldn’t stop it. “So he moved me and my brother here and started training us to become werewolf hunters. My brother, Nolan, took to it really well, honestly. He likes it, too. I just–” you paused when you finally realized how much you had said and dropped your head, looking at the blankets. “Yeah…”

“Do you…not…like it?” he wondered slowly.

“Never mind,” you mumbled. ��I can deal with it later.”

He seemed to just watch you for a moment, the last sentence weighing on his mind, but he didn’t know if he should say anything. Meanwhile, you were rolling over to get comfortable again and pulling the blanket up.

He wanted to tell you that you didn’t have to go back. He suspected maybe your family wasn’t good to you, and he wanted to tell you to just stay at the house with them and he would protect you from them, but he decided not to push it.

He also wondered what was stopping you from becoming an actual werewolf hunter, but again, it wasn’t his place to pry – especially not right now.

“Well,” he grunted as he stood up from the bed and went to the window to shut it, “are you all good in here now?”

Your head snapped up, “What if she comes back?”

“She won’t,” he chuckled. “Why, are you afraid of Eunjin?”

“She’s a banshee, Chris.”

“She’s really sweet, though,” he promised, still smiling with amusement. “But if it’ll make you feel safer, I don’t mind sleeping in Felix’s bed for the night. Or you can come take the couch downstairs and I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“No, you should sleep in a bed, I think,” you decided, nodding across the room toward the other bed that used to belong to Felix.

“Thanks,” he said with a playful roll of his eyes before he trudged over to the younger wolf’s bed and climbed under the covers. “So, can I ask what originally woke you up?”

“What do you mean?”

“I heard you wake up before you noticed Eunjin,” he explained. “You seemed scared. Was it a nightmare?”

You reluctantly admitted in a mumble, “Yeah…”

“Anything you want to talk about?”

How did you tell him you dreamed your father and brother killed him in front of your eyes without sounding like you were getting too attached to him?

“No,” you continued to mumble. “M’fine.”

The room fell into silence as you stared up into the darkness. Your thoughts were all over the place, but you weren’t sure if you wanted to speak up again or keep things to yourself. You kept getting to the verge of blurting something, only to open your mouth and then close it again instead.

But after a few minutes of laying in silence, you felt the cold sink in again – especially after the window had opened.

“Chris?”

“Hmm?”

“How do you sleep in here?”

“Huh?” 

“It’s always so fucking cold in here at night.”

He chuckled, “We run warm, remember? It takes a lot to make one of us cold. Why, are you cold?”

You turned your head toward him, “It’s cold in here even when the window hasn’t been opened.”

“You want me to sleep with you?” he asked, thankful that the darkness was covering his growing smirk.

You made a face and groaned, “Don’t say it like that.”

But you didn’t say no.

“How do you want me to say it?” he laughed.

“Can you just get over here?” you grumbled as your cheeks burned at the request.

“Yeah, yeah,” he yawned, already climbing out of Felix’s bed and padding across the room to his own. He peeled back the covers and slid in after you scooted over. After a little bit of moving around, you both settled into bed. But since the beds were pretty small, you were right next to him. “Better?”

“Do not ask me questions about this situation,” you stated.

He laughed loudly before saying, “Just know if you take all the blankets, I have the strength to rip them away from you.”

“Yes, Chan, I know you’re the big bad wolf,” you nodded, rolling your eyes. “Just shut up and go to bed.”

He was still giggling anyway as he sang, “Goodnight, _____.”

“Yeah, goodnight.”

»»————-　　————-««

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[f3lix00]

“quick” drabble about dad!Chan

Fluff | Masterlist

you get home, exhausted and pissed at everything and everyone. But the moment you see the light in your daughter, Cory and your loving husband, Chris' eyes, when they’re shouting happy birthday to you, the second you walk in, the weight lifts off your shoulders. you're home, home to them, the two people you love the most in the whole world. Chris bends down to pick Cory up and lifts her up on his shoulders. He groans, "ah, you're starting to get too big for this, C" he chuckles slighty and greets you with a kiss on the lips. "happy birthday, my love. we baked and ordered your favorite!" you chuckle, "yeah, I can see that," you look over his shoulder, into the kitchen, dirty with flour everywhere. "sorry about that, we uh- couldn't decide which cake to bake and this little devil," he tickles Cory's feet "decided that the flour looked way better in my hair than in the bowl." "it's not my fault you couldn't remember mom's favorite cake." Cory pouts "It's alright," you chuckle, "I'll clean it, just start eating, I'll join you in a bit" you take off your jacket and head towards the kitchen, but Chris grabs your wrist. "you, are not lifting a finger on your birthday, especially not after a nine hour work day"

You pause for a moment and just look into his eyes, and then sigh, "you're right, work was horrible. but I forgot all about it, the second i walked in and saw those beautiful eyes of yours." you smile

"are you talking about these gorgeous eyes, or dad's?" Cory asks, and you chuckle, "I think both of your eyes are absolutley beautiful. you know, your eyes actually remind me alot of your dad when he was younger"

"enough chatting, let's go eat"

-

“And now Cory is asleep,” you say to Chris, standing and washing dishes. He dries his hands and gently grabs your waist, “did it end up being an okay day, even after work?” He looks at you with wonder and worry, “yeah, it was absolutely great,” kiss “Thank you, baby.”

Chris smiles and kisses the top of your head, “I’m glad. You always tell me how terrible Friday shifts are, and I was worried it was gonna be too much.” You nuzzle against his chest, nothing to hear but his calming heartbeat and his arms sneak around your waist.

“Cory is getting so big already. I feel like we got home from the hospital yesterday” he sighs and buries his face in the crook of your neck, his breath tickling you slightly. “You miss having a baby in the house?”

“You know, even through the sleepless nights, tons of dirty laundry and your weird cravings, I do, yeah.” He pulls away from you neck and looks deeply into your eyes, “I really miss it,” his eyes flicks between yours, “I… I wanna have another baby with you, love.”

You blush at the confession. To be honest, you missed it too. And you read on some website for new parents, that kids grow up better with a sibling, and not to mention how great a sister Cory would be.

Chris blushes and blinks a few times “Not that it has to be right now-“ but you simply answer him with a kiss “I would love to have another baby with you, Chris. Now or later, whenever you’re ready”

Chris’ cheeks heat up and he hides his shy smile. “I… I would love to have a second kid with you, as soon as possible. But it’s your choice”

You chuckle, even after 9 years of being together you still have your shy moments. “Cory is sleeping over at a friend’s tomorrow, so we have the house all to ourselves.”

Chris chuckles, “mm, gonna make a baby with you tomorrow”

“How romantic.”

-

Hands locked together as you both stare at the test. The two minutes seems like two hours. The suspense between the two of you, the way Chris holds your hand tightly and the comfortable silence reminds you of 5 years earlier, when you where in the same situation. You had talked about kids and before you knew it, Cory was born, and now you’re sitting here, waiting for the test result, five years later.

“How long?” Chris asks and you reach for your phone, “30 seconds” he brings your hands up to his mouth and gives yours a kiss. “If it isn’t positive, we’ll just try again. I can get my parents or one of the guys to take care of Cory.” He’s right. It wasn’t that big of a deal, why be so nervous? You could always try again. “Yeah,” you sigh “you’re right. I don’t know why I’m so nervous” you chuckle. “It’s alright. I’m nervous too.”

The timer goes off and you take a quick look at each other. Chris’ eyes are filled with love, and the second your eyes meet you can almost see the weight lift off his shoulders. Sometimes you wonder how you got so lucky.

You reach for the test, flipping it over. There it was. A clearly positive pregnancy test. You both stare at it for a few seconds, blinking before looking back at each other and bursting out in smiles. “I’m pregnant, Chris” you chuckle. He pulls you into a hug and kisses the top of your head, “I know, baby, I know.” His voice breaks and you sit there, crying out of joy.

“I love you so fucking much”

“I love you more”

[mommopurinn]

"The red of setting sun", Akira x Shoutarou SS

“I feel like the time has stopped. Like I’ll always be here with you, never ageing.”

“......”

“So I don’t mind if this sunset continues forever.”

“I wouldn’t mind it either. It’d be nice if the time has really stopped.”

Railway crossings with the lowered gates, the backs of tired people, the persimmon trees in someone’s garden were all passing by the train window, basking in the orange light.

I was looking at it standing by the door. Autumn was slowly taking its toll; it made me feel strangely relieved, and I let out a quiet sigh.

    

Akira-kun was standing right next to the Soshigaya station ticket gate.

His hair was even more ruffled than usual, and he was wearing round glasses, which didn’t suit him at all.

According to his words, all influential mangakas wore glasses, so he felt more motivated when wearing them.

This all meant that he had a deadline coming.

Of course, these glasses were fake and didn’t have lenses in them.

He pulled his hands out of the haramaki and opened them towards me.

“Welcome back, Shou-chan~!”

…But why did he sound like he was on the verge of tears?

When I slowly approached him, he hugged me tightly and started patting my head and shoulders.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“I came to pick you up!”

“Aren’t you busy drawing your manga?”

“I was so worried about you, I couldn’t do anything else…”

“You’re too anxious. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Nothing to be scared about.”

“That’s good to hear.”

But even when Akira-kun finished checking if I was okay, he still looked upset.

If I smile at him, he'll smile back.

With a forced and bitter smile, as radiant as the setting sun.

“Let’s go home together.”

We walked at a distance too small for friends, too big for lovers, but just enough for a family.

     

Actually, the world has been coloured by the sunset for two days already.

For some reason, the night hadn’t come after the evening yesterday, and, of course, without the night, the morning didn’t come either.

The hands of the clocks struck 12 or 7, but the landscape remained just as it was at sunset.

     

When I say ‘world’, I mean just the small place where I live. But for everyone else, it only happened in the Setagaya district.

“Can we stop by the greengrocer shop?”

“Sure. What d’you wanna buy?”

“I thought that yesterday’s curry would taste better with eggplants.”

“Shou-chan, you’re a genius.”

I didn’t understand why the sun wasn’t setting or why we were led to think so.

Strange events like this happened quite often and usually resolved by themselves without any explanation.

And that’s why people on the streets seemed to continue living by the clock with the usual expressions on their faces.

It was half past seven.

Hearing the trumpet of the ramen shop made me feel strange.

As if I were dozing off, and everything surrounding me has been a dream.

“I heard that nights when the sun doesn’t set are called white nights. Seems like they happen often near the South Pole.”

We bought a big autumn eggplant and were heading home when I started telling Akira-kun what I learnt today.

“They said so on the radio in the cafeteria where I went for lunch.”

“Nah, no way we’re gettin’ those in Tokyo.”

He hunched over more than usual, his chin dropped, and walked a bit uncomfortably.

He was the only one in the town who seemed to be nervous.

“It’s too creepy that the sun’s not goin’ down…”

“If you leave Setagaya and go to Shinjuku or Machida, the sky will go back to normal. And when you return to Setagaya, it’ll be sunset again.”

“It makes no sense, really~...”

“What if we’re seeing a rare natural occurrence now?”

“No way it’s natural…”

Not holding any worries like Akira-kun, I blinked slowly, looking at the strange sunset.

He became even more anxious, seeing how low my sense of danger was.

“Well, at least it’s not that troublesome that the night doesn’t come. You can just wrap yourself in the futon when sleeping, and the sun won’t bother you. And it feels good to wake up when it’s bright outside.”

“You’re too quick to adapt…”

“Do you really hate it that much?”

“‘Course I do… Night’s good because it’s night; mornin’s good because it’s mornin’.”

“And what’s good about the night?”

“At this season, the bell crickets are creaking. And the moon looks pretty. Yesterday, we couldn’t see it at all because of this sunset.”

“...”

“Sunset’s also good, but I don’t wanna miss other beautiful things ‘cause of it.”

“You sound just like a writer today.”

“Mangakas are writers too, y’know?! Our sensitivity is what sells our works!”

After that, Akira-kun scowled at the sunset.

But I still couldn’t see it as anything but dazzling and beautiful.

“Akira-kun, do you ever feel suffocated when looking at the setting sun? Sometimes I get scared by it. …But not today.”

“?”

“I finally understood why my chest hurts so much at sunset. The sinking sun and the day ending turn into loneliness, sorrow, and sentimentality, and it makes me feel miserable.”

But now I’m calm.

The never-ending sunset made me feel safe.

“I feel like the time has stopped. Like I’ll always be here with you, never ageing.”

“......”

“So I don’t mind if this sunset continues forever.”

“I wouldn’t mind it either. It’d be nice if the time has really stopped.”

“......”

“But it’s not like that, right? I still have my deadline tomorrow, and the trains still run on time.”

…He’s right.

I flipped the calendar, and the curry I ate in the morning tasted better than yesterday, having sat overnight.

“It’s boring to see the same scenery every day. I hope everything comes back to normal soon, so I can see different landscapes with you~”

“Akira-kun……”

“Even when the night comes and the morning comes after that, we’ll always be together. And, ‘course, even when we become old geezers.”

Akira-kun held my right hand.

His hand was hot after being warmed in the haramaki.

And his smile was soft—not bitter at all.

I thought that his vermilion-coloured cheeks were way more beautiful than the sunset.

Suddenly, the feeling of anxiety overcame me, and I dropped my head.

“...Usually things like this end quickly. Why does this one go on for two days already?”

“Well, maybe the guy who usually deals with all this got into some trouble?”

“That would be bad…”

“Or maybe they’re daydreaming like you just now.

“......”

“But they better come to their senses soon and do something about it!”

He raised his eyebrows and showed me a thin and comical smile, fitting for someone playing a supporting role.

I couldn’t help but smile in return.

“How’s your audition today?”

“Horrible.”

“Thought so. So I bought you a ‘get-better-pudding’.”

“I’m glad. Genuinely.”

“And if it went well, it would be a ‘celebration pudding’.”

“How convenient.”

“I also got a 'request pudding’... Can you help me put on solid colours when we get home…?”

“I’d do that even without the pudding.”

When we got closer to our house, the sun suddenly went down.

First Venus twinkled in the sky, then the bell crickets started creaking.

Curry was even better than in the morning; just as I thought, the sweetness of the roasted eggplant made the taste stand out.

Nothing happened—nothing at all. Just another day went down as usual.

     

Please, tell me if there are any mistakes or places that sound weird

[jeongheart]

03:45 am

summary: late night snack run with chan.

w.c: 1.2k

tags: established relationship, fluff.

a.n: chan in the newest code ruined my brain, he's just so boyfriend coded.

as always, english is not my first language so sorry in advance for any mistakes. leave your thoughts if you like, it means a lot.

You've tossed and turned more times than you can count in the last half hour, the clock impassively marking 03:45 am with its big red numbers. You sigh tired and put the device back on the nightstand to turn around once more; the bed was warm on your side because you been lying in the same spot for hours. You touched Chan's side, it was frozen and with the sheets in place.

With a slight groan due to the sudden movement of your muscles you got out of bed, you didn't bother to wrap yourself up and you dragged your feet across the room towards the living room, you knew exactly where your partner was at this time and, after drinking water, you went in search of him.

The study door was locked, so as not to disturb and not be disturbed. The house was completely silent, except for the faint sound of keys being pressed and papers falling to the floor from time to time.

You gently knocked the door to announce your presence, and a few seconds later, you made yourself present in the room. Chan was hunched in front of the computer, his nose was so close to the monitor that for a second you feared that the fluorescent colors would end up engulfing him, taking him to a world of musical tracks to be arranged.

Around him was all kinds of garbage, except for food wrappers, you could imagine that it had been a long time since he eaten anything and you shook your head as you approached his figure. He always had that bad habit, nothing else existed when he worked; no matter how many times you told him it seemed like your words went in one ear and out the other.

When you were almost two centimeters away, you realized that he had his headphones at full volume, an unreleased song was playing loudly and surrounding everything around him, that's why he hadn't heard the door before and hadn't greeted you when you walked in. Between the darkness of the room, the loud music and his concentration he almost seemed to be absent.

Not wanting to scare him, you put your hand on his shoulder, he didn't flinch from your touch until you put a little more force in your grip. Finally returning to the real world, he took off his headphones to leave them on the table in front of him and looked you straight in the eye.

His eyes were a little red after so many hours of watching screens, and his expression danced between confusion and exhaustion.

"What are you doing?" He asks you in a whisper.

Taking your hand off his shoulder, you moved it up to his face, caressing his cheek gently. Chan unconsciously relaxed and placed all the weight of his body on your hand, still looking at you.

"I couldn't sleep" You answer simply.

Chan laughed softly, a clear sign of his exhaustion, and with his right hand he took yours (which you weren't using to caress his face) and guided you to his lap, you let out a little cry of surprise at the sudden change of position but you let him accommodate you to his liking.

When you were comfortably seated, Chan hugged your waist with both arms and rested his head on the space between your neck and your shoulder, where upon feeling the smell of your shampoo and your perfume he sighed happily and finally closed his eyes. You kept busy those seconds playing with his hands that were still tightly gripping the lower part of your body.

You could feel his breath against your neck, he was freezing and you still had the heat of the sheets on you.

"Let's go out for a little bit" You told him when you felt his breathing become heavier. Chan let out something similar to a growl, you didn't know if he heard you or had already fallen asleep.

"It's late" You almost couldn't understand what he said, his lips were so close to your skin that the sound was almost lost.

You moved your head a little to make him pay attention to you, your heart sank a little when you saw how a small hint of sadness crossed Chan's expression for taking him out of his comfortable position against you. "I'm hungry and you need to stretch your legs, besides, how long has it been since you've eaten something?"

Chan looked away at the question, and there you got your answer. "I have to finish, love" He made a gesture to lift you from his lap and return the chair to its place in front of the computer to resume his work.

"Ten minutes, a bit of fresh air will do you good" You grabbed his face with both hands so he couldn't look away or question you, you were like this for few seconds; just staring into each other's eyes. You could feel how Chan's face was starting to heat up from the closeness and, letting out a nervous giggle, he nodded his head.

You laughed and kissed him on the tip of the nose "Don't forget to bundle up".

The walk to the convenience store was relatively short, Chan was telling you details about the work he been doing so far and how proud he was of how everything was turning out. You listened attentively, excited by his happiness and without letting go of his hand in the ten blocks it took to get to the store.

The automatic door greeted you with its characteristic sound, as did the worker behind the counter who offered you a warm smile despite the late hour and the cold January air that swept in with you. "What do you want to eat?" Chan began to drag you through the corridors of the place in search of whatever and anything to fill his stomach.

You followed him closely as he went through each shelf with the initiative of a small child, showing you package after package full of colors no matter what it was (salty, sweet, bittersweet), unable to decide what to finally buy. You laughed when you saw that he placed each package that caught his attention in the cart you were pushing, his work and the deadlines already forgotten by the promise of eating delicious things.

After a few more minutes of indecision, you finally made it to the checkout to pay for the items. The cashier laughed seeing the various items you carried (from spicy noodles to coconut ice cream to cheese sticks). Chan ended up paying for the purchases even though you insisted that you could separate the bill, he simply ignored your speech and took the three bags full of food while you followed him out of the store, reproaching him for his actions.

"I'm not listening, I'm made of wood, I have fish ears~" Your partner crooned as he began the walk back to the apartment, you rolled your eyes and decided that it was a hopeless case so you had to accept your defeat.

"Next time I'll pay" You told him as you took one of the bags he was carrying to take his hand instead, you didn't know what time it was but you didn't care at that moment. Chan was laughing out loud (so much that you were afraid that he would wake up the people who were sleeping in the houses on the side of the road) and he looked more relaxed; a fond smile appeared on your face and you squeezed your partner's hand tightly.

"Thank you for getting me out of the house, and from my own head, love. You were right, I needed it" Chan stopped walking to press you against his body and envelop you in a warm hug, you breathed in his aroma and let his presence envelop you completely.

[m4k4yl4]

Mommy's kissin' Santa!

Day 5

Summary: it's Christmas Eve, and after y/n, and her husband, Bang Chan, get their two girls to go to bed, they go to wrap presents but end up getting caught..

Content warning: None

Skz 25 days to Christmas fics🎄☃️ series

Masterlist

Posted: 12/07/2023(very late-)

Christmas music plays through the house as the sound of kids running and playing fill the living room, "Mommm! Brianna, hit me!" Y/n hears her daughter," Mia yelled from the room.

"Bri, what did we say about hitting?" She hears two pairs of little footsteps come into the kitchen, "...to not do it.." Mia answered, looking down at the floor. Y/n sighs, "Please apologize to your sister, and don't do it again." Mia turns to Bri, "Sorry, Bri Bri.."

Brianna wraps arm around Mia, "it's okay, you're still a baby. You gotta learn." Mia groans, slipping away from the hug running back into the living room, "I'm not a baby!" Brianna laughs, running after her, "Yes, you are!"

Y/n laughs at the two as she washes the dishes from dinner. She feels two strong arms wrap around her waist as she puts the last dish away, turning around to face her husband, Bang Chan.

"Hi baby." He smiles at her, "Hi channie, what are you doing up already." She reaches out for a paper towel to Wie her hands, "I didn't want to leave you out here trying to, with those two rascals out there.

She laughs, "Well, why don't you help me by getting them to brush their tee5h while I get the pajamas." He raises a hand to his head saluting to her. "On it! Joey's! C'mon, it's to brush your teeth!"

The girls giggle at the nickname, starting to act like baby kangaroos as chan helps them hop up the stairs to the bathroom, y/n following behind, walking into the girl's bedroom.

Girls came into the bedroom running as chan stomps in, "Raahh!" He yelled, "Momm! Help up, there's a monster!" They girl giggle as y/n opened her arms for them to run into.

"I'll save you! She wraps her arms around the girls. They giggle and scream as chan reaches for them, tickling them, "Tickle monsterr!!"

Once the girls had calmed down, y/n and chan helped them get into their pajamas and into bed. Giving both a kiss on the forehead as they turn off the lights.

An hour later, Chan puts his ear to the door, "I think they're finally asleep. Are you ready?" Y/n nods, "I should be asking you that you're the one with the dressing up." She laughs

They head back into their bedroom and soon come out presents in hand, and Bang chan dressed in a Santa costume stepping down with more presents as u/n helps lead him down stairs.

They make it to the living room, starting to dill up stocking, wrap presents, and place them under the tree. Y/n watches as chan gets up to put another present under the tree, giggling.

"What's so funny, huh?" He asked he hands on his hip, making her laugh more, "it's nothing just...that outfit!" She wipes fake tears from laughing, getting up and walking over to him as he crosses his arms.

"I think I look good in this, especially the beard, y'know?" He wipes his hands over his fake beard, "Oh yeah, amazing beard, dear. The long white bear suits you." She covers her mouth, trying not to laugh loud.

"Okay, I don't like how you're making fun of my very amazing outfit and beard!" Y/n walks, so they were face to face arms wrapping around his neck, "it's a lovely beard and outfit baby. "

She leaned in, pulling the bottom of his beard down a bit and kissing his lips. Chan's hands lay on her waist as he pulled her in more, making her feel breathless.

Their little kissing session gets cut off by little gasp and foot steps on the stairs. The two separate, turning quickly to the stairs, seeing their girls staring in shock at what they just saw.

"Girls! You're supposed to be asleep right now. Go back upstairs!" Y/n yelps as she walk towards them to shoo them back up to their rooms. But they were standing like stone at the bottom of the stairs.

"Mom... mom, what does dad think about this? Omg does he know?!" Y/n stands there confused at the outburst, turning to her husband for help.

"Mommy's kissing Santa! Mommy kissed Santa, we saw!"

Bang chan start cackling as y/n tries to explain to the girls what they saw, "uhm look girls, it's not like.." Brianna huffs, "Yes, it is mom! I know what cheating is! I'm telling dad!"

"You're dad is right there!" Y/n, let's it slip out as the three girls turn to chan standing there, "Mommy, that's santa..does that mean?.." Brianna gasped, "Dad is Santa!! Omg!! Mia, can you believe this?"

Mia jumps up and down, "Does this mean we can get presents all the time now?" The two parents look at each other, deciding to go along with it. "Yeah! Surprise! Guess the secret is out now!" Y/n laughs.

Chan speaks up, "We gotta keep it a secret though girls, it's a family secret, okay?" The two nod at him, giving a thumbs up, "Okay good. Well, why don't you two go back to bed so your Santa dad can work to give out these presents with Mrs. Claus over there, yeah?"

The girls giggle as they make their way upstairs their mom in behind them. She gets Mia into bed sleepiness, finally hitting her as she falls asleep quickly. She goes over to Brianna, placing the blanket over her as she opens her eyes, "mom?"

"Yes, sweetheart?" Brianna smiles at her, "I knew that was dad in the costume. I know he's not Santa, but I wanted to keep it up for Mia. I didn't want her to lose the Christmas joy."

Y/n smiles at her, laughing a little as she leans down, placing a kiss on her foreheads, " You're such a good sister, bri. Now go to sleep, or the real Santa won't come."

Brianna,giggling, covering herself with the blanket as she goes to bed. Y/n leaves out the room, quietly turning around eyes meeting chan's, a smile on his face.

"Ready to wrap some more presents, Mrs. Claus?" He walks up to her, pulling her close. "Yeah, I'm ready Mr.Claus." She smiles at him, grabbing his hand as they go back downstairs.

A/n: This is very late. I'm sorry😭I've been busy, but hopefully, I'll get day 6 and hopefully seven out today, too!

[happyocelot]

They Really Should Have Known Better

An Inuyasha fic

[InuKag; crack]

Other yokai really, really need to stop kidnapping and declaring their love for Kagome when Inuyasha's around. It's annoying, and Kagome doesn't have an unlimited set of school uniforms or enough detergent for all the bloodstains. :: Three times someone kidnapped Kagome and one time someone kidnapped Inuyasha. One-shot.

FFN / AO3

I know that no one follows me for Inuyasha but have this anyway!

***

It wasn't like she was trying to get kidnapped. It just sort of came with the territory when you were searching for super powerful jewel shards that a good chunk of the Sengoku Jidai's yokai population was after.

They weren't picky about who she was with when they did this either. It wasn't really a good thing.

If it were Sango or Miroku she was with, of course they'd be worried. But they'd keep their cool and formulate a plan to rescue her. Shippo would be rather frantic and desperate, child that he was. But he too would put his wits together and come up with a way to save her. She was practically his adopted big sister, after all.

And then there was Inuyasha.

Sharp claws sliced through the air. Blood splattered onto the ground. The giant goldfish yokai dropped her with a pained grunt (yes, those really existed in fifteenth-century Japan).

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING WITH KAGOME, YOU BITCH?" Inuyasha roared, swinging his blade in a deadly arc.

Fish guy ducked fast enough to avoid decapitation but not fast enough to avoid fin amputation.

It was a horrible, gory, bloody mess. She appreciated that Inuyasha had come to save her and behead all these goldfish yokai; she did.

But still.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome frowned, rubbing at the fresh bloodstains that had spurted onto her uniform. "I just got these washed yesterday!"

Her sort-of-boyfriend-if-you-squinted gaped at her incredulously.

"I stopped a guy from murdering you and you're worried about your clothes?"

"Hey, just because you lucked out with your red Fire-Rat robe doesn't mean my uniform hides bloodstains all that well. And besides," Kagome said, fussing over the hem of her now-ruined skirt. "This...individual wasn't trying to murder me."

Inuyasha's ears instantly flattened.

"What."

"That's right," said the fish yokai in an ornery, slippery voice, blithely unconcerned with the unfortunate fact of his missing limb...fin...whatever. These Sengoku individuals were different. "I spied her from far away, she and her beautiful dark hair. I decided that she was too good for this world."

Inuyasha's golden eyes glowed dangerously.

"What."

"Really, there's no one better who could be my bri – "

It would have been better if he'd just said he was after the Shikon Jewel shards.

At least then there would have been enough of his body left. To form a puddle.

Kagome opened her backpack to reveal all her modern era goodies: pocky and potato chips, instant ramen and green tea-flavored Kit Kats, the largest melon pan her allowance could buy.

Shippo cheered, rifling through the pile, and Miroku unwrapped the Kit Kat with interest. Sango began chowing down the instant ramen with gusto.

Inuyasha was off in a corner, glowering at the hut's wooden ceiling as though it had done something unspeakable.

"Now, now." Kagome patted her sort-of-boyfriend's knee affectionately. "You better hurry before Shippo-chan finishes everything off."

Nonsense. Kagome always made sure that everyone in their little group got something.

But still.

"I'm not hungry," Inuyasha grumbled, picking at his nails.

His stomach growled to tattle on him, the traitor.

"There's instant ramen. And melon pan," she coaxed. "Besides, you killed that fish guy. What's got you worried?"

He muttered something about stupid yokai and stupid kidnap attempts and couldn't keep their claws off his friends.

"Oh, come on, it was just one ti – okay, it's happened a few times, but really, I'm sure it's a coincidence."

It was not a coincidence.

Two days after fish yokai guy, Kagome was off helping Kaede baa-chan gather medicinal herbs. It had been at least three weeks since she had picked up anything poisonous. It was progress!

Then a hawk yokai swooped out of the blazing sky and snatched her up by the scruff of her neck.

The burning sun beat down on her neck and freezing wind whipped at her hair. The village shrank to the size of ants and the plain appeared to be nothing more than smooth emerald green.

At least hawk guy looked kind of humanoid, unlike fish guy from the day before yesterday. He did have talons instead of hands, and feathery winged arms, but aside from unusually pointed, sharpened features...no, even she could not find any redeeming features in this one.

He was hideous. Not all them looked as good as Inuyasha did.

Speaking of...yeah, someone needed to rescue her.

So she screamed bloody murder as loud as she could.

Hawk yokai's grip on her neck tightened painfully.

"Could you stop yelling?" he rasped. "I'm busy navigating here."

"I will scream! It's only been two days since the last time someone tried to kidnap me!" She glared as much as she could from her precarious position in the air.

"It's only natural that other beings would be drawn to your Shikon Jewel shards, human girl," hawk guy said, almost purring. Kagome repressed a shudder. "Not to mention your striking beauty."

"Oh, great," she grumbled. "Not you too."

"You'll make a fine queen of the northwest hawk yokai clan of Totomi Province! We've been scouting for years!"

"Um...just so you know, I already like someone." This was, she thought, the third time she had to explain her relationship status to kidnap-happy yokai.

"You are attached to another?"

"Yeah, that's what I already like someone means, fool."

"Then I shall fight him to the death for your affections, dear human girl."

"He'd wipe the floor with you!"

She yelled loudly again, and to her relief, a flash of flaming feline began steadily nearing.

Kagome decided to forgo a bit of common sense and waved at her rapidly approaching friends.

"SANGO-CHAN. SHIPPO-CHAN. MIROKU-SAMA. INUYASHA. THIS GUY WANTS TO MAKE ME THE QUEEN OF HIS CLAN."

"He WHAT?"

"And he totally wants to fight you to the death for my affections or something!"

"KAZE NO KIZU!"

Poor hawk yokai.

She wasn't even surprised when a giant red panda yokai tried his luck the next week.

Where were they all coming from?

She could have used some variety. There were plenty of other reasons to do this...right? Even Hiten and Manten wanted to turn humans into hair conditioner. Why couldn't some of them come after her because they heard that she had limited edition yukimi daifuku-flavored Kit Kats or something? Why did they all have to declare their love for her?

It wasn't like she particularly enjoyed being kidnapped by deranged, bloodthirsty yokai fond of cooking humans in pots and using them as hair conditioner (she'd never forget that other guy who shrank them all). But at least they were sort of interesting. There was only so much of the "someone with a death wish kidnaps her and Inuyasha promptly disembowels him" routine she could take before things got old.

And besides...

She didn't mind that Inuyasha killed them. They were, as she said, deranged and bloodthirsty. They sometimes wanted to use her as hair conditioner!

But he could have been a bit less messy. She didn't have an unlimited supply of school uniforms and there was only so much detergent could do.

"Good morning, Higurashi!" came Hojo's cheery voice. "I heard that you had a bad case of appendicitis! Is that why your uniform is covered in blood?"

Kagome cringed and forced her face into an extremely unconvincing smile.

"Yes, Hojo-kun. Um...the doctors forgot to do anesthesia, so I thrashed around a bit!"

Hojo gasped, horrified.

"But don't worry, it's all fine now! I made a full recovery!" She chuckled nervously.

Ugh...jii-chan, Inuyasha, why do you both make me spout bullshit like this?

"Well...as long as you're okay." Hojo said, eyebrows raised. "Uh...my mom has a really strong special detergent! Gets even the most stubborn stains off! Would you like some?"

She shot him a look of such burning desperate gratitude that he stepped back a little in trepidation.

That poor ordinary boy. If only he knew the real reason.

"Yes, please and thank you, Hojo-kun!"

When the next yokai came by their campsite – this one some kind of giant frog – Kagome had long since been prepared with the best detergent she'd ever laid eyes on. That soap had worked wonders. Now even if Inuyasha decided to eviscerate someone, it would be okay for her uniform.

Thank you so much, Hojo-kun's mother, she thought dreamily.

Then the frog yokai jumped in with its webbed feet and swept up Inuyasha with its enormous tongue.

Inuyasha yelped in shock. Shippo fell off the log he was resting on.

"Finally, someone of striking beauty," she croaked. "My search for a spouse has come to an end."

Inuyasha's claws glowed frighteningly hot. "LET ME GO, YOU – URK!"

He disappeared into the frog's gullet, apparently for safekeeping. It burped in satisfaction before hopping off, ground shaking underneath, leaving a slimy trail behind.

Kagome stared.

"Hoshi-sama, that yokai meant to kidnap Kagome-chan. Right?" Sango asked. "And missed and caught Inuyasha. Right?"

She sounded like she was trying to convince herself that the earth was flat.

A strange silence descended onto their formerly peaceful camping ground. It was rather deafening in its harshness.

Someone. Kidnapped.

Inuyasha.

For some reason.

What. Was happening.

Kirara trilled in bafflement.

"Perhaps you are correct," Miroku finally said. He didn't sound like he believed this. "Many have asked Kagome-sama to bear – "

"Don't finish that sentence, Miroku-sama!" Kagome snapped.

A...frog yokai. Kidnapped her sort-of-boyfriend. To take him as a spouse.

She clenched her fists so hard that a bone somewhere made an ugly cracking noise.

Inuyasha woke up to a very bloodied-looking Kagome standing knee-deep in substances he decided not to examine closely. He very much did not want to know what it was, if Sango, Miroku, and Shippo's terrified expressions were anything to go by.

Whatever. Kagome was safe. And so was he. Somehow.

His stomach growled, ruining the moment more than it was already, the traitor.

Kagome patted his knee affectionately, smiling in a decidedly bone-chilling fashion. He did not want to know. "C'mon, Inuyasha, let's get back to the camp. I've saved up some instant ramen for you."

"Uh..." He gulped nervously. "What...what about your clothes? They're ruined."

"Oh, don't worry about that! Now I have good detergent that gets stubborn stains off!"

She picked up her bow, covered in...gross, gross, gross...Inuyasha shuddered. Okay, he would no longer question her about whatever happened.

No yokai got any funny ideas for a while. This was a good thing.

[sungminxxx]

Stray Kids reaction to paintbrushes

[anon request]

Chan:

You see, I feel like paintbrushes wouldnt be much effect.

The only spots that really work with paintbrushes are his toes and underarms.

"H-HehEhehey thahat tihihickles!!" he'd giggle under the touch of you slowly tracing the paintbrush up and down his armpit.

He'd like how it feels, though of course, big strong channie would never admit such a thing.

I mean, he'd let you tickke him with this tool, but just know he will be getting you back in your worst spot :)

Lee Know:

oh, this boy would be pretty sensitive

I think his tummy would be the most sensitive spot for these brushes to dance

He'd try to cover his mouth and hide the fact that hes feeling ticklish

But cmon, you know him. You can tell the slightest changes in him. You only notice his ticklishness immediately

You find it adorable, but the minute he realizes you know.. hes a strawberry.

"whah-aAAHAH-" you love his giggles so much, theyre so bright. 🥰

Changbin:

A BABY A BABY

his sides bro >>>>>>

that's the spot for him, the sides.

sure, he'd feel ticklish everywhere with the paintbrush but his sides, dead spot.

He'd be weak in its touch.

Flinching to the side over and over again would kinds be his thing

Tiny snorts <3

Hyunjin:

His reactions will be priceless

SO sensitive to tickles in general, now imagine paint brushes for a second.

His worst spots would either have to be his neck or his bellybutton.

The minute you touch him with that paintbrush, he will be in hysterics.

"PFFtAHAHAHAHHAHA-" at just the slightest touch

He'll be kicking and thrashing everywhere, poor baby~

Guess he'll have to take it, though you both know that he loves the feeling veerrry much!!

Jisung:

Similar to Hyunjin if I'm honest

Worst spots for this little devil tool would be the area just around his bellybutton, and his little button itself!

The moment you dip that little brush into his giggle button, he will be bucking his life away, kicking, screaming, you name it, he's doing it!

His tummy would start blushing shh if ykyk and he will start becoming a cute little strawberry!

His giggles will fill up the room rather quickly, catching everyone's attention and leaving them in complete awe.

He's just adorable, aint he?

Felix:

He'll definitely feel shy about this

He doesn't admit it, but he is very ticklish.. especially when it comes to tools.

Paint brushes are honestly the icing on his tickle cake :)

He'd definitely flinch at first while doing his best not to let out a giggle at the first touch

If you catch him by surprise with a paint brush tho, watch your head. You might get hit!!

He's a jumper!!

He'd also leave the members in awe at his adorable reactions to being tickled with a paintbrush

The main spot for him? Well, his whole body is that spot.

Seungmin:

BABY GIGGLES

Let me start off by saying, he is the CUTEST???

His best spots for using a paint brush (if u want a good reaction) would be his tummy and soles!!

If you use the paint brush on his tummy, you'll hear full on adorable belly giggles. He'd cover his mouth and just muffle his giggles sometimes too.. its so cUTE

As for his soles, good luck. He might kick you

Watch out!!

Jeongin:

HIS NECK, THATS THE SPOT

Okay but seriously, get his neck with a paintbrush and he will find a way to detach his neck from his body.

You'll get his little dolphin squeak, maybe keep some earplugs nearby.

Like felix, he miiight hit you!! Just be careful

Since he's the youngest, the other members always try to catch him off guard with tickles in general. He might be used to it, but that doesn't mean he's not sensitive still!!

+ty for the request love, have a great day/night &lt;3 - bri

[hopeful-rack5]

Another expansion to the Newscapegang for my rewrites and Fics

first off been a bit everyone but i have a small update i'm going expand the Newscapegang for my rewrites and Fics.

now the current members for my Newscapegang are

Cory,

Unicomics

Nick Shootzki

Ashlie Celeste

Tommy aka Frozongargon

Dawnofriku

JonJon/ToiletJon/Jon Moyers

Sparkles Mcglitterbuns aka Bane

Adam Rodriguez

Invisible Davis

Fizzysoda aka Lexi

Cheezybreezy aka Bri and yeah... SO NOW TO THE NEW ADDITIONS!!!!

i have 3 new people to add and they Are! Shelby Shubble!, SCGBarbarian! also known as Nick and Mousie116!

now these three are quite obvious picks to include in the Newscapegang

like Mousie was apart of Undertale, Creepypasta and Yandere rivals and played some of the major characters like cocona~chan (god I hope I'm pronouncing that right) and Alphys both in Undertale and Underfell and she and Cory had lots of Association with each other.

Shubble because of she and Cory had so much involvement with each other they played game with each other on both of there channels and she played Frisk in Cory's Undertale, Underfell, Undertale Au and Timetale roleplays.

and SCGBarbarian had so much association with Cory they were roommates, they worked at Sky media together, they played games together and SCGBarbarian played one of the major characters in Newscapepro's Fallout roleplay.

it makes sense to include these people in the Newscapegang and i hope you'll enjoy what i'll do with them.

more updates soon! BYE! (also might update this post to have better grammar)

[cutecatdoodles]

Artfight attacks set 9! How many sets are left to go, I wonder...?

Cosmo for ~SketchandPallet Oakbark for ~TrashyGhost Nightshade for ~Cosmic__ Oshalu for @k1ttylungs Penguin Girl for @tekki-chan Strawberry Sorbet for @cashewsummerz Seja, Ricot and Ashi for @its-a-coffin Frosty Tiger for @elementaldeityoffood Burgundy Barbie (and Bluesky Blitz) for @mj-makoshark Fernmist for ~Fernmist2mochi Fernmist (again) for ~Fernmist2mochi Amney for @fanficfoxart Slither for ~Doublooncoins Pinczie for ~LEADP1PE Waffle for ~Oki-Doki Clever for ~ShimmeringEmerald Spring for @flaming-demon-bri Silvana for ~eskelemania Ryu (f) for @shootingstareon Sunset Jagaimo for ~Sunset-Jagaimo Mous and Duk for ~Red_Dead_Panda Mathpaw for ~Autistica Berca for ~LetsDoBirdCrimes

[kawaiichan67]

inukag wedding?

inukag

modern AU

bonded by birth rough draft/wip

for @blairex thank you! I hope its ok 🫣🤞. I’ll try to have the finished version up this weekend.

Miroku stood in front of the goshinboku, his purple robes making him look halfway-legitimate as a Buddhist. Inu Yasha nodded and then stared excitedly, his ears twitching, as he watched his beloved honey walk towards him. Sango stood as a witness, half confused and half excited, her grin mischievous.

Kagome was dressed head to toe in a traditional wedding kimono, three layers deep, and her pure white furisode exquisite against her dark hair. 

“Dear friends,” Miroku began, as serious as a 5th grader could be, “let us join in asking the kami to bless this union between Inu Yasha-kun and Kagome-chan.”

With a serious face, he turned to Inu Yasha, who could not take his eyes off Kagome. “Inu Yasha, do you promise to take this Kagome, to love and hold her, to snuggle her every night, and give her lots of puppies?”

“Yes—wait,” he whispered, “I didn’t say anything about puppies.”

Miroku’s smile was wise and worldly. “Shes already happy. Take the win,” the hentai whispered back. 

“And do you, Kagome-chan, promise to love Inu Yasha-kun, snuggle him every day and—Inu, I cant say this.”

“What? You added puppies to my vows!”  

“Well, yes, but…you know, these aren’t really all that Buddhist.”

“Just finish, bouzo, or I’ll tell Sango what really happened to her—“

“Yes!” the small hentai squeaked in agreement.

“Yes, me too! Yashi-kun, I promise lots of snuggles and ear rubs. Every day,” Kagome finished solemnly. 

“Great!” Miroku agreed, happy that his friend was happy. “You may now kiss the bri-I think you are too young…”

But Inu and Kagome were already rubbing noses, and she gave her puppy a kiss on the cheek. 

“They’re so sweet,” Sango sighed, as Miroku trued to put his arm around her waist.

“Can we start our pre-honeymoon, honey?” Kagome asked, only to be enthusiastically swept off her feet by an overjoyed inu hanyou, bristling with energy. 

“First, we’ll get some clothes and snacks.” 

“Oh, Inu! Can we go back to the ryokan, please? We had such a nice time!”

[magicat1337]

Shout out to the type of girls that spent hours a day rocking out to Linkin Park, Evanescence, and Blink-182, who took their friends to see movies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions multiple times, who drew silly little anime versions of their favorite characters from the aforementioned movies, developed a wild crush on the albino twins from Reloaded, were obsessed with bri-chan

[randomrichards]

TOP 10 BEST MOVIES OF 2023

10)                          BEYOND UTOPIA

Sometimes real life can be scarier than fiction, especially when it comes to tyrannical countries like North Korea as highlighted by the gripping documentary Beyond Utopia. Drawing from real footage, director Madeliene Gavin brings us into a North Korean’ family’s fleeing the country, a Pastor working to get them to safety and a human rights activist’s desperate attempt to save her son.

Gavin gives us a glimpse into the living conditions locals are subjected to in North Korea. You see the propaganda used to demonized “Western Countries” and manipulate its citizens. The Government’s attempt to glamorize their country’s contradicted by the hidden footage of citizens digging through wreckage for any scraps. That pales in comparison to footage of prisoners being tortured.

All of this makes you pray for the family as they stumble across forests in complete darkness with no certainty, they will make it to safety. Thankfully, they have an ally in Pastor Seungeun Kim. Through his non-profit organization Caleb Mission, Kim works hard to ensure the family gets to safety.

Gavin portrays not only the external struggle to escape but also the internal struggle. Even though they’re fleeing the country, the family still believes the anti-US propaganda taught to them. As defector/activist Hyeonseo Lee says “Imagine, waking up one day and realizing that you were born on a completely different planet.” But Lee embodies the hope that they can be deprogrammed.

Beyond Utopia keeps you on the edge of your seat.

9)            THE BOY AND THE HERON

Hayao Miyazaki once again comes out of retirement to create an animated feature destined to become a classic.

The Boy and the Heron highlights Miyazaki’s strength as a visual storyteller. He brings the same creative fantasy ideas that made Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro and Princess Mononoke. This time, he brings us an alternate world of anthropomorphic parakeets, marshmallow like spirits and the titular shape shifting Heron (Masaki Suba in Japanese, unrecognizable Robert Pattinson in English).

As always, Miyazaki and his animation crew lure us into fantasy through their dazzling animation. The Heron’s transformation is animated with slow detail, revealing one human feature at a time. That same detail goes toward the environments, which are animated with rich attention to detail. Whether it’s protagonist Mahito’s (Soma Santoki in Japanese, Luca Padovan in English) home, the underground library or the Gateway to the other side, every background is enchanting.

Miyazaki also has a knack for creating memorable characters. Mahito is not a bland boy hero but a troubled teen repressing his grief over his mother’s death. It gets to a point where he hurts himself with a rock. His personal life along has some engaging characters including his lovingly protective father (Takuya Kimura in Japanese: Christian Bale in English) and a group of nosy old women. And then there’s the Heron, a complicated untrustworthy character with uncertain motivations (at the start of the film at least) or a pyrokinetic girl (Yoshino Kimura in Japanese, Gemma Chan in English).

The film isn’t perfect. Miyazaki takes his sweet time before he gets to the plot, which may turn off some audience members not used to Miyazaki’s structure. The internal logic of the fantasy elements may be difficult to comprehend. Thankfully, that hasn’t stopped many moviegoers from enjoying the film.

At the core of the film is the lessons Miyazaki draws from the classic Japanese children’s book How do you Live? I won’t give too much away. I will say that the journey Mahito gives him an important lesson on accepting tragedy and how to move on with his life.

The Boy and the Heron delivers the enchanting fantasy that has made Hayao Miyazaki’s films so beloved.

8)            GODZILLA MINUS ONE

Godzilla’s film history is quite strange. The iconic Kaiju began as an allegory for the nuclear bomb, bringing destruction and death to innocent people. Then it’s flip flopped between being a source of destruction and being a saviour of humanity while fighting/teaming up with other Kaijus. Now writer/director Takashi Yamazaki takes Godzilla back to its original source material with his surprise hit Godzilla Minus One. This time Yamazaki uses the iconic kaiju as an allegory for World War 2’s aftermath. Taking the place in postwar, the film focuses on a small group of former soldier and locals forced to take on Godzilla as it brings destruction to Japanese towns already devastated by the war.

Yamazaki delivers all the destruction you’d expect from a Godzilla movie, with one gripping action scene after another. One notable standout is a scene where a tugboat tries to get away from Godzilla. Yamazaki draws the original film acknowledging innocents lost and homes destroyed in Godzilla’s wake. He also gives Godzilla regenerative powers to add more stakes.

A frequent problem with most Godzilla movies is the human characters. With rare exceptions, their story arcs are never as interesting as the Kaiju fight scenes. The Monarch-verse is most notable, with the most interesting characters being killed off too early. Yamazaki breaks that cycle by paralleling the Godzilla elements with a realistic depiction of Postwar Japan. The result is a full cast of complex, relatable characters whose struggles to find a life within the wreckage makes the human stories as compelling as the action scenes.

At the centre of the storyline is Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a kamikaze pilot wracked with guilt for surviving the war and failing to save a crew from Godzilla. Kamiki gives a compelling performance as a man coming to terms with survivor’s guilt. He’s surrounded by an array of engaging characters including Koichi’s minesweeping crew and his embattled neighbour Sumiko (Sakura Ando). Even if you take out Godzilla, their struggles to pick up the pieces of their devastated homes are still incredibly engaging. Through it all is a surprising message about the importance of life.

Godzilla Minus One became a surprise box office hit alongside The Boy and the Heron and both are very deserving.

7)            FALLEN LEAVES

After a single date, Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) accidentally loses his date’s (Alma Poysti) phone number. To make matters worse, he doesn’t even remember her name. This sounds like a premise for a classic romantic comedy but, Aki Kaurismaki is not the type of writer/director who makes Hollywood romantic comedies. In fact, Fallen Leaves couldn’t be more different than said romantic comedies.

Kaurismaki brings his trademark style to create a deglamorized romantic comedy. While other romantic comedies star matinee idols whose characters have posh lifestyles and comfortable jobs, the leads in Kaurismaki’s films are middle aged, downtrodden folks working minimum wage labour. His date Ansa is a supermarket clerk who sorts recyclable plastic. Holappa is a construction worker who can’t keep a job due to his alcoholism. Plus, they live in run down apartments.

While other romantic comedies are filmed in glamorous locations shot with bright colours, Kaurismaki ‘s characters live in a world of run down apartments and seedy bars shot with muted colours. He also shoots at a distance as the leads stare off into sad sack space.

This may sound depressing, but underneath the droll look hides some serendipitous hope and dry humour. In a classic romantic comedy movie, Holappa spends evenings waiting by the movie theatre in hopes of finding Ansa. The journey also forces Holappa to confront his alcoholism. There’s also a delightful karaoke scene involving “Mambo Italiano.” 

Kaurismaki’s films have a unique sense of hope. While most films try to reassure the audience that these characters will escape their poor circumstances, Kaurismaki has faith in his character’s ability to endure their circumstances. For Fallen Leaves, he assures the audience that they don’t need a fancy condominium or grand gestures to earn romance. At the film’s core is a belief that middle aged store clerks and construction workers are as deserving of love as the Ryan Goslings and Chris Evans of the world.

6)            KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

Martin Scorsese stares into the abyss that is American History with Killers of the Flower Moon, a biopic about the atrocious Osage Murders and the conspiracy behind it.

A lesser filmmaker would have gone the safe, white saviour direction by making it a crime drama centered on the agents investigating the murders. But Scorsese has always been a filmmaker who examined humanity’s dark side. So, he centres his film on an accomplice; Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), war veteran who marries indigenous local Mollie (Lily Gladstone) whom his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro) schemes to steal her fortune by murdering her family. While Ernest was worst in real life than portrayed in the movie, Scorsese and DiCaprio still makes a bold move in portraying Ernest as dimwitted moral weakling; a man repressing some guilt but is too easily manipulated to make the right decision.

De Niro delivers another masterful performance as the ultimate cinematic villain. He puts on a front of sympathetic ally for the Osage community but underneath his gentlemanly demeanor, he is a greedy, manipulative psychopath. The way he casually justifies his atrocious murder plot is disturbing. Just as disturbing is how many local authority figures were in on Hale’s plot as Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth bringing hints through Ernest and William’s interactions. The normalization of white supremacy becomes disturbingly clear in one scene of Klan members marching in a parade.

But the key to the film is Mollie, who serves as a reminder of the human cost of Hale’s evil plot. As one family member after another is killed, Gladstone makes us feel Mollie’s pain. But through her ordeal, Gladstone maintains a sense of dignity for Mollie. It would have been appreciated if there was more of Mollie’s and the Osage people’s perspective. But again, Scorsese is more interested in people’s capacity for evil.

This film plays like a crime drama, but underneath the western demeanor is a horror film about a racist system designed to murder a group of people for the crime of striking it rich while Indigenous.

5)            PAST LIVES

Writer/Director Celine Song begins her directorial debut with a distant shot of Nora (Greta Lee), her husband Arthur (John Magaro) and her estranged best friend Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) conversing at a bar. We don’t hear what they’re talking about, but we do hear unseen strangers gossiping about the protagonists. We hear them assume that Nora and Hae are a couple since they’re conversing the most while Arthur seems to sit by himself. Just from this scene, Past Lives has us under its spell.

At the core of the film is Nora’s relationship with Hae Sung. We first see them as childhood friends in South Korea before Nora’s family moves to North America. Decades later, Nora and Hae Sung reunite via video chats. Their lives have taken different paths with Nora becoming a happily married playwright in New York while Hae Sung has stayed in Korea to become an engineer. In their meetings together, Nora and Hae Sung rekindle the special bond they had.

Most films with this premise centre would lead to Nora and Hae Sung ending up back together in the end (usually after a series of misunderstandings). But Song isn’t here to make a Hollywood romance. Instead, she’s created a mature drama about two people reconciling with the circumstances that led them in different directions. In their conversations, Nora and Hae Sung ponder over the circumstances outside of and within their control that led them to the lives they had now. This leads them to face the dilemma of whether either can leave their current life behind and live together.

The performances achieve the balancing act of being both grounded and engaging. Yoo makes an excellent romantic lead delivering excellent chemistry with Lee. Magaro also deserves credit for his performance as the other man who allows Nora to figure her situation out while secretly hoping he doesn’t lose her in the process. But it’s Lee who makes this move, letting the audience in on Nora’s inner turmoil.

Celine Song’s career has taken a fascinating turn from a staff writer for The Wheel of Time to creating a haunting romantic drama about accepting the paths you’ve left behind.

4)            THE HOLDOVERS    

Alexander Payne is an expert in finding comedy in misery. He certainly has lot of misery to work with in The Holdovers, a bittersweet dramedy about Scrooge-like history professor (Paul Giamatti) forced to watch over a rebellious student (Dominic Sessa) abandoned by his parents at their boarding school on Christmas.

This film feels like a time capsule from the 1970s with vintage looking camera work by Eigil Bryld’s cinematography making the snowy background pop. David Hemingson’s screenplay itself feels like the kind of dramedy that would have been made by Mike Nichols or Hal Ashby with its dry comedic focus on character’s inner turmoil over social expectations.

The strength of Payne’s direction is how he makes us feel for the characters even when we’re laughing at their circumstances. Professor Paul Hunham (Giamatti) certainly comes off as a total stick in the mud when he forces the students left behind to continue their schoolwork during the Christmas holidays, but you come to realize this is his way of finding a sense of order as the world changes around him. His student Angus Tully (Sessa) may constantly be at odds with Hunham, and yet he’s the only student passing Hunham’s class. Cook Mary Lamb (Da’vine Joy Randolph) has a tough time opening up after her son’s death. As the film progresses, they start to open to each other, gaining a better understanding of each other’s struggles and force each other out of their comfort zones. Thankfully, Hemingson avoids the shmaltzy ending in favour of a bittersweet ending.

Of course, none of this would work without the cast. A lesser actors would have made Hundham and Angus unpleasant jerks. Thankfully, Giamatti brings a world weariness and masterful comedic timing to Hundham that allows us to empathize with him. Sessa shows a lot of potential in this role, bringing out the pain underneath the snarky energy. But it’s Randolph who gives the film its heart as Mary uses her job to avoid confronting her grief.

In a time that makes many people feel lonely, Payne has created a Christmas movie that celebrates unlikely human connections that empathy can create.

3)            OPPENHEIMER

Nolan’s always been that rare filmmaker with the ambition to combine non-linear structures with labyrinth plotting while still being accessible to a moviegoer. Only Christopher Nolan could get away with making a 3 hour biopic about the theoretical physicist and then intertwin it with a courtroom drama about the senator who launched a smear campaign against him. If that wasn’t enough, he also shot half of it in black and white while making the whole movie on film. Not only does that but makes it a major event that results in a blockbuster. That is the miracle that is Oppenheimer, a compelling character study of the man who called himself the destroyer of worlds.

Half of the film follows J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy)’s journey from an arrogant Oxford student to the man racing against time to create the atom bomb to a physicist torn by the consequences of his action. In the process, we see many moments in Oppenheimer’s life including his attempted poisoning of a professor, his conversation with Albert Einstein (Bill Conti), his complicated relationship with his wife (Emily Blunt) and an interrogation by Roger Robb (Jason Clarke) just to name a few. And through it all, Nolan and Murphy reveal the many layers of this intelligent but conflicted man.

Oppenheimer’s story is intercut Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), a senator who led a secret smear campaign against Oppenheimer over an apparent slight. While Oppenheimer’s section plays like a character study, Strauss’s storyline plays like a political courtroom drama of the 1960s complete with black and white cinematography. This serves as the central structure for the film as Nolan and editor Jennifer Lame intercuts between Strauss’s plotline and moments in Oppenheimer’s life. Downey Jr. truly shines in this performance as he reveals the deep seeded pettiness under Strauss’s polite demeanor.

Nolan balances these storylines with an intricate attention to detail that keeps the film engaging from beginning to end. He also surrounds Murphy and Downey Jr with an endless calvacade of stars including Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek and Gary OIdman just to name a few.

Of course, Nolan is known to avoid CGI whenever he can in favour of practical effects and he certainly keeps this principle with the testing of the atomic bomb, leading to a hauntingly beautiful scene.

Oppenheimer shines as bright as that atomic bomb, delivering an ambitious and haunting look at a man forced to live with creating a means of destroying the world he was trying to save.

2)            POOR THINGS

Yorgos Lathimos closed out 2023 with one of the year’s horniest films. What are the odds it would be a Frankenstein-like satirical epic called Poor Things?

From the moment she is resurrected with a baby’s brain, Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) regards life’s pleasures like a kid in a candy store. And involves sex (even becoming an escort at one point). Meanwhile, many of the men try to seduce Bella only to be driven nuts by her lack of social etiquette and cluelessness. And through it all, Lanthimos mocks and interrogates the ideas of social norms with a Bunuel-esque satirical tone.

Poor Things serves as Lanthimos’ most visually stunning movie. He sets most of the first act in black and white, mostly in mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter’s (Willem Dafoe) home. The setting resembles the kind of prim European settings of Luis Bunuel. It’s when Bella is taken away by playboy gambler Duncan Wedderburn (scene-stealing Mark Ruffalo) that the settings truly pop with grand buildings and neon-coloured skies that look like they came out of a Terry Gilliam.

Lanthimos uses these grand sets to sneak in Bunuel-like satire mocking social mores, class systems and patriarchy. Watching the film, I kept being reminded of a film trope that infantilized women that you see from the likes of Lolita, Leeloo from the Fifth Element and most Marilyn Monroe Characters.[1] Some men in Bella’s life seemed to be attracted to (or want to take advantage of) her childlike innocence. But Lanthimos and Stone push the childlike behaviour to its furthest conclusion forcing the men to put up with Bella’s temper tantrums and social cluelessness. That behaviour causes Duncan to become hilariously unhinged as she destroys his life.

It's easy for a maverick filmmaker to find their style restricted when given a bigger budget. Thankfully, Lanthimos maintains his boundary pushing satire even on the most epic stage.

1)            SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

One can only image the pressure of making a sequel to an animated feature as groundbreaking and beloved as Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. Making a sequel already comes with its own challenge with the arduous task of expanding on the pervious material without becoming repetitive or losing the original’s appeal. It’s made more challenging when the first film changed the game of animated film. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse not only meets the challenge head on but has elevated the franchise to create another action packed, side-splitting masterpiece.

Writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have long demonstrated a mastery with comedic storytelling through Clone High, 21 Jump Street and the Lego Movie. Even apart, they create unforgettable works with Lord co-writing Into the Spider-Verse with Rodney Rothman and Miller creating the criminally underrated series The Afterparty. All this work highlights their mastery of parodying genre tropes while creating compelling storytelling starring unforgettable characters. Joined by co-writer Dave Callaham, Lord and Miller take their boldness a step further by centering the first 15 minutes entirely on Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen/the Ghost Spider/Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld). Her story arc would make an excellent movie on its own as she finds herself targeted by her father George Stacy (Shea Whigham), who blames Spider-Gwen for the death of her universe’s Peter Parker (Jack Quaid), not realizing that she and Gwen are the same person. And yet the writing trio manages to make this a compelling story while meshing it with the rest of Miles’ (Shameik Moore) storyline. Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson also deserve credit for keeping the story focused while delivering pitch perfect entertainment from start to finish.

They all managed to do this while introducing an endless array of memorable characters from the damn near perfect Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India (Karan Soni) to snarky hologram Lyla (Greta Lee). Even the cameos are unforgettable with he likes of a live action Prowler (Donald Glover), Cowboy Spiderman called Web Slinger and even a Spider-Rex. But the most notable standouts are the villains. Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaacs) starts out like an authoritarian who wants to maintain the status quo. But we come to understand his misguided need to maintain canonical events. And then there’s the Spot (Jason Schwartzman). He starts the film as a walking punchline but as he discovers his ability to travel across universes, he becomes an intimidating threat. And Kudos to the writers for turning a throwaway sight gag from the previous film into a character motivation.

Just as memorable are the gags, which come fast and furious in a variety of forms from easter eggs to one liner. You have Ben Reilly’s (Andy Sandberg) overdramatic moodiness, Pavitr’s calling out Miles over “Chai Tea” or Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) contradictory philosophy (“I don’t believe in consistency”). They work with every actor bouncing off each other with effortless timing.

And then there’s glorious animation. Directors Dos Santos, Powers, and Thompson along with their animators apply a variety of animation styles for each universe. They use a watercolor style that drips across Spider-Gwen’s universe. Spider-Punk is animated with a collage-like art style. There’s even a Lego universe animated by a 14-year-old. The directors and animators manage to keep a perfect balance of style and substance by using stylizations to enhance the story while delivering some awe-inspiring action scenes. That and the animation is so gorgeous that it must deserves to be in a theatre.

The writers and directors keep all the style grounded with parents and child relationships serving as the emotional core of the film. Miguel’s grief over the loss of his daughter unintentionally causes the destruction of a universe. Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) begins his responsibility as a father to Mayday who has inherited his powers. Of course, at the centre of it all is Mile’s and Gwen’s relationship with their parents. Miles need to hide his Spider-identity puts a strain on his relationship with his parents, forcing to face the dilemma of whether to reveal his identity. Unfortunately, Gwen’s story is more devastating when she’s forced to confront her father about her superhero identity.

Unfortunately, testimonies from former animators recently revealed Lord and Miller had led to a toxic work environment for the animators, forcing them to work 11 hours a day for 7 days a week, even overruling the directors. Consider this review a celebration for the directors and the animators. Hopefully, conditions are much better for the animators of the third film. This praise goes out to those animators who made this masterpiece work.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

ANATOMY OF A FALL

When her husband is found dead in front of their cabin, writer Sandra Voyter (Sandra Huller) finds herself charged with murder. We follow Sandra through a traumatic ordeal as every private problem is brought to the public eye and every little detail is scrutinized to make her look guilty. Huller gives a powerful performance as a grieving woman left with the painful task of proving her innocence.

BARBIE

In a summer overwrought with superhero movies and sequels, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie blew up the movie theatres like a pink-coloured supernova. About every element made this movie special from the colourful set pieces to the surprising commentary on the patriarchal society and performative feminism. Margot Robbie shines as a stereotypical barbie going through an existential crisis. Ryan Gosling steals the film as a childlike Ken desperate for Barbie’s attention.

It's not a perfect movie. It’s solution to undoing the Patriarchy is more of a first step than an actual solution.[2] The subplot with the Mattel businessmen gets resolved too easily. Beyond this, it’s still an entertaining movie.

STOP MAKING SENSE

The main reason this one’s not on the list is because this is a reissue of a 1984 concert movie. But it’s hard to leave out one of the greatest concert movies of all time.

Late director Jonathan Demme and David Byrne structured a Talking Heads concert in a unique and engaging manner. They start with a minimalist design by having David Byrne perform “Psycho Killer” alone on a barren stage with only a guitar and a boom box. Byrne manages to hook the audience with such a bare minimum. Then each band member appears on stage after each song. Before long, the one-man show becomes a New Wave orchestra complete with chorus girls, an array of keyboards and three giant screens.

Every band member is on their A game, bringing a lot of energy to all the songs. And let’s not forget Byrne’s iconic giant suit.

[1] Here’s a video that does a better job explaining this trope than I could.

[2] To be fair, this message could be meant for the younger audience.