#cream koi has my heart <3 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

deluluass · 4 years ago

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What bliss, domesticity.

for: @tink2kagome. i’m sorry it took me so long to work on ur pretty setter squad request T^T i’ll probably do like another one in the future!

& @lady-tokugawa-of-mikawa @belpomme @chaichai-the-weeb for being such lovely mutuals <3 <3

Content warnings: rape/noncon; nsfw; yakuza/organized crime; gun mention; a lot of (non-sexual) food references in this one

Jun’ichi Saikawa was obviously the kind of man who liked to laugh. Not unlike most people in their world. The kind who use their entire body when they do, announcing to the entire world with a bellowing “Ha Ha Ha!” how pleased they are with whatever’s going on in front of them.

Which, in all honesty, was pretty admirable, that the old man could still do it considering how bored to tears Wataru was.

That it’s a humid afternoon didn’t help either. He could feel the sweat on his back even when the doors were already slid open, exhibiting a verdant garden filled with blossoms and shrub peonies. From his place he could see the school of koi swirling in the shallow pond, their scales iridescent under the warm rays of the sun.

“Didn’t know you were the funny sort, 'Kaashi!” Saikawa blurted out, the sake in his hand spilling to his fingers.

This wasn’t Wataru’s first day on the job, but this is the first that he gets to do something this important. And with someone he highly respects, too.

So he gave his collar a light tug, steeling himself to endure as he tucked his legs further beneath him, and resorted to thinking about the many things he would absolutely surrender just to lie down on the warm mat.

His car, maybe.

The brand new noise-cancelling headphones he bought, if pushed.

Wataru saw Akaashi nod.

“I appreciate a joke every now and then,” he said.

The larger man laughed again.

“Here, here!” Saikawa thundered, snatching a tiny, yellow box from the maid who appeared as swiftly as she’d left.

“I heard you like sweets. Here,” he said, grinning as he handed it to Akaashi. “My youngest son just opened a cake shop. I know what you’re thinking, but who am I to say no, eh?”

Akaashi passed the box to Wataru.

“Mind it for me, please,” he whispered.

How unexpected. Akaashi-san has a sweet tooth.

Huh.

That’s pretty neat. Wataru himself wasn’t partial to cakes, but he does love pudding.

“You are a good father, Jun’ichi-san,” Akaashi told him.

This time, Wataru didn’t bother suppressing a yawn as Saikawa fumbled for his phone, hiding it behind his hand as he stared at the birds chirping and hopping about outside.

“Wanna see him? He’s much like you! Good head on his shoulders, that one.”

“I am honored, Jun’ichi-san,” Akaashi echoed back, peering down at the photos Saikawa showed him.

“He sends me a lot of these- uh,” Saikawa snorted, his nose reddened by the alcohol. “What do young people call it, the- pictures-”

“Selfies?” Akaashi politely supplied.

“That’s the one! Look. Precious, ain’t he?”

His earpiece crackled to life.

Konoha’s voice emerged from the static.

“We’re ready when you are,” his senior murmured. “Man, this is taking too long. Let’s get some burgers when we’re done.”

“Akaashi-san,” Wataru croaked, feeling his cheeks heat up as he continued, “K-Komi-san and the others are waiting for you.”

Saikawa perked up. “Ah, of course! Of course!”

He stumbled when he attempted to stand up. Akaashi was quick on his feet to assist him.

“I knew I could count on you, son,” he muttered, patting Akaashi’s back. “Now, you tell Bokuto that what happened between us- it’s all in the past! All in the past! And if those bastards mess with him again, you tell him to run to old Jun’ichi!”

Akaashi clasped Saikawa’s hand.

“Thank you,” Akaashi said. “I’ll be sure to relay your sentiments to Bokuto-san.”

“You do that, my boy.” Saikawa’s belly shook as he laughed. “Your generation’s a smart one, indeed. The in-fighting and wars, bah! All that trouble for nothing; that’s not your style. Your lot’s the future now!”

Then, Akaashi stepped a few meters back and bowed.

Wataru followed behind him.

“We will be taking our leave,” Akaashi said. “It has been an illuminating talk, Jun’ichi-san.”

The sound of the bamboo drip trickling water into another stalk permeated through the silence.

It collapsed and clunked against a stone.

He heard the birds flutter away.

When Wataru raised his head, Saikawa had already been lying face down on the floor.

And, of course, Wataru’s used to it: the crack of a gun muffled by a silencer.

He’s been practicing his entire life, after all. He actually doesn’t flinch anymore and Wataru thinks he should be proud of himself.

It’s just that... how could someone who used to be there, suddenly...disappear? Saikawa was right in front of him a few minutes ago. Laughing and showing off photographs of his son. And now he’s...not.

But, Saikawa didn’t disappear. Not really.

The blood seeping through the tatami is proof of it, but Wataru chooses not to look. In theory, he knows what a bullet through the skull looks like. He’d just rather not see today if what he’s taught reflects true in the real world.

Maybe some other time.

“Wataru.”

Wataru flinched. “Y-yes?”

Akaashi looked back at him. “The cake?”

His body was still trembling and it took a lot of strength to not let it show in his hands when he gave it back to Akaashi, the box pleasantly yellow with doodles of doe-eyed eggs dancing along the handle. Unblemished, unlike Akaashi, who was sporting a splatter of blood along his cheek.

It’s surprisingly still cool to touch, too.

“No, thank you,” he said, rejecting the handkerchief that Wataru offered.

From afar, Wataru could hear the faint melodies of an old love song being played by a car radio. No doubt Konoha’s doing. It followed them, growing louder the closer they walked back into the parking lot. The others bowed and sent gruff salutations along Akaashi’s way as they dragged bodies out of the Saikawa mansion.

(It was nauseating and Wataru wanted to pass out.)

He pressed his nails harshly into the meat of his palm.

“A-Akaashi-san,” Wataru began. “I didn’t know that- that um, you liked... sweets.”

Akaashi halted.

“No, I don’t,” he said, blinking. “But my wife does.”

Wataru stared at him.

Akaashi went ahead.

He stayed that way— staring and wondering, until they stopped by the fast food restaurant that Konoha loved so much. Wataru couldn’t even finish his burger and fries.

By the time that they hit the freeway, Akaashi had already cleaned himself up and Wataru was still grappling with the word “wife.”

Of course he knows the man is married.

But, how, exactly, do you reconcile his reputation with the sight of him, every passing headlight sharpening his features, quietly humming along to Aki Yashiro? Who was longing for Shinjuku at night, the beauty of it, and oh, how wonderful it’d be, she said: a rendezvous with her lover, waiting for her under raining cherry blossoms.

Wataru figured that he was tired and starting to see things.

That small smile that graced Akaashi’s lips couldn't be real, either, especially those hands of his that held the box of cake like it’s worth more than gold.

He wasn't really particular when it comes to music. A song's a song, in Akaashi's opinion. Another form of noise that helps when the silence gets too overbearing.

But you, on the other hand, liked music. Listened to it the same way one eats their favorite food: memorizes the lyrics; goes out of your way to collect unearthed photographs and newspaper clippings that made the singer seem more human.

You loved music— was probably the right way of putting it.

Especially the old variety. He didn't get it at first. The sounds are dated; no one speaks in that language with that cadence anymore; the singer's probably dead.

Well, Akaashi still doesn't get it, if he were to be honest.

Yet here he is.

His hands were wrapped around your waist, coaxing you into a slow— albeit clumsy, waltz.

"Kei-kun!" you squeaked. "The dishes!"

You dragged your slippers beneath you, struggling to wipe the suds off your hands.

"S-seriously, Kei-kun..!"

Sure, he doesn’t fully understand what’s great about it, music.

Yet here he is.

Perhaps it’s because he immediately recognized the first few notes this time, that’s why he’s doing this. He didn’t even wait for the DJ to finish saying, “You’re still listening to Vintage F.M. Here’s a classic for you couples out there. Have a romantic night with Nat King Cole’s L-O-V-”

Perhaps it’s because your cream stew tasted extra special that it made him shrug the fatigue off, giving in to the urge of pulling you close and taking your damp hand in his to sway and bob along the skipping bassline. Your bashful objections went in one ear and out the other.

Sure, he’s not the type to do this, either, dancing.

Yet here he is.

Perhaps it’s because he knew that it’s your favorite song.

Perhaps it’s just what marriage does to you.

"Did you like the cake?" he whispered against your neck, inhaling the scent of cinnamon and the way your skin jumped as he did.

Your breaths were shallow against his chest, but you managed a soft, “Yes, sweetheart. Thank you.”

Akaashi caressed your back, kneading the tensed muscles as he huffed.

“Good,” he murmured, trembling. “Good girl. What a relief."

It was endearing, how offbeat the both of you were. A shame, though, considering that Nat King Cole’s fervently insisting on love; that it’s all that I can give to you; that it’s more than just a game for two.

So Akaashi makes up for his two left feet by joining in. He pressed his lips to your forehead. How strange, your presence in his life. What did he do to deserve you by his side, for this contentment that thaws away the chill?

(He put a ring on your finger, is what he did. He deserves this.)

“Two,” he droned, made giddy by the sparks in his belly, “in love can make it.”

You looked at him, wide-eyed.

“Take my heart and please don’t break it.”

He spun you around.

“Oh my god, Kei-kun,” you gasped. “You can’t sing.”

Akaashi’s aware of it all too well. He can’t carry a note; not him: the guy who’s had monotony ingrained in his very being. But that’s why he has you.

A startled giggle left you as he guided you into a box step, the trumpet rising and falling over the strings. You stepped on him a few times, so he lifted you up, just so, and kicked off your slippers. Then, he set your feet atop his own.

He took you with him as he moved, waddling and careful not to hit his back against the countertop. It came as no revelation that both of you weren’t any better dancers even after this maneuver.

Akaashi continued. Starting with L—

“Is for the way you look at me.”

“Stop, stop-” Your eyes crinkled at the sides. “You’re flat.”

Akaashi persisted, anyway, taking your cheek to pepper kisses all over your face.

“O is for the only one I see.”

Your laugh was airy— light and buoyant all over the kitchen, like a fairy leaving stardust in its wake. Not gratingly booming nor demanding. After all, you weren’t the kind who felt the need for it: an audience to witness how pleased you are; how strong and powerful you are over everyone else.

Besides, your laugh was just for him. A private and intimate thing. And he was so lost in it that he almost forgot what’s been gnawing at him for the entire morning.

Akaashi rested his chin on your shoulder, nuzzling the downy fabric of your dress as he gripped you by the hips.

“Where did you go earlier?”

The orchestra was in a joyous uproar, joining the rapid beating of your heart; the trumpet bright and clear, singing in harmony with the bass and saxophones and trombones, as Nat King Cole repeatedly guaranteed, as if an oath, that love was made for me and you.

Love was made for me and you.

“I had to buy some groceries!” you piped up. “We ran out of ingredients. Sorry, I forgot to bring my phone with me. Oh, I have to run you a bath. I’ll tell you when it’s done, alright?”

You broke away from him with a beaming grin, but Akaashi wanted to ask, despite the evidence of it before him.

“Are you happy?”

It has already ended, the song. The DJ was signing off for the night.

You nodded, playfully jabbing his arm with a fist.

“Of course,” you told him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Perhaps it’s because you were never really good at pretense, no matter how much you hid behind needless noise.

Music. Laughter. Running water.

Akaashi sighed as he slumped down the nearest stool.

Of course you’re happy. Why wouldn’t you be?

After rubbing his eyes with clammy fingers, Akaashi fiddled them together beneath his temples. He released a heavy breath and fished for his phone in his pocket.

He spoke after the first two rings.

“Wataru-san, I’m sorry for bothering you,” he said. “Can you do something for me?”

His subordinate didn't ask him why, neither did he react when he'd stated his request. Akaashi knew, however, that the question was sitting in Wataru's clipped replies. The boy’s “yes, sir” and “understood, sir” were far too enthusiastic than normal.

Akaashi didn’t mind, though, if he did ask. And despite that familiar pang of dread, Akaashi would answer him like the common— just like the average, everyday husband— with that characteristic, bordering on irksome pride that they have when they talk about their wives.

Why?

“Well, Wataru-san,” Akaashi would answer. “Perhaps this is just what marriage does to you.”

The house was a house like any other.

There was an old pickup truck parked outside the freshly painted gate, carrying crates of fruits and vegetables in its trunk. Along the bricked walls was an overgrowth of vines and ferns. It extended around the windows and crept up the balcony.

A large Shiba ran outside and jumped to your lap as soon as it saw you by the driveway.

Wataru heard Chiaki stir at the back of the car.

“Pay up, asshole,” he grunted, waking a disheveled Ryota who’s still holding a half-bitten melon bread.

His lackey cracked his neck and gave the scenery a cursory glance. “Could be a front.”

Ryota grumbled and went back to sleep.

“Idiot,” Chiaki clicked his tongue. “She traveled all the way to Miyagi just to give intel? And here? Of all places?”

Three days.

They’ve tailed you for three days. Akaashi-san never said anything else, besides that within the week, while he’s gone and sealing deals in another country, there was a high likelihood of you folding and getting out of Tokyo.

To run right here. In Miyagi.

He didn’t say why, really, but Wataru supposes it’s better that he didn’t. Because during the days of absolute, mind-crushing boredom, of watching some suburban wife go out for a morning walk, chat with her neighbors, and shop around the market, rinse and repeat, coming up with the Why had been their only salvation.

The betting pool has two answers: cheater or snitch.

Chiaki was insistent on the former, while Ryota stood by the latter.

And Wataru...Wataru could only watch, waiting with a bated breath as the door finally opened.

“I bet it’s someone younger,” Chiaki said. “Usually is.”

Seems that none of them were winning anything today.

The man who emerged from the house was far older— who, oddly enough, resembled you. An old woman soon followed behind him. Both of them looked at you as if they were witnessing a specter, or someone who's crawled back from the dead. An appropriate comparison, especially since they’re both wearing somber black clothes.

It wasn’t his place to assume. Though he’s been promoted to a slightly higher position, it will never come close to the place that Keiji Akaashi occupies. Wataru knows all of these, but nothing was stopping him from putting the pieces together, no matter what little he has.

They could only stare when all of you broke down into tears, locked in each other’s embrace as you knelt on the pavement.

Don’t let her stay too long.

That had been one of Akaashi-san’s orders.

So the three of them didn’t wait it out. By the time that the sun had set, Wataru had already stepped out of the car, taking Ryota with him. He made sure to remind the boy, just in case he’d forgotten.

“Be gentle, alright?” Wataru reiterated.

There hadn’t been any need for that, it turned out.

He’s sure you’ve never met before, but Wataru saw bitter understanding flash in your eyes when you caught them loitering in front of your house. Fear was there, too, of course.

Wataru was convinced that surely it’s a good thing. It saved everyone a lot of time, that way.

You didn’t even say a word, only giving Wataru a stiff nod when he’d introduced himself, and remained like so on the ride back to Tokyo, with the strap of your handbag trapped by a clenched fist. Wataru didn’t try to initiate small talk; it felt unnecessary.

It took a while for Wataru to realize that you also hadn’t bothered to change out of your pajamas, though he gave you a couple of minutes to say your farewells.

Pajamas, obscured now by a thick, gray coat.

Akaashi-san was right.

You had no plans of coming home. Not tonight. Maybe not for a while.

Wataru decided not to linger on it anymore.

He ignored the blank stare that pierced right through the rear-view mirror. And then, Wataru wondered, hand sweating in his pocket, what the three of them should have for dinner.

Thick chunks of pumpkin melted in your mouth with just the first spoonful of broth.

It'd been a while since the last time Akaashi cooked. So, more than anything, it was the sight of him setting plates and utensils that took you aback, greeting you with a, "Welcome home. You're just in time. Food's ready," his sleeves rolled to his elbows while donning your baby owl-printed apron.

The taste didn't. Surprise you, that is. He's a good cook. Unlike you, who only became marginally better one hundred burn scars later.

It also didn't surprise you that he flew back home at the drop of a hat. Even when he said he'd be gone for a week.

"How is it?" Akaashi asked after chewing. "Took me a while to make it."

It obviously did, you thought. When you arrived, Irma Thomas was already begging through the record player.

"Do you need me, like I need you?" she implored, straight from the heart. "Look at me, I'm crying from holding you."

The last song on your favorite record. It was cheap and had the best from the artists you loved.

Etta James. Ella Fitzgerald. Aretha Franklin. The Mills Brothers. Bessie Smith. All in one vinyl.

"Yeah," you replied, clearing your throat when you realized how hard it is to speak. "It's delicious."

You looked back down to your bowl. The tofu had gone untouched. Your food was still close to spilling to the brim, while Akaashi was almost finished with his, scrolling on his phone laid on the table.

"So no one coaxed you into it," you heard him say, and that had ripped your eyes away from the broth like a bandage on an infected wound.

Akaashi was holding your phone, reading the messages- his number was the only one there, as pealing bells resonated in the dining room.

"I'd think of all the things that I wanted of you," cried Irma Thomas. "To make me forget the pain that you caused."

"I would've known if anyone else talked to you, anyway," he huffed, locking the screen before blowing steam off the morsel.

"You would," you conceded. The tofu was soft when you bit into it, sinking into your teeth.

"I found that in our cabinet. Last time it was in the kitchen drawer, wasn't it?" Akaashi helped himself to a bowl of rice. "Don't leave it in stuffy places. What if you forget where you hid it and you won't know when I call?"

"And I can no longer keep track of where you are for every moment of the day?" you could hear him say. Though he didn't; though all that could heard, besides the scraping of utensils, was Irma Thomas declaring:

A fragile thing, like life. It just don't last so long.

It could be for a minute or an hour. Or then again, from now.

Your lips tightened with a grin. "I won't do it again, sweetheart," you said, spoon hanging limply in your hold.

He didn't need to say it.

That your phone has a tracker. That this house is still the same cage that it'd been before. That the only difference between then and now is that silver band on your finger.

Akaashi’s blinked back at you as he sipped what remained of the soup. You tried to do the same.

The savory taste was cloying and it burned in your throat, so you didn't attempt to finish the bowl. It cut down to your heart, sinking heavily on your stomach, bile rising as the song came to a close.

You gulped it down, though. You had to. And in the final moments, Irma Thompson told you what she really wanted.

"Make me forget," she said, "the pain that you'd caused."

The chorus joined her. "Understanding is a great thing," she concluded. "If it comes from the heart."

Akaashi was on his own phone this time. Most likely checking on the business that he left, judging by those furrowed brows and that long-suffering look in his eyes.

Fizzling noise came at the heels of the fading music. Then, it stopped. And there was nothing left anymore but silence.

It's over now. Akaashi’s making a move to clean up. You were supposed to say, "That was a lovely dinner, honey." Or, you could tell him to sit down and watch a movie with you when he's done.

"I'll help you with the dishes," you wanted to say.

I'll help you with the dishes. It was so easy to say.

Instead, what came out of your mouth was a hushed call for his name.

"Kei-kun," you repeated, brittle and weak and dry.

"I'm so sorry," you might've mouthed.

You could barely hear your own voice as you looked at him. Akaashi paused from tidying the table.

You're parched and a lot has happened today. Gathering the courage to take that first step out of the city had taken what little strength you had. The fear never left you. Seeing your old house almost ended you.

It should be physically impossible for you to still be able to cry. And yet there doesn't seem to be an end to your tears now, the same way your apologies unfurled in an embarrassingly infinite string.

"Don't lock me inside here again," you whispered, clinging to him as he shushed you, wiping your cheeks with his thumbs as he helped you drink a glass of water.

He carried you to your room and sat you down on the bed, right between his thighs. You sobbed into your hands, tears and snot on the sleeves of your pajama top.

"I- I just wanted to see them. That's all. Just one day, Kei-kun. One day. I was gonna come back, I swear."

You're rambling. You're a madwoman pleading and bargaining with a stone-cold judge because playing house is the only thing keeping her alive.

And you messed that up you foolish, foolish girl.

"Please don't hurt my family," you heaved. "They're all I have left."

Akaashi doesn't speak, not for a while, but when he did, you bawled harder.

"I can kill them all," he said, matter of factly.

It is true. Hearing him say it does not make it easier to take, though.

"I can hurt you the same way that you hurt me."

Your neck strained as he tipped your chin towards him with a slender finger.

"I can break you," he muttered, not batting an eye.

That, too, is true. You know it all too well. He said it with such serenity, still and undisturbed by the shaking of your head, because it goes without saying.

Except, you, too, know it.

When he is breaking. When he is falling apart.

He smothered you, taking your entire body to curl against you, making himself small as he pressed his face on your back.

"Yet- and yet I-" Akaashi sniffled. You felt your shirt dampen. "I've given you everything."

When he finally brought his face close to yours, he looked so lost. Almost like a little boy who's on the verge of drowning, clinging desperately onto a lifesaver and too shocked to shout for help.

You hated him all the more for it.

"Each other," he said, snarling, almost, through tears as he grabbed your face with both hands. "That's all we have left, you hear? You and I. Husband and wife."

He seized your jaw and turned it towards the vanity mirror.

The room was dark save for the light in the hallway, peeking into the crack through the doorway.

But you could see yourself. And you could see your hand intertwined in his, your rings gleaming like muted starlights.

"We made a vow," he whispered, kissing your ring finger.

A detached part of you is astonished with how inescapable it is. Whether it be a reward or a punishment; a good day or a bad one.

No matter what happens, you always end up like this, don't you?

Begging to him with your legs spread wide.

You did as you'd always done when he began unbuttoning your top.

You go back to that autumn morning, when you first laid your eyes on him, a cup of coffee in his hand, and you thought that he had the prettiest face you'd ever seen.

You go back to when he was just this really romantic guy who sent you flowers every day. There was a letter, every time.

Nothing too grandiose. Just short messages hoping that you'd have a great day ahead.

He kissed your neck, wet smooches and long, flat-tongued licks dipping down your shoulder.

He watched you through the mirror, his eyes a pair of darkened blues daring you to look away.

Akaashi Keiji was your boyfriend, you told yourself. You dated him for quite some time before you married.

Akaashi Keiji got along well with your father and doted on your mother. On Sundays, you visit them and they send you back to Tokyo with ripe watermelons.

Akaashi Keiji has never hurt you.

The man tracing the hem of your bra, cupping your clothed tits and drawing lazy circles over nipples, however, did.

(And he still will in future. He still is, right now.)

This man is the real one.

And you have angered him, so he will not make this easy for you.

"What did you promise me?" Akaashi whispered as he lightly bit the shell of your ear. "Or have you forgotten?"

Of course, you haven't forgotten. You were chained to this very room when you made them, after all.

"N-no, I remember," you said, catching your breath. "I remember, Kei-kun."

"Then say it," he said. "Look at me."

You shivered as his palms swept over your stomach; as he unfastened your bra, letting it fall down your arms.

"Look at me when you say it."

You felt your nipples harden, gooseprickles spread all over you, as the air hit your bare skin, cooling the sweat that made it glisten.

"Please," he rasped.

The eyes of the woman in the mirror was hooded, threatening to close as she puffed with each squeeze and caress to her tits, swiveling her hips against her husband’s crotch as he grinded into her.

"I will be happy," she said.

Akaashi nuzzled your temple, using his rough fingers to tease your nipples just as he did, brushing them to and fro, then grazing the bumpy skin around until you're squeaking out his name.

And when he began pressing down on the stiff peaks with his thumbs, before rolling and pulling at them, the heels of his palm digging into your tits, you saw the woman claw at her husband's hair, a graceless affair that almost scratched his eye out, making him reach for both her arms to wrap them around his neck.

"I- I will..!" Her lips parted in a breathless scream and it was disgusting how lewd she appeared. "I will not run away!"

The streak of tears on his cheeks touched yours when he kissed you. His lips were soft and warm, his wet tongue gliding in so slowly as he deepened the kiss with a throaty groan.

His other hand crawled down to your soaked panties. You couldn't contain the mewl that left you.

Both of you gasped and struggled to breathe again after you parted from each other.

"You understand, don't you?" he rasped.

Two of his fingers slid down your folds, only to slither back up, then down again, smearing your cunt with its own slick.

But he never touched your swollen clit, even though it's throbbing and aching to be rubbed and the hard bulge sitting between your ass grew harder the more you squirmed in his hold, whimpering like a bitch in heat.

You heard your husband sigh, his hot breath tickling you when he said, "This isn't about you now."

Belly pushed into the edge of the dressing table, rattling and battering against the wall with each forceful thrust, and your leg perched atop it, made numb by Akaashi's grip on your thigh.

That was the first thing that you could recall when you opened your eyes.

But your entire body was screaming in pain, so you knew that everything else that happened last night would come back to you soon enough.

The flesh had a memory of its own.

You sat up with a groan and you didn't have to see the marks to know.

His teeth were still nipping at you, biting you until they drew blood, only to follow with an apologetic lapping of his tongue.

You could feel him beneath you, his hands clawing you down to him, palms kneading your ass cheeks as you bounced up and down on his cock.

You could feel him above you, gripping your wrists not unlike the cuffs that once kept you shackled. He had your legs wrapped around his waist, pulling you close to him, filling you up with loads and loads of cum, squelching every time he sank down your weeping hole.

And when your vision began to blur at the edges, he carried your body, mere seconds into fainting, to the dressing table.

The evidence of that stared back at you in shameful streaks and smudges, traces of your fingers on the mirror when he rammed your cunt from behind.

"Are you happy?" Akaashi whispered.

You don't know.

When he's just your husband who comes home to your arms and brings you sweets because he knows how much you love them; who dances with you in the kitchen and listens intently to you when you talk about that cute dog you saw at the park, were you happy, then?

You don't know, but the woman in the mirror, in that moment, surely was.

She even said, "Yes, yes, Kei-kun, right there, fuck me right there!"

Her pupils were blown wide, eyes rolling almost over to the back of her head. And despite the cries that escaped her, there was a wide, dissipated smile on her lips, spit trailing down her chin.

"Look at you," Akaashi said, grunting when your walls tightened around his shaft. "You're clearly happy with me."

"So why? Why'd you even think of leaving?" He rocked his hips, grinding his thick cock against that spot that had you holding onto the mirror. "Don't ever do that to me again."

You told him no, no, you won't run away again, but it didn't seem to placate his unease, nor his tears.

"I'm so scared, everyday, that you'll leave me and- and- it feels like hell. I would rather die."

He kissed your nape as he huffed and said, "Because I don't know what I'll do without you."

You never really understood why; what about you had caused him to single you out in the sea of people that had vied for his attention. Especially now as you looked at yourself in the mirror.

There were dark circles under your eyes and Akaashi’s t-shirt was rumpled on your body, engulfing you whole with its size— a far cry from that lovely, dazzling bride that his best friend, Bokuto, had described you as on your wedding day.

But you’re aware, more than anyone, that Akaashi Keiji is the last person to care about appearances.

When he entered the room, carrying a tray in his hands, he gazed at that disheveled girl with eyebags big enough to be dragged around the same way he looked at her when he waited for her at the end of the aisle.

“I made you pancakes,” he muttered, clearing his throat as he sat down beside you.

You were tired so it didn’t dawn on you as quickly as it should that he made them the way you preferred. Four fluffy pieces stacked atop one another, sprinkled with powdered sugar, whipped cream and a smattering of berries on the side.

He fiddled with his fingers when you only stared at it, so you immediately took the fork in your hand and sliced the pancake in half.

“I’ll be taking some time off work,” Akaashi said as you took the food in your mouth. You only nodded, having noticed that he wasn’t wearing the usual bespoke suit as soon as he entered the room.

You felt him near you; felt his hand, warm to touch, cup your face.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.” His eyes were misty and, this close, it seemed that he, too, wasn’t in a good shape. “So please-” Akaashi licked his chapped lips, “Please don’t go.”

“I won’t,” you replied, giving him the smile that you knew he needed. “I promise.”

Then, as you moved to kiss him on the cheek, the chains that tethered you to the bedpost clinked softly beneath the blanket, and you didn’t bother to keep the tears at the bay.

Akaashi wiped them for you when you said that you loved him. And when he asked why, you only shrugged and told him that the pancakes were so sweet that they could make anyone cry.

#tw noncon #tw non con haikyuu #akaashi x y/n #akaashi x female reader #Dark content haikyuu #yandere akaashi keiji

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teamsarawatshusband · 3 years ago

Text

@negrowhat found this, and got me really excited to try it. So here we gooooo!!!

Day 1: My Favorite BL

The Untamed

It probably will be this one forever and ever and ever for me. Because it’s just sooooo goooooood. And so painful. And Beautiful.

Okay, let me put it in words that make sense...

This one is long (50 episodes) and epic, with a fantastic story line with twists and thrills. It has beautiful scenery, architecture, wardrobes, music etc. - it’s just soooo wonderful to take it all in. (Also super beautiful actors, like... breath-taking beautiful, omg).

The TV series script couldn’t follow the original novel 100%, due to the Chinese ban of homosexuality on TV, so, officially the two main characters are... enemies to besties? But the cast and crew made sure to do it justice and make it BL as much as they possibly could under the circumstances. It is VERY clear what’s really going on by the way the characters look at each other and by all the little subtle (and not so subtle) hints that the makers of this series put into it. And, honestly, they don’t need to say or physically express it to show the love. It’s clear as day. And it’s done so beautifully that it grabs your heart and won’t let go. (And if you need the physical stuff, you can just go and read the uncensored novel chapters which are... VERY graphic)

It’s a beautiful love story that also revolves around a mystery of intrigues and war between clans, with a perfect cast, perfect locations, perfect score and soundtrack, and, last but not least, perfectly imperfect characters.

Be warned though, if you do watch this, you WILL 100% be confused when watching the first 3 episodes. Make sure to keep a character cheat sheet handy (google is your friend) and to know the basics:

1) The main character (Wei Wuxian) dies in the first episode when falling off a cliff and is resurrected 16 years later by Mo Xuanyu whose identity he takes on to stay under the radar.

2) After three episodes there is a flashback to 16 years earlier on how the whole story began and that flashback lasts for 33 episodes.

3) This is a Xianxia series, which means: martial artists, based on the teachings of daoism and buddhism, cultivate their inner golden core through practice and meditation until they have beyond-human abilities (flying on swords, spells, etc.). It is always set in ancient China during an unspecified dynasty/period of time. As common in period dramas, each character has several names (personal given name, official formal name, cultivation rank title) - This is confusing at first, but you’ll understand it soon, trust me.

4) In this story there are 5 big clans which are worth knowing to understand the story better:

I) The Yunmeng Jiang Clan (located at a river, residence is called Lotus Pier, symbol = lotus flower, colors = purple, known for being courageous and less strict on rules) - Wei Wuxian was adopted into this Clan but isn’t technically a Clan Member (which is why he wears different colors)

II) The Gusu Lan Clan (located in the mountains, residence is called Cloud Recesses, symbol = cloud, colors = white and light blue, known for being very strict and obedient to rules, studious and humble/laid back, always wear headbands)

III) The Qishan Wen Clan (located on a volcano, residence called Nightless City, symbol = fiery sun, color = red, known for being power hungry, violent and enjoying to torture others)

IV) The Lanling Jin Clan (located at the so-called “Koi Tower”, basically a huge castle-city, symbol = white peony, colors = gold and cream, known for being rich and proud, have dots on their foreheads)

V) The Qinghe Nie Clan (located at the so-called Unclean Realm which is a huge fortress with a giant wall at its the front, symbol = head of a beast, color = grey, known for being fighters, use sabers instead of swords)

If you have not watched this, omg, you have no idea what you’re missing out on. OMG OMG OMG

#10 day BL challenge #the untamed #cql #mdzs #day 1 - favorite BL #negrowhat

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kpoppwriter · 5 years ago

Text

Masterlist~♡

Ughhhhhh I spent 4 hours on this

Updated: 06/18/19

Reactions

EXO Reactions

EXO Reaction: You do aegyo

EXO Reaction: You’re short

EXO Reaction: He jokes about your insecurities

EXO Reaction: You’re his sister and stressed from school

EXO Reaction: He walks in on Xiumin and his GF

EXO Reaction: You suddenly kiss him

EXO Reaction: You get scared and hide behind him

EXO Reaction: You cuddle up to him because you’re scared of the dark

EXO Reaction: He walks in on Sehun and his GF

EXO Reaction: You get mad at him for buying you an expensive gift

EXO Reaction: You distance yourself because you don’t deserve him

EXO Reaction: Their S/O invites him to join them in the shower/bath

Mafia!EXO Reaction: Arguing with their pregnant wife

EXO Reaction: Walking in on their girlfriend touching herself

EXO Reaction: Idol girlfriend performs a sexy stage

EXO Reaction: You’re in pain because of your period

EXO Reaction: Going down on him

EXO Reaction: Sweet and cuddly girlfriend

EXO Reaction: S/O crying during sex because it’s so good

EXO Reaction: S/O holding in moans during sex

EXO (OT12) Reaction: Girlfriend doesn’t like being affectionate

EXO Reaction: Really good sex with their girlfriend

Mafia!EXO Reaction: Their S/O dying

EXO Reaction: Not wanting to have sex because you’re insecure

EXO Reaction: Argument with S/O

EXO (OT12) Reaction: Sleepy S/O walking around in underwear

EXO Reaction: S/O getting sick before their birthday

EXO Reaction: Argument with S/O pt. 2

EXO Reaction: Teasing them in public

EXO Reaction: Shy S/O

EXO (OT12) Reaction: Friend stressing out and having a meltdown

EXO (OT12) Reaction: Being close to an ex-member

EXO Reaction: Idol S/O ignoring them to break up

EXO (OT12) Reaction: S/O gets turned on by neck kisses

EXO Reaction: Their S/O Doesn’t Want Sex In The Relationship

EXO Reaction: Sehun Coming To Them For Advice On A Crush

EXO Reaction: Their S/O Isn’t Very Girly

EXO Reaction: Walking In On Their Crush Naked

EXO Reaction: Idol S/O Singing An Emotional and Powerful Song

EXO Reaction: Normally Quiet S/O Being a Horny Mess

EXO Reaction: One of the Members is in a Relationship

EXO Reaction: Their Crush Drunkenly Flirting with Them

EXO Reaction: Rejecting Their Marriage Proposal

EXO Reaction: Their Crush Going into SubSpace

EXO Reaction: Shitting on their Dick - Ex-Members Version

EXO Reaction: Being Completely Obedient

EXO Reaction: You Pet Every Animal You See

EXO Reaction: Hurting you During Sex

EXO (OT12) Reaction: Sweet S/O being Kinky

EXO Reaction: Not Feeling Pain When Being Overstimulated

EXO Reaction: Being Submissive

BTS Reactions

BTS Reaction: You break up with him because of hate

BTS Reaction: You distance yourself because you don’t deserve him

BTS Reaction: You get mad at him for buying you an expensive gift

NCT Reactions

NCT 127 Reaction: You’re having surgery

NCT (Legal Line) Reaction: Being kissed on the neck

NCT U + Kun Reaction: Pushing him up against the wall and kissing him

NCT U + Johnny Reaction: Being self-conscious of your acne

NCT Dream Reaction: Sharing a Desk with his crush

NCT U Reaction: You being Famous

NCT Dream Reaction: Being a Singer

Super Junior Reactions

Super Junior Reaction: Idol S/O Fainting On Stage From Overexhaustion

Super Junior Reaction: Idol S/O performing one of their songs

Super Junior Reaction: Pushing him up against the wall and kissing him

Super Junior Reaction: You gush about another group

Super Junior Reactions: S/O holding in moans during sex

Super Junior Reaction: S/O Asking Them To Teach Them Choreography

Super Junior Reaction: Their child says ‘Dada’ for the first time

Super Junior Reaction: Taking Care Of His Sick S/O

Super Junior Reaction: Their S/O Gets Turned On By Neck Kisses

Super Junior Reaction: Teasing in Public

Super Junior Reaction: Normally Quiet S/O Being a Horny Mess

Super Junior Reaction: Their Child’s Mother Hates You

Super Junior Reaction: Girlfriend Coming Out As Bi/Pan

Super Junior Reaction: Walking In on Their Crush Naked

TVXQ Reactions

TVXQ Reaction: He’s cast in a drama with his S/O

TVXQ Reaction: Being teased for being whipped for his S/O

TVXQ Reaction: Dating a Suju member’s sister

TVXQ Reaction: Their juniors are excited to see their S/O

TVXQ Reaction: Someone walks in on him and his S/O having sex

Day6 Reactions

Day6 Reaction: Asking them to go rougher in bed

Day6 Reaction: Being Overstimulated (Male S/O)

Day6 Reaction: Wet T-shirt

BigBang Reactions

BigBang Reaction: You Mumble Their Name In Your Sleep

BigBang Reaction: Their Child’s Mother Hates You

BigBang Reaction: S/O Winning Rookie of the Year

BigBang Reaction: Their Sister Dressing Provocative

BigBang Reaction: Their Sister Being A Famous Model

SHINee Reactions

SHINee Reaction: Normally Quiet S/O Being a Horny Mess

Block B Reactions

Block B Reaction: Someone Walks In on Him Having Sex

Monsta X Reactions

Monsta X Reaction: Cuddling Because You’re Scared of the Dark

Monsta X Reaction: Waking Up to You being Gone

Monsta X Reaction: Hurting you In Bed

Scenarios

I Will Go - optional bias angst

NCT

You and Me, Just Like This - Taeyong fluff songfic

Let Me Help You - Mark fluff/angst songfic

The Rain and The Memories - Lucas angst songfic

Little Notes and Hugs - Jaehyun fluff songfic pt. 1

Ice Cream and Playgrounds - Jaehyun fluff songfic pt 2

But Do You Like Like Him? - Haechan fluff

One Time - Jaehyun smut/angst

Sleepy Shower - Taeyong fluff

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Johnny vampire smut

EXO

The Irresponsibility of Drinking - Xiumin angst/fluff

Collaboration - Sehun angst/fluff

Daddy - Xiumin smut

Forgotten Tragedy - Yixing Mafia!au angst

All Mine - Jealous Xiumin smut

After Performance Affection - Junmyeon fluff

The Love That Comes With Fear - Yixing fluff

Hate Comments - Chanyeol fluff

Hello Baby - Sehun fluff

The Wrong Kind Of Juice - Xiumin fluff

A Cup Of Coffee - Sehun fluff

Fishy Funeral - Xiumin fluff/comedy/angst(?)

Being Mischievous Has Consequences - Kyungsoo smut

My Princess - Junmyeon Royalty AU smut

Learned From The Best - Sehun fluff/comedy

Yes Sir - Junmyeon smut

A Remedy For Being Warm - Xiumin smut

Love On Set Of A Variety Show - Yixing fluff

Perfect - Yixing Mafia AU fluff

Too Much Running - Yixing fluff

Temerate - Sehun Mafia AU

The Battle of the Bands - Chanyeol band au

Hearts and Stars - Junmyeon soulmate au

Tacenda - Chanyeol mob au

Super Junior

Brunch? - Heechul fluff/comedy

One Condition - Leeteuk/Heechul smut (threesome)

A Special Song - Donghae fluff

See Ya Later, Dad - Donghae fluff

Opia - Siwon Secret Agent AU

Cloudburst - Eunhyuk fluff/suggestive

Serendipity - Eunhyuk fluff

Homework Help - Leeteuk smut

Insouciant - Leeteuk smut

Frisson - Eunhyuk smut

Revenge is Always Hell - Shindong smut

Appetence - Siwon smut/fluff

Needy Night - Kyuhyun smut

Slip Up - Leeteuk smut

Ardent - Eunhyuk smut

BTS

Jungkook smut crack fic

SHINee

Soldier - Taemin angst

Laser Tag Kisses - Minho fluff

Girlfriend Confusion - Taemin fluff

Chthonic - Taemin demon au pt. 1

Imprecate - Taemin demon au pt. 2

That’s Not In The Script - Minho smut

Monsta X

A Little Jealousy - Minhyuk fluff

Day6

Is This What You Wanted? - YoungK smut

TVXQ

Rehearsal - Changmin smut

Ataraxia - Changmin fluff

Laconic - Changmin fluff

Best Friends (With Benefits) - TVXQ smut

Let’s Make A Baby - Changmin fluff

Alternative - Changmin angst/fluff

Wanna One

Penny Up, Penny Drop - Seongwoo fluff

Pentagon

Echo - Hui soulmate au

Blue Button Up - Hui smut

Soloists

Hold Me Forever - DEAN fluff

Lazy Day - Zico smut

Back 2 U - GDragon angst/fluff

KDramas

Poisoned Love - Sooho (Hwarang) angst

A Delicate Flower - Sooho angst pt 2

Series

Day Trip - Junmyeon Train to Busan AU

pt. 1 | pt. 2 | pt. 3 | pt. 4 | pt. 5 | epilogue

Belladonna - Baekhyun Royalty AU

pt. 1 | pt. 2 | pt. 3 | pt. 4 | pt. 5 | pt. 6 | pt. 7 | pt. 8 | pt. 9

Saving Far Water - Multi Idol Escape the Night AU (discontinued)

Character Profiles | pt. 1 | pt. 2 | poll 1 | pt. 3 | poll 2

Lotto Series - EXO songfics based off the Lotto Repackage

Attention - Chanyeol Stalker AU (discontinued)

Prologue | pt. 1

Love Shot Series - EXO Songfics based on the Love Shot Repackage

Koi No Yokan - Good Boy/Bad Boy series with @allyreactions

pt. 1 |

Headcanons

EXO

EXO Headcanon: Kissing You

EXO Headcanon: Big Booty

EXO Headcanon: Freinds with Benefits

EXO Headcanon: Cockwarming

EXO (OT12) Headcanon: Overstimulation

EXO Headcanon: Aftercare

EXO (OT12) Headcanon: Orgasm Denial/Edging

EXO (OT12) Headcanon: Proposing

Wolf!EXO Headcanon: Finding his mate

EXO Headcanon: Girlfriend suggests making a sex tape

EXO (OT12) Headcanon: Thigh riding

EXO (OT12) Headcanon: Their S/O has bad migraines

EXO Headcanon: Dominating and BDSM

EXO Headcanon: Female Member

EXO Headcanon: First Kiss with Sehun

EXO Headcanon: You’re Their Stylist

EXO Headcanon: Picnic with Chanyeol

EXO Headcanon: Kissing Kris

EXO Headcanon: First Kiss and First Time with Kris (Male S/O)

EXO Headcanon: Kris Overstimulating you

EXO Headcanon: Snow Day

EXO (OT12) Headcanon: Spanking

EXO Headcanon: Sex with Jongin (Male Reader)

EXO Headcanon: Receiving Head (Male Reader)

EXO Headcanon: Kissing Luhan

EXO Headcanon: Kissing Tao

EXO as Your Boyfriend

Xiumin

Luhan

Kris

Junmyeon

Yixing

Baekhyun

Jongdae

Chanyeol

Kyungsoo

Tao

Jongin

Sehun

EXO as Your Boyfriend (NSFW)

EXO Ex-Members as Your Boyfriend (NSFW)

BTS

BTS Headcanon: Rejecting a girl for their career (Namjoon and Yoongi)

Super Junior

Super Junior Headcanon: Cockwarming

Super Junior Headcanon: Orgasm Denial/Edging

Super Junior Headcanon: Dating a new idol with an age gap

Super Junior Headcanon: Being asked about their beautiful girlfriend

Super Junior Headcanon: Spontaneous sex

Super Junior Headcanon: Rainy Day Cuddling

Super Junior Headcanon: Comforting a stressed S/O

Super Junior Headcanon: Angry Sex with Heechul

Super Junior Headcanon: Thigh Riding

Super Junior Headcanon: 1 Year Anniversary

Super Junior Headcanon: Pool/Shower Sex

Super Junior Headcanon: Impregnation Kink

Super Junior Headcanon: Eunhyuk falling for a One Night Stand

Super Junior Juniors (Headcanons on the children of SuJu)

Super Junior as Your Boyfriend

Leeteuk

Heechul

Yesung

Shindong

Eunhyuk

Donghae

Siwon

Kyuhyun

Henry

Fist Time With

Leeteuk

Heechul

Yesung

Shindong

Eunhyuk

Donghae

Siwon

Kyuhyun

Henry

NCT

NCT (Legal Line) Headcanon: Overstimulation

NCT 127 Headcanon: Being teased about his girlfriend on a VLive

NCT 127 Headcanon: You’re shorter than him

NCT 127 + Ten Headcanon: Thigh Riding

NCT U + Ten Headcanon: Sugar Mommy

NCT as Your Boyfriend

Johnny

Taeyong

Jaehyun

SHINee

SHINee Headcanon: Proposing

SHINee Headcanon: Rocker Girlfriend

Sex With

Kibum

Day6

Day6 Headcanon: Surprising him with lingerie

Monsta X

Monsta X Headcanon: Teasing in public

BigBang

BigBang Headcanon: Comforting a stressed S/O

BigBang Headcanon: Degrading With Seunghyun

BigBang Headcanon: Proposing

GOT7

GOT7 as Your Boyfriend

Mark

Jaebum

Jackson

Jinyoung

Youngjae

BamBam

Yugyeom

TVXQ

TVXQ Headcanon: Getting a Blowjob

First Time With

Yunho

Changmin

Pentagon

Pentagon Headcanon: First Kiss with Hui

Dating Poly!Kpop

ChanBaek

TeukChul | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

EunHae | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

SuBaek | 2

ChanHun

JaeYong

NamSon

BaekChen

XiuHun

Nyongtory

XiuChen

CBX

TaePyo

KrisHo

SeKai

XiuHan

2Ho

YeHyuk

HeeDragon

OngNiel

SiChul

Kay

Sex With

XiuChenHun

SKY (Sehun, Kai, Chanyeol)

MTL

EXO

To Be Possessive

Drabbles

Drabble game #1 ~ Prompt list ~ Masterlist

300 Follower Drabble Game ~ Prompt List ~ Masterlist

Drabble game #3 ~ Prompt List ~ Masterlist

Chanyeol Smut

ChanBaek Smut | 2 | 3 | 4

Kris Wu Smut

Junmyeon Smut | 2 | 3

EunHae Smut | 2

Eunhyuk Drabble

Heechul Drabble | 2

Taemin Drabble

Baekhyun Drabble

Siwon Drabble | 2

Xiumin Drabble

Seunghyun Drabble

Sehun Drabble | 2

Kyungsoo Drabble

God Siwon

Siwon Fantasy

Heechul Fantasy

YoungK Fantasy

Misc.

Fake Snaps

Boyfriend Jongdae

Boyfriend Donghae

Boyfriend Sehun | 2

Boyfriend Yixing

Boyfriend Leeteuk

Boyfriend Junmyeon | 2

Daddy Junmyeon

Boyfriend Eunhyuk

Daddy Xiumin

Smutty Yesung

Boyfriend Heechul

Boyfriend Kris

Big Brother Shindong

Smutty Donghae

Smutty Yuta

Big Brother Siwon

Boyfriend Baekhyun

Younger Brother Chanyeol

Boyfriend Woosung

Big Brother Xiumin

300 Follower Admin Asks

kpop 8 + 11

personal 3 + kpop 17

personal 10 + 13

kpop 11 + 19

kpop 25 + bonus

personal 14 + 21

personal 11 + 20

NSFW Headcanons

Shindong - D,J,K,M,U,X,Y

Donghae - A-Z

Eunhyuk - A-Z

Mark Lee - A-Z

Kyuhyun - A-Z

Xiumin - A-Z

Sehun - A-Z

Yixing - A-Z

Taeyong - A-Z

Heechul - A-Z

Jackson - A-Z

Leeteuk - A-Z

Jaebum - A-Z

Taemin - A-Z

Phone Lockscreens and Wallpapers

Suho Lockscreens/Wallpapers

Mixed EXO Lockscreens/Wallpapers

Jaehyun/Mark/Zico/Jooheon/Lucas Lockscreens/Wallpapers

Professor Max’s Korean Class

The Alphabet - Vowels

The Alphabet - Consonants

The Alphabet - Syllables and Words

Lesson One - Section One

Lesson One - Section Two

Lesson One - Section Three

Lesson Two - Section One

Kpop/South Korea Psychology Paper

Iris Masterlist

Who I Write For

#masterlist #main masterlist

511 notes · View notes

at-the-exd-of-everythixg · 5 years ago

Note

][Dae and Rhys for the ship headcanon meme (resent because my internet was stupid when I tried last night)][ 2 || 3 || 5 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 11 || 12 || 13 || 14 || 16 || 18 || 19 || 21 || 22 || 23 || 24 || 26 || 28 || 30

@blind-mutant

2. Who is the most insecure and what makes them feel better?

Dae is always thinking that Rhys can do better with someone who can actually touch him but normally some very filthy and unfiltered words from Rhys gets Dae into a flustered and beaming mess.

3. Who is the most romantic?

Rhys is and he revels in it when he sees how melted Dae gets at the slightest gestures. Brings Dae a rose and tilts his head for a kiss through a tissue during their early days and did not expect Dae to warble and cry.

5. Who says ‘I love you’ first?

I would say Rhys but once again my heart screeches for Rhys explaining what types of love there are and what it is, only for Dae to think and nod before telling Rhys that he's been in love with him for a very long time now.

7. What do they get up to on a night out?

I imagine they go out rather rarely since Rhys wants to have Dae's face out rather than the prosthetic, but Dae is always happy to go to ice cream places with Rhys or loves going shopping so he can buy cute and sexy clothes he really wants to see Rhys in. Sjjsjs Buys Rhys more leather because he likes certain stuff, okay?

8. What do they like in bed?

Rhys loves it when Dae goes for what he wants and loves feeling the revered hands trailing down his hips and the almost shy way Dae pulls him closer to grind against him. Loves how Dae shyly asks Rhys to keep wearing the mesh shirt and leather pants during sex and once even asked if he could keep wearing combat boots because oh boy he likes how mean Rhys looks.

Dae adores it when Rhys is so honest about what he wants and loves it when Rhys trails fingers just at the edges of his diamonds because that's where he feels it the most. Adores rough palm touches to his vulva and secretly likes it when Rhys slaps his hand against it because its rough and humiliating.

9. What is the most embarrassing thing they have done in front of each other?

Rhys tried to help Dae with chores once and proceeded to shrink the clothes down bu accident. Dae didn't laugh in front of Rhys but Rhys immediately heard the giggly choking that Dae calls laughter when he calmly tells Rhys he's stepping out for a few minutes.

Dae tried on Rhys jacket once when he wasn't home but then he stretched and his back ripped open and whoops, suddenly Rhys's jacket was ruined and stuck to his back. Cried and tried to hide it but eventually Rhys found out and had to help cut it off him. He was sad then but now? Rhys laughs about it and loves it when Dae whines.

11. What do they hide from one another?

I feel like after a while, Rhys starts to hide any needs he might have due to not wanting Dae to hen him. He hides bad things as well as more negative thoughts, such as the beginning thoughts about Peach and the whole fact of Iris and having to chase after some half alien lady. But that will change when Ava comes to see them and stands over Rhys in his sleep.

Dae hides a lot of his past and to add angst to our power swap thread? I'm imagining that Dae secretly signed ownership of himself to Iris so technically in all the time they were dating? Rhys owned another person and oh boy wouldn't that give Rhys doubts about whether Dae loved him or simply belonged to him. Hides so much about his past and the fact that he remembers more about his life than he let's on.

12. What first changes when it starts getting serious?

Rhys often speaks more softly to Dae and is willing to hold him a bit rougher while Dae is more willing to take breaks from work and is happier about letting Rhys touch his open skin.

13. When do they realise they should get together?

Probably when Dae is just happily discussing going to the market to get more medical supplies and rambling about this really cute duck slide and then Rhys just kinda has a lightbulb moment over how domestic this is and how he wants this kind of domesticity more often. More where he can wrap his arms around Dae's waist and sway their hips together and kiss.

14. When one has a cold, what does the other do?

Dae is so happy, as bad as that sounds. He revels in being able to make Rhys anything he wants, buying all sorts of medication and trying to tempt Rhys into taking a spoonful of medicine and then after that making him hot chocolate or some broth and telling Rhys a story from one of the worlds' Dae served in. He will, literally watch Rhys sleep to make sure he's safe in the night.

Dae...is ehhhh. Refuses to let Rhys near him while he's sick and refuses to be in the apartment while he's sick. Verges onto body horror when you think about how much damage being sick combined with diamonds does to his body. Lets Rhys give him stuff but Dae gets upset at the very idea of possibly hurting Rhys. Would only stay near Rhys if he was so sick he couldn't stand.

16. When the zombie apocalypse comes, how do they cope together?

Dae is ready to use his powers to take control of the zombies tbh and I feel like for this he'd finally twist himself into a full diamond form. Seeing as most zombie movies leads to power going out in cities, I imagine they would kind of end up pulling a Poison Ivy in Arkham city where they have an abandoned building together that's shrouded in shadows and has zombies with diamonds in them stumbling around on guard.

They'd do pretty damn well.

18. When they fight, how do they make up?

Dae is immediately cleaning all of Rhys's clothes after he's done crying and stuttering apologies and his apologies usually last two weeks while Rhys is just as mushy and soft but honestly when they're used to each other he just drags Dae by the front of his pants to the bedroom to cuddle and more.

19. Where do they go on their first date?

They go to a botanical garden and Dae is delighted by the giant plants and all of the colours while Rhys gets to enjoy the humidity and listen to the thirty plant facts that Dae memorized before they came and feeding the koi fish. Dae buys a cactus because it reminds him of Rhys and Rhys watches in horror as Dae smooches it in front of him. He's never been so jealous and intimidated in all his life by that display.

21. Where do they get nervous about going with one another?

Dae gets nervous about going anywhere with Rhys. He's ugly and Rhys is...wow. so it's a big "do you want to be seen with me, I can walk five miles behind you" thing. Rhys probably feels rather nervous about taking Dae to new places because Dae has so much hope written on his face and really builds places up for himself so that trip to the ice cream shop??? Rhys just nervously sweating when Dae is sparkling his eyes.

22. Where does their first kiss happen?

It happens in the middle of the night when Rhys and Dae have just gotten back from the movies (aka nice dark place where Dae can take the mask off and they can cuddle). Rhys pulls up Dae's scarf and they just gently press up against the wall and it's a gentle and soft kiss, but Dae still sighs happily Rhys gets to know what he's the only one who gets to have this romance and closeness with Dae.

23. Where is their favourite place to be together?

They love being in the park where they first met. It always feels so special and romantic when they can relax and laugh together and at one point Dae suggests buying a sex swing to recreate it at home and Rhys chokes.

24. Where do they first have sex?

At home and in bed because Rhys wants - needs - it to be special for them after his own awful experiences and Dae's clinical experiences. I know we had those mini threads but honestly Dae would need some medical equipment in case his skin tore and clothes would have to be worn just in case. He's worried it feels awful to Rhys, having to have sex while dressed and being so careful but he's never prepared for how delighted Rhys is at being the first to touch his diamond.

26. Why do they need to have a serious chat?

Rhys really needs to get talking about how desperate Dae tries to please him and why exactly he feels the desperate need for it. Dae himself needs to try and talk to Rhys about how loving a man who can't touch isn't some sort of out of teach turn on, that it isn't as easy to turn off the thoughts of the line between servant and lover. Dae wants to know how Rhys got past his own pain of the past because maybe that can help him too.

28. Why do they get jealous?

Dae gets jealous over everything with Rhys. He gets jealous over how the man can easily tell someone to fuck off and how at ease with flitting while I'm having a soft heart attack over Rhys being jealous of Dae's powers in the early days before he finds out just how painful they are and that Dae is prepared to never touch another person again. I'm....sad at Rhys being jealous at Dae not feeling stuff anymore cause maybe that's how he wanted to be for many of his early years?

30. Why does it work (or not work) between them?

It works because Rhys introduces so many new things to Dae and he's the biggest light in Dae's life and Dae is also real good for letting Rhys have a point in his life where he can focus on more positive stuff but it also doesn't have a chance to not work due to how suffocating Dae can be and how uncomfortable Rhys could be due to having to be near toxic people like Iris and a literal toxic boyfriend lmao.

#ask #blind-mutant #diamond of the rough (dae)#headcanon #ah hhh soft babies s OFT #im...baby at Rhys getting a duck of his own one day or smth and these two having a lil duckling together ;_;

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hellopro-go · 7 years ago

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[Album Review]: ⑮ Thank you, too - Morning Musume’17

So the heavily anticipated Momusu album was officially released yesterday-ish! I hopped on my computer immediately after classes to snatch it and get a taste of more modern post Tsunku-makes-everything Morning Daughter fakeness realness. Click through the read more to get more juicy details.

Tracklist-

1. Jealousy Jealousy (Album Ver.) 2. Romance ni Mezameru Mousou Joshi no Uta 3. CHO DAI 4. Watashi no Nanni mo Wakacchanai 5. Jama Shinai de Here We Go! 6. Style of my love 7. Narcissus Kamatte-chan Kyousoukyoku Dai 5ban 8. Seishun Say A-HA 9. Wakaindashi 10. Mou Gaman Dekinai wa ~Love ice cream~ 11. Dokyuu no Go Sign 12. Koi wa Toki ni 13. Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari (Morning Musume '17 Ver.) 14. BRAND NEW MORNING 15. Ai no Tane (20th Anniversary Ver.)

1. Jealousy Jealousy (Album Ver.) Coming right back in our faces with the tune that captured our hearts is Envy Envy, but SPARKLIER! Jealously is a tune with the funk-ish tune that would usually be gifted to a group such as Ju=Ju, but Tsunku-papa decided that it was time for a switcharoo. The vocals this time are much more clear, is the first thing I noticed of the Album Version, which is odd because usually albums from Up-Front are very over-mixed and muffled. This lets us know that there was a lot of effort put into the cleaning of this wonderful piece with a break down of an early-underground j-rap vibe. One thing that will always fascinate me about this sound is how the string instruments used here brings such a feeling of elegance, that it makes me feel like I’m rich while listening to it. Surely Tsunku understands and executes luxury in his spot on composition this time around.

2. Romance ni Mezameru Mousou Joshi no Uta My first impression was a woah! from the beginning instrumentals. Immediately I was thrown back into the early 2013-2014 EDM songs that Tsunku used to produce for Momusu such as [What is LOVE?], and I fell in love until.... They started to sing. One thing I’m not crazy about is when management pitches this intense, powerful instrumental and then they break it into this... childish, “I’m a kindergartener playing at the park” kind of melody. It’s done so much that it’s almost expected, but they got me this time, I’d say. Around the 3-minute mark, the melody gets very enjoyable for me, with more opera in the BG and a ballad reminiscent of The Vision. The fact that Morning Musume isn’t afraid of using soft high notes nowadays is great too.

3. CHO DAI Bitch I love fart-sounding electronic noises in my songs and it sounds like sarcasm but it’s high key not. One pattern that I’m starting to notice and it’s starting to irk me is the constant use of “one word” LONG REST “one word”. It was very refreshing with [Seishun Kozou wa Naiteiru], but after being repeated about a hundred times, it’s just boring and needs to go. This song is a good example of what me and my friends call “Scrapped Melodies” because at some parts it just sounds like Narcissus but slightly different. If you want a clearer example of a scrapped melody, think of Brainstorming(@0:37) and Wakuteka(@1:00) with that one farking melody that’s like... the same melody.

4. Watashi no Nanni mo Wakacchanai This is the song I’d been anticipating the most on this album. After watching the recent Budokan footage of the song and my friend drilling me about how “Maachan fucked Sakura’s shit up here like do you not see that??!!”, The song grew on me to the point where I’d listen to the concert performance like it was an official track. It was also a great decision to keep this song behind bars until 2017 because in 2015 Riho sang some lines that were just... not her strong point... honestly (@1:17 & 3:45). But other than the lack of charisma that lives bring to this song, this is a good put!

5. Jama Shinai de Here We Go! Here We Go... again with the “one word” LONG REST “one word”. Even though this song is a bop. There’s something about the subtle nature of this song that drew me in, despite it being a tad bit on the plainer side of a Momusu song. Though I’m still a bit thrown off by Chiichan, she knows how to blend well to the point of merging with the background. The dance, might I add, is just basically Angerme’s Ai Sae but slightly different, pffft.

6. Style of my love Very stylish! Brings me back to something akin to [Senobi] in a way. With a melody of an early action anime opening (I’d say Inuyasha, or a classic fantasy-shoujo anime,) This song knows how to advertise itself. With Haruna having a few solos in this, it really shines and radiates a glow to the instrumentals. The dance break was a bit underwhelming, but do I hear Maria??? Wow, she’s really growing into her voice. I have very few qualms about this song, and I’m generally pleased.

7. Narcissus Kamatte-chan Kyousoukyoku Dai 5ban Shamefully, I found myself whispering “Motto, Mitsumete...” multiple times through the day. And finally we don’t have those classic Momusu heavy harmonies on like 99% of the darn song, and they lowered it to a 97%, but I’m tapping my foot, waiting y’all. This song is nearly as stylish as Style of my Love, but theres some feeling of living luxurious, yet lonely and discontent. I’m digging the story in it, even though I know the lyrics must be some irrelevant diarrhea.

8. Seishun Say A-HA Gonna get this out here first: I didn’t like the song when I first heard it a few times. Then it grew on me a bit and I can generally say I have a love-hate with it LOL. LIKE IM SORRY, BUT this song sounds like a pirate song. Like everyone in momusu is a stank ass pirate with scurvy and they’re having a sailing montage to find treasure. But it’s... it’s catchy for some reason. ugh. why @ Tsunku

9. Wakaindashi Damn do I love Duu and this song in general, but the soft EDM is bothering me for some reason?? We are back with the “I’m a kindergartener playing at the park” melody and I’m still unnerved by “You can get fatter or skinnier” line like... why.... But this song is CUTE for Duu and therefore I support it. I also like the choreo in many ways. Duu controlling the wave is so cute. The dance break was pure.

10. Mou Gaman Dekinai wa ~Love ice cream~ Me while reading that Haga’s gettin a lot of lines cause its a quartet: AYYYYY Me listening to the song finally: wtf this is Like ok I like the fact that it’s more rock orientated but it’s like... a lil boring. Especially the whole “Mougamandekinaiwa” all fast and shit.. It didn’t fit. I feel like this is a early rock vocaloid song. But I enjoy the fact that Tsunku is experiementing with different genres. He really loves his job. #come back papa

11. Dokyuu no Go Sign I love this song wtf... It’s like a near perfect combo of rock and EDM. Maybe if momusu would stop with the heavy ass harmonies it’d show a little more of it’s capability. The style of the song makes momusu seem more united despite the crazy battle for center currently going on. And Miki getting more lines is chill af (They’re realizing Mizuki is gettin old lol). The blend of musical elements along with the message of the song makes more a good pick-me-up, hype yourself up tune! PLUS THE LAYERING OF HARMONIES INTO THE HOLIEST DANCE BREAK TUNE IS MY ACTUAL SHIT. The bridge after that is so celebratory and invokes a feeling of greatfulness, I love it.

12. Koi wa Toki ni It goes from a video game level to where you gotta sneak around characters to the classic “I’m a kindergartener playing at the park” melody... again. I’m really trying to get into this song but it’s very hard. It’s very plain and barely has any shine to it. One good thing I can say is that during the instrumental break, I’m reminded of early Kikuo songs and uh... I’m a whore for Kikuo so I fell for the break like a klutz. The use of unusual sounds here gives it a spacey vibe.

13. Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari (Morning Musume '17 Ver.) NGL Joshikashi gets more and more cringey each time (especially Nonaka Miki’s verse), so this is a song on the album I’ll rarely indulge in. I love the fact that Maria incorporates her love for baseball to her verse even though she’s not my oshi. I value her a lot LMAO. But other than that, it’s a good song to familiarize yourself with the girls’ voices.

14. BRAND NEW MORNING god I hate this song, So Jean Luc Ponpon is deemed worthy enough after Mukidashi was released and gained popularity, and they bring him back for another round of Tsunku vs. Ponpon and this time, in my opinion, he flops. Brand new morning just isn’t my cup of tea no matter how many times I listen to it, and usually I can make my brain like an H!P song if I listen to it a bunch of times. Something about this song is very lacking and monotone, and doesn’t really get the feeling of a new Era across to me. If anything, this is the Jealousy Era to me (because everyone in Momusu is salty rn).

15. Ai no Tane (20th Anniversary ver.) I still really like this song, even with the updated singers. It’s much more fine tuned than back in the day, which really shows how music production has changed over just a span of 20 years! Amazing how fast the world progresses, isn’t it? All I can say as a closing note for this updated piece is that I’m glad Tsunku didn’t turn it into some crazy ass dubstep wub-wub version of the original. Thank you Tsunku papa.

OVERALL: I’d rate this album a 7.2/10. I feel like there could have been much more style variation in the music, track by track, especially because Momusu is so “highly esteemed”. These girls need to tackle other genres with how far they’ve come, especially since the older eras would bounce between stuff like [Memory~ Seishun no Hikari] all the way to [Onna ni Sachi Are] back in the day.

I’m also hoping that next time around, it isn’t Mizuki, Oda & the Backup Dancers. That’s one thing that bothers me the most out of his album.

Till next time!

#morning musume #morning musume 17 #thank you too #album review #tsunku #gossip #review

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linked-hearts · 4 years ago

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Q&A with Jetta

Let’s hear from our high-energy leader, Jetta!

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Introduce yourself! Who are you and where are you from?

Hello! I’m Jetta and I’m from the Northeastern part of the United States.

When and how did you discover idols? How long have you been a fan, and why?

My childhood obsession was Dance Dance Revolution. As a young child I spent my summer days rhythmically stomping on a plastic pad to mostly Eurobeat music I couldn’t get enough of. Some songs featured in the game, though, were sung by J-pop acts; researching them eventually led me down a YouTube rabbit hole where I stumbled upon the first idol song I had ever heard: Berryz Koubou’s Koi no Jubaku. Being a nine-year-old at the time, my interest was immediately piqued. Here were girls my age (unlike the older teenage stars popular at the time like Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers) singing about the problems I was facing--the longing of young love and frustration of it being unrequited during a time when childhood crushes shaped identity. I felt myself represented in a way that other media hadn’t; the catchy tune and dramatic dance were kick-ass, too. Twelve years later, I’m still a fan: although my perspective has changed from a child looking up to idols as inspirations to being an older fan appreciating the girls’ artistry and playing more of a cheering-on role.

What is your favorite group? Your oshimen? Why?

It seems that every five years, the group that captures my heart shifts. From 2008-2013, it was Berryz Koubou: a group of powerful girls that represented the whimsy of youth and gave me the confidence to be myself as I discovered my identity as a young person. As I got older and turned fifteen, I was entranced more by the same-aged members Colorful Era Morning Musume (2013-2018), who gave me the motivation and strength to navigate my high school years as a stressed teen pushed into academic and musical competitions, tournaments, and performances that left me overworked and exhausted. Now, as a college student with more agency and less of an emotional reliance on idols, I’m more in the position of an observer with support to give; BEYOOOOONDS (2018-), a creative group that defines the notion of what it means to be a Hello! Project idol in the Reiwa era, is a little bit less relatable age-wise but ever-so-entertaining to watch.

What made you want to be a net idol?

I love singing and dancing, but I hate being judged for my singing and dancing. I wouldn’t call myself a perfectionist, but performing in the US, something I have partaken in while growing up, is very anxiety-provoking which outweighs the enjoyment of using my voice. Standing up on a stage or behind a camera to sing for a competition, exhibition, or just friends to see is considered as a representation of your skills. The audience prepares to enjoy your act with the prerequisite that you are singing to show off your talent rather than solely to enjoying yourself and others while in the spotlight. I grew up singing solo in musicals, in choirs, and at town sports games, but eventually developed feelings of inadequacy that became a detriment to myself and made me hate singing for fear of putting myself out there.

On the contrary, idols in Japan are appreciated more for their effort and continuous growth- underdogs whose performances are meant to entertain regardless of how their voice sounds or how their body perfectly moves to the dance. Of course, good voices are a plus and are part of each idol’s toolbox of unique qualities- but being a skilled singer is not the requirement traded in to deserve to stand on a stage or receive views in a music video. As Tsunku once said to describe the magic of Hello! Project idols, in Linked♡Hearts I get to experience being appreciated as a constant production rather than a finished product as close as I can in the States.

What are your goals in Linked♡Hearts?

I’m the leader of the group, so I have a larger amount of responsibilities. This is fine, and I’m okay with more tasks to do because I love trying new things! My goals have been to better my leadership skills, to learn audio mixing, to better my video production, and to become conversational in Japanese. So far, I’ve been hopeful about three of these (Kazumi, our mixer, has saved my butt with the audio mixing… thank you)!

What about Linked♡Hearts are you excited to try?

In addition to what I shared in the last paragraph, I’m excited about the chance to interact with people through social media and get the opportunity to be creative and turn my MV ideas into action!

What are some of your favorite YouTube channels?

Scott the Woz, bill wurtz, The Right Opinion, Swell Entertainment, きまぐれクックKimagure Cook, Safiya Nygaard, ImAllexx, ASMRSurge, Poofesure, Danny Gonzalez, PPOMODORI

How do you take your coffee?

Hot coffee: Venti blonde americano with no cream and 3 sugars

Iced coffee: Venti cold brew with no cream and 3 sugars

What did you eat for breakfast today?

A can of Monster Tea+Lemonade

How do you like your eggs?

Scrambled! With a splash of water instead of a splash of milk.

Which planet in the solar system would you visit? (if scientifically possible, of course)

On a student’s budget? Earth!

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Follow Jetta on Twitter (@jetta_linked) for more access into her world!

#jetta #interview

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peachygotit · 7 years ago

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List of H!P songs with wow parts

1998: Morning Musume - Summer Night Town | Morning Musume - Daite HOLD ON ME!

2000: Morning Musume - Koi no Dance Site | T&C Bomber - DON’T STOP Renaichuu | Morning Musume - Ren’ai Revolution 21

2001: Matsuura Aya - Dokki Doki! LOVE Mail | Sheki-Dol - Tetteiteki Unmei | Morning Musume - The Peace! | Minimoni - Minihamus no Ai no Uta

2009: C-ute - Seishun Song | C-ute - SHINES | Berryz Koubou - Dakishimete Dakishimete | C-ute - Amai Wana | S/mileage - Suki-chan

2018: Hello Pro Kenshuusei Hokkaido feat. Inaba Manaka - Ice day Party | Kobushi Factory - Kore Kara da! | Juice=Juice - Vivid Midnight | Tsubaki Factory - Date no Hi wa Nido Kurai Shower Shite Dekaketai | Tsubaki Factory - Kon'ya Dake Ukaretakatta | Juice=Juice - Kono Sekai wa Suteta mon ja nai | Juice=Juice - Abarete kka? Have a Good Time | Juice=Juice - Never Never Surrender | Kobushi Factory - Naseba Naru

Unreleased: Kobushi Factory - Keseyashinai Kimochi | Kobushi Factory - Kame ni Nare

Did I forget anything???

#hello! project #morning musume #juice=juice #angerme #berryz koubou #c-ute #ocute #country girls #tsubaki factory #kobushi factory #hello pro kenshuusei #melon kinenbi #matsuura aya #minimoni #s/mileage #my post #i'm not even sure if all the songs in this list even have wow wow parts whoops #but i'm too tired i didn't feel like fixing it

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bullmiddle5-blog · 5 years ago

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America’s 38 Essential Restaurants

Plenty of smart, useful articles appear each year directing people to the nation’s buzziest restaurants, highlighting emerging trends and up-and-coming chefs. This annual guide, compiled after 34 weeks of travel and almost 600 meals in 36 cities, aims to accomplish something else: It’s a distillation of the foods and the communities to which I’ve borne witness. The undertaking has defined my work — my life, really — for nearly the last five years as Eater’s national critic.

The one-word mantra that steers my thinking, and also the city-based Eater 38 maps upon which the list is modeled, is essential. Which places become indispensable to their neighborhoods, and eventually to their towns and whole regions? Which ones spur trends, or set standards for hospitality and leadership, or stir conversations around representation and inclusivity? Which restaurants, ultimately, become vital to how we understand ourselves, and others, at the table?

Every year, the list changes substantially; this time around, we welcome 17 newcomers. They’re the places where I had especially meaningful aha moments, where I thought, “Of course New Mexican cuisine should be lauded,” or “Absolutely this is the one Korean barbecue restaurant where everyone should eat,” or “It’s crazy how perfectly these Pakistani-Texan dishes summarize the heart of Houston dining.” The bleeding-edge vanguards among this crew include a Los Angeles maverick where the chef grafts cuisines from around the world with astounding grace, a San Antonio barbecue upstart ushering Mexican flavors to the forefront, and America’s most impactful Southern restaurant — which happens to be in Seattle.

This being the fifth of these roundups I’ve agonized over, I’ve also observed, over these years, a shifting national consciousness, where diners from many backgrounds increasingly embrace cuisines with which they were previously unfamiliar. It’s the new paradigm, not an exception. Coded culinary language denoting “them” and “us” — as “American” or “other” — is slowly but inexorably dissolving. Each of these restaurants cooks American food; I can’t imagine our dining landscape without them. Sure, they’re wonderful places to eat. But they all engender belonging, possibility, and connection — things we surely need in our country right now.

★ – an Eater 38 Icon, on this list five consecutive times

The 2017 list | The December 2016 list | The January 2016 list | The 2015 list

2M Smokehouse

San Antonio

In an ever-more-crowded genre, pitmaster Esaul Ramos and fellow San Antonian Joe Melig transcend the Texas smoked-meats melee by also serving a frictionless combination of dishes that express their Mexican-American heritage. The uniformly blackened, near-custardy brisket rivals the efforts of the Austin superstars; chopped poblanos and blots of queso Oaxaca punctuate their stellar pork sausage. Fold them into speckled flour tortillas, topped with pickled nopales and interspersed with forkfuls of borracho beans and “Chicharoni Macaroni” (mac and cheese dusted with fried pork skins). This is how the leading edge of Lone Star barbecue looks, smells, and tastes. 2731 South WW White Road, San Antonio, TX, (210) 885-9352, 2msmokehouse.com

Atelier Crenn

San Francisco

With an artist’s sense of constant reinvention, Dominique Crenn has been bending flavors and meditating on design since her flagship restaurant’s 2011 debut. More masterfully than ever, Crenn and her team (including pastry chef Juan Contreras) mine the middle ground between intellect and emotion, between heady presentation and flat-out deliciousness. Crenn focuses the modernist kitchen on seafood and vegetables, using impeccable Bay Area ingredients while musing over her upbringing in Brittany, France, for inspiration. Stunning black-walnut tables, part of the dining room’s 2017 renovation, show off swirling wood grains that resemble turbulent cloud patterns; the effect is mirrored in tableside theatrics like platters of billowing dry ice that soon reveal tiny geoduck tarts. 3125 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA, (415) 440-0460, ateliercrenn.com

Brennan’s

New Orleans

Ralph Brennan and his business partner, Terry White, rescued this French Quarter monolith in 2014, shepherding $20 million worth of reconstructive surgery on a building the size of a small cruise ship. Among the city’s Creole restaurant institutions, Brennan’s now takes the lead with its balance of timeless pageantry and relevant, finely honed cooking. Executive chef Slade Rushing nails the classics — eggs Sardou laced with creamed spinach for breakfast, snapper amandine or blackened redfish for dinner, bananas Foster for dessert any time of day — but also rotates in fresh twists like frog legs with basil tempura and tomato escabeche. 417 Royal Street, New Orleans, LA, (504) 525-9711, brennansneworleans.com

Here’s Looking At You

Los Angeles

Beef tartare at Here’s Looking At You

Wonho Frank Lee

Jonathan Whitener, the chef who owns HLAY with front-of-house ace Lien Ta, is arguably the country’s most creatively energized practitioner of the “global plates” aesthetic. Salsa negra, smoked beef tongue, nam jim, carrot curry, blood cake, almond dukkah, sprouted broccoli, New Zealand cockles: All have a place on his menu; all make sense in his electric, eclectic compositions; all reflect Los Angeles’s wondrous pluralism. The cocktail menu takes cues from Tiki culture but spirals off in similarly wild and amazingly cohesive directions. 3901 West 6th Street, Los Angeles, CA, (213) 568-3573, hereslookingatyoula.com

Himalaya

Houston

Effervescent, always-present owner Kaiser Lashkari and his wife, Azra Babar Lashkari, turn out nearly 100 distinct dishes at their boxy strip-mall restaurant in the city’s Mahatma Gandhi District. Numerous curries, including Hyderabadi chicken hara masala coursing with green chiles, evince several regional Indian cuisines, but it’s key to order the gems inspired by Kaiser Lashkari’s native Pakistan. He excels in “hunter beef,” a preparation similar to pastrami, best served cold in thick slices with head-clearing mustard. He links the Pakistani affinity for beef with Texas in specials like his weekend-only smoked brisket masala. The restaurant’s excellent, mildly spiced fried chicken bridges cultures just as successfully. 6652 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX, (713) 532-2837, himalayarestauranthouston.com

Jose Enrique

San Juan, PR

Jose Enrique’s whole fried fish over yuca

There is no sign outside the self-named restaurant of Jose Enrique Montes Alvarez; there’s also no missing the building, a cottage spangled with Art Deco geometries and painted bright pink. Jose Enrique served as the initial headquarters for José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen, which eventually served over 3 million meals in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria’s destruction in 2017. And it rightly remains the island’s most lauded dining destination. Whiteboards propped around the dining room list the daily-changing menu, a narration of the island’s comida criolla in which local seafood keeps diners rapt. Build a meal around an Enrique classic: whole fish fried into a kinetic sculpture, crowned with a chunky salsa of papaya and avocado and set over mashed yam. The crowd is drinking local rum. Join them. 176 Calle Duffaut, San Juan, Puerto Rico, (787) 725-3518, joseenriquepr.com

JuneBaby

Seattle

Edouardo Jordan grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, with family roots in Georgia, but it wasn’t until he opened his second Seattle restaurant, in the spring of 2017, that he chose to focus professionally on the foods of the South and his African-American heritage. The decision, and the restaurant’s immediate success, has made him one of the nation’s towering figures of Southern cooking. Among the menu’s familiar, gorgeously rendered comforts, the truest treasures (oxtails, vinegared chitterlings, collard greens with ham hock) are the ones that most resonantly invoke Jordan’s upbringing. 2122 Northeast 65th Street, Seattle, WA, (206) 257-4470, junebabyseattle.com

Koi Palace

Daly City, CA

Dim sum is among my favorite meals; I took a particularly obsessive deep dive through the Bay Area and greater Los Angeles this past year while researching the Eater Guide to California. A Sunday jaunt to the original Koi Palace (the flagship of its three locations) reminded me why it’s the indispensable cornerstone among the region’s many stellar dim sum options. Once you wade through the chaotic crowds, a euphoric whirlwind of food and service awaits. In a blur of dumplings, noodles, congees, sweet and savory cakes, piled greens, and crisp-skinned meats, a through-line of freshness and craftsmanship gives the feast cohesion. Finish with the last dregs of tea and the custardy fritters called “Sugar Egg Puffs.” 365 Gellert Boulevard, Daly City, CA, (650) 992-9000, koipalace.com

Mary & Tito’s Cafe

Albuquerque

The foodways of New Mexico are even more regionalized and misconstrued than Texas’s Tex-Mex traditions. In restaurants, New Mexican cuisine boils down to the quality of two dominant chile sauces: the dusky, fruity, slightly spicy red variation, made from dried pods, and the chunkier, vegetal roasted green chile version. There is no better indoctrination into the state’s culinary nucleus than the cafe started by Tito and Mary Ann Gonzales in 1963. Both have died, but their daughter Antoinette Knight, her family, and the restaurant’s longtime cooks keep the recipes and spirit alive. The crucial dishes: carne adovada (pork marinated in bright, silky, near-perfect red chile sauce and then baked) and stacked blue corn enchiladas with both red and green chiles — which is to say, “Christmas” style. 2711 4th St NW, Albuquerque, NM, (505) 344-6266, no website

Momofuku Ko

New York

The wit and technical command behind the tasting menu at David Chang’s toniest outpost perpetually makes Ko one of Manhattan’s worthiest splurges. A course of frozen foie shavings, melting on the tongue like otherworldly snowflakes, is a forever trademark; it’s hard to look at the split shape of the “Ko egg” and not envision an alabaster Pac-Man gobbling dots of caviar. But this past year the restaurant hoisted itself to another dimension by adding a walk-ins-only bar with a separate, experimental, and sneakily brilliant menu by executive chef Sean Gray and his team. Consistent pleasures have included quadruple-fried chicken legs, served cold. They’re so outrageously good, Harland Sanders only wishes he were picnicking on them in the afterlife. 8 Extra Place, New York, NY, (212) 203-8095, ko.momofuku.com

Palace Diner

Biddeford, Maine

In 2014, Chad Conley and Greg Mitchell took over a decades-old, 15-seat restaurant housed in a Pollard train car built in 1927 and turned it into the ideal realization of a daytime Americana diner. Eating here haunts me: I can’t find better light, lemony, buttery pancakes, or a more precisely engineered egg sandwich, and theirs is the only tuna melt I ever hunger after. Location plays a charming role: Sleepy but quickly burgeoning Biddeford, Maine (also home to Rabelais, one of the country’s finest food-focused booksellers), sits about 20 miles south of Portland. It’s all worth the trek. 18 Franklin Street, Biddeford, ME, (207) 284-0015, palacedinerme.com

Park’s BBQ

Los Angeles

Tabletop barbecue and banchan at Park’s BBQ

Wonho Frank Lee/Eater

In America, the meaty magnetism of Korean barbecue restaurants often serves as a gateway to the country’s cuisine. Park’s, ensconced in a Koreatown strip mall, is more of a journey’s culmination — the pinnacle of the genre. Certainly the tabletop-grilled meats (especially the kalbi, or short ribs, and anything offered as an American wagyu upgrade) deliver with sizzling edges and smoky depths. Before the main event, tiny plates of chef-owner Jenee Kim’s meticulous banchan (kimchi; gyeran mari, or rolled egg; battered slices of squash) rev the appetite. The cooking alone distinguishes the restaurant; the engaged, near-telepathic staff propels the experience even higher. 955 South Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, (213) 380-1717, parksbbq.com

Smyth & the Loyalist

Chicago

Chicago is a stronghold of tasting-menu restaurants all nearly on par in their intellectual heft. At Smyth, husband and wife John Shields and Karen Urie Shields certainly show off brainpower through 12 courses that uniquely coalesce Japanese, Nordic, and Southern-American flavors and techniques. But their close relationship with a farm 20 miles south of the city in Bourbonnais, Illinois helps give Smyth’s cuisine a literal and spiritual grounding. I taste the honest Midwest in dishes like end-of-summer green gooseberries paired with uni. At the Loyalist downstairs, the duo apply their formidable know-how to the Americana fare, including killer biscuits with cheddar and what may be the most righteous cheeseburger in Chicago. 177 North Ada Street, Chicago, IL, (773) 913-3773, smythandtheloyalist.com

Superiority Burger

New York

Brooks Headley departed from his top-of-the-food-chain gig as pastry chef at Del Posto in 2015 to channel his punk-musician origins into a solo project: a seditious, moshing, 270-square-foot Lower East Side restaurant that specializes in a remarkably gratifying vegetarian burger. The place is an ever-rarer reminder of individuality and tenacity in New York City. At its busiest moments, the crowd streams from the six-seat storefront out onto the sidewalk, a breadth of humanity sharing the moment as they consume meat-free sandwiches and spontaneous vegetable creations, straight from the farmers markets. Every menu item costs under $10. Headley doesn’t entirely abandon his previous title: He channels every ounce of his dessert genius into two transcendent gelato and ice cream flavors that change daily and come squashed together in a paper cup. 430 East 9th Street, New York, NY, (212) 256-1192, superiorityburger.com

Via Carota

New York

I’ll just say it: This is my favorite place to eat in New York. While no one “quintessential Manhattan” restaurant exists, Via Carota exquisitely inhabits one version of the mythology. It’s the filtered, shifting light that seeps through the picture windows overlooking a narrow West Village street. It’s the crowd’s smart air (especially at lunch, the ideal time to drop in). And it’s certainly the assured Italian cooking, heavy on vegetable dishes but also with soul-soothing pleasures like tagliatelle showered with Parmesan and draped with prosciutto. An unusually harmonic partnership animates the place: Chef couple Rita Sodi and Jody Williams each started still-successful restaurants nearby before combining forces on their joint darling. I always feel cheered by their doting brand of culinary co-parenting. 51 Grove Street, New York, NY, (212) 255-1962, viacarota.com

Xi’an Famous Foods

New York

Jason Wang and his father, David Shi, began their success story out of longing: The dishes they first served out of a basement stall of the Golden Shopping Mall in Flushing, Queens, channeled signatures of their native Xi’an, the capital of China’s northwestern Shaanxi Province. Hand-ripped noodles with spicy cumin lamb (its complexly seasoned chile oil reflective of Xi’an’s Eastern point along the spice routes), liangpi “cold skin” noodles, and a lamb burger stuffed in a hamburger-bun-shaped bao became phenomenons. Now with over a dozen locations in three New York boroughs, the chain remains in the family, and the food — remarkable in its consistency and affordability — rightly persists as a cult obsession. 41-10 Main Street, Flushing, NY, (212) 786-2068, and other locations, xianfoods.com

Xochi

Houston

Chicken tacos at Xochi

Each of Hugo Ortega and Tracy Vaught’s four Houston restaurants lend distinction to the world-class greatness of the city’s dining scene. Since opening in early 2017, Xochi quickly ascended as the finest of their bellwethers. Ortega and his chefs delve into Oaxaca’s earthy, exhilarating, spicy-sweet cuisine, with its color wheel of moles and its masa-based specialties shaped into irresistible geometries. Look for memelas (a thicker tortilla cradling roasted pork rib), tetelas (blue-masa triangles stuffed with house-made cheese), and molotes (crisp oval cakes painted with creamy and spicy sauces). Lunch ranks equal to dinner in excellence, a blessing for Downtown’s visitors and local workers alike. 1777 Walker Street, Houston, TX, (713) 400-3330, xochihouston.com

Among those reappearing on the list, only five standouts remain from the original guide Eater published in January 2015. The quintet — consider them Eater Icons — comprises the progenitor of hot chicken, the nation’s ranking barbecue lodestar, two luminaries where I’d most readily recommend celebrating a special occasion, and the restaurant that shifted how many of us perceive Middle Eastern foods. These are the places that I could never bring myself to rotate out. They all exemplify cuisines and ideas that dominated the decade, but their influence also clearly surpasses momentary fad.

Al Ameer

Dearborn, Michigan | Among Dearborn’s cache of Lebanese restaurants, this is the paragon. Kahlil Ammar and Zaki Hashem’s family business includes an in-house butcher facility, so the unrivaled stuffed lamb (and also lamb liver, a traditional breakfast dish) exhibits exceptional freshness. 12710 West Warren Avenue, Dearborn, MI, (313) 582-8185, alameerrestaurant.com

Benu

San Francisco

“Thousand year old egg” at Benu

No culinary leader in America deserves the honorific of “chef’s chef” more than Corey Lee. Easy labels don’t stick to his visionary cooking. Lee runs three San Francisco restaurants, including the bistro Monsieur Benjamin and In Situ at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, but it’s at his flagship where his virtuosic talents most hold sway. Lee was born in Korea, and he most often summons the cuisines of China, Japan, and his native country for his intricate, striking dishes. Lobster coral soup dumplings, mussels stuffed with glass noodles and layered vegetables, a combination of potato salad and caramelized anchovies that recalls two staples of banchan: After thousands of meals consumed for Eater, I don’t know another place in America that serves food more dazzlingly, gratifyingly singular than Benu. Master sommelier Yoon Ha’s beverage pairings keep pace with Lee’s kitchen — another of the restaurant’s near-impossible achievements. 22 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA, (415) 685-4860, benusf.com

Bad Saint

Washington, D.C. | The challenge: a no-reservations policy, 24 seats, and a line that begins several hours nightly before opening. The payoff: Tom Cunanan’s peerless Filipino cuisine. Inspirations like piniritong alimasag (fried soft-shell crab in spicy crab-fat sauce) also brilliantly signal the Chesapeake region in which he cooks. 3226 11th Street NW, Washington, D.C., no phone, badsaintdc.com

Bateau

Seattle | At Renee Erickson’s revolutionary overhaul of the American steakhouse, she and her partners dry-age the beef they raise on nearby Whidbey Island. Servers maintain a nightly running list of steaks on a chalkboard; lesser-known cuts like gracilis (the lean top round cap) receive equal billing with New York strips and ribeyes. Gallic-accented sides (kale gratin) and desserts (baba au rhum) trumpet the country’s renewed obsession with French cuisine. 1040 East Union Street, Seattle, WA, (206) 900-8699, restaurantbateau.com

Bertha’s Kitchen

North Charleston | Sisters Sharon Grant Coakley, Julie Grant, and Linda Pinckney carry on the culinary traditions of their deceased mother, Albertha Grant, serving red rice and shrimp, garlic crabs, lima beans, okra stew, and other specialties of the Gullah, former slaves who made their home in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. 2332 Meeting Street Road, North Charleston, SC, (843) 554-6519, no website

Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Pocantico Hills, NY

Squash in the guise of guacamole at Stone Barns

If pushed to pinpoint one restaurant that I consider to be the “best” in America, I will time and again name Dan Barber’s Westchester County destination, the centerpiece of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. Four-hour-plus meals here are elegant, interactive experiences: They begin with the front-of-house staff asking about interests and appetites, and then the first bites comprise a procession of “vegetables from the field” served raw and impaled on spikes with the lightest gloss of vinaigrette. From there… who knows? Barber and his seasoned improvisers run the show, orchestrating scenarios of experimental squash varietals and no-waste animal cookery; perhaps there’s a mid-evening field trip to the bakery or a course or two in the refurbished manure shed (yes, it’s a thing) or the kitchen. Diners ultimately leave with altered definitions of place and time around food. What Barber creates is a life-affirming reset of what a restaurant can and should be. 630 Bedford Road, Pocantico Hills, NY, (914) 366-9606, bluehillfarm.com

Compère Lapin

New Orleans | Nina Compton, a native of St. Lucia, revives New Orleans’s often-forgotten connections to the Caribbean; at her three-year-old restaurant, she knits together cultures with dishes like snapper with vinegary pepper escovitch and carrot beurre blanc. 535 Tchoupitoulas Street, New Orleans, LA, (504) 599-2119, comperelapin.com

FIG

Charleston | The first place you should eat in Charleston? And maybe the last? Mike Lata and Jason Stanhope’s ever-creative, always-consistent fixture, where the daily catch from Southern waters steers the nightly menu. 232 Meeting Street, Charleston, SC, (843) 805-5900, eatatfig.com

Franklin Barbecue

Austin, TX

A classic spread at Franklin Barbecue

Courtney Pierce/Eater

Things Americans willingly wait in line for: rides in Disney theme parks, Black Friday sales, the latest iPhone, Aaron Franklin’s sublime array of smoked meats. I’d argue the latter leads to the greatest rewards. Texas barbecue functions as a ferocious, intensely observed sport unto itself; who crafts the most rapturous beef rib or the snappiest sausages fuel constant debate. What isn’t disputed is how Franklin raised the discourse around barbecue when he and his wife, Stacy, stoked the first pit at their barbecue trailer in 2009. (The business moved to its current midcentury modern digs in 2011.) His brisket alone altered my brain chemistry, and did the same for a lot of other souls, forever changing our expectations of that Lone Star staple. A spread of brisket, ribs, pulled pork, potato salad, and pinto beans still merits the wait, which every omnivore should brave once in their lives. 900 East 11th Street, Austin, TX, (512) 653-1187, franklinbarbecue.com

The Grey

Savannah, GA | Eater’s 2017 Restaurant of the Year resides in a former Greyhound bus station, restored to its original 1938 Art Deco grandeur in a multimillion-dollar renovation. Mashama Bailey culls Southern port city flavors into a jubilantly personal expression, with triumphs like salt-preserved grouper on toast and quail scented with Madeira. 109 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Savannah, GA, (912) 662-5999, thegreyrestaurant.com

Highlands Bar & Grill

Birmingham, AL | A victorious year, with James Beard Awards for Outstanding Restaurant (after nine previous nominations) and a long-deserved win for pastry chef Dolester Miles, only emphasizes the timeless relevance of Frank and Pardis Stitt’s affable Southern-French haven. 2011 11th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL, (205) 939-1400, highlandsbarandgrill.com

Kachka

Portland, OR | Bonnie and Israel Morales recently moved their Belarusian-Georgian-Russian restaurant to a larger, splashier space without displacing an ounce of its inimitable spirit; their new lunch service offers the same signature dumplings, caviar, and newly supersized blini, and world-class vodkas. 960 SE 11th Avenue, Portland, OR, (503) 235-0059, kachkapdx.com

Mariscos Jalisco

Los Angeles | Raul Ortega’s mariscos truck, parked in LA’s Boyle Heights community, serves what is arguably the most perfectly constructed taco in the whole blessed country: The taco dorado de camaron, filled with spiced shrimp, emerges sizzling from the fryer before being swathed with salsa roja and avocado slices. 3040 East Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, (323) 528-6701, no website

Milktooth

Indianapolis | Dutch baby pancakes with fluffernutter and grape jelly, sourdough-chocolate waffles with oolong-infused maple syrup, bacon and beef sloppy Joes: Jonathan Brooks is a mad genius of the morning meal. There’s no more inspired destination for relentlessly inventive breakfasts in America. 534 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis, IN, (317) 986-5131, milktoothindy.com

Mud Hen Water

Honolulu | Hawaiian food exists in its own delicious, swirling cosmos. In dishes like his version of grilled squid lūʻau, whole fish cooked in coals, and chicken long rice croquettes, O‘ahu native Ed Kenney connects the cultural dots like no one else on the islands. 3452 Waialae Avenue, Honolulu, HI, (808) 737-6000, mudhenwater.com

n/naka

Los Angeles | Reservations open three months in advance and book out instantly, but tenacity rewards with the country’s most poetic kaiseki meal. Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida’s menus careen through cooking techniques (sashimi, steaming, frying, searing), but the whole is a meditation on the ties between culinary tradition and individual imagination. 3455 Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, (310) 836-6252, n-naka.com

Parachute

Chicago | Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark’s dishes crisscross continents in their exceptionally vivid flavors, but the road always leads back to Korea with seasonal journeys like dolsot bibimbap and sesame-laced beef stew. 3500 N Elston Avenue, Chicago, IL, (773) 654-1460, parachuterestaurant.com

Prince’s Hot Chicken

Nashville

The one-and-only hot chicken at Prince’s

Nashville-style hot chicken can no longer be considered a trend or a local delicacy; its countrywide popularity over the last five years cemented its place in the foundation of American dining. But no matter how many people succumb to the masochistic pleasures of capsaicin and the endorphin rush that follows, or how many restaurant groups fashion their own variations, credit for the dish should — and will — always go straight back to the business that made it famous. James Thornton Prince founded the restaurant in the 1940s; his great-niece André Prince Jeffries remains the guardian of the recipe. The heat levels range from plain to “XXX Hot.” The “Hot” version is as far as I go, and as a full-body sensory happening, it’s plenty. Everyone should visit North Nashville and face the flames for themselves. 123 Ewing Drive, Nashville, TN, (615) 226-9442, princeshotchicken.com

Spoon & Stable

Minneapolis | This is the Twin Cities’ restaurant of the decade. Gavin Kaysen brought New York star power back to his native Minnesota but keeps himself grounded with local ingredients and compelling yet comforting plates. Pastry chef Diane Moua echoes the Midwest charm with creations like root-beer semifreddo. 211 North First Street, Minneapolis, MN, (612) 224-9850, spoonandstable.com

Staplehouse

Atlanta | Ryan Smith crafts the right-now model of the mid-priced tasting menu, serving a dozen or so constantly evolving courses; dishes might involve modernist mousses and powders but never spiral too far from an end goal of accessible pleasure. Co-owners Jen Hidinger and Kara Hidinger (Smith’s wife) lead the front of house with Southern graciousness. 541 Edgewood Avenue Southeast, Atlanta, GA, (404) 524-5005, staplehouse.com

Zahav

Philadelphia, PA

Smoked lamb shoulder with chickpeas at Zahav

The recent limelight on Middle Eastern foods in America, which is overdue and still very much emerging, can in part be traced to Michael Solomonov, the chef who owns Zahav (and about a dozen other restaurants) with Steve Cook. Solomonov, born in Israel, brings a respectful and contemporary translation of that nation’s clearinghouse adaptation of its region’s varied cuisines. Dinner should always begin with salatim — warmly spiced vegetable salads that light up the table in their shades of red, green, gold, and purple — and Solomonov’s justly lauded hummus, maybe in a Turkish variation bathed in melted butter. Grilled duck hearts, roasted carrots with labneh, the signature smoked lamb shoulder lacquered with pomegranate molasses, riffs on kanafeh (a shredded phyllo dessert) with seasonal fruits: These communal plates all foster kinship, further cultural understanding, and of course bring immense enjoyment. 237 St James Place, Philadelphia, PA, (215) 625-8800, zahavrestaurant.com

Editor: Erin DeJesus Art director: Brittany Holloway-Brown Shooter: Gary He Video editor: Murilo Ferreira Photographers: Katie Acheff, Joshua Brasted, Frank Wonho Lee, Reese Moore, Courtney Pierce Social media editors: Milly McGuinness, Adam Moussa Copy editor: Emma Alpern Special thanks to: Matt Buchanan, Amanda Kludt, Francesca Manto, Stefania Orru, Stephen Pelletteri, Mariya Pylayev, and Eater’s city editors

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agendahammer79-blog · 6 years ago

Text

America’s 38 Essential Restaurants

★ – an Eater 38 Icon, on this list five consecutive times

The 2017 list | The December 2016 list | The January 2016 list | The 2015 list

2M Smokehouse

San Antonio

Atelier Crenn

San Francisco

Brennan’s

New Orleans

Here’s Looking At You

Los Angeles

Beef tartare at Here’s Looking At You

Wonho Frank Lee

Himalaya

Houston

Jose Enrique

San Juan, PR

Jose Enrique’s whole fried fish over yuca

JuneBaby

Seattle

Koi Palace

Daly City, CA

Mary & Tito’s Cafe

Albuquerque

Momofuku Ko

New York

Palace Diner

Biddeford, Maine

Park’s BBQ

Los Angeles

Tabletop barbecue and banchan at Park’s BBQ

Wonho Frank Lee/Eater

Smyth & the Loyalist

Chicago

Superiority Burger

New York

Via Carota

New York

Xi’an Famous Foods

New York

Xochi

Houston

Chicken tacos at Xochi

Al Ameer

Benu

San Francisco

“Thousand year old egg” at Benu

Bad Saint

Bateau

Bertha’s Kitchen

Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Pocantico Hills, NY

Squash in the guise of guacamole at Stone Barns

Compère Lapin

FIG

Franklin Barbecue

Austin, TX

A classic spread at Franklin Barbecue

Courtney Pierce/Eater

The Grey

Highlands Bar & Grill

Kachka

Mariscos Jalisco

Milktooth

Mud Hen Water

n/naka

Parachute

Prince’s Hot Chicken

Nashville

The one-and-only hot chicken at Prince’s

Spoon & Stable

Staplehouse

Zahav

Philadelphia, PA

Smoked lamb shoulder with chickpeas at Zahav

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Source: https://www.eater.com/best-american-restaurants-review/2018/11/13/18071890/best-restaurants-america-2018

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dyreatic · 8 years ago

Photo

DIVER Magazine May 2017 - Aqours Special Feature ENGLISH Version

[Raw] [EN Typeset]

Team ONIBE has fully translated and typesetted the key parts of the Aqours Special Feature in the May 2017 Edition of the DIVER magazine, featuring Anchan, Rikyako and Suwawa! The trio goes around Osezaki and Numazu, giving an introduction to recommended spots in Numazu as well as the diving spots of Osezaki!

If you’re planning or have already planned to go to Numazu in the future, do check out the Numazu feature for some places you could stop by on your trip!

TL: Dyrea TLC: Lucia(@luciahunter6) QC: Mega, MarcoPolo TS: Eter (Thanks a lot!)

Page 1

Osezaki Part. 1

Aqours becomes real sea girls!

First dive in Osezaki & Numazu Pilgrimage

The school idol project Love Live! Sunshine!!, set in the seaside stage of Numazu, Shizuoka, where the youth story of the high school school idols Aqours unfolds. Because Numazu was the stage, it received popularity and proceeded to acquire an unstoppable boom by fans who endlessly continue to visit it after the series. And in the middle of that, 3 members from the cast of Aqours have transformed greatly into real sea girls! They challenged Osezaki, a sacred spot for divers, by personally taking part in diving, and travelled around the recommended spots in the hometown of Numazu.

From the left, Aida Rikako, performing as Sakurauchi Riko, Inami Anju, performing as Takami Chika, and Suwa Nanaka, performing as Matsuura Kanan, all from Aqours. They are at the eye-catching lighthouse at the tip of the cape.

Page 2

Introduce

In the small high school within Uchiura in the neighboring area around the sea in Numazu, Shizuoka, the 9 member school idol group Aqours was formed. It is the youth story of the struggles and growth of the girls who dream of participating in the school idol festival Love Live!. (TV Anime Season 1 aired in 2016. Season 2 is confirmed for this Fall.) One member of Aqours, Matsuura Kanan, is a diver and also helps out at her family’s diving shop. Because there are a lot of important scenes in the story that take place near or in the water, a collab with this magazine was soon realized.

Photo taken at Wannai, the location of this SPECIAL EDITION’s cover. The diver-look suits the cast well.

Page 3

Successive heart-clenching feelings from the underwater world and fish viewing.

March has arrived, with the gentle rays of the spring sun falling down. Within Suruga Bay, Osezaki Cape juts out from land. Looking out at the magnificent Mt. Fuji, which stands out distinctly in the background, made it a great start for the three. Osezaki is an outstanding diving spot within Izu, with an abundance of topology and biodiversity, so divers from all around the country come to visit.

This time, the three of them are aiming for a half-day diving course that can be done even without a license (C card*). All the equipment is rentable, and one session of freely exploring the sea starts from around 10,000 yen.

The diving point is Wannai. Being calm all year round, both popular and rare species exist in this wonderful field. The trio is tense at first, but thanks to the lectures from the experienced instructors Takao Masayuki-san from Divers Inn Fujimi and Horiguchi Kazushige-san from Osezaki Marine Service, both prominent long-standing diving services in Osezaki, their worries were put to rest. “Take it slow when breathing and moving underwater, okay?” was the careful support given to the divers as they entered Wannai. They gently descended to medium depth and enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness, and seeing schools of black rockfish, spottedtail morwong, pearl-spot chromis and others in a once in a lifetime encounter excited them to no end. As they approached 10 meters deep, there were objects scattered around relating to Suijin and Pooh. Since it was a rare chance, they paid a visit to Suijin-sama, and they thus ended their first dive with a smile.

“It was so fun that I didn’t want to surface. It was like a dream~” said the girls captivated by Wannai, a place where Yellow Pygmy-gobies and other popular species are present. The wide open sea of Suruga Bay boasts Japan’s deepest depths, and also has monkfish and other deep-sea fish frequenting it, making it a newsworthy super beach.

“I want to come next time to get my license!” “I want to meet Pooh next time!” bursted the trio with dreams of strolling under the sea.

After you become a diver, you will surely have a desire to dive in the open sea. Although it will require the additional skill of dealing with the tides, but there are beautiful coral fields and schools of fish, and you will get photogenic scenes.

Takami Chika

With her feelings of aspiring towards school idols, she is a protagonist who gathered the other members with her natural forcefulness and cheerfulness. Her family runs a ryokan.

Inami Anju

I love both the sea and fish ♡

Matsuura Kanan

With her outstanding reflexes, she is excellent at diving and boating. She helps out in her family’s diving shop. A mature 3rd year who is also Chika’s childhood friend.

Suwa Nanaka

This is my second time diving!

Sakurauchi Riko

A transfer student coming from Otonokizaka in Tokyo. A graceful 2nd year whose skill is in the piano. She composes music for Aqours, which is brought to life by her musical talent.

Aida Rikako

I yearn for the world within the sea!

Page 4

Osezaki Cape is full of scattered important spots! What are some spots to explore after diving?

Small fish can be barely seen living within the colorful coral in the open sea, and schools of half-lined cardinal are all over the place.

For their diving experience, they are learning how to use the equipment as well as how to swim underwater. The trio are smiling as they are preparing for their first time.

Ose Shrine, where the people of Suruga Bay worship the guardian deity of the sea. It is also a designated Tangible Cultural Property of Japan.

A large undersea Shinto shrine archway! In addition to Ose Shrine, you can also pay your respects to Suijin here.

Wannai has gravel to make entry and exit simple. Because it’s a wide shallow beach, even beginners need not worry.

Seeing the sunlight streaming through from undersea in Wannai, and being spellbound by the silhouettes of the fish swimming back and forth

Into the admired undersea world. Their smiles are perceivable even through the masks.

Beside the sea lies one of the Seven Wonders of Izu, Kamiike freshwater pond. Tens of thousands of koi and other freshwater fish live there, and specialized food is available for all to enjoy feeding them.

The cape is abundant with Juniper trees, and their twisted trunks are a featured natural memento within the country. The girls are receiving power from this honorable 1500+ year old tree!

Divers Inn Fujimi’s famous Mikan jiruko, made from the hometown’s specialty mikan blended into sweet white bean paste. The sourness of the mikan and sweetness of the red bean paste matches very well, and the trio have such high praises that they have gotten extra helpings.

Page 5 + 6

Aqours is off! We love Numazu ♡

Love Live! Sunshine!! is set in Numazu. In the work, the corresponding locations and scenery are faithfully reproduced, and many fans come to visit, in order to personally experience the place that Chika and the others are living in. The trio will are going around the locations related to Love Live! Sunshine!!.

Anchan: There are also a lot of gourmet spots

A diver’s holy ground

(1) Osezaki

Suwawa: They became our instructors!

Their perfect support and hospitality shines bright Divers Inn Fujimi (Ocean View - Fujimi) 993 Nishiuraenashi, Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture 410-0244 Tel. 055-942-3052 Hours: 07:00 - 18:00 / Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays: 07:00 - 21:00 Open daily Website: ose-fujimi.com

A long-standing diving service open for 50 years. It is a complete facility situated in a location with easy access to Wannai as well as the open sea, with staff offering perfect support and hospitality with warm hearts, resulting in many repeat customers attached to it. The meals in the renewed lodging location made with the abundance of local ingredients are also popular. Personal dive: 10,000 yen + tax / 2 beach fan dive: 9,000 yen + tax / Diver 1 night 2 meals: 7,200 yen + tax

The guides and complete facility that even pros depend on Osekan Marine Service 325-1 Nishiuraenashi, Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture 410-0244 Tel. 055-942-2725 Hours: 08:00 - 17:00 (Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays: 06:30 - / Night diving dates until 21:00) Unspecified closing dates Website: fuji.ne.jp/~osekan

A top class complete facility in Osezaki that has set up a long-standing diving service. It also manages the large lodging facility Seaside Inn Osekan. Horiguchi Kazushige-san (center) leads a group of capable young guides who are stationed there, and they freely use all the latest information regarding the biology there to guide both veteran divers and famous cameramen, all of whom place great faith in them. Half day personal dive: 10,000 yen + tax / 2 beach fan dive: 9,400 yen etc.

Exquisite lunch & sweets amidst the atmosphere of a boat trip

(2) Seaside Cafe, Umi no Stage 768-9 Nishiurakishou, Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture 410-0231 Tel. 055-946-2801 Opening Hours: 10:00 - 18:00 Closed on Thursdays (Except during Summer)

Opened 17 years ago by an owner who loves the sea and boats above all else. There is also a museum about the cruise ship Scandinavia, which used to moor at the bay at the shopfront but now lies at the bottom of the sea near Wakayama. This serves as a conversation topic among its fans. Pictured up top is umami condensed into the “My Lunch Steak” set, while pictured below that is “Sea Grotto”, a delicious mix of Tokoroten with ice cream that is a product of Osezaki. These two are some of the popular dishes here.

A member’s luxurious ocean harvest

(3) OH!MOS Farmers’ Market 14-10 Uchiuraomosu, Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture 410-0225 Tel. 055-943-2136 Hours: 08:30 - 17:00 Open daily (Except end and beginning of the year)

A shop directly selling Numazu’s fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as a collection of other products. It carries the locally branded Jutarou Mikan, harvested in January, which is special for its rich taste. It was also featured in episodes 1 and 6 of the TV anime, and fans from all over the country have rushed over to buy it (The original Takami Chika cover illustration edition in the photo has sold out).

An established ryokan also loved by the great author Dazai Osamu.

Anchan: It’s Chika’s home!

(4) Yasudaya Ryokan 19 Uchiuramito, Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture 410-0223 Tel. 055-943-2121 Hours (Baths): 11:00 - 21:00 Open daily Website: mitoyasudaya.com

Started in Year 20 of the Meiji era. It is a genuine Japanese-style Sukiya-zukuri building that has been designated a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan, and Awashima and Mt. Fuji are also visible from within, and you are able to bathe in the famous Yunohana Onsen even if you’re on a day trip. In the anime, this was featured as a ryokan managed by Takami Chika’s family, so this is a place fans continue to visit even after the anime.

A member’s luxurious ocean harvest

(5) Restaurant Rikyuu 186 Uchiurashigedera, Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture 410-0221 Tel. 055-941-3126 Hours: 11:00 - 16:00 (Last Order 15:30) Unspecified closing dates

A seashore dining spot within Awashima Marine Park. Freshly harvested seafood is prepared in a luxurious manner and assembled into a donburi that you are able to taste, and thanks to the anime featuring Awashima island, the Aqours Donburi (1800 yen, Karaage and soup not included) exploded in popularity. The seaweed with members printed onto it is also irresistible to the fans.

Fine coffee in a classic dining area

Rikyako: Calm down and relax

(6) Coffee Specialty Shop, Azumino 2976-2 Shimokanuki, Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture 410-0822 Tel. 055-932-5444 Hours: 08:30 - 22:00 (Last Order 21:00) Closed on Mondays (Except public holidays)

Opened in 1975 and specializing in traditional Nel Drip coffee, the shop-owner makes coffee with vertical drips. Clear and smooth, the dense, mellow coffee infused with sweetness is an original blend, which is available along with other types of rare coffee in abundance. There is also a grand piano inside, so there are also plenty of things suited for Riko-chan.

If you were totally immersed in the Anime’s world

(7) Yudai SUN! SUN! Sunshine Cafe 3 Chome-1-1, Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture 410-0801 Tel. 055-955-7111 Hours: 11:00 - 20:30 / Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays: 10:00 - 20:30 Open daily Website: yudai.co.jp

A Love Live! Sunshine!! collab cafe in front of the south exit to Numazu station. The food and sweets are related to the members, and you can take the drink coasters with you. There are also special menus during the members’ birthday months, so you can satisfy yourself with seeing the anime world!

Focusing on brightly colored cakes seasonally

(8) Shunsaisouka Kanan 926 Higashishiiji, Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture 410-0302 Tel. 055-926-0511 Hours: 10:00 - 19:00 Closed on Tuesdays

This is a cake and baked sweet shop whose owner, Ootake Yoshiki-san, is a pastry chef who won an award at the winner East Japan Pastry Exhibition Grand Gateau division. Plenty of fans drop by because it shares a name with Kanan, and the featured sweets “Ootake Shoe” and “Torokeru Burin” draw in repeat customers.

Page 7 + 8

Aqours speaks! Special Interview

Shining while facing their dreams, their failures and successes, their friendships and bonds… Those are Love Live! Sunshine!!’s many radiant messages. The trio talks about the work’s charm, and also that of Numazu, where they dived.

The maturing members add the gleaming ocean to their list of stages

What was your impression of the underwater world after diving for the first time?

Inami: I had more fun than I ever imagined, and it felt like I was in a dream underwater for much longer than I actually was! I’ve loved the sea ever since I was small, and I was good at free diving and high diving. I also practiced swimming for 6 years, and I love fish to the point that I often went to aquariums too, so I feel really blessed that I was able to dive after yearning for it all along!

Suwa: In elementary school, I went diving in Okinawa during the summer, and it was really fun this time too. “Since we’re going underwater today our eyes will probably be opened to what diving is like!” I said to everyone else, and while I was actually diving, I suddenly thought, “I want Kanan to teach me”.

Inami: Yeah, really~! I also want to get my license and start diving normally! I was uneasy at first, but as I learnt more I got more comfortable, and by the time I had realized it I was smoothly breathing in and out without my nose, and was able to keep my mask clear of condensation.

Aida: Ah~ that was really great! Water isn’t really my strong point, so I was nervous at the beginning, but as expected, the experience and scenery underwater was completely different from up on land! There was also a scene in the anime where Riko was diving with Chika and Kanan, so I had a desire to dive as well, which made this a truly valuable experience. And also, there were so many cute fish!

Inami: “I’m truly diving, and the fish are really there!” was something I felt with each consecutive encounter. Osezaki is a rare sea that even has a shrine underwater. Anyone can explore shrines on land on foot, but the underwater shrines are quite inaccessible, so it’s even more interesting.

Suwa: Even the feeling of being suspended while swimming underwater is something that cannot be done on land, which feels really great. I can feel at ease and relax.

Inami: Yeah! I had a dream of becoming a mermaid, and I was able to swim freely underwater just as if I had turned into one!

Suwa: It was great! These are Kanan’s words, but the greatness of the sea and diving as well as “It feels great to be able to clear your head while swimming in the sea” as she had said within Sukufesu (Love Live! School Idol Festival, the smartphone game from the same series) and also “Let’s stroll in the sea!” have made me able to enjoy diving with the hope that I will be able to stroll in the sea with everyone~.

Inami: That would be great! This story revolves around the sea as an important keyword, where the name Aqours was also decided from, and everything also started from a sandy beach. A lot of hints came from the sea.

Aida: Riko was able to overcome her piano slump because she dived into the sea.

Inami: Yep, that was the case. Chika was also lost and frustrated, and went into the sea in search of something. And there, she was able to take one step forward once again, and I really felt the support that the sun, the sea, and all of Numazu’s nature gave to the girls. This time, I tried diving in the sea with the thought, “Having seen a sight like this, I wonder if the words from that time would come out”, and I felt that I got closer to the girls’ feelings more than ever before, so I ended up loving the sea more and more!

How was hunting around Osezaki and Numazu?

Aida: I’ve been to Numazu multiple times, but this was my first time in Osezaki. I was especially moved when I saw Mt. Fuji from the cape; it was the first time I was able to see such a beautiful sight all the way down to the base of the mountain. I really felt like I received great power and energy!

Suwa: My memories of Kamiike are also strong. I wanted to try counting the large number of koi that drew near me (laughs). I cannot forget the mysterious atmosphere that felt as if the lord of the pond was dwelling there.

Inami: I know, right? As for me, Ose Shrine, with the tengu decorating it all over, left a mysterious impression on me (Ose Shrine worships tengu and has a lot of it remaining). It’s as if those history and legends were unfurled, and my curiosity made me excited, while I pray for everyone’s future.

Aida: Every time I visit Numazu, I think, “Such a wonderful place exists!” and am able to discover new attractions.

Suwa: There’s still a lot left, so I want to discover more.

Inami: When we go to the locations or the scenes in the casual town that appeared in the anime, we also happily go, “Ah, that scene is here”, while merely thinking, “If the girls were here I wonder what they would do”, which makes us excited. These feelings are the same as the fans’, and I believe that because everyone is coming down to visit, this has once again become a special place.

Aida: I would be happy if from here on, people could come visit all these places, and meet all these warm people while experiencing Numazu.

What kind of existence is Love Live! Sunshine!! to the three of you?

Inami: 2 years have passed since I met the girl known as Takami Chika, and I think that I really changed a lot. Back then, our personalities were complete opposites. I was pessimistic and naive, but Chika was a bottomless pit of cheerfulness, and she gave me the courage to take a step forward with her smile and energy. Chika’s undauntable way of looking ahead was really radiant. She expressed her emotions straightforwardly, and her foundation of unwaveringly facing her dreams really empathized with me.

Aida: I too, really respect Riko in a lot of aspects. Even though she wasn’t the type to take initiative, ever since she became a school idol, she didn’t stand out, but was still an indispensable part of Aqours, acting as a strength from below. She was pessimistic, and while she didn’t have confidence in herself, she worked hard to give her support to the other members when they needed it most. I admire Riko for being this type of girl.

Suwa: Even though Kanan was separated from everyone else by being away from school in the beginning, she made her appearance in a scene in the sea, and she is the sort of leader who would lead everyone along in exercising, calling out to everyone to follow her to bond by the sea. Kanan placed #1 in the center elections, and she took the center spot for the new song HAPPY PARTY TRAIN, and even though I was astonished I was also really happy! Season 2 of the TV anime is also airing this Fall. All 9 members were gathered together in Season 1, and from Season 2 onwards they can have activities as a full group from the very start, which I’m really looking forward to!

Aida: Mhm, in Season 1 Episode 13 they were able to participate in the preliminaries of Love Live!, which was their heart’s desire, and so we were able to welcome the “shine” that the girls had become. And that’s precisely why from here on, I want them to also aim to become the top school idols in the country within Love Live!. I was able to see the ways that they have matured in Episode 13, so I want to see the 9 of them mature more and more.

Inami: I feel completely the same, and just as I thought, Chika’s goal is Love Live!, so I wonder how the outcome will be. And because of that, I want to face that and go and see more of the girls who are shining even brighter.

Suwa Nanaka Debuted as a seiyuu in 2013’s Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de. Voices Matsuura Kanan in Love Live! Sunshine!! from 2015 onwards. She is taking on the center role for Aqours’ 3rd Single HAPPY PARTY TRAIN, released on April 5th.

Inami Anju Debuted as a seiyuu in Hinata no Aoshigure, released in 2013. She takes part in activities as a seiyuu, actress and singer. She voices the protagonist of Love Live! Sunshine!!, Takami Chika, from 2015 onwards.

Aida Rikako A girl who returned from overseas after living in Los Angeles for four years during elementary school. Debuted as a seiyuu in Pac-world in 2014. After that, she voices Sakurauchi Riko in Love Live! Sunshine!! from 2015 onwards.

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theangry-ace · 7 years ago

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short reviews of R18 drama cd

I just started drama cd a few weeks ago and I just think it’s a neat type of p0rn for someone like me. plus it’s a fun way to practice listening. if you’re interested to try drama cd as well, or just wanted a short spoiler to avoid certain red flags like rape or incest, I think I covered them.

I gave rate on story and the sex. me being myself, that’s the two main part that’s important to categorize them. I personally prefer story driven stories. I am aro but I do appreciate romance once a while.

I will mention the voice actors’ name if I like them. and I always call them by their alias, just so to be familiarize with them (so I can easily pick them out).

you can sampled almost everything from airavalky.

part 1

Ai Yume story: 4/5 icha icha; a bit too intense for me / 5 review: i can't really say what i feel for this series. there's a lot of red flags like stepsiblings(?) relationship and possessive/abusive relationship. the story itself is interesting but it gets kinda too, uhh, dark. not for a faint of heart i think.

Aka no Hanayome [finished] story: 5/5 icha icha: 4/5 review: the theme is there would be a bride bearing a mark on her person that matched the guy she's destined to marry but this time around, one girl has four marks that matched four different guys. supposedly the guys needs to, uh, get close to the girl, so the flower marks can 'bloom' and would bear the proof of the guy to inherit the family fortune or something like that. unfortunately for the girl, she suffered sudden seizures due to the 'hanayome' curse that can be calmed by... you guessed it, sex. it's silly but i think this might be the best series that i've come across so far. vol.1 (Peroperonchino) = guy is the cold prince type but gets warmer in the end. he cute once he’s not acting like a snob. vol.2 = the first son of the main family. he's a kind older brother type. he'll explained a bit about the curse thing. vol.3 (Margarine) = my favorite bc he's such a nice dude. he's a classmate of the girl and came from the branch family so he will kept on saying he want nothing with the whole 'head-of-family transfer' thingy. vol.4 = my least fav bc he's a bit of an asshole, not giving the girl the chance to say no to his advances and just do what he wanted.

Arashi no ichiya tabi no otoko [finished] story; 2/5 icha icha; 3/5 review: two strangers taking shelter from the rain. idk i kinda expect more for some reason (since i like chasuke). the sex is pretty sudden and like there's no connection except two people sharing one space decided to sex one another.

Bed made nyan nyan wo matte kurenai [finished] story: 2/5 icha icha: 3/5 review: it's Cider being an adorable boyfriend. that's all you need to know. there's not so much of him being a cat though, just a mention of his character has a cat shirt. they missed the opportunity to make me die.

Bodyguard wa kare no iinari [finished] story: 4/5 icha icha; 3/5 review; this one surprised me since i expected the guy is the bodyguard but instead it's the girl. storywise is kinda good; a singer songwriter who can’t sleep without a girl to hug who is also threatened by a obsessed fan, so his company employ a bodyguard and so the girl character came into the picture. i’d say the story is good, the sex is unnecessary kinda.

Cafe romaana [finished, maybe] story: 3/5 icha icha: 3/5 review: it's a sweet story actually but not that special. it revolves around a coffee shop that was owned by three brothers. vol.1 - i think this is the best of the three for no reason except i like it best. girl is already in relationship with the youngest brother. his issue is being overshadowed by his two brothers but he still tries his best to follow their lead. vol.2 (Tetrapot) - girl is a waitress of the cafe. second eldest dude is trying to better his barista skill and wish to enter a... competition? vol.3 - the eldest brother who tried to date a girl who supplies the flowers to the cafe.

Calling bloom [finished, maybe] story: 4/5 icha icha: 3/5 review: the idea is like a host club but they do delivery and would fingerbang or sex with you if you ask. just the catch is not to fall in love with them. i think storywise is good. prepare to have feelings though. Hikaru (Sawa Manaka) = spoiler alert, he fell in love with the girl when he first met in a konbini before, but since hosting is his job, he can't say that so his story ends one sidedly and bittersweetly. Syu = he's the number one host of anemone. haven't really heard his side yet aside from the first track. Kaname = girl actually chose him because he looks like a anime idol character she liked, not because he was an ex idol. i kinda felt bad for him. didn’t finish his side yet. Hazime = haven’t got to this one yet.

Circle catalogue [finished, maybe] story: 4/5 icha icha: 3/5 review: about a relationship between a girl and a band member. pretty sweet but nothing special. if you just need a good story about a good relationship, this is kinda one of it. Basist (Asagi Yuu) - if asagi using his toshishita kare voice is one of your weakness, you will not survive this volume. i died three times before i even get to the icha icha scene. girl is the... manager? or at least one of the staff of the band. she wanted to quit (for a reason i dont quite catch) and dude is not okay with that. thankfully it ended quite sweetly. Leader (Kawamura) - girl is a fan of the band and is dating the leader. the couple has been troubled with physical distances between them ever since they first met and now they started to worry if their happiness won't last that long. Drummer - I’ll get to this one later.

Cream pie story; 5/5 icha icha; 3/5 review: the one thing that separates this from the other is that there is a solo masturbation scene from the dude and it kinda make me laugh even though i don't think i should. hehe. story is very close to realistic couple's problem i guess. try this if you need story. Ninomiya (domon atsushi) - this one i don't quite understand why they fight. guy wanted to find a place with elevator near his wife's work so if she got pregnant it wont be too hard on her. but she felt like he just assumed that's what she wanted???? maybe i'm too aro to understand this is reason enough to fight but i could see it happening irl. Yuuki (tetrapot) - the problem with this couple is that the girl/wife? had to work outstation for three weeks and guy was so lonely i kinda felt bad for him. poor guy he did it with her pajamaaaaa.

Dakarete kara hajimaru koi story; 3/5 icha icha: 3/5 review: i think they're pretty sweet but not much of a story bc they’re pretty short. the one with kawamura is my favorite bc there's a cat<3 actual cat! i have a likings for a guy who gets weak around cats.

Danna-sama series story: haven't heard all of them but those i did 4/5 icha icha; 3/5 of those i've cleared review: there's a lot of volumes so kinda need a separate review for each of them but the basis is similar. sweet story. my favorite might be the one with tetrapot. he made it into my list of favorite drama cd VA because of this.

Date biyori story: 4/5 icha icha; 4/5 review: just sweet dating stories. i especially love the one with murano bc it's just so damn funny and sweet. too bad he didnt do too many titles.

Dousei kareshi story; 4/5 icha icha: 4/5 review: sweet lil story about two ppl living together. nothing really stands out but the story is good.

Enemy coupling [finished, maybe] story: 5 /5 (minus 3rd vol) icha icha: 4/5 (minus 3rd vol) review: in an AU where there's a animal/human hybrid. vol.1 (sawa manaka) = sawa as a cat can fucking end me. he's a younger boyfriend type that dates a scaredy mouse hybrid. he cute and story is actually very sweet. why cant sawa just do this type of character and nothing else??? vol.2 (murano) = dude is same age type of rabbit hybrid who dated a fox hybrid. the sex in this kinda intense... and noisy. but story is good and dude is very cute. he’s dating his fox hybrid classmate. vol.3 = a wolf teacher with his sheep students. i don't do teacherxstudent so i never got beyond the first track. sorry.

Enter the mirror [finished] story; 5/5 icha icha: get so much icha in the end esp the tokutens /5 review; in a alternate universe(?) a kingdom was destined to ruin. there's only three person who can save it and they need to find a rose fairy from a world inside the mirror to do it. story is very good but the sex gets exponentially intense in the end. there's a rapey scene in the beginning though. vol.1 (sawa manaka) = i think this is the first time i heard sawa doing fantasy and it's a good change. he's the righteous knight type. vol.2 = the magician side. he's kinda like the gentle older brother type i think. he would do anything to save his kingdom that he puts something in your food to paralyze you (to rape/unlock your rose fairy power?) but he changed his mind halfway vol.3 (peroperonchino) = the prince. storywise i like his side better since you can feel how desperate he is to save his kingdom. the tokutens sex is very very intense bc he gets jealous very easily.

#drama cd #reviews

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recentanimenews · 6 years ago

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RABUJOI’s Top 10 Anime of 2018

We watched over forty shows this year – not a record by any means, but definitely a product of our commitment only to watch the best shows available (with some notable exceptions in cases where we’re too far behind with certain franchises). As a result, a quick glance at our Big Board will show a lot of blue, indicating a lot of 8’s and 9’s with a handful 0f 10’s mixed in.

It’s not that we just like everything; it’s that we (usually) set a high standard for what we watch. If something is consistently scoring below 8 or 7, we’ll probably drop it, since there’s just not enough time to waste on subpar show. That being said, even among these forty shows (out of the 100+ that aired) there are a select few we would recommend over the rest; the Cream of the Crop…The Best of The Best of The Best (with honors).

Ok, enough cliches…let’s get down to it, shall we? Say you were incredibly strapped for time this year, and couldn’t watch any anime. To binge forty shows now, with just a couple weeks left in the year, would not be good for your health. So we’re making it easy for you: watch the ten shows below, and you’re sure to be satisfied!

Our tastes may differ a tad from the masses here at RABUJOI so we’ve included weighted scores from both MyAnimeList and Anime News Network, and then very unscientifically averaged them with our own scores for the final ranking.

10. Darling in the FranXX

7.82 | RAB: 8.92 | MAL: 7.61 | ANN: 6.93

The adolescent male-female pilot pairs of the titular FranXX live to fight the mysterious yet deadly enemy, and nothing else; they weren’t given a choice in the matter. This is a story of the bonds they share, the joys and trials of living together, falling in love, stumbling into adulthood, and finally coming to question the roles assigned to them by the adults. It features Trigger’s signature visual flair and compelling performances from Tomatsu Haruka and breakout newcomer Ichinose Kana. It wasn’t perfect by any means but it was thoroughly exhilarating more often than not.

9. Koi wa Ameagari no You ni (After the Rain)

7.92 | RAB 8.58 | MAL 7.61 | ANN 7.56

A high school student falling for the 45-year-old single parent manager of the restaurant where she works could have been a landmine, but their story is handled with a deftness, sensitivity, realism and beauty, matched by achingly gorgeous animation and character design and some powerful voice work from the HanaKana-channeling Watabe Sayumi.

8. Yagate Kimi ni Naru (Bloom into You)

8.28 | RAB: 8.80 | MAL: 7.76 | ANN: n/a

Perhaps the best pure romance of the year despite not being over yet and one half of the couple quite adamant she doesn’t have feelings for the other. Yet she seems to be gradually coming to like her senpai—wonderfully voiced by Kotobuki Minako—more and more, which is exactly how my love for this series has progressed: like a blooming flower.

7. Shokugeki no Souma: San no Sara – Toutsuki Ressha-hen (Food Wars! The Third Plate: Totsuki Train Arc)

8.35 | RAB: 8.75 | MAL 8.37 | ANN: 7.93

Food Wars is definitely one of those shows you’re either all-in from the beginning or hopelessly lost, but this second arc of the third season was one of the strongest due in no small part to watching how Souma and his numerous allies closed ranks and started to fight Azami’s oppressive new culinary regime. Best of all, it means Erina and Souma finally on the same side. Not to mention there are few shows that so seamlessly integrate the art and science of cooking, not to mention leave their audience hungry both for the next episode and for the food that had been presented.

6. Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) Season 3

8.39 | RAB: 8.75 | MAL: 8.52 | ANN: 7.91

Like Food Wars, those who sign up for Titan are well aware they’re in it for the long haul. Indeed, the mysteries that have unfolded in the manga may never be put to the screen, with the show’s apparent primary goals to simply entice its audience into consuming the source material. But while we only got twelve episodes this time, not a single one was wasted. A lot of secrets were revealed, and the girl formerly known as Krista Lenz took her rightful place beside Eren as one of the chief protagonists of the series with a bizarre (this is Titan) and utterly righteous arc.

5. Hinamatsuri

8.45 | RAB: 8.83 | MAL: 8.34 | ANN: 8.18

Perhaps the best pure comedy of the year, Hinamatsuri is full of interesting, colorful, and imminently rootable characters, from the yakuza with a heart of gold and a love of antiques, to the young woman with telekinetic powers who suddenly enter and complicate his life, to that girl’s ridiculously hardworking classmate who ends up tending bar (and being pretty damn good at it). But while the comedy is almost omnipresent, there’s still some pockets of meaty character drama within the dozen episodes.

4. Steins;Gate 0

8.50 | RAB: 8.96 | MAL: 8.65 | ANN: 7.89

Seven years is a long time to wait between an anime and its sequel, though I only had to wait three since I got into the first series late. I’m glad I did, though; it’s one of my favorite (if not favorite, full stop) shows, animated or otherwise, whose emotionally dizzying heights were matched only by its emotionally hellish lows. 0 spends much of its time in the depths, with Okabe never not mourning the loss of his beloved Kristina, even if it meant saving his beloved Mayuri. But thanks to a little help from friends old and new, including a virtual version of Kurisu called Amadeus, Okabe gets his groove back and foils the plans of a scientist even madder than he.

3. Violet Evergarden

8.68 | RAB: 9.15 | MAL: 8.59 | ANN: 8.30

VE has the distinct air of the anime equivalent of “Oscar Bait,” as goes to almost obsessive lengths to demonstrate its peerless quality of animation, music, and melodrama. I don’t usually go for Oscar Bait movies, myself, but doggone it, Violet Evergarden, despite being a bit pretentious, is nevertheless a gorgeous, marvelously-crafted, and exceedingly enjoyable piece of entertainment. Watching its deeply wounded inside-and-out titular heroine gradually gain the humanity that had been repressed in her bloody past is never not spellbinding.

2. Sora yori mo Tooi Basho (A Place Further than the Universe)

8.75 | RAB: 9.15 | MAL: 8.61 | ANN: 8.50

Ordinary girls seek an extraordinary adventure, and end up forming bonds that will last and memories they’ll cherish for a lifetime. That those ordinary girls are in Japan and the adventure they seek is all the way in Antarctica makes heir goal feel unattainable at first, even naive. But Shirase, Mari, Hinata, and Yuzuki gradually make believer of us. And that they manage to actually achieve the feat of going to the literal end of the earth is just the beginning. Overflowing with charm, love, and camaraderie, Yorimoi is a Must-Not-Miss.

1. 3-gatsu no Lion 2 (March Comes In Like a Lion 2), Second Cour

8.92 | RAB: 9.18 | MAL: 9.05 | ANN: 8.54

We don’t consider it cheating that a show that first aired in 2017 gets the top billing here. First of all, the eleven episodes of the sequel all aired in 2018, and secondly, it was just that damn good. Indeed some of the best episode sof the entire series took place this year, as examination of Rei’s depression gave way to those of his fellow shogi players like the ethereal (and profoundly lonely) Souya, as well as his young friend Hinata, who despite being quite simply one of the kindest souls alive became the target of horrendously cruel school bullying. Since Hina was one of the people instrumental in saving him, Rei considers it his duty to return the favor, with overwhelmingly gratifying, life-affirming results. No anime this year exuded love as powerfully or consistently as Lion. For that and many other merits to its name, it was the best of 2018.

By: rabujoistaff

#Anime #News #RABUJOI – An Anime Blog

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vietnam-hub · 6 years ago

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These Cities Are The New Magnets For Millennial Home Buyers

Last fall, Kit Kester, 32, and his wife decided it was time to make the giant leap into first-time homeownership. But they didn’t consider relocating to job-packed San Francisco, breakfast-taco-loving Austin, TX, mustache-obsessed Williamsburg, Brooklyn, or any of the other infamous millennial hotspots across the United States. Instead they centered their search on their hometown of Lincoln, NE. By October, they had purchased a three-bedroom, split-level home in the suburban neighborhood of Highlands for $180,000.

"We got tired of paying rent and throwing money away," says the maintenance supervisor and father of a young child. "And we really liked the idea of having a home for my daughter to grow up in."

Millennials bought 36% of homes last year, the highest share of any generational group, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Of that 36%, 65% went to first-time home buyers. But this vast army of buyers faces some unique challenges in their transition from renters to owners, including crushing debt loads and one of the tightest and most competitive housing markets in history. They may be buying homes in big numbers, but they can’t afford to do so in the nation’s largest, most expensive cities. Instead, many younger buyers are opting for more affordable—and unexpected—parts of the country.

But where? The data team at realtor.com decided to find out where younger Americans make up the largest percentage of purchasers, by looking at who is getting mortgages and where they’re getting ’em.

What we found flies in the face of conventional wisdom.

"At the end of the day, it comes down to what they can afford," says Roger Ma, a real estate agent and owner of Life Laid Out, a New York-based company that helps people reach their financial goals. "They might have started their careers in very expensive metros areas like [Washington] DC or San Francisco. But as they age, they often want to settle down and look for a home in a reasonably priced location." We used Pew Research Center’s definition of millennials: those born between 1981 and 1996—who are now anywhere from 22 to the ripe old age of 36.Then we calculated the share of buyers within that age group who bought homes over the past 12 months in the 200 largest housing markets.

Now let’s take a tour of the new millennial meccas!

Median home list price: $150,000 Percentage of mortgages issued to millennials*: 57%

Millennials, it’s said, are a generation about instant gratification. They want everything, and they want it now. Broad generalizations, sure, but in Appleton, young home buyers really are focused on having it all.

"They want an updated home, something with a new kitchen, updated bathrooms, and a large yard," says Carolyn Stark, a real estate agent at Keller Williams Fox Cities. "You can see the look on their faces when they see places that have been renovated, and have new flooring and carpet—that makes them happy."

Suburban communities in Appleton with lots of move-in-ready houses, for example in Kimberly, WI, are in high demand. Young buyers with families love the public school system, the short drive from the city center—and the fact that the median home price is an affordable $145,000, according to realtor.com.

There are also plenty of things for the younger crowd to do. You catch them flocking to the Appleton Beer Factory, a brewpub downtown that serves up burgers, fries, and, of course, beer, or boating or jet-skiing on nearby Lake Winnebago.

And the locals aren’t shy around their alcohol. In 2016, 24/7 Wall Street named Appleton the Drunkest City in America—a title that doesn’t seem to bother this crowd much.

Median home list price: $294,000 Percentage of mortgages issued to millennials: 56.9%

Renting in Des Moines isn’t what it use to be—it’s a whole lot more expensive. The median monthly rent price here is now $996, up 6.8% from a year ago, according to the latest U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development numbers. And so a lot of these buyers have wised up and realized that rent is often higher than a mortgage.

"The cost of a lease keeps going up," says Bryan Curtis, a broker at Attain RE in Des Moines. "People are looking at the grand scheme of things when it comes to their finances, and see [buying a home as] one of the best investments."

Now, Des Moines isn’t exactly cheap. The median home price is a bit higher than the national median of $279,900, according to realtor.com data. But many first-time buyers are taking advantage of federally backed mortgage loans that don’t require the 20% down payment, Curtis says. They can put down as little as 3% if they qualify for the right loans.

That’s not to say that many buyers can’t afford larger down payments. There are plenty of good jobs in the area, including those at Meredith Corp., which, after its purchase of Time, Inc., is now America’s largest magazine publisher. A gig at Progressive Farmer, perhaps?

It’s still affordable to own a home in Iowa. That is what’s driving people here," Curtis says.

Median home list price: $139,500 Percentage of mortgages issued to millennials: 56.8%

For much of the 20th century, Utica was known as the Sin City of the East. The city’s mob oversaw a slew of illegal activities in the area. But the only mob you’ll find in Utica now is the huge number of younger buyers chasing the newest listings in this city about four and a half hours north of New York City. These days, millennials might know Utica best as the home of one of the worst branches of Dunder Mifflin, the fictional paper company featured on "The Office." Of the places we ranked, Utica has by far the lowest home price. Around the city’s median price point, you’ll find lots of older, single-family homes in the upstate city’s downtown. Those willing to drop a bit more cash can get a much swankier home. Take this brick, two-story, four-bedroom home of 2,400 square feet, priced at $297,000. The home has a koi pond and a winding rock pathway that leads right up to the front door.

Median home list price: $376,700 Percentage of mortgages issued to millennials: 56.5%

Most of the places on our list are all about reasonably priced housing. The exception is Provo, where home prices are almost $100,000 more than the national median.

But high prices aren’t locking younger buyers out of the market here, because wages are also good. The city is home to Brigham Young University, Ancestry.com, and plenty of start-ups where computer coders can earn a fine living. That earned the city a spot on our our ranking of top metros for the middle class.

Provo homes cost a bit less than those in nearby Salt Lake City, at a median nearly $394,000. The larger city, about 45 minutes north, was ranked as one of the toughest housing markets for millennials by realtor.com. Many first-time buyers are moving to more family-friendly, suburban communities like Cedar Hills, around 25 minutes from downtown Provo, where they can snag larger homes. Just look at this 3,400 square-foot, five-bedroom Rambler-style home, priced at $479,000.

And all the 1990s kids who grew up watching "Jurassic Park" over and over are sure to dig (get it?) the dino fossils at the Brigham Young University Museum of Paleontology.

Median home list price: $175,000 Percentage of mortgages issued to millennials: 56.3%

Located on the banks of Lake Superior and in the state of 10,000 Lakes, Duluth is perfect for millennials who want to be far away from city life.

The homes younger buyers are gravitating to reflect that outdoor lifestyle. There are lots of affordable cabins in the woods, or two-story homes on huge sprawling properties with a lake or two in the backyard.

The younger crowd can make good money here. The area is home to one of the Midwest’s largest ports, and it has a strong manufacturing and aviation sector. Lots of big-name engineering firms, like Enbridge and Barr Engineering, have offices here too.

Median home list price: $210,100 Percentage of mortgages issued to millennials: 56.3%

For many Californians or New Yorkers, owning a home by the time they reach 30 can seem like climbing K2. But by that age in Lafayette, buyers have often bought their second home already, says Justin Netterville, a local real estate agent at Rome Realty.

"They want open floor plans, everything updated over [the last] five years, granite countertops, and 1,700 to 2,200 square feet, because they probably have two kids at that point," he says. And they can get it without breaking the bank.

The area has lots of oil field and machine shop jobs that pay entry-level wages of between $30,000 to $50,000—enough in this market to qualify for a first-time mortgage. But buyers had better be quick. One-story ranches in the suburbs for under $200,000 are moving off the market at a rapid pace, Netterville says. Lafayette offers things for families to do as well. To escape the summer heat, residents can stop by the family-fave Borden’s Ice Cream. And it wouldn’t be Louisiana without a few alligator exhibits, like the one on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Full disclosure: In 2016 one these critters escaped and took a stroll around campus.

Median home list price: $275,000 Percentage of mortgages issued to millennials: 56%

Lancaster’s location, about an hour and a half from Philadelphia and just over two hours from NYC and DC, makes it appealing for buyers fleeing those higher-priced cities. However, these transplants are still city folk at heart, so they’re often buying homes downtown.

"It feels like half of New York is moving here, because everything there is so darn expensive," says Darrell Coyle, a local real estate agent at Charles & Associates. "They can’t get a doghouse in New York for the price [of Lancaster homes]."

These buyers want town homes with character built in the early 1900s, Coyle says.

"The younger folks want to live in the historic district and walk to the nightlife, great restaurants, and shopping," Coyle says of the downtown, which is undergoing a resurgence. "The city has rooftop bars with grass yards that overlook the city."

Just outside the city is the country’s oldest Amish settlement. Locals can stop by and snag the best Whoopie Pie of their lives—a treat some claim originated in Lancaster County. Just be mindful of the horses and buggies.

Median home list price: $245,100 Percentage of mortgages issued to millennials: 55.5%

Lovers of Starbucks’ Peppermint Mocha can thank Kalamazoo for those minty, buzzy beverages. In the late 19th century, Albert Todd (aka the Peppermint King of Kalamazoo,) refined peppermint flavoring. But nowadays, the region is leading the pack for something just as sweet: homeownership.

Millennials here are snapping up homes left and right. Some of that is due to the fact that the increasing rents have made homeownership ever more appealing. (The median monthly rent climbed to $936, up 4.1% from a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development).

But that’s not all. Homes here are reasonably priced, and the huge life sciences industry—pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and biomedical firms— put these millennials in a position to afford them.

Some of the younger folks also may have larger down payments thanks to the Kalamazoo Promise. It covers up to 100% of tuition and fees for locals to attend public colleges in the state—a great deal for those who don’t want to rack up student loan debt.

Median home list price: $313,800 Percentage of mortgages issued to millennials: 55.4%

Many young people here are in a good place to transition to homeownership, particularly if they work in the region’s burgeoning tech hub. Lincoln and other Midwest cities, like the Omaha area, have gained the nickname Silicon Prairie, thanks to schools like the University of Nebraska-Lincoln churning out skilled graduates.

That’s partly behind the uptick in millennials closing on homes of their own, says Mark Meierdierks, a real estate agent at Nebraska Realty.

Many are trying to buy in neighborhoods like Highlands, about a 15-minute commute from downtown. It’s filled with both one-story ranches and two-story split-level homes. Most of the community’s homes were built in the 1970s and ’80s, and if the home has been remodeled, it will catch this age group’s attention, Meierdierks says.

"Their parents had a good house, so they want what their parents had, and they can afford to buy it now," Meierdierks says. "They want to live the American dream."

Median home list price: $170,800 Percentage of mortgages issued to millennials: 55.2%

Evansville is located right on the banks of the Ohio River in southern Indiana. The downtown is full of single-family homes that date back about 100 years, many with views of the river that weaves through the region. There are plenty of new or newly remodeled homes, too, with the open designs that millennial buyers crave.

The strong economy has put cash in the hands of younger folks here. The region is the headquarters for companies like Accuride Corporation, a vehicle components supplier, and Berry Global, a Fortune 500 plastic packaging maker.

"Evansville is a very affordable city," says local real estate agent Trae Dauby of Keller Williams Capital Realty. "The bulk of our buyers right now are first-time home buyers, probably between the ages of 22 and 35."

They’re typically local couples scooping up two- and three-bedroom houses on the suburban outskirts of the city, he says.

Buyers with some cash left over can head over to the Tropicana Evansville, a 45,000-square-foot casino in downtown. And sports fans can root for one of the local teams, like the Evansville Thunderbolts, a minor league hockey team, or the city’s minor league baseball team. Go, Otters!

* Calculated using using Optimal Blue mortgage data.

This article, "Forget SF, Goodbye NYC! You Won’t Believe the New Millennial Magnets for Home Buyers" appeared first on Real Estate News and Insights from realtor.com.

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0225pm · 7 years ago

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hello!

ok wow it’s currently almost 5am, and i just got done taking a shower and washing up. i am really beat but i just wanted to write about the things that happened today haha!

ok so today is labour day, meaning it’s a public holiday and the day before i already asked han if he wanna meet today. so we did like plan a little like where to go and stuff, and we decided to go to the thai shop at tampines hub again. we already went there on saturday and honestly, the food there is so good!! it’s really so much better than so pho hahaha, to me la. like the broth is so much more tastier? it’s light, yet still so flavorful. the amount of spices they use is just nice. of course, i wouldn’t know if it’s instant broth or something but just based on taste itself, it’s really good. they also give a generous serving of the meat!! it’s really worth your penny la if you’re craving for something spicy and light yet at the same time, filling for your tummy. good thing is they don’t have service charge either. but that’s probably everything’s self-serviced. you choose your own seats, place your orders at the counters in front and then collect your food at the collection area.

so the moment we reached tampines hub, he asked me han: eh here got miniso ah? me: yeah why? han: oh my friend working here me: oh ok

ok i thought by friend he meant, a guy friend but turns out it’s a girl lol ok i tried not to be all jealous and shit but i can’t help it. and then he told me that the girl has a *boy*friend and that her *boy*friend doesn’t like her talking to other guys. so i said, “well me too??? i don’t like you talking to other girls either”.

ok at this point yall probably think i’m fucking possessive or something but lmao yes i admit maybe i am? but i just don’t like that feeling. it’s just a shitty feeling, i can’t even describe it properly. is it jealousy? is it insecurities? is it clingy behaviour? well.

anyway, both me and han got the same ones we ordered on saturday. he got the one that looks like wanton noodles with grilled chicken, if i’m not wrong. and i got their signature chicken noodles. i wanted to try their tomyum soup noodles but i wasn’t really feeling anything spicy today.

oh and idk how we got the topic of me wanting to check his phone? like wtf, i don’t ever do that istg. i feel like respecting people’s privacy is a super important thing. i mean, i wouldn’t want people to snoop around my things also so i wouldn’t do that to anyone else, even if it’s my own boyfriend. but he gave me the permission and even said something like, “i always look through your messages in front of you so now you can do it to me also” so, even though it was partly against my wishes, i decided ah well why tf not. and so i did, i only scrolled through a few and then stumbled upon this girl asking him if she can get to know him better what the fuck cb. i saw that he didn’t reply so i took the liberty to reply her asking her to fuck off. and then i scrolled a bit more and thought like eh, the conversations were pretty much sorta harmless and then i laughed them all off.

++++++++ oh!! and han got a haircut! he looks more clean cut but still as cute as ever la haha i really think he can pull off anything hairstyle. i’m not just saying this cus he’s boyfriend but i really think that he has a really nice head shape that’s suitable for any hairstyle lol.

and then ok after dinner, there was this percussion performance going on and they were gonna do their last performance. han wanted to go to the toilet to do his stupid big business so he asked me to sit and watch the performance while he goes to the toilet but i felt like it’s awkward to be sitting there alone so i told him it’s ok, just go to the toilet near the library so i can go in the library while you poop but the said the toilet near the library’s really dirty since people who plays soccer usually washed up there so i said ok just go to this level 2 toilet. so while he left to go to the toilet, i watched the performance from the top. at this point, i was perspiring a little. it was getting really warm, and i actually brought my jacket cus i thought it was gonna rain since it did drizzled a little earlier on. and then after awhile, this little baby stood beside me and danced along to the beat of the drums. he was really super duper cute, i want to squish him but his mom was there so obvious i couldn’t just pick up a random stranger baby right hahahaha so i just stood there and smiled. i love kids but istg they can be such devils sometimes. i hope my future children will be well-behaved hahaha!!! ok i know, it’s too early to talk about having children and stuff but ya know, i’ve always told myself that i’m never gonna have kids cus pregnancy seems like such a tough thing to go through. i really applaud all mothers out there, yall are the real mvps for procreation. but thinking about it now, no matter how tough it is, someday i want to have my own squishy and/or, squishies. i know they will grow up and be less squishy but that will be wayyyyy later into the future.

and then after han came out of the toilet, we went down the escalator and then he asked me if i wanted to go anywhere else. his actual words were, “you don’t know where to go right after this?” then i said ya haha. to which, he suggested going home.

now knowing me, i don’t like heading home so early but then i thought ah, he has work tomorrow, he’s gonna be fucking beat. and i too have work tomorrow, though mine’s closing shift so ya know, i can still sleep during the day and just wake up in time to head to the store so it’s a different situation for me. so i said, ok let’s go home but i feel like getting something to drink. i was thinking of koi, but then i changed my mind to liho and by this time han was being all squirmy saying that he’s too lazy to walk all the way to the mall’s basement for liho. so i said ok let’s not go to liho then, and then i walked into cheers and got myself the peppermint green tea. i wanted just regular green tea but they don’t have any and since there was like a mini sale, the peppermint green tea cost only a dollar which is really a good bargain. and then we walked past the yogurt ice cream thing and han asked me if i wanted it. at first i was like, nah. you want ah? then he asked the same question to me again lol. then he asked if i want, what flavor will i get. so i said idk maybe the plain white one. i’ve always like the plain/original flavor of things anyway. then he asked, not chocolate? and then i said nah, and then ok after some back and forth, we or should i say i, finally decided to just get strawberry.

we went to the counter, paid for everything and then used the machine hahaha i have a short video on instagram story which i haven’t saved that’s why i didn’t include it in this post but i’ve included a picture of the machine and how the yogurt looks like after being squeezed out.

and then we walked back to the bus interchange and han was joking around about how he can just take the downtown line from tampines all the way home and then i said, ok go ahead. but i guess he knew that i very much would prefer to have company so he ended up sending me home, with the thought of going home from the mrt that’s near my place, since it’s downtown line also. but upon reaching my area, he decided to grab home instead cus i think, he was already tired.

i wanted to go to abc to get the axe soap that i’ve been using, damn does it smell good!!! but unfortunately, they don’t have it anymore :( so only han ended up getting a packet of candies.

from there, we went back to my place and sat at our usual spot. we played a couple rounds of ml, rested for awhile and then ok this fucking part haha.

he asked me, “i thought just now you said still got one more thing you want to see?” to which i said, “huh don’t have. only the danni girl was the last one?”

ok then i can’t remember how but the next thing i knew, i was looking at his messenger. and i was scrolling through everything. observing the dates, the stuff he wrote to them, the stuff they wrote to him, the people he said hi to, the girls that accepted his friend requests, etc. ahahaha i’m not gonna lie but i was so fucking hurt and crushed. i didn’t know my heart can actually literally break into a million pieces. i thought being heartbroken over something was just a myth but wow if heartbroken feels like what i felt during that point of time, i wish no one in this world will ever feel such a saddening feeling ever.

i ended up screaming, raising my voice in anger, crying, bawling my eyes out from all the pain i was feeling. it was so....... a feeling i’ve never felt throughout my whole entire life. i’ve always known from the very beginning that i love han with all my heart. but i didn’t realised that i actually love him so fucking much that i can feel the pain in my whole entire body too especially after finding out about something like that. i was shaking with anger and was just filled with sadness.

really crazy how i got so affected.

to be very honest, i was so close to just..... taking a break so i can absorb everything on my own for awhile but then he just held me in his arms and let me sob my heart out and i just couldn’t bring myself to say anything.

its like, you know when you really love someone you just can’t bear to leave and hurt them even though you feel like you should because you’re also hurting from it. but it will hurt more and probably even kill you if you throw everything away just because of mistakes from the past.

i just..... really love him too much.

and then he mentioned about me reading past convos of us and then we managed to scroll all the way up to when we first started talking on telegram. we went through like the whole journey from when we talked to each other 3 years ago all the way till the first few months when we started dating and i just couldn’t stay angry at him anymore. we went through so fucking much to get to where we are right now. like our relationship was a whole roller coaster ride. we went through so many ups and downs, even before we got together.

and i was sad yes, but i guess i could understand why he did that. his insecurities got the better of him, his failed relationships made him feel insecure about actually being able to have a lasting forever relationship with someone. i guess i’m partly to be blamed too. he tried to woo me for so long, only to get rejected time and time again. we went on a few dates, only for us to drift apart and then things happened in between and i guess maybe to him, its like if i can leave the first time even before we got together, i can probably leave him again the second time even if we get together.

but ok i guess he already learnt his lesson. he said something like him knowing that our relationship will last forever and he never talked to anyone else after feeling much secure about things.

honestly, he has nothing to worry about. for a gemini, i’m actually loyal af. and like i told him time and time again, i will probably won’t ever get tired of him. it’s already past a year and yet i’m still in the “honeymoon” phase as he calls it, even though he’s already past that phase.

++++++

after awhile, he asked me if i’m hungry. and i said if he is, we can go have something to eat and then he asked me if i’m hungry too and i said if he’s eating then i’ll eat so yeah after much back and forth, we went to get supper at thohirah. i actually got the prata sia haha i like the cheese prata more than the egg. and then he also got prata - 2 prata plasters. and we ended up not being able to finish our pratas.

ok and wtf you wanna know something? we booked grab like twice and both times we missed cus we were doing some stuff LOL. i probably shouldn’t mention it on such a public platform but fuck it haha just know that, the whole experience was something new for me and goddamn i didn’t know he can actually do that and make me feel such things, or should i say i didn’t know my body can actually react like that lol. i would so love to make love right there and then to be real honest.

haha ok it’s 6:19am, and i should really sleep. my skin needs to regenerate, my eyes needs oxygen and i’m tired from bawling, and ;) haha goodnight and happy labour day to all working people.

#gif #010518 #adaywithhan #maywithhan

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