#he told them if shit goes south they should leave him because they are young and deserve to experience the world fully
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Keyrin the man you are
#art#my art#artists on tumblr#dnd#dnd art#dnd character#dnd elf#dnd pirate#digital art#pirate oc#heâs my favorite npc Iâve made#heâs so pathetic dad coded#met the party after experiencing the horrors for twenty years and he reluctantly asked them for help because#they are all so young?? all under thirty and have been through so much??#he told them if shit goes south they should leave him because they are young and deserve to experience the world fully#the battle went great tho except for the fact that Keyring might not survive#weâll see next session#campaign: fey farers
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all i do is wait - kdy
All I Do Is Wait | So Close
†summary: one day, kim doyoung was alive. the next, he wasnât. he left you and the world too soon, but he made a promise: to look out and wait for you until the very end.
†pairing: doyoung x female reader
†word count: 22.7k
†genre: angst (so much longing), major slow burn, fluff (if you squint really well), slight unprotected smut (not my forté) | ghost!doyoung, hotel del luna!au, slight college!au, 40s to 90s!au (loads of flashbacks)
†warnings: death, grief, explicit language, sexism (screw the patriarchy omfg), mentions and scenes of alcohol, drinking, smoking, war, unplanned pregnancy, childbirth, and abortion, ghost possession of humans (in like one scene only tbh)
†playlist: fly away with me by nct 127 | all about you by taeyeon | doll by baekhyun and doyoung | give you my heart by iu | wait by exo | like a fool by nive and sam kim | falling by harry styles | lovers by anna of the north | fallingforyou by the 1975 | you are the sunshine of my life by stevie wonder
†long authorâs note: minors, beware of the warnings! i highly recommend you watch the kdrama beforehand so you would understand the universe, even if majority of the characters are from my imagination. i also did some prior historical research. though there are inaccuracies, this story is just fiction. importantly, i donât own the hotel del luna series; they serve as the main inspiration but with some of my twists. iâm also bit rough with writing lately, so thereâs also room for improvement. overall, prepare your heart.
i cried so much in the process.
italicized texts symbolize conversations in a dream call. *wink* *wink*
†gif above not mine, ctto!  leave me some feedback, constructive criticism or hellos!
After all decades of waiting, itâs finally time.
As a soul still wandering in the living world, Doyoungâs options were limited. To peacefully go ahead into the afterlife or wait for his lover by working in the hotel for ghosts until she passed.
Heâd chosen the latter, the betrayal he felt from the deities to have gone so soon.
And leave you behind.
But first, letâs take a trip down Doyoungâs journey; life, death, and after it.
1948
Kim Doyoung came from a well-off family. He was a university student, taking up journalism as a pre-law course. He wanted to right the wrongs and let justice prevail. Blessed by his privilege, he wanted to be of service to others who cannot afford it.
Both of you crossed paths at a university in Busan as seatmates. Right after the South Korean constitution granted womenâs rights to education, immediately you aimed high and applied for the top universities in the city. After being homeschooled and self-studying under the books, the opportunity to go to an actual school was like a dream come true especially when you received acceptance letters from all of them.
Your first impression of him was that he was moody and quite snobby. When you politely asked him once if you can take a peek at his notes because you lost track of the professorâs lecture, he refused with an annoyed glare.
âYou should try harder then.â You nodded in gratitude anyways, taking those words to encourage you. Though it still stung.
When classes that day concluded, you were so ready to return to the womenâs dorm and take a breather from men. Since you were far from your village, maybe you would give a call to your father, your mentor all your life to seek his guidance on your professorsâ lessons. Once you found your bike and placing your books on the basket in front, a light tap on your shoulder caught you off-guard and almost made you topple over.
âOh, sh-â
âOh my, Iâm sorry for scaring you like that.â
When you directed your body to the source, it was none other than Kim Doyoung. He removed his blazer from class, resting it on his arm. He wore these suspenders and leather loafers, sporting the rich, preppy boy look. His eyes looked softer, apologetic by the way he gave a slight pout.
âI wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier. It was rude of me to shun you like that.â
Unfortunately, it was rare to find young men like him to own up to their mistakes When youâre the only woman in that class, the majority of the boys are either snickering with judgment at your presence.
âWomen are only meant to stay at home.â
âSheâs weak. She wonât last here with the deep, legal terminologies the professors use.â Those insults arenât new to you.
Doyoung seemed like a plot twist in the social narrative. You were surprised, to say the least, yet relieved.
âOh, itâs okay. Considering I interrupted you from listening to the professor, I couldâve waited after class or as you said, study harder.â You accepted.
Doyoung still felt awful for his attitude, fiddling his briefcase. He struggled to express himself through words, understanding why many had this impression of him being cold. If he were to be honest, his actual initial impression of you was that you were hardworking and resilient, setting a new example of the modern woman. He thought that being too soft on you in class may look degrading, thus his statement from the class was just him treating you the same way as other boys who donât study hard enough. Unfortunately, it backfired completely.
As a man who grew up with the belief to always pay respect to everyone without discrimination, he had to make it up to you somehow.
âItâs still wrong of me to say that to you, (Y/N). So-â He trailed on, opening his case to bring out one of his notebooks. Without hesitating, he handed it to you. âI took as many notes from the lecture on fallacies here. If thereâs any way I can help you in the future, Iâm more than willing to help you.â
This newfound kindness from a boy in this patriarchal university may be the silver lining in your current stay. You werenât too sure if you would get a chance like this in the coming years, so you gladly took it. Noticing the engraved âK.DYâ on the lower right side of it, which were his initials, itâs easy to identify that he was rich. But his attitude was different than the others.
Placing it carefully in the front basket, you steadied your body to the handles and pedals of the bike. âThank you for this, Doyoung. I will return it to you as soon as possible.â
Knowing he was of help to you, he flashed a gummy smile. âNo problem, (Y/N). If you want, we can review it before class too just in case the professor gives another surprise quiz.â
You let out a laugh, being reminded of your horrified face on a previous surprise quiz in the past. âOh god, I flunked that quiz! Damn him.â
Ever since that conversation, itâs where your friendship started.
Going to university became more enjoyable and less daunting, having Doyoung defend you from other boys (even if youâve told him so many times that you can handle it). After you found out that Doyoungâs status was more elite than you assumed, a lot of boys wouldnât want to try and test him since their family lines would be at risk. You had a better focus on your academics, and if it werenât for you, other girls attending university with you wouldâve never thought women students would befriend the men. You were the shift in the narrative.
As lucky as you are to have a female support system in the patriarchal university, you found yourself always hanging out with Doyoung. He was filled with so much compassion in his heart and there were beliefs that you both surprisingly shared in your conservative society, deepening your bond. One of them was the sexist view of women as low-status people. He told you one time that thinking that way is like thinking his loving mother is undeserving of things in life. Itâs an unacceptable concept, he added. You even met his mother at some point, and sheâs a sweetheart.
Another was having the frustration towards those who shame on women who want to study and learn rather than to submit to the power of men so early in their lives.
âIâm so sick of people telling me to stop studying and settle down with some random boy. Thereâs just so much to learn out here!â You complained. It was one hot weekend that time, and you were both relaxing under the shade of a big tree by a flowing river. That spot is hidden, thus claiming it as your spot. Doyoung leaned by the tree reading while you rested on his lap. At this point, youâve grown very comfortable with him. Doyoung sighed, putting his book to discuss his thoughts.
âAgreed. You seriously deserve so much better, (Y/N). People today just donât get it.â
Huffing away that stress, your head tilted to get a better view of Doyoung.
âDoyoung, do you think things will get better for women in the future?â He admired your hopefulness in times of trouble. Stroking your hair to soothe you, he gave a positive reply.
âIf we keep fighting for it, then weâll progress. So letâs not give up, okay?â Your heart couldnât help but leap.
As he looked at you with blooming flowers from the tree in the background, it was a matter of time where your initial feelings for him diverted into something more. The concept of butterflies in your stomach was only introduced to Doyoung in novels, but he wondered if itâs the exact feeling he was getting from you. From your intelligence to your sharp tongue to fight back the rude boys, the list goes on all the traits that he liked about you.
Weeks later, the questionable status of your friendship changed after he unexpectedly kissed you for the first time while stargazing at your special spot. It caught you off guard at first as your lips froze, him pulling away immediately. He rubbed the nape of his neck out of embarrassment, struggling to maintain eye contact with you.
âOh shit. Iâm so sorry, (Y/N). I screwed up everything, didnât I?â
As much as the heat in your cheeks increased, you couldnât deny that you liked it. Youâre bold enough to do it again.
âNope,â you shook your head at him. âKiss me again, Doyoung.â
Like a movie, the first snow of the season drizzled down on the two of you.
Feeling braver, he leaned forward again to meet your lips again. You may not be experienced physically since it was your first, but thatâs what all those romance novels youâve browsed through are for. Forget the fireworks, people would compare the ideal kiss. It was more like everything paused so this moment can run on its momentum. Lips still locked, Doyoung gripped your waist so you can sit on his lap. As the friction intensified, his lungs needed to breathe for a second. Pulling away slowly, it was an opportunity to take a good look at you. Flustered, messy hair, swollen lips, he wouldâve never known that the feelings were mutual.
âFirst kiss under the first snow? I wouldnât have it any other way.â
1950
Dating Doyoung gave you the best two years of your life. Heâd bike with you to your spot, recommend you new books to read, cook for you when youâre too lazy to at the dorm, and take you around the city he was ever so familiar with.
âOh câmon, letâs try this out!â
You dragged his arm to this new contraption that can take your photos in a flash. This was at an annual city fair, your first time to attend one. Because your small village couldnât cater to these kinds of events, you beamed with excitement with all the amusement outlets such as rides, games and more. All Doyoung wanted was to eat and play few games, then return. He wasnât much for photos, but because it was your first, he decided to go for it. Two people couldnât fit the cushion, so you settled on his lap. One arm wrapped behind his neck, you inserted a few coins to activate the machine.
âSo we have a few seconds before it starts, so you better smile, okay?â He ordered you based on the instructions of the machine.
The first shot was matching grins, the second showed your bright smiles, the third let your creativity wild with silly expressions, and the last was him pecking your cheek unexpectedly. The authentic surprise was captured.
âLetâs take another one so you can have a copy.â You insisted, searching through the small pockets of your purse for more coins.
â(Y/N), itâs okay. I donât want-â He was cut off by the machine activating again as your coins entered inside.
âToo late, smile!â The first shot almost caught Doyoung in a frenzy, but he pulled it off with an open smile. The second expressed your laughter from your slyness, him sporting crinkled eyes when you let your tongue out and placed your hands near the temples of your head to mock him. To sort out your playfulness, Doyoung surprised you by grabbing your wrists to place them back on his shoulders. Without a breath, one free hand tugged you closer and his lips shut you up. You deepened your kiss by leaning forward and fisting the hems of his buttoned-up top. Kissing back was natural, not caring where you were and if the camera snapped your moment of intimacy. Doyoung always liked taming you with his kisses. You didnât mind making out for a bit in the booth if it werenât for the loud knocking from the side put a stop to your risquĂ© antics.
âYah! Take your making out session someplace, other people are waiting outside!â
The both of you could care less, laughing mid-kissing at the disturbance youâve caused. Itâs a thing when youâre young and in love, perhaps. Eventually, innocent kisses ignited an invitation to his bed.
âIâve never done this before, but I want to do it with you.â You gave your full consent, laying on his soft bed in your undergarments. His entire family went on vacation, so you took advantage of it.
The way he crawled on top of you, his slender hands spreading your legs wide open like another novel waiting to be unraveled. Erotica was a genre you never explored, but Doyoung finds it as his guilty pleasure. Who wouldâve known that the most prestigious, gentleman-like man of the university found amusement in sex? His lingering touches intoxicated your entirety, allowing him access. His tongue did you wonders, releasing these sensations youâve never known was possible. Tugging on his hair as he passionately devoured your core for the first time, this knot in your core unwound and your vision went white for a split second. This rush of pleasure and exhaustion filled your veins, yet you craved more.
That night, giving each other your virginities, marked the first time you declared your love for each other.
Though there are times when dating wasnât easy either, having prying eyes around you with judgment and the unavoidable stress from university, youâd sort things out in the end. After all, itâs in fights and arguments where you learn more about each other and grow from it.
If someone asked you to settle down already, Doyoung is the first candidate for your hand. Youâve sent letters to your parents talking about him and met his family.
âYouâre the only girl who softens him up in this society of uptight men.â His mother whispered when you helped her wash the dishes after dinner.
As much light he brought to your life those two years being together, it turned into the worst and something questionable when the Korean war began.
You vividly remember the day Doyoung admitted to you his enlistment in the South Korean army. It was mandatory for men his age to serve. His dream to pursue law was to be put on hold, especially when schools were closing down. Though heâd try to confide with himself that serving in this war is another way to help his country, his nationalism outweighed his fear of death. Just as long as it brings them closer to a better tomorrow, he was willing.
Unfortunately for you, you were terrified shitless because again, itâs a war. If your childhood wasnât enough to recall all those painful emotions from the past world war, you didnât know what would. Being able to survive is a miracle, so there was no way you would let Doyoung go. The ignorance you gave towards him to protect your heart, moving to your aunt and uncleâs home in the same city after the university suspended classes since going back to the village was a big struggle.
So many villages have been bombed already, increasing your anxiety. All you hoped now was to be reunited with your family safely. Itâs a good thing though they already left as soon as they could and are on their way to the city. One normal day while you were teaching your younger cousins how to read, there was a knock on the front door. Since your aunt was busy cooking dinner, you took charge to open it in hopes youâll find your family on the other side.
However, it was none other than that someone you still couldnât face just yet. He wore the familiar dark green uniform with black combat boots, his fluffy hair fully shaved even itâs covered by his hat. By the dirt on his face, he mustâve trained earlier that day. With a heavy backpack behind him, heâs on his way somewhere but you didnât know where. You closed the door behind you so you can speak to him privately.
âWhat are you doing here, Doyoung? How did you find me?â
âI knew you didnât want to talk for a while, so I gave you space. But today, I found out that Iâm going to be stationed in Seoul tomorrow.â
Seoul was where most of the war was happening. Your heart was shattered.
âSo I went to your dorm, but your roommate told me you moved out and gave me this address here.â He answered honestly with this new burden to top it off, not having the courage to look you in the eyes to avoid crying. âI needed to see you, (Y/N).â
âDoyoung,â within those times of separation, you re-evaluated if running away from him was the right choice. Even if he tried to convince you of the good things about being in the army, everything always comes at a price. War meant his life was uncertain daily. You just wanted him to yourself, to stay by your side, to help out in the war in other ways, but it would be selfish to stop him from his goals. So you gently embraced him, making him drop his bag to the side. With extreme fear comes your soft whimpers against his chest. Rather than running away so fast, you shouldâve mustered all those remaining bits of courage to spend it with him. He must be feeling terrified too.
âIâm just scared for you. War doesnât guarantee anything. Us surviving world war two is still miraculous.â Doyoung winced at your truthful words as he returned that embrace. There go his tears that he shed almost every night since he told you about his enlistment.
âI had no choice, (Y/N). My family and I would be in big trouble if I didnât follow orders.â
âI know. Iâm sorry I ran away, Doyoung.â You continued to sob as you feel him stroke your hair from behind. He knew well that it was one way to calm you down.
âIf only we didnât live in harsh times like this.â He sighed, longing for the same thing. He cursed whoever decided to make him exist during a painful time. He would trade anything for a more peaceful life.
âStay here for the night, please.â You pleaded, not wanting to waste any more time.
Your relatives were aware of your relationship, allowing such a request. They trusted you enough to sleep in the same room, knowing all too well the struggles of being love during times like this.
Neither of you held back from the tension that crept into the room. This time, you led him through the first kiss while his body laid flat on the cushion bed. On top, straddling him fully. Leaving him soft kisses on his neck while teasingly unbuttoning his pajama shirt, your fervent lips trailed from his neck, lowering to his sculpted abdomen, until you reached the waistband of his pajama pants.
Only in books did you learn about how to please men, so this may be the only time you can test it out. Doyoung stiffened on your soft kisses on his hard-clothed member, glancing him seductively back and forth when you stuck out your tongue.
âPlease,â He begged, tugging on your hair. âTouch me.â
Your lips wrapped around his tip before gently going lower to your limit, and slowly sucked on it back and forth. Whenever youâd want to catch a breathe, youâd lick the tip teasingly. Doyoung groaned, threading his fingers along with your hair. Heâs so used to be a giver that receiving these sensations by you beats his hand. It was heavenly, yet so vulgar. The way you swallowed his cum rather than spitting it out even if the taste wasnât favorable, you were too much in a daze to process how sudden he switched positions. While you sprawled devilishly under him, your fingers looping on his dog tag necklace to bring him lower for a kiss while feeling two of his fingers go under your panties to teasingly play with your slick.
âDonât t-tease...â You stuttered, clenching at how fast he can get you stimulated with his fingers.
The whole night long was consumed with his body against yours, the wet sounds of deep thrusts and muffled moans praising each other. The following morning, your naked bodies remained entangled. He was still in deep slumber when your body clock alarms you to wake up. though you couldnât move when he had his arm around you. The love marks on his chest that youâve made were more exposed when the sunlight hits him, your fingers carefully trailing on it so he wouldnât be startled. He needed all the rest he can get.
If only you can have mornings like this when war wasnât in the equation.
Bidding goodbye was tough. Breakfast was too quiet, just like how he packed his remaining belongings and dressed back to his uniform. You watched him by the patio as he waited for the bus to pick him up. When one finally arrived, he turned around to face you once more. He understood that neither of you wanted to say anything. It would make things harder.
You had to stay strong for him because he was fighting the scarier people. But as he waved goodbye, this was your only exception. Just before he boarded the bus,
âFuck it.â You mumbled to yourself, running to him as your life depended on it.
â(Y/N), what are you-â Doyoung stopped at his tracks, awaiting your sudden move. You shut him up by desperately placing your lips against his, having that a tiny sliver of hope that it wonât be your last. His hands cradled your face while your arms tangled behind his neck.
It wasnât until the annoyed coughs from the bus driver stopped your actions. Patting your dress from crinkling, Doyoung left a kiss on your forehead.
âWait for me, alright? Iâll be back before you know it.â He reassured you.
âFight strong and stay alive, Doyoung. Iâll always be here for you.â
âI love you, (Y/N).â He caressed your cheek one last time, your hand cupping it.
âI love you too, Doyoung.â
Both of you made sure to write to each other, just anything to keep in touch from being apart.
Oh, if only you knew how long youâd have to wait before seeing each other again.
1951
Doyoung was stationed in the infantry division, always staying prepared for the plans his side made and the active attacks started from the enemy side. Heâs lost count of the number of times heâs gotten critically injured and knocked out, but he fought through it with his upcoming plans in mind. How he must fight for the country and stay alive to see the change. How he wanted to have a future with you when everything settles down. It was his motivation every time.
But it took one surprise attack many months later from the enemy side to take it all away. When one of the senior officers was shot, he shielded him without hesitation. All these firing bullets were shot on his back, his legs wobbling from the impact. Due to the non-stop bleeding and lack of urgent medical attention, he painfully lost his life while holding on to his officer.
âPlease tell my lover that I love her and Iâm sorry.â
Those were his last words before he took one final breath and flatlined.
Seconds later, his soul flowed outside his body and froze at the trippy feeling while witnessing different officers and people on the medic team mourn in front of his dead body. Taeyong, one of the people he befriended from the medic team, tried to wake him repeatedly.
âDoyoung, please donât joke around. Wake up, please.â
Even if he knew it was hopeless, he did his best to the point his entire team had to pull him away from his best friendâs lifeless body.
âNo, he needs to live! He has a family, big dreams, and a girl waiting back in Busan!â He sobbed in his chest. Out of all the people he tried to resuscitate, Doyoung was the first friend that he came across on this occasion. Doyoung ached at this vulnerable sight, wanting so badly to be by his side. With these surprise attacks, death is more prevalent than ever.
âKim Doyoung?â An unfamiliar voice called for him from behind. He spun around to find one woman in war uniform, though heâs never encountered her in the field, and a man in all black.
âWho are you?â
âIâm Manwol, and heâs the grim reaper. I believe you just died a few minutes ago, correct?â
The truth was piercing to accept, glancing at his lifeless body on the side with Taeyong and another close friend he made, Jungwoo, crying his heart out.
âAre you going to take me already?â He asked.
âUnless you still have things you want to accomplish in the living world, then you can freely go to the other side.â The grim reaper answered monotonously, very much used to this question.
âFrom the looks of it, you have a lot you want to do still,â Manwol observed from afar, all too familiar with the feeling. âIf you come with us, I can help you accomplish them.â
If something stayed with Doyoung until his last breath, it was his skepticism with the supernatural. He was unsure if he can trust them because according to the books, once youâre dead, thatâs it. Itâs up to the people around him to speak good or bad of him.
âYouâre uncertain with our intentions, arenât you?â Manwol easily read through his stoic expression. âYouâll be surprised with how many things can debunk from the books if you let us, Doyoung.â
For the first time, Doyoung had no clue what and where to go next. No one wrote a book on how to act like a cold, wandering soul. His dreams were limited, meaning he has to find new ones or tweak them a lot to make it possible. Despite her reserved nature, he figured that Manwol looked like someone who knows what sheâs talking about. With the grim reaper heâs read in childrenâs books, he wasnât as frightening as he was portrayed.
This was his last shot.
âGuide me, please.â
The car ride alone there was messy and bumpy since it was peak war season. He wasnât the only person who lost their life that night and riding in the vehicle. He recognized a few of them. It was saddening to find the playful Donghyuck, his youngest companion, beside him.
âI sacrificed myself to protect two unarmed nurses in the medic tent when some enemy soldiers charged inside.â
Another was the wise Taeil, who was stationed by the barracks. He was one of the people in the front of in line for battle.
âI thought they were fooling with us, and then suddenly fired multiple attacks. I caught on to it quickly, but they still got me.â
Doyoung remembered all those times he used to ask for love advice from him when it grew hard to be far from you. But that advice is no longer useful when heâs further away from you. He was dead, you werenât.
Once the three of them arrived at their destination, it was an inn that looked destroyed from the outside, but very organized on the inside. Donghyuck and Taeil decided already what they wanted to do before they cross the other side. Doyoung, on the other hand, was still contemplating.
Manwol knew well how to spot a heartbroken person, being one herself. She wasnât one to interfere with these affairs, but maybe sheâd make an exception. Seeing right through him, he lived a fruitful life. She saw his sacrifice, picking up on his last words being dedicated for you, his lover. He didnât die in vain.
When the two men were off to follow their plans, Manwol took this chance to approach the downcast man again.
âIs something you holding you back from goingâŠâ She questioned, staying by his side for a moment. ââŠor a special someone?â
âI promised my lover to fight strong and to stay alive while she promised to keep waiting for me. But here I am. She has yet to know that I didnât make it and I canât bear to see her in utter pain.â
âDeath during a war isnât new, Doyoung. A lot of promises become broken.â
âBut I had so much I wanted to do with her after, Manwol. I canât just leave her yet, I want to stay by her side even if we canât see each other physically.â
Based on the information Manwol received about Doyoung from the inn staff, it came to her attention that he was fond of books. Thus, it gave her an idea.
âDoyoung, youâre very similar to the staff here. They all have goals that take years to accomplish, so I gave them a job here.â
âWhat are you offering me then, Manwol?â
âI have a library here in dire need of a librarian. With your interest in books, would you like to take it? After all, Iâm implying that youâd want to wait for your lover to make up for your broken promise.â
Doyoung canât deny that she was wrong. This was where his journey at Manwol Inn (then became Hotel Del Luna) started. Time worked a little bit differently as a ghost, but itâll be worth it until you return in his arms one day.
On the day you regrettably received the letter from the military about the tragedy, life has turned for the worst. Upon seeing a soldier by your front step, it was only an innocent habit to give him letters for Doyoung and receiving new ones. However, his hand halted you to hand over a military logo imprinted envelope addressed to you alongside his tidy military uniform other letters from Doyoung.
His last letters.
You had no courage to even complete reading it when the first few lines werenât enough to taunt you. Nothing could prepare for this dreaded moment.
âWe regret to inform you that a report from the war office has confirmed that Kim Doyoung was a casualty of the sudden attack of Seoul. this letter formally declares that he was killed in action....â
Dropping the god-forsaken letter in your hands, you instantly locked yourself in your room. Your parents, who picked it up to read, came running to your door and tediously knocking for you to open it. But you didnât listen, the heartbreak being too grave.
You tried so hard to keep it together these past months. but this kind of grief resulted in your feeble figure pouring into a heap of salty tears and loud sobs. Your back against the wall smoothly slid down until your butt landed on the floor. You clutched on to your gut that continuously stabbed you back and forth.
Betrayal was an understatement, yet it was beyond his control. War guarantees nothing.
But not when you needed him more than ever, especially when the biggest yet most unexpected news came upon you. All nausea and wild mood swings in the weeks that followed after he left werenât normal, only to find out that you were expecting his child.
It was a secret you didnât know how to confront through letters because it was best to tell him in person. Due to the situation, it was impossible. Only in your latest letter did you finally come clean about it, but it was now never to be sent because he has already passed away. Your entire family wasnât pleased with this outcome but they didnât shame you for it either. It was your choice and body after all.
They were concerned about how others will perceive you in the long run. An unmarried woman carrying a dead manâs child is taboo in this conservative society. Yet abortion is seen in a bad light too. You were stuck in a double edge sword, but you knew from the beginning that you wanted to keep the child. Itâs a struggle, for sure, and your plans will have to wait.
Amid this bad luck, this unborn child is the last closest piece of Doyoung.
Amongst your unavoidable flow of tears that you knew must be stopped so it wouldnât badly affect your child, you placed a hand on top of your lower belly. There was already an evident swelling bump, but your choice to continue wearing loose clothing to swerve from the publicâs judgment covered it fine.
Well, for now. Only in the last trimester, it was going to be a challenge.
âIâm sorry you wonât be meet your father....â You spoke, rubbing it upwards. â....But Iâll make sure to take good care of you. Youâre all I have left of him.â
Ever since Doyoung accepted Manwolâs offer, he never left his spot at the library. He was amazed at the endless arrangements of books. Even the western books his parents banned him from reading as a child were there. All this entertainment can distract from the long time he has to wait.
Except for today specifically, he asked Jeno, a new friend he made who also lost his life during the Korean war, to take over for a few hours when he found out that mail was to be delivered in Busan.
âHyung, are you sure?â
âI just need to see her, Jeno.â
Doyoung expected the heartache when he saw you cry in your bedroom after finding out, and he couldnât refrain from crying with you. Even as a soul, heâd do anything to cradle you in his arms and say that things will get better in time. How he wanted to tell you to take your time in life and that heâs willing to wait until your time comes. Whenever it could be.
Sadly, he was right there listening to you talk to your unborn child. The disbelief of in his reaction; he was supposed to be a father. Sure, he was relatively young. People wonât approve of it because you were unmarried. But it was an early start to settling down with each other.
It took him a while to accept his unfortunate fate, but for him to be robbed of this meaningful part in life was more unbearable to deal with.
From that point, he made sure to watch over you even if he was invisible. Even if Manwol advised him not to so it wonât complicate anything, he reassured that he has it under control. As a ghost without any grudges, whatâs there to throw a fit at? He could retaliate at the enemy soldiers who shot him fearlessly, but they are nowhere to be found and he had no interest to turn into ashes.
The only time he assisted you was when you were giving birth. It was an excruciating process, sweating and breathing intensely. You let a scream every time you pushed, like any of the herbs or medications you consumed were wearing off. Your body wanted to give up as it weakened at the loss of blood.
Childbirth is no joke, having high mortality rates during these times. It was a tempting choice youâd want to take as Doyoung is no longer alive. But you knew it was selfish to leave your child as an orphan.
Doyoung couldnât withstand watching you struggle anymore. If there was a trick Manwol taught him, it was to possess people. Itâs often portrayed as a negative skill, warning him to only use it when itâs an emergency.
The pitiful way your eyes were drained off energy, he had to step in. Observing the midwife panicking on your side even if she was giving you support, he took his chance to possess her. Adjusting to this body, it made him glad to feel your warm hand again.
â(Y/N), your child is almost here.â The doctor positively announced.
âI want a breather. The grim reaper should just take me.â You complained as your mother wiped the endless drops of sweat on your forehead. Doyoung took it to heart, knowing death firsthand was no joke.
âYah, donât say stuff like that, (Y/N). This child is bound to be an amazing addition to your life.â
You didnât know how your timid midwife would straighten you up, but it motivated you a lot more to finish the process. Little did you know.
She gladly accepted your firm grips on her hand, giving affirmative responses to keep you going. In moments you closed your eyes to push, you couldnât help notice in the corner of your eye how from the physique of your midwife, you swore you saw him. His hand holding yours instead of the midwife.
Was this in the medication? For a moment, you let a tear not from pain but from happiness to catch a glimpse of him in your weakest moment. Every day, you were missing him.
It took almost half an hour before a small set of wails bore in the room while you harshly threw yourself back in the bed to recover your breathing patterns. It knocked you out for a while. Doyoung, still possessing the midwife, was handed the newborn by the doctor and tasked to clean her up.
âItâs a healthy baby girl.â the doctor confirmed as he wiped away the blood on the floor.
He was then brought by your mother to a designated room to bathe the relaxed newborn in his arms.
His newborn.
His desire to phase out of the midwife and use his skill to be visible while holding his child was strong. But itâs too risky since the midwife can catch him. He sucked it up and proceeded in what the books taught him on bathing a baby. During his break time, heâd read all the parenting books he could find. Itâll be rare anyways for him to use the tips, but he always wanted to stay prepared.
As the bubbles of the soap surrounded the relaxed baby, he washed her delicately to avoid her from waking up. He was just mesmerized at how you and he created something so precious. He used to be the type of man to be awkward around kids, but after catering to many children in the library and now his child, it started to change.
âHello there, little one. Your mother needs you, so you better be good to her.â
Ghosts were highly discouraged to make any more emotional connections with the living because theyâll just end up being hurt, making it harder to move on. Exactly what Doyoung is doing was that, and the more he bonded with his daughter, it was a rekindled kind of pain. The kind when you separate family from each other. The same one he felt when he bid his parents good-bye before joining the war, only to never come back.
To top this off, the tiny hand of his sleeping daughter, whom he finally dried off with a small towel and wrapped in a fresh blanket, sleepily grasped on his pinky finger. Technically, it was the midwifeâs, but he was in control.
Nonetheless, the innocent gesture got him both feeling on top of the moon and disheartened at the same time. As he curled it in a silly manner, noticing the size difference, he leaned down to leave a kiss on top of her forehead.
âIâm sorry Iâm going to miss out on your life. But Iâll always be here for you, even if Iâm in the shadows. Donât ever question my love for you. Because I do love you, wholeheartedly.â
Kim Areum.
That was the name you settled with when your daughter was finally in your arms. Itâs ideal to give Doyoungâs last name too because she is half of him. After resting for quite a while, you noticed how the midwife suddenly shook her body and took a loud deep breath when she helped out cleaning the area up.
âAre you okay?â You question, noticing her state of confusion.
âUhm, yeah....â She narrowed her eyes to her environment. âOh wait, you gave birth already? Wow, that was pretty fast...â
âYes, you were right beside me the whole time...â You glanced sideways at her, suspicious.
âOh wow yeah, I was.â She tried to laugh it off. âIt was like I had an out-of-this-world moment or something. Oh whatever, I sound stupid.â
That brought you back to your early doubts. Whether or not he showed up or you were somewhat hallucinating. But not wanting to reflect too much on the impossible, you merely refocused to the peaceful newborn nestled in your arms.
Sheâs the only one keeping you alive in these hard times. She served as a reminder of him, thus youâll hold on to her. From the outside of your window, all Doyoung can do now is to continue watching from afar every once in a while.
1954
Not much has changed in the past few years. You were either reading or taking care of Areum. Your family was lucky enough to have good housing, but getting important necessities such as water and food was a constant struggle.
With the war leading to lots of souls in the inn, he had to fulfill his mandatory orders to prepare souls to move on. He was joyful to be of service to others like he was back in the day.
Though lately, itâs still unavoidable for him to ponder how exactly are you and his daughter are doing. Once Donghyuck and Taeil went ahead for the afterlife, the loneliness began to creep in. Then a while ago, Jeno introduced him to a new group of children today checking out the library. Caught in a deadly car accident on their way home from school, he pitied how such bright kids left the world too soon.
These factors sparked his longing, plus there was still something above that: it was your birthday soon. Much to his luck, Manwol just received a new gift from the deities that might be his biggest help in coping.
âA dream call?â Doyoung inquired once he was summoned by Manwol to the meeting room, sitting across her.
âYes, a call to anyone from the living that you wish to talk to in their dreams. Though this can only be used once per visitor. The deities pitied those with loved ones who want to see them physically. Thus, they invented this.â
âWhat are you implying?â
âDoyoung, you know well how easy I can read people even through their fake smiles. You miss her very much.â Manwol replied, holding up the phone to his ear. âThis is your chance, Doyoung. Even if you canât see them, they will see you.â
The first dream started with you sitting at your old spot by the river, in a simple dress Doyoung bought for you on your last ever birthday celebration with him. The forest looked breathtaking as if it was still pre-war times again. The river was still clear of blood and pollution. It must be spring, the flowers above you on the tree were in full bloom.
The sound of bike wheels stopping to park in the grass and someone humming changed your point of interest. There was the only person in your mind who would do that. Jumping from your seated position, you looked behind the other side of the tree only to find him picking up flowers from the branches. He was tall, not having much difficulty getting them.
The way he looked so peaceful and well-rested. This beauty and peace of mind he radiated, it was unreal.
âDoyoung.â
He clenched on the phone with his hand, his concealed yearning to at least hear his name on your lips again urged a tear to go down his cheek.
âHappy birthday, (Y/N).â
He handed you the flower bouquet he made for you. Meanwhile, he suddenly dropped it when you didnât hesitate to sling your arms around his waist. Your head pressed to his chest, pulling him closer you could care less if you lost your breath. Doyoung felt that tight hug, gripping on the part of his uniform where you placed your head. He rubbed it as if it was your hair.
None of you spoke a word and gracefully paused to take a moment.
Time in a dream call works a bit differently than in the living world. Once youâre in session, one minute alone of talking is equivalent to 30 minutes in the living world.
Doyoung took his first call to catch up with you and say everything he never got to before. It was also where he confessed how he knew about your daughter. There were guilt and regret at how you couldâve told him in your earlier letters.
âYou were scared, (Y/N). Thereâs no way I can blame you.â Laying against his chest, he comforted you. âBy the way, she has your nose, you know.â
There was this wave of relief that splashed you after this big burden lifted. You can live a more untroubled life now.
âShe has your temper though.â You jokingly say, putting you in a fit of giggles. Itâs been too long since you experienced genuine humor.
âAt age 3? Yah, Iâm impressed.â He remarked with pride.
Since Doyoung wasnât capable to be physically affectionate in the dreams, he was more on receiving them from you. In return, he gave sincere conversations even if they were a yearly thing. Talking about your daughter was one of your favorite topics. adolescence, teenage years, to university, there was so much to talk about. Doyoung would only use his dream calls on you on your birthday, making them more meaningful. Each one, you were both back to your twenties with different outfits and settings based on the differing decades.
âDonât you feel burdened to wait for me?â You asked as his fingers brushed some of your hair back while you watched the sunset from a wooden bench.
âNo, Iâm not. there are still many things I want to fulfill before moving on. I also want to watch Areum grow up and help you in any possible. Only when these goals of mine and others are cleared, then Iâll be able to rest well.â
âWill you be okay until then, Doyoung?â
âI broke a promise with you, (Y/N). and I want to make up for it.â
âWhat will you do when my time comes?â Your hand interlocked with his, squeezing it tight even if he couldnât reciprocate it.
âI will shout out your name and hug you tight, my love. But until then, appreciate your life. Live it to its fullest. For me.â
Doyoung sensed your worry but comforted you that itâll be okay. He wasnât lying either when he said he wanted to do a lot of things too. Every dream call, his gut feelings were strong to know what you were going through in every call, giving you any advice to get you through them.
To count, he gave you almost 50 dream calls.
The late 1950s-1960s
After returning to university to finish your undergraduate studies when the war ended, you continued to pursue law school and taking the exams as youâve wanted. But this meant moving to Seoul for better opportunities.
Doyoung celebrated with himself when he found out, not having to take the bus or ride the hotel car to Busan every time he wanted to see you two. Now, he could simply walk back and forth, managing it with his shifts.
Currently, he was taking a break in his office. The deities gifted him with a bunch of murder mystery books from the West, fully immersed in the storylines. Leaning backward from his chair, he was abruptly disconnected by a knock on his open door.
âHyung, you have a special visitor in the lobby.â Jeno urgently informed Doyoung as he leaned on the side of his office door, out of breath. âItâs quite important if you ask me.â
Doyoung removed his reading glasses and put down his novel. Putting back his blazer on, he approached his younger friend and made their way down the hallway together hastily.
âIs it a family member whoâs passed?â He questioned, slightly folding his blazer sleeves then adjusting the hotel pin on his chest pocket. By the tone Jeno spoke, it mustâve been serious. Although thereâs no way it can be you just yet, he has no idea who was looking for him then.
The lobby was bustling with numerous souls. Some still fresh, some just roaming around, while others were preparing to pass the other side. Nothing new to it, until Jeno pointed out a specific scene in one corner of the room.
âHyung, over there.â
Like an obedient puppy, Doyoung looked over to where Jenoâs finger directed. At first glance, by her long black hair, he recognized Manwol, who was kneeling in front of someone seated. It wasnât until she stood up and shifted her body to the side to reveal that someone, patting her young head kindly.
She wore a ribbon on her hair, matching with the colors of her floral dress while carefully holding on to a piece of paper with her drawing. Due to the distance, he couldnât make out what she drew. Though with her dazzling eye smile formed by her small eyes, he knew her too well.
âAreum.â
Right on cue, the young girl caught his entrancing gaze. With the widest smile, she exclaimed âDaddy!â
Manwol, who was right beside her, held her hand and graced their way to Doyoung and Jeno. The two knew she despised children, ordering them to keep a keener eye on them when they wander around so they donât access the hallway leading to her office. Unexpectedly, Areum didnât burden her the slightest. She brought a different aura, a very pure and full of love kind.
With the full moon shining at its peak, becoming present to the eyes of the living, she mustâve spotted the hotel from afar and her interest grew wild for it. Typical for girls her age. Not afraid of the risks, she followed any directions to get here. Coincidentally, she encountered Manwol in the front gate.
Manwol recognized her straight away, even when she glimpsed the drawing of her family she treasured in her chest. She still included her father, whom she was very much acquainted with. Though, she was puzzled by her sudden appearance. When Areum explained that her father lived in the hotel according to your stories, her heart fell to her gut. Indeed, she was right, but again, ghosts are discouraged to have connections with the living or anything related to it. However, her strong senses couldnât disregard how much Doyoung yearned for his family. Lately, his only daughter when numerous children arrived at the hotel. He didnât want to voice it out however because the other staff shared the same sentiments, so it would be insensitive so he just kept it to himself. But Manwol sensed it all too well.
She wonât tell anyone this, but she has quite a soft spot for Doyoung. She empathized with him the most since he came to the hotel, willing to do what it takes to make his coping and waiting worthwhile. She was still brash at times, but only when necessary.
Areumâs presence didnât seem to harm anyone, charming anyone around with a smile and her words. Especially that smile, it shows enough of how much sheâs Doyoungâs daughter. With a rough internal debate, Manwol welcomed her inside the magical hotel Areum described it as and tasked Jeno to call for Doyoung. It was a risk, but a needed one.
With Manwol innocently holding the young girlâs hand, she looked her down and asked her, âIs that your father from your drawing, Areum?â
Areum lit up as she tilted her head upwards to see her tall father, nodding proudly. âYes, thatâs him! The one my mom talks about in her dreams too!â
Doyoungâs heart swelled at her pride for him, not hesitating to kneel to her height. Arms wide open, he loudly called her out for the first time. âAreum!â
The young girl, letting go of Manwolâs hand, ran as fast as her short legs could like nothing can stop her, even if the lobby was packed. Soon enough, sheâs at the grasp of her father, carrying and hugging her in circles. Light as a feather, he took in her scent and warmth. The racing beat of her heart pulsated against his chest, reminding how much life sheâs filled with. It was liberating that she found him, even when he stood behind the dark shadows.
Once he put her back down, âWhat brings you here, Areum? Isnât it past your bedtime already?â
She pouted, sulking at disobeying your rules. âI know, but as soon as I was ready for bed, I saw the hotel in bright lights just like mommy described. She said that only during the peak full moon itâll be shown to very special people who are alive, and it turns out that Iâm one of them, daddy.â
Hearing that title from her lips was something he wouldâve never get sick of. He felt the validity more than ever.
The odds of being a human spotting the hotel during peak full moon was rare, earning perplexed looks by those who donât see it. Doyoung never encountered a human waltzing in the hotel out of the bloom, so for his daughter to have this mystical ability was a gift in disguise. Maybe the deities knew how to cut off some slack and agony for wandering souls. This was an excuse to stop cursing them now and then.
âWow, arenât you a lucky girl for that?â Jeno, whom he forgot was by his side, patted her head similarly to Manwol. âYour father missed you dearly, you know?â
âWell, Mr. Jeno,â She picked up his name from his nametag. âI missed him too.â
Doyoung processed the features of the angelic girl in front of him, astonished at how you and he created someone so cheerful during a time of trouble. Aside from her eye smile, she had his gummy smile and curiosity, while she inherited your nose and intelligence. Cupping her chubby cheek, he pinched it with a cute sound effect from his mouth.
âDaddy!â She protested, slapping his hand away and dramatically covered her reddening cheek. âNot allowed to that, ever.â
Oh, you werenât joking when you said she had his temper too.
Before he could defend himself, Manwol reentered their interaction. Like common sense, Doyoung got back on his feet but helplessly giving side glances to his daughter. Manwol giggled at his sudden formality before instructing Jeno to lead Areum to the carnival room. As Areum waves him goodbye for the meantime, Manwol added on.
âThereâs a rise of kids checking in the hotel, unfortunately, so I wholeheartedly requested the deities to create an area dedicated for child-like fun. Just today, itâs finished in construction so itâs a great place for Areum to explore.â
âManwol, I-â He was feeling overwhelmed, stumbling his words. âWhy did you this for me?â
âYou used your dream calls for (Y/N), but thereâs never been a way for you to reach out to your daughter. And the way her glimmering eyes wanted to come in when she shouldnât, I couldnât refuse a chance for the two to reunite.â
âBut what about the deities?â
âIâll handle it. What matters is that you have tonight to spend with Areum. Itâs the least thing I could do as you are one of my beloved staff,â She reassured, yet looked at him in a downcast manner. âBut as much as possible, everything tonight must feel like a vivid dream to her. Sheâs not allowed to keep any knick-knacks from tonight either.â
Everything always came at a price. Doyoung was acquainted well enough, but he canât lie to say that I didnât ache. Nonetheless, Manwol having such a selfless side was completely new to him. Thatâs why he never asked for favors like the other staff since heâll just get turned down or scolded like a child. Maybe she wasnât as scary as to how they labeled her all these years heâs worked for her.
Manwol took Doyoungâs silence under the impression of internal conflict. In true Manwol fashion, she clapped her hands right in front of his visage, snatching him back to reality. âYouâre wasting time, Doyoung! Donât think about it too much right now. Now come on and dress up more casually, your daughter is waiting for you.â
Following her order, he bowed respectfully before zooming to his hotel room. She was right, he has to enjoy whatever is given. Demanding for more when youâre already dead is disrespectful to the eyes of the deities, considering that alongside your past life when you step into the afterlife.
From his uniform, he changed into a white long sleeve buttoned-up, which was layered under a lilac knit sweater, and black trousers. He styled his hair in a dandier way, applying gel then combing it upwards. He was only following the trends of the decade, basing it on the recently checked-in souls. Deities mustâve liked him a lot to give him a lot of gifts from time to time, making him completely disregard the money from the living world Manwol gives during his off days. Most of the time, his off days are spent either secretly observing you and your daughter, or reading more books in the library.
This one was like a change of scenery, his heart pumping once he exited to the elevator and rushed to the carnival room. And just as he entered the doors, the wave of nostalgia hit him instantaneously. It felt like he was in university again, bringing you around the bizarre contraptions and games for the first time for your amusement. A spark in your romance, so full of young love and naivety of what was to come.
He spotted his young girl wrapped around in the arms of Jeno, explaining to her about the wide range of rides as she licked on a rainbow lollipop. Once he showed up to the both of them, Jeno cautiously put her down so she can hold Doyoungâs hand.
âYou deserve this, hyung. Make it worthwhile.â Jeno placed his hand on his older friendâs shoulder before leaving the room. Keeping it in mind, Doyoung kneeled again in front of his daughter. Her smiles were contagious, fascinated by everything sheâs surrounded in.
âIâve never seen anything like this, daddy.â That line sounded familiar, chuckling at the precious memory.
âCome on, sweetheart. Letâs have fun tonight!â
The bliss in tonight was never-ending, like the two of them were in their own world. Areum wanted to ride on a horse in a carousel first, which Doyoung agreed to. Lifting her, he held her by the waist as the ride started to go. She pointed out every object that she can see while Doyoung avidly listened, then telling her what each ride and game consists of in return.
Once they got off, her short legs scurried off to the game booth where rows of bottles were laid in front of her. Right beside her were the rings. Doyoung properly described the instructions, and on the dot, Areum went ham and started throwing the rings in random directions. By the way, her eyebrows furrowed and her lips pursed, her competitive side was evident. Doyoung observed as she either hit or miss, finding another trait of his in her.
Youâd find it hard to believe, but she wouldâve been a total daddyâs girl.
To her success, she squealed victoriously as she won and hugged her dad. One of the staff in charge rewarded her with new candy to munch on, and off she went to look for the next attraction to divulge in. Doyoung struggled a little catching up to her, but anything he would do for his daughter.
From a one on one balloon dart game, which Doyoung willingly let Areum won because sheâs a fussy one, roaming through a mini house of mirrors, riding the indoor Ferris wheel, and many more, Areum was ready to move to the next venue after telling her father that she wanted him to read to her.
âMommy said youâre a librarian here because you like reading. I like it too, can you take me there?â
Just like you, he was charmed by his daughter. âAlright, Areum. Letâs go there then.â
Before they made it through past the wide doors with the bright red sign above saying âExitâ, Areumâs attention was distracted by a black kiosk near the Ferris wheel. She followed her gut, changing her direction. Doyoung quickly followed her footsteps, only to turn up in front of a photo booth.
âWow, are these where you can take instant pictures, daddy?â
Waves of nostalgia hit Doyoung as if he were on the beach, totally unprepared for the emotional impact. With Areum, he missed your presence more than ever. Having you there completed your family, and it couldâve been quite a reunion.
âYes, Areum. How about you go inside and daddy will insert some coins so you can have your pictures taken?â
âBut daddy, I want to take pictures with you! Itâs only mommy that has pictures with you, and I donât want to feel left out.â She threw a tantrum, crossing her arms.
Here she goes again, making it difficult for Doyoung to refuse. Even with Manwol only giving him one rule to follow for the night, he doesnât want any bad memories to be made with his daughter. Heâll have to work it out one way or another later. In the meantime, he smirked before carried her out of the blue inside the booth. Her shrieks increased in volume, only softening after she settled on her fatherâs lap. Doyoung inserts a few coins, and swiftly enough, the contraption started to operate.
âOkay Areum, one photo strip has 4 solo photos in it. 4 smiles or poses, okay? Youâre going to look at the lens there, in the shape of a circle. Then, the flash is going to show in 3, 2-â Right on time, the two smiled.
They had less than 10 seconds until the second shot, so the two pulled random funny expressions. Doyoung pouted his lips, while Areum stuck out her tongue. For the third photo, Doyoung kissed the top of her head while Areum poked her cheeks with her fingers. Lastly, Areum instructed her father to lower his head to her level so she can peck his cheek. His shock was perfectly taken, filling his heart with adoration.
Areum hating getting affection but loves giving it? Another trait of his.
The look of amazement Areum gave once she stepped foot on the endless library was priceless. She described how it was bigger than the national library in Seoul. While she strolled around the near shelves, Jeno, taking over his night shift, approached him with a bottled treat. But it wasnât just a normal one.
âManwol and I overheard that she liked strawberry milk, so Manwol told me to give it to you. It has the dream spell potion from Johnnyâs bar mixed with flowers from the deities so she canât see ghosts or the hotel anymore. Make sure she drinks it before she leaves this place.â
While Areum settles on the small couch with her chosen books, she patiently anticipated for her father to read to her before her yawning takes over her. She never tracked the time, but sheâs gone way beyond her average curfew.
âSleepy already, sweetheart?â Doyoung asked as he sat beside her, inspecting her drowsy state.
Areum shook her head, displaying all the books she got on the table in front of her. âNope! Not until you read me a bedtime story.â
Doyoung scanned through her book selection, amazed by her choices. The Little Prince, Winnie the Pooh, Goodnight Moon, and a bunch of Madeline books from the series, he couldnât decide! If only he could read them all for her.
A lot of those books he read growing up, and the same goes for you. Especially Madeline, which he discovered through you as one of your childhood favorites. By instinct, he chose the first book from the series, simply entitled âMadelineâ.
âThis one.â He patted his lap so she could sit on it, which she did without wasting a breath.
It was ironic for a librarian to have never read aloud for anyone during his stay. Maybe because no one asked him to nor he wasnât into reading aloud. He preferred reading to himself, only helping those looking for specific books or recommending if anyone has a favorite genre. Maybe heâll give it a shot now. This first-hand experience opened his eyes to a new type of intimacy, hearing the adorable reactions from his daughter as he read the life of Madeline in Paris.
âIn the middle of one night, Miss Clavel turned on her light and said, âSomething is not right!â.â Doyoung flipped the next page. âLittle Madeline sat in bed, cried and cried-â
âShe cried to get attention, huh?â Areum commented mid-reading.
âAreum, if she didnât, she could get even sicker. We donât want that, right?â
âIf I cried like that, would that be enough to bring you back to me and mommy, daddy?â She wholesomely questioned, twisting her body weight so she could face him. âMommy already has a way to reach to you, and I want something like that tooâ
Doyoung knew she was a smart girl, but she often denies the reality of some things. In this case, her fatherâs passing still hasnât hit her, even if she possessed the mystical skill to see ghosts and the hotel. Doyoung felt cornered, so before he could think of a reply, he kindly asks her,
âHmm, what do you have in mind, sweetheart?â
âWell,â She pouted as she fidgeted with her index fingers. âI read all your old letters to mommy, so maybe I can write you one every year.â
âWhat a great idea, sweetheart!â He cheered. âHow will you give it?â
âUh..â She paused to think, then a bright idea came to her. âDuring your birthday, daddy! Mommy and I still celebrate it if you donât know, so I can offer it alongside the food.â
Doyoung played along, knowing that tradition of yours. Although it still aches him to show up on his death anniversary, he compromised by showing up on his birthday. Heâd see his and your families celebrating, talking about the positive and fun things about him in his life. He observed his daughter a little more later when she got older and started talking. Whenever you praised him for something, there was hope and inspiration in her young eyes. Itâs uplifting to discover that his legacy was seen in a good light. Heâd never wanted to be seen as a bad guy to anyone.
âIâll look forward to it, sweetheart. Promise?â He stuck out his pinky to her, getting curled in response by hers.
âPromise!â
Both of them chuckled, appreciating the moment. His long arms embraced her from the back, nuzzling his head on his shoulder. How blessed to have a daughter like her, but from a glance, the bottle of strawberry milk situated beside the pile of books gave a remembrance of one of his remaining tasks. It had to be done, but he hoped she wonât at least forget to write to him.
âLook! Miss Manwol wanted to give this to you.â He handed it to her.
Ecstatic, she cranked open the bottle cap and took tiny sips of it. âItâs so good, daddy!â
Doyoung softly laughed as excess milk drops dribbled in her lips, wiping it with his thumb. âAigoo, you messy girl. Letâs continue, shall we?â
Cozying up to him again, Doyoung resumed his storytelling. Once he said the words, âThe end.â, the small head of his daughter completely leaned against his chest. Snuggling for more comfort, he checked her current condition. Knocked out like a light, he puts the book down and cradled her for a second. The last time he did something like this was when she was born. She was tiny then, and now, sheâs bound to outgrow his lap sooner or later.
This was his sign to bring her home.
He boosted her small figure, her head now planted on his shoulder and his hand resting behind the nape of her neck. Her legs were entangled in his torso when he showed up at the lobby again. It was much more serene, everyone checked in already.
âAigoo, fast asleep already?â Manwol made an appearance without warning, alongside her personal driver Yuta and the bartender Johnny.
âAs expected from my magic.â Johnny commended himself, stretching his fingers. That easily gave him a slap from Yuta.
âCanât you be more sensitive to Doyoung?â
Not caring about those two, Manwol caressed Areum from behind. Inside her cold heart, she brought so much amusement. Even if she embodied traits from Doyoung, she stood out from his usual reserved nature. She had so much energy, and itâs a fresh sight. Manwol secretly peered at their father-daughter time in the library, and she sensed the love the two had for each other. Even if itâs unbearable to separate them, having tonight was a pleasure for all.
âYuta,â She summoned him. âDrop these two to her house safe and sound. Itâs too dangerous to walk in the dark right now.â
Bowing in response, he led the way to the elevator for Doyoung to follow. But before he took the first step, Manwol halted him by the arm. âYou better come back, or the deities wonât be pleased.â
He nodded before he was sent on his way. Wasnât this brutal?
The silence in the car ride is deafening, though he didnât want to disturb his little girl either. Yuta peeked from the mirror now and then to check on the two, sharing the gloom of his fellow friend. Having something or someone so valuable from the living world makes it hard to leave it. He understood as he suffered a similar fate to him.
When theyâve arrived at their destination, Doyoung was quick to notice that the lights from your living room were still on. Itâs too risky to waltz in through the front door, squinting for other ways to go inside. To his luck, the window of Areumâs bedroom was wide open. That mustâve been how she escaped earlier.
âBe careful, Doyoung. Her neighbors may be watching.â
âItâs around 4 am right now, Yuta. Iâll be fine.â He reassured, clicking open the car door with his daughter peacefully asleep.
Entering inside her bedroom, he gently put her down on her soft bed. Covering her body with the duvet so she wouldnât get cold, he took one last lingering look before taking his leave. Manwol might be looking for him already. Pressuring even to know that Yuta was waiting outside for him and that the deities are looking down on him too.
âDaddy,â Her tiny hand tugged on his sleeve, stopping his movements. Her droopy eyes faintly ajar, wanting to capture these last dreamy moments. âDonât leave me and mommy again.â
This retouched attachment between the two made things much more stifling to accept reality. Doyoung understood her fright and sighed, kneeling to her again. Patting her head, âIâm sorry but I have no choice, sweetheart. We donât want daddy to get in trouble, right?â
She lazily nods, tugging on his sleeve again. âCan you sing me to sleep, daddy? You used to do that for mommy.â
He grinned, accepted her last request. Holding on her hand, kissing it, he quietly sings.
âEonjebuteoinji geudaereul bomyeonâŠ.â
When the song reached its end, the soft snores from Areum filled his eardrums. Her eyes are fully closed, and her tiny head fell to the side of her pillow. Kissing her forehead, he whispered, âGood night, sweetheart. Daddy loves you so much.â
A cute sight to Doyoung, she occupied a huge part in his heart. Even if everything tonight will feel like a complete dream, itâs a memorable moment for Doyoung that heâll treasure.
Initially, he planned to leave her bedroom the same way he came in, which was through her window. Thatâs all Manwol tasked him to do when he arrives at your house, but his heart selfishly desires to see you. Even if he was invisible now. His powers were weakening, twitching from being visible to invisible back and forth.
Never has he stepped inside your new house, and this could be his only chance.
The first thing he saw after leaving his daughterâs bedroom was the dining room. Tidy and organized, as expected from you. For the living room connected to it, the simple decorations invited him inside. Assorted photos hung in the wall and by the table near the front door, with a fresh bouquet of asters in a vase there too.
Alluring as it is, the only thing Doyoung couldnât keep his eyes off the most was a sleeping you in pajamas, hunched over the coffee table on top of books and numerous paperwork. An empty coffee glass neared the edge, so he caught it before you squirmed again from your sleep.
The exhaustion from your life was constantly piled up one after the other. Youâve been studying hard at law school, balancing it with a part-time job as a teacherâs assistant at your university for undergrads and being a mom to Areum. Even seeing the pile of bills right by your side, you didnât just need the help of your families. You needed him, as a friend, lover, and father.
Men were still viewed as the main breadwinners of the family, but you juggled both positions as mother and father. It was a vicious fate, and heâd do anything to share that challenge with you. For now, the only thing he could do is bring you to bed at least.
Taking you into his arms bridal style, completely knocked out, he only assumed the remaining door in front of Areumâs bedroom was your bedroom. Carefully kicking it, he graced your bed and laid you down elegantly so your sleeping flow wonât be disturbed. He put the covers on top of your body so youâd feel comfier.
Right in front of your bedside was a breezy open window, the moonlight creeping in to highlight your sleeping face. The wrinkles on your forehead started to show, a side effect of immense stress. Itâs a trait no one wants, yet it symbolized aging and moving forward to the future. Doyoung envied you for it.
Besides that, you looked youthful as ever, seeking internal peace from the outside world in your deep slumber. His index traced the outline of your face, appreciating your glow. Trapped in amazement, leaving you will be more difficult. Itâs been a while since he saw you up close in the flesh, but Manwolâs words daunted his mind. Just like his daughter, his lips softly pecked your forehead and to your ear, he said in a hushed tone, âGood night, my love. Iâm so proud of you.â
Getting back on his knees to exit, heâs convinced that you and your daughter can detect a leaving presence and catch it before they do. On cue, your hand unconsciously grabbed his wrist. Your mind couldnât make up what mental state you were in, but something in you vibed a known presence. One that youâve yearned, one that you struggle to wait and see until your birthday arrives. Is he actually here?
Doyoung reacted immediately, his feet shuffling to face you again. Eyes still shut close, but your lips released a satisfied moan as you stretched your arms slightly.
âIs it my birthday already?â You mumbled incoherently, gripping on the unknown wrist. âOr am I just lucky enough to get a free pass?â
He rolled his eyes at your nonsense. âIf this was a free pass, what would you want me to do?â
You weakly took a peek. It was blurry, probably caused by your sleepiness. But you recognized the silhouette of this stranger from the back of your hand. You clutched his grip, bringing his face closer to yours. Doyoung didnât expect such a jerking action, almost falling limp if his other free hand didnât grip on your duvet.
âKiss me before you go again, my love.â You requested, mindlessly craving his touch.
Loosening from your grip, his palm cupped your cheek as he wets his lips. He made the first move, sweetly and slowly. Even at your unknown state, you returned with the same level of passion, brushing the hair behind the nape of his neck to deepen it. You havenât kissed anyone like this in a very long time, too busy with your studies and motherhood. This refreshed your memories of what you missed, a warm tear escaping your eye.
No one will ever match up to him.
Doyoungâs deprivation of physical touch for you amplified, eagerness for so much more than this. Touching himself to the thought of you grew tiring, wanting to have you in the flesh by his side. It wasnât until a bright car light from outside shun by your window. Yuta was an impatient one, but he had every right to be.
It was fulfilling while it lasted. His heart throbbed when his lips parted from yours, opening his eyes again. Your eyes stayed closed, but your lips hummed in satisfaction.
âNothing changed in the way you kiss, my love.â You complimented, succumbing back to your deep slumber by pulling yourself further inside the duvet.
Doyoung grinned at your words, kissing your knuckle one last time. âI meant what I said, (Y/N). Sleep well.â
He tiptoed out your bedroom, deciding to exit through the front door. Again, no one would be awake at this time anyway. However, an antique-looking photo of him caught his eye. Taking a closer look, it was you and him by his garden, clutching on his arm under their family lemon tree and smiling during pre-war times. It was a funny story actually.
His father bought a camera for the first time and wanted to test it out. You were over at their house that day to study, and his father insisted to take a photo of the two of you as a first try.
âOh come on, we must commemorate this new contraption! The first people can be titled âYoung Loveâ or something like that!â
Doyoung cringed, whining, âDad, thatâs so corny!â
âI donât care. Now hurry, join the frame with (Y/N) and smile!â
His father may present himself as strict and stubborn as one of the most affluent men in Korean society even after the war, but behind the scenes, he knows how to entertain his children. Doyoungâs childhood never had a dull moment. Oh, how wished he could follow the same fate as him.
This happy photo was a golden treasure to you, framing it so it could be preserved. It was one of your last traces of him, aside from Areum. Next to it, a much smaller photo of you and Areum was placed. Also all smiles for the two of you, Areum firmly sat on your lap and clasping her hands above her dress. You cut your hair during that time, showing the dog tag necklace that once belonged to him on your neck. You were really devoted to him, and heâs grateful, to say the least.
He knew he shouldnât take anything either before going back to the hotel, but there was just no way he canât take this one photo of his favorite girls with him. He already kept his photo strip of him and Areum from the carnival in his back pocket, so heâll just have to work out the consequences then.
Returning to the car was bittersweet. He took one more proper look at your home, taking in all the positive energy to have such a loving family even if he can only watch from afar. While Yuta revved the car on, Doyoung deeply sighed from the backseat. What a spontaneous evening.
âIâm guessing you didnât resist seeing your lover either, Doyoung?â Yuta commented, viewing him from the mirror. Raising his brows playfully, âGot caught in the VIP seat of you two lip-locking.â
âFirst of all, thatâs creepy, Yuta. Second, you most definitely know what it feels like to be separated from your lover. Cut me some slack.â
âWhatever, thatâs not my business anyway. But good luck to you if Manwol asked why there was a sudden extension.â The older friend shrugged, his foot pressing on the pedal to drive off the area.
âKeyword is if she asks. Now please, drive faster, Yuta. I have a shift to fill in now.â
Last night was a gift, but also an aching reminder of what couldâve been if he never died. The sun is slowly making its appearance again, bringing in another morning in this reality. Another work day for Doyoung, more waiting to be done.
Yet recalling his bonding moments with Areum, heâll most likely get through another few decades. He yanked out his photo strip from the back pocket of his trousers, gazing at their authentic happiness. He muttered to himself,
âIâll see you and your mother again, and weâll all celebrate and rejoice. âTil then, my sweetheart.â
Meanwhile, ever since that peculiar âdreamâ with Doyoung, it left you with a lot of questions. Perhaps, itâs all just in your head. Though it doesnât quite answer how one of your beloved pictures went missing. Thatâs definitely something youâre going to ask if your birthday comes up again.
Moving forward, his kind words pushed you to do your best. In the next years, you first became a family lawyer for a few years to get used to the field, but permanently shifted to being a public attorney because you wanted to be able to represent those who are suffering the most yet canât afford the legal help to avoid it.
Just like what you and Doyoung aspired.
Balancing that with a kid was overwhelming, but with your and Doyoungâs families helping you out, your stress lessened.
You served as a huge inspiration to female college students wanting to pursue law. Since law is still perceived as a male-dominated field, you constantly pushed to make space for women in that workforce. It was also rare of you to lose a case because of the hard work you put into disproving every loophole and suggesting the correct punishments for the wrongdoers.
âYou really outdid yourself once again, (Y/N). Or should I say Attorney (Y/L/N) (Y/N).â
âShut up, Doyoung. Tell me more about your hotel staff friends. That Johnny guy seems very fun, and Jeno seems like a lovely boy.â
âJohnnyâs a playful lad, always the life of the party. Jeno is like the younger brother I really wish I had. Donghyun-hyung is okay and all, but heâs so high maintenance.â
âShush! Heâs doing fantastic right now. He pursued acting like he always wanted.â
âHe deserves it because heâs hard-working, like yourself, Attorney.â
Youâve never fallen in love the same way you did for Doyoung. Though you wonât lie that youâve slept with a few men during nights out with your co-workers, committing to another man was something you had no time for. You always envisioned Doyoung as the one fucking you senseless.
People viewed it as stupid to be still lovestruck over your dead lover, but youâve been called worst insults in your life that it doesnât sting that much anymore. At the end of the day, your heart still soared and longed for Doyoung.
You just can never let him go.
âItâs still unfair to you, Doyoung. I should be ashamed.â The two of you were at a drive-in theater, watching from the trunk of his pickup truck. Your back laid against his chest as his fingers roam your torso in an upwards motion.
âNo, you shouldnât, (Y/N). Itâs natural to desire human affection. Iâm the one who should be sorry for not giving it to you.âHe replied, completely ignoring the film.
You scoffed jokingly. âItâs silly how weâre so deprived of sex, especially with each other.â
âOh, (Y/N). Donât get me started, Iâm suffering here with my hand alone while you can just find any available man.â
âAlright, alright, Iâm sorry.â You surrendered, directing your head from the front to the back. âAt the end of the day, itâs still your touch that still gets me weak.â
âMy dear, on the day we reunite, brace yourself. Iâll show you who you really belong to.â
1973
Doyoungâs been on duty with reading books to children lately, and again, heâs aching to see what Areumâs up to. Rereading past letters from her from his birthday celebrations were driving him wild. After helping one young girl look for more books under the Madeline series, he had to make an exception. Just this once, and that would be it.
Even if he was under disguise, he desperately wanted to have just another brief conversation with her, especially that sheâs a lot older compared to their last encounter. Doyoung witnessed her bloom from this imaginative young girl to a strong woman chasing after her dreams.
Like mother, like daughter.
He spotted her at a small bookstore to buy books for her classes and newly arrived ones from the States, very much interested in western literature. But upon seeing the peaked prices which were more than what she saved for, she put the book back on the shelf and gathered the ones she actually needed.
This was where Doyoung took it upon himself to offer his help. Staying long enough in the middle of the living and the dead, he was capable to turn visible.
âStephen King, huh?â He inquired, scooting to her side and pulling out the book again to take a better look at it. He came across this book in his library, even if it was in English. âI see that youâre into horror. These books are in English though.â
Areum knew speaking to strangers is not a good thing, but if anyone reached out to her to talk about books, she canât help but feel excited. âIâm interested in a lot of genres, and this book is pretty popular right now so I wanted to check it out. Besides, Iâm reading more English books so I can become fluent one day.â
âYou arenât scared of the storylines?â
âI went through a life of hardships, sir. Nothing scares me anymore honestly.â Doyoung couldnât help feel proud and sorry for her. Without questions, he led her to the counter and paid for all books despite her insisting not to.
âSir, you really shouldnât have. I can always come back for those books when I save up more.â
âItâs fine, really. With your taste in literature, you have a promising future as an author if thatâs what youâre aiming for.â He complimented. Areum was frazzled at how spot on this stranger was, trying to convince him again.
âAre you sure I shouldnât pay you back?â
âPay me back by publishing your books.â He confidently stated, bringing out his wallet to pay the cashier. His astonishing kindness and encouragement for her are heartwarming, bowing with gratitude.
âThank you,â She halted because she didnât know his name.
There was no way Doyoung can disclose his actual name, so he just picked a random nickname some of the kids in the hotel who he read to coined for him. âI prefer giving people my nickname. Itâs tokki.â
âThank you, tokki. Iâm Areum, Kim Areum.â She thanked him properly, struggling from carrying her things to shake his hand, but Doyoung signaled her not to.
âNice to meet you, Areum.â He greeted back.
As Areum was more ready to part ways, Doyoungâs fatherly instincts activated due to the heavy box she held. Her dorms must be a bit far and it was already nighttime. Anything can happen.
âExcuse me, Areum. But do you mind if I help you with your books? Itâs pretty late, so I just want to make you get back safe.â
Something in Areum was very willing to trust this man she just met. Sure, he was quite covered up, but itâs almost winter and maybe he didnât want to catch a cold. Though, his intentions looked good. Sheâs heard stories about people getting robbed in these alleys, so she accepted his help.
Her dorms were a few blocks away, giving enough time to be acquainted with this man. Though he was the one mostly asking the questions and she answered them. She didnât pry on it too much and went with the flow.
âAre you an only child in your family?â
âYes. Itâs also just me and my mom. I never got to meet my dad sadly. He died before I was born while battling in the Korean war.â
âOh, Iâm sorry.â No matter how long itâs been since the war, the trauma of it all still haunted Doyoung.
âItâs been years so itâs fine. I found out recently that he risked his life to save his senior officer during a surprise attack from one of my uncles. If that isnât bravery, I donât know what is.â
âSo youâre not mad at him for leaving?â He asked, hoping he didnât cross boundaries either. He needed this closure.
âIt was hard to accept at first. All my friends grew up with their actual fathers, and I felt outcasted. But there are just some things we canât control, you know? Â Besides, people always spoke of him highly and that makes me proud. Though,â She answered honestly, covering up the bitterness in her words in other not to disrespect him. âIâm pretty sure I saw him in a dream when I was younger.â
Doyoungâs heart leaped. So she may recall quite a bit. âOh really? What was it like?â
âThe only person I told this to is my mom. It felt quite unreal, honestly. I was around 7-8 years old at that time, and we were at a carnival, enjoying the attractions and stuff. Then we transitioned to this huge library where he read me a bunch of stories. One of them was Madeline, I believe. One of my favorites!â
Doyoung replays the fond memory in his mind. Time really flew by so fast.
âWhat a fun dream, it seems to be.â
Areum was elated at the best memory of her youth, smiling to herself. âIt truly was. It felt like I was with him, you know. No matter how many times he told me he loved me there, I still respond the same way and that nothing has changed.â
âI love you too, Areum.â He mumbled quietly. That dream should not have been the only memory they have of each other. Neither of them deserved to be parted.
Soon enough, they arrived at the front doors of her dorm residence. Since it was strictly for women, she explained that sheâll carry the box from here on.
âThanks again for the help, tokki. Iâll make sure to pay you back soon.â She spoke so casually because, for some reason, this mysterious man felt trustworthy. Her gut feeling may fool her, but she let it pass.
âTake your time, Areum. I wish you the best of luck.â
Before they went separate ways, something about her bitter words from awhile ago bothered Doyoung and he wanted to say something about it. Because looking into the far future, if he didnât, he knew heâll regret it and make moving on harder.
âWait, Areum!â
Areum abruptly reacted to the shouts of her name, almost dropping the box. She faced again the mysterious tokki, who now had an awkward stance with his hand in the air waving at you.
âYes, tokki?â
Compiling his thoughts, here goes nothing.
âThis is quite random but your dad... I just know he loves you too. Heâs also proud of you for being strong and intelligent. I hope you donât forget that.â
Areum was baffled by his statement, but it was uplifting to hear that. Maybe this tokki guy was going through the same thing as her, so she didnât want to judge too quickly. She was taught to never judge a book by its cover from you. By the quick blinking of her eyes, some tears dropped down to her cheek. She let out some sniffles on her way up to her dorm room, reassured that this stranger may just be correct. She heard what she needed to hear.
Itâs been a long time since he reunited with his daughter, even if sheâs fooled into thinking that the dream was just a dream. His status as a father was renewed. Even if he got a major scolding from Manwol upon his return at the hotel for ditching his shift.
âShe blamed you in public? Oh no, my love.â You consoled your lover after he told you the tale.
A lot of iconic songs were released during this decade, so this dream accommodated it. It was set in a jazz bar, where all sorts of alcohol on display with assorted vinyl CDs by the platform at the end. Dimly lit with numerous empty tables and chairs, and it was only the two of you. Dressed to the nines for the occasion, your flimsy hands couldnât stop playing with your hoop earrings. A definite staple while you swayed your hips to the beat of Superstition by Stevie Wonder.
Doyoung sat in one of the bar stools in a red v-neck top and flare pants, marveling at your physique and movements in that indigo romper. You could feel his fiery stare, your body flowing through the groove to capture him into your spell. The dream version of him always gets easily distracted when you act suggestive, especially when he isnât in control physically. Only his words can he sort out.
Dancing towards him, you dragged his arms away from his seated position to lead him to the empty dance floor.
âLetâs dance off the stress, shall we?â
Pulling off the famous dance moves and grooving in freestyle, it was a blast. Both your young energies were in sync. From the funky beat, it shuffled into a slower yet soulful song. The unwinding mood could only mean that this dream was reaching its end. You took Doyoungâs arms again, placing one on your waist and the other interlocked with you. Taking the lead, you waltzed back and forth, twirling yourself in his arms.
Doyoung cracked a smile from the phone and in the dream, immersing himself in the lovely song. It was always played on the radio during the late-night shows, dedicated for the couples out there. With you, he could finally understand why couples request it every night.
âYou are the sunshine of my life,â He sang along while feeling your heartbeat against his chest. âThat's why I'll always stay around.â
âYou are the apple of my eye,â You carried from where he left off, equally resonating with the lyrics. No matter how many times youâve said or expressed your patience for each other, this song held a special place. It summed up everything youâre both fighting for.
âForever, you'll stay in my heart.â
1980s
It came to Doyoungâs attention that thereâs a new member of the hotel staff, and Manwol put him in charge of touring this new addition around and orienting them about the hotel rules. Considering he wasnât busy, he went for it.
This person would be the replacement of Johnny, who finally passed through the afterlife in high spirits after his younger brother Mark took his rightful place as the heir of their family business. Originally, it was him, but his stepmother and stepbrother stabbed him alongside his father to get ahold of the power. Without proof, they led the business as she freely did, overworking Mark numerously and spending their money to their heartâs desire.
Doyoung couldnât let this pass. Since Manwol hired a human manager back in the â70s named Kun to better facilitate human-related affairs for the hotel (taxes, bills, etc), he requested him to talk to Mark then introduce him to you.
Kun also made sure to inform you that this was Doyoungâs idea.
âThis Johnny is the same Johnny that Doyoung talks about in my dreams? The one who brings the fun out of him every once and while?â
âThatâs right, Ms. (Y/L/N). Due to the betrayal, he canât move on until his stepbrother is taken down.â
The fact that Kun was a bridge to the two of you felt miraculous. Now and then, Doyoung tasked Kun to buy you flowers or coffee whenever they meet. Sometimes, heâll ask him to send his letters to you too. In return, you replied to those letters, attaching pictures of you and Areum over time. He hung it up in his office, taking a look before every shift.
Kun didnât mind being in the middle. While Doyoung gave her cases to work on, it makes it easier for him to wait for her. Doyoung was a guest first before being a member of staff, and as the human manager, heâll make sure that he gets to move on too.
Even if you donât accept cases from big companies, the touching way how Mark described his passed older brother persuaded her otherwise. He even opened up about watching his father and older brother get killed right in front of him. From there, he was held hostage for years and never told anyone about that night.
It was undoubtedly the biggest case in your career. Up until this day, everyone still talks about how complex and intense the battle was.
âAlways finding a way to make justice prevail, Kim Doyoung.â You thought to yourself after gathering more evidence from Mark and Kun, working closely also with forensics and the police.
And that you did. With additional information on Johnnyâs side, which helped find the empty puzzle pieces to prove his stepfamilyâs guilt, they won the case. Life imprisonment and forced transferring of roles, Mark became the CEO. All those involved in hiding the truth got caught and fired from their positions.
You deserved your influential status, and due to your never-ending service, Doyoung found himself falling in love with you over and over again. Even from far away, you felt his connection and passion.
Currently, you were dealing with five cases, one of them being another request for Kun and Doyoung. It was for the murder of Yuta Nakamoto in the late 40s.
Being a migrant from Japan, numerous Koreans held grudges for their people. He was mistreated and disrespected, even if he had the most caring soul. He even found love, ready to get wed. But one normal evening after his job as a Japanese teacher, he was mobbed by Koreans and heartlessly killed. At first, he wanted vengeance. But after Manwol telling stories of souls burning into ashes when they get revenge, he changed his objective to watch the demise of all his killers, who became very influential people in Korean society.
Representing with you was his former lover, Sooyoung. No matter how many times she tried to appeal to the court in the past, no one paid attention because she was a woman and interracial relationships were taboo. Even if Yuta held a special place in her heart, she eventually got married to another man. In the beginning, she felt guilty, but after Yuta told her in a dream call that she shouldnât be afraid to open herself up again, she never held back. And as a fellow woman whoâs been ostracized, you sided with her.
She may not have her happy ending with Yuta, but it only felt right to avenge his wrongful death.
Itâs a tough battle, these murderous men not owning up to their crime, and the public also discriminating the dead man by saying he deserved it. But you knew you could do it, even if itâll take a while.
Back to the newbie, he was in his early twenties. He went by the name, Jaehyun. Just about to start his life, yet taken away just like that. Aside from being the next bartender, he has another position as the vinyl boy in the music section of the library. It came to Manwolâs attention that he wanted to pursue music when he was alive, listening to vinyl CDs or cassette players and taking singing and piano lessons growing up. While he figured out what he wants to do while moving on, heâd be in charge of organizing and playing music for the souls checked in. Sing even if requested, especially by the women who are charmed by his attractive looks.
He was a literal old soul, jazz being his favorite genre. Most of the time, he played Chet Baker or Frank Sinatra when itâs his shift at the bar. He was known for always showing his best and happy-go-lucky sides to everyone.
It took him a few years to start opening about his life, longer than most souls. But maybe because the trauma of it all stung. One night, when he, Doyoung, and Kun werenât working, he mixed a few cocktails and completely fell off the radar.
âI was a part of a duo with one of my best friends, Hongseok. It was really fun to perform and make music with him, but then he suddenly got into drugs and had a ton load of groupies. I-I just couldnât do it anymore with him if he wasnât going to stop. Once I cut off ties with him, I was signed by a class A producer who loved my compositions. He even got me all sorts of opportunities to perform on TV, and I was so excited for it. But one week until I made my official debut, Hongseok reached out again with apologies, wanting to meet up so we can fix ties. I was hesitant, but I still give him the benefit of the doubt because we go way backâŠ.â He confessed, puffing out smoke from his cigarette and putting it down on the ashtray. Before he continued his story, he scoffed with profanities.
âThat bitch. I fucking trusted him! I was too good to give him another shot. So after practice, he sent me an address to his apartment or so I thought. We were having drinks, just like old times. But something felt off feel when my mind started feeling hazy and I started coughing continuously because my stomach ached like crazy. He asked me if I was fine, and I told him I was. Then suddenly, baam!â He crashed his hands on the table, shocking the hell out of his two companions.
âHoly fuck, Jaehyun.â Kun cursed under his breath. Doyoung nudged him the shoulder to mind his language.
âThe deities are watching you, Kun. Let Jaehyun-ie continue.â
So he did. âThere I was, standing beside my dead body while Hongseok rummaged with surgical gloves through my bag to steal my notebook of songs. He planted cocaine on the table where I conversed with him, and also in front of my face. Beside my glass, he laid the vial of poison he used and called the cops. With fake tears, he cried on the phone saying that he came home to my dead body and a suicide note.â
Stillness between the three of them was filled with betrayal and disappointment. For a so-called friend, this must be the worst thing you can do to them. To lessen his suffering, Jaehyun brought back his actively lit cigarette and smoked it until all the tobacco was gone. Exhaling a dark grey smoke, he spat out.
âI-I couldnât believe it, hyungs. I lost everything after making the wrong decision of seeing him. And now, he signed under that label that found me to âgive honor to my talentâ. How tragic that I suddenly took my life heâd say, oh bullshit! You took away my life because you were jealous!â
Kun decided to call it a night, requesting Yukhei whoâs on duty to take Jaehyunâs upcoming shifts so he could calm down. Escorting his intoxicated figure out so the other guests wonât feel bothered, Doyoung contemplated if he wanted to forward another case to you. Youâve been getting so much workload lately, according to Kun, because your success rate is high and highly in demand.
âWhat happened to Jaehyun?â Manwol showed up from behind, sitting across him. âDid he finally tell his story?â
Doyoung mildly groaned, devastated by it. âHe did, and it breaks my heart. Heâs still so young, like me.â
âWhat are you going to do about it?â Manwol stirred the spare cocktail, ingesting it in one go. âIs it another case worth forwarding to (Y/N)?â
âIf it helps Jaehyun move on, possibly. I know itâs hard to find staff these days, Manwol. Also, sheâs stacked already. I donât know if sheâll take it.â
She snickered, patting his shoulder. âYou know if itâs from you, it becomes her priority. She loves you that much, you know.â
âI know, but I wish I could help her. In person. I wouldâve been a lawyer and taken Jaehyunâs case if I were alive. Murder in the first degree, false reporting to the police, stealing, his persecutor is insane and still walking free.â
The fire of passion in Doyoung wasnât new to Manwol, nodding as he spoke. He was capable of a lot of things, but the world just wasnât ready to see it. She was more concerned at how the deities will react when he engages in human affairs again. Even if it helps a lot of ghosts move on, itâs highly discouraged to interfere with the living world. Itâll ruin the entire flow of the world.
Doyoung already knew what he got himself into, but itâs one of the few ways he still feels relevant. Always in service for anyone who needs it, dead or alive. If the deities take him away, itâs no joke that itâll be a riot in the entire hotel.
âIn that case,â Manwolâs piercing eyes scanned right at him, filling up his glass with vodka. Second to Doyoung, she grew a fond liking to Jaehyun. She never knew how much heâs been hiding during his stay. âForward it no matter what. End his murdererâs career at all costs.â
Doyoung smirked, lifting his glass high to clink with hers then chugging it one go.
âIâll investigate first with Kun to know more about Jaehyunâs life, then weâll look for someone who wants to testify for Jaehyun to meet with (Y/N).â
Amid the craze and problems in the hotel, at least Doyoung was at ease with how successful his family. Areum became a well-known author for fairytales, got married, and had 3 kids of her own. She most definitely didnât live down to Doyoungâs promise.
âIs he a nice guy?â Doyoung inspected the man who married his only daughter. It felt like yesterday they played around in the carnival room.
âHe is, Doyoung. Intelligent and caring, nothing to worry about.â You calmed his shaking leg, resting your head on his shoulder while you watch the fireflies from the campfire set prepared by the deities.
âIâm just looking out for her, you know.â
âShe most definitely does know, even telling stories about us to her kids. Our grandchildren.â
âItâs hard to believe that weâre technically old when weâre always young in these dreams.â
âMaybe itâs just you being used to your youth. Meanwhile, aging is beating my ass every day.â You joked, covering yourself up in the blanket you shared. Doyoungâs bottom lip jutted out, huffing at your mean comments.
âYah, you take that back.â
âMake me.â You fired back, riling him up.
Doyoung in the dream attacked you by tickling your sides mercilessly. Your body uncontrollably arched back and forth, falling back to the blanket you sat at. He took the advantage to pin you down, gripping on your arms to the side. With his face near yours, you closed the gap with a cheeky kiss. His touch softened, allowing you to pull him lower by his collar. Your lips molded together in every movement, feeling his tongue lick your lower lip for entrance. You freely gave in, moaning filthily.
âDidnât even have to test me like that, my love.â
How you wished this was longer, if it werenât for the fast fading out, and morning has arrived again. A short-lived euphoria, yet it left your panties drenched under the covers. The arousal still ran in your veins.
âKim Doyoung, you tease.â
Back to your real life, aside from bravely taking on controversial cases, there was a thrill in every case you did and it showed by your fast-paced talking and hand gestures. Whether you won or lost, mostly the former, knowing that you helped someone made your life more meaningful.
He often forgot how youâre a grandmother during your dream calls already as time flows differently within the living and the dead. They were the only way you can be youthful and energetic. But with your actual body, it began to weaken.
Early 1990s
Nature decided to take heavier measures on you physically. On one of the monthly visits to the doctor, she noticed something off with the checkup and tests. Especially in the chest area.
âMs. (Y/L/N) (Y/N), Iâm afraid that you have a growing lump in your breast.â
âAre you saying what Iâm thinking?â
âIf breast cancer is one of those though, then unfortunately yes.â
Areum was by your side that day, tearing up at her announcement. You, on the other hand, remained still and nodding at the truth. Youâve fought for a lot of things in your life, and you were so determined to beat this one.
Chemotherapy, medications, and scans are tiring and draining, but you managed to live for 2 more years. Youâve fully retired, and now and then, mentor the juniors with their cases. Youâve traveled to as many places as you can before the stages of cancer rose.
In your last months of life, you were bedridden in the most expensive hospital in Seoul, getting visits from Areum with her family, Jungwoo and Taeyong. As the latter served as definite friends to Doyoung, it was only natural to befriend them when they came into your life post-war. They supported Areum in any way they can too. Â Theyâve become a great company in your boring life especially in the hospital. Nowadays, Jungwoo loved sharing stories about his hyper grandchildren, who share similar traits to him, while Taeyong excitedly talked about his recent investment with a promising music company with the dream to debut talented individuals and go international in the long run.
âMr. Lee Soo Man is dedicated to it! He hopes that next year, all his plans can start and be executed.â
âYouâre always investing in start-ups, you know? You think this one will be bigger than the rest?â
âMusic is universal, you know. Language barriers may be there, but music brings us together.â
Taeyong was always a delight to catch up with. However, you didnât expect that conversation would be your last with him. A few days later, he suffered a sudden heart attack and passed. This was a sign that your time was coming. Your body falling more and more feeble every day as the disease fully took you over at night, the monitors always going on a high every so often.
Itâs only a matter of time before you leave this life, and looking back, youâve lived a tough yet productive life. Your daughter was happy and thriving in her career and family. You helped families and couples from their abusive households. You defended those with loved ones who were murdered, robbed, and lied to. You ticked off all you wanted to do beforehand.
Areum made sure to visit that night specifically as soon as she could. With your recent test results have been failing, her gut feeling kept insisting.
Itâs a good thing she did.
Meanwhile, it was another day of work for Doyoung, just returning a bunch of books in their respective shelves after some teenagers left on the table. Before that, he bid Taeyong goodbye in the tunnel. Itâs always nice to see a familiar face, so he couldnât miss out on it. He shared any life stories he had with you, updating him about your state. Doyoung knew about it beforehand, and as selfish enough to look forward to it, it pained him to know youâre suffering. He only hoped you could fight through it.
âDoyoung-hyung!â Someone suddenly shouted, but he was shushed by an old lady reading her romance novel, who pointed at the sign that read âKeep quiet in the libraryâ.
Doyoung was also annoyed, instantly nagging on the point person. âKun! Can you read the sign? Jeez, this isnât the first time so please-â
â(Y/N) is going off the monitor.â He blurted out. The news from one of the nurses he befriended buzzed through his phone. After finding out about his story, he wanted to help Doyoung especially when he was still alive. Doyoung may a part of the staff, but heâs still a guest. He dropped everything in his hands. Before he could race to the hospital, he changed into a specific outfit for this occasion.
This was it.
Areum was the only one by your side of your hospital bed, weeping due to your weak state. You didnât want your other family members to witness this crucial moment. It stung that youâll miss out on the futures of your grandchildren, but you were satisfied to just be a part of their lives. All this machinery trying to sustain your life served its purpose, but the illness youâre fighting was stronger.
âMom....â Areum sniffled in her handkerchief, holding on to your boney hand. âIâm not ready for you to go.â
âOh, Areum.â Your thumb caressed her soft palm as reassurance. âYou grew up so well. An independent woman you are, you are so loved.â
âMom, please....â She begged. âI canât lose you too.â
You will never know how Areum held in her sorrow of not being able to grow up with her father. She hated the feeling of being fully abandoned. She wanted things and people to return to her, but she canât make that choice. Being by her side all her life, losing you will be the hardest struggle sheâll have to face.
âAreum, you must understand...â You paused as a pang of pain in your chest stabs you. After a minute of enduring it, you continued. â...We are put on this world for a specific time. And if weâre called to leave, we must face it.â
She whimpered whilst holding on to your hand. She really thought you can get through this one like the rest, but your hair has gone, your body lost much weight, and your eyes lost their light.
âMom, are you happy? Youâve fought through so much to get where you are. I can never do what you did.â
âY-Yes, I am.â You stuttered, gracing a promising smile. âI had you, our families, and your father watching over me..â
The dreams you get on your birthday were fairytale-like stories that pushed Areum to become an author. She denied how unrealistic and supernatural they were at first. Another trait of Doyoung she got. However, when she noticed how wider your smiles are and energetic you get in the mornings after rather the feeling of distraught, she reckoned to believe they were something special. Despite knowing your love story and its downfall, she felt exhilarated at the things you and her dad did there. In a way, it brings him closer to her. But she still had that void.
âI envy you for that, mom. I wish I met him or at least came to me even if I least expected it!â
Oh, little did she know about that time in the bookstore back in the 70s. It was not coincidental; you and Doyoung planned it very well. You just played along to her complaint, alerted that this wasnât your story to tell at this time. âForgive your father just this once, okay? He never wanted this kind of fate for any of us. If one thing stayed constant in those dreams, itâs him always asking how you are doing.â
Her tears become uncontrollable, allowing herself to get puffy eyes and let it all out. âWhen you see him, please tell him Iâm sorry and that I love him no matter.â âOh, Areum. He knows that, so donât worry about it.â
The clock was ticking for Areum before sheâll be asked to leave. With you bringing up her father again, she had one last question. Her courage to ask it was so little when she was young in fear you sulk and break down. It hurt her when the bad parts of your past tormented you.
âHow much do you miss him?â The question put you in a point of self-reflection. The only person youâve opened up to talk about him in detail was Areum. Even with your friendships with Taeyong and Jungwoo, there were some things you never disclosed with them. And never did they force you to answer because they can read you on the back of their heads: youâre still heartbroken, yet remained devoted to him.
âI miss him so much that even if this became my fate for accepting his notebook back in our university days, I would foolishly do it all over again. In those times he was no longer with us, it taught me to appreciate what and who we have in our lives because tomorrow is never guaranteed. From his impact, I learned to take care of myself again so I can take better care of you. Iâm grateful you were born; he left a piece of him for me.â
âYouâve suffered so much, mom. I hope you can rest peacefully.â
âThank you for never leaving my side, Areum.â A few tears escaped your eyes, infectious to your daughterâs gloom. âI love you.â
Meanwhile, Doyoung was right outside viewing you and Areum sharing your last conversation and goodbyes. As much as he looked forward to reuniting with you, he didnât want to leave his only daughter alone. The deities should have shown her more mercy. Still invisible, he observed how Areum trembled when she heavily closed the door of your hospital room. Covering her sobs with her handkerchief, she took one last look through the small glass of the door. You dove into a deep sleep that would then be unawakened.
âI hope your next life is happier than this, mom, and you can cross paths again with dad and grow old with him too.â
Doyoungâs urge to show himself to his daughter to console her was overpowering him, but he restrained himself this time. A few hours later, your consciousness was faltering. Your five senses were losing touch one by one. Important memories of your long life played in your mind. Then your heart gave in and stopped beating. The doctors present there have pronounced you dead. The transition from your body to your soul watching it be covered by a blanket by the nurses was swift yet strange. You didnât know where to go and whatâs next. No book prepared you for this nor can you ask the doctors what to do. Standing there lost with so many questions, it only took someoneâs enthusiastic calling for your name to soothe you down.
â(Y/N)!â
It hit you instantaneously that when your day comes, Doyoung would call for your name. Your old age and past illness really affected your memories. He was an honest man and kept to his word this time.
And there he was, just along the hallway.
This was no longer a dream.
This novel kind of exhilaration got you moving your feet, still sore and slow because you were still an old lady.
âDoyoung!â
You shouted back, over and over again before your boney hands slid open the door. At the same time, your old figure drastically and permanently transformed you back to your active twenties. Nothing physically hurt anymore and your energy was on an all-time high. Your room was the last on the floor, a dead end. The left side of the hallway was just a closed window pane.
When you stepped outside and turned to your right, there he properly stood. He wore the same suit and suspenders combination on the day he approached you on your bike. The actual soul of Kim Doyoung who was no longer behind the phone. No matter how many times heâs seen you from afar, it makes him lose his breath from the captivation. For once, he can see you without barriers.
You just realized how you were dressed back into the floral dress on the day you had your first proper conversation. Itâs like youâre meeting each other again for the first time. The beeping sounds of the monitors, wheelchairs moving, and chitter-chatter exchanged by doctors went mute. Stunned, you couldnât stop looking eye to eye at him, cherishing this special moment.
It finally processed to Doyoung that his patience and efforts paid off. In this journey of acceptance, while enduring its trials, it added up to this sweet result to be reunited with you. The adrenaline rush took control of your limbs, legs running to him on the other side.
As his arms widened for a hug, he spun and picked you around in the air. His arms firmly wrap around your waist while your head snuggled on top of his shoulder. You felt safe, warm, and alleviated. Once he put you back down, the overwhelming joy wasnât keen to pull away from your lover. Doyoungâs lips somehow got closer to yours, your heart skipping beats and his familiar scent intoxicating your thoughts.
With Doyoung still having you wrapped in his arms, he took his awaited chance to close into your parted lips. The fluttering in your stomach was on overdrive, your entire body reacting immediately from his passion. One hand curled into a fist on the hem of his buttoned top while the other rubbed the back of his head. Your legs almost gave in, but with Doyoungâs strength, he held you tight. No previous kiss felt like this. You didnât have to worry about getting caught by adults for such a provocative display of affection. Your roommate wasnât going to splash water if she catches you getting frisky on campus. As for Doyoung, he didnât have to get paranoid about what his classmates would say about their relationship. You were both in your own world for a while.
But wanting to catch a breather from his thrilling dominance, your lips hesitantly moved away first. You took your time to get lost in admiring his features. Wet, swollen lips, flushed cheeks, his dazed eyes, he was irresistible, to say the least.
This was how an almost 50-year build-up would end up to.
âMy love, itâs really you,â You finally spoke, caressing your thumb on his flushed cheek. âYouâve been through so much.â
As lovestruck as he is, his pent-up tears streamed down instantly. Except they were tears of joy. All those years he held back.
âIâve missed you so much, (Y/N). Iâm just happy youâre finally here with me.â
He wasnât joking when he said that the main lobby alone was exquisite after walking through the city. Aside from Kun, thatâs where he introduced you to other staff he worked with, such as Jeno, Jaehyun, and the boss herself, Manwol.
âThis boy stayed very loyal, you know?â She commended Doyoung. It was a rare thing with her cold-hearted and aggressive personality. âHe read to a lot of kids, taught some of them too, and recommended great books for the souls to read. He listened to a lot of souls who wanted justice then forwarded them to you so they can cross the other side.â
An honor to hear from the owner herself, you glanced at Doyoung with so much love. Such a giver than a receiver.
Beside Manwol was someone whom you aspired to meet. Unfortunately, you never met the other boys youâve helped, so this was a great chance to see at least one before moving on. Hearing about his case and the treachery of it, you made sure to work on it before you retired, eventually passing it on to one of your trusted juniors. So far, his side was winning and thatâs all you wanted.
âJeong Jaehyun.â You held on to his clasped hands as he bowed to you.
âAttorney (Y/L/N). Iâm so grateful for what youâre doing for me.â
âOh, just call me (Y/N). By the way, your side is winning, my dear. Your younger brother Sungchan is committed to clearing up your name, and that evil Hongseok will rot in life imprisonment for his crimes.â You updated him. Without self-restraint, his arms gather you in for a hug. Jaehyun wasnât much for affection, but this felt like the right circumstance. In return, you hugged him back.
âThanks to you, Johnny and Yuta are resting in peace.â
âAnd you are next, Jaehyun. My junior taking your case is topnotch, so youâre bound to get what you truthfully deserve.â
After sharing such a heartfelt moment, you asserted your attention to Jeno. Not going to lie, youâve looked forward to meeting this boy the most. He was there with Doyoung from the very beginning.
âDoyoung-hyung gets giddy after he makes a call, and tells me everything that youâve been up to.â Jeno joined in. âHe gets grumpy though too, so I like pestering him around to light him up. Oh, Iâll never know what you see in him, (Y/N).â
That gave him a joking slap on the shoulder by Doyoung, signaling to cut it out. Â
âHyung!â He fakely cried, hiding his face behind Jaehyunâs shoulder.
You suppressed a laugh, eventually sputtering out like an engine. Doyoung sighed, failing to redeem himself. But itâs alright. A simple peck from you on his cheek got him all flustered.
âAish, take your romantic shenanigans when youâre in your room, not in my damn lobby.â Manwol cringed, the evident love bug getting on her nerves. âAlright, everyone. Get back to work!â
Checking in your room was an experience. Since youâve been to numerous places through the dream calls, there was one main thing youâve missed to do with Doyoung. As soon as he lifted you by your thighs and roughly shoved his tongue down your throat, you were in for a heated evening. This dominant side of Doyoung when it came to sex was completely fresh. After diving into more erotica over time, he learned about visual porn through Johnny and Jeno. You can say that he studied it very well.
âAlmost 40 years of waiting, (Y/N).â He trapped you from above, sliding one of his hands to your bare breasts until it landed on your clothed core. Rubbing up and down your clit in a torturously slow place, he smirked at your desperate whines. Your breaths turned heavy, soaked by his actions. âRemember when I told you to brace yourself back then?â
âShit, Doyoung...â
âShush love, Iâm in control now. So be a good girl for me, alright?â He growled in your ear, sucking on your soft spot on your neck. You obeyed that night, unbuttoning his shirt impatiently only to reveal his toned abdomen then lowering his crotch to give it a tight squeeze.
He hissed against your neck, pushing your panties to the side and sliding in your wetness.
âYou are asking for it now, love.â
A steamy night it was, making up for all those lost years.
The following day, the struggle to walk was real. Jeno even pointed out your limping when you were roaming around the library Doyoung worked at. You never had a younger sibling, but he acted like one. So you punched him in the shoulder to shut up. âJeez, youâre both so physical. Let me live!â
âJeno, youâre dead. Donât say nonsensical things.â
You learned how this hotelâs main purpose was to guide and fulfill the last wishes of ghosts in the living world before moving on. When Jeno asked you if you still have unfinished business, you realized that there is one thing left. Even if you completed your bucket list, that one thing is only possible through the hotel. You and Doyoung sat across Manwol, monitoring your shared dream call like she always did.
âIs this really the only thing you want to do here, (Y/N)?â Positively nodding, she gave you the signal to lift up the phone.
Areum found herself in an unfamiliar forest nearby a river during the day. Even sheâs always like playing outside with nature in her childhood years, this location didnât ring a bell. In fact, she was physically back to being that young girl with the same mature mind in this dream.
She wasnât a vivid dreamer like yourself, forgetting them as so as she woke up. Even in that âdreamâ with her father, there were so many gaps. So for this one time, she can fully grasp her surroundings. This dream must have a purpose, she wondered.
While she followed the path that the dream assumed for her to take, she then clearly caught a glimpse of a younger you at the end of that path. Running around and laughing in the grass.
âMom!â She called out, moving at a faster pace. Itâs a good thing this dream brought her back her agility.
At the end of the path, it unveiled you lying down on the grass. Wearing in a dainty dress that reminded her of the 50s, there was an unfamiliar young man beside you. His head face planted on the grass because you pushed him off your body when he tried to tickle you.
It turned out that she arrived at your favorite spot with Doyoung. Sheâs only heard stories of things youâve done and talked about her, but due to the war, their spot was devastated. Soon after, it turned into a small condominium building overlooking the river.
âAreum!â You squealed cheerfully to hear her much younger voice. She tackled you in a hug, and you still naturally felt it from where you sat.
âMy sweet child,â You cooed in her, patting her back. âHow are you?â
âItâs been difficult, but Iâll get by in time.â That was the first thing she managed to say, the grief being very much fresh. No mother wants to be separated from her child, and you werenât exempted. But that is how life works: you come then you go. The truth tends to hurt.
It was obvious to Doyoung that you were still saddened by leaving Areum, taking this opportunity to give you space and finally interact with his daughter. No disguises nor distance. While the most important women in his life are still hugging in the dream, he pulls himself off from the grass and brushes away some leaves from his hair.
âAreum, I see you paid me back by having top-selling books for children.â
Areum peeked from your shoulder to check who the other man was by your side talking to her. Once he was clean from dirt and leaves, there was the only person he resonated with her. From pictures and stories shared by you, the actual man was with her.
Her actual father was in this dream with her.
âDad!â She abruptly pulled away from you to approach her father for a bigger hug. You donât blame her for that, she deserved to see her father even for a bit.
Years of having that empty void only for her biological father, she could care less at this very moment
Doyoung has never cried in a dream call with you, however, this long-awaited moment with his daughter resulted in him softly bawling while feeling her hugs from the chair. Heâs proud and at peace to move on not just as your lover or a passionate university student, but as a father.
In their moment of content, only there did it make complete sense to Areum at the unusual memory during the â70s at the bookstore wasnât random. It proved that he really did his best to reach out to her in any way he could.
âThis whole time, you were the mysterious tokki. I just thought it was a coincidence. Iâm so sorry, dad, that I didnât notice you.â She sulks. Doyoung in the dream pats her back while lovingly rubbing the nape of her head.
âOh, Areum. Donât feel bad. I just wanted to see how much my little girl became independent and studious.â He replies, comforting the disheartened child. âI read all the letters you sent me during my birthday. I was touched then and touched now for this moment. I am proud of you, my daughter. And my love for you never changed.â
The affirmation in his words put Areum in a state of joy, rekindling that spark from the 70s. âI love you, dad.â
Your last mission in this world was to have a special outing with your complete family. Regret was always prevalent in the past, wanting to do this and that but never pushed through. But not in this dream. Just the three of you, happy and carefree from it all.
Unfortunately, Manwol just gave a hand signal that your time was almost up. Time flies by so quickly when youâre fully immersed in something youâre enjoying. Doyoung wasnât capable to bear the bad news, but with you by his side, you helped him.
âAreum, itâs time for us to go.â
Areum sighed, reality seeping back into the situation. One sleep isnât enough to make up years of loss. However, she still managed to remain positive in those circumstances. âI wish things worked out differently for our family, but who knows what our next lives will take us?â
In an instant, the two of you in the dream gave your daughter a big group hug. One sheâs always yearned for. Itâs moments like this where you mustnât take anything for granted with your family.
âIâm happy youâre reunited with each other, mom and dad. Rest well.â She whispers with a smile, feeling fulfilled. She can grace the living world without wondering how things would be like with a complete set of parents anymore. This dream call successfully filled that empty void in her heart.
Once youâve bid your final farewell and hung up the phone, you and Doyoung can say the same. A little bittersweet, but it lightened all the burdens in your hearts. The both of you can ultimately rest peacefully and move on.
The timing was perfect for Kun to inform you that the car taking you to the bridge leading to the afterlife was ready.
Jeno, Manwol, Kun, and Jaehyun didnât want to miss out on this moment, waving farewells to you both. This lifetime may have taken you away from each other physically for a long time, but you still held on to each other. Most people gave up, though itâs not wrong either. Itâs better to let go rather than holding on sometimes.
But the both of you were different, something, not even the deities didnât expect. Itâs only up to them to decide if theyâll give you another chance to be together and relive a longer life. A very rare sight indeed. To be granted or not, your story set a standard.
That a love so strong is so patient it endured all the challenges and stress.
âOn to the next life, Doyoung?â You asked him, leaning against his shoulder as the car drove under the tunnel. All at the end of it was merely a white sky, where a long bridge awaited them.
âMake sure you wait for me this time.âÂ
#nct#nct 127#nct dream#wayv#nct scenarios#nct fluff#nct smut#nct imagines#nct angst#nct 127 scenarios#nct 127 imagines#kim doyoung#doyoung x reader#doyoung fluff#doyoung imagines#doyoung smut#kim doyoung scenarios#kim doyoung imagines#doyoung angst#nct x reader#nct 127 x reader
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Outro: Love Is Not Over (1)
Pairing: Daycare Teacher! Hoseok x Single Mom! Reader.
Genre: Single Parent! AU, Teacher! AU, Hybrid! AU, Fluff, Angst, Adorable Kids,Â
Warnings: Donât know if this counts but mentions of accidental pregnancies and shitty men.Â
Word Count: 1.7k
Summary: Years after a relationship goes south. You are the single mother of a beautiful 6-year-old golden retriever hybrid who you named Yunho. He is the light of your life. Yunho is everything to you, and youâd do anything for him. But youâre a human. Yunho doesnât care, he will tell you he doesnât. âYouâre still my Eomma. No matter what.â He says. But you canât help but feel like you will never be enough for him. You canât be the mother he deserves. You canât show him the ropes of being a hybrid, and you canât teach him things the other moms can. But you try. You try your damn hardest. So, when a handsome German Shepard hybrid comes into your life, helping you and guiding Yunho in a way you canât, you canât help the cozy home he sets up in your heart.
Chapter Guide:
Previous / Next
âCongratulations! Itâs a boy.âÂ
âI-Is he okay?â
âYes, heâs very healthy. Do you have a name in mind?â
âYunho.â
âA very nice name.â
âOh, heâs beautiful.â
âThat he is. I apologize for asking, but you havenât listed the father on his birth certificate yet.â
âIâm aware.â
âAre you going to?â
âNo.â
âYouâre aware what that means, yes?â
âYes.â
âWell then, Ms. L/n, Iâll leave you be now. Press the button if you need assistance. A midwife will be coming to see you shortly.â
    âEomma, wake up!â A giggly voice called. The bed was bouncing up and down, pulling me out of my slumber. I couldnât help but laugh along. âAll right, Yunnie, Iâm up.â Yunho chuckled and lent down to give me my morning hug. âGood morning, Eomma.â He sighed, his fluffy blonde tail wagging in content. âGood morning, lovely. Did you sleep well?â I wrapped my arms around him, bringing him in for a snuggle. âYes! I had a dream about giant squirrels!â He exclaimed. I let out an exaggerated gasp, âYou did?! Thatâs awesome.âÂ
   Yunho wiggled out of my grasp and bounded towards my bedroom door. âCome on, Eomma! Iâm hungry.â I chuckled and got out of bed. âAlright, waffles or toast?â I asked while I grabbed my sweatshirt, pulling it on. âWaffles!â Yunho answered, racing downstairs to the living room. I smiled to myself, I couldnât help the warmth in my heart every time I saw my son.Â
   Yunho had short hair that matched mine in color. He also had my eyes. I could see little pieces of myself in his face and it always made me smile. I didnât pay attention to the features he and his father shared, even if they werenât many. The most prominent feature they shared being his ears and tail, but somehow, Yunho made them uniquely his.Â
   He never like getting his fur cut, would always sulk about it afterwards, he likes to keep the fur on his tail long so either him or I could braid it. He thought braids were so pretty, so he would ask me to braid all of his hair, and eventually, he learned himself. His fur on his ears was less long because of my insistence that having heavy ears would impair his ability to lift them. He could lift his left ear, but not the right one. Heâs been working on that.Â
   So, even if he was his father's child, he was still just Yunho to me. That man didnât matter. It didnât matter that Yunho has his button nose or freckles. It didnât matter because Yunho was Yunho, and Yunho was the light of my life. He would run around the house non stop, bring me little rocks he found in the yard, draw pictures that had a special place on the fridge. Yunho was sunshine incarnate, and I couldnât ask for a better son.Â
   Downstairs, Yunho was sitting in front of the T.V, watching his favorite cartoon. It was about this hybrid boy and his best friend, who was human. Yunho said it was like him and I, that we were like the characters on screen, going on adventures every day. The sight made me smile yet again, and I went to the kitchen to get started on breakfast. Â
   I could see Yunho from the kitchen since it was an open plan. Which wasnât surprising because we lived in a small house. 2 bedrooms, 1 and 1/2 baths. It had a very large backyard that merged into woods. The area is pleasant, a little secluded, but that just gave Yunho more room to explore. The house got a lot of natural light with the large windows, and the air was always refreshing.Â
   When I first saw the house, it was like a blessing. It was a little run down, but nothing I couldnât handle, and it was cheap. A house being cheap should be a red flag, and it was, but it was worth it. The worst problem the house had was the hot water that ran out pretty quickly. In no way was it a luxurious mansion, but it was home, and that was all that mattered.Â
   âYunho! Come get your breakfast!â I called, placing his bright blue plate on the small dining room table we had. I heard his feet patter on the hardwood as he ran to the dining room. âWoah! Slow down, bub.â I chuckled. Yunho gave me a shy smile and sat down, immediately digging into his breakfast. âIs it good?â I teased, wiping away some stray syrup that threatened to end up in his hair. Yunho nodded enthusiastically, giving me a thumbs up.Â
   We ate together with comfortable banter. Yunho was telling me about the latest episode of his cartoon, and I was more than happy to listen. The way his eyes lit up whenever he talked about something he loved was enough to make the toughest of men smile. âEomma, can Hajun come over today?â Yunho asked in a hopeful tone. I thought about it for a bit, âIâll call Aunt Hyejin and see if he can, okay?â Yunho brightened up and gave a little âokay!â In response.
   After we were done eating, Yunho put his plate in the sink and went back to watching T.V. I washed up the dishes and dialed Hyejinâs number. âHey babe!â She answered in her usual cheery voice. I chuckled, âHey sis.âÂ
   In reality, Hyejin wasnât my sis or babe, but we were close like that. Hyejin was a Siamese cat hybrid that I met back in college. We were roommates, and we just clicked immediately. We were there with each other through everything. Shitty professors, family issues, breakups, shit men that make your life a living hell. She had her son, Hajun, a bit before I had Yunho, and helped me whenever I needed.Â
   She and her husband, Yoongi, a Persian cat hybrid, were there with me through it all. They were the family I never had. Yoongi was like an overprotective older brother, and Hyejin was no different. They even helped me find Yunho and Iâs home. We normally went on family trips to amusement parks or aquariums which the boys never seemed to get bored with. We were all one big happy family.Â
   Yoongi and Hyejin were like polar opposites. Yoongi was chill while Hyejin was a bundle of never ending energy. Yoongi was quiet Hyejin loved to talk. Yoongi was an introvert, and Hyejin constantly dragged him out to parties that Namjoon, one of our mutual friends, had mentioned to her. It was funny to witness. Especially when Yoongi begged me to go in his stead, which worked 50% of the time.
    âSo, what dâya need? Iâm all ears.â She snickered, and I could practically see her gray ears twitch. âHaha, hilarious. Yunnie wants to know if you guys can come over.â I answered. âYeah, sure! Weâre not doing anything today and Iâve been dying to talk to you about something.â She gushed. âOoo, exciting.â I chuckled. âIâll see you soon, babes. Love you!â I said I loved her back and hung up the phone.Â
   Soon, Hyejin and Hajun arrived and the boys immediately began playing together. âHey! So nice to see you!â Hyejin smiled, giving me a hug. âYou too!â I was equally just as happy to see Hyejin since she and Yoongi had been a bit busy lately. We walked over to the living room where the boys were playing on the floor with their toys. Hyejin and I sat on the sofa and she immediately began talking.Â
    âOkay! So, Iâve been dying to talk to you about this,â She started, already bouncing in her seat. âI can see that.â I teased, poking at her shoulder. âYou know the job I was looking into? The daycare one?â She asked, and I nodded. âWell~ I got the job!â She exclaimed. My jaw dropped, a smile made its way onto my face. âNo way! Congratulations!â I got up and squeezed her in a bone breaking hug, which she reciprocated.Â
   âI know! Iâm so excited!â Her tail was flicking behind her. âSo, when do you start?â I asked, moving back into my seat. âNext week! Iâm going to be the second teacher, helping someone named Mr. Jung.â She explained, and she went on to tell me how she got the job and how Hajun had asked if he could go, only to pout when Hyejin told him that he was too old. âIâm happy for you, Hyejin.â I smiled, excited that she was pursuing her dream of working with kids.Â
   Hyejin, like me, got pregnant young and unexpectedly. But she was super thrilled. She didnât care if she was only 20, she always wanted a child. She wasnât married at that time, but Yoongi stepped up pretty quickly to raise Hajun with Hyejin. Yoongi was a cool dad, pretty laid back. Usually snuck the kids out to go get ice cream or pizza. Not that Hyejin or I minded, he treated both boys with the utmost care. He treated Yunho like his own son.Â
    âSo, have you met this Mr. Jung?â I wondered. âNot yet, but I had a phone call with him. Guess what? Heâs our age.â She whispered, like what she was saying was some big secret. âHyejin, weâre both 26, itâs not like a young teacher is unheard of.â I pointed out. âI know! But... What if heâs cute~?â She raised her eyebrows in a teasing manner, leaning closer to me. âI could be cupid.â She winked and I rolled my eyes.Â
    âNo thanks, Hyejin. I appreciate it, but love for me ended a long time ago.â I sighed and Hyejin huffed, dramatically slouching in her seat. âY/n, just because... he... broke your heart doesnât mean you should give up entirely.â She pointed out, looking at me with eyes full of undecipherable emotions. âAny man I date would have to be okay with being a father-like figure to Yunho. Iâm 26 Hyejin, no guy my age wants kids yet.â I monotoned.Â
   I had come to terms with the fact that most men didnât want to date someone who already had a child. Not saying that it didnât dishearten me a bit, but it was a revelation I made early on. If someone wanted me, they were going to want Yunho too. It either both of us, or neither of us.Â
Yunho was my light, and he deserved a father that could be the things I couldnât.
#bts fic#bts one shot#jung hoseok#bts hoseok#hobi#hoseok x reader#jhope#jhope x reader#bts hybrid au#hybrid
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Show Pony
Chapter 5
Kids
Read on ao3
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âOh fuck. Oh fuck. Sheâs going to Morocco.â
There was something in Steveâs throat, making his voice waver and sound reverent at the same time.Â
âSheâs going to Morocco.â Billy pressed his hand down Steveâs back, dragging his fingertips along his skin, surprisingly smooth and soft.Â
Steve had his head on Billyâs chest, their bodies stuck together uncomfortably with sweat, but neither of them could be assed to move.Â
They were wrapping up their little movie night, Almost Famous playing to a close on Steveâs laptop, perched on the kitchenette counter, just where they could see it from the bed.Â
âOkay, that was really good.â
âI fucking told you. My mom showed me that movie when I was, like, eight. Shit changed me fundamentally.â
Steve shifted his leg a little bit but stayed silent. Billy could feel his muscles tensing uncomfortably.
âWhat?â
âWhat what?â
âI can tell youâre tense.â
âI just,â Steve sighed. âI donât think Iâve ever heard you mention your mom before.â
âYeah. Donât really like talking âbout her.â
âDid she, you know ?â
Yeah. Billy did know.Â
âNah, she didnât die. She left. Not long after that movie night.â
Steveâs head popped up from where it was rested on Billy, giving him those big fuckinâ eyes looking sappy and sad as all hell.Â
âIâm sorry.â
Billy didnât know what to say to that.Â
He doesnât tell people about his mom. About her lovely life that sheâs built without him in it.Â
It breaks his heart just to think about.Â
âSheâs got kids now. A husband.â
âI donât know what to say. Iâm just. Sorry.â
âI donât know what I want to hear. But yeah. Tâsucks.â
âYou wanna know something that makes me sad? So weâre even?â
Billy huffed a laugh through his nose, bringing his hand up to tuck some of Steveâs messy hair behind his ear.
âOnly if you wanna tell me.â
âRemember how I said I was supposedta get my high school diploma soon? Well, by soon I mean, like, maybe within the next few years.â Steve wasnât meeting Billyâs eyes, and he put his head back down on his solid chest, his shoulders tensing up around his ears. âI never went to school. Not even when I was little. Iâve had the same tutor on the road since I was a kid, and heâs good. Tries his best. I just. Iâm- not good . Iâm not smart. You need to pass this test to get your high school GED if youâve taken an â alternative route â. Like I have. But I canât take it until I know the shit thatâs on it, and my tutor, Scott, heâs too nice. Says Iâm okay. That Iâm on track. But I saw the program he teaches from. Says itâs for ninth and tenth graders. Iâm nearly nineteen, and Iâm in fucking ninth grade .â
Oh fuck.Â
Oh fuck .Â
Billyâs 98.6% sure Steve is fighting back serious tears right now.Â
It was crushing Billyâs soul and making him feel like he was gonna join right on in.
But for how much Billy is a goddamn little crybaby, he sure is useless when other people start crying.
âItâs, Steve- thatâs not your fault. Youâve literally never gone to school. Plus, like, Iâm sure you donât do your tutoring like I did school. Five days a week for like seven hours since I was five or something. Youâve been. Busy. You travel around and do all these amazing things, and, and, you're not dumb. Your parents just chose to not put you in school and then got mad when that didnât work out as planned. Itâs got nothinâ to do with your brain.â
This is gonna sound shitty.Â
And Billy really doesnât mean it like that.Â
Itâs just, well. Billy didnât realize Steve was so. Fucked up.Â
Traumatized. Might be a less harsh word for it.Â
Billy just never woulda thought, when he first watched Steve ride like a fucking expert, or when he first noticed him strutting around the grounds of the rodeo, that there was actually something really sad behind that denim and flannel.Â
It made something in Billyâs gut twist and turn.Â
Because heâs the exact same way.Â
Because underneath the layer of carefully maintained hot muscle-head douchebag jock, thereâs a really sensitive boy who was abandoned by his mother and gets regular hits from his father.Â
He canât really decide if being able to see through Steve is a good thing or a bad thing, though.Â
âIâm sorry. I didnât mean to act like a fucking baby over it. I never really talk about it, so I guess the bad shit just kinda all decided to explode out all over you.â
âNah, Pretty Boy. Sâokay. Iâm used to bad shit.â
âThat sounds ominous.â
âI meant it more in a bummer way, I guess.â
âI am sorry about your mom. It seems like you really loved her.â
Little bastard had brought it back around to Billyâs shitty baggage now.Â
The gorgeous little dickhead.
âI do.â
And thatâs probably the worst thing about it.Â
All these years of feeling abandoned and forgotten. Of trying to make himself hate her, he still loves her so much.Â
He is her.Â
So much of himself modelled around the aspects of her he found most beautiful.Â
The things, try as he might, he canât help but love.
Billy felt Steve take a large deep breath on top of him.Â
âDo you, like, talk to her much?â
âNah. Should be getting a FaceBook message for my birthday next week. And then nothing âtil Christmas. Thatâs how it goes with her.â She was literally the only reason Billy still kept his FaceBook account around.Â
Mostly because when he was feeling sorry for himself heâd go over to her profile and peruse the album labelled âFamily â€ïžâ until he felt worse.Â
âIâm sorry.â
âQuit apologizinâ. Not your fault she couldnât handle it all.â
âWas she really young, or something?â
âYeah. It was a case of too young and her own shitty father giving her enough issues to make her wanna marry the first asshole that told her she was pretty.â Heâs never said all of this out loud.Â
But he couldnât. Stop. Talking.Â
âThen when he turned out to be a bigger dick than she imagined, she split. Basically fell off the Earth for a few years. Served my dad divorce papers out of the blue one day. Now, sheâs got a family that doesnât suck, and barely spares any thought for the kid she left down south. Not that I blame her.â
He does, and he doesnât.Â
Itâs an odd situation.Â
He blames Neil for everything, when heâs thinking clearly.Â
He pushed his mother away with the same violence, the same painful rage he shows Billy.Â
But he also blames her.Â
She couldâve taken him before she scrammed. Couldâve fought for custody over him while she and his father met for Skype calls with their lawyers to settle the divorce.
Their split was easy, because she didnât want anything.Â
Not their house, not their belongings.
Not their son.Â
âWow. I thought my family was fucked up. Not to be rude, or anything.â Steve flushed, but he had the ghost of a smirk on his face.
âEvery family is fucked up. Just in different ways.âÂ
âI guess youâre right. I should probably get my head outta my ass and quit beinâ so selfish, then.â
Billy smiled fondly at Steve.
âYouâre not selfish. Just donât got a lot of outlets, I assume.â
Steve nodded, and Billy understood.Â
He doesnât either.Â
The only person he even considers close enough to vent to, is Max. And even then, he doesnât tell her all of it. Not nearly any of it.Â
She knows heâs gay only because she knows Neilâs a fucking homophobe. She knows he gets beat only because Neil does it in front of her. She knows his mom left only because sometimes Neil gets drunk and spits in Billyâs face that itâs all his fault sheâs gone.Â
But she doesnât know that Billy agrees with Neil on that last bit.Â
That maybe if he fought for her better-
Got in between her and Neil when he was goinâ in rough and hard on her down in the kitchen, instead of hiding under his bed with his hands pressed over his ears.Â
Heâs got no one to work through all this shit with, and by the sounds of things, Steve hasnât got anyone either.Â
And maybe thatâs what they could be.Â
For each other.Â
Billy shook himself.
âYou wanna start your movie?â He asked Steve, trying to redirect the evening back to their Favorite Movie Double Feature, and out of Billyâs Hopeless and Has Feelings territory.Â
Because time was ticking down.Â
And no matter how much Billy felt like Steve was the perfect compliment to his frayed and ragged soul.
Steve was leaving.Â
Steve was always leaving.Â
#yikes writes#show pony#rodeo au#steve harrington#billy hargrove#harringrove#i don't love this chapter but i haven't fixed it in the months its been sitting in my wip and i've written and LIKE the next three#so here it is mostly filler and exposition
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written for @spnpocweek day four! the prompt was âwhat their spinoff would look like.âÂ
a day in the life of victor henriksen
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âListen, Agent, these guys you sentâŠâ
Victor listens patiently. He fields a phone call like this at least once a week, usually more, and knows exactly how itâs going to go.
âI mean, I donât want to step on any toes, yâknow, because weâre really at a loss here, but they donât seemâŠâ Victor can imagine the sheriff casting around for what to say that wonât offend somebody from the far-off universe of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. âWell, they donât seem orthodox, exactly.â
Victor resists the urge to laugh. He straightens a stack of papers on his desk as he says, âThey arenât. I sent the agents I knew would do the job right, and that doesnât always mean following every little rule.â He lets his voice get a little conspiratorial, because that almost always works on the small-town law enforcement. âI mean, you and I both know how all that red tape holds up investigations.â
The sheriff lets out a snort. âTell me about it.â
âBut I know these guys. You can trust them to get the job done, Sheriff, I assure you.â
âIf youâre sureâŠâ Thereâs trepidation in the manâs voice, but Victor already knows heâs not going to push it any further. They never doâVictorâs very good at his job. âAgent Aguilera did say they had an idea of what might be happening here. I guess I oughta just trust you federal boys.â
âPrecisely, Sheriff. Itâs all under control,â Victor says. âBut if you do have any more concerns, let me know and Iâll speak with Agents Aguilera andâŠâ Dammit. What was the other name? Itâs a pop star, because Cas always picks pop star names and Deanâs too damn whipped to stop him, but God, which one? He starts shuffling through the papers on his desk. The list of aliases is somewhere.
âAgent Henriksen?â
âExcuse me, I think I lost you for a moment,â Victor says, cringing a little at the forced nonchalance in his voice. Where the hell is that paper? âAnyway, like I said, just let me know and Iâll talk to them.â
Fortunately, the sheriff doesnât notice anything odd. âWell, thanks again, Agent. Hopefully next time we talk, this whole thing will be figured out.â
âHopefully.â God, Dean and Cas never make it easy on him. âHave a good one.â
âYou too.â
Victorâs dialing Deanâs number as soon as the line goes dead. It rings four times before Dean picks up.Â
ââtold you that yesterday, dude.â Dean sighs, fond and irritated, and Victor knows Cas must be sitting there with him. âAnyway. Hey, Vic, whatâs up?â
He elects to ignore the nickname. âWhat the hell are you two doing down there?â
âWhat do you mean?â
âI just got off a call with Sheriff Johnson. He has concerns about the agents I sent down.â
âWho, me and Cas?â Deanâs voice has taken on his what, lil ole me? tone, one that Victor knows well and has been irritating him since 2007. âAsshole. Heâs just pissed because he has no idea whatâs doing this and we do. Itâs a ghost, by the way. Weâll salt and burn tonight.â
Victor rolls his eyes. âWhatever. Just quit raising so much suspicion and making my job harder.â
âNo promises,â Dean says cheerfully. âHey, whatâCas, give me theââ
And then a familiar gravelly voice says, âHello, Victor.â
âHey, Cas.â Finally, he can talk to somebody whoâs actually taking all this seriously. âHow are you?â
âIâm good. Dean insists upon antagonizing the local law enforcementââ Victor can hear his cry of indignation through the phone. âYes, you are, Dean. Ignore him, Victor. We appreciate your help, as always.â
âNo problem.â Because as much as he enjoys giving Dean a hard time, this is his job. This is how he makes an actual difference, instead of just slogging through paperwork and sitting behind a desk. He helps hunters get shit done, and every once in a while, he takes on a case of his own, usually with Jody at his side. Itâs pretty great, actually. âBy the way, whatâs your alias down there? I know Deanâs Aguilera, but I canât remember yours.â
âAgent Spears.âÂ
Victor snorts. âAguilera and Spears. I should have known.â
âTheyâre icons in American popular culture,â Cas says soberly. âIt feels right to honor them in some way.â
This is too good. âHey, Cas, hand me back to Dean?â
Thereâs the shuffling of the phone changing hands, and then Dean says, âListen, youââ
âYou are so goddamn whipped, Agent Xtina.â
âOh, bite me,â Dean says, and Victor canât help the laughter spilling over.
âNo, Iâm just glad youâre honoring the real heroes of American music. I was sick of the Page and Plant routine you and Sam used to do. This is better.â
âFuck off.â But thereâs no malice. Sometime in the past few years, Deanâs mellowed out a little. Victor tells him itâs because of his old age, that heâs getting soft, but itâs obvious to anybody that pays attention that itâs because of Cas and his kid Jack, the weird sense of family they all have going for them. Victor knows how that goes better than anybodyâheâs got a house full of young hunters heâs half-raising with a sheriff in South Dakota, of all goddamn places. Sometimes life really throws you curveballs.
âYou two stay out of trouble. Donât make me save your asses again,â He says instead of all that.Â
âNever,â Dean says with a grin in his voice. âThanks, man. Tell Jody and the girls we say hi.â
âWill do. Good luck.â
The rest of the day passes without incident. He finally finds his list of aliases, buried under a stack of old cases heâs been digging through for a hunt Sam and Eileen are working on out in California. Somebody calls asking about some fake agents, and he lies magnificently. He works on some paperwork for his actual job. Jody calls around six.
âTime to come home, Victor.â Her voice is easy, light on the other end of the phone. âQuit working yourself to death.â
âHypocrite.â
âYeah, yeah,â Jody says. âBy the way, what are you doing this weekend?â
Victor laughs. âBaby, I think Iâm doing whatever youâre doing.â
âGood,â She says happily. âBecause I found us a hunt. Looks like an open and shut vamp case, about three hours from here. It should be quick, and then weâve got a great excuse to get a hotel room.â
âGet your head out of the gutter, Sheriff.â But Victorâs smiling.
âAre you in or not?â
âIâm always in.â Victor casts one last look at his desk and figures it really is time to pack it in for the night. âAnd Iâm about to head home. Youâre right, itâs late.â
âGood. Iâll see you soon,â Jody says warmly. âLove you.â
âLove you too.â
As Victor gathers his things to leave for the day, he thinks again about the insane turns his life has taken. The person he used to be, an ineffective FBI agent, unable to save anybody, unable to make a difference, completely alone in a depressing and empty apartment, seems so far away. Now thereâs a woman he loves, a house thatâs always full of laughter and warmth, a way to help save people, the chance to do good in the world.Â
He slings his bag over his shoulder, and grins. Not too bad, Henriksen. Not bad at all.
#victor#dean#cas#jody#deancas#jody mills#spn fic#supernatural fic#del's writing#spnpocweek#victor henriksen
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the end
source: the devil all the time part: one/? pairing: arvin russell/reader requested: no tws: n/a (canon typical in later parts but this ones safe) word count: 1652 synopsis: you make some bread, and contemplate finality. extra: i wanted to challenge myself to write a reader insert without using y/n et cetera!! im so excited for this, and very proud :) Someone once told you that there is nothing in life that isnât a beginning or an end. Youâre not quite sure what you think about that, but you figure there must be some sense of truth to it. Hell, you reckon that if those words are true every damn thing you do is the beginning of the rest of your life. This train of thought will come back to you later.
For now, you wake up in the morning to begin your day, and eventually youâll sleep at night to end it.Â
You open your dresser to begin looking for your outfit, and close the dresser to end that search. Naturally, youâll put on your clothes to begin wearing them, and take them off at some point to end that.
You open the window in your kitchen to begin a steady flow of fresh air, but you wonât get a chance to close, and thus end, it.
Later, all the beginnings you started and endings you caused in the coming few days will become viscerally apparent to you. Youâll wonder which one is more important; those beginnings or endings? Youâll wonder if that matters at all. It probably doesnât.
Currently, you are kneading the dough that you began only 15 minutes ago for a loaf of bread that youâll never get to eat. Your radio plays quietly in the corner of the kitchen and you sing along, finding a rhythm in your movement. You feel as though you could live in this moment for the rest of your life and stay happy the whole time. But of course, the song ends so another can begin and your timer goes off to tell youâve kneaded enough, and the tranquility of the moment slowly dissipates. You wet a towel and delicately place it on top of the lump of dough, and set it into a bowl and aside to begin itâs second hour of rising. That means that you have an hour to yourself, and you resign yourself to laundry. It gets boring pretty quickly, however, so you resolve to finish this load and continue a book you started reading last week.Â
Youâre only a few chapters from the end. You like it well enough- the characters are charming and the plot is compelling- but the pacing of it all is whatâs really losing you. It started as a decent slow burn character study into the mind of a troubled woman that tragedy followed like a shy dog, which you find interesting. However, at some point it seemed like the author was as swept up in the world as you were and was caught off guard by the need for an ending. The past few chapters have been a rushed attempt at a satisfying conclusion, and the original message of the story has been lost. The woman started out as thoughtful and resilient, despite the shit life kept throwing at her. You like her a lot. At this point in the book, though, things should be calming down. They arenât.Â
You pick up the book where you left off, and immediately it seems to be trending in an unnecessarily painful direction. You wouldnât dare tell anyone, but you definitely prefer a happy ending. The appeal in watching decent people suffer for nothing is lost on you. It makes it difficult to ignore the more uncomfortable truths of the town you live in.Â
By the time youâve gotten to the last chapter, your timer is going off again, letting you know that itâs time to move your dough from under the towel and in the bowl to the oven. You leave the book open on the counter (it stays, because you accidentally broke the spine when you first bought the book. Your best friend chided you for getting as upset as you did. âThere are bigger things in life to worry about than a 50Âą paperback novel, darlinâ.â He had said.) and stand to wash your hands. The front door opens and closes as you turn on the water, and you call out a greeting to your father. There is no reply while you move the dough to a pan, and you wait a moment before calling out again. This time you get an answer, though the voice that responds is not your father. A smile creeps its way onto your face as you slide the pan into the oven and close the door.Â
Something youâve noticed about Arvin Russel is the way he refers to the people. Itâs never âgood afternoon,â or âthank you,â or âhow are ya?â; itâs always a âgood afternoon miss,â or âthank you maâam,â or âhow are ya, sirâ. He calls his sister Lenora little lady or hun; his grandmother is grandma or maâam; his grandfather is grandpa or sir. Friends are bud and fella, and enemies are any number of vile swears and adjectives. Youâre doll or darlinâ, and you have been since you found him hiding behind the school back on the first day of sixth grade. Itâs common down here in the south to call people anything but their name whether it be from respect or the opposite, but even as a child Arvin seemed to actively avoid using someoneâs name unless he was saying something that he needed you to know he meant. Most people figured he was just some overly respectful kid, but youâve always suspected that he just understands the power of his words. As you got older, you got the sense to wonder why a kid so young seemed to know so much about power and violence, both mental and physical. Youâve heard the rumors about why he moved to Coal Creek in the first place, but it never came to you to just ask if they were true and what living in Knockemstiff was like. You never considered it your business.Â
Thatâs all to say that when Arvin Russel greets you by name in your kitchen at 3:30 PM on a Saturday in the fine year of 1965, your hand stops on its way to the kitchen timer. A quick glance at the clock confirms that Arvin has work in 10 minutes, and you know that you live a solid 15 away from where he needs to be. You turn to face him, apprehensively studying the way he sits on a stool on the opposite side of the island that divides the room. He sits with a slump that shows an extent of exhaustion that seems deeper than the physical body. You wonder if someoneâs soul could yawn. He seems like he hasnât been able to relax all day, and even now thereâs tension in his shoulders. Not to mention that his breathingâs uneven and heâs sweating like a sinner in church, so you decide to dampen a washcloth before asking any questions. He looks at you in such a way while you dab at his damp brow that chips away at your heart. Heâs looked haunted since you met him, like Satan himself is dancing in his peripheral, always 3 steps away from finally claiming his soul, and you wonder for a moment if heâs always fought the devil all the time.
âChrist almighty Arvin, what happened tâyou?â You ask, blotting away at his forehead.
His eyes snap into focus at that, like heâs remembering something, and he pushes out of his seat, snatching the cloth from your hand. âWe gotta leave, doll,â
You look at him incredulously. âWhat in the world? You sit yourself back down and tell me what is goin-â
Arvin interrupts you by saying your name again. âI mean it,â he says, and you believe him. âYou got- you got to get on packinâ and we gotta leave.â
âIâm not packinâ anything until you tell me what the hell is goinâ on, Arvin Russel. I mean it.â You say, and he believes you.
Unfortunately, youâll come to understand that he doesnât have the time to explain.Â
The two of you have fantasized about skipping town more times than you could count. A couple of times, you even packed your bags into the back of Arvinâs jalopy before school, planning on picking up Lenora and never looking back at this shithole. You were serious about it too, your father and whatever spends its time haunting Arvin giving you more than enough motivation. Still, you stayed. Arvin would say heâd miss his grandmother, which was true, but you both knew it wasn't what Lenora would want. After she died, Arvin swore he should have said damn it all and left anyway.
When he makes eye contact with you again, you know whatever is happening now is different than your idealized life on the run. Every time you planned this, you both swore youâd do it all together, and that included choosing the right time. Arvin was so particular about choosing the right time. Now, it seems that whatever he did that you two are running from didnât have a right time. It just had to happen, and he was tired of waiting. A sense of dread nags at you perversely, and you know suddenly and without a doubt that if you donât go with him now, youâll never see him again.
He drops the rag then and leaves the kitchen with a sense of urgency youâve never seen, and you tear after him. You meet him in your room and you both throw together two bags of your bare essentials. Youâre out the door and shoving the bags into his trunk before you even get a chance to turn off the oven.
It wonât be until youâre leaning your head on the passenger window of Arvinâs automobile, speeding past the sign that cheerily reads You are now leaving Coal Creek! We hope to see you again soon!, that you will realize that you forgot your book at home.Â
#i am SO proud of this#modmori#the devil all the time#tdatt#the devil all the time fanfiction#tdatt fanfiction#arvin russell#arvin russell x reader#arvin russel x reader#arvin russel#arvin russel x y/n#arvin russel x you#the end#lenora laferty#lenora laferty mention
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You stay with Me Part 1
A/N: iâLl PoSt MoRe OfTeN. Iâve said that like five times no oneâs gonna belive that shit but Iâm gonna try. ANWAY this was supposed to be a short one shot but itâs almost over three thousand words and Iâm not even done writing it. SO I split it up and Iâll do the whole link things for them when I get the other parts out.
Ship: Anxceit and Moxiety
TW: Cursing, Slight Angst
âVirgil I just donât trust him!â âHow can you not trust him, it's Patton for fucks sake! What do you think heâll do to ground you?â Janus sighed, He and Virgil had been arguing for over an hour about this. âJan this is a once in a lifetime opportunity! We're getting an opportunity to have a seat at the table, to talk to Thomas! You canât let your personal opinion of Patton cloud this!!â âVe you donât know the things heâs done. Youâre too-â âIf you say Iâm too young I swear to god.â Virgil, who was sitting on Janus bed, while Janus paced the room, stood up. âIf you and Remus wonât tell me what happened when I was forming I canât take it to heart.â âPlease Virgil Iâm begging you. Donât do it.â Janus looked at Virgil with pleading eyes. âJan I canât miss this opportunity! Itâll be good for us youâll see.â Virgil says while grabbing Janusâ hand and facing him towards him. âNo. If you go to the lights, donât come back.â Virgil flinched, Janus almost took back what he said but he bit his tongue, there was no way Virgil would choose the lights over us, over his own boyfriend⊠Right?
â...Jan you donât mean that.â âI do. I do mean it. You can totally comprehend the emotions I feel towards Patton! You understand what Remus and I have been through! You should just go with Patton and leave us forever!â Janus screams. Virgil pulls Janus into a hug. âJanus, calm down. You're speaking in lies.â Janus takes a deep breath then pushes Virgil away. âYou go with them and leave forever, or you stay with us.â Janus looks into Virgilâs eyes. âYou stay with meâ. When those words left his mouth they sounded like a plea, a cry for help, a last resort. Virgil sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. âI-I have to think about it.â And with that he sunk out of Janus' room to go to his own.Â
Virgil sighed and flopped on his bed. A fight with Janus was not on his agenda for today. Virgil didnât understand why he was so worked up over this. What did Patton do? What could sweet innocent Patton could have possibly done? The man didnât even curse! Virgil groaned and pulled on his hair. This was stressing him more than he planned, the last thing he expected Janus to say is no, and so strongly⊠Maybe he shouldnât do thisâŠÂ
Is being with the light, getting a chance to be in Thomasâ life, getting a seat at the table, a chance at a better life, was that really more important than the others? Than Janus?
Donât get Virgil wrong he loved his boyfriend, he loved his friends. He would do almost anything for them. Maybe this was one of those things he had to do. To show the lights that them and the dark sides shouldnât be separated. That there should be no Light and Dark sides. Virgil honestly thought that his whole Light and Dark side bullshit was stupid.Â
But... if this all goes south where will Virgil go? If he wanted to come back Janus would never allow it, he was too stubborn to let go of his pride so easily. Virgil sighed again pushing his face into the mattress. He wanted to scream.
âHey Kiddo! I was just-â âAH!â Virgil jumped up and squeezed his heart. âJeez Patton you canât justâŠâ Virgil waves his hand up and down, âDo that.â Patton giggled and smiled, âOops sorry kiddo! I didnât mean to scare you! I just wanted to check in!â âThatâs fineâŠâ Patton frowned, âIs something bothering you kiddo? You look upset.â Virgil rubbed his face then sat up quickly.
Maybe Patton can tell me what happened.
âUh yeah me and de got into a fight⊠Hey Patton can I ask you a question?â âYou already did but go ahead.â Patton said giggling at the end. âDid something happen before I formed? Between you, De and the Duke?â Pattonâs eyes flashed with emotions rapidly before only one showed. Pain. Virgil jumped âUh youdonâthavetotellmeifyoudonâtwantto-â Virgil said quickly. Patton sighed âNo kiddo itâs fine, I just though they wouldâve told youâŠâ âUm tell me what? Exactly?â âDo you mind if I sit?â Virgil scoots to one side of the bed and pats the side nearest to Patton gesturing for him to sit. Patton sat down crisis-cross applesauce (There's got to be a better name for this) next to Virgil on the bed. âWellâŠâ
Long ago there were 4 main sides.
Logic: The smartest but also the weakest.Â
Morality and Deceit: Equals but polar opposites. They were also fairly strong.
And Creativity: The strongest and most powerful of all the side.
They called him King Creativity for he was the most powerful and practically ran the place. Logic found the King obnoxious but didnât bother him much. Morality really liked him at first but as he got older he became more inappropriate but Morality stayed quiet for the King had a special place in his heart.Â
Now this is where the problem starts. The two opposite sides had more in common than they would want to believe. They had both fallen for the King. They loved everything about him, and it didn't take them long to find out the otherâs intention.Â
Deceit in a rush of hope confessed his love and got the King before Morality did. Now as heartbroken as Morality was he stood back and attempted to move on.Â
As Thomas grew and changed so did the other sides, Logic became stronger, Morality and Deceit were no longer equals one was now stronger than the other, and the King⊠The King grew split in his head and he was suffering. He was stronger than ever but it was too much power for one side to handle.Â
And one day he s p l i t .Â
Suddenly there were two Creativities, The Duke and The Prince. When Deceit found out he was furious and heartbroken. He screamed and cried and blamed Morality for his lover being gone. Morality just as heart broken as Deceit tried to defend himself but Deceit wasn't having it. He took one half of Creativity and left the others.
Thus the start of the separation of the Light Sides and the Dark Sides.Â
When Patton finished his story Virgil was in shock. Never in his life did he think Janus, his Janus was the reason for the Light and Dark side split. He didnât even notice Patton had tears in his eyes until he looked up. âOh Patton, Iâm sorry!â Virgil pulled Patton into a hug. Patton chuckled and hugged Virgil back, âItâs fine Iâd just wish Deceit would understand. I still feel awful about it.â Patton said. âIâll talk to him. Iâll try to get him to talk to you again so we can work this out.â Virgil said Patton looked at Virgil and smiled through the tears. âThanks Virgil.â Â
âWas this whole thing really just a big misunderstanding? Maybe the reason Jan didnât want to talk about it is because he feels guilty?âÂ
âWould you like me to stay for a little bit or?â Patton moved away from Virgilâs embrace, âNo, You can go. Iâll be okay!â Patton had stopped crying but he still gave off a sad vibe. Virgil didnât ask questions and just nodded his head and sunk out.
He appeared in Janus' room and saw Janus on his bed wrapped up in a yellow blanket. âI did think youâd be back so soonâŠâ Janus says from the bed but doesn't make any attempt to move. âIâm assuming you made up your mind?âÂ
Fuck. Virgil forgot about that part of the fight just that quickly. âUm no. Well not exactly⊠um I know.â Janus made a face, âYou know what exactly?â Virgil rubbed the back of his neck, âWhat happened⊠Why you hate PattonâŠâ Virgil made a really long pause. He was hesitant to say the next part. âAbout King.â Virgil said softly. Janus visibly tensed. âHowâ He hissed out. âPatton told meâŠâ Janus barked out a laugh. âYeah right. I doubt he told you the truth but thatâs not important, what did you come to my room for? To ask if it was true? To accuse me of the splitting of sides?â Virgil's eyes went wide âWhat!?! No! ActuallyâŠâ Virgil rubbed the back of his neck now unsure if he shouldâve done this today. âWell? Spit it out.â Janus said impatiently. âActually Patton wanted me to talk to you. He wants to talk to you.â Janus scoffs and rolls his eyes. âJan to me it just sounds like one big miscommunication. I think if we all just sat down and talked-â âNo.â Virgil was getting frustrated now. He knew everything and he still felt lost. Why was Janus being so difficult about this? âWhy? What could you possibly have against the light sides? It wasnât his fal-â âYou know nothing , absolutely nothing. You do not get a say in what I do and or say to them. You may think you know something but you donât.â âThen tell me! Help me understand! Because to me you're being unreasonable!â âNo. You donât need to know, I donât want to talk about it. Beside you knowing wonât change a thing.â âIt may change my mind.â The room went quiet. âSo you did decide.â âMaybeâŠâ Janus took a deep breath. âAnd your decision?â Janus asked even though he already knew the answer. âJanus I have to do this.â âNo you donâtâ âWhy canât you try to see it from my perspective.â âLeave Virgil, but donât come crying back to us when it doesnât work out.â âJanusâŠâ
âLeave Anxiety.â Virgil scoffed âFine Deceit.â And with that Virgil left.
Next
#anxceit#moxiety#king creativity#duke remus#prince roman#sanderssides#sanders sides#fanders#tumblr trash
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Any jungkook angst with no smut? Thank you!
yes hello. âtis me. Finally responding to you after 31498237 months.
i rarely read full on ANGST because my weak heart cannot take it, ok. So i donât have a lot to share and most of the fics i read are pretty short. i donât think any of what i read are series bc omg can u imagine a full on series with NO HAPPINESS!! I WOULD D WORD!!!!!!!1 sjadflakwe but iâve included some angsty series in the 2nd half of this compilation!
as requested, no smut. iâm sorry if i missed something and it does have smut đ also this ask made me realize how many angsty fics DO have smut involved, lololol weâre all a bunch of emo hornies and tbh,,, iâm not even gonna deny that đ ok ok iâll stop rambling now.
* m/n: mai notes can also be read as âmy notesâ. ha ha ha wow iâm so punny.
HAVE READ:
â± â A Fallen Bookmark on A Thursday Afternoon by @cutaepatootie
âsummary: He came to you like the air comes into the train station after the fast arriving of the machine. It comes fast and unexpected, making you hoist your head to look at the long vehicle and the people inside. It is so fast you canât even distinguish the different wagons. As the train comes to a stop, the wind that it creates plays with your hair, leaving you breathless. Thatâs how Jeon Jungkook came into your life.
â
â± â A Mark of Betrayal by @jimlingss
âsummary: Forgotten as the eighth deadly sin; each time one betrays, a mark will be signed on their skinâŠ
â
â± â A Piece of the Moonlight by @jimlingss
âsummary:Â For your loved ones, the people who are waiting at home, the people who have died - you will fight. And sometimes to fight means to sacrifice: who you really are and the person you really love.
â
â± â Blue Orchids by @inktaeâ
âsummary: You were eighteen years old when Jiminâs name showed up on your hand.
âm/n: this is like⊠one of THE og bts fics and i will always promote it bc IT DESERVES TO BE READ BY EVERYONE
â
â± â Delirium by @sseudanym
âsummary: What to feel, when itâs all gone.
â
â± â Give Me Your Hands (I Will Pick the Stars for You) by mindheist (AO3)
âsummary: I miss you like the moon misses the sun, destined to chase you until the end of time.
âm/n: this is the only mxm fic here. itâs jungkook x taehyung :) i hope it wonât deter you from reading it though! itâs an absolutely beautiful story.
â
â± â In My Head by obiwrites (AO3)
âsummary: The one where you and your long time boyfriend arenât on the same page
â
â± â Itâs Enough by @dark-muse-iris
âsummary: Preparing dinner reminds you of all the struggles youâve experienced in your marriage. Your husband Jungkook, ever your anchor, tries to cheer you up with gentle words.
â
â± â Mamihlapinatapai by @tayegi
âsummary: Mamihlapinatapai (noun): a look shared by two people, each wishing that the other would initiate something that they both desire but which neither wants to begin.
â
â± â My Beauty, My Blood by @7cypher
âsummary: With Namjoon out of the picture, Jeongguk has to step up and be the sole successor to the organization laid out before him. However, guilt doesnât escape him very easily, and neither does your persistence.
âÂ
 Ⱡâ Resentment by obiwrites (AO3)
âsummary: It was an ugly kind of sad. The kind that kept you up at night, that weighed heavy in your chest and made you feel like you couldnât breathe, it made you feel like molassesâmade your limbs drag and your body ache. Youâd heard of the physical effects of depressionâbut you werenât expecting this.
â
â± â The Train of Lost Souls by @inktae
âsummary: The moment you step inside the train, you are given two options. You can choose to live or you can choose to move on. You are dead, but itâs up to you to do something about it. The choice is solely yours.
âm/n: ok so this is technically a Hoseok fic since the reader is interacting with Hoseok, but Jungkook is a part of this fic and IT HURTS ME SO MUCH SO I HAD TO INCLUDE THIS OK
â
â± â The Swirling Ways of Stars by @inktae
âsummary: Jeon Jungkook doesnât feel like home.
â
â± â Untitled by @floralseokjin
âsummary: He noticed you almost instantly. Like the wind blowing autumn leaves past his heels, he felt you near him. His body an instant constant buzzing as he stood inside the kitchen, back against the counter where he watched you outside. The separation of the living area and the balcony window feeling miles away regardless of how close he was to youâŠhow close you were to himâŠ
â
â± â We Were by @gukyi
âsummary: Not all once upon a timeâs have happily ever afterâs.
â
â± â Water Ripples by @inktae
âsummary: It may be a mistake caused by unreachable forces, but it is not a curse, like some may think. Meeting each other, being able to touch each other but being forbidden to stay close beyond the limits of the sea could be considered torture â where is the pleasure in getting a taste of something you cannot have, an ephemeral spark in the night? in getting wings that canât make you soar, no matter how many times they flutter?
âm/n: i made the mistake of rereading this when i was compiling this list and yes i am crying again. hooo booyyy.
â
â
HAVE NOT READ YET:
â± â Below Thunder Showers by @inktae
âsummary: Min Yoongi leads Earth with a stern hand and a pair of cold eyes. You lead a withered space station thatâs been losing hope for years, mind tired and heart torn. Jeon Jungkook is no more than a broken soldier whoâs slowly losing his humanity, but his longing for the rain keeps him tied to the ground. Three paths converge again when the two worlds clash, and as precarious as they were, it does not stop you from falling in love for a second time.
â
â± â Blossom by @dimpled-gukkie
âsummary: âBlossom, blossom, blossom. As unexperienced as I may be in the field you really didnât think Iâd only bring one weapon did you? Itâs no wonder your gang has gone to shit ever since your dad died, itâs clear that youâre incompetent as well as incapable of being a good leader.â He laughs, raising the gun to point at you. You raise your own and he just smiles again before setting his weapon down. âYou know what, how about we do this the old fashion way? I heard guns werenât your specialty anyways.â Shrugging off his coat you spot the long dagger tucked into his waistband. âCmon sweetheart, show me just how dangerous you are.â
â
â± â Contradict by @drowsymochi
âsummary: Jungkook is a name you hear often around the crowded city of Seoul, South Korea. Jungkook is the leader of Bangtan, a gang that has acquired a worldwide audience. The gang is stationed in Seoul, creating a feeling of uneasiness on the streets. Everyone in the city has been acquainted with one of the members at some time, being that theyâre always around. For the most part, they donât harm innocent civilians unless they commit a crime that the members find worthy of punishment. That penalty can range from bankruptcy, to torture and eventually death, which makes the city wary of their words and surroundings. If only you had been as terrified as everyone else.
â
â± â Downfall by @donewithjeon
âsummary: Your hesitation cost you dearly, and you swore never to let it happen again.
â
â± â Drown For You by @callistojjk
âsummary: There was something in that enormous tank, hidden in the murky water. All you knew was that you werenât allowed inside the room and that it used to hold something dangerous.
â
â± â Drag Me Down to Hell by @kimvtae
âsummary: Thereâs a darkness to your city, a murderous underbelly filled with crime and deceit that youâve sworn to avoid at all costs. But the universe has funny ways of forcing your involvement in the form of a notorious mob boss and his young daughter.
â
â± â Expensive Mistakes by @honeyedhoseok
âsummary: Your night spent swindling at the pool table goes left when your lackluster skills are found to be false, so itâs a good thing Jungkook has some supernatural abilities to keep D and his friends from recollecting their moneyâbut his help comes at a price.
â
â± â Fierce And Delicate by @mintseesaw
âsummary: Jungkook and y/n had been brought in two different worlds. Jungkook living an unfortunate life and y/n being controlled by her parents all her life. Despite the imperfect relationship, they completed each other like a puzzle there is. Jungkook has one promise he intends to keep: to always make you happy. In the process of fulfilling your wish he had once declined you of, he kept a secret from you. And unintentionally, he has done more damages than expectedâŠEvery action, and every decision⊠could be blamed by the flawed past.
â
â± â Fallout Technical Report by @pantaemonium
âsummary: You knew you should not go into the darkness of night, even if your hope had run thin. The monsters were free to walk the earth, and some of them were still as human as you.
â
â± â Fear in Your Eyes by @gukyi
âsummary: Thereâs a werewolf in that forest behind your house, they told you, and heâll eat you before you can even beg for mercy.Â
â
â± â First Light by @inktae
âsummary: âHave you ever felt like the world is too loud sometimes?â âNo. For me itâs always quiet.â
â
â± â Finding Beauty in Your Darkest Places by @jungtaeyoongles
âsummary: Everyone has their issues, and everyone deals with them differently. Jungkook thinks that avoiding his problems is the best option out there. AKA Jeon Jungkook is the newest patient at the Omelas Specialized Psychiatric Clinic, and he just wants to get in and out as quickly as possible so that he can go back to university and be with his friends again. Of course, that doesnât work out according to his plan.
â
â± â Gravity by @donewithjeon
âsummary: The universe works in mysterious ways. What you didnât know was that the world would give you the best at such a young age.
ââ
â± â I Got You On My Mind by @bangtanbombimagines
âsummary: In a world where soulmates can share thoughts, you never imagined that the sweet voice in your head would belong to a guy like Jungkook.
â
â± â Lost Boy by @hoshikimatata
âsummary: You are the only girl Jungkook keeps coming back to, and you thought that made you the one to save him. But in the end, heâs the only one who can save himself.
â
â± â Let Me Stay Close To You by @9uk
âsummary: You were finally free from the worst nightmare of your life in high school. The doors of college welcomed you with open arms, you were set on living your best life in here, away from the toxicity back at home. That shimmer of hope in restoring your life, was somehow effortlessly crushed by a tap on your shoulder. âHey Y/N, why donât you say we catch up for a moment?â
âÂ
â± â Left Behind by @bbfairy
âsummary: Every person is required to go through a series of tests to see if theyâre smart enough to be a part of the upper, elite district. You and Jungkook are childhood friends. Jungkookâs dream is to live with you in the elite class, but deep down, youâve always known that youâll fail the exams. For ten years, you wrote letters to give him on the day of his expected departure.
â
â± â Lie to Me by @hugseoks
âsummary: It had seemed so easy for you to move on, did you even care at all?
â
â± â Pull Me Down by @starryeyedgukk
âsummary: âDo you regret it?â âWhat?â âFalling in love with me? It feels like I only weigh you down.â âIâll let you pull me down to the depths of hell if thatâs what it means to love you.â
â
â± â Rooftop by @thelillzmonster
âsummary: An unrequited love burdens your fragile heart. And when an unfamiliar, isolated boy is thrown into the mix, youâre not sure whether it all turns for the better or worse.
â
â± â The Burning Flame by @bangtanfanfiction
âsummary: Youâre sent as a scout from the Academy into enemy territory, tasked with the mission to make sure their king doesnât unleash another war on the four nations. During your quest, you get tangled up with a lone rider, as stubborn and hard as the scales of his dragon.Â
âÂ
â± â The Black Veil by @jungcock
âsummary: You never wanted to be a vampire, yet you had been 21 years old for the last 2 centuries. You never wanted a relationship either, yet you incidentally make a very human Jeon Jungkook fall in love with you, twice.
â
â± â Waste It On Me by @byeoltoyuki
âsummary: Being a journalist, you were familiar with the concept of taking risks and pushing your limits to get the best story. But when a gangster by the name of Jungkook tries to involve himself in your quiet, safe personal life, you are forced to reconsider the limits of your comfort zone, your boundaries, your morals and even your feelings.
â
â± â Why I Hate You by @floofyeol
âsummary: Jeon Jungkookâs only regret, is knowing her in the first place.
â
â± â Watchdog by @kpopisthereasonihavenolife
âsummary: Being kidnapped, then âaccidentallyâ eavesdropping on a lot of Intel that was specifically not for outside ears, was definitely not your way of being ârecruitedâ into the mafia world. Much less end up with a companion who didnât seem very fond of you, but stuck guarding and watching you.  A Watchdog sort of man he was, and almost entirely too suffocating.
â
â± â Written on the Sky by @inktae
âsummary:Â Time is, without a doubt, merciless.
â
â± â What Happened by @bangtanfanfiction
âsummary: You and Jungkookâs relationship was on the tip of the edge. Is there any possibility to get it back up?
#so basically just read all of inktae's fics lol#bts fic recs#jungkook angst#bts scenarios#jungkook fanfic#yes i wrote 'smutties'#fite me#g recs#anon#f:jjk
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Clean Love
Pairing: Eventual Mob!Steve x Reader
Warnings: Descriptions of violence, a swear here or there, minor shit talk
A/N: I wrote this in the span of two days over 6 hours. Iâm not sure if I'll continue with this, but I was inspired to write for the first time in years. Please don't judge too hard. Also sorry for the shitty summary! Feedback appreciated!
Summary: Sheâs a city girl, an artist with a day job, because how else is she gonna pay the bills. She cleans for Tony Starkâs offices, one day she has the pleasure of cleaning up a mess made by the most feared boss in all of New York, Steve Rogers.
It was brisk, just like any normal autumn morning in New York. Steve stepped out of his town car, fixing his coat, before heading into the tall building that held the name 'Stark' in large letters high in the sky. Another meeting with his god-father about one of many deals that their organizations made. Today would be a messy one, held in the lower levels of the looming building. Someone in their lower ranks had tried to steal half a shipment of guns and ammo, they didn't get far at all. Steve's right hand man and best friend had gotten the three who tried before they even left the docks.
Two of the three men were already at the bottom of the harbor, the third was currently on the lowest floor. Most likely the traitor was bruised and beaten into cooperation, or so Steve hoped, he really didn't want to bruise his knuckles or ruin his new Armani shirt.
The few people milling about the lobby paid no attention to Steve as he strode past. He nodded at the security guard on duty before heading past the main elevators and towards a back hallway to a private lift. It was one of two elevators that reached the lower levels, the other elevator was used by maintenance staff and regular employees to reach the underground parking (not the floors below said parking  that Steve was headed to now).
The doors to the elevator opened up after Steve input a 6-digit code, he stepped on pressing the corresponding level switch before clasping his hands in front of him. There was no music during his decent, no soothing calming or annoying music, just silence. The doors slowly parted, opening up to a metal gate, on the other side of which stood James Buchanan Barnes, "Bucky" as Steve knew him growing up. The sight of the slightly shorter dark-haired man made the mob boss grin slightly.
"So Buck, how's our friend?" Steve smirked walking alongside his right-hand.
Bucky smiles, it's almost sinister, "He's about ready to talk boss. Tony's waiting right outside for ya, wants you in the room for intimidation factor."
Steve nods, spying Tony up ahead. He gives the older man a nod, showing his respect with a hand on his chest reaching for the other man's hand. Tony smiles and returns the gesture, pulling Steve in for a quick familial hug and a pat on the back. They step apart after a moment, "You ready?" asks Tony, receiving a nod from Steve.Â
The older man twists the handle and pushes the door open, the room behind it was rather large, deep and wide. A single bulb hung from an exposed wire, the only source of light in the room. The temperature was low, cold enough to make your fingers go numb and just cold enough to see your breath leave your lips. In the center, just below the exposed bulb was a chair, tied down to said chair was a man, blood running from his ear, nose and mouth, one eye swollen shut. Tony approached him slowly, circling around him, just on the edge of the light.
"Do you know why you're here, hmm?" Tony continued to circle the man, getting closer to him with each step.
"Let me tell you why," Tony stood behind him, grabbing his shoulders tightly, making the man wince. "You and your little friends tried to steal from us." Tony motioned to Steve and himself, the former staying just in the shadows.
"You tried to take 250 semi automatic weapons and sell them off, to who? And for what? You knew that if you got caught you'd end up dead... what's so important you'd risk your life? Or rather who?" Tony smacked the back of the man's head, pretending to have a moment of clarity, "Oh That's right! Your wife, Georgia... She's pregnant with your first kid right?"
The man tensed, "You wanted to get her away from all this right? Set her up somewhere you wouldn't be found?" Tony began to circle his chair again.
"You never would've been safe you know, we'd find you anywhere. We'll find her anywhere she goes." Steve smirked, Tony continued, "Who were your buyers?"
The man glanced up at Tony before he spat at him, right in his face. Tony wipes at his face, turning and nods to Steve, giving him the que to take over. Stepping forward slowly, Steve grins, making his way towards the chair. The man's eyes widen, fixed on the knife in Steve's hand. He squirms and yells out, no one moves or tries to intervene as Steve begins to slice into the man.
"Stop! Stop!! Please!" Tony doesn't listen, watches the man's face as he cries like a baby.
"He won't stop until you talk... Mr. Rogers here doesn't take too kindly to people who take his things," Steve smirks, moving to press his knife to the mans cheekbone, "... maybe after he's done we'll send your head to your lady" Tony chuckled watching the man go white as a sheet.
"Please, no, leave her out of this, I'll tell you anything!"
Steve glares at him, pressing hard with his knife, "Your buyers names, who put you up to this?"
"S Sitwell, his name's Jasper Sitwell!", that was all they needed to hear.
She hurried up the street, jacket half on and a granola bar hanging out of her mouth. Her alarm hadn't gone off, the power in her building had somehow gone out during the night causing the events leading up to now. She had overslept by a good half hour, she had skipped her shower and a real meal, having time to barley grab a snack for breakfast before running out the door 5 minutes late already.
Weaving and dodging through the crowds, she made her way down a back alley stopping at a door with a pass card sensor. She digs through her purse, grabbing her Stark Towers cleaning badge and swipes it, successfully walking into the building.
"Hey Y/N, you're wanted for a mess on level 26!", one of her coworkers calls out.
She groans, "I just walked in, I'm not even on the clock yet!"
"Yeah and the supervisor isn't happy about that. She said it's your punishment" Y/N sighs and nods punching in as she quickly scarfs down the rest of her breakfast and tosses her coat on the back of a chair. As you can probably guess by now, Y/N cleaned pretty much anything she was told to clean inside the tower. She was one of 3 cleaning ladies, besides her was Wanda Maximoff and Jessica Drew. The girls supervisor was one Felicia Hardy, who once was just a cleaning lady like the rest of them. Felicia had stabbed the trio in the back and thrown them under the bus for her mistake with their last supervisor, convincing the hiring staff that she was the most competent to take over the position. The maintenance team knows Felicia isn't meant to be where she is, the position should have been Jessica's, Felicia just knew how to brown nose better.
As they say, speak of the devil and she will appear, "Y/N, floor 26 now! Men's room on the south end had two urinals that went out of order!" Felicia snaps sauntering into the room. Besides ordering her around, the woman made her way to the coffee machine for a refill.
Y/N rolled her eyes and threw her (hair color) locks into a ponytail to keep it out of her face. She turned and made her way down the hall to the supply room bumping into Scott and Luis, the two maintenance men for the building, besides their supervisor Flash Thompson.
Luis waves and smiles, "Morning y/n, how was your weekend?"
Y/n smiled and gave him the rundown as she gathered her cleaning supplies, groceries, another failed date and a dozen texts from her ex trying to get back with her. Nothing out of the ordinary.
"Man, he just won't leave you alone," Scott huffed, annoyed for her. "Well if you need anyone to help you get the guy off your tail, let me know. I'd gladly offer my services."
Y/n smiled softly and nodded, "Thanks Scott, but I can handle it. You guys already fix the busted urinals on 26?"
Luis nods and makes a fake retching noise, "It's only Monday and already some asshole decided to-"
She cuts him off, "I don't wanna know, all I need to know is that it's fixed so I can clean the floors. You left the Out of order sign up right?"
Luis smiles sheepishly and shakes his head no. The man was good at his job, he could fix pretty much everything well enough, his only problem was that he often forgot about the cleaning crew and forgets to mark the areas that need cleaning out of order so the regular staff don't go in. She sighs, shaking her head, oh Luis. She picks up her cleaning bucket and pushes the mop bucket towards the service elevator and waits quietly.
The elevator dings and opens up, allowing her to step inside. She presses the corresponding button and waits, mind wandering to lunch and what's close and cheap. The elevator dings again and she makes her way off. The rest of her day is just as boring, cleaning more bathrooms and a few meeting rooms. Finally the day comes to an end, she heads back to the maintenance break room, only to be stopped half way by Felicia.
"Oh, Y/n, great, glad I caught you. Mr. Stark called and needed someone to do a quick wipe down outside his office. Security had to get involved and well, Mr. Stark doesn't want blood stains on the carpet," Felicia smirks at her, "Besides, it's not like you have anywhere to be tonight, or any night."
Y/n frowns softly, nodding and averting her eyes. When the young woman wasn't working she was making art, drawings, pastel illustrations and paintings even. She loved art more than anything, it was her passion growing up, helped her forget the harsh environments she lived in. Currently she was building a portfolio to submit to a few lower end galleries, hoping to spread her name and gain some recognition. Now here she was, stuck at work cleaning up after millionaires and office snobs just to pay the rent, pushing her dreams to the back burner.
Her supplies gathered once more, she heads up to the top floor, anxiously. She had never gone up that high, never had she been asked to clean anywhere near Mr. Starks office, normally that was Jessica or Felicia who took care of that. The ding snapped her out of her train of thought as she stepped out onto the floor cautiously. Giving the hall a once over she headed towards Mr. Starks office, his personal assistant should still be there if there was a mess to clean. The woman she knew only by name, her name was Natasha Romanoff. Ms. Romanoff had a particularly sharp eye for details and a 'no half ass' policy when it came to anything. Y/n had only interacted with the woman once, and that was when Felicia threw them under the bus. Now here she was, leaning against her desk tapping away at her phone.
"Good, you're here. My desk needs a total wipe down and when Mr. Stark is done he'll need some clean up on the marble in front of his desk," Natasha explained without looking up once.
Y/n nodded, "Yes Ms. Romanoff, I'll get right on that."
And she did, doing a thorough cleaning of the sides of her desk and the top, making sure not to move any of her personal items and work around the woman herself. Once she was finished with the desk and the floor in front of the desk she stood still, waiting for the ok to head into the CEO's office. Natasha finally glanced up at her, eyeing her in a very unsettling way. Almost as if the woman was peering into the very depths of her mind.
"You can go in now." Natasha nodded to the door and stood opening it for her. Three men were still standing inside, but quiet. "Gentlemen, the cleaner is here"
( @kayteewritessteveâ @katurradeâ @kaybrowniesâ )
#mob!steve#steve rogers#captain America#iron man#winter solider#buck barnes#tony stark#Steve Rogers x reader#natasha romanoff#avengers au#mafia au#au#steve rogers au#captain America au#iron man au#winter solider au#MobBoss!Steve#mob!tony#Mob!bucky#artist#artist!reader#cleaning#clean love#mob!steve x reader#mobboss!steve x reader
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Alex ze Pirate Mini Review 4: The EED: Emotional Exposition Dump. Or why THIS is not friendship
So here we are. The last part of this 45 page three parter, meant to be about what Sam really means to the crew. And what have we seen so far in the previous parts? That Sam is not just their underappreciated, but downright exploited slave (yeah, did you know that in ancient Greece slaves supposedly had more rights than Sam in this one? At least they could buy out their freedom one day), that Dobson has no idea how to genuinely pace a story, turning what could have been a decent 100 page story if planned out and presented with more care into a 45 page short snore fest and that Hat Andyâs idea for jokes are either based on abusing token buttmonkeys, turning annoying memes into even more unfunny jokes or making dark comedy with dead orphans.
At least when South Park makes jokes about children dying, they are appropriate in that dark setting and the death is still in some way handled or refered to as a horrific event. In Dobsonâs case however, it just leaves a bad taste in everyoneâs mouth.
Sorry, I just canât get over the orphanage thing. If Dobson wanted the reason for Sam leaving be that he finds out someone he cared about from his old life is dead, that is one thing. But did this asshole have to destroy an entire building with countless victims to do it? Couldnât he just have one person die and the rest be still at that place? Honestly, I think it would have been funnier and more meaningful emotionally, if Alex and Co actually interacted with people from Samâs past and in doing so learn more about him as a person, by genuinely visiting a still standing orphanage. Give the comic some meat on the bones and in doing so actually create the impression this comic is truly about Sam and not just about characters doing random stuff in relation to finding him. Instead Dobson goes for a literal overkill, which he then does not even treat as a tragedy but as a joke.
Dobson, THIS is a better and more dignified joke about orphans than the shit you did.
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You got outclassed by Chuck Lorree of all people on this planet, you disgrace of a storyteller. A storyteller who canât even keep his own barely existing continuity in the Alex-verse straight, now that I think of it. After all, according to Legends, the orphanage was closed and all the orphans were sold out to others, with Sam being the last of the litter
Which again is just unintentionally more horrific than Dobson likely intented. But you know, dumb people donât know when they do dumb shit.
But I digress Let us just get into the last part. In which we finally see the âemotionalâ pay off of everything that happened so far.
 Spoilers, this is my reaction to that pay off.
And here is what everything led up to now.
 Sam ran away, because he wants to say his final farewell to his sister figure, we never knew about at all and about whom we do not learn one single thing really.
 Where do I begin with how this revelation fails?
Letâs start with the fact that this in execution does not have the emotional impact that was intended. And why is that? Because Dobson doesnât bother to actually introduce us to the sister as a character.
If I may digress a bit to talk about One Piece here: In the manga, oftentimes Oda will âinterruptâ an ongoing story arc to feature flashback chapters, through which he tells about past events referenced in the âpresentâ chapters prior. Through those flashbacks he further gives meaning to why in present time the characters facing certain foes or having to win in their current situation, is so important, even on an emotional level. In short, those flashbacks are no interruptions, they are integral in giving those story arcs emotional weight.
Because now we are not just âtoldâ why we should care about things and people, we have been shown why we should care. The old rule of âshow, donât tellâ being followed on.
A good example from a more ârecentâ storyline I can think of, is through the flashback chapters of the Dress Rosa story arc, where we are not only being shown how De Flamingo took over the kingdom of Dress Rosa and brought pain and misery over its people for years to come, but also the past of characters such as the gladiator Rebecca and Mr. Soldier, her father figure that raised her up from the time she was 10 and De Flamingo took over⊠only for the flashbacks to also reveal properly how Mr Soldier is not just a father figure for her that took her in, but her biological father Kyros, who had been turned into a toy by one of De Flamingoâs henchmen via a power, that also took Rebeccaâs memories of her dad away so she never identified the toy as her dad.
This way Oda achieves multiple things at once; Among other things, he establishes how evil De Flamingo is, how tragic Mr Soldier and Rebeccaâs lives really are, adding to us the readers wanting to see them and Luffy beat De Flamingo into a pulp and it makes the later âpresent dayâ moment when Mr. Soldier and many other victims turn back to normal and Rebecca regains her memories and is reunited with her dad so much more sweeter. Cause now we care.
Truth be told, I myself believe that Oda is one of few storytellers on this planet, who truly has âmasteredâ the technique of emotional flashback storytelling.
A technique Dobson could have used in this part of the story, but didnât. Cause honestly, the way he tells how Samâs sister was âimportantâ to our poor cabin boy is not emotionally engaging from a storytelling perspective. We are told she is important, but we learn genuinely nothing about her, not even what her name was and what she looked like except from that one picture in the locket from over 15 pages ago. Nothing about how âcloseâ she and Sam truly were is revealed through showing, only telling and as such we donât even begin to care for her relationship with Sam and how her loss is genuinely important to him. So the main goal of this story, to make us the readers feel something for Sam aside of pity for how he is treated by his supposed friends, has not been achieved.
 ⊠Dobson, you are a hack. You canât even use flashbacks, a basic technique in the realm of storytelling, to show us why we should âcareâ more, heck, even at all, about Sam and his loss.
If you just had adjusted a few things, you could have had something good here.
By adjustments I mean the following: Take the first page of this chapter as well as the first panel of the second page, and combine them into the final page of the previous chapter. In doing so creating a proper cliffhanger for part two. Then start chapter 3 of with a few pages (lets say 6 or so) showing young Sam and his sister interacting in the orphanage in doing so turning her from a nameless plotdevice into a genuine person to care about. And then use content of page 2 and 3 of this chapter, to elaborate on their relationship, potentially with small cuts always between present day Sam at the grave explaining himself and saying his farewells, with pictures of the past showing what they meant to each other.
 But nope. This very basic idea a fanfic writer now has come up with, a fanfic writer who never studied literature or took writing classes by the way, something I doubt you did at college the more I read your work, has never crossed your âsuperiorâ mind.
Also, I find Samâs text on page 3 really, really backwards in a way. Like, I get that we are meant to consider it a good thing Sam is this way. You know, being genuinely selfless and wanting to make others happy. And donât get me wrong, generosity and selflessness are virtues I hold in high regard. But the way Sam talks about how he just wanted her to be happy while sacrificing any fulfillment of basic needs for himself feels more like a pathological disorder in that case than something to reach for. In fact, psychology speaks from different forms of generosity and the thing Sam describes here is likely âcompulsive givingâ or âunrelenting generosityâ, a pathological variant that can be highly toxic for all people affected by it.
Funny how Dobson, a person who wants to claim he is all for mental healthcare, is essentially âpromotingâ the positivity of a psychological disorder via Sam.
 Then again, this also feels more like Dobson putting words into Samâs mouth (in a literal sense) to retroactively make Samâs treatment look less horrid. Cause now Sam doesnât just do all the work because he is ordered around, he deep down is âhappyâ doing all of the work and gain not even some basic respect in return, because he cares so deeply for his friends.
⊠I feel myself get livid again here.
And the next few pages donât really help me âcalm downâ.
 Cause now the âjustificationsâ just go on. The thing that is meant to be a heartfelt farewell turning into Sam âjustifyingâ that hey, it must be good that he ended up with Alex and her crew. Cause after all, by being abducted years ago and being treated as a slave who in the gingerâs eyes is worth less than lint, he likely avoided dying of shitting his pants and a crushing roof. Ignoring the fact that he was going to be sold out anyway back then and would have potentially ended up with a more generous master than the crew of non Captain Syrup.
Also, just all of the shit going on in page 6. Sam asking his âsisterâ to be at peace, when likely, if the girl could still talk, she may even just ask Sam the following: Who the heck are you. Cause really, if you think about it, if Sam did all the nice things for her in secret, did the girl even realize she had a âbig brotherâ figure to watch over her? Also, him saying he is happy and he is doing quite alright for himself?
All the pictures of him sighing and looking in misery in this story alone, plus the cavalry of strips I posted about how Sam is abused in the first part of this post series tells me another story.
Finally, Samâs message âAt least now, we are both freeâ? Sam, she is dead, likely having died in pain when a house crushed on her, weakened by a deadly disease and traumatized by other children around her dying of said disease. And you are stuck with a bunch of people that havenât shown to care for you up until this story and the only reason they may even care for you now is out of âsympathyâ because you lost your sister figure, not because they genuinely love and care for you as a person. As far as I am concerned, you would be better off being the slaveboy of some nymphomanic pirate princess in the world of Berserk than you are on this plane of existence.
And now that the âemotionalâ farewell is out of the way, Dobson can go back to focus on the characters he really cares about in this shit anyway: Little Bitch Annie, lesbian chocolate rain Miroku and Deadpoolâs pubes.
 Oh Alex, you are such a rascal. You really make me want to shoot you with a crossbow, stab you in the eye, hurl you out a window and shove explosives where the sun wonât shine.
Yeah yeah, you are a pirate, but that doesnât mean you need to be that awful as a person or even protagonist.
Christ. For someone who complains how toxic Walter White is to the point he believes âsympathizingâ with the character turns you into a nazi, Dobson certainly is blind to how awful Alex really is, particularly as protagonist in a comic series intented for little kids. Compared to her, I can think of freaking slasher movie villains with more of a moral compass. Like say what you want about Jigsaw, at least he never victimized genuine children or teenagers.
And Talus, thanks for ruining the âemotionalâ moment Sam âearnedâ by pointing out how weird it is he kissed a gravestone. Also, I am glad I know what happens in the next pages or else I would assume Alexâs great idea includes to dig up his sister and turn her into a life sized doll for Sam to cuddle.
No, their ideas to assure he is emotionally save and to redeem themselves for years of taking him for granted/hurting him, is to throw him a surprise party.
⊠you know, I think you may be the only individuals in fiction, that Pinkie Pie would think do not deserve to throw a party or get one thrown for.
 But I guess Sam is just so nice, he even throws you a party for no apparent reason.
Either that or now that his âsisterâ is dead he will overcompensate even more and this is the next destructive stage of his compulsive generosity.
⊠Sam, I am sorry for your loss. But you need to get help. Once by the authorities who will hopefully get rid of Alex and then by some psychologist who helps you redefine your own self worth.
By the way, I find it funny that the banner he made also actually only mentions Talus, Atea and Captain Daphne with a bad hair day. It just confirms that Peggy either never bothered to join the others or that Dobson developed an early onset of dementia and totally forgot about the fact that the midget is a genuine character in this trainwrack. And I am convinced the later is the case, which really just makes me wonder how someone is able to do that. To forget a major character of the thing they create and want to turn into a money making franchise. Imagine if Disney did e.g. a sequel to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, only to forget about the god damn dwarves themselves.
At least Talus finally realizes he is unworthy to get a party thrown or be Samâs friends. Good. Now jump into a wood chipper and free ourselves from your existence you dog beaver thing.
Content of the next page in a just alternate universe⊠Alex: You are a better human being than I could ever be and this is all because my creator is a hack who does not know how to create genuinely likable personalities.
The reality:
 FUCK YOU, ALEX! FUCK YOU AND THE BIKE PUMP YOU FLEW IN ON! Atea and Talus have learnt more than you about what it means to be a friend and they donât even bother to punch you in the face for still being the biggest red haired  raging cunt since Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
If this is how Dobson thinks âfriendsâ should treat each other, it is no wonder he has a friendless background. Hey, Hat Andy, if you want to emulate manga, may I suggest you just become even more blatantly about it and simply copy paste One Piece? Cause Luffy at least knows how to be a friend. How much does he care for his friends, strangers and even at times former enemies of his?
He cares so much, that e.g. when a special military force that beat the crap out of him got hands on his crewmate Nico Robin, he did THIS:
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He declared war on the world government. Fuck, even Jack Sparrow, who is an opportunistic jackass, in a movie where everyone stabs the others at least three times in the back, was less selffish than Alex, when he gave up his chance on immortality as Captain of the Flying Dutchman, just so Will would live in some form.
Metalbeard from the Lego Movie cared more about doing the right thing than anyone in Alex the pirate did. You created the worst friends and âheroesâ I have ever seen in a webcomic since the entirety of sinfest. Congratulations for that accomplishment, Dobson. It really takes a special kind of anti-talent to show such level of not understanding the power of friendship as one of the most basic tropes in storytelling, to the point a show about pastel colored equines managed to profit of it for nine years.
 WOOOOO! We are the worst, we are the worst!
And look, Uncle Pennywiseâs scrotum is back.
Anyway, here are the last two pages of this thing, to end on what is meant to be a whimsical note because Sam actually gets something from Alex that is not a beating or verbal abuse.
 Too bad anything that would feel heartwarming about this is drowned by a) me actually remembering all the shit Alex, the crew and the writer pull to get to this point (from abusive neglect of the characters to pathetic emotional manipulation on a narrative level) and b) the weird rapey face Uncle Peggy makes in the picture. Like Jesus, did Dobson try to emulate the Burger King here?
But hey, this story is over. And who knows, perhaps from this moment on, Sam will actually be treated better overall in the comic and Dobson will spend time actually developing an overall plot and the world of this com-
Tom Kenny: ONE COMIC STRIP LATER
And it is back to business as usual.
... How much would I need to pay for someone on the internet to write an alternate ending to the story where it turns out Sam actually poisoned the food at the party and while Alex is slowly dying, a now evil Sam who has finally broke under years of abuse, is going to become a genuine threatening pirat? that is after he villain monologues to Alex how much she sucks before scalping her?
Wow, I am entering a dark place right now. I think I need to take a break.
So I am going to give my final verdict on this story with the next post around the weekend most likely. Cause that is how much time I will now spend rereading One Piece and watching the Pirates of the Carribean movies in addition to playing the Pirates level of Kingdom Hearts 3, in order to forget this shit and remind myself why I think pirates are cool.
#andrew dobson#alex ze pirate#fuck you#hat andy#tom preston#so you are a cartoonist#syac#comic#webcomic#pirates#sam the cabin boy#atea#talus#one piece#magic of friendship this is not
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a selection of princesses [tom holland]
a repost, originally posted in my former writing blog
relationship: prince!tom x princess!reader
warning: swearing, none; mistakes here or there
request (anon): hi! would u consider writing about prince!tom holland x princess!reader were tom is the heir to the throne and the reader goes to visit the Hollands at the castle, ends up having some interesting encounters with him and they make out, are all lovey-dovey and fall in love? so tom decides he wants to marry her and not any other princess
notes: Â can i just say that iâm glad this is not royal!tom x pauper!reader/rich!tom x poor!reader because THAT TROPE IS OVERUSED IN THIS COUNTRY I LIVE IN ITâS FREAKING EVERYWHERE
summary: prince thomas is to be betrothed, but who is he looking for?
Unlike your older sister, you loved being a princess. You loved being pampered, attending all the balls and parties, eating all the best food, learning from the best professors in the kingdom, riding horses, having archery as your best sport, you loved everything. However, that also meant that, as one of the princesses of the Eastern Kingdom, you were going to be betrothed to one of the princes. And if you were being totally honest, you didnât mind at all. All the princes were handsome anyway.
But there was one prince that caught your attention. Youâve never spoken to him because he was always under the watch of his guards and you were the life of the party, always being called by one group or another. Youâve talked to all the other princes, except Prince Thomas of the Northern Kingdom.
When you would be alone in your chambers, or anywhere else for that matter, you would tend to daydream about him. How he would act, talkâŠhow he would watch you and listen to you as you entertained him with songs and dances, and maybe even funny stories that youâve collected as you grew older.
Your sister would scold you for such nonsense. She knew you were going to have a husband from one of the kingdoms so she deemed it wise not to think of just one. She was betrothed to one of the princes in the Western Kingdom. And she hated it She hated being a princess, she would have rather have been a commoner.
âYou say that, sister,â you would start whenever she would whine about the whole princess fashion, âbut once you have a feel of being a commoner, you would think of the good life you have here.â
In your kingdom, there were only two princesses, you and your sister, and three princes, your older brothers. In the Western Kingdom, there were two princes and one princess. The Southern Kingdom had the most princesses, you canât even remember how many, but there were three princes. The Northern Kingdom, the kingdom ruling above everyone else, only had one heir, Prince Thomas.
The Creator knew how much she wanted to marry him.
âYou donât even know him yet,â your sister would say. âAt least I knew Prince Phillip before we were told that we are to marry.â
You made a face. âThe only reason they brought him here is to obviously tell you that you are betrothed. Why else would they bring a prince here?â
But your sister would have none of it. For her, their parents' will was law despite her wishing she wasnât a princess. âIf I canât beat them, join them,â she would chant. You remember the time she had rebelled and you think of how different things now are with her. âI donât like being a princess, that I admit, but this is my life. Creator help me.â
Months later, there is word that the High King and High Queen had wanted to betroth their son Prince Thomas. However, unlike most traditional arrangements wherein parents and matchmakers would talk it over, they would invite all the princesses of the kingdom to their castle for a few days.
âThatâs odd,â your mother, the Queen of the Eastern Kingdom, said. âI wonder who decided on this.â It was dinner time in the castle and your mother was reading the parchment given by the messenger as you all ate around the table.
âWhat is it, Dear?â you father, the King, asked, not taking his eyes off the slab of meat on his plate.
âPrince Thomas is to be wed.â Your heart sunk at that. âBut instead of the normal arranged marriage, theyâre inviting all the princesses from the different kingdoms. The West will go first. Then the South. And finally, us, the East.â
Although this excited you, you still tried to play it cool. âWill sister be coming with us as well?â
âSheâs betrothed, Darling,â your mother reminded you. âAnd your father and I are not going. Youâll be traveling alone.â
âIs that soâŠâ you murmur. And your excitement quickly becomes worry.
Finally, itâs the day of your visit. You have finished packing all your necessities and you climb onto the carriage and wave goodbye to your family. Your sister smirked at you and you discreetly stick out your tongue at her.
The ride to the North was a tiring one. You had fallen asleep numerous times as you moved along. You had stopped for two nights, where you got proper sleep, and continued on during the day. When you reached the Northern Kingdom, you prayed to the Creator that you still looked presentable enough to the High King and High Queen.
When you were led into the throne chamber, you curtsied at the sight of the two rulers. âMy King, my Queen. It is an honor to be in your presence.â
âPrincess y/n,â the Queen called out. Her voice was soft and light. Very motherly if you were to be asked. âItâs great to finally meet you. You are quite the showstopper, arenât you, little one?â She smiled knowingly.
You blushed at the comment and tried not to stammer. âI am just doing what any princess should do, your majesty.â
âArenât you a lovely girl,â the Queen continued. âI remember seeing your sister. You two look quite different. Sheâs a beauty as well, but you are another story.â
You turn even redder as you thanked her.
âThomas will be choosing his wife and you are lucky enough to have no sibling rivalry,â the King said. âBut you are still in the pool when we consider the countless other princesses, not to mention the ones in the South.â He chuckled.
Your stomach churns at the possibility of not being picked but you smile anyway. âBeing a candidate is a great honor, your majesty. I am happy just being here.â
âThomas is out hunting now,â the King informed you. âBut please, make yourself at home. Weâll call you for supper time.â
âThank you, your majesty.â You curtsied again before being led out of the throne chamber.
The castle is much bigger than the one in your home. There were also many twists and turns until you reached a corner where a large portrait of a young lady was hung on the wall. The lady was beautiful and you unknowingly touch your own face to compare. âWho is that?â you asked.
âThat is the princeâs grandmother. This will be your chamber, princess,â the maid told you. It was on the side of the portrait. Â The maid opened the door and you followed. The chamber was just as big as your own and you smile, it really did kind of feel like home. âWould you need anything else, princess?â
You shake your head. âNo, Iâm okay here. Thank you.â And so she leaves and youâre left alone. You look at the bags and boxes you have. Youâll be living here for two weeks but youâve packed for two months. Shaking your head, you decide you want to explore first before unpacking.
Slipping out of the door, you begin to walk around, making sure to remember where your chamber was. For about an hour, all you did was take a tour of the humongous castle. You would make sure to keep away from the King and Queen, not wanting to leave the impression that you sneak around.
When you check the time, you realize it was almost time for supper. You look around you for any signs where you should go to get back to your chamber. âOh no,â you mutter when you realize you have no clue as to where you are. âFuck. Not good.â
So you take your chances and walk in the hallways you believe looked familiar. After about fifteen minutes, you still havenât found your chamber. You sighed in despair. âDefinitely not good.â
âWhatâs not good?â
You looked up and felt your heartbeat speed up. âPrince Thomas.â
âHello, princess y/n. Are you lost?â
You hated to admit but, âYes. I wanted to explore and I thought Iâd be able to remember where my chamber is. This experience has taught me that Iâm not good with directions.â
He smiled and your heart leaped. âWhich chamber did they give you?â
âThe one where thereâs this portrait of this beautiful lady, your grandmother.â
âThey gave you the chamber across from mine. Come on, Iâll show you the way.â He gestured for you to follow him. âSo, princess y/n, how do you find the castle?â
âBigger than ours,â you replied. âI wonder how you donât get lost in here.â
âI still do,â he laughed, âso if ever they donât find me, they know Iâm running off looking for new secret passages and shit.â
Youâre taken aback by his swearing but you also feel that youâre not alone. âThere are secret passages here?â
âArenât there in yours?â He turned to look at her.
You look down shyly. âIâve been taught to be a lady. Perhaps my brothers have discovered some already. I should ask.â
You and Tom walked the distance to your chambers while talking. When you finally reached the familiar corridor, you sighed in relief and hope it isnât supper yet. âHave you unpacked?â he asked you. When you shake your head he offered to help out. Although you knew a prince shouldnât be doing this job, you canât help but ask if he was sure. âYeah, I donât have anything important to do. Just let me freshen up, Iâm all sticky from hunting.â
You two go your separate ways. As you close the door behind you, you lean back and squealed. Regaining your composure, you quickly begin unpacking, not wanting to seem like you were waiting for him. Minutes later, there was a knock on the door and you let him in.
âIâll start with this bag,â he told you. You let him be and begin fixing your books on the shelf. Thatâs when you realize the silence. You turned back and see Prince Thomas staring at the contents inside the bag with a red face. âPrincess y/n. I donât think itâs appropriate for me to touch these.â
âWhatâs wrong?â you ask. You walk towards him and check the bag. You turn red as well. âIâm so sorry, Prince Thomas. I didnât know they were in this bag. Iâm sorry, I really am.â
He gave a nervous laugh. âItâs okay. Iâll just start with this other bag.â
You zip the bag youâre holding and turn away from him. Whoever placed your ladies undergarments in this bag was going to get it. âCalm down, yâ/n, they didnât know.â You inhale and exhale before setting the bag down.
Itâs been a few days since your stay in the castle. Youâve had some interesting encounters with Prince Thomas, or Tom as he preferred to be called, and you, in turn, allowed him to call you by your first name.
And by interesting meaning, after spending time with him every day, you were in the garden and you found yourselves making out. If you two were asked who started it, you wouldnât know what to answer. And you know what, it didnât matter to both of you. It wasnât the best to tell anyone yet about their relationship so, behind the walls, you two would cuddle and trace circles in the palms of each otherâs hands, telling one another stories and secrets. Under the table during eating hours, youâd brush your foot on his leg and you could see him turning pink at the gesture.
When it was time for you to go home, that was the only time things went public. How could you two send letters to one another without others knowing?
âIâve told them, y/n. Iâve told Mom and Dad about who I want to marry. Itâs you. I want to marry you. I donât want to marry any of the other princesses they asked me to consider before I make a final decision. I love you, y/n. I donât know if you love me back yet but I will wait. I will wait for your love before we become betrothed.â
He didnât have to wait long. Your next letter to him told him how you felt. You loved Tom back.
Days after, it was announced that Prince Thomas of the Northern Kingdom, Crown Prince of all Kingdoms, has chosen Princess y/n of the Eastern Kingdom, to be his betrothed.
Everyone celebrated. Parties were held and everyone had admired the engagement ring on your finger. And as people talked to you, as again you are the light and life of the party, you looked back and saw Tom smiling at you.
Finally, you didnât have to wonder how he would act or how we would talk. Or how we would respond to when you entertained him. âThank you, Creator,â you murmured before turning back to the group you were with. Unbeknownst to you, Tom murmured the same thing.
#tom holland x reader#tom holland x y/n#tom holland x you#tom holland imagine#tom holland imagines#tom holland fanfiction#peter parker x reader#peter parker x you#peter parker x y/n#peter parker imagine#peter parker imagines#peter parker fanfiction#misc: cherish writes
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hi! I am here to inquire about the plot of dream verse đ
under the cut bcs i got carried away
EP 1: Dive Into You
It is no secret that 20-year-olf Park Jisung was born in luck. He was the full package â tall, handsome, smart, good-hearted, skilled at sports, and extremely rich. His family had found wealth 25 years before, when his grandfather (Park Haru) started the hot sauce business that would become the most successful hot sauce business in South Korea â DREAM FLAVOR. No one knew exactly how he had done it, as it seemed to have happened in the blink of an eye â people always asked him, but all he would do was wink and say, âI just had a spark of good luckâ. But no one knew how true that was.
Jisung always looked up to his grandfather, and trusted every single word that came out of his mouth. His step-father (Jae-yi), however, had a much different opinion on the old man. He thought Haru was a total nut case, always nagging him obsessing over that damn candle. Truth be told, he did sort of have a point. Haru had a candle he was extremely secretive about, which he kept in a locked room beside his bedroom. You know, the ânormalâ place where people keep candles. As he was growing up, he always told Jisung that the candle was actually far more precious than it seemed, and that he should never let it blow out. A bunch of popicocks, as his father would say, but Jisung never forgot it.
He still didnât forget it on that cold day of early May â that is, the day his grandfather died. Some people say death isnât lonely, but thatâs exactly how Jisung felt. Haru was not just his grandpa â he was his role model, his teacher, and most of all, his friend. On his will, he decidedto give Jisung a key to the candleâs room with a note that said, âIâm giving my spark of good luck to you and ONLY you. Use it wellâ. Jisung was torn because he wanted to trust that the last words his grandpa said to him were meaningful, but he couldnât help but think, âWhatâs this old nut saying?â. Nonetheless, he took the key and went into the ominous room, with nothing but hope as his company. The candle was burning in the center of the dark windowless room, untouched and unsettling. It was just a normal candle you could find at a local market, yet something about the flame made it impossible to look away. Unsure of what to do, he decided to just leave and go home to try to forget about the whole thing. Yet, the trembling flame kept haunting his dreams for the entire night.
The next day, Jisungâs father decided it was time to move into Haruâs house and turn it upside down, with no care to the fact that the body of Haru was almost not even cold yet. He wanted to clean each room, but he couldnât get into the candle room. Jisung was unsure of what to do â he did think his grandfather was bananas, but he also didnât want to disrespect the only legacy he had left him. So, he refused to give up the key, and instead offered to clean the room himself. After dusting every inch of the area, he opened the door to let some air in. But as the wind was roaring outside, a sudden violent breeze came through the door and blew the candle out. Jisung rushed over and then ran to get a box of matches, to try to light it up as quickly as possible. However, no match seemed to work, as the fire appeared to refuse to burn again. With a wretched feeling in his gut, he immediately left and went back home to take a nap, trying to tell himself that it was nothing big. Boy, was he wrongâŠ
When Jisung woke up from his nap, the sight that welcomed him was not what he expected â a young boy with blue hair and a green hoodie was sitting on the floor across from his bed. âHi, Iâm Markâ, he said â simple words that scared Jisung to his very bones. Raddled and very confused, Jisung decided to call his 5 friends â Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, and Chenle â and asked them to come over, hoping that together they would be able to make sense of the situation. But alas, they did not. As they watched Mark ravaging Jisungâs fridge as if he hadnât eaten in a decade, they tried to come up with a game plan.
However, quick-tempered Haechan quickly lost his patience, and told Mark either he left on his own, or they were going to call the police. At which Mark looked at Jisung in disbelief and asked him if his grandfather hadnât told him anything about him. Utterly confused, the boy shook his head, and so Mark told his story to the 6 googly-eyed friendsâŠ
Mark was 500-year-old spirit, born under the Joseon dynasty. Once he died, a witch bounded him to the candle â whenever someone lit it, Mark would bring good fortune and money to their family as long as the flame was burning. If it was blown out, the fortune would stop and Mark could wander the earth freely until someone new lighted it again.
The 6 friends exchanged a look and knew they were all thinking the same thing â they had to light that candle up once again.
(end of ep 1, now Iâm gonna go more quickly omg this is so long Iâm genuinely sorry)
EP 2: Rainbow
Mark overhears a convo between the others and becomes aware of the fact that they want to put him back inside the candle, but obviously he doesnât want to. So he makes a pact with them to have 3 days of freedom, and he plans on stealing the candle in the meantime. He wants to go to the beach, so the 7 of them go on a road trip.
The 7 of them do some bonding and Mark tells them more of this story. He was born in a family of slaves and had grown up seeing all the injustices inflicted upon his people by the hands of the hierarchs. So, one day he decided to take matters into his own hands and began retaliating, by stealing from the royals to help his family. But his anger for revenge couldnât stop at just stealing â he wanted the blood of those who had hurt his people. So, when he died, the witch put him there as a punishment for the murders.
They find out heâs a nice guy so they donât want to put him back into the candle, as they realize he should have a chance to live too. So Mark tells them there is a way he can be out but still have access to his powers â they need the help of the witch who put him there. Obviously sheâs dead by now but her power ran through her family, so she must have a descendant who is able to help them.
EP 3: Diggity
The witch who put him there was called Man Wol Lee and, as they find out, was an ancestor of Haechan. He doesnât have magic but his twin sister â Hae-soo â does. So they go to her and try their best to convince her (Mark is the only one who manages to get through to her). In the meantime â Haruâs business (who is now in the hands of Jisungâs father) begins to go into trouble + Mark is staying as Jisungâs house (as heâs usually by himself anyway since his parents both work a lot) so the two have a lot of talks and stuff (e.g. Mark explains that when the candle is lit, he is stuck in a limbo called the Dreamverse â i.e. a place stuck between life and death where he has to face his own worst nightmares + tells him how he had met Haru). Anyways, they get Hae-soo to try something witchy so she channels Man Wolâs spirit with a spell book they found (and that Mark translated since he knew old Korean). They find out Mark and Man Wol used to be lovers (uh) in the old times, and she was the one who killed him and then forced him into the candle because she wanted to stop his lust for blood. She tells them the only way to free Mark is to bind someone else to the candle, to replace him.
EP 4: Irreplaceable
(+ Mark starts being mean to Hae-soo bcs heâs mad at Man Wol) They conclude the person they lock up should be a bad person + they donât wanna kill them so they should find someone who justdied. So they go to the hospital but donât find anyone (un)worthy enough (they know bcs Mark see what someone has been like while they were alive bcs of a spirit thingy).
*some shit happens*
They discover the candle got stolen. They search for a while, but then Mark disappears â someone must have lighted the candle again.
EP 5: Be There For You
Hae-soo does a locator spell so theyâre able to find the candle, and discover that itâs now in possession of Vincenzo Cassano, one of the biggest mafia bosses in South Korea (he had heard of the candleâs powers and he wanted to use it). The 6 boys go to him to try to blow the candle out and free Mark, but they get caught and are taken hostage (they are taken to a storage area near Vincenzoâs house). Thankfully, Hae-soo followed them and blew the candle out, so Mark goes to free them but when heâs about to kill Vincenzo to protect Hae-soo, he canât bcs spirits canât kill the people who used to âownâ them, so Jisung throws himself in the middle and gets shot instead. To stop him from dying, Hae-soo puts him in the candle.
EP 6: All Night Long
They realize Vincenzo has fled and has taken the candle. So there are two ârealitiesâ in the episode.
On one hand, thereâs Jisung who is in the Dreamverse. There he sees a world exactly like his true reality BUT everything goes wrong â his grandfather is alive but tells him heâs a disappointment + his mother dies at Jisungâs hands + Jeno, Jaemin, Renjun, Chenle and Haechan force him to kill Hae-soo + they then try to kill him so he has to run away.
*BACKSTORY: Jisungâs father died before he was born + then his mother re-married but then she dies as well when he was 16 + Jisung never got along with Jae-yi and even less after the death of his mom
On the other hand, the others are trying to figure out how to bring Jisung back. Hae-soo and Mark contact Man Wol to ask her more information â she tells them they can enter Dreamverse (with her help ofc) and can help Jisung find an âexitâ, which Mark couldnât use since Man Wol made it impossible for him to access to ensure he would not escape. Jisung can use it bcs the prison world was not created for him. Jaemin, Jeno, Renjun, Haechan and Chenle go to Vincenzoâs house to try to find something to track him down (since the locator spell doesnât work). But when they go there they find Vincenzoâs dead body and no trace of the candle.
EP 7: Rocket
Two ârealitiesâ again.
Mark and Hae-soo go in Dreamverseto rescue Jisung (they find him first and the two mend fences). They convince him theyâre real (bcs heâs kinda going bananas and canât distinguish the Dreamversefrom reality) + they take him to the exit which is a door located in the middle of Dreamverse â the door is the door to the âcandleâs roomâ at Haruâs house. They go there (struggling bcs the others try to stop them + it takes a lot of energy for Hae-soo to keep them inside so sheâs weak) and manage to get out (yay!).
Jaemin, Jeno, Renjun, Haechan and Chenle look at the CCTV (Haechan hacks into it) but they canât see who killed Vincenzo (bcs thereâs no cameras in that room) BUT thereâs one in the garage so they can see the car of the person who killed him Ă the car plate! They recognize it so they know whoâs the owner. They go back to Hae-sooâs to find them all out + tell them who is the killer (and has the candle) â Jisungâs step-father, Jae-yi.
EP 8: Hot Sauce
Jisung is out BUT heâs not human â heâs a spirit, both alive and dead at the same time (so he canât feel touch and stuff, thatâs important for later). + Jisung has a talk with Hae-soo to thank him for saving her life and apologize for putting him in that situation. He replies that heâs the one whoâs thankful bcs she saved his life. They kiss <3 but Jisung canât feel anything so :(
So Jisung, Jaemin, Jeno, Renjun, Haechan and Chenle go to Jae-yiâs (which is actually Haruâs) house and try to find evidence of him being linked to Vincenzo â Jisung still doesnât wanna believe it, but they find evidence. Mark and Hae-soo contact Man Wol and explain to her the situation and ask if they can put Jisungâs father in there without killing him. She tells them thereâs a way to do with just a drop of his blood + explains the spell to Hae-soo + tells Mark she forgives him. So they go face Jisungâs step-father: thereâs a fight and yadiyadiyada but they manage to put him inside so yay!!!
The âownerâ of the candle is now Jisung. He decides to use the fortune to continue Haruâs hot sauce business â he puts it in a box (the one from the life is still going on mv). Mark is a human now so he can go anywhere but decides to stay in Seoul and experience life as a normal college student. Jisung and Hae-soo kiss again <3
EP 9: Life Is Still Going On (BONUS EPISODE)
Itâs 7 years into the future. Everyone meets again at a dinner thrown by Jisung.
Jisung is the CEO of DREAM FLAVOR and the company has grown even more + heâs engaged to Hae-soo who is doing her medical residency to become a surgeon + Haechan and Chenle are now starting a tech company together (about keeping you safe from hackers etc) + Jaemin is a surgical resident as well + Jeno is now a soccer player in the national team + Mark is getting his second Bachelorâs
They eat and chat + Jisung tells Haechan and Chenle heâs giving them the candle bcs they need the luck more since theyâre starting a new business. So he blows it out + the episode ends with Haechan lighting it again.
-FIN-
Thanks for reading omg this was fun :DDD
#im not crazy i just like writing#if anyone reads it.........ily <3#btw this has not been proofread + i wrote it bcs i was bored right after hot sauce#<3#anonymous#sophie ask
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Buried Secrets Two
Parts: [ 1, Here, 3 ]
Summary: [Name], knowing she and John are in danger, runs to the babysitterâs house to get John back to safety. She also gives the nice babysitter money to go out of the country. Then [Name] is in a stolen car wondering where and who to go for help. She reluctantly goes to the Titans. Although plans donât go as planned. Dick tells the truth to the Titans and they figure out a plan to stop Deathstroke once and for all. Deathstroke has unfortunate news for [Name].Â
Pairing: Dick Grayson x Female! Reader
Genre: Slight Angst
Word Count: 3k
WARNINGS: Blood
âWait, Ms. [L.Name], why are you suddenly leaving? Also youâre bleeding,â Samantha, Johnâs babysitter, had ran behind [Name]. The young teen was not understanding why she was given two grand for only taking care of John for a night.Â
[Name] held John closer to her body and noticed that he was going to cry soon. She set John down in a carrier then grabbed Samantha by her shoulders, âLook, sweetie, use the money to finally go to South Korea. Didnât you say you always wanted to go there?â
âY-yeah, but I canât leave without notifying my parents. Iâm just a sophomore in high school,â Samantha gave [Name] a weird look.Â
[Name] cursed under her breath and grabbed four grand from a duffel bag, âHere use this to bring your parents with you. Just get out of town, no, the country.â
âWhy? Whatâs going on?â Samantha didnât know when to stop asking questions and it was annoying the older female to no end. [Name] zipped up the duffel bag and grabbed the handle of Johnâs carrier. She walked over to the front door and zoomed over to her car that she stole. She opened the backseat car door and strapped John into a car seat.Â
John began crying now and [Name] closed the door after she stuffed her bags next to John. âListen carefully, Samantha. Bad people are after me and they might use you to find me which is why you need to leave. Because theyâll only bring harm to you and your family for no reason.â
Samanthaâs blue eyes widened, âBad people like murderers?â
âWorst. Now call your parents and Iâll tell them what to do.â
âŠâŠÂ
[Name] looked at her phone and typed the address to the Titanâs Tower. Her fingers froze and she let her thumb hover over the start button. Deathstroke said that Dick brought the Titans back together. But she couldnât bring herself to believe him. Deathstroke isnât known to be a liar, manipulative, yes. If Dick really did bring the Titans back even their old friends, why didnât he contact her?
âMa...ma,â John whined in the back seat, his little feet kicking the air,Â
[Name] should feel grateful that Dick didnât call her. It would be awkward to see him. It would be awkward to see them all and John, what would they think? Did Dick tell them about John? Her [e.color] eyes looked at the rearview mirror. She watched as John babbled in his spot. Drool dripping down his chin.Â
She worried for her son. [Name] promised herself she wouldnât go back to being a hero. That was in the past and it was going to stay there because she didnât want her son getting hurt or worse. He was too young to die. Heâs just a baby.Â
âStarting route to Titanâs Tower,âÂ
This was her only chance to keep him safe. They were her family once and John could be a part of it.Â
âŠâŠ
âDick, come on, man, wake upâÂ
âWhat happened to the three of them?â
âDo you think they all just passed out here like idiots cause I do.â
âHank, no.â
Dick groaned and opened his eyes to see Rachel and Gar waking up as well. His brown eyes observing the two teens that laid on each other.Â
âUgh, what happened?â Gar asked rubbing his head with his eyes adjusting to the bright light from Jasonâs phone.Â
âThey seem fine. Maybe they had a sleepover without usâ Jason said and Hank chuckled at his remark. Jason turned his phone light off and backed away to give the trio space.
 Rachel removed herself off of Garâs body with a slight blush apparent. She sat on her knees and rubbed her hands on her thighs. [Name] was on her way. âDid you guys see what I saw?â Rachel asked the two males who were affected by her power.Â
Gar nodded his head, âYeah it was strange. It was like I was next to her when she was fighting Deathstroke and Dr. Light. It was so weird, I couldnât do anything for her.âÂ
âShit,â Dick cursed under his breath and jumped to his feet. He needed to go to the computer. He needed to see how far she was away from the tower. Dick ran out of the kitchen with everyone following him with questioning gazes.Â
Donna was the first to reach him, âWhoa, Dick, slow down. Wanna tell us whatâs going on?â The Wonder Girl looking at her friends for some help to get Dick to spill. They stayed quiet and watched him type on the keyboard. His fingers going at a crazy rate.Â
âSearching for [Name] [L.Name]...âÂ
Hank stepped up to Dick with his hand placed on his head, âHold up, why are you looking for [Name]? Is everything okay with her?â
âNo,â Rachel spoke up, âMy power, it allowed me to see that she was in danger. She was fighting Deathstroke and Dr. Light all by herself.â
âShe blew her own home up, it was crazy and she has telekinesis!â Gar exclaimed pulling at his hair. He never saw such a powerful person with a cool ability. Dick tapped his foot impatiently waiting for the computer to give him results and it was painfully slow. His family was in danger. Can he call them his family? He hasnât seen them in three years. Every time he wanted to contact [Name], he got cold feet.Â
âDick, you got to tell us what is going on,â Dawn set her hand onto his shoulder. He looked behind him and they were all staring at him. Their eyes boring into him to tell them the truth. He took a deep breath in and pushed away from the computer.Â
âI havenât been honest with you guys,â Dick crossed his arms over his chest, âthe only ones that know this secret is Bruce and Alfred. Even if I told you a long time ago what had happened between [Name] and I, I donât think itâs your business in the first place.â
Hank glared at him, âNow it is.â
âYes,â Dick nodded his head, âBecause theyâre in danger.â
Dawn tilted her head in confusion and Donna spoke up, âTheyâre? Someone else is with [Name]?â The two women had no idea what was going on and neither did the rest. Dick was being hesitant and he took a long time to explain what was going on. He bit his lip and chewed on it. Rachel and Gar looked at each other wondering if they should help Dick with telling the truth.Â
âItâs not easy to say this,â Dick admitted with his head low in defeat. He had to tell them anyways because [Name] was going to show up to Titanâs Tower eventually. â[Name] and I...we have a son. Heâs two years old and-â
âNo fucking way,â An unexpected voice cut through and it was Rose Wilson, Deathstrokeâs daughter. âYou had a secret child and you didnât bother to tell your teammates. What other secrets are you keeping?â
âNone,â Dick said with a sharp tone.Â
Dawn removed her hand off of Dickâs shoulder, âWhy didnât you tell us? Weâre your friends.â
âItâs because it was none of our business,â Hank bellowed, âobviously we weren't good enough friends for him to confide in us.â Dawn looked over her shoulder at Hank. Their eyes connected.Â
Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt.Â
It was the front entrance. Someone was there and it was definitely [Name]. It had to be. Although when the camera footage popped up on the computer screen, no one was visible. Suddenly, they all heard the elevator dinging. Dick was the first one to investigate. They all waited in the main room to see the elevator doors opening.Â
What they saw made their hearts churn especially Dickâs. His eyes couldnât believe what they were seeing. In the middle of the elevator was a bassinet with a crying baby in it and a woman bloodied and beaten holding tightly onto the bassinet. Dick reacted quicker than the others and immediately ran inside the elevator. His hands flying to the womanâs face.Â
Her nose was bleeding and her eyes were barely open. It was like she was trying to stay awake, but her body was forcing herself to sleep. Her breaths were shallow and her hands gripped tightly around the bassinet. She opened her mouth, blood coating her teeth, âTake care of him, okay?â Her head felt lighter in his hands and he understood.Â
â[Name],â Dick called softly tears brimming, âyouâre not here, are you?âÂ
She gave him a smile and her body disappeared right in front of him in red waves. The old titans rushed into the elevator and looked down at Dick kneeling in a fetal position. Then he looked up from the spot where [Name] had once laid in. Letting his anger out, Dick punched the elevator wall in front of him, âGoddammit!âÂ
âW-wait, I donât understand,â Gar spoke up trying to see in the elevator, â[Name] was just here. What happened to her body?â The green haired thought of the worst. He thought she had died. Donna looked at the teens and pushed them away from the elevator telling them that the adults would handle this.Â
Dawn knelt down beside Dick, âCome on, Dick. Weâre going to find her, but right now your son needs you.â Dick wiped his tears away and picked up the bassinet with shaky hands. Hank stopped Dick from exiting the elevator, âI can hold him...if you want.âÂ
Dick shook his head, âThank you, but I got him.â For the first time in a long time, Dick was with his son again. Yet he wished the circumstances were better.
âŠâŠ
âAlright an hour later, John is finally sleeping,â Dawn and Donna walked back into the main room where everybody sat in or around the kitchen. Dick gave them a grateful nod and focused his attention back on the wall.Â
âSo is anyone going to explain what happened to [Name],â Gar asked very curious why the woman disappeared in the elevator.Â
Jason tossed a piece of popcorn into his mouth, âItâs because of her ability.âÂ
The old titans gave him questioning glares.Â
âWhat? Bruce had me study potential allies and [Name] was one of them. According to what she knows, she has the ability to warp reality and teleport. Well thatâs not all she can do, but itâs what she used in this situation. My guess is she used teleportation and put little John in the elevator before Deathstroke could get to him.â
âSo her body was just her warping reality?â Rachel asked.Â
Rose shrugged her shoulders, âIf she could teleport, why didnât she do the same for herself?â
âBecause she hasnât used her powers in a long time ever since John was born. She didnât want to risk him getting injured.â Dick answered. His brown eyes were directed to the floor in thought. [Name] was in danger and in the hands of Deathstroke. His second worst enemy.Â
Rachel slid off the kitchen counter, "Well, aren't we going to save her? Isn't that what the Titans do?"Â
Dick looked at Rachel and shook his head. He wasn't going to allow his new recruits, his friends, get involved with Deathstroke. He won't allow another young soul die at his hands. "No, you guys will stay here and keep watch on John."Â
"Great," Jason groaned, "you're putting us on babysitting duty while you guys fight a known villain. He's your son, how about you spend time with him for once?"
Dick growled, "Don't go there."Â
"Or what?" Jason challenged stepping up to Dick. The teen with black hair was beginning to push Dick's buttons. And they weren't supposed to be bothered with. "I say you sit this one out, Dick. Let us handle the bad guys for once."Â
"No," Dick said firmly. He was standing his ground. The presence of the new Robin didn't scare him nor did he tremble. "Deathstroke is mine. Now stand down or I'll put you on probationary timeout."Â
Jason scoffed and turned his back on Dick muttering a few curses. The old Titans walked up to Dick and they formed a tiny circle ready to discuss their plans on how to get [Name] back to safety.Â
âŠâŠ
âA caring mother, you are,â Deathstroke talked to [Name], sitting directly across from her. Their knees almost touching each other. âI could have promised not to lay a finger on your son, but you made things more difficult for you.âÂ
[Name] swallowed down the blood from her mouth. The taste of iron bothering her taste buds. âI wonât allow my son to get hurt because you have a personal vendetta for his father.â
âYou speak as if Grayson holds no meaning to your heart, is it true you two had a falling out?â Deathstroke asked with a tilt of his head.Â
âYou can say that,â [Name] responded looking away from him. She wasnât going to speak about her relationship problems with a psycho like Deathstroke. Her business was her business. This wasnât a therapy session among a hero and villain.Â
âHuh, always thought you two were good for each other.â
âAh, good one. An attempt of sarcasm by the one and only Deathstroke.â [Name] replied to his remark. Her right eye closed upon feeling the warm liquid that was blood drip down it. She forgot that she was hurting while chained to the chair in special handcuffs. Deathstrokeâs presence didnât allow her to relax. He forced her to be on the edge.Â
âWhy donât you use your powers, [Name]?â Deathstroke looked at her crossing his arms over his chest. She got him thinking. She needed him to think of the consequences heâll reap.Â
The blood dripped onto her clothing in a slow rhythm. âI donât know maybe because you got a hold of Cadmusâ tech. Did you steal them or actually request for them, Iâm really curious.â She wiped her chin with her shoulder and sighed. [Name] didnât like waiting and she hoped the Titans could find her. But it was nearly impossible especially if Deathstroke is good at covering steps and going off grid. It was his specialty.Â
âI made a bargain with them,â Deathstroke began ominously, âI give them you in exchange for the Titans.â
[Name] was puzzled. âCadmus doesnât have the Titans, you only put yourself in a situation which canât happen because-â
âI hand you over to them now and they could experiment on you. Then theyâll send out their people and get the Titans for me. Itâs an easy trade off.â
âI thought you wanted Dick for yourself. Why not get revenge by you doing what you do best. Youâre a killer, Deathstroke. Blinded by your rage toward Dick and vice versa, you two killed an innocent boy. A boy I was beginning to love in my own way. A boy Dick took advantage of. A boy who was your dearest son. Why continue this vengeance and for what reason?â
âYou are to blame for my sonâs death. You allowed Grayson to let Jericho into the Titan life knowing who his father was. Who I was.â [Name] could feel the anger radiating off of his body with each sentence. âYet you and the Titans didnât stop Dick from coercing Jericho. You killed him.â
[Name] shook her head, âNo, I left the Titans before Jericho died. I only heard about his passing from Dawn, Dick didnât tell me the truth until I came back and threatened to search his memories.â She paused and softened her glare, âSlade, Iâm really sorry about Jericho. He was a wonderful boy and he could have made a great man.â
Deathstroke uncrossed his arms and leaned closely to [Name]. He placed his right knee in between her legs and let his right hand hold the chair. His left hand wiped the blood away from her eye so she could look up at him with both of her [e.color] eyes. âYou will be when I make you feel the pain my wife and I went through.â
[Name] knew exactly what he meant. His words struck her heart and her blood ran cold. "No, please, he's just a baby," Her voice was soft and fragile. Her eyes pooling with unshed tears of sadness.Â
Deathstroke gripped her chin tightly with his fingers.Â
"I'm begging you, Slade," [Name] was crying now. Her eyes closed as she cried for what Deathstroke was planning. She opened them up and begged again, "Please, don't go after my boy. He's innocent and he would never hurt anyone. Slade, please."Â
He removed himself from her and began walking away from her in silence.Â
[Name] struggled in her bonds. Her feet pushing against the floor and her chair tilted sideways. The weight of her body made herself and the chair fall on their left side. Her body ached, but that didn't stop her from calling out to him, "Leave him alone! Please!"
Dr. Light popped into the room and watched as the mother cried out to Deathstroke. Feeling a little remorse for her, he questioned the man who wiped his sword with a white rag. "You aren't really going after the baby, are you?"Â
"Does it matter to you?" Deathstroke placed his sword back into its sheath. He turned his body to Dr. Light waiting patiently for an answer.Â
Dr. Light nodded his head, "You said that she and the baby would only be bait for the Titans. All I want is the Titans, not for us to kill some kid."Â
"And all I want is revenge." Deathstroke finished and walked out of the room.Â
"Don't do this!" Dr. Light cringed at the hoarse yells coming out of [Name]'s mouth and he turned his attention back on the woman. She was lying helplessly on the floor with tears sliding down her face.Â
He wasn't supposed to do this.
âAlright, calm down, will ya?â Dr. Light ran over to [Name] and lifted her chair upright. She sniffled and brought her red eyes onto the villain. âDonât look at me like that. I cross lines, sure. But killing a kid, thatâs not for me...yet.âÂ
That didnât make [Name] feel any better.Â
âI mean a kid that hasnât done any wrong to me. Fuck the Titans though, am I right?â Dr. Light chuckled and looked at the special handcuffs on her hands. He didnât know how to take these off. âThis is gonna sound awkward, lady. But I canât take these handcuffs off you, only that bastard can.âÂ
âThatâs fine,â [Name] finally spoke up and her eyes were a bright red along with her hands, âall I need is you.âÂ
#nightwing imagine#nightwing x reader#dick grayson#dick grayson x reader#dick grayson imagine#batman imagine#titans imagine#Titans#dc imagine#DC Universe#x reader#reader insert#Buried Secrets
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While making the last list (Angsty Frank/Gerard), I realized that I have my own tag for works that give me feels. Several of these are on the angst list as well, but these are specifically works that make my heart hurt. For everyone who needs to feel something, let me recommend:
Frank/Gerard That Gives Me Too Many Feels
Can Never Wrong this Right by theopteryx, 24k, Explicit. Written for the hc_bingo challenge, for the square of 'forced soul-bonding.' It's 1949 and Dr. Way is a professor of Archeology and Frank is his constantly exasperated (and secretly pining) assistant. When their latest trek takes them to South America to locate the fabled Blood Stone, however, they both find more than they bargained for.
In the Music of Time by greedy_dancer, 13k, Explicit. Itâs Frankâs last day off before the North American leg of the World Contamination Tour begins, so heâs not particularly happy when his nap is interrupted by a frantic phone call from Gerard. Geeâs clearly upset about something, but the urgent instructions he gives Frank as he rushes back to their hotel room are not making much sense. And why does Gerard keep asking Frank if heâs alone? Frankâs confusion only grows from there. The next thing he knows, Gerard is right there, kissing him - which should be impossible, considering Geeâs still on his way, and talking to Frank on the phone. It is Gerard kissing Frank, though. A blond Gerard. Gerard, circa 2006. And if that wasnât enough to give Frank the mother of all headaches, it appears that there are actually not only one, not even two, but three Gerards come from various dark times in Geeâs past, congregating in the hotel room, looking for hints of a brighter future. This is the tale of Frank and the four Gerards, and of the afternoon that set everything in motion.
What Ships Are For by mwestbelle, 22k, Explicit. Gerard is most concerned when he finds that, while away at university, his father has taken in a new ward of his own brother's age. But upon his return home, he finds the young man to be particularly enchanting; unfortunately, according to the High Society he lives in, not only is Frank entirely too poor to be considered, but they might as well be brothers.
Bread and Butter by jjtaylor, 18k, Mature. Frank unfolds the extra blanket at the foot of the bed and quietly drapes it over the outline of Gerard under the covers. Itâs Tuesday and Frank is headed into the bakery to do battle with brioche.
The Circuit by stoplightglow, 24k, Mature. In the world of competitive motorcycle racing, nothing is more prestigious than the Grand Circuit Tour. Americans everywhere gather to watch as the twelve best racers in the nation compete for the title of Circuit Champion and $100,000. Gerard Way is no stranger to the race. When he was a teenager, his name was practically legend - but after disappearing without explanation six years ago, he's become little more than a relic of the past. Now, at age twenty-six, Gerard is back on the Circuit with something to prove. It's Frank Iero's first year on the tour, but he's more than ready. No one has seen a kid blast through the ranks so fast since Gerard Way first appeared on the scene a decade ago. With a cocky attitude and the whole country swooning over him, nothing can slow him down. The stakes have never been so high. Welcome to the Fourteenth Annual Grand Circuit Tour.
In Repair by autoschediastic, 33k, Explicit. "Shit," Frank mutters, and shoves both hands through his hair. He looks around the kitchen like he's gonna find what he should do scratched into the old linoleum, then looks back at the bot. He gnaws on his lip. Fuck it. He already knows what he's gonna do. He's just gotta do it. Getting down on his knees, he braces a hand on the edge of the crate and leans over the bot. It's dressed in a plain white tee and matching drawstring pants like an escaped mental patient. Frank rolls his neck and cracks his knuckles, shaking the ache out of them before carefully laying his palm against its cheek. He's pretty sure his voice is steady when he says, "Activate." Nothing happens. Fucking shitty packaging-- the thing's busted. But Frank keeps his hand where it is, jumping a little when he feels the surge of energy beneath it. The robot's skin goes from room temperature to lukewarm, then warm. Frank watches it open its eyes, the light behind them adjusting until they're a pale sort of brown. It looks at him and asks, "Am I dead?"
You Only Hear the Music When Your Heart Begins to Break by Solarcat, 14k, Teen And Up Audiences. Frank has high school figured out. His mom has given up arguing about the amount of time he spends in Gerard's basement, and he doesn't actually care if people think it's weird that he and Gerard hold hands in the hallways and go to the bathroom together. The only thing Frank cares about is figuring out why Gerard's suddenly avoiding him -- because what's the point of losing your virginity on Prom Night if you can't tell your best friend about it in the morning?
Fit to be tied by maryangel, 56k, Explicit. Frank is a bartender. Gerard is an alcoholic. They were clearly made for each other. Also, Frank is a werewolf.
Love: The Package Deal by jjtaylor, Frank/Gerard, Gerard/Lindsey, Frank/Jamia, Lindsey/Frank/Gerard, 30k, Mature. Gerard gets a special kind of amnesia. Frank gets to reexamine his idea of acceptable relationship structures. Lots of people fail to communicate effectively, but they all sure remember how to kiss.
Gerard Way's (Vampire) Detective Agency by jjtaylor, 43k, Mature. Pete, in Decaydance Mansion, with a yarrow stake. Frank and Gerard, in the greenhouse, with a plant of questionable origin. Bob, everywhere you look, with a gang of assassins for justice. Vampires, valets, pamphlets, haunted furniture, dub-thrall, disembodied voices, zombie couriers, and sinister rituals.
The Detective's Secret and the Mystery of the Dancing Flowers by jjtaylor, 84k, Mature. Wanted: Replacement Valet for high profile Midnighter household. Must have excellent references, believable reason for leaving former place of employment, all Clan paperwork in order. Experience in filing, housekeeping, carriage driving, men's grooming, bookkeeping, scheduling. Highly desirable skills include: basic gardening, Daylighter legal practices, first-aid, hand-to-hand combat. Please contact Frank Iero for more information.
You'll Always Feel This Way by wakingup, 14k, Not Rated. It's Frank's birthday and he's gonna A) get drunk B) hit on Gerard C) get laid. Yeah, it's definitely going to work out like that. (Spoiler alert: it might not be that easy)
Rock and Roll Never Looked so Beautiful by corruptedkid, 58k, Explicit. Gerard Way is a rising solo artist, set to become the next big thing in the alternative scene. Frank Iero is a trashy punk with a reputation of his own as the frontman of Pencey Prep. When their paths cross, a love story is born, only to come crashing down when Gerard hits it big. As Gerard ascends to the A-list, Frank adjusts to life on his own. He almost manages it - until two years later, when fate puts him face to face with Gerard once more. Everything has changed, but the connection between them is still there. Their story has ended once before, but if they're lucky, they just might make a new one.
What Are You Made Of? (What Do You Dress It Up In?) by stoplightglow, 2k, Teen And Up Audiences. âHowâd you learn this?â Frank hears himself saying, words spilling out just to distract himself. God, itâs so fucking itchy, and Gerard is taking forever. âWhat, makeup?â Gerard says, not really a question. âDo you mean, like, how I got the techniques, or how I started wearing it in the first place? Because technique-wise, I mostly just stole my momâs magazines and did whatever they said was right.â âHow you started wearing it in the first place, then.â The pencil freezes, and then Gerard takes half a step back so Frank can see his eyes. âI havenât told a lot of people that story.â
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Shul (Past)
Bucky Barnes Gen, 1521 words, rated T for Hydra shit
Jewish Bucky Barnes, pre TFATWS, post Endgame
A 3am run down memory lane and the streets of Brooklyn take Bucky on a bit of an emotional journey.
Read on AO3
Part 2 of Making a Home - the Jewish Bucky series, Part 1 here
--------------
Brooklynâs nights arenât as quiet as he remembers them to be.
Thereâs light everywhere now, noise and cars still driving by despite the fact that itâs 3am and no one should be outside at this hour.
Itâs hypocritical, considering he âs outside at this hour, one of the people adding unwanted noise to the night.
Granted, heâs quiet when he walks, when he watches. Even when heâs running, like heâs running now, taking advantage of the night to push his body to inhuman speeds, to truly feel his lungs burn as he struggles to take in breaths, to be outside without gloves on. He still has long sleeves, though.
Heâs trying to be a regular guy, a regular neighbor. He knows he doesnât exactly succeed, that his neighbors know he screams in his sleep. More often than not, heâs walking out in the middle of the night for a run. They must know thereâs something off about him. He canât be regular, canât be normal, canât go back to normal.
Because his normal died years ago. His normal is long fucking gone, and there are days he goes and explore Brooklyn and loses himself in the new buildings and the new pavements, and the everything he doesnât recognize. When heâs lost, he feels the panic rising and no matter how many times Doctor Raynor has told him he can always use the GPS on his phone, he doesnât think about it.
His normal died on June 15th, 1943, when the boat left the New York harbor and he shipped out to London. To the war. To die. Leaving Ma, Rebecca, Deborah, Astrid and Steve behind him. Leaving home.
Heâd been young and foolish and heâd told himself every hour of that journey that heâd come home, that heâd be back, that he would see them again.
Ma died in 1963. Deborah in 1996. Astrid in 2018, right before the Snap. Rebeccaâs still alive, in a retirement home in Indiana. Steveâs⊠Gone.
He should drink some water, but he doesnât have any right now, as he makes himself come to a light jog. He just lets his throat burn, his body thirst. His mind cries.
His normal died a thousand times from June 15th, 1943 to October 30th, 2023, when Steve left.
How does one go back to normal when all there is to go back to is ash and gravestones ?
He could go see Rebecca. Doctor Raynor says it wouldnât be a bad idea. That it would connect him back to reality. That it would stop him from living too much in the past. As if he wants to stop remembering his sister as 23 years old and smiling brightly, with her dark hair pinned in neat curls, young and innocent and with the same drive and recklessness as Steve.
Steve and her had been two peas in a pod. Heâd fit into the family perfectly, from the day Bucky had first brought him home.
He doesnât want to walk into the retirement home and see her, 103 years old, white-haired, heavy and old. Knowing her, sheâd have her hair still neat and in curls. She loved that style. Sheâd hit him when he tried to touch her rollers.
He doesnât want to lose those memories in the sake of connecting to the present. Some days, they feel like all he has anymore. Memories and a postcard from the Smithsonian gift shop, framed and put on the wall of his house. Steveâs smile. His own smile. It was war, yes, but they were happy, for one year, somewhat safer on the frontline than at home.
Itâs 3am and heâs now walking on a Brooklyn street, and this one feels familiar, so he just keeps walking and keeps listening to his own heartbeat, to the way his breath hisses in and out of his lungs. He walks, and heâs sweaty and he knows he might ache tomorrow from pushing himself the way he just did, but that will be something, at least.
He should try and sleep through the nights. Heâs on call, supposed to be ready to go whenever his superiors find a new Hydra safehouse they want him to clear. Itâs a job he can do in his sleep, but itâs a job heâs supposed to not be completely exhausted for.
Fuck them, really. Fuck them and the looks they give him when he shows up looking like he hasnât slept in days. Because he hasnât . They should leave him the fuck alone, heâs done enough for them. As long as he does his job, they donât get to judge how he looks doing it. Theyâre not his fucking girlfriend for fuckâs sake. Heâs not even proper military anymore, so why do they give a fuck if his boots arenât properly shined?
The street is empty and he feels like screaming, but he doesnât. Heâd wake people up. Theyâd stare at him. Theyâd call the fucking cops and heâd have to explain what heâs doing there, and Doctor Raynor would hear about it and so would the brass. Normal life is a chokehold.
He looks over at the sign with the street number on it. East 47th Street.
No wonder this one feels familiar.
He starts walking south despite himself, down the street to the corner he remembers the most. Thatâs where their shul used to be.
He walked that street many times when he was younger. In his nice Shabbos clothes, or his new Rosh Hashanah shoes, shiny and stiff, pulled down the street by his fasting mother, whining the entire way about the way the new leather made blisters bloom on his ankles.
Around any holiday of significance, the entire neighborhood would be singing and laughing. The tired baker would still shout âGut Shabbos Frau Baraschâ to his mother when she came to leave the kugel in his oven before shabbos. It was funny, the Yiddish, the German âMadamâ, the use of the Romanian form of their last name, as if they hadnât changed it years ago when theyâd made it to Ellis Island.
Heâs walking that street now so much older and so much more tired. The bakerâs been dead for decades, probably, he was older than his ma. He was nice to them, helped them out a lot. Especially once his da had passed. Heâd slip them some cookies for shabbos. He smiled a lot.
Everyone smiled a lot, despite the struggle, despite the work. Candles were lit, and people danced. He remembers the baker singing and dancing at his sonâs wedding, warm and proud.
Everything was golden back then. The challah, Steveâs hair, his motherâs smile, the light through the stained glass of the shul windows.
The building is still standing. He sees it from far away and his heart quickens. Hope, crazy foolish hope takes over his mind, his tired eyes. Perhaps thereâs still a hint of his childhood standing. Perhaps he hasnât lost everything.
Itâs as beautiful as he remembers. Itâs been taken care of. The bricks are relatively clean for a city dirty as New York. His eyes scan over the façade, and thatâs when he reads the words on the sign over the door.
47th Street Baptist Church.
His nails dig in his palm, opening wounds, and it stings as much as the tears that sting his eyes.
Itâs a church. His shul is a church. Theyâre gone. Theyâre all fucking gone.
Everythingâs gone. Why is he still there? Why is he still standing? Why did they have to make him live?
He turns back around and starts to run again. He runs away from the absolutely violent pain in his chest as he sees âchurchâ written between two stars of David. He runs away from the anguish of being alone.
What else can he do but run?
This is exactly why he doesnât want to see Rebecca, no matter how much he misses her.
Heâs alone. Heâs alive because Hydra didnât let him die. They didnât let him die in the factory, when he was feverish and coughing from pneumonia, when he fell off the fucking train, when he begged for them to kill him, when he got shot on a mission and they begrudingly patched him up enough so he could be punished for wasting their ressources.
Somehow, he makes it back home. His fingers ghost over the mezuzah at the front door, like they always do now. Like they always did, before. For a second, heâs just a boy touching the mezuzah at his door, and he brings his fingers to his lips to kiss them. His real fingers. At least thatâs something he hasnât lost, right?
The door slams too loud, he stumbles through the corridor to his bathroom. Heâs sticky with sweat, and he should shower but what he does is reach for his sleeping pills.
He takes one, swallows it with barely enough water, and walks to his living room. He lays down on the floor and waits for the pill to start working. To let him fall into the dreamless void of medicated sleep.
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midlife crisis [ateez; jongho]
2.7k words
prompt from reedsy:
âIâd like to buy a plane ticket to your furthest destination today,â you told the airline employee
please pretend that everyone in ateez can speak fluent english or that yâall can speak the same language idk... ă(*^âœ^*)ă
It's completely normal for people in their 30s and 40s to question their life and choices they made along the way. This became such a widespread problem that it even got its own name: the Mid-life Crisis.
People have the desire to go through drastic changes in their life even if they already have established a life of their own.
This phenomenon however should not be common for young people in their 20s or even teens, people who have not even begun making a life of their own.
Or so the elderly think.
After graduating high school, you didn't know what to do with you life. You didn't know what to do in college either so you just went and got a job as a hair and make up artist after an apprenticeship to apease your parents and at least do something with your life and for your future. At least you could earn some money while being hopeless with your decision.
But the months came and went and a year later, you still didn't know what to do.
So you just up and went and went to the airport the very same day.
"I'd like to buy a plane ticket to your furthest destination today," you tell the airline employee.
You must look crazy to them. Tousled hair, clothes not matching and dragging a heavy suitcase behind you, demanding a flight as far as possible.
But this employee seems to be used to your type of customers as she just glances at you for a second before starting to type on the computer in front of her.
"We have a flight to South Korea in about two hours, if that's alright with you?"
"Perfect." You hand over the necessary money and dash towards the gate to put your baggage away.
And not even a day later, you land in a completely new country, surrounded by unknown people.
Well, apparently not as unknown as you thought. Something special must be happening because a gaggle of girls push against the barrier of the arrival gate next to you. Is someone famous coming to Korea?, you ask yourself, but ultimately decide not to stick around for the drama. You need to find a place to stay first.
Just as you are about to turn away from the turmoil a hand grabs your arm and pulls you away from the crowd. You try to rip your arm away from the man dragging you, but you are surrounded by eight more of them. A panicked scream crawls up your throat. You just arrived a minute ago! Is this really how you're going to die? Your mom warned you to be careful with strangers.
Before your scream can burst out of your mouth a hand clasps itself over your mouth, almost covering half of your face.
"Please, don't scream," the person dragging you pleads with you. Why does he sound panicked? You're the one getting kidnapped!
As if he can read your thoughts, he continues, "we're not trying to kidnap you, I swear."
Finally, the boy that held your mouth closed sees that you won't shout anymore and releases you mouth.
"Who are you?" you burst out, tears springing into your eyes. Being surrounded by at least five strange men at once is more terrifying than you could have imagined.
"Oh no," one of them says with a frown on his face, "please, don't cry. We just tried to get away from the fans."
"That doesn't make it any better!" A pout forms on your face as you try to surpress the tears.
An even taller man, with prominent eyebrows, speaks up, "We were about to be mobbed by our fans, so we had to find a way to get around them, unsuspected."
"Are they here for you guys?"
"Yeah, kinda." The tallest of the bunch admits and scraches the back of his brown hair.
"And why, for the love of god," you ask exesperated, "would you grab me for that?"
This time the smallest of the group speaks up, the one that grabed you, you glare, "I don't know! I panicked, okay?"
"No! Not okay! Do you know how," you take a deep braeth, "Do you know how terrified I was? I thought that I was getting kidnapped." He let go of your wrist.
"She could distract the fans while we get in the van?" a quiet voice chimes in from the back. He is quite pretty, you have to admit.
"And why would I do that, princess?" you bite back snarkily.
Ignoring you nickname for his friend, the other large man with fiery hair replies enthusiastically, "we'll get you a room to stay in!" he says as if it's the best idea, "if you don't have one yet, that is?" he adds.
"You're lucky, I don't," you glare at each one of them once more before you stomp over to the fans after getting the managers number, for insurance.
"Guys, look! Over there!" you squeal loudly and point to the opposite direction of the boys' van.
Later you find out that they do, in fact, not have a room for you to stay in. The company deeming it a waste of money to get you a hotel room, so, to keep you quiet, they let you stay in their dorm for the while. Most (your mother) would flip out and ask you why the hell you would accept the offer to live together with eight boys in a dorm. The only answer you have is that you're broke and a cheapskate, who doesn't have a job and who just arrived in a foreign country recently. Even if you die, you're not going to leave much behind. That sounds dark, but you're in a Mid-life Crisis and don't really think that anything in life has worth or meaning. And what does it matter if the boys kill you? At least they're nice while they do it, giving you a warm bed next to Mingi's bed and delicious food, made by Wooyoung himself.
You have to stay with Mingi while his roommate, the youngest of the group, Jongho, has to suffer on the living room couch for his elders.
You are just about to enter the kitchen, for one of those delicious meal times, when you happen to overhear a conversation going on between Jongho and his members.
"My back is killing me, hyung. The couch really isn't comfortable," he moans as he hunches his own back a few times to relieve the pain.
"Bear with it a little more, Jongho. You know Mingi can't sleep on the couch because of his back and you were the one volunteering to sleep there," Hongjoong answers him sympathetically.
"And you know that we can't just throw her out or move her from bed to bed the whole time. We brought her into this mess and I bet they arenât all that comfortable with the arrangement, too," Seonghwa adds.
Mingi walks up behind the sitting figure of Jongho and begins massaging the tense muscles in his back. He feels bad for being the one to offer you a place to stay and not even being the one to suffer because of his mistake.
That's when you decide to walk in with an apologetic expression, "I can take the couch, guys. It's no problem."
All eight of them startle from your sudden appearence at the doorframe.
"I don't want you to feel uncomfortable in your own home," you talk to Jongho directly.
"No," he shrugs Mingi's hands away, "what are you talking about?"
"I heard you talking, Jongho," you roll your eyes and finally sit down at the table.
With a shake of his head and his left hand, he tells you, "I still won't make you sleep on the couch. I can endure it until you find another place to stay at. It's no problem to me. I'm still young and perfectly healthy," he insists and ends the conversation completely, cutting you off whenever you want to object.
It's time for bed for everyone at the dorm, as Hongjoong likes to tell you all, even though he is a hypocryte and never actually goes to bed himself. After a few minutes of restlessness, you decide to do something against your parched mouth and leave Mingi's soft breathing behind you as you quietly tap over to the kitchen. While you gulp down the cold water, you notice heavy sighing coming from the living room, along with rustling, indicating a lot of tossing and turning.
Before you can change your mind, you quickly make your way towards the sounds of the obviously still awake Jongho.
"Jongho?" you still ask into the dimness to be sure.
"Hmm?"
"Don't be stubborn. I can take the couch for a few nights."
"No need, (y/n)."
"Well," you exhale, "if you don't want me to sleep on the couch and I want you to sleep in your own bed, why don't we share?"
"Share what?" he questions.
"The bed, you stubborn dummy. It's big enough for the both of us."
Nervously you hold you breath, waiting for his answer in the dimly lit doorway to the living room. You hear rustling before Jongho appears in front of you, arms full of his blanket and pillow, "alright, let's go." In the end you share the bed. Although you estimated that both of you would fit comfortably just fine, you still are awoken by the boys giggling like little school girls and phones in your faces.
Groggily you open your eyes a little more, trying to make out where you are and feel a heavy weight on your waist and warmth in front of you. That's when it dawns on you.
You try to rip yourself out of Jongho's tight embrace, but to no avail. It even gets tighter.
"Jongho," you whisper, glancing back at the boys recording behind you with possibly the reddest face you have ever had, "Jongho," you try again a little louder and still struggle against his grip. He wakes up to see your tomato-like face and immidately flashes back, hitting his head on the side board of bed in the process.
The boys seem to have a field day with your reactions and struggle to hold their phones steady on you faces, before Seonghwa decides that it's enough and they should leave you two alone. But of course that little shit doesn't close the door before shooting you both a suggestive wink.
In spite of you two barely being able to look into each others eyes the whole day, Jongho comes back that night and sleeps in the same bed as you again.
This continues on for two or three more weeks, before you finally find a job and your own cheap place to stay in. Coincidentally, you are able to get a job as the new make up and hair stylist of Ateez, the ones giving you the job not knowing who you really are to the boys.
After weeks of this arrangement you had with Jongho the two of you became much more comfortable with showing this contentment openly through skinship. Though you like hugging Jongho, the boys love it even more when you do that.
"Well, well, well. Would you look who we have here, Sangie."
Speaking of the devil. The worst of them all, Wooyoung and Yeosang.
"I see them, Woo. Jongho looks awfully comfortable hugging (y/n) for someone, who always screams bloody murder whenever we try to do the same, don't you think?"
"Leave us alone," Jongho says nonchalantly and waves them off behind your back. You, on the other hand, aren't as casual as Jongho and burn up brightly, hiding your face in the crook of his neck. You knew you would regret, coming to the dorm for a visit.
You feel Jongho's heartbeat pick up, when you bury your face in his nape. Maybe he isn't as uneffected by the teasing as you thought.
Wooyoung's cackling laugh echoes through the hallway when he and Yeosang leave you two alone again.
"Fuck it," you hear Jongho whisper before he pulls you away from him at an arms length to look you in the eyes. Your confused look greets him, questioning why he broke your embrace.
"What's up?" you ask, tilting your head, looking into his deep brown eyes.
Not meeting your eyes, he takes a deep breath to calm his hearthbeat, "I feel these things and I don't know what to do anytime I'm with you except hug you and wish to maybe kiss you and cuddle with you and tell everyone that I can cuddle with my partner if I want to and whenever you leave I look forward to seeing you again the second you're not in my eyesight anymore and I really like you," Jongho rattles down in one breath, eyes darting around, still not meeting your face, which has morphed from confused to a bright smiling face.
"Will you maybe, possibly, consider being my girlfriend/boyfriend, maybe?"
You smile up at him. You also like him, have been since you started falling asleep to his soothing voice lulling you to sleep at your nightly talking session after Mingi had already fallen asleep.
"I maybe, possibly, do want to be that, Jongho."
bonus (suggestive):
You finished everyone's make up and hair and the last member is sitting in the other make up chair with your colleague. You finally get to relax your feet and sit down on Jongho's lap, his hands coming up to rest on your hips instinctively, as you talk innocently with each other, not caring for the other staff members in the room. They're used to your PDA anyways, seeing as you two never actually get a moment alone, away from everyone else. They're so used to it that even Seonghwa looks away. At the beginning of your official relationship he watched you two with hawk eyes to ensure that you didn't do anything naughty, the 'innocence' of the youngest still very precious to him.
You're using the time before he has to go on stage to finally catch up after hectic running around during the styling.
"-and then I found the lipstick in a purse I haven't used for like two months!" you rant to him, him smiling fondly up at you, "Can you believe it? I don't even know how it ended up there! I really nearly came late to work for that shit."
"It looks really good on you, baby," Jongho compliments your lip color, that you spent precious minutes searching for that morning.
"Thank you," you smile down at him and go for a kiss.
Before you can reach his lips, he leans back slightly, "nuh-uh," he tutts, "no, kissing, babe, sorry. You worked so hard on my make up so no ruining it."
You pout at him which vanishes as an idea pops into your mind. "You're right," you agree with a devious smile, but still lean towards him again.
This time you aim further down. You press a light, brushing kiss (or two) onto his sensitive neck and leave him a shuddering mess underneath you, as you bend back towards the side of his neck. His hands tighten on your hips, maybe as a warning for you or maybe as a way to control himself and his pressing urges.
Thankfully you are in a corner of the room, your kisses unseen by the rest of the crew.
Just to tease him a little more you drop another kiss onto his sensitive neck and suck a little before letting go again. A quiet sigh leaves him accidentally when he slants his head to give you easier access, your hands trailing up his sides and making their way into his hair. You are mindful not to mess up his hair, but can't resist tugging it to give you even more room to kiss. Your lips drag down a path on his neck, biting and kissing on random spots, careful not to suck a mark minutes before the show begins.
"(y/n)," he breaths out into your ear, making you shiver as well.
"Stage in five, everyone."
#i honestly had no idea#where i was going with the story#while i was writing it#fun fact#the first three paragraphs#theyre from my german exam#feedback and requests are welcome#kpop imagines#fluff#ateez imagines#ateez jongho#jongho#choi jongho#jongho imagines#ateez au#ateez scenarios#ateez fluff#ateez#weightlessau#masterlist#weightlessau masterlist
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