#i got a surge of cuteness aggression after typing that now i need to like fold him up and lock him away

[ghstzzn]

this fucking guy

[dinthehottotty]

Cultural Differences - Part 1 - Din Djarin

Summary: Din proposes and you have no idea that you said yes. Not that you'd say no but you don't have the heart to tell him when you realize.

A/N: Before ya ask, yes, I do play assassin’s creed. I’m shamless, I don’t care.

Warnings: Fluff, maybe a sprinkling of angst, part two will have all the smut for @buttercup--bee​.

When you'd met Mando, you thought the same thing as everyone else from a glance. You believed him to be cold and dangerous. Very quickly did that entire idea go up in big, black smoke. It didn’t take long to watch this man ask for compliance rather than immediately demand it. He always did please and thank you’s when necessary and it was a surprise when that only got you hot and bothered.

Love was not on your radar when you joined his crew. Even now, months after you'd been working with him, you felt like you were pining for the man. That would imply that the awkward Mandalorian would ever foster the idea of a relationship with you. So instead you'd happily day dream your way through the days.

It was easy to do. There was no resentment at unspoken affection. You just loved both Mando and that little green bundle of wrinkles with everything in you. It always made you smile at how much he was an overprotective dad with his 50 year old baby. Even if he tried to deny that he was a dad now.

You found it too easy to tease him about it and your cute aggression reared it's ugly head. You were a person who's love language was physical touch. Constantly touching the bounty hunter surprised him in the beginning. But now it had no effect on him. You probably should have asked him more about Mandalorian culture because that would be your down fall with him.

It was a joke the first time you'd kissed his helmet. Planting a big, obnoxious kiss right on the top of his helmet when he was in the pilot seat and had maneuvered the razor crest out of quite the spot without killing you both. Now it was second nature to peck his helmet's cheek. A warm, friendly greeting when he'd returned from a hunt and when he departs for supplies. A quick smooch to his forehead and a pat to a pauldron as a thank you. Nudging his knee under the table at cantinas to tell him to calm down. A reassuring rub to his strong arms when Peli stresses him out too much. He even let you grasp his arm or thigh when you get excited about something. You were physically affectionate, you didn't think twice about gently bumping your forehead to his helmet when you were purposefully being annoying.

The last thing on your mind when doing this was actually whether or not Mando even thought much of it. He didn't tell you to stop, he never spoke about it, how were you to know.

One day, while Mando was on the floor trying to wear the kid out to go to sleep, you found teasing him all you could do. A light laugh bubbled up from you as his attempts failed repeatedly.

"Hand him over, Daddy." Squating down next to him. He turns his helmet towards you.

"I can handle it. Just go to bed," he orders, with no bark in his voice.

"Not a chance. Give 'im here." He heaves one of his heavy sighs before allowing you to scoop him up and into you. It was routine that you took the kid to bed most nights, Mando was okay with it, but he gives a frustrated sigh when the kid looks quickly like he's getting sleepy.

"Why is that so easy for you?"

"He's just used to me putting him to bed, Mando." You throw him a wink and bounce hip to hip as the kid jabbers sleepily.

There's a silence that feels a little heavy and the Mandalorian shuffles awkwardly. "I... I kind of wanted... nevermind," he cuts himself off, turning away.

That catches your attention very quickly. "No, no! Tell me, it's okay." Your hand darts out as he turns to leave and you catch his arm. He pauses even though he can easily push through it.

"I mean... you're like his mom. Kids like their mothers more. They sooth their children better and women are instinctivly better with kids." That startles you. Mando had never once referred to you as anymore than the kids nanny at any point. You weren't even originally hired to watch the kid.

You're cheeks flair up at that, burning uncomfortably and you feel... giddy perhaps? Did he think of you as a mom to his son? It catches you off guard.

"He definitely doesn't like me better," you reply softly and move closer. "I just put him to bed more often and it's close to bed time, that's all. Come here," you coax, your voice lowering to a warm tone. The bounty hunter twists reluctantly back towards you with slumped shoulders. The kid, who's half dozed in your arms, blinks up at him.

"He adores you, Mando, just take him."

"You don't have to-... its not a big deal."

"Take him," you insist. Finally he lifts the kid into his arms which makes the kid blink up with bigger eyes, a confused coo rising from him.

"Hes waking back up-"

"Shhh." You press forward, against Mando's arms as you run the pad of your thumb along the big ears. Softly you hum, no song in particular, and prompt the Mandalorian to sway with you both. It's a soft, intimate moment, that you never want to end.

It takes a few moments for the kid to settle back down and you hope it doesn't take to long but part of you longs for it not to end. The man-droid calling you his sons mother, or comparing you to one at the very least, is enough to fuel your longing for you employer with out a name for months.

At some point you glance up, expecting him to be watching his son. It paralyzes you when you find his visor trained on you. Gently you clear your throat, blush raising more on your cheeks.

"I didn't mean to overstep. I-"

Thunk.

The Mandalorian tilts his helmet forward and it knocks against your forehead suddenly. If you're honest, it actually hurts a bit with how hard he crashes his head into yours but suddenly the bunk feels so much smaller with him blocking the doorway. "You didn't." Is all he says, in his softest voice.

This was purposeful. He wanted to lean his head to yours. Not to be annoying. There was nothing practical about it, but he was doing it on purpose. Maybe he was feeling playful, you think. 

The both of you stay like that for a while, as you allow your eyes to close. It could have been seconds or hours but finally he shifts away to gently put the kid in his hammock.

"I have something for you." He admits.

"For me?" You repeat, a little dazed. He nods.

"You don't have to accept." You arch your eyebrow as you both exit the room and you watch him mosey over to his weapons vault. Your curious as you attempt to guess what it is mentally. You didn't need anything.

But then he drew out a bundle of fabric and brought it over with both hands. He doesn't say anything, instead he just holds the bundle. You pause, hesitantly taking it. It was heavy and solid with plenty of ridges. When you peel the fabric back, the beskar gleams and a surge of emotion rushes forward as you twist the gauntlet. As you look to the inside you see it, the hidden blade attached to the bottom, something you explained to him before.

A rite of passage from your assassin training on your home planet. Yours had long since broken and you couldn't wear it anymore and it had been two years. You’d only really brought it up to him once, cursing that you would of had the bounty he’d only had the chance to capture after he slipped from your grasp. Mando had given you a short, “I still got him,” and carried on until you were both in the safety of hyperspace. The bounty had been sealed away and you couldn’t even remember who it had been.

“Like a knife?” He prompts in a way that made you both confused and suspicious. 

“Knife? What knife?” you asked.

“You could have won the bounty if you had your blade?” he responded, he partially tipped your way. It was a bit odd of him to focus on that, a little out of character. You brushed it off, especially because he had previously explained that Mandalorians were religious about weapons. 

You hadn’t known much about them (really anything) before him. You just pegged him as having an unhealthy fixation about any type of new weapon.

“Oh, my hidden blade,” you hummed and leaned back, making a face. “It broke a while back. I was apart of an assassin’s group on my home world, they had a few initiation practices. The important one was when you get your hidden blade. It’s like a gauntlet without the hand and the blade sits on the inside of the wrist. When you flex your wrist, the blade extends. My safety broke on it, nearly lost my ring finger.” You’d wiggled your finger that had a deep scar on the inside of it. “Then the blade snapped clean in two and I haven’t found anyone to fix it. I have to go home, since the mechanisms are broken. There are so few of my people left, however, that I’ve just put it off.” Was your response. 

After that he’d never brought it up again. 

"Mando," your voice cracks as you glide your fingers across it. "Mando, it's beautiful." You slide it on. It's heavier than your used to, but it fits like a glove. A quick click and the blade shoots out with a flex of your wrist. "Thank you," you murmur before sinking the blade away and launching into a hug with him.

"Din." He says, making you peer up. "Din Djarin is my name." Your heart skips a beat against his chest. You gaze up at him for a moment, before smiling back down at it. You turn, switching the safety off, before twitching your wrist. The mechanism was backwards from what you were used to, but the shiny blade jutted out as fast as your original had. It’d take a while for you to adjust to the weight of it, but it’s like having a working prosthetic after missing a limb for years. 

“Din,” you test, “how did you get it to fit so well, my old one had straps I could adjust,” you ask. Drawing you eyes back up to the helmet, you let the big smile grow on your face. 

He clears his throat a bit and twists to look at the blade that slinked away almost soundlessly. “I... I would measure your wrist when I grabbed your arm. To move you or stop you while we were out.” You grin at him, switching the safety on so that you didn’t accidently stab him.

“I didn’t even notice!” You quickly, jerk forward and hug him. He squeezes you back eagerly but a thought occurs. “Wait,” you draw back to look at him. “This beskar, right?” 

“Yes.”

“I’m not Mandalorian, though. Won’t I get in trouble?”

“No, it’s given by a Mandalorian. There is no issue.” He promises and that’s the end of it because he thunks his helmet a little too hard against you again.

...

It goes on for months. Din suddenly being more physically affectionate with you. It makes you feel like you can have the softness that comes from a domestic relationship, the kind you never thought you could have. He called you something in Mando’a which seemed to change all the time. It was always at times you weren’t focused on what he was saying so you could never listen and try to look it up later. 

You had found a short list of terms people had translated from the lost and secretive language. Most were mean ones, and you’d only heard him use a couple of those, but never toward you... well... maybe one. But that’s not the point! You were so lost with him. 

It wasn’t until after nearly dying on Hoth, and then again on whatever water disaster of a planet this was. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And when Din dove in after those fisherman launched the kid in to be fed, you ripped those black market trades apart in sheer rage. Fortunately, or un fortunately, Mandalorians arrived and slaughtered more. You were happy to not have Din or the kid drown, but your want of revenge was exponential.

In short, it was a really rough week. One of the worst since the kid had arrived. He wouldn’t stop eating the frog lady’s kids that you were transporting. Not that your really surprised, but you were at the end of your rope.

Sitting in a warm little bar was nice. Between the kid warming himself in your arms and Din’s casual hand on your knee, you were simmering down. You were pressing yourself into din’s side, hoping to leach some of your warmth between his armor. He wasn’t even shivering anymore.

After quite the shock for the both of you when the other three took their helmets off, you had now been stunned into an exhausted mode. Anger had disappeared and replaced it’s self with the same distrust you felt radiating off Din. Shock seems to be the trend on this planet because one moment you’re ready to hear about the fall of Mandalore and the next Bo Katan is twisting to look directly at you. 

“I find it strange that you’re wearing beskar at a black market beskar port.” She throws at you. Everyone glances at your wrist. 

“It’s a gift.” Your rumbling response is the first words you’ve spoken to her from your sour mood. She lifts a condescending eyebrow at you. 

“From you I assume?” She asks Din. 

“Yes.” Is his response. 

“Why a gauntlet?” Bo Katan makes a face. A flick of the wrist and the blade makes and appearance. Eyes widen. “Ah. An engagement gift.” Your brain stuttered in your head. 

“How romantic,” her sidekick, Koska chirps. You were waiting for Din to deny it, all the while rushing through the encounter of when he gave it to you. Had Din proposed? Were you engaged to him this whole time? You weren’t even sure if he saw you in a romantic light, nevermind him actually wanting to marry you. 

“I’m surprised you accepted a proposal from a watcher. Can’t be easy to love someone if you can’t see their face.” Bo Katan remarks. Din’s head turns a little towards you, he’s trying to read you right now. He’s waiting for your response. Had he done this on purpose? He wouldn’t do it out of malace, that you’re certain on. You wouldn’t put it past him to go this long into a relationship and not talk about his feelings. 

“Hardly.” Koska smirks towards Bo Katan and you feel Din slowly let out a breath from beside you. You gently nudge his side. 

“But to never kiss, to never see his face, might be harder than you think.”

“She can see me once were married.” Those words shock you more than the actual announcement that you were engaged. It sealed it for you as well. This surprises those sitting across from you. The ring leader grins suddenly. 

“You really should communicate better with your partner. I don’t think she realized that you were even engaged to begin with.” Din swivels his head and you bite your lip as you’ve been caught red handed.

“You didn’t?” He asks, more of a demand. You wince.

“No, but even if I did know, I still would have accepted.” Din sighs, next to you, clearly frustrated. “In my defense, the only thing you asked me was, ‘Do you accept,’ which granted is a little cryptic, if I’m being honest.” Din takes a deep breath, shaking his head at you. 

“What normally takes place on your world? A gift, correct?”

“Yeah, a ring! Not a hidden blade, you dork. I will say, I prefer this, it’s much more practical.”

“You don’t know anything about Mandalorians, do you?” Bo Katan prompts.

You pass her a look. “I’d never even heard of a Mandalorian before I met him.” All three of them have amused reactions and Din just sinks more into your side. You drop your hand down to his knee. 

The conversation takes a new direction after that and your thankful to not have the attention on you anymore. 

It’s not until you have agreed to help the three of them that the both of you decide to take the oldest (and smallest) clan member to the frog lady’s house.

“If you don’t behave,” you murmur, bristling in the cold ocean breeze rolling through the streets, “I will allow the frog lady to eat you, okay?” you promise the kid. Din pulls you to a stop and the kid perks his tucked ears up, prepared for your betrothed to deny that promise.

“Were you pulling their leg in there? Did you really not know we were engaged?” 

“I mean, I suppose you were pretty forward with me, but I had no clue.”

“You think I was forward?” he demands. Uh oh. You were not expecting that response.

“What... what did I do that was forward?” You hear yourself ask when your not sure you want the answer. Din shakes his head at you. 

“The keldabe kisses?” 

“The what kisses? You mean me kissing your helmet?” 

“That too. Obviously, I’m not able to kiss you the way you’re used to. I won’t be able to until were married, so what Mandalorians do instead is the keldabe kiss.” His hands are placed on your shoulders to hold you in place and he leans down, thunking his helmet against your forehead. “This.” 

You’re eyes go wide as you think about the many times that you basically laid a big one on Din. “Did... did you consider us being in a... romantic relationship before you proposed?” 

“I believed we were, you didn’t?” What a question. Mortification filled you and you could feel your cheeks burning despite the brisk wind. “Do... do you love me?” Your chest aches deeply at the insecurity in Din’s voice. The sound that rumbles isn’t like his warm and gentle tone he usually has. It’s brittle and frail.

“Of course I do! I just... I thought we were just really close friends, that you didn’t see me in that way so I bottled it up and hid it away. I mean... I wanted to mean more to you, but I just... maker, I feel so stupid.” The kid coos with confusion in your arms as you pull away. “Din, I’m sorry.” 

“Do you want to marry me?” He asks so softly it’s almost taken by the wind. You find yourself immediately folding into his arms.

“Yes, Din, yes, I want to marry you. I love you.” You murmur the last part against his cape, feeling to shy to look at him when you say it. His rigid body soften around you and suddenly you’re clutched tightly to his chest. Tighter than he’s ever held you. Ironically, for the first time all day it feels like you can actually breathe. 

“Good... good.” He breathes near you. 

“Can we get out of the wind for a bit?” you prompt.

“Yes, let’s go.” Not how you were expecting your day to start... or end. But there are worse endings to bad days.

Tagging:

@lxdyred​, @boliv-jenta​, @amidjarin​, @buttercup--bee​

[chiechie97]

hi!! could I request a jealous james fic? Idk why its one of my fav tropes!! Literally obsessed with your writing and can't wait to see where you take this :))

Ask and you shall RECEIVE Anon, find this on A03 too 😍

Chapter: Jealousy Looks Good on You

“I heard a funny rumour.” A deep voice said, breaking her concentration from the paperwork she was sorting.

“Oh did you now?” Lily asked, leaning back in her desk chair to look at the owner of said voice.

James had clearly just come from the training room, hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, and his usual Auror robes replaced with workout gear that displayed his toned physique far too nicely.

“Yeah, Fenwick said he was taking you out for drinks tonight.”

“And that’s a rumour is it?” Lily asked, her brow cocked in question.

“Of course, you wouldn’t go out with Fenwick.” James insisted, leaning against her desk, arms crossed angrily over his chest.

“And who says I wouldn’t go out with Benjy?”

“Anyone who knows you!” He countered, shooting her an exasperated look.

Lily just shook her head, turning back to the confiscation reports she had to finish before she did indeed go out for drinks with Benjy Fenwick.

“James, I have to finish these reports, would you mind if we had this conversation after you showered? You kind of stink.”

He ignored her, pulling up a chair so he was sat right beside her.

“Are you really going out with Fenwick tonight?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Why?”

Lily nearly coughed out a laugh at that one. Why? Well, that was a simple question with a rather complicated answer.

But instead, she just shrugged, “He’s cute, he asked, I said yes.”

“Seems like a bullshit reason Evans.”

Lily did laugh this time, “how on earth is that a bullshit reason Potter?”

He shrugged, “cause he’s not your type.”

“And who is my type?”

Potter just shrugged again, though his expression was now tightly guarded, “Not Fenwick, I know that much.”

Lily couldn’t help the eye roll, discussing her dating life with James was just creating a knot in the pit of her stomach. And his little performance was just making her feel even worse.

“I don’t want to have this conversation with you” Lily huffed, dotting an i on her paper a bit too aggressively. “Now go shower, you really do smell.”

“We’re not done this conversation.” James insisted, though he stood up from his spot beside her.

Waiting until he had moved off to the auror locker rooms, Lily angrily kicked the bin underneath her desk.

Why was he so fucking confusing?

Their entire Hogwarts career James had chased after her. And Lily, who was so wrapped up in her school work and aspirations had only ever seen him as an annoying nuisance. But then they were co-heads, and he matured so much. He was no longer pulling pranks (that she could prove), he cared about becoming an Auror, about making a difference.

By the time graduation rolled around she suddenly found herself unable to tear her gaze away from his jawline, or the way his smirk seemed to crinkle his hazel eyes.

But by the time Lily had come to her senses, James had moved on, and she was just getting started.

He’d started dating Tabitha Cornwall when they began Auror training, and every smile, kiss, hand hold, between the two had been like a punch to the gut.

Even still, Lily remained friends with James, she wasn’t about to stop being friends with a bloke because he didn’t like her back. Though she was able to find excuses to not attend any function Tabitha would also be at.

Lily had the fact able to specialize early to thank for her ability to get out of events. Her genius in potion making meant she got to move away from the other trainee’s and into the magical forensic department. Less time around James and Tabitha meant she didn’t find out they had broken up until a month after the fact.

She would be lying if she hadn’t felt a surge of hope, every wink he threw her way made her heart soar.

But after Tabitha came Marcy, then Georgia, then a beautiful blonde named Clara that made Lily feel like she could never compare.

But even Clara didn’t last, and a long string of girlfriends and dates made Lily believe she really didn’t have a chance anymore.

So she threw herself into her work. Spending hours in the potions lab, and even more hours sampling and collecting data. Liky was so sucked up in her work that it took Marlene pointing it out for her to realize it had been two years since she’d been on a date.

So when Benjy had asked her out for drinks at a fancy new muggle bar in Kensington yesterday afternoon she thought why not. He was cute, funny, dedicated to his work. He really was just her type.

Shaking thoughts of James from her head she went back to her reports. She was going to have fun tonight, and she wasn’t going to let his strange performance stop her from enjoying herself.

By the time 5 O’clock rolled around, she had nearly forgotten about James’s odd protest about her date with Benjy.

Fixing her makeup in the ladies' toilet, Lily nearly jumped when a loud knock sounded on the door.

“Who’s in there?” A male voice asked, muffled by the thick wood of the door.

“Err Lily Evans?” She called back,

“Anyone else?”

A quick glance around the room told her she was alone,

“No?”

The door opened and James stepped in, locking the door behind him.

“James what are you doing? This is the ladies' toilets!” Lily hissed, looking around again as if someone might catch him.

“Don’t go out with Fenwick tonight.” He said, ignoring her.

“Why not.” She asked, setting down the pan of blusher she’d been applying to the apples of her cheeks.

“Because it’s not a good idea.”

“Is Benjy secretly a Death Eater? Because if he is you might want to report that to someone else.”

“No, it’s not that.” James huffed, leaning against the door, arms crossed and brows knit together in a frustrated expression.

“Then what is it. Why shouldn't I go out with him tonight.” Lily implored, eyes searching his face, “Tell me right now. Why should I not go out with him?”

James shook his head, eyes fixed on the floor.

“James.” She said taking a step towards him, her voice softer than before, “Why should I not go?”

He still didn't look up, but he finally spoke. “I don’t want you to go.”

“What?” She asked, more in shock than wanting him to repeat himself.

“I said I don’t want you to go.”

She was now standing in front of him, he’d showered since they last spoke, the smell of his body wash was tickling her nose.

“Why don’t want me to go?”

This time he did lookup. “You know why.”

She barely had time to react when two strong hands cupped her face, bringing his mouth to hers.

Lily wasn’t one of those romantics who described first kisses like fireworks.

But it felt as if her whole body was filled with popping candy, her lips burning where his tongue traced. His hands dragged up her sides, pulling her tightly to his body before settling. One hand on her waist holding her snuggly against him, the other cupping the back of her head.

“Wait,” she gasped, breaking their kiss, “You were jealous!”

He rolled his eyes, “clearly Evans.”

She stood up on her tiptoes, eager to continue, but this time it was his turn to pull away.

“Are you still going out with Fenwick tonight?” He asked, hazel eyes searching her own with a pained expression.

“I think I’ll tell Benjy I need to take a raincheck.”

[degeneratekitten]

Double Trouble

!!!WARNING!!! Read the tags before continuing. If any of the tags upset you then you probably wont like it when it happens in the story.

I think its fair to say that this is long overdue, I hate leaving people on cliffhangers, but i am very prone to do so. So I posted this, even if its a year late.

Not sure if I’ll be back again, maybe I’ll post a few stories I started on then never finished but who knows. Anyways enjoy the whump.

After Bud popped out his somehow less-evil-than-him twin, you couldn't help but to snatch the outraged coral up for a round of testing. You made sure to scrape up samples, eyes sparkling as the little coral put up a confused struggle.

You ignored Bud’s limp form on the towel, he looked to be in an incredibly rough shape, eyelights wavering, scales a little bloody, and little bits from the bones on his back missing. His mouth was still frothing, and he looked to be wallowing in his own waste, but you hardly noticed as you fluttered around the lab completely dazzled by the spontaneous birth of a fully formed coral.

You of course asked all the typical round of questions to the little thing, utterly fascinated by the asexual reproduction you just witnessed. You were sure that you’d just witnessed a breakthrough in what you were sure was the catalyst for the bitty surge. Their mutation!

You spent hours interacting with the coral, staring at the samples he produced while talking with him. You even ended up making a breakthrough with the treatment for the Brassberries who were still plagued by the growths. You ended up finding out exactly the source of the growths. Their makeup, and exactly why they were lingering on the brassberries where they had formed a complete bitty on Bud.

It turned out that the growths were in themselves a mutated strain of a virus that had taken up magical properties. The original virus seemed to be the cause of asexual reproduction in the original bitties. The virus mutated to start causing bittes to mutate as well, then mutated into this strain to exclusively promote more extreme mutation in bitties. It was searching for new traits or combinations of them to form into full Bitties.The Brassberries did not hold any extreme traits, thus the virus simply formed deady growths on them, whereas Bud seemed to have mutated just enough to create a newer unique bitty.

Even after finally tending to the catatonic Bud you ended up throwing yourself into research, only breaking to eat and use the bathroom. What you found out during this time about the virus and the new coral which you started calling Dub, was amazing.

The coral was incredibly energetic for its breed, finding pleasure in darting around in a manner most edgy types would deem too troublesome to attempt. Even if he was actually “less” violent than most corals, he still got angry, cussing you out and throwing stuff. He did almost bite you, which prompted you to test his venom, which also turned out to be far more potent than a regular corals.

He got angry a lot less than a regular coral,and his triggers were fewer than normal, and where Bud would throw tantrums, the coral would try to find the positives in a situation, and even attempt to work with you. Plus, where Bud was narcissistic this Coral was surprisingly self-aware, he would admit when he went too far, and even apologize for that behavior. A shocking trait for a Coral, yet also dangerous as it was easy to let your guard down after an apology.

He was still incredibly destructive, but he was far less malicious about it than most edgy types, plus the things he destroyed were easily replaceable and not valuable at all. The only time he ever really destroyed something valuable was when he was “clumsy” about it, which surprised you as he really tried to make it seem like he “wasn't” clumsy and was destroying things on purpose. He liked singing, and was incredibly open about wanting to cuddle, and would say he loved you frequently without a tsundere act. He was possibly the most bearable Coral on the planet!

Although he had some pretty surprising good points, he was still an Edgy type. He still tried to bite you, cussed excessively, was violent, was incredibly demanding, wasn't very bright, and enjoyed “marking” as much as Bud. You could say he was an ideal protection type bitty, but really if you were to even sell him he would probably be more dangerous than most Edgy types due to how he could almost seem “pleasant” at times.

Dub was still venomous, was more active than a regular edgy, and could easily trick someone into believing that he “wouldn't” bite you. Hell, you’d almost gotten bitten on the neck earlier when you gave him a hug at his insistence. His reasoning being “Bitch you give awful hugs!”

You had a hard time keeping your guard up around him, as he acted like a Blueberry sometimes only to turn around and try and bite you. During one of those instances you also found out something incredible about him.

“Hey ma… Can we talk?” Dub asked, as he chewed on a piece of meat you’d slathered in mustard as a bribe to let you take more ectoplasmic samples. You’d discovered that bribing him was one way to get him to cooperate, a mark firmly in the blueberry corner.

“Yeah Dub, tell me whatever is bothering you.” You replied, not looking away from the sample, you were noticing some strange growth coming from the samples you took from him, almost as if the virus was still actively trying to form him from the samples. They petered out fairly quickly and stopped their activity but it was still interesting.

“Can we go huntin?” He asked, as he viciously tore at the meat, he was wrapped around it like he was trying to strangle it, but the whole time staring at it like it was doing something wrong.

“When we’re done with tests we can go on a hunt with the other protection bitties, I’m sure you’d love it.” You replied, really he had been rather restless and you were sure to take him out on a hunt sooner rather than later. 

Dub ended up glaring at you. “You’re never done with testin tho!” He exclaimed, as he let go of the meat and moved towards you in an aggressive manner.

“I’m BORED! I need some ACTION” He shouted, slapping his mustard covered tail on the table, splattering mustard all over your workspace. Really why you had decided that feeding him in your workspace was beyond you. Nonetheless it irritated you, and you turned to him with a frown. 

“I’ve been giving you plenty of exercise! We play tag with the fluffies after we eat! Why can't you do that for a little bit while I finish up? It won’t be much longer now, you just have to be patient.” You stated, watching as Dub shook his head violently, and continued to argue.

“You’re a lyin bitch! We been testin for so long! I haven't even seen outside yet!” He argued, and you supposed he had a point, but it's really what he did next that pushed your buttons. 

“I WANNA HUNT!” He screamed, before taking the samples you had just taken and throwing them off the table! “TAKE ME HUNTING NOW YA STUPID SLUT!” He cursed, baring his teeth and looking as if he was going to lunge at you.

You didn't give him enough time to lunge though, as soon as he bared his teeth as you, you panicked and punted him off the table as hard as you could. You heard a loud “thwack” as he collided with the wall, and more cursing.

“FUCK YOU BITCH! THAT FUCKIN HUUUUUUUURT!” He sounded close to tears, but was even now attempting to stand up. Eyes wide, you quickly put on your handling gloves and ran over, checking over his mustard covered form for damage. His skull was cracked, but that was about it, and he looked at you with tear filled eyes, and you could swear he was trying to look cute so you wouldn't hurt him more. But really what ended up catching your attention was the fact that without any monster candy, or even healing magic, the cracks in his skull were closing all on their own.

Your breath caught in your throat as you stared in wonder at the closing cracks, they closed up in a manner of seconds.

“Wow.” You ended up breathing out, before poking at the place where the cracks used to be. The coral in response bit your gloved hand, but seeing as you were wearing thick gloves, it really had no effect, even as he tried to bite harder.

Staring at him, (not at all irritated at his attempt to kill you, you swear) your curiosity ended up getting the better of you, and you ended up slamming the little coral into the wall again, cracking his skull once again, then quickly pulling the bitty to yourself and purposely prying open the crack as far as you could get it.

‘WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOIN! STOP! WE CAN TALK BOUT THIS!” The coral screamed as you practically split his skull in two. You got a glimpse of what his eyelights looked like through the crack, before you ‘accidentally’ completely detached the right side of the top of his skull.

Surprisingly the detached bit persisted for a few minutes, and you were utterly shocked with how long it lasted without turning to dust. Furthermore, you were shocked that Dub immediately started to regenerate, instead of dusting himself.

You held Dub like he was a treasure as you stared utterly captivated with his amazing regenerative capabilities. A laugh ended up bubbling up from your chest, and you ended up hugging Dub to your chest as you laughed. Of course the difference in attitudes ended up stalling him, and he ended up drooling all over your lab coat as you praised him, telling him how he was the greatest discovery since electricity.

----

After squealing for a little while, all thoughts of hunting completely left your mind, you instead locked Dub up in an enclosure while he cried about his headaches, and started writing about his capabilities. You were planning on researching exactly what kind of mutation he had, then once you had enough data you would see if you could somehow start breeding him with other bitties to pass on such a valuable trait. 

You could only imagine what kind of bitty you could end up creating if only you were skilled enough in programming. You had millions of bitty design ideas that you could only dream of coming to fruition. Sadly the closest you would ever get to an ideal bitty was if you bred one. Dub himself was only a first step on that path.

You decided that first you needed to see if you could create another Bitty like Dub from Bud. So you ended up dragging Bud downstairs, kicking and screaming, and ended up feeding him a sample of the growths he fell into before. You saw what you were hoping for, and just like before, with enough shocks and emotional strain, you had another fully formed coral.

You were thrilled to discover that the second coral also had the same regenerative capabilities, and wasted no time in beginning your stress tests. In the end you decided that you would use Dub for the more tame testing, but as for the second coral, well you needed to know exactly what could kill this type, so you were strapping in for some brutal testing.

Everything started off tame enough. You took more samples of course, before having the both of them go through an obstacle course. There was plenty of cursing, Dub himself was so incensed with you and your testing that he simply refused to participate unless you kept true to your word and took him hunting. You ended up giving in to that request if only to obtain a set of data that you couldn't obtain in the lab, you ended up taking the other coral as well, and observed the both of them literally tearing themselves apart in their pursuit of the hunt. It seemed that they did not have poisonous venom anymore, instead they had paralytics. Which resulted in them using their exceptional stamina and irritating nature to coax more aggressive prey into chasing them long enough to either literally snap the bitties in half or have the prey collapse immobile but still aware due to the paralytics. After which they would wait for their bodies to regenerate and gorge themselves on their prey, live. You yourself ended up having to finish off their prey as they ate, which resulted in intense screaming on their part, something about ruining their fun. It was startling to say the least.

You gained many insights from this exercise. One being that the new corals were surprisingly well aware of their own abilities, as if they knew even without having to be told what they could do. The second being that they fell very firmly in the “protection” variety. Although at this point you debated on whether or not you should continue using “protection” as their classification, it was originally coined for marketing purposes but as the years went by it was just dangerous to call them anything less than hunters.

Of course after securing and storing the prey the corals had obtained you waste no time in taking them right back to the lab. They were satisfied enough with their work and cooperated fairly well with you afterwards. You knew that wouldn't last very long though, as what you had planned wasn't exactly pleasant.

You started with testing their magic. You didn't know how much these bitties could do, you gave them magical gauges, to measure their resting potential. Much like humans, bitties could increase their magic proficiency through absorbing it through places of power or artifacts but they always started with a baseline for magic at around the same place. These bitties had a slightly higher capacity for magic, but it turned out to be negligible in the long run. They could not use magic.

Next was the strength testing. You ended up testing their bite strength first, using a special tool, then their grip strength, and finally followed by the grip strength of their tails. It all ended up coming out at the average for Corals, much to your disappointment.

The next test involved their speed, it was the final test for the day, and to make sure you got the best results you ended up using what could essentially be called Bitty catnip to coerce the two corals into competing. You dangled a singular piece of mustard flavored magic treats in their faces and told them to race. You ended up setting up a small track for them to cover. You also stipulated that they were “Not to sabotage each other.” You’d made the mistake of not stipulating such a thing before, to say it was messy was an understatement. In the end the two of them tied, and the candy was split in half between the two. They were exhausted from the day's tests, and you needed them in tip top shape for the tests tomorrow. So you ended up patting them on the head, telling them they did good, and leaving them in their respective enclosures for the night.

The very next day though, you ended up setting up a longer course, or rather, you took the second coral to the track that you use for horses, a good circular track that didn't actually have an end with markings for distance.

“Ok little one, today I need you to keep running no matter what.” You smiled at the second coral as he stared at you, frowning. 

“Wadya mean?” He asked, staring at the track with suspicion.

You took out a small collar and fastened it around the bitties neck, it was tight enough to press directly against the bitties neck while loose enough that it could move up and down. It was quite obviously a shock collar, a miniature version meant for bitties, with a little tweak.

The secondary coral batted away at the collar, wrestling with you to try and get it off, before ending up giving up and sending you a glare instead.

“The fucks this stupid thing for?” He glowered, baring his teeth as you set him down at the beginning of the track and pulled out a little remote control.

“It's something new I made after realizing I needed some more physical motivation for you little guys. It's brand new, and honestly I don't know any better specimen to try it on than a little coral who can regenerate from everything.” You smirked at the coral, as he seemed to shrink a little bit at your look.

“Now, like I said before, I need you to run, and if you stop, I’ll have to punish you.” You stated, waving the controller in his face.

“Fuck you!” The little edgy spat before crossing his arms and turning his little back on you.

Shaking your head, you turned the dial on the 8 setting before pressing a little red button underneath.

You looked down at the little coral watching as it seemed to flop over in a little convulsion, his eyelights started to flicker and foam started dripping from his mouth.

“FUUUUU---UuuuuuuUUUUCkkk!” He buzzed out, voice wavering from the shock.

The shock lasted for about 10 seconds, but the little coral looked like it had completely fried him. He looked at you in shock before you smiled down viciously at him, and pointed at the track.

“Whenever you stop running I’ll turn the shock up, this dial goes all the way up to 50, and can even take down a bear on that setting.” You watched the coral look at you in horror as you pointed in the direction he was supposed to run.

“Now get moving, or the next shock I set will be worse.” You stated.

“Fuck you bitch I ain’t doing shit!” He screeched at you, flopping down on the ground and thrashing around like a toddler.

“You can’t fuckin make me!” He screamed, right at you turned the dial up to 9 and pressed the button. You held the button down for about 20 seconds that time, watching the coral freeze up in shock foaming more at the mouth as you let the shock continue.

“AAAAAAAAhhhhh!” He screeched, and as soon as the shock subsided he looked at you with tear filled eyes. “Momma please! Don’t hurt me anymore!” He started begging, and started to slither towards you, with a tear streaked and snotty face.

“Start running then.” You stated simply a little disturbed by the fact that the coral had called you momma instead of mom, or even bitch, a testament to his mixed nature. The blueberry was showing itself off right here.

The coral started to blubber harder, and didn't even notice when you turned the dial up once more to 10. “P-lllll-leaaaaaase! Momma! I Don’t wanna run that track!” He begged as he inched closer to your leg.

You kicked him away, sending him flying towards the track and pressing the button while the little coral was midair. He screeched loudly, voice wavering as he fell, and simply lay there, stiff as a board and foaming from his mouth.

“I said. Start. Running!” You shouted one more time, finger poised over the button as you stared the coral straight in the eyes.

He listened that time, making his way to the track and slithering off at top speed on the track, he was still crying as he ran, and his ugly snotty foamed up face made him look like a cherry rather than a coral. Really if it wasn't for the gold tooth you would swear that he was a cherry.

You started the timer as soon as he crossed the starting line, watching him slither at top speed like a moron. You weren't exactly inclined to inform him that he would tire himself out more by using up all of his energy at the beginning. You were looking to determine just how far he could be pushed before he collapsed. 

He passed you 3 times on the track at top speed, a mark firmly in the “hunting” variety, as you’d resolved to start calling them. You did have to turn the dial up at every pass though, as he’d taken to screaming obscenities at you at the stop, demanding to go home, or have chicken nuggies as a reward for “good behavior.” The speed he was going at was taking its toll, as he was already starting to show signs of fatigue. It was slightly above average for a hunting variety, but endurance wise it wasnt looking good.

By lap 5, he was sweating, by lap 7 he was moving at the pace he should have been moving at from the start. You had to shock him at the halfway mark on lap 7, and once more at the start of 8. The shock ended up at 19, at which point you could smell burning magic as he passed, an observation you wrote down in a separate journal in regards to the collar.

He made it to the lap 12 before he collapsed in front of you, panting, tear stained cheeks, and  a sticky dirt covered tail painting a sorry picture. He weakly looked at you, pleading silently for a break, before you shook your head, and turned up the dial this time to 23. The level had been slowly rising with each lap, since he didn't seem to get the memo that cursing after each lap only brought more pain. Although this time since he was so exhausted he wasn't cursing, just trying to look cute.

Seeing you turn up the dial, he let out a weak sob, before getting a move on at a glacial pace. He was almost crawling this time, as he wobbled back and forth on his run. You knew this was the lap he would collapse, so you took to following him this time, ready to mark down the exact distance he stopped at.

It wasn't common knowledge that bitties tended to dust at extreme exhaustion, no one liked to test them to their limits But it was still an established fact, the question was whether or not this kind would dust as well.

He reached the quarter mark of the track before he stopped again, breathing heavily, face flushed red with magic. A sign that he was on the verge of extreme exhaustion. You simply wrote down your observation, and kept the button in sight of the mutant coral, causing the bitty to widen his eyes and begin slithering again a little faster than before.

You could hear his sounds of distress, a surprising amount of dry sobs wracking his little body as he went along. His face only getting redder as time passed, his magic running rampant. He reached the halfway mark before he collapsed once again, panting so heavily that you “almost” felt empathy for him.

“You can’t stop yet.” You said, pressing the button, and watching as red smoke curled upwards from the collar. You smelt cigarettes, and mustard in the air. The bitty sobbed even louder, babbling incoherently as he attempted to use his arms to crawl further, which you supposed you could allow. 

He managed to crawl the rest of the distance to the starting point, before he smiled in satisfaction and closed his eyes. You wrote down the result, before shocking the bitty awake. This wouldn't stop just because he was tired. He woke, screaming and staring at you with shock and horror.

“Keep going.” You stated, as you watched him sob wordlessly and attempt to crawl further. 

He kept stopping, and each time you turned up the shock, although eventually you ended up having to stop his shocks at 25. Turning the dial up to 26 caused magic to pop on his tail, roasting him alive faster than he already was. The only thing that saved him at that moment was that his regeneration was “still” at full capacity, healing any wounds instantly. You would have kept turning up the dial but since it affected the results of your experiment, you supposed that 25 would be the limit.

He kept crawling, until the edges of his fingers started to dust, and the red flush on his body started to literally burn him. You didn't let him stop. He lapped once more, before his little body literally started to explode. Horrifyingly, not killing him, as even while his body was malfunctioning his healing was not. In fact it seemed to go into overdrive. 

The popping of his body sounded like firecrackers as the magic rampaged, you could see dust piling up on the ground. Eventually the magic caused more dramatic effects.

His arm exploded into dust, only for it to regenerate right where it had been, then explode once more. 

Ecto flesh had involuntarily started to form, a little belly forming before melting off in searing hot magic, only to form again and boil off. 

His tail wasn't any better, as the scales fell off repeatedly, before forming again.

His skull was the same as his arms, but for some reason he kept trying to pop off his own skull with his disintegrating hands. 

He screamed, then stopped, popping his own vocal mechanism and spitting out dust, before coughing as they regenerated only to pop again. He seemed to be in eternal agony, unable to die painlessly as his own body malfunctioned. The only way it seemed he would die is if he ran out of magic.

“Momma! Please! Help me!” He shouted, and you almost did, before stopping yourself. The data was far too valuable, you ‘had’ to know just how long this would last. So instead you sat by him and timed his death. This wasn't exactly the first time you’d seen a bitty die from exhaustion, but it was the first time you’d seen them recover repeatedly from it.

The whole ordeal lasted for about 10 minutes, like a candle burning down to the last bit of its wick, it petered out slowly. The regeneration slowed down, longer intervals came between regenerated limbs, yielding deformed bones that curled in odd places as they popped like firecrackers while reforming. 

His skull became just a small mouth as his eyes melded closed, his screams changing pitch as his vocal mechanism changed with repeated regeneration. His tail stopped regenerating, leaving only the tailbone, while his melted ecto flesh bubbled ominously as it formed restraints around his deformed arms. 

Dust started becoming a part of the regeneration, forming little pockets that burst like pus from his skull, into an ever growing pile of dust. 

Eventually the screaming stopped, and his tail stopped regenerating along with his arms, leaving a strange mass of crooked ribs and the back of a skull as his little red ai flickered before dissolving in a fizzle of red sparks. 

The air reeked of cigarettes, burnt mustard, and burnt flesh, while magic swirled thickly in a red fog on the ground. You stopped your timer, and let out a shaky breath as you stared at the large pile of dust as it caught fire from the fizzle of magic and became ashes in the wind.

To say it was the most gruesome death you’d ever seen was an understatement. You almost thought it wasn't worth repeating as an experiment.

Almost.

[gingerpeachtae]

Concentric [15]

masterlist

Words: 13.3k 😅

Genres: fantasy!AU, angst, fluff, enemies to lovers, eventual smut (?)

Warnings: some brief smexi and violent blurbs (death)

Summary: You had been ready for the end of the semester. You had been ready to spend time away from your best friend, Jimin, and finally move on from the feelings you harbored. Yet, after your friend was forced to reveal a secret, you found yourself in a new world that was chock full of magic, war, and wonder. So, here you were, basically thrown into your own fantasy novel, with your best friend on one side, and six male warriors on the other.

A/N: I would like to thank the song Different by Woodz for helping me power through this long ass update. Thank you everyone for waiting so patiently!!! Engoy! 💙

“You need to raise your elbow.”

Arms straining against the draw-weight, you struggled a bit to comply, but you managed to lift your elbow just an inch higher.

“Okay, better, but now you’re leaning forward.” Jungkook critiqued as he peered at you.

Sighing, you relaxed your draw and allowed your arms to drop. Holding your bow in one hand and the arrow in the other, you began to shake your limbs out and roll your shoulders; trying to loosen up and get rid of the tension in your body. Though it was a little difficult to accomplish when a certain someone was right there.

Does he have to stand so close?

“Try again.”

Think about the target, not him.

Nodding, you nocked the arrow before inhaling and raising your bow. Breathing slowly and steadily, you took aim and waited for Jungkook’s assessment. Though as you waited, you did your best to ignore his distracting presence. You focused your eyes on the target carved in to the tree. Not the simultaneously cute, hot, and concentrated look on his handsome face. You listened to the chatter of birds and the whoosh of wind through the leaves. Not the song he hummed in an alluring voice as he inspected your form and circled around to your back. You breathed in the fragrance of damp earth and soggy wood caused by last night’s rain. Not the intoxicating and comforting scent of steel and florets that followed his body like candle smoke

Nope, definitely not focusing on any of those.

A warm touch under your elbow made you flinch.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He murmured as he adjusted your arm to his liking. “There. Much better.”

You swallowed hard and let him manipulate you as he pleased. You weren’t even paying attention to the way he maneuvered your form. All you could think of was that he was right behind you.

Right.

Behind.

You.

Oh my-fuck-okay. This is fine. Everything’s fine.

He moved his other hand down to your tummy, stepping closer to you to balance himself as he did so. Pressing against your belly slightly, he forced your spine to straighten. The action caused your back to brush against his chest and your lungs to harshly suck in air.

“Keep your posture or your back will hate you.”

This is not fine. This is not fine. Holy fuck. Everything is most definitely not fine!

The early morning chill in your bones began evaporating as his body heat enveloped you, but despite the warmth now flowing into you, goosebumps started to develop along your skin. Originating at the source of his contact, you felt them follow the tingles surging through you and you shivered at their sensations. Overwhelmed by his proximity, you didn’t know what to do. Your entire body was frozen. Your entire self was burning.

“You good? You just stiffened all of the sudden.” Jungkook noted as he felt your body tense beneath his hands.

Your eyes widened and you thanked the gods of Illain that he couldn’t see them expand in panic. Hastily, you released the bowstring and the arrow thumped into the tree just shy of the center of the target. As soon as the arrow hit, you stepped forward and away from Jungkook. Immediately, you missed his warmth. At the same time, you felt like you could breathe again.

Pivoting to face the male, you saw him smiling proudly at your shot.

“I’m good. Totally good. Fantastic you could say, as you can see.” You gestured to the arrow before bringing your hand to rub up and down the arm that held the bow.

Jungkook’s smile morphed int a smirk as he turned his eyes to you and crossed his arms. “I wouldn’t say fantastic… but it’s pretty great, I’ll give you that.”

You felt the corner of your mouth upturn slightly at his praise and you looked down to hide the delicate grin.

You heard him chuckle lightly. “Let’s do it again.”

Only if you help agai-wait no. NO. No closeness. No touchy. Get some distance.

Lifting your head to look at him, you didn’t make any moves to step forward as you raked your brain for alternative things to do. Your obvious hesitation made him raise an eyebrow at you. Pursing your lips, you shifted your gaze to the tress beside him as you pleaded with your chickpea brain to come up with something. Anything. But when you still didn’t move or say a word, his eyes narrowed, and he took a step toward you.

As he advanced, you lurched backward; desperate to keep space between you as you suddenly exclaimed, “Meditation!”

Jungkook stopped and looked at you in both a curious and confused manner. “Medi…tation…?”

“Oh, uh… yes! Meditation!” You rapidly nodded and went ahead and sat on the ground. “I feel a little disorganized today mentally, so I think it would be more beneficial.”

Not to mention it’ll keep you away because you’re the reason my mind is a fucking mess.

“O-Okay?” He blinked at your strange behavior.

“Great!” You laid back and rested your hands on your stomach while closing your eyes. “Now sit your ass down and don’t move and don’t say anything.”

You heard him huff and move before plopping down. Of course, right next to you.

Can he not!? Ugh, okay, whatever. Just focus on your breathing and ignore him.

It seemed like several minutes went by of trying to imagine a lotus flower expanding and collapsing in your mind to time your breaths to. Those minutes, which in actuality were probably only mere seconds, were constantly interrupted by the feeling of being watched. It started weighing down on you, making it damn near impossible to conjure that imaginary lotus flower.

A few more minutes seconds went by, and that feeling grew heavier and heavier. Finally, you opened your lids ever so slightly and peeked a Jungkook.

Who was staring straight at you with soft, peridot eyes.

Spasming internally, you sat up and smacked his arm, which startled him. “Meditating doesn’t mean watching me like a creeper!”

He just laughed and shrugged as he made a remark about how he couldn’t help himself. Apparently, you had just looked too adorable all relaxed and breathing slowly while your body occasionally twitched.

All the air in your lungs magically vanished as your jaw dropped.

A-Adorable? Why does he have to say stuff like that!?

His smile doubled at your dumbfounded and shocked appearance. “You going to continue…?”

Cute smile. Cute face. I wanna smoosh in my hands. I wanna-okay, nope nope nope. This isn’t working. Time to abort.

“You know what? I feel way better already. I feel so organized. Like I got shelves in my head type of organized and-” You gasped, though it was a little too aggressive to possibly sound legit and scrambled to your feet. “Oh my goodness, I just remembered I promised Tae I’d help him catch a… a duck! I promised him I’d help catch a duck this morning. So, um, I gotta leave… to go catch a… duck…”

Bending down, you quickly snatched up your bow as a baffled, yet intrigued, Jungkook probed, “Why does Tae want a duck?”

“Uh… he, uh, said he wanted it for dinner and Jin said he’d cook it fi he got one?”

You jogged over to where your quiver was resting against the base of a tree and picked it up by the strap. You stilled briefly as you realized almost a third of your arrows were implanted in various trees, but you ultimately decided you didn’t necessarily need them.

“Duck is pretty tasty…” Jungkook muttered to himself before snapping back to attention. “Hey, wait, we aren’t done with training yet!”

That was true. You probably still had a good twenty-five minutes left in the session, but you didn’t think twice about ditching early as you sped-walked out of there. All you could think of was getting away from Jungkook’s cute, stupid face and his cute, stupid remarks that didn’t mean what you wanted them to mean. Said male, taken aback by your rapid departure, simply stared at your retreating back.

As you finally put some distance between you and Jungkook you head him shout after you. “Where the Illai’s name are you going to find a duck in the middle of the forest!?”

As the sun reached its highest point later that same day, you found yourself firmly slapping a hand over Tae’s mouth. You had just told him about your possible feelings toward his brother that may or may not be developing into a full-blown crush. At first, he pouted, thinking you were teasing him and dangling his “ship” in front of his face. As weird as that sounded, you didn’t crack a smile or even giggle. This was some serious shit, dammit. Once he realized you weren’t joking around, the Saeni gradually started hyperventilating and buzzing in excitement. Which led you to your current position: hand smacked over his mouth to conceal any squeal that threatened to escape. His blue eyes locked with yours and you sighed at the utter elation swimming in them.

He pushed your arm away, freeing his mouth, and whisper-yelled, “You’re serious!? Oh my goddess, yes yes yes!”

Although he wasn’t being very loud, your eyes still darted around to check if anyone was listening. “Can you keep it down?”

Your eyes continued to frantically sweep over the other Saeni, but when you realized none of them had heard, you released some of the tension in your body. As you let out your relieved exhale, your gaze fell on the burgundy head that was walking alongside your best friend. Smiling, you raised a hand and let your fingertips brush against the quiver strap crossing your chest.

You were all gearing up to leave, just double-checking to make sure you had all your things. It had been about forty minutes since you dipped from training, and Namjoon wanted to roll out within the next five. Satisfied all your belongings were safely tucked away, you zipped up your backpack and rose from your crouch while continuing to explain to Tae how frustrating it was when books change their covers halfway through a series.

“Like you have the first two books with the original cover and out of nowhere they just change to a new edition for the third book! So, you either have to deal with mismatched covers or spend the money to replace the first two books! Ugh! It gives me a headache.”

“Is it really that big of a deal?” Tae inquired as he adjusted his headband. “I mean, you’re still reading the same story, right?”

“Yes, it’s a big deal! A huge deal! And don’t even get me started on when they change the cover to the movie poster.” You fake gagged at the thought, causing Tae to giggle.

“What’s a movi-”

He was interrupted by someone clearing their throat and you looked over your shoulder to see Jungkook standing there with one of his hands behind his back.

“Hey, Kookie! What’s up?” Tae asked while you just smiled at the green-eyed male and tried to ignore your quickening heartbeat.

Bringing his visible hand up to rub the back of his neck, he said, “H-Here,” while removing his other hand from behind his back and thrusting it toward you.

In his grasp was a bundle of arrows.

All the ones you had left behind this morning.

You moved your eyes from the arrows to his face and saw that he was still rubbing his neck while avoiding looking at you. Smiling to yourself, you thanked him before gently grabbing the arrows and tucking them into their rightful home.

“Hey!”

You beamed yourself out of the memory and back to reality at the sound of Tae excitedly addressing someone. Focusing your eyes back on your surroundings, you registered that both Yoongi and Hobi were now walking with you. He must have called them over while you were lost in your thoughts.

“Guess what, hyungs!?”

Hold up. Guess what!? Oh hell no. He better not be talking about what I think he’s talking about. I swear if he is��

“Tae…” You warned the Saeni as you carefully walked down an incline.

Dismissing you, he joyously leaned in close to the two older Saeni and whispered, “She has a crush on Kookie!”

“Tae!”

As Hobi gasped at the news, Yoongi glanced between you and his practically vibrating brother. “Am I supposed to act surprised or…?”

“Excuse me?” You scoffed at the magic user’s dry tone.

“Please, it’s quite obvious, Y/N.” He rolled his petal pink eyes and squatted underneath a fallen tree before smirking. “Looks like you got over Chim pretty fast though.”

“Whoa, you liked Chim?” Hobi covered his mouth in astonishment as he braced one hand on the same tree and leapt over it.

While you and Tae ducked and shuffled below it, his question made you groan.

For fuck’s sake, is it Expose Y/N Day?

“Does Chim even know?” Tae poked you.

“Know what?” You asked in an exasperated tone and almost releasing a hysterical chuckle. “That I thought I was in love with him or that I possibly like his brother now?”

“Oh my goddess, you were in love with Chim!?”

“Girl, you like him. Stop dancing around it. And no Hobi, she thought she was.”

You gave the magic user a pointed glare while angrily waving your arm around your head to ward off a pesky bug that kept bothering you. “I don’t think you have any room to talk, Mr. Sparkle Hands.”

His eyes briefly glanced at Hobi before narrowing at you menacingly. You gulped when you saw his hand twitch and a couple of mint-blue sparks fell the forest floor. Laughing nervously, you tiptoed your way to Hobi’s other side, effectively putting him between you and Yoongi like a shield.

The white-haired Saeni sighed contently and wrapped an arm around your shoulders, murmuring wistfully about young love as Tae elaborated on whether your best friend knew of your current crush.

You mumbled back that he didn’t.

“Well, why not?” Tae asked with an innocent tilt of his head. “I’m not complaining, but isn’t it sort of odd you told me before him?”

Yoongi rapped his knuckles on an adolescent tree he was passing while he snickered. “She’s probably too embarrassed to.”

“I am not!” You protested as Hobi frowned and told the magic user not to be mean.

The mint-haired Saeni just looked you up and down. “Mhmm. Sure.”

You released an offended noise and stepped out from underneath Hobi’s arm to glare at Yoongi.

“I’ll do it right now.” You raised a confident brow at him before yelling, “Slim Jim! Get your ass over here!”

Your smug expression steadily fell, though, as your best friend said a quick goodbye to Jungkook and jogged back to meet you.

Am I really about to tell my old crush about my new crush? I mean, he didn’t know he was my crush and maybe he wasn’t even an actual crush when I think about it now, but he is my best friend. He should know. But it’s still a bit weird an-

You jumped as Jimin tackled you into a big hug.

“What’s up, squirt?”

“Squirt?” You laughed a little too loud and a little too long. “That’s new! Ha ha! When did you come up with that one? It’s kinda too ‘Finding Nemo’ if you ask me, but I mean, you do you, you know? New nicknames… man, aren’t they jus…”

To the side, you saw Yoongi giving you an “I told you so” look, so you let your words trail off into silence. Jimin gave you a majorly confused face as you laughed to distract both him and you from your nerves, but you took a deep breath and managed to look him straight in the eye.

“Okay, so, um… I knda sort of maybe, uh… like somone?”

Jimin grinned at you, his eyes squishing closed. “Kookie, right? You guys would be cute together.”

Your jaw dropped and you tripped over a tree root.

“Why are you so shocked?” He asked with a laugh as he nudged you. “I’m your best friend, doofus. I’ve known you for so long and you’ve never looked at someone the way you look at him.”

You looked down at your hands and began toying with your fingers.

“I probably looked at you like that, you just never noticed…” You muttered under your breath, forgetting that his hearing now matched his brothers.

“Wait, what?”

You immediately stopped walking and stiffened. Oh, fuck.

You shot your head up and your wide eyes met his, but no sound came out of your mouth. You just parted and closed your lips repeatedly, not knowing what to do or say. As you desperately tried to figure out what you should do, you saw the others step back slightly and look away.

“You… you liked me?”

“Wow, I think I dropped my, uh, dignity back there so I’m just gonna go spend the rest of my life looking for it a-”

“Y/N…”

“-nd never show my face to anyone ever again. See ya!” With a panicked salute, you swiveled around and went to go find a ditch to lay down in for the remainder of eternity.

He stopped you by gently grabbing your wrist and saying your name desperately. “Y/N…”

Letting out a defeated sigh, you turned back to him. “Fine… yes, I liked you. Er, I thought I did. I’m honestly not quite sure what I really felt for you anymore.”

“Shit, Y/N, I… I’m so sorry. I didn’t know, and fuck, I would go out with all those girls right in front of you and…” He released your wrist to run a hand through his hair. “Fuck. I’m such a-I didn’t-holy shit.”

You sent him a soft grin and pushed his shoulder playfully. “Of course you didn’t know. I know you didn’t because I made sure you didn’t. And you don’t need to apologize. Besides, like I said, I’ve moved on from your sorry ass.”

“Yeah, for my own brother.” Jimin teased you but his smile quickly fell, and he continued with a strained voice. “I just… fuck, I feel like the biggest asshole. I literally just talked about knowing you for so long and I didn’t even… I didn’t even realize I was hurting you.”

Both his hands went to his hair and he tugged on it stressfully.

“Hey hey hey.” You detangled his fingers from his apricot locks and held his hands. “It’s okay. I’m good. You’re good. We’re good. I swear.”

You dropped his hands and then held your arms out with a hesitant smile, hoping that he still felt comfortable around you. To your relief, he immediately entered your embrace and held you tightly. You clung to each other for several seconds until, with one last squeeze, you stepped back. You saw he was lightly beaming at you and he reached out to ruffle your hair.

Seeing that your “private” moment was over, the others joined once more and began teasing you for how awkward that whole conversation was. You mildly shoved a laughing Yoongi away, but you were giggling as well because they weren’t wrong.

Awkward? Absolutely. But I feel… better?

“What are you guys talking about?” A new voice popped up. “You’re making me feel left out.”

Your giggles faded as you noticed Jungkook standing on the outskirts of your little gossip group, a pout evident on his face.

Your eyes bugged out. “N-Nothing! Nothing at all!”

Tae’s eyes, on the other hand, brightened and he began saying, “Actually, we were talking about-”

“Oh, just stupid stuff like, uh… if we prefer waffles or pancakes and our favorite sex positions!” You hastily spoke over the grey-haired Saeni, but as soon as your words left your mouth you wanted to mentally smack yourself to oblivion.

Favorite sex positions? Really, Y/N? REALLY!?

Jungkook coughed while the other three males did their best to contain their snorts and snickers.

Jimin’s face suddenly turned a little evil and you swallowed hard, just dreading his next statement and praying it wouldn’t be too detrimental to your soul.

“You came just in time, Kook. Y/N was just about to share hers.”

WHAT!?

You forced out a threatening laugh before saying through your gritted teeth, “But I already went, remember?”

You glared daggers at your so-called best friend.

He better not…

“I forget what you said,” Yoongi spoke up.

You blinked several times and raised your brows in incredulity.

Tae joined in. “Me too. I mean, there were just so many.”

You choked on your own spit and began hacking up a lung to try to clear your airway.

“Plus, I’m sure Kookie’s curious,” Hobi concluded.

You stumbled over your feet as your eyes expanded to comical proportions. After regaining your balance, you looked at the Saeni in absolute betrayal.

Sputtering, you began to deny their words. As you firmly protested how you only had one favorite position, thank you very much, you realized you were not helping your situation. At all. The three boys were wheezing and barely containing their outbursts. With a fed-up huff, you stomped over to Jungkook and as you passed his stiff form and strangely blank face, you grabbed his hand and dragged him after you. You were abandoning these disloyal hooligans right now and you sure as heck were not leaving Jungkook with them. Who knows what they would tell him!?

Probably that I basically have a big, fat crush on him and that it freaking hurts how I know he’ll never feel the same way about me.

Fuck, that’s so pathetic.

Tae, wanting to make his stupid ship a reality, would probably be the one to blurt it out. Curse his damn blabber mouth and his inability to keep a fucking secret. You undoubtedly trusted the blue-eyed male with your life… but you didn’t trust him with this. Not after he went ahead and spilled to Yoongi and Hobi not even five minutes later.

As a result, you were taking Jungkook with you.

They’re all traitors. Every single one of them. They can roast like marshmallows in the bonfires of hell for all I care now.

“Goodbye, everyone.” You called over your shoulder as you gave them a crisp middle finger without looking back. “I’ll remember you all in therapy!”

They all finally let out their rambunctious laughter as you marched away and towed the burgundy-haired Saeni behind you. Though, in your complete mortification and desire to get away, you didn’t register the fact that Jungkook hadn’t made a single peep during the entire exchange.

A little while later you were hopping from rock to rock as you crossed a shallow, but wide creek. Sure, your shoes were waterproof, so you could have just trudged through the tinkling water like everyone else, but it was more enjoyable this way. Plus, ten minutes ago, Jimin yelled out that he thought his father’s draeva was really close. The energy he was receiving from it had started palpitating and growing even stronger. Because of that, you were going to have as much fun as possible before shit got real again.

You peeked to your left to where Jungkook was making his way through the water beside you. You jolted as you realized he was already looking at you and right as you met his peridot gaze, you instantly returned your sight to the rocks in front of you. You did your best to keep your focus on the stones, but all you could feel were his eyes lingering on you now that you were aware of it. Huffing a bit, you tiptoed to the next available footing and wobbled slightly as the slab tilted under your weight. After steadying yourself, you leapt to the next rock, and the next, and the next. But as you landed on the last one, holding your breath for a second as you edged around the algae sludge covering it, you frowned as you saw a giant gap between you and the nearest rock. You narrowed your eyes at the distance, mentally trying to calculate if you would be able to jump that far when you heard a low chuckle next to you.

“I don’t think you can make that, little human.”

His voice held a tremendous teasing lilt; something that made you even more determined to successfully cross the distance. You wanted to prove him wrong. You could definitely make it. One hundred percent. Ten feet had nothing on you.

“Pffft. Of course I can, just watch me.” You shifted your feet and bent your knees a bit, readying your muscles as you zeroed in on your destination.

Your resolve strengthened as you saw Jungkook cross his arms with an expectant look gracing his face, as if he was waiting for you to fail. With a deep breath, you brought your weight back as you swung your arms behind you. Then, with a tiny, defiant grunt, you threw your weight forward and propelled your body through the air.

Well, you would have.

If your shoe hadn’t slipped on the slimy algae.

Your grunt quickly changed into a surprised screech as you felt yourself go down and not forward. You fell straight into the water with one leg splayed out, a knee tucked underneath you, a hand palming the sandy and pebble-ridden creek bottom, and a forearm somewhat bracing yourself. Of course, since you caught yourself partially on your forearm, half your face was also dunked below the surface.

You shoved yourself up, sputtering as you spat water out of your mouth and pushed your half-wet hair out of your face. As your eyes and ears were cleared of creek water, the first that and sound that met you was Jungkook doubled over from laughter. He kept alternating between pointing at you and clapping his hands as he tried his damned hardest to form words but would lose himself to hysterics every time he took in your now soggy state. His nose was scrunching up, his head thrown back, and the tips of his pointy ears were turning red from the sheer force of his laughter.

Sulking, you raised yourself to both knees and inspected your palm as Jungkook’s boisterous sounds continued to fill the atmosphere. Glad to see that you hadn’t cut your hand, you glared up at the Saeni before looking back down at the water.

“You can stop laughing now, geez,” you mumbled in pout.

But the boy just kept at it. Between his cackles, he made sure to point out how he had “told you” you wouldn’t be able to make it. As if your embarrassment and water-logged self didn’t make that clear enough for you.

He’s such a little shit.

You splashed your hand through the creek, catapulting water at the green-eyed male. It hit him at his upper legs and lower torso, slightly dampening the fabric. Instantly, Jungkook stopped laughing and stared at you with a blank face. You lifted an eyebrow and stared back, your stubbornness and pettiness rising to the surface. A few seconds of your impromptu staring match went by, then Jungkook’s eyes grew devious while he stepped closer to you. Before you could even blink, he placed his hands on your shoulders and shoved.

With a curse, you immediately lost your balance and fell backwards until you landed on your ass. You whimpered as the water seeped into your clothes and completely drenched the rest of your body. Glowering up at the male, you wanted to throw a tantrum at the smirk plastered to his face.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, sweetheart.” He winked, and with one last chuckle, began making his way across the creek once more.

You smacked the water with your fists before bringing your dripping self to your feet. “GET BACK HERE, YOU INSUFFERABLE COCONUT!”

He just laughed at your outburst and kept walking, so you took off after him. When he heard your feet stomping through the water, he started running away with a grin on his face. You chased after him, screaming obscenities, but you couldn’t help but start laughing too. You probably looked like an idiotic fool to all the other Saeni who were watching your antics unfold.

Jungkook reached the opposite side of the creek and sprinted away into the trees. He must have been “jogging,” though, because you were right on his heels. You both crashed through the forest, yelling and taunting each other. Momentarily, you lost sight of the Saeni through the thick greenery but continued running after him in the direction you believed he went.   When you broke through a cluster of leaves, you saw him standing still with his back to you. Snickering, you snuck up to him as quietly as you could and was about to jump on his back… but you stopped. You had finally looked beyond his shoulders, albeit just for a moment, but the scene made your steps falter.

“Whoa.”

In front of you was a slightly crumpled, but mostly intact, stone construction tucked between the trees. The parts that were still solid were innately carved, so it looked like it must have been something important back in the day. Random trees were growing up and out of the sections of the collapsed stonework, their roots stretching over the structure like lacework. Vines crept over the entire thing as well, and little white flowers were bursting along the climbing plants. Their scent drifted over to you, and you inhaled their floral sweetness. The familiarity of the smell made you think it might be wild honeysuckle. At the center of the building, a detailed spire rose toward the sky. It wasn’t a skinny, needle-esque tower, but rather it was a fat and almost cone-shaped thing that extended to a round point at the top. The carvings were delicate and intricate, and icicles of stonework spiraled around it, creating an interesting contrast to the upward direction of the spire.

As you absorbed the old, yet exceptionally beautiful structure before you in awe, Jungkook let out a breath and whispered, “Juufa.”

It turned out the building was an ancient temple dedicated to Juufa, the god of harmony. Jungkook was in the process of explaining that when the rest of the Saeni caught up with you. All their eyes went wide and they each fell into silent awe as they saw it.

Jungkook continued murmuring to you, “It’s rare to see a temple for the harmony.”

“Huh? Why?”

“It’s said that he doesn’t like to be worshipped because it’s distracting. He prefers to keep to himself and just focus on his duties.” He gestured to the slightly dilapidated structure. “Because of that, most who had temples for Juufa ended up heading his desire and allowing nature to retake them.”

That… is very unconventional of a god. I like him already.

As you continued gawking at the impressive sight before you, you saw Jimin run a hand through his apricot locks and inspect the area in your peripherals. He shuddered suddenly and locked his eyes on one spot to the right of the temple. Following his gaze, it led you to a gathering of trees displayed in a bright beam of sunlight.

“That’s it…” he whispered, making you gasp.

Oh my gosh, is his father’s draeva over there!? Talk about nice real estate.

As if in a trance, Jimin began walking over and you all trailed after him. Along the way, Yoongi silently waved his sparkling hands at you to magically dry you and your clothes off. You sent him a small nod in thanks, pleased to no longer be cold and dripping. As you neared the trees, you could see that Jimin was moving toward the one with the thickest trunk. You didn’t know what type of tree it was, but it was tall and sturdy with a vast network of limbs stretching up and out.

“That’s it,” he whispered again while stepping into sun patch.

You and the other Saeni stopped about ten feet away and spread out in a sloppy semi-circle as Jimin kept advancing.

You held your breath as your best friend hesitantly approached the tree. Slowly, he lifted his hand and placed it against the trunk. But nothing happened.

“Find his handprint,” Jiae suggested with a smile as her lilac hair fluttered in the wind.

Jimin nodded and began stalking around the tree, looking around the trunk and up into the limbs.

“I think I see it,” he said as he began climbing.

As he ascended, you tilted your head toward Tae and asked, “What’s gonna happen when he unlocks the secret?”

He shook his head, causing his feather earring to jingle against his other piercings, and replied that he had no idea.

Blowing out a raspberry, you returned your eyes to Jimin, who exclaimed that he found his father’s mark.

One again, you held your breath and leaned forward in anticipation. Jungkook, though, went to stand underneath his brother. Probably in case the half-Saeni fell from whatever was about to occur.

A crisp breeze ruffled the leaves and Jimin’s hair, and you saw the branch he was leaning against sway in the air. And after taking a deep breath to steel himself, Jimin gently allowed his hand to rest against the bark, in the place you assumed his father’s handprint was located.

And yet, nothing happened.

Jimin’s brows furrowed and he removed his hand before placing it back.

Still, nothing happened.

All of you on the ground pursed your lips and looked at each other in befuddlement before returning your eyes to the apricot head who was now repeatedly slamming his hand into the tree. You blinked at him while he began huffing and puffing in frustration.

Geez, Slim Jim. It’s a tree, not a frozen computer.

“Why-” Slam. “-won’t-” Slam. “-you-” Slam. “-work!?” Slam.

He really emphasized the last one by grinding and smooshing his hand into the bark.

“Uh, maybe give it a moment Chim.” Namjoon called up to him.

You snorted to yourself before adding, “Yeah, maybe it’s just thinking!”

Jimin took his hand off and let out an aggravated noise while pushing his hair back. “It’s not working!”

Tae then proposed that maybe he had the wrong draeva. Yoongi, Jin, and Mingi voiced their agreement and Hobi even started inspecting other trees nearby. As both Jimin and Jiae argued that it was definitely the right one, you sat down with a sigh and rested your chin on your palm. Jungkook saw you and gave you a lopsided smile while rolling his eyes playfully at everyone else.

You grinned back at him but hoped he couldn’t see the heat rising to your cheeks due to how handsome he looked standing in the sunlight. Looking away from him, you leaned back on your hands as you let the Saeni figure out the issue at hand. This wasn’t your area of expertise, so you were just going to sit back and offer occasional moral support.

And that’s exactly what you did and have been doing for the past thirty minutes or so.

“You can do it Jimin! Anything is possible is you just believe,” you shouted at your best friend in a sweet voice while sending him two encouraging thumbs up.

He just groaned and tugged on his hair for the umpteenth time.

Shrugging, you went back to drawing in the dirt with a stick. You would throw out another great, motivational quote in maybe… two minutes?

I feel like that kid in a group project who shows up to meetings and offers their opinion but doesn’t actually do anything.

Another fifteen minutes and numerous uplifting sayings went by and it was safe to say that you were bored out of your mind. Throwing your stick aside, you stood up and wiped your bum off before clearing your throat to gain the attention of the Saeni.

“Welp, as invigorating as this is, I’m gonna go explore the temple.” You went to pivot on your feet but paused and sheepishly looked at Namjoon. “Oh, um, is that allowed? Like am I not supposed to go in there since I’m not Saeni?”

The leader of the kiela contemplated for a moment before showing off his dimpled smile and waving you on. “Ah, no, it should be fine.”

You clapped your hands together in satisfaction. “Fantastic… well, scream if you figure it out or need me!”

You fully swiveled around and began strutting off toward the entrance of the semi-collapsed structure, eager to see it up close and what it looked like on the inside.

“Y/N!”

You stopped your leg in midair and pursed your lips as you looked over your shoulder. “Damn, ya’ll need me already?”

Jungkook jogged over to you, the top of his burgundy hair bouncing slightly. The corner of your lip quirked up at the sight, but you quickly forced your mouth back to a neutral position.

“No, I just, um, I-I’ll come with you. You know, since it’ll be dark, and you might not be able to see.”

You placed your foot down, teetering a bit since it landed partially in a hole in the ground, and rolled your eyes. “There you go yet again with that superior senses bullshit. But sure, fine, whatever, come on. At least I can push you in front of me if there’s booby traps.”

His steps slowed down, and he furrowed his brows. “Why would there be something to trap your boobs?”

You heard Jimin snort while he continued scrutinizing the draeva.

“Ya! Refer to them respectfully as breasts, you sprout!” Jin hollored.

“Personally, that’s worse because it makes me feel like a chicken,” Jiae replied to the eldest before meeting your pained eyes. “What about you, Y/N?”

I can never win, can I?

You closed your eyes and sighed in defeat as you pressed your fingers onto your lids. “Just… forget it. Let’s go, Coco.”

I’m totally sacrificing him if I have to.

By the time you and Jungkook emerged from the temple, the sun was starting to descend in the horizon. You breathed in the sweet air of Illain and the honeysuckle, happy to no longer be inhaling the dusty stuffiness from the depths of the temple.

The innards of the structure had been just as beautifully broken as the outside. Ornate sculptures and detailed artwork filled the passageways and rooms, and you had eagerly explored the many corridors with Jungkook by your side. Luckily, you had been able to see a majority of it due to the numerous tiny windows carved into the walls and ceilings. It hadn’t provided the best light, but it had been enough to make do.

In some parts of the temple, the halls were completely collapsed in, or tree roots and thick honeysuckle vines blocked the way like a filigree wall. But there had been no booby traps, much to your dismay. As terrifying as they would have been, it was would have been a little exciting. And with Jungkook with you, you knew nothing bad would have happened.

Your favorite part was probably the room on the highest floor that was filled with hundreds of tiny bells strung on chains hanging from the ceiling. Sure, there had been the slightly creepy, but very detailed painting on the back wall depicting a female clawing out a male’s heart with her hand. The female had a sun hovering above her head and a sad look to her face while the male had a crescent moon floating above his painfully contorted face. But as gruesome as the picture was, it was strangely beautiful and alluring. Maybe the underlying concept of female empowerment made you cheer internally. You didn’t really know for sure.

You had admired the image underneath the singing bells for a couple minutes until Jungkook came to stand next to you. You remembered him frowning as he stared at it. When you asked him what that look was for, he had explained that the sun was the symbol for Illai. He didn’t understand why the artwork showed her killing someone. She was a kind and benevolent goddess. Someone who brought life, not death. You had pondered his words, before shrugging and suggesting that maybe it was just a metaphor for the morning sun “killing” nighttime.

Whatever it was, you still liked it.

Skipping over a bundle of roots in front of the temple entryway, you saw that everyone except for Jimin, Jiae, and Chungha were sitting in a small circle around a fire. Hobi was picking at the dirt under his nails with one of his blades and Yoongi was curled up next to him with his eyes closed. Tae and Mingi were throwing a rock back and forth through the flames, and Jin and Namjoon were speaking quietly to each other as the former nudged the fire with a stick. You and Jungkook made your way over to them, and as you approached, they ceased their respective activities (minus Yoongi) and greeted you both.

After sending everyone a tiny wave, you sat down beside Tae. Jungkook followed suit, sitting down beside you and resting his forearms on his knees.

“Seeing as Jimin isn’t here, I’m guessing he still hasn’t had any luck?”

Namjoon sighed and ran a hand down his face. “Nope. Nothing’s working.”

“Well… that’s not good.”

“You could say that again.” Jin snorted as he poked the edge of the fire.

Doing so made a plume of smoke rise from the embers and a sudden draft of wind sent it directly into Mingi, who began coughing and waving hand in front of his face.

While the guard combatted the smoke, Tae flopped to his back and whined about how bored he was.

Hearing the archer’s complaint, Hobi sheathed his blade and offered playing a game of keumbak, making Tae perk up in interest.

“What’s that?” You asked Jungkook in a whisper while Namjoon began protesting Hobi’s suggestion.

“Basically, you spin a knife and whoever it lands on has to stand against a tree and let everyone else throw a knife at him.” Your eyes widened in fear but Jungkook kept going. “Whoever’s knife gets closest without hitting the person wins and they don’t partake in sequential rounds. You keep going until someone either loses or gets hit. Oh, and you get bonus points of style and throw difficulty.”

What kind of fatal, wack- ass game is this?

You gulped and wondered how you could get yourself out of playing. You weren’t too keen on having knives thrown at you today. Or throwing them at your friends and possibly hurting them. Seeing your freaked-out expression, Jungkook chuckled but voiced that he didn’t think keumbak was a good idea.

Hobi huffed and inquired what Jungkook would deem a better game to play. The burgundy head nudged you, silently telling you to say something.

“Uh… what about Truth or Dare?”

Tae gasped excitedly. “Oh, Chim’s had us play that before! It was fun!”

“Wait, what’s Truth or Dare?” Mingi questioned with curious hazel eyes.

As you explained the basic rules to the guard, you saw Hobi gently shake Yoongi awake. The magic user cursed and went to shout at who woke him up but stopped when he saw it was the white-haired Saeni. Smiling softly because of them, you asked if everyone was okay with playing.

Almost everyone nodded, but Mingi quickly asked one more question. “What if someone doesn’t want to answer or do the dare?”

“Uhhh…”

“If they want to be a little bitch, they have to take something off. Shirt first, though,” Yoongi groggily said as he sat up with Hobi’s help.

Oh, that’s a good one. I’ll get a nice, free show of all these attractive guys and it’s pretty harmless too since-WAIT. No, that means Jungkook might take stuff off. Oh fuck, I don’t think I can handle that. Though I kinda really want him to… but it won’t help my situation… but he has such a good body… fuck what am I going to do!?

You bit your lip as everyone murmured their agreement to his rule. After contemplating and telling yourself not to be a weenie, you agreed as well, which caused Yoongi to smirk in your direction.

Hobi, you better get your guy under control before I sit on him!

Tae began bouncing up and down, asking who was going to go first. You all looked at each other, wondering the same thing until you made a decision.

“Papa Jin! Why don’t you go since you’re the oldest?”

The raven-haired Saeni placed a hand over his heart. “It would truly be my honor, little scorja.”

Everyone fell quiet as you waited for Jin to pick out his victim.

“Mingi!” He suddenly shouted, causing Namjoon to jump in surprise next to him. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” Mingi responded without pause.

“What do you think of my cooking?”

Oh my fucking god, he’s fucking dead if he doesn’t answer this to Jin’s liking.

The hazel-eyed male shrugged. “Eh, it’s pretty good. Could honestly use some more heat in my opinion, but I can understand that ingredients are a bit… limited right now.”

You gaped at Mingi’s bold words then peeked at Jin to see his reaction. The eldest just laughed loudly but briefly before humming in response.

Frick. That’s sort of terrifying.

“Alright, um… Hoseok, truth or dare?”

The kiela’s spy danced his hand over his tucked away blades and after a few seconds of thinking he replied, “Dare.”

Mingi looked into the fire as if searching for inspiration, then suddenly snapped his fingers and announced, “Choose someone in the group to spank you.”

You brought a hand up to cover your mouth as you saw Hobi’s eyes flicker to Yoongi for a split-second before blurting out, “Kookie!”

You couldn’t conceal your laughter anymore, though, when a look of pure regret overtook his features afterwards.

Jungkook stood up with an evil glint in his eyes while cracking his knuckles, and you heard Namjoon whisper his sorrows for Hobi’s ass. You watched Jungkook rub his hands together as Hobi reluctantly got to his feet, turned around, and braced his hands on his knees. You could literally see the apprehension, fear, and tension coursing through him, making you laugh again.

But your laughter died when a powerful, loud smack reverberated into the air.

Ho-Holy shit. He just flat-out destroyed Hobi’s ass.

Said Saeni collapsed to the ground, clutching his butt cheeks as Jungkook breathed out easily and returned to his seat. The green-eyed male caught your look of horror and assured you that he didn’t actually hit him that hard.

“Hyung is just being dramatic.”

“I don’t know Coco. That looked fucking rough to me.”

His eyes darkened and he leaned in closer to murmur, “If that’s your version of rough, you don’t want to see mine.”

Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck.

His intense gaze bore into you for a couple more moments before he pulled back and reset his expression, leaving you gawking at him. Not to mention, a little turned on too.

What the hell is he doing to me?

You did your best to ignore Jungkook and the dirty thoughts he caused you to have as Hobi finally settled down and let his light brown eyes pass over the group. He paused on Tae, who straightened at the possibility of it being his turn.

“Tae, truth or-”

“Truth!”

You grinned and shook your head fondly at his eagerness. Looking back at Hobi, you saw him exchange a silent conversation with Yoongi and nod subtly. The spy’s eyes flashed with mischief and you pursed your lips together as you wondered what that was all about.

Hobi cleared his throat before folding his hands together and addressing Tae. “You and Y/N are really close… would you ever consider dating her?”

You let out a confused hum as your eyebrows shot up. On the opposite side of the fire, Namjoon and Jin mentioned their agreement that the two of us did get along very well at his question.

What the? Why would he ask that? He knows Tae and I are just friends.

Beside you, you heard Jungkook’s breathing slow down and you glanced at him. He looked entirely normal, well, except for how he was sending a piercing glare at his blue-eyed brother.

Tae, giving a relaxed shake of his head, denied he would date you and then blew a kiss your way.

You stuck our tongue out at him but sent him a kiss back while giggling.

“Okay, now I get to pick!” Tae proclaimed while showcasing his boxy grin. “Joon hyung!”

“Dare,” the yellow-eyed Saeni said with a sigh.

Tae thought long and hard, then began searching the ground before picking something up and holding it proudly above his head. “You must wear this as a mustache until your next turn!”

It was a twig.

You all silently shook with laughter as Namjoon trudged over to grab the twig and position it above his top lip. He had to pucker a bit to make sure it didn’t fall, and you had to admit that he looked but insanely cute and extremely funny.

As he sat down slowly to make sure the twig didn’t become dislodged, he caught Jungkook’s eye.

“Dare,” Jungkook said immediately.

“Of course. Um…” Namjoon’s yellow eyes darted around, looking for inspiration. “Aish, I’m bad at this stuff. Um… jump over the fire? While holding my mace over your head?”

Jungkook once again rose to his feet while scoffing. “This will be too easy, hyung.”

“Easy!? That thing weighs a ton!” You said bewildered at his unconcerned tone.

“Nah, it’s basically nothing for him, just watch,” Tae told you as he cradled his face between his palms.

You knew how strong Jungkook was, but you were still a little skeptical it would be nothing. But your doubts were quickly proven wrong as Namjoon held his heavy weapon out to Jungkook, who grabbed it with one hand without so much as a grunt. The green-eyed male shifted so the mace was in both his hands then easily hefted it over his head and leapt over the fire. Landing softly, he rolled his eyes and returned the weapon to its owner as you gawked at how nonchalant he was acting.

“See?” Tae addressed you while your shocked gaze followed Jungkook. “Nothing.”

You inhaled deeply through your nose, still trying to wrap your head around how Jungkook just did that without even a gasp as the male sat back down and smirked at you.

“Sweetheart, it’s your turn.”

To what? Get lugged over your head like sack of rice?

Oh, no… the game.

“Um…”

What will bring the least amount of damage? Probably a dare, so I shouldn’t pick truth.

Without meaning to, you said “truth” out loud and you blanched at your mistake. “Wait, no! I mean-”

His smirk transformed into a grin, but not one that settled your nerves. “Nope. Sorry, but you already said it, it’s locked it.”

Shit. Stupid stupid stupid.

Jungkook shifted closer to you, making your breath hitch.

“You never did say what your favorite sex position was, so now’s the time.”

All the air in your lungs disappeared as you stared at him, wondering if he was being serious as Yoongi, Hobi, and Tae erupted into rowdy laughter. The remaining Saeni had looked at you two in complete confusion, obviously not understanding where the question came from.

I am not telling him that!

“Come on, sweetheart, I’m waiting.” He teased as his cocky expression expanded. “It’s either tell me or take the shirt off.”

You usually didn’t give a shit about being shirtless in front of anyone. Like, if you still had a bra on, then what did it matter? But for some reason, you found yourself not wanting to remove your shirt.

Fucking hell, I guess I have to then…

You closed your eyes and hid yourself behind your hadns before mumbling, “Doggystyle.”

You didn’t bother speaking up because you knew all of them would be able to hear you clear as day. The three laughing Saeni grew even more unruly at your answer, so you buried your head in your arms to hide your flushing face. You stayed that way, refusing to lift your head, until they calmed down. Then, you raised your head, and against your better judgement, allowed yourself to glance at Jungkook. You stilled as you realized he was staring at you. Not doing anything. Not saying anything. Just staring. With a clenched jaw and hazy green eyes.

It made you uneasy… in a good way.

Stop it! He’s probably staring because he thinks that was a vanilla answer, not because he’s imagining fucking you like you want him to. Ah, shit… don’t think of him fucking into you from behind.

But, of course, your mind didn’t want to listen to reason. Thoughts of the strong male wrecking you, no, ruining you from behind began invading your head. You imagined the symphony of grunts, whimpers, and slapping of skin on skin. The way he would command your body to his pleasure. Hoe utterly rough he would handle you.

Stop it! Um… wrinkly, old balls! Smudging your nail polish! Eating bad Mexican food! Bad things! Yucky things!

With a shaky breath, you squeezed your hands into fists and averted your eyes. Taking another deep breath, you collected yourself and continued the game as you tried not to focus on the weight of Jungkook’s eyes still boring into your profile.

The sun had almost gone to sleep for the day, just a small sliver of light was still visible in the distance. You trained your eyes on the colorful sunset, observing as the pastels slowly darkened into the night sky. You smiled at its beauty while listening to the crackling of the fire. You were so transfixed, you didn’t even realize Yoongi had been calling your name until Tae waved a hand in front of your eyes. Jumping a bit, you brought your attention back to the game that was still going strong.

Not a whole lot has happened, besides Namjoon attempting a full split (he did not succeed and was still complaining about a pulled groin), Tae admitting that he was the person who lost Hobi’s favorite dagger a year ago (the spy once again lived up to his NSFW outfit with the bloodcurdling glower he sent Tae’s way), Jin being dared to let you cook one meal entirely by yourself (the male took one look at you before yanking his shirt over his head), and other dumb, reckless, and funny things.

Blinking rapidly, you met Yoongi’s eyes and sighed internally when you saw the playfulness lurking behind them.

Not wanting to even consider the type of shit he would have you reveal if you picked truth, you ultimately decided to go with dare for this round.

He glanced at Tae and Hobi, which made your palms sweat, before looking straight into your eyes. “Mingi’s lap seems a little lonely over there, so you have to sit on it until your next turn.”

Oh… that’s not that bad. I thought it would be giving Jungkook a lap dance or something. Whew.

Meeting Mingi’s hazel gaze, you shrugged at each other, then heaved yourself to your feet and walked over to the guard, who stretched his legs out in front of him.

“Hello, my good sir.” You greeted him verbally with a laugh before gently easing yourself down onto his lap.

“Hell there, Y/N.” Mingi laughed too while leaning back on his hands to balance himself.

Once you were positioned successfully and somewhat comfortably on the male’s lap, you looked over to give Yoongi a “so what?” face, but found his gaze focused somewhere else. He snickered to Hobi and had a knowing smile teasing his lips. Furrowing your brows, you turned to see what he was looking at.

Jungkook.

The burgundy head was glaring into the fire. His entire body was stiff, his hand edging down toward his dagger, and you could see his chest rising and falling heavily with his breaths. After looking at him in concern for a few seconds, he lifted his head to look directly at you with heated eyes. You were taken back by how aggravated he appeared, but before you could say anything, he brought his eyes back to the fire.

The heck is his problem?

“You good, Kook?” You heard Yoongi ask in a not-so-innocent tone.

The youngest member of the kiela didn’t respond, but you saw his jaw shift in annoyance.

Well, he obviously doesn’t want to disclose what his problem is, so looks like I’ll ask when his panties aren’t in a twist.

And so, the game continued, though you kept sneaking glances at Jungkook as others answered their truths or completed their dares. Not once did he meet your eyes. And he only really moved or spoke when he had to.

You had to admit it was bothering you.

Then, it was your turn once more and Jin asked you if you regret coming to Illain. When Jin concluded his question, Jungkook finally brought his eyes back to you. As if he actually wanted to hear your answer. You flinched a bit when you thought you saw a flash of worry appear on his face, but it was gone so quickly you weren’t sure if it had even been there to begin with. By now, the sunlight was completely gone and only the fire and moon provided light so it could have just been the flickering orange flames playing tricks on you.

Tearing your gaze away from Jungkook’s face, you addressed Jin and truthfully told him that you were really happy to be in the new world. That you were glad to have met everyone and now call them your friends.

All the Saeni smiled at your answer, even Jungkook’s mouth tilted up slightly, and they were grateful you felt that way even though the journey had been quite crazy and violent.

You beamed back at everyone and with a pat to Mingi’s knee, rose from his lap and trudged back to your original spot. Through, as you left the guard behind and walked past the fire, you shivered at how chilly it had gotten. Without realizing it, Mingi had been keeping you toasty and your backside was already missing it.

As you squatted then let your butt fall to the cool ground, you wiggled your fingers at Tae. But when the breeze picked up, you shivered and wrapped your arms around your middle.

Noting your state, Jungkook sighed and shifted a it before leaning over to poke your thigh. “C’mere.”

Peeking over at him, you saw he was inviting you to sit between his legs.

Well, looks like someone is finally over his random temper tantrum.

As confused as you were regarding his attitude, you couldn’t help but be tempted by his offer. It would be so warm and cozy. Not to mention, you would be close to him. Like really close.

Your decision was ultimately made by another cold gust of air attacking your body. With a nod, you crawled over to Jungkook and positioned yourself between his legs. You hummed as his body immediately protected you from the wind and his warmth fought off the chill. Settling into your new spot, you gasped when his hands found purchase at your waist and he dragged you backwards into his chest. Then, he hugged you close and placed his chin on the junction of your shoulder and neck. Flinching a bit as his hot breath hit your bare skin, you forced yourself to relax and ease against him although you were screaming on the inside. His intoxicating scent began floating around you as you rested your hands on his arms and leaned into him.

“Better?” He murmured against your neck.

You nodded and whispered a thanks while your heart threatened to leap out of your chest.

Satisfied you were warm, he then reminded you that you needed to ask someone truth or dare.

“Oh, r-right…” You caught Yoongi and Hobi smiling slyly at you and you narrowed your eyes at them. “Hobi.”

The white-haired male clapped his hands together and said, “I choose dare, little scorja.”

Careful not to bump into Jungkook, you tilted your head to the side and gauged the distance between him and Yoongi versus him and Namjoon and chortled when you saw what you were hoping for. “I dare you to hold hands with the person closest to you for the remainder of the game. You can only let go if you or the other person need to do so for a dare.”

Both his and Yoongi’s eyes widened comically as they looked between them and realized they would have to hold hands. There was no fighting it either because their hips were basically touching from how close they sat to each other. It was your turn to snicker at their expressions and how they started fidgeting. Slowly and without looking at each other, they intertwined their hands as a faint blush dusted both their cheeks. Cooing internally, you smirked and basked in their cuteness.

The game went on after that. Mingi took his shirt off because he refused to steal a piece of rubble from the temple (you had to admit that he had a very nice body, but it was nothing compared to the one holding you), Tae ate a weird looking bug (he gagged and you thought he was going to lose it, but he made you proud by holding on and swallowing the creature), and Namjoon confessed he broke their instructor’s prized sword during their trainee days (apparently, the instructor had loved the weapon dearly and cried for weeks when he found the blade shattered one day).

Then, Jin asked Jungkook who he would have sex with if he could choose anyone in the world. Your heart spasmed at the questioned and you held your breath while waiting for Jungkook’s answer.

Fuck, you wanted him to say it was you. But you knew he wouldn’t. It would probably be some girl he’s trained with or someone he’s seen in passing that caught his eye. Your ears were filled with the snapping of burning wood as the male stayed silent and debated his answer. Sadness cascaded into you as you realized he was most likely thinking of all the beautiful Saeni he’s encountered in his lifetime; filtering them out until one gorgeous, sexy female remained.

As your chest tightened and you fought to keep your face impassive, Jungkook suddenly removed his arms from around you. Preparing yourself to hear some other girl’s name, you inhaled sharply when his arms snuck around you and pulled you against him once more. With a jolt, you realized…

He.

Took.

Off.

His.

Shirt.

And was no holding you against his bare chest. You felt heat flood to your face, and you tried to control your breathing as he dropped his chin onto your shoulder again. Peeking to the sides, you saw Tae squeezing his lips together while looking at you with wide blue eyes and waggling brows. On the other side, Hobi and Yoongi, hands still waffled, were chuckling at you quietly. Namjoon and Jin, bless their oblivious hearts, didn’t seem to notice your internal screeching. The final Saeni just raised a single eyebrow amusedly at you.

Humming contently and adjusting his grip on you so that you were tucked even further against him, Jungkook called out Yoongi’s name to proceed with the game.

And yet again, you all continued playing. You were surprised everyone was still participating, but you figured it was because there really wasn’t anything better to do while waiting for Jimin to unlock the draeva.

You had your turn again, which included Mingi asking how you met Jimin and why you tagged along to Illain. You fondly retold the story of a little Jimin trying to scare you with a spider and you consequently punching him with your tiny fist. Then, you shrugged and explained how he was your best friend and there was no way you were going to let him go on an adventure like this alone.

Jungkook laughed in your ear as you spoke and when you finished, he whispered, “Such a feisty little human.”

You shivered at his breath dancing along your skin but managed to retort in a teasing tone, “Such an annoying little shit.”

Then, you asked Tae about what eye color he wished he could change to (he firmly said he wouldn’t change it because he likes his blue), and he won’t on to challenge Namjoon to a dare. You sort of zoned out after that, leaning your head back onto Jungkook’s shoulder and looking up at the twinkling stars. The smoke from the fire swirled up and partially obstructed your view, but the white-grey wisps just added to the enchanting sight above you.

You inhaled the sweet air and scene of flowers and metal, listened to the sound of rustling leaves and crackling fire, absorbed the soft vibrations of Jungkook’s heartbeat, and sighed up at the sky. “It’s so pretty.”

You felt Jungkook’s head shift and he softly agreed, “Yeah… really pretty.”

The abrupt shout of Jungkook’s name by Hobi brought your eyes back to the Saeni and you saw him draw a knife out to play with.

The male behind you let out a groan and he mumbled,” For Exia’s sake, this game never ends.”

“Truth or dare?” Hobi asked his youngest brother as he twirled his knife in his hand.

Jungkook chose dare, making Hobi smile at his blade.

“I dare you to kiss one of the females here.”

You felt Jungkook stiffen just as you did at Hobi’s words. The older Saeni winked at you subtly and your mind began losing it.

All the various possibilities ran through your head, but you knew all of them would suck. Sure, you wanted Jungkook to kiss you, but… not if it was because he had to. Not if it didn’t mean anything to him. And if he didn’t kiss you then he would kiss Jiae or Chungha. You swallowed as you thought of his lips against someone else’s. Biting your bottom lip, you looked down.

And if he refuses the dare and takes something off, then he’s still rejecting me. Fuck, Hobi… what were you thinking?

“Hurry up, Kook!” Namjoon joked. “We don’t have all night.”

Jungkook grumbled while removing his arms from your middle and standing up, allowing the heat that cocooned you to slowly evaporate. With a smirk directed at nobody in particular, he began walking off into the trees toward the three people not a part of your game. Leaving you cold and alone.

Tucking in your knees, you nodded to yourself and wrapped your own arms around your body as Tae, Yoongi, and Hobi all looked at you in concern. Even Mingi frowned in your direction.

Of course, he’s gonna kiss one of the other girls. Probably Chungha since Jiae is with Jimin. And I’m not surprised he didn’t take off something. His competitive ego had already been wounded when he took his shirt off earlier.

You sniffled and blinked a few times as you scolded yourself for getting upset.

“Y-Y/N…” Hobi quietly said in a pained voice. “I… I didn’t think he-”

You sighed pitifully and looked over to the Saeni and forced a smile. “There’s nothing to be sorry about.”

“Little scorja…?” Tae reached out and gently placed a hand on your shoulder.

“What?” You asked and laughed in a weak manner. “He can do whatever he wants.”

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Jin inquired, not understanding what was happening.

Not understanding that disappointment was crashing you over and filling your heart.

Before you could answer, Jungkook came strutting back to the group with a smug expression on his face. You averted your eyes while the three Saeni who knew of your crush glared at him.

The burgundy-haired male stopped, questioning why they were looking at him like that when he completed the dare. But they said nothing to explain, not wanting you to feel any worse.

“Who?” asked Namjoon.

Jungkook cleared his throat before walking around the fire. “Ch-Chungha.”

You sucked in a breath as he sat down behind you and caged you in with his legs again.

The audacity of this fucker!

But you couldn’t bring yourself to stay mad. You were just… sad and hurt and wondering why you always had to like the guys that never showed a speck on interest in you. Maybe you were cursed. Or maybe you were subconsciously addicted to the ache it caused in your heart.

Jungkook didn’t wrap his arms around you again, thankfully. Instead, he leaned back on his hands. Fuck, all you wanted to do was get away from him and let Tae hold you. But you couldn’t. It would look weird and suspicious if you got up and left his leggy embrace now, so you just sat there in discomfort. Shrinking yourself as much as possible, you tried to allow only the barest amounts of your body to touch him.

Unaware of the heaviness inside your chest and the small feeling crowding in your mind, Jungkook smack his lips together once before calling Tae’s name to continue the shitty game.

The next morning you were finishing up your training session with fatigued energy. You had barely slept a wink last night. Not with Jungkook sleeping peacefully next to you as if he hadn’t just stomped your heart into a pulpy mess. After tossing and turning for several hours and resisting the urge to look at the snoozing burgundy head beside you, you had given up and just stared at the stars and moon blankly.

You had remained that way, basically motionless and letting your feelings eat away at you, until you somehow fell asleep. When Tae woke you up a couple hours later, he informed you that Jungkook asked Yoongi to train you today since he wanted to get some of his own training in with the kiela. You had breathed out a relieved sigh and nodded since that meant you didn’t have to look at or deal with Jungkook until later.

But that didn’t mean you were entirely focused or particularly spritely during training.

Fortunately, Yoongi seemed to understand and didn’t berate you for your poor performance. You were also grateful he didn’t ask how you were doing since you weren’t in the mood to talk about it. Instead, he just did his best to distract you with training and keep your mind preoccupied for a short while.

He even ended the session a bit early, telling you to go wash up in the creek and try to get some rest before Jimin began tackling the draeva again. With a tiny, tired smile, you thanked him and dropped your bow and quiver off with the rest of your stuff before grabbing the towel you had stuffed in your backpack. Throwing it over your shoulder, you made your way through the foliage toward the creek.

Muttering to yourself about dumb boys and dumb feelings, you brushed past the small, leafy limbs and shuffled through the shrubs. The sound of soft rapids began to reach your ears and you groaned in pleasure at the thought of cleaning the dirt off your skin.

The calming sound of flowing water grew louder and louder, and you smiled to yourself as you ducked under and around the last set of branches before the creek beach. Though it turned into a frown as you saw a shirtless Jungkook bending down to retrieve his shirt from a rock.

One morning… is one morning without him too much to ask?

You stilled as he straightened, showcasing the hard ridges of his muscular back as well as the rings of his draeva mark. Water dripped off the wet strands of his hair, beaded on his skin, and trailed down the curve of his spine. Your eyes followed the drops’ descent to his slim waist until they reached the waistband of his pants, but then your eyes went even further and snuck a look at his round, firm booty. Continuing down, you took in the bulging outline of his thighs and the-

Oh shit, he’s turning around! Act casual!

You went to move your hands behind your back, then brought them to your front, then clasped them together, then tried crossing them all in a span of a second. None of them felt normal so you just awkwardly hung them at your sides as your eyes went wide with panic and he fully turned around.

Your plan had been to gruff out a simple hello and walk past him.

Unsurprisingly, that all flew out the goddamn window as soon as you were presented with the snack that was Jeon Jungkook’s abdominal muscles. You swallowed hard as you tried to peel your eyes away from his lean torso and his drool-worthy v line.

You finally managed to bring your gaze up to his face and mentally cursed when you saw him smirking at you.

“Like what you see, sweetheart?”

The nickname made you blood boil and you made your eyes harden while anchoring your arms across your chest.

“For Exia’s sake, are you mad at me or something?” He rolled his green eyes and went to tug his shirt n over his head but paused and suddenly looked at you seriously. “Did hyung do something to you at training?”

“Mr. Sparkle Hands?” You scoffed and began marching forward. “No. He didn’t do anything.”

He pulled his shirt on all the way. “Okay, well why are you so grouchy?”

Now just a couple of feet away from the male, you raised your hand and poked him forcefully. “I am not grouchy. Or mad. Why would I be mad? There’s nothing to be mad about.”

He frowned at you jabbing your finger into him. “Alright, so you’re definitely mad, and I presume at me, but wha-” He stopped as he realized something, then chuckled and smirked again. “Oh my goddess, don’t tell me you’re jealous.”

I want to punch him so fucking badly in his perfect fucking face.

“Why the hell would I be jealous?” You lifted your chin and did your best to not give away your actual feelings.

Yes. I’m fucking jealous. And hurt. And embarrassed. And a whole lot of other shit.

He stepped closer to you and lowly said, “Because I said I kissed Chungha last night.”

You unwillingly winced slightly, and you moved away from him as your eyes began to sting.

Inhaling, you looked past him at the flowing creek. “So?”

Maybe if you just ignored him, he would leave and let you mask your tears with creek water in peace.

“Sweetheart.”

Just ignore him and he’ll leave.

“Look at me.”

Ignore him and he’ll leave. Ignore him and he’ll leave. Ignore him and he’ll leave.

“Please.”

You still didn’t, so he took matters into his own hands. Literally.

Reaching out, he grabbed your chin and forced you to face him. He no longer had that cocky grin on his face, but was looking at you with soft, worried eyes.

You stared at him, tired and borderline limp. You didn’t have the energy to fight him anymore.

Gently, he tucked some of your hair behind your ear with his free hand before holding the side of your face. His thumb caressed your cheek and you let him. You shouldn’t have, but you did.

“I didn’t kiss her.” He gazed at you with sincerity.

Huh?

Seeing your confusion, he continued. “I only said I did. I didn’t want hyungs thinking I bitched out again, so I took off my sock, put my shoe back on, and walked back. That’s it.”

I’m sorry, WHAT!?

You shoved him away, yelling and cursing his ridiculous, unbelievable ego. He looked at you in shock as you put your palms against his firm chest and pushed him again. And again. And again.

This motherfucker hurts me and now tells me that pain was because his fucking ego was too sensitive to not do a dare!?

“You’re the biggest, most annoying, frustrating, immature… jackass I’ve ever met in my life! AND I’VE MET A LOT OF JACKASSES!”

As you barely controlled yourself not to wring the living daylights out of him, you noticed his head jerk to the side suddenly. His silver earrings flashed in the morning light. Then, he had the nerve to shush you.

Maybe, a nice, early morning strangulation won’t be a bad way to start the day.

Fuming, you clenched your hands and was about to start going off again, but he whipped his head back to you in alarm and quickly smacked a hand over your mouth while gripping your upper arm in his other. You struggled against him and proceeded to scream vulgarities at him through his palm.

“Y/N. Shut. Up,” he whispered in a dark, serious tone.

And shut up you did. You glared at him with mad, yet perplexed eyes as you breathed heavily into his hand.

He held your gaze as his head tilted to the side once more. As if he was listening for something.

Out of the corner of your eyes, you saw something shine brightly and briefly and you yelped as Jungkook forcefully yanked you down to the ground. You hit the rocky beach with a harsh grunt and above your heads, you glimpsed a decently sized dagger fly though the air where your bodies had just been. You strained your neck to follow its path and watched as it clattered against a lone rock and ricocheted out of sight.

What the fuck!?

Next, came a small party of three unknown Saeni charging through the trees at you from the opposite side of the creek. Cursing, Jungkook rolled into a crouch while throwing a rock at one of them. The projectile hit the male dead in the face, causing him to fall to the side. Instinctively, you also rose to a crouch and reached over your shoulder for an arrow but froze when you remembered you left your bow and quiver at camp.

Shit.

You picked up a rock too, and readied to throw it, but realized it was completely unnecessary. Jungkook had already snapped the neck of the first Saeni who reached him, his teeth gritted in anger as he did so. As the now dead female collapsed, he snatched up the knife at her waist and spun once before throwing it at the final opponent. The blade rotated once in the air and embedded itself into the skull of its target.

Whistling at his display of abilities, you tossed the rock aside and fully stood. “Are they-”

He nodded. “Draikensu.”

Double shit.

He leaned down to wrench out the blade from the Saeni’s face, blood erupting out and drenching the draikensu’s head once it was removed. With a clenched jaw, he made his way over to the male he had hit with a rock, but before Jungkook was able to reach him, more draikensu began pouring out from the tree line across from you.

“Oh, fuck. Run!” He swiveled and began coming back to you as he yelled. “Go! Go! Go!”

With a curse, you turned and began sprinting.

The two of you crashed through the forest. Branches whipping against your face, thorns scratching against your skin and clothes, and frenzied energy thrumming through your veins. Jungkook was behind you, urging you to move faster as arrows began thumping into trees and whistling past your heads. Sucking in air, you did just that. You ran and ran and ran. Away from the draikensu. Toward camp and your weapons. Into the rising sun and what you were sure would be a bloody, death-bringing day.

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[elleonmybeloved]

Sweet Reward

Amnesia | Heroine x Kent Words: 1728 Chapter: 1 Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22463851/chapters/53675266

Summary:  Kent comes up with a fun game for him and Hera. It involves: 1 math workbook, 1 bullet vibrator, and 1 piece of tape. Hera does her best but she hates math. Lucky for her, Kent is a softie and has never been good at denying his cute girlfriend anything she wants.

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

The air conditioning in Kent’s house was working just fine, but Hera was starting to sweat.

A math notebook lay in front of her kneeling form, Kent’s stoic figure across from her, typing away at his laptop. Although she had only been given a few pages to do, the young woman was struggling to complete the task, squirming and bending over the table, hand holding the pencil shaking in a slight tremble that made it hard to write.

It probably had something to do with the remote-controlled bullet vibrator taped over her clit buzzing away quietly, hidden under her skirt.

The game hadn’t even been Ikki’s idea, which was a first, since he was Kent’s go-to source for information regarding relationships, including the more intimate parts. This was all the tall man’s doing, having suggested a more motivating reward to encourage Hera to finish her dreaded math problems.

At the time, she had been so shocked - and frankly, turned on - that despite her usual refusals to do any math (She was a psych major hello! Unnecessary!) she’d given in rather quickly.

And that’s how she got herself into this mess. For every page she completed correctly, Kent would praise her and crank up the vibe by one level. Hera wished it was possible to cum from the feeling of his large hand ruffling her hair and the intense look in his eyes as he turned the dial on the vibrator remote.

But the vibrations just weren’t strong enough to do more than make it nearly impossible to focus on and wet herself so thoroughly it was starting to seep down her thighs, uninhibited by any panties - part of the agreement was leaving them off. After thirty minutes of being edged, her desire to come was making it difficult to stop the fantasies of him relenting, cranking up the power and finishing her off while making out on his lap.

Solve 5x + 7 < 3(x + 1)

Hera couldn’t help letting out a whimper and looking up pleadingly at her tormentor.

“Kent.” She fixed him with her most pitiful look, hoping to move his sympathy.

“Hmm?” He glanced up cooly from his computer.

“Please… I can’t finish this. It’s impossible to focus.”

“I see. I had chosen some particularly easy problems thinking that quickly finishing them wouldn’t be a difficult task.” Yes, he was gonna take pity on her! “I suppose you can try it again a different time. I’ll turn this off.”

“Ah no, wait wait!” She reached out a hand, panicking. He couldn’t really be cruel enough to just edge her for that long and deny her, right?

Kent crossed his legs and leaned back. From the predatory look in his eyes, Hera swore he knew exactly what he was doing. “Why should I keep it on? You’re done working on the problems for now are you not?”

“Becaaause… I tried my best and you love me?” She suggested, batting her eyelashes at him hopefully.

Kent made a choking noise that sounded like he hadn’t expected her to come outright and say that. Pushing his glasses up, he cleared his throat.

“Rudimentary presentation, but logical reasons nonetheless. Alright. Come here.” He set aside his laptop and patted his leg. Hera thought the sight really shouldn’t have been as hot as it was.

She wasted no time clambering to her feet and crossing the short distance, lifting up her skirt as she climbed onto his lap. He was still while she positioned herself, but once she was seated he gripped the hem of her dress and tugged it up.

“I cannot use x-ray vision, so this is necessary. Notify me if you become too cold.”

Hera giggled, raising her arms compliantly to allow him to take the dress all the way off, exposing the buzzing pink bullet. “I prefer being skin to skin with you anyways.”

“Skin to skin? Is that your way of communicating that you wish me to take my shirt off?”

“Maybe.” Hera smirked at his displeased look - he always hated answers like that, protesting that it was an inefficient way to answer questions properly.

But he took his shirt off anyways, and Hera was glad for it. The tall man was built like a brick wall and boy did she ever enjoy it.

He didn’t look like he was going to divest her of her lacy pink bra, so she reached back to unhook it herself, pleased at the way he watched them bounce free. He needed a little encouragement to touch her sometimes, so hopefully he’d be inspired to with the additional visual stimulation.

Now that she was naked on his lap, Kent reached for the vibe remote, and without batting an eye, cranked it up several levels.

“Ah!” A moan escaped her throat at the immediate relief a stronger vibration provided. “You’re such a meanie. That feels too good.” She whined, laying her head against his shoulder and closing her eyes.

She felt him pull her closer against him and hold her there with one hand. The other found the top of her head and softly rubbed. For others it might’ve been a weird sensation - the sweetness of patting her head while controlling a vibrator getting her off - but Hera liked it. It was one of the first ways he’d shown affection to her.

Hera squirmed and grinded her hips forward on his pants, panting as tightness curled and built in her stomach. Her quiet litany of high breathy moans and whines rose in pitch, and she felt Kent stiffen underneath her at a particularly whiny sound.

“Is this adequate? You seem to want something.”

She leaned back and raised her head to look at him.

She wished he’d eat her up and have her way with her.

“C-can we make out? It feels good when you… well- that is-...” Hera averted her eyes, face going red. She was usually pretty bold, but even this was a bit too embarrassing of a request to voice out loud.

He reached for her face and turned her head to face him and after a moment, closed the distance and pressed his lips hard against hers.

“Mmmh... ♡” His kiss made her feel like lightning was shooting through her body, and she enthusiastically parted her lips when he pressed his hand against the back of her neck, getting more aggressive with her.

For someone who claimed to be inexperienced with relationships, he was way too good at this. The confident way his lips parted hers had her vagina squeezing in arousal, and every time he thrust his tongue against hers her pulse thundered in her ears.

Hera’s hands trembled where they clutched at his shoulders.

“Mmh ♡! Mmm~! ♡” Her mind was starting to go blank, the pressure in her stomach building up fast.

Hera broke away to gasp for air, hips moving on their own as she surged towards her climax.

“Oh god, ah! K-Kent! ♡”

A familiar dizzy feeling had her grabbing his hand for comfort and she tensed up as her orgasm hit her.

“Nngh- ♡!” Shit, it felt so good, she couldn’t help rolling her eyes back as she rode out several seconds of extreme pleasure.

When it was over, she relaxed her tense posture, limbs going limp. She felt Kent reach over and switch off the vibrator. After a moment of silence and her catching her breath, she sneaked a look at him.

He had a somewhat strange look on his face, like he was uncomfortable.

“Uh, so-sorry.” She felt her cheeks going hot, not sure why she was apologizing.

“There is no need to apologize, as you’ve done nothing wrong.” Kent’s voice sounded a little more breathless than usual, and he cleared his throat before speaking again. “Was the experience adequate or is there anything else you would like me to do?”

“Oh well… I got what I wanted so I won’t be greedy.” If she was being honest, she wanted more. A flood of images came into her mind - of him pinning her on his bed and teasing her with those long elegant fingers, groping her breasts, pinching her nipples… lifting and parting her legs and taking her until she was crying out.

“-I know you’re busy working on your thesis stuff.”

“I am currently ahead on my work and can spare the time. We can do whatever else it is you’d like, Hera.”

Hera bit her lip and looked up at him.

“Are you sure?”

Kent scowled, not a fan of such unneccessary affirmations as usual.

“Yes. I already explained that I am free. Do you think that I am not telling the truth?”

“No, no, I believe you.” Hera shook her head and waved her hands placatively. “And well, in that case… could we move someplace bigger?”

“Bigger? Will my bed suffice?”

Hera nodded - that was her smart man, always catching on quick.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind me getting in your space.”

“I don’t mind.”

Hera rose shakily off his lap, gently prying off the bullet vibe and setting it down. Kent rose behind her and skirted the table to lead the way to his room.

Hera made it about two steps before getting a case of the wobbles - post-orgasm jelly legs will do that to a girl.

“Uh, mind slowing down a bit please?”

Stopping and turning to face her, Kent made an amused expression as he realized her predicament.

“You ask me that so often. It is usually due to the difference in the length of our stride, but that doesn’t seem to be the case in this instance.”

Before Hera could protest that he was just freakishly tall and that it wasn’t her fault, he had scooped her up in a princess carry and resuming his usual brisk pace down the hallway.

“Oh. That works. Thanks.” This was kind of hot - especially since she was completely naked and the way he was carrying her had his hands resting on her thighs just below her butt.

“You’re welcome.”

She could get used to being carried like this. Although for public situations she’d prefer to be clothed. Well… at least peripherally.

That provoked a series of inappropriate thoughts involving his jacket and some additional vibrators. Hera filed the yummy idea away as a possible way to spice up their staple “walk” dates.

Kent set her down on the bed.

[boy-banders-writings]

To Protect You - Hui

Group: Pentagon Member: Hwitaek aka Leader Hui aka cute little shit Genre: Bodyguard!AU; Idol!Reader, Bodyguard!Hwitaek; think of Hui as Ji Changwook in the K2; female!reader (I try to keep these gender neutral but for the purpose of this it’ll be female pronouns used) #slowburn #tension #Igotfrustratedwritingthis Request: Hell yea it was! Is it only me or this world needs a Hui - Bodyguard scenario? 😅❤ Length: short|medium|long|idk man (8966 words, wow) A/N: Listen this came to me just after posting Shameless and let me tell you, it got me feeling some type of way. My mind was going crazy with ideas but I hadn’t slept yet so here we are now. The magazine name is made up as well as any agency name or proper name to places aside from actual locations.

A/N part 2: If there is enough requests for a part 2 ( like more than 1) I may turn this into a mini series.

-----------

As a rookie soloist idol, life for you was hectic. You had started out posting covers, both singing and dancing, on youtube and instagram garnering quite a following before a small company found you and offered to sign and debut you. After talking it over with your parents, and reading the contract forwards and backwards you signed and got to work. Eight months later you debuted as a soloist and you were so well accepted your fame skyrocketed.

It didn’t take long before sponsorship deals were tripping over the other to get you to sign them. Your company got calls about appearing on various popular variety shows and guest staring on radio programs and everything you ever dreamed of was happening before you. You hadn’t expected any of this to happen, yet the public welcomed your warm and down-to-earth personality with open arms.

By the end of your debut promotion your company went about hiring a personal body guard for you, someone that would escort you nearly everywhere because with your surge of fame came netizens, came the “fans” that took things way too far.

Your manager met your chosen body guard before you as you were busy working on the next few songs for your EP that was the current goal for you. An EP with your debut song and others you will write yourself. You were sitting in the small studio with the company producer chatting about the sound for the EP when your manager waltzed in.

“(Y/N), I have someone for you to meet if you have a moment.”

“Sure, thanks Mr. Jo.” You nodded towards the producer, “Let’s go with what we’ve got and I’d love to hear what you’ve come up with by the end of the week!”

“Of course, you’ve given me a lot of ideas, I’ll see you Friday for our next studio day.”

“Thank you.” You bow, gather your things, and follow your manager out of the studio to leave the producer to do his thing.

“You know the company has decided to hire someone to help protect you, they’ve picked someone.” Your manager explains as he’s gesturing around him. “Not that I can’t do that myself, but everyone would feel better if you had a trained bodyguard to escort you to and from your schedules with me.” 

You nod along secretly thankful the company has made this move because you had been thinking about it recently. As you were about to ask a question your manager stopped outside of your designated, small practice room. 

Your immediately met with a young man, at least your age maybe a bit older. He was smaller in build but still looked rather menacing. He was in a tailored black suit with a white button up under it and a skinny black tie that disappears beneath the buttoned blazer. His hair was fading from a dark blue to a medium-light grey and from the distance you could see a single piercing in each ear.

Your manager briskly walked over to the stranger and greeted him excitedly. You waited for the introduction, not knowing how to really act towards this person yet.

“(Y/N), this is Lee Hwitaek he has been hired to be your personal body guard. He will go to all your schedules with you, whether I’m there or not, and will take care of you.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss (Y/N).” He bowed deeply which threw you into a bit of a panic at the sudden formal treatment. Your entire team had gotten comfortable with you over your time with the company so formalities weren’t really an everyday thing.

“Uh, yes hello. It’s a pleasure to meet you as well.” You return the bow and stick your hand out to shake his.

He returns the gesture and then your manager launches into the schedule you have for the next few days. He hands you a copy of your schedule and then another copy to Hwitaek. There was a fansign first thing tomorrow in Incheon, Hwitaek’s first exposure to your fanbase. Which in reality was 90 percent good, with that small 10 percent of sketchy “fans” who can be a bit extreme. From the fansign, you were to get a quick bite to eat, then straight back to the studio to work on a possible new track’s choreography. Then there was a shooting for an advertisement for a new ice cream brand you really enjoyed, which was super exciting.

Thursday’s schedule was a photo shoot with an up and coming young model named Ko Shinwon in Mokpo for PrettyPretty Magazine, a popular magazine that does stories on rising young stars. You had a few hours scheduled for more practice and the last schedule for Thursday was meeting your partner for a special stage you had been contacted about with a young and famous choreographer named Kang Hyunggu who has gotten his start much like you.

After covering all this in great detail with a timeline and everything, your manager excused himself to go to a meeting leaving you and your new bodyguard alone.

“I want to thank you in advance for tomorrow.” You broke the silence first. “My fans are wonderful, they spoil me with all their love and gifts but some can be a little intrusive. After the last scare I’m thankful the company has found someone to be watchful.”

“What kinds of things have happened before?” His tone was professional but curious.

“A few male fans have sometimes acted kind of aggressively when I sign albums and talk to them, like saying rather inappropriate things.” You shifted a bit uncomfortable in your chair. “The main reason you were hired is because a week ago just before my promotions were done two people snuck back stage and broke into the dressing room I had been assigned to. They tried to steal things from myself and the staff with me. They were caught when my stylist came to get me and found them just standing over me.” You shivered, the fear of what they could have done making your stomach churn.

“I see, I hope to stop that from happening Miss (Y/N).” Hwitaek was very professional as he spoke.

“Uh, please just call me (Y/N).” Everyone on your team referred to you as such, you didn’t want Hwitaek to feel pressured to address you so formally.

“Yes ma’am.” He nodded.

“Do you prefer Hwitaek? You’re apart of the team now and I prefer everyone to be comfortable since we’ll all be working together.”

“I go by Hui as well, that’s how most people refer to me.”

“Okay, I look forward to working with you Hui.” You smiled, moving to answer your ringing phone you missed the slightest quirk of his lips. “Hello? Yes we are. Ah okay, I’ll ask him. Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Your managed hung up the call and you turned to Hui. “Manager Kim wanted to know if you could get me home tonight because the meeting is going to run rather late.”

“Of course, c’mon.”

After packing up your things you followed Hui out to a familiar company van you often travelled in and Hui drove you to your apartment. The conversation in between giving directions was sparse and very general. After thanking him you walked towards your apartment and waved to him after getting to your building. He waited until you were inside your building and you had sent a text saying you were in your apartment before leaving. You sluggishly got ready for bed and fell asleep almost as soon as your head hit your pillow.

---

You had no idea how alert Hui could be at five in the morning but you were thankful he had picked you up with a coffee for you, your favorite drink. You tossed your backpack into the single seat just beside yours as you slid the side door shut.

“Good morning, Manager Kim sent me as he is already on his way to the salon to meet us there.”

You hummed to response, the cup warming your hands as you muttered a quick thank you.

“Go ahead and rest more if you need to.” You opened an eye to see Hui glancing at you before he put the van in gear and started towards the salon.

An hour and a half later you were all made up and in your chosen outfit for the fansign. Manager Kim was in the driver’s seat and Hui was in the pasenger’s seat. Things were relatively comfortable as conversation between the three of you flowed easily. Manager Kim was a talker and Hui seemed to pick up on it and he easily fell into a good give and take. You mainly listened, thankful Manager Kim had someone else to keep him company on the drive. You learned that Hui was only a few years older than you and he had gone into an academy where he trained to become a body guard right out of high school. It wasn’t his first choice of a career but he enjoyed it. He told Manager Kim that his favorite part of the job was that he might not be that intimidating being on the smaller side, but people who pressed an issue learned quickly he was not to be messed with.

That amused you to think that people could see Hui in his fitted suit and intimidating presence and think he means anything but business. Yes he was shorter and smaller in build than probably half your male fanbase, Manager Kim too, but even so, he seemed like he knew what he was doing. You felt safe in his presence even if nothing has happened yet.

As Manager Kim parked outside of the venue for the fansign Hui jumped out and opened your door for you. He took up a protective lead as you jumped out with your bag at hand. There wasn’t a lot of people outside yet seeing as the fansign was a few hours away but there was enough for a crowd to gather. As people started to take notice of you when your manager drove off Hui turned towards you.

“Would you like to go straight inside or take a few minutes out here?”

“There aren’t too many waiting, a few minutes with them. Just until Manager Kim gets here.” Hui nodded and lead you towards the gathering crowd.

“If you would like to see (Y/N) before we go inside the venue, you need to be calm and orderly.” His voice was strong and commanding.

You watched as the twenty or so waiting fans quickly did as Hui said, they lined up and waited rather quietly as you greeted each other of them. Thanking them, taking a photo if their phones were ready, and telling them you looked forward to seeing them inside. Reminding them to make sure they had something to eat, and that they stay warm as it was chilly that morning. There was only four people left as Manager Kim started making his way towards you, Hui was a step to the side every moment you were meeting fans. You quickly thanked the last four, snapping super quick selfies before Manager Kim motioned to follow him inside. The male fan at the end of the line went to grab your wrist to stop you mumbling about a blurry picture, but you never felt the contact because Hui stopped his mid-reach and told the fan he should be thankful he has a picture at all. Hui guided you by a hand on your lower back towards the venue behind Manager Kim, keeping an eye of those around you and making sure no other fans made a grab for you.

---

Before the fansign began, Hui took up his place behind you. He was more of a watchful eye, whereas Manager Kim was there to keep your table free of clutter. As it began, you talked into the microphone given to you. Thanking everyone for spending their Wednesday here with you and saying how you were looking forward to getting to meet everyone. After you finished speaking, your debut song started playing over the speakers and you got situated behind the small table. 

Then your fans started to line up and greet you. You answered all kinds of questions ranging from how you were feeling to what artist you would want to collaborate with to what your favorite snack was. You were gifted with a few flower crowns all of which you wore until the next one, you had stickers places on your hands and shirt and a few on your cheeks. You had little wrapped gifts given to you by bashful fans. You made it a point to fawn over your fans as much as they did to you because they were why you where were you are. You made sure to hold their hands as your signed their albums if they wanted you to and answered any post-it note questions. You giggled with them and did your best aegyo when they asked. 

It was fun for you, a little exhausting but fun. There was a pause as a fan was lugging something onto the stage and Hui handed you a chilled bottle of water with a smile.

“I can see why your fans love you so much, you’re very good with them.”

“Thanks.” You stuttered, “I wouldn’t be here without them.” He nodded, seemingly happy with the answer and nodded towards the fan who had made it to the table.

“(Y/N)-noona! I got this for you!” The younger fan thrust a rather large teddy bear towards you. “I saw your comment about always wanting one in a radio interview recently. So a handful of fans and I chipped in to get you one.” Then he handed you an envelop. “This is a list of all the people who contributed and their twitter handles.”

“Oh, thank you so much!” You pulled the bear towards you and admired the large bear. “I’ll be sure to tweet a big thank you after the fansign, thank you so much.” Hui stepped forward and set the bear behind you as you continued talking to the fan as the young man told you his name.

The fansign continued without any trouble till the fan who tried to grab you before got to the stage. He seemed calm as he approached you and he placed his album on the table. You got his name and signed it. As you handed it back to him he place his hands over yours on the album and leant towards you.

“You’re so pretty up close. If I had a girlfriend as pretty as you I’d never let you leave the house.”

The comment made your skin crawl. Hui noticed you start leaning away from the fan and immediately recognized the guy. Hui stepped forward and removed the album from both you before handing it to the fan.

“Please keep the line moving.” Hui glared back at the fan who stared him down but listened nonetheless. “Are you alright?” You nodded and after a moment he stepped back to his place.

The fansign ended without any other minor problem. You thanked everyone again, preformed your debut song and did a cover of your favorite Hyuna song, who all your fans new was your girl crush, and wished everyone safe travels home. Before you could catch your breath you were ushered towards the company van and the drive back to the company began. 

---

Hui sat in the back corner of the dance room going over security plans for the shoot later that day. He was on and off the phone with various people making sure things were secure. In between the choreographer teaching you new moves and going over them you frequently caught Hui’s eyes in the mirror. You’d had plenty of people sitting in the room as you practice but catching him watching you made your face flush as your entire body grew warm. You became keenly aware of just how sensual some of the choreo could be and felt out of place dancing like that in front of Hui. Once your choreographer picked up on your hesitation she thumped you in the forehead to get you to focus again. After a few more go overs of moves you were messing up on she made you do the choreography once more to the song from beginning to end to finish practice. As the song ended and you struck the ending pose, chest heaving from the exertion, your choreographer was clapping and cheering.

“You’ve done well today (Y/N)! Don’t forget to keep practicing so you don’t forget the choreo okay? What do you think bodyguard? She’s pretty great right?” Your choreographer turned toward Hui, who you notice had been watching.

“With all the hard work she puts in,” Hui started to answer your choreographer directly, “it’s no wonder she’s a rising idol.” Then he turned towards you, a small smile present. “You did good today.”

You nodded in quiet thanks trying to keep your face as indifferent as possible. Your choreographer thanked you for your time, which you copied, and then she packed her things and with a ‘see you tomorrow’ she left. You were alone with Hui again. 

“You’ve got about half an hour before we’ve got to head towards the CF shooting.” He pulled a water from out of nowhere and tossed it to you. “If there is anything you’d like between now and then let me know I’ll get it.”

“Thank you but I’ve got snacks in my bag.” You walked over to your backpack and pulled out a smaller bag to show him. “Would you like something?”

His facade gave way to a smirk as he nodded.

“I’d like that, thank you.”

“Corn chips or spicy chicken chips?” You help the two mini bags of chips up.

“Which do you want?” You held up the spicy chicken chips. “Then I’ll take the corn chips.” You toss the corn chips that he catches with ease.

You sit on the floor with your legs crossed and rip open the bag to start eating. Hui watches you a moment and notes how you smile about the food for a moment, before he follows suit and eats his corn chips.

Your manager joined the two of you about twenty minutes later walking in on a conversation about the latest comeback by one of your personal favorite groups.

“C’mon A.C.E’s comeback was amazing! They’re dancing is incredible.” You gushed, having sluggishly moved to gather your things.

“They’ve always been really talented, nice guys too.” Hui commented nonchalantly, laughing when you froze in place.

“You’ve met them!?” He nodded, “Okay, I want to hear everything! I’ve been following before they debuted! I even saw them busking once!” 

“You’re fangirling is cute.” He pulled you to your feet, the comment came from under his breath. 

“C’mon kids, off to the CF shoot!” Manager Kim called at the doorway, eyes on his phone and van keys in his hands.

Hui walks after you as you follow your manager. The drive to your CF is a little more friendly and warm as you invited Hui to sit beside you in the middle. Manager Kim encouraged it after you asked because he needed to make some calls and put in his bluetooth ear piece and went into a conversation the whole drive.

You and Hui fell into a conversation just about yourselves, trading facts and little stories that some to mind. As you arrive at the shoot, you’re quickly whisked away to get made up, hair, makeup, and outfit change, before being brought onto a bright and cheery set. There was a summer scene set up at an old school ice cream parlor and a slightly older male positioned behind the counter playing the worker. You were put into a cutesy summer outfit with dewy make up and little buns on your head. The CF shoot went by without much trouble, the script was short and sweet and you got to eat your favorite ice cream repeatedly. Within about 4 hours the main CF has been shot, with a few extras for various other CFs to be pieced together. It’s roughly 10 pm when you practically crawled back into the van exhausted from the day’s schedule.

“Sleep, I’ll wake you up when we get to your building.” Hui’s voice is soft as he buckles in your already dozing form.

---

“Alright, careful now.” You heard a quiet voice muttering as you slowly came to consciousness. “I’ll take her up and be back down shortly.”

You were pressed against something warm, your head cradled, and the movement slow and precise. There’s a soft humming near your ear and a strong hold under your legs and around your lower back.

A familiar voice is mumbling the code to your apartment building as your body is shifted to type it in. Then the quiet of the entrance way engulfs you as Hui is ascending up the stairs towards your apartment.

“What are you doing?” Your voice is rough.

“Taking you to your apartment.” He answered coolly, focusing on the numbers.

“You could have woken me up.” You rubbed your eyes.

“You don’t get much sleep, it’s fine.”

“I’d have woken up when you dropped me off anyway.” 

“Probably.” You noticed a smirk curve at his lips. “You’ve got to get up early tomorrow too, I’ll be here around the same time again.”

Hui twisted his body to slip the key your manager had for emergencies into the lock and open your door. After a few moments of looking around your small apartment he sat you down just beside your couch, your feet hitting the ground first. He made sure you were steady before his hands left you and he moved to his standard hands behind his back stance.

Your face and body flushed, the realization of just how close the two of you just were. You also moved into a more professional stance with your hands clasped infront of you as you looked up to Hui’s face.

“Thank you, I appreciate it. I’ll uhm, see you tomorrow.” Your cheeks flushed more from just how he was looking at you.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, sleep well (Y/N) and make sure you eat something too.”

Before Hui could second guess himself, he reached out and patted your head. Then he muttered a quiet good night and saw himself out of your apartment.

Thinking about what just transpired you took a quick shower and found yourself lying in bed thinking about the softness in Hui’s eyes when he was looking at you.

---

Your alarm was a harsh reminder that you had a day full of different schedules and you forced yourself of out bed and into passable clothes for the day. You were ready in twenty minutes and opted to eat when you remembered Hui’s words last night. A faint heat rose to your cheeks as you nibbled on a toasted bagel lathered in peanut butter. After a quick snack you finished packing anything you’d think you’d need throughout the day and were slipping on your shoes when there was a knock on the door.

“Good morning!” You beamed, the rush of energy from the food hitting you.

“You’re in a good mood this morning.” Hui mused, trying to keep his smile at bay, “I’m guessing you slept well?”

“That’s part of it, I was out not long after you had brought me up.” You paused, your cheeks flaring at the memory. “I just finished a small breakfast so this feeling is new.”

“You don’t eat breakfast everyday?” You shook your head. “When do you eat then?”

“Manager Kim usually stops at a convenience store on the way to my first schedule. Today’s schedule starts later than normal so I had some extra time to sleep and eat. I’d usually be at the salon by now getting prepped for the day.” You shrugged, “Because there will be a team provided at the shoot I get to take it easier today.” This was the life you had signed up for, the tough times would soon be outweighed by the good times.

“I see.” He opened the door and motioned for you to exit. “We best get on our way then.” You noticed how he looked distracted now, but you tried to push it to the back of your mind.

“Did you sleep well Hui?”

“I did. I even got up early to run a few miles and have a hearty breakfast.” He smiled down at you, you notice it didn’t reach his eyes like it usually did.

“You ran a few miles?” You gawked at Hui as the two of you made your way down to your building’s lobby.

“Yes, I run a few morning a week. It keeps me healthy. Why are you looking at me like that?” He laughed, the light had returned to his eyes.

“You get up, by choice, earlier than you have to to run a few times a week?”

“Is that hard to believe?”

“I guess it’s not, just the thought of waking up to run though. Never.” You scrunched your nose at him.

Hui watched the action, the way your cheeks pulled up causing your eyes to squint a bit. He had no idea why his heart rate picked up at the movement. He stared for a moment longer before moving his gaze to in front of him. Out of habit he moved to grab the handle of the door to open it for you when you went to do the same. You beat him and Hui hadn’t realized he was clasping your hand until both of you froze and stared at the other.

A few heartbeats passed and neither of you moved. Your hand was still holding the door handle and Hui’s larger hand was on top of yours, warm and tough. The sudden physical contact sent your heart into override and turned your tongue and throat into a desert. You swallowed trying to wet your throat, only to subtly wet your lips. You watched Hui watch you and the chill that traveled your body was indescribable. Without realizing it Hui mimicked your actions and you watched Hui’s tongue peek out to wet his lips. You were so focused on Hui’s warm hand and watching his face that you hadn’t realized what exactly was happening. Hui took a step closer to you and his free hand tentatively held your jaw. You started to lean up first and Hui, again, mimicked your actions. He moved just a bit and waited to see if you were going to close the space. You were going to, all rational thought about dating a coworker flying out the window, you were going to kiss Hui and you were going to relish in the feeling of his soft lips on yours and his hand holding your face. You moved forward more, his breathe from his slightly opened mouth hit your face. Your heart was beating even hard and you felt lightheaded from the sudden rush of adrenaline that your body produced in response to your nerves. You bumped his nose, yours lips had to be less than a centimeter away. The two of you were so close to crossing an invisible line.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

Both of you froze. Hui’s phone in his blazer pocket was going off. You immediately took a step back, much larger than a normal step, and looked away from Hui. He was just as winded as your were. His heart was beating so hard he was sure you could see the outline in his chest.

“Hello?” He answered his phone, sparing a glance your way and noticing how flushed your face was and the nervous glances you sent in his direction without looking at him directly. “Yes Manager Kim, we’re on our way out now. Uh, (Y/N) left something up in her apartment so we walked back up to get it. Yes sir, we’ll be out shortly.”

Hui cleared his throat as his put his phone away. He looked back at you just in time to see you quickly advert your attention to your phone.

“Manager Kim is waiting, but let’s give it a moment.”

You nodded without a word. Your body felt like it had an electric pulse going through it, you were hyper aware of everything at the moment. You heard Hui sigh before you saw him rub the back of his neck and he took a tiny step towards you.

“I’m sorry, I crossed a line just a moment ago.” Hui bowed with his hands behind his back, much more formal like he was the day you met.

While a lot of time hadn’t really passed since the two of you had met, he was with you almost every waking minute. Formalities were gone before lunch the first day. To see him revert back to it sent you into a strange panic.

“Hui, really, both of us crossed a line. Let’s just go about our days like normal.” You paused, “Nothing happened away, we didn’t do anything.” You couldn’t force yourself to say much more.

“If you say so, but still, I apologize.”

“I apologize as well.” You shot forward to bow as well. “Doesn’t feel right, huh?” You joked when Hui’s face scrunched up.

“You’re right. Back to normal?” You nodded. “Let’s go then, you have a photo shoot to get to.”

Hui opened the door for you, this time you waited, and the two of you walked out to the familiar company van you always rode in. You both greeted Manager Kim once you were seated and the drive began. You stayed quiet mostly because your mind was in a frenzy. What happened in the lobby replayed in your head the whole drive. Thankfully, the two men in the front kept up a pretty serious conversation about the latest soccer game seeing as they were for opposing teams. They were talking stats for players and plays made throughout the game, you were not one to watch soccer so it was easy to focus on the movie reel in your head. Even after Hui had turned around in his seat to tell you you’d arrived the movie was stuck on repeat.

---

The first half of the photoshoot was going extremely well. Ko Shinwon was nothing but a gentleman, who checked with you before doing anything the photographer told him. Every pose, every light touch, every moment spent staring into each other’s eyes or flirting for the camera, he made sure you were comfortable. In between changing the sets and outfits, you found yourself drawn to Shinwon. He reeked of such a confidence and brightness it was difficult to not gravitate towards him like you were a moth and him a bright light.

Of course, part of the schedule was set aside for an interview of you and Shinwon. So with the two of you dressed in the last outfit for the shoot, an writer for PrettyPretty Magazine sat down with you on set and filmed a short interview. Most of the questions were pretty standard, the interviewer asked about the plans both of you had with upcoming projects. Shinwon said he would be walking at a very high profile runway but he wasn’t allowed to reveal it himself. You teased about a mini album in the works and how you were working on your next single for sure. To which Shinwon showed a reaction you weren’t anticipating and that caused him to confess that he had been following you since your youtube cover days. That topic hadn’t come up when the two of you were casually chatting, so you were shocked to say the least. You were more embarrassed because that made you confess that you’d followed Shinwon for a while as well, back when he had started as an instagram model. The interview ate it up asking if the two of you had met before and proceeded to freak out even more when you revealed this was your first time.

She asked next about a friendship blooming.

“If Shinwon would like to be friends, I’m up for it. I haven’t had the chance to meet a lot of people since I debuted. I really only hangout with those around my company, my manager, and my bodyguard.” You explained, a smile naturally shining through.

“I would love to. I’m still pretty new to all of this and most of the other models I’ve worked with are really intimidating so I keep to myself.”

“Looks like I have a new friend!” You giggled, giving the camera a thumbs up.

“PrettyPretty Magazine facilitating friendship one pair of rising stars at a time.” The interviewer joked.

It continued on smoothly for the next half hour or so, you two played a few games and answered some questions fans had sent it. As it came to an end the interview suggested that for the ending you could talk about Shinwon’s upcoming projects and he could talk about yours. You took a minute or two to figure out what to say and did a cute ending with Shinwon fanboying and telling everyone to pay attention to you and your new music in the works while you struck a few poses and encouraged everyone to support Shinwon as he modeling career continued to grow. In the spur of the moment Shinwon threw his arm to make half a heart and without missing a beat you completed it and did your sign off after Shinwon did his.

The interviewer gushed about how professional you two are and how cute both of you were throughout the whole interview. After they had put away their equipment, they asked you and Shinwon for a picture for the magazine’s social media. You both posed with a pair of peace signs and thanked the interviewer and camera lady for being so kind as they left.

“Well that was fun.” Shinwon breathed as he sat back on the chair he’d just been sitting on.

“That was my first interview with someone else.” You smiled at him, “It’s more fun than doing one alone.”

“I’m so glad you got all my jokes.” Shinwon faked a pout. “The few models I’d done one with have never laughed! It’s such a mood killer.”

“Do they really scare you?” An eyebrow quirked at him.

Hui came around the corner to let you know it was almost time to leave but hearing you talking to Shinwon he froze. He pressed his back against the wall and listened in even though he knew he shouldn’t eavesdrop but it was too easy and he was too curious.

“Most of them don’t smile much on set, they speak with their eyes.” Shinwon rolled his. “It’s really unsettling when you’re with someone all day and they don’t crack a single smile, so yes. They’re terrifying.”

“I see, am I scary?” Hui perked up at your question, his chest tightened.

“Not in the slightest.” Shinwon chuckled. “The only thing scary about you is your talent, you’re practically a triple threat. That is terrifying.” He winked.

“Nice joke.” You rolled your eyes. “I’ve been out in the entertainment world for a few months, I’ve got much too learn before I’d consider myself even a double threat.”

“You’re working directly with a producer on your new music and writing your own stuff, right?” You nodded. “You’ve got a voice unlike any I’ve heard in a long time, I mean you debuted and everyone knew who you were less than a week later, right?” Again you nodded. “And now you can add part-time model to your list of jobs.” Shinwon motioned to the set and your coordinated outfits. “That sounds like a triple threat to me.”

“Man, I need you to give me pep talks all the time.”

“Let’s make it happen then.” Shinwon held his phone out to you. “Let’s keep in contact and I’ll be sure to make the pep talks really good.”

You couldn’t hold in your laughter, but you took his phone and put your contact info in. You sent a message to your phone, the ding letting you know it went through, before you handed it back to the guy before you.

“I’ll make sure I return the favor somehow. I look forward to this budding friendship.”

“I do too.” Shinwon’s smile lit up the room and he paused, before clearing his throat. “I’m a hugger so I was wondering if I could give you a hug… And maybe we could take a picture so I have proof this happened.”

“Yes you can,” You giggled as Shinwon pulled you into a friendly hug, “you do know that once those pictures get printed in the magazine everyone who reads PrettyPretty will know we were together.”

“I know, but it’s different than having one on my phone.”

“Let’s do it then.”

Hui chose now to pop around the corner because if he didn’t his heart was going to explode and he might knock Shinwon unconscious.

“Ah! Hui can you take a pictures of us on each of our phones!”

“I can just send you the ones we take.”

“I know, but it’s different than having one on my phone.” You teased, Shinwon’s face screwing up in mock anguish at your teasing.

“Sure, hand them over.” Hui tried to remain professional because he didn’t know how to describe what he was feeling but it made his nauseous.

Hui took a few photos on each phone before relaying his original message to you. Shinwon bid you farewell because his manager had sent him a message. The two of you promised to keep in contact before Hui whisked you towards the dressing room for you to change back into your own clothes. Soon you were packing your things back up, thanking the crew for taking such good care of you, and Hui was escorting you to the van to go back to the studio.

The drive back was quieter than before, Hui was on the phone discussing security and the schedule for when you were meeting Kang Hyunggu later to start learning choreography for a special stage next month. Manager Kim stopped on the way back to get a late lunch. You noticed that Hui had grabbed a few extra snacks, all your favorite, and made sure they were in your bag before digging into his food. Every time you tried to catch his eyes, he looked away instantly.

---

You were halfway through your dance practice for your new song when you locked eyes with Hui in the mirror. You had just sat down to take a break after running through the routine for the fifth time, you looked up and your eyes were just drawn to him. He was sitting in the back corner where his blazer was thrown over a nearby chair, the sleeves of his button up were rolled to his elbows, and the skinny black tie he always wore was slack around his neck. The moment was so intense for you, you glanced at the water bottle in your hand before looking back up at his reflection. Hui was still watching you.

He had yet to tell you that he had been a fan for about a year now, a friend had sent one of your covers for him to watch just months before you were signed. It’s how he knew your favorite snacks, what your preferred caffeinated drink was, it’s why he started this job with so much respect for you. It’s because he saw you when you were just some girl on youtube and now you were an idol. He wrote off his overprotective feelings towards you as a mix of just what your character brought out of him and the fact that it was his job to protect you. Even so, he wasn’t able to decipher while his body and mind reacted the way they did when you were talking to Shinwon. He had done a background check on Shinwon last night, Hui had felt completely comfortable with trusting Shinwon to not hurt you. Yet when Hui watched the two of you during the photo shoot with how close you were to Shinwon and how you were always touching him in some way, it made Hui seethe. With his training he could have easily walked over to Shinwon, thrown him over his shoulder knocking the breath out of him, and rendering him immobilized in seconds without hurting him. In Hui’s mind he did that, he also tugged you away and kept Shinwon from getting your number.

He was pulled out of his thoughts and his mostly mindless watching you when Manager Kim came to tell you it was almost time to meet Hyunggu. Hui watched silently as you thanked your choreographer again, she reminded you to practice and joked about keeping the choreos separate after starting the new one today. You said your goodbyes as you gathered your things again, not changing from your dance clothes and waiting for Hui to gather his things.

“Do you need anything?” He voiced handing you a cold bottle of water Manager Kim had dropped off moments before.

“No, I don’t think so. This schedule shouldn’t last too long, we’ll be done earlier than yesterday I can eat back at my apartment.” You waved him off as you chugged half the bottle of water.

“You should eat something, especially if you’ll be dancing again.” Hui pulled a cold cut sandwich from his bag and an apple. “It’s not much, but I stopped by the convenience store after running an errand because I figured you’d be hungry.”

“Thanks.” You reached out to take the food and once again one of Hui’s hands covered yours.

Time stopped for a moment, what had happened this morning replaying in both of your minds as the two of you just stared at the other. A warmth spread from his hands over yours to your chest than to the rest of your body. Hui felt a surge of electricity start from your hand and travel through his body. Neither of you moved, neither of you breathed. You thought you two were going to be stuck like that for eternity before the door opened and your choreographer walked in. You two bolted back you with the food in your hands. She mumbled something about her jacket as she eyed the two of you, a smirk adorning her lips. She bid her farewells again after getting her jacket and and left, the look she gave you before the door shut just told you she was going to give you hell the next time she saw you without Hui.

Time moved in double speed after the moment was ruined. You followed Hui out to the van and the drive to the studio to meet and practice with Kang Hyunggu began and ended. You hadn’t even noticed you’d dozed off in the backseat when a scream jerked you awake.

“You’re okay, don’t worry.” Hui’s soothing words and hand on your knee melted the momentary fear. “It seems that the location was leaked, there shouldn’t be anyone here.”

You looked out the window and saw at least fifty people crowding the van and screaming, calling your name. You had never been more thankful for the blackout windows than now, no one could see in but you could see all of them.

“I’m going to try and do another loop, Hui call the head of security and see what they can do it help.”

“Yes sir.” Hui pulled his phone from his pocket and was deep in a conversation in moments.

You sat up in your seat and learned over by Manager Kim.

“Can we get out of here without hurting anyone?”

“That’s my goal.” Both of you seemed skeptical, but Manager Kim managed to get around the zealous crowd and went back around the block in a wide loop.

“Good driving Mr. K.” You praised, incredibly thankful this was over for the time being.

“Thanks kid.” He chuckled, sparing you a glance in the rearview mirror as you sat back in your seat.

“Okay.” Hui stole all the attention, “The security manager at the studio said they’d get the crowd apart to create a walkway in a few minutes. He suggested we just hang out for a few until he calls me back letting me know it’s all clear. He said he doesn’t know how the information about Hyunggu and (Y/N) both being there but he’s sure it was leaked and that caused the crowd. Thankfully, Hyunggu arrived before the crowd appeared so he’s safe inside.”

You pulled out your phone and checked Hyunggu’s social media pages, twitter first. You wanted to laugh no matter how stressed this made you when you saw the video and caption he had posted less than a minute ago.

“Yea, he posted a short video clip of our van getting mobbed before getting away.” You held it out for the two men up front to see as Manager Kim put the van in park three blocks away. “He captioned it ‘I love u guys but now my dance partner ran away. Come back (Y/N)!’ Is he even allowed to use dance partner and my name in the same sentence. I thought they hadn’t announced our collab yet.”

“I haven’t gotten a call that they did, they had teasers they wanted to film next week. Maybe someone slipped up? Who knows, let’s focus on you getting into the venue safely.”

“I’ll take care of that.” Hui’s tone was deeper, more serious. “Promise me something thought.” Hui turned in his seat to look you dead in the eyes.

That familiar chill ran through your body as you nodded, then mumbled a quiet okay.

“If something happens, don’t look at me any differently okay?”“Sure, of course.” You nodded, unsure of what that meant or foreshadowed.

Manager Kim decided to run in for some snack to the little corner store with a list you put together of stuff for the security team and Hyunggu as a thanks for waiting and helping. Just as Manager Kim got seated and handed the bags back to you Hui’s phone rang. A few moments later you guys were on your way back to the venue. You separated the snacks into the bags for each person, Mr. K’s in one bag, Hui’s in one, and you divided the snacks for Hyunggu and the staff between a third bag and your backpack. By the time you had finished and handed Hui his bag and Manager Kim’s, you were back at the venue. The screaming and yelling was louder as it seemed like the crowd doubled.

Your anxiety in situations like these was usually under control because security was tight and you knew you’d be okay. However the security was having a tough time keeping an area big enough for you to walk down and the crowd only seemed to get rowdier as Manager Kim stopped as close to the venue as he could. Your heart was in your throat as you looked at the sea of people, bobbing and weaving as if they were waves in the ocean.

“Stay behind me. Hold me hand if you need to but don’t go far from me.” Hui’s hand enveloping yours grounded you for a moment, before a blush took over.

“Okay, I won’t stray.” You could only nod as you took a few deep breaths to calm your racing heart.

“On three.” Hui counted down slowly, giving your hand a squeeze before taking the bags of snacks from you and getting ready to move. “Let’s go.”

Hui threw his door open and immediately opened yours next. You stepped out and cowered behind Hui as he shut both door after telling Manager Kim something. He rested his free hand against his lower back for you to hold, which you gratefully held onto. He exchanged a few quick words with the security manager who had met them at the van and helped lead you towards the front door. You waved and tried to smile telling everyone to get home safely, you didn’t have it in you to thank them for showing up.

You were three-fourths of the way there, just a few more feet. The crowd had calmed down a great deal, there wasn’t a lot of pushing but there was a lot of yelling and cameras out, your name was being screamed every second. You were huddled close to Hui, practically on his heels with the warm of his hand once again centering you. You could make out people just past the glass doors when there was a loud thump that was followed by screams. You whipped your head around in time to see a few males fans had knocked two security guards down and created a gap. Two- three people rushed through and were heading for you. The manager behind you easily stopped the first guy, but the other two got by while he was occupied. You were sure they didn’t mean any harm at least you hoped, but your body went into fight-or-flight mode. You didn’t have time to make a choice because Hui was in front of you by the time you blinked. Hui grabbed the first guy by the wrist and pivoted his to get a hold of the fan’s belt and threw the fan over his shoulder. The fan his the ground with a thud completely stunned. Then Hui zeroed in on the second rogue fan and was ready for every punch the guy threw. He block and avoided everything the fan threw at him. Hui managed to land a flat handed hit on the fan’s collarbone, then followed up by dropping to his knees and sweeping the fans legs.

You watched in awe as your bodyguard dropped two men bigger than him by 150% with minor damage in seconds as the security manager still struggled with the very first rogue fan. Hui grabbed your hand and quickly tugged you into the building before going back to the door to check on the situation. By that time the security team had gotten it under control and you noticed Manager Kim slipping past the chaos with so much as a second glance down the side of the crowd with a single security guard by his side.

After Hui was sure it was under control he turned towards you and checked you over. His hands started at your shoulders before running down your arms. He stopped at your hands and then just looked over your bottom half. No new scratches or bruises. He checked your face, turning it left and right, up and down just till he was satisfied that you were really okay.

“Thank you.” You mumbled, your heart in your throat.

“No problem, it’s what I’m here for, to protect you.” Hui let out a breathy laugh and released you to run his hand through his hair. “We’ll be sneaking you out the back, we’re not doing that again.”

“Okay.” You nodded, not in the mood to argue.You two caught your breath as Manager Kim sought out Kang Hyunggu and his manager to figure out what the plan way. You took a swig from your bottle of water and looked around the lobby. You looked over Hui who was off to the side watching the room but he locked eyes when he noticed you move. He gave you a tiny smirk before the moment was interrupt by your manager.

“He’s been warming up in the dance studio, let’s get you introduced then.” Hui followed you as you followed your manager to meet the spunky amateur choreographer who stole the country’s heart.

---

Hui spent the next two and a half hours trying to ignore how touchy the choreo was for the special stage. He tried to ignore the way the kid named Hyunggu looked at you and how he so casually called you Noona. Hyunggu made you to laugh and smile the whole time. He worked with you every step of the way, helped you get your body in the right position with gentle touches. Encouraged you when your messed up and praised your successful moves.

Hui liked the kid, he was talented and too damn likable. Hui, however, did not like how quickly the kid took to you. Alone, Hui could have adopted Hyunggu because he was a little ball of energy, but with you, Hui wanted to break his hands so he could touch you again. As Hui realized these thoughts were passing through his mind he had to physically shake them away. He was your coworker, you both worked for the same company. You two hadn’t known each other for very long either. These feelings Hui had, the way his body and mind were acting was ridiculous and he knew it was. Yet he couldn’t stop them. He watched Hyunggu mutter a joke he couldn’t hear and watched you laugh so hard you covered your face and held onto his shoulder to steady yourself. He didn’t know how the next few days would go or even the next few months, but he did know that whatever feelings he had for you would continue to grow. And at the moment he was working out how he was going to continue like things were normal and he was okay, when in reality he felt constantly nauseous and annoyed at every other guy who got too close to you.

[chasholidays]

Bellamy/Clarke Bellamy is a florist, Clarke is a cop

If someone had asked Clarke to come up with a profile of Bellamy Blake, florist, she would have put them in their late fifties or early sixties, an older woman who wasn’t quite a grandmother but hoped to be soon, someone whose hair had gone white early, but in a fashionable way. She would have assumed Bellamy Blake made lovely floral arrangements and had candy on the counter for children who came into her store with their parents.

Of those assumptions, only one would be true: Bellamy Blake makes lovely floral arrangements. But he’s also in his mid twenties, with curly black hair and freckles, and she’s pretty sure that if he wasn’t pissed at her for arresting his sister, they’d get along.

Not that she knows about the floral arrangements the first time she meets him. The first time she meets him, she mostly just knows he’s fucking pissed.

“What the fuck?” he demands, and Clarke actually assumes that he’s talking to Octavia. “Why are you holding her?”

“She peed on a police car,” says Clarke. “Also she’s seventeen and intoxicated.”

“And you’re going to charge her for that? It’s dumb high-school shit.”

Privately, Clarke agrees, and she has no intention of charging her. But she thinks taking her in and making her hang out at the station is a pretty good solution, all things considered. She was hoping calling Octavia’s older brother, who’s apparently her legal guardian, would also put the fear of god in her, but Bellamy Blake seems much more interested in attacking Clarke.

“It’s illegal dumb high-school shit. Can we talk in private?”

His jaw works, but then he nods. Clarke doesn’t have an office, but there’s an empty interrogation room by her desk, so she takes him in there.

“I’m letting her off with a warning, but I would suggest you make it clear to her how serious this is. Public urination can land you on the sex offenders registry if you do it close enough to a school. We all do dumb shit in high school, but it’s better if it stays in high school.”

He considers her, arms crossed, irritation still radiating off of him. “Is there a bad cop who’s showing up, or will you just switch at some point?”

“No trick. Just a warning. It would help if you acted like this was a big deal.”

“I don’t need lessons from you on how to take care of my sister,” he says.

“Fine, then don’t take them,” she snaps. “I’m issuing the warning and you can take her home or back to the party or wherever. I don’t give a shit.”

“Pleasure doing business with you, officer,” he says, and once the paperwork is done, they’re gone.

The encounter sticks with Clarke in the way some encounters do. It’s nothing terribly special, really; she deals with plenty of drunk kids and annoyed guardians. But the file had stuck out because Bellamy was young to be taking care of a teenager, and she couldn’t help but be annoyed by his lax standards. None of it is a big deal, but it’s just enough to be memorable.

It’s enough that when she needs a flower arrangement for a coworker who was injured in the line of duty and he’s at the counter at the flower shop she goes to, she recognizes him, but she doesn’t place him until he says, “Officer,” in the same curt, disdainful tone he used a little over a year ago.

She came in after work, and she’s still wearing her uniform. She’s not exactly being subtle.

“Is there a problem?” he asks, and she thinks he knows her too, but she’s not actually sure. He could just dislike cops. He wouldn’t be the first one.

“No. A coworker is in the hospital, I wanted to get some flowers for him.”

“Of course.” His voice is still cool, but he straightens a little. “Did you have anything particular in mind?”

“Just a standard get-well-soon arrangement? On the smaller and cheaper side.” She considers, but his expression and manner still bother her, so she adds, “He’s kind of insecure about his masculinity, so if you can lean into that I’d appreciate it.”

He frowns, looking at least confused instead of actively aggressive. “Lean into what, exactly?”

“I don’t know, like a teddy bear, maybe? Something to make him feel kind of uncomfortable because it’s not manly enough, but he can’t get rid of it because it’s a nice gesture.”

He finally cracks a smile. “Yeah, that’s a more common request than you’d think. I can handle that. Thirty bucks okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Great. I’ll have that done in a minute.”

Clarke watches him work, feeling more relaxed as nothing bad happens. He probably did forget her and just doesn’t like cops. It’s not a position she’ll ever fault anyone for, and with his dark complexion, she’s guessing he gets more “random” harassment than someone like her would.

But she’s glad that he smiles when he rings her up. The arrangement is perfect; she’d like to come back.

She comes up with an excuse just over months later, because mother’s day is coming up and she never gets her mother anything, so now is clearly the time to start. She goes in out of uniform and Bellamy shows no sign of recognizing her at all. He has some pre-made arrangements for the holiday that can be customized, and he and Clarke talk through what she’d like. She pays extra for a delivery service, and it’s all very professional and civil.

She wears her uniform next time, just to see if he remembers her, and he seems to, but not as anything other than a cop he doesn’t hate. Which is what she wants, mostly. He seems like a cool guy, from what she’s seen, and she’d like him to think she’s honest and fair.

That’s definitely why she keeps going.

She’s been going in every few months for about two years when she stops by at the beginning of June and sees he’s put up big display of rainbow flowers outside, arranged around a cursive sign reading simply, Be proud. It’s cool, but she can’t help being a little, well–curious. If he’s expressing pride as a general concept or because he’s part of the LGBT community, and if he is, what part.

Even if she hadn’t already been planning to go in, she definitely would be now.

As usual, he’s at the register, but for the first time ever, his sister is with him, chatting at him from across the counter. They both look up at the sound of the bell, and Octavia narrows her eyes at Clarke.

“Why do I know you?”

“Because she arrested you for peeing on her car in high school,” says Bellamy.

Clarke doesn’t flush, but—she really didn’t think he remembered. It’s been more than three years since the arrest happened, and he never seemed surly at her. He certainly never mentioned it, not even that first time.

Octavia snaps her fingers. “Right, that was it.”

“I hope you don’t get arrested so often you can’t keep the cops straight,” Clarke offers, and to her relief, both of them smile. They have the same way of curling one side of their mouth in reluctant amusement, and it’s cute, seeing the family resemblance.

“I was pretty wasted.“

“Maybe don’t brag about your underage drinking to, again, the cop who actually arrested you for it.”

“She already let me off with a warning. It’s not like she’s going to retroactively charge me. She knew I was drunk the first time.”

Bellamy rubs the bridge of his nose. “You must have something else to do. Literally anything.”

“You don’t need help?”

“She wants flowers for her mom’s birthday, I think I can handle it. Go check on the greenhouse.”

“Yeah, yeah. Nice to see you again, officer. Thanks for letting me off with a warning, sorry I peed on your car.”

“In your defense, you were wasted.”

She grins. “I’m saying.”

Once they’re alone, Clarke doesn’t think she’s the only one who feels awkward. Bellamy rubs the back of his neck, discomfort written all over his posture, and it makes something warm curl in her stomach. At least she’s not the only one.

“I didn’t think you recognized me.”

“It took me a second, but your name’s on the credit card, and I had my note with your name and badge number, so I could check. I, uh–I am sorry,” he adds. “I got taken down to the police station for some bullshit stuff when I was in high school, but O deserved it.”

She leans on the counter. “Like what?”

“I was looking into my friend’s window to see if he was home and a policeman passing by put me in cuffs and took me to the station.”

“Did you get charged?”

“They were on high alert because my friend’s dad was the police chief. The officer thought he was going to get a commendation for finding some dumb kid trying to break into the chief’s house, and Captain Miller was just like, hi Bellamy.”

“So at least it was satisfying.”

“Once I stopped being terrified, yeah. I knew if I made it to the station I’d be fine, but I was always worried I wouldn’t.”

“I get it when people don’t like cops. But I was kind of hoping you were going to yell at your sister instead of me.”

“If it helps, I yelled at her when we got home.”

“It does.” She smiles. “So, the pride bouquet.”

His expression gives nothing away. “What about it?”

“It’s awesome. I was hoping I could get a custom one for my desk. It could hang out with my rainbow flag and alienate my asshole coworkers.”

He seems to be thinking over his phrasing, finally settles on, “What pride are you showing?”

“Bisexual.”

“Cool, that’s mine too,” he says, casual, and Clarke feels a strange surge of hope. She’s always a little wary about dating straight guys, but–bisexual could work. If he can get over the cop thing. And he’s interested.

Fuck, she hasn’t actually been nursing a crush for three years, has she? That would be so fucking stupid. But–he’s cute. And, perversely, guys who don’t like cops are kind of her type. Familiarity breeds contempt.

“So, you want blue, purple, and pink? I haven’t done that before, but I think I can come up with something cool.”

“Yeah, that would be great. And something for my mom for her birthday? She expects flowers now, apparently.”

“That’s a new development?” he asks, with a kind of casual curiosity that makes her flush. “Flowers seem like your go-to present.”

“I’ve never been great with gifts, so when I find something she likes, I just kind of go with it.”

“So now you’re on flowers?”

“They’re good conversation pieces. She’s a doctor, so she puts them in her office and her patients ask about them, and then she gets to talk about her police-officer daughter who sends flowers.”

“Glad I’m helping. So, one mom bouquet and one bi bouquet?”

“Yup.” She worries her lip, but it feels safe to add, “Thanks, Bellamy.”

His smile is soft. “Sure. Let me know how many fights you get in.”

“Yeah, I’ll keep you posted.”

*

She keeps the bouquet until it wilts, and goes to get another one when it does. It’s pretty and a good litmus test for coworkers, so she just keeps on getting them for a few months, until she gets shot in early September, the day before she’s planning to go to Bellamy’s.

It sounds a lot worse than it is, jut a grazing hit to her shoulder. It’s not fun, by any stretch of the imagination, but as bullet wounds go, it’s basically the best-case scenario.

Her mother still wants her to stay in the hospital for a few days.

“We need to make sure there weren’t any complications. Bullet wounds can–”

“I’m going to listen to my actual doctor,” Clarke says, making her voice gentle. “The one who has access to all my charts.”

Abby smiles a little too. “I suppose I can’t argue with that.”

“I’m off work no matter what. I’ll take it easy.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

There’s a knock on the door and they both startle, and Clarke startles again when it’s Bellamy, holding a bouquet of yellow and blue flowers, with a sheepish smile on his face.

“Sorry,” he says. “They told me visitors were fine, I didn’t think the doctor would–”

“This is my mother,” she says. “Mom, this is–my friend Bellamy.” It feels more accurate and less awkward than my florist. “Hi, Bellamy.”

“Hi. I can come back,” he adds, and she rolls her eyes.

“Mom probably has actual patients to see.”

“I do,” says Abby. “Let me know if you need anything. Nice to meet you, Bellamy.”

“You too.” He still lingers by the door, looking unsure, until Abby has to go by him, and only then does he finally come over to the cot. “Jesus. You really did get shot.”

She laughs a little. “Sorry, did you think it was a hoax? How did you even know?”

“I follow the police department on Twitter, they talk about incidents. I googled it to make sure it wasn’t you, and then it was.” His eyes dart over her, like he’s trying to remind himself she’s there. “Are you–okay? Relative to getting shot.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. They had to operate to get a fragment out, but they’re not worried. I’m staying for observation, should be out tomorrow or the next day.”

“Good.”

“Can I see the flowers?”

He frowns. “What?”

“You brought flowers. Which ones?”

“Oh, uh–you like yellow and blue,” he says. “Or maybe your mom does, but–when you’re not getting pride bouquets, you usually like yellow and blue, smaller blooms, lots of leaves. So I thought–”

“It’s perfect. Thanks.”

He ducks his head, pleased. “Cool, I’m glad.” And then, like a idiot, he stands up. “So, uh, feel better. Get–”

She grabs his wrist with her good hand. “Bellamy.”

“Yeah?”

“You came all the way down here. You don’t have to leave. Company would be nice. If you don’t have anywhere else to be.”

He sits again. “I told Octavia not to burn down the store, so I’ve got an hour or two before she gets bored and turns to arson.” He pauses. “I should probably stop making jokes about her committing crimes, huh?”

“I promise I will never arrest your sister unless she’s actively committing a crime in front of me. Again.”

“That seems fair.” He hesitates, and then takes her hand, smiles when she squeezes his fingers. “I’m hoping you’re going to see more of her. And me. I’m probably going to ask you out when you’re not, uh. In a hospital.”

“You can ask me out now,” she says. “We just can’t go anywhere until I’m discharged. And maybe a week after that.”

“Cool. So, you want to go on a date with me maybe a week after you’re discharged?”

“Yeah, I’d love to.”

He brings flowers for their first date too, and the second, and the third, and somehow they’re her favorites, every single time.

[beebomeebo]

Numb

Type: fluff

Request// “do you do anything besides smut? if so, can you do a fluff about a girl who's really depressed because her dad and stepmom are total assholes and brenny walks in on her relapsing and everything is all cute and cuddly bc they cry together and i need to be in a fucking relationship when that happens oml”

(A/N) Ahahahahahah sorry guys for being dead for so long, it has NOT been the best year for me but I'm dedicated to get more stuff done and get my shit together. & omg guys, thank you so much for 400 followers!! I’m sitting here in bed at 3:56 in the morning almost crying because I didn’t think my writing was that likable. Anyways, have a dribble drabble

Warnings: sneaky Bren, crying, the tiniest bit of angst, self-doubt, back talking, slight physical fight as well as verbal, cursing, :) fluffy Bren (: , !!no smut!! 

Pairing: Brendon Urie x Reader

Word Count: 2.2K

 I finally arrive home after a very long day at school. As I walk through my front door I slightly lower my shoulder so my backpack can slide off and heavily meet the wood floor. I throw my hair into a messy ponytail before slugging myself over to the couch. All I wanted at this moment was a nice nap.

I cross into the main hallway and into the living room. Not even bothering to walk around the couch I flip over from the back of it. Landing face down, the fluffy cushions mold to my body as I reach for a throw pillow to place my head on. Right as I close my eyes I feel my phone vibrate in my back pocket. I groan quietly to myself as I dig it out. Keeping my half my face buried into the pillow I bring the screen to my face to read the text message.

 Brendon :)

Hey, how did school go?

 Too tired to write a real response I type:

 Stupid. Gonna sleep, txt u l8r

 I then toss my phone onto the coffee table and melt into the warm couch cushions.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

“Y/N! Y/N!”

I’m abruptly yanked out of my dream. My vision goes from black to hazy to a blur. And as my eyes adjust to my surroundings I feel a soft object collide with my face.

“Y/N! Wake up right now!” I turn to realize that my bitch of a stepmother, Sara, had thrown a pillow at me. “I specifically told you to clean the bathroom and the kitchen when you got home. And what have you been doing for the past two hours?”

I peel myself from the couch and glance over at the clock to notice, indeed, that two hours have passed. “Uh, sleeping?”

Obviously very pissed, Sara mumbles between her teeth, “Worthless child.”

“I’m sorry, what?” I retaliate.

“I said, ‘worthless child.’” She replies, this time slightly louder. “All you do around here is eat our food and sleep. You never do chores, you never do anything for this family.”

“What the fuck do you mean I don’t do anything? I literally just gave your dumbass dog a bath.”

“Do not use that language with me.”

“Or what, Sara? Or fucking what?” My blood begins to boil as Sara’s face turns with anger. With my adrenaline up, I quickly stand to face Sara. I was a good five inches taller so I wasn’t really scared of her. Just as I was about to turn around to retire to my bedroom Sara quickly raises her hand and strikes it across my cheek. I stumble slightly but quickly regain my balance. Now beyond pissed, I shove Sara into the kitchen counter behind her and her back collides with the marble. She falls to the ground clutching her back.

She picks her head up and looks up at me. “Go live with your fucking mother.”

“Fuck you.” I spat and then stormed into my room, making sure to grab my phone from the coffee table.

As I was leaving, Sara shouted, “Nobody loves you, you ungrateful brat.”

I shoved earphones into my head and turned the volume as high as it can go. Then I just lay there in my bed, looking up at my ceiling. My vision becomes blurry as droplets of water develop in my eyes and then disappear down my face as I blink them away. Soon, I can only see blurry before I completely shut my eyes and just weep. A small puddle forms on my pillow where my tears have landed. I try to lose myself in the loud songs that played through my headphones but I couldn’t help replay those words: “Nobody loves you.” It was as if my head was a broken stereo and those words were the only songs that would play.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

I stopped crying about twenty minutes ago and now was blankly staring up at my ceiling, imagining what it would be like if my dad never met Sara.

A whole lot better. I thought to myself.

After a few minutes of creating my perfect life with just my dad- one where he never went to that bar and met Sara- I hear a muffled tapping noise through my blaring music. I quickly sit up to see if it was my dad coming in to yell at me. But my door remained closed and unmoved. Shrugging it off as just my imagination I lay back down but here it again. I jerk myself upright and this time I lower my music volume and take an earbud out.

“Yes?” I say quietly. No response. Then, the tapping noise starts up again, this time a bit louder and aggressive. It catches my attention that the sound was coming from my window. Tap tap tap. Unaware of what was waiting for me on the other side of the glass, I grab my softball bat that I kept in the corner of my room. As I slowly creep toward my purple curtains a faint silhouette starts to appear; as I step closer and closer the figure becomes taller and taller. Fear surges through me like lightning as I become only inches away from the sheer that masked the figure. Tap tap tap. I close my eyes, take the deepest breath my lungs can receive, and gather every ounce of courage that I have. Swiftly unmasking the window, I raise my weapon in anticipation of an attack. The figure becomes recognizable from the tall, dark hair to the sharp line of their jaw. I pause in space as my mind races to attach a name to the face.

“Brendon.” I breathe with relief mixed with surprise.

“Y/N, let me in! And why are you wielding a bat?” The boy says through the glass.

“What are you doing here?” I asked hushed so Sara wouldn’t hear me. Setting the bat against the wall I unlock the window and lift the glass so Brendon can crawl through.

“You weren’t answering my calls and texts and I got worried.” He says to my back as I close the window and pull the curtains over to cover it. I sigh in response.

“I just haven’t been in the mood to talk to anyone,” I say turning around to meet him.

Brendon’s face shifts from soft to concern as his eyebrows furrow and his puffed lips gap open. His stocky fingers gently graze the side of my face that had previously made contact with Sara’s palm. My eyes darted to his shoes. He wore his favorite worn sneakers and I noticed there was still dirt on them from waiting outside the window.

“Don’t tell my Sara did this.” His voice was stern yet soft.

I stayed silent, scared that if I speak my words will catch in the back of my throat. I clench my jaw to pull back tears that were forming.

Brendon cloaks me with his arms as I’m pulled into his chest. My arms wrap around his torso and hold tightly onto him. We stand there for a moment in perfect silence.

“What did Ms. Skank do this time?” Brendon asks gently pulling away from me and pulling me toward the bed to sit down.

I sat on my cross leg next to him as I relive the entire scene, making sure to tell Brendon every moment I could recall.

“’Go live with your mother?’ What kind of person says that type of thing?” He asks with disbelief.

I shrug, staring at my wood floor. “She knew it would hurt me. That’s why she said it.” I feel the similar adrenaline kick as my heart picks up speed. My jaw clenches, my fists close tightly, and my body stiffens as I reply every moment that Sara has made me feel worthless and stupid. Then I think of my mom, how gentle she would be, how understanding. My muscles soften at the memories of her.

Noticing my change in mood, Brendon squeezes my hand and pulls me to his chest. I rest my head on his shoulder and he rubs my arm.

“I miss her so much.” I finally whisper, teardrops hitting Brendon’s leg.

“I know, I know.” He hushes, gently placing a kiss in my hair.

I break away from him. “You know, if I hadn’t gone to that party this never would have happened.” I choked.

“Y/N, don’t blame yourself. This is not your fault.” Brendon’s puppy dog eyes scan my face and I notice that a thin film of water was developing on his bottom lash line.

I break away from his eye contact and lower my head to hide my face. “Sometimes I wish I was with her. Forever.”

Stumbling on his words Brendon chokes, “Please don’t ever say that, Y/N. I need you. You’re the only thing that’s real in this shit hole of a town. If you left I don’t know what I would do.”

I finally gather the strength to look up at Brendon; his eyes were bloodshot and puffy, there were small rivers running down his face and his bottom lip quivered. I crash into his chest and let all my emotions go. All the pain and hurt that I’ve been bottling up pours out of like a waterfall as I clutch onto Brendon. He began sobbing along with me. In that moment, we were both vulnerable. Yet, together, we were strong.

After what felt like ages, the sobbing calms and we’re both just left holding each other. I break away to wipe my smeared makeup off my face but Brendon beats me to it. “I’m sorry for being such an ugly crier,” I whisper into his hand.

“Join the club.” He chuckles and I catch a glimpse of the hairpin curl of his smile.

I smile weakly at his joke.

“Why don’t we get you cleaned up and watch some movies, huh?” He raises and offers his hand.

I nod and accept his hand in mine as he leads me to my bathroom. I blankly stare into my mirror as Brendon turns on the shower. My body feels numb and exhausted from crying and all I can do is stare at my reflection. Noticing my lack of movement Brendon wraps his arms around my waist and rests his head on my shoulder. I hold his strong arms. We make eye contact through the reflection and I become lost in his deep brown eyes.

“You know, you’re the most beautiful girl at school.” He speaks to me. “I was so nervous to speak to you last year. And when you said yes to going on that date- after like, five attempts- I was beyond excited. You make me feel like a kid in a candy shop.” His cheesy words force my cheeks to redden and I try to muffle my laughter. “And you taste just as sweet.” He winks and smiles at his own humor.

I roll my eyes and break away from his grip. “Ok. It’s time for you to leave.” I laugh as I playfully shove him out of the bathroom.

“The way you scream my name is so sexy!” He says quickly before I close the door on him.

“Shut up!” I yell through the door. Once in peace, I grin like an idiot. Stripping my clothes off my body I feel the water and once naked, I step into the steaming chamber. Every muscle relaxes as I lose myself in the water.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

I turn off the shower and step onto my bathmat. The yarn bristles tickle the space in between my toes. I reach for my towel and wrap it around my wet body. Opening the door, I notice Brendon sitting on my bed flipping through Netflix. His attention switches to me.

“Feel better?” He smiles.

“A little,” I answer making my way to my closet.

“Oh, I already got your PJs ready.” He lifts a pile of fabric that was at his side. I smile and take the clothing from him.

We stare at each other for a moment before he gets the idea and turns his back to me. I face my back to him as I let the towel drop to my feet. And quickly slip on the warm, soft fabric. I turn around to a smiling Brendon.

“Were you watching the entire time?” I laugh, chucking the towel at his head, landing on his head and drapes over his face.

“Maybe.” He sings through the towel. “You’re just so sexy.” He chuckles, removing the towel from his face.

I roll my eyes while I take my place next to him. “So, what are we watching?”

“Well, I was thinking either Finding Dory or Minions.” He showcases the most childlike grin.

“Really?” I say sarcastically, “Kid movies?”

“Finding Dory it is!” He pecks my cheek and clicks on the movie title. I roll my eyes as he pulls me to his chest. Shuffling my body, I adjust to cuddle up to him. My arm drapes perfectly around his torso and I feel the steady movements of his breathing. Brendon nestles his face against my hair, planting a kiss on it. “You know I love you, right?”

“Shut up and watch the movie.” I tease.

“Well fuck you, too, then.”

[jae-bummer]

My Idol: Part Twenty Three

My Idol From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My Idol is a South Korean competitive reality dating game show. It currently airs on Wednesday nights on Jae-bummer’s blog. First broadcast in 2016, the show offers the opportunity for a lucky fan to go on seven blind dates with seven idols. The idol plans the date with the show throwing in specific missions to complete during the day. At the end of the initial dates, the show opens up an audience vote to decide what three idols will move on to the second date.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20 - Part 21 - Part 22 - Part 23 - Part 24

The smell of astroturf was heavy in your nostrils as you shifted your weight and gnawed on your lip. You reached up slowly, twiddling with the cat pendant on the necklace Jay had purchased for you only a few days ago. The feeling of the heavy stones was still unfamiliar on your neck, constantly causing you to pull at the poor thing. 

You tilted your head as you waited patiently, watching Jooheon’s shoulders move as he spoke, explaining something with hand gestures as he talked enthusiastically with the counter person before him. You didn’t know if he had realized you had arrived or not, but you cleared your throat loudly just to make sure. 

“Good one,” Armpit chuckled. “These boys are as dense as they are pretty.”

You scowled in Armpit’s direction, throwing in an eye roll for good measure. This caused Sweaty to chuckled, smacking Armpit lightly on the arm. 

You tried clearing your throat again, adding a bit of a cough at the end. Jooheon’s shoulders immediately tensed, causing him to freeze merely by sound alone. He spun around, his eyes wide as they made contact with your face. “Y/N!” 

He gave a quick bow to the man behind the counter and sprinted toward you, immediately taking you into his arms and giving you a little shake from side to side. “I didn’t know you were here! You should’ve said something!” 

“You looked like you were part of a very important conversation,” you grinned, leaning back and placing your arms on Jooheon’s shoulders. 

“Not more important than you,” he cooed, placing a quick kiss in between your eyebrows. You giggled at the feeling, not expecting for the contact to occur. “I’m so happy to see you. We’ve made it to the second date!” 

“We have,” you grinned. His happiness was contagious. 

“And then…after this one, we’ll have the third,” he chirped, placing a kiss on one of your cheeks. “Then the fourth.” Another kiss. “And the fifth.” Another kiss. “And all the dates after that.” He rapid fire released kisses toward your face, causing your skin to become warm from the attention. You pulled away before leaning forward again and hiding your face in his neck. He smelled incredible - like a mix of baby powder and some type of flower…maybe honeysuckle? 

“Are you ready to be owned in mini golf?” he asked cheerfully, shimmying his shoulders to cause you to lean back again. 

“Mini golf?” you questioned with wide eyes.

“You had to have known it was mini golf,” he laughed. “The mini waterfalls are a dead giveaway! How many man made, miniature waterfalls have you seen that didn’t involve a mini golf course?”

“That’s fair,” you smirked. “I also saw the tiny windmill. Maybe I’m not the best with context clues.”

“I got you,” Jooheon hummed, bopping your nose with his pointer finger. He let his other hand fall from where it still lingered on your waist and spun, addressing the counter worker again. “Two clubs sir, and two balls.”

The man nodded, busying himself behind the glass case he hid behind. You looked over it’s contents carefully, noting the different types of golf memorabilia that you were certain no one who had played actual golf would ever see.  

“Purple or pink,” Jooheon asked, pulling you from your thoughts to focus on the hands of the aged man. He nodded happily as you pointed to the purple one, allowing him to drop the hot pink one into Jooheon’s fingers. “Lovely.”

Jooheon’s smile never faded as you went through the process of him somehow ending up with all of the most flamboyantly hot pink gear in the shop. He dropped his ball in his pocket and grabbed both of the putters to tuck under his arm. With his free hand he interlaced his fingers with yours, moving you toward the first hole. 

“Have you played before?” he asked, focusing as he dropped his ball onto the artificial grass. 

“Not well,” you admitted, kicking at imaginary dirt. You hadn’t really searched for a miniature golf course in your entirety of living in Seoul. You weren’t opposed to the game, but it wasn’t a thought you had had since you were in junior high school. 

“Come on, I’ll help you,” Jooheon hummed, placing his hand lightly on your elbow to guide you toward him. You paused as you felt his chest press against your back. You thought of your last date with the kind hearted boy, never short of affection when he had wrapped you in a back hug on the chilly spring night. 

He snaked his arms around you just as he had before, but this time his hands rested on the golf club in your fingers. 

“Is this okay?” he whispered, his voice only centimeters from your ear. 

“Y-yes,” you stuttered, trying to keep from shaking. The last time you did this, you could blame the cold, but now all you had was your nerves. 

“Okay,” he cooed. “Now we’re going to leaaaan back. Just like this.” 

You nodded, noticing your breathing was much more shallow than it normally was. You could feel Jooheon’s breath, warm on your skin as he spoke quietly, just so the two of you could hear. “Good, now with a little force we’re going to….knock it forward.”

As he said the word “knock” he guided your putter to the ball and let it hit softly, sending the neon purple sphere toward your goal. He remained locked to you as you both watched the ball carefully as it hit the brick of the designated barrier, and bounce over. Jooheon began to giggle as you gasped, obviously more invested in the ball than you would like to admit. 

The ball curved around the bright green artificial grass and you gasped even louder as it fell perfectly into the nearby hole. 

“What!” you chirped. Your eyes were wide as you spun in Jooheon’s arms, completely elated with his coaching methods. “I did it! We did it! We have to take all of our shots together!” 

He laughed softly, tilting his head as his eyes searched yours. “That wouldn’t really be in the spirit of competition would it?” 

“Oh…right,” you muttered, biting your lip. “We’re supposed to be playing against each other, aren’t we?” 

Jooheon nodded softly placing a sweet kiss on your cheek since you were in such close proximity. You smiled, unable to contain how pleasant his cute kisses made  you feel. You were slowly learning that Jooheon was quite partial to skinship, and left kisses on your skin at almost any opportunity he saw available. Well…unless that skin included your lips. He still hadn’t kissed those yet. 

Almost as if reading your thoughts, Jooheon’s lids grew heavy, his face lingering too close to yours for a moment too long. You blinked slowly as well, completely intoxicated by his close contact. He was the only date you had in the second round who you hadn’t kissed (if you counted JB’s ice skating misadventure a kiss) and the thought caused butterflies to emerge in your stomach. He was indeed your last date in this round and you could hardly stand the anxiousness it caused. 

In a little more than a week you would be on the studio stage again. 

Having to say goodbye to two more guys you had grown even more closely too. 

Was it even fair to kiss him? What if he didn’t move on? What if you couldn’t handle the surge of feelings attached to the kiss and broke down if he didn’t make it through? 

Then again, that could be said for any of the contestants thus far. Yet here you were, steadfast and still dating. 

“Y/N,” he whispered gently, reaching to grab the back of your neck. He shook you out of your thoughts as his eyes began to close. You took a deep breath in, preparing for the heart stopping feeling to come. 

“I need help playing too!” a small voice chirped, completely knocking the two of you loose from one another. Jooheon’s arms slid away from you as you blinked rapidly, trying to get your mind fixed into reality instead of focused on Jooheon’s lips. You looked to your date who wore a large smile as he looked away from you and to the source of the voice. 

“You do?” he gasped, his tone surprised. He immediately kneeled down, causing you to look over and see a girl not much older than five or six staring at the two of you. 

“Yes, I need help,” she confirmed, nodding aggressively. “I’m too small!” 

“Too small!” Jooheon gasped, pinching her cheek playfully. “Maybe all these things are just too big!” 

The girl nodded again, a small grin appearing on her cute face. Her dimples nearly rivaled Jooheon’s. 

“Oh goodness,” a breathy voice gasped. “Mina! Leave them alon- Oh my goodness, you’re on a My Idol date!” 

Your eyes shook as you looked from the little girl and up to her mother. You snuck a glance at Jooheon as he stood from his squatting position and smiled kindly at the woman. 

“Yes ma’am, we are,” he nodded happily with a small bow. “You’re daughter is very precious.”

“He was gunna teach me to bowl,” the girl giggled, hopping a bit as she spoke. 

“Golf,” her mother corrected, looking up from her daughter and back to the two of you. “You’re Y/N, and you’re Jooheon! From the Starship boy group!”

“Monsta X,” Jooheon confirmed softly. 

“You’re last date was so cute! The cafe and the park,” the young mother nodded. “Oh, well pardon me, I should go.” 

“But mommy!” the girl complained. “What about the man teaching me golf? Then when I do good he’ll give me a kiss! He’s a handsome man, mama.”

“I swear I didn’t pay her,” Jooheon said under his breath to you. His cheeks were bright red as he looked at anywhere but you. 

“I’m so sorry,” the mother gasped, her face red as well. She picked up her daughter, balancing her on her hip. “Have a good date!” 

“Mommy!” the girl whined, spinning in her arms to catch a last look at Jooheon. 

“I promise that wasn’t planned,” Jooheon grumbled, closing his eyes in embaressment. 

“I thought it was adorable,” you nodded, poking at his shoulder. “I just wasn’t aware that you liked your girls so young.”

“Aigoo,” he groaned, opening his eyes again. “You’re such a punk.”

“A punk who is now a mini golf pro,” you grinned. “How about we make things interesting?”

“Only the first hole and she’s getting cocky,” Jooheon laughed, crossing his arms. “Go ahead.” 

“Of course I am,” you chuckled, now the one to give him a light nose boop. It seemed the longer you hung out with him, the more soft you became. “How about we play for something?”

“What did you have in mind?” Jooheon asked, tilting his head like a curious puppy. His eyebrows were lifted and you were near certain his mind was already drifting to romantic places. 

“Well, kisses are overrated,” you chuckled with a wink. Jooheon’s mouth fell slightly ajar, but he was quick to correct himself before nodding. 

“Right, totally overrated. Yup.”

“How about…we play for…this,” you chuckled, digging around in your bag. After a few moments, you finally had the item in question free as and you let it hang in the air. 

Jooheon grinned, his patented dimples and eye smile present on his face. “My hat.”

“Didn’t think I’d forget, did you?” you laughed. “Now, winner get’s the hat…and maybe a kiss.”

Jooheon began nodding aggressively. He bit his lip as he leveled you with a fiery and determined stare. “You’re on.”

To Be Continued…

PART 1 - PART 2 - PART 3 - PART 4 - PART 5 - PART 6 - PART 7 - PART 8 - PART 9 - PART 10 - PART 11 - PART 12 - PART 13 - PART 14 - PART 15 - PART 16 - PART 17 - PART 18 - PART 19 - PART 20 - PART 21 - PART 22 - PART 23 - PART 24

[newstfionline]

Frogpocalypse Now

Ian Frazier, Outside, Mar 23, 2017

In South Florida, cane toads are so numerous that they seem to be dropping from the sky. They’re overtaking parking lots and backyards, can weigh almost six pounds, and pack enough poison to kill pets. Why the surge?

America seen from a satellite at night blooms with lights, up one coast, down the other, and all across the middle. If you focus on the lights of South Florida and then move in closer on a metro area--say, Naples or Miami or West Palm Beach--and then zoom in on a particular mall or commercial strip or residential area, and then on a particular streetlight, and then on the illuminated circle that the streetlight throws on the ground, you may see some frog-like shapes. Go in as close as you can, down to the round, black, gold-flecked eye of one of those shapes, in which the light above it is a pinpoint blue reflection. You are eye-to-eye with a cane toad, one of the most successful invasive species on the planet.

Cane toads flock to lights. Across South Florida, in all kinds of man-made places, they appear on warm evenings. A bug drawn to the glow hits the glass and falls; a cane toad snaps open its wide mouth and gloms the bug with a long, adhesive, party-favor-like tongue. The toad’s mouth closes.

Multiply that cane toad, and the two dozen or so others in its vicinity, by a whole lot of South Florida streetlights. Is this an oncoming ecological disaster? Experts on invasive wildlife don’t know. None can say for sure how many cane toads the state has already. Nor can they estimate how much or how quickly the cane toad population will expand. The phenomenon of the cane toads may be news to the rest of the country, but to South Floridians it’s not. Consider the classic toad facial expression, the humorless, fake-sleepy look most species have. Cane toads are like that, only super-intense; behind their deadpan demeanor, the fierceness with which they want to live and make more cane toads is almost sublime. Cane toads happen to thrive best in close vicinity to humans, and of course the number of humans in Florida is likely to increase. So yes--in the future, there will be more cane toads.

What it’s like in some places right now: Step out of your house in the morning and cane toads are squatting on the front walk. They are in the garage in the coils of the garden hose. They climb up the screen on your lakeside cabin’s front door to get closer to the outdoor light. They are in your window wells and by the hot tub on the patio and next to the swimming pool filter motor. They sit and look at you as if you owe them money.

Cane toads have these things going for them: they are bigger than other toads (the biggest cane toad on record weighed 5 pounds 13 ounces, almost as much as a Kalashnikov rifle); they lay huge numbers of eggs, perhaps 30,000 in a breeding season (the southern toad, a species they appear to be displacing in Florida, lays about 4,000); and they are highly poisonous (their venom, carried in glands in their shoulders, kills animals, and could kill a person, though so far no Floridian is known to have been poisoned by it).

On top of all that, they can eat almost anything. All amphibians are carnivorous, but cane toads stretch the description. Besides insects, they vacuum up snakes, worms, grubs, snails, mice, small rats, bats, young birds, other amphibians (sometimes their own young), pet food, and garbage. They differ from most other frog species in that they can identify food that is not moving. Cinnamon Mittan, a graduate student who has done field work on cane toads, told me that once, behind a Home Depot in Florida City, she saw a cane toad sitting in a pizza box and eating the cheese off a slice.

Cane toads originate from South and Central America, with a natural range extending as far north as southern Texas and as far south as central Brazil. They were once thought to be seaside animals, hence their scientific name, Rhinella marina. They are also called marine toads or giant toads. Many Floridians call them bufo toads. In the jungles of Suriname and Costa Rica, they inhabit open areas at the edges of thicker vegetation. The only person I know who has encountered cane toads in their original habitat says that the ones she saw were hanging out by the lodge. In the 1920s, agricultural scientists introduced them to sugarcane fields in Puerto Rico, where they ate beetles and seemed to reduce crop destruction. They’ve been deployed around the world for pest control.

Florida’s cane toads are believed to descend from escapees from an exotic-animal importer at the Miami airport, where a hundred of them got away in 1955. Earlier introductions in the state, evidently for use in cane fields, seem to have failed, although genetic studies will determine if the current population comes only from the 1955 group. Perhaps surprisingly, there is a demand for cane toads as pets. The appeal is the toads’ cuteness and their appetite. If given enough food, they can become so fat they’re almost spherical. When they get to know you, they can be winsome and cuddly. They’re easy to care for. All they need is a terrarium, water, and dry dog food.

Kevin, a former Marine who lives in a suburban development in Palm Beach County and has never told me his last name, says he prefers to have a more conventional pet. His three-year-old brown and black Yorkshire terrier, Sophie, weighs six pounds “but doesn’t know she doesn’t weigh 200,” he told me. “She will take off after dogs twenty times bigger than her and run them out of the dog park.”

One afternoon, Kevin went into his backyard and saw Sophie worrying something in her mouth. Looking closely, he identified it as a cane toad. She thought he wanted to play and went romping around the backyard, chewing on the toad and not letting him have it. He freaked out, knowing how poisonous the toads are. Finally, he got the toad away from her and washed her mouth thoroughly with the hose, careful that none of the water went down her throat, following the instructions of toad-poison advisories. Then he drove Sophie to the veterinarian.

The cane toad’s poison--a white, viscous substance like marshmallow topping--is a complex chemical that affects the heart. The toads do not squirt it but rather secrete it from their shoulder glands when attacked or roughly handled. Dogs and other animals that get it in their mouths salivate, cry, and rub at their foaming tongues with their paws. Their gums turn bright red. Soon they may go into convulsions and die.

Maria Chadam, a veterinarian in Delray Beach, has been practicing in South Florida for 11 years and has treated dozens of dogs for cane toad poisoning. She has seen several dogs die of it. Chadam is a pretty, dark-eyed woman with a straightforward manner and a zeal for telling people about the danger. “Toad envenomation kills lots more small dogs than big ones,” she said when I met up with her at a coffee place in Delray Beach. “Bigger dogs can absorb the poison better, but in small dogs like terriers it works fast. It’s horrible for owners to watch a dog die of it. The poison’s main components are biogenic amines and steroid derivatives that produce muscle spasms, constrict blood vessels, and cause heart arrhythmia. The treatment is a combination of drugs, including propranolol and atropine, to stabilize the heart and stop the salivating, along with a sedative. Usually, the dog can be saved if we get it quickly enough.”

She went on: “For some reason, cane toads are really attractive to dogs. I have a coonhound, and she loves to track them through the grass. I think they must have a scent that’s intriguing--it may be sweet or smell like meat. The toads are less of a danger to cats. I don’t want to generalize, but cats are more cautious--OK, smarter--than dogs. Some dogs have repeat encounters with cane toads and never learn. I’ve treated several dogs for toad poisoning more than once. The best rule for everybody is to keep your pets away from all toads.”

Sophie, the Yorkshire terrier, did make it to the vet in time. As other terriers have done, afterward she remained aggressive and un-wised-up about cane toads. Their numbers in Kevin’s neighborhood kept on increasing.

No country has a cane toad infestation worse than Australia’s. A scientist brought around 100 of them to the northeastern part of the country in 1935, during a rough time for Australian sugarcane farmers, when beetles were wiping out their crop yields. The farmers welcomed the toad as a savior. It made no dent in the beetles, however, because of their habit of frequenting parts of the cane stalks above its reach. Development of an insecticide controlled the bugs, but nothing could rein in the now superfluous toads. In 82 years, they have spread across the northern part of Australia, along the coast and into the interior. All that appears likely to stop them from occupying the entire country is the fact that much of the interior is dry, and Australia is less warm in the south than in the north. Amphibians need to keep moist, and cane toads seem unable to tolerate prolonged periods of temperatures colder than about 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

There are Aussie cane toad lovers and very many virulent Aussie cane toad haters. Methods of large-scale extermination fail. No one knows what to do.

How far the toads spread in the United States depends on how they adapt to cold. Cinnamon Mittan--whose name is pronounced with the accent on the second syllable of “Mittan,” which makes it less Christmasy but still memorable--is working on a Ph.D. thesis at Cornell University that examines their cold tolerance. Studies in Australia have shown that cane toads at the front line of the invasion seem to be evolving characteristics different from those of cane toads not at the front line. The front-liners develop longer legs, stronger leaps, and the habit of moving in straighter lines. That is, there seems to be a special type of pioneer Aussie cane toad, more athletic and bold than the cane toads that find a comfortable place to stay and don’t push on. Mittan’s thesis, based on research done in Australia at the University of Sydney, will try to determine if similar changes are taking place in Florida cane toads with regard to cold.

Aside from a few outliers, no cane toads have been found in Florida north of DeLand, a city about 45 miles north of Orlando. For her study, Mittan collected cane toads from the northern part of their Florida range and cane toads from the southern part and compared how each group reacted to cold. After getting them accustomed to a moderate temperature in a lab, she then subjected them briefly to colder conditions. She measured a toad’s ability to tolerate cold by noting whether, once chilled, it could still right itself after she had turned it upside down. Preliminary results seem to show that the northern group of toads can take cold better than the southern group.

Rich in promise, sunshine, and deception, Florida extends its shaky gangway into the waters of the south, and lots of flora and fauna scramble aboard. As I traveled around the state, my interest in cane toads wasn’t everybody’s. But it did seem as if most people I talked to felt they were about to be overrun by something. A woman in Everglades City complained about the mangroves (which are native) taking over the city’s shoreline, and the Brazilian pepperbushes (which aren’t) colonizing her yard so that she could barely keep them back. Three men and two little boys fishing from a bridge in the Picayune Strand State Forest, near the Everglades, asked Wilson and me, when we stopped to talk, if we had seen any deer. We had, but none out there. The men then said that cougars--cougars!--had eaten up all the area’s deer, so there weren’t any more for the locals to hunt.

Torpedo grass, lionfish, monitor lizards, Japanese climbing ferns, iguanas, Caesar’s weed, brown anoles, and (recently) the mosquito that carries the Zika virus--­Florida is swarmed upon from land, sea, and air. At Highlands Hammock State Park, near Sebring, I happened on Andrew Dupuis, a park ranger for whom cane toads are just one of his worries. The Cuban tree frog, a large invasive whose aggressiveness calls into question the survival of several species of native Florida tree frogs, is common in the park, and Dupuis goes out looking for it. When he catches Cuban tree frogs, he puts them in a bag and removes them. He said that most of the fish in the waterways that run through the park are now jewel cichlids and other invasives from Africa. “Yesterday I picked up nine walking catfish that were walking out of our parking lot,” he said, imitating the fish’s elbow-crawl. The catfish are not native, either.

Probably the best known of Florida’s modern-day invasives, the Burmese pythons of the Everglades, also arrived via the pet trade. People rarely see the pythons, and scientists are still learning about their secretive lives in the swamps. Their huge effect on the ecosystem can be inferred from the drop in the Everglades’ small-mammal population, but their physical, visible appearance occurs mainly on the rare occasions when one is run over on a road.

Crows, ravens, and blue jays sometimes learn to kill toads by turning them over and eating them belly first, thus avoiding the poison. Ants can get under them and consume them from that direction. However, these kinds of predation are rare. No expert I talked to has ever seen a wild animal attack a cane toad. As with many animals, humans are its default chief predator.

Given that situation, you would think there would be a lot of exterminators in Florida specializing in cane toads. In fact, all the exterminators I asked said they knew about cane toads and had received requests to remove them, but none actually did that work. The consensus among them was that nobody knew how to get rid of cane toads; killing a bunch of them almost never meant that they had been removed. A pest-­control service manager I met said, “If you don’t want cane toads getting in your house, make sure your porch screens don’t have holes in them. That’s about all you can do. There’s no poison for them that I know of. In fact, they make it hard sometimes for us to use these bait stations we put out for rats and mice. The toads will go in the bait-station door and eat the poison bait, which has no effect on them because it’s designed for warm-blooded animals. Then more toads will pack in there until it’s so full no more can fit in. When I open the bait station to check it the toads all come out, doing just fine.”

Things are getting away from us. What do we do about tomorrow? Florida will become hotter, as will everyplace else, and then why wouldn’t the toads move north? At the moment, the lighted scoreboard seems to read: advantage toads.