#emotional support kitty au | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

haeiheart · 2 months ago

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na jaemin — operation: catnapped by @haeiheart

summary! You agree to pet-sit your friend winwin’s cat, easy job and it’s only for a few hours plus you’re getting paid— Except somewhere between the third floor and your unit, you accidentally kidnap a completely different cat. A few hours later, there’s a knock on your door, and standing there is… an honorary frat house member?

pairing! cat owner! jaemin x reader

genre! strangers to friends to lovers, neighbors (same apartment), college au!, comedic (hopefully), fluff, mutual pining, crush as first sight?

warning? mentions of juyeon from tbz, frat house behavior from the boys (frat), mentions of sex (in dreams), making out? kinda idk but yea, flustered defensive jaemin and very flirty reader hehe. states jaem has 3 cats but only mentioned one cz i got super lazy oopsie

note! this was actually an idea for an smau i had in mind but i decided to make it a story instead and have haechan be the next smau after mark is completed hehe but hopefully this was executed well, also um not proofread so hopefully there isnt too many mistakes. enjoy!!! >_<

word count! 7.8k (yippee not bad)

You were promised an easy day: pet-sit your neighbor’s cat, feed it snacks while winwin is gone, try not to let it die. you get paid. Simple.

He gave you clear instructions and details in advance “She’s a white cat. Usually just waits outside my door. Super chill. You literally just have to bring her in.” Now despite being his friend you never actually met the kitty but she shouldn’t be hard to spot right? So when you trek up to the fifth floor and see a fluffy white cat lounging between doors 412 (winwin’s) and 413, you don’t think twice. She blinks at you, yawns, and casually rolls onto her side like she owns the building. Seems pretty chill to you. Must be right.

“She’s cuter than I expected,” you mumble, crouching to scoop her up. She lets you with no resistance, no judgment, just a soft little meow that honestly sounds kind of smug. You carry her downstairs like a proud thief. You wish you could keep her because look at this cutie.

Back in your apartment, she immediately makes herself at home and leaps onto your bed, circles three times, and flops down like she’s royalty. You toss her a few treats (which she devours like she hasn’t eaten over a week), set out a water bowl, and even try to introduce her to one of your throw pillows, which she promptly rejects by batting it off the bed.

You spend the next hour scrolling your phone while she naps beside you, occasionally stretching like she pays rent. How cute. At one point, she headbutts your arm, and yeah, you kind of melt. Maybe this is your new emotional support animal. Maybe this is fate. Maybe this is the start of something wholesome and healing.

What you don’t know is that this isn’t Winwin’s cat.

This is Luna.

And Luna is not your problem.

Yet.

Jaemin doesn’t panic easily.

He lives with his three adorable cats, Luna, Lucy, and Luke, and over time, he’s learned to handle chaos like it’s a lifestyle. Fur on every piece of clothing? Expected. Broken mug? Classic Luke. Midnight zoomies that sound like a herd of toddlers on Red Bull? Routine. He should be awarded with the title of best cat dad, at least that’s what he thinks.

But today, something’s off.

He walks into his apartment, sets down his iced milk tea, and is immediately greeted by Luke’s judgmental stare from the kitchen counter and Lucy’s dramatic flop onto his shoes.

“Where’s your sister?” he mutters, already scanning the room. That’s weird usually she should be easy to spot…

Silence. No jingle of a collar, no dramatic meow, no Luna launching himself off a shelf or tables for no reason.

That’s weird.

“Luna?” he calls out, already checking under the couch. Nothing. Behind the curtains. Under the bed. Inside the laundry basket (which, to be fair, she has claimed as her personal mini studio apartment before). Still nothing.

Then it hits him.

He left the door cracked earlier when he ran downstairs to grab his drink delivery.

He checks the hallway.

Jaemin sighs. “No. No way. Winwin wouldn’t catnap her. He isn’t even in town.” Then it hits him, if he isn’t in town then who’s taking care of HIS cat?

By a gut feeling, as you would call it fatherly instinct, there’s no way this is happening. There’s no way someone actually looked at Luna and thought, “Yep. That’s the one I’m supposed to take care of.”

So he calls winwin.

It rings twice before Winwin answers, voice staticky but calm. “Hey, what’s up? Is something wrong?”

Jaemin blinks. “Yeah. Luna is gone.”

A pause. “Gone?” Winwin repeats.

“She’s not here,” Jaemin says, deadpan. “Luna. She was here this morning. I come back, she’s gone. Vanished. Poofed herself into thin air.” He says with a pout forming in his face.

“Jaemin. Luna is your cat.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you calling me?”

“Because I think if your cat sitter lives in this apartment she or he must’ve stole him.”

The silence that follows is so long, Jaemin checks the screen to make sure the call didn’t drop.

Then, Winwin laughs. Like really laughs. The kind of tired, amused laugh that says “this isn’t my problem, but I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”

“Oh my god,” he wheezes. “She took Luna?”

“I think so.”

“Bro,” Winwin says, barely keeping it together, “she’s never met my cat. I told her she’d be waiting outside my door. Luna was probably lurking again.”

Jaemin closes his eyes. “So she just saw a random white cat in the hallway and picked him up.”

“Yep.”

“And took him.”

“Yep.”

Jaemin exhales through his nose, long and dramatic. “I’m knocking on her door.”

“Be nice,” Winwin says, still laughing.

“No promises.”

Click.

As he makes his way to your apartment unit as winwin has informed of your whereabouts. You were busy dressing Luna up in the most adorable outfits to imagine. Man you could get used to pet sitting.

But you take that back the moment u hear loud footsteps in your hall, followed by exaggerated door knocking on… your door? Taken aback, you place Luna down on your couch and hurriedly made your way to your door, opening it to see… Jaemin?

He scans you as you’re wearing an oversized hoodie, socks with cartoon ducks on them, and a slightly panicked look on your face like you were mid-heist.

Jaemin blinks.

His brain does a hard reset.

You are… very cute. Distressingly so. Not what he was expecting at all. For a second, he forgets why he’s even standing here.

You tilt your head. “Uh. Hi?”

Right. The cat. Focus. He thinks.

He clears his throat, straightens his back, and holds up the can of tuna like it’s evidence. “You have my cat.”

You blink. “I— what?”

“You took my cat,” he says again, trying to sound assertive, but his voice betrays him with just the slightest edge of disbelief. “Her name’s Luna. Not yours. Not winwin. Mine.”

You glance over your shoulder at Luna, currently curled up on your couch, still in her tiny yellow bumblebee costume. She looks content. A little too content.

You fold your arms, trying not to laugh. “Okay, first of all, I thought she was Winwin’s. Second of all… she looks adorable.”

And for a second, Jaemin forgets his mission all over again. Because yes, his cat has been kidnapped, humiliated, and renamed— but now he’s standing in front of the girl responsible, and for some godforsaken reason, he’s not as mad as he really should be.

“Well” he says, looking away with an exaggerated pout, “I guess I can forgive you. Even though you stole my child, changed her name, shoved her into a tiny insect outfit, and clearly tried to emotionally replace me.”

You raise an eyebrow. “You’re so dramatic.”

“She’s dramatic. We match,” he retorts, stepping inside like he owns the place. His eyes immediately land on Luna, who’s now lounging on your throw pillows like she’s at a one way vacation spa. Somehow she loafs perfectly into your cushions. Weird.

“Luna,” he calls, crouching and holding out his arms like a proud cat dad. “Let’s go, princess. Daddy’s here.”

Luna blinks at him slowly. Then turns away. Entirely.

You snort. “Wow. Rejected.” You bite back a laugh, watching the way Jaemin’s face twists in exaggerated betrayal.

Jaemin tries again, softer. “Baby, come on. Don’t make this weird. Let’s go home. I have snacks. Your favorite tuna—the one with the stupid little fish on the can.”

Luna stretches. Rolls over. Completely ignores him.

Jaemin looks personally wounded. “Are you serious right now?”

“She loves me now,” you say, smug. “We bonded.”

“You bribed her with a bee costume.”

“She purred for thirty minutes straight after I gave her a belly rub. I’m basically her soulmate.” Luna skips over and rubs her head against your leg, purring like she agrees.

Jaemin stares at Luna, betrayed. “I raised you better than this.”

You laugh as Luna curls around your leg like she’s claiming you in a custody battle.

Jaemin glares at his cat. “You’re dead to me.”

Luna meows innocently.

Jaemin looks back at you, arms crossed. “Okay, new deal. You stole her, you keep her but only for now. Which means I’m now legally required to supervise all visitation hours. I’ll be dropping by.” Maybe he said it with the intention of seeing you again. But who cares he can if he wants to.

You raise a brow. “That so?”

“Mhm,” he says, already sitting on the edge of your couch like he’s lived here for years. “This is what co-parenting looks like. Don’t fight it.”

And just like that, you’ve accidentally adopted a cat and invited a very dramatic boy into your life.

There’s a brief pause before both of you suddenly freeze, eyes widening slightly.

“…Wait,” you say.

“Winwin’s actual cat,” Jaemin finishes, blinking.

You both glance at Luna, still purring like a traitor at your feet.

You clear your throat. “We should probably… go get her.”

Jaemin nods. “Yeah. Before she starts thinking you abandoned her too.”

A week later, you haven’t seen Jaemin since that weekend. Winwin’s back now, which means no more cat sitting… or accidental naps with stolen cats.

You step into your favorite coffee shop, finally free for a few hours, and grab your drink at the counter. As you turn around, your eyes land on a familiar figure sitting alone by the window, Jaemin. He’s dressed slightly nicer than usual, button-up shirt, hair pushed back like he actually tried… but the expression on his face is pure discomfort. He’s stiff, eyes flicking to the door every few seconds, like he’s waiting for something or someone.

You hesitate, then approach casually, pretending to look around like you’re not analyzing him facially before. “Hey… Jaemin?”

He looks up quickly, a little startled. His face shifts from surprised to sheepish in two seconds flat. “Oh. Uh. Hey.”

You point at the seat across from him. “Can I?”

He shrugs, but his ears are red. “Sure. I mean—yeah.”

There’s an awkward beat of silence before he finally mutters, almost like he regrets it instantly, “I was supposed to be on a blind date.”

You blink. “Oh?”

“She’s not coming,” he adds quickly, like saying it faster makes it hurt less. “Or she forgot. Or maybe she saw me through the window and ran. Whatever. I’m not emotionally invested.”

You try not to smile even though you admit he looks cute all pouty. “You definitely sound not emotionally invested.”

Jaemin glares playfully, then sighs and leans back in his chair. “This is why I don’t do setups. My cats have better taste in people.”

You hold back a laugh. “Well, lucky for you, I’m here. I can sit awkwardly across from you and pretend this is still a successful date.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You offering to fake a date with me?”

You grin. “Only if you buy me slice of cake and others.”

He scoffs and smiles lightly which you almost miss but didn’t. “Knew you had an ulterior motive, you thief”

You grin, leaning on the table. “What can I say? You looked like you were one sad song away from having delusions out the window dramatically. I had to step in.”

Jaemin lets out a loud, offended gasp. “I do not look dramatic.”

“You dressed up for a blind date and got stood up,” you say, taking a sip of your drink. “It’s giving a tragic second lead in a romance drama.”

You tilt your head, eyes scanning him playfully. “Though honestly, I can see why someone would set you up. You clean up pretty well.” You knew your intentions and you knew the affect it would have on him.

Jaemin blinks, clearly not expecting that.

“You trying to soften me up now?” he asks, flustered but pretending to act cool.

You smirk. “Just saying… if I’d known you could look like that, I might’ve set myself up.”

He coughs into his drink, ears turning very visibly pink. “O-Okay. Wow. That’s—uh, bold.”

You grin, watching him squirm. “What? Too much for your heart to handle?”

He glares at you, flustered. “I’m not—! I mean, I can handle it. I just… wasn’t ready.”

You laugh. “Relax, Jaemin. I’m just being nice.”

“Sure you are,” he mutters, hiding behind his cup again. “This is payback for the cat thing, isn’t it?”

“You’ll never know,” you say with a wink.

The rest of the afternoon unfolds like an unplanned scene from a movie, comfortable, light, and quietly magnetic. You stay at that coffee shop far longer than either of you intended. What starts off as you teasing Jaemin just to see him flustered turns into a back and forth rhythm you both fall into naturally. You keep flirting, endless little jabs and compliments disguised as jokes, like it’s second nature. And maybe it is, but this time, there’s real meaning hidden underneath your playful tone.

You’re trying to tell him, just a little, that you think he’s cute. That you like the way he smiles even when he’s trying to hide it, and how his laugh catches in his throat when he’s caught off guard. But Jaemin, oblivious as he is, just assumes it’s your usual personality, like it’s something you hand out to everyone without thinking.

Still, he listens to every word you say. Laughs at all your dumb stories. And when you gently nudge his foot under the table or casually lean in too close when you show him a meme on your phone, he notices, but convinces himself you’re just naturally like this. That you don’t mean anything by it.

But you do. You really do. He is just slow and blank, just like his cats.

You and Jaemin start talking more after that day. What was once a chaotic meet cute over a cat turns into something softer, steadier. Weekly texts turn into daily ones. Inside jokes multiply. A meme here, a random “you won’t believe what just happened” there, until talking to him becomes part of your routine without you even realizing it.

Meet ups happen more often too. First under the excuse of “cat visitation rights,” then because he found a new café and thought of you, then because neither of you really bothers making excuses anymore. It’s easy with him. Effortless, even when he’s being overly dramatic or you’re teasing him into a blush.

Eventually, you start noticing the way other people notice you when you’re with him. Like the two girls whispering near the campus fountain or the way someone in your psych class did a double take when Jaemin showed up to walk you out. You almost forgot he’s kind of known around here. Thanks to his stupidly attractive face, his magnetic energy, and the fact that half his closest friends are in the loudest frat on campus.

You both start hearing the rumors, of course whispers floating around campus about how you and Jaemin are totally dating. People make comments, some subtle, some not. But honestly? Neither of you really care.

If anything, Jaemin seems to like it. He doesn’t say much about it directly, he finds himself smiling when someone calls you his “mystery girlfriend” in passing. He leans into it just a little too well, doesn’t correct anyone, and never seems bothered by the assumption. If anything, he’s happy that it gives him an excuse to be closer to you. To linger longer after your hangouts. To text first. To act a little too comfortable.

Because the truth is, even with his popularity and his easy charm, Jaemin never really explored much outside the world of his small circle— his friends, his cats, his usual routines. But then you showed up, loud and teasing and full of unexpected softness, and maybe the rumors make it easier for him to pretend. To be a little delusional. To imagine that maybe, just maybe, you like him back.

But right now you’re currently set at Jaemin’s kitchen island, textbooks spread open, highlighter uncapped and forgotten as you read the same sentence for the fifth time. Jaemin’s behind the counter, half-focused on the pot in front of him, cooking up something that smells suspiciously like instant noodles with way too much effort.

“You’re really putting your whole soul into that ramen,” you say without looking up.

Jaemin hums. “It’s called love, thank you.”

You glance over. “It’s called MSG.”

He points his chopsticks at you like he’s offended. “I’ll have you know, this is gourmet. I added an egg.”

You snort, turning a page. “An egg doesn’t make it gourmet, Gordon.”

He shrugs, plating the food like he’s on a cooking show. “Well, Gordon doesn’t have three cats who judge his every move. I work under pressure.”

You smile, eyes drifting to Luna lounging on the windowsill, tail flicking lazily. “I think she’s your harshest critic.”

“She is,” he says, setting a bowl in front of you. “But she also likes you more than me, so I try not to take it personally.”

You look up at him, brow raised. “Aw. Jealous of your own cat?”

He leans on the counter across from you, resting his chin in his hand. “Maybe. You do flirt with her more than you flirt with me.”

You smirk. “So you have noticed.”

His eyes widen just a bit before he looks away quickly, ears turning pink again. “No comment.”

Just as you’re about to tease Jaemin again, the front door swings open without so much as a knock.

“Yo,” comes Winwin’s voice as he steps in, nose already in the air like a bloodhound. “I smelled something fire and figured you weren’t the one cooking it.” Clasping his hands together as he rubs it acting like he’s ready to devour a whole table.

Jaemin groans dramatically. “Do you have to use your emergency key every time you get hungry?”

Winwin ignores him completely, eyes locking onto you instead. “Hey! Didn’t know you’d be here.”

You grin and hop off the stool to greet him. “Winwin!” you say, giving him a quick hug.

Winwin hugs you back easily, then nods toward the food. “You cook this?”

“Jaemin did,” you say with a smile, while Jaemin stands stiffly at the counter, chopsticks in hand and expression unreadable as his eyes slowly scan that hand. The hand that’s hugging your waist. Winwins hand.

Winwin’s eyebrows wiggle, noticing jaemin’s behavior. You watch him transforming his face to something you know he makes when he’s about to joke. “Might come over more often if it’s a free chef and a cute food buddy.” He lifts his hands up to pinch your cheeks which he does to actually bully you relentlessly considering you both always had a sibling dynamic. But jaemin doesn’t know that.

“Goodbye,” Jaemin deadpans, turning back toward the stove like he’s about to cook again just to distract himself.

You glance at him, then back at Winwin, amused. “I think he’s offended.”

“I think he’s sulking,” Winwin says, dropping onto the stool you just left like he owns the place. “Didn’t know you were this sensitive, Jaem.”

“I’m not sensitive,” Jaemin mutters under his breath, a little too sharply. “I’m just reevaluating who gets to walk in my apartment uninvited and steal my guests.”

You blink. “Wait… I’m the guest?”

Jaemin glances at you, then quickly looks away, muttering, “You were until someone else got a hug first.”

You laugh, eyes lighting up as you lean over the counter. “Aww, someone wants a hug. Well, come here then.”

Jaemin freezes mid-turn, eyes narrowing. “I don’t— I didn’t say that—”

But before he can escape, Winwin already standing, arms outstretched with a shit-eating grin. “Yeah, come here bro. Let it all out.”

“Don’t you dare” Jaemin backs away, but you’re already walking over with your arms open too.

“Group hug!” you announce cheerfully.

“No, no, no—stop—ugh!” Jaemin groans as both you and Winwin pull him in, squeezing him between you like he’s the stuffing in an overly affectionate sandwich.

He squirms dramatically, arms stuck awkwardly to his sides. “I hate this. I hate this.”

“You love it,” you say into his shoulder.

“You’re so warm,” Winwin adds mockingly.

“I’m removing both of you from my emergency contacts,” Jaemin mutters, but there’s a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, despite all the whining.

Eventually, the ridiculous group hug dissolves into laughter with Jaemin still dramatically complaining, Winwin pretending to wipe a tear from his eye, and you leaning against the counter, giggling like the chaos didn’t just start with you.

Winwin sticks around for a “quick bite,” which, unsurprisingly, turns into him stealing half of Jaemin’s pantry while requesting snacks you didn’t even know Jaemin even had. Somehow, that quick visit turns into all three of you lounging on Jaemin’s couch, half watching a movie playing in the background while Luna nestles herself between you and Jaemin like the princess she is.

Thirty minutes into the movie, Winwin sighs loudly and flops sideways onto the cushions. “Okay, I’m bored.”

“You picked the movie,” Jaemin points out, raising a brow.

“Yeah, well, I was hoping something would explode by now,” Winwin says. “This is just people talking about their feelings.”

You laugh. “It’s a rom-com win.”

“Exactly,” Winwin says, sitting up suddenly. “We need something more fun. Let’s play a game or something.”

Jaemin side-eyes him. “What are we, twelve?”

“You’re the one still wearing cat socks,” Winwin replies, already reaching for the TV remote.

You and Jaemin both freeze.

“…You told him about my socks?” Jaemin mutters to you.

You shrug with a guilty smile. “I might’ve mentioned it. Once. Or twice.”

Winwin smirks. “Now shut up and play. I’ve got ideas.”

Jaemin raises an eyebrow. “Let me guess—Truth or Dare?”

Winwin grins. “Bingo.”

Jaemin sighs, but doesn’t protest. Which is basically consent.

You shrug, already intrigued. “Fine. But if anyone makes me eat something cursed, I’m leaving.”

“No promises,” Winwin says, rubbing his hands together like a villain. “Alright, I’ll start. Y/N. Truth or dare?”

You roll your eyes. “Truth.”

Winwin doesn’t hesitate. “Do you think Jaemin is cute?”

Jaemin nearly chokes on his drink, turning to you with wide eyes.

You smirk, unfazed. “Obviously.”

Did you really just call him cute that casually? Like it was no big deal? Like it wasn’t currently short circuiting every brain cell in his head? He swears he can feel his ears heating up, and now he’s gripping his cup like it personally betrayed him.

Winwin cackles while Jaemin tries to act cool, suddenly very busy petting Luna like his life depends on it. “Y-You say that like it’s no big deal.”

You stretch out on the couch. “It’s not. You’re cute. Everyone knows that.”

Jaemin mutters something under his breath, probably a prayer.

Winwin’s already delighted. “Okay Jaemin, your turn.”

Jaemin glances at you, then sighs. “Y/N. Truth or dare?”

You pretend to think, then grin. “Dare.”

His eyes narrow slightly, a spark of mischief returning. “I dare you… to tell me your most recent dream.”

You raise a brow. “What kind of dream?”

He shrugs casually. “Any kind. Unless you’re scared.”

You lean back against the couch, letting your lips curl into a lazy, mischievous smile. “Alright. You asked for it.”

Jaemin lifts an eyebrow, instantly wary. Winwin sits up straighter, sensing drama.

You stretch your arms with a nonchalant hum. “I had a dream about you, actually.”

Jaemin blinks. Winwin visibly perks up.

“In the dream, we were… in your kitchen,” you continue slowly, eyes flicking over to Jaemin, watching the way he starts to stiffen. “Except you weren’t wearing a shirt. And for some reason, I was sitting on the counter.”

Jaemin makes a noise in his throat that could only be described as panicked curiosity.

You grin. “You said something dumb like, ‘wanna try my special sauce,’ and then—well, I’ll spare the details.”

Winwin’s losing it. “NO, DON’T SPARE THE DETAILS—”

You ignore him entirely, eyes twinkling with mischief. “Okay, so then, in the dream… you came closer. Still shirtless, obviously. You leaned in and said something stupid like ‘bet I taste better than the ramen.’”

Jaemin chokes. Again.

Winwin is wheezing on the couch, halfway to tears.

“And then,” you say, voice dropping just enough to be dangerous, “you kissed me. Right there in front of the stove. It was very Intense. Steamy. Heavy breathing. Your hand may or may not have ended up on my thigh.”

Jaemin is frozen. Fully red. His soul has left his body.

“I’m… I’m gonna pass out,” he mutters, hand over his mouth.

You shrug innocently. “Hey, you dared me.”

Winwin could not hold in his laughter any more, not that he was even trying in the first place. “knowing you this was probably made up to tease him”

You giggle yourself. “i guess we will never know then”

Jaemin’s still staring at nothing. Processing. Possibly glitching.

And you? You just smile sweetly, sipping your drink like you didn’t just blow his mind wide open.

Jaemin sits there, stunned, his brain short circuiting in twelve different directions. You, one of his closest friends, the girl who teases him relentlessly and steals his cat’s affection on a daily basis, just casually admitted to having a sex dream about him. Like it was no big deal. Like you weren’t currently flipping his entire perception of reality upside down.

But… was it real? Or were you just messing with him again, like always? Your tone was playful, sure, but the way you looked at him when you said thigh… was that acting?

His mind races: were you flirting or just being you? Was this a bit or a confession? And why, in the name of Luna’s fluffy tail, was he kind of dying either way? Because no matter how close someone may be to another, somebody who is just a friend wouldn’t act like this.

Jaemin spent the next couple of days thinking about you more than he usually does. And that’s saying something, because even on a normal day, you took up an annoyingly large portion of his brain. But now? After that dream confession? It was like you had crawled into his subconscious and set up permanent residence. He couldn’t eat ramen without hearing your voice. Couldn’t walk into his kitchen without picturing you on the counter. Couldn’t even pet Luna without wondering if you actually preferred him over the cat.

So eventually, he cracks.

“Okay, I need to tell you something,” he says, sliding into the seat across from Jeno at their usual café table.

Jeno blinks, mid-sip of his iced Americano. “Okay? What’s up?”

“I need to tell you something,” Jaemin says, already bracing himself but Jaemin stays oddly quiet trying to build up the courage to even speak on it.

Jeno eyes him, then sips his drink. “Is this about Y/N?”

Jaemin stares. “How did you—”

“Because you’re being weird,” Jeno says, calm as ever. “You only get this dramatic when it’s about her.”

Jaemin sinks lower in his seat. “She said she had a dream about me.”

“Okay…?”

“A dream dream.”

Jeno’s eyes narrow. “As in—”

“There was kitchen counter. Shirtless me. Thighs may have been involved.”

Jeno snorts into his drink. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Jaemin leans back with a heavy sigh. “I don’t even know if she was serious. It was during a dumb truth or dare game. She said it so casually, like it was a joke. But it’s messing with my head.”

Jeno gives him a look. “You like her.”

Jaemin doesn’t answer.

“You really like her,” Jeno adds, smirking now.

Jaemin mutters something under his breath, fiddling with the straw in his drink. “I��m so screwed.”

Jeno leans back, arms crossed, eyeing him like he’s waiting for Jaemin to catch up to something obvious. “Okay, but what’s actually stopping you?”

Jaemin frowns. “From what?”

“From getting her,” Jeno says bluntly. “You like her. She clearly likes you. You hang out all the time. She literally told you she dreamed about you shirtless. What’s the holdup?”

Jaemin lets out a breath, leaning forward. “I don’t know, man. What if she’s just playing around? What if that’s just how she flirts with everyone? What if I try something and it ruins what we have?”

Jeno raises an eyebrow. “And what if you don’t try and someone else gets her while you’re busy being scared?”

Jaemin pauses.

Jeno smirks. “Exactly.”

He takes another sip of his drink before adding casually, “You should invite her to the frat pool party this weekend.”

Jaemin blinks. “You know I’m not even in the frat.”

“Yeah, but you’re frat-adjacent,” Jeno says with a grin. “It still counts. Plus, everyone’s gonna be there. Chill vibes, music, food. Could be a good move.”

Jaemin taps his fingers against the cup, thinking.

Jeno shrugs. “Just sayin’. Would be a shame if someone else hit on her while you were hiding behind your cats.”

Jaemin groans. “Why are you like this?”

“Because I’m right,” Jeno says smugly. “Text her.”

Jaemin bites his lip, hesitating for just a second before grabbing his phone. “Okay… okay, I’ll do it.”

Jeno raises both brows. “Right now?”

Jaemin nods, already typing. “Might as well rip the Band-Aid off.”

He hovers for a split second, then hits send. The second the message is out, he visibly tenses, shoulders rising, eyes wide, phone clutched like it just self-destructed in his hands.

“Oh no,” he mutters. “What did I just do? Why did I do that? I’m sweating. Am I sweating?”

Jeno bursts out laughing. “You haven’t even gotten a reply yet.”

“That’s the worst part!” Jaemin hisses, already dramatically slumping over the table. “What if she thinks it’s lame? What if she doesn’t even like pools? What if she leaves me on read and then ghosts me forever and Luna hates me out of secondhand embarrassment—”

“Bro,” Jeno cuts in, grinning as he reaches over and pats Jaemin’s head like he’s a panicking child. “You’re so down bad it’s actually adorable.”

Jaemin groans into his sleeves. “I need emotional support cats immediately.”

You got the memo about the party, and you agreed because why not? It sounded fun, and if you were being honest, the text from Jaemin asking if you’d come had your heart doing something stupid in your chest. So you said yes.

You even found the cutest two-piece to wear, pairing it with a breezy skirt and a cropped tube top to throw over it. Casual, but cute. The kind of outfit that said, “I just showed up,” even though you definitely spent too long picking it out.

Now all you gotta do is wait for jaemin as he said he would pick you up.

Jaemin pulls up in front of your apartment right on time, windows down, music low, one hand lazily draped over the steering wheel like he wasn’t lowkey nervous the entire drive over.

You hop into the passenger seat, adjusting your skirt as you settle in, and he glances over only to freeze for half a second. His eyes drag down, then snap back up way too quickly, and you don’t miss the way his ears turn a little pink.

“You, uh…” he clears his throat, gripping the steering wheel with both hands now. “You look pretty.”

You smile, pretending not to notice the way he avoids eye contact for a solid five seconds.

“Thanks,” you say, leaning back in your seat. “You clean up alright yourself, Mr. Not-a-frat-boy.”

That gets a soft laugh out of him, and the tension eases just a bit. But the blush? That stays.

Soon comes your arrival to the party.

Jaemin pulls into the driveway, the thump of bass growing louder as you approach the familiar chaos of the frat house. People are already spilling out onto the lawn, some with solo cups in hand, others half-soaked from the pool in the backyard. It’s loud, messy, and alive with energy but when Jaemin glances over at you, he looks like he’s only focused on one thing.

“You ready?” he asks, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

You nod, opening the door and stepping out with a bit more confidence than you actually feel. But it helps, walking beside him.

The second you step through the gate to the backyard, the air shifts. Music blasts from speakers near the pool, drinks flow freely, and laughter echoes from every corner. A few people wave at Jaemin, some call his name, and you realize once again how known he is here. Not a frat boy, but somehow still the center of it all.

And now, you’re right beside him.

You barely make it ten steps into the backyard before a familiar group huddled near the drinks table notices Jaemin.

“Yo, finally!” Jeno calls out, waving him over with a plastic cup in hand. “We thought you bailed.”

Jaemin rolls his eyes, guiding you through the crowd. “I’m literally on time.”

A few heads turn as you both approach. Renjun, Haechan, and Mark all lounging around like they own the place. Jeno’s the first to raise a brow as his eyes flick between you and Jaemin, an amused smirk playing on his lips.

“Wait,” Haechan says, straightening up. “Is this Y/N?”

Jaemin rubs the back of his neck, already bracing himself. “Yeah.”

“This is the cat thief?” Renjun grins, then eyes you up and down. “Damn. Pretty cat thief.”

You blink in surprise, lips twitching upward. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Oh, it is,” Jeno jumps in smoothly, nodding. “Jaemin’s been suspiciously protective over his cats ever since, but like… if you were the one stealing them? I get it.”

“Can’t even blame Luna for choosing her,” Mark adds, sipping his drink. “She’s got taste.”

Jaemin looks like he’s about to explode. His ears are already red, and the second you turn to glance at him, his expression is half panic, half please stop talking right now.

“She’s standing right here, guys,” Jaemin mutters, clearly flustered.

“That’s the point,” Haechan says, grinning wide. “Let her know how down bad you are.”

You cross your arms, amused. “Down bad, huh?”

Jaemin glares at his friends, then looks at you with his face burning, voice barely steady. “Ignore them. They’re insufferable.”

“You’re not denying it though,” you tease, raising a brow.

He opens his mouth, closes it, then groans and mutters, “I hate everyone here.”

You just laugh, heart fluttering, and Jaemin silently prays the ground opens up and swallows him whole.

After the wave of teasing finally dies down, the group breaks off to mingle. The music’s picked up, the grill’s going, and someone’s already cannonballed into the pool. It’s the kind of party that has a rhythm of its own, easy to fall into.

Jaemin gets swept into a conversation with some upperclassmen you don’t recognize, laughing and catching up like he hasn’t seen them in years. You give him a quick smile before peeling off toward the snack table, figuring you’ll let him do his thing for a bit.

That’s when someone taps your shoulder.

“Hey,” a voice says, smooth and casual. You turn to see a tall guy with soft brown eyes and a ridiculously charming smile. “Sorry, just realized I’ve seen you around a couple times but never got your name.”

“Oh,” you say, caught a little off guard but not in a bad way. “It’s Y/N.”

“I’m Juyeon,” he says, offering a hand. “Cool to finally meet the girl who made Jaemin show up to a party early.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Is that what I’m known for now?”

He grins. “Among other things.”

You laugh, easing into the conversation. Juyeon’s easy to talk to, friendly, flirty in a light, non-serious way, but nothing that makes you uncomfortable. He’s just… genuinely nice. And kind of funny. You chat about random classes, music tastes, and somehow end up debating over who has the best fries in town.

And from across the yard, Jaemin glances your way mid conversation, mid laugh and goes completely silent when he spots you talking to Juyeon. His smile falters, just a bit.

You and Juyeon somehow end up posted near the snack table for way longer than expected. It starts with light chatter, but before you know it, you’ve both slipped into full gossip mode like you’ve been best friends for years.

You’ve learned two very important things about him so far:

He has a grudge against any professor who gives pop quizzes on a Monday.

He once had a big, fat, tragic crush on a girl he just realized is your friend, someone you dormed with in your first year of college.

“You’re lying,” you laugh, nearly choking on a chip. “That’s who you meant?”

He groans, dragging a hand down his face. “I didn’t know she was your friend, okay? Now this is awkward. I’m going to have to pretend I didn’t memorize her entire class schedule sophomore year.”

“Wow. That’s so stalker coded of you.”

“It was one semester! I was delusional and only eighteen!”

You both burst into laughter again, shoulders bumping. From across the yard, Jaemin glances over just in time to see you wiping a tear from your eye, laughing at whatever Juyeon just said, looking far too cozy for his liking.

Mid convo or somewhere between Juyeon ranking the best campus bathrooms and you defending your controversial fry opinion, he suddenly glances past you and tilts his head.

“Not to ruin the fun,” he starts, eyes flicking toward the backyard crowd, “but your boy’s been staring over here for a solid five minutes.”

You blink. “Huh?”

“Jaemin,” he nods subtly. “Been looking like he wants to join but doesn’t know if he should. Or like he wants to throw a grape at my head.”

You follow his gaze and, sure enough, Jaemin’s standing a few feet away, pretending to listen to someone talk, but clearly distracted, gaze flicking between you and Juyeon like he’s calculating the distance for a casual interruption.

“Oh.” You try to play it cool, sipping your drink.

Juyeon grins, eyes narrowing teasingly. “Sooo… what’s going on there?”

You shrug, a little too fast. “Nothing.”

“Mm. That’s not what it looks like.” He leans in, voice playful. “You into him?”

You pause, a knowing smile creeping up your face. “And if I said maybe?”

He laughs, shaking his head. “Then I’ll keep my bestie status and not get in the way. But damn. No wonder he looked like he was gonna throw hands when I offered you the last cookie.”

You snort. “He did not.”

“He definitely did.”

After you and Juyeon part ways with numbers exchanged because hello, who wouldn’t want a gossip loser nerd buddy like him, you make your way toward the edge of the yard, debating about finding a drink refill.

That’s when Jaemin appears, seemingly out of nowhere, a little flushed and noticeably tipsy. Not in a sloppy way, just enough that his eyes are softer than usual, his pout exaggerated, and his footsteps a bit too dramatic for someone who’s only walking ten feet.

He stops right in front of you and just stares.

“You were gone forever,” he mumbles, brows furrowed like you personally betrayed him.

“I was at the snack table,” you say slowly, raising an eyebrow. “You saw me.”

“Yeah. With him.” He squints, swaying slightly. “Who was that? He smiled too much.”

You blink, trying not to laugh. “You’re sulking.”

“I’m not sulking,” he sulks, arms crossing like a toddler who didn’t get picked for a game.

“You totally are.”

Jaemin sighs, head dropping back dramatically before tilting to look at you again. “Okay, fine. I’m jealous. Visibly, apparently.”

You try to hold it in, but laughter bubbles out of you anyway. “Wow, big moment. Admitting it out loud.”

He rolls his eyes, but you catch the way his shoulders loosen just a little.

You reach out, nudging his arm. “You know I wasn’t actually entertaining anyone else, right? I mean he’s cool. But he’s not you.”

That gets his attention.

His brows lift slightly, the pout dropping as he stares at you with wide eyes. “Wait. You’re serious?”

You just grin, turning to walk backwards toward the house. “C’mon, you’re tipsy and dramatic. Let’s go somewhere quieter before you start confessing more things in public.”

Jaemin blinks, stunned for a beat before jogging to catch up, a dumb smile already forming on his face. “Hold on wait, are you serious serious?”

You shrug, laughing. “Guess you’ll have to keep following me to find out.”

You and Jaemin slip away from the buzz of the backyard and into the quieter halls of the frat house. The noise fades into a dull hum behind you, replaced by the soft creaks of the old floorboards and distant laughter echoing through the walls.

“This one’s always empty,” Jaemin says, pushing open a door like he’s done it a hundred times. “Guest room. I’ve crashed here more times than I can count.”

You step inside, taking in the slightly mismatched furniture, the faint smell of detergent and cologne lingering in the air. It’s cozy in a weird, half lived in way.

Jaemin flops onto the edge of the bed with a quieter sigh this time, elbows resting on his knees, eyes flicking up to meet yours.

“You know,” he starts, voice lower, a bit rougher than before, “when I saw you with him earlier… it wasn’t just jealousy. I think I was scared I missed my shot.”

You pause, hand still on the doorknob, caught off guard by the shift in his tone.

Turning slowly, you walk over and sit beside him, your thigh brushing his. “Jaemin.”

“I know I joke a lot,” he says, not looking at you just yet. “But I wasn’t joking when I said I wanted your attention.”

You glance over at him, expression softening. “And here I thought I was being obvious.”

He finally looks at you and there’s this unspoken mix of surprise and relief behind his eyes.

“You were?” he says, like he genuinely hadn’t let himself believe it.

You bump his knee with yours, offering a subtle smile. “I don’t flirt with just anyone, you know.”

His lips twitch, eyes dropping to your hand resting near his. “Guess I’m gonna have to take you more seriously now.”

You lean in slightly, voice still light but layered with something more intentional. “I’d prefer it.”

You shift a little closer, resting your chin on your hand as you glance sideways at him, tone light but with that same softness lingering beneath.

“You know,” you start, “I always thought you were just the pretty guy who hangs around the frat that parties every week.”

Jaemin raises an eyebrow. “Wow. Off to a great start.”

You grin. “Let me finish.”

He quiets, watching you now with a curious look.

“I always thought you’d be one of those effortlessly cool people,” you continue, voice calm, “y’know, the kind that everyone likes but never really knows. Like you’d be all charm and no depth.”

Jaemin hums. “Okay, still kinda sounds like an insult.”

You nudge his knee. “But then you started showing up. And you were… weird. In a good way. Soft. You care about your cats like they’re your kids, you pout when someone finishes the last snack, and you give really stupid but oddly specific advice.”

He snorts under his breath, but you can see the way he’s trying not to smile.

“And honestly?” you say, more gently now, “I like that version of you way more than whatever image I had before.”

He doesn’t say anything for a moment and just watches you, like he’s trying to memorize everything about the way you’re looking at him right now.

“…You really think about me that much?” he says finally, voice quiet.

You nod, scooting a little closer, your hand lifting to gently cradle his cheek. “Yeah. More than you probably realize.”

Your thumb brushes along his cheekbone as his eyes flicker to your lips, and just when you’re both leaning in, barely a breath apart, he suddenly hesitates, pulling back an inch.

“Wait okay uh,” he starts, blinking fast. “Just so you know, I haven’t really kissed anyone in a while. Not that I’m bad at it! I mean, probably not— I just haven’t done it recently and I don’t want it to be weird or, like, awkward—”

You giggle, already leaning forward again. “Jaemin.”

He swallows. “Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

And then you kiss him. And he melts like you’d been waiting your whole life just to do that.

The kiss starts soft and warm, like both of you are still processing the fact that it’s finally happening. His lips move slowly against yours, testing, savoring, and when your fingers slip into his hair, he exhales like he’s been holding his breath for weeks.

But then he kisses you again but deeper this time and your hand slides to the back of his neck, pulling him closer until there’s no space left. His hands find your waist, gripping gently like he’s still afraid you’ll disappear, and before you even realize it, you’re moving, shifting until you’re straddling his lap.

He stiffens beneath you for half a second, eyes wide as you lean back in with a grin, and then he’s kissing you like he forgot anyone else existed. It’s all slow-burning heat now, messy, breathless, your fingers fisted in his hair while his hands squeeze at your hips like he’s making up for lost time.

And just as things start to blur at the edges—

“YO JAEMIN— OH MY GOD—”

The door flies open and you both jolt back like teenagers caught in a bad romcom. Standing at the door is Chenle, holding a Red Bull and a bag of chips, staring with full disbelief.

You burst into laughter, dropping your forehead to Jaemin’s shoulder as he groans dramatically.

“Chenle, why.” Jaemin nearly whines, wrapping his arms around you and burying his face in your neck. “Why would you do this to me?”

“Bro, lock the door! I didn’t sign up for trauma tonight!”

You’re shaking with laughter now, arms around Jaemin while he glares over your shoulder, still hiding in the crook of your neck.

Chenle backs out slowly, still talking. “No, yeah, enjoy your moment, cat thief lovers. I’ll just be repressing this until graduation.”

The door shuts.

Jaemin groans again. “I’m moving out of this country.”

You just giggle, tilting his face back toward yours. “You’re so dramatic.”

“Not dramatic enough,” he mutters. “I was just about to make out with my favorite person and the frat loser shows up.”

You grin. “Well, lucky for you, I’m not going anywhere.”

#na jaemin #jaemin #nct dream #nct dream jaemin #nct jaemin #jaemin x reader #jaemin fluff #nct x reader #nct #nct fic #jaemin fic #na jaemin fic #nct fluff #nct imagines #jaemin imagines #jaemin scenarios

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kyeomniscient · 8 months ago

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seventeen ao3 fic recs (pt. 2)

creating a new post for the mid-length fics bc the original post was getting too long - enjoy!

pt. 1 (completed fics, >50k words)

pt. 3 (completed shorter fics, <10k words)

pt. 4 (incomplete fics)

in order of descending word count, last updated 13/12/2024

Cherry Tree Inn (jicheol, 45k, completed)

obsessed with the plot twist in this one! the damsel in distress!hoon x hero!cheol dynamic never fails

The Times We Fell (minwon, 46k, completed)

this one definitely did things to my heart :"") loved the visuals of hockeyplayer!mingyu x figureskater!wonwoo, the development of their enemies(?)-to-friends-to-lovers arc, how their relationship remained strong and steady throughout despite being met with various obstacles and external pressures along the way, how Mingyu rekindled Wonwoo's love for skating not once but twice, just them being a healthy and supportive couple - a beautiful read!

Access Granted (jicheol, 45k, completed)

the jicheol banter was golden in this one

divine pain, pain divine (gyucheol, 44k, completed)

the enemies-to-lovers-to-exes-to-lovers pipeline i never knew i needed

cut to the feeling (soonwoo, 44k, completed)

this was a character study on emotional self-torture and every chapter was an absolute sucker punch to the gut - loved the sadness and pining for the drama but i also felt like plot-wise the events didn't really justify the intensity of it all as much as the author's other piece :"/ writing was still amazing though!!

gold fever (seokgyu, 43k words, completed)

archer!seokmin x weightlifter!mingyu in a college au - really liked the vibes and writing in this fic :) seokgyu fics are rare and i feel like it's bc their dynamics on-camera mostly revolve around teasing/bickering it's hard to picture anything else, but the slow-burn element brought smth fresh and new to their dynamics and it was such an enjoyable read!

I'm not afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens (jicheol, 40k words, completed)

after reading this i think it's safe to say we all need a cheol during an apocalypse

In The Eye of the Beholder (verkwan, 34k words, completed)

half-demon!vernon x blind!seungkwan - verkwan is the softest ship and no one can say otherwise

Get busy living, or get busy dying. (cheolhoon, 31k words, completed)

absolutely living for the dialogue and banter between these two during the counseling sessions - such a unique setting, a v good fic!

secondhand smoke (gyucheol, 30k words, completed)

this was the start of my spiral down the gyucheol rabbit hole: collegiate sport aus will always be superior

just let me know (i'll be on the floor) (verkwan, 30k words, completed)

soft and sweet friends-to-lovers fic that made my heart so warm!! really loved how their relationship unfolded over time, how they took care of each other as roommates, with seungkwan's obliviousness and denial and vernon being so patient with him throughout - 'twas a lovely slice-of-life read that brought comfort and joy :)

A (Revised Guide to Lab Safety) (soonwoo, 25k words, completed)

askjfsds this was an amazing mix of soonwoo peer dynamics in a college au + science!! their lab partners-to-friends-to-lovers arc was really too cute so i'd highly recommend this to soonwoo enthusiasts

tu me manques (minwon, 26k words, completed)

this really captured the feeling of watching 90s & early 2000s romcoms (think before sunrise, chasing liberty, serendipity etc) and was written so beautifully i might cry :"") really loved the travelling aspect of it, the scenic descriptions of each city made the fic so immersive, like i was there along w them sigh

also wonwoo has slight manic pixie dream boy vibes and mingyu is just there lolol

here kitty kitty (minwon, 26k words, completed)

the ultimate cosy fall read - this fic felt like a sip of warm tea by the fire on a chilly autumn evening :)

snowflake, i'll catch you tonight (minwon, 25k words, completed)

this was really cute!! just soft and fluffy vibes in general and characterisation was super on point bc wonwoo is literally winter personified lmao

i thought that space was mine (jeongcheol, 25k words, completed)

jealous jeonghan sad fics are everything

a mix of sun and clouds (soonwoo, 24k words, completed)

lovelovelove aus with interesting professions, and this time they're both working at a weather station! soonyoung being a weather nerd is such a delight to read, and wonwoo's emotional constipation + little acts of service never gets old hehe geguri is amazing

Paradise Lost (minwon, 24k, completed)

sad fics have a chokehold on me and this one definitely takes the cake... was left in tears and i would risk it all to experience it for the first time again

despite this being a post-apocalyptic au, the development of the romance arc was treated softly and gently, that the moments of tenderness between the mcs shone through the violence and ruin that surrounded them. it was a really refreshing take on domesticity, one that took me by surprise, and it's a pity that the author only has 2 works!! i need MORE

Bend (and Break) (seoksoon, 23k words, completed)

fwb-to-friends-to-lovers seoksoon?? another wholesome fic and i loved the build up in this fic, where the mcs are basically doing all but admitting their feelings for each other UGH so cute

175°C for 60 minutes (seokgyu, 23k words, completed)

vv cute baking rivals au!! love how little clues were sprinkled throughout the story and came together at the end to tie things up nicely hehe

Lie Again (gyuhan, 22k words, completed)

the best gyuhan fic (that i've read so far) !! aka the chronicles of one (1) emotionally-unavailable yoon jeonghan where he learns to embrace the notion of Having Feelings ™ ft some of my other fave ships seoksoo and soonwoo

Jack of all trades... (jicheol, 21k words, completed)

absolutely went down a jicheol rabbit hole after this... their dynamics are one of a kind and i love it so much

stillness and motion (seokhao, 21k words, completed)

give me a fic about emotionally-repressed characters that yearn and do everything but communicate and i'll eat it up!! the tension built up between (former) teammates in sport aus are a different breed and i'm absolutely here for it

For Want of Glory (woncheol, 21k words, completed)

secret agent au! loved woncheol's dynamics here, and it's really endearing to read from coups' pov because i love the way he just PINES

you make me feel good (i like it) (soonwoo, 18k words, completed)

no spoilers but this was an absolute beast of a fic that DESTROYED me the best way possible :"") each chapter was succinct yet packed a punch, loveloveloved how the element of time travel was weaved into the storyline!! op you are a genius for conceiving and writing this

Storm Warning (wonhui, 18k words, completed)

jun as a manic pixie dream type here is everything!! ww's feelings are so valid bc if jun was my neighbour, i too, would fall in love right away HAHA

Cold Hands, Warm Heart (jicheol, 17k words, completed)

apocalypse aus always hit so hard and this fic was no exception - i was expecting a much darker arc based on the blurb, but the author managed to transform such a dire situation into one full of love, warmth and hope :") definitely check this one out!! there's also a (slightly) heart-wrenching (tiny) minwon arc on the side

now i'm covered in you (soonwoo, 16k words, completed)

it's the art of dealing with grief and moving on in a sweet and tender fic - highly recommend!

say you want me (cause I need it, all of the time) (soonwoo, 15k words, completed)

this is wonwoo as everyone's dream high school boyfriend lol

choosing the right place to put it (woncheol, 15k words, completed)

15k words of pure domestic fluff :") wonwoo and cheol are so soft with each other in this fic and cheol being so oblivious throughout really takes the cake HAHA

burning the wick at both ends (jeongcheol, 14k words, completed)

getting back with an ex is never a good idea... unless it's jeongcheol

in the dream where I am an island (jeongcheol, 14k words, completed)

rare jeongcheol fic from cheol's pov

full ten (minwon, 14k words, completed)

super adorable strangers-to-roommates-to-lovers fic!! i really loved that they each had their own lives (preferences, habits, jobs and interests) before they met each other, and coming to live together only made their lives better - there's just something about the intimacy of co-existing in the same space with someone, bonding over simple weeknight dinners, developing a shared routine over time :"")

favorite (minwon, 14k, completed)

this was a v lovely friends-to-lovers fic - really loved the timelapse of small moments between them from both perspectives!

helios (minwon, 13k, completed)

a literal masterpiece - great execution of a cool concept, and wonwoo's persona as an artist was really well-crafted!!

runaway (verkwan, 13k, completed)

this fic highlights an inseparable quality about verkwan, that there'll always be invisible string tugging at both of them, keeping them by side by side - amazing!

day ones all i keep around me (minwon, 12k words, completed)

established (secret) relationship where minwon tries to soft-launch their marriage but their fans are too dense to realise LMAO this was really cute, and i loved the dynamics between streamer!wonwoo x soccerplayer!mingyu hehe

Flowers In My Path, My Love (seokwoo, 12k words, completed)

this was the cutest college meet-cute aka hotpoetryclassguy!wonwoo x cutepoetryclassguy!dk - it really captured the moments of fumbling, awkward shyness when interacting with crushes so well and bonus points for describing dk as sunshine bc he really is the brightest boy!!

put me on a feeling i never had (woncheol, 10k words, completed)

on the inherent romance in tending to the wounds of a lover

i want us both to eat well (gyucheol, 10k words, completed)

light the way home (and i'll follow) (minwon, 10k words, completed)

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oopsiedaisydeer · 3 months ago

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oh my god! oh my god! okay. AAAAA. i hit 1k oopsie nation :>

very very overwhelmed by all the love but i am immensely grateful. i started posting my writing (shoutout to my ponyo!au) approx. 52 days ago. 52 days! and now i'm at 1k. wow. wow. means the world! but what means even more to me, and will always mean the absolute world to me, is knowing the following people are my mutuals :> and that i get to call u my friends <3

without further ado, thank you so so much to:

@sturnslutz alexis u were one of the first ppl who like genuinely wanted to be my friend on here !! always so so surprised by how quickly we became friends<3 i love u. keeping it short and sweet :p

@throatgoat4u nini everytime we interact it's positive. i have not a single bad word to say about u and if anyone does i will come for them. trust. you are amazing and i love ALL your stuff and every time u post your writing i appreciate it smm!!!! also u have always been so so kind and supportive of my work,, which means the most. a singular note from u is worth a 100.

@cowboylikenat nat i love talking to u sm and whenever u pop up in my notes i smile. youre so cute and youre so cool and i just wanna tuck u under my wing like a baby bird. i hope that's not weird. but just know i appreciate u. so much. much much love.

@bernardsbendystraws rose idek what to say bc to me u r like the guardian angel of sturniolo tumblr,, you always made it feel like such a safe space to be a part of and i genuinely can't believe how nice and awesome and amazing you are. i love reading ur work, and talking to u, reading ur yaps, and interacting w u in every way. i love you lots and lots <333

@mattsstarlet kitty sometimes i don't know if i want to be you or if i want to date you (acc no it's definitely the latter). ik we joke around a lot but you genuinely mean a lot to me and your accounts is one of my comfort blogs on tumblr <3 as yk i love scrolling thru it, almost as much as i love showering u with praise bc: ur writing is incredibly underrated imho like ts deserves a million notes and bc ur the sweetest angel ever and bc i am in love with you. i'll never stop. i hope you know how much i love you (ah i wrote sm chat i gotta lock in). kisses and hugs to u always.

@strnilolover gabs we only recently started talking but i feel very very lucky every time you msg me just because you are so cool. and i love you. almost as much as mac and cheese (maybe more). never stop yapping to me please i beg. you are amazing. part of me wants you to fix your sleep schedule the other part is kinda grateful that you're awake when i am (timezones can't come bt us). much much love,, u make me more happy than u know !!

@loverboysturn i've said this before and i'll probably say it again. tink, you inspire me endlessly and i love your blog immeasurably. whenever i'm feeling down i scroll thru ur page and i get especially emotional when i see my asks that you've answered (as an emoji anon shdfhfjs). please never stop writing. u inspired me to start writing and for that i am forever grateful. i love you so so much and you provide me so much joy and comfort just by you being you! and thru ur writing !! i love you more than you will ever know <333333

@snoopychris hello gen. fuck you. i have nothing else to say.

....i love you more than all of sturniolo tumblr could conceive in their collective brain (does that make sense). u make every part of my day better. whether it's a message, a post, a note, answering my asks, or even just the thought of u crossing my mind. omg i'm actually crying. i don't know how to even get across how much you mean to me but i am forever and ever grateful that we are friends and that im not just a groupie to u (bc yk i'd accept that fbhsfdhs). i would NEVER have started writing with you. i would not be nearly as happy or as excited about life right now without you in it. if there's anyone i would want to hug in this world, it would be u:> and i don't even like hugs. i would also suck your metaphorical dick. i hope this makes sense. pda makes me nervous:>> i love you so much im just pulling shit out of my ass atp. u will never get rid of me i hope you know. i love you. ok that's it, i'll shut up now.

and to all of u who interact with me:> thank you. thank you so much. you all make me so happy, especially when you leave a comment, or reblog something, or pop into my inbox. and hello to any lurkers as well. i see you. and appreciate u ! if you are reading this! i love you! my goal for this blog is to be silly and to have fun and just make it an overall positive/comforting place to be:> so i hope if u r part of the oopsie nation, u feel that way fdsfshk. much love.

thank you all so very much again <3

and as always, silly, sexy and sad stuff is otw :>

#inez˚˖𓍢ִ໋`🌿:✧˚#sturniolo triplets

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moraishi · 19 days ago

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Shelter

Roles: Sylus, lazier Mc.

Prompt: with zero logic and lore i decided to make an au where Mc and Sylus aint that close but still know each other. And yea dont question how but Sylus *had* to use your house as a shelter. I can make it serie or something if anyone interested.

The morning was just like others, lazy yet pretty chill in your hella living room. you love weekends and this lazy friday nights. The city is quiet and everyone minding their own business. Mostly no missions or last minute calls. Moonlight hitting just the right spot on your wall, posters with quotes like ‘music is my only drug’ or ‘danger - catloaf zone’.

And the coach? It’s another story itself. Just you and your cheap cereal filled with some bland milk. Couch is so warm with your blanket on your body and pillows hugging to you like emotional supports. There are some unfinished books on the other side of your couch. But now? All of them enjoying the tv like you are doing.

Tv playing some kitten snoring commercials faintly, some kitties even have hats on them while they snore. Making you yawn as you watch them a little longer.

Nothing can break this peace, nothing. So perfect. So peaceful. So..

Everything.

Which is probably the first red flag you should notice, nothing go peacefull in your weekends. Not a single day, especially when kittens are involved. So why this friday night is so pe-

Bang!

The door kicked open like fbi finally found your weird obession with absurd reality shows. Making you slightly turn your head toward it. Of course, what now? Some debts u didn’t payed or rents? Oh even maybe taxes u are completely ignoring.

But no, its someone else,

A silver haired man with crimson eyes you know so well. Dressed like a vampire lord with that black coat on his board shoulders and hands inside his pockets. That face? Kind of face that make you want to change your path or drop a smooch while passing.

Sylus. You know him so well. That damn man.. you wish it was your landlord but no. Sylus standing on calmly like he just did not broke your door.

You two recently considered as.. accidental friends or some shit like this. When you go out to missions you mostly bump into him with your cursed luck. Like some special protocore you need to take care of in an intel? Sylus is there in the meeting room. A gala where they sell a rare stuff that need to be handed to right hands? He buyed the damn gala already.

“What you expect me to say to my landlord now? Onychious leader decided to give me a gift by breaking my door?”

You said calmly while taking a spoon from your cereal. Still in that lazy half sitting and half laying position with kittens snores playing on background.

Sylus just ghosted your question and stepped in like he own the place or something, but with the way he did you aint sure if he already own it or not.

He didn’t even bother to look at your tired face as he throw some documents into your coffee table next to your sketck book full of anatomies and lottery tickets.

“Did your so ‘secured’ base got attacked or something? What with the sudden come.”

You asked with your mouth full with cereals, staring at him with two pair of bored eyes.

He finally decide to look at you, his serious face was kind of scaring. “Too long to explain, the offer you made temped me.” He said before sitting next to you on the edge of your weird couch which probably have rats living inside it. Taking the documents in his hands and already started checking the every word- no like every character in it uninterestedly.

“What offer you are talking about now?”

You raised a brow and sit up, placing your bowl of chaos aside and wiping the milk from your mouth. getting closer to him to take a glance at his documents.

He smirked at your confused expression before start talking. “You told me ‘if your bond mansion pissed the wrong devils one day you can take a visit to my apartment.’ Well, who am i to decline now?.” A one last stare to documents and he tossed them off again, standing up and already analyzing the house.

Hilarious situation, almost ironic. You crossed your arms over your chest.

“You don’t have any humor do you? I said it as a damn joke..”

He turned to you and smirked with a shrug

“And yours was anything but a joke. Dont make promises you can’t keep kitten.”

You rolled your eyes and take your bowl back, taking another spoon of acidic cereal.

“Well i thought someone so ‘important’ like you would own some hotels or places for any cases. Safer and luxurious places.’

“I do. But every place is compromised, for now.” He said, peeling off his coat and flinging it onto your couch like it belonged there. “Your apartment is a better shelter to hide. Safer from my other surroundings.”

And then he grabbed the weird flowers you stole from your neighbors garden in vase. Smirking as the flower slowly started turning to.. red. “Safer yet still a mess, lucky for you i leave my marks.”

You were about to make a dirty comeback, make sure to make him regret even coming here by your weird anticts but you felt something stop on your lap, you slowly lowered your head and eyes widened as you look down to see a damn.. crow?! With a mechanical wing and eye, gawking at you and making a home to itself on your lap

“You own a crow?! Every minute with you feel like reading a ‘how to be vampire guide’.. whats next? blood bags in my fridge.”

You said with a teasing tone while your hand slowly go to crow’s little head, hestitately petting it. So not only one but two roomies now? How great. At least crow is fluffy and cute unlike the other roomie.

Sylus gave a small kick to empty energy drink cans on the floor, his hand on his hips with a slightly disgusted face. Who he is to come to your zone and judge it? Aint liking my shit? Door on that way.

“And i suppose yours is a zombie guide? Noisy mouth and mess everywhere. Will i find a dead body under your bed too? Won’t be suprised if i do” He said with a wider mocking smirk.

You just shot him a smirk back while shifting to a better position on your couch, a sure one.

“Hell you will find a dead body soon, he will have silver hair and red eyes too.”

#lads sylus #love and deepspace #love and deepspace sylus #sylus #sylus x mc #lads

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stardustdiiving · 1 year ago

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If you inverse the dynamic of Wanderer as Nahida’s standoffish stray cat she adopted off the street that she’s trying to properly socialize, my opinion is you get a modern AU where Nahida is this tiny fluffy emotional support rescue cat that forces Wanderer to babyproof his entire apartment because she is Very smart and every week she figures out how to open doors (because Wanderer barricaded himself in his room to rot in bed and she wanted to cheer him up by keeping him company) or take apart a quarter of his kitchen because she decided she was very curious about the logistics of saucepans and which one is most suitable for her to take a nap in

She also keeps somehow stealing Wanderer’s keys and charging out of his apartment to explore, prompting Wanderer to have to chase her down and very awkwardly interact with the other people who live in the Genshin Character Apartment Complex because she always goes and bothers them (which they do not mind because they absolutely adore her especially since he lives on the same floor as the Sumeru cast). Wanderer is starting to suspect she does this in hopes of making him friends but whenever he accuses her of this as he marches them back to his apartment while holding her like a sack of potatoes because she ran off to say hello to that Tartaglia guy who just moved in and keeps asking Wanderer about his experience in hand to hand combat she just purrs at him with a very friendly :3 face because she’s literally just a little kitty. But also this is definitely what she’s doing and it’s working because now people say hi to him in passing and invite him for tea bc they are very amused by the prickly mysterious loner on their floor with the incredibly friendly white fluffball of a kitten

#nahida #scaramouche #hat radish #fern.txt

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cinnamon-roll-whump · 2 years ago

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thanks to @melkors-defense-attorney for helping with this one! both in the middle when I got stuck, and with the ending :D

finally I write some physical pain :3 not a lot, not super well, but it's a start lol

also Tulkas might be a bit OOC here, not sure

"MORGOTH!"

Melkor flinches at the familiar bellow. Anna leaps from his lap and hides underneath the chair.

He stands, but hasn't even taken one step when Tulkas slams the door open.

Melkor winces. "Please don't break my house."

"What did you do?" Tulkas snarls.

"Today? I fed my cat. Ate breakfast." Melkor looks down at his clothes; he's still in the same robe from yesterday. From Mairon's visit. "...I was planning to take a shower."

"Don't play innocent." Tulkas slams the door behind him, and the room's size is suddenly halved. "Why was Sauron seen leaving your home yesterday?"

"Don't call him that." Melkor bristles, almost wishing he had a tail to flick angrily.

"Remember, Morgoth, your freedom is conditional."

"I know." He tries not to, but he shrinks as Tulkas steps closer, his chest squeezing tight. It's a struggle to breathe. "I remember the conditions of my release. I haven't broken any."

"So Sauron didn't visit you?"

Fuck. There's no good way to answer that.

If he says yes, then he'll be punished, have Anna taken away or be throw back into the Void. Or, worse, Mairon will suffer that same fate.

If he says no... Eru, Tulkas is already suspicious enough of everything he does! He'll suffer the same punishment if– when– Tulkas realizes he lied.

"So he did visit you." Tulkas's hand drops to Melkor's throat.

"No- I mean, yes, but–" Melkor stammers. He can't bring himself to reject guilt at the price of laying it upon his Mairon. "It's not like that, we weren't-- he didn't--" Chill creeps up his legs, brushing at the back of his neck, and he can practically see the darkness of the Void obliterating his senses again.

His robe moves, and fur presses into his ankle. Instinctively, without thinking, he pushes Tulkas's hand away and kneels.

Tulkas steps closer. Melkor sees a heavy boot far too close to his sweet Anna, and does the only thing he can think to do. He pulls her away just as Tulkas's boot connects with his hand, and he stifles a cry. Anna wriggles in his other arm and noses his chest.

Swallowing tears of sharp pain, Melkor looks up into Tulkas's face, stern and hard and unforgiving as stone. He pulls his injured hand close to his chest, trying not to look at the discoloration, trying not to feel the wrongness inside as he rests it on Anna's head.

"What," Tulkas says finally, "is this?"

"My cat." His arm tightens around her.

"Your cat."

"Please." Melkor remains on his knees, gently petting Anna. "Whatever you do to me, leave Anna and Mair–"

Tulkas's gaze darkens and he steps forward again. Without warning, his fist slams into Melkor's jaw. "Do you take me for a fool?"

Melkor can't speak, can barely think of a reply. "Yes." Fuck, that's the wrong one. His arms open, dropping Anna to the ground. She squeaks in protest and darts around to hide behind him.

Just in time, too: Tulkas aims for Melkor's stomach next. He doubles over with a cough. "T-Tulkas, please."

"You've always thought me a fool." Tulkas towers over Melkor now, kicks him. "Thought you were so much better than the rest of us, so much cleverer. And now look at you."

Through his pain, Melkor registers a little head rubbing against his arm.

"Go away, Anna," he whispers. He elbows her gently. "Get away."

She doesn't listen. He's her safe place, as much a father as she's ever known.

Melkor senses rather than sees Tulkas walking around him. He bares his teeth and hisses at Anna, smacking her bottom lightly. "Please, baby, go!"

Anna mewls and shies away. Good. She'll be safe if she's gone, and if she can't be found he can fight back.

"I'm going to have to tell Manwë about this." Tulkas's hand grabs Melkor's hair, and he lets out a cry as he's pulled up. "I wonder what he'll order? Maybe he'll have you brought to Valinor so we can keep an eye on you, or send guards to stay here."

Melkor bares his teeth. "I agreed to terms wherein I was given a measure of freedom. My own home, away from Valinor–"

"You also agreed to no contact with Sauron." Tulkas grabs his injured hand and Melkor screams.

When the searing pain fades enough that he can speak, he spits, "I never spoke to Sauron, I swore that and I've kept to it! Leave my home now!"

"You're lying."

Melkor keeps his hand close to his chest and pulls back as much as he can with Tulkas's hand still in his hair, and he looks him in the eye. "I swear, Tulkas, on my Song and on my cat, the last time I spoke to Sauron was before my imprisonment."

Tulkas is a fool, so easily tricked. He knows Melkor well enough that he suspects something, his eyes narrowed in distrust, but he knows Melkor well enough to know this isn't a lie.

"Manwë needs to judge this," he growls finally. "You're coming back to Valinor with me."

Melkor's heart constricts. No, no, oh no. He can't return, he can't go back there.

One look at Tulkas's face says he doesn't have a choice.

"Let me bring my cat, and I will come quietly," he says softly.

#cinnamon writes #melkor #morgoth #emotional support kitty au #tulkas #silmarillion #silm fic #the silmarillion #names are important

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fullofgutsndopamine · 10 months ago

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i have read all your hasan fics multiple times over do you have any recs for other blogs to hold me over between your updates🫰🫶

hello friend! thank you for the kind words. unfortunately, i’m in a writing slump (but would love any and all requests if you have any-seriously.)

anyways-luckily we’re surrounded by some very talented people here (seriously. can their talent rub off on me osmosis style or?) so i have some below the cut!

(sorry for all the tagging below-if you want to be removed let me know! if we’re mutuals and j forgot you-please let me know!!! i’m unfortunately mostly a mobile user, so it’s super easy for me to lose/forget things)

happy reading

first off, the wonderful @kaya-p who never disappoints and always has some amazing idea up their sleeve

recommended reading: x

#shut up caroline #fic rec #hasanabi #hasan #hasanabi x reader #hasanabi x y/n #hasanabi x you #hasan x reader #hasan piker x you #hasan piker fanfic #hasan piker fic #hasan piker imagine #hasan piker x reader #hasan piker fanfiction #hasan piker

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welcometothejianghu · 8 months ago

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Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 大理寺少卿游/White Cat Legend.

White Cat Legend is the 2024 live-action adaptation of a funny historical manhua about a country bumpkin who winds up working with a bunch of mystery-solving officials led by a beautiful boss whose tragic past means no one can know he's also a kitty.

This is one of those cases where television comes in to adapt something that has both unfilmable elements and a very non-cinematic storyline that hasn't even been finished yet, and as such mostly just takes the characters and the basic conceit, then creates an entire vaguely nonsensical 36-episode AU fanfic of it. To call this show tonally inconsistent would be an insult to shows that are only merely tonally inconsistent. It is full-on tonal whiplash, the kind you should go see a doctor about. This shit is all over the place. It has arcs and situations that are genuinely emotionally moving, and then smash cut! to wacky nonsense happening with the B-plot. It does not know if it wants to tell a Serious Story or just have bonkers antics, and it will deal with this indecision by doing both at once.

So if you're in the mood for something fun with charming characters that won't tax your brain parts, let me give you five reasons this could be exactly the junk food you're looking for.

1. Just a family of all boys

If you're looking for a show rife with female characters, go watch Legend of Fei or Story of Yanxi Palace. Over here, it's Boys' Night Out.

The show is set in the Court of Judicial Review, which solves crimes. The boy in charge of all of them is Li Bing, who is secretly also a cat for reasons he doesn't understand. He picks up naive yokel and total sweeheart Chen Shi and brings him back to work with the Court's current occupants: a sad-eyed scribe with catastrophically bad luck, a former soldier who wishes he'd been born recently enough to be into Crossfit, a generic "foreigner" whose superpowers are spending his parents' money and pronouncing things badly, and the 8th-century Chinese equivalent of a mediocre white man.

And I'm going to tell you right now, up front, above the cut, that these boys' character interactions are the #1 reason to watch this show. You watch it because you like to see them bounce off one another like the unsupervised toddlers they are. They all love and care for one another in the best ways they know how, which sometimes aren't very effective, but darn it, they're trying!

What's especially cute is how they're so touchy with one another -- and not in any kind of sexual or creepy way, but in a sincerely affectionate bro way. There's lots of hugging and supportive arms around waists. Sometimes when they get scared, they hold hands. They grip one another when walking across unsteady ground or climbing over walls to break into yet another house. There's never any gay panic or no-homo reassurances. It hits that sweet spot right between brothers and boyfriends, where you can read their interactions as fraternal and/or romantic as you like (see below).

I mean, who needs a plot when you have half a dozen charming boys canonically working, eating, and sleeping side by side? That, my friends, is quality television.

2. Jam-packed with goofball nonsense

White Cat Legend is a show that will make you laugh out loud, and mostly even on purpose.

About 2/3 of this show is silly, and the other 1/3 is trying so hard to be emotionally resonant. But you know what? Screw emotional resonance for the moment -- let's embrace the antics!

There's a lot of silliness happening even at the production level. The show also starts out doing some very cute visual things, like breaking shots into multiple "panels" that give everything a real comic feel. It's especially effective during fight scenes and other visually confusing setups. ...And then about 1/4 of the way in, it forgets about this gimmick and stops almost completely. This is a shame, because I liked it! I liked that VFX tomfoolery that paid homage to the story's webcomic roots! (Also, someone behind the camera clearly got told that the way to make a scene more visually interesting is to slowly pan in during every shot. Once you notice it, you can't unsee it.)

The main villain is ... well, he's a lot. He's just a whole lot. I'd call him Evil Garfield, except Garfield is already kind of Evil Garfield, so this guy's Eviler Garfield. He's not chewing the scenery, but is instead treating it like a cat with a vendetta against some drapes. He's just hilariously over the top at all times. It starts out vaguely entertaining, then gets annoying, then wraps right back around to entertaining again.

Also, his wig is terrible -- and it's not even the worst wig in the show! White Cat Legend has decided that the way you style foreigner NPCs is just to jam unbrushed women's wigs on extras' heads and call it a day. There are indeed a lot of foreigners in the show, and the show has chosen to handle them by assuming everything beyond the borders of 6th-century Chinese territory is a great undifferentiated vaguely Persian-flavored mass. Who's that shady-looking guy? Oh, he's Foreign. What country is he from? A Foreign one. What language does he speak? You know, Foreign.

You are not ready for the score. This is a show that spent its entire musical budget on a handful of middling pop songs, realized it still needed ~40 minutes of music to put in each episode, and decided that it could just pull things at semi-random from whatever the Chinese television equivalent of the YouTube royalty-free sound library is. The result is some laugh-out-loud hilarious soundtracking. Do you know why they usually pay people to do things like score television shows? It's because when you don't, it sounds like this.

True story: During one antics-filled scene, I frowned, listened a second, and asked my wife, "Is that ... 'Deck the Halls'?" It was!

The mysteries are -- and I'm quoting myself here -- the celery that gets the cute boy peanut butter to your mouth. Not only can you, the viewer, not solve them, I don't actually remember what most of the resolutions were. Hell, I barely remember what most of the actual setups were. The individual storylines are mostly unimportant pieces of fluff that kinda sorta tie into the big mystery of the show: Why is that boy a kitty? ...And if you think you're going to be satisfied by the resolution to that one, honestly, you haven't been paying attention to what I've been saying in this post.

Basing this on absolutely nothing but vibes, here is my guess: The original vision for this series was as an ongoing thing, something that might hew a little closer to the comic storyline in later seasons. At some point in the production, the decision got made that there would be no further seasons made. The resulting drama is something that's technically self-contained, sure, but has a lot of little lingering weirdnesses that look like foreshadowing.

As just one example, the way they frame and shoot the empress is bizarre, and she might as well have a big SHE'S GOING TO TURN OUT TO BE EVIL neon sign above her head. ...Except that, no, she's fine! Perfectly fine, mostly normal empress, mostly normal levels of evil, nothing to see here. She is, however, evil as heck in the source material (and that's not a spoiler, she's a little pink thing who's clearly sinister all the way from the get-go), and I have to wonder if the showrunners weren't planning some future heel-turn villain arc for her. Well, we'll never know now, so whatever you choose to believe, the show won't contradict you on it!

Your reaction to all of this will 100% depend on how charitable you are feeling toward staring down a firehose of (mostly) intentionally slapdash shenanigans. If you go into this demanding coherence and substance, you will wind up disappointed. If you go into it expecting nothing more than a fluffy good time, you'll probably enjoy yourself tremendously -- and you'll maybe even be moved by the rare times it does work out to being something of substance! Such as...

3. We are never ever getting back together

The first thing you can tell about Qiu Qingzhi and Li Bing is that they are as divorced as two dudes in a c-drama can be. They aren't just a little divorced. They are nuclear divorced.

Except -- and this is the juicy part -- they obviously still work really well together. If it's just the two of them head-to-head, they will be assholes to one another with no mercy. If circumstances change and they have a shared target, God help that shared target.

The unspoilery version of their backstory goes like this: They were adorable little tween besties who grew up into adorable little teen besties, until Qiu Qingzhi went off to join the army and came back a real cold bitch, and Li Bing has no idea why. Now the two of them control state agencies that should work together but actually wind up competing more often than not (think the FBI and the CIA), a competition not helped by how the Jinwu Guards (Qiu Qingzhi's group) are actual professional soldiers in very nice armor, while the Court of Judicial Review is, well, [gestures to points 1 and 2].

And yeah, baby, this right here is The Ship.

I spent a nonzero amount of time while watching this series laughing out loud because Wei Zheming's face is just too beautiful to be believed. With his sculpted jaw and his perfectly practiced looks of disdain, his Qiu Qingzhi looks like a damn Disney prince. His face could not be more perfect if you'd assigned a team of animators to draw it. This actor is the reason I found this show in the first place -- he was so beautiful in Word of Honor that I found myself wondering what else he might be getting up to. Turns out, he is again being a smug bitch and capturing the heart of a doe-eyed younger man.

Don't let me oversell how much these two are together in the show, because they're not. Qiu Qingzhi is not part of the main crew, so he's not in most of the episodes. Most of his screentime comes in flashbacks during the last story arc, to a time in his past when Li Bing wasn't even around. But when they're together, oh, the sparks do fly.

I think it helps that the actors seem to have understood the ship, even if in that video, Ding Yuxi (Li Bing's actor) is trying so hard to do the Please Do Not Cancel Us dance of plausible deniability. I honestly don't even think this is the show's doing; after all, the source material (see the section near the end) is not BL in the slightest. I'd believe the show meant to create a normal platonic bro-relationship between these two. I'd even believe that it thinks it succeeded.

Still, if you're not the biggest fan of Lovers To Enemies? That's fine! Here's the relationship that's the real core of the show:

4. Here comes a special boy

All the boys of the family of all boys are special and wonderful, but truly, Chen Shi is the specialest and wonderfulest of them all.

He is your everyman character, the little country bumpkin overwhelmed by all the big-city dealings he's stumbled into. With his cute little twang and his natural inclination to trust everyone he meets, he's the perfect cinnamon roll, too good, too pure. I want to pinch his angelic little cheeks.

Fun fact: I have been informed by someone who speaks with the same dialect he does that said dialect is very sweary, which brings to mind the wonderful image of Chen Shi just casually and sweetly dropping f-bombs while everyone else stares in shock.

In a show where the characters are way more important than the plot, having a good POV character is key. Your audience lives or dies entirely on how much they want to see that POV character put into situations. To me, Chen Shi is a rousing success at this. He's not stupid! He's just extremely sheltered and on his own for the first time in his ife. He's the bravest little toaster, the goodest boy who's not going to let the little things stop him -- like, say, illiteracy, or a lack of familiarity with city living, or an inability to give any substantial details about the brother he's looking for beyond 'he looks just like me.' That's why he's got his friends help him out!

You better believe that when it comes time to save the day, Chen Shi will do it through the power of how everyone loves him.

And he and the kitty are ... romance? Kind of romance? Romance-adjacent? I could burn even more wordcount explaining the dynamic, but @uovoc has already said it best:

cdrama Li Bing is like: I've taken an inexplicable liking to this simple country boy so I'm going to entrust him with my life's greatest secret because I'm whimsical like that. And cdrama Chen Shi is like: this man is the most beautiful cat I've ever seen.

No matter how romantically you slice it, it's a dynamic I absolutely love: where a guy weighed down by his own past meets another guy who could not care less about that. Chen Shi is Li Bing's chance to figure out who Li Bing is, without the burdens of his family history, connections to the court, job, status, or any of the other things everyone else sees when they look at him. Chen Shi looks at Li Bing and sees Li Bing, whiskers and all.

I mean, Chen Shi makes Li Bing an entire office full of human-sized cat toys. If that's not love, I don't know what is.

And if you're not into besties-to-worsties or the pure and purrfect love between a man and his cat who is also a man? That's okay! I've helpfully made a chart to demonstrate the many flavors of exciting relationship dynamics White Cat Legend makes available to you:

Imagine the possibilities! Make your own fun! And then get over to AO3 and share it with the rest of the class! The White Cat Legend tag is sparsely populated and mostly not in English, and that's a shame, because there's so much smooching potential.

5. Not as dumb as it looks

Wow, that's kind of a backhanded compliment, isn't it? Well, no, not actually. You saw my earlier points about what a bag of goofs this show is. What's easy to miss, though, is how unexpectedly clever a whole lot of its dumbassery is.

A lot of this, I'm going to chalk up to the actors, who on the whole turn in some comedic performances way better than they have any right to be. That's the thing about comedy: to do stupid well, you have to be smart. They're all very funny, and they've got some great chemistry in combinations and permutations. It's a testament to their abilities that you can take any two of them, give them a scene together, and get something worth watching out of it.

Of course most of this is the main boys, but the major supporting characters largely have the same clever sense of comedic timing. Their actors know they're not performing some great work of literature, so they've decided to have some fun with it. I'm not going to praise anyone's performance here as particularly great, but by and large, the recurring cast members are doing solid work.

The aforementioned goofball nonsense also does a fair job of distracting from how creative the show can be. For example, the fact that many of the fights and chases are comedic makes it easy to miss how the fight choreography is often really tight. I don't think the show is trying to hide its moments of cleverness, so much as it's just grabbing them where it can without drawing attention to them.

I know a lot of people gave up on this show only a few episodes in, and I suspect I know why. It's not even that it just takes a while to find its footing -- it never quite finds its footing, on account of being such a patchwork creation. It's an adaptation of an incomplete story, forced to make changes because of budgetary limitations, promising things it's not allowed to deliver on, and further cut down between filming and release. That's what you call having the deck stacked against you. The fact that the final product is not only watchable but downright enjoyable is a testament to how the production got some critical fundamentals right.

In short, it's not just dumb fun -- though it is a lot of dumb fun. But it's dumb fun with just enough to sink your teeth into that it eventually becomes a compelling ratio. I don't blame the people who bailed, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

bonus: It comes in other flavors!

If you like the series and you want more, you're in luck! There's a whole ongoing comic and animated series!

The comic is the original version of the story: a tall vertical webcomic with a cute, distinctive style. It's still being published, and it's very different from the drama. There's a great ongoing translation project at @whitecatlegend, so if your Mandarin skills are as bad as mine (or worse!), you can follow along in English as well!

The donghua is a pretty close adaptation of several parts of the comic. You can find the whole first season at this YouTube playlist, though please note that the playlist is out of order, so you don't accidentally start with episode 8. The translation is ... eh, it's a little rough in places, to put it charitably, but it also makes some charming localization decisions, so I'm all for it. Oh, and here's the second season! It's even prettier and better-translated than the first!

Also, hey, furries? Li Bing's a perma-kitty in both of those versions of the story, so have fun with that.

The drama's casting is spot-on. Whoever picked these boys went out of their way to keep the original artistic vibe as much as possible, to the point where if you'd told me the drama had come first and then someone had drawn a comic starting from the actors' likenesses, I would've believed you.

(And yes, if you've read it, Qiu Qingzhi and Lai Zhongshu aren't technically Qiu Shenji and Lai Junchen, but I'm declaring them close enough for the purposes of this demonstration.)

I have heard that some fans of the comic are unhappy about the live-action adaptation, and I get that, I do -- they are not the same thing. There are plenty of things the drama leaves out where, okay, I understand why that person/event/factor got cut, but at the same time, dammit. In the end, I like them both as very different stories featuring the same(-ish) characters. Still, the drama is definitely not one of those situations where you get to tune in to watch the same things you loved on the page, just in a different medium. The delightfully accurate casting is about where the similarities end. Everything beyond that is its own legend.

Kitty.

Here, kitty, kitty?

The drama's an iQiyi exclusive, so that's where you'll get it.

It's a fun show, not a perfect show. It has some captivating elements and lots of promising nonsense worth thinking about. And like I said, it's a tiny-ass fandom -- a paltry 277 works on AO3, a mere 44 of which are in English. Somebody get in there and make some combination of those boys kiss!

Also, it is criminal that Kitty Li Bing has fabulous red eyeliner that Person Li Bing does not get to wear. Call makeup and fix that.

#white cat legend #all cats are boyfriends #大理寺日志 #大理寺少卿游 #rec post #i made this

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