#ch: choi aera

[kitsunesx]

@sweetdreamsshootingstars

“Ugh, I get enough scary stuff at work, the last thing I need is to see a scary movie,” Aera teased, but she was not entirely saying no. Besides, she had quickly googled the movie and it didn’t seem to be as bad as she had originally thought.

[blackswan18]

Too Good To Be True - Ch. 1 | kth (m)

Summary: Kim Taehyung is a world famous idol in the hit K-pop group, BTS, and you are his personal stylist. Per your contract with BigHit, he is absolutely, 100% off-limits, and yet, you are completely and hopelessly in love with him. You’ve spent years trying to shove your feelings down, but it’s getting harder and harder to ignore and hide them, especially considering the way Tae always treats you. He’s affectionate and protective and sometimes outright flirtatious, but that’s how he is with everyone, right? Confused, frustrated, and lovesick, you find yourself wondering if it might finally be worth risking your career and your heart to find out.

pairing: Taehyung x reader

genre: Idol! au, fluff, angst, eventual smut, friends to lovers, slow burn

rating: 18+

word count: 2.2k

warnings: none (for now)

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Chapter 1: Special Lady Friend

It was the night of the Mnet Asian Music Awards and you were running late. You shoved opened the door to the dressing room and strode over to your station to find Tae already seated, casually scrolling on his phone. He looked up when you set your bag down and flashed you his famous, boxy smile.

“Thank goodness you’re here, Noona,” he said exaggeratedly. “I need you to make me beautiful for the show tonight!”

You couldn’t help but laugh as you looked over the man in front of you. He was, without a doubt, the most naturally beautiful person you had ever seen. “Tae. You and I both know that isn’t true. You roll out of bed every day looking perfect. I actually don’t even know why I have a job, come to think of it.”

He blushed slightly and his smile turned shy.

“I, on the other hand, need copious amounts of makeup to look even remotely presentable,” you said with another laugh as you started unpacking your bag.

A small frown quickly spread across his face. “That’s not true, Noona. You’re not wearing makeup now and you look fine,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Fine,” you repeated, giving him a playful smile. “Geez, Tae. You really know how to flatter a girl.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but was suddenly cut off by the voice of Namjoon who was sitting in the adjacent chair.

“Please forgive my dongsaeng, Noona. He’s clearly a little confused. I believe what he meant to say is that you look very pretty today,” the older man said warmly.

“You are too kind, Oppa,” you said with a small smile, hoping you weren’t blushing too much. Namjoon may not have been the one you were madly in love with, but he was still an incredibly attractive man whose compliments flustered you. 

He was also, however, a married man.

Having finished with his hair and makeup, Namjoon was about to get up from his chair when you suddenly reached out and lightly grabbed his arm. “Ring,” was all you said as you nodded your head towards his left hand. 

“Oh right,” he said, following your gaze. “Thanks for the reminder.” He then slipped the slim, silver band from his left ring finger and placed it in his breast pocket.

“Anytime,” you said with an easy smile. “Mrs. Choi has put us all on ‘ring patrol’.”

He laughed at that, saying he and his wife, Aera, appreciated your vigilance, before excusing himself and heading out of the room. Once he was gone, you turned back to Tae and got started on his makeup . 

“He’s going to get caught one of these days,” you mused. “Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s adorable that he tries to wear it as often as he can, but one slip up and the secret is out. ARMY sees everything.”

“They do,” Tae agreed thoughtfully. He was quiet for a couple moments before adding. “But, would it really be such a bad thing if ARMY found out? They are going to find out eventually. Why not just announce it now and get it over with?”

“I guess not”, you replied. “At least then they could stop with all the secrecy and hiding and just be together.” 

“Exactly,” Tae said pointedly.

“But,” you said after a few moments of thought, “it wouldn’t be easy. A lot of people would be really upset. Angry even, as crazy as that sounds. And it could be dangerous, especially for Aera.”

He let out a long sigh and was quiet for a minute. “It would be tough. I know some ARMY would be really sad at first,” he said solemnly before adding more hopefully. “But, eventually they would be happy for us, right?”

“I hope so,” you offered with a small smile.

“Me too,” he said wistfully.

He was quiet again after that, no doubt pondering the complicated situation he and the rest of the band currently found themselves in. They were loved fiercely by their fans, truly cherished and adored, but it came with a price. The guys did so much for ARMY, gave so much of themselves to ARMY, that many fans grew strangely and unfairly possessive. Suddenly there was this expectation, this desire that everything they do, every romantic lyric, every sweet gesture be for them and only them. The guys being in open, committed relationships would shatter that fantasy and could threaten the powerful bond they’d long had with their fandom.

On top of that was the far more serious issue of their significant others being in legitimate danger. It was bad enough that the guys and their families were constantly being followed and threatened, but things would get exponentially worse with a significant other in the picture. Media outlets and crazed sasaeng fans would undoubtedly stalk, harass, and possibly even physically harm them to gain information about the guys and the relationship. 

Sadly, you’d already seen it happen firsthand. Namjoon and Aera’s relationship, engagement, and eventually marriage had yet to become public knowledge, but there still had been several incidents over the years. She had been followed numerous times, her apartment had been broken into, and her photo had even briefly circulated on some sketchy websites. Namjoon and BigHit had stepped in and taken care of things before they escalated, but everyone, including the other guys, had been extremely unsettled by it nonetheless.

It was an incredibly unfortunate, but seemingly unavoidable reality for all of them which honestly just broke your heart. Though you were in love with Tae, you loved all the other members like family. They deserved to be happy and to openly and safely share their lives with loving partners, but sometimes it just didn’t seem like that would ever be possible.

~~~

As you were doing his hair a bit later, Tae began absentmindedly playing with the ring that was hanging from a chain around his neck. It was a beautiful piece featuring a large, purple diamond surrounded by smaller white ones. He wore it constantly, often switching it to a longer chain so it would stay hidden beneath the neckline of a more open shirt. The only times he didn’t wear it was when he was afraid it would pop out during a performance. In those instances, he would put it in his pocket for safekeeping during the show and then immediately put it back on after. Though it was a ring, you’d never once seen him wear it on his finger.

Although you were his stylist, and therefore the one who created and approved all of his outfits, including his jewelry, you never said anything about the ring. You knew it was a nonnegotiable. He always kept it out of sight anyway so it didn’t really matter. 

You didn’t know why he wore it, but you knew it was of great personal value to him. That much was clear from how delicately he handled it and the fact that he never let it out of his sight. You sometimes wondered if it was a promise ring, but you were fairly certain he wasn’t dating anyone. At least you hoped he wasn’t.

You often found yourself mindlessly staring at it, marveling at how beautiful it was and wondering what exactly it meant to him. You must have been doing it again now because suddenly Tae was looking at you through the mirror with a small smirk.

“All these years and you’ve never asked about it,” he said, clearly referring to the ring.

Feeling flustered for having been caught staring, you quickly dropped your gaze as you casually replied, “I didn’t think it was my place to ask. It seems very important and very personal to you. I figured if you wanted to talk about it you would.”

A beat of silence passed.

“It’s not a promise ring,” he finally said, eyeing you curiously, “in case you were wondering.”

“Oh, I definitely didn’t think it was that,” you replied quickly as if trying to convince yourself that you hadn’t spent an absurd amount of time worrying about that very possibility.

“Ouch, Noona,” he said, feigning hurt. “Is it that hard to imagine someone wanting to date me?”

You laughed at the ridiculousness of his question. Who wouldn’t want to date him? You knew you did.

“Come on, Tae. I think I’d know if you were seeing someone. You gush about the new friends you make at the dog park. You would never be able to keep quiet about a special lady friend,” you said teasingly.

“Ok, I can not believe you just called my non-existent girlfriend a ‘special lady friend’,” he said, looking mortified.

At that you burst out laughing; the term ‘special lady friend’ sounded so much more ridiculous when he said it. His face was also just priceless.

He eventually started laughing too, as usual being unable to contain himself after taking one look at you. When you first started your job, the two of you discovered your shared sense of humor almost immediately and it had been an endless string of giggles ever since. Both of you were all but physically incapable of not laughing when the other was laughing. 

This phenomenon only occasionally interfered with your work, Tae having learned the hard way that it was both difficult and dangerous for you to apply his eyeliner while your body was literally racking with laughter. Out of the seven member/stylist pairs, you two had been unanimously dubbed ‘the rowdy’ ones. It was a title you two wore proudly, except when the stylists’ manager, Mrs. Choi, was around. 

She was not a fan of your antics, however, like almost everyone else on the planet, she had a soft spot for Tae. You sensed she merely put up with you out of affection for the young man. But, at the end of the day, your continued employment at BigHit and position as Tae’s stylist wasn’t up to her. It was up to Tae and Bang Si-Hyuk.

Knowing that made you feel rather secure with your position. You were certain Tae was never going to ask you to be replaced, the terrified look on his face whenever you jokingly threatened to quit serving as proof of that. And, Bang Si-Hyuk had taken a strong liking to you after you saved him from a rather embarrassing wardrobe malfunction at an award show shortly after you started at BigHit. 

Yes, your job was perfectly safe...as long as no one knew you were in love with Tae.

~~~

You were reliving some of your favorite chaotic memories with Tae when his sudden change of tone pulled you back to the present. 

“The ring was my grandmother’s,” he said in a quiet, solemn voice. “It was her wedding ring.”

Sensing the sadness in his voice, you immediately stopped fussing with his hair and looked up at him through the mirror. He was looking down at the ring in his hand, his expression stoic. 

“She left it to me when she died,” he continued. “She told me to keep it safe until I was ready to give it to the person I wanted to spend my life with.”

“I’ve been wearing it as a necklace since the day of her funeral,” he went on. “That way she’s always close to my heart.”

Of all the possibilities you’d considered over the years, this one had never crossed your mind, but it made complete sense once he said it. Growing up, Tae had been incredibly close with his grandparents, his grandmother in particular. He talked about her often, always recounting funny stories and fond memories. She passed before you started working at BigHit and honestly you were grateful for that. Tae had been absolutely devastated when it happened and you knew it would have crushed you to not only see him like that but to be unable to comfort him the way you truly wanted to.

“Tae, that’s incredibly sweet,” you said softly. “She’d be proud to know you’ve been taking such good care of it. I mean, I didn’t know what it was, but I could just tell that it meant the world to you.”

“Thanks, Y/N,” he said, giving you a small, somewhat sad smile. “I really appreciate you saying that.”

“But anyway,” he continued, brightening up as he spoke, “now you know.”

“Now I know,” you repeated slowly.

“Are you surprised?” he tentatively asked a minute later.

“Maybe a little,” you admitted.

His face fell a bit when you said that, and it suddenly struck you that he might be self-conscious of why he wore it, so you quickly clarified.

“It's just, I didn't realize you were such a romantic,” you said with a laugh.

“A hopeless romantic,” he responded dryly. 

“Aww, don’t say that,” you said, giving him a serious look.

“You’ll find someone special...who is a lady...and also maybe a friend,” you then said as you tried and ultimately failed to keep a straight face. 

“I hate you,” he said with a laugh.

“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help myself,” you said, your own laughter spilling out.

“But, I did mean it,” you continued more seriously. “You’ll find someone to give that ring to.”

As you said that, you turned around to rummage through your bag for something. The thought of him presenting that beautiful, purple ring to someone else made your heart ache and you knew the anguish you felt would be written all over your face.

‘’I hope so,” he said wistfully, taking a quick glance at you through the mirror before tucking the ring into his shirt. “It’s too beautiful to stay hidden forever.”

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[kitsunesx]

“Is she a good shaman?” Aera asked, since that seemed to be an appropriate line of thinking to go. If she was going to get attacked by a ghost, she was going to have a good backup plan. “Alright, scary striped man it is. If I get possessed then I promise that I will make it a you problem,” she assured with a pat to his shoulder.

"my auntie is a shaman, so I can easily get rid of ghosts, I just call her." He beamed proudly. "You picked them, you wouldn't like the movie pick so I let you pick, isn't that what a gentleman does, let the lady pick."

[kitsunesx]

@notfrsale

“Let me see, I promise that it’s not nearly as bad as you think it is,” Aera said, trying to wedge herself into the bathroom door. She wasn’t entirely sure what they were even upset about, but knew that locking themselves away in the bathroom would not make the problem disappear.

[kitsunesx]

@erotichorrors​ 

“I think that we’re going to need a different plan. This one isn’t really working out as well as I had hoped…”

[kitsunesx]

@hikayat

“Come on, consider it an adventure. It’s not as though they were reporting anything seriously dangerous. It was mostly just people saying that other people were acting weird,” Aera urged, but even she had to admit this was probably not her wisest idea. But it was so incredibly rare that she got an answer to what happened, and the calls she had received that night had definitely been some of the weirder ones she had received.

[kitsunesx]

“Usually when they experiment with something we get noise complaints because they’ve found an empty warehouse to drop acid in. They don’t usually call themselves,” Aera said. The last thing most of these people wanted to do was admit they were doing an illegal drug with a bunch of people in an area they weren’t supposed to be in. “Maybe if we throw food at the ghosts they’ll go away? I don’t have any other ideas though. I do admit that I watch a lot of those shows about the paranormal but it’s always about finding the paranormal. Oddly enough, not a whole lot of how to solve the problem once you’re done,” she said with her tone dripping in sarcasm at the end. “They didn’t sound that young. Like maybe closer to mid-twenties. A little too old sounding to be doing a stupid prank.”

"Eh, freaking out huh..." Damien made a small shrug of his shoulders. "Probably the streets are experimenting with something new again" He briefly remembers a stint a few years back when chemistry kids were trying out drugs, few people had hands of them and subsequently the streets were filled with aggressive people, especially in the gig scene. "Hopefully it is those stuffs because I have to remind you" he gestured to his own person, "I love reckless stuff but ghosts? you have to cancel me on that, I am willing to admit that I am good as useless as that in it" He explained himself shamelessly, "How old are those kids that called you in?"

[kitsunesx]

Choi Aera. Like this for a starter.

[kitsunesx]

choi aera. open to m / f / nb.

“They definitely didn’t mention anything about there not being two beds in the room,” Aera sighed, setting her bags on the ground as she walked further into the hotel room. It was the first vacation that she had taken in years and every hotel in the city was completely sold out. “This is okay, right?”

[kitsunesx]

“Try this for me,” Aera said, practically shoving the kimchi under their nose. But she had been working on it and needed to know if it was perfect, something she couldn’t determine because she had been taking nibbles for a while at that point.

[kitsunesx]

“It can be salvaged! As long as there is still hair on your head it can be turned into something that you can pull off,” Aera said, with as much confidence as she could force through the door. “And if you need to go bald, I’m sure you can pull that off too. It’s actually a little obnoxious how many hairstyles are going to look good on you. You should have seen the bangs I gave myself when I was thirteen… If those can be fixed, anything can,” she assured.

"It is as bad as I think it is." Finley sighed. Why did she even think that it would be a good idea to cut her own hair herself? Oh, yes, all the videos of people doing it themselves and the outcome ended up looking pretty cool. But when she did it, it looked like she had been to a war. Her hair was ruined.

[kitsunesx]

Like this for a starter from Choi Aera. She is a police dispatcher trying to figure out wtf she’s going to do.

[kitsunesx]

@notfrsale asked “You look a little pale, is it the crowd..?” (from Collin to whoever fits best)

“I’m sorry,” she said immediately, because he had picked out her anxiety of being in such a large crowd pretty quickly. She had just taken way too many calls where someone got injured in a crowd like this. Usually because people freaked out for some reason, which hopefully wouldn’t be happening. She wasn’t looking to be a reason someone had to call because she had fallen. “It’s been a while since I’ve been like… Anywhere,” she admitted. Most of her days were spent in the call center, her personal life had kind of died off a while ago.

[kitsunesx]

Closed for @betweenlifes​

“We’re going to catch a cold out here, what are we looking at?” Aera scolded, crossing her arms over her chest firmly to try and keep herself warm. She had contacted them when it was clear that she was going to be at work later than she usually was. It was almost past midnight and  the temperature had certainly dropped a great deal since she had gone in to work. Honestly, she was just thankful that the other had shown up to help her get home. “There were a ton of calls tonight about people that were outside and started to go through hypothermia... But they didn’t realize it and just lay down, So you better not make me call when you fall on ice or do something stupid,” she grumbled, keeping an eye on them.

[kitsunesx]

open for all. 

“I need for you to go with me to my parent’s house and pretend that you’re my partner so that they will get off my back about being a spinster. Which I’m not one,” Aera begged, and she already knew that she would do anything. Her mother was the one that was really pushy. She wanted to know why Aera was so focus on her work instead of finding a partner to settle down with. Her brother was doing it, and he was only a little bit older than her. So, they were suddenly concerned about her love life, all of a sudden.

[kitsunesx]

open to all. 

“It was a very busy night. I really thought I would walk out of the call center to the whole city on fire,” Aera admitted, sitting down across from them at the coffee shop. She had just gotten off a twelve-hour shift at the police dispatch center, a busy job that she was oddly suited to. “I genuinely hope that you didn’t have to deal with any of that,” she said, wondering if the other had noticed any of the increased criminal behavior in the city. She usually worked the busy nights, so if she was concerned about the amount of calls that she got, that meant something.