#i have 4.5 chapters left so as long as they don't all come in over 7777 words for literally no reason

[tragedycoded]

Royston gave me 2,287 words today.

91,025 is the updated word count.

Next chapter is the fucking climax and I have no idea what's going to happen.

[justhere4kpop]

~Beautiful Stranger~

Chapter 4.5: A Gym Date and a Project

Pairing: Yunho x Reader. (The guys are involved at some point too but not romantically.) NonIdol! AU

Description: A lonely perpetually single grad student working at a museum is approached by a handsome man, he looks expensive. Maybe this is your chance to get swept off your feet. Maybe he wants something else.

Warnings: I don't censor myself so I don't censor the characters, so Language warning.

taglist: @legohwas, @hwaightme, @starillusion13

w/c: ~1339

a/n: Here's part 2 of chapter 4!!!! Again thank you for the time and support, I'd say a month has passed between the two parts, not a huge deal but you know, enough for some artistic choices.

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“You look gorgeous today y/n” Wooyoung chirpped from beside me. “Hello Woo.” “What no, handsome as ever Wooyoung, Thank you for introducing me to the light of my life? I’m totally in love with your best friend Yunho?” “You look great Wooyoung, should have no troubles getting Jem to go home with you after drinks.” “That’s no what I said….how long are you going to stare at this blank canvas?” “It’s not…entirely blank.” I sighed. “It’s painted white.” “Still having trouble on your final? Maybe you need a little-” he thrusts his hips slightly at me. “Inspiration.” “Ew stop. No-” “All our favorite painters have used sex and their partners as great inspiration for their pieces some even in the museums you stare at all day.” “It was one time.” He gasped. “You’ve been dating for 4 months and only slept together once?! I’m calling Yunho immediately.” Twice…don’t let him know that. “Wooyoung it’s not that serious. I’m the one saying no.” “Why? Was he bad?” “No, he was….fantastic….but I…I don’t know that stuff makes me I don’t know it’s not that I don’t want to but I don’t want him to think that’s all I want…it’s hard for me to explain, I’ve also been busy with work with the new exihibit coming in and we’re having to get everything ready and, I don’t know I just…I’m a bad partner aren’t I?” “Is this all because of your ex? You know-” “He’s no like that I know.” I sighed. “I was going to say you’re more to him than you know. You should see your name in his phone. It’s surrounded by hearts and I think there’s a nickname in there something like ‘Love Shot’” he chuckled. “You play one EXO song around a guy while you’re getting ready and suddenly you’re saved in his phone as Love Shot.” “And what’s yours for him?” “…….Bear Hug…. “Is it actually?!” “Shhh! It was for like a week. I change it because I don’t know, we don’t call each other anything besides like…babe….and I thought Bear Hug was cute, I didn’t know about the Love Shot thing stop…he did not.” “He did, he said he’s going to change it soon but he likes it.” “I’m going to kill myself.” My phone started ringing….of course with the sound on. “Is that-?!” “SHHH! Hi you…” I blushed. “Hi, is that Wooyoung in the back?” “Yeah he’s bothering me over my final project.” “The blank canvas?” “It’s painted white…..” “I’m going to the gym….want to come?” “Yes.” I hastily said, anything to get out of this situation, no matter what it was. “Great I’ll pick you up-” “From my place, I need to change.” I stopped him from saying school, I didn’t need Wooyoung and him to start talking. “See you soon.” “Yeah, I’m leaving now.” I hung up. “Bear Hug.” Wooyoung smirked. “Shutup.” I left.

Somehow I made it back in record time, I put on the best pair of black workout leggings I had grabbed a water bottle and put my hair up, start cute…look terrible after. Right? I got his text that he was outside before anyone could question where I was going or why I looked like I was going to workout. Right as Liz started asking I was out the door. Great timing. “Hi” I breathed out getting in his car. “Hi.” he smiled and leaned over the center to peck my lips. “Missed you.” “You saw me for dinner like 4 days ago.” “And? Your pictures don’t talk back to me like you do.” “Oh so you like me being a brat.” “Oh absolutely.” he smiled. “Noted.” Now I don’t know how many of you have seen an incredibly attractive man who happens to be your boyfriend who may or may not be a sculpture work out before…but let me tell you I don’t think I had a single safe for work thought. “You’re staring again Tiny.” he smirked as he wiped his face. “Mmmhmm.” I nodded and then processed. “Oh sorry.” I blushed. “No need, glad I can bring you along, especially if you stare at me like that.” he winked. “Dinner?” “Oh sure.” I smiled. “Nothing-” “Nothing fancy, don’t worry….sometimes rich people like Pizza and Fried Chicken too.” he smiled. We got cleaned up and he placed an order for pick up so we could eat at his place. He, being the gentleman he is, went in to get the food and then drove to his. “Oh a nice townhouse I see.” I smiled. “I don’t need anything huge, but if I can comfortably afford a little more space than necessary why not, plus means I have room if something happens.” he winked at me again. “And just what is that supposed to mean?” I chuckled at him. “Means if we’re still in love in 6 months I might be coming home to you every night.” he scooped me into him and kissed me before unlocking the door ushering me in.

After dinner he went to go clean up and find a change of clothes for me, in case I wanted to get out of these sweaty clothes. I think it’s just an excuse to make me stay longer. “See one you like?” he smiles coming up to me. “I mean you have quite the collection.” I scoffed looking at the wall of art he had. “I mean theres…Picasso, Degas…these are amazing.” “I actually just liaison for my uncle, they’re copies anyways, he sells them as such don’t worry. But he likes having photos of them looking nice so we hang up the first one to display, you know?” “Wow, they’re amazing copies.” “And this one is for when Wooyoung is finished with the Gaugain, I asked him to paint one for me…” he pointed to an empty frame on the wall. “I wanted to remember the first day we met, all over a vase of flowers.” he smiled and squeezed my side. “So you sell copies and??” “And?” “I mean come on, you’re rich and have stayed that way…are you sure you’re not a Mafia member?” I smiled. “Oh, there’s my secret, I work for the Mafia and plan heists to steal art, there is no rich uncle.” he laughed when I started laughing. “Well too bad I guess I have a type then.” “What do you mean?” he looked at me. “My ex was in a motorcycle gang? If you could call it that honestly. He mostly just rode around as loud as possible to piss people off.” I shrugged. “Sounds great.” “Yeah…until he pissed off an actual gang and they broke into my house…they just smashed some stuff but it was all mine.” “Here?” he looked at me concerned and turned me towards him. “No no before grad school, I’ve been single for a very long time.” “I’m sorry, you can call me if you ever feel in danger, I’ll be there.” he cupped my cheek. “Well not danger but maybe with my final? I’m really stuck on what to do.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“Maybe you’re just not thinking big enough, maybe make the canvas bigger, stretch out, why are you limiting yourself?” “Huh?” “Make it bigger take up the whole floor, wall, room, don’t conform to the space, force yourself in, make the room make room for you. Baby you can make it as big as you want.” he smiled. “Let yourself be in the space, make others notice you first. Be you.” “Make it bigger?” “As big as you want…make it you….make it your story.” I pulled him down and kissed him. It was then that I got the idea. Make it my story.

Maybe Wooyoung was right, maybe I needed a little “inspiration.”

“You’re going to help me.” I smiled at him. “We’re going to rent out the studio space overnight and I want you to help me paint it.” “Paint what?” he said breathlessly. “Our story.”

Prev

[lizzybeth1986]

I don't think you play TRR/TRH anymore but you should see what they did to Kiara in the newest chapter. It's so dumb and makes me so angry, especially considering the current climate of events. I've already seen people on Reddit be like "but we helped her overcome her trauma" (we didn't lol) and someone called her the c-word, very classy. Honestly PB's been low key racist in the past but all the stuff right now makes it high key...

(Apologies for the long post and not being able to place this under a cut)

I'm pretty glad I got these anons because truth be told I wasn't sure how many people - besides the few that I already knew were constantly speaking about Kiara's treatment in the books - would care enough to ask any questions about this. Most of the posts I saw expressed a disturbing eagerness to throw her under the bus, without exploring nuance or asking questions, and at this point I'm not very surprised.

I've always maintained that the treatment for Kiara is what happens when both the writers and the fandom are heartless, and these past few weeks have only been proof of that.

There are questions you could raise about this finale re: Kiara - questions almost no one seems to bother asking. I have three:

1. In this Coventus Nobilis...how is it that I see four Heads of House, and only one heir? 

2. If Kiara - who is not head of house - is supposed to represent Castelserraillian instead of her father Hakim (who presides over that estate), why do I not see Madeleine? Why do I not see Penelope? 

3. Why are we suddenly seeing Adeleide  popping up out of practically nowhere to rep Krona/Fydelia, and Landon conveniently rep-ping Portavira?  

Some of the answers to these questions lie in the questions themselves. Why else would Madeleine and Penelope not be present in this meeting - if it weren't to purposely distance them from this awful moment? After all, both of them have inbuilt subplots ready for the next book that would require interactions with the core group. How else do you think the writers could ensure we kept coddling them and pandering to them in Book 3, except by distancing them from this "betrayal"?

Why else would the narrative choose to pit Kiara - the lone woman of colour we'd been shitting on for most of this series - against Olivia - the white woman who has been given innumerable individual PoV scenes and her own mini-book (and whose reputation we had to help rebuild in said mini book whether we cared about her stupid duchy or not). 

Why else would they force Kiara to alert us mere minutes before the meeting begin, if not to distract us with crumbs ("See? At least we wrote her as warning you. Of course we don't hate her!"). 

Why else would you have Olivia and Kiara pitted against each other like this - if not to show these two women side by side, on opposing ends -  and compel us to believe that the white woman we spent 4.5 books propping up and pampering, is the most loyal one.  When in fact we have done absolutely nothing to deserve any fucking loyalty from Kiara or her family to begin with! (Ezekiel and his white bride notwithstanding).

What we finally got as a result, was a narrative that (as @queen-of-effing-everything summed it up when I discussed this with her) in one full sweep "glorifies Olivia, shields Madeleine and Penelope and sets up Kiara". Very few of us even noticed. And even if we did notice, is there any guarantee that we would care??

Remember how I mentioned in my last ask that I wished we expanded the same energy that we did with Aurora, to speak up against the ill-treatment of other black characters? Kiara was undoubtedly one of those.

After this, we as a fandom will speak very easily now of her "betrayal". We will call her the b-word and the c-word. We will boast of how we will "take her down" along with Adeleide and Landon and Bartie Sr. We'll boast about how we "never liked her" to begin with, as if doing so required some...idk exemplary foresight. We will make memes about how Olivia was "the only bitch we ever respected". We will make huge, sweeping claims about how Kiara was our "friend" and how (as you've mentioned, anon) we "helped her overcome her trauma" (!!!!) and claim by that token that  we were entitled to good treatment from her. I'm pretty sure when TRH3 finally comes out, her every word and action will be screenshot, put up on blogs, mocked and torn down just so we can write essays on how awful she is. 

Yet I saw very little of this energy in Book 3, where the MC could first emotionally manipulate her into supporting the Unity Tour, and where we actively suspected her  at a time when she was traumatized. At most there was some lukewarm acknowledgement of how she "deserves better", all while people still continued to write fanfic that positioned her as creepy and obsessed and villainous.  Almost no one had a problem with Savannah not acknowledging Kiara's earlier support of her, and in fact I'd seen posts that clubbed her with the other ladies of the court who likely "treated Savannah badly". Her father Hakim was made to join the tour alongside her by default, without the expectations that Landon/Emmeline and Godfrey/Adeleide were allowed to have, and the fandom was mysteriously silent about Hakim being made to "bow to his knees" in a way the others did not have to. Very few people even bothered to  notice or talk about how often Penelope was allowed to hold the MC's baby, or how Kiara was never really allowed to hold her even once. Which "friend" treats someone like this??

When I finally published this essay on the treatment meted out to Kiara especially in Book 3, what I got was a lot of neat, but ultimately hollow, little platitudes about how Kiara "deserved better" (How and in what way? Who knows, who cares). Out of those many many people who reblogged and responded, only a handful held the MC and Drake in particular (and Maxwell, who thought it appropriate to joke about "one suspect down") accountable for choosing to suspect and interrogate just her, and for showing ZERO remorse in forcing her to reopen those wounds. How is it that we can judge Kiara for this latest "betrayal", yet pretend that the MC and Drake had nothing to do with the pain THEY caused to her? How is it that this fandom was so fired up over her comments, yet would have such a weak, muted, carefully-generalized response to the screenshots where Drake was openly suspecting her and optionally  minimizing her trauma? 

Following that, why should we be entitled to good treatment from Kiara when we never really gave her even half as much?? Why is it so easy to divorce characters from their words and actions in Drake/MC/Maxwell's case, but so hard for a character like Kiara? (One may claim this is because Drake and Maxwell are potential co-protagonists, but the aforementioned essay already proves that you as a main character can get punished for not treating a mere side character with kindness).

Another thing that fascinates and repulses me even further is how the fandom has created myths around this one character, and how PB has constantly leaned into these "characteristics" even though the text itself tells an altogether different story:

1. Kiara is a snob. This is especially hilarious considering that she is established in Book 2 as being the only person who befriended Savannah before her departure and cared about what happened to her when she left. Never once in the books has she looked down on us for class-related issues, or outright mocked people for not knowing the languages she knew. In fact, she was the first person to acknowledge our skills if we showed any before Lythikos in Book 1. On the other hand, Penelope can be uppity and look down on us in Book 1 (there is even a dialogue option in Chapter 10 that leads to her calling us a "commoner wench") if we don't do well, and yet she's a cinnamon roll.  Olivia can engage in snobbish , entitled behaviour without the fandom having a problem just because she's their favourite. Madeleine can look down on us and pretend for 3/4ths of the social season that we're not worth her time yet somehow Kiara is the snob. Okay. Okay. 😐

2. Kiara is "obsessed with" Drake and constantly comes on to him. This is said by the same group of people who saw Olivia fucking Nevrakis plant a WHOLE FUCKING SMACKER on Liam's mouth, and said..nothing. Kiara on the other hand, has admired Drake's abs once, mentioned she'd always liked Drake once, spoken normally to him about his sister once, flirted with him once (Paris tea party), and ordered a wine from him when he was bartending. In the next book she either looks at him wistfully or admires his suit. Yet somehow she's the creepy, annoying, stalkerish. Okay. Ooookay. 😑

(This one was particularly damaging, because post the TRR3 hiatus, all efforts from PB were focused on reversing Kiara's position as an alternative LI. This included "confirming" on livestream that her affections were one-sided, at a time when Olivia was finally allowed to have some romantic moments with a single Liam, pushing forward a buildup scene to Drake's eventual secret wedding that had him acting extremely rude and confrontational to Kiara mere minutes after suspecting her (while she was expressing joy at his upcoming wedding in his playthrough!!!), and involving a subplot where he openly and by default suspected her. Sure, he spends a minute to be nice to her and chat about trauma if the MC chooses. But that's like a drop of sewage water floating in an ocean of shit).

3. Kiara Pretended to Be Our Friend And Then Dropped Us: This is false. Kiara only ever promised to put in a good word for us to the rest of the court, no more, no less. And she fulfilled that promise. Otherwise she never pretended to be friends with us nor made friendly overtures either way. In fact if you're going to accuse anyone of duplicity, you have Penelope and Madeleine. Yet somehow Kiara is the dishonest one. Okay. Okay. 🙃

4. Kiara Was Insensitive To Penelope and Didn't Understand Her. I'm not sure how Kiara is supposed to magically understand something that her friend isn't telling her. Plus this argument deliberately leaves out the fact that she stood up for Penelope when people chose to be mean to her, and even explained to the MC that she employs "tough love" because she can't always be around to protect Penelope. It also leaves out how one-sided this friendship is and how Kiara is made to do most of the heavy work in this friendship. Meanwhile, at Kiara's most difficult time period, in Castelserraillian, Penelope says absolutely nothing as the MC forces Kiara to join the Unity Tour, while making bedroom eyes at Kiara's brother. In fact the only reason Kiara's brother even exists is to give Penelope a love interest. The Kiara-Penelope friendship practically revolves around Penelope. I have never really seen Penelope look out for Kiara or attempt to actually support her in any way, and Kiara was the one who got the knife wounds. Yet somehow I'm supposed to believe that Penelope's the better friend of the two. Suuuuure. 😡

And this steaming pile of crap doesn't just make its way into shitposts and short opinion posts. It creeps into fanfic and fandom opinions. It finds its way in the tags and in other social media. It eventually even finds its way into the books, even though nothing in the earlier narrative ever really supported these extremely stale takes. 

Because PB didn't care for Kiara the way they cared for their white characters, they had no problem framing her narrative the way this fandom so desparately wanted it. Book 3 has the MC claim behind her back that Kiara is stuck-up and acts like knowing ten languages makes her better than everybody else, even though this is not backed up by the text, and in fact you will never see any acknowledgement of how Madeleine forced Kiara to make herself sound "exotic" in Book 2, or of how Madeleine and the MC (optionally) could downplay or question her skills unless they wanted to use her. Also, Penelope is never allowed to be talked about like that no matter what she's done. PB even had a scene (in the Hana playthrough) where they aggressively retconned the events of Madeleine's bachelorette party, where Kiara supposedly shouted at Penelope until the latter cried, and Madeleine was the one "having fun". Kiara was literally being thrown under the bus to make Madeleine look better. Madeleine. Imagine that. Madeleine.

Given how desparate the fandom was to nitpick and overdramatize everything Kiara said and did, is it any wonder that the team got away with the writing they gave her in Book 3? Considering that all the false arguments I stated above have made a resurgence in the past few weeks or days...is it any wonder that the only "support" this fandom is capable of re: Kiara, is lukewarm platitudes, cold takes and rank hypocrisy??

Yes, we can hold PB solely/largely  accountable for the treatment meted out to Kiara now. They made these choices over and over, and continue to do so, while tossing us occasional crumbs of faux-sweet behaviour from the MC. And they did this in insidious ways, which were so hard to catch that even a Kiara stan like me had to observe multiple playthroughs just to unravel even half of what they'd done.

But let's not pretend a huge chunk of the fandom was just as responsible for this - with their unfounded opinions, their disgusting bias, their favouritism of white characters, their refusal to observe anything besides their favourites, and their godawful fanfiction where Kiara is a creep or evil or killing the virtuous main character. Out of the huge body of fanwork that I've seen for TRR that features Kiara - at least 90% of it features her stalking Drake, or harming the MC (particularly the Drake MC), or in cahoots with the villains, or generally being referred to as a creep (why Olivia, who kissed Liam without his consent in Book 1 and was entitled enough to be angry about him not returning her feelings in TRH1, never got this sort of writing - I fail to understand). There is a tremendous gap between the vitriol dumped on her when she does something the MC doesn't like, and the milquetoast response when harm is done to her. There have been times when I've had to comb through pages and pages of hate just to read even one positive post on Kiara in her own goddamn tag.

When the next book arrives, I know you folks will continue to gas up the white women in this book every chance you get, and mask your racist vitriol for characters like Kiara (and Hana, let's not forget the way y'all treat Hana) behind the same self-righteous judgements and the same tired, stale takes. I know that PB - despite what I will still believe is their hollow promises today - will write every single one of those stale takes into existence. All because it will be "justified", because Kiara is a "bad person" or "untrustworthy" or "fake". Whatever. Y'all can stick to Olivia The Black Hole and babysit Madeleine and Penelope, I guess. Kiara always deserved better than these writers and most of this fandom anyway.