#finally some pg13 romance

[lulupen2023]

Muse/Thor/The Avengers Crossover Belldom&Thoki

yep, I'm that crazy this is something I started YEARS ago... maybe I'll find the mad inspiration to go on and conclude it Let's start with sharing the prologue: Summary: What happens when the ' Knights of Cydonia ' meet the gods of Asgard? Let the delirium begin! Setting : During the making of T2L, tentatively late spring/early summer 2012, which should coincide with the ending of 'The Avengers' I do not have the mathematical certainty, but it is a FF, let's pretend that it is so… Rating: pg13, then…who knows?

Feedback: yes, please, make a tiny effort, this time I really need to know if this is worthy to go on or no one knows/care about those two fandoms put together :/

Genre: CrossOver (Muse + Thor / The Avengers Universe), Comedy, Romance, Fantasy, Humor, Parody… crazyness ;P

Disclaimer: I do not own for sure Matt, Dom, Muse in general, the same goes for Thor, Loki &Co (they belong to Marvel), I just own the absurd idea that was born from my sick mind And the title is taken from the lyrics of ' Crying Shame ' by Muse (very fitting)

Pairing: BellDom (of course!), Thoki ( Thor + Loki ) and... whatever happens XD

Notice: - I do not like Kate Hudson ( even before Matt met her), it’s not a mystery, but more than real bashing let’s call it a situation in which Matthew and especially Dominic scoff at her whenever they have the opportunity… which is what I love thinking that actually happens in real life, too!

To fully understand this story ( no matter how crazy and degenerate it is) you should know both fandoms, if you don’t, you can still read this first part after ' **** in the meantime 'as a simple one shot, since it is not yet bound to the other events :) The real fun will start with chapter 1!

Loki, Thor and all Asgard is based only on Marvel Movies, okay? I don’t know very much about Northern Mitology :/ Prologue: Requests and Memories

Asgard, End of May 2012

The more he kept repeating to himself that he had done the right thing, the less Thor was convinced that it was so.

He had brought Loki back home, it’s true, with the help of his mortal superhero friends, and had managed to stop him before the situation degenerated even further. Loki would have a hard price to pay for what he had already done.

The point was that having brought him back to Asgard, Thor had precluded to Loki any possibility of escape. By now it was all in Odin’s hands and in his law and the blond warrior could only hope that his decision would be lenient.

The trial has just begun; Loki had been led by Thor towards the throne room, suitably gagged, under the stern and blaming gaze of the whole people of Asgard.

Placed between the front rows, there were Fandral, Sif, Volstagg and Hogun, i.e. Thor’s best friends. They could only glare scornfully at the brunet god, which once -briefly- had been their king. All the way, Thor had looked for an alternative form of dialogue with his adopted brother. He tried seeking eye contact, but those big green eyes made of emerald did not seem to convey any emotion. After all, it was typical of the god of Mischief to conceal any trace of vulnerability.

Frigga hadn’t even been allowed to get close to that beloved son she believed lost, because it was an order of Odin’s. As a matter of fact, two royal guards had immediately moved her away, not without some efforts, fighting every Frigga’s attempt to break free. At the end, the queen was forced to surrender, being a powerless spectator of a show of which perhaps she preferred to never know the final result.

Odin knew that he would have to come to terms with his wife, but he had found it necessary to avoid her overly emotional involvements. He was aware that, when it came to Loki, Frigga used to forget rationality, acting more as a mother than a queen.

Suddenly Loki became more restless, starting to point repeatedly at his magic gag that kept him from enjoying the most congenial arts to him: the oratorical arts. Not understanding the behavior from whom he still considered to all intents and purposes his son, Odin gave orders to his guards to take away the gag, getting ready to put it back on him, if the situation would require it.

Free at last, Loki proceeded to talk.

"I require as my right to speak in private with the father...”

Odin jolted, not because of that request, but for the use of that unexpected name.

"Of all the gods!” the god of Lies added, pausing on purpose and finding a thin, evil, devious pleasure in deluding the king of Asgard so badly.

If there was one thing that Odin had never feared, it was direct confrontation, so he accepted the request, without hesitation, giving orders to everyone to leave.

"What's Loki up to?”  Frigga asked Thor, rather restless.

" I have no idea, mother, he didn’t tell me he wanted to talk in private with father. Well, because of the damn gag he didn’t tell me anything at all, since I’ve brought him here.”  the blond warrior muttered, upset.  His sapphire eyes narrowed, trying in vain to focus on the blurred image of his respected father and his beloved brother as he left the royal palace, with Frigga following him.

"Tell me, Loki.”  Odin urged him, once they were alone.

"I do not regret even a single one of the actions that I have committed!”  the proud failed king of Midgard stated.

"I thought so!”  the disconsolate All Father sighed.

"I know that I have to go through the punishment that you’ll decide that it’ the most appropriate and I’m not asking for a discount, it wouldn’t be correct.” the God of Lies went on.  “But I ask you a revocation."

"A revocation?”  Odin frowned.

"You heard me. It’s not for long. I ask you to wait for a week, then you can act as you think, and make me do whatever you prefer.”  Loki clarified.

"Why only a week?”  the king asked him doubtfully.

"In exactly seven days it will be Thor’s birthday and I want to arrange a memorable party. It will be my way to say farewell. I would like to arrange something special in the name of the brothers who we were.”  Loki revealed, without mincing words.

"You are still brothers! This has changed nothing, Loki, we think that you're still...”

"Save your breath, All Father! I'm not looking for nice words, but only for permission!” the god of Mischief cut him off, dryly.

Odin sighed heavily, stroking his shaggy white beard.

It was a typical sign that he was seriously considering the decision to be taken.

And Loki knew it; willy-nilly he knew all Odin’s typical signs.

"Supposed I agree. What do you plan to do this week?”  the king questioned him.

Loki cleared his throat, as if looking for the best way to give that answer.

"Let's say that my request could incorporate others, related and fundamental: I need to temporarily leave Asgard, I need to keep my powers, at least until then, but mostly I need you to trust me.”  the younger god sentenced.

"Why should I consider you worthy of such a trust?”  Odin muttered, astonished by the boldness with which his interlocutor dared to require such things.

Loki knew well that too, but did not flinch at all.

"Because Midgard is guarded by the Avengers, whom have vowed to protect their precious Realm from any threat. They already know my moves, my tactics, my fighting techniques. And if they were able to defeat me when I was the leader of a whole army, you can only imagine without difficulty how easy would be for them to defeat me now that I act completely alone.”  Loki  reasoned.” However, the basic reason is that this time I have no plan of conquest or domination of any kingdom, I won’t damage any mortal, even those with whom I would have a score to settle.”  the God of Chaos added.

"I'm glad to hear you say that.”  Odin muttered, stroking his own chin.

"Are you glad enough to give me what I asked you?”  the brunet wondered.

"Loki, you ask me a lot and your situation is already aggravated...”  the old king stumbled on his words.

Loki looked at him deeply, defiantly.

"I know and I do not mean to aggravate it any further. So, oh wise and powerful Odin, will you still consider worthy of a glimpse of your trust this lost sheep?”

***************************** (In the meantime )

Midgard (Earth), London, End of May 2012

Muse were really pleased by the intense work that day. Tom, the media manager, had taken lots of pictures, while the three worked on the new songs, assisted by a large group of sound engineers and musicians.

No need to wonder, Tom’s ‘evil’ plan was to publish the new photos on twitter as soon as possible, thus teasing the band’s devoted fans a little more. This was what trolls did!

When they came out from the recording studio, it was already past eleven o'clock at night. Outside there was left not even a fan waiting for them, as they believed that the band had already found an alternative way to leave.

Muse loved their fans, they were grateful for what those worshippers had brought them. But it was also true that they didn’t despise having a bit of peace and privacy.

Their operating team had already moved away a few hours before, they were perfectionists; every one of them. Matt, Dom, and Chris had chosen to remain in order to refine some of the details, while Tom stayed to muck around with them a little longer (well, he had also given them some valuable help, too, it must be said).

Chris was the first of the four guys to leave, eager to return to his large family. The bassist had never been so happy as that year. The fact that they stay fixed in London allowed him to spend more time with his beloved wife and adorable children, something that was not very feasible during the tour.

Tom followed his example shortly after and so only Matthew and Dominic were left. The two of them, however, hadn’t any intention to leave, and why should have they? By then the place was sufficiently isolated, outside there was a starry sky that did not ask for more than to be contemplated and the air, though still quite fresh, began to smell of summer.

Dominic ran into the studio to retrieve two blankets, which he then took outside. "Matthew, come here!" he urged his best friend, going around the back.

With the assistance from the singer, the drummer positioned the blankets down on the soft grass, and then they laid down on them.

"Wait, something is still missing.”  Matt said, getting up and going back into the studio, from which he emerged a little later, with a pack of beer cans, kept cool by their mini-bar.

"Now we are talking!”  the brunet smiled, handing to the blond a can, and they sit down again. The pianist placed the remaining cans on the ground before sitting back down.

"This is the perfect crime!”  Dom chuckled, opening his can.

"I would propose a little music as background, too but... I guess that today we have had enough, do you think so?”  Matt said, taking a few sips from his.

"Even too much!” laughed Dom, exhausted.”  But it has to be done, Matt, we are working just fine.”

"I know, Dom, this album will be epic. We will do great things, I can feel it.”  Matt smiled, letting the breeze of the night lash his hair.

"I love this. I mean, the moment of realization of an album, when it's just you and me and the music. Well, it’s obvious, I include even Chris, Tom, Morgan and the technicians as well, but... you understand what I mean!”  Dom shrugged.

"Of course I understand.”  Matthew lay down on his side, turning to him.

"And then, when we're on tour, there will be no more of any of this stuff. Nothing is as it used to be before and you know it.”  Dom pouted, before feeling a hand placed on his shoulder.

"I know, it's true, but that does not mean that we cannot make it equally beautiful.”  Matt muttered.  “And whatever happens, there will always be a ' you and I ', always.”  he assured him. In those eyes that were bluer than the sky and the sea Dominic could only read a devout sincerity. The drummer just nodded his head and showed his best friend a convinced smile.

Matthew knew he had to do something to lighten the atmosphere, which now had become heavier thanks to the shadow of the difficulties that arose in the two lovers’ path.

He changed topic, recalling all their memories related to the preparation of that last album, the ideas that they had discarded, laughing because they saw it as terrible stuff, the jokes that they had made to each other, all the carefree moments mixed with the most serious ones.

It turned out to be a brilliant gimmick.

Matthew was a composer, but he was convinced that there was no more beautiful music than Dominic’s laughter and see him so happy, while he laughed and brought out anecdote after anecdote with the enthusiasm of a child, was the best reward ever.

"Matt, do you remember when we got to decide what song you would choose to dedicate to Kate?”  the blond resumed his speech, giggling, and as he pronounced that woman’s name Matthew realized that he was no longer in a state of tension.

"Sure, how could I forget it? You were so stubborn and kept saying I should have chosen 'Animals'!” he replied, without suppressing a giggle.

“Well, yes, because it reflects her temperament. In short, I'm giving her a great compliment for her strong and determined character!”  Dom justified himself, perhaps already a little tipsier because of the beer, as well as Matt was.

"'Kill yourself, c'mon and do us all a favor '?” Matt sang accusingly, but his expression was clearly amused.

"Uh, is there that verse, too? Really? I did not remember!”  Dom shrugged with feigned innocence.

They both laughed, and from there to the first kiss of the night the step was ridiculously short.

"Oh, bugger it! I mean, yep, I can give her ���Madness', she can delude herself that you wrote that song for her. There are other important songs, the ones that if you had only dared to dedicate them to her...I do not know what I would have done to you or if you would be still alive to tell the world about it!”  Dom asserted, parting from his partner, trying to figure out if it was the brunet who had invaded his space or  if he invaded the pianist’s one, but without giving too much importance to that thing.

He was fine where he was, which meant sitting on Matt’s lap.

"I know. Like 'Explorers', right? Do you remember the first time I played it to you?” Matthew whispered in his ear, blowing into it, lightly.

"You bet. As soon as you finished playing the last note, I did not say a word. I just walked towards you, I wrapped my arms around your neck, I kissed you...and we ended up making love under your piano, all night long,” the drummer recalled, while he played with the fingers of the other musician’s hand. "One of the best nights I can remember,” the brunet revealed, sighing contently.

“And 'Big Freeze' belongs to the untouchable songs as well!” the blond claimed, resolutely.

"I know, but that one I do not have a good memory of. As soon as I finished singing it to you, you broke down and cried, and then I burst into tears as well and we spent the whole night talking and comforting each other, reassuring each other about our future together,” the pianist grieved a little bit.

"Believe me or not, but even that one is among the most beautiful nights I can remember.”  Dominic smiled.  “The fact is that that song is special.”

"Yes, so special that I'm not going to share it with the crowd. One day, perhaps,” the guitarist stated.

"Well, Matt-eh, look, you still have time to change the song to pick up for Kate. We might consider 'Unsustainable’.”  The percussionist returned to his attack.

Matthew pushed him away and laughed heartily. "Are you nuts? Imagine the scene: the audience is cheering me, I approach the microphone and say, 'And now a new song, I wrote it for my girlfriend, because my ability to stand her sometimes is unsustainable!', and then the song starts!” The pianist prospected the hypothetical possibility, amongst the laughter.

"I would pay for this scenario!”  Dom said, sitting down again.

“Sorry, but I’m already sodding rich, I'm not interested in your money!”  the other scoffed, pretending to be indifferent.

Dom crawled sensually over the brunet. "So, what about a payment in kind? Would you mind?” he meowed, ruffling his hair. “I think...I think that we can find an agreement…” the singer stammered, in obvious difficulty, getting lost in those beautiful big eyes, made of an indefinite color where gray, green, hazel, and sometimes even the blue battled out to try to prevail, reaching some stunning compromises.

"Mm, yes, I think so.”  Dom smiled against Matt’s lips, kissing him deeply.

“On second thought, nope, I would take advantage of you, but without giving you what you want in return!” the frontman corrected himself, recovering and parting from him.

"You’re so infamous!” the percussionist chuckled, returning on his blanket.  “But, I repeat, it would be fun. Well, you could use. 'Isolated System', then. It’s a ballad, there’s a piano, it seems very romantic to me, so why not?” he suggested casually.

"I do not know, maybe because that song is about the destruction of the world, without even a single chance of escape or a single hope of salvation?”  Matthew rolled his eyes.

"Exactly. It seems so appropriate to me!”  Dom grinned cheekily.

"Dominic...”  Matt used his warning tone.

"But mostly, Matt, if you locked her up inside an isolated system she wouldn’t be bloody stuck to you anymore at every single concert!”

Matthew could not help it and burst into laughter. "Dom, you're impossible!”

"And you love me the way I am.” The drummer gave checkmate to the singer.

This time it was Matt who got closer, crawling over him, locking his ice-blue eyes in those eyes made of storm.

"I do love you. With every fiber of my body. With every note of my piano. With each of my guitar riffs. With every octave of my voice,” he murmured languidly, placing small, delicate kisses on the percussionist’s lips for every way that he listed.

"Wow…" was all Dom could say, grabbing him by his neck and pulling him in for a breathtaking kiss before resuming his personal battle. "Kate can only dream about these sentences from you!” he chanted, sounding victorious. That was all it took for him to earn yet another push from Matthew, though the brunet was amused.

“Taking for granted that my favorite blond is you, and it'll always be you, Dommeh, c’mon! It’s not so horrible to have Kate around! And don’t you dare try to deny it; you’re already crazy for Bing as much as I am!” he pointed out.

“You rescued yourself at the very last minute mentioning that adorable baby!” the blond punched his lover’s shoulder lightly, before they both went back lying down and watching the stars.

"Matthew, do you think there’s really a place where we can be free, such the one you're talking about in that particular song?” Dom asked him.

Matthew looked for his hand, squeezing it.

"There must be. And we'll find it.”

TBC

[rurikredwolf]

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rurikredwolf

I have two series that are rated pg13. Some darker things and themes but nothing explicit. Surface level they can seem like romance fics or fixit fics but there's a rug pull to each that reveals the true nature.

Two (unconnected) series I have are as follows:

Broken Jade:

20 years have passed since the Pantalan War. Five years since a secret drove Winter away from his friends. However, after a chance encounter in the Rain Kingdom, Winter realizes that he may have left things far more broken than he intended...

(Almost 800 kudos on that one)

Anywhere:

Three years after the Pantalan War, the Jade Winglet has finally graduated from Jade Academy. Now, they must face the ultimate challenge: Acting on their hopes and dreams

(There is five parts to this storyline so if you want lengthy stories this is it)

tbh the fandom doesn't really have a lot of great fics. i get it's due to how young the fanbase skews but i can only think of maybe four or five fics i've read that were actually good or impressed me in the nearly decade-long period i've been in this fandom. idk. take this post maybe to drop links to good fics since i can only ever seem to find mediocre ones

.

[seatawinan]

[riallasheng]

Do you think Thunderbirds (TOS) was made for kids? Because the amount of smoking in that show LMFAOOO and there are some "adult" jokes in a few eps too like the Attack of the Alligators

Hello my lovely Anon, I hope you're having a wonderful day, and I wish you a kind year to follow as we come up on the New Year ^_^

To answer your question: Well... Kinda.

While Thunderbirds was officially released as a 'for children' program, it was written and designed 'for all ages' AND (to be utterly frank) 'for kids' shows of today are MUCH more... well... younger and 'softer' I guess is the way to put it. It's generally assumed kids can't handle a lot of things that used to be totally fine... in some ways that's good, in some ways that's bad.

The U rating, which is Kids shows in England, often showed things that by todays standards would be pg13 if not higher (no sexual stuff, but death, and violence, and so on). I mean look at Animals of Farthing Wood for a 'Childrens Show' (not even FAMILY) for examples of this. It's a great show, but it would NEVER be made today, because there are character deaths and on-screen violence and so on.

The adult jokes pretty much ALWAYS went over the heads of kids watching, and still usually does (not just for Tbirds but shows and films in general). It generally has to be really explicit before the average kid picks up on innuendo, or jokes about taxes, etc.

Plus, as I said, while it was rated U and thus 'for children' Thunderbirds was WRITTEN 'for the entire family / for everyone' and easily half of the audience were teens and up, and with the kids watching, the adults in the house were usually watching the show as well, and generally enjoying it. So the Andersons had that in mind as they wrote the first 3 Supermarionation shows (the final two, Scarlet and Secret Service, were aimed at teens to adults, and if I recall correctly lost the U rating).

There was action and adventure and rescues nd silly, easy to understand, jokes for the kids watching... and stuff for the teens and adults watching 'baked in' as well, like the romance and a subtext that older viewers could enjoy. Worked too, given how much of a phenomenon the Anderson shows generally were, Thunderbirds in particular was MASSIVE. (Plus, there were a lot of fans watching the show after / alongside the comics and novels, which were aimed at teen and up audiences, so they came in more... hm... primed to pick up the subtext if that makes sense)

As for the smoking... while cigarette ADS were banned in... it was either 64 or 67 I forget... Characters smoking was not banned from children's programs in the UK until recently. Heck it wasn't banned in the US until the 1970s (by Nixon in the mid 70s I think). Sort of like guns with that, where in the 1980s guns could only shoot lasers, you always had to see a parachute for the enemy aircraft you shot down, etc. While it's CURRENTLY a taboo and shocking thing to see... at the time it wasn't considered such. It wasn't even done for COOL FACTOR either, the characters are seen smoking because it was just... normal everyday stuff. Remember, while it's common knowledge NOW, the health issues of smoking weren't really KNOWN at the time this came out. That was more the late 60s through the 70s. Heck, the UK didn't ban smoking indoors until... 2008? And there are still many countries where it isn't banned at all.

but the TL;DR is... It was a children's program, TECHNICALLY. ^_^ But it both was aimed at and written for all ages and had elements that most kids wouldn't pick up on worked in for the older audiences and fans watching... and 'kids shows' have become more and more sanitized and 'kiddy' as time has passed on top of that.

[hyunnows]

SOME PEOPLE | KTH

PAIRING(s): Taehyung x reader, Dowoon of day6 x reader

RATING: pg13

WORD COUNT: 6.5k+

CONTENT/WARNINGS: unrequited love, friends to strangers, angst, unhealthy friendship, lowkey toxic Taehyung, swearing, pretty minor fluff and happy memories mentioned, university!au

SUMMARY: You’ve been Taehyung’s best friend for a while, in love with him from the sidelines as he chases after others. You’ve always given him a hundred percent, while he’s struggled to give you more than twenty-five. After all this time, you finally realize that while you were once “best friends”, he’s never been your “best” friend.

A/N: my submission to the anti-romance collab hosted by @rockwithwoo and @astramoonchild <3 I put so much effort and p a i n into this fic so i really hope you all enjoy! please make sure to go check out the other fics that are a part of this collab!!! there are so many amazing, talented that took part! i hope you enjoy, possibly find both pain and comfort in this fic and have a great day/night! Back to the fic, thank you to my lovely betas who I couldn't have written this so well without 🥺💜 @starry-paris, @nightshadevinter, @mochajoon, @sunshinejunghoseokie, you were all so encouraging and helpful throughout this process and I'm incredibly grateful for your help <3 Thank you all and I hope you enjoy this!

Teaser

YOU COULDN’T REACH THE TOP SHELF, struggling on your toes to grab at the air around the book you needed to complete your research. Groaning, you lowered yourself back onto the flat floor, about to turn away and give up when a warmth engulfed your back, one long, toned arm reaching from behind you to pull down the book you’d been reaching at for the past five minutes.

You turned to face the stranger, holding in a gasp when you met his piercing gaze. He was devastatingly handsome—gorgeous, even.

The tall stranger loomed over you, a friendly yet flirty grin on his lips as he handed you the book. “Hi, I’m Taehyung. You needed this?”

Calming your restless heart, you reached for the leather cover, his rough but still gentle hands gracing your own briefly during the interaction. “Nice to meet you, Taehyung. Thanks for helping me out, can I repay you?”

“No problem! As for payment… I could use a study buddy,” he offered, a bright and hopeful gleam in his dark mahogany eyes. You nodded, holding back your own beam as the two of you began your trek to find a table. “I didn’t catch your name.”

“[Y/N].”

“Well, [Y/N],” he started, his voice luscious and deep. “I hope I can get to know you.”

That’s how it all started, your beloved friendship with Kim Taehyung.

The two of you became inseparable over the months, swapping secrets and trading tragedies in the depths of night. Now you’ve known each other for a solid seven months, comfortable enough to call yourselves best friends.

Friends.

Another crucial development throughout the time you’ve been friends is that you’ve grown feelings that are a bit more than friendly.

Taehyung, as you’ve learned, is naturally bright and affectionate. He always manages to make you laugh, simultaneously making your heart jump every time he opens that dumb, perfect mouth. His warmhearted, firm hugs did you no favors in stopping you from falling further for his charms either.

Not to mention his innate flirtatious behavior. Taehyung has a charisma to himself, one that draws people to him, whether they like it or not. You have the pleasure of being one of his more willing victims, always playing along with his teasing until one of you gave out from embarrassment, which is usually you.

But you never mind his ways of affection, always ready to accept whatever he’s willing to give.

Taehyung groans, slinging his arm around your shoulder and pulling you to him. “I don’t want to study, can’t we just cuddle and watch a movie? Maybe do something else…?” His brows bounce as he trails off, implying something a bit more than friendly, a light smirk playing at his lips. Rolling your eyes, you shove him off, making him pout in defeat. “C’mon [Y/N], I don’t even need this class, why do I have to study for it?”

You hand him the aged, dusty book that was previously tucked under your arm. “Because there’s no point in failing. Plus, you need to get into a better study habit.”

Taehyung’s dedicated to his work, he really is, but he just doesn’t have the right policy when it comes to academic work. Usually, you just give him the answers he needs when he needs them, sometimes the full assignments if you can, but you’re beginning to tire of constantly having to do all your work on your own just for Taehyung to slack off. Besides, it’s better if he learns to do the work for himself. He’s not too happy about it though, trudging to the creaky old desk in the corner of the library—where you’d studied when you first met.

The library has a lingering smell of cinnamon and tea tree oil, one you find most comforting. On late nights you find yourself wandering to the back for a good book, earbuds plugged in to drown out your personal sorrows. It’s old, worn carpet always crinkles quietly beneath your weight, and the chairs have a certain texture from years of use that grazes your soft fingers in just the right way whenever you hold their wooden frames.

The seat cushion wheezes quietly under you whilst you sit yourself down, shaking your head at him. “I’m not always going to be there to help you cheat, Taehyung.” His deep voice mimics yours childishly under his breath. “And I’m not going to do all the work for you this time.”

“I know, I know.” He mutters, frowning and flipping the old publication open, coughing dramatically at the bits of dust that fall off the leather covers. “Y’know, when I said I liked smart girls, I didn’t mean this.”

“Gee, thanks bestie,” tossing him a glare, his implication of you being boring and not his hot fantasy type chipping at your self esteem. Unfortunately, you can’t say that you didn’t mean him whenever you’ve said you liked dorks.

He lets out a quiet laughter, ruffling your hair until it’s too messy for anyone to develop a secret crush on you during this library visit. “I’m kidding. You know you’re exactly my type. So smart and beautiful.” His words make your cheek burn, so you hide them in your hands, only eliciting a wide grin from him at your flustered state. “You’re so cute.”

“Stop flirting with me and read.”

“It’s so hard to focus on the book when you’re right next to me,” he witness pathetically, “We could totally be making out—”

You scowl at him playfully, cheeks aflame. “You’re gross.” Your feigned joyful tone masking the pain he brings you with every tease. But, that’s just how Taehyung is. Blunt, occasionally obnoxious, and unapologetically coquettish. It’s what made you fall for him in the first place.

“What? It’s not my fault my best friend is literally a perfect human. Not to mention, my favorite one.” He says halfheartedly, part of him meaning it and the other part just being a sweet best friend. “On the topic of how amazing you are, what are you studying? Didn’t you switch electives?”

“Oh, yeah. I switched to photography, but I might take up art next semester…” You trail off the moment you notice you don’t have his attention, the new library assistant now the center of his undivided attention. Chest burning, you sigh, lowering your focus back to the article you’d been reading before his affectionate behavior started. “You should go talk to her.”

He doesn’t even seem to hear you, already scooting out of his chair to approach the slim figure leaning against the shelves elegantly.

“You should really start getting over him.” Jimin advises, flipping onto your bed theatrically, phone in hand as he scrutinizes your taste in men. “He doesn’t see you as anything more than a friend.”

You jump on top of him, your back pressed against his and arms spread to your side like a starfish, making him gasp for air under you. “I know, but I can’t. He just makes me feel special. You know?”

Rolling you off him, Jimin gives you a look of disbelief. “[Y/N], he makes everyone feel like that. Especially the girls he ditches you for.”

“It’s not like that…”

Oh, but it is exactly like that. Taehyung has a talent for making people love him, getting them to absolutely crave for his attention because it just feels so good when they have it. And, like everyone else, you’ve fallen victim to his endearing ways. Honestly, with all the time you spend with him, you’d be more surprised if you weren’t in love with him.

Tonight you’re definitely one of his moths, him the light you’re all drawn to, begging to touch even at the risk of being burned. Unfortunately, you’ve already been burned, even this early into the night.

You two had been dancing, laughing the night away when Taehyung was stolen by a foxy physics major, leaving you to your one woman wiggle of loneliness.

He’s like a raccoon, you think, distracted by beautiful, shiny objects far too easily—and oh so lucky for you, you’re rusty and dim. Jimin’s right with how he makes everyone feel special. You're becoming aware of this more and more. The girl looks at him as if he’s hung the stars in the sky, just for her—a feeling you’re too familiar with. His gaze is solely trained on her, and at the moment, she’s his world.

But later that same night, he’s leaning on your shoulder as you help him waddle to your car, drunkenly muttering how beautiful you are and how great you smell. His eyes are mostly closed, but he still manages to peek through his tired lids, pupils trained on you.

You’ve always known Taehyung wasn’t the most reliable friend in your life. He’s always running late, rarely has his priorities straight, and never remembers to show up when he’s supposed to. All qualities you once found eccentric and cute, now are inconveniences for you.

Foot tapping against the ground, you try to ignore the echoing steps that grow increasingly louder the closer his frame gets to you. You try not to shiver at the breeze that his abrupt stop blows against you, your soaked clothes clinging impossibly tighter around your icy figure.

He huffs in front of you, his hair lightly damp from the now light sprinkle outside. “[Y/N] I’m sor—”

“You’re late.”

He licks his lips, eyes big and guilty, like they always are when he forgets about his responsibilities and promises. Opening his mouth several times, he finally manages to force something out, in a gentle, pathetic whisper. “I’m sorry, I know I really messed up, but I’ll make it up to you—”

You ignore him, walking past him towards the parking lot doors, clutching your arms around yourself silently. Your teeth chatter, only stopping momentarily because you grit them at the sensation of his jacket draping over your shoulders.

You stop in front of his car, pulling at the handle wordlessly, one hand weekly pulling his jacket tighter around you. As much as you don’t want to accept it, especially because it absolutely reeks of his date cologne and his date’s cologne, you can’t keep shivering from the chilliness of wet clothes.

He hastily unlocks the vehicle, reaching to open your door for you, but to no avail as you swing it open and climb inside, secretly thankful he’d been running the heater and simultaneously ticked that he had been enjoying warmth while you were suffering in the cold rain.

Taehyung climbs into the driver’s side, hands nervously gripping the wheel as he glances from you to your clothes to the long forgotten lipgloss of his date. With a deep inhale, he fails to hide his frown. “I’m so sorry. [Y/N], you know I didn’t mean to forget, I just got caught up—”

“On your date, right? Because some random girl is more important than your best friend. Don’t worry, I get it.” You hiss out, crossing your arms and leaning against the water-stained window. Disappointedly, you sigh. “It’s not fair. I always make sure you have what you need when you need it, regardless of whether it's money, cheat sheets, clothes, whatever! But, the one time I need your help, you forget about me because of a date.”

“I said I was sorry…”

Lip trembling, you furrow your brows. “Sorry doesn’t cut it this time, Taehyung. Sorry won’t make my clothes dry. Sorry isn’t gonna stop me from being sick tomorrow. Sorry doesn’t do anything.” Your voice breaks in the middle, but you can’t seem to let everything out. You don’t feel the comfort or safety that would normally let you open up to Jimin or any of your other friends. “Just take me home.” He complies, shutting up and turning the heat higher in hopes that you’ll stop shivering.

Sorry doesn’t cut it… but maybe the homemade soup, medicine, and brand new weighted blanket do.

Jimin’s eyes roll back, displeased to see Taehyung at your door, get well soon package in hand and a shameful expression painted on his face. “She said I could come over to pick up some notes…” The taller boy mumbles, abashed that even with all the trouble he caused you, you still prepared what he needed, just as you said. “I’ll leave after I make it right.”

“You hurt her, I’ll hurt you.” Is all your roommate grumbles out before stepping aside and letting the slightly unwelcome guest into your humble abode. “You know where her room is.”

A gentle knock sounds at your door, but your head feels too tight for you to do anything about it besides blow into another tissue. “Jimin I don’t want to talk about it—”

“I’m not Jimin…” He murmurs, eyes failing to meet yours from the guilt pitted in his stomach. “Before you kick me out, I just wanted to give you these. This is soup, your mom’s recipe, some cough and flu medicine my grandma used to use when I got sick, and a weighted blanket because I know how much you’ve been wanting one.”

He flinches as you hack loudly, eyes red and puffy, struggling to focus on his face. “How did you get in here? We changed,” you choke out another cough, “we changed the locks last week and I haven’t given you a key yet.”

Trying not to smile, he mumbles. “I might’ve told Jimin you knew I was coming. In my defense, I just wanted to give these to you in person and apologize again, although I know that apologies don’t do much…”

His head hangs low as his voice fades away, and you can’t help but shake your head at him. “I’m not mad anymore Taehyung. I’m sorry for overreacting yesterday, I was just upset.”

“I get why. I’m not reliable or a good friend, really. I don’t know why you keep me around.” He chuckles a bit, setting the things he brought for you on your bed gently before straightening back up. “You deserve a better best friend than me, huh?”

You shake your head. “No, you’re amazing, honestly I don’t think I deserve someone as sweet and thoughtful as you half the time.”

“You’re just saying that.” He laughs, the two of you falling into your usual banter. After a bit, he winds up beside you, the two of you watching an old comedy flick when he leans closer to you, closing his eyes as he leaves a kiss on your head, his lips lingering as he maffles against your skin quietly. “No date is worth more to me than you are, I promise. You’re the most important person to me.” His body gradually begins to shudder against you as a quiet sob leaves his lips. “I’m so sorry…”

Somehow, even when he messes up so grandly, you always end up letting him off the hook, even comforting him when it truly should be the other way around. Your hand rubbing his back to soothe his sadness while nobody’s there to wipe your own silent tears.

“I’m sorry Tae,” you tell him, frowning as he cries into his pillow over his last girlfriend. “Some people, they just aren’t meant to stay.” The words sour on your lips as you recall how head over heels for her he’d been.

Now, early into your fifth year of university, your best friend had been in a serious relationship for about four months, only for it to end with the girl cheating on him. You can’t comprehend why—she had all his time, attention, love, everything. What more could she want?

“I gave her everything…” Oh, I know you did, your heart ripping slowly at his next sentence. “I’ve never loved someone like her. She… she was special.”

Your hands freeze their actions, no longer threading through his thick, wavy hair. Aren’t… aren’t you special? Because that’s how he always made you feel in those fleeting moments where it was just the two of you in the world. That’s what you believed in each of those memories where he was the only one you could see, when you thought you were the sole center of his world.

You thought you understood the pain before, but you were oh so wrong. You should have known better than to think you were exceptional in Taehyung’s eyes. How foolish of you to think that you were any different to him than anyone else.

Pathetic.

Yet you’d fall under his spell again, thinking you were someone more to him than everyone else. Like you always do.

One glance, and you’d be right back where you started.

You know it’s ridiculous to be so malleable by the simplest of actions, but you could never stop yourself from hoping and falling over and over. Especially as he gives you his puppy-like eyes with an irresistible pout. “Please [Y/N], I need this grade.”

“I know you do but i can’t let you wait until the last day and ask for my help anymore. Besides, I have stuff to do.” You pry your eyes off him reluctantly, heart heavy because you know this will bring him down quite a bit, but he’s got to learn to do things on time on his own somehow.

Slender arms wind around your waist, his nose nuzzling your cheek affectionately, his lips still pushed up. “[Y/N], you love me, right? I promise I won’t put my projects off this long again if you help me with this one.”

You know he’s tricking you, lying, using your heart against you. He’s a player—he knows how to bend someone’s will to his bidding. And while you’re fully aware of what's happening to you—you give in like you have so many times before, and like you will many times after this one.

“Fine.”

He pecks your cheek, holding you in a tight embrace with a grin on his face, mumbling and muttering praises against your cheek. “I love you so much, thank you. Really, you’re the best. You’re my favorite person on this Earth, I don't know what I’d do without you.”

And its nice, appreciated even, at the moment. Hearing Taehyung sing your praises and tell you how much you mean to him is all you crave for—but it’s not real, and it won’t last. So you bask in his words and warmth as long as you can.

You’d seen Taehyung leave people behind after he got his fill of them, be it friends or more, he didn’t keep most people around for long. You’ve been one of the lucky few, you suppose, to stay around longer than a month or so. After all these hours, days, months, you thought that he’d never leave you behind. That maybe he wouldn’t get tired of you like everyone else.

But as he avoids your gaze across the university’s literature hall, you realize that was an unrealistic notion your feelings had concocted. He’s got someone new on his mind, staring at her with those adoring eyes you once believed were reserved for you. He’s not concerned with how you feel or what you’ve been up to—he hasn’t been for weeks now, the small talk and short conversations between the two of you practically courtesy now.

“What did I do wrong?” You mumble to yourself, staring at him longingly whilst rewriting some of your notes.

Jimin pats your back, shaking his head. “Girl, I told you, he ain’t shit.” His tone almost makes you crack a smile, the comical edge bringing a bit of joy into your constantly dulling life. “You need to move on, get out more. Taehyung doesn’t have the capacity to give you what you need as a friend or partner.’

“He’s not that bad… I must’ve done something.” You frown, rubbing your left temple stressfully. But maybe Jimin is right. Maybe it’s time for you to get over your former best friend, and fall for someone else. “Just out of curiosity, what’re you thinking of?”

Jimin gives you a gentle yet mischievous smile, pulling out his phone and pulling up a profile on social media. Flipping the mini screen for you to view, you blush as you realize what he’s doing. “This is a friend of mine—well actually he’s a friend of a friend, but I think he’s perfect for you. He’s a complete dork, loves music, animals, and he has a beautiful, deep ass voice. Oh, and get this, he’s a drummer.”

You raise your brow at the rapid-fire profile he gave you, but can’t deny that the guy he’s describing not only sounds perfect, he looks fantastic as well. Cute, soft, and uncharacteristically muscular for someone who looks like he’d never hurt a fly. Damn Jimin and always being right. “What’s his name?”

He tells you everything about this man, well, everything to convince you to go out with him. That he’s sweet, a good listener, adorable, and so on. You think it’s too good to be true, but promise Jimin that you’ll give him a real chance before rejecting him. Which is how you find yourself approaching the same man from the photos in a coffee shop a few days later, tapping his shoulder lightly.

“Yoon Dowoon?” He turns around, eyebrows raised slightly from the startle you gave him moments ago. He puts a hand on his chest, and lets out a light laugh. He nods. “I’m [Y/N]. The person Jimin set you up with.”

He greets you with a polite and gentle hug, one that’s neither formal nor too personal. Just, comfortable and welcoming. “Hi… Wow, you’re even more beautiful in real life.”

You flush, and for the first time in months, you feel like the attention, the focus and car, all of it, is on you. And it feels wonderful.

Your meeting isn’t at all like yours with Taehyung, where you’d learned his entire life story by the end of the day. No, instead, he’s intent on learning about you and your interest, the two of you finding a perfect balance of learning about each other and staying enigmas at the same time. He’s sweet and kind, and he’s passionate about everything he does. He’s already at the door for you before you can attempt to open it, taking your bag and coat and making sure that you know that he wants to do these things for you, that he’s willing to put in as much effort as you, if not more, into having a good relationship with you, no matter what kind.

As cliché as it sounds, Dowoon makes you feel like you’re the only girl in the world, despite the many trying to get at him on social media. He doesn’t hesitate to turn them down or reassure you that he’s only interested in you.

And though it may seem petty for you to inwardly focus on, you love his reliability. He’s always got himself together, and he’s always ready to help you in any way you may need. He’s on time, prepared, dependable. Something Taehyung never was.

And speaking of Taehyung, you two haven’t spoken in a while. While you know now that your conversations with him were never too deep—well, not when they were about you—you miss talking about the small, insignificant things you two could once go on for hours about. You miss Taehyung.

So you decide to meet up with him, except it’s unannounced. He doesn’t know you’re meeting up—you’re too afraid of him rejecting to hang out with you, like he rejects your attempts to talk in messages sometimes.

Luckily, being friends with Taehyung meant that you quickly became acquainted with his friends—aka, the people who throw some of the best parties on campus. You usually skip out, only going to a few when you and Taehyung were still thick as thieves to make sure he didn’t drive home drunk, but now you’re going on your own.

Well, on your own with Dowoon.

You’re sure it won’t be much of a problem, considering they never get upset because of unexpected guests or surprise plus ones. All he has to do is show up with her and there shouldn’t be any trouble.

So you dress up, wanting to look nice for your first party with your new boyfriend. You wear a black dress Jimin bought you that you once swore you’d never touch, along with some heels you saved for special occasions.

You’ve got your makeup done, for once not just some foundation and blush, but a nice, full face without being caked up. You even put some effort into your hair, although you know by the end of the night your work would probably be destroyed. All this and your delightful perfume, and you’re stunning.

Dowoon looks incredible too, his outfit not only flattering as heck but not clashing with yours. A faded green button with the top few buttons undone on top of a black t-shirt. He’s sporting some darker khaki chinos, paired with a black belt that matched his black converse. The whole outfit makes him look even taller than he is—not to mention how the shirt makes his build stand out, the material hugging his muscles when he moves.

When you arrive at the dorm, you don’t make a move to look for Taehyung. You’re sure he’s here, so there’s a good chance that you two will bump into each other at some point. Instead, you take your time, enjoying yourself with your boyfriend and dancing until you can’t anymore and you’re ready to have your first drink.

That’s where you find him, leaning against the counter, almost as if he’s guarding the drinks. In reality, he’s probably hoping to run into someone that catches his fancy, but the idea that he would gatekeeper the alcohol makes you giggle a bit.

His back is facing you, so you don’t bother to tap him or anything, opting to just grab a cab from the fridge and hang around. He hears you behind him, and whips around with a slight smirk on his face when he sees you… only it doesn’t seem as if he recognizes you. He’s giving you those same sparkling eyes he gives his weekly dates, not the warm—sometimes, dull—ones you’re used to.

“You look familiar, have we met?” He takes a step closer to you, and you can just barely smell alcohol in his breath. In other words, he’s not drunk yet.

You raise a brow at him, stepping back a bit with a hand on his chest. “Woah there, bud.” A slight chuckle in your voice that becomes a stifled laugh at his shocked expression.

“…[Y/N]? Wow, you look… wow,” he gapes, jaw almost on the ground as he struggles to recover. He’s seen you like this maybe once or twice, but never did you have this affect on him. Licking his lips, he gives a lopsided grin with a glint of mischief in his eye. “Is all this for me?”

You chortle, shaking your head and waving your hands frantically, your cheeks flushed. “No, it’s for my boyfriend. Can I introduce you two?” Face bright with excitement, you fail to notice the way his face falls before he masks it.

Coughing lightly, he musters a fake smile, and nods. “Yeah sure,” he mutters, following behind you, back straightened and shoulders pushed back to seem larger than he is—which you of course don’t see, too busy searching for Dowoon.

Once you find him, Taehyung immediately introduces himself, shaking his hand firmly with his lips in a fine line, the corners barely upturned. Dowoon, sweet and polite as ever, returns the gesture, only he’s more genuine and gentle about it.

When their introductions are finished, you find yourself alone with Taehyung getting another drink, trying to make conversation with him. He’s not interested, not really, only giving small hums and nods here and there so you can’t tell how little attention he’s paying.

You’re not all dolled up beautifully for him. You’re not waiting around for him to give you something to grip onto. Taehyung’s only interested in people interested in him.

If only you knew that when you met, you’d never be stuck in this pool of turmoil.

Taehyung has never been one to ignore you. Sure, he’d avoided you a bit before the party, but he didn’t blatantly ignore you or brush you off, not the way he does now.

After the party, you tried to reach out to him through texting, only to find your number blocked. Then, on social media where he’d also blocked every account of yours, as well as a few others who were close friends of yours he was never too interested in.

Taehyung had cut you off.

Every class he had with you, he sat on the far end, making sure not to meet your eyes not even once. You know he can feel your gaze on the side of his head, burning a hole with curiosity and betrayal.

He said you were best friends. That you were his favorite person.

Then why has he removed you from his life?

You try not to make a deal of things, keeping your questions to yourself, hiding your sadness under a mask. You don’t want your friends to worry, and you don’t want Dowoon to think you’re still into Taehyung. But damn, it hurts and it eats you up inside with the constant wondering of ”what did I do wrong?”

It keeps up this way, until Jimin can’t stand to see you beating yourself up silently anymore. “What’s wrong?”

And you can’t hold it together anymore, shoving your face into your friend’s chest and squeezing him tightly, your lip trembling. “I don’t know what I did, but he blocked me on everything, and ignores me everywhere. I tried to talk to him about it, and he just pretended as if I wasn’t there. What did I do wrong Jimin?”

The dance major strokes your back, hushing your growing sobs while holding in his own anger at the boy you put so much effort in, despite his warnings. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just how he is. Taehyung gets attached to people, makes them think they’re his world, and then throws them aside when he’s tired of them. It’s not your fault, it’s just how he is.”

His words don’t do much to comfort you though, and you find yourself trying to talk to him in person, trying to rekindle any tiny spark between the two of you as friends.

And it’s only after a week or so of trying that you realize how truly right Jimin had been when he warned you about Taehyung. Because while you’re worked up, broken down and beat from this new dynamic—he’s perfectly fine. It’s as if you never existed to him.

He’s got one of his other friends, one prettier than you and more energetic, hanging off his arm. She’s someone you remember feeling jealous of when they first started hanging out, but now you pity her too, because one day she’ll be in your shoes, watching from the sidelines as he moves on without her.

He doesn’t even spare you a glance as his group of friends pushes past you in the halls, like you’re a ghost and nobody can see you.

You always wanted to deny that your friendship was one sided, always arguing to Jimin that Taehyung cared for you just as much as you did him…

But as you watch his figure get smaller and smaller, you know that was never true.

“If he cared, he’d make an effort, [Y/N].”

“I know… it’s just, what if he’s going through a rough time too? I know it’s silly of me to try and justify his behavior, I just…” You trail off, leaning against Dowoon’s shoulder and frowning. “I don’t want to believe that I meant nothing to him. I don’t want to think we were never friends. I just want this to be a phase he’s going through, you know?”

The drummer nods, pulling you close with his large, warm arms that remind you of Taehyung’s when he used to cuddle you on movie nights. “I know what you mean. It’s just, if a rough time was all this was, why would he cut off his best friend? He still talks to all his other friends, you’re the only one he’s truly blocked off.”

You nod, sighing. “Yeah, I know. I just really miss him.” And it’s true. Taehyung may never have been your “best” friend in the sense he was never a truly good friend, but he was who you turned to with your worries and who made you feel valuable for a long time.

You know you shouldn’t have ever relied on being praised and validated by him to feel sufficient, but it was so hard not to when he was the one you wanted to look at you. Now, it’s in your nature to crave that same feeling whenever you see him pass you in the halls or on the courtyard. To crave that feeling when you do something that would’ve made him smirk and wink at you jokingly.

And you crave it so much, along with the need to know why he’s left you in the dust, that you confront him.

It’s in the school’s parking lot that you corner him. You wait by his car, not leaning on it, but hovering very closely as he enters the lot alone, his face pulled in a tight frown when he looks up at you. “What’re you doing here?”

You don’t like how he seems so upset, but you ignore that. “I just want to talk, Tae.”

“Well, we’re talking,” he says with an attitude, piercing your heart with each word.

Looking at his shoes, you don’t dare to meet his eyes, you begin. “Why are you ignoring me?”

“I’m going through a tough time right now. I told Jungkook, hasn’t he told you? Or are you too busy hanging out with Dowon or whatever that you haven’t spoken to him yet?”

As he’s hastily getting into the car, you scoff. He’s trying to blame you now? That’s not going to fly with you. “What the hell Taehyung? I haven’t cut anyone off. That’s what you’ve done to me, remember?”

“My mental health isn’t its best right now, so I’m taking some time alone to fix it.” He mutters, face void of any guilt or sadness. “You’re just too depressing to hang out with.”

That hurts. Lip trembling, you fight the ache in your heart. “Did you never think about me? What it would do to me to lose the person I trusted most? Or are you so sick of me that you just didn’t care?”

He shuts his car door, and rolls down the window in front of you, glaring hard. Deadpanning, he growls. “I didn’t care. I still don't.”

“You know, you’re the reason I’m so damn depressing. You’re the one always breaking my heart, and I keep letting you.” You sniffle, crossing your arms and wiping your eyes. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d be so much happier. I wouldn’t have longed for someone I couldn’t have for so damn long. I wouldn’t be so choked up over someone who’s never given back half of what I gave them.”

“That’s not my fault, you decided to stay by my side.”

“I know.”

“So leave me alone.”

You have more to say. More that you feel. You want to ask him if he knows how it sucks to not be able to talk about your crush with your best friend. How it hurts to not be able to ask them for advice or turn to them for comfort when things get hard. But you don’t get the chance.

His words ring in your ears like bullets, leaving you shocked, mouth pressing into a thin, trembling line as you step back from his car, eyes watering. Now you know for sure.

Taehyung doesn’t give a shit about you anymore.

“Goodbye Taehyung.” You mutter, mostly to yourself, turning away from his car and shuffling toward the front gates as you dial up someone who actually cares about you.

You barely hear him call a quiet, “Goodbye [Y/N].”

You move on, slowly but surely forgetting the details about Taehyung’s face. You forget each and every wrinkle you knew by heart once. You forget about how he used to talk a little differently than everyone else because of his dialect. How he’d have such creative and unique thoughts in the depths of night. The way he’d flirt whenever he got the chance. You forget him and the impact he once had on you.

Sometimes, when you’re alone in your bed watching reruns of shows you two watched together once—you watched them out of pure enjoyment of the characters now—you have glimpses of memories of your once treasured friendship. You think about them semi-fondly, until you push them out of your mind and try not to wonder if he does the same.

You don’t ask if he’s doing well, and you don’t actively avoid him either. At times, you two even give each other a nod of acknowledgment when you pass by. Maybe even a wave some days. But you don’t care to do any more than that.

Now, you don’t give a shit about him either. You can finally heal.

Jimin, ever so curious in your life, hesitates to ask you whilst you braid his hair. He doesn’t want to hurt you, but you’ve reassured him countless times that you’re okay, that Taehyung has no importance to you and therefore cannot hurt you. “Would you do it again? Would you still be his friend and go through it all over if you could?”

You tilt your head to the side before realizing what he meant. Releasing his strands of hair, you let out a breath and smile a bit. “We had some really good memories together. Lots of smiles and laughs but, not enough for me to put myself through that again.”

He nods, and pats your shoulder. “I’m sorry things didn’t turn out better for you two.” His eyes are remorseful as if he thinks he’s got something to do with it. After all, he always pushed Taehyung away from you, and pulled you away from him. It’s hard to think he didn’t play some role in this.

“Don’t. It’s nobody’s fault. Just…” You fade into a sigh, and give him a tight lipped smile. “Some people, they just aren’t meant to stay.”

Words you’ve uttered before but never realized how true they were. You always thought it a phrase for people you’d never known well or someone who would leave quickly—not someone whose deepest secrets were shared with you, someone you loved and trusted. Passerbys.

You never knew they’d one day describe the person you used to care for most.

[sandwichrin]

A Little into You (Junkyu x Reader) (Ch. 42)

Chapter 42 - The Trio

Word count: 4.3k words

Genre: Fanfiction, PG13, Comedy, Romance, slight Angst.

“Oh my god,” you groaned as you cover your face with your hands, whilst Yedam still had his phone camera directed towards you and Junkyu.

“Aww don’t be shy. You both look really good,” Yedam said in his cooing tone.

“Yedam? What are you doing here? Are you alone?” Junkyu asked, ignoring the fact that you were trying to hide from embarrassment from the younger member.

At this point you were already hiding behind Junkyu, giving death glares towards Yedam, to which he giggled at as he finally kept his phone in his pocket.

Yedam approaches the both of you, casually walking with his hands in his pants’ pocket.

“Nah, I was with some of the rest. I was coincidentally walking ahead of them and somehow reached here.”

“How did you know we were here? No one else knew of our date plans,” Junkyu prodded further. 

“What?” Yedam chuckled. “That’s crazy! I have zero idea that you’d both be here. I was passing by this area when I overheard a group of elder ladies gossiping about a lewd behaviour happening in the bedroom departments.”

Both you and Junkyu turned red upon hearing this. You squeezed Junkyu’s arm, silently panicking if anyone even recognised your boyfriend being the one involved with the ‘lewd behaviour’ in a public space.

“I mean, I was just curious on what they meant by lewd behaviour so I hurried to see if I could catch a glimpse,” Yedam shrugged as he explained further. “Imagine my surprise to see you being on top of Junkyu-hyung, Y/n!” he started laughing at this.

“H-hey! That’s not fair! How’d you even know it was us? It could’ve been any other couple you know,” you argued back.

“Oh come on, Y/n,” Yedam smirked. “Junkyu-hyung concealing his identity was already good enough, but what makes you think I can’t recognise you anywhere?”

You pout at this. He was right. And the reason you didn’t disguise yourself enough was because you were confident that no one would recognise you since you’re not a celebrity or anything. Besides, if you had been in full disguise alongside Junkyu, wouldn’t people sense that the both of you might be some sort of celebrity couple on a date?

And speaking of disguises…

“Hey wait a minute– you’re not in disguise Yedam,” you realised. You hurried over towards him to pull him behind Junkyu as well, hiding the both of you from the passing people.

“Yah…you both…I’m not some shield for you both to hide behind of, you know,” Junkyu stated, as he rubbed his temples.

“Oh. He’s right.” You said back. “Quick! Do something to conceal your identity!” you ordered Yedam, sounding like his manager now.

Yedam placed his hand on your head, patting it gently, “Aigoo. You worry too much, Y/n. Besides, I’m already in disguise, silly,”

You felt your eyebrow twitch at what he said. How can he call that a disguise?? The only difference he had than his usual appearance was that he had put on a pair of glasses on his face and he somehow pushed his hair back whilst wearing a black curved headband,

What makes him think no one would recognise him?? 

You shake your head at him, “Okay fine. If you say so.”

“Oh?” Suddenly you heard Junkyu say. “Hyunsuk-hyung, Junghwan,”

Yedam and you both peeked out your heads from behind Junkyu, noticing that Hyunsuk and Junghwan was making their way towards the three of you.

“Ah, so it was indeed you, Junkyu-aa” Hyunsuk smiled as he approached you all. “I thought that it looked like you, but I didn’t want to risk calling out your name,”

“Oh, hello hyung. What brings you here?”

“I was just accompanying Junghwan here to get himself a new study table. Somehow he needed a new one,” 

Junghwan nods and smiled as he looked around. “Oh? I thought you’re supposed to be on a date today, hyung. Where’s Y/n-noona?”

“Yeah, what brings you here? I…didn’t expect you both to be dating here,” Hyunsuk adds.

“Well…if you’re both looking for Yedam, he’s behind me with my date,” Junkyu points out with his thumb. He didn’t even bother to answer their questions, he just wanted to have them bring Yedam with them so he could resume his date with you.

Hyunsuk and Junghwan moved to see behind where Junkyu was standing, and surely enough, you and Yedam were crouched on the floor, discussing something with serious looks on both your faces, the both of you speaking in low voices at each other.

“Uhh, what are you both doing?” Hyunsuk asked, not understanding why the both of you were crouching behind Junkyu, whilst Junkyu himself simply stood there like a lamp post, not moving at all.

If anything, this scene was hilarious to Hyunsuk, but he manages to keep himself from laughing at what was going on in front of him.

“Shh Y/n is cutting me a deal right now,” Yedam said as he put a finger to his mouth to signal his hyung not to interrupt.

Hyunsuk shakes his head and ignores Yedam. “Come on Y/n, you’re wearing a skirt right now so I think it’s best if you don’t stay here crouching,” he said as he turns to you now.

“Oh, right. How inappropriate of me. Sorry,” you said as you hurriedly stood up.

Yedam too, stood up from his pose.

“Noona, hello!” Junghwan greeted you happily as soon as he sees you making eye contact with him.

“Oh, hi Junghwan,” you smiled. “And hello the rest of yous. I totally forgot to say hi, didn’t I?” you flash them an apologetic smile.

“It’s fine,” Hyunsuk smiles back at you. “So, you both shopping here?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t planned though. We kind of had an emergency so we switched up our date a little,” 

“Ahh I see,” Hyunsuk nods.

“What a coincidence, noona! I also needed to get a new study table, so I asked for Jihoon-hyung to accompany me here,” Junghwan beamed as he said this. “This must be fate, huh? Bumping into you here,”

You smiled at the maknae, feeling his good energy literally channeling towards all of you. Junghwan is such a good little brother, and he’s always so nice, you thought to yourself.

“Oh? Jihoon-hyung is here too?” Junkyu asked when he heard Junghwan mentioning his best friend’s name.

“Ah, oh no. He was supposed to be here but he’s got food poisoning so he called me to go with Junghwan instead.” Hyunsuk explained.

“Yeah. Hyunsuk-hyung was supposed to go to Lotte World with the rest but he went here with me instead,” Junghwan said apologetically, probably feeling bad for robbing his hyung from a fun trip with the others.

“Aw no, it’s okay. It’s not like I’ve never been there,” the leader chuckled as he pats the maknae’s head.

“Whoa. Everyone else went to Lotte World??” your eyes widened in amazement the moment Junghwan mentioned the theme park.

Yedam, Junghwan, Hyunsuk and Junkyu all exchanged glances with each other, noting that your eyes somehow sparkled when asking about the place.

“Wow, I heard they have really yummy desserts there, oh wow I really need to ask the rest to share me pictures later on,” you continued after Junghwan nods at your question earlier.

You were already whipping your phone out of your bag, ready to send spam texts to your friends. You haven’t been to Lotte World and you were hoping to go there one day so you wanted to really plan out what to do and where to eat and all that so that you could allocate how much to put aside for your spendings.

Yedam nudged Junkyu, silently mouthing to his hyung, “I told you she’s always wanted to go there,”

Junkyu lets out a sigh, making a mental note to just bring you there himself in the future. 

“Anyways,” Junkyu spoke up, gaining your attention as you looked up from your phone. “Did they all went to the theme park? Or was there anyone staying back with Jihoon-hyung?”

“Aww look at you worrying about Jihoon-hyung,” Yedam answered. “Nah, Doyoung and Mashiho-hyung stayed at home with him. The rest all went to Lotte though.”

“That’s good to hear,” Junkyu said in relief. It would be crazy to leave their leader all alone when he’s sick, he thought.

“Oh? But wait– I know I’m here to get a new study table, but why are you both here?” Junghwan pauses as he looks around. “And why are you both at the bedroom section??”

Hyunsuk too suddenly wondered out of curiosity. Both him and Junghwan waited for an answer from either you or Junkyu but before you could open your mouth to respond, Yedam jumped in to answer them instead.

“I don’t know much about why Y/n and Junkyu-hyung are here but I do have something juicy to show you both,” Yedam grinned as he pulls out his phone.

“Ah wait! Yedam, I thought we had a deal!” you whined.

“I’m sorry, but this is really important for me to show them,” he winked at you before pulling both the leader and maknae aside with him as he showed them the video he took of you and Junkyu on the bed earlier.

You sighed to yourself and turned to Junkyu. “Not fair. We had a really good deal too,” you mumbled beside your boyfriend.

Junkyu smiled as he pats your head. “What deal did you make?”

“Well– he offered to delete the video and not tell anyone about what we did if I come over to do chores at their dorm for a week,” you shrugged. “Well, he can kiss that deal goodbye now,”

Both you and Junyku heard the trio gasp and fuss over the video a few feet away from you both.

“Gasp! What the– wait, hold on, replay it again!”

“I know Y/n-noona is older than Junkyu-hyung but I would never imagine her to be this daring,”

“No, wait, let me zoom on them closer— see that?? Look at how she’s staring at him omg,”

You rolled your eyes at them even though you know they weren’t looking at you. This was why you wanted Yedam to delete the video. You know they would fuss over it like a flock of birds fussing over a piece of worm.

And in your defense, it’s not like what happened between you and Junkyu was THAT scandalous, you know?

“Hey, come on guys, don’t dwell on it that much. Nothing happened anyways. Y/n got pushed and accidentally fell on top of me, that’s all, really” Junyku tried to explain.

The three of them turned to look at the both of you, nodding to themselves and then approaching you both again.

“Well, if you say so. Y/n, I know we’re of the same age but let’s admit it– I’d never be brave enough to do what you did,” Hyunsuk jokes, grinning when he sees you pouting and glaring at him in response. 

“Eyyy let’s not embarrass Y/n-noona like this,” Junghwan said, defending you. Although he himself was still smiling cheekily at you and Junkyu.

“Okay guys, cut it out, Y/n is embarrassed enough,” Junkyu said, smiling a little because he was actually kind of enjoying your reaction at being teased.

“Okay, okay. We’ll move on.” Yedam said. “So? I’m assuming that one of you is looking for a bed then?”

“Yeah. We’re shopping for Y/n today. She had a bed emergency,”

“Aww, what happened to your bed, noona?”

“Well, the bed kind of broke so…” you answered.

You were about to explain that the bed was a freebie from the landlord since the day you moved into your place and it was already old by then so the bottom breaking was expected in your point of view but then Yedam and Junghwan were no longer listening in on your explanation the moment you mentioned about your bed breaking.

Yedam and Junghwan exchanged looks with one another before grinning at their Junkyu-hyung.

“Wow Junkyu-hyung. We didn’t expect Y/n’s bed to break that easily,” Yedam smirked.

“Wha–? Weren’t you both listening? Y/n just said that her bed was old–” 

Junkyu didn’t manage to finish his sentence since both the younger members had already dragged him to the side, dialing on their phones to call the other members to share with them the revelation they discovered about their Junkyu-hyung today.

You watched as the three of them fuss over about your broken bed, again, few feet away from you.

“Hm, they weren’t really listening to what I was saying, were they?” you sighed, crossing your arms.

“Well, you had them at the part where you mentioned your bed being broken,” Hyunsuk grinned at you.

“Yeah, but it broke because it was old. There’s nothing to make fun of about it. I mean, what else could they think would’ve made the bed broke—” you stopped yourself when you realised what the younger members could have thought of.

You couldn’t even finish your sentence as you paused, not moving an inch. You felt your cheeks heating up. They couldn’t have thought that the reason your bed broke was because you and Junkyu did that, no??

Hyunsuk noticed you tensing up and falling silent, to which he understood that you could’ve felt embarrassed of what you were about to say. He immediately wraps his arm around your shoulder, pulling you close to his side.

“Hey, hey now. They’re just teasing. You know how they are when it comes to Junkyu. Well, Junkyu and you. You both are their favourite couple to tease now. It’s not like they have any other couples to tease on, right?” Hyunsuk said.

You ease yourself into Hyunsuk’s hold, no longer tensed out about what the kids were teasing about.

‘’You’re right. I shouldn’t get too worked up about this,” you chuckled, your head looking down. 

“Exactly.” Hyunsuk smiled, his hand gently patting your head.

You lift your head up to look at him now, “Okay but just to be clear– Junkyu and I haven’t done anything like that, okay? I mean, we’re still new in this relationship too, so–”

“It’s okay, Y/n. And even if you guys did, you guys are a couple. It’s not like the rest of us have the right to tell you both what to do and not do,” 

You sighed. “I know. I just…” you shake your head. “Thanks for being so supportive, Hyunsuk. You’re such a sweet friend,” you smiled softly at him, as you rest your head against his shoulder.

Hyunsuk hummed in response to what you said, pulling you closer to him, his hand gently caressing your hair.

After 10 seconds of letting you lean against him, Hyunsuk gently taps your head, telling you to save your boyfriend now.

“That’s enough of our time together, Y/n. Your boyfriend probably needs saving now,” he chuckles as you lift your head from his shoulder. 

You looked over not far from the both of you, Junkyu, Yedam and Junghwan all still going over some kind of debate. You could clearly see how Yedam and Junghwan were enjoying their ganging up on Junkyu since Junkyu’s facial expressions showed him all exasperated from explaining that he wasn’t the reason your bed broke.

You turned to look at Hyunsuk, him doing the same to you. “Well, that was nice small talk, Hyunsuk. I’m glad we ran into each other today,” you smiled at him. “I’m gonna go save my man now,” 

You left Hyunsuk’s side and called out towards the younger boys, “Okay now, kiddos, Leave my boyfriend alone. He’s gonna be all traumatized if you guys keep teasing him like this,”

“Aww come on Y/n, why are you both denying it? We all know what went down between you two,” Yedam grinned, trying to drag you into his tease party.

“Nu uh, you’re not dragging me into this,” you shake your head. “Besides, don’t talk about this kind of stuff in front of Junghwan! He’s still a kid too, you know?”

“Noona, I’m a grown up too,” Junghwan pouted.

“But you’re our baby!” You argued back, to which Junkyu took advantage of hiding behind you, despite you being shorter than him.

“Aigoo, if only Jaehyuk-hyung and Jeongwoo hadn’t ended the video call with us earlier, we could’ve let them join in on making fun of you, Y/n” Yedam said.

“No way! You told them about my broken bed already??” You let out a sigh, “Oh my god, imagine how much clearing up I have to do now. Who else have you told this about, huh?”

Junkyu lowered down his stance and whispered in your ear to which you gasped out loud after hearing what he said. “Oh heck no, gimme your phone Yedam, it has too many evidence in there–”

Hyunsuk watches the four of you continue with all your teasing and bargains with one another, smiling to himself, feeling like a proud dad just watching over his kids fighting over a game.

He lifts his hand to shoulder, the one you leaned on earlier, letting his hand rest on it.

He was happy that he was able to talk to you casually, keeping you close to him like just now. He was also glad that he had the strength to ask you to leave his side and go back to your boyfriend because if he hadn’t done so…he knew he would’ve kept you close to him much longer and that would’ve been...wrong.

Hyunsuk takes in a deep breath, exhaling it all out, exhaling all his desire to want you be by his side alongside the breath he lets go of. 

Y/n…I love you so much…but I also love the fact that you’re so happy with Junkyu recently…Please, be happy always…okay?

Hyunsuk cleared his throat, still smiling as he approached the four of you now– “Okay everyone, that’s enough. Let’s get going already.”

***

IKEA (almost noon)

Junkyu and you walked side by side, hand in hand; casually strolling past the kids department now.

“How much further ‘til the checkout counters?” you asked the tall man beside you.

“Just a little more way down. We’re gonna pass through the giant shelves where they keep all the stocks and then a bit further than that we’ll reach the counters.”

“Ahh I see.” you looked around, scanning to see if there’s anything that might catch your eye.

You wanted to get something for the other boys as well, thinking that you haven’t given them anything throughout your friendship with them.

Not that they would require you to give them gifts though– you know that. But still, you’d like to at least give them something in return for their kindness to you all these while.

“Oh?” you stopped in your tracks when you saw the piled-up plushies in the corner. “Oh, there! Can we stop by there, Kyu?” you pointed out with your finger.

Junkyu looked over to where you were pointing at, grinning right after realising that despite your somewhat mature exterior, you still have some kiddy side inside you. 

“Sure, let’s.” he smiled at you.

As soon as the both of you were headed towards the plushies section, you both heard Junghwan calling out from behind– “Aw hey! They’re heading towards the plushies! I want to go see that section too,”

Both you and Junkyu turn around at the same time, instantly meeting eyes with the trio from earlier.

“Uhh, I thought you guys left earlier? What are you all doing here?” you asked.

“Yeah, are you all…following me and Y/n??”

“What? No, no! It was just a coincidence! We parted ways but somehow we ended up in this area, and coincidentally the both of you were walking in front of us so,” Hyunsuk explained, an apologetic look on his face.

You exchanged glances with Junkyu briefly before turning back to look at your friends. “Hmm. I guess we could all just walk together. Since we’re all here, you know?” you shrug.

“Yay! Let’s go look at the plushies, noona!” Junghwan cheered as he pulled you along with him, leaving his hyungs.

“But…we’re on a date…” Junkyu said quietly. 

Hyunsuk heard this, and so he walks up towards the younger boy and pats his back. “Sorry man, we’ll leave right after we get Junghwan’s stuff, aight?”

“Yeah, hyung. We didn’t mean to barge in on your date,” Yedam adds.

“No no, it’s fine. Let’s just head over to them. Y/n seems happy anyways,”Junkyu responds softly, a small smile forming on his lips as he watches you and Junghwan laughing together, picking up each one of the plushies and showing it to one another.

***

After running around and exploring each of the departments available at the place, the boys and you were already headed towards the checkout counters. 

Junghwan lined up behind you with his box of study table in his hands.

“You sure you don’t want to pay along with us, Hwannie? We can have the items delivered together,” you offered, as Junkyu helped you scan the barcode on the giant box of the bed frame you chose, along with the heavy roll of your mattress.

Junghwan shakes his head, “Nah, it’s fine noona. I’ll just do checkout on my own,”

“Okay then.” you turned to face Junkyu again, checking the self-checkout screen if all of the items have been scanned. 

“Hmm, are you sure these chocolates are enough for the boys? Maybe I should get them something else too?” you asked your boyfriend, worried that the rest of your Treasure friends would not be satisfied with what you got them.

“Aww they’ll be okay with whatever you get them, Y/n. Besides, the Ikea chocolates taste good too,” Junkyu assured you.

You narrowed your eyes at him. “I didn’t know you eat their chocolates too,”

“Yeah, you had some in your fridge, remember? I just took a piece to try it, and well, it’s not too bad,” he shrugs.

You gave his arm a light squeeze, “Hm. So you’re eating chocolates from my fridge now,”

Junkyu smiles at you, his head tilting as he stares at your face with a dreamy gaze.

You too, caught yourself hypnotized with his eyes, allowing yourself to stare back at him.

“Oh god, just hurry up will ya?” the both of you heard a voice groaning.

Both you and Junkyu snapped out of your trances and turned to see Yedam, beside Junghwan, his phone in his hand just like earlier today.

“Gosh Yedam, one of these days I might as well steal your phone from you,” you scowled at him.

Yedam grinned in return as he lowers his phone, “Heh. Come on Y/n, you know the both of you are our source of entertainment now, right?”

You rolled your eyes at him. “Sure, sure,” you turn back to Junkyu, noticing that he has already made the payment with his card. 

“Oh? Junkyu, you didn’t have to pay for the whole thing–”

“I’m gonna go send the bed frame and mattress to the delivery counter, okay? I’ve already set the delivery to tonight by the way. So you can just hang on to the stuff we bought for the rest, okay?” he smiles as he says this.

“Ah, uh, sure,” you walked forward, gathering the chocolate bars and the plushy into your small shopping bag. 

“I’ll be right back,” Junkyu said, before leaning in to kiss you on your cheek.

You were taken aback by this, the fact that your boyfriend actually kissed you in public. 

You noticed Junkyu’s complexion turning red, as he backed away from you and pushed the trolley towards the delivery counter.

You raised your hand to your cheek, feeling his kiss still lingering on your skin.

“Noona, how do we pick the delivery date again?” Junghwan asked you, him facing the checkout screen.

You turn around and move closer to him and help him with the delivery details before he finally manages the payment on his own.

“Thanks noona,” he said after he’s settled with his purchase.

“You’re welcome. Aigoo our boy’s doing his own shopping. What a grown up you are, hwannie,” you couldn’t help but to coo at the young boy in front of you. 

“What are you saying, noona? Of course I’m a grown up too, like the rest of the hyungs,” he blushes, thinking that it���s ridiculous how much you baby him despite him being in high school already.

You shake your head at him and smiled, “Aigoo nooo don’t say that. Don’t grow up too fast,”

Junghwan pulls you close to him and wraps an arm around your shoulder. “Look at how tall I am compared to you, noona. How can you tell me not to grow up,” he giggles as he says this.

You were about to respond to Junghwan when you heard Yedam speaking up from behind the both of you. “Okay, okay. Break it up, you both. Junghwan better get his table to the delivery counter now. I see a line forming over there,” Yedam said as he points at the line of people, Junkyu too, standing in the line with his trolley in front of him.

“Ah. Yedam’s right. You should go, Junghwan,” you agreed.

“Okay. I’ll see you guys at the entrance outside?” Junghwan said before leaving with his box of study table in his hand.

“Oh! You know what, we forgot to tell Junkyu-hyung that we’ll all gather at the entrance,” Yedam said.

“Oh right! I’ll just text him—” you said as you reach for your phone in your bag but then Yedam had beat you to it.

“Nah, I don’t think Junkyu-hyung would check his phone when he’s lining up. I’ll go and let him know. The both of you just go ahead and wait outside at the entrance,” Yedam said to you and Hyunsuk, sounding more like an order rather than an offer actually.

“B-but—” you voiced out but Yedam was already walking away from you and Hyunsuk.

The both of you turned to look at each other. 

“Well…I guess we’ll just go to the entrance then?” Hyunsuk suggests.

“I guess.” you shrug. “Let’s go then,” 

To be continued…

[joyfulhopelox]

sweet night | kth

Pairing: Taehyung x reader (dance instructors!au, enemies to lovers)

Genre: fluff, romance

Summary: You finally address the incessant teasing of your fellow dance instructor Kim Taehyung.

Wordcount: 3.1k

Warnings: mentions of self-doubt, she calls him a bully but he's not, suggestive but not really?

A/N: thank you @notyouroppar betaing my fic and letting me live to see another day <3 I don't know why Taehyung is such a difficult one for me but this one did actually come quite naturally to me! This is a drabble request (yes I am still going through them and I am so sorry for being late I really am I promise I will be quicker with them!) Drabble that is 3k long, so a fake drabble as my beta likes to call them.

Rating: pg13

Copyrights @joyfulhopelox for both the work and the banner

Requests are currently closed but I would love to hear from you so please leave me a message! 💌

“That’s awful.”

Words that would haunt you forever. Words that you’d heard from more than one person; your teachers had told you that in the past, your family had too. Yet, for some reason, every time those words came to mind, they would echo in your head in a particular individual’s voice. Kim Taehyung. A fellow dance instructor and your arch nemesis.

“Shut it, no one asked you,” that would be your normal response. Your go to phrase whenever he would yell at you in the middle of practice. He would thrive off of your little squabbles, drawing attention to himself, and indulge in the pleasure of bringing you down every time that happened.

That wasn’t the case today. Today you were determined to have a good day. Ready to conquer the world. You took a few tips and tricks from internet searches on how to fend off any weeds. Because in your eyes, that’s all that Kim Taehyung would be. A thorn in your backside.

Thinking back on it, maybe you were exaggerating— most certainly you were exaggerating. He’d never done anything particularly harmful to you, or anyone else. He was just particularly good at singling you out and making a fool of you. Or rather… making you react like a fool. He would tease you until your skin was clammy, and your composure melted into a flustered mess. Sometimes, you’d have your class behind you, during your shared lessons. Everyone knew to be ready to fend you off, or pull you away, when the situation became particularly prickly.

Today, you had no one. It was a long weekend and most of your students had gone home to spend time with family. It was just youf and your trusted enemy, Taehyung.

“No one asked you to intrude on my studio time either,” he commented, putting his bag onto the floor. Not sparing you a second glance he started stretching, humming a tune that only played in his head.

You could feel the pricks of annoyance crawling up your spine. Before you could respond in kind, he indulged in a longer stretch. Arms as high as they could go, and exposing half his abdomen to you. Your mouth went dry; any thought of rebuttal wiped out.

The hoodie he had draped over him tried its best to hold on, but his height and his determination to get a good stretch in won. Trying to not ogle at him, you pretended to stretch your own calf. The sight of your own appearance made you wince. The slight sheen of sweat that covered your skin gave your body a dewy glow. You would have dared to say you were shining bright like a diamond, if not for your hair in disarray all over your forehead and the slight adrenaline filled look in your eyes.

No wonder Taehyung didn’t carry on in arguing with you. You looked as if you’d gotten into a fight and won. The pang of pride at the thought made your mouth quirk.

You could have patted yourself on the back for being so effective at ignoring him—and his half dressed state. But when a loud sound akin to a moan reached your ears, you perked up, your eyes immediately landing on him.

“What are you doing?” Prompted by his peculiar position, the words flew past your lips before you could stop them. Seated, with his legs apart, he was struggling to reach his foot, each time he got closer a lewd sound would grumble from his chest and throughout the studio. Trying to ignore the butterflies causing a ruckus in your stomach at the sound, you watched him wearily.

“Oh, don’t mind me, I’m just imitating you,” he responded, having the audacity to dismiss you with a wave of his hand.

Staring at him with an incredulous look on your face, you decided that enough was enough. You’ve been taking this from him for a few years now, your two dance groups never had the chance to get along because their leaders never did.

“Why do you hate me so much?” you asked, deciding to not sugarcoat anything. When he paused mid stretch to glance back at you, you closed your mouth and swallowed hard. His hand momentarily hovered halfway to his foot, before he got up and stalked towards you. You felt nervous, suddenly too flustered to continue with your prepared rant.

“What?” his audacity to not only question his behaviour, but also dare to sound appalled made your blood boil.

“You heard me, why do you hate me so much?” The more you let your mind wander towards all the instances he’d made you feel unwelcome by singling you out, the more you wanted him to explain himself to you. “I’ve never done anything to bother you, so why?”

“Exactly,” he answered simply, his body mere centimetres away from yours. “Why do you keep ignoring me?” he fired back.

“Because you are loud-mouthed, uncaring, and stubborn,” you immediately responded, without a thought. “And you are pretending to be the best dance instructor out there, when we all know it is not the case.” You knew you’d aimed for the belt when his mouth twitched downwards at your comment. Feeling the familiar tendrils of guilt rush up your spine you cleared your throat. Under normal circumstances you would thrive at the thought of trumping over your squabbles, but this time you knew you’d overstepped the line. He may pick on your technique as an individual dancer, but he’d never made a move to ridicule your skill as a dance instructor.

“I-I’m sorry, that was rude of me,” you mumbled, the words tasting foreign on your tongue. Taehyung was silent, watching you silently as you squirmed under his gaze and the added pressure of guilt.

“It’s part of your charm, and I accept that,” he shrugged eventually, his hand softly reaching out, intertwining his fingers through yours.

“Kim Taehyung, I’ve never seen someone as insufferable as you,” you fired back, the unfamiliar feeling of his digits threaded through yours causing butterflies to erupt in your stomach. You never thought you’d fight with yourself to refute the gentle way he was treating you.

“I’ve never wanted to kiss someone as insufferable as you,” Despite his words, his actions were careful and considerate. Waiting for you to make the next move, he stilled.

“Then don’t,” you took a step towards him, your eyes flickering to his lips for a brief second. “No one asked you to.” Despite your words, your whole being was very much screaming at him, loudly, to kiss the living daylights out of you. Toe to toe with him, your fingers tightened around his, before you fixated your gaze on his rosy lips.

“You said I’m stubborn,” he smiled at you, any trace of cockiness gone from his voice.

“You’re also wasting time,” you countered, breathing increasingly laboured as he bent down, shrinking the space between your faces to mere millimetres.

“My bad,” he murmured against your lips, bumping his nose to yours. As if they’d always belonged there, his hands found your cheeks easily cupping them —Softly cradling your face. Your eyelids fluttered and you fought the nervous instinct to bite your lip. Your gaze wavered, taking in his features, unable to hold his molten gaze for longer than a few moments. Instead you focused on his sharply defined brows, the high point of his nose and what you could see of it before going cross eyed. The nose that was now caressing yours lightly, as if he was treading the water, asking for permission.

“May I?” he whispered, the slight waver in his voice not escaping your notice.

The thought of his consideration towards your willingness engulfed your heart in warmth. If someone were to ask you to describe it, it would be a perfect mixture between a fuzzy blanket and the feeling of having a warm drink heat up your insides. He made you feel at home, he made you feel safe—yet you couldn’t help but tease him.

“May you what? Waste time? You could but that would technically—“ you rambled, your hands anchoring themselves in your own pockets. It was a gift when you were presenting in class, but right that moment it was you who was wasting the time.

Taehyung fought the urge to roll his eyes at you, your slightly over the top reaction simultaneously amused and exasperated hiim. Nudging your nose harder to make you stop, he carefully watched your eyes widen and your mouth slam shut.

“Y/N, do us both a favour and kindly shut up. I’d like to kiss you now,” he prompted, before he softly placed his lips on yours.

The kiss wasn’t anything you would have expected. Contrary to his dominating personality and his insufferable childishness, the kiss was anything but. Your face was gently cupped in his hands, his thumb applying light pressure onto your jaw and his lips were soft and hesitant. As if he was afraid he would break you, he moved slowly, barely coaxing your lips open with his, before you huffed out in annoyance pulling away from him.

“Kim Taehyung, is this the best you can offer me?” You pointed an accusing finger his way, trying to pretend that your head wasn’t swimming in goo. The kiss had left you breathless, but his presence around you, combined with his scent, gnawed at your lower abdomen, its tightness asking for more.

“What-?” he looked completely baffled, his eyes half lidded and his voice breathless.

Witnessing how affected he was by just that kiss, you almost let a swell of pride take over your body. However, the need to get him to give it to you was greater than your need for self satisfaction. Giving him a once over you contemplated giving away all those times you witnessed his flirting and fleeting flings at parties and after shows. You would see him from time to time attached to someone hidden in a corner, his hands somewhere on their body in a highly inappropriate way.

“I- I have seen the way you kiss,” you mumbled. With the words now out of your mouth, it made you realise how stalker-ish that sounded. Ignoring his highly amused quirk of his eyebrow you carried on. Foot in mouth may just as well own it.

“This is not it. What happened to the ‘dark corners, I’ll grab your ass as if it was the only thing anchoring me to the earth, CPR worthy kiss’ you’ve given others?” you could feel yourself getting more and more aggravated. The more you talked the more the seed of doubt planted itself in your brain. He could have been swept away in the post dance, adrenaline filled atmosphere and not entirely interested in giving you the time of the day.

Caught up in your own insecurities, you didn’t notice the slight shift in Taehyung’s expression, the quirk of his lips faltering for a moment as he looked deep in thought. He was planning to let you carry on with your ramble, to let you offload your worries and stress onto him however the route you were going was no more pulling at his heartstrings than the waver in your voice did. Seeing you carry on with your ramble, your teeth gnawing at your lip he made a quick decision.

“Y/N,” his voice spoke of no nonsense, forcing you to stop. “Focus on me.” Without allowing you a moment to redress yourself he pulled you to him, an arm wound tightly around your waist, the other gripping at the back of your neck. Roughly devouring your mouth with his, muffling any possible protest successfully, he bent you lightly at the waist when your knees buckled underneath you.

You could barely think. His warmth scattered your thoughts; his tongue slowly traced your bottom lip as his fingers dug deeper into your skull causing you to shiver. Tilting your head slightly, you pushed back against his mouth and hooked your leg around his hip, your tongue desperately searching for his.

This was the kiss you had imagined. Much like your squabbles in real life, you both fought for control. Pushing and pulling against each other, hands grabbing at any article of clothing, trying to bring each other closer. When his hand slid under your top, his heat brushing lightly against your colder back, you gave in. Loosening your hold against him, your fight diminished, until all you could feel and hear were your soft moans and rugged breaths.

The heightened feelings that invaded your heart radiated through the kiss; if you were unsure of the future, the warmth in the kiss bridged the gap, providing you a path to certainty. Sure, Taehyung was loud, rude and obnoxious. But wrapping you this tightly in his arms, whilst his lips followed the rhythm of your heart made you think otherwise. Overwhelmed with questions and emotions you broke the kiss abruptly, stumbling backwards.

“Why did I enjoy that?” you mumbled in awe. Aimed more to yourself you didn’t expect Taehyung to respond so quickly.

“Because we like each other, and as much as we fight, we also need to reconcile,” he shrugged as if he was talking about the situation.

Regaining your step you pulled away from him with a snort. “Well that was…reconciling.” Making light of a serious situation was so like him, yet, you couldn’t have appreciated him more than at that moment.

“Remind me again,” Taehyung breathed out a laugh, “why was there an argument between us?”

You were both leaning onto each other, your bodies flush, his hands holding tightly to your hips as he swayed you both back and forth to a song present, yet again, only in his head. Your eyes were closed, and your head was nestled into the crook of his neck, his scent lulling you into a daze. He smelled like a holiday, like warm fires, pinewood, and the soft scent of sweet bread. You could have fallen asleep standing, if not for the light jolt you got now and then from him shuffling his feet during your dance.

Humming as if in thought, you struggled to pull your mind together. “I don’t know, may have to do with the fact that I’m a better dancer and you are not willing to accept that,” you finally responded, your words meant to bite but the jokingly tone in your voice making it clear it wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.

“Or it could be–“ you started before you felt your world shift, your feet sweeped off the ground and your head suspended in the air. Yelping your eyes snapped open landing on his entertained ones. The slight quirk of his lips made you pout.

“I got you, don’t worry.” Even though he took you by surprise by suspending you in a dip, his warm gaze and strong grip on your waist and back of your head reassured you. He had you.

“What are you doing?” you narrowed your eyes at him, your fingers digging slightly in his biceps to persuade him to let you go.

“Proving who the better dancer is,” he smiled, the wide shape of his mouth making his whole face light up in amusement. He was taunting you, as you did him earlier, but you found it hard to care as you stared at him. His soft skin and the myrth on his face made him look younger than he was, freer. Long gone was the glowering, moody Taehyung that you remembered. There was no trace of the mockery or jabs he would throw at you in the midst of your dance competitions, all you could see in his gaze was happiness and warmth.

“You’re handsome,” you found yourself blurting out without meaning to. The carelessness and freedom with which you admitted your own feelings made you sputter. You hadn’t intended for it to come out in such a flighty way, and despite the heat that was rising under your skin crawling up your neck, you found that you didn’t care. Judging by the slight gleam in Taehyung’s eyes, neither did he.

With a quick decision to roll with the punches, you craned your neck to reach his lips. Roughly pressed together, you let a whimper escape your throat when his tongue once again coaxed your mouth open. Letting him dominate you, you allowed yourself the pleasure of tracing his shoulders with the palms of your hand, your fingers lightly tracing his collarbones through his top. Sensing the flex of his muscle under your touch, you smirked into the kiss. Venturing lower and lower, your hands mapping out the planes of his chest, your nails dragged over his nipples drawing a sharp inhale out of him. Smiling proudly to yourself you decided to focus on that area, teasing as much as you could by pinching and tracing skin and muscle. You enjoyed the guttural sounds you drew out of him for a brief moment before Taehyung pulled away from the kiss, having decided he’d had enough of your impish ways.

“How about,” he whispered darkly, his breath caressing the shell of your ear making you shudder. “I show you who the better one is?” Before you could ask or assume he meant dancing, his hand trailed lower down your lower spine, over the curvature of your ass, making purchase onto the softer flesh there. Pulling you forcefully closer to him, you wrapped your leg around his hips for better access, your core almost flush together with the obvious bulge in his trousers.

Smirking lightly, your body warming up with desire, you hooked your fingers through the loops of his belt grinding your hips against his drawing a hiss out of him.

“You can try, pretty boy, but what makes you think I’ll allow you to,” you taunted nuzzling into the crook of his neck.

Taehyung chuckled, your position making it easy for him to slide both hands under your ass and hoist you up.

“Like I said earlier, Y/N,” he warned and carried your laughing form towards the stretching benches lowering you down. Bent over you, his eyes glowering with lust, it was enough to make your laughter die in your throat and your breath hitch. Your attention flickered from his darkened eyes to his predatory smile and as he closed off the space between you, you felt the butterflies in your stomach burst into flames. Before he could make good on his promise, he added another warning.

“I’m stubborn.”

MAIN MASTERLIST

[effielumiere]

The Companion 4

Pairing: Park Jimin x Reader

Genre: Romance, Idol AU, Drama, Comedy (hopefully lol)

Summary: A year after all their world tour was cancelled with the announcement of the pandemic, Jimin goes through a rollerI coaster of emotions and he can barely his emotions and he's trying so hard to stay happy. Namjoon and Jin suggested to get a puppy when they got drunk but Joon thought a human companion sounded funny to his drunken brain, not knowing that Jimin took his word seriously. When he finally finds the one who's going to be his human emotion companion, he wonders if she's up for it? And most importantly, he wonders how things would play out with him being Park Jimin and her being... well, a fan... an ARMY to be precise.

Warning(s): Jealousyyyyyyyy. A bit of angst (is it really a bit though, Effie? *scoffs*). An OC?!?! *dramatic gasp*. Mentions of Jimin wanting to punch an OC (not Y/n, but her buddy teehee). Shirtless Bangt- *ehem* It's PG13. Someone got hit by cupid. Sentences in italics are Korean words translated to English. UNEDITED!

Word count: 5k --- Inspirreddd~~~ lol

A/N: Happy Birthday Sunshine Hobiiii😄 Saranghaaeeee💜

Taehyung-ahhhhh, speedy recovery pwease🥺

I was listening to Queen of the night by Hey Violet as I wrote this one. It kinda set a mood. Also, the Hybrid!BTS polls that I've been doing in the past chapters. Y'all are responsive but I kinda panicked with the last one lol. I'm gonna have a post related to this the polls and their results. keep an eye out for that. Also I was planning on writing and posting some fanfics I had an idea about lately, I even prepared my main masterlist and a permanent taglist. Enjoy this chapter!

< threepointfive | masterlist | fourpointfive >

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The boys sat on their respective chairs at the studio where they were going to film their new music video for Butter with the other stylists, crew and their managers. Everyone was setting up their equipment and making sure that everything was ready before they started filming. I, on the other hand, was running around like a headless chicken asking the managers if anyone on set needed help to which I kept getting the same response to sit down or keep Jimin company. And that was what I was avoiding really. I needed to keep myself busy with something thing that didn't directly involve Jimin, reason being he looks so handsome with his new undercut, blonde hair and rainbow highlights. The time we went to the grocery and he had highlights was just a little trial period where he tried to see how he would look like if he dyed his platinum blonde, undercut-less hair with different colors eventually deciding that he wanted that to be his next look for Butter.

"Y/n-ssi?" I turn to the stylist that was calling my name, praying I wasn't being summoned by Jimin, "Yes?"

"Namjoon-ssi asked for you" that seemed worse, because Jimin didn't ask for me personally but they were sitting right next to each other. Walking up to the dressing room, I found something that I never thought I'd witnessed with my bare eyes.

"Oh dear God!" I exclaimed turning around covering my eyes and clearing my throat to somewhat mask my supposed yelp of surprise.

"Get used to it," Namjoon yells from inside the dressing room

"We need your help! One of the stylists weren't able to make it today, Jimin and Hobi need help, could you help Hobi need to be stopped from drinking more coffee, he's somehow being more hyper and Jimin needs help with his earrings, the stylist that's on her way has been looking for the earrings everywhere. Looks like we'll need someone to calm down Mochi."

"I'm fine!" Jimin yells, sounding muffled from somewhere in the room obviously sounding stressed.

"Y/n-ssi, help please." I hear Hobi call out, followed by Joon "Better get used to seeing us shirtless or for some of us, just our... underwear. When tour starts you'll be hearing Hobi brag about his really hot body," he mocks making Hobi giggle and Jungkook laugh.

Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and wonder how I ended up in this predicament. Walking the room, most of the guys were getting in their clothes except for Jimin who's head was inside a luggage as he was searching for his earrings, Hobi, who were shirtless, Joon who was pulling up his pants - shirtless, Taehyung was tucking in his shirt in his pants, and the other members. who were sitting on their chairs with stylists doing their hair and makeup.

"He's not fine," Taehyung grins at me, cocking his head in Jimin's direction. Jimin was still rummaging through the luggage carefully but in a hurried manner, helping the other stylists who kept assuring him that they'll find it and that he didn't have to help which he kept ignoring. Walking over to him I place a hand gently on his shoulder as he moves around.

"Jimin-ah," I called out as I stop Hobi from taking another long sip from his iced Americano by gently prying it off his hand and quickly replacing it with a water bottle, "You're gonna be all sweaty before you could even start filming,"

"I'm just trying to help," he says "they're very organized it's impossible for them to misplace it."

"Who's not done yet?" their choreographer calls out, "we can start rehersals soon when you're all ready,"

"Jimin-ie is looking for his earrings, Give us a few minutes" Joon calls out to him before turning to Jimin and I "We'll wait for you outside, Jimin-ah"

Jimin finally looks up from the bag to nod at Joon before they left the room, "Can't you just wear those?" I ask pointing at the ones that were in its case on the dresser and he shakes his head "No, they said that's for later when I'm wearing the gray suit," I nod before asking him if he knew where the other stylist was and the others around us who were fixing his hair and make up were talking about how the others were checking other rooms making sure they didn't misplace it, other were double checking the cars.

"Can't you just wear another design?" he nodded before he looked longingly at the table "I can, but I can't help it. I was the one who brought it in and placed it on the table today. It's not their fault really, I just feel a bit out of it because I didn't sleep much last night."

"What time did you sleep?" I asked eyebrows furrowed as I lightly pull on his arm to make him stand up and led him to the chair, while his hair stylist hurriedly did her job.

"Three, maybe four AM?" he says sheepishly as he gives me a small smile. That meant he only had less than four hours of sleep.

"Jimin-ah, you knew you're filming today" I stared at him "I texted you last night to remind you but you just opened it and you didn't reply. Why didn't you sleep early?"

"I was ... preoccupied." he stuttered "I... I was busy"

"So that's why you skipped on us last night" Jin says grinning from the doorway "someone special over, huh?"

"Just... someone" Jimin's lips curl inward as if to stop himself from smiling.

"Oh," I stare at him for a second before looking away, avoiding the tugging feeling on my heartstrings "Oh, well, guess you were busy then," I muttered to myself staring at the floor wondering how I should get out of this conversation without looking like a wounded puppy.

"Well, I, uh..." I started to stutter before I was cut off

"We found it!" someone yelled from outside the room, one of the stylists came running in the room with a tiny box which I'm guessing contained the earrings Jimin was looking for. Placing the box on the dresser in front of him, he grabs it opening the box to reveal earrings. Smiling as he removes it from the box, Jimin carefully places it on his earlobes and I mutter "I'll be outside" which was drowned by the loud noise of the hair dryer.

Walking out of the dressing room, I bump into someone who was facing me standing next to a group.

"Oh" he gasps as we collide, lightly grabbing my arms to steady the both of us "Are you okay, Y/n?" I look up to see Taehyung looking at my face trying to gauge my reaction, Jungkook and Namjoon were next to him they suddenly turn around when my name was mentioned.

"I'm okay," I force a smile "I just need some fresh air, I'll be right outside"

"Y/n" I hear Namjoon call after me but he was called by their manager stopping him from following me. I continued walking towards the car where I spotted Jimin's driver and two of his security men.

"Oh!" the driver exclaims as he sees me headed to the car "Y/n-ssi, is there somewhere you need to go?"

"No, it's okay," I smile at him "I just need my backpack, I left it under the seat." He immediately opens the car and lets me retrieve my bag before closing it. When I headed the direction away from where the boys were recording he called me, "Y/n-ssi, where are you going?"

"I just need to get some air," I said turning back to him before walking away again

"We were assigned to follow you if you separate ways with Jimin-ssi," one of the guards say getting up from his chair.

"Please tell your boss, I can walk around alone without having you guys being bothered, besides all I'm going to do is head to the Museum and if one of you follow me, y'all aren't gonna like how I'm gonna react" I smile at them before bowing and quickly walking away from them.

I kept walking until I reached a bus stop, not knowing how to fully read the language except for very few words and locations, I pull out my phone to use google image translate and eventually I find out which bus to get on that was going to take me to the National Museum.

The museum was quiet expect for a few tourists that were quietly taking pictures, discussing art and others meeting up there just to walk around the place and talk. I was staring at an artifact when my phone started vibrating, pulling it out of my pocket I see Jimin's smiling face on my phone screen it was a picture that I took of him when we ate street food after he first introduced me to the other members and the staff. He was looking down at his food, happily picking a tteokbokki from his little plate to eat, wearing his beanie, dark green and brown jacket, puffy cheeks resting on his face mask. Contemplating on whether or not I should answer his call I sit on the bench next to the artifact.

Leaving the set was a bad idea and a reckless one too, but it was an emotionally impulsive one too. As I sat and waited for Jimin's angelic face to disappear from my phone's screen, I regretted leaving the set but at the same time I was embarrassed to walk back there as if I just went out to grab coffee and came back for nothing. I get up from my seat and slowly make my way towards the exit, deciding to take a walk instead of taking a bus back home relying on my virtual map. And if I ever run out of battery, Jimin's real paper map is sitting on a zipped pocket in my backpack.

Zooming out on the map I noticed a museum not too far from where I was, the Leeum Samsung Museum so walked towards it. Entering the building I kept walking until I reached a spiral stairway with walls that looked like tall windows. My phone vibrates as I kept walking around and every time I looked at my phone it was Jimin calling me.

I noticed the amount of people increasing as I spent more time in the Museum walking slowly. My phone vibrates once signaling me that it wasn't a call and my caller decided to give up, but the short buzzing doesn't stop. As I step out of the museum and finally decided to head back to the apartment, I take the bus that would pass a nearby street and watch building pass my line of sight. When I realized the short buzzing stopped for more than ten minutes, I pull my phone out of my coat to find 15 missed calls and 32 text messages that's when I noticed it has been hours since day one of filming Butter has ended, and they're all probably home by now.

Opening the missed calls most were from Jimin and there were a few from Namjoon. The texts were from them as well with a few from Hobi and Tae.

Taehyung:

Y/n-ssi?

Are you okay?

Where did you go?

Hobi:

Y/n, Jimin is looking for you. He doesn't look too happy.

Please come back. He looks really worried. He keeps walking back and forth in the room it's making me dizzy.

Jimin:

Y/n-ah, Taehyung said you left and went to the car.

Come back to the studio, it's really hot outside.

Y/n, our driver and security said you left, and that you told them to tell me that I shouldn't look for you. Where did you go?

Y/n, where are you?

Y/n, why aren't you answering your phone?

Please pick up, I'm worried about you.

Y/n. Please.

Y/n our driver told you went to a Museum, which one did you go to? Are you still there?

I went to the front desk and they checked security cameras. They said you left hours ago.

Y/n-ssi, where are you? Please come back home.

Namjoon:

Y/n, Jimin's looking for you. Please pick up the phone.

Where are you? We just finished filming, Jimin wouldn't stop asking me if I know where you are.

Y/n please don't tell Jimin, but Jin hyung and Yoongi hyung asked the company to put an emergency tracker on your phone (and other stuff) in case something wrong happens and we couldn't find you. Yoongi told me to tell you they're gonna turn the tracker on to find you if you're not found or home by midnight.

Btw Jimin doesn't know about the tracker thing, he thinks it's the Find my phone feature but it's not that.

Damn it, Y/n pick up. We checked the national museum earlier but they said you left early.

Jimin and Taehyung are driving around to find you. We didn't alert Hybe yet that we couldn't find you. Yoongi Hobi and JK are looking for you too. I'm outdoors as well with Jin hyung. Pick up the phone when we call you, please.

By the time I looked up from the messages, the bus was about to drop off passengers at parks by Han River. I automatically got up and let my feet take me to a bench by the river where I looked out at the view, hearing hushed conversations, laughter and a few squeals and happy giggles from children playing.

"This was a bad idea," I sighed "I should have said no," holding my head in my hands, I take a deep breath and close my eyes letting the fresh spring air wrap around me as some sort of comfort but all it did was make me want to cry. I should have said no and stayed at home. I should have declined the job offered. I wasn't fit to do my job as Park Jimin's emotional companion when at the same time I get easily affected by the thought of Jimin away both physically and emotionally. And it didn't help that I was the kind of person who'd get easily emotionally attached to someone like Jimin, making me a jealous girl. I wasn't fit to do this job.

My phone vibrating pulled me out of my thoughts making me want to haul it to the river. Namjoon was calling me, deciding it probably wouldn't hurt. I answer the call.

"Hey..."

"Oh dear God, finally!" Namjoon says with a sigh of relief, and I hear Jin in the background asking "Wh-what? Did she pick up?!"

"Yeah, she did," he tells Jin before his voice gets clearer "Please tell me you're safe and unharmed,"

"I'm fine, I just walked around," I sigh "I didn't think you guys needed me, especially Jimin. He was obviously doing better when I wasn't there."

"Y/n, he's not doing really great right now," he says "Taehyung is the one driving Jimin around because wouldn't stop worrying and freaking out,"

"Tell him to stop the search party," I tell him "I'm okay, I'm gonna go home in a bit anyways."

"If you think you could stop Jimin from looking for you, you're wrong" Namjoon explains "Jimin kept looking for you in between takes today, he kept telling us that he wanted to hang out with you after filming today and tomorrow because he said he think you're homesick,"

"I'm not homesick, Joon" he chuckles "You're a bad liar even over the phone,

Look," he says "just tell us where you are, so we'll pick you up and you could go back to the apartment,"

"I dunno, Joon," I sigh "I wanna go home by myself and take a day off tomorrow,"

"I don't think Jimin's gonna let you off tomorrow - he really wants you to be on set tomorrow,"

I stare at my surroundings noticing that the sun had already set and they sky was a mix of dark purple, fading pink and blue. I bit my lip wanting to cry and go home, but not back to the apartment... but home. Back home.

"Namjoon?"

"Yeah, y/n?"

"Do you think I did the right thing saying yes to this job?" I ask, tears pooling in my eyes

"Why would you think that?" he asks "You're doing everything right, just don't run off like that making him worry. He really cares about you and I don't think it's cool for you to just disappear and not answer calls, man." he huffs.

"I feel like I'm not fully capable of being an emotional companion for Jimin," I sniffle "I feel like I'm not fully qualified especially being just another fan who's not medically trained for this"

"Y/n," he starts "I'm gonna tell you something and you better listen good,"

I hear Jin speaking to Namjoon in the background and all I got was a soft warning of 'hajima' followed by a short silence before Namjoon continued, "you're not just another... fan to Jimin. You're much more than that. You're basically family, please remember that. You're important, very, very important to us especially to Jimin. So never think that you're just. Because you're not. If you were, why the hell would we not tell Hybe that we're running around like headless chickens the night before our last day of filming our next music video. You're not just Jimin's responsibility but ours too. Now tell me where you are or I'm telling Jimin that you decided to leave him and flew back to your home country without even saying goodbye - and that you never want to see him again." he threatens me in one breath being the rapper that he is.

I took a deep breath wondering if he was really going to do it, but knowing him he's gonna do everything to protect the other members. It was fully dark as I look around again, the moon was climbing higher in the night sky and the number of people were slowly increasing.

"Han River," I tell him "I'll send you my location,"

"Alright," Joonie says "Hang tight, we're headed your way once you send it. If you don't send it within the next five minutes, you know what's up."

"Okay..." I whisper as he hangs up. I send my location to him and he sends me a thumbs up emoji.

While I was waiting for Jin and Namjoon, I stayed on the bench looking around me as buildings opened up the lights to the front door of their establishments, pulling my mask down to my chin to be able to breathe the fresh air. Different colored lights made it look like a street of rainbows while street lamps looked like stars. And speaking of stars, I look up to see a few stars starting to peek out from the night sky. Right then, I started to wonder if there was a perfect spot for star gazing and my thoughts were interrupted by a voice calling my name.

"Y/n?" I look at the direction of the person talking not recognizing the man who was in his all black outfit- trench coat, ball cap and face mask were all black. Even the frame of his eyeglasses were black. I tilt my head as if to question the man when he pulls down his mask the same way I did and my eyes widen when I recognized him.

"Benji!" I exclaim as I walk up to him and wrap him in a big hug and he does the same.

"It's so good to see you, Y/n!" he laughs as he pulls away smiling and puts both hands on my shoulder "What brings you to Seoul? How long are you staying here? Where are you staying? Who are you staying with?"

"One at a time buddy," I giggle "I work here, so, yeah. I'm gonna be here for a while and I live alone."

"Woah," his eyes widen in awe "Where do you work? Do you think we could catch up with the good old days?"

"Yeah, we definitely could," I beamed "Oh work! I actually work at-"

"Y/n-ssi!" I hear voices call my name, one sounding very disappointed while the other three were loud enough as if to warn a child to keep their hand out of the cookie jar. I turn to see Jin, Namjoon and Taehyung headed towards me Jimin slowly walking behind them, the three men seemed to slow down when Jimin picked up speed to stand next to me, gently holding my hand and pulling me towards his body making Benji drop his hands from my shoulder immediately.

"I've been looking everywhere for you," he whispers tilting his head to the side, a trait of his that only makes an appearance when he's pissed or annoyed, or even disappointed, "I was really worried," He stops what he's saying and turns to look at Benji, as he says Hello and bows his head. Benji bows too and the other boys did the same.

Jimin looks between the two of us pointedly before asking "We're we interrupting something?" there was something about the way that he asked it that made it sound as if he was annoyed or irritated, but I brushed it off thinking he's probably just tired because of work and looking for me right after.

"Oh, no," Benji chuckles "I was just asking Y/n where she works now and if we could hang out like how we did a few years back?"

"You two know each other?" Taehyung asks to which Benji replies "Yes, we do. I was a transfer student when I first met her."

"Uh huh," Taehyung nods, slowly measuring up Benji "I see..." Namjoon and Jin slowly start doing the same thing, which was weird because Jimin started it.

"Well," Namjoon starts "So sorry to cut this short, but Y/n needs to report to her supervisor" Joon says, nodding at the other boys as if sending a signal.

"Supervisor?" Benji asks "But isn't it past working hours?"

"She's a personal assistant," Jimin says, sounding as if he was rolling his eyes "she reports even past work hours, and her work shift ends late."

"Oh, okay" Benji nods, playing along "I see"

"Yeah, so we have to leave because we've been looking everywhere for you" Jin says from behind Tae "The bosses said they're gonna come and get you if you don't get back in the office soon,"

As if right on queue behind Namjoon, Hobi appears calling out to me wearing everything... and I mean everything. Head to toe. Louis. Vuitton. Even from a distance, his look screamed 'expensive', even the air around him screamed 'expensive'. And he wasn't the only one. Yoongi and JK had the same aura.

"Ya~, Y/n!" Yoongi yells "I swear to God, Y/n-ssi! Why weren't you answering my phone calls?" he sounded bossy which has never happened, something was fishy. I pointedly look at all of them, except for Jimin who was burning holes on my face and his body heat was radiating off of me like an angry fire dragon about to blow fire at an intruder, said intruder being Benji.

"I can't believe, my Louis Vuitton slippers are walking in a public park just because my assistant is testing my patience," Hobi shakes his head dramatically "You're lucky I have a hangover, Y/n-ssi or I would've already fired you and had you deported"

"You should proably... go..." Benji trails off he says to me "We'll catch up next time," he reassures me.

"But how?" I ask.

"I work at a company not too far from here," he says "we could meet up some other time surely,"

"Alright," I sigh "I'll see you around,"

"Sorry for interrupting you two," "Yeah, sorry," Jin and Namjoon say to him and he says it's okay. I smile a little as he starts walking away after he says his goodbye and bows his head at the boys.

Once he was far away from us, I look at Hobi and Yoongi who were turning red. When they look at each other I heard a windshield wiper laugh followed by Hobi disappearing from my line of sigh as he falls to the concrete holding on JK's arm having the time of his life laughing happily.

"Guys, that felt rude," Jungkook says grinning "Especially you two hyung" he tells Hobi and Yoongi.

"It was but Jimin looked like he was about to punch the guy," Yoongi said chuckling "We came up with it as fast as we can but we were worried about Jin and Namjoon laughing, good thing they didn't. Taehyung too."

"He should thank Yoongi and Hobi hyung," Tae says "We just saved him from Park Jimin."

"I wasn't going to hurt him," Jimin says, back to sounding like an angel again

"Just a little, hyung?" Jungkook asks smiling making the other members chuckle.

"Maybe," Jimin whispers "depends," he looks down at our hands which I didn't notice were intertwined. He plays with my fingers a little before he unexpectedly pulls me in for a hug, wrapping his warm arms around me. Face buried in my hair. The laughter slowly stops as they all turn away and start heading to their cars.

"Be home before midnight, hyung!" Jungkook yells as they get in their cars, Taehyung hands Jimin's car keys to me and walks towards Jin's car, "Or our boss will lock the door," he yells followed by Hobi cackling.

Jimin pulls away and holds my face in his hands, slightly squishing my cheeks, "You're too cute for your own good," he says adorably, almost as if he was saying it to himself "I should keep you protected all times~"

"Don't act so innocent, Park Jimin!" I lightly hit his arm, he stares at me a bit longer

"I should say the same to you," he says seriously, his voice a bit deeper "You ran off and made me worry about you,

Did you run off to see him?" he asks

"What?! No!" I say a little too loud, taken aback "I just saw him minutes before you arrived-"

"Then why did you leave me?" he asks "Why did you leave without telling me where you were going? If all you wanted to do was go to a museum, we could have done that together after work just like how we'd hang out to eat street food. But not like that, Y/n-ah." He says trying so hard not to raise his voice "I was worried sick about you. You didn't answer my calls,"

"I didn't answer the other members too,"

"You answered Namjoon hyung," he points out "he forwarded your location to me because Tae and I were nearby. I was so relieved to know you were safe but I didn't know how or what to feel when I saw you,"

"What in the world do you mean?" I ask eyebrows furrowed "I was just talking to a friend,"

He sighs in defeat shaking his head, averting his eyes, "He better stay a friend, Y/n-ssi...He as to," he whispers to himself in satoori but I heard it and understood it because Jungkook was teaching me Busan satoori.

"What? What do you mean?" I ask again and he shakes his head

"Forget I said anything,. Don't worry about it," he says softly as he slowly lets go of me "Let's get you home." Once his hands weren't on me anymore it felt like I was a ship that lost it's anchor and I was slowly drifting away but I wanted my anchor back. He started to slowly walk towards the car stopping to look back at me, waiting. Slowly moving my feet, I walk to Jimin's car and let him drive me back to the apartment.

Once Jimin pulls up to the valet, I was about to get out when I look at him and decide I needed a time out from him after tonight's behaviour.

"Since you're usually... occupied or busy," I point out "I might not be there tomorrow morning, I'll text you if I change my mind and head there after lunch,"

"Y/n-ah, come on," he says almost like he was begging me to stop acting the way I was, "Please be there,"

"I can't think straight, Jimin-ah," I sigh exasperated "I'm living in a playground," I whisper to myself "Good night, Jimin-ah. Drive safe." I say to him as I get out from the car and into the building, thankful that I was lucky enough to catch the elevator before it closed.

When I got inside the apartment, I quickly open twitter and type my frustration out.

Y'all wanna know why our life is like a playground when it comes to unsure relationships? They all have one thing in common. Swings, seesaws, slides, damn it the whole play ground! We keep coming back for more. The first time we encounter the damn place we're excited and scared, but we keep going back there everytime! We play, we fall, we get hurt, and we get back up again only to have it repeat.

And somehow. Sometimes. The person who cause us pain are the ones playing with us. Even when we fully put our trust in them. We let them push us on the swing, we let them get on the opposite end of the seesaw, we go down the slide together, we play catch and get hurt by the same person. And yet... we keep coming back for more. Even though it already hurts and you want to stop playing around.

You end up trusting and loving that person, but in the end they leave you. Not letting you know if they'll see you again.

I throw my phone on the kitchen counter as I walked on my way to the couch muttering to myself, "I hate myself for falling for you. Why did it have to be me in this position? Why you? Of all people on earth, why did it have to be you? I'm not complaining, just questioning how absurd this is. Damn you, Park Jimin. Damn you and your warm hands and you pretty eyes and your pillowy kissable lips and your sweet voice and your kindness. Damn you. I love you, but damn you."

My phone vibrates from the counter making me groan out loud before sulking and standing up. Seeing that it was a text notification from Jimin, I wanted to pretend I was asleep and not open it but I was too curious.

Jimin:

My life is a playground too, but you have my word that you'll see me tomorrow and days after that. I'll see you tomorrow. Sweet dreams.

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

< threepointfive | masterlist | fourpointfive >

A/N: Please leave a like, reblog and reply to this post about what you think of this Chapter💜🥺 Taglist is open if you wanna be added just reply to the story's masterlist post.

TAGLIST: [blogs who are in bold lettering please check your visibility settings or ask the staff how to fix that teehee. sorry I still can't tag you :( ]

@biggiecheesewantsyoursoul @kookieebangtan @lovergirl1316 @yoongistangerine @why-the-heck-am-i-here @ncizen @craftymoonchaos @canarystwin @itsnotquimey @chubsjmin @buttvi @bllatrixcarpnter @enthralled-bandit @ireadthensuetheauthors @builtalongthewayside @messofthecentury

... psst... I have a permanent taglist... If you're interested.....

[twinklelilstarkey]

“This is boring” - Jamie Oleksiak

[A/N: This is just a random idea that popped up in my head a few days ago after seeing a tiktok, hope it’s good]

Words: 1k+

Type: Fluff

Warnings: Female!Reader. Mentions of boobs (?).

From all the years you have dated and, now, been married to Jamie, you’ve learned that he is a pain in the ass to convince to do anything. As soon as he gets an idea in his head, there is no way that you’re able to change that. 

It’s just how it is.

For example, you have been wanting to watch this romantic movie for the longest time ever. Due to your difficult work hours, you didn’t see it in the cinema with your friends. So, you’re left with watching at home. Yet you also don’t like seeing movies on your own. You like company. And who is a better company other than Jamie?

Jamie did see the trailer with you and he just said a quick ‘nop, we are not going to watch that’. His reasoning was only that the movie seemed way more romantic than you had described to him, days prior, and there is no way you’re making him watch it.

Bad thing for him, he’s in love with you and has a massive soft spot for you. Well, he did marry you for a reason. So, he can’t really refuse to do something you want to do that bad for too long. 

So, even though he did joke around while repeatedly refusing your plans to just sit on a couch and watch the god damn movie, it broke his heart when he saw you stopping to laugh at his refusals and even smiling. He seriously got worried.

After a rough week of games and you taking a few days off, the day has finally come. The day when he watches the romantic movie you so want to watch with him.

If he had to be honest, seeing you look up at him with such a big smile when he came back home from practice, made the experience sound way better.

He seriously started to think that maybe, just maybe, it won’t be that bad. You might actually be right about the whole thing and he will watch the best romantic movie in the world.

You jumped around the kitchen while grabbing some snacks, giving Jamie a few random smiles or hugs, which he automatically welcomed and returned. In other words: happiness just radiated off you at any step you took.

And now, it’s finally time to go to the living room and watch the movie.

“What kind of romance are we talking about again?” Jamie asks, standing right in front of you as you sit down.

You grab onto his hand and pull him to sit with you, which he does - even though you surely weren’t able to make him move an inch with that weak of a pull.

“What do you mean, what kind?” You ask a little confused.

“Like, the lovey-dovey one, the one with a lot of arguments...” He then looks at you with lifted eyebrows, “Are there sex scenes?”

You laugh at him and quickly turn your attention back to the screen.

“We’ll have to wait and see.”

(...)

Jamie should’ve guessed what was waiting for him when he saw the PG13 rating in the first seconds of the movie. This is the slowest, most slow-burning, uninteresting romance movie he has ever seen. 

He doesn’t mean to disrespect whoever made it, but he kind of does. Because, what the hell is this?

You felt him take looks at you at least 30 times during the movie, yet you paid him no mind since he hasn’t said or done anything bad, like, pulled out his phone - something your friends comment about when complaining about their partners. 

Jamie was pleading you, internally, to look at him the whole time, just to make sure you are actually enjoying any of this. (And if you are, he’s judging you with his whole heart.)

He swears that his braveness walked out on him as soon as you said that you two had only watched 55 minutes of the 2 hour and something movie. All because he feels like he has fought a war with his eyelids throughout the last half an hour.

He loves you too much to look away from the screen for too long, so he decided to just try and keep on going, while mentally praying to God that it will get better.

Spoiler alert: It didn’t.

You have moved around on the couch throughout the last few minutes to lay more comfortably. You’ve had your head resting on Jamie’s lap, on his shoulder and now you’re laying on your back right beside him.

He has noticed that you’re only wearing pajama shorts and one of his hoodies, which, by the way, looks big on him, so you’re practically swimming in it.

Due to him feeling less and less awake, he decides to lay over you, with his head on your chest. You don’t really react to his sudden moving, since you’re very focused, but your hands did move to play with his hair.

Jamie lays comfortably and by how comfortable he feels, he swears that he will fall asleep in a matter of seconds. 

He fights his heavy eyelids as soon as the main couple starts arguing - the first interesting moment of the movie - yet it doesn’t take them long to kiss and makeup.

He lets out a frustrated groan at the sight and you end up laughing.

“Are you liking the movie, bub?” You ask playfully while looking down at him.

“Loving it.”

You laugh under him again and he moves over your chest a bit. With his movements and adjustments, he’s able to feel something under his head. You’re not wearing a bra - nothing out of the ordinary, you’re home.

And that only means one thing in Jamie’s mind.

Out of god damn nowhere, while you’re carelessly watching the movie, Jamie lifts himself off of you, as well as the ends of your hoodie, and re-lays over your chest, yet this time, under the shirt.

Has he done this before? Yes. Is it still very unexpected on your part? YES!

“Jamie, what the fuck?” You ask him in a surprisingly very monotone voice.

He doesn’t answer at first, since he is still adjusting how he should lay his head right in between your boobs.

You poke his head and he finally stops moving around, having his arms lay right by your sides.

“I’m sorry, but the movie is soooo boring...” He admits in a whine, making you smile and tell yourself a little ‘i knew it’, “and you’re very warm.” He adds.

You shake your head a bit at him and lay your hand over the back of his head. He, at least, watched more than half of the movie, now, so you can’t say that he didn’t try. Either way, you’re fine with him just being beside you - or, in this case, on top of you. He’s still keeping you company.

“Can you even breathe under this?” You ask, actually curious.

“If I can’t...” He pauses for a second, “I’ll die a happy man.”

Good God.

Hope you liked this. It was very random, but I kinda am proud of it.

[cyberweek]

CyberWeek 2022 starts January 16th!

A weeklong celebration of our favorite edutainment program with artistic prompts everyday! The show first premiered on the 21st so let’s celebrate!

What sort of Art is allowed?

Any! Traditional/Digital art, Writing, Cosplay, Video edits, anything you can make! Anything you wanna make! Sew a doll, bake a cake, whatever! Sadly, prompts aren’t made with all types of art in mind, so feel free to interpret them however you want to fit your medium!

Will there rules?

Tag your post with #cyberweek2022! Or @ this blog! Or both!

Follow this blog and support your fellow Cyberchase fans!

No Lewd. No P*dophilia or inc*st or anything nasty. I will simply ignore it.

No Tracing, Use of Bases or other assets without COMPLETE transparency. Credit your sources!

Angst, light gore/blood and etc are allowed. Try to keep it PG13. Everything will be tagged accordingly so remember to use Tumblr’s tag filter feature to your advantage.

OCs should only show up on the OC prompt if available.

Prompts

Jan 16 - Cybersite

Cyberspace has 1294 Cybersites! Give or take. Which is your favorite? Or maybe there’s one you would like to change! Perhaps you just really dig the Pompadorians hairdos! Pick a Cybersite and go wild!

Jan 17 - Friendship

No more romance! It’s time to let the friendships shine! Which two characters do you just really dig the bro energies from? Maybe there’s two character who have never met but you think would really get along! Do you like a duo, a trio, or a whole squad?

(Please be respectful and celebrate your favorite friendships instead of putting down other’s ships! Also, try to stay in spirit by not using a ship of yours for this day or tagging other people’s art as ships, ty!)

Jan 18 - Color

Cyberchase is full of beautiful, wild and sometimes wacky color choices! Is there someone with a particular hair color you like? Is there a color they use a lot that you think has a lot of meaning behind it? Do you just really dig the colors of the sky in a certain shot? Time to break out the metaphorical crayons!

Jan 19 - OCs

Have an oc? Maybe three? Show them off! Make one completely up on the spot! Maybe it’s just you in the Cyber world!

Jan 20 - Redraw (Draw This Again!)

Hold your horses! This time instead of redrawing something from the show, you’re going to redraw some Cyberchase art you made last year! It can be something you made for Cyberweek ‘21 or something you made on your own time! Whatever it is, it just has to be Cyberchase related and something you’ve already created!

(If you have truly never drawn Cyberchase before this week, then you may opt to redraw a screencap from the show instead!)

Jan 21 - Pilot (Prompt inspired by @opportunistic-chicanery​)

It’s here! The Anniversary! Let’s show our love by celebrating the pilot of the entire show, The Poddleville Case! Recently the original pitch of this pilot was found, so feel free to take inspiration from that version!

Jan 22 - Animal

The final day! Time for the “weird creatures” to shine! The show has many, many fun and kooky critters to choose from! There’s the giant sea slug Icky! The handful of a pet Deedlebeast! Maybe you appreciate the simplicity of the Earth animals like Gatito or Shermie! Go Wild!

Questions/Comments -

Please send all questions about this event to the inbox. Anon will be off and questions will be posted in case others have similar inquiry. Please do not reply to posts or try to dm your inquirers.

[srta-minutes]

Form ORC-75 (Romance, Office, Non-Spousal)

pairing: loki/mobius rating: pg13 words: 1441 (unbeta’d) summary: mobius formally acquires a boyfriend. ravonna, formally, is very tired.

An optimist and pragmatist. That, generally, was how Mobius self-reported on TVA employee evals. Most people did not actually want to unleash that much malice upon the universe, and those who did were usually too ill-equipped to do so. Looking on the bright side and then looking at the facts when the bright side suddenly evaporated: this was Mobius M. Mobius, top analyst at the Time Variance Authority, in a nutshell.

So while he knew that, yes, technically, he and Variant L1130 were manipulating the shit out of each other, he chose to look at the silver lining. So the flirting was inevitably for gain, sure. Loki was a black hole for all the praise and admiration that Mobius was willing to give, yes. But underneath all of that manipulation there was some semblance of real affection, wasn’t there? And at least no one was getting hurt, right?

Right.

“You’re becoming way too attached to that variant, Mobius.”

Mobius paused with the tumbler of extremely vintage bourbon midway to his mouth.

“Which variant?” Mobius asked innocently.

Ravonna’s stare was one of cosmic, timeless, omniscient exhaustion.

“Okay, okay,” said Mobius, taking a strengthening gulp of the bourbon and putting the drink down on the side table. (On the coaster.) “So we’re finally going to talk about it. I’m sure you’ve heard so much. The scuttlebutt around here is the stuff of legends.”

Ravonna sighed and reached for a stack of tan manila file folders on the coffee table and swept one open with her hand.  She was ready.

“Hunter L-12 filed a conduct complaint with regards  to ‘openly flirting’ in the mess.” She leafed to the next page. “Anderson in Dimensional Analytics filed a conduct complaint saying she was unable to use the West Dome elevator. I’ll not expound on why.” She shuffled through several more pages, raising an eyebrow. “Oh, and perhaps my favorite. Inappropriate use of standard-issue TVA batons. Filed by Hunter B-15.”

Mobius pinched the bridge of his extremely broken nose. “Come on, B-15. I thought we were buds.”

“Mobius!” said Ravonna, slapping the file shut. “What in time were you two using the batons for?”

“Listen, it was Loki’s idea—” Mobius shrugged, feeling himself reddening. He didn’t want to say that you can prolong a lot of wonderful sensations when you’re moving at 1/16th time. Ravonna didn’t need to know that. “And hey, just putting it out there? The West Dome elevator has been broken for time immemorial.”

"The only reason,” Ravonna said, closing the case file and ignoring him, “that we’re allowing that variant to walk around un-pruned is because he’s helping you with a case. And while nothing you’re doing is technically against the rules—”

“—Which I’ve read. You know I love rules—”

“—It seems like everything that you two do together has nothing to do with the case!” Ravonna leaned in. “ A case about a variant who is still killing our hunters. Every week we lose minutemen and every week I have to sign a mountain of paperwork for you with nothing to show for it. I need you to stop playing around.”

“You know, Ravonna,” said Mobius, also leaning forward, elbow on knees. “I feel like I don’t ask for much here. I don’t think I complain about much, do I? I always go by the book, I put in overtime, I don’t ask for more benefits. I haven’t cashed in on my vacation time in Lord knows how long. And not to brag, I’m one of your tap analysts, have been for years. Yes, we haven’t caught this particular variant but with this Loki—look at the results. My numbers are through the roof! We’re finding variants left and right; we’re stopping nexus events before they’re even happening. We are outperforming in every sector, ever since that Loki showed up. And if I’m being honest, he actually helps me think because he doesn’t think like the rest of us. We need more of that in the TVA.”

He thought he made some pretty good points. He reached for the bourbon on the table while Ravonna kept staring.

“Mobius, off the record,” she said slowly. “Have you ever been seduced before?”

Ravonna handed him a handkerchief to mop up the bourbon that had dribbled out during his spit-take. Mobius coughed.

“Has anyone in the Authority ever been seduced?” said Mobius, recovering. “Is anyone here even capable of that?”

“Variant L1130 manipulating you!” she shouted. “Making you feel good by getting in your pants, helping you slam dunk cases so we think he’s an asset, and then he’ll use whatever knowledge he’s been slowly acquiring to unleash hell on us and the entirety of time.”

“He won’t,” said Mobius, standing up. “I’ve given him plenty of chances. Variant  L1130—Loki—wants to catch this guy just as much as we do. And if I’m being real with you, Ravonna, I think he might actually like being at the TVA. Because he might actually like being around me. Since apparently, I’m the only person in the universe who doesn’t think he’s a lying scourge. He’s a beautiful singer, Ravonna, did you know that?”

Actually, Mobius did not stand up and he actually said none of that out loud. But he felt it in his mind very strongly. He might stupidly be falling in love with the god of mischief but he wasn’t stupid enough to yell at his boss. Also, no one else needed to know about Loki’s singing. That was a special thing for him.

“This one won’t run. I assure you.”

Ravonna stared back at him. Then she rolled her eyes and slapped a very thin folder onto her lap. It only had one sheet in it but she stared down at it like it was 300. It was a browning sheet of paper that looked as old as the TVA.

“I have to do so much paperwork for you. Paperwork to not prune this loki. Paperwork for you to go on your cute little apocalypse dates ("calling them dates is a little much—") And now. Paperwork to let you have a boyfriend.”

Mobius stared. “What?"

"I'm filling out a form so you and your Loki can make out and not be swarmed with conduct reports, Mobius." She was filling in lines on the document with a fury. "You're partners. I have about 20 hunters under similar dispensations. You should be under probation for being romantically engaged with anyone non-TVA. But since this Loki technically works for the TVA, this paperwork allows for a temporary partnership.”

He suddenly recognized the sheet from upside-down. He gawked. “Form ORB-75. Workplace Romance.”

“Form ORC-75,” Ravonna corrected. “Non-spousal. Though if you want to get hitched I can make it spousal. But the TVA only recognizes temporal marriages that have witness in three dimensions. I have no clue if Loki is on speaking terms with his family in any of them. Why am I even telling you any of this."

She slashed her signature into the form and handed it to Mobius. In faded twelve point courier new the paper read:

M. M. MOBIUS and VARIANT L1130 (LOKI). TEMPORARY PARTNERSHIP.

Well, gosh

, that was

sad

, he thought staring at the word temporary. He thought briefly of Loki during that avalanche on Ganymede in 3074. Loki had pulled him through the time portal just in time, and they landed on top of each other, panting, covered in snow and panting. 

“Spectacular,” said Loki, grinning. He pulled Mobius to his feet. “Outstanding. Mobius, I think, I could do this forever.”

Mobius brushed a dusting of snow off of Loki’s jacket. “You promise?”

Loki met his gaze and the grin simmered down to something less giddy. “Who would I be if I started throwing promises about?”

“It’s okay if you don’t mean it,” said Mobius. “You know I can tell when you’re lying.”

Loki smiled and let his fingers trail up Mobius’s chest to the knot of his tie. It didn’t need straightening but he fixed it anyway. “Then I promise you, Mobius M. Mobius. It’s you and me. Forever.”

Mobius stared down at the paper. He knew this setup couldn’t last for all eternity. Time must come for all things, he thought. He was a pragmatist, after all.

Nevertheless, he signed as an optimist. 

Ravonna got up and placed the form in the out-tray on her desk.  “You’re dismissed.”

“Thank you, Ravonna. Like, so much. This really means a lot.”

“Dismissed, Mobius,” she sighed, sitting down at her desk.

He picked up his stack of paperwork and walked to the exit, letting the silly grin creep on his face. Then he turned around at the door.

“So your options were pruning the Loki, taking me to HR, or me signing the Workplace papers?”

Ravonna put a pen down. “No HR, and of course I wasn’t going to prune that Loki. Mobius, your numbers have been through the roof.”

[hunnyuwu]

Sucker For You || NCT Jaemin

Premise: Jaemin typically has strong feelings once he catches the love bug, and you are definitely not an exception to that.

Pairing: Staff! reader x Idol! Jaemin

Genre: Fluff, romance

WC: 2.7 K

Warnings: A lil steamy by the end ;) [but still PG13 lol]

~~~

Jaemin descended from the black, silver laced stairs that led to the hidden area beneath the stadium stage. He slicked the sweat off his forehead as he noticed that it was way too hot in there.

“Jaemin, over here!”

The boy looked up, his foot finally hitting the solid floor of the area swarmed with SM staff. He smiled bashfully as the only thing he saw was a Polaroid camera being lifted up before the blaring white light of said item set off, momentarily blinding him. He felt a rush of heat flood his cheeks as he looked down, his pectorals and abdomen on full display for the world to see. And he knew exactly why he was being bombarded with cameras and long glances.

While the boy was confident in his body, especially since he had started working out as of late, he was still flustered when people intentionally stared a little too long. He peered over to Jeno, the boy who Jaemin thought had the body of a god.

Who was he to show off his body to millions of thirsty fans all over the world, when Jeno had a lot more to offer?

“One more, Jaemin!”

Jaemin snapped out of his internal thoughts as he redirected his attention back to the camera, this time tugging the bottom of his jean jacket to half-heartedly cover his abdomen and nips. An act he would soon regret as the shoulders of the jacket fell down to his elbows right as the camera set off, showing off his defined collarbones and shoulders like he was posing for the cover of Vogue.

“Thank you, Jaemin!”

The girl taking photos of him ran off to do god knows what, leaving Jaemin flattered yet embarrassed all at the same time.

“Hyung, I know you have been working out, but I didn’t know you were hiding all of that!”

Jaemin chuckled as the youngest, who spectated the entire scene, walked over with a look of pure amazement. Jaemin discarded his jacket, throwing it over his shoulder, fully exposing his torso as the camera was finally out of view.

He brought a hand up to Jisung’s fluffy black hair, “Ah, thank you my cute little baby!”

“Hyung...” Jisung whined cutely, actively leaning away from Jaemin’s encroaching touch.

The two of them, along with a fleet of staff, headed back towards the makeup and changing rooms to get ready for the post-concert Vlive event which was to be held an hour after.

“I’m going to get changed. What about you, Hyung?” Jisung said, ready to depart to a different section of the room.

Jaemin sighed, a smile lighting up his lips. He peered over to the makeup area where a few girls were huddled around, whispering about something he couldn’t even begin to guess.

Jaemin trained his vision back to Jisung, who started laughing, to see what had the boy suddenly so jolly.

“You should really ask her out, Hyung.”

Jaemin blushed, sucking in air harshly through his nostrils as he gave the youngest a puzzled look.

“What?”

“C’mon, it’s obvious. You like Y/N.”

Jaemin rolled his eyes, scoffing with the best of his acting abilities.

“I definitely do not like Y/N.”

“Hm, okay Hyung. Your loss.”

Jaemin tilted his head, an eyebrow arching up to the sky.

“And why is that?”

“Because I see Jeno Hyung talking to her right now.”

Without another thought, Jaemin, almost snapping his neck, whipped his head to see if that was true.

Which was definitely the case.

Jaemin’s vision became clouded with green as he witnessed you giggling at something Jeno said, accompanied with that famous eye smile of his. His jaw clenched tightly as he watched Jeno rest his bulky arms over your shoulders, an action the blonde male only did to those he was extremely comfortable around.

You were a recent addition to the NCT Dream Team, a makeup artist and aspiring stylist intern that was striving to eventually make it within the fashion industry. Ever since your arrival, the members of Dream recruited you as a close friend as you were right within their age range, being an ‘00 liner about to go into Junior year of university. Jaemin had taken a liking to you ever since the day you set foot into their practice room to introduce yourself. Unfortunately, he also noticed that Jeno had also been encroaching on you as of late, going out on late night grocery store visits with you, or even sticking around you a little longer after recordings and shows. Jeno and you had become extremely comfortable lately, and that was a big problem for Jaemin.

The bubblegum haired male bit his inner cheek, a deep frown forming over his features as fast as the spread of the bubonic plague.

“You should do something about it, Hyung.”

With that last remark, Jisung ran off to join up with Chenle, who was on his way to get changed.

Jaemin sucked in the heavy air surrounding him, before releasing it all at once, finally making up his mind. He stomped over to the makeup area, surprising some of the makeup Noona’s at his rash movements through the cluttered space.

He stopped abruptly, causing two individuals to also quickly end their discussion.

You looked up curiously, a small smile forming over your lips as the two of you made eye contact. On the other hand, Jeno shot the pink haired boy an unamused look.

“Can you touch up my makeup?”

Jaemin said, a fake smile pushing his lips upward as he was fully aware of the penetrating glare he was receiving from the stark blonde male beside you.

You nodded like an obedient puppy, ready to get to work, “Of course!” You chirped, patting Jeno’s shoulder to indicate his departure.

“Off you go, Jeno. We can talk more later, but duty calls!”

You ran off, collecting your personal materials at your station.

With one last glance at Jaemin, Jeno walked off to the other side of the room, but that was the least of Jaemin’s concerns. As he walked over to the makeup chair, he noticed the way his heart harshly beated with every step he took.

‘So beautiful...’

He muttered small praises of your form before finally settling into the cloth material of the seat.

“Do you just want a touch up of your current makeup?”

“Yes, please.” Jaemin breathed out quickly, drawing a cute giggle out of you. He noticed the way your eyes disappeared as you gave a whole-hearted laugh, making his heart squeeze with the harshness of a python attack.

“It’s been too long, Jaemin-ssi. How have you been lately?” You said calmly, starting your work on his face. You neared his features, alarming Jaemin to the point that he thought that you may have literally taken his breath away.

“I’ve been good. Did you watch the concert?”

“Yeah! I watched a little bit of it. I can’t believe you pulled off a stunt like that!”

Jaemin pursed his lips, concentrating his eyes to your focused features. He grazed his pupils all over your face like you were applying makeup to his.

“What stunt?”

“Showing your body off like that? You have a lot of courage, Jaemin-ssi.”

Jaemin choked on his spit, but subdued his reaction before he ended up spitting on you. Something that would surely make you hate him forever.

“I didn’t think of it like that, b-but thank you. Did you... did you like it?”

He didn’t miss the way your eyes shook a little as your hand stuttered on his face. You quickly resumed your movements, but your impulsive response sparked a flame of confidence within him.

“You see me shirtless all the time, Y/N. What’s the difference between the stage and now?”

He questioned, using his free hands to gesture down to his completely bare torso. You shook your head with a little lip bite, looking like you were having an entire battle within yourself.

“Oh hush, Jaemin-ssi. I just thought you were cool, but nothing more.”

Jaemin felt a little defeated, but he came too far to back down now.

“Call me Jaemin, no honorifics.”

“Huh?”

You were startled to say the least, shifting backwards with widened, doe-like eyes. Jaemin smirked a little, masking over the quaking anxiety bubbling within him.

“You call ‘Jeno’ casually, why not me?”

Your face contorted, diving back into his face to complete your work. Jaemin silently waited for your answer, his eyebrows drawn together as he focused on your every movement.

‘Why are you so perfect?’ Jaemin let his mind roam to a random place, imagining you and him in your shared apartment, about to do things-

“J-Jeno and I are just friendly is all! I can call you Jaemin if you want.” You nodded affirmatively, resolving that internal battle within yourself. You shot him a bright smile, conveying your true feelings.

In actuality, you had nothing but the hots for Jaemin ever since you laid eyes on him. He truly was that sweet neighborhood boy that all the girls on the block would fall in love with. He was charming, charismatic, adorable, caring, thoughtful... Basically everything that your mother would want you to bring home. But he also had this mysterious, sinister side that you had wanted to crack open ever since you once witnessed that devilish smirk flit over his pink lips after teasing a girl on set.

While by no means were you into men who displayed a sweet side to only be the devil once you got to know them, but you didn’t mind getting into the mystery that Jaemin was to you. He had a playful, bad boy charm that made you grasp onto his every movement like he was the opposite side to your magnetic charge.

And that’s why you had kept your distance from him, because you simply loved observing him.

"Are you sure you two are only friends?”

You gasped, feeling slim, cold fingers wrap around your wrist gently. Going numb, you clumsily let the makeup brush between your fingers slip from your grasp. The clattering sound of wood meeting tile rang around the two of you, but it went unnoticed by you as you merely held Jaemin’s burning eye contact with concerned fragility.

Were you the next subject of his flirting tendencies?

Your eyebrows scrunched together, confused by his serious gleam.

“What are you implying, Jaemin?” You whispered, not physically grasping the close proximity between your faces.

“You like Jeno, don’t you?”

Your frown deepened as you drew away, your body responding for you immediately.

“No... it’s bold of you to assume something like that.” You let out cooly, bending down to scoop up the makeup brush that you dropped.

Jaemin felt guilt eat away at his gut as he watched your back, currently switching out the dirty makeup brush for a fresh one.

“Well, would you ever like me then?”

He saw the way your back muscles stiffened up, unconsciously drawing a little smirk to form over his pink, plush lips that were freshly redone. He let out a fake pout, noticing that you were staring at him through the reflection of the makeup mirror.

“Well?”

“What’s with you today, Jaemin?” You chuckled out nervously, trying to diffuse the rising tension around the both of you. Your laughter never reached your eyes as you winced from the way your heart rung within your mind. It was beating at an abnormal pace, and you knew it only meant one thing.

“Oh, nothing.” He chirped.

You sighed, horribly confused from his bipolar behavior. Yeah, you witnessed his behavior around others, but you never knew how much it would give you whiplash personally. You turned back around to touch up his eyeshadow, praying to God that your hand wouldn’t shake from the effects of your rattling heart.

You dove back into your craft, using all your effort to ignore the drilling eyes that were piercing into your soul through his spindly eyelashes.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?”

You scoffed, attempting to throw him off your embarrassed shock.

“My, you’re really in a flirty mood tonight, aren't you!” You exclaimed, finishing the last few details of his light brown eyeshadow that made his eyes stand out beautifully.

“I mean it, Y/N.”

You gulped harshly, your brain didn’t allow you to even process his words. To avoid any further confrontation, you spun around so that you were looking down at your makeup supplies on the white surface table by the mirror.

You ignored him, wading through your materials to act like you were busy looking for the next product you wanted to use on him.

After a few moments of sheer silence, a high pitched yelp escaped your lips as you felt heat hovering over your back and hands land on both sides of you, effectively trapping you against the solid surface.

You whipped your head upwards to look at your reflection within the mirror, your jaw unhinging upon the unholy sight.

Jaemin was caging you with his body... his bare torso moments away from colliding with your form. All you could see was the flexed definition of his arms and one feral eye peak out from behind your head, mimicking the prowl of a predator upon their prey.

“J-Jaemin?” You called out, not missing the animalistic glint shining within his chocolate brown irises.

“Not so bold now, are we?” He muttered with that beautiful smirk that he showed to the cameras, but this time, a sadistic edge played along the ends of his lips and eyes, sending your body into raging, hormonal mess. Your spine tingled as your felt goosebumps rise along your arms and neck.

He leaned down, pressing his nose into your nape, eliciting a striking gasp from you.

You whipped your head side to side, wondering how the hell no one was reacting to what the boy was doing to you at this very moment.

“Jaemin, what are you doing?!” You hissed, finally regaining some of your senses back.

“What do you think?” He growled, sending your mind into a muddled pool of incoherent warnings and signals.

He pressed his newly done lips into your arched neck, drawing out another confused gasp out of you. You finally turned yourself around within his muscly entrapment, only to cower once you came face to face with the beast.

“Tell me, Y/N. What do you think I’m doing?” He said lowly. A dim fire danced within your body and soul as you watched his eyes easily devour you from his superior stance. You backed away a little, your butt pressing up into the cold surface behind you. Jaemin followed along, allowing his torso to come centimeters away from yours.

“Being a flirty jerk.” You muttered with distaste, but you were anything but distasteful toward him right now. In fact,

You were rather excited.

“Am I catching your eyes, at least?”

You rolled your eyes, glaring up into his jestingly, “Whatever floats your boat, Love.”

“Hmm,” Jaemin purred, letting his eyes draw closed, “I like the way that you call me that.”

“What?” You barked, astonished by his sheer audacity.

With one swift movement, you shoved him off you, thankfully landing in the makeup chair with a plop, or you would have been in big trouble.

He slouched back, shooting you a lazy smirk, “You don’t have to shove me to touch me, Y/N. You can just ask to feel me up, I’m not as shy as I may seem.” He drawled, his hooded eyes practically setting you on fire like a witch on the stake.

“I have no idea what you’re on about today, Jaemin.” You hissed with your arms crossing over your body, but you knew the scarlet red tinting your cheeks would give you away like a children’s book.

“Is that so? Well, I’ll tell you plainly if you go out with me this weekend.”

“Huh?”

“Saturday evening at our dorms. I’ll take you out on a date.”

“A date?!”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Jaemin shot up from the chair, shooting you a wink before walking away.

“What if I say no?!” You called out, making the bubblegum haired boy to slowly turn around to face you.

“I won’t take ‘no’ as an answer, because I know you want me just as much as I want you.” He said plainly, before finally exiting the room.

You huffed with no particular emotion, because you were basically feeling every single emotion at once.

“So that’s what it’s like to survive a tornado, huh?” You muttered, not able to tear your eyes away from the door Jaemin just seconds ago slipped past.

But he was right.

You really wanted him, too.

~~~

“Sooo, did she say yes?” Jisung cheerfully chirped, nudging Jaemin as the group of them were getting ready for the Vlive event.

“I’ll tell you that after this weekend.” Jaemin chuckled weakly, scratching at the nape of his neck.

He put on one hell of an act for you, praying to the heavens that it worked. While he did it to rile you up, it was partially fueled by a hidden fuel that he never knew he had.

Jaemin sighed tiredly, using the thought of you to keep him awake for the Vlive event.

“I always knew you liked her, Hyung!”

“I-”

Jaemin gave up his useless protests.

It was just fact at this point... 

Jaemin was one hell of a sucker for you, and he knew that wouldn’t be changing any time soon.

[scandinavianfairytale]

Blurred lines - The first date

Part 5 

Warnings: Some innuendo, otherwise pretty cute date - I would die to go on this kind of date 😍💙

Tagging: @schlean​ 

Find the Masterlist here 👈😊

Steve was nervous to say the least. He was more for the slow-burn romance and was never great at picking up the clues women left out. But he knew how important this relationship development was for the mission. How Holly tended to develop her relationships in the past.

He rented a Vespa and waited outside her apartment building at 7:30 sharp. Holly came out a minute later.

"Really Rogers, a Vespa?" Holly mused making him blush.

"Are you Italian or something?" She teased further, giggling at his embarrassment.

"I-I just thought that maybe we could take a quick ride to the Brooklyn Promenade and take an ice-cream there?" Steve scratched the back of his head. Holly's gaze softened.

"That sounds so sweet. Come on, come with me, I'll change into something more appropriate." She extended her hand and after he took it, she pulled him with her to her apartment on the top floor.

She sat him down on the sofa before scurrying to her bedroom to change. Steve took the time to take in the giant open-space, peering through the photos of Holly's family, smiling at the childhood pictures until his eyes stopped at the wedding picture. He took it from the wall and observed it closer.

"Snoop much?" Holly chuckled as she came out of the bedroom, completely redressed.

Steve turned around and he let out a quiet "wow", making Holly smile.

"I dress down good, don't I?" Steve nodded in agreement.

"What'd you have there?" She asked, motioning to the picture in his hands.

"I didn't know Alex was married." He stated, waving the picture at her.

"Yeah...that's my cousin, Brock. They've been married for over 5 years now. Why do you sound surprised?" She took the picture from him and put it back on the wall.

"She wasn't wearing a wedding ring."

"She's not fond of jewelry so you'll never see her with it. She did get a tattoo, though - on her side, so only Brock gets to see it. I kinda like that sentiment, you know?" Holly smiled.

"That's the first time I heard about something like that."

"They're not a very conventional couple. You'll see, if you ever meet them." She winked and grabbed his arm.

"Come on, take me on the magic Vespa ride, Rogers. I've been dying to see what this adorable date will look like."

Steve opened the seat and pulled out two helmets, offering one to Holly and earned a surprised and disbelieving look from her.

"You don't actually think I'll put that on my head." She stated.

"No helmet, no magic Vespa ride." He joked and laughed as she pouted before taking the helmet out of his hands and putting it on.

"You look beautiful." Steve smiled and patted the seat behind him. The ride was quick, renting a Vespa was a good choice to battle the traffic that was ever present in NYC. And Holly had the best seat in the city - she had the possibility of squeezing herself tightly to Steve, feeling every muscle under his shirt. She had every intention to turn this PG13 date into R-rated one.

The sun was setting and the lights on the Manhattan skyscrapers started turning on, bringing the city back to life and earning the nickname as the "City that never sleeps".

They walked down the promenade with ice-cream cones in their hands, playing the question game.

"What do you do for a living?" Holly turned to him.

"At the moment, nothing. But I've worked as a bouncer, bartender, mixologist...just about every job you could name, I'd probably done it." He sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Mixologist? Okay, I dare you to make me a signature drink at some point." She challenged.

"Does that count as a question?" Steve laughed.

"Let me rephrase it - will you make me a signature drink?"

"I will. Next time."

"Oh, so there will be a next time?" Holly smirked as he blushed again. He was so easily flustered.

"Your turn." She switched the subject on him.

"What do you do for a living?"

"Ah-ah, no repeating questions."

"Okay, how can you afford a place like yours?" He challenged with a smirk.

"Touché. It's the family business, I work with my cousin, Alexandria's husband - Brock."

"You seem close with your cousins' wife."

"We grew up together, I'm pretty sure you saw a couple of pictures of us from when we were younger when you were snooping." She laughed.

"Now it's my turn, how many women have you slept with?" Holly asked the question she wanted to ask from the beginning.

"Two."

"Two hundred? Two thousand?" She pressed, not believing his answer.

"Just two." Steve assured and Holly went quiet.

"I met my only girlfriend in high-school and we tried everything together. After we broke-up, 10 years later, I slept with some woman at a bar out of sheer anger and sadness. After that I only had a few dates but nothing that would me stick around for more." He continued after she remained silent.

"You never had a good first date." Holly finally responded. She grabbed his hand and squeezed with a smile on her face.

"Until now." He smiled back.

They walked hand in hand around the promenade until she got chilly and he took her home. He walked her up to the entrance and gave her a quick good-night kiss. As he turned to go, she grabbed his hand.

"I'm not letting you go until you come back up for a night cap." She smiled at him, refusing to let him go.

"But-"

"No buts. Just come up." She pulled at his arm, tugging him inside.

"Okay, but just for a cup of tea." Steve let her drag him to the elevator. She almost giggled at his innocence.

As the elevator door opened she dragged him back to the sofa, pushing him on the plush piece of furniture before going into the kitchen to heat up some water.

"I hope you had a good time tonight." He started as he observed her in the kitchen.

"I had a great time." Holly assured.

"I had fun too. I was hoping we could do it again? Am I too forward?" Steve asked and scratched at his stubble. He heard her laugh.

"This date isn't over yet. You still have your...tea to finish. But yes, I would like to go out with you again." She smiled and put two cups of hot tea on the coffee table, taking a seat next to him.

"Thank you." Steve looked at her and smiled. That was when Holly's film snapped. She crashed her lips to his, immediately jumping on him, straddling his hips.

"I've been wanting to do this the whole night." She confessed as they separated. Before he could speak, she brought her lips to his again, sneaking in her tongue, deepening the kiss. As they came up for air she could see repression written on his face. He was holding back, for what reason she didn't know.

"Holly...I don't want to rush this, I want to get to know you better." Steve held her eyes for a few seconds.

"You are the first person that ever said that to me. And you will, but first let's get rid of this tension, or I will explode."

"Holly-" she put a finger over his mouth.

"Shh...just kiss me." She brought her lips closer and waited until he closed the short distance between them.

His shirt was the first to go. She racked her nails over his abs, smiling into the kiss as she felt him get harder under her.

"I think my bed is a lot more comfortable." She smiled as she hopped off of him.

"Come on, Rogers. Let me show you how a good first date should looks like." Holly motioned for him to follow her and Steve reluctantly followed. He wanted to respect her and while he wanted to wait with this aspect for a few more dates, he also needed to make sure she felt desired, which meant forsaking his own way of working.

As soon as he entered the bedroom, he was pushed onto the bed and Holly climbed on top of him.

"Let's have some fun, Steve." She giggled before bending down and kissing him.

Thank you for reading! 🙏😊

The GIFs are not mine, they belong to the amazing creators 🙏😊 The pictures were all found on Google and do not belong to me either! 😭

[hyunnows]

some people | teaser

POSTED!

PAIRING(s): Taehyung x reader, Dowoon of day6 x reader

RATING: pg13

WORD COUNT: 6k+ / 521 for the teaser

CONTENT/WARNINGS: unrequited love, friends to strangers, angst, un healthy friendship, lowkey toxic Taehyung, swearing, pretty minor fluff and happy memories mentioned

SUMMARY: You’ve been Taehyung’s best friend for a while, in love with him from the sidelines as he chases after others. You’ve always given him a hundred percent, while he’s struggled to give you more than twenty-five. After all this time, you finally realize that while you were once “best friends”, he’s never been your “best” friend.

PREMIERE DATE: February 13, 2022

A/N: this is my submission to the anti-romance collab hosted by @rockwithwoo and @astramoonchild <3 thank you so much for allowing me to participate in this collab, im really excited to post the full oneshot when the time comes! Thank you to my betas @starry-paris, @nightshadevinter, @diorkoo, @sunshinejunghoseokie, you all were such big helps <3 i really enjoyed your feedback and input and im ever so grateful for the time you gaave to look over this for me <33 I hope you all enjoy the teaser, feel free to comment or send me a dm/ask if you would like to join the taglist! Have a great day/night and take care of yourselves!

Jimin’s eyes roll back, displeased to see Taehyung at your door, get well soon package in hand and a shameful expression painted on his face. “She said I could come over to pick up some notes…” The taller boy mumbles, abashed that even with all the trouble he caused you, you still prepared what he needed, just as you said. “I’ll leave after I make it right.”

“You hurt her, I’ll hurt you.” Is all your roommate grumbles out before stepping aside and letting the slightly unwelcome guest into your humble abode. “You know where her room is.”

A gentle knock sounds at your door, but your head feels too tight for you to do anything about it besides blow into another tissue. “Jimin I don’t want to talk about it—”

“I’m not Jimin…” He murmurs, eyes failing to meet yours from the guilt pitted in his stomach. “Before you kick me out, I just wanted to give you these. This is soup, your mom’s recipe, some cough and flu medicine my grandma used to use when I got sick, and a weighted blanket because I know how much you’ve been wanting one.”

He flinches as you hack loudly, eyes red and puffy, struggling to focus on his face. “How did you get in here? We changed,” you choke out another cough, “we changed the locks last week and I haven’t given you a key yet.”

Trying not to smile, he mumbles. “I might’ve told Jimin you knew I was coming. In my defense, I just wanted to give these to you in person and apologize again, although I know that apologies don’t do much…”

His head hangs low as his voice fades away, and you can’t help but shake your head at him. “I’m not mad anymore Taehyung. I’m sorry for overreacting yesterday, I was just upset.”

“I get why. I’m not reliable or a good friend, really. I don’t know why you keep me around.” He chuckles a bit, setting the things he brought for you on your bed gently before straightening back up. “You deserve a better best friend than me, huh?”

You shake your head. “No, you’re amazing, honestly I don’t think I deserve someone as sweet and thoughtful as you half the time.”

“You’re just saying that.” He laughs, the two of you falling into your usual banter. After a bit, he winds up beside you, the two of you watching an old comedy flick when he leans closer to you, closing his eyes as he leaves a kiss on your head, his lips lingering as he maffles against your skin quietly. “No date is worth more to me than you are, I promise. You’re the most important person to me.” His body gradually begins to shudder against you as a quiet sob leaves his lips. “I’m so sorry…”

Somehow, even when he messes up so grandly, you always end up letting him off the hook, even comforting him when it truly should be the other way around. Your hand rubbing his back to soothe his sadness while nobody’s there to wipe your own silent tears.

[sandwichrin]

A Little into You (Junkyu x Reader) (Ch. 23)

Chapter 23 - Pure Drama

Word count: 4.1k words

Genre: Fanfiction, PG13, Comedy, Romance.

A/N: Surprise! Here’s the next chapter! And uhh, like the title of the chapter itself-- this chapter is literally pure drama :’)

Treasure and Y/n’s Apartment Block (Lobby)

“Y/n! Heyyyy it’s been a while!” the familiar cheerful voice said, making you turn around.

“Ah, Hyunsuk! Hi!” You greeted him back with a smile. “Getting your mail?” You asked him.

Hyunsuk shook his head, “Nope. I’m going to the office to retrieve my parcel from them.”

“I see. I’m heading there too, actually. An old friend of mine sent me some snacks from our hometown,”

“Nice! Let’s head there together!” Hyunsuk said happily, making you grin from his excited behaviour.

The both of you walked side by side, making small talk with each other.

Once you’ve both arrived in the building’s office which was located right beside the main entrance of the building itself, Hyunsuk hurried in front of you to help open the door for you.

You giggled at him, “Wow, I didn’t know you’re this much of a gentleman,”

“But of course.” Hyunsuk grinned.

You entered the office first, Hyunsuk following behind you now. The moment you approached the counter located in the office; you informed the staff on duty that you wanted to take your parcel.

“I’m here to pick up my parcel? I think it arrived yesterday. The name’s (insert y/n’s full name).” you glanced over at Hyunsuk who was standing beside you before adding, “Oh, and another one is under the name of Choi Hyunsuk.”

Hyunsuk smiles at you and pats your head. “Thanks.”

“No problem,”

The both of you waited for a minute or two before finally receiving both your parcels. After collecting the parcels, the both of you thanked the staff and left the office together.

“Your parcel seems kind of big, y/n. You sure you can carry it?”

“Yeah, I’m good. It’s big but it’s not heavy. They’re all just snacks anyways,” you assured him.

Hyunsuk nodded at you, holding his medium-sized box in one hand. He helped press the elevator button for the both of you.

Entering the elevator doors, Hyunsuk helped press the buttons to both your floors as well.

“Thanks Hyunsuk. You’re a lot of help,” you complimented him.

“Yeah, sure. No biggie.”

While waiting for the elevator to reach your floor, Hyunsuk suddenly had an idea.

“Hey, y/n,”

“Yup?”

“Have you had lunch?”

“Well…I’m ordering some takeout later. Why?” You turned to face him now.

“Ah, it’s just.” Hyunsuk paused. “The boys and I are all having lunch at my dorm.”

“Ahh I see. Sounds fun!” You smiled at him.

“Well I was wondering…if you’d like to join us?”

“Oh? Is that really okay?”

“Why wouldn’t it be okay?” Hyunsuk snickered at your question. “It’s been a while since we all hung out together, I’m sure the boys would be happy to have you join us,”

“Hmm.” You thought to yourself for a while.

Ding! The elevator reached your floor.

“Oh, it’s my floor.”

Hyunsuk pressed on the button to keep the doors open for you.

“Thanks,” you said to him. “I uh…I’d love to join you guys,” you added.

“Yay!”

“Ah, but can we stop over at my place for a bit?” You said, giving him an apologetic smile.

 *

 Treasure’s Dorm #1 (Main Entrance/Living Room)

“Just wait til the boys see you, they’d be so happy,” Hyunsuk said to you as he closed the door behind the both of you, his cute smile beaming at you.

You nodded back at him as you took your shoes off at the entrance.

“I’m back! Where is everyone??” Hyunsuk called out as he entered the living room.

“I’m in the kitchen, hyung!” you both heard Doyoung answer from the kitchen.

You followed Hyunsuk into the living room and there you saw Asahi, Haruto and Junghwan sitting around chatting with each other.

“Heyy, where’s Yoshi?” Hyunsuk asked the maknaes with you still following close behind him.

“Yoshi-hyung went to help clean Jeongwoo and Jaehyuk because they kept making snow in the kitchen using flour,” Asahi answered him.

“Ahh, that seems like something they’d do,” Hyunsuk snickered.

Junghwan stopped looking at his phone to look at Hyunsuk, and that’s when he noticed you.

“Noona!” Junghwan immediately got up from the floor, rushing towards you.

You lift a finger to your mouth, signalling him not to be too loud since you were planning to surprise the rest who hasn’t known you’re here.

Junghwan nodded and pointed at the paper bag in your hand. “What’s that?” he whispered.

“It’s Junkyu’s shirt that I used last time,” you replied.

Junghwan was about to talk to you further but then Hyunsuk had already excitedly pulled you with him towards the kitchen.

The moment the both of you had approached the kitchen’s doorframe, you could already see your other friends’ faces and you were happy to see them since you haven’t seen them for days. Well, most of them.

You smiled at them but then none of them returned your smile, making you wonder what they were so immersed with.

You recognised the person that was speaking in front of you, the guy that you had sort of missed these couple of days—especially since that weird incident that happened between him and Chani which had resulted in you rarely seeing him around you anymore.

Your grip on the paper bag in your hand tightened, you felt hopeful now that you’re finally seeing him again.

Now, of course you didn’t know the whole dispute that begun in the kitchen at the time—where Junkyu was being all bitter about Chani leeching on to you but instead of lashing out about Chani, he had made the mistake of venting his feeling of annoyance towards you.

And so, the timing when you entered the kitchen was when Junkyu was already saying this:

“…doesn’t care anything about us. We’re always looking out for her, but what do we get in return??”

You tilt your head, wondering who he was talking about. Hyunsuk, who was beside you also seemed confuse as to why everyone looked so tense in the kitchen.

You were about to step further into the kitchen when suddenly, Junkyu said—

“Y/n is annoying,”

You immediately stopped your foot from advancing. Your eyes lift up to see Yedam, Jihoon, Doyoung and Mashiho all staring at you, fear clearly showing on their faces because this time, they all realised you were directly behind Junkyu. Which meant…you clearly heard what he had said.

Suddenly, you saw Jihoon bursting out in laughter. “HAHAHAHAA very funny Junkyu! Look at you! What a horrible joke to make!” he laughed.

You took a deep breath, thinking maybe they were pulling a prank on you.

You opened your mouth to say something, but before you could say anything, Junkyu had already spoken up again—

“No, I wasn’t kidding! Y/n really is annoying. She’s a bother—”

“HYUNG STOP!” Yedam yelled, noticing how your expression changed drastically the moment you heard Junkyu’s words this time.

Hyunsuk immediately placed his hand on your shoulder, feeling shocked. But right now, he was more worried about you because you heard it all.

The air felt heavy in the kitchen…everyone going silent for a few seconds.

And then slowly, Junkyu turned around, his eyes meeting yours.

“Y-y/n…” he said, his voice slightly shaking now.

You stood there quietly, your fingers fiddling with the paper bag in your hand.

You blinked a couple times, your gaze slowly avoiding his. What is this feeling you’re having right now? Why does your chest hurt so bad?

Junkyu could hear his own heartbeat sounds ringing in his ears. He felt bad. He felt really bad. He saw how you slowly looked away from him, making him feel even worst.

Junkyu couldn’t handle the heavy tension going on in the kitchen so he immediately dashes out of the kitchen, leaving everyone else behind him.

You felt his presence leave you, as he passes by you. You bit your lower lip, holding in the tears that were forming in your eyes now.

Everyone else exchanged glances with one another, wondering what they should do now.

Mashiho switched off the stove, knowing that he should at least save their meals from getting burnt since he had a feeling that what had happened would take up some time to be solved.

Yedam lets out a heavy sigh, deciding to approach you since you wouldn’t stop staring at the paper bag in your hands now.

“Damn,” Jihoon muttered to himself as he tossed the knife that he had been holding since just now. He shook his head as he made his way to leave the kitchen.

As he passed by Hyunsuk, his hyung raised a hand, implying him to stop.

“What is it, hyung?” Jihoon said in an exasperated tone.

“Go easy on him,” Hyunsuk adviced, knowing that Jihoon would definitely go to console his best friend.

“Hm.” Jihoon hummed as he nods. He leaves the kitchen, not sparing a glance at you.

 *

 Treasure Dorm #1 (Junkyu’s Room)

Junkyu closed the door behind him. He started breathing raggedly, his breaths uncontrollable by now. Is he having a panic attack right now?

He tried to walk towards his bed, but instead, his legs failed him. He ended up kneeling on the floor instead, trying to catch his breath.

He kept imagining the pained look you gave him earlier. He knew, he had hurt you. He had hurt you bad. He messed up badly this time.

Junkyu clenched his fists, his chest hurting, his head throbbing. He felt pain all over. Why? Why did he have to utter all those nonsense about you? He didn’t mean all of it. He really didn’t. He cares about you.

Junkyu lets out a soft sob, unable to hold his tears this time. He felt his tears streaming down his cheeks by now.

“Junkyu!” He heard Jihoon’s voice calling his name.

Jihoon hurriedly closed the door behind him, quickly approaching his best friend who was close to collapsing onto the floor.

Jihoon wrapped his arms around Junkyu, pulling his best friend up to his feet, dragging him over towards the bed.

Once he had made sure Junkyu was already sitting comfortably on the bed, Jihoon sat down on the floor, facing Junkyu.

Junkyu covered his face with his hands, softly sobbing into them.

“Junkyu…”

“Stop. Please, stop. I know. I know,” he said, his sobs getting louder.

Jihoon placed his hand onto Junkyu’s knee, patting it gently. He couldn’t bear watching Junkyu cry like this. It’s rare enough to see Junkyu cry about something but right now, seeing him as a sobbing mess, Jihoon couldn’t help but sympathise him.

“I hurt her, hyung. I hurt her. I’m a horrible person!” Junkyu tried to speak up this time, his sobs a little under control now.

Jihoon shook his head. “No, no Junkyu. You’re not a bad person. You slipped, that’s all. Okay? You didn’t mean what you said, did you?”

Junkyu wiped the tear streaks on his face with the back of his hand. He shook his head furiously, “No way! I don’t! I really don’t. I just—I was just upset when Yedam said Chani and y/n looked like a couple…I…I don’t want to have to picture them being together, hyung!”

“I know, I know…” Jihoon answered softly, his hand still patting Junkyu’s knee gently.

“Hyung….how do I fix this…? Y/n must hate me right now,”

“No…she wouldn’t, okay? Y/n is a nice person, she wouldn’t hate you in one day,” Jihoon assured his best friend.

Junkyu shook his head again. “No! She would, she deserves to hate me!”

Junkyu took a deep breath, trying to control his own ragged breathing.

Pushing his hair to the back with one hand, Junkyu continued, “I told you…I told you, didn’t I? That liking her would bring us something like this,”

“Junkyu, there’s nothing wrong with you liking y/n, okay?”

“No, hyung! You know this. You can see it too, right?”

Junkyu lets out another heavy sigh.

“Yah…Kim Junkyu…it’s all gonna be alright, get it?”

Junkyu kept quiet for a while, sniffling once or twice. He contemplated for a while before asking his hyung another question.

“You said last time that you had a feeling that someone would like y/n among us, and you said that you knew who it was going to be, right??”

Jihoon nodded, remembering the talk they had after you all had that first lunch-meet with y/n.

“That person…who was it?” Junkyu’s eyes were now staring into Jihoon’s.

“I—” Jihoon lets out a sigh. “What are you talking about? Of course it’s you! Why do you think I keep pushing you to talk to her? Why do I keep teasing you about y/n? I even made sure y/n sits opposite you most of the time whenever we eat together, just so you both could stare at each other’s faces,”

Junkyu wiped his tear-stained eyes again. “W-what?” he sniffled.

“Duh! The moment we first met y/n, I had a feeling you both were attracted to each other. You both just needed a little push, that’s all.” Jihoon was no longer patting his best friend’s knee now, seeing that he had stopped crying.

“Hyung…”

“Aigoo! Look at you, crying like this. Yah, how are you going to face y/n later?” Jihoon chuckled softly, teasing Junkyu.

“Y-yah. I’m still handsome,”

“Pfft, yeah sure. Tell that to your red nose and puffy eyes,”

Junkyu swallowed the invisible lump in his throat, a small smile creeping on his lips as he succumbed to Jihoon’s teasing.

Jihoon lets out a sigh.

“Hyung…can I ask you a question?”

“Hm? What is it?”

“You see it too, right?

“See what?”

Junkyu clicked his tongue. “Tsk, you know, hyung. I know, you know.”

“Junkyu I don’t have time for your out-of-the-world curiosity,” Jihoon said as he shook his head.

“Aw come on hyung. You know. You know…that I’m not the only one who likes y/n, right?”

“Duhh, of course! It’s you and that Chani kid,”

Junkyu shook his head again. “No. Someone else. Someone else in our group.”

Jihoon’s eyes widened. “W-what?”

And as if on cue, Junkyu’s bedroom door opened.

Both of them turned to see—Hyunsuk entering, closing the door right after.

“Hyunsuk-hyung.” Both Junkyu and Jihoon said at the same time.

 *

 Treasure Dorm #1 (Kitchen)

When Jihoon left the kitchen to go console Junkyu who had stormed off, Yedam and Hyunsuk stayed by your side to make sure you were okay.

You were still staring at the paper bag in your hand.

You had planned to return Junkyu’s shirt today, and maybe talk to him. It’s funny how you sort of miss him, when in reality, the both of you usually only made small talk with each other.

“Y/n, I…” Yedam tried to speak, but then he stopped. He shook his head. He wouldn’t know how to fix this right now. All that he knew was that you must have felt sad after hearing what his hyung said earlier.

Hyunsuk pulled you closer to him, wrapping one arm around you, causing you to lean your head against his shoulder.

“I’m so sorry y/n” he whispered to you.

Yedam stood still beside the both of you, his face still showing concern over you. He should have stopped Junkyu much earlier, he thought.

Doyoung and Mashiho, who were still near the kitchen stove too, watched over you, not continuing their cooking.

You tried your best to not feel sad, you didn’t want your friends to worry over you too much. But how? You still felt the sharp pain in your chest, and you know it’s not a heart attack that you’re having right now.

You let yourself lean comfortably in Hyunsuk’s arm that was wrapped around you, and without realising, a tear flowed down your cheek.

“Y/n,” Yedam said in a sad tone when he noticed you crying.

Hyunsuk immediately wrapped both his arms around you, hugging you close to him. “Shh, shh, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry y/n,”

You closed your eyes and you felt your tears wetting your cheeks even more now. Crap. You’re crying now.

Yedam looked around the room, noticing that both Doyoung and Mashiho were looking super sad as they watched you silently crying in Hyunsuk’s arms.

“I…I just…” You said softly.

“Hm? What is it, y/n?” Hyunsuk leaned close to you, wanting to hear what you were saying clearly.

“I just…” you stopped to swallow a silent sob before continuing, “I just wanted to see him…I just wanted to return his shirt, that’s all. I didn’t know…that all these while I was annoying him,” your voice straining as you said the final words that pained you.

Hyunsuk and Yedam exchanged glances with each other.

After a few minutes of silently sobbing, you slowly lifted your head from Hyunsuk’s embrace, making him releasing his arms from you gently.

You wiped your tears and took a deep breath. “Hyunsuk,”

“Yes?”

“Could you help me return this to him?” you asked, as you pushed the paper bag in your hand to his.

“N-now?”

“Anytime works. I…I don’t think I should see him for now. He’s…clearly annoyed with me being here,” you said half-jokingly. You tried to giggle when you said this, but it only made you sound even sadder than you look right now.

Hyunsuk held onto the bag that you gave him. “Sure. I’ll give it to him. Don’t worry, he’s not annoyed with you, I’m sure of that,” he said, trying to assure you.

You chuckled softly. “Clearly he is, but it’s okay.”

You took a deep breath and pushed your hair behind your ears. Forcing yourself to smile at your friends, you tried your best to sound okay when you said, “So, you both making lunch today?” You asked Doyoung and Mashiho that had been staring at you.

“Uhh, ah yeah. We’re making kimchi jjigae…” Doyoung answered you.

“Smells good,”

“Thanks,” Doyoung said as he nodded slightly towards you.

Mashiho turned towards the stove again, “We’ll resume cooking, alright? And then we’ll all eat together.” Mashiho turned to look at you, flashing his warm smile at you.

You smiled a small smile and nodded.

“Yedamie, you take y/n to the living room, okay? Let her rest up there. I’m gonna go check on Junkyu for a bit,” Hyunsuk said to Yedam.

“Okay, hyung.”

Hyunsuk leaned down close to you, his face levelling with yours. He stroked your cheek with one hand and said to you gently, “I’m gonna go first, okay? Don’t cry no more. It’s gonna be okay.”

You stared into his eyes for a couple seconds before nodding slowly.

And with that, Hyunsuk left the kitchen, your paper bag consisting of Junkyu’s shirt in his hand.

Yedam linked his arm around yours, “Come on y/n. Let’s rest up in the living room, okay?”

 *

Treasure Dorm #1 (Living Room)

Now, bringing you to the living room isn’t really the best idea as of the moment—

Why?

Well, you see, the moment Yedam and you approached the rest of the kids who were in the living room, they were all shocked to see your tear-stained face and flushed complexion.

Unlike the rest who were busy gaping over what they were seeing, Junghwan immediately got up on his feet and rushed over to you.

“Noona! What happened? Why…? Did you cry earlier??”

“Shh, let y/n sit first,” Yedam said softly to the maknae.

Haruto got up from his seat on the sofa and pointed towards the seat, telling you to sit there.

You were still in a daze after your crying earlier so you simply complied with whatever they told you to do.

Finally sitting down, you leaned back against the cushion behind you.

Yoshi, who was sitting closely beside Jeongwoo and Jaehyuk after helping them clean up earlier, decided to go to the kitchen to get you some water since you looked restless at the moment.

Asahi, who was seated beside you right now, turned to look at you—his usual expressionless face showing.

“So…what exactly happened…” Jeongwoo said slowly.

Yedam sat down on the floor, close to the boy asking the question and lets out a sigh.

“Something…happened in the kitchen.”

“Like…?”

“Just…something.” Yedam answered simply.

“That’s not very helpful Yedam,” Jaehyuk said this time. “How are we supposed to know what happened if you don’t tell us,”

You bit your lower lip as you felt it quivering again. It’s all happening again. You could still hear Junkyu’s voice in the back of your head, even when you’re shutting your eyes right now.

“Y/n is annoying.”

Your chest felt tight once again. You opened your eyes and sat up straight, surprising the rest who were still prodding Yedam to tell them what happened.

You stood up from the sofa and looked around you. The faces of your friends showing a mixture of concern and confusion.

You shook your head. “I…I think I’ll leave now,”

You were about to leave but then Yedam quickly grabs your hand. “Y/n? Aren’t you joining us for lunch?”

You shook your head slowly. “Maybe next time, okay?” you said, your voice shaking now. You looked at Yedam, your eyes glossy with tears that you were trying to hold back.

“Y/n…”

“It’s okay! I’m okay!” You said as you faked a laugh.

Yedam hesitantly lets go of your hand. He didn’t want you to go. But he also didn’t want to force you.

You quickly walked towards the house entrance, not looking back and immediately grabbing your shoes in your hand, as you leave the front door.

Yedam lets out a heavy sigh once you were gone from their sight.

“Hyung, what happened…?” Haruto asked this time.

Yedam sighs again before saying, “I’ll tell you all about it in a bit. I need to go tell Hyunsuk-hyung that Y/n left,”

 *

 Treasure’s Dorm #1 (Front door)

The moment you stepped out of their dorm, the door shutting behind you, you walked as fast as you could, hoping that you’ll be far enough from them for now.

It was at least few metres away from their dorm’s door that you stopped to lean your side against the wall of the corridor to control your breathing.

You felt out of breath because you had been holding in your tears, and now…it’s just hurting you.

Slowly, your shoulder still resting against the wall, you slide down to your feet. By now you’re already kneeling on the floor with your palm holding onto the wall for support.

A loud sob escaped your lips. Ah crap. Now you’re starting to cry out the tears you’ve been holding in. And you’re doing it in public too.

But could you blame yourself for being this sad and dramatic?

“Y/n is annoying.”

You shook your head, trying to stop yourself from hearing to those words over again.

Is this your first time being called annoying? Maybe. But would you care if anyone called you annoying? No.

Then why was this hurting you too much?

Was it because you thought that Junkyu and you were finally becoming friends?

You thought the both of you were already clicking. You thought….that maybe, Junkyu had liked being friends with you. He was more open with you recently…then why? Why did he say that about you?

You thought…ah, that’s right.

You thought.

You kept thinking that everything was working out fine with you both. You’ve never clearly thought if Junkyu himself was enjoying being friends with you.

You swallowed your sob, wiping your tears with the back of your hand.

“Silly me. He’s clearly annoyed with me all this while. He’s just too nice to say it to my face,” you muttered to yourself.

You blinked and again you felt your tears wet your cheeks.

You’re starting to feel annoyed with yourself too by now, considering you wouldn’t stop crying.

Why are you this sad?? You shook your head softly. Could it be…that you have some feelings for him? Have you caught feelings for Junkyu and yet you never realised it?

You pushed your hair back and took a deep breath, trying to stop yourself from crying again.

Slowly, you got up on your feet and tried to stand up properly now.

You should just hurry and return to your apartment unit, you thought. Maybe make yourself a cup of warm drink and just calm yourself down.

And just as you stepped forward, you suddenly felt a pair of arms pulling you from behind.

The arms hugged your waist tightly, and you felt the back of your head resting against someone’s chest.

The familiar voice said to you softly, “You’re not annoying. You were never annoying. He’s stupid to think of you that way.”

You then felt yourself being hugged closer by the boy behind you. “You…you’re so nice to us. You don’t deserve to be told as annoying at all,” he added, sounding upset.

 To be continued…

[hobicomeholla29]

Shatter - Part 1 - JHS

Pairing: Hoseok x Reader

Genre: Angst/ Romance/ Fluff in the future

Word Count:3.9k

Warnings: Mentions of death/Mentions of wars/Mentions(hints) of depression/Mourning

Rating: PG13

A/N: Hey! Hey! Before I get into anything else I first have to that all the beautiful who helped me with checkin, beta reading and giving me fantastic feedback in general! @sugaa-sugaaa​ @spicykoreantatertots​ @nottodayjjk​ Thank you so so much for your words of support and for pushing me through to deliver a good piece for everyone!

That being said, This is a 2 shot! Please look forward to part 2!

THIS IS A REPOST. Cuz it wasn’t showing up in the tags.

Summary: In a post-apocalyptic world, where humankind’s greed has lead planet earth to turn into a ball of dust, all Hoseok wants is a better and bright future, yet strong feelings and a positive mind doesn’t always cut it.

Masterlist

The early morning sky was filled with an eerie fog that threatened to smother anyone who didn’t wear the appropriate attire for being outdoors.

You stood straight; hands balled in tight fists. A mixture of emotions running through your body. Sadness, anger, helplessness, fear…

You were the only ones standing in the middle of the empty field, no one else daring to stand still and be surrounded by the suffocating drafts of air that carried large amounts of toxins –a consequence of humankind utilizing nuclear weapons in the past.

You remember stories being told about your ancestors taking long walks through lucious fields without sporting gas masks on their faces, just imagine enjoying the air in the atmosphere instead of fearing it.

Most parts of the beautiful earth that once existed were now wastelands, all thanks to what was called The Colossal War.

Civilization was anything but civilized after that, creating division and animosity between groups of people with different ideals.

Clans were created and with them the claiming of lands. Lands that provided resources for sustenance, yet the quick dwindling of resources and supplies made some clans selfish, refusing to barter with others and instead attempting to conquer their lands as well.

With bigger and stronger clans taking over the smaller and weaker ones, eventually only four major clans remained, the only exception being small factions that settled between the abandoned areas near the borders of each clan.

Some factions were harmless, only looking for a peaceful place to live, making them nomads, since they had to constantly move to avoid being forced to pledge to one of the four major clans. Others were rioters, ready to go against anything and anyone who posed a threat to their beliefs and wants.

During the long solars that came and went after The Colossal War, much had changed.

Technology, communication, transportation, settlements.

It had all changed, but you really couldn’t say it was all for good.

Technology had turned obsolete at a steady pace, leaving only a few gadgets that were still able to function without being saturated or losing signal without proper cell towers.

Most of them had been vandalized or burned to ashes, mostly to steal copper from the area.

The only remaining signal towers were those of glass recorders.

A glass recorder was the device that kept track of a person’s life.

Since The Colossal War in 3010, civil wars had been blowing up everywhere. Causing inconvenience in simple tasks like having troops return to a fallen soldier’s clan to inform their family about their passing.

A simple duty as this one might have worked back in 2020 but not in 3011.

If troops were sent back, they were at risk of running into an enemy faction and breaking into another battle.

Hence, in 3015, glass recorders were created.

A glass recorder was a device made out of bulletproof glass. Its interior was filled with cables and microchips that contained a person’s personal information, tracking and broadcasting an individual’s vital signs at all times. Constant long-ranged waves went from the glass recorder - to the signal towers around the globe - to the chip installed in the individual’s neck and back.

You could say its data sharing function was similar to the behaviour of olden times bluetooth connections, except that the only information it could send and receive was vital signs and  identification details.

Many tried hacking them, attempting to rob information from the device and using it for ulterior motives, however they are designed with an auto destruction mode in case of hacking or death and their towers were heavily protected by troops from each clan.

Usually their sizes were similar to that of an old cellphone.

On one side there’s a knob, remarkably similar to what DJs back in the day used on their mixing boards. It acted as a switch between the different modes the glass recorder could be set on, them being Vitals, Information and Hologram. And on the other side there was a touchscreen, where vitals could be read and holograms could be activated.

There was also an XBS dock entrance on one side of the device. It was mostly used by the law enforcers by transferring any new information about an individual from their archives to the glass recorder, whether it was good or bad.

All of that information, including marital status, first degree relatives, occupation, date of birth and allergies could be found on information mode.

On vitals, details were given about their current health status and the sound of their heartbeat could be played.

And finally on hologram mode, you could see a three-dimensional scale of the owner’s body, making it easier to check for injuries or if any internal damage had been taken.

Besides glass recorders, communication had jumped back to messaging via written letters or oral messages sent via a messenger.

Any vehicles that had existed on the face of earth, had been overhauled.

Updated to cater to the usage it now provided to the arid ground.

Motorcycles, cars, buses, trucks and ships, all modified.

Additional exhaust pipes, thicker tires, dust shields, dredging machinery, artillery and artillery holders, were examples of things you had seen being mounted on different transports, including aircrafts.

As for yourself, you lived in a colony that had been forced to be part of one of the major 4 clans, The Jeon Clan.

The Jeon clan was strong, the Jeon clan was powerful, the Jeon clan was feared, the Jeon clan was blinded by its greed, the Jeon clan stood above everyone and if you refused their ways, then you refused living.

That’s how your small clan ended up under their command.

It was common to hear stories as an infant about how the Jeon clan conquered. They always portrayed the glorious stories of how leader -Jeon the 1st-  had tirelessly battled large creatures and evil men to save small clans from their miserable lives, however in each capsule each family shared the story with their offspring as they remembered it best.

Meaning some stories were wonderful, while others were resentful memories and stories of how their clans had been forced to change their ways or how they had lost loved ones to the Jeon reign.

You were only 7 when it all happened.

You remember it so clearly, it felt like you were reliving it each time.

_

You stood in the middle of the large hangar, eyes searching left and right for your father.

Men and women ran all around, either towards shelter or towards the battle zone.

A military truck’s engine roared in the background, yet you couldn’t figure out which of the twenty something trucks near you had been brought to life.

You frantically ran in the opposite direction. You needed to find him, you needed to convince him not to go.

Running as fast as your short legs could take you, you tightly held on to the glass recorder in your hand.

Tears started prickling your eyes the longer it went without you being able to find him.

Two NSTV vehicles sped past you, swiftly followed by a caravan of men on choppers, armed to the teeth.

Luckily none of them seemed to be your father.

You were getting desperate.

All he had done was left a note on your bed with his glass recorder.

“My beautiful cyberflower, I love you so much. And because I love you, I must defend you. Papa might not be back for a while, but he will make sure that if he doesn’t come back at all, it is because he was able to create a better place for you to live in."

He promised he would never go, that he would stay no matter what.

That he wouldn’t do the same thing your mom did.

Leaving you behind was never the solution. You preferred having them both and figuring everything else out later than having none of them and still being lost.

Why was it so easy for them to leave you behind…?

You didn’t notice you had dropped to your knees, you didn’t notice the tears that cascaded from your face and you certainly didn’t notice how your mourning wail had halted all activities under the hangar.

All frozen in place, no one in the building could figure out why. How could the desperate cry of a child send shivers down their spine? How could it express without mistake, their inner thoughts and feelings.

They felt the grief and pain of having to put their lives on the line to give their loved ones a better future.

A future that should have been granted to them, but the Jeons thought differently.

Yet, your clearest memory from that day was the tight embrace that pulled you out of your dazed state.

The embrace that told you that even if everything didn’t turn out as you wanted, he would be there to walk you through it.

He would be there with that bright smile of his that cleared away all of your cloudy days.

_

A rundown metallic shed stood at a distance, it was probably used in the past by troops as a hideout, yet for several solars it had been a place you used for solace.

The location gave you a quiet place to think, a quiet place to run away to when everything got too hectic at the colony, a place to yell out of frustration. It was your place -even if it was on enemy’s territory.

However, today said shed felt smaller, its tall walls choking you, suppressing your lungs, no calm remained in it as the words that dropped from your lover’s mouth bounced from wall to wall. The echo made you feel like the words were mocking you by constantly repeating what he said.

"I must go, and you must stay.”

You knew you had heard word of people in the colony joining forces with others near you, to topple the Jeon clan.

Nonetheless, you figured it was just tittle-tattle.

Yet here you are standing in the middle of the building, right in front of your lover, who is spewing the same nonsense your father did so many solara ago.

"Is this a joke? ‘Cause I’m not laughing…"

You saw his hands clenched into fists in annoyance, he tried holding in his feelings, yet the frustrated sigh that left his lips sold him out quickly.

Deep down he knew you wouldn’t take the news lightly, that you would want to accompany him on this journey as well or avoid the whole thing in general. But if he let you, if you came along, his departure would have no meaning. He was leaving for you. He thought you would be more rational.That the conversation would last less than a fraction of a solar, but he stood corrected.

"I can’t stay here on my own. You can’t leave me just like that.” You were distraught. Your eyes searched for his, yet his gaze remained on the door you had used moments ago to enter the shed.

You needed to bring his mind back to you, to the present where you both still remained, you needed to keep him away from thoughts of the unknown future and the doom that could be.

Why was he trying to be person number three on your mourning list?

Your eyes remained on his, yet your fingers occupied themselves trying to find his glove-covered ones, the action making him look down at your entwined fingers.

His eyes seemed to soften at your actions and that alone helped you breathe easier. Deep down you knew that you had to stay back and wait for him, it would be the safest place for you, the colony was your home, but the news he dropped on you like a bucket of cold water had your common senses frozen.Why would he want to leave you so suddenly?

Maybe he no longer wanted this, maybe you were too much, maybe that promise he made solars ago about walking the path with you was too heavy and too much of a burden…

“You must stay, for me,” He said, “and for them.” His eyes dropped to your stomach, his free hand caressing the bump that had started forming not long ago.

“Hoseok…please…” You had to try at least one more time. If he still was that warrior at heart that you had once met, then he was certain to leave even with you crying rivers.

“I must go, my love. I have to be a part of this fight that will give our family the freedom that they deserve. The freedom that WE deserve.” His eyes glossed over, yet not one tear abandoned his eye. He was sure of his decision and nothing could stop him now.

“You don’t have to… A lot of men are already there."

"And I am sure they also have families and other reasons to be there. I will lend them a hand and they shall lend me one. We will fight for a better life and world, a better place to raise our offspring, a better place to grow old.” At this point in conversation, his eyes are boring into yours, yet there is no anger towards you. Only love, strong, heated, unwavering, caring and passionate love. There was certainly no way for you to fight against that.

For a split second, his eyes left yours, and you followed the movements of his left hand. Carefully, he pushed his hand into his pocket, retrieving a device that you were very familiar with.

His glass recorder.

“I- I can’t."

"It’s the only way for you to know my status… and if it ever comes to worse, you’ll know not to wait for me any longer.” He said as he placed it in your hand.

“Please stop talking like you are a dead man already!"

"Y/n-” You interrupted him mid-sentence. You were blabbing now. All your thoughts and fears spilling out at once.

“No! I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want you to go! I want you here with me, with our babies. If you tell the Chief he will let you stay. We are expecting! I can’t lose you; you are walking to your grav-"

"Y/N!” His sudden yell made you flinch, but nonetheless, you looked him in the eyes, only to find them filled with tears. Filled with fear but determination as well.

He was always like this, a young man with a mission. Fire in his eyes, determined to make this world a better place, even if it scared him to the core. He always said…

“There is no better way to deal with fear than to walk right over it…” Those stupid words he repeated everyday since you were 7. “This is me walking all over it. This is me putting you -putting them over my fear of what may be."

"I love you."

"And I love you, my beautiful cyberflower.” His hand grabbed yours, slowly bringing each one of them to his face and kissing your knuckles and palms softly.

“I’ll always return to you."

And so, you watched him ride his chopper towards the horizon.

His silhouette quickly disappeared in the darkness of the night.

Even though the light of the moon shone brightly, it felt dark around you, as if your clouds had returned with the sole departure of his bright smile.

Your hand squeezed the device he left behind, your grip getting stronger the further he drove and now you really wondered, "How is it so easy for everyone to leave me behind?"

150 solars and 149 lunars went by, yet nothing had changed.

Since the day Hoseok had left, your days consisted of nothing but worrying, eating, and visiting the shed.

An old steel bench was set outside of the old metallic building and just like any other day you’d visited, you sat on the edge of it, contemplating life and hoping today was the day Hoseok would return to you as he had promised.

As time flew by, you added this day to the list of other ones where your lover didn’t return and although you tried to remain as positive as possible, you couldn’t stop thinking about why life was so cruel? Why did any of you have to live through this? It certainly wasn’t fair. No one deserved to be forced to choose death if they didn’t choose what someone else wanted.

Since your great-grandparents’ days, the future was supposed to be glorious, beautiful, and bright. Technology was supposed to make everything better. But somehow it all turned to worse.

Pride, arrogance, and selfishness had created the horrible world that you now lived in.

People lost their lives as an exchange for a promise they never received.

They fought battles to free people who were slaves to their own fears and now this was the consequence of all that was done. What a sad life to live. What a horrible life to live.

You rubbed your stomach feeling your bump as it continued to grow. Time doesn’t stop for anyone, is what they say and your clear example is how close you are to being due.

The walk back to your clan’s colony was an easy 10-minute walk that could turn mortal if taken while distracted, hence you carried a machete in your boot.

Once you set foot on your colony’s official territory, you swiftly made your way to your family home capsule, ready to wash off the sorrow and go to bed as you would wait for the next solar to come.

Sadly for you, that hope disappeared the second you made eye contact with someone you didn’t wish to see at the moment.

His eyes caught yours and you saw a mix of emotions: sorrow, understanding, relief and worry, all conveyed to you in a single glance.

You knew what was to come, it was always the same dialogue, but you didn’t want to do this today.

Today you felt drowned, disappointed, you could feel that dark cloud that loomed over your head enlarging day by day.

"You know it’s not s—”

“Save it, Namjoon. I’m not a chil—"

“—But you are a carrying woman, who is walking carelessly to a place where no one can or will follow you.”

“I am not carele—”

“Y/N, shut up for once and put this through your thick skull!! Hendra is enemy territory!!”

And with that he left to his own family capsule, stomping all the way to the door and slamming it closed.

For the first time, you felt different and maybe it had something to do with the fact that Namjoon and your argument didn’t end in the usual monotonous sermon he always gave you, where he remained calm all the way and you rolled your eyes in annoyance.

The funny part about the entire thing was that you were cousins, and your family capsules were right beside each other, so you were sure you’d have to see his sour expression the following day.

Finally in your own capsule - the one you used to share with Hoseok, you took that shower that you daydreamed about and headed to your room.

Just like every night, you muted your room to the outside world, opting to listen to the broadcast of your beloved’s heartbeat.

It was the only thing that helped you sleep at night and somehow you felt as if it pacified the two progenies in you.

You didn’t know when or how it happened, but eventually 365 solars had gone by.

365 solars since the day of his departure and you weren’t getting any better at being without him.

You were now a mother of two. A dawn and a dusk. One born in the early morning and one almost 12 hours later.

So, you gave them names that matched their arrivals to this world, Dawn and Dusk.

All times prior to that day, you felt that once they arrived, there would be this large turning point in your life. That once you had someone who depended on you, your days would start to shift into something brighter, yet somehow, even after the arrival of your children, you felt almost no difference, bordering on saying that you might even felt worse.

Their faces were the perfect mix of your deoxyribonucleic acid and his. Two different beings creating harmony in the body of two newer ones.

Their father had left to give them a better future but, in the process, he had left a broken family behind. It felt incomplete and hollow and somehow you envied the blissful ignorance that your infants currently lived in. Not able to understand the sorrowful life that currently surrounded them.

Another 365 solars went by.

You still listened to Hoseok’s heartbeats every night. The glass recorder remaining as your sole companion in addition to your —now— toddlers.

The night remained quiet. You could barely hear the murmur of voices from the capsule near yours. If you were right, you were sure it was Namjoon and his wife, discussing the plan for retrieving meals for the clan the following morning.

You shifted on the foam mattress that only reminded you more of him. A very faint and almost gone notion of his scent wafting up from what used to be his pillow.

From afar you watched the two small bodies –lying on the second mattress in your room— inhale and exhale deep in their slumber.

They had —just like you— fallen asleep to the beat of the heart of a stranger you placed in front of them and made them call him father.

You loved them, every bit of them. Would do anything for them not to suffer, and maybe just then, in that moment, you understood a bit of Hoseok’s reasoning.

You toss and turn all of a sudden jerking awake from your slumber. You could not recall when you had fallen asleep, so your mind remained disoriented for a short minute, trying to grasp your surroundings. Your heavy eyes roamed around the room, picking up on every detail, the babies were still asleep, the clock read 3AM and the glass recorder wasn’t beating…

THE GLASS RECORDER WASN’T BEATING!

Violently, you pulled the sheets off your body, grabbing the device as soon as your hands were close enough to grab it.

“Why are you not beating? Why are you not broadcasting? What the fu—”

And it hit you like a train… but you didn’t believe it, you couldn’t believe it.

You shook it and twisted the knob and switched it to hologram mode, but it wasn’t working and you didn’t know what to do, your hands were shaking, your thoughts were jumbled…

“This can’t be happening.”

And when a fake solar illuminated your mind, you quickly turned around to plug it in to your old computer, however, the universe had other plans for you and without announcement the device cracked.

You watched it crack little by little, extending all around the recorder, slowly marking the beautiful device with horrible lines that marked its ending, it didn’t stop until it was no longer graspable and all that was left behind was crystal dust in your cupped hands.

You didn’t hear when Namjoon and his wife entered your room or when your kids were taken out of there. Your sobs alerting 3 capsules nearby of the sorrowful occurrence of the night.

It was the worst type of Deja Vu, because just like your mother and father, you’d never see him again…

“Hoseok…”  

Thank you so much for reading part one of this 2 shot! Hopefully it didn’t scare you off for part 2!