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bethanysnow · 6 months ago

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So me and @lonelystczennie have been working on a project for a while now that is both of our babies. Around the time the Korea Elle shoot happened for Hyunjin, we both showed interest in this concept. I wouldn't have been able to write this without @lonelystczennie she is one of the best writers I have seen and I love her dearly. Everyone should follow her BTS account @7ndipity

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★Yandere!Hyunjin x Fem! Reader.★

---slow burn, obsession, College AU!, pinning, eventual stalker, Fluff/eventual smut????/there is a sprinkle of angst. ---

3.3k wrds. CHAPTER ONE

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Y/n sat in a chair in the theatre hall of SNU between classes. The room was large, and the red plush seats were a sight to behold at least in comparison to the underfunded American theatre she was accustomed to. They had just finished Romeo and Juliet for the fall and far on a facade balcony was where their Juliet stood and uttered the famous line “where for art thou Romeo-” Of course in Y/ns opinion she could have done it better.

That was the problem with the South Korean society, or more so any society as far as she was concerned. It was about who looked the part, not that they did it well.

Getting up on stage Y/n started to gather. A music stand, a chair, a folder of monologues she had put together. Holding her imaginary audience captive she readied herself…

“To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,”

It was here in this soft moment that Y/n could be herself, be loud, be obnoxious, be in her own little corner of the world where no one would see. She meandered around the stage, using its size to her advantage. Her mind cast back to the years at theatre camps, high school productions, anything to get her hands on stage…where she could be anyone she wanted to be. At least in theory.

“-No more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,”

While she wasn’t insane, she knew where she stood in the world. She knew what people thought when they looked at her. It was hard to miss, but somewhere in the mean girls brimstone there were glimmers. Glimmers of what might be, what could be..what should be.

“Must give us pause—there's the respect that makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of th'unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action.”

The crowd was silent, jaws agape at the performance that befell them. Until it was a trickled down noise, starting as a low hum, but grew to a roar of applause, A tony! One shouted, Encore!! Brava Brava!! Another yelled from their seats. In the space between classes Y/n got to hold onto her dreams.

Silly Y/n, dreaming big dreams…

The door to the theatre opened and like a lightbulb flickering out. Y/n turned finding the head director of the art department walking in.

“Ah! Y/n, you here to pick up some costumes?”

“Oh uh- yea! Just making sure folks didn’t just leave them behind after last show…” Quickly taking the music stand to the side of the stage, it was in reality where Y/n had to stand her ground. So, she batted the stars away and swallowed the butterflies, getting off the stage to grab her bag. Maybe this year’s Musical would be more fun…

Hyunjin slowly followed Jisung across campus towards the art building, watching the dry, faded leaves skitter across the pavement ahead of them, caught in the wind, his hands stuffed in his pockets in an attempt to fight off the growing autumn chill.

Why had he agreed to this?

When he joined the drama department, he hadn’t realized just how much time and effort it actually entailed from him. He didn’t know much about how any of it worked actually, he had signed up mainly just to appease his friends and to get them to stop worrying about him so fucking much…

“I didn’t know this place was here.” He’d commented as they’d navigated their way through the crowded cafe, sitting down at one of the few available tables.

“How have you not noticed it, it’s like two blocks from our place?” Changbin asked.

“I don't know, I just haven't.” He mumbled, taking a sip of his coffee. It was surprisingly good.

“You need to get out of the house more.” Changbin commented.

He didn’t argue with his roommate, though he didn’t necessarily agree with him. Nowadays he spent most of his time holed up in his room, painting, but he was okay with that. That seemed to be the only thing that made him happy anymore, the only thing that held any real spark for him.

It was quiet for the briefest moment before Jisung suddenly piped up.

“Hey, why don’t you sign up for the theatre department? Most of the guys are already involved in some way, so it’s not like you won’t know anybody." Jisung suggested, referring to the rest of their group of friends.

“I’m not an actor.” Hyunjin said flatly.

“You look like one though, that goes a long way.” Changbin stated, swiping a cookie from Jisungs plate. “The rest, you can learn.”

“And there’s more than just acting involved.” Jisung adds. “There’s writing and production, wardrobe and set dressing, music-”

“You could paint sets!” Changbin offered, earning a side-long glare from Jisung.

“We just finished the Shakespeare production too, so it’d be a good time to join before we start planning for the spring show,” Jisung added.

“Why do I feel like you rehearsed this?” Hyunjin asked. They glanced between each other guiltily.

He knew what they were doing, they just wanted to get him out of his room, out of his apartment, out of the headspace that he’d been living in these past few months. They’d tried a few similar tactics in the past, and while he appreciated the gesture, he really didn’t see much point to it. He didn’t see much point to anything anymore if he was being honest. Still, he knew they wouldn’t relent until he agreed to something.

“I’ll think about it.” He offered, satisfying them for the moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, as he trailed behind his friend, he felt a weak flutter in his chest. Anxiety? Probably, but there was also something else, something faint, more pleasant. Excited? He hadn’t felt excited by much since-

No, no. We’re not thinking about that anymore.

He shook his head, quickly following Jisung through the door of the auditorium. Maybe they were right, maybe a change of scenery would be good…

The auditorium was abuzz at SNU. That winter was to be the planning and prep phase for the spring musical, and every theatre geek on campus was somewhere in that room trying to live out their slice of life anime dreams.

Y/n was in the back of the theatre typing on her laptop, busy working herself away already for what she had planned this quarter. Her theatre friends, Chan, Seungmin, Felix, Han, Jeongin, Changbin, and Minho all tended to arrive late. Leaving her to babysit the freshmen if the art director wasn’t in.

This year as part of his senior project Seungmin was going to direct and produce the Musical with the help of his friends. She was glad to be part of it; just didn’t think being late necessarily set a good example for everyone that was new.

The doors to the side stage opened and sauntering in was her band of misfits. Or at least that's what the group chat was called.

With a…new person in tow. His shoulders risen to his ears and yet his gate was sluggish. Shuffling and looking at the ground. Y/n found herself walking down the aisle to the white fold out table with stuff for the crew putting her bag down.

“So glad you cared to join us- oh great leaders~” She bowed dramatically to Seungmin and Chan. She laughed and rolled her eyes at Seungmin flipping her off.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s just get on with this.” He said, trailing after her down the aisle.

The light peal of laughter drew Hyunjin’s attention, his eyes flicking up from the floor, quickly scanning the group until he found its owner. She was turned partially away from him, but he could still make out part of her features. Round apple cheeks, bright eyes that disappeared into half crescents as she smiled, her whole body moving as she spoke animatedly with Seungmin about something. He didn’t realize he had frozen, staring at her, until she looked up and met his gaze.

“Um, hi?” She offered, looking at him curiously.

“Oh, Y/n, this is our friend, Hyunjin. He just joined the group. Hyunjin, this is Y/n. She’s in charge of keeping us from accidentally setting the building on fire.” Han said, gesturing between the two of them before quickly snagging the chair closest to Minho’s, as per usual.

“Don’t pin that kind of responsibility on me!” She shot back before offering a warm smile to Hyunjin. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you.” He said quietly, finding himself unable to look away from her.

“Alright, should we get started?” She nodded slightly before turning back to the rest of the group.

After rousing games of zip, zap, zop, freeze and change, and traditional ice breakers for the lonely extrovert, Y/n found herself sitting in the audience scrolling her phone while the rest of the crew bickered over what to do in earnest. Her eyes drifted to the new boy.

…Hyunjin?

His face was a lack luster pale like he hadn’t seen the sun in over two weeks. But his eyes were an abyss. No real emotion, seemed to be dragged here by their friends. Which- was how they got her to come in the first place; now it's their 3rd show season all together. His clothes hung on his body like a wire frame in a department store. Out of place, but far more expensive than the financial aid in her bank account could dream of. Catching his eyes, her own fell back to the screen in her hand. Maybe her cheeks were red from the smut she was reading earlier, or just being stared down by a dark prince type.

Y/n had gotten used to living in and around very attractive people. It was the land of the Idol.

There were enough plastic surgeons to go toe to toe with the number of Walmart’s back home. Everyone had someone they wanted to be, to look like, to sound like, to replace.

There just was no one like Hyunjin…He was who boys put up on their wall as inspiration, and girls put on their wall to admire. She dreaded to think what came to mind when she was caught looking.

~~~~~

“Beautiful, ethereal, the human incarnation of a Renaissance Goddess.” Every word or phrase that came to mind didn’t seem to do justice to the woman sitting just a few seats away from Hyunjin. ‘Y/n.’ Her name danced around the inside of his head like a lyric from a forgotten song, foreign and yet somehow familiar. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, trying several times to redirect his attention towards his friends, who were clearly in the middle of some heated argument, Jisungs voice echoing loudly through the hall in frustration, but each time, he found himself drawn back to her.

He couldn’t understand it, every little thing she did seemed to hypnotize him. The way her fingers danced lightly across the screen of her phone, brow creased in concentration as she read, sending occasional curious glances in his direction, sending a small jolt of electricity through his system every time her eyes locked with his, even for the briefest moment.

His heart thundered in his chest; mouth dry as his mind raced to figure out what he should do. Should he try to strike up another conversation with her? What would he even say? Every time she glanced in his direction, his mind went completely blank. Maybe it would be better for him to keep his distance? He didn’t know how long he sat there like that, observing her from afar, before Chan suddenly spoke up.

“Y/n, I need another adult!”

She jumped slightly at the sudden use of her name, making the glasses she was wearing slip a little further down her nose. Cute. He bit back a grin, watching as his friend approached her.

“Can you please explain to them why Dracula is a severely overdone production right now and how-”

“Actually I really like Dracula,” She interjected, stopping Chan in his tracks. “I think it’d be a great idea for the spring production. “What do you think, Hyunjin?” He froze as she suddenly glanced over at him.

“I-” He stuttered, his stomach doing somersaults at the way his name sounded slipping from her lips. “I think it would be good.” He managed to agree, causing her face to light up in a triumphant grin as she turned back to Chan.

“See? Majority vote wins.”

“What do you mean you wanna do Dracula? It’s cringey-” Chan exclaimed.

“Says the man who at my birthday went on a tirade about how aegyo is cute and it should be embraced…sir you are a master of cringe- embrace ego death it wouldn’t be that bad for you” Y/n laughed. Still, her eyes glanced at Hyunjin, hoping he didn’t mind that she brought him more into the conversation. Her hand reached up and pinched his hyungs cheek. “-plus, vampires are hot- if you don’t think you could pull off being a sexy vampire just say so”

Chan's eyes widened and he gasped in faux horror. Y/n smiled triumphantly looking to Seungmin with a raised brow, silently asking for his thoughts.

“Director!!” Han yelled clinging onto Seungmin's arm trying to force him into receiving his love and affection “Mom said it's okay! Let’s do sexy vampire show!”

“I told you to stop calling me that!” Y/n yelled back pulling Han off.

While they all ended up bickering about the ethics of sexy vampires, Changbin’s eyes found Hyunjins. Staring at Y/n as she manhandled Han to get off their mutual friend. Was…that a blush on his cheeks?

There was a light in his eyes that Changbin hadn’t seen in so long.

It was a welcome change, maybe with some encouragement, Hyunjin could find his way back to himself again. Or- that was the hope at least.

Hyunjin looked up from his middle-distance stare to see Han chasing Y/n around the stage and her dodging his antics.

“!would-” “-yoU” “QUIT-” “IT?!” She shrieked bobbing and weaving from the younger’s attempts to grapple (he would say hug) her. A small smile teased at the corner of his lips as he watched her interact with his friend, admiring the grace and agility she moved with. I wonder if she dances-

“Alright that’s enough, Han!” Chan called, finally managing to capture the hyper younger man in a tight bear hug, allowing rehearsal to get underway at last. Chan eventually catches Han, and play rehearsal could truly start.

Y/n sat in an auditorium seat in the front row, while the rest of the boys spoke to the incoming freshmen for that year. Explaining Dracula, what it entailed and if they were uncomfortable with it to go now, no hard feelings, but best for them to see just who they could work with.

~~~~

It was a rather daunting undertaking, but Y/n planned to be in charge of costumes and wardrobe for the year's productions at SNU, and hopefully for the coming seasons as well.

Not by choice of course, but rather had resigned herself to the fact that the cost of auditioning, the cost of being good, but not good enough, the cost of being ensemble as great as ensemble is, was too much. She had a skill set that was fit for behind the scenes work, might as well embrace it. The boys were getting names, contact information, and the like as Hyunjin decided to test the waters, coming over to sit near Y/n, keeping an empty seat between the two of them so as to avoid potentially making her feel crowded.

“So,” He cleared his throat awkwardly, catching her attention. “How do these things usually go?”

“Well,” She sat up a little straighter. “Once we figure out the main production team, we start working on things like set designing, auditions, wardrobes-” Hyunjin’s attention began to drift as she spoke, her hands capturing his focus with the way they moved and flitted about as she spoke, leaving him transfixed. “What department are you interested in joining?” Her question shook him out of his daze, his eyes snapping back up to meet hers.

“Uh, I don’t know yet.” He said. “What department are you working in?”

“Costumes.” She answered with a small, amused grin.

“I might try that then.” He said quickly.

She laughed, or more chuckled. Almost one could think she just cleared her throat, but the smile on her face would prevent the assumption. It was enough though. Hyunjin had fireworks in his soul blowing off and he didn’t know how to stop it. Not that he would want too of course.

“You should audition though! Everyone should give it a shot; you won’t know what you don’t try.” Y/n said in an attempt at being encouraging to the newcomer.

“Are you then? Going to Audition?”

“Nah- not this year, It’s Seungmins project, I wanna support him best I can and that is with costumes.” She smiled and leaned back in her chair.

Looking at Hyunjin Y/n couldn’t help but notice the bags under the boys eyes, the flat expression wore thin and the smile he dawned was tired. Her heart ached, but not in pity, it was in recognition. She knew what it was like for the lights to go out behind ones eyes…thats what happened when she moved to South Korea.

The main 7 that adopted her brought her back to life and now there was Hyunjin. In a similar position to where she was, and maybe with some musical theatre shenanigans he would find his way back to wherever he fell off.

“Y/N do you think you could get the phantom costumes from freshman year?!” Seungmin raised his voice above the chatter. Her head whipped to the sound of her name and rolled her eyes. “What do you think?!” She shouted back only to bow her head at Hyunjin briefly to go join his friends little circle that had been made. Leaving him, to watch her walk away.

Hyunjin watched her join their other friends with a faint pull in his chest as she went. “Y/n”, everything about her seem to draw him in, though he couldn’t quite place the reason why. Was it the bright flash in her eyes as she spoke? The warmth that colored her cheeks as she laughed? Her very being seemed to exude a warm, calming quality that he hadn’t experienced in another person before. He shook his head, looking away from the others as he tried to collect himself.

Was he seriously this infatuated with her after only a half hour?

It wasn’t impossible, he knew he tended to be rather intense when it came to these types of things, he’d been told that more than once in the past, but something about her seemed to strike a different chord within him.

thank you @lonelystczennie for being my writing partner.

Tag List: Open

@kaciidubs @itsseohannbin @ldysmfrst @frenchkisstheabyss @daydreams-after-dark

#Hyunjin x reader #yandere!Hyunjin x reader #hwang hyunjin x reader #stray kids #college AU #slow burn #Dracula #phantom of the opera #Hyunjin x plus size reader #Hwang hyunjin x reader #plus size reader #fat reader #chubby reader

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filmflowersbangtan · 1 year ago

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I Must Still Want You pt. 2

pairing: taehyung x reader

genre: angst (so. much. angst) | smut

word count: 4k

warnings: rough sex | infidelity | explicit sex scene | I'm so sorry in advance if I make some of you angry with this one. I promise it'll get better in future chapters.

author's note: hey...I'm back. I have so much in store. I know I've said it before and then I disappeared again, but I finally left a toxic relationship that had me in a writer's rut for a very long time and I also stopped following BTS for a while. But then they all came out with their incredible solos, and V's "Layover" was so beautiful it had stirred up so many ideas. It also somehow aligns with this story so well, so I couldn't help myself. I'm really proud of this one. I put so much heart and soul into this. This is not the end of this series.

part i | part iii

----

At first, Taehyung understood. The excuses as to why you couldn’t come home for the holidays, why you couldn’t come home for his birthday, why he couldn’t come visit. Art school was difficult, adjusting to California was difficult, but making friends was easy. Making friends had always been easy for you. You and your mom were on bad terms, that’s why you couldn’t come home. You had deadlines and couldn’t afford distractions, that’s why Taehyung couldn’t come visit.

Then there were the arguments after Taehyung lost all his patience with you. And then the texts and phone calls became more and more infrequent until there were none at all. Taehyung’s calls went to voicemails, his messages echoed in a chamber of emptiness.

Months passed by like this, with Taehyung only knowing you were alive through news from your mom, whose lawn he mowed and driveway he shoveled. He sat with her sometimes for coffee. He didn’t dare going into your room again after he saw that your mother transformed it, pushing an untouched treadmill in the same corner your bed used to be.

And then, about a year after the two of you unofficially broke up, you posted on Instagram. A man was kneeling before you as you wore a stunning dress Taehyung had never see you wear before. An expensive dress. There were letters hung behind the two of you in the background. Taehyung stopped breathing. The letters read:

Will you marry me?

Still not breathing, he swiped right to see another picture of your left hand—a hand he used to hold so much he could still feel the ghost of its warmth—displaying a gaudy engagement ring encrusted with a sickening number of diamonds. The camera’s flash made them glimmer in a way that made Taehyung nauseous.

Despite everything, Taehyung had been taking the unofficial breakup well. He never said anything about it to your mother although he desperately wanted to understand why you stopped talking to him or know if she knew. He didn’t rot in bed. He didn’t stop photography. While you had been gone, he discovered a newfound love of singing and his roommate Jungkook was a small-time producer and part-time DJ, and through him Taehyung had virtually unlimited access to a studio. Instead of succumbing into a debilitating depression, Taehyung worked on his very first EP. He had finished a few days before the Instagram post. He was going to send it to you. He knew you were going to love it. Maybe it would even make you speak to him.

But the post.

Taehyung dropped his phone on his bed and steadily walked to the bathroom, breathing through his nose. An ugly surge of emotion ravished him. He thought he was going to cry, but when he closed the door behind him, he stumbled to the toilet. And vomited.

Jungkook rushed in, his headphones dangling from around his neck, concern stretched across his face. “Bro, you good? It sounds like you’re dying.”

Taehyung wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist. His eyes and throat burned. Thick snot crept down his lips. He wasn’t going to cry, but seeing Jungkook standing there pummeled him. His dear friend who didn’t even know Taehyung had been going through a breakup. How was he going to explain this? He couldn’t. He dropped his head back into the toilet bowl and heaved.

Later, after Taehyung cleaned himself up and Jungkook sat him down on the couch with a cup of water, he told Jungkook everything.

Jungkook had been quiet the entire time, nodding to let Taehyung know that he was listening. But when Taehyung finished, gesturing to his phone because he couldn’t speak the words “she’s engaged,” Jungkook looked at the post himself.

A brief and subtle expression flickered across his face as he swiped. It was there and then it was gone, only noticeable in the slight tremble in the eyebrows and the momentary clench of the jaw. He looked up at Taehyung whose eyes were rimmed in red and whose hands were quivering as he dabbed at his nose with a napkin.

With a venom that Taehyung did not know his roommate possessed, Jungkook said, “That bitch.”

After grieving for a month, Taehyung pulled himself out of bed. He went to a party where Jungkook was DJing and downed shot after shot of anything anyone would hand him. He blacked out and woke up in his own bed wearing the same sweaty clothes from the night before, feeling like hell. He looked at his text messages to make sure that he didn’t say anything fucked up to anyone and noticed your contact at the top.

Of course, he reached out to you. How embarrassing. He cringed, afraid to read what he said, but all he sent was a link to his EP. Somehow, that was worse. He absolutely wanted to die.

And of course, you didn’t respond.

A year stuttered by. Sometimes when Taehyung looked in the mirror, he didn’t recognize himself. He was dirty blond now and handsome and miserable. He had slept with so many people in the last few months—girls, mostly but sometimes guys, too. He had had so many threesomes that he’d lost count. People on campus knew who he was now. He had gone from having one friend in his first year of college to becoming a name that people sighed dreamily as they said it.

Still nothing from you.

And then, one morning while nursing a hangover at the dining table in his shared apartment with Jungkook, a text from your mom. Maybe he was reading into it, but there was a tone of sadness in the wording, possibly regret. It said:

Y/N is back in town. Her grandmother died last week and the funeral is Friday. Please come if you feel comfortable. If you don’t, I understand.

There it was again. That roiling sensation inside of him. That urgent need to vomit.

The first time he had a threesome with Jungkook, he couldn’t perform. He had fumbled to the bathroom, his pants undone, and hurled into the toilet until the girl left. He had thought Jungkook would be pissed, but instead he sat on the bathroom floor with him in silence.

Now, Jungkook paused, a spoonful of cereal and milk halfway to his mouth. “I know that look,” he said. “What happened?”

Taehyung cleared his throat. “Y/N’s grandmother died.”

Jungkook wrinkled his nose. “So? Fuck her and her grandma.”

In other circumstances, Taehyung would've laughed. He couldn’t. He was too numb. “I liked her grandma when we were little. She used to make homemade blackberry jam and watch our stupid choreographies that we made up.”

Jungkook’s expression softened. He lowered the spoon. “I take that back about the grandma, but still fuck that bitch. Y/N, not the grandma.”

Now Taehyung mustered up a halfhearted chuckle that could’ve been a genuine laugh had the thought of you being in town—not in California—not robbed him of any sense of humor.

Jungkook hated seeing Taehyung like this because there was nothing he could do to help. “Don’t go to that funeral,” was all he said. It wasn’t a command. His voice was pleading. “Seeing her will only fuck you up. And what if she’s with—”

Taehyung closed his eyes as if expecting a blow. He hadn’t realized he was crying until warm teardrops slid down his face and into his mouth.

He went to the funeral. Your parents embraced him when they saw him. Individually, of course. Your dad remarried. He had stepchildren. Taehyung thought you probably hated it if you even still talked to him. The idea of someone else being frozen out of your life and not just him slightly comforted him. Slightly.

It was a beautiful day out—early summer, bright blue sky, cool breeze—but Taehyung was cold. And you hadn’t arrived yet.

“She slept in,” your mother said. “She hadn’t been feeling the best ever since she landed yesterday. She should arrive soon.”

An Uber arrived, and the back door opened. Taehyung held his breath.

You stepped out. You were so familiar yet you were a stranger. Your hair was longer, fuller. You were wearing a form-fitting black dress and red-bottomed heels. A designer bag dangled from the crook of your elbow. Large, expensive sunglasses obscured your eyes. Your lips were painted red.

The Uber departed before Taehyung realized you came alone.

You sauntered in his direction. He was breathless as he watched you move. Did you always walk like that? With such an elegant sway? Or was that new? A by-product of your reinvented life.

He realized that he was not your target. He was standing with your parents and your stepmother you probably hated. Except you didn’t hate her because she was the first you hugged. Then your dad. Then your mother. Then—

“Tae.”

He blinked. He could hear the blood rushing through his ears. Feel the bile rising in his throat. He cleared it behind a polite fist before croaking your name in return.

Then, very cautiously, you pulled him into a hug. He felt everyone’s eyes on the both of you. You were making him into a spectacle, and he hated it. In that moment, he realized he hated you. But his arms were stiff at his sides and when he became aware of that, he lifted them to pat you on the back.

“I know how much you loved her,” you said when you released him.

He blinked, not understanding. “I’m sorry, what?”

“My grandmother.”

His face felt hot. Jungkook was right. He shouldn’t have come. He had never once wanted to hurt a woman before, especially not you. But he wanted so badly to strangle you. To make you feel what it’s like to have your throat full of heartbreak. But he pushed a smile onto his red face. “Yes. My condolences.”

“Thank you for coming,” you said.

I hate you.

Taehyung nodded, and without meaning to, glimpsed at your left hand. The ring was still there. You were still engaged. But you returned home without a fiancé.

I hate you.

After the funeral, there was a gathering at your dad and stepmom’s house. Taehyung wasn’t going to go, but he couldn’t bring himself not to. He wanted to keep looking at you, breathing the same air as you, and wondering if you had listened to his EP.

But for the most part, he was just wandering around the beautiful countryside home as awkwardly as he had been at the party in middle school where he had first seen you kissing a boy on the porch. Except this time, you were getting married. You were getting fucking married.

At least at a funeral it wasn’t odd to cry. He went outside to do it.

He sat on the front porch steps and loosened his tie. No one came out to bother him. He was good at being invisible. Especially to you.

The front door behind him opened. The sound of heels approached him but stopped a few paces away.

Neither of you said anything. He quietly wiped away angry tears.

“I don’t expect forgiveness,” you said.

He wanted to scream. “Not here. Please.”

“I booked a hotel. Let’s talk at the bar there. You look like you could use a drink.”

Taehyung closed his eyes. “Was that a joke?”

“Yes. But I could use a drink, too.”

Taehyung dropped his head in his hands. “I shouldn’t have come.” He stood up and walked to his car. You didn’t follow. Didn’t beg. He grabbed the handle of the driver’s side door and looked at you from over the roof of the car. You were still standing on the porch, your hands delicately interlaced in front of you. You weren’t wearing your sunglasses, but he couldn’t see your eyes from where he stood.

Who were you?

He yanked the door open and got in the car. His phone vibrated when he started the ignition. You had sent him a text with an address and a time.

“Fuck you,” he whispered. “Fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you.”

He arrived thirty minutes late. You were sipping a purple-colored cocktail at a secluded table. God, you looked so good. He hated it.

“I would’ve understood if you hadn’t showed,” you said, expressionless.

He hesitated before sitting down, considering leaving. When he did sit, you said, “I really like your hair. It complements your skin tone.”

“Fuck you,” he said.

“I deserve that.”

“Fuck you.”

“What are you drinking nowadays? It’s on me.”

The bile was threatening to choke him. He swallowed thickly. His voice trembled as he said, “What do you want from me? You don’t fucking care about me. All you care about it—I don’t know what you care about. You’re such a—”

A drink appeared before him. “I already ordered for you. I hope you don’t mind whiskey. It’s top shelf so you most likely won’t have a hangover.”

“I don’t want—”

“I listened to it.”

Taehyung stopped.

“It was beautiful. It was so fucking beautiful. When do you sing? And like that? Oh, my God.”

Now Taehyung was crying again. He downed his drink. You gestured something to the waitress and another whiskey appeared before him. Taehyung said, “Why are you doing this to me? What have I done to deserve this?”

You touched his hand. He flinched away as if burned. “I dropped out of college a couple of years ago. I was homeless. And then I met a guy who fixed all of that.”

“Such bullshit.” But Taehyung knew you were genuine. You were never a liar.

“Not bullshit,” you said gently. “I was embarrassed. Who flunks art school? But I was intimidated being surrounded by all of those freakishly talented people. I didn’t fit in. But you would’ve sure as hell did. Your photos, Tae—”

“Don’t call me that.”

“I’m sorry.” You took a sip of your drink and looked away before continuing, “You are so talented. And then that fucking album—”

“EP.”

You glared at him. “Now it is my turn to say fuck you.”

“Get to the point.”

“I wasn’t measuring up. I dropped out before I got expelled. Mom wanted me to come home, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to. I love California. I slept on some friends’ couches for a few months, working odd jobs—bartending, dogwalking, commission stuff. I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” “I was embarrassed, Tae. And then you kept pestering me about wanting to see me and—”

“Pestering? You think so lowly of me?” “That’s what it felt like at the time. I had so much going on in my head—”

“But not so much that you still had room to go and fuck someone else before even breaking up with me.”

You finished your drink. “I didn’t fuck anyone.”

Taehyung had no response.

“I met a guy while bartending. He was rich. And kind. And I was very poor and lonely.”

“And he swept you off your feet," he said with betrayal in his voice.

“No. But his tips were nice. They were big enough to feed me for a couple of weeks. And then he would take me out to dinners. Next thing I know he’s buying me an apartment and a car and a dog and a life.”

Taehyung’s eyes were wet with fresh tears. He couldn’t look at you. “I wanted a life with you. I could’ve helped you.”

“With what money, Taehyung? All you would’ve done was spend way too much money on a one-way ticket and be stuck there with me.”

He had nothing to say to that. He downed his drink. “That doesn’t explain not telling me a fucking thing. Not even a goodbye.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Do you love him?”

You sighed.

Taehyung clenched his hands into fists under the table. He repeated, “Do you love him?”

Another purple drink appeared in front of you. The waitress flitted away, sensing the tension.

Finally, you said, “I think I could learn to. Someday.”

He blew out the breath he’d been holding and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked out the window at the pool. So still, so blue. So beautiful. He thought of California. He thought of the song on his EP, “For Us.” He wanted to fucking drown you.

In a soft, broken voice, he said, “I have loved you for my entire life. My entire life. Just wasted.”

You didn’t say anything. You just simply stared out the window with him. And then for the first time that entire day, you began to sob.

He didn’t dare look at you. He didn’t want to empathize with you. What for? But hearing you cry silently, seeing your shoulders shake with each sob in his peripheral vision…

Before he could say anything, you were already cleaning yourself up, dabbing under your eyes with a neatly folded napkin. “Should we go up to my suite for some privacy? I fucking hate crying in public.”

The suite was gorgeous. He didn’t know something so extravagant existed in his hometown.

“I need to get out of this dress. It’s not really my style,” you said, delicately removing your heels.

Taehyung looked away. For some reason, seeing you do that simple action made his heart ache.

You disappeared into the bathroom after telling him to make himself comfortable. He instead opted to stand around, unsure of what to do with his hands. Then you called his name from the other room, needing help with the dress.

“The zipper,” you said. “It was hell putting this thing on by myself. Can you unzip it for me?”

The bathroom was all marble and glass. Taehyung felt like there were a dozen versions of the both of you reflected around him. You were trying to catch his eyes in the mirror, but he purposefully avoided you. He focused on keeping his hands still as he stood behind you and reached up to grasp the tiny zipper at the nape of your neck.

The sound of the dress unzipping made his dick throb as longingly as his heart. You were fucking with him. You had to be.

But he wasn’t the same Taehyung that you left behind at the airport. Not at all. He was going to show you.

The zipper ended right at the top of your tailbone. You let the dress fall to the floor.

“You said you didn’t fuck anyone?” Taehyung said, voice gruff with want. He could feel himself hardening.

You were breathing slightly faster. You wanted him, too. This time, he allowed your gaze to meet each other’s in the mirror. You said, “Just myself. I never let him touch me, Tae. I don’t love him.”

He ran his hand up your leg, up your ass, traced the line of your back with a steady finger. He was no longer nervous. Fucking was what he was good at. And he wanted to fuck you until you regretted ever leaving him. Until you rued the day you said yes to that stupid fucking engagement.

He stopped his hand at the base of your neck. You stood still, breath shallow. Waiting. Wanting. You were probably so wet for him already, but you would have to wait.

He pressed himself against you so that you could feel how hard he was for you. A moan stuttered out of your throat. He clenched your neck from behind and shoved you forward, bending you over the sink. With swift fingers, he undid his belt, lowered his pants, pushed down his briefs. His cock sprang free, swollen with a two year long need for you, beaded with precum.

You shimmied out your underwear. With two fingers, he felt the velvety skin of your pussy lips. He was right, you were so fucking wet for him. You arched your back and shivered at his touch.

Your eyes met in the mirror again. Yours were heavy-lidded with desire, lips red like Marilyn Monroe. He wanted that lipstick smeared all over your face and all over his cock when he was done with you. His own eyes were low lidded as well. He grinned at you before he entered you. He didn’t want to take it slow, and he didn’t.

He fucked you like you were water, and he hadn’t drunk anything in days. You were a mess, clawing at the marble countertop like it would give you stability. Your moans were so fucking hot. He grabbed a fistful of your hair and yanked your head back so that his lips were at your ear.

“You’re mine, do you hear me? This pussy is mine.”

You tried to say “Yes, daddy,” but your eyes were fluttering and rolling and Taehyung was fucking you so good you couldn’t get a word out. He slapped your ass and you gasped.

“Fuck you,” he said but he didn’t mean it. He didn’t mean it at all.

He felt himself getting carried away and pulled out. You squirmed at the lack of him, begging for more. He didn’t want to admit he almost came. Sex hadn’t felt this good in years. Both of you were breathless, filling the room with your panting. But he wasn’t done with you yet. And you knew. You smiled at him, big and beautiful, and Taehyung almost came right then and there.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said.

Your pupils were dilated, your face was glimmering with sweat, your hair was a mess. You were so beautiful Taehyung wanted to fucking cry.

And then he was. “Fuck you,” he said, but he meant it this time.

You unclasped your bra and dropped it to the floor. Then you were on your knees before him, using that expensive dress as a cushion against the marble. You took all of him in your mouth, slowly, never losing eye contact. Your mouth was warm and wet and your breasts looked amazing, the nipples hard. You noticed him looking and pinched the nipple of your left breast as you sucked him off, using your right hand to jerk him in and out of your mouth. You were an expert with your tongue, paying close attention to the head of his cock. And then when he felt the back of your throat, he squeezed his eyes shut and grasped a handful of your hair again, this time to keep himself steady.

“Ah, fuck,” he whimpered. “Where? Where do you want me to cum?” He made the mistake of looking at you again, your mouth smeared crime-scene red.

You smiled at him like a good girl, like you didn’t have a spit stretching from your lips to his cock like party streamers. “On my face,” you said.

He didn’t hesitate.

When he finished convulsing the final streams of cum onto your pretty face, he stood there, face flushed and veins straining from his neck as reality crept back into his bones like a winter’s chill. He was disgusted with himself. He was angry with you.

“You’re fucking engaged,” he said, cleaning himself up. “Oh fuck. I’m such a fucking idiot.” He hastily threw on his clothes. Ran his hands through his hair to look somewhat presentable and not like he just face fucked someone’s fiancé.

You were extremely calm and still extremely naked. Taehyung realized belatedly that you hadn’t come yet. Good, he thought. You don’t deserve that release.

He finished dressing as you started washing your face. He went to leave but then stopped at the door. He didn’t turn to look at you, but he said, “You’re an awful person, Y/N. I hope you know that.”

Taehyung left the bathroom and was halfway to the suite’s door when he heard you say meekly as if to yourself, “I do.”

#bangtanwriters-net #btscreatorsnet #taehyung scenarios #taehyung smut #kreativewritersnet #kpop fanfic #bts angst #bts smut #bts fanfic #taehyung fic #fic #smut #bts series #taehyung au #angst #filmflowersbangtan

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fluffyydumplings · 10 months ago

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POEM BOX

Other Poem Box

♡ Like A Painting

♡ You Wish Me Dead

♡ I Couldn’t Love You Anymore

♡ Alone, Alive, In Love, In Time

♡ Stop X (,) . !

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sugdenlovesdingle · 6 months ago

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So...when is Ryan Hawley rejoining Emmerdale? We need a Robron Reunion soon right? Seb is growing up without his Dads, Aaron is stuck in the village and Robert is stuck on the IoW! Of course, when Robert and Aaron come face to face, they will not see eye to eye. So, what would you prefer? A massive blow up like Chrissie and Robert causing havoc in the village or a slow burn like before the 2018 reunion - but obviously with a sane, Maxine written SL? If RWRB fans can manifest a sequel into reality, 911 Buddie fans have the Buckley-Diaz family within reach, we can dream about a Robron wedding in Las Vegas right? 😝😂

lol I don't think buddie fans are really the best example here.

but yes, he's done the guest parts on other shows, he's done voice over work, he's made two kids - time to go back!

Though Maxine isn't a writer on emmerdale anymore (something about rats and sinking ships) but since we're fully 🤡🤡🤡 here maybe she'll do a guest ep for a special occasion!

Like Aaron being shifty for weeks, secret phone calls and texts, snapping at Vinny when he tries to look at his screen. Telling him it's none of his business when he asks what he's hiding. And then one random tuesday he'll announce he's going away for a couple of days and no, he won't tell where to.

And then we get Aaron getting in his car and adjusting the mirrors For Reasons and we see he has one of those picture key chain thingies hanging from his rear-view mirror with their wedding pic with Seb in it and he drives away (this would actually work with the bts pic Danny posted where he's filming with/in Aaron's car!). And there's a few shots of him driving until he pulls up to a random house somewhere. He parks his car and gets out, walks up to the house and rings the doorbell, a person we don't know opens the door. "Hi Aaron. He's waiting for you."

Aaron goes in and we see a little boy watching tv and clutching a giraffe plushie, and a packed backpack next to him.

The person tries to get the kid's attention but he's focused on the tv and they sort of apologise to Aaron who just shrugs and sits down next to him.

"Hey mate, what are you watching?"

And the boy quickly looks at him and smiles and then starts telling him all about the thing he's watching.

And Aaron just lets him ramble and just has this *fond* look in his eyes the whole time.

*some other stuff happens, tom is still abusing belle, everyone is miserable*

When we come back to Aaron and the boy, the show he was watching has ended and he's sitting next to Aaron who has his arm around him.

"So are you ready to go home?"

the boy nods and we see a shot of the person who let Aaron in smiling at the two of them.

"Alright, lets go then. Go say bye."

The boy walks up to the person and says bye and they bend down to hug him.

"Bye Sebastian, it's been a pleasure having you here but I'm sure you'll be very happy back with your dads again."

*gasp* *shock* The boy is Seb!

They leave and we see Aaron strap Seb into a car seat and triple check all of the straps and buckles until he's satisfied and he gets behind the wheel and starts the car.

He tells Seb to wave at the person as they drive away and we see them round the corner and disappear from view.

Then there's some more shots of Aaron driving but it's notably a very different road/route than before and we see him maybe check google maps on his phone a lot, indicating that he doesn't know the road where they're going.

It's implied they've been on road a long time and they stop at a mcdonalds or something to get something to eat and Seb gets to play in the ballpit for a while.

Aaron is still on his phone A LOT and texting someone until his phone rings in his hand. He answers in typical Aaron style with a few one word answers and then hangs up, and tells Seb they have to go again.

When they get into the car he tells Seb it's only short drive now and we see them drive to a bus station and pull over.

Aaron smiles at something in front of them and gets out of the car, standing by the door, not quite believing his eyes.

"You took your time." someone out of view tells him and he laughs.

"Shut up and get over here you."

And we see him stepping away from the car, walking towards someone, and when the other person is within reach, he grabs a suit jacket and the camera focuses on his hands - fists balled into the fabric.

"I've missed you mister Dingle."

And the camera *FINALLY* pans up and we see Robert half smiling, half crying, pulling back a little to REALLY look at Aaron.

And he cups his face and wipes away a stray tear with his thumb.

"I missed you too mister Sugden"

*credits roll, the nation rejoices, all is right in the world again, robron are reunited*

#u-changed-my-life #robron #i pulled this out of my ass in half an hour #i'm not even sure what this is

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murfpersonalblog · 1 month ago

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IWTV S2 Musings - Romania BTS deets!

I was just going thru fire-gift's post sharing the Paris Apartment BTS pics here on Tumblr; and I had no idea there was a whole IWTV Writers Room Twitter account posting set pics!

Yup, I broke down the details about Točník Castle here, but THIS is really cool:

Daciana's FLOOR PLANS!!

Ok, this is me being highly unnecessary; I'm geeking out, y'all! 😅

Daciana's bedroom just dropped?! (No coffin room though?):

(That's in the western chambers (bedroom/ložnice) of the northern wing of the royal palace at Tocnik.)

I recognize those corner fireplaces anywhere--

Cuz my main question about them was if AMC built their own custom fireplace, since there isn't one in the IRL chapel/audience/main hall.

So I think this confirms that they definitely built Daciana's fireplace on purpose. So I just wanna know if it's more accurate to Romanian Renaissance fireplaces, cuz it doesn't match the Czech ones at Tocnik.

I CAN'T READ THE LABELS, AMC--hi-res images pretty please? 🥹

And omg stfu--

Cezare's FLOOR PLANS, TOO!?

I CANNOT TELL which rooms these are in. 😭😩

I was right that they also used Tocnik Castle for Cezare's ruins. My initial suspicion was that it was filmed in the stables.

But now I'm sliiiightly more convinced that it was filmed in the kitchen, mostly cuz of this round thing in the corner:

Esp the alignment of the arches:

So yeah, that was delicious food this Thanksgiving season.

But chile, now it's time for DESSERT! 👀

Daciana's Costume! 👏

I decided to google if the goat Carol Cutshall had dropped anything about Daciana's clothes, and YUP, mama pulled through!!! 💪👑

(Back in frikkin AUGUST--omfg I'm missing out. 🤦 I just hate Instagram, ick.)

I wasn't surprised that Cutshall initially wanted Daciana to wear red & black--the most prominent colors in traditional Romanian clothes.

And yeah, you can see how Daciana was gonna have a much fancier version of the traditional Romanian dress--I frikkin LOVE it (that shawl is so nice).

I didn't even think the Revenant would ever get any shine--bless! 😂 So does this mean her Revenant "child" was a local farmer/peasant--not just rando soldiers Daciana yanked as they patrolled the woods? (How old was the Revenant even?)

Anyways, back to Daciana! 😅

So yeah, alas, they scrapped the red/black palette, and decided to give her more "ghostly cool greys and blues;" while still keeping traditional Romanian elements in her new outfit.

My main question was if this costume was culturally accurate, or more Renaissance leaning (my suspicion still); or just a fanciful hodgepodge of whatever they felt like doing. Sadly, nothing from these pics is giving me anything definitive.

The embroidery designs are interesting, but I know nothing about what style/period that could be nodding to. I'm glad we have it though!

And here's another surprise:

Emilia & the Romanian refugees' clothes!

I was (very slowly) working on a whole post researching the rest of the Romanian clothes, only to now get these amazing BTS deets!

I can't even tell who most of these outfits belong to, cuz everyone in Emilia's factory was wearing overcoats. But I DO recognize the fur stole/wrap from this lady:

And obvs the tiny clothes are from the kids singing about (Daci)Anna.

But again, I can't tell, cuz everything was so dang DARK, and the kids were wearing coats. *sigh*

Results? Just vibing! 😅

I'm just pleased as punch to have even this much; thank you, AMC!

#interview with the vampire #iwtv tvc metas #europe #fashion history #read a dang history book #the vampire daciana

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imreallyloveleee · 1 year ago

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Where do you think it all went wrong with Riverdale?

honestly, part of me is like, the show's over and nothing but fandom matters. so who cares?

the other part of me loves to complain about Riverdale and will continue to do so until the day I die in the parking lot of Michael's Diner in Montgomeryville, PA at the age of 86. so, long-winded answer under the cut

I'm tempted to say it's the s4 b*rchie kiss. It was so wildly out of character for both Betty and Archie that it's laughable. You know how you can tell when something is just blatantly OOC with no justification? They...don't justify it. They find ways to dance around any interaction that might offer clarification. They mute the reactions of the characters who should be devastated by it. And then they jump ahead 7 years so it's easier to just handwave it away as something that happened a long time ago.

but the thing is, I did keep watching after that. I thought: okay, at least we should get an exes-to-lovers arc out of this, which is one of my favorite tropes. there is no way they would spend 4 seasons developing Bughead as this loving, supportive, communicative, sexy, and almost-unbelievably-compatible couple just to tear them apart and never do anything with that dynamic again. maybe it'll be even sweeter seeing them come back together after so much hurt and longing.

boy was i wrong!!!!!!!!!

so, the episode that actually made me stop watching for good, with the exception of some standalones like The Jughead Paradox and the finale, was the s5 musical. that was when i realized that this team of writers was 100% willing, maybe even eager, to completely drop storylines they themselves had been building over the course of a season - do a 180 with all of the characterization and relationships - and then act as though the buildup they wrote never even happened.

in this case, i'm specifically talking about the Bughead reunion storyline they dropped in s5. i'm not going to pretend like it was a GREAT buildup - and it was mostly on Jughead's side, Betty's character in s5 was basically an emotionless misery bot that had sex sometimes - but it was there. Jughead told Tabitha he had unresolved feelings around Betty. that's followed by an entire episode that lays out Betty & Jug's time jump relationship, and how Jughead still believes she's the one who saves him from himself. they work on a case together, they start opening up to one another. Jughead's so worried about her he can't eat.

and then...you know what happens.

(i'll also note here that there was random bts stuff that strongly indicated the musical ep storyline had a drastic last-minute rewrite: lili tweeted a blue dress, suggesting the song with that line was meant for her character; RAS said cole had to do last-minute recording sessions; supposedly crew members have confirmed this was the case, too. since none of it's 100% confirmed you can take it all with a grain of salt, but i believe it.)

it was so fucking insulting as a viewer to give my time and attention to a show made by people who would not only randomly drop the threads they set up, but torpedo them altogether, and then behave like the fans are the ones somehow at fault for expecting a story that actually follows through on its own emotional and plot beats. we're just shippers, so our opinions are dumb and biased! it's just a tv show, so who cares! get over it!

so, i stopped watching, because i knew they would continue to write without any thought or respect for their characters or their audience, and therefore inevitably write themselves into another corner. and, shocker, i was right. they did it again, whisking everyone away to the 1950s because actually resolving any of the scenarios they set up was ToO hArD. why bother when you could just make every single character Righteously Angry and Incurably Horny all the time, lecture the audience about social issues that have already been mainstream progressive for the last several decades, and call it a "love letter" to your fans?

#WHEW ok anon idk if this was what you were looking for but it's what you got #hopefully this has fully exorcised my need to Go Off against the creators of this show but you never know!!#my capacity for bitter resentment is apparently endless when it comes to this show #rd negativity #riverdale #anti b*rchie #anti j*bitha #just in case #anon

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bluenpjm · 2 years ago

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horus academy 5 — bts x oc

@singguks × @socksjinie × @bluenpjm

summary: in a school where greek methods rules, not everything is as clear as it appears to be. heart, mind, soul, and body. those are the teams of the horus academy and boarding school. but deep within the long corridors, lies dark secrets. the so-called loving families formed in the shapes of teams begin to tear when an anonymous source unravels their deepest secrets.

genre: high school au | mystery au | social au | angst | fluff

pairing: OT7 × OC’s

rating: M

word count: 15.2k

warnings: foul language, friends fighting, getting stalked, lies and threats, bullying. really, a lot of fights and harsh words.

chapters. 04, 05, 06 ✹ masterlist

Three days had passed since the games and the rumor still hadn’t died down.

People would stare and bluntly gossip whenever Jimin or even the rest of the group passed by in the halls. And the worst of it, for the group itself, was that the realization of it was indeed shocking. It was one thing being the talk of the hour because of teenage behavior regarding breaking into the boys' dorm rooms… Another was actually sleeping with a teacher while being a minor.

At first, Jimin had the brilliant idea of wanting to skip biology class on Tuesday morning, which everyone was against. It was decided that he would not only go to class as a normal and not guilty student would, but he was to behave and cut all communication with his lover for a little while. Just until the rumor died down and he could come to his senses and end the rendezvous himself.

Kaya, the one sharing biology class with him, kept a hawk’s watch on his moves. And Jimin was actually doing his best. She could easily buy the facade he was putting up. The one inciting fire to the rumor was Miss Bellum herself, who couldn’t help but look at the boy from time to time. And if Kaya was noticing it, the gossiping leeches were too.

As soon as the bell rang, Kaya shoved her notebooks into her purse and pulled Jimin by the arm, dragging him out of the class. His backpack was still half opened and he had to carry the biology textbook in his hand.

She turned the first corner she came into, and went down a few steps of the stairs, coming to a stop in its middle. Jimin looked at her completely lost, glancing at his sides to see if people were passing by or judging the moment as weird as he was.

“Wha–” he tried but she interrupted him in pure frustration.

“I can’t believe you told her!” she burst, still trying to be as quiet as possible so no one could hear. And before he had a chance to come up with a lie or an excuse to stall, Kaya continued. “Don’t even try and pretend you didn’t. She looked at you the whole time as if the world was ending and you were some abandoned dog!”

Jimin glanced back at the corridor before answering, he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched all the time. “I had to, ok?” a tired sigh left his lips, and Kaya held her tongue so she could let him speak. Before continuing his reasoning, he put the textbook in his backpack, all while the girl looked anxiously at him. “She texted me on Sunday–Just to check on me after the fight with Archie! Relax!”

“How. Will. I. Relax, Park Jimin!” she slapped his arms outraged while he tried to evade it.

He searched for words but nothing seemed good enough so he opted to hug her instead. Kaya was as much on edge as he was. This wasn’t just a vendetta against him, this was a deliberate attack on the whole group. “Listen, I promised you guys I wouldn’t be in touch with her anymore and I’m not. But she deserved to know what was happening, so I told her, ok? Just so that if anything happened–If any student said something, she wouldn’t be caught unprepared. It was the least I could do.”

Kaya nodded in understanding. She could at least breathe more at ease, and she held Jimin for a few seconds more, wishing that she could wake up from this nightmare named You.

Before their moment of peace could last a little longer, Jimin’s phone buzzed in his front pocket, taking an arrow straight at both his and Kaya’s heart. Not again, he feared.

They broke away from the embrace. She anchored herself on the wall behind her, crossing her arms to form a shield against whatever was coming their way. Jimin, in turn, reached for the device while mustering the courage he still had.

Kaya saw his eyes reading the message but she couldn’t decipher his face. From where she was standing, and the way his eyebrows slightly furrowed, it didn’t look good. She gulped. “So?”

“It’s Tae.” he said apprehensively, taking a quick look at her face.

The air escaped her lips and he saw her entire body relax. Recomposing herself she questioned, “You still haven’t talked about it?” to which he shook his head. “Well… Good luck with that.”

With a not-so-cheerful pat on his shoulder, Kaya was quick to leave her friend on the empty flight of stairs to resume her schedule.

The sun shined bright in the sky, and although Elena was lying down on their usual table bench outside, she couldn’t seem to enjoy the warm beaming on her skin peacefully.

Yoongi, Jin, and Jungkook sat by the table with her, while they waited for the twins to grab something from the cafeteria for their lunch. And although two of them were contributing to her quiet beauty nap, Jin couldn’t help but throw in assumptions of who could possibly be You.

“Listen, I wouldn’t doubt that Archie was psycho enough to just come at us,” Elena could hear him say, “I’m just saying it isn’t his style at all to come at someone through social media.” and although none of them responded to it, she could tell that both Yoongi and Jungkook were thinking about his reasoning because so was she. Jin had a point. And so he continued rambling, “He’s too… Aggressive to be just like–Oh I know your secret ha ha ha! I feel like he would at least brag about it while taking a punch at our beautiful faces.”

“Yeah,” Yoongi agreed. “The problem here is that we know nothing about this You person to even try and assume who it is…”

A defeated silence followed. It was enough for Elena to open her eyes, only to have to turn her face on the bench so as to not be blinded by the light. She couldn’t see the boys, since they were all sitting on the other side of the table, but she could watch how some students passed by. Even from far away, they would glance at them with judgemental eyes. She inhaled impatiently.

“What’s taking them so long, by the way?” Jin was the kind of person that lived in the moment. And at this moment at least, food was more important. Elena’s stomach would agree, but her head was seething with possibilities. And so she sat up, making the three boys before her pay attention.

She inquired, “What if we got to know something about You?” they looked at her pondering. “Even the smallest detail would help, right?”

“And how we’d manage that?” Jungkook finally spoke up, while the older two were already pondering for themselves.

All they did until now was wait around and be there whenever You decided to use them as punching bags. Elena was fed up with it. There had to be some way to strike back. Plus, in her head, if this You person was working alone, they would have the advantage. They were a whole group.

“Why don’t we counter-strike on social media? Since it’s this loser's playground and all. I figure that if we manage to have everyone’s support and throw this shade at them like they’ve been obviously throwing at us, You will lose it.” she said, crossing her legs on the bench. The thing was not to add more to the fire but she felt the need to make this You person realize they knew how to stand tall as a group. Elena could picture herself receiving all this negative attention alone, and if that were the case she didn’t think she would like it very much or even be that secure to repeat the process all over again.

Jin sighed. He recognized that she was right but at the same time, it would be a bold move. “What would we even say? Again, we don’t know who this person is… So we don’t know how to push their buttons.”

“How about we start at the ‘You’re behind a screen because you don’t have the balls to come say it to my face’ part?”

As Jungkook tried to hold his laughter and Yoongi pensively looked down with his arms crossed, Jin was obliged to answer Elena’s thoughts. “That seems well articulated to me.” he nodded in agreement.

“Well, good, let’s watch how this rat squirms after I turn some sides then,” She added, making a go for her mobile that had been forgotten on top of the stone table. The girl managed to unlock the device and tap on the app to start writing before Yoongi made himself heard again.

He started by saying, “I don’t think this is a good idea, Elena.” which made her stop what she was doing to look at him. “You’re going to provoke them, and then what?”

How she exhaled and gesticulated with her free hand made him know she was fed up to the point of quitting too much explanation. Jin for the first time got quiet, and Jungkook’s eyes were once again doing that thing when he got apprehensive; they would double the size. “I get it. I know what you mean by wanting to know their next move. You’re going to try and fit them into a team and track them down that way. Maybe even scare them enough to not come after us again. But it’s an unsure move. What if it gets worse? I don’t know…” Yoongi tried to reason with her before something else blew right in their faces.

“I mean. It can’t get worse than this!” she looked around and so did Yoongi. People kept gossiping and scrutinizing their every move. “We need to take action. You know that.”

And before anyone could say anything else, she finished writing it and pressed send.

There was some comfort in Elena’s post, even if no one said much more about it. She treated the situation as if all of the things they were exposed for doing were nothing but mere rumors, and there was a big relief on that. Almost as if they could resume what they have known before as normal school life.

“If you two took a bit more to arrive here I swear I would pass out of hunger.” Jin pointed out as soon as he saw Taehyung and Freya approach them, each holding two silver trays full of food.

The boys were quick to organize the table and pick their plates to start eating, failing to notice how Freya’s glance was locked with Elena’s. Taehyung almost managed to sit in the middle of the two, if it weren’t for his twin shoving him to the side.

As soon as she passed her legs through and managed to sit, she whispered in Elena’s ear, “Care to fill me in on what that post was about?”

“I’m just relieved I said something back” she confided, “We really needed a win around here.”

“You did good,” Freya agreed cheerfully. They looked at each other and realizing what she had just said, she tried to fix it, “Not you as in You but like. You.” she pointed out and Elena couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh forget it! You know what I meant.”

Out of the whole group, everyone met up during lunch, as per usual. Everyone but Namjoon and Jimin. The former had to skip it because of the captain’s duties. Psykhe’s leader had to stay longer in a monthly meeting about their team’s expenses and such.

Jimin, however, was being avoidant. Taehyung knew him well enough to know that.

He knew that as soon as he texted him saying they needed to talk, the first thing Jimin would do was this—avoid him at all costs. So excusing himself politely from the table, Taehyung went back to the cafeteria and picked some chicken wings with sauce as a peace offering, making his way to the boys’ dorms.

It was actually the perfect time for some privacy, as the majority of people were hanging on the patio for lunch and Jimin’s roommate, Hoseok, was also out.

He had to knock two times before the door was answered. Jimin opened it sporting nothing but a towel around his waist. He didn’t say much, just made way so Taehyung could come into the room.

The tallest stopped by the beds, feeling a little out of place because of his best friend’s unbothered eyes and sudden irresolvable stance. He hesitated with the box of chicken wings still in his hands. Jimin kept moving around in false pretense, entering the bathroom and then coming out of it seconds later with a smaller towel in hand, using it to boyishly dry his drenched locks.

Deciding to approach carefully, Taehyung said, “Brought you some lunch,” he slightly lifted his hand showing the white squared box that transpired a mouth-watering smell. “The canteen was about to close, so…”

Jimin gave him a small smile in return, still busy with his chore. “Thanks.”

“Alright.”

The food was placed at the closest writing table. Taehyung had to press his lips to contain his inner fuming. He turned around to face his best friend with a wave of anger he was finding quite difficult to contain.

His hands found his hips as he managed to say, “So you’re the one that gets to be mad at me? Not the other way around? I see.”

“Oh please, quit the sarcasm” Jimin spits quite impatiently himself.

“Sure. Just as soon as you cut the bullshit.” Taehyung said almost immediately demanding from his best friend what they haven’t gotten ever since the secret had been out. The courage to face the truth.

Jimin had a very different reaction from what Taehyung had envisioned for what was to come. He saw how his best friend rolled his eyes before answering, and Jimin’s voice sounded tired as he said, “Not you too.” he exhaled.

Taehyung looked at him with daggers in his eyes. His eyebrows twitched questioning, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Excuse me?!” was all that he managed to blurt out.

“Go on. Spit it. I know you also have something to say.”

Still taken aback by Jimin’s reaction he scoffs. “Are you being serious?” His stance is as cold as the resentment he was feeling. His chest was about to explode due to the unfairness of the situation. The words fell short no matter what he thought of saying, and so he muted himself. The chocolate locks boy just stood there looking at his friend, feeling just as hurt.

Impatient, Jimin ran his hand through his hair. “That was why you came here with the wings! Or do you think I’m stupid?” he said, panting in anger. His normally cheerful eyes were big and glossy. “We’ve been avoiding this talk long enough so just say whatever it is that you have to say.” his chest kept rising and falling in the heat of the moment.

The boy before him had to take a second to answer. He stopped biting his tongue and all that fell from his mouth was the beginning of sarcastic laughter. Taehyung shook his head, scanning the room before meeting Jimin’s eyes again. “Yes.” He began, and the room turned to ice. “You do seem stupid after saying that.” he paused but Jimin wasn’t able to answer. A knot began forming in his throat. “And were we avoiding it?” Taehyung corrected with a pert yet sad smile, “Or were you? Because I didn’t see you coming to me to talk about it.”

Without much thinking, Jimin scoffed. “Stupid?” His words were laced with anger but his features told a different tale. “What else are you holding? C’mon, let it all out.”

There was a pause. And a strike of realization from both ends.

Taehyung exhaled. His eyebrows were knit together as his words began more paused and controlled than before. “I’m holding the fact that my best friend seems more eager to blame me than to actually understand what I really came here to do.” By the time his angry eyes meet Jimin’s, the latter feels drowned by his own guilt. “I’m not everyone else, you know…” Taehyung’s voice sounds hurtful. “I thought you knew that.”

Jimin only understands his best friend had left the room as the sound of the door being hammered echoes. The anger consumes him and in a bashful split second, he grabs the first thing that comes into hand. Hoseok’s lamp is thrown at the wall.

The din followed by scattered glass on the floor made him conscious of the mess he had just made. And that any mess could turn messier than what was thought possible.

One by one the group started to disperse. The lunch break was a very needed one, but everything good in life came to an end.

Yoongi was mindlessly scrolling his timeline in search of new song recommendations when he realized his friends had already moved on with their affairs. As he got up and grabbed his things he spotted Freya from afar. The girl was sitting by a big oak tree, basking in its welcoming shade.

He had to get closer to note she had her eyes peacefully closed. There was a slight breeze that blew softly on her locks. From where he was standing, it looked like she was in a painting.

“Not that is any of my business,” he said, plumping himself down right next to her. “But as your current fake boyfriend, I should say… Your brother sucks!” he joked, making her open a cheerful smile.

With her eyes still closed, she asked, “What did he do this time?”

“Well… He’s been hinting that he wanted to talk to me for a while now, you know–About us. But we still haven’t had the chance… All this You stuff and all.” Freya opens her eyes as she hears Yoongi sigh. “And now ever since Jimin’s thing came out he’s been all stressed.”

The girl took a glance at him. Yoongi kept his eyes on the horizon, and if she knew him well enough, his head was spinning trying to find a practical solution to this mess. Even if his semblance was calm and composed. “And he’s been taking it out on you,” Freya states.

“And he’s been taking it out on me, yeah.”

Even though the boy beside her laughed about it, she knew it was bothering him deep down. She noticed how Taehyung was sharp and borderline surly to Yoongi during lunch. Her brother could be a bit too transparent about his feelings, never knowing how to suppress them. And she had a perfect notion she was a bit too much the same.

“If it serves any consolation to you, he criticized my footwear of choice today,” she opts to say, keeping a light mood by clinking the heels of her recently acquired cowboy boots. Yoongi can’t help but laugh. Freya, as well as her brother, had always liked using questionable things when it came to fashion. And the thought of the twins having a discussion about the item can’t seem to leave his head. It felt so ridiculous that it immediately brought a smile to his face.

Freya laughed along, pleased to hear his own loud one.

Yoongi steals a glance at her as he leans his head on the trunk of the tree behind them. It’s been a while since they had been this peaceful, and he would hate to end the moment but at the same time, he felt the need to check on her. “And how have you been? On a more serious note.”

“Same old same”

“Freya.” He presses still looking at her profile. The girl sighs reluctantly and Yoongi can see the joy fading from her distant eyes.

She turns her head so she can face him and give him the answers upon his request, as she sees no way out of it, but as soon as she opens her mouth she gets interrupted. “Hey!” her eyes leave Yoongi’s face and land on Jungkook’s. “Sorry…” The boy says as Yoongi’s gaze on him feels like a rebuke. As if he had interrupted a conversation that wasn’t made for his ears. “I–Mhmm… I hope I’m not interru–”

“Hi!” Freya exclaimed with a sunny smile returned to her lips. “No, no! Sit!”

Jungkook smiled along, doing as instructed, sitting in front of the pair. He rested his backpack by his knee as he sat cross-legged. “The bell rang and I have a free period right now, so…” Freya bit a smile as he fumbled with his shoelace still convinced he had to explain himself. “Everyone went their way and then as I came back from the canteen I saw you guys here–”

“Oh fuck!” Yoongi grunts getting up. He swiftly bats the dirt from his trousers and grabs his own backpack under the gaze of the other two.

Freya chuckles in realization, “You’re late again aren’t you?”

The boy flashes her a guilty gummy smile before confessing, “Pretty much! Mrs. Hough is going to kill me… Again!” He doesn’t take any more time before starting to run downhill with a lack of youthful spirit considering his age. “And we’re not finished!” Yoongi adds with a wink as he looks back at Freya, and Jungkook can’t help but wonder. The two looked nothing like a couple. Or maybe it was just his lack of experience in the matter talking.

“So.” His eyes leave Yoongi’s back as he hears Freya say. When he looks at her he can’t help but gulp.

“So…” Jungkook repeats her words. It had been a while since they last stood alone in each other’s presence, that specific day in the Wolf’s den dawning in his conscience, even so, guilt pairing in his heart or not, he had always felt intimidated by her stare. From the beggining. And sometimes he was convinced that if he got himself locked in her eyes long enough she would be able to read him like a book. Unravel all that there is to him. Nervously he adds, “You come here often?”

Freya’s immediate reaction is to laugh. A burst of genuine laughter. There was something to his dorkiness that made her feel very comfortable. “Honestly? This is the first time I spend this free period here,” She decides to open up to his roleplay game. “I’m trying to find my new best place.”

“And what does it take to be your new best place?”

It seemed only natural to her to keep being true while looking at him. No need to even think before answering. “I’d say privacy is the first thing.” But to his insecure ears that sounded like a sign that he had crossed a line with her. “Ouch!” he lets out, finally breaking eye contact to look at the grass rubbing at his shoes instead.

Realizing he misunderstood what she had said, she comes forward nudging his shoulder playfully. “Not you though!” He analyses her features again, a tad expectant. “You can exist with me.” Her voice sounds velvety and he feels the smile tugging on the corner of his mouth once more.

With a faint of pink coloring his scarred cheek he asks, “And what’s the second requirement?” to which she answers promptly, “Mmm, I’d say a great view!”

“And then?” Jungkook asks without realizing it, almost in a whisper. She had his full attention, and his brain couldn’t stop trying to match the nooks and crannies he had already seen around the school to fit her description.

To her, much like to everyone else, the raven-haired boy before her couldn’t help but exude mysteriousness. A black translucent cloth covered him at all times from everyone’s curiosity. And it wasn’t shyness or just introspection. Freya had Yoongi to thank for being able to spot the difference. But sometimes, when the world outside seemed quiet enough–when there were just the two of them, she felt like she could glimpse the boy beneath such covers. In a trance, she mumbles just as quietly as he did before, “That’s it for now…”. They keep quiet for a moment, just enjoying each other’s features. If someone passed by them, they could easily mistake the moment for a stare competition, and the two competitors would miss the presence of the bystander just as easily.

A sudden beep causes Freya to inhale sharply and Jungkook to jolt. Both of them exchange embarrassed chuckles as the girl takes her phone out to see what had snapped them to the real world. Jungkook eyes her expectant.

She shrugs, tucking the device into her backpack once again. “It’s Yoongi.”

“So the teacher didn’t kill him this time, huh”

Freya leaned on the tree with a cheeky smile. She crossed her arms saying, “Not this time, no” as she watched how he fixed his backpack on the ground so he could rest his head comfortably on it.

More silence follows. Jungkook keeps his eyes trailed to the scenery displayed to his right. He watches mindlessly as some students cross the greenery toward the main building. From time to time, when the wind hits his face, he feels compelled to close his eyes for seconds before opening them again. Freya doesn’t look at the view as he does. She couldn’t care less about those people passing by. Instead, she keeps her eyes trailed to his nape, and she watches how the hair there is starting to get big enough so it curves softly. She spots the scar on his left cheek and thinks of how it came to be, and how it seems so fitting that it was there.

Jungkook fumbles with his lip piercing, still looking at the crowd below them. They all look so small from there. So distant. “Maybe I could help you find it,” he says as he turns his head to look at her.

He notices how her eyes were already on him. How that summer blush spread across the line of her cheeks and nose as if she had been the whole day under a scorching sun at the beach. “I would like that.”

He nods and the crinkles of his eyes start to appear. “Today after classes?”

“Deal.”

The rest of the free period is spent in comfortable silence. Both of them exist in each other’s presence, in wonder, basking in the sunlight. Enjoying the peacefulness of the breeze, and ignoring their surroundings. Caught not wanting that moment to end, but also anxiously waiting for the next encounter.

Kaya decided to accompany her brother and Namjoon to the library post lunch after receiving a notification from the system saying the literature teacher would be canceling classes that day.

The boys were supposedly in their sociology class, but the extensive course was normally divided into two hours—one for research and the other for debating. So while they came up with a grounded speech, the girl fumbled through books, settling to catch up on the subjects she would have for the rest of the day.

She was running her fingers through the numbers carved on the massive wood bookcase, eyes searching for the physics copy she needed, when she was laced by her hips and pulled to a dark corner.

“What are you doing?!” she whispered, desperately glancing around so as to not be caught.

Her captor didn’t pay much mind and kept kissing her neck. By now he was more than used to her apprehensive behavior. “My brother is right there!” she hissed again. On the tips of her toes, she tried with all her might to disentangle from the arms she loved so much. She just couldn’t be caught, and this was way too risky for her liking.

“He’s focused on the task at hand,” The boy said, laid back. “I doubt he’ll get up before cracking that book first. You know how he is.”

He pulled her closer, diving in for a kiss, sure that he had eased her mind just enough. To his misfortune, his lips were met with her hand. He tried again, playing it cool, but Kaya turned her head as she shoved him back. “Namjoon, please.”

He inhaled, as he rubbed his temples frustrated.

Namjoon had never been a pushy guy. And he had always taken Kaya’s concerns into consideration. That was why they had been dating secretly in the first place. Because to him, they would have already come clean to everyone—including Hoseok—a long time ago.

“Just tell me what you want Kaya,” he says plainly and she is taken aback.

“What do you mean?”

He sighs as the girl in front of him seems more preoccupied with checking around if anyone is listening to their conversation. More and more he felt tired of this. There was already too much on the table for them to be worried about.

Namjoon leans on the bookcase behind him, crossing his arms. “It’s been a while now since we last were together,” he says carefully and her eyes search for his. “Ever since Freya took the blame in our place, to be specific.”

“Ok��” she opts to say, as the words dissipate in her brain.

“No. It’s not ok.” he huffs annoyed. Kaya knows him too well, and the moment he clenches his jaw in a pout, swinging it back and forth, she realizes he’s been piling this up for too long. “You’re my girlfriend. Yet I can’t see you in public or in private. I can’t kiss you or touch you–We can’t even talk like this without you looking around as if you’re up to something you shouldn’t be up to!” he whispers hushedly, calling her out.

Kaya’s eyes are suddenly teary and the boy before her starts to get blurry. “But what can we do, it’s–”

“We could just be together.” his eyebrows knit almost pleading. He is certain that he loves her. And he is certain that she loves him too. What hurts the most is that it doesn’t seem enough. Not for him, or her.

Kaya starts shaking her head, eyes trailing on the wooden floor. She can’t deal with this right now. Not when her brother is mere meters away from finding the truth.

“Let’s not do this now.”

“Then when, Kaya?!” Namjoon can’t keep his cool anymore and she quickly covers his mouth to shush him. She looks apologetic at him, realizing how on edge she was being. He softly takes her hand out of the way. “I know these past couple of days have left us all walking on eggshells,” his voice sounds temperate again, the tone only loud enough for her to hear. “But I also think we can’t stop living our lives because of it.”

She closed her eyes with a sigh. Kaya knew Namjoon was more than right. She just needed her scale to pend to the other side instead. Right now, she still has a lot to lose. “I know, it’s just–”

The sound of a book dropping way closer to them than they thought possible, made both of their heads snap toward it, alarmed. Kaya’s breathing increased considerably and she froze on the spot. Namjoon looked around, and not seeing anyone in sight, he went toward the next row of bookcases.

There was a single book left on the ground, scrambled from the falling. He looked at the cover as he picked it up, but the title didn’t say much to him. Before returning it to its place, he looked around once more. Kaya came from behind, quite apprehensive. Looking at her eyes, he followed her frightful gaze. On the other end of the long corridor of books, sat at a table for four there was Momo, Mark, and Tzuyu. The latter, unlike her Sarx companions, wasn’t writing or reading. She had her eyes craved on Namjoon.

The Psykhe’s captain decided not to look too much, or read too much into the situation. He had to avoid looking suspicious. Recomposing himself, he put the book on the shelf once again and turned his back to Tzuyu’s prying eyes.

“Let’s go back–”

“She’s still looking,” Kaya whispered with concern. And before he could say anything else, she made rushed decisions for the both of them, “We’re stopping this for now. We can talk later.”

As she turned the corner leaving him no space for refutation, Namjoon couldn’t figure out if they were stopping the conversation or their relationship altogether. He had to swallow his frustration as he was well aware his back was still being stared at.

And who knew who else was paying close attention too…

Summer still lingered in the air as the students from class 104 dozed off to the sound of Mr. Perry’s soothing voice and the ceiling fans. Philosophy felt like a drag whenever the class was theoretical instead of practical.

Elena sat in the last row of desks, sharing one of them with an absent-minded Jungkook. She took notes from time to time just to keep herself busy and although throughout the first part of the class, she thought the boy beside her was doing the same, it became pretty clear that was not the case as she peeked to the side and saw a view from what she pegged being the Psykhe’s tower drawn on his notebook.

She whispered so only he could hear, “That looks amazing”, and he took his while perfecting the twinkling stars on his pitch-black sky before answering with a brief chuckle, “I try”.

The class continued irrespective of Elena’s admiration and Jungkook’s pencil lining. The room was a stage for a lazy symphony composed by Mr. Perry’s throat being cleared here and then and some bored sighs at the end. The time of the class helped the preposition to be lulled instead of trying to create a ruckus with chitchatting.

But then a notification sound reverberated alongside the teacher’s voice. Some heads, from owners that still had some stamina left, turned to the guilty one holding the phone. Elena’s included. The student apologized sheepishly doting a sheer of red on his face while turning off the device as if it had been a coincidental mistake. Mr. Perry was about to restart his explanation with an unbothered stance when the girl sat by Belle’s side, right at the front row seats, exclaimed reproachfully with her phone at hand.

Some students exchanged glances, and others paused what they were doing to look at her expectantly. “What is it, Vanessa?” someone asked from the back. The teacher tried to pay no mind going instead to write on the imponent board behind him.

Suddenly both Vanessa and Belle turn around and stare in Elena’s direction with pitiful eyes. The girl is taken aback by the gesture but tries to deflect them by looking back with a shrug.

“Holy shit…” one of the boys let out while scrolling his phone. Elena looks at him apprehensively, and Jungkook finally lifts his head peaking above the shoulder of his table mate to grasp the situation. While the constant noise of chalk being dragged on the board serves as background, the class starts to get restless. Phones are being pulled out of pockets to kill the famish curiosity pairing in the air. Elbows jerk and eyes turn inquiring toward her.

Elena panics and suddenly she knows. It’s You… Again.

She doesn’t take the time to check. Jolting out of her seat she grabs her purse and rushes toward the door, exiting it with a minor bang.

“Elena, wait up!” Jungkook has to sprint to catch up to the girl, ignoring the teacher’s warnings. The strap of his backpack hangs loosely from his right shoulder. “What happened?”

She faces him with teary eyes, lips in a pout, as she manages to say through a sob, “I’m fucked.”

The boy frowns. Not knowing what had caused her to be in such a state makes Jungkook panic a little. He had been a victim of Elena’s emotional side more than once but he was never alone to calm her down. “Let’s just take a deep breath.” He sounds more shaken than confident in the solution he was able to find.

The girl dismisses his words as she keeps on cursing under her breath, phone up to her ear. Jungkook keeps on hearing the faint recording of the call being directed to the voicemail.

“Should we go outside? Catch some fresh air?” Jungkook attempts again, this time even more uncertain.

The girl doesn’t give him an answer, instead hastening her pace towards the courtyard. Her focus is still on her device and through the corner of his eye, Jungkook can make out the messages app open as she types feverishly into a group called The Runaways. Jungkook recognized the photos of the other two members of the group–Freya and Kaya.

Taehyung had been the kind soul to explain the name to Jungkook once he heard Jin referring to the girls like that. His facial expression must have shown how confused he was by the nickname and so his peculiar roommate explained that the trio had tried to escape from Horus Academy one night during their first year there and got caught–of course. Kaya was a mess because of the two weeks of detention and Hoseok even added that she had palpitations from having to visit the dean’s office so soon after her arrival at the school.

The group was close, regardless of all of them being so different. And to Jungkook that was something that was sometimes revealed to be difficult to comprehend. They were good people, that he was sure. Despite all their quirks and inevitable penchant for secrets. No wonder he had fit so well.

“Was it You?” Jungkook finally dares to speak. They had already reached the courtyard and Elena had sat down at one of the picnic-style tables scattered around the place, her feet tapping on the bench rhythmically. The girl nods in response and Jungkook’s curiosity gets the best of him, “What did they say?”

Sighing, Elena shows the phone to the boy and the way he frowns as his eyes scan the text on the screen makes her realize that she’s in for a hell of a couple of days.

“Is–is it true?” Jungkook asks hesitantly. The second the words come out of his mouth he regrets it. His stomach is in a twirl and he would rather not know the truth.

“Of course, it is. Whoever that psycho is, they are deep into our lives and know all about our darkest secrets.” Elena speaks angrily. Jungkook’s question doesn’t bother her. He has been with the group for a while now and she trusts him. He has been loyal to them despite all the attacks they have been under since day one. Had she been in his shoes, she doesn’t know if she would stick with such a problematic crew. She always wondered why he stuck with them in the first place, and she had gotten close to asking him about it a few times, but Kaya cut it off after all her attempts, advising her to ‘not be rude and ask’.

“Yoongi was right–” Jungkook flops down next to Elena, finding a seat on the picnic table. His tone isn’t accusatory, like a parent reprimanding a child, but mostly hopeless. “We shouldn’t be poking the bear,” he looks her in the eye, seriously. “it’s going to poke back.”

Scoffing, Elena gets back up on her feet, hands finding a firm grip on her hips. “Of course, we should! We all got secrets, Kook, I know–” She glares at the boy, huffing as yet another tear rolls down her cheek, “We want them buried but I’m not going to sit here and let it hold such power over my life.”

“But–”

“This person is insane. What if they start blackmailing us? Pinning us against each other?” Jungkook shifts in his seat but the action passes unseen by the revolted girl. “Are you going to sit by and watch the house burn down?”

Eyes stuck to the floor, Jungkook finds comfort in analyzing his fingers. Elena’s words are marked on his brain as if she kept on asking the question over and over again. Pressing his lips together, he doesn’t manage to look her in the eye as he reaches the final verdict, “I–I don’t know Elena.”

“I know Yoongi was right. But fuck this.” Elena’s focus is back on her phone. “Jesus Christ why is no one picking up their phones!”

Relieved by the change of subject, Jungkook tries to uncover more of the newest secret You had revealed, “Are you trying to call your mom?”

“Heavens no. If she got word that we were being harassed she’d come down to the school and take me out of it. I would never see you guys again.” Elena laughs drily. “What about yours?”

Jungkook tilts his head, confused by the question. “What?”

“What would your parents do if they knew you were strapped to a tree for an entire night?” Jungkook hadn’t been a target of You yet–at least not directly–and so far, the Sarx folks were the most fitting candidates for the shoes of psycho.

Jungkook’s eyes are big as Elena sits down on the bench next to him. In an attempt to diverge from her stare, he takes out his notebook from his backpack. “You know–the same.”

Glancing at the girl lets him know she was analyzing his not-so-confident answer. “Do you want to see more?” Jungkook is quick to ask as he lands on the page he had earlier been drawing on. The Kardia girl’s eyes light up as her lips turn into a smile, pleased to have a distraction, “Yes, please.”

Word around Horus always traveled fast. But nothing could quite compare to bad news. With cell phones prohibited in class, it was astonishing how people had already begun whispering in the hallways about the latest rumor of the all-star group attending the boarding school.

The first period of the afternoon had barely ended when the courtyard where Elena and Jungkook were, began to fill quickly. The raven-haired boy was quick to find a distraction for the girl that made herself heedless of the preying eyes in an almost impeccable way.

“Damn…” The hand that rested on Elena’s shoulder had been what startled her but Jungkook was only aware of Jin’s presence when he made his voice heard. The Dianoia member was facing the opposite direction of the other two, back leaning against the table as he took a sip from his soda can.

Jungkook swiftly shifts on his seat, his legs standing on each side of the bench. He can now see Elena and Jin perfectly.

“Not that I thought you a straight record, but when you pulled a Regina George today on that psycho, I at least thought you were secret safe,” The expression on the oldest face says how incredulous yet disconcerted he is with the situation. He was in a complete mix of feelings.

“Excuse me?!” Jungkook notices how Elena’s eyebrows furrow and how her once relaxed demeanor is quick to leave her body.

“Don’t worry, I won’t say I told you so!” Jin reassures, lips wet from the last sip he took from his soda. He scootches closer toward Elena, casually crossing his legs while he still stands. “That will be Yoongi.”

“Oh, fuck off Jin.” The girl in turn stands up from the bench, now leaving an empty spot between the two boys. Her phone is quickly retrieved from her pocket and placed on her ear once more.

“You kinda did, though,” Jungkook whispers to Jin, lips pressed. “You kind of said it.”

Jin widens his eyes, distant, not really focusing anywhere. He then takes a last sip from the can in his hands, before spurring in Jungkook’s direction unable to suppress a nervous laughter.

“Who are you trying to reach?” The doe-eyed boy opts to ask Elena instead. She had been nervously pacing back and forth. Her thumb rests between her lips the whole time as she nibbles on its skin. “Maybe I can help?” He offers again.

The proposal sounds weak despite his best intentions, and as a consequence, he ends up being ignored by the other two.

In the distance, as he looks over to distract himself from the situation, Jungkook can make out a duo that skids through the increasing crowd. Taehyung and Jimin spurt toward their table, the latter’s hand already in the air, signaling his presence to the group.

“Hey, you okay?” Taehyung reaches the girl first, hands finding her shoulders as he looks her down, almost as if examining her physically. “Is it real?” He questions as his hands slide toward her neck and his thumbs gently force her chin up so he can scan her eyes.

“Of course it’s real.” The Kardia boy spats, passing by on his way to the vacant spot between Jungkook and Jin before Elena had a chance to answer. Taehyung sent a death stare to his back, biting on his tongue so as to not make the situation worse. The tension between the two best friends was so palpable even their algebra teacher had noticed that the pair was odd—as they used to spend the class playing games in each other’s notebooks or talking, now they avoided eye contact. It was impossible to deny that there was some unresolved business between the two.

“Jimin–” Elena is taken off by the sudden attack of her best friend but before she can continue, Taehyung cuts her off, unable to look past Jimin’s pretentious eyes as he sat down and stared back.

“Just because you tend to make shitty decisions it doesn’t mean everyone else follows the example so stop being–”.

“It’s not that ludicrous. It happened to me, too.” Jimin shrugs and Jin scoffs at the sudden outburst, somewhat entertained.

“Ludicrous? Huh,” He laughs. “Aren’t you a committed student...” Taehyung is quick to bark back.

Jimin’s eyes are filled with fire, but he decides that ignoring his best friend is a better response. "Why would you even do that?" He directs his words at Elena instead. "What dumb thought crossed your mind that made you think that it would be a good idea to go after You after what happened to me?"

"Dumb thought?! Was I supposed to just sit and watch this shit show?!" Hands anchored on her hips, Elena's focus is no longer on her phone.

Jimin laughs incredulously as he shakes his head and looks at the crowd. People kept staring at them, waiting for more drama to unfold. "Are you happy now that everyone is giving you the side eye?"

"You certainly seem to be." Elena pokes at his chest, index finger waving in accusation.

"Me?! I didn't even know you were going to do this. Let alone that you had this secret.” Jimin looks at her with accusatory eyes, and differently from Jin, Jungkook can’t help but think he should do something to stop the arguing. “Good job at being a best friend, by the way! If every best friend kept a secret like you we would all stand equally as strangers!”

“You-!” Elena lifted her finger once more but was gently pulled back by the boy behind her. Taehyung couldn’t care less if people were beginning to stop their own conversations to eavesdrop on theirs.

"Like you told me about yours?! Or any of us, for a matter of fact?" He is quick to jump back into the discussion.

"This isn't about me." Jimin stands his ground, clearly upset.

“Do you know where Namjoon is?” Jin shifts on his seat, his arm resting on the table as he supports his head in the palm of his hand, eyeing Jungkook directly. He seems too comfortable with the ruckus happening not even two feet from them. The youngest doesn’t even get a chance to answer before Jin continues in a tired voice, “We need Namjoon to make them hold hands again.”

“Hold… hands?” Jungkook furrows his eyebrows. The concern he once felt completely dissipates, leaving space for confusion instead.

“I’ll tell you later.” Jin nods his head, reassuringly. “It’s just that Namjoon made them hold hands another time. When they fought, you know.”

“Oh, God!” Elena raises her voice, gaining the attention of the two whisperers and the other two bickerers. “Where is Kaya!”

“She shouldn’t take too long,” An out-of-breath Namjoon takes a seat where Jimin has previously sat by the picnic table. “I lost her and Hoseok in the crowd.”

“We have a dumpling situation again,” Jin comments, pointing at the two boys standing. “Make them hold hands, for the love of God, I can’t hear them anymore!” He complains nonchalantly. “Lucky me I don’t have a mirror otherwise I’d see for myself I aged ten years while I sat here listening to this crap.” The Psykhe’s leader can't help the chuckle that escapes his lips as Jin rambles as fast as a bullet. "First things first, what happened?" He exhales as he asks the group, now recomposed.

"Elena bossed up and went after the psycho and now the psycho went after her, but much more effectively." Jimin explains, and the girl in question glares at him.

Jungkook can’t help but rub his eyes frustrated. His right leg embraced a frenetic rhythm afraid the bickering would restart. “Not again…” He mumbles to himself.

Namjoon nods silently, glancing around to assert the gravity of the rumors. In his peripheral vision, he sees Elena ignoring Jimin, preferring to show attention to her cell phone instead. Taehyung looked at him expectantly but he was just as lost. He just couldn’t show it to his peers. Perhaps by being a leader he had picked up the habit, but something in his being told him it had to do with all those eyes prying at them instead. "It does nothing for us to be going at each other's throats…" Namjoon reasons with them, his voice low enough so only his friends could hear. He preferred to wait for the rest of the group to arrive before discussing their situation. He also prayed Yoongi or Hoseok would bring with them some sort of solution. Or at least help to calm the other’s down.

"Freya, where the hell are you?" Elena asks, visibly relieved when her call goes through. The boys all look at her awaiting the answer to her question. As she huffs and looks at some point past the courtyard, listening to what Freya was saying, she feels the urge to interrupt with a plea. “Run faster then,” she says, “I can see her already and she is ready to kill me. I just know, alright? Just run… Ha-! Well, because you don’t sound like running to me!”

The second Elena clicked on the red button to end the call, she realized Kaya had shortened the distance between them way too fast. Faster than she imagined, even if she was well aware her roommate was fuming. Hoseok stopped right behind his sister, panting from trying to helplessly keep up with her pace.

Namjoon got up from his seat instinctively, worried that neither Taehyung nor Jimin, who were standing by, could do something to stop the wrath of his girlfriend. “I just can’t believe you!” Kaya exclaimed. “Wasn’t it enough seeing Freya, Yoongi, and Jimin being targeted?! Why would you do something so reckless, Lena? For heaven's sake!”

Elena sighs, fingers massaging her temples as she turns her back on her roommate. “Not you, too.” she says, and both Jimin and Taehyung are struck by déjà vu.

“No, no, no! Don’t turn your back on me.” Kaya speaks through gritted teeth. “Don’t you even think that you will get away with this.”

The shortest one doesn’t hide her arched eyebrow as she turns around. “Last time I checked you weren’t my mom, Kaya,” she says decisively. It takes a good minute for her roommate to process her spiteful answer, and a longer one for the silence that broke amongst their peers who watched the exchange like statues.

“Just stop.” Hoseok cuts sharp as a knife. “It’s not the time to fight about who’s at fault here.” He glares at the both of them and as Elena mentions to speak up he continues, “I don’t care. I just want to know who the hell is behind this. Who could have this kind of information–All the freaking time!”

Namjoon feels the need to intervene as he looks around and all of them, besides Hoseok who had a desperate demeanor to his face, had their eyes trailed to the floor, hopeless. In a space between the harsh revelation of both secrets, they had gathered no information about their stalker or even a thread of where to start looking. They were completely in the dark. “Let’s wait for Freya and Yoongi–Who are just much part of this as Kaya has said. And then we can all sit together and make a timeline of events. We’re gonna find something–“ The leader tries.

For brief seconds Jungkook remembers how to breathe again, certain that this time Namjoon’s approach had worked out. It was visible how everyone collected themselves, pondering his words. He was right, after all, there was no point in arguing without everyone present. They would be just circling back and forth, wasting the little time they seemed to have. Even Jungkook, who was never the most patient one, could understand that.

Students begin passing by them quicker, seeing there was seemingly no secret conversation to overhear. To them, the all-star group looked like showcase dolls being exhibited in the courtyard.

“What did I say?” their heads move together as they hear Yoongi’s familiar voice. He circled the table with his arms crossed, making Jin scooch closer to Jungkook so he can sit on the bench as well. “I told you exactly how this would go down, didn’t I?” he says, looking disappointed but not at all surprised at Elena.

And it is enough, just like a snowflake is to trigger an avalanche.

“I will say it slow enough for you all to grasp it–Fuck. You.” Elena bursts. “It’s my secret.” she points to her chest with a wave of moved anger. “My choice.”

“Elena–”

The strawberry blonde one couldn’t find in herself the patience to listen to any of them anymore. The shock of the situation finally untied her naturally proactive self. “No!” she exclaims back. “I won’t shut up about it! Whoever this creep is, they deserve someone barking back.”

“HEY, hey!” Freya comes like a tornado. It’s clear that the girl had been running to get there as the sunglasses that are almost always securing her hair back is crooked to the left. Her locks are tousled. “Finally!” Namjoon gasps.

Freya places a hand on Elena’s shoulder as she comes closer, and it works like magic. The shortest one’s uproar quickly ceased. “Before we mess this up,” her voice is steady despite her rush, and commanding enough to make them all pay attention. “Let’s move this circus to a more private tent, alright.” Her over-expressive eyes pointed at the crowd beginning to surround them again. Some cell phones were being aimed like guns at them, ready to shoot and record the perfect evidence.

Kaya, different from the rest of the group who tried to discreetly look around, was too possessed to notice anything but what was happening between them. “Heavens! Stop trying to make us forget what this is all about!”

“I’m not the one that stops things from happening, Kaya. You got me confused.” Freya adverts. “Just get out of your head for a second and look around.” her eyebrows do the work this time as they shoot up. And for the Dianoian girl’s terror, she was the center of attention.

"Freya is right," Yoongi speaks tiredly. Not that he was bothered by the ridiculously noticeable glares of the other students. He had been used to being the freak everyone stared, pointed, and laughed at. But this You person had really started to get on his nerves by assuming they could get rid of them as easily as possible.

"Do you remember the spot of the last trial of the games?" Namjoon is already pulling the strap of his bag over his head as he speaks. He walks around the table, arm swinging around Hoseok's shoulder as he pushes him out of his ecstatic state and forces his feet to levitate from the ground. "Let's meet there in 10. All of us."

Namjoon leaves with Hoseok. Being the captain of Psykhe had thought him a thing or two as the whole group—even the ones that were from different houses—respected his words.

A stare-down happens between the two roommates, now not-so-seemingly best friends, and Freya stays right in the middle of them. The boys on the table don't dare to move. Until Elena lets out a dry chuckle, eyes rolling as she makes her way to the table to fetch her bag. "Will be seeing you all in… 8 minutes." Her sarcastic smile is directed at Yoongi, who sighs in response as he too gets up to go and try to get rid of the people who could possibly trail them.

"You better go somewhere else." Taehyung coldly speaks to Jimin before skipping after the Kardia girl that was about to quickly get lost in the crowd.

"What did I do?!" Jimin whines as he's about to be left alone by the table as Kaya storms by herself, and Jin seems to make his way to enter the main building again. "Jin–wait for me!"

Satisfied that everyone listened to Namjoon, making the rest of the students confused as to who they should follow, Freya pulls Jungkook by the hand toward the stadium. She wasn’t a fan of crowds. Passing by all those that were surrounding the courtyard—even if Horus Academy didn’t have that many students to begin with—felt like a nightmare. The grand stadium seemed the right choice as the structure was placed on the other side, they just had to cut through a grass path and some isolated trees.

Not a soul seemed to follow the two. Jungkook made sure to look back every time he heard a different noise that wasn’t his own feet clashing with the dirt ground or Freya’s. And as some distance was already put between them and the unpleasant moment they had just experienced, Jungkook cleared his throat. For the first time, he was bothered by Freya’s silence amidst this chaos. “This, uhm… It wasn’t what I had in mind when we said we’d be meeting each other after classes…”

The girl doesn’t slow her pacing, and neither does he, as they are still locking hands. “That’s because technically we’re still in classes. So this ain’t it.” She shrugs with a rapid smile.

Jungkook chuckles and keeps his eyes on the back of her head. She wasn’t being her carefree self, he could notice. He wondered while she lead him astray from the path to the stadium and down a small ravine through the woods if she seemed distant only due to her best friend being targeted. Again, her relationship with Yoongi crossed his mind. It seemed odd that he was the one holding hands with her and not her boyfriend.

He wondered if he was crossing a line. “Why isn’t Yoongi here?” he decided to give it a shot.

“What do you mean?” The girl seems more preoccupied to point to him where he can’t step in order not to fall than not falling herself. He holds her hand tighter as she slips once before replying, “It’s just that he went alone. And you’re here–with me.”

Freya’s eyes travel from the ground to his face and she halts her steps. They are right at the base of the ravine and the only thing they can hear is the whisper of the trees dancing in the wind. Jungkook nibbles on his lips as she eyes him without an answer. Suddenly his questioning seems rubbish to himself, his actions quite inappropriate and selfish, and the girl in front of him a dream within a dream.

She opens her mouth to reply with a prepared lie, but nothing comes out of it. Not even an excuse for him not knowing well the paths around school, or looking seemingly lost back at the courtyard. Would it be so bad to tell him the truth?, she thinks to herself. His fingers laced on hers seems the answer and the fire that ignites her bold decision. “Yoongi and I, we–”

Beep.

Their phones going off at the same time is enough to cut her sentence short. Their hands fall from each other as they grab the devices instead.

Jungkook’s eyes leave the screen first to check on the girl in front of him. She zooms in and out of the picture posted to check its veracity. As she glances up to see him, Freya is nothing but decided. Hints of anger flash in her irises. “We’re almost there. Are you up for a sprint?” she asks and he nods promptly. “Be careful with branches. They’re bitches for ankles–trust me.”

They run, succeeding in avoiding smaller rocks and the tree branches the girl advised him about. Both had been here before for the games, but this felt more urgent. More secretive. And by the nature of You’s recent posting, much more treacherous.

"I can't believe you." It’s the first thing they hear as they arrive panting. Everyone is already there, which confirms to Jungkook they had been the ones taking the longer route. Yoongi drops his bag on the floor. He's fuming. "I can't fucking believe you, Elena."

"Oh, and here he goes again." Elena mimics his actions, bag, and jacket dropping right by her feet as she places her hands on her hips. "Here comes Yoongi, on his high horse."

The boy in question chuckles. He rubs his forehead as he sighs, looking up at the treetops swinging, trying to choose wisely his next words. He didn’t want to start a fight, far from that. He knew their real enemy was clearly You, and whatever he did, he for sure wasn’t going to be compliant by serving exactly what that deranged wanted—them all fighting each other. "Just–What are you trying to do? I want to understand because it seems simple to me that this person isn’t one to be messed with" They now stand close to each other and both Taehyung and Jungkook feel the need to take a step forward.

"I told you–I'm not going to stand down." Elena simply shrugs. "We've been friends for how long now, Yoongi? …Is it really too much to ask you to back me up on this?"

It’s clear to them all how Yoongi ponders as he looks her in the eyes. "You're being selfish." Kaya spits. "You're just thinking about what you want."

Elena turns to her roommate with a scoff, "And you're not?"

"How am I selfish?!"

The look Elena gives her says enough to have both Namjoon and Freya on their toes. "Kaya…" The boy threads lightly. He has to stop himself, the craving of holding his girlfriend's hand driving him mad.

Jimin however is the one that moves, but away. He shakes his head as he goes to sit on a stem, looking defeated as he leans his forehead on his arms. Hoseok catches a glance at his roommate’s lack of spirit, deciding to intervene for him. "El, please. We've just been to hell and back with Jimin." He says harshly, as he leans against a tree with arms crossed. It was a rare sight to see Hoseok like that, and if the circumstances were other, the discussion would have ended with his word. But not everyone standing in that glade wanted to be picked at, and some had less to lose.

"She's not wrong…" Freya points out, unafraid to be looked upon by Hoseok’s hard judgment.

"Thank you!" Elena throws her hands up in the air, exasperated. Freya glares at her, clearly not finished with her point. Before some of them can revolt, she adds, "Lena is being reckless and she does need to calm down, but she did prove something."

"Oh, c'mon Freya, don't encourage this." Yoongi complains and Jin feels the need to add, “People, this isn’t Law and Order for you to be proving stuff!”

Freya unlike the others wasn’t carrying a backpack, but she did take her glasses off her head, dropping them on top of a pile of things that rested next to a tree trunk. Her hair fell in the process to frame her face. “Listen–” she began, hands coming to her sides to put them all at ease. "You posted real proof. They had the evidence ready to go. Just like that." She snaps her fingers to add to her case, “This seems somewhat already thought through, no? Or at least it has to be someone that is able to get this kind of thing–Documents and shit.”

Hoseok looked at Namjoon to confirm if he had to be worried or not, depending if the leader had bought the argument. The engines on his head worked speedily. "And that only makes everything worse," Jungkook says, breaking his silence.

"How so?" Namjoon is intrigued by the sudden intervention, and he is not the only one. Taehyung stares intently at their group’s novice expectant to finally hear his reasoning. Even Jimin looks up.

"For starters this person is insane,” Jungkook states blankly. He wasn’t used to reasoning things out loud, but all eyes were on him, pushing him to speak further. “They have already proved this to us… With Freya, Jimin… Yoongi’s thing that day at the games as well… And now this Elena thing��And honestly, it's bothering me how normally you're all treating this situation–"

"Normally?"

There is some confusion pairing in the air, some eyes trailed to the floor reflexive over the last weeks. But the novice tries to avoid those so as to not lose himself in his own argument. "How are you not afraid, El?" Jungkook's eyes widen as he looks at her instead. She doesn’t answer as her point of view differed tremendously, and he tilts his head unable to comprehend the coolness they exuded faced with such things. "I don't know about you guys but I never had something like this happening to me. I was tied to a tree by a bunch of psychos–who still study here by the way, and Tzuyu is even Freya’s roommate–And you guys keep on getting threats…? They found out about Jimin being with a teacher and–no offense, man–but the logic of this person is to share it online to intimidate us and here we are, making secret reunions in the middle of the woods."

Jin is the one to cut the silence by laughing nervously, "When you put it that way…" he adds, “No wonder we are being targeted.”

Jungkook’s eyes are still unable to search for anyone else’s as he adds. "I just think we shouldn't worry about figuring out who this person is or what they want. I think we just need to know how to get them the fuck away from us." His voice sounds defeated as his focus shifts to a rock poking on the ground. He leans his body forward and kicks it.

"One thing very much so implies the other, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news." Elena points out, and as soon as she does Taehyung gives her a reproachful look. She mouths him a questioning ‘what?’ in silence, as he shakes his head.

Freya doesn’t listen to the comment, however, as her feet work just as intently as her head by drawing patterns on the grass as she paces around. "It can't just be anyone…” she says, deep in thought, more to herself than the others. “It's someone smart, clearly… And they have a motive."

"Stop it, you two!” Kaya’s outburst makes her brother jolt surprised, leaning further away onto the tree to shore himself. “For heaven's sake, just stop!" she begs, frustrated. Jin is quicker than Namjoon to side-hug her, and the Psykhe’s leader inhales relieved as he sees Kaya burying her face onto Jin’s shoulder, returning the hug. “This is getting out of line.” Hoseok comments fed up. “Look at what they’re doing to us!” he gestures emphasizing their defeated postures.

"You're the ones allowing it." Elena shoots, crossing her arms.

Kaya turns into Jin’s embrace in a flash upon hearing her words. "What is your problem, Elena?!" she mentions to walk toward her roommate but Jin wraps one arm over her shoulder line, pinning her in place. Still, she points an accusatory finger at the Kardia girl. "You're going to end up putting everyone in the front line with how you’re handling this."

"It was one thing to play the rumor card at lunch but now…" Yoongi commented resigned as he closed his eyes. He too crossed his arms, and to the ones watching, he looked like basking in the sunlight that poured through the clearing as his face was tilted up. He opens his eyes and looks at the shortest girl before adding, "You just proved that everything they post is real. You showed that they are a credible source. You know that, right?"

"So what?” Taehyung questions. “Just because they have proof of Elena's doesn't mean the rest is true." he shrugs in discontent. "And besides, she hasn't implicated anyone but herself."

There is a sense of veracity in what he says, or better, how he says it, and the group goes calmer as they let his words sink in. Jimin is the only one that shows unconformity as he stands up with a scold plastered on his face. "Funny how when it's her, it doesn't matter, but then when it was my secret or Freya’s it was that big of a deal.”

Taehyung dismisses his remark with a simple side eye, and a scoff is heard before Elena adopts a sarcastic smile to her features "Are you seriously comparing being in a fucking deranged relationship to getting in an accident?"

“Okay let’s–” Namjoon tries.

"It wasn't just an accident. You were driving drunk, Elena." Kaya insists, untangling herself from Jin’s arm and retrieving her phone to showcase You’s report. "And according to this, I'm pretty sure your next stop was a stomach wash at the hospital."

"Are you serious?!" the hurt in Elena’s voice is able to be sensed a mile away.

"Am I wrong?"

The group has a second of stillness as no one can think of a better thing to say, or even how to proceed from there on. Freya looks from one girl to another, fearing they were stranding too far for a possible rescue. She can tell how frustrated and fearful Kaya is being, but she can also see how profound the embarrassment in Elena’s eyes is as she shifts her stares through the group. “You know what?” the strawberry blonde adds, “Fuck you, Kaya.”

"Am. I. Wrong?" Kaya keeps pushing with a clouded mind and the tallest of the three finally shouts a reprehensive ‘Hey!’ so as to break their flare.

With drained faces, they all seemed a little out of orbit. The group has had its fair share of disagreements before, that picnic table in the courtyard of Horus knew how many spiteful arguments Taehyung and Jimin shared. The halls of the school were tainted with bickering. But it never felt like they were standing with a cliff between them before. And the fall, Namjoon feared if he didn’t stop it, would be too decisive.

"That's more than enough." The leader spoke with bravado. "We came here to try and figure a solution out. This was not to go at each other’s throats!"

"No–Absolutely not. I’m not wasting time with this anymore.” Elena shakes her head, fed up. “I've had enough of your bullshit." She eyes Kaya as she speaks. "Always running around like you're Miss Perfect. I'm tired of this–I'm tired of you."

She walks toward the pile stacked by a tree, picking up her bag, resolute to walk away as Kaya replies. "If I’m the Miss Perfect for thinking of others before doing reckless things–Fine! Be it! I will rather be labeled as that than be labeled as a freaking selfish bitch."

Elena ties the sleeves of her jacket around her waist as she angrily rebuts, "Oh, don't you fucking worry, Kaya–your stupid little secret is safe!"

The shock on Kaya’s face is tremendous as she gulps down her anger faced with the threat. Both Freya and Jin feel the need to barricade whatever reaction she was about to have, as he places a hand on her shoulder and the girl grips at her arm. On the other end, Yoongi is about to stop Elena from leaving, as he is still firm about coming to a conclusion for this unexpected and needed reunion when they all hear the snap of a branch nearby.

No one says a word, as heads perk toward the sound and all pairs of eyes are busy scanning the foliage.

“There’s no way… Right?” Jungkook questions almost in a whisper and a chill runs through their spines. More silence follows, no one dares to say a word. And although no one is able to indeed spot someone in the woods, watching them, they know in their hearts—You was somehow there. “MhmHm.” Hoseok shakes his head, picking up his backpack. “I’m done here,” he adds, as he starts to make his way to leave, pulling Jimin alongside him and signaling Kaya to follow. Elena’s last statment about his sister awakening a paranoid distrust in the pit of his stomach.

In a matter of seconds, the group is scattered. They leave in pairs, trios, and some even wander alone, but none is able to shake the awful sensation of still being followed.

“I thought I might find you here…” Namjoon says as he approaches Kaya carefully. She had been skittish lately, especially with him, and much to his misfortune, the Psykhe’s captain couldn’t blame her even if he wanted to. Deep down he knew her reasons, even after their rocky encounter at the library. “I think–”

“Listen,” she interrupts him. Kaya fixes her position by the feet of the giant Gaia statue so she could stare at her boyfriend’s eyes properly. She had discovered that statue by chance due to venturing inside the maze, only a few students knew existed, in the gardens of the imponent boarding school. Lately, the girl felt perhaps, aside from her girlfriends, only she and Namjoon knew of its existence. “I know what you’re going to say. And I love you for caring but I really don’t need a lesson right now.”

The boy before her lows his eyes to the colorful crystal-clear pebbles adorning the floor, and opens a smile as he tucks his hands into his pockets and kicks softly one of the tiny rocks. “Seems I can still surprise you after all,” he says and looks up to see her reaction. “I actually came to say I get how you feel.”

As she looks suspiciously at him, he shrugs. “I get that just like me you know nothing about this ‘you’ persona and that all of us are scared.” he continued. “And I also get that you have a lot to lose in case your secret–Our secret comes out, and that is frightening.”

Kaya looks at her own hands, curled in her lap while weighing his words. He then takes the opportunity to take a few more steps toward her. “Not knowing what could be thrown at us is scary and I would definitely take a more…” he stops to think of the proper choice of word. “Cautious approach. But that is my style, my personality faced with danger. So is yours.”

Their eyes meet again and she takes force in his argument to let her anger out. “Exactly! So why–” Namjoon places a hand on her thigh, coming a little closer.

“That doesn’t mean everyone will behave identically when confronted with the same situation… I get you, and I get myself for thinking the way we think, but I also get Elena.”

Kaya scoffs, her anger still not subdued. She crosses her arms as she says “So much for saying you weren’t giving me a lecture.” and all Namjoon can do is laugh as he wraps his arms around her frame.

“And I’m not! I was just saying I get everyone for having the reactions they’re having at the moment. Was it a bit imprudent of Elena to go at that psycho? Yeah, a bit… But I get her. Some people run, some people hide, others much rather grab the bull by its horns.” he says and she gently leans her forehead on his chest. “Besides, we do need to take action. That thing in the clearing…? It happened at the library with us.”

As the girl inhales deeply, with her eyes closed, Namjoon caresses her hair with a soft touch he only knew how to invoke for her. In this sense of security, Kaya is brave and steady enough to uncross her arms and place them around his waist. She pulls him closer, compensating for all the time they stayed out of each other’s reach. “You’re like a very much-needed cup of tea,” she says diverging subjects and looking up at him. Her chin is now the one being pressed against his chest.

“Out of all things, a cup of tea?!”

The smile reaches her eyes as he exclaims indignantly. “It’s the only other thing besides you that manages to calm me down.” she says.

His eyebrows waver and she sees how he is pondering her statement. It’s in moments like this that she finds Namjoon precious. She knows he will find the beauty in her phrase and intent, and because of that, this moment will be significant forever. He will make sure of it, as he had done countless times before by sneaking little poems he had written himself inside her books.

“If that is the case… Alright. I’m good with being a cup of tea.” He muses, showing off his dimple. “Healing properties, right?”

“Tons!” she says, grabbing him by the collar of his tee and locking him in a kiss.

Freya liked the transition from afternoons to evenings the best. There was something calming about how the sun would set every day just as she would. With a big breath of hers, it was already hidden away again, all of the stress that burned her shoulders gone within those bright and scorching oranges against the deep sea of blue. At least until tomorrow came.

The Psykhe tower was the best place to watch it happening, but ever since she found out about the shocking truth of someone stalking her from there, she hadn’t felt comfortable hanging in her old spot. And because of that, she found herself taking a stroll around the school grounds, searching for her new safe haven. Only the sun knew how much she needed some peace and quiet away to drown her frustration after the recent events and their last meeting at the clearing. And Jungkook, after their shared encounter earlier on.

She had her headphones on, whispering soft melodies into her ear, and because of that, she didn’t take notice of someone walking behind her. She was really close to the borders of the woods, staying close by after having left the group’s rendezvous but opting to skip classes to uncloud her thoughts. When she looked up at the sky, the oranges began to fade, and all that golden light blind-sighted her. At this rate, she would lose the sunset.

Then a gulf of wind hit her face and a chill ran down her spine. A pair of hands came in contact with her shoulders and she shivered, remembering the last moments before she and her friends were scared away from the clearing.

Taking her headphones off in a hurry, she turned around startled. The sound of laughter invaded her ears before she could even meet the eyes of her jumpscare.

“Got ya!” the tall golden retriever-like boy exclaimed as soon as she came face to face with him.

“Mingyu!” she stressed. “For fucks sake, I almost died!”

The response she received was more whole hearty laughter and that eased her mood. She smiled seeing him have fun but something else clung to her heart.

Ever since the games, the both of them had grown slightly close. Every time they crossed paths around school, there was a smile there paired with brief hellos and sincere curiosity. By Monday morning a mutual invitation to be each other’s lab partners in one of the few classes they shared—chemistry.

Still, he wasn’t the laughter she sought to hear when all that orange was about to clash with the soon-to-be night sky.

“So what are you doing around here?” Freya asks and the brunette has to wipe his joyful tears to be able to answer.

“I was on my way to the dorms actually. Just got out of practice.”

Freya still couldn’t help but admire his genuine smile and how his freshly washed hair dropped some water droplets on his face. But at the same time, her head was dancing elsewhere. A few yards away, to be exact, where under an oak tree she had made a deal to meet after classes. The sun was setting, but she was still to hear from her free-period companion.

“I saw you walking by and decided to say hi.” Mingyu continued searching for her eyes.

“And that’s how you say hi?” she laughed.

“Next time I’ll try to be more… Charming about it.”

“Next time?” her eyebrow raised. She couldn’t say she ever paid attention to a guy from school before that year, or that she ever really liked a boy from there. Well, besides her friends of course. And that was mostly because she was afraid of things that required too much vulnerability on her side. And a tiny bit because no one had ever seemed worth the struggle she called trust. Did they genuinely like her, or did they just want the status? So the story unfolded naturally. There were too many eyes, and being a great wall to climb became a trait of personality she was too comfortable with to change.

Ever since she got unrightfully exposed, however, by sneaking into the boys' quarters, some freedom of choice was returned to her in that regard. No one was interested in knowing who the next guy in her love life would be. And so she perhaps was beginning to feel ready to come out of her shell. Both in love and new friendships. But the former wasn’t the risk she wanted to take when it came to Mingyu… Possibly if someone else hadn’t arrived in that department first.

He seemed to understand her line of thinking as his eyes got bigger and his expression turned sour. Suddenly he was apologizing.

“Oh–I’m so–So sorry!” he shook his head as if realizing what he had just done. “You have a boyfriend. I’m being disrespectful. I’m sorry.”

At first, she was confused. Boyfriend? She didn’t have one. That wasn’t her point at all. But then the recent events hit her like a truck and she had to inhale hard to get hold of the little patience she still had.

She liked Mingyu. She could tell they could be good friends, amazing even. So she took a leap of faith.

“Can I tell you a secret?” she asked. Freya didn’t have much to lose at this point, and she needed this. A safe space of her own.

Mingyu nodded attentively.

“Yoongi isn’t my boyfriend. We never even hooked up.”

She could see in Mingyu’s face how surprised he was. All the engines of his brain working to make sense of what she had just confessed. Freya was relieved, however, to finally get it out of her system. That someone knew the truth besides her and her girlfriends. That she was at least in control of that tiny little confession and somehow still free. She almost did it earlier on that day anyways.

“Why…?” the words fell off his lips, afraid to lengthen the subject in question. Freya offered an encouraging glance, waiting for his inquiry to be resumed. He got hold of what her eyes wanted to convey this time. “Why are you two pretending to date then?”

“I guess Yoongi knew how much bothered I would be by the amount of gossip even though I pretend I’m not… And he also knew people wouldn’t shut up about it until a name was given to the starving crowd. So why not his? Everyone already assumed we were together anyways.”

“I’m proud to say I’ve never thought that,” Mingyu confessed, raising his hand as a solemn promise. “I even argued otherwise.”

Freya chuckled, finding it endearing. “You would have been the only one then.”

The darkness of the night was already covering every nook of the school like a cloak when the group of friends received a text from Elena.

Nothing but three words. Classroom 202 now.

Receiving a text from the girl after what went down that afternoon seemed hard enough to conceive, let alone one so encrypted like that. And so, each and every one of them immediately stopped what they had been doing and rushed in secret through the marble tiles of the main building in search of the room she invited them in.

One by one they entered. Elena was already there, pacing back and forth when the first of them arrived—Taehyung. It was evident that she possessed some kind of information that she would much more like to be false thinking of her part. He didn’t need a second look at her to prove that.

Hoseok and Namjoon entered right after. Kaya was a few seconds behind them, and they all felt the same. Besides being afraid of possible detention for running through the halls so late at night, all sat in silence waiting, taking in the gravity of the situation by glancing into each other's eyes in the dark. And it didn’t get better as the more they waited, the more impatient and eerie they all got.

Elena still paced, cryptic. Sometimes she would look out the window or check the door for the ones missing. She would hear some of them whispering to each other questions she couldn’t lose time answering, nor had the patience since she was still hurt by their last meeting. At least not unless everyone was present.

And then Yoongi opened the door, everyone looked at him frightened and relieved at the same time. Some searched for something behind his back with their phones flashlights and that made him turn around to check the hallway. It was too dark.

“What?” he asked, spooked, searching for their eyes once again. His hand is still on the knob, keeping the door open, as he too turns on the light from his device.

Elena paces quickly in his direction, pulling him into the classroom and peeking outside to check if he was indeed alone. She closed the door rushedly. “Are you alone?”

“Yes,” Yoongi replied confused. “Shouldn’t I be?”

“We’re missing my sister,” Taehyung said, going toward the window alarmed. The only thing he could see through that darkness was the woods silhouette.

“Ok…?” Yoongi continued completely clueless, barely making sight of everyone present in the room due to the poor illumination. “What am I missing? We better have a fucking good reason to be out here.”

But no one replied. Or even attempted to.

Both girls looked at each other in a silent question about Freya’s whereabouts, putting their resentment aside momentarily. They reached the same conclusion with a hopeless shrug of shoulders. And Hoseok’s concerns didn’t help to lift the mood.

“You don’t think she was attacked like Joy… right? She wouldn’t…” As soon as he questioned it Jin slapped his arm with a hard stare and he shut up flustered. But the possibility taunted everyone present.

There was a pause. Time halted in that classroom. In a flash, Elena pulled her phone to text Freya in desperation, the faint flashlight from her mobile turned off in the process and the room got darker than it already was.

“I’ll go look” Jungkook offered, a dagger piercing his stomach for missing out on both his and Freya’s promise to spend the after classes period together. Right at the same time, Taehyung crossed the room to the door.

“C’mon…” Yoongi mumbled as he pressed his mobile closer to his ear, trying to call the girl in question. He had finally grasped the gravity of the situation.

Jimin and Kaya were by the big window, swiping the landscape beneath them inch by inch. A red bleep twinkled by the edge of the forest and Jimin leaned his nose against the cold glass to try and see it again. He squinted his eyes, but nothing appeared. When he was beginning to think his eyes were playing tricks on him, he got startled by the sound coming from the door. He turned back in a flash. As soon as Taehyung opened it to set foot outside he came to a halt. Jungkook consequently bumped into his back like a domino.

“Get inside!” They heard Freya’s hushed voice demand. “Turn that off. Now!”

Suddenly the room was engulfed in a deep blackness. The kind of dark that makes the hairs on your nape jump. The one that makes every fear you have come true. No one dared to whisper a word out. All they could do was search for each other’s shadows and listen closely for the haunting sound of thumping against the cold marble floors of the corridor.

A few minutes passed, maybe seconds when Yoongi lit his phone again. Time was hard to pinpoint when faced with the extreme nothingness of a total blackout. Soon, all convinced that the night guard had moved on from that section, they all turned the soft light of their screens back on again.

“Sorry–” Freya was the first to break the silence. “I was already outside… Had to go around that security.”

“Just. Please,” Kaya begged on edge, “Let’s get on with this–Whatever this is and go to our rooms. Please.”

In a silent agreement, all eyes turned to Elena.

The strawberry-blonde girl lifted up from the crouch she was previously hiding in and leaned on the teacher’s desk. The ones close to the floor followed, sitting by the empty wooden chairs in front of the class. Only Jungkook and Yoongi were up. One leaned by the wall and the other by the door to keep watch.

“I texted you all here because I think I figured it out,” Elena says, a bit taken aback by her own statement.

“What do you mean…?” Jimin inquires, and everyone looks as if the world would end. Because in fact, it was.

“I know who You is.”

next chapter.

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playertwotails · 1 year ago

Note

did u write the baby tails post yet? id love to read it

Here you go, my de-aged/time switched feral baby Tails idea so hold your hat cause it's a long one under the cut. Also forgive me and my nonsense, I am not a writer.

Just to set some ground rules on my take on baby Tails so we're all on the same page. First of all I always imagine Tail and Sonic meeting when Tails was 3/4 and Sonic 10/11 (both are homeless kids best they can do is guesstimate ages and roll with it). And our little guy Tails, is the sweet, kind, caring Tails we all know and love. BUT as a baby all of that was buried under the weight of being abandoned, harassed, hurt, half/fully starved and bullied starting from maybe basically birth if not shortly after. So baby Tails is just the most FERAL of little guys. He WILL bite, claw, kick, pull fur/feathers/whatever they got and do whatever it takes if he feels cornered and threatened by someone. And yes he has his inventions even at that young age to protect him somewhat, but he's still a baby and can only build them out of the scraps he finds, so they are little flimsy and get destroyed easily by said bullies fairly often. So bitey time's are aplenty for baby Tails.

Now luckily when Sonic meet Tails one of their first interactions was him saving Tails from bullies so he started out a few steps on the less feral side of Tails. Not that Sonic doesn't/never saw this side of Tails, it just never got it directed at him unless he startled Tails or was calming Tails down when something else brought out that side. I also like to think that Sonic and Tails were together about a year before Eggman ever even found out about Tails. So by the time Eggman and their other friends meet Tails, the feral side of Tails has been pretty much put to rest as, through Sonic's help, Tails doesn't need to rely on that 'cornered feral rabies filled racoon' fight instinct anymore. The Tails they first meet relies more on his inventions, smarts, and how Sonic taught him to fight.

SO getting to the bread and butter of all this.

Sonic, Tails and Co. are fighting Eggman or maybe another villain per their usual shtick. And when they go to hit Sonic with their "ultimate weapon" it ends up a whole whoopsi daisies situation and hits Tails instead. Now readers choice on if this de-ages Tails or switched older Tails with younger Tails, but result is the same either way. The smoke clears, Tails is still there, to everyone's short lived relief, but there is now a much smaller scruggly looking Tails in that spot

(Now another thought I had just for ultimate angst potential for either scenario of scruffy baby Tails, is that baby Tails has the starved figure, scars, cuts, bruises, matted/patchy fur he had on what ever day he de-aged to/switched with)

The villain then dips cause plan has gone sideways and Sonic and crew are now just left with a tiny little baby Tails. (and the crew I imagine is Amy, Knuckles, Shadow, and Rouge - maybe Blaze, Silver, Tangle and Whisper too just to make it a really party if you want)

I think before even Sonic can react though Amy is the first to make it to baby Tails. Now I love Amy to death but bless her heart she has a tendency to get tunnel vision sometimes (big mood). So before she registers that baby Tails is a bit more ruff around the edges than she's used to, she just sees a cute little tiny baby Tails and immediately goes for the hug cause Tails is adorable on his own but tiny Tails is serotonin directly injected into your veins and her being a whole mood cannot physically stop herself from going for a hug. Plus they've met a younger Tails before so she thinks it's a similar situation so free hugs all around. (Sidenote - I'm just gonna call baby Tail BT for the rest of this cause it long)

Unfortunately BT only registers 'person coming at them fast and getting close' and just uses his reaction to bite Amy all the while hissing and growling like a feral cat in an alleyway.

Immediately everyone is taken aback (except for Sonic) cause that's not a very Tails thing for Tails to do especially to friends even if he's scared.

(And another side note here cause lord forbid my thought process stays cohesive for five minutes - but I see baby Tails being either a Tails that has met Sonic but only has been with him for maybe 2-3 weeks if even that long, so he recognizes Sonic but doesn't really trust him yet. Or for even more 'oh this is sad' it is a little Tails before he met even Sonic, so everyone is starting at the -100 trust line with the feral fluff ball. (i'm moving forward with this with the 'BT knows Sonic but no trust between them' one cause older brother Sonic is my weakness and BT being cute and clingy will not leave my brain))

So BT gets startled at everyone being startled and moves to take off to go hide in a hole somewhere cause "WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE" (if you get the reference let me know) and everyone then makes a move to catch him. Now BT is on fight/flight instincts only and does not even register Sonic. Plus Sonic does not look like the one he knows so he doesn't even recognize him in this state, just is trying to peace the fuck out of there and get to safety. And with everyone now after him BT then proceeds to go into FULL FERAL MODE on all of them.

He is clawing at them, biting everyone, hissing and spitting while making a B-line for what he thinks is an exit. With everyone still being shocked, not wanting to hurt him and with BT being more slippery than grease on pig, they are STRUGGLING. He is giving then the runaround. They're are now all getting more injured than they did in the fight that caused this. All their abilities are doing nothing in helping them catch Tails. BT is that one scene of Jack Jack from the Incredibles levels of fucking them up and he can't even shape shift. He managed to rip off one of Shadows skates, bite through Knuckles gloves, scratch up Rogue and set off her bombs (she threw them all away from her before they exploded), Amy's hands and arms are COVERED in bit marks, and he went for Sonic's shins with deadly accurate kicks (Sonic would be proud if it didn't hurt so much). They all just look like they got into a fight with a wood-chipper and miserably lost but nope it's all just a scared toddler that can and will fuck someone up.

It's only when Sonic shouts "MILES!!!!" at Tails that he finally stops (maybe Tails isn't being called Tails yet at that time so Sonic has to say his name or maybe it's just big brother/parent mode voice gets through to him). BT stops his frantic exit relay race but will not let anyone close and is still straight up growling at everyone. So now they're all just standing in a lose circle around BT not wanting to take their eyes off him but all desperately sending mental vibes to Sonic to take care of this cause what the fuck has gotten into Tails.

Cue soft big brother Sonic stepping up to bat and everyone watches him try and coax a tiny scraggly Tails, that looks 3 seconds from trying to bolt again, to get closer to Sonic and calm down. He does succeed after about 10 mins and gets BT to let him get close enough to look over his injuries. And they watch Sonic look over BT's injuries with the softest of big brother looks but when he's got BT turned around to check his back Sonic gets just a flash of anger but resigned look on his face. Cause Sonic knows those injuries and they weren't from the beam BT got hit with. (He'd forgotten how bad they were due to time and also being so young when they first met but now he's even more pissed off and sad about it) - Meanwhile people on West Side Island "why do I suddenly hear Kellin Quinn singing??"

So from there the crew moves out with BT almost glued to Sonic's side cause he's scared of everyone. Sonic has to fly them all back cause BT is too little to reach the pedals of the plane (to the surprise of a few of their friends cause they either forgot/didn't know Sonic could fly a plane also idk how to fly a plane but my imaginary one has pedals now). Finally they get back to a safe area, Tail's workshop, and the other's stick close but outside so they don't overwhelm BT while Sonic spends time cleaning/feeding/treating BT's injuries and put him to bed.

Once Sonic's got the little orange terror to go to sleep he gets everyone rounded up to talk about this and figure out how to fix it. But not before they all grill him for info cause what the fuck has gotten into Tails, they thought it was just the beam at first that caused BT to act like that but Sonic knew what to do so that theory jumped out the window. Cue Sonic giving them the watered down version of his memories of feral baby Tails, cause a lot of it ain't their business in his mind but they also need to know enough to not trigger BT into going full feral scared mode on them.

Even with what they know is the more sanitized version of events Sonic gives them everyone is shocked to find out this was actually how Tails was as a little baby toddler guy when Sonic first found him. Cause they all know how sweet Tails is. The difference is night and day. They are all also immediately mentally planning murder. (- Meanwhile people on Westside Island again "why do I hear Tyler Smyth now???? wtf??")

They all just get sad and angry cause who could hurt Tails (exceptions being made to this rule for Eggman and the rest of their circle of villains cause villains gonna villain).

I imagine Amy just starts crying cause she's upset that, that happened to Tails. But also she about to bust out that hammer and hunt some people down.

Knuckles is upset and suddenly feels really guilty about some of those early days fights he used to get into with Sonic and Tails when they all first met. But also recalling some small moments where a hint of this came out when he first met Tails but never to the extent he had seen earlier that day.

Rogue already kinda knew about it cause..spy, but not the full extent. Her info was coming from second hand sources that tried to hide the fact that they were so cruel to one of the only people who can/has stopped Eggman. She already got names and faces and she's about to get a bunch of new stuff when she robs all of them blind. And she's also planning on taking Omega with her, let him cause some chaos, blow up a few thing for fun-sies.

Shadow about to march up stairs, pick up BT, tell Sonic "this is mine now" and march out with a new brother. Also pay a little visit to Westside Island with Rogue cause he knew that face she made, she already has names and he wants in. Tails just reminds him so much of Maria and BT got Shadows 'thought to be long gone' protective brother instincts kicking into overdrive now.

The rest of this goes down with all of them just spoiling the hell outta BT, getting told stories from BT about his life and it just being one of the saddest things they ever have heard ever, and figuring out how to fix it by hunting down whoever did it to MAKE them fix it.

Bonus points: They also get to see how destructive BT is with weapons and learn:

1) why Sonic ban Tails from making some types of weapons.

2) that Sonic actually has the patience of a saint for a little destructive BT

3) Tails is way more down to murder than they had previously thought

Anyways hope you enjoyed my rambles. Long busy week so sorry if it's a little all over the place. It was a long post but it's also been a while since I posted.

#miles tails prower #tails the fox #sonic the hedgehog #they're brothers your honor #feral tails #let him bite

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soraviie · 2 years ago

Text

you're a writer.txt

━ type: bts x gn! reader ━ navigation

━ about: fluff ━ pictures taken from Pinterest

━ previously posted on soraviii

NAMJOON: “Swiftly.”

“Eeeehhhhh.”

“Rapidly.”

“Eeeeeeeehhhh.”

“With increasing speed.”

“Now that one,” you laugh dryly. “Was the worst.”

He scoffs, glaring at you from the side of the couch, and proceeds to toss a newspaper onto the angular coffee table.

“Well, if you’re going to be unpleasant,” he remarks, pretending to leave. Immediately you jump out of the seat, pencils scattering in all directions, and hang on his elbow, much to his chagrin, disappointment, and overall annoyance.

“No, please, I promise I’ll behave,” you plead, swinging back and forth. “Just help a fellow struggling artist out. Oh, please, oh, Great Namjoon!”

For a second, the facade of unwillingness cracks, and his lips quirk in a fleeting smile but he’s quick to cement it.

“A struggling artist, my foot,” he growls. “You’ve been sitting on your ass and watching Tik-Tok videos instead of revising.”

The said ass gets a pinch and you yelp but have no excuse for it.

“I was,” softly, you agree. “I was simply enraptured by your thirst traps.”

Just for good measure, you fan your eyelashes but unfortunately, you’re at the point of your relationship, where Joon has smelt your bullshit for so long, he’s developed immunity towards it.

“Enraptured?” he smirks. “Now you’re sounding like a writer.”

Derisively shoving him away, you stomp towards the desk, to glare at the jumbled mess of words that wear the thinnest veneer of a masquerading plot.

“Okay, see how you like when I dedicate my book to my editor, my friends, the dog our neighbour owns, anyone but you!...meanie.”

Not even a second passes when with a chuckle, Namjoon leans down to lay a soft kiss against your neck.

“Okay, okay, struggling, starving artist, I’ll help you but just for an hour, okay? We have to sleep.”

Seeing your rainbow in the rain, you hum agreeably.

“An hour will do.”

“So…Abruptly?”

“Nah.”

“Hastily?”

“No,” you take one of the pencils thrown haphazardly on the desk and tap the rubber end against your lips. “What about - swiftly?”

“That’s the first thing I said!”

YOONGI: Your apartment is haunted and yet unfortunately you’re not writing a horror story and hence discard this discovery for later use. All you see and hear right now is the rain in the Canadian plains and not the traffic outside. For you, the desk is a rock, the papers littered with notes, plot points, character names, and vapid "use-this-not-this" notes make the ground.

You reach to your left, grasping around thin air, not daring to even look away. Writing was magic and often involved time travel - you looked away for one second, and the next thing you know it’s been three months and instead of half a book, you have three pages.

To your great misery, no matter which corner of the desk you shove your greedy, clutching hand, it simply grasps no cup of coffee. Dejected, you can only sigh to yourself. The ghost must have taken it.

And yet mere minutes pass and you can smell the wafting scent of a good cup of coffee. At this point, you could swear that it produces a cartoon-like effect, wisping around you enticing tendrils that flow up your nose, reducing your brain to mush. Blindly, you stretch your fingers, grasp the cup, and drink. For a two year old that sort of thing would be quite the achievement. Shame you’re not two…Physically at least. Yoongi always laughed that your mind was two years old. Starkly recalling the fact that there was such a thing as Min Yoongi and your boyfriend, both of whom created a circle in a Venn diagram, you at last drag your eyes away from the cursor and with a crick in the neck, find him standing in the doorway, sporting a tender, almost imperceptible smile.

“Ow,” you groan, putting a palm to soothe the aching muscles. “You’re home early this evening. Been here long?”

“Give or take two days,” he laughs and does so even louder when your eyes bug out of your forehead. Blinking repeatedly you realize the day and that, just as a fact in passing, Yoongi’s vacation started two days ago.

“No!” you gasp. “No, I went to sleep and all!”

“And didn’t notice me in the slightest,” he forces out in between lingering pauses of laughter. “You kept muttering about being haunted.”

“No!” you hide in the palm of your hands, mortified. “You were the ghost?”

“The fact that your first assumption is a literal undead specter and not your boyfriend taking care of you is highly upsetting,” he shook his head pitifully. You rise to your feet, throwing your arms around his neck.

“I’m sorry, baby. I was…somewhere else.”

“No worries,” he pats your back, twirling a strand of your hair when you part. “I know what it’s like. You’re ready to join the world of human society or are you with the cursed villagers still?”

“I’m with my boyfriend. Promise,” you kiss his cheek, quickly darting to close the laptop, just not before making sure for the thousandth time that it was all properly saved.

“Good,” he hums. “As amusing as it is to watch you be so absorbed, I’d like to cash in my boyfriend privileges.”

“What unfair deal will you stick me with?” you bemoan and he snakes an arm around your waist.

“Just a light massage. I’ve got some kinks to work out.”

“In all meanings of the word,” you mutter underneath your nose but he hears it and squeezes your waist tighter with a cocky smile.

JIN: “You don’t have to come. I’m alright coming home and celebrating with you. Privately," with a steady hand, you lay the final touches on your makeup and peer at him through the reflection of the mirror. Other than a form-fitting suit, Jin was wearing a deeply conflicted expression and to him, it didn't matter how many times you assured him of the opposite - he felt like a bad partner.

"You've always supported me," he muttered. "Came to greet me even when people were rude to you."

"You know, I don't care for most people," you shrugged, sliding a small bag onto the crook of your elbow. "So it doesn't much matter."

"Okay, psycho," he tries to humor, either you or himself who knows but either way, it falls flatter than wanted. As he's leaning against the wall, you press a kiss to his cheek, wiping the faint smudge of the gloss away from his skin.

"Whatever you decide, I won't take offense," you remarked in a low voice.

"But it's your night!"

"And my night never started or ended with strangers."

You shudder when the cold night seized your body, quickly rushing towards the car. Glimpsing at the clockface, you draw a huge sigh of relief. Unexpectedly, you were still on schedule. God knows why, but for some reason, you had the bizarre habit of being late to your own novel reveal.

"To the arts center, boss?" the driver inquires politely and you cast him a soft, welcoming smile.

"Exactly."

You give one last glimpse towards the apartment building before the car speeds away into the relative quiet of a Thursday evening.

For a writer, your speech was rather unimaginative, simple, and straight to the point. Thank you all for coming, enjoy the cocktails, enjoy the conversation and let the work speak for itself. At the end of the whole ordeal which was publishing a book, you were dry on words and preferred the ones that mattered, ones caught in the pages of two thick covers. You gift gracious smiles to all those who approach you, even the reporters who manage to irritate every single ounce of your nervous system. Good grief, how did Jin manage this day and night, you sighed, no wonder the man treated gatherings as a plague. As you stand to the side, successfully enjoying some peace of mind, a bouquet of plump flowers swims into your eyesight.

"Good evening, beautiful," Jin exhales smoothly, biting down on a cheeky grin. "You wouldn't mind if I kidnap you for a moment?"

Beaming, you cross your arms around his waist.

"I'm all yours," you purr. "After all that's what the story was about."

Jin's ears gain some notable blush despite the valiant efforts to remain unbothered.

"They killed their kidnapper," he objected demurely but that made your smile all the wider.

"They were a stronger person than I am."

HOSEOK: "You should publish," he belts out of the blue, forcing you to raise your gaze up from the paper and focus on the other side of the bed, where he sat, phone discarded in his lap and eyes boring into yours almost fearfully.

"What, why?" you laugh before picking up the sentence where you left it off.

"You write all the time. It's like you're addicted to it," he shrugs, presumably just so, baring no other intentions, though he was also using that "soft" voice, the one he wields whenever he wanted to change your mind. "You have entire books, completed, ready to go. Collecting dust."

"Writing is my hobby, similar to how some people knit, nothing more to it," brushing him off, you try to force your mind to retain two completely different trains of thought. One - why was Hobi using his "soft" voice and the second one - the amount of mud generated in a 19th-century backstreet alley. A completely normal thing to ponder about when in bed with an unfairly attractive man. Okay, maybe he wasn't too delusional about the addiction. With a sigh, you push the scribbled notebook away.

"I just enjoy writing. I'm afraid that if you want to publish anything that I compose, it would have to be posthumous," you scrunch your face in mocking sorrow. "You can be the grieving widow, shining a light on your partner's life's work."

His eyes glint unkindly in the muted bedroom light.

"That's not even remotely funny, ______________," he scolds. "But don't you want to...express yourself? Show your talent to the world?"

Tucking your feet under covers and pressing against the warmth of his chest, you give it a sweeping thought but remain just as indifferent.

"Showmanship is your thing," you mutter, feeling the slight tickle of his fingers brushing against your hip. "I put everything on these pages. I repaint my own life, sometimes the life that I want, or think I wanted..." at this, you trail off, thinking of the multitudes of worlds, finished and unfinished, modern and ancient, everything from the horrifying deep of the unknown to the soft passing of loving Tuesdays.

"I don't feel comfortable sharing them just yet," you conclude with a sigh. "Maybe one day, just...not right now."

"You share them with me," Hoseok notes tenderly and you smile at his obliviousness.

"Well, obviously, I share them with you," you say and the space between his eyebrows wrinkles in confusion. You lay in silence, drumming your fingers against his chest, at times of lingering pauses feeling the steady beat of his heart.

"What are you thinking about?" he hums, tightening his embrace.

"19th-century mud."

He snorts.

JIMIN: At this point, you began to regret ever giving him the manuscript. It's 2 in the morning and your head thrums with lack of sleep but the side of Jimin's bed still remains brightly lit as his feet occasionally kick at the duvet. Glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, he nibbles at the skin of his fingers, eyes breezing through the pages. Any moment now he'll start sweating.

"Stop that," you admonish him gently, pushing the hand away from his mouth. Dazed, he stares at you.

"Is it morning already?" he asks, croaking almost.

"If it would be morning, I'd kill you," you groan, plucking the book from his hands.

"Hey, I was reading that!"

"And now you're not," you retort casually, flinging your proverbial baby in the nondescript corner of the room, wrapping yourself like a liana around Jimin's squirming figure.

"Just one more chapter," he pleads.

"No."

With a defeated sigh, he slumps in your arms, only stretching briefly to flick off the light in what could only be described as a petulantly displeased manner. Darkness envelopes you whole.

"You worked hard on this story," he grumbles. "Shouldn't you treat it with more care?"

You don't give in to his attempts on provoking you, on dragging the night longer, instead, you simply let your eyes fall shut.

"That story is in my head and currently that head is turning into granola from lack of sleep so if you want to be a good fanboy, let me sleep."

"Fine," he huffs before whispering, now far timider. "You will sign a copy for me, right? When it's officially out?"

If not for you holding him down, he'd be twirling his thumbs.

"Babe, when the time comes, I'll sign your ass," you promise only partly joking. "Just, please, shut up and go to sleep."

"This needs to be taken out, I don't like this, and what the hell is this plot point all about?"

Rolling your eyes, the drone of your editor becomes a vague chatter, a creek gurgling somewhere in the wild that puts you in a state of removed consciousness. All the more startling was the phone call buzzing against your thigh. Jumping out of the seat, you glance at the screen and exit the room despite the tantrum unfolding behind you.

Jimin didn't usually call mid-day, too ensnared in his own duties, and looking at the screen now, you find you don't like this new development as your mind jubilantly assumed the worst.

"Hi," you greet him anxiously. "Is everything okay?"

Only sobs could be heard from the other line. Immediately, your hands grow cold and your knees buck.

"Jimin! What happened?!"

At last, through a vicious array of snot and breathy pants, he cries out.

"I'm dating a murderer!"

For a second you stand bewildered, temporarily lagging behind. Nonetheless, when it all catches up to you, creating a large, sensible pattern, you curse, drawing a heavy sigh of relief. He must have finished reading the story.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."

But he keeps crying further and even knowing it was far from being anything serious, your heart clenches at the sound of it.

"It's alright," you try to comfort him. "Put the manuscript down and go for a walk - wait!" you glance at the watch around your wrist. Jimin's present. "Shouldn't you be rehearsing?"

"I told them I'm not feeling good and took a day off to finish reading," he wails and you can feel the telltale sign of an oncoming headache. "Only for you to kill them in the end!" Through the endless weeping, you can only discern a few phrases of "favorite characters" and "cruelty".

"Change the ending!" he demands and for a second you remove the phone away from your ear, grimace at his antics before diving back into the conversation. Nonsense of a conversation.

"I'm not going to do that," numbly, you reply. "That's how the story goes. They die watching a sunrise."

"And you killed the dog too!"

"Yes," resigned completely, you nod along despite him not being able to see it. "I killed the dog too. You'll have to make peace with it."

For a lingering moment, there hangs only silence, before he sniffles, thoroughly dejected.

"Your heart knows no mercy," he accuses, then adds, begrudgingly sincere. "Love you."

"Love you more," you smile and then shake your head when he ends the call.

TAEHYUNG: It was barely any secret, Taehyung wanted attention. Hell, ask him and he'll say so but this was not attention per se. He was not watched out of loving thought but of clinical intent. Uncannily, he felt too much like a lab rat in the middle of his apartment, pouring milk into cereal. Warily lifting his gaze, he meets your deadset, cold eyes and flinches.

"Good morning?" he utters. You keep staring at him for a moment, before gathering your notebook and leaving the kitchen without so much as a word. Or a vowel even. Lifting a spoon of cereal to his mouth Taehyung wondered - had he done something wrong? You don't necessarily shy away from his touch or remain silent should he ask something, despite the answers being a tad absent-minded so he shrugs it away. Odd moon phases perhaps. But days pass and he feels a shudder rack his spine, freezing him mid-way with a bottle of water.

Leaning against the table, your eyes are set on him, observing his movements down to the most minuscule detail, wearing a face with zero expression. He puts down the bottle and awkwardly shuffles out of the room. When the evening settles he finds you slumbering unsightly on the sofa, hair in the face, mouth open, and notebook precariously perched upon your lap, with the pen rolled away. As any good boyfriend, he takes a picture to aggravate you with later and moves in to stir you awake, only for his gaze to catch sight of various names scribbled on the pages of the notebook. Delicately he wrenches it free and reads, recalling that for the past few weeks you seemed to be glued to this thing. To his bewilderment, he begins to piece together a string of plot, and listing back to the beginning he realizes this was your very own story.

When you wake, back a knotted mess, the sound of giggling could be faintly heard from the kitchen. Rubbing at your tired eyes, you find Taehyung sitting by the table, and with no small amount of horror you recognize your writing pad clutched between his grimy fingers.

"Give that back," you cry out, snatching it away from him in an instant, even hiding it behind your back, hoping that out of sight out of mind was real. Though he tries to remain serious, his lips flutter with unshed laughter.

"I know it's bad. You don't have to rub it in," you grumble and he rushes to capture your face between his palms, irritatingly still laughing.

"It's not bad!" he assures, gaze softening at the sight of your anguish. "I just think it's so cute you based your main character on me."

You blink.

"You and Kaz have nothing in common."

He cocks an eyebrow, drawling an arid:

"Really?"

"You don't! Two completely different people."

"Brown, floppy hair," he lifts up one of his curls. "Brown eyes, likes jazz music."

"Lots of people like jazz music," you mumble underneath your nose and he tucks you into a hug.

"Sure, baby," he laughs, graciously ignoring your bristling. "I can't wait to read more."

You slumped in his arms, cheek lifting in a small smile. He just couldn't resist.

"Of me, obviously."

JUNGKOOK: "How fast do you think a person bleeds out after being shot?"

The question is posed so unconcernedly that it takes a while for Jungkook to register its meaning. When he does, the hand caressing your bare leg, laying in his lap, freezes. Even your eyes were still glued to the movie and he ponders whether you realized the question was even spoken out loud and not locked behind the confines of your mind.

"I don't know," he shrugs. "Depends where on the body, I think."

You hum and the conversation stops there.

"How much would it hurt to have this jammed into the eye?" you question once again out loud, holding a metal straw over the breakfast he cooked for you. Just as before, your face gains some level of absence and Jungkook quickly grasps it means you were not really here.

"A lot," he responds, suspecting and increasingly concerned about the possibility of you having intrusive thoughts. Yet when he voices this, you brush it aside, laughing that it was just a passing idea. Wary, he believes you, afraid of otherwise.

But then you mumble a name in your sleep. And it's not his name. Steam rising to his face, he can feel his blood boiling as you keep moaning someone else's name. At last his patience breaks. Roughly shaking you awake, he tongues at his cheek.

"What?" groggily, you mutter, desperately trying to process the situation. "What happened?"

"You were muttering in your sleep," hearing it now, Jungkook understands that it might sound just a little silly but obstinately, he keeps at it. "A name. Not mine."

However, instead of cursing him out or being annoyed, your gaze drops to the duvet, flustered.

"_________, the truth," he orders sternly. "Please."

You bite on your lip but ultimately crumple under his piercing stare and head hung low from shame, paddle towards the desk. Confused, he watches you open up your laptop and show him a document.

"Misfortunately, Yours," it read. "Chapter One. Drastic Consequences to a Hurried Decision Making."

"Oh, thank God," he gasps, dropping back on the bed as relief floods his system. "Thank you, ancestors."

"I don't see how they're a part of this," you grouse but it remains unheard.

For some reason, Jungkook doesn't stop thinking of that night as he pours through the entire neighborhood, in vain hopes of trying to find you. Deep snow has descended upon the world, coating everything in mountains of white obstruction. Obstruction which at this moment Jungkook desperately wanted to get rid of. Perhaps had he cheered more for you, helped you edit better...perhaps the outcome would have been different. Maybe the blow wouldn't have hit you this hard.

With freezing fingers, you numbly re-read, the last passage of the book review column, printed in the national newspaper.

"Misfortunately Yours" is nothing but pulpy, self-inflated scribble of an inexperienced pen person, writing out their fantasies on a page when it should be contained to archives of the dark internet. Offering to us, readers, nothing but ambiance, it lacks everything from characterization to a solid backstory or really anything to grip the audience's interest. 1 of 5 stars."

Well, that's that then.

"_____________! ____________!" a desperate voice calls from the distance and apathetically you meet it's familiar owner. Jungkook's jacket is unbuttoned and one end of his scarf is dragging against the shoveled snow. "Oh, baby!"

At the sound of his coos, the sting of repressed tears gnaws at your eyes.

"You're freezing," he exclaims, wrapping a scarf around your neck whilst wrenching you away from the bench. You really were cold.

"It's going to be okay," Jungkook whispers against the shell of your ear, rubbing his palms against your shoulders - warming you up. "It's going to be okay. Just don't give up. No one can decide whether you're a writer or not. That's entirely up to you."

On the way home, you toss the newspaper into the trash, without looking back.

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