#i would want to find her diaries and figure out what all her songs are really about bc i’m nosey like that

[phoebehalliwell]

Okay fun question. If you can swap bodies with any celeb in the world (like on the show) who would it be?

ooh like who would i want to play/be? i mean in the ideal world julian mcmahon lmao bc i would get to be tormented, wear nice coats, kiss phoebe, and date shannen. like. what more can a gal ask for?

[greynatomy]

da da da n da da

leah williamson x reader

what can she not do?

literally didn’t know what to title this

whenever i hear this song i think of the princess diaries

———

“Hey, babe!”

“Yeah?” You hear her call out.

“Can you come here for a bit?”

Leah comes into the room, sweat dripping down her face.

“Whats up?”

“I’ve got this song I just came across after how long and honestly I forgot about it.” You grab a guitar from the wall. “Would you like to hear it?”

—

The team was out and about the training center doing their own thing. Leah, not knowing what to do this on pastime, spotted Jen’s guitar at her cubbie. Carefully picking it up, she sits at a her spot, remembering what you taught her.

—

You and Leah were sat in your backyard seating, enjoying the fresh air.

“This one right here is a C chord.”

You each had a guitar, Leah asking you to teach her not long after you’d played the song for her for the first time.

“Like this?” She asks, eyes concentrated on her fingers.

“Move your middle finger down a string. There. Now strum one time for me.”

She strums, the sound was a bit choppy, but not bad for the first time.

“Hey! That’s wasn’t bad at all. You’ll be a two instrument playing girl in no time!”

A blush creeps up on her face, the compliment making her feel a bit giddy.

—

She starts strumming the guitar exactly like how you taught her, stumbling a couple of times.

Da da da n da da, Da da da n da da

—

Da da da n da da da

You were in your studio, finally recording the song that’s been in the archives for so long. Leah wanted to come along to see the process. Intrigued, Leah asked what it felt like to be in the booth.

“Why don’t you find out yourself?”

Leah comes into the booth with you, helping her put the headphones on and giving her forehead a kiss. Exiting the booth, you take a seat next to your producer.

“Try the intro for me, babe.” You press a button, talking to her through the headphones. Turning to your producer, you talk to him on mute to Leah. “Record this for me, yeah. Might come in handy.”

—

“Hey, what song is that?”

“Fuckin’ hell Jen! Scared the shit out of me.” Leah flinches, placing a hand on her chest.

“Sorry.” Jen winces. “But what song is that? Never heard of it before.”

“It’s just something the missus wrote.”

A few days later, the team was over at your’s and Leah’s house for a little listening party. You never liked to do the whole extravagant listening parties that most artists do and wanted to keep it intimate with your friends and family. Ever since you met Leah, the Arsenal team became your family too.

“Alright. So this song has been in the back burner for quite some time and recently rediscovered it. So without further ado.” You click play on your laptop.

You have your eyes on Leah the whole time. From the first note, there’s a recognition in her eyes, eyebrows furrowed trying to figure out what it is. She listens to the song intently, as do the others, mouthing the words.

As the song ends, everyone was saying their praises, cheering you on, but Leah, Leah had tears in her eyes.

“Was that- was that me? Did you put me in it?” She stutters, using the sleeve of her jumper to wipe her tears.

“Well, yeah. You’re my muse so why not add my muse to the song.” You shrug, heat creeping up your face.

She gets up from where she sat, grabbing your face to bring you into a kiss.

“Awww- Ow.”

“Kyra don’t ruin the moment.”

[eliotbaum]

Hi Eliot! First of all, I wanted to tell you I love your art so so much!! You inspire me so much as an artist and you and Viv are one of the main reasons I'm backing The Book of Devotion Kickstarter!

I am also a DnD player and I wanted to ask you, do you ever feel disconnected from your characters? I am currently playing a campaign set in Ravnica from Magic the Gathering and I absolutely love it (100% recommend as a setting as well) and I love my character Daphne, but for some reason the past few sessions I've been feeling very withdrawn and unhappy with my RP choices, I feel Daphne very far away from me If that makes sense? Have you ever experienced something similar? Would love to hear your thoughts on this!!

Thank you!!

Wah thank you so much!!! 🥺 it's SUCH a fun concept I hope you'll enjoy it! Oh man, I'm sorry to hear you're feeling disconnected. It's such a bummer when something that got us so immersed and invested feels more distant. I've only played one campaign with the same character, so I'm not sure if I can give the best advice here. But yes, I do know the unfortunate phenomena! I'm actually struggling with the same thing right now so maybe we can figure it out togethaa. I'll answer more in-depth under the cut but if anyone else has tips, do feel free to drop them.

So yes, this all sounds familiar. Recently I'm just "going through the motions" of playing a character, without being immersed in them. Even if we still very much enjoy everything about the character or the game. Personally, I tried to pinpoint where this could come from. Is it an ingame thing, or is it something outside? (stress kills my creative drive) Has this campaign been going on for a while, have there been any exciting things happening with Daphne? Have you had fun opportunities for her to shine, was there anything that moved you? Just throwing some questions out there to help the wheels turning. I think bringing this up with your group and DM is also worth considering. Being invested in roleplay and your character is such a major part of the game (to me!) and maybe there's something where everyone can help. Be that giving you opportunities for dramatic or heartfelt moments, or simply hyping each other and their characters up around the game, not even just during sessions. But, onto the actual things that have helped me: I found a song that feels very Kasper to me, and I always try and listen to it before a session to get back into my PC's mindset and get that special spark and feeling back. Deep immersion mode... I also find creating art or writing around the character also very rewarding and exciting. I often see folks write a diary in character, or simply write up how their character felt after a session. I did that for a while after work -- and rereading diary entries with some very dramatic sombre music in the background brought a bit of that connection back, haha. Rereading notes for next sessions, or old ones is also worth a shot. What's your character all about and what's important to them? In the same vein I like to indulge in some Imagining, Daydreaming of past and future RP moments that excite me. Of course, all while listening to dramatic music...

Anyway I hope either you did figure it out in the meantime, or this helps just a little. Wishing us all to have fun, be crazy for our little OCs and sharing exciting moments and stories with each other.

[gender-trash]

hi!

not to be abrupt or vaguely out of the blue, but do you have any fun recent book/music recs? you seem like you like cool stuff and my to read/ to listen list is looking sad. or film/tv recs anything goes.

yeah absolutely, i am basically always delighted to rec books/music!!

books (fiction):

the goblin emperor: i read this for the first time recently and was just completely charmed by it. recommended if you like plotty court intrigue fantasy with a good-sized pinch of conlang. me @ maia (the protagonist/pov character):

the scholomance trilogy: not exactly a deep cut, at least among tumblr users who read fantasy, but on the off chance you haven't read it: it's good.

a tale for the time being: okay so i don't normally into litfic but once in a blue moon i'll pick some up and it'll obliterate me. alternates between the pov of a japanese teenage girl's diary and the middle-aged author-insert character in british columbia who finds the diary after the girl tosses it into the pacific ocean; plays with time in a fun way. subtle magical realism my beloved.

(and there's no such thing as an easy job has a similar subtle magical realism vibe, but is overall much less of a tearjerker. highly recommend.)

several people are typing: a guy gets isekai'd into his work slack; the story is told entirely via slack messages. this is a super quick read, and very funny. especially if you have a job that involves using slack.

the machineries of empire series: aauauahahahahgggh i need one of those mspaint drawings of a stick figure covered in blood to describe my feelings on this one. fucked-up science fiction (you... COULD call it lesbian space atrocities, i suppose!) that drops you in on the deep end trying to figure out what all these words mean and then you slowly figure out that it's technical terminology describing the torment nexus that powers society. killer shit.

song for the basilisk: admittedly i did not read this particularly recently but i will take any opportunity to rec it. patricia a. mckillip writes really good high fantasy (check out how many times she shows up in the mythopoeic awards list!) and, of all the books of hers that i've read, this is my favorite.

danmei (chinese boys-love novels) in english translation is like half of what i've been reading lately -- my all time favorite is the scum villain's self-saving system, which has eaten my entire brain (it's good in itself; it's great for chewing on in the form of meta and fan activity), but i also recommend guardian (the third and final volume of the official english translation is the book i most recently finished reading) and devil venerable also wants to know (no official translation but this fan TL is quite decent; i bound myself a physical edition, so i also have a typeset PDF i'd be happy to DM you if you're interested.)

books (nonfiction):

(going to be briefer here, since you specifically asked for "fun" books and my nonfiction taste is a little unhinged.)

one of my current reads is michael szonyi's the art of being governed -- this is an academic monograph about how military families in the ming dynasty handled their obligations to the state. during the ming dynasty, it was possible for families to designate themselves "military families", which was a tax-advantaged status but obligated them to provide one (1) man to serve in the army at all times (so if he dies or deserts, eventually the family back home would have to cough up another one). (and, by "serve in the army", often what is meant is "you are employed by the military to farm, which is more or less what you would have done back home anyway.")

if you're the kind of guy who reads patio11's bits about money or enjoys ssc book reviews, you will likely also enjoy dan davies' the unaccountability machine, which is a brief exploration for a popular audience of the (dysfunctional) system dynamics of large institutions like corporations and governments. very accessible and nontechnical, but with pointers to the Deep Lore if you subsequently want to seek it out.

the world of the shining prince: this is a book about what it was like, culturally, to be an aristocrat in the heian period. since i have never in my life come within either 1,000 miles or 1,000 years of being a heian period aristocrat i find this deeply fascinating. however, my friends and family have started laughing at me whenever i bring up information about the heian period. read at your own risk.

sei shōnagon's pillow book: sei shōnagon was a heian period aristocrat! she seems to have enjoyed it, but it is something of a shame that she died approximately a thousand years too early to make a tumblr account, because otherwise i feel she would have LOVED blogging. i'm reading the penguin edition (trans. meredith mckinney) and it is, fortunately, quite thoroughly footnoted, but i haven't read any other translations so i don't know if there is a better one out there.

music:

today what i was listening to on loop was the chainsaw man ost, which is a mixture of, like, the usual sort of j-rock you find in a shōnen soundtrack and slow-paced atmospheric stuff, and somehow it works really well together. recently i've also been listening to this playlist a lot because it's the playlist i made for a fic i'm currently writing.

other songs i've been listening to this summer, in no particular order:

sungazer is music theory youtuber adam neely's jazz band; lately they've been experimenting with hypertuplets and i'm super into it.

sometimes i find electric six's vocalist really irritating and sometimes it's exactly the juice my brain needed, and i have no idea what controls this. possibly the phase of the moon.

spotify recommended me this song and i listened to it on loop for like an entire work day and then clicked on the artist name to learn more, which i didn't. googled the song just now while making this post and apparently it was in a video game? the more you know.

i've been listening to irontom a lot this summer (and, um, a lot of similar music that i eventually stuffed in a playlist entitled "music with blown-out audio channels"). it's just, you know, the vibe.

(if that's not enough, here's my "summer 2024" spotify playlist. go ham!)

film/tv:

somehow, "watching things" is a skill it is possible to be bad at, and baby i'm winning last place.

the one tv show i've managed to watch in i think the past four months is chainsaw man, mentioned above. personally i really like well-animated shōnen with a cool soundtrack and i don't care that much about its other qualities; however, the protagonist is a dipshit teenage boy whose greatest life ambition is to touch a boob, so if this frustrates you you probably won't enjoy it very much.

i really really wish more people would watch legend of hei, a chinese animated film in the same corner of concept-space as studio ghibli. it's cuteeeeeee <3333

maybe someday i'll finally finish watching oh my general, a cdrama (free on youtube!) about a female general (ye zhao) who for reasons gets in an arranged marriage with the emperor's dipshit nephew (zhao yujin). this is peak fucking content because ye zhao is constantly saying gay shit by accident and swanning about being cute/badass in probably-historically-dubious armor. also as with all cdramas the costuming is completely off the shits.

[pbear]

Opinions under the cut. May include spoilers from any of the shows.

Dimension 20 Burrow's End: I didn't manage to finish it before Fantasy High Junior Year started so it's kind of on the back burner for D20 shows. I really enjoy it though. I like that all the PCs are family and that makes for interesting dynamics. It's more scary than Neverafter imo just because taking something normal like nature and messing with it is more creepy. Aabriya does a great job as DM obviously.

Dimension 20 Fantasy High Junior Year: Fantasy High got me into Dimension 20 so I'm very excited for this one. It's going to be interesting to see the Bad Kids' personal struggles and how they deal with them. Episode 2 made me feel bad for what they're going through.

Spy x Family: Spy x Family is always a nice chill show. Season 2 was very good and I liked seeing Yor in action.

Kekkai Sensen/Blood Blockade Battlefront: Trying to find the motivation to continue watching this. I just feel like it isn't going anywhere with the plot or the characters and that's a shame because the concept of Hellsalem's Lot and Libra's members are interesting. They just introduced the threat of vampires so maybe that will pick up and I need to watch a little more, but I'm a little bored.

The Apothecary Diaries: This is what I put Kekkai Sensen on pause for. A little hesitant because most of what I'd seen of it was romance and usually romance only really intrigues me if it's balanced with something else. The palace setting and the different situations that Maomao applies to her apothecary knowledge to are the perfect balance. The romance mostly takes a backseat to it actually. I like Maomao a lot as the protagonist. She's smart and has a realistic take on a lot of things, especially since she's lower class. I enjoy watching her figure things out.

Hazbin Hotel: I watched the pilot last year and got really invested in Hazbin Hotel which is lucky because some people have been waiting much longer to get more of the show. I watched all four episodes the day they were released and liked them a lot. A lot more songs than I thought there would be but I liked most of them. Favorites go to Respectless, Poison, and Stayed Gone. I think episode four was the best because it had the best balance of overlord plot with hotel shenanigans. It think it handled Angel Dust's situation well too. It also made me like Husker a lot more than I thought I would. The voice actors did a great job and the animation was really good.

I do believe you still need to watch the pilot before the stuff on Amazon though. It does a better job of introducing the world, characters, and hotel plot where the new episodes then pick up. I'm not sure if that's what the creators want, but it might be confusing for newcomers to the show if they don't know about the pilot. Very excited to see more Hazbin Hotel though.

[baek-at-it-again95]

Walk The Plank (K.HJ x fem reader)

Chapter 7: Mingi’s Diary

You had grown up hearing tales about the infamous pirate crew ATEEZ—the fearless, power-hungry men that roamed the seas in search of the most valuable treasure they could lay their hands on. You almost didn’t believe the stories your mother had told you as a child...not until you wound up on their ship  

Warnings for this chapter: drinking, violence (unrelated to the drinking)

Previous: Chapter 6, Masterlist

Chapter 7: Mingi’s Diary

"As you know, we will arrive at the New World by tomorrow. We will dock the ship at the smallest bay of Promise Island. I will be giving orders soon, but I wanted you all to know first," Hongjoong says. "And, with that, I would like to propose a toast!" You watch as he and Seonghwa and pour rum into nine glasses that sit on the table in front of you.

The men happily take their share, leaving the last for you to grab. You take it carefully and look back up to see eight pairs of eyes on you. Hongjoong raises his glass. "Let us start by toasting to Y/N, for we would not be here without her." Your cheeks warm without you even having to take a sip of your liquor. 

"Yes, yes, well I would not be here without you, either," you comment sarcastically, a smile taking over you.

"Cheers!" Wooyoung exclaims, clinking his glass with yours before downing his drink. 

Seonghwa raises his glass next. "To the Captain."

Then San.

"To the most amazing crew."

Then Mingi.

"To ATEEZ!" Everyone cheers at the final toast and sips from their glass, you included. 

***

When you decided that you were done drinking for the night, you wandered to the upper deck, searching for some peace. The crew is quite energetic. 

The sun threatens to slip under the waves on the horizon, the orange hue blending with the purple and black of the night sky. It always fascinates you how the sunset looks different every day.

"What are you doing out?" A voice sounds from behind you. A squeak leaves your lips and you turn around to come face to face with Song Mingi. How do they always appear out of nowhere? 

"I am just relaxing before we go to sleep. I quite enjoy the waves at night." Mingi nods. Even in the progressing darkness, you notice the slight pink tint of his cheeks. You are not sure how much he's had to drink.

"Hey, I...what I said about the sacrifice thing earlier..." Mingi's dark eyes avoid yours as he tries to find his words. You almost find it...cute. You shake your head at the thought. 

"I know, Mingi. It was not true."

"Yes. Uh, it wasn't. And I am...sorry for trying to scare you."

"I forgive you. Perhaps you should just think about others next time." He nods. The man before you clearly has some deeper-rooted issues, but now is not the time to pry. "I do not understand why my presence threatens you, but I hope that it will not from this point on." 

"It is not your presence that I fear," he mumbles. "I fear getting close to you and something happening to you. I fear betrayal. I fear a lot of things that I do not care to admit to others." Your heart swells at his confession, grateful that he has chosen to confide in you. You gently take his hand and look up at him. 

"Thank you for admitting that. Sharing what you feel is important, Mingi." 

"Thank you, Y/N." You nod.

"Now, let's get some rest. We arrive tomorrow," you whisper excitedly, taking his hand and leading him to the crew's quarters.

***

Your surroundings are fuzzy as you navigate through a dark meadow.

You look around you to see eight figures moving forward, just as you do. "Hongjoong?" You call out. None of the figures stop or turn around.

"Seonghwa?" You try. Still no response. Straining your eyes to see ahead, you notice a thick fog. Is it...the mist that Hongjoong had told you about? The one that gives illusions of your fears? "We need to turn around!"

When no one responds, you grow frustrated, stopping in your tracks. Someone that appears to be Mingi turns around and grabs your clothing, continuing to drag you forward. "No! Please, I don't want to go!" You cry, struggling to escape his grip. You make no progress, and suddenly the mist is engulfing you. "Mingi! Stop!" You pull away, finally freeing yourself of his grip. You can't see anything. Or anyone. 

Okay, just breathe. Move forward and you'll make it out eventually. 

Your footsteps are silent as you trudge through the mist; the only thing you're able to hear is the pounding of your heartbeat in your ears. A figure moves up ahead and you jolt forward, calling out to them. "Hey! Over here!" From his back, you think it's Hongjoong. When you place a hand on his shoulder and whirl him around, you feel unsettled. He has the same face as your captain, but his complexion is pale, sickly even. His one uncovered eye bores into you, colorless and void of life. "Captain?" You shake him and he blinks. Within seconds he shoves you to the ground with anger. 

"Ah!" You grunt as your back hits the grass. Your head feels fuzzy, unclear and unable to think straight. He's not Hongjoong, right? It's the mist...it's getting to you. You push yourself back up and pass Hongjoong, eager to escape the horrors of the mist. With a foggy mind, you trudge on. You haven't the slightest idea how long it's been when you see two more figures beyond you. It looks like...Yunho? And Mingi. Are you exiting the mist? 

"Yunho!" You run up to the tall men, stopping in front of them as Yunho whispers something into Mingi's ear. Mingi's face changes with the reception of Yunho's words, his lips curling into a smirk. "What is it?" you ask, confused by their changes in demeanor. Your heart rate speeds up as Yunho steps toward you. Suddenly you get the feeling that you need to run. You bolt around them, running as fast as your fatigued body can move through the mist. You hear their pounding footsteps behind you, drawing in closer. A hand suddenly grabs your shoulder and pulls you to the ground, the air being taken from your lungs. You can't even scream as Mingi and Yunho stand above you, venomous smiles twisting on their faces.

"Sacrifice her," Mingi says.

***

"Y/N? Y/N!" Wooyoung and San hover above you, Wooyoung's arms shaking your shoulders. 

"I'm...I'm awake!" you exclaim, jolting up and rubbing your eyes.

"You were talking an awful lot in your sleep this morning," San tells you.

"It must have been the dream I was having." You sigh, shivering as pieces of your nightmare flashes through your mind. San nods, smiling. 

"Today is the day!"

"Awwww, she's so cute," Wooyoung fawns.

"Woo." You grumble, shooting him a look. He straightens up and bows, only to come right over to you and lift you out of bed. You squirm against his grip but eventually give up, sighing and relaxing over his shoulder.

When he finally places your feet on the wooden floor, you feel as if you've been awake for hours. "She needs to get dressed, let's leave her alone." Wooyoung tugs on San's arm. They both leave you to yourself and you stretch out widely with your arms above your head. What should you wear? Definitely something that you can easily move around in and get dirty if you're going to search for treasure. 

You march over to your chest of clothing to dig around, eventually pulling out a pair of trousers and a button down. They fit a bit loosely, so you also choose a sash to tie around your waist. This will do nicely. You throw it on along with your black boots. You lastly tend to your hair, maintaining it as best you can before heading above deck. The men are already scrambling about, adjusting sails and preparing for land. 

"Miss Y/N." Hongjoong calls, drawing closer with his confident walk. He wears a beautiful black coat that looks lovely with his eye patch and shiny boots. You feel your heartbeat speed up just at the sight of him. What is up with you lately?

"Captain." You greet him, bowing slightly.

"We will arrive shortly. Bring as little as possible, as we will not be staying on land past nightfall for our safety. If we do not find the treasure while the sun is up, we will return to the ship for the night and venture out again at sunrise."

"Aye, Captain."

"Stay close, doll. I need you safe. Understood?"

You nod, bowing again as he turns on his heels and orders other crew members to prepare the anchor. You look beyond the ship railing closest to you, Promise Island looking just as beautiful as you imagined. The green of the island vegetation is so vibrant, even with its distance.

"Are you excited?"

You turn to meet Jongho, his adorable smile melting your heart. 

"A bit more nervous than excited," you admit.

"Don't worry, Y/N. ATEEZ can handle anything. We'll find that treasure and sail home safe and sound." You return his smile, patting his shoulder.

"You are my treasure. Let's go home now!" You joke, giggling.

"Drop the anchor!" You hear the captain shout. Jongho acts quickly, one arm grabbing the ship railing and the other wrapping around your waist as the force of the anchor tugs against the ship. He pulls you over to the railing and you steady yourself with your hands. Somehow, he is always ready to catch you.

"Suddenly I am very excited. I love having stable ground under my feet," you tell Jongho.

>>chapter 8

[princesscolumbia]

Pride Month 2024 - Day 9

I have had 10 hours of sleep in the last 48...welcome to parenthood.

And now, get ready for a good egg cracking AU!

Return to Recipient

Summary:

Ranma hasn't been feeling right for as long as he can remember, and he just figured that's normal. But after Jusenkyo, and especially after Jusendo, the feeling of "wrongness" has been getting more and more noticeable... ...because he doesn't feel it in his cursed form. He continues to just cope, keeping his struggle to himself, until he finds a letter tucked into his old travel pack addressed to him, written by him, from a 48 hour period that he doesn't remember and nobody will talk to him about.

Notes:

During the writing of 🔞 And at This Point I'm Afraid to Ask 🔞, [NOTE - Yeah, these two are being posted in "most recently updated" order, so the fic that came first is being posted tomorrow for this little calendar event -Helen] I realized I was speed-running Ranma's egg-to-hatched trans journey and made an author's note of that. In the comments for that work, I got a note bemoaning the fact that I didn't spend more time on Ranma's realization, coming out, and social transition as a woman while understanding my reasoning. I replied stating that I needed a good hook, something that hadn't been hammered to death by other authors, and at the time I didn't have anything. I really got it in my head that I should do something, so I posted to Tumblr and started putting it out to the universe that I was Poly Transwoman Author Seeking Story Inspiration and Motivation, in Open Relationship with current WIPs. I was scrolling through the "Ranma 1/2" tag this morning trying to find something I hadn't read when I bumped into Dear Diary by JaquiK. I've read it, of course, and it's short and, for what it sets out to do, good. "Feels like it needs more," says I, "Wish the author would continue it, make something more of it than they did." The little author that lives in my head rent free and looks remarkably like Ranma-chan ran up behind me and socked me in the back of my head, "Dummy! There's your plot hook!" Then she backed a dump truck up and dropped about 3/4 of a story's worth of ideas on me. [*le-gasp* It me! -Christy] With the 2023 holidays in full swing (it's Cyber Monday as I type this) I'm not sure how quickly I'll get to outlining this or getting chapters 2-5 out (my personal metric for whether the author is serious about a work is if they have 5 chapters out. This has been a solid rule of thumb for long-form fiction and hasn't failed me regardless of fandom), but I wanted to get at least chapter 1 out as quickly as possible. Tags will be added as I add more chapters, mostly because my writing process means I'm not sure what tags will apply until I'm writing something that necessitates them. 😋 I hope you enjoy it.

Obviously, at 6 chapters and 35.5k words, I've met my own personal metric for being serious about a work. 😉

This one is a particular pride and joy, and I hope that people reading it are getting the 'gag' of the title and the chapter titles. While not all the chapter titles are home runs, I have put a lot of thought into making them meaningful to the story as a whole. For example, the title itself, "Return to Recipient" is a play on the postal service standard, "Return to Sender" (and, yes, made a cultural signpost by that one song by Elvis). In the case of the "sender" of the letter that kicks the whole fic off in chapter 1 no longer exists. And, yes, I could have gone with the now-standard practice of making "that girl" an alt in the system known as Ranma, but that wasn't what this fic was about. This is about Ranma's transition as prompted by her own self demanding she be true unto. And that version was a result of a dissociative episode caused by injury and never properly treated, requiring Ranma's rapid healing (likely qi assisted) to repair the damage...and part of that damage was the entire mental state triggered by the injury. (And, again, the bigger questions of whether that was a separate entity that deserved a life to live are outside the scope of this fic...or is it? 😉) So if Ranma, theoretically, wanted to return the letter to the sender, she'd be returning it to...herself, the recipient. Therefor, "Return to Recipient."

In the spirit of things being spoilertastic without revealing too much in these posts, I present to you the chapter title list:

Note to Self

Doctor's Note

Passing Notes

A Noteable Occation

Akane One Note

A Note on Shampoo's File

Notes, Beats, and Measures

Back of the Napkin Notes

Notes from Abroad

Navigational Notation

Autographs on Notebook Paper

Veterinary Notes

Bank Notes

A Noteworthy Event

Self-Analysis Notes

Ending on a High Note

Epilogue - [REDACTED]

The blue are already published, enjoyable speculation on the rest is welcome in the notes. 😁

[write-now-ggs]

IU (Soloist)

Wc - 19,200 Video

"Love Poem"

"Love Poem"

As the quiet buzz from the air conditioner hummed in the background you were lost in complete thought as your lovely girlfriend delicately traced her finger tips over your inked skin. The two of you were enjoying each other's presence before you had to leave in a few hours for her work schedule. While you were lost in your mind enjoying the feeling of her on your skin, she was scrolling through her phone. You didn’t even have to look over to know that she was reading comments on your shared social media page. 

When it came to said shared social media page, it was all Jieun’s idea. It felt strange considering she was probably one of the most recognizable figures in the entertainment industry but when it came to something she wanted you just couldn’t say no to her. She had proposed the idea of starting the account over two years ago because as she stated, she wanted a place to record the moments of your relationship. At first when she initially brought the idea up you were completely against it, you were worried that someone would find out who she was and that her public image would be ruined because she was dating you. 

Luckily throughout the lifespan of the account no one has figured out who she was thanks to how surprisingly well she was at disguising herself. You yourself had nothing to hide from the public so you were now unofficially officially the face of the account meanwhile Jieun was the real mastermind behind it. With every picture she took and uploaded she wrote a loving caption to go along with it, all the words that were posted all came from her heart and from the feelings she strongly felt about you. Anyone that stumbled across the account could quickly understand how much this woman loved you and how much she loved to write about you. Oh but just what would happen if those same people realized that the same woman that wrote these loving paragraphs about her girlfriend on social media was the same woman, that dedicated many songs to the same girl, had many hit songs that were constantly reaching the top of the music charts all over the country..? 

The account had managed to amass a pretty huge following for it just being a couple’s public love diary, the attention you had garnered from the account had made you feel a bit uneasy. Your experience with social media before meeting Jieun was that it was a place to keep up with family and friends who you hadn’t seen in a while. You never expected to have thousands of people all over the world waiting on the newest picture from your girlfriend. 

When you first started dating Jieun she had tried her best to explain everything about her lifestyle and career to you but that was much different than living it yourself. You were fine at first with supporting your girlfriend  being in the spotlight, but now that you were thrown under one as well, albeit a much smaller spotlight, you couldn't help but feel some uneasiness in life. You were fine with living an ordinary life and working an ordinary job but now you had to deal with the whole new territory that came with social media. You didn’t consider yourself a social media figure in the slightest but you did have to deal with occasionally getting offers from different companies to sign a contract under them. While you hadn’t done that, you, well more like jieun, had accepted a few small gigs for some modeling content. Your most recent gig was for an online shopping mall that Jieun had often frequented, she had snatched that deal for you in an instant. 

But well I guess all this came with dating the woman that made your heart leap out of your chest everytime she looked at you. You would do anything for her and if that meant having to deal with random fangirls commenting about their favorite imaginary “ships” under your post then so be it. It didn’t seem to bother Jieun so you just rolled with it, even when people would comment big names in the industry as being the second half of the relationship in the pictures. You had felt almost flattered that these random people thought you could be in a relationship with all the names in the comments but still, no one was more perfect for you than Jieun. She was the only person that existed in your eyes. 

It wasn’t until Jieun had started uploading videos of you a few months ago that the comments really started to ramp up on the guessing game of who Jieun was. The videos usually just consisted of her poking or annoying you in some sort of fashion throughout the day with your account's signature black and white filter slapped over it. The videos were really nothing extraordinary that would reveal who Jieun was. Well that was up until she uploaded a video where she was laughing in the background. Soon the comments were filled with people saying she laughed just like “Iu”. When you saw that you instantly panicked and you told her to take the video down. Jieun being the voice of reason had told you that taking the video down would only seem more suspicious and to just give it time, people would soon forget about it. You hated to admit defeat but she was right, soon the comments were filled with other people’s names.

Luckily for the both of you, Jieun’s entertainment company already knew about the account and they were completely behind Jieun. If anything were to happen they were prepared with statements for that situation.

“Don’t move…” Her voice was quiet as it broke into your deep thoughts.

“Hmm, okay..” You hummed in response as you did what she said, which was nothing. You stayed still for her.

You heard her phone’s camera make a noise followed by a satisfied hum from her.

“Am I good to move now..?” You spoke without moving your mouth to emphasize your dedication to not moving for her.

She let out a soft laugh, “Yeah you’re free to move now, silly.” She planted a kiss on your cheek before moving back to finish whatever it was she was doing on her phone.

You leaned over to look at what was keeping her occupied, “What are you up to..?” You saw a picture of your new tattoo on her phone as she typed in a caption. 

“I just thought it would be nice to update everyone on your new art piece.” She looked up at you with the sweetest smile. 

“Ahh I see, you better add in there that you helped me settle on this design.” You looked down at your left wrist where your newest addition to your tattoos sat. It was nothing crazy, just a simple outline of all the continents. 

“I did, and…. Posted.” She smiled as she waited for the influx of comments to hit. 

You watched her from where you were sitting, just adoring the way the light of her phone settled on her face, accentuating all the features you loved about her.

“Oh wow, they really like it. Told you it went really well with your other wrist.” She looked over at you before pointing at the tattoo you had on said wrist, it was a heart that had a simple airplane completing the outline of the heart on the right side. 

“Yeah, you’re always right.” You smiled as you thought about both tattoos. You had gotten the heart a few years before meeting her and now with the irony of dating someone who traveled all over the world to perform sold out shows it couldn’t have been any more perfect. You had originally gotten it because when you were a bit younger, you had a job that had you traveling to different countries all the time. 

Jieun let out a small sigh as she leaned her head on your shoulder, “I want one so bad.”

“Easy, then get one.” You leaned your head against hers. 

“No, you know it’s not that easy for me to just go out and get one.” 

“Hmm, why not..? Plenty of people in the music industry have them.” You spoke in genuine confusion.

“But those artists are different than I am. I have a certain image to uphold. You know this.” She closed her eyes as she spoke to you.

“I know that Jieun, but that shouldn’t stop you from doing something you want. You could always just get a small one somewhere people won't see it.” You paused for a minute before smiling, “Well not too small to where it would look like a little mole.” 

Jieun let out a small chuckle before lightly hitting your arm, “I hate you.” 

“Haha I love you too.”

The two of you sat in comfortable silence before Jieun checked the time on her phone. “Hmm we should start getting ready now, he’ll be here soon.” 

“Oh, sounds good.” 

_

“Are you finished getting dressed..?” You heard her ask as soon as the shower turned off. 

“Yeah, I’m good to go.” You sat on your bed as you waited for her to finish up in the bathroom. 

A few seconds later she walked out with a towel wrapped around herself and another one wrapped around her hair. She stared at what you were wearing before humming to herself.

“What’s wrong..? Do I look bad..?”

“No, far from that. It’s just I have something else I want you to wear.” She walked over to your shared closet and you followed right behind her. She looked around for a bit before finding what it was that she had in mind. “Here it is, try this on instead.” She handed you the piece of clothing before walking out and back to the bathroom.

You did as she said, slipping your other shirt off and putting on the one she gave you. “Oh wow..” You looked at yourself in the mirror and noted the way this shirt exposed your shoulders. 

After a few more minutes Jieun had walked back out of the bathroom in her sweatpants and a random sweater she probably stole from your side of the closet. “Nice, that looks way better than I expected.” She smiled happily like a little girl with a crush. 

“It’s nice, where’d you get it from..?” 

“Oh, you remember that photoshoot you had last week for my favorite online mall..?” 

“Uhm, yeah. Why?” You tilted your head to the side when you couldn’t figure out why she brought that up since she couldn’t go with you to the shoot.

“Well you remember how you took Hanteo with you?” (Her manager) 

“Yeah, you didn’t want me going by myself.” You looked to the side as you tried remembering everything. 

“Well while you were in the middle of shooting, I video called him and he took me on a virtual tour of the set. Then in the back I saw this shirt and I knew it would look beautiful on you. So I had him ask around to see if he could buy the shirt from them. We kept it a secret haha.” She ran her fingers on the fabric of the shirt.

“Oh wow.” You looked down with a lovestruck smile, “Hmm, well why this shirt specifically for today..? You could’ve kept this hidden until we had dinner out together.” 

“Well if you must know, it's because I want to be able to see this whenever I look into the audience today.” She pointed to the tattoo of a paper plane you had on your right shoulder. 

“Oh, I see. Well if it makes my princess happy then I love it. Thank you for the shirt.” You planted a gentle kiss on her lips before pulling away to smile at her. 

Her face immediately flushed red, “Okay let’s go before you make it impossible for me to leave.” She grabbed your hand before pulling you around to the front door. 

You were giggling the entire time she was dragging you to the front door. You put your shoes on then helped her with hers. You both walked out once you had everything you needed. 

Her manager had greeted the both of you when you got into the car.

“Are you ready for today..?” He asked Jieun as he pulled out of your driveway.

“Of course, I always am.” Jieun smiled when you reached to hold her hand in her lap.

“Okay good, well get comfortable the traffic is going to make it a headache to get there.” Hanteo gave the two of you one last smile before looking ahead as he pulled into the road.

The ride to the venue did indeed take longer than you were expecting, luckily you spent the whole trip joking around with Jieun. She kept taking pictures of you from the most random angles while you kept trying to snatch her phone from her hands to take some of her as well. 

After pulling into the back of the venue her manager turned around to tell the two of you that you made it.

“Thank you Hanteo, we appreciate the ride.” You told him before opening your door and holding it so Jieun could step out.

“Of course, that’s what I’m here for.” He stepped out of his own door before walking around the front of the car to take a stack of papers he had in the passenger seat. “I have to go hand these out real quick but you two feel free to head inside.”

“Okay, we’ll see you later then!” Jieun smiled at him before grabbing your hand so you could walk inside together.

“What were those for..?” You asked Jieun about the papers Hanteo had.

“Oh it’s about today's schedule for the show, he has to hand them out to everyone. His email wasn’t working all week so he just decided to physically hand them out. You know how hard headed he is when things don’t work like normal.” 

“Ah I see,” You reached out to open the door to the venue, “After you.” Jieun stepped through the door first and you quickly followed behind her. 

You both walked towards her dressing room, hand in hand, as she told you what she looked forward to the most tonight.

When you both made it to her dressing room she sat in the chair left out for her in front of her makeup station, and you went and sat on the counter near her. You took a few seconds to admire the way she looked at herself in the mirror. When she finally noticed you looking at her in silence she couldn’t help but smile. 

“Why are you looking at me like that..?” She asked you as she looked to see if anyone was around. 

“Like what..?” You smiled at her as your head tilted to the side. 

Her face completely flushed red as she used her hands to cover it. “Like that, stop it.” 

You couldn’t help the laugh that her actions gave you. “Jieun, my love, you’re going to have hundreds of people staring at you in a few hours, what’s the big deal with me just admiring you for a few seconds..?”

“Okay but that’s different, all those eyes don’t even come close in comparison to yours.” She peeked through her fingers to look at you before squealing and closing her eyes shut when she saw you moved to stand near her. 

“Haha so cute…” You leaned down to whisper in her ear, “These eyes have also seen more of you than all those people combined.” You kissed the top of her head before moving to sit back on the counter you were originally relaxing on. 

Jieun removed her hands from her face to look at you in complete shock, her face was as red as a ruby as she stumbled over her words, “Huh.. wha- why would you say that…?” 

You couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction, “What’s wrong..?” You plastered an innocent look on your face as you watched the way she reacted to your actions. 

She was unable to say anything else as her crew walked into the dressing room, all of them engulfed in their own conversations. 

“Oh,” The lead make-up artist looked at Jieun’s face in confusion before turning to look over at you. “Are we interrupting something here..?”

You couldn’t help but laugh as Jieun’s face only got more red with embarrassment. “Haha no no, you didn’t. We were just talking.” Your head tilted to the side as you thought about your actions, “Hmm well more like I was admiring my beautiful girlfriend from all the way over here and she was getting flustered by my amazing compliments.” You plastered that same innocent face from earlier as all Jieun could do was shoot daggers at you with her eyes. Oh those beautiful eyes of hers. 

“Ahh I see, well sadly I’m going to have to ask you to refrain from making her flustered. The red on her face is not going to make this easy on us.” The lead make-up artist joked with you, she often worked with Jieun on many projects so the three of you were pretty well acquainted. 

“My bad, my bad, I’ll try to hold myself back. It’s not my fault that this woman gets easily embarrassed when it comes to me complimenting her even though we’ve been dating for almost five years now.” You rolled your eyes in a playful manner at her. 

Jieun was still glaring at you as she crossed her arms over her chest, “Mmm compliments… sure if that’s what you want to call that…” She mumbled to herself as she held her own little huff and puff party. 

“Oh, is that a new piece..?” The lead make-up artist asked when she walked up to where you were sitting to get some of her equipment, referencing your new tattoo. 

“Oh this,” You held your wrist out to her so she could get a better look at the artwork on it, “It is new, Jieun helped me pick it out.” 

“ooh she did..?” She examined the tattoo before looking over at Jieun, “Well she certainly has a good eye haha.” 

Jieun’s eyes darkened as she looked you in the eyes, “Yeah I do have great taste, thanks for noticing.” 

You met her eyes before laughing to yourself, “Anyways, I’m going to go see what outfit they have prepared for you.” You hopped off the counter and walked over to where she was sitting, “I’ll be back in a little bit.” You planted a soft kiss on her cheek, “You look so beautiful.” You walked away so she could get her makeup done. 

“Ugh the two of you are so perfect for each other it makes me sick.” Jieun’s lead make-up artist said as she placed everything she needed in front of her. 

“Haha, thank you for the compliment I suppose..?” Jieun spoke her response in a questioning tone as she didn’t know if she meant what she said as a compliment. 

“It is a compliment, I promise.” She started to pull Jieun’s hair out of her face before she got started on her perfected craft, “When are the two of you going to finally tie the knot..?” She asked as she finished clipping Jieun’s hair back.

“What..? Well uh, I’m not sure haha.” Jieun once again couldn’t help but get flustered at the question. 

“Wait, she still hasn’t asked the question yet??” She asked Jieun in shock.

“No she hasn’t, why has she said anything about it..?” Jieun looked up at her with all the concentration in the world. 

“Hmm no she hasn't, but I just figured she would have proposed already. I mean the two of you act like you’re already married anyways haha.” 

Jieun looked down at her ring finger on her left hand, “Maybe someday…” 

With Jieun thinking about your future together, you were busy bothering her main stylist about the outfit she was supposed to wear for the event. 

“This is what she’s wearing..? Wow, are you trying to give everyone in the crowd a nosebleed..?” You looked at the beautiful sundress that was hanging on the clothing rack in front of you. 

“You know not everyone in that crowd has as big of a crush on your girlfriend as you do, right..?” Jieun’s main stylist grabbed the dress off of the clothing rack so she could bring it to Jieun’s dressing room, with you following right behind her. 

“Well that doesn’t matter, Jieun herself is just too beautiful for this world so putting that dress on her would give just about anyone a nosebleed.” You answered in a “matter of fact” tone as you tried to keep up with her pace. 

“Listen, all that matters is that this dress fits the theme of her album so we’re sticking with it. If she causes a national uproar in reported nose bleeds then that will be PR’s problem, not mine.” She opened up the door to Jieun’s dressing room so she could walk over and show her what the outfit choice for the event was. 

And with her response you were silenced as you shuffled into Jieun’s dressing room passing by all the new interns working with the hair and makeup crew. 

Jieun was engulfed in conversation with her main stylist as she showed her the dress while Jieun was getting her makeup done. You just observed them all from the back of her dressing room as you didn’t want to get in the way. 

“Oh, excuse me, can I just grab that real quick.” One of the interns you passed by earlier was standing in front of you with a nervous look on her face. 

“Hmm? Oh I’m sorry.” You quickly moved out of the way when you could see how overwhelmed the young girl looked. “Are you okay..?”

“What..?” The young girl looked up at you once she finally grabbed what it was that she needed. “Oh yeah I’m fine haha, I just have to hurry or I’ll get in trouble.” The girl waved the object in her hand at you before scurrying on. 

You stared at where the girl was standing before deciding to go and find her, stopping to grab a water bottle along the way. You hadn’t realized that Jieun had watched your entire interaction through the mirror as all you had in mind was helping out the poor brand new intern. 

It didn’t take long before you saw the young girl scurrying back towards Jieun’s dressing room with a new object in hand. You moved in front of her to get her to stop walking. 

“Oh sorry, excuse me.” She stepped to the side to walk past you but then she looked up at you in shock when you moved over as well to stop her again.

“Hey, stop.” You smiled at the young girl, “Take a break.” You reached for the object in her hand before replacing it with the water bottle you had in your hand. “Slow down young one, don’t overwork yourself. I can take this for you, please catch your breath and relax for a little bit.”

“Huh..?” The girl looked up at you with the biggest eyes that quickly seemed to water up. 

“I’m assuming you were bringing this to Yeonha..?” You were able to assume that this was going to Jieun’s make-up artist given the items. 

“Oh yes, she had asked me to hurry with those brushes.” The young girl answered you with reddened cheeks. 

“Okay well I can take them to her for you, please go catch your breath and relax, there’s plenty of time.” You had been to many of Jieun’s work events to know that Yeonha was a rusher when it came to getting everything done even when she would have plenty of time. 

“Thank you so much.” The young girl slightly bowed her head at you before blinking away at the tears that began to form in her eyes. 

“Haha it’s no problem, I know how Yeonha can be, trust me you won’t be this stressed out all the time.” You smiled at the girl before turning away, you held the object in the air waving it slightly. “I’ll get this to her, enjoy your break.” 

The young girl just stared at you in amusement as you disappeared down the hall. 

You walked up to Jieun and her make-up artist, handing her the object you had in hand. 

“Hey, Yeonha, you need to go easier on the interns.” 

“Huh?” She looked at what you had in your hands in shock, “Where did you get that..?” 

“I got it from that poor girl you have running in laps down the hallway, she looked burnt out so I told her I would bring this to you and that she could take a well deserved break.” You shrugged your shoulders before placing the object down in front of Jieun on the make up counter. 

“Oh uh, thank you.” She looked between you and Jieun, unsure of what to say.

“It’s all good, just try to take it easy on her, interns aren’t used to everything yet, just try and ease them into it.” You gave her a small smile before looking down at Jieun. “I’m going to go ahead and walk out to my seat so you can finish getting ready.”

“Huh? Wait..” Jieun held onto your hand so she could get up from her seat, “Don’t forget this.” She walked away to grab something before coming back with one of her albums. “Gotta fit the part.” She smiled at you before placing it in your hands. 

“Ah right, is this one of your special editions..?” You asked with a joking smile since you knew that Jieun loved writing you random messages and doodles in the albums that she gave you.

“Of course it is.” She let out a small giggle before pulling you into a small kiss. “I’ll see you out there in a bit, just try not to look like you’re too in love with me.” 

It was your turn to laugh at her before leaning in to whisper into her ear, “Why, do I make it hard for you to hold back..?” 

Jieun pulled away to glare at you, “Shut up before I kick you out.” 

You let out a bigger laugh, “Haha well I didn’t hear a no.” You gave her lips a small peck, where you would’ve opted for her cheek but due to her make-up being done you wanted to be nice to Yeonha, “Well, I’ll see you out there Miss IU.” You sent her a wink as you said her stage name before walking out of her dressing room. 

“Ugh that girl…” Jieun stared at you as you walked away with a dumb grin on her face. 

“Okay love bird get over here so we can finish your make-up.” Yeonha put her hands on Jieun’s shoulders so she could turn her towards her seat. 

_

You walked around the venue for a bit to see if anyone needed a hand with setting anything up before walking to the seat that Jieun picked out for you. You had just gotten done helping the stage crew bring out some decorations for her first performance so now you sat down bored as you waited for the doors to open to the public. 

You figured now was as good a time as ever to look through her new album. You had seen everything from a behind the scene’s perspective so being able to see the final product in front of you was awesome. No matter how many releases you’ve been by Jieun’s side for, you would never get tired of unboxing the newest product of her hard work. You flipped through every single page slowly to admire all the pictures of her and all of her scribbled notes directed towards you. The smile on your face looked like it would never disappear as you flipped through the pages. 

“Oh,” You got to the end of the pages and were now reading her album’s dedication section. “This is a note to the person who is there for me everyday and night no matter what. Whenever I feel lost they’re always there to reassure me that I am on the correct path. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, even the things you don’t know that you helped me with, I hope to one day properly repay your kindness.”

You didn’t notice the way your eyes welled up with tears until you blinked. “This girl.” You smiled as you ran your finger down the page before closing the photobook. 

A few moments later you could hear the sound of people walking in and talking, you looked up to see a line of fans walking into the venue, many of which were carrying huge cameras. You were able to pick up on some familiar faces in the crowd since they would frequent many of your girlfriends events. The rows began to fill up and soon so was your own row. The seat next to you was now occupied by a talkative fan who hadn’t stopped talking about Jieun’s latest album to the girl next to her. 

“Hey, I like your tattoos, they’re pretty.” 

It took you a minute to register the fact that the hyper fan was talking to you, “Oh thank you so much.” You sent the girl a small smile before looking at your phone. 

Jieun had sent you a message so you quickly checked it and made sure no one around could see the contents. “I’ll see you in five minutes.” She attached a photo of her in the dress you saw earlier and you swore that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. 

“Oh, that dress is dangerous.” You replied to her message before putting your phone away.

After a while of waiting in silence a very familiar figure appeared on the stage in front of you and the once quiet room was now filled with loud cheers. After waving at everyone in the crowd she began to perform the first song on her short set-list. 

Unlike everyone else in the crowd you enjoyed her performance without recording anything and you just made yourself comfortable in your seat as Jieun sang to the crowded room. Before meeting Jieun you had only been to a small handful of concerts but none to any artist you were really into, just some random pop up events that your friends would drag you to, but now here you were at what felt like your millionth performance of Jieun’s. You enjoyed every single one of her performances like it was your first time watching her sing. 

She made it through the rest of her set-list without a problem and then everyone watched as the staff brought out a table and a chair. Jieun had her microphone in her hand so she talked to the crowd as she stood at the edge of the stage. 

“Haha did you all like the songs..?” She listened to the crowd cheer in response, “Well I am glad, I’ve been working on this album for the better part of a year now.” The crowd cheered again and everyone watched as she went to take a seat in the chair behind the table. 

The staff of tonight's event soon started to direct the different rows into a line so they could walk up and get their albums signed. You watched in amusement at how she smiled at everyone that stood across from her and the way she easily made small talk with everyone. 

The first two rows on the right side of the room were nearing the end of their turn on stage so now it was your row’s turn to line up. You were always surprised by how well behaved her fans were when it came to events like this. When she first told you about her career and work events you expected everything to be hectic, but to your surprise it was quite the opposite.

You couldn’t hide the smile on your face as you heard the girl in front of you fangirl to her friend ahead of her. You enjoyed hearing the different things all of her fans had to say about her every time you were near them, it was like you were learning a new fun fact about her every event.  

It was now your turn to get your album signed so you walked past all the familiar faces of her staff before placing your previously vandalized album on the table in front of Jieun. 

“Hey stranger,” You sent her a soft smile as your eyes took in her beautiful appearance from up close, “You look gorgeous.”

Jieun’s cheeks flushed a light shade of pink as she listened to your compliment, “Thank you.” She avoided looking you in the eyes as she opted to look down at your album so she could sign it. 

“A lot of people showed up today, were you nervous..?” You asked as you watched her flick through the pages to find an empty one to write a note.

Jieun shook her head before landing on the one page she left free from her graffiti, “Not really, most of the faces in the crowd are pretty familiar by now.” She closed up your album before sliding it across the table to you with a beautiful smile. 

“Ahh I see.” You picked up the album and you returned her an identical smile, “Well I have to go back to my seat now but just a quick tip. Try no to look too in love with me, you’re making it pretty obvious.” 

Jieun rolled her eyes at the cocky grin on your face before plastering a fake smile on her face, “You’re so lucky I love you.” She spoke through her teeth as she waved at you like you were any other fan in the crowd.

You let out a small chuckle, “Hell yeah I am.” You gave her one last smile before walking along the stage. You could feel her eyes on you as you made your way to your seat. Well what you didn’t know was that there were other eyes on you as your familiar face started to make sense to some of the people in the crowd. 

You sat down with your girlfriend's album in your lap and a dumb smile on your face as you watched her from your seat. 

You were zoned out, lost in your own thoughts, up until you felt someone lightly tap on your shoulder. You looked down in surprise when you were met with the eyes of the girl who was seated next to you. 

“Oh, yes..?” You straightened your posture as you waited for the girl to speak to you.

“Hi, I’m sorry to bother you but I just had a quick question to ask you. Would you mind..?” The young girl asked you for permission as her friend peeked over her shoulder. 

“Huh..? Oh sure, go ahead.” You didn’t take any concern with her request as you figured she was probably going to ask you to take a picture of her and her friend. You got these requests pretty often at Jieun’s events. 

“Okay well my friend and I couldn’t help but notice how familiar your tattoos looked so we just wanted to ask if this was you..? You don’t have to answer if you’re uncomfortable, it’s just that both of us are fans of your account.” The girl was holding her phone out towards you with a picture of you and Jieun in it, well your face was the only one anyone could see anyways. 

“Oh uh,” You looked at her phone then back up at the girl's face before looking over at Jieun on stage then back at the phone. You were racking your brain for answers to give the girl, what would Jieun do in your place..? “Yeah that’s me.” You rubbed the back of your neck as you didn’t know what to expect next. 

The two girls looked at each other and shared a gasp once you admitted to being the one in the picture. 

“Oh my god that’s so awesome, can we please get a picture with you..?” The girl's friend asked you.

“Huh..?” You were super confused as to what you were supposed to do, you had never been recognized in public before so for this to happen at one of Jieun’s events was mind numbing. 

“You know, like a picture..?” The first girl said as she made a picture taking motion with her hand. “I’m telling you we’re both big fans of your account.” 

“Oh uhm, sure. Sorry I’m not used to this.” You admitted to the two girls as you let out a shy laugh, “And for the record that account is all my girlfriends work, I don’t want to take any of the credit for it.” 

“Oh my god that’s so cute, I can’t.” The girl opened up the camera app on her phone and then you were standing with each girl on either side of you. “Smile.” The girl said as she took a few pictures. 

“Are they okay..?” You asked her as she checked the pictures. 

“Yes they’re great, thank you so much.” The girl showed her friend the pictures before they both moved to sit back down in their seats. 

You followed along, sitting back down in your own seat, with a bright blush of embarrassment on your cheeks. You let out a small breath as you thought they were done talking to you, but you were quickly mistaken.

“So where is your girlfriend..? Is she here with you..?” The girl asked you as she looked around the venue. 

“Uh well something like that..” You mumbled quietly before shaking your head, “Oh no actually, she’s working today. Uhm she’s a big fan of Ji-” You paused and blinked a few times, “IU, she’s a big IU fan.” You smiled in a way to convince not only the girls but also yourself of your little white lie.

“Awe so you’re here to get her a signed album from her favorite artist..? That’s so cute, the two of you are such couple goals.” The girl and her friend shared a squeal. 

“Haha yeah…” You wiped away some sweat that had built up on your forehead. 

“I know this is going to sound like we’re crossing a line, but can you show us what she looks like..? You don’t know how curious we are.” The girl’s friend asked you. “The two of you just make the cutest couple, even if we’ve never seen her face, just from the words she writes about you we can tell that she is beautiful.” 

“Oh I’m sorry.” You slightly bowed your head to the two girls, “I can’t do that. My uh girlfriend is just really private.” 

“Oh but you said she runs the account, no..?”

“She does, it’s just that if her workplace see’s that she’s dating a woman uhm she can get fired.” That sounded believable right? You asked yourself. 

“Ohhhh.” Both the girl and her friend said at the same time. 

“That makes so much sense, I’m sorry for bugging you over that.” The girl offered you a sincere apology, “Well thank you for taking the time out of your day to talk to us.” The girl smiled at you before the both of them went back to talking to each other. 

“Oh my god..” You buried your face in your hands as you tried to calm yourself down from having a panic attack. 

Once you had managed to calm your breathing down you lifted your head to look up at the ceiling, counting to ten slowly as you breathed in and out. When you finally looked forward, your worried face quickly caught Jieun’s attention. 

“Are you okay..?” She mouthed to you in a subtle way. 

You gave her a slight nod before mouthing back to her, “Later..”

She sent you back a small but subtle nod before turning her attention back to her fans on stage. 

The rest of the event went on fine, but you felt like you couldn’t enjoy it with the big knot that your stomach was now in. You kept catching the girls next to you glancing over so you tried your best to just act like any other fan of your girlfriend but it was just so weird to you. You were sure they could see right through the act. “They know, they know, they know.” Those words repeated over and over in your head. 

Soon the venue began to empty out as Jieun had just finished performing two encore songs and she finished saying her goodbye’s to everyone. Your row was one of the last one’s to empty out as you stayed seated with your head spinning. 

The two girls that were sat next to you had thanked you once again for the picture before walking out. 

Once everyone had made their way out of the venue, you and the cleaning crew were the only people left in the empty room. You finally stood up after your many minutes of pondering thoughts. You then heard small but quick footsteps running up behind you and then you suddenly felt someone’s weight on your back. The quiet giggles quickly gave up the person’s identity. 

You couldn’t hold back your smile as you quickly put your arms around Jieun’s legs to hold her in place on your back. 

Jieun reached over to plant a small kiss on your cheek, “How was it..? How did I do tonight..?” 

You turned your head to look at her, “You did amazing, like always. Everyone in the crowd loved your songs.” 

Jieun let out a small giggle before reaching for her phone, she held it out in front of you as she captured a few pictures. She hid her face behind your hair but her beautiful smile was still visible. Once she felt like she took enough pictures, she jumped off your back and you turned around to face her. She gave you a small kiss before holding your hand in both of hers. 

“You look tired, are you okay..?” Jieun moved one of her hands to place it on your cheek. 

You leaned into her touch as you gave her a small nod, “I’m okay now.” You turned your head to plant a soft kiss on her hand. 

Jieun’s eyes were still filled with concern even after hearing your words of reassurance. “Okay well do you want to head to the back so you can tell me about what had made you look so stressed out earlier..?”

“Yeah, let me just grab my stuff.” You walked away from Jieun to grab your album and then the two of you interlocked fingers as you made your way through the venue and into the many hallways of the back.

On your walk to her dressing room you gave her a rundown of your interaction with the two girls. 

As you made it to the door of her dressing room she suddenly fell very quiet. The two of you just stood by the door in silence as it looked like Jieun was going through an internal conflict. 

Jieun finally looked back up at you, “I think I’m ready to tell everyone about us.” Her voice was very soft and quiet so it took you a minute to understand what she said. 

“What?” You looked at her in complete shock as your body froze. 

Shock, yes such a strange and bizarre emotion but your body was enveloped in it. But then a wave of relief rode over your body as you thought about how you wouldn’t have to hide the biggest secret of your life. But then fear quickly took over every inch of your body. Jieun was the love of your life. What if this decision was a huge mistake..?

_

“Oh, you dropped this.” You had picked up a phone that had slid on the floor of the bus and then proceeded to hit your shoe. You were handing it back to the girl in the seat behind you since she was the only one it could’ve belonged to. 

“I’m so sorry, I’m so clumsy how could I have dropped this.” The smaller girl laughed before reaching for her phone. “Thank you so much, uhm..?” She raised her eyebrow as she gave you the hint to introduce yourself. And so you did, “Well it’s nice to meet you, my name is Jieun.” The smaller girl introduced herself as well. 

“Oh well, it’s nice to meet you, Jieun.” You held your hand out for the girl to take. 

“The feeling is mutual.” The girl gave you the brightest smile as she returned your handshake. 

You finally pulled your eyes away from her mesmerizing ones as the bus came to a stop. You looked out the window and quickly jumped up. “Oh I’m sorry, this is my stop.” You sent her an apologetic smile before grabbing your stuff to rush off the bus. 

The girl smiled before standing up as well, “Well looks like it’s mine now too.” 

_

“So I’ve given it a lot of thought since we’ve been friends for a while now but uhm.” You paused as you had to look away from her eyes, “But, did you like want to maybe, like you know..?” You made an awkward hand motion as you couldn’t figure out how to put your thoughts into words. 

“Hmm..? Like uhm what..?” Jieun teased the flustered girl that stood in front of her. 

You took a deep breath before speaking your next sentence, “Do you want to be my girlfriend..? It’s okay to say no but somewhere along our friendship I started to get romantic feelings for you and I was just hoping that they would be mutual.” Your face was completely flushed red as you tried to avoid looking Jieun in the eyes. 

Before she responded she let out a little giggle that caused you to look at her, and to your surprise she was nodding her head. “I would be honored to be your girlfriend.” 

You couldn’t believe your ears, you thought you had mistaken what you heard. Jieun then swiftly pulled you into the softest kiss of your life. There was no mistaking what she meant now. 

“Finally, it took you long enough.” Jieun said once she pulled away from your first official couple kiss. 

_

“Oh my gosh, why do you own so much crap? This is so heavy.” Jieun whined as she carried one of your boxes into her neat apartment.

“Hey to be fair you’re the one who bought me most of this stuff.” You smiled at her antics as you walked in with the heavier boxes. 

Jieun placed your box on the ground in the living room before moving to flop on the couch with a loud grunt. “Oh my,” She let out a small huff, “I don’t think I’ve ever had to…” 

Before she could continue to complain you leaned down over her on the couch and you planted a small kiss on her lips. You felt her smile before she moved her hands to hold your face in a sign of defeat. You pulled away far enough for your noses to still be touching as the both of you smiled. 

“Okay, okay I get the message loud and clear.” Jieun moved her head side to side to rub your noses together before she moved to give you another kiss. This time pulling you on top of her on the couch.

The two of you shared a sweet moment together before you moved to lay next to her on the couch. Your arm was wrapped around her waist and your face lay nuzzled in the crook of her neck. 

“Finally, I’ve had to listen to you complain since we got on the elevator.” You smiled against her neck as you heard her groan in annoyance. 

“Ugh I hate you.” She turned her body so she could face you. 

You let out a small gasp, “You hate me..? Oh no, it looks like I’m going to have to move out before I even got the chance to finish moving in.” You moved to try and get up from the couch but you were soon stopped by Jieun. 

“Don’t you dare leave me yet. At least wake me up with some breakfast in bed or something.” She wrapped her arms around you so you could lay in place with her on the couch. 

You let out a soft chuckle as you surrendered to her touch, “Okay, okay, I won’t leave.” 

_

“Hey, wake up.” You whispered in Jieun’s ear, “Jieun get up.” You placed down a plate of food on her night stand before moving your hand up to her forehead to play with her bangs.

“Hmm…” Jieun mumbled tiredly as she leaned into your touch.

“Wake up baby.” You planted a soft kiss on her forehead. 

“I love you, but if the building isn’t on fire then don’t wa- wait.” Jieun’s tired voice came to a halt, “Do I smell food.” She opened one of her eyes to peek out at you. 

You couldn’t hold back your smile at how cute she was, “Yes, I made you some breakfast. So hurry and get up to eat before it gets cold.” 

She let out a small groan and then you helped her sit up. “Thank you.” She smiled at you tiredly as you placed the plate of food in her lap. 

“Mhm.” You hummed happily as she began to dig into the food. You couldn’t help but stare at the woman you were deeply in love with.

_

In what felt like an instant, all of your favorite memories with Jieun replayed in your head as you stared at her with blank eyes. 

“Baby, hey, are you okay..?” You began to hear her voice break through the fog in your mind. She grabbed both of your hands to pull you towards the end of the hallway where no one was around. 

Jieun placed both hands on your cheeks. She held your face in her hands as she looked at you with all the concern she could muster. “Why are you crying..?” She asked you softly. 

“Huh..?” You asked in confusion, “Crying..?” You couldn’t even feel the tears that streamed their way down your cheeks. “Jieun..” Your eyes began to water up even worse as you moved to pull her into a hug. 

“What’s wrong, hmm..?” Jieun hummed against your body as she hugged you. 

You pulled away to look at her, “These are tears of joy, I promise.” You grabbed one of her hands so you could plant a small kiss on her knuckles, “I can’t believe this is happening. My heart, it can’t handle this.” You let out a small sigh, “It only ever beats like this because of you.” You placed her hand over your chest so she could feel the rapid beating of your heart. “You’re the only person that can make me like this.” 

Jieun smiled gently, “So then what are these tears about..? Hmm..?” She tilted her head to the side as she waited for your answer. 

“It’s just, it feels like this is a big step forward for us. It feels unreal.” Your shoulders dropped as you looked down at the ground. “Wow..” You shook your head before continuing, "I've waited for what feels like an eternity to be able to let everyone know we are together. Not because you are 'IU the famous celebrity' but because you're 'Jieun the one girl who can make me feel like no one has before'. I want people to know how much of a beautiful person you are inside and out, how happy you make me, how you take care of me when I'm not feeling the best, how you always reassure me everything will be okay and most of all, I want people to know of the love I hold for you in my heart."

When you looked back up at Jieun you weren’t expecting to be met with her tear stained cheeks. It was your turn to dry her face, your thumb delicately tracing over the small streaks on her cheeks. 

“Are you okay..?” You leaned your forehead against hers as she closed her eyes. 

“Mhm,” She hummed as she took in a deep breath, “I’m fine, it's just you always catch me off guard with your words.” 

You pulled away from her so you could look her in the eyes, “Well they’re not just empty words, they’re my true feelings put into word format. I mean everything that I say when it comes to you. I seriously do love you Jieun, and I’m willing to do any and everything you need me to do.” 

Jieun looked at you for a few seconds as she thought about what to do next. She let out a small breath before smiling at you, “Okay then, let me talk to Hanteo real quick so I can see what we can do.” 

Jieun tried to walk away but you grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving, “Wait.” 

Jieun looked at you in shock but then she decided to let you say whatever it was that you needed to say. “What’s wrong..?” 

“Jieun, I know I’m okay with people knowing about us, but are you one hundred percent sure you’re okay with this..? We live two separate lives, this news coming out wouldn’t hurt me as much as it would your career. Are you sure you’re willing to risk everything for us..?” Jieun had spent her entire lifetime building up her successful career that could quickly fall in ruins at the mention of any news that the public would disagree with. You wanted her to be super sure about her decision. 

Jieun held your hand in both of hers, “Yes, I’m sure.” Three words. It was that simple to her. There was no contemplation on her part, she was ready for everyone to know about your relationship. She didn’t care about anything else, much less the public’s opinion about her relationship. “Whatever happens to my career could never come as close as us not being able to be together. I would choose you over everything else in this world every chance that I get.” Jieun’s tone was as sincere as it’s ever been, she wanted you to know she was serious. “If no one accepts me for who I am and who I love, then what's the point of keeping this career up if I can't be happy.” 

And with that final statement from her, you knew there was no changing her mind now. “Okay then.” You matched the expression she wore on her face, “So we’re doing this..?” 

“Mhm.” Jieun hummed in response. 

“Wow, we’re doing this..?” You repeated your sentence as more of an exclamation as the situation finally resonated in your head. “We’re doing this!” This time it wasn’t even a question, it was more of a cheer. You pulled your hand away from her grip so you could jump up and down in celebration. “We’re doing it!!” You continued to cheer, putting a smile on Jieun’s face, until you felt all the extra energy in your body dissipate. 

“Haha are you okay now..?” Jieun asked once you settled back down from your impromptu cheer performance. 

“Ooh yeah, just a little dizzy.” You placed a hand on your head, your current state being a result from you jumping up and down while spinning in a circle. 

Jieun couldn’t help but laugh at your current state of being. “You’re so cute.” 

It was now your turn to blush as Jieun’s words made their way into your heart. You were used to being the cheesy one in the relationship so you being in this state was a rare sight to Jieun. 

“Ahh so cute.” Jieun couldn’t help the small squeal of excitement she let out when she saw you in your flustered state. “Oh the way I love you is insane.” Jieun wrapped you up in her arms so she could squeeze you. The cuteness aggression she was feeling was serious. 

“Jieun stop…” You couldn’t handle her teasing you like this, so pulling away with a smile you turned away from her. You buried your face in your hands, the warmth on your face was a surprise to your now warm hands. 

Jieun’s eyes widened in adoration, she loved seeing you being so flustered by her actions. She considered this moment as payback for how you were teasing her earlier. She beat you at your own game essentially. 

“Cute.” Jieun mumbled as she moved to hug you from behind. “Come on, let’s walk to my dressing room, I still have to find Hanteo so I can talk to him about all this.” 

It took you a few more deep breaths before you pulled your face away from your hands, “Okay.” You nodded before turning in Jieun’s embrace. “You lead the way?” You asked her as you looked into her eyes. 

Jieun couldn’t hide her smile when she noticed just how vulnerable you looked in that moment. “Mhm.” Jieun released her arms from your waist so she could hold your hand. She led you down the hallway and to her dressing room. The both of you walked in as everyone was packing up all their items. “Wait for me here..?” 

“Okay, but don’t take too long.” Your voice was quiet as you were still feeling shy from her actions earlier. You loved to tease her but when it came to being the one being teased you just couldn’t handle it. 

Jieun’s smile widened, “Mmm okay, I’ll try to hurry.” Jieun spoke with a pout as her voice sounded like she was speaking to a lost child. Jieun cupped your face so she could give you a kiss before walking away. 

You walked to the back corner of her dressing room so you could sit in one of the empty seats. You slowly spun in the chair you were sitting in as you looked up at the ceiling, mind racing about all the possible outcomes of your relationship going public. 

After what felt like an eternity, but was really just thirty minutes, a familiar hand stopped your chair from spinning. You instantly smiled as soon as your eyes landed on the familiar beauty in front of you. 

“Having fun..?” Jieun asked you in a light hearted tone as she moved to sit in your lap. 

You had a small pout on your face as you shook your head, “About as much fun as I can have when you’re not around.” You paused to let out a sigh, ”Which is not much at all.” You responded as you gently wrapped your arms around her while she got comfortable against your body.

Jieun giggled quietly before letting out a small breath, “Hmm well I have some good,” She paused before tilting her head up to look at you, “And some bad news.” She reached up with her hand to place it behind your head, gently tilting your head down so you could look at her. 

“Okay,” You looked her in the eyes as your hand gently traced up and down her side, “What’s the news..?” 

“Oh wait,” She moved her hand away from your head so she could dig her phone out of her pocket. She called over someone in the room, when you looked up you noticed it was the overworked intern from earlier. “Hi, sorry to bother you but would you mind taking some pictures for me..?” Jieun asked the now flustered girl. 

The young girl looked at you and then at Jieun with shock written all over her face, “Oh sure.” The girl grabbed Jieun’s phone from her hand. 

You looked at Jieun while the young girl fumbled with the phone, “You never miss the opportunity for a picture, do you..?” The dumb smile on your face was met with the proud one on Jieun’s face. 

“Of course not babe, you should know this by now.” Jieun moved her face to hide it in the crook of your neck, using your hair to cloak her face. 

You readjusted your hands before looking up at the camera, the intern had been snapping pictures of the two of you since she managed to open the camera application. When you smiled at her she froze before accidentally dropping Jieun’s phone. 

“Oh my I’m so sorry.” The girl quickly reached down to pick up Jieun’s phone before being stopped by Jieun placing her hand on the girl's arm. 

“Hey don’t apologize, it’s okay. Thank you for taking time out of your day to do that for me.” Jieun moved off of your lap so she could pick up her phone. 

The girl quickly bowed her head at you and Jieun. “Sorry.” 

“Hey it’s okay, really.” This time you spoke to the young girl, “Sorry if she held you up from doing what you needed to do.” You gestured to Jieun who was now looking through the pictures that the girl had taken. “She gets tunnel vision when it comes to a photo opportunity.” 

“Oh, okay.” The girl stared at you with big eyes. “I didn’t mind.” 

“Haha okay, well we’ll leave you alone now.” You bowed your head at the girl before placing your hand on Jieun’s back so you could make her bow to the young girl as well. 

“Oh right, thank you so much.” Jieun smiled at the girl once she was upright. 

The girl scrambled off after that so then the two of you moved back to sitting in the chair together. 

“Okay well you got your pictures, are you going to tell me the news now..?” 

“Mhm but wait, look at this one…” Jieun held her phone up to your face to show you a picture. 

“Oh.” Your eyes widened in surprise by how good the picture actually was. You were smiling at the camera but the photo was snapped right at the moment the intern lost her grip on it so it was a little blurry but just in the right way. 

“Right..? It’s my favorite one.” Jieun giggled before putting her phone away. Jieun cleared her throat before speaking again, “Okay so I talked to my company and they told me that as long as I’m one hundred percent sure about my decision then they would stand behind me for everything. They only have one condition, and that’s for us to announce our relationship through a live broadcast.” 

“Oh, so I’m assuming the broadcast is the bad news..?” You asked Jieun after what she said weighed in your mind. 

“Yeah, I just wasn’t sure how you would feel about it. If you don’t feel comfortable about it then we can just cancel this whole thing.” 

“Oh no Jieun, don’t worry. I want to do this just as much as you do.” You smiled at her, “As long as you’re with me I’ll be okay.” 

Jieun admired you for a minute before responding. She knew making that decision was hard for someone in your position. You never cared about being in the public’s eye but now you were essentially being thrown into it because of her career. She would be lying if she said she didn’t feel super selfish for making you make this decision and also super guilty for all the sacrifices you had to make when it came to dating her. She often wondered if you would be happier with just having a normal relationship with anyone not in a public position such as hers. 

“Jieun, are you okay..?” You moved a hand up to hold her face when you saw her having an internal battle. 

Jieun nodded her head as she avoided looking you in the eyes, “Yeah, I'm sorry. I just can’t help but feel like I'm forcing you to do this. I’m sorry for putting you in this position.”

“Jieun, no, you’re not forcing me to do anything. Don’t say that, okay..? I want to do this. I promise.” You leaned down so you could plant a soft kiss on her forehead. 

Jieun finally looked up at you, “Okay, then when do you want to do the broadcast..?”

You shrugged your shoulders in response, “It doesn’t matter to me. Talk to Hanteo and your company, whatever works for them will work with me.” 

“Alright then,” Jieun let out a heavy sigh, “I’m nervous.” She admitted to you in a hesitant tone. 

“It’ll be okay. If anything were to happen I’ll be right by your side.” 

Jieun leaned her head against you before closing her eyes, “I know love, thank you.” 

“Of course baby.” Your voice was gentle when you noticed just how tired she was

_

Everyone had soon cleared out of the room and only you and Jieun were left alone, a few staff members filtered in and out of the room occasionally. Hanteo had walked up to you to let you know the car was ready for you outside. 

You looked down at Jieun, who had fallen asleep on you a while ago, you slid your arms underneath her so you could slowly pick her up so as to not wake her. You carefully made your way out of the room and towards the car outside. On your journey to the car she had wrapped her arms around your neck as she mumbled something in her sleep. 

You and Hanteo walked to the car together as you discussed Jieun’s decision. He told you he was genuinely surprised it took her this long to come to this decision since he always knew her as someone who always wanted to get everything done as soon as possible, not caring about any of the negativity when it came to something she truly believed in. 

Once you made it to the car, Hanteo opened the door for you so you could slide Jieun into the back seat. You quickly got in so you could lean her head onto your shoulder so she could continue sleeping. Hanteo moved to get into the driver's seat so he could get the two of you home as soon as possible. 

_

In what seemed like a flash, a week had passed since Jieun had settled on her decision for your relationship to go public. After a lot of back and forth of planning, her and her management team had come up with a fairly simple but effective plan. 

The day after her fan meeting she had uploaded the pictures she had taken when it ended, (The one she took while on your back and then the one where she was in your lap) and in the caption of the pictures she had mentioned that the two of you would be having a broadcast. Then on her own personal account she started following your couple’s account and then she liked the post about the broadcast. These two simple steps led to a huge whirlwind of events. 

Many people in the comments started to speculate about how it was Jieun in all the photos, well for once these delusional guessing comments would be right, and by just having her personal account following your couple’s account the followers completely blew up. Now you weren’t someone who cared about any of the numbers on anything as this page was mostly like a public diary about your relationship, but even you were impressed by how huge the numbers grew. Your account went from where it sat before to having almost half of what her personal account had. Plus a few of her fellow celebrity friends started following it as well which also caused a huge movement of people discovering your account, well Jieun’s account. 

Continuing on with the plan, Jieun had posted a countdown with the numbers sort of being blended in on the pictures she would post to her story. Some people had quickly caught on but the rest had to find out about it through fan accounts on different social media pages. It soon became like a treasure hunt to find the ticking numbers embedded in her photos. Only those ticking numbers matched up with the scheduled live broadcast for your couple’s account. 

It didn’t take long for your own personal account to be found by her fans and the people who followed your couple’s account. You quickly had to move to delete many of your embarrassing pictures from your teenage years as you had barely used the account nowadays. Jieun took it upon herself to help you update everything on it. The theme of your couple’s account soon took over your personal account. 

_

“You okay, are you nervous..?” 

You looked up when you heard Jieun enter your bedroom, “Uhm, hmm.” You shook your head before speaking again, “Not really.”

“Are you sure..?” Jieun asked as she moved to sit next to you on the bed. 

“Yeah I’m sure Jieun, we’ve been together for nearly five years now, I think it’s time for people to finally know the truth.” You moved to lay your head in her lap, your eyes shined as you looked up at the woman who made your life better every second she was in it. 

Jieun let out a small laugh before placing a hand on your cheek, staring down into the eyes she loved very much. “I think you’re right. It’s time to let everyone know.”

“Just a few more hours to go and we will finally have nothing to hide anymore.” You couldn’t help but melt in her touch as her thumb lightly grazed over your cheek.

“Ugh, I seriously don’t know how I was able to keep us hidden this entire time.” Jieun leaned down to place a gentle kiss on your forehead. 

“Hmm, well I’m seriously surprised no one has ever figured it out yet, especially with the way you look at me in public events.” You had a little laugh at the look she sent you.

“Shut up, I hate you.” Jieun pulled her hand away from you so she could place both hands behind her so she could lean back. 

You wrapped your arms around her waist and moved to nuzzle your head into her stomach, “Oh come on, don’t say that. You love me.” You had a smile on your face as you could feel her laugh. 

“You’re so annoying.” Jieun let out a long sigh, “But I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t true. I think I might even love you a little too much, you turd.”

“Ha, that’s impossible.” You stopped moving your head to look back up at her. “Because I love you way more than you love me.” 

“Oh do you really?” Jieun’s head tilted to the side. 

“Mhm, I do.” Your arms tightened around her waist so you could give her a gentle squeeze. 

“Prove it.” 

“Hmm?” You let go of her waist so you could use your arms to lift your upper body up so your face would be even with hers. “And how do you want me to do that..?” You would be lying if you said the look on her face didn’t give you butterflies. 

“Do you really need me to spell it out for you?” Jieun leaned closer towards you. 

“Not really, but I just want to hear you say it.” Your head tilted to the side as a confident smile took over your features, completely ignoring the warmth that enveloped your entire body. 

“Oh really..?” Jieun raised an eyebrow at your answer. “How long do we have until our broadcast..?” 

“Uhm,” You broke eye contact with Jieun so you could look at the clock on the nightstand behind her. “About three hours or so.” Your eyes locked back onto her now darkened ones. 

“Good, that’s plenty of time.” Before your brain could register anything, Jieun had pulled you down onto the bed with her. 

Ahh Lee Jieun, the only woman who could turn a silly little joke into a crazy competition. Not that you were complaining or anything but jeez this woman drove you insane. 

_

“Oh, I definitely won here.” More than an hour had passed since your antics earlier and now you were hovering over Jieun’s reddened face. 

“Unfair.” Jieun mumbled before looking away from you.

“What..? Unfair?? How..?” You placed a hand on her warm cheek to tilt her head so she could face you. But before she could answer you let out a small chuckle, “Oh you look so pretty like this, Jieun.” You whispered in her ear before planting a kiss on her now sweaty temple. 

Your voice had sent a shiver down Jieun’s back, she tried her best to conceal it from you but she was very unsuccessful. “You’re unbelievable, you didn’t even give me a chance.” Jieun rolled her eyes at you. 

“It’s okay love, I enjoy loving you more.” You finally moved to untangle your body from hers so you could lay next to her. “I’m going to hop in the shower, you coming with..?” You turned your body so you could face her. 

“Of course I am, just give me a second to lay here for a bit.” Jieun sighed before placing her arm over her eyes, “I need to realign my chakras.” 

You couldn’t help but laugh at how random your girlfriend was. “Oh you’re so cute, I love you.” You leaned in to place a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll go get the water started, feel free to join once your chakras are done aligning.” You moved to get off the bed. 

“Wait…” Jieun whined as she threw her arms around your body.

“What’s wrong..?” You turned to look over at your girlfriend. 

All she did was whine before sticking her lips out to you. 

Once again you couldn’t help but laugh at her, “Why are you so cute..?” You gave in to her request as you leaned in to gently kiss her lips before moving on to peppering little kisses all over her face. “Insane Jieun, you drive me insane and I love it.” You smiled as you spoke to her in the softest voice you could muster. 

Jieun’s eyes were filled with all of the adoration in the world as she stared into your own love struck eyes. You finally pulled away from her after what seemed like a lifetime of staring into the others eyes. 

“Okay I have to get up now, we don’t have much time left baby. We gotta wash up, so hurry up with your chakras.” You had a goofy smile on your face as you moved away from your bed and into the bathroom. “Don’t take too long now or else I won’t help you scrub your back.” That was the last thing you said before turning on the water to the shower. 

_

“I still can’t believe you’re still this bad at drying your hair after all these years.” Jieun complained as she sat next to you on the couch in your living room, towel in hand as she gently dried strands of your hair, 

“Well why would I try to get better at it when I can just have you do it..?” You lifted your hand to place it on hers, stopping her from drying your hair. “It should be okay now, we only have a few more minutes left.” You tried pulling the towel out of her hand.

“Ugh fine, but if you get sick later from your hair being damp I don’t want to hear it.” Jieun let go so you could take the towel from her. 

Once you pulled the towel away you turned to face her, “Well whose fault is it that I needed to take a shower right before the broadcast..? Hmm..?” 

Jieun turned her head to look away as she shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know. Crazy mystery.” 

You couldn’t help but laugh at the scene in front of you, “Yeah, mhm, mystery indeed.” You shook your head at Jieun before getting up with the towel in your hand. 

“Go put that away, I’ll set everything up for the broadcast.” Jieun finally looked back over at you. “And stop looking at me like that before I kick you.” Jieun grabbed her phone that she placed on the coffee table in front of her. 

“Okay okay, I’m going.” Jieun had placed her foot on your leg so she could lightly push you along. 

Once you put the towel away you walked back into the living room, the sight in front of you instantly making you laugh. You sped up so you could jump over the back of the couch and sit next to Jieun. 

“What’s happening babe, I thought you were the expert in this stuff..?” When you had walked back into the living room you had seen Jieun struggling with something on her phone so you had to take this opportunity to tease her. 

Jieun let out a small huff before looking over at you in annoyance. “It’s not like you would do any better.” Jieun had the phone up to her face. “Oh, ahh!!” Jieun threw her phone on the coffee table in front of you. 

“Huh, what’s wrong..?” You looked at the phone then back over at Jieun. 

Jieun pointed to the phone before whispering, “I accidentally pressed start, go stop it.” 

“Oh, hold on.” You reached for the phone then you were soon greeted with your own face on the screen in front of you. You froze for a second before looking around to screen for a button to end the accidental live stream. “Oh, I found it.” You clicked on the red button up in the corner of the screen then you gave the phone back to Jieun. 

Jieun let out a huge breath as she placed her hand over her heart, “My goodness that scared the mess out of me.” 

“Did they see your face..?” You moved closer to her, putting your hand on her arms to try and calm her down. 

“I don’t know, I was trying to swipe out of the app but I accidentally hit the button and then I just threw the phone. I don’t know if anyone saw anything.” Jieun sighed before shaking her head. “I’m sorry, this might have been a bad idea.” She let go of her phone, letting it fall onto the couch so she could place her hands on her head.

“Jieun, it's okay.” You slipped your hands underneath her so you could turn her to face you. “Breathe baby, it’s going to be okay.” You moved her hands away from her face so she could look at you. “Breathe.” You whispered to her. 

Jieun nodded her head before struggling to calmly intake air. 

You moved her hair behind her ears so you could look at her face, “It's okay, just breathe.” 

You worked with Jieun for a few more minutes until she was finally able to calm down. You hated seeing her panic like this but it also wasn’t something new to you. 

“Better..?” You spoke to her in a gentle voice when she finally looked you in the eyes. 

“Yeah, I’m okay now.” Jieun’s voice wavered as she answered you with a nod. 

“Hey, everything is going to be okay. Don’t be too hard on yourself for a simple mistake. It happens, at least now we know it works.” You spoke the last sentence in a light hearted tone so she would know it was supposed to be a joke. 

“Mmm well I guess you’re right.” Jieun finally cracked a smile. 

“There we go, all better.” You ran your fingers through her hair before giving her a soft kiss on the forehead. 

Jieun’s smile lingered on her face as she watched you, “Did you still want to do it..?” 

“Hmm, what..?” Your head tilted to the side as you questioned what she meant. 

“The broadcast, do you still want to do it..?” Jieun clarified what she meant as she looked into your eyes. 

“Oh the broadcast.” You couldn’t help the smile on your face, “Of course, as long as you’re okay to do it.” 

“Yeah I’m fine now, I’ll just leave this to you.” She placed her phone in your lap. 

“Okay love, we’ll start it whenever you’re ready then.” You took her phone from her to examine the screen. 

Jieun stood up from the couch so she could grab a glass of water from the kitchen. She didn’t want to admit it to you but she was very nervous about this whole situation. She didn’t want you to get hurt because of her and she knew people would be ruthless to whoever she was in a relationship with. As she stood at the edge of the kitchen with her glass in hand, she watched you sitting on the couch scrolling through her phone. 

“Hey Jieun, uhm people are starting to comment about us saying we’re past the ten minute timestamp you posted about on the story thing.” You were scrolling through all the recent comments on the post Jieun had uploaded a bit ago talking about what time you two would begin the broadcast.

Jieun looked over at the clock on the stove and saw that the two of you were indeed behind schedule. Jieun took a small breath in before walking back over to sit next to you on the couch. “You can start it whenever you want, no pressure.”

You looked between Jieun and her phone, “No pressure.” You repeated what she said. “Okay, just a few more seconds then. I think that I’m now the one who needs her chakras realigned.” You flashed her a smile when you referenced what she had said earlier that evening. 

“Oh, it’s actually kind of quiet in here, isn’t it..?” Jieun looked around the living room before standing back up. 

You just watched as she walked over to the smart speaker you had in the living room then she asked the speaker to play some music. You couldn’t help the laugh you let out when she jumped in surprise at how high the volume was at first. 

“Oh, found it.” Jieun whispered as she turned the volume down to a reasonable level. 

Once Jieun sat back down next to you you looked at her phone, finger hovering over the “Start Live” button. 

“It’s okay baby, whenever you’re ready.” Jieun whispered to you before gently placing a kiss on the side of your head. 

You looked over at her with a small smile, “Okay then, this could either be the beginning of paradise or hell, but for you it is worth it.” 

Jieun leaned against the armrest of the couch so she could get out of her phone's camera frame and she watched you with so much love in her eyes it was crazy. “Let’s hope it’s paradise, because that’s how these past few years have felt.” 

You gave her a small nod before focusing on the screen in front of you. “Here we go, 1.. 2.. 3.” You spoke to yourself before finally clicking on the button that you’d been staring at for what felt like forever. All you could do was stare at the screen for the first few moments as you watched people continuously join the broadcast. The number grew way faster than you expected, the shock was evident on your face. You finally began to introduce yourself once Jieun nudged you with her leg to snap you out of your trance. You looked over at her then back at the phone, clearing your throat, you began to speak. “Oh wow, hi.” You smiled shyly at the camera as comments went flying by on the screen. “There sure are a lot of people here tonight haha.” Your head tilted to the side as you read some of the comments. “Okay well let me get started then.” You cleared your throat again before looking at the camera lens instead of the screen. 

“Hello, thank you all for joining in tonight as we have some crazy news to share with everyone, but before we get to all that I just want to say a few words. I apologize in advance if I come off as incoherent or scattered brained, my girlfriend is actually the professional in all this public speaking stuff so please cut me some slack. But here we go, I want to first of all thank you all for being so supportive of this account and our relationship. I know a lot of you have been following this account for a long time and some of you even since the beginning. We both never expected this account to get the attention it got, it kinda just started off as a way for my girlfriend to record our relationship. She’s a very busy person so she loves to record any moments of us together when she can so that’s how this whole account started off. This was entirely her idea so I don’t want to take any credit for it, I’m just grateful that about a third of our relationship is always available for us to look back on.” You looked over at Jieun with a heartfelt smile before looking back at the camera. “Now, I guess I shouldn’t delay this topic any further so let’s get to it. One of the hottest topics about our account is who my girlfriend is and why she doesn’t show her face. Well she’s here to introduce herself to all of you out there, but I just want to give you all a small warning.” You pulled the phone closer to yourself so you could whisper, “My girlfriend is very very beautiful so just be prepared.” You moved the phone back to its original distance from your face. 

Jieun laughed at your antics as she watched you in amusement. 

You looked over and locked eyes with her, “Ready..?” 

Jieun admired you for a few seconds before nodding her head, “Mhm.” 

Your smile grew even bigger then you looked back over at the camera. “Okay, well I’m going to hand this off to her now, she’s kinda the professional in all of this so yeah. Here you go love.” You handed the phone to Jieun. 

She continued to keep her face out of frame until she was ready. Then slowly she moved closer to you, moving the camera to capture both of your faces in frame. Jieun didn’t say anything as all she could do was stare at the way the comments flew by faster than she could read them.

“Gosh Jieun, how do you manage to look even more beautiful on screen.” You spoke your genuine compliment as you looked between the Jieun next to you and the one on the screen in front of you. “Crazy.” You shook your head in disbelief at her beauty.

Jieun began to blush like crazy when she heard your compliment. “I guess it’s my turn to introduce myself, no..?” Jieun whispered to you.

“Mhm, go ahead baby.” You reached for her hand that wasn’t holding the camera. “You got this.” You reassured her with a gentle squeeze of her hand. 

Jieun looked between you and the camera as she built the courage to speak. Then finally she introduced herself. “Hello everyone, it’s nice to finally meet you all on this account. My name is Lee Jieun but a few of you may know that I also go by another name. And that name is IU.” Jieun’s eyes on screen reflected the comments that were speeding by on screen. “I know this may seem crazy, but yes, that has been me in all these pictures on this account. What do you think, did I do a good job at hiding my identity..?” Jieun asked the viewers as she had a small smile on her face. “I just hope that you all now understand the reason behind me being secretive about my identity on this account for the past two years.” 

The two of you sat in silence after her last sentence while you both tried reading some of the comments. You finally decided to speak up to help break the silence. 

“See, I told all of you that she was very beautiful.” You looked away from the screen so you could look at Jieun’s profile, “Very, very beautiful.” 

Jieun placed the phone in your hand so she could move to hide her face in the crook of your neck. “Stop that, you’re making me shy.” She whispered to you which caused you to laugh.

You held the camera up to show everyone watching the scene that was happening between the two of you. “Haha, did you hear that..?” You asked the viewers watching. “She’s shy.” 

After a small while the comments began to slow down and you were finally able to fully read them. You nudged Jieun so she could look at you. “Look, they’re all pretty much positive.” You gestured to the phone in front of you. 

Jieun finally pulled away from you so she could read the comments as well. “Oh wow…” She mumbled as she stared at the screen. 

“Yeah wow.” You agreed with her statement of shock. “I guess everything is going to be okay now, hmm..?” 

“Hopefully.” Jieun spoke in a quiet voice. 

“Hmm,” You looked between Jieun and the screen. “Well, I feel like we should tell them about ourselves, shouldn’t we..?” 

“Mhm, we should.” Jieun nodded as all she could do was stare at you in admiration at how you were able to lead the livestream even though this was your first time doing anything like this. 

Your eyes grazed the comments that were flying by, filled with questions. You read them outloud to yourself before finding one that you wanted to answer. 

“How did the two of you meet..?” You read the comment out loud then you looked over at Jieun, who was still just staring at you. “Do you want to tell the story or do you want me to..?” 

“You can do it…” Jieun answered as she avoided looking you in the eyes. 

“Okay,” You planted a gentle kiss on her forehead before clearing your throat and looking back at the camera. “It was about seven years ago now, and believe it or not we first met on the bus. Crazy right..?” You smiled as memories started to flood your mind. “I was in my first year of university here and I was heading to a study group at a cafe near my campus. I was still fairly new to the area so I had gotten on the wrong bus at first so when I boarded the one Jieun was on, I was already running late. And Jieun, well actually where were you headed to..? You never told me.” You looked over at Jieun.

“Oh, it was my day off so I was just visiting a bunch of different bakeries and cafes around town.” Jieun answered as she moved to lean her head on your shoulder so she could look at you through the screen in front of her. 

“Oh, interesting.” You smiled when you felt her lean on you. “Continuing, she was in the seat behind me and she had suddenly dropped her phone which slid forward, hitting my shoe, so like any other sane person in the world, I picked it up to hand it to her. But man, when I was handing her her phone, the look on her face was unbelievable. The way she looked at me in that moment still gives me butterflies to this day.” You couldn’t help the smile on your face as you continued to tell the story of your first meeting. 

Jieun happily sat with you, occasionally chiming in to help with some of the story telling, she didn’t know if it was the huge amount of weight that was no longer on her shoulders that made her feel even more comfortable leaning on you. You were her happy place and she would never deny that. You had then given the phone to Jieun so you could explain this part of the story with your hands.

“And yeah, all that has led up to here. I can’t believe I’ve had to deal with your crazy self for this long.” You laughed as you looked at Jieun.

“Ha, you’re the crazy one here, not me.” She playfully slapped your shoulder. 

“Sure, as if that’s not a lie.” You had a sly smirk on your face as you watched Jieun.

Jieun glared at you before breaking out in a bright smile, “It’s insane that I love you so much that I can’t even pretend to be mad at you.” 

You let out a joyful laugh before moving to quickly wrap her up in a hug, knocking her phone out of her hand in the process. “Oh, oops.” You leaned over to pick her phone up from the ground, “I’m sorry about that, are you all okay..?” 

While you were talking to the camera Jieun stared at you from behind, “Dummy…” She mumbled in a not so subtle way. 

You turned away from the camera to look at her, “What did you just call me..?” 

Jieun had a mischievous smirk on her face as she answered you, “Dummy.” This time she spoke with way more haughtiness.

“Oh really..?” You stuck your tongue to the side of your cheek as you nodded slowly. “This is how it’s going to be huh..” You had a small smile on your face as you moved forward to lean her phone against a candle you had on the coffee table. “Okay then.” Once you had the camera set up you turned around to face Jieun. “Dummy, is it..?” You asked before moving to jump on top of her. “Say sorry.” You laughed as you began to tickle the squirming girl beneath you. 

“Hahaha, n-no, n-, hahaha, never!” She laughed loudly, barely letting the words out. 

“Say it,” You couldn't help but laugh at how infectious Jieun’s laugh was. 

“No!” She yelled as her laugh got even louder. 

“Say it.”

“No!”

Say i- woah!” Before you were able to even realize it, Jieun had wrapped her legs around your waist, quickly moving to flip the two of you over. Uh-oh, now she was the one on top. 

“J-jieun,” You let out a giggle, “Stop!! You’re going to make me pee myself!”

“Ha ha, Karma punk.” Jieun now sported that same mischievous smirk from earlier as she tickled. 

By now you had completely forgotten about the camera and broadcast as all your focus was now on getting revenge. 

Somewhere in between your squirming around you were able to grab her arms to stop her from tickling you, you quickly moved to tackle her back down underneath you. “Ha! Got you.” You quickly stood up from the couch and moved to pick her up and throw her over your shoulder, once you had her where you needed her, you began to spin around. 

Jieun was laughing so hard tears began to stream down her face. 

Once you stopped spinning her around, you carefully dropped her back onto the couch, proceeding to throw a pillow at her. Jieun quickly scrambled to sit up so she could throw the pillow back at you.

You caught the pillow as it flew towards you, “Haha loser, I caught it!” You teased, sticking your tongue out at her. You turned around to look for a bigger pillow but then that soon became a big mistake as Jieun took that opportunity to jump on your back.

The two of you continued to play around like children for a while until you finally remembered about the broadcast that was still live streaming your whole play fight. Jieun was currently on top of you on the couch, attempting to do some wrestling moves when you reminded her about the camera. 

“Huh?” She paused in the middle of one of her moves, “Oh no.” She cleared her throat then she rolled off of you to sit down, trying her best to seem normal.

You couldn’t help the huge belt of laughter at the sight of her, “Oh you’re so cute.” You wrapped your arms around her and peppered her in kisses all over. 

Jieun was laughing while trying to free herself from you, “S-stop, haha, the, the, the broadcast.” She managed to get out in between her laughter. 

You finally pulled away from her with the biggest smile on your face. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I can’t help myself. You’re just too cute.” You planted one last kiss on her lips before grabbing her phone off of the coffee table. “Oh wow.” As you sat back down you looked at the number of people watching, it had more than doubled since the moment the two of you started playing around. 

_

It was now time for the broadcast to end and Jieun was the one who was in charge of that as you now sat asleep hugging her from behind. Your head was leaning on her back as your arms were wrapped around her waist. 

Jieun couldn’t help the smile on her face as she watched you from the screen, man was this girl in love. 

Jieun looked back up at the camera to begin speaking again in a hushed tone as to not wake you up. “Well I hope this wasn’t too much of a shock to my longtime supporters but I don’t regret this decision. This relationship is a huge part of who I am and I just hope that you can all continue to support me for who I am and not because of who or how I love. And I mean that with all the sincerity in the world.” Jieun paused to turn her head to look at you, “I love her a lot, she makes me so happy it’s hard to even put it into words.” Jieun looked back over at the camera, eyes looking over the comments, “She’s someone very special to me. She makes me feel things that I didn’t even know were possible. There’s no one out there more perfect for me than her and she has never made me feel anything less than special.” Jieun didn’t notice how a tear had escaped from her eye as she spoke her truth, “I have to go now, thank you for all of your support. Bye.” Jieun waved at the camera then she cut the broadcast off. 

_

“Jieun, I’m not sure about this. I’m nervous.” You whispered as you followed her into the dressing room you were now sharing. Yes sharing, not her dressing room, but one for the two of you. 

After the news about your relationship went viral everything quickly changed for you. You had to resign from your job due to people constantly pestering you about your relationship with one of the biggest artists in your time. Then outside of that people with huge cameras began hunting the two of you down everywhere you went and you were constantly getting bombarded by reporters trying to reach out to you. 

The day after the news came out Jieun decided to take the two of you on a vacation to a small village in a secluded part of the country so you could have some form of peace together. Your couple's account was the hot topic of every news outlet in the country so you went from barely being in a light to being on everyone’s phone in the country. 

Once the two of you came back from your impromptu vacation, Jieun’s manager had requested for you at her company. When the two of you showed up both Hanteo and the CEO of her company were waiting for you in one of the meeting rooms with a contract. After a lot of discussion you and Jieun figured this was the direction you were meant to go in, Jieun couldn’t have been happier for you as you signed the contract. Jieun admired your beauty more than anyone else in the world and now you would have an even bigger opportunity to share it with the world. This definitely wasn’t the way you expected your life to go but for Jieun, all of this was definitely worth it. 

So all of that leads to this moment, the producers of the show “Happy Together,” had reached out to Jieun’s manager to ask if the two of you were willing to appear for a special episode they were planning on shooting. You had left the decision up to Jieun and she agreed to it once the two of you had talked about it for a while. 

“Hey, it’s going to be okay. Just be yourself, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about, okay? I’ll be right next to you the entire time.” Jieun reassured you by placing a gentle kiss on your knuckles. 

“Okay…” You nodded in response before letting go of her hand so she could get her makeup done. You sat on the couch in the dressing room as you watched her through the mirror. 

Then soon it was your turn to sit where she was. You definitely weren’t used to the feeling of someone doing your makeup but you had seen Jieun do this a million times so you tried your best to sit still.

After the two of you were made up you sat in the dressing room together just talking. Jieun had begun to post old pictures of the two of you together on both your couple’s account and on her personal account so that was the topic the two of you were talking about.

There was a knock at the door then one of the producers you had introduced yourself to earlier walked in. He informed the two of you that he was going to give you a rundown of today's episode. He walked the two of you through the set as he explained what to do. “So when this door opens the two of you will just walk through and introduce yourselves, then you can walk towards the couch and sit down. If you begin to feel overwhelmed just let us know, this isn’t being broadcasted live.” He spoke the last sentence more towards you.  

It was almost laughable at how opposite both you and Jieun were at the current moment. She was cool, calm and collected as she smiled at everyone around, meanwhile you were on the brink of freaking out and looking like you could vomit any moment now.

Once the producer walked away, Jieun turned to face you. “Hey look at me, it’s going to be okay. Take a deep breath.” She rubbed your arm as you did what she said. “It’s going to be fine, okay..? If you need me to, I can talk for the both of us.” 

“That would honestly probably be the best choice here, I don’t want to embarrass the both of us.” You gave her a small smile. 

Jieun moved in to hug you tightly and you soon felt yourself relaxing in her embrace. 

“You know I love you, right..?” Jieun whispered in your ear. 

You nodded before whispering back, “Mhm, and I love you too.” 

Jieun continued to talk to you in an attempt to calm you down as they began to film. 

After a couple of minutes the door the producer mentioned earlier opened and it was now time for the two of you to walk onto set. Jieun held your hand tightly as she led the way. 

You felt super nervous but Jieun never once let go of your hand, soon all the introductions were over and the two of you sat down on the couch designated for you. 

As the show progressed you were finally able to calm down as you soon noticed how friendly everyone was on set. This was honestly one of your favorite shows to watch in your free time so actually being able to be on set was super awesome. 

At one point Jae-suk had motioned towards you and Jieun while smiling, “The two of you haven’t let go of each other's hand since you walked in.” 

Instead of Jieun you spoke up, looking down at your interlocked fingers, “Yeah I guess we haven’t.” 

You looked up to look at Jieun, her eyes immediately locking onto your own, a proud smile on her face. 

The two of you then shared a laugh when Myungsoo told a dumb dad joke about your situation. 

Towards the end of the show Jae-suk had brought up the topic of the public's response to your relationship. Not in a way that was invasive but more as setting up the discussion for normalizing queer relationships in the country and in the Media. 

“Well,” Jieun began, “There was a huge amount of support from people outside of our country and by people from the younger generations. I ignored many of the unpleasant responses as I know that our relationship is just as valid as anyone else’s relationship, so to anyone out there saying that we’re setting a bad example for their kids then I’m sorry but I have to disagree. If two people in a healthy and loving relationship is a bad example for kids then I’d hate to see what a ‘good’ example would be for your kids.” Jieun spoke in such an eloquent way that helped disguise the disgust she felt to the people who spoke ill of your relationship. 

You just had to take a moment to admire how she sounded so professional to the camera but yet she was essentially telling people to screw off.

The smile on your face wasn’t missed by Jae-suk as he soon asked you for any input you wanted to add. 

You looked over at him and nodded, “Well just like Jieun said, we both care for each other very deeply and this was a huge decision we both agreed on after years of being together. I knew this choice was going to hurt her career in some form or another but I am glad to know that we can show young people that it eventually gets better. That they are normal and there is definitely not something wrong with them. I know if a celebrity I looked up to as a kid had this in common with me then it would’ve made life a lot easier on me. Not saying that my parents didn’t support me, cause they definitely do, it just would've made everything that was going on in my head make more sense. But now I get to wake up to this beautiful face everyday and I couldn’t be happier.” You looked at Jieun. “And as a bonus, Jieun isn’t as stressed anymore about hiding such a big part of herself from her fans. So I want to thank all of her fans that decided to stick by her side. I thank all of you so much for accepting me and our relationship. I promise to take care of Jieun and to always be there for her.” 

Jieun’s eyes began to water as she listened to you, then Jae-suk asked her if she wanted to add on to what you said. 

“Oh sorry, just give me a minute.” Jieun smiled as she turned her face away from the camera. With the hand that wasn’t holding yours, she patted her finger around her eyes. “Sorry.” She apologized to the cast and crew. 

“No, no, don’t apologize.” Jae-suk reassured Jieun with words of encouragement.

“Okay well,” Jieun started once she was able to collect herself, “We really do hope to become a beacon of hope for young people everywhere so that they know they will always be loved and accepted by us. We both know how it feels so trust us when we say we love everyone out there who may feel like they don’t fit in with society's normalized standards. You will all become happy in the future, I wish things didn’t take such a long time but in the end I promise it will be worth it.” 

Everyone on set couldn’t help but get emotional at what the two of you were saying and Jieun wasn’t helping once she said that she was starting an outreach organization to help give young kids resources to help process their feelings. She stated that she had wished that this was something she had around as a kid so instead she wanted to be the one to establish this organization. Jae-suk even chimed in saying that he would also like to help out sometime. You couldn’t have been prouder of the woman sitting next to you. Always so caring to everyone. 

Overall your experience on the show was amazing, everyone from the cast to the crew was incredibly nice to the both of you. You were glad that you were both given the space to share more about your relationship to people out there who still doubted that relationship was anything more than a publicity stunt.

After the cameras stopped rolling you thanked everyone for allowing the two of you on the show and then it was time for you to leave.

You and Jieun walked outside hand in hand following behind Hanteo. 

“I knew you would do an amazing job, I’m so proud of you.” Jieun said once the two of you were seated in the car. 

“Well I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, but you being there with me really helped out.” You had a small smile on your face as you talked to her. 

“Then I’m just glad you didn’t have a panic attack.” Jieun kissed your cheek, causing you to look at her, “I’m seriously so proud of you.” She planted a soft kiss on your lips before putting her seat belt on. 

_

Once you had made it home you had asked Jieun if she wanted to go on a walk to see the sunset. 

Of course she agreed so as she waited for you by the door you ran into your shared bedroom to slip something into your pocket. You quickly rushed out to meet her at the front door, and even though she didn’t say anything, Jieun knew there was something up with you. 

The two of you walked along the scenic pathway you frequented on her days off, hand in hand, talking about everything and anything that came to mind. Jieun would pause occasionally to take pictures, as always, and you couldn’t help the smile on your face as you admired her. 

You had stopped walking once you made it to what you considered the most beautiful spot on the path. 

“What’s wrong..? Are you thirsty..?” Jieun asked in concern when you pulled her aside. 

You couldn’t help the small smile on your face as you shook your head, “No, I’m fine. I just wanted to ask you something.” 

Jieun raised an eyebrow at your strange behavior, “You know you can ask me anything right..? You don’t have to ask for permission.” 

“I know love, but I think I might need at least some permission for this question.” Before Jieun could say anything else you moved to get on one knee. You pulled out a little black box from your pocket, opening it up towards her and it revealed a simple yet beautiful ring. It had both of your initials engraved onto it, and it was topped off with a beautiful but appropriate diamond. “Lee Jieun, will you marry me..?” Your voice wavered with a bit of nervousness as you asked her the big question.

“You can’t be serious??” Jieun’s face was riddled with shock as her eyes began to water up. “Yes, yes of course! A million times yes!”

You couldn’t help but laugh as your own eyes began to tear up, you slid the ring onto her ring finger then you moved to envelope her in a big hug. 

“Finally…” Jieun mumbled before pulling away from the hug so she could kiss you. “You took your precious time with this love.”  

“I know baby, and I’m sorry it took this long. I just didn’t want to ask you before we went public, I didn’t want to pressure you into feeling like we had to go public. I was happy waiting until you were ready.” You held Jieun’s face in your hands as you admired her eyes. “I love you.” 

Jieun’s eyes continued to water, “I love you too.” 

_

“She’s my fiance, yay! She’s my fiance, yay! She’s my fianc-” 

“Are you okay..?”

“Oh my, Jieun, you scared me!” You had jumped up in surprise when you heard Jieun’s voice behind you. 

It was later that night and you were washing the dishes from dinner as Jieun showered, you didn’t expect her to finish up this fast… so yeah she might have caught you celebrating to yourself. 

“Are you that excited to be engaged with me..?” Jieun wrapped her arms around your neck once you turned around to face her. 

“Are you joking..? Of course I’m this excited Jieun. I’m sure I’m probably the happiest woman on earth right now.” You placed your hands on either side of her waist. 

Jieun had a smile on her face as her eyes looked back and forth from your eyes to your lips, “Well I think there’s probably one woman on earth who is happier.”

“Oh really..?” You raised an eyebrow at her. “And who would that be..?” 

Jieun leaned in closer, “Me.” She whispered to you before leaning in to envelope you in a loving kiss. 

_

“Oh they’re loving this picture babe.” Jieun smiled as she showed you her phone screen.

“I told you, it’s my favorite one.” The photo on her phone was one of her in frame while holding your hand on up to the camera. You interlocked fingers showing the newly found rings on both of your ring fingers. This was the first picture on your couple’s account that featured just Jieun’s face. 

“I liked the one with both of us in it, but you insisted on this one.” Jieun opened up her gallery to show you the picture she was referencing. 

“Baby you can just post that on your account, no one’s stopping you.” 

Jieun gasped, she stared at you with the widest eyes. “You’re so right, I forgot I could do that.” 

You couldn’t help but laugh at her antics, “You’re so cute baby, don’t ever change.” You planted a kiss on her cheek before laying your head on her lap. You looked up at the woman you loved the most and your heart was super content, there was no better feeling than this. 

[thechaoticfanartist]

Grim & Anakin for “You’re important to me, you little shit”?

Homesick

Prompt List: &. 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬.

Gen

Character(s): Grim Kennet, Anakin Skywalker

Relationship: Grim Kennet & Anakin Skywalker

Word Count: 619

Grim could not tell time, it was impossible for her to figure out anything when the standard galatic calander differed so much from the one used back on Earth. She had no idea how long she had been in Star Wars. What she did know was that she had been in Star Wars for a while. At least, long enough for Obi-Wan to have grown out his mullet again. Which also meant, it had been a while since she had last been home, since she had last seen her family.

She was still trying to adjust to her new life as a Jedi. She was still struggling to find a place where she belonged, because if she was honest with herself, she wasn’t sure if she really belonged among the Jedi. They were the heroes of stories, and she was just a nerdy kid who happened to one day appear in their universe. She didn’t really fit in with the other Padawans, who had grown up at the Jedi Temple.

Somedays, like today, when she was really feeling homesick, she would find a quiet place at the Temple and sit down with her sketchbook, drawing all sorts of things from her home. She had failed to notice, however, that she wasn’t entirely alone this time. Anakin walked over to her, “I didn’t know you liked to draw,” he said.

She slammed her sketchbook shut, feeling a little embarrassed, as if he had caught her writing in her diary instead. She looked up at him and smiled a little awkwardly. “Oh, yeah, I do. Sorry, you startled me for a moment, Skywalker.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to, Tiny. If it’s alright for me to ask, what were you drawing?”

Her smile fell and her hands covered the sketchbook. She looked down at them, finding a sudden interest in her gloves. She was quiet for a long moment, and Anakin seemed to take it as a sign she didn’t want to tell him.

“Nevermind,” he said.

“No,” she sighed. “Do you promise not to think I’m ‘attached’ to the past or anything like that?”

He sat down next to her. “Of course,” he said.

“I was drawing a park I used to go to before I was a Jedi,” she told him. “I’ve been drawing a lot of things like that recently. It’s hard to explain to anyone else really, everyone here joined the Jedi when they were so young that they hardly know any other life. I had a life outside of this, and it wasn’t that long ago at all. I guess I just feel a little homesick.”

“You’re not the only one, Tiny,” he told her. “I joined the Jedi older than everyone else as well, at least until you came along. I also had a life outside the Order. It’s good that you have happy memories of your home before this one.”

“Can I really call this place home? I’m sorry, Anakin, I just don’t feel like I belong here sometimes. I was just some kid until…” she trailed off, having almost mentioned her sudden appearance in another universe. “Until Master Kenobi found me,” she said instead. “I was never amazing at anything, I just had an ordinary life, with an ordinary family. Now, I’m here, at the Jedi Temple, and I’m the Padawan of Obi-Wan Kenobi, I’m friends with you, and it just doesn’t feel real. It doesn’t feel like I belong as a part of that.”

“Hey, Grim, you belong here. You’re important to me, you little shit.” He playfully ruffled her hair.

She laughed, and then grinned at him. “Thanks Skywalker, you’re important to me too. I’m glad I have you as my friend.”

Tag List (let me know if you want to be added or removed) : @padme--amygdala @soclonely @mrfandomwars @jgvfhl @starlonkedd @shinhatigf @togrutanduin @jedi-valjean @one-real-imonkey @traygaming @aiylasdrawings @keoxus  @dykerebel @veiled-in-stars @sentineljedi @spicysucculentz @amelia-song-pond @it-was-rose @saturnsokas @thejediprincessqueenofnaboo @veradragonjedi @arrthurpendragon @shrinkthisviolet

[givemeanaccountalready]

Prev

So while that happens, the entirety of the Hidden Leaf are freaking tf out. Not only did they just lose the first (publicly known) Wood Release user since Lord First immediately after they got her, but they also lost the jinchuuriki too. Anyone who is not in Root has no clue who Sai is or where he came from (hint: inside the walls). It is a disaster.

Sai and Sakura had their little bout of fisticuffs in the Academy schoolyard. Sasuke saw the Wood Release and is like, that might be useful, I need to learn that. He leaves to try and find out where they could have gone. Unlike the adults who are rightfully going wtf, Sasuke is like, sick jutsu bro. He finds Sakura’s little hideout and her diary with all her notes inside. Any pretense of not caring beyond learning a rad new jutsu flies out the treehouse as he sees various mentions of this “Keigo” guy (Sakura named Sai Keigo because he called her Ugly in an attempt to give her a friendly nickname and she cried (no self-esteem), forcing him to explain what the hell he was thinking. Since he told her to give him a name since he didn’t have one and kept being rude, she named him “Polite Speech” as a middle finger) and Naruto is the son of the Nine Tails (that was her best theory, cut her some slack, she was 11 when she came up with it). Sasuke firmly believes that this Keigo guy is an enemy nin who is using his classmates, and decides, yeah I can rescue them because he’s 12 and never not been able to figure shit out. How hard could a rescue op be?

Very hard is the answer. He is able to leave a shadow clone behind to get his classmates (you know, all the clan heirs that you don’t want to lose) to leave the village with him to “find Naruto and Sakura” (really, it’s to throw the searchers off and cause a distraction so he can solve the issue and leverage them for answers about Naruto’s relationship to the Nine Tails). Sasuke is also stuck with this old guy who claims he’s Jiraiya of the Sannin, but really, he’s just a dirty, old man who keeps chasing skirts at every rest stop they’re at. It’s annoying, but the guy might die if Sasuke leaves him alone because if he keeps calling himself a Sannin, people are going to try and kill him. Sasuke still can’t quite believe that Jiraiya is Jiraiya of the Sannin, even after he meets Tsunade. He’s not entirely convinced Tsunade is Tsunade Senju either, and feels for Shizune. Shizune is trying her very best not to laugh at Jiraiya and Tsunade when Sasuke is like, yeah, sure you’re a Sannin, and I have a loving, living family, now chop, chop, put the vices down, we got idiots to hunt down.

These are the shitpost meme esque vibes I got going on:

Jiraiya: “Dear God, whoever took them must be a master of evasion.”

Cut to the three idiots arguing over whether moss only grows on the north side of trees. They personify the song “Lost” from the Percy Jackson musical

Sai: “This would be so much easier if we still had a map.”

Sakura: “It was an accident! You make dinner next time!”

Sai: 100% earnest “Sure, I like eating things with flavor.”

Sakura: “Why you little-” Homer Simpson chokes him

Naruto: holding up the charred remains of their map “Hold on guys, I think we might be near this little, not burnt bit.”

Sai: “No, we’re not. We passed that point two days ago.”

Naruto: “Maybe we went in a circle?”

Sakura: “FUCK!”

Sasuke: goes up to the sleeping Jiraiya “WAKEY WAKEY” immediately uses a water jutsu to drown him awake

Jiraiya: “AAAAAAH!!” Coughs up water “I taught you that jutsu so you could put out any fires started by your Fire Release practice on your own.”

Sasuke: “I’d say a dumpster fire counts.”

Danzo: looks up from his desk “Why do I hear boss music?”

A wild Itachi appears

Tsunade: “Let me get this straight. The Hidden Leaf lost two Academy students who not only were they the worst in their physical training scores, but they also have the potential to be some of the biggest powerhouses in this generation. And you two are their only hope at finding them because the Leaf doesn’t want to alert the other villages to what they lost by sending out an actual search party?”

Sasuke: “Yup.”

Jiraiya: “That pretty much covers it. So? Will you help us?”

Tsunade: starts cackling

[bambirex]

It's A Game We Play: Chapter 2

Pairings: Geraskier, Yennskier, Radskier

Characters: Jaskier, Geralt of Rivia, Yennefer of Vengerberg, Radovid, original female characters, Essi Daven, Priscilla, Ciri of Cintra, Valdo Marx

Additional tags: inspired by Mamma Mia! (movies), crack, alpha/beta/omega dynamics, omega jaskier, alpha geralt, alpha yennefer, beta radovid, awkwardness, jaskier is a good parent, protective jaskier, weddings, found family, post mpreg, fluff and humor, alternate universe - modern setting

Rating: teen and up audiences

Full word count: 4,816 words

Chapter word count: 2,430 words

Chapters: 2/?

Summary: Jaskier's daughter is about to marry the love of her life, and she decides she wants both her parents at her wedding. Only problem is that Jaskier has slept with a little too many people in his youth, so the identity of the other parent is a mystery. That does not stop the bride-to-be from inviting three potential daddy candidates and unleashing absolute chaos in the process.

*

Otherwise known as Jaskier's terrible horrible no good past decisions leading to terrible horrible no good outcomes. Also known as the Mamma Mia! AU nobody asked for, but I wrote it anyway.

Chapter summary: Amaryllis goes looking for clues in Jaskier's diary. She finds three of them.

Author's notes: All of your lovely feedback motivated me so much that I had to get this chapter out as soon as possible, thank you all!! ❤️ We're getting a glimpse into Jaskier's past and a very vague introduction to the three potential other parents.

Read on Ao3

*

Amaryllis knew she was facing quite the challenge with trying to figure out the identity of her other parent, but she was Jaskier's daughter; that meant she inherited the "never-backing-down-from-a-challenge gene". She was going to find out who it was, come hell or high water.

Her Papa was a little too tight-lipped about the whole ordeal. Amaryllis didn't know if it was because he actually had no clue, or because he just didn't want to reveal it, but it seemed like that if it remained up to him, Amaryllis would never find out.

Clearly, pressing Jaskier for further info wouldn't work, so Amaryllis needed a different method to investigate. And how lucky she was to have a father who was such a hopeless romantic with a great artistic streak, that he sentimentally kept a journal all these years- a journal that may or may not have contained the clues about what Amaryllis so desperately wanted to know.

She felt a little bad about rummaging through Jaskier's drawers to find his diary. She's made a promise she would never read his intimate thoughts, but desperate times called for drastic measures.

"Are you sure there's anything of substance in there?" Vera, one of her friends and bridesmaids, asked, as Amaryllis sat them down in her bedroom and waved Jaskier's diary in front of their noses.

"I know he used to write a lot," Amaryllis explained. She ran her fingers over the birds and flowers on the cover. "He even told me himself. It was a kind of comfort for him. Songs, short stories, just talking about his day... he still wrote in it when I was little."

"And you think he also wrote about all the people he's slept with," Marion, her other bridesmaid, pointed out with a chuckle. Amaryllis snorted.

"I know it sounds weird, but I think he did. He's exactly the type of person who would write epic poems about his romances, no matter how short-lived. I think if there's anything that could help us, it's this diary."

There was a chance she was wrong, of course, and that she wouldn't find anything in the diary. But she had to try: she's dreamt about this all her life. About someone who cared for Jaskier the way he deserved, who helped him through everything. Amaryllis knew she couldn't give Jaskier back all those lonely years of raising her alone, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to try and mend things. Maybe it was never too late to try and build the kind of family she and her father both deserved. It was her wedding, after all, which was the best opportunity to make everything perfect.

Taking a deep breath, Amaryllis sat between her friends and opened the diary.

They had to pass through many boring entries about Jaskier's mundane days, and then some angry rants about the one who shall not be named, even though everyone knew exactly, that those entries were about Valdo Marx, Jaskier's biggest rival. They attended the same theater group in high school, and they hated each other with a burning passion, being the two most talented of their peers. They competed with each other all the time, and they applied to the same college of performing arts.

Valdo got in, and Jaskier got pregnant. Jaskier didn’t immediately apply after finishing high school, because he decided to help his aunt on the island by working at the inn. And with having a baby so soon, he never even had the chance to get into that college. Amaryllis swallowed the guilt down heavily.

After many irrelevant drabbles interspersed with various ideas on how Jaskier was planning to murder Valdo, they reached a long segment with many glittery hearts and rainbows drawn on the margins, which caught their attention.

"Look at the date!" Marion squealed, "Summer of 2002!!"

"Shit," Amaryllis's heart sped up. This was it. She was born in the May of 2003, so the summer of 2002 was when Jaskier has spent the most time on the island, and has gotten pregnant with Amaryllis.

"That's a long entry," Vera chuckled. "Slept with a guy named Jonathan... Not very remarkable and he smells like gasoline. Cindy is cute... oh, Cindy is an Omega, we're crossing her off the list. Thomas took me behind a trashcan!? I'll never be able to look into your father's eyes again. Are you planning on going through all of these?"

"Well, we have to narrow it down," Amaryllis said. "Let's count quickly... I was born in May, so nine months back is... August. Let's focus on August."

"August the third, what a night!" Amaryllis read out loud. "After what felt like years of trying to convince him, Geralt finally agreed on spending the night together. Dear Diary, let me tell you, this man is a beast in bed!"

Oh, God. Amaryllis will also never be able to look into her father's eyes again.

"He's so hot, I can't control myself around him. It's been three weeks since he helped me after my car broke down on the road. His defined muscles are practically bursting out of his shirt. I still shiver just remembering the sight of him working on that flat tire... bloated biceps on display... his long, white hair falling into his eyes... those wild, amber eyes, like a wolf, how I wished he would devour me!"

Huh. Jaskier sure had a vivid imagination.

"My brave, strong Alpha knight in black armor! He always wears black. He's spending the month on the island, holidaying with his family. I hope he stays longer, though he says he has to go back to finish college. He's gonna be a personal trainer, which makes so much sense, just look at him! I wanna be in those strong arms all the time. He's a bit grumpy, and he doesn't speak a lot, and he seems so traditional, too, not wanting to jump my bones right away... But then... He did! Dear Diary, when I tell you that he has a huge... "

"Yikes," Amaryllis quickly passed the following, explicit lines about the night Jaskier and his big strong knight spent together. The night when maybe, a white-haired, muscled introvert has knocked up her father.

The next entry was Jaskier talking about being so in love with Geralt, who then broke his heart by telling him that he needed to leave the island earlier with his family, and he didn't want to make things complicated by continuing their romance.

The next entry came a week later. It told the story of Jaskier falling in love again.

"August the tenth, what a night! I was approached by a lovely Beta named Radovid. He is literally blond Prince Charming... not on a white horse, but in a white Bentley. And those blue eyes... and that smile... He's sweet but knows how to flirt. He just inherited his father's company (coconuts? He mentioned what they were trading but I forgot, I think it was coconuts), so he has lots of money. Has the idea of being a sugar baby crossed my mind for a hot second? Maybe. But actually, he could be completely broke and I would still end up in his lap with how smoothly he was talking me out of my pants all night."

"Oh, Papa," Amaryllis chuckled, "you're so easy, bless your little slutty heart."

"He told me I was the prettiest Omega he has ever seen, and that he would love to hear me sing one day! He looked so good in that maroon button up, I couldn't wait to get him out of it. He ordered me the most expensive drink. I didn't want to offend him by telling him it tasted like dishwater. The way he looked at me over the rim of his glass was worth it, though. He could peel an orange open with just one look. We spent a wonderful night together. Very gentle and generous lover! I especially liked it when he..."

"Dude," Vera groaned, "why does your father have to go into such details?"

"Well, he never intended this to end up in our hands," Amaryllis chuckled.

Of course, the Disney Prince left the same way Geralt, the big buff paramour did: his freshly inherited business called out for him, and he left a very sad, and possibly pregnant Jaskier behind on the island.

But Jaskier wasn't mourning for long.

"August the twenty-fifth, what a night! I think I've mentioned Yennefer the chef in training before, right? She's working at the inn for this summer, and I've been trying to seduce her for two months and she refused all of my advances! But then Auntie threw a little party, and this time, she was the one that came up to me! She's such a sassy Alpha. Insanely hot too. Very sharp tongue and also very talented, if you know what I mean... "

They didn't need to know what he meant because Jaskier described it quite vividly in the next paragraph.

"I'm pretty sure the guests heard us going at it the whole night, but it was worth it! She's so beautiful, I couldn't stop looking at her lying next to me, raven-haired, violet-eyed supermodel, God! I wish I could paint so I could capture her beauty as she lay bare next to me. I'm already sad knowing she will have to go home soon, but maybe I can try and convince her to stay..."

He didn't manage, clearly, because Yennefer also went home, oblivious to the fact that maybe she and Jaskier made a baby on that night.

Amaryllis put the diary down with a big sigh. So many emotions swirled inside her: excitement over finally finding clues, sadness for her father's broken heart, also a whole amount of nervousness realizing that three horses were in this race. Her other parent was one of the three that Jaskier played hanky panky with in August.

"It's one of them," Amaryllis said, staring down at the tiny sandpiper in the corner of the cover. "But God, which one?"

"It's hard to tell, like, we cannot exactly determine the date of your conception," Marion replied. "But, out of the thousand people your father has slept with, we managed to narrow it down to Muscle Man, Ritchie Ritch, and Savage Soufflé."

"That's still three people!" Amaryllis threw her hands up in frustration. "How am I supposed to decide which one's the real one?"

She dropped her hands into her lap with a deep sigh. She got closer to the solution, but instead of making things easier, this revelation actually complicated everything even more. Amidst the sea of people Jaskier has had sex with, stood out three islands, but they were so distant.

She couldn't figure it out just by looking at their names. And she couldn't figure it out by asking Jaskier. She looked down on the diary, then opened it again. On the margins, next to the tiny doodles, were addresses scribbled down- with a tiny note saying "if I'd be brave enough to go after them."

An idea formed in her head. A crazy one, perhaps, but right now, it felt like her only chance of finding the other parent she was longing for.

"I'd know if I met them," Amaryllis eventually said. Seeing her friends' confused faces, she continued. "I think if I saw them in person, if I talked to them... I would feel it. Papa wrote down their address. I could send them a letter."

"Or you could find them on social media like any normal person would," Marion told her. "A letter? In this century?"

"Yeah, well... they don't know me. But they know my Papa. And if I wrote in his name and asked them to come see him... they might. I don't want to leave any traces behind, and once something lands on the internet, it stays there forever... besides, I know my father is a hopeless romantic. If he were to write a letter to his previous beaus, he would go all traditional and write a letter with his own hands."

"And what are the chances their address is still the same?" Vera chimed in. "And that the mailman would deliver a letter to someone whose last name you don't even know?"

"I have to try. That's the only way I can figure out who it is. And not a word about this to my father!"

She stared at the hearts on the margins, and smiled. Her Papa will absolutely kill her if he finds out, but that was a risk she was willing to take if it meant finally finding the rest of her family.

--

Strange. Jaskier could have sworn his diary was in the third drawer, not the second. But maybe he remembered it wrong.

He sat on the bed and hugged his diary to his chest with a sigh. It was silly of him, to suddenly feel the need to take a trip down memory lane just now, but truth be told, Amaryllis's question triggered some memories; memories of passionate nights and happy mornings, syrupy-sweet romances and horrible heartaches.

His heart got broken, and he broke other people's hearts, many times. As a young, reckless Omega who fell in love with anyone, he didn't really stop to care.

But now, his adult daughter needed an answer that Jaskier brushed under the rug all the time. Did he not know who it was? He didn't, not really. Did he not have a clue?

Well. He wasn't very good at Math, but he was able to count to nine. It wasn't as if the idea never crossed his mind, and while he has went through half the population of the island that summer, there was only a handful of people he had sex with in August, shockingly.

But Jaskier promised himself he would never go there, even though those three somehow always stood out - his feelings for them ran a little deeper than for the rest. He even had half a mind to seek them out after he parted from them, but he was too much of a coward. And a slut, probably. Who knows, maybe one of his one-night stands that came after knocked him up. Anything was possible with how much he used to sleep around.

They were all in the past, anyway. Those three, and the several others, too. It would tear up too many scars to try and get into this too deeply.

He needed to focus on making Amaryllis's big day special, instead.

[krikeymate]

The diary of jane by breaking benjamin as a sam and tara song? Now, technically the diary of jane is about romantic unrequited love, but it could also easily be platonic (which is what im veiwing it as, a platonic sibling relationship, specifically sam and taras when it was strained)

Some examples!

- "if i had to, i would put myself right beside you, so let me ask would you like that? Would you like that?" Being tara wanting to put herself next to sam when sam was struggling after the diary, but sam not wanting her to (maybe? My thoughts on this one were really hard to put into words)

- "somethings getting in the way, somethings just about to break, i will try to find my place in the diary of jane" the 'somethings getting in the way' part would be the secret of sams father being billy getting in the way of sam and taras relationship, 'somethings just about to break' could be sam, after finding out, about to break from the stress,  and 'i will try to find my place in the diary of jane' being tara trying to refind her place in sams life after their relationship was ruined due to sam finding out about billy

- "try to find out, what makes you tick as i lie down" could instead be 'what made you tick' which would be tara trying to figure out what caused sam to break (after sam had hit her breaking point and started drinking, smoking, etc.)

- "as i burn another page, as i look the other way, i still try to find my place in the diary of jane" 'as i burn another page' could be used as a metaphor (or whatever its called) for as the years go by, and 'as i look the other way' could be tara, looking the other way on whats going on with sam because she thinks its what sam wants and knows sam wont tell her, and again, 'i still try to find my place in the diary of jane' is tara trying to find her new place in sams life

- "desperate i will crawl, waiting for so long, no love, theres no love" being the first attack, when amber was going after tara, 'desperate i will crawl' being tara being desperate to get away and trying to crawl, the 'waiting for so long, no love, theres no love' would be tara thinking back on how long she waited for sam to come back, before realizing that she wont and thinking its cause sam doesnt love her

- "die for anyone, what have i become?" Could be after they killed the ghostfaces, wondering what they've had to become to kill them so brutally (mainly after 7) and obviously, they would both risk their life to save eachother, which doesn't equal anyone, cause they dont veiw eachother as just anyone, but its the closest i could think of to that lyric

I dont know if songs relation to characters interests you, but if it does i have a whole document on it i could talk about lol (and im in the process of constructing a playlist on it)

Listen, I love reappropriating romantic things to be platonic, because platonic love is just as strong and worthy.

"if i had to, i would put myself right beside you, so let me ask would you like that? Would you like that?" - I would be there for you, do you want that, do you want me there? Tara wanted to be there for Sam while she was struggling, and in the end she does put herself right there beside her, during 6. She chooses to stay, to help her fight.

I really like what you've said here, you should definitely link your own playlist once you're done!! Traditionally I'm not actually all that into reading into music (I'm not that clever/observant tbh), but here I am with a fandom music tag now so, I guess I'm learning lol.

[thecorporateweeb]

January 8, 2024

Its a new year and I'm feeling all excited and cliche about the year ahead. I am determined to get it together and become more like the woman I always wanted to be. I have decided that this will be the year of action and accountability. Yes, all the A's! Ambitious, annoying. I will see to it that my thoughts and ideas take a physical form. So, I tried to journal last night. I guess I have been feeling sort of lost lately, like I am forgetting myself a little bit. Usually journaling helps me remember, little by little. Day after day. I've been doing it most of my life now. With shelves full of used books, diaries grew into journals.

With a little guidance (a lot of guidance) from a book called, The Artist's Way, I would challenge myself to write every morning and would actually show up to the page 6 out of 7 days. I'm the type of person who will try just about anything, no matter how silly it might seem, if it will help me in some way. And when I find something that works, I integrate it into my life for good. Lately, I am finding that I am lucky to get a sentence or two out every few days. Something isn't right with me. And undeniably, I am stubborn. Once I realized this shift I knew I would have to force myself into the habit again. I had taken my hot shower and washed the day away. I got my journal and my favorite pen and tried to find a movie to put on for some background noise. I figured, something light and feel good. I saw that I was about 30 minutes into Eat Pray Love from a few weeks ago when I had went on a Julia Roberts movie marathon and decided that would work.

Before I knew it I had gotten completely lost in the movie. I looked down at my page only to see a "hello" and the date. Isn't it amazing how you could see a movie a million times but one day it feels brand new? I was right on the scene where Julia Roberts was telling her friend her big plan to go away for a year. Her friend called her crazy, understandably. But her friend had said something like, "a lot of women feel this way, they get married young, do the white picket fence thing and play the part well into their thirties and realize maybe this isn't for me anymore". Also I'm heavily paraphrasing and also its probably rude as hell to keep referring to Viola Davis as "Julia Roberts' Friend" but you get the point.

How embarrassing! How stupefied I was, and still am! I thought about the fact that this sad description unfortunately fits me. It is a humbling and mortifying experience to accept that the road you chose didn't go where you thought it would go and never felt the way you were so certain it would feel. How painful, the loss of a dream you fought for years to come true. Like trying to empty the ocean with a bucket, I did nothing but pass time. How painful it is, to experience the death of a dream.

Somewhere along the way, the ambitious, adventurous, wacky girl within me had fallen asleep. And in her sleep, she could only dream of who she once was and who she always wanted to be. I spent years missing that girl. Triumphantly enough, through years of running in the mountains, disturbingly repeated songs, and frequent therapy sessions I finally woke her up. Oh god did it feel good to remember how to live awake.

And now here I am, after another borderline comical series of unfortunate events, the kind that you just have to laugh at, I ended up in the same place I had learned to sleep.

I guess I didn't end up having my quiet meditative writing session I hoped for, but I remembered just a little more through inspiration and that is good enough for me.

Later in the movie when Julia Roberts is in Rome with her new friends, they talk about how places all have a "word". They asked her what her word was, to which she answered "I used to be daughter, then wife...eh, not so good. Then girlfriend...eh, not so good. I guess my word is writer." They told her writing is what she does, not who she is, "Who are you?". After a blank look, her friend chimed in with "maybe you are a woman in search of a word". I wondered, do I have a word? Immediately the word "lovely" came to mind. Am I allowed to choose lovely? For some reason my eyes started to water. I would like to be lovely in my life. I would like to love and be loving. May I be bold? Brave? Am I bold enough to exist exactly as I am? Am I brave enough to be vulnerable out loud? I guess I'll go to sleep and find out tomorrow. But tomorrow is a new day and I am choosing to be lovely.

[steely-eyedmissileman]

The Vampire Diaries, Ep. 2x07

Masquerade

boring title. that aside, this episode was the most engrossing episode of the vampire diaries i've seen in a while. my notes are a bit thin on the ground because i was too busy actually watching the fucking episode for once.

caroline knows the difference between elena and katherine. i have a question about this, actually. shouldn't it be really easy for vampires to tell the difference. elena has a heartbeat and she breathes and she has blood running through her veins. katherine doesn't. if you have superhuman senses, shouldn't it be really fucking easy to tell the difference between a vampire and a human. unless vampires aren't that different from humans. in which cas, i'll be disappointed, but i wish someone would fucking tell me!

katherine's going to kill people at the masquerade ball (by people, she means everyone). stefan's going to kill katherine. katherine has an evil bonnie now.

jeremy's going to help kill katherine. ht is here!!!! he has secret arm stakes, which i adore! god, i miss ht. he's not in the show enough anymore.

matt has to go make tyler kill him. elena's not going to the party. ht's not going to the party. he's going to stay home with jenna and make sure elena is okay.

i feel like this plan to kill katherine isn't going to work. why do i feel like this isn't going to work? because i understand the arc of a twenty-two episode season.

we then have a moment that made me laugh so hard i almost hyperventilated and died. i'll let the notes take this one: 'ian somerhalder and paul wesley are two very attractive men how did they make them so un-hot in suits'

i don't want matt to die, and i'm beginning to get worried that he will. why did they do that with jeremy's hair? why are there so many bad covers of 80s songs?

katherine kills a girl in front of stefan in the middle of this party. why is this always happening?

meanwhile, elena is sneaking out to go figure out what's going on, even after ht told her not to. this is not a good idea.

at the party, bonnie and jeremy are bonding. i love a potential friendship between these two, which would be very nice. both of them need more ties to the larger group. both of them are fairly isolated, and they won't be able to evolve as characters without additional connections.

caroline looks fucking beautiful. she has become a much more interesting character since becoming a vampire. caroline successfully tricks katherine into the room, and she gets a wonderful evil laugh moment. she's really come into her own since she was turned, and it's a joy to watch. damon and caroline have a wonderful 'hello katherine' 'goodbye katherine' moment. it's lovely to see these two characters, who are arguably katherine's biggest victims in mystic falls, take back some agency and fight against katherine.

elena has found bonnie and jeremy and she's worried that her friends will get killed because of her. jeremy makes an excellent point: 'it's not just you anymore, elena.' and he's right. a lot of the plot is about elena, but all the other characters have also been harmed. everyone has the right to decide how to handle their own lives and elena is going to have to relinquish her desire for control. then katherine is stabbed, and elena starts bleeding. elena gets hurt when katherine does. to quote my notes, 'this is bad this is real bad.'

there's another witch at the party. bonnie's going to go find her. and do what? we simply don't know.

meanwhile, matt is provoking tyler. caroline enters just in time to save matt. however, the girl who fell down the stairs a couple episodes ago (her name is sarah, my girlfriend has told me) attacks tyler too. he shoves her off him, but she hits her head on the desk and dies. this party has a very high body count. and tyler's a werewolf now.

upstairs, katherine is turning the brothers against each other in the hopes that they'll attack each other. and she thinks it's funny. the spell gets removed, and then no one stabs katherine.

caroline is covering up tyler's situation because she's a good friend and a good person.

bonnie confronts the other witch: 'when i gave you the stone, how did i know i could trust you?' the other witch reveals that she is a bennett cousin. she also tells bonnie to embrace her role in the supernatural. 'unlike me, you're one of the good ones, bonnie. the middle is exactly where you need to be.' i'm hoping that this will help bonnie embrace her role in the narrative and stop the morality policing that she has been doing constantly.

unfortunately, it becomes clear that bonnie and jeremy are going to get together. i fucking hate it.

elena isn't getting back together with stefan because she doesn't feel safe.

damon puts katherine in the tomb, 'where you should have been all along.' death is too good for katherine.

elena gets kidnapped by a masked man.

holy shit, y'all, this was an episode.

[thegirlwhowrites642]

I hope you are well.

Just wanted to tell you I love Back to Eclipse. In fic their was scene about ginny, bathtub and Tom. That was so creepy.

I love how different Harry and Tom in Ginny's life. Tom's diary always brings her pain and harry comfort.

In your analysis of yew wand you explained ginny is representation of life and Tom is of death(one of your best analysis). I think It fits in Ginny's life too maybe.

Many think Tom was like abusive ex. What do you think about that?

Also i have been listening to Taylor's would have could have in which there is line "give me back my girlhood it was mine first" dunno why it remind me of ginny and Tom.

Anyways will love to hear your thoughts on this scene. Also this has such a great imagery harry holding her from behind, ginny keeping her eyes shut and the back and forth between past and present.

Thank you (Sorry for a long rant).

TW: discussion of self-harm

[For those who haven't read the story yet -> Back to the Eclipse ]

I love that you love Back to the Eclipse and that scene!! It is creepy, isn't it? It wasn't even planned originally, it just came to me while I was writing about Harry and Ginny's fight. I had this visual of Ginny in the bathtub with blood and with a white nightgown and I needed to bring it to the page. I won't get into a personal rant about my original writing but it's a very me scene.

The whole matter of Ginny and the diary is a very fascinating one that for targeted audience reasons could never be fully explored in the books, even if in each one there's at least one reminder of how dark and twisted it was and how Ginny brings it with her all her life (with the exception of GoF because it builds to the Lucky you scene).

Tom in that scene I've written is setting up a suicide attempt for Ginny, even if in my idea he didn't actually have the intention of killing her at that moment, it was "just" psychological torture. In CoS, when Tom talks to Harry in the Chamber about Ginny he's so taunting, he makes fun of her. Even if you think about the fact that he makes her write with blood her own death sentence, you can find this element of unnecessary torture for the hell of it. A show of power. So I imagined it wasn't rare for him to do something like that. You can even interpret it as an experiment for what he will do in the Chamber if you want.

One of the main inspirations for this scene was the concept of suicide in ancient Rome. Suicide was considered a right in roman culture. Because while life was a right it fell under private law (it didn't work like that in ancient Greece for example). And in certain situations, it was an honourable act as an alternative to perishing at the hands of someone else. Now I'm not going to get into detail but, for example, when the senators wanted a fellow senator dead, they made him understand that he was going to die anyway, and out of respect, they gave him the possibility of killing himself, to have control over his own death. The cut of the veins was a pretty popular method in the tradition of the great figures that ended their own life. Maybe the most famous one is the one of Seneca.

This "tradition", and especially Seneca's episode, became my inspiration for that scene because Voldemort is a European dictator, or well, at 16 an aspiring one. And if there's something all European emperors/dictators have in common is an obsession with the roman empire. But I also thought it was quite fitting as a show of that weird co-dependency between Tom and Ginny. He makes fun of her, yet he knows her, and he is close to her. He tortures her but he sets up a scene that links that act back to something that was considered honourable.

[for the love of God, don't hurt yourself, people, there's nothing pretty or honourable about it, if you need help, ask for it]

I think Would've, could've, should've by Taylor Swift is a really powerful song that is quite fitting in this situation of Ginny and Tom. Yet I have to disagree on the matter of seeing Tom as an ex-boyfriend. I understand the parallel, but I think it comes from a line of thinking I disapprove of, the idea that the greatest betrayals and heartbreaks come always from lovers. Tom was Ginny's friend, her only friend. She trusted him, and she opened up to him, he was older, wiser, and charming. And he manipulated her. The implication of romance is not necessary, opening up to someone requires putting yourself in a vulnerable position, and that happens with friends too. There's nothing weird in suffering because you are not friends with someone anymore, whatever the reason is. There's nothing weird in suffering because a friend backstabbed you. It doesn't need to be romantic. It's not that the parallel of the toxic ex-boyfriend is wrong, but I find it often unnecessary.

But back to the scene I've written.

The presence of Harry. First, I have to specify that he's holding her from the front, I don't wanna take credit for things that I'm currently wishing I had written. That said, one of the things I really wanted to do with this story was showing what Harry does for Ginny. It's in the books, but Harry's pov tends to reduce the impact of those moments. So I wanted Harry to be there for Ginny, and be sensible about the matter, calming her like he does when she's worrying about the potions' book for example.

Something that I also find very fascinating is how Tom and Harry are arguably the two most impactful male figures of Ginny's life (until her sons) and how they are so connected and yet so different. The parallels between Tom and Harry are an explicit storyline of the books as much as their enormous differences. And you are right in referencing my analysis about the yew wands, like for Harry when it comes to Voldemort and Ginny, Tom and Harry are for her diametrically opposite things that still hold a connection. Tom is her darkest past, and Harry is her bright future. Tom is hate, and Harry is love. Tom is the guy that leaves her unconscious on a stone floor, and Harry is the guy that helps her stand up and tells her everything is going to be alright. Tom is torment, Harry is the guy who after seeing his mentor die still worries about how Ginny is feeling in regard to Bill being attacked. And I really enjoyed bringing this contrast to the page. I'll never get tired of saying that Ginny Weasley is built as a main character, she's just not the one of the story we've read.

I hope this was exhaustive enough! And please don't apologise, messages like this make a writer's day.

[nolongerapileofashprobably]

Everyone be ready, this was in my drafts from well over a year or two ago and I think its time it sees the light of day. No I will not be editing botw 2 and changing it to totk bc I said so

Botw 2 had taken up my mind recently so I thought I’d discuss a few things I want to happen or would be interested to see in the sequel:

K, probably my most unusual? want for the sequel is for Impa to die (either right before after giving our two kids a warning that leads them to the cave) and to have a funeral for her OR have Impa use the aging rune to save Link and Zelda after Hyrule castle is upheaved and Ganon is unleashed but then like mid game, she dies for them and her death is used as a pivotal moment for both Link and Zelda and a way to up the stakes in game. Either way, I think the death of the Sheikah I adore so much would be an amazing thing to cover in the sequel (I want a funeral no matter what tho, SS Impa still breaks my heart and I need CLOSURE)

I would... also love for Link and Zelda to be separated at the very beginning on the game (after the tutorial portion). This is more so depending on if Zelda is playable. If she isn’t, then I want her glued to Link’s side f that separation nonsense. If she IS playable, then having them separated at the beginning forces the player to utilize Link and Zelda to progress through the story. Let’s say, I dunno, Link ascends with the castle and Zelda remains below in the caves. The player has to figure out a way to get off the castle (aka tutorial pt 1) and then switch to Zelda after Link is back on the ground and figure out how to get tf out of the cave (that could... I dunno be collapsing due to Ganon waking up ~for suspense). And then having the two meet at the ground at the same time to watch whatever Ganon is gunna do. Bam there’s the second portion of the tutorial.

I’d also love for the ‘new champions’ to play a larger role? We have to work with them as we transverse through Hyrule to get to the dungeon (hopefully?) in their region. This is 100% based off my own love for RIJU and having her interact with Zelda but it’s a want of mine.

Zelda’s paraglider be the sailcloth from SS. Need I say more?

I would love for a major plot device to be malice infecting PEOPLE rather than ancient technology. I know one theory is that the game will have Link and Zelda go through Hyrule reclaiming each part that’s been warped by Ganon and restoring it to what it was after botw but before the sequel!

Speaking of the map (sorta) I would LOVE an unblocked Hyrule Castle to explore, new settlements across Hyrule Field (Ranch Ruins please RISE), and slightly modified versions of the villages we know and love. Let Link go into Gerudo Town without a disguise dammit

For the love of Nayru, please have it be confirmed Link and Zelda live in Hateno. I need NPC’s to comment on their relationship. Best part? I think we might get that. Because I doubt Nintendo will ever explicitly make them a canon couple or whatever but they left clues in BoTW that are obscure but still easily found (let’s go with Kass’s final song that makes it canon Zelda was in love with Link, Zelda’s diary, Bolson’s comment about endless falling flower petals, even the MEMORIES) because those all to me tell a story but I know a few friends who missed almost all of those things! Nintendo likes to leave a bread trail but we’ll have to go out of our way to find it. And using the NPC’s would be a really great way to do that (also having a few of Zelda’s research stuff underneath the stairs, either a bigger bed or a second one, both of their horses in the stalls outside, etc)