#im just trying to figure if keeping you in the loop about specific fitting changes are interesting or like. you just wanna see that ive made

[bismuthburnsblue]

genuine question, have you guys been liking (or even just reading) the posts where i explain what ive been doing/what i plan to do? or would you prefer i just kept it to "heres where im at" posts?

i wont be offended if yall dont like all the talking! theres a lot of it. if i really wanna explain something i will regardless (itll just be for me personally) but if its not interesting i wont explain every little thing im doing. and if it is maybe ill try and do it more (or at least. better. more polished)

[evera6234]

Gotham’s Salty WIP: Chapter I

RATING: T (Teen for cursing and stuff, this may change)

SUMMARY: 

Basically, the typical Daminette with a bit of lime and spice. Borderline crack fic bc i cant without humor. 

Marinette Dupain-Cheng goes to Gotham whilst carrying three years worth of emotional baggage, what she does with it, we don't know. Does she lug it around? Probably. Does she kick it off a skyscraper? Not probable, but maybe. Does she use it to drop kick an unsuspecting liar. Most definitely.                ~~~> EDITED BY OLLIETHETURTLE ON AO3

Transferred from AO3. 

Lemme know if ya wanna be tagged

OK. Umm.. First fic on AO3. K. We doin this, and we starting with this god awful piece of trash. Yes. Life. Fuck. 

Things ur signing up for:

Big boi Mari & Chloe Friendship Good Vibes TM

My ass shitting on Adrien bc im a salty bitch (and if u aint about that life, its ok. U can leave bc im not interested in fighting with people. No offence or disrespect to adrien stans but yea)

And Adrien stalker moments

Lila and Alya salt (plz see “im a salty bitch”)

Shitty update schedule, if any. I’m counting on yall to harass me to write.

Marinette & Jason “sibling-esque” relationship bc we all need that

An obscene amount of cursing (as you can already tell)

The class will not be  “Our singular communal brain-cell is fucking dead, help.” levels of dumb, but still “I have the IQ of a wet potato sack” levels of dumb.

Eventual negation of canon bc we live that life

“Espresso with a dash of Depresso” Moments TM

I'm originally an MLB fan. So do what you will with that info.

The good old “Ozmav AU” but with some lime and spice

As slow burn as I can

Mental Health stuff and the repercussions of having multiple identities treated completely differently

And the crown jewel of this entire fic… Auntie Harley and Ivy.

And….. sorry…. Ppl will kinda be OOC but im trying my very best. 

Tbh I have no idea where this going rn but... i mean… it going somewhere (specifically hell) because everything does. Leave ideas plz, don’t kill me. Just bully me. 

So yea. Lemme know what u want and if I want to, I might just squeeze it into the fic (if it fit ofc, im not just gonna add random 50 year time-lapses). I'll try my best ;)))) (<-- my quadruple chin)

~

Chloe’s head hangs heavy on Mari’s shoulder as the pressurised air surrounding them vibrates with the sounds… of well… a plane. Chloe had a tough couple weeks; late night combat practises with the new team (LB, Hornet, Viperion and Ryuuko) has obviously taken a toll on her partner. Both wrapped in a thick velvet blanket that Chloe remembered to pack (thank kwami) sharing a pair of headphones, both were lulled into a peaceful slumber.

Alya laughs as Lila tips her small glass of diet coke (that a flight attendant painstakingly poured for her) on a sleeping Marinette’s side of Chloe’s blanket, effectively waking her up. “Oopsies! Sorry Marinette! You see, the cabin air has really been worsening my arthritis. I didn’t mean it! I swear! Cross my heart!” apologized Lila with fake concern as Alya giggles beside her. 

Marinette, literally seeing Lila’s crossed figures behind her back says “At least Chloe is still sleeping, she needs the rest.” Alya, Lila and her empty cup saunter beck to their seats nearby. 

~

Mari and her class finally land in Gotham’s cold December night. Freshly hushed into a private shuttle, the class are driven to their hotel. It is late: around 3:30 AM. With heavy eyelids the class gazed out the bus’s windows in awe. The merging view of traffic and Christmas lights chase them to their residence. No one really remembers or knows what happened that night. Just the feeling of falling, be it into a white fluffy hotel comforter or into the crisp Gotham air. 

~

“Oh! My! Gosh!!!” hears Marinette as Lila on the bus to Wayne Enterprise. “I feel so. At. Home!” In Marinette’s tired ears, there were more exclamation marks. 

“Of course… The only thing that can inhabit Gotham alleyways are cockroaches and villains,” Chloe grumbles beneath her breath, looking out the window.

“What have I ever done to you Chloe?” Lila cries, “I understand why Marinette bullies me, she is a jealous and vile girl. But I thought you, Chloe, want to be a better person, not a bully like that bitch, Marinette!”

“How dare you. How dare you. HOW DARE YOU!” Chloe yells as the recent words loop in her mind, 

“Not gonna call your daddy, huh?” Alya taunts. 

Chloe, with tears in her eyes begins, but is quickly interrupted by Marinette, “No she will not. She doesn’t need to. Chloe grew a lot over the last couple months, I’m so proud of her. She doesn’t need your bitch-ass approval.” Marinette grasps Chloe’s hand which previously wrapped itself around the fabric of Chloe’s heavy caramel winter coat.

“Quiet on the bus!”, A yell came from the front.

“But, Mr. Bus Driver… Marinette is being a…”

“Shut it! Y’all want me to kamikaze this shit into a building? I’m guessing y’all value your lives so shut it!” 

“Ms.Guardian, can I please have a cookie?” Pollen softly asks from the inside of Chloe’s giant white faux leather handbag.

“Shh… Pollen! Now’s not the time!!!” stresses Tikki.

“Please Ms. Guardian!!! I’m so so so hungry. This bag isn’t very warm and it’s taking all my energy to keep warm. A lil blubber wouldn’t hurt…. please!!”.

“Of course Pollen,” quietly respond Mari with a grin, “Here you go.” She pulls out a couple cookies from a Tupperware and hands them to Pollen. “Please share them with Tikki,” whispers Marinette into the bag. 

Marinette and Chloe then hears two tiny “thank you”s followed by the sound that can only be described increasingly aggressive chomping. Both girls giggle quietly.

~

“Welcome to Gotham,” says an unenthusiastic man at the front desk. “Congratulations, you are…” He checks his computer. “On time? Interesting.”

“Yes, we are aware,” grumbles Mrs. Bustier, already done with the man’s attitude.

“Okay so before the tour starts I’m doing to need the student who set-up this field trip to sign a couple forms and stuff. Here ya go.” The man pushed a thicc pile of paper into the teachers hand. 

“Oooh! That would be me sir!” Lila chirped, intercepting the papers before skipping back to her posse of her’s. A few seconds after beginning to fill out paperwork Lila cries “Ouch! My wrist! My arthritis! Can someone help me filling out all these form.” 

“I’ll fill them out, I’m only going to need your signatures,” offered Max.

“Thank you Max, you are so sweet!” Lila complements. 

“Of course, your arthritis was badly affected by the altitude yesterday, you shouldn’t be staining your wrist so early!” Max blushed. 

“Maribug, you gonna to say something?” 

“Nah, just watch. Entertainment without a Netflix membership.”

[sugarcomatosed]

i love your stories so much!! and was wondering if you can give some writing tips perhaps? 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Breaking this up into sections for you + putting it under a cut cause I went overboard. 😅

General Writing Tips

These work for both academic and creative writing.

Make an outline.

It doesn't have to be a formal one, but having at least a general idea of the scenes you want to include is helpful. If I know my fic is going to be a longer one (like Don't Hesitate was and my current WIP is), I break down the larger story beats i want to hit on a piece of paper or my iPad.

It's good to know what you're planning to do, in a any piece I usually have a single specific scene I want to do and depending on what it is, I might either just do the scene I want to or turn into something longer.

Draft, draft, draft.

I cannot stress the importance of going through and reviewing your work. This is a big part of any sort of writing.

Your first idea isn't always your best idea. As you work on a piece you might find your original idea is holding you back, focus shifts! Don't be afraid to let your work change as you go. It's not always easy to let go of your original idea but if you find it's not working, you have to let it change. Sections will need to be rewritten, things have to be readjusted to fit with later sections. Reread for clarity while you're drafting and look to see if this makes sense to you, or reads well to you. If you can't follow it and you wrote it, chances are your reader can't either. Did you use the same phrase again and again? Find and search it on your doc to double check.

Sometimes you have to cut things you really like because they just don't contribute to the fic anymore. Save those bits and use them somewhere else!In a lot of my longer pieces I will write a paragraph, realize that's not where it should go and cut/paste it into another part of the doc because the pacing/scene doesn't make sense where I had it originally, but it works somewhere else.

If you're stuck, skip around, come back and then stitch the bits you have written together.

Don't Focus on a Word Count

This might be controversial, but I'm of the opinion just because something is longer does not make it better. Some works are short, and that's okay! I very rarely try to aim for a specific count of words unless it's for a prompt exchange or a personal challenge. I write till I feel the piece is done. Some stories require more words, some require less.

Don't Hesitate is a great example of this again, because all I wanted to do was a bittersweet first kiss fic, but jumping write into the kiss wouldn't get the full effect I wanted. Meanwhile, with Old Habits all I wanted to do was write dumb comedic kisses, we didn't need a 2k preamble.

Get Someone You Trust to Edit

My go to editor for the past six years or so is one of my good friends. She has edited everything from college papers to my fics for me before I post them to read for clarity, find any funky phrases or misspelled words I missed, and I do the same for her when she asks! A fresh set of eyes makes a world of a difference. Find someone to trade fics with or ask a friend! They might have good suggestions you never thought of, or be able to tell what you were going for when you don't even know yourself.

I also rely on my friends a lot to brainstorm and talk my ideas out before I start because it helps me think and figure out what I need. It's super common for me to text someone and say "im gonna spitball at you, that okay?" and then spend twenty minutes chatting through my ideas.

Have Reference Material

For my 13sar fics, I regularly go back and review/screenshot videos of the dialogue to make sure I am staying consistent with story events, character nuance and small details. You don't have to go crazy, but it is really helpful to have your source material to go back to and check yourself against. In non creative writing I always had a pile of papers highlighted with my own notes on the margins.

Take Breaks/Pace Yourself

Know your own limits, and if you are working and working on something and it's not coming out leave it alone and come back to it. I'm really bad at this personally because when I get an idea in my head I want to see it through but sometimes you gotta step back! It's not healthy to keep working on things and overwork yourself. Stretch, get up go for a walk.

Write What You Want to Write

Don't focus on what people want to read. Focus on what you like. Find a topic, a scene, anything that you are passionate about and the rest will follow. The only time I write fic for other people is when I am writing for a friend. Even prompt requests I only take open ended ones, if I am not interested in writing it it's not gonna happen. I know it's super hard and I get really anxious sometimes about letting people down now, or worrying people won't like something but then I step back and remind myself this is a hobby and I'm doing it for fun.

Play to Your Strengths

You shouldn't try to write like me, you should try to write like yourself. Find what skills you have and use them to your advantage!

I can't give you a step by step list to write like me, because nobody in the world has my background! We're all unique. Everything I've listed so far I know because I'm not a beginner anymore! I'm in my twenties and have come from a strong academic writing background.

I took on an intensive course load in high school, and then went onto college for a sociology degree. I very rarely had test based finals and at the end of each semester would have five 10-15 page papers to submit. Straight up some of my skills come from having read and studied the works of anthropologist Clifford Geertz. I am not saying you should read anthropology/sociology texts. Unless you like that sort of thing lol

I also have 6+ years of theater experience (acting & directing), I use this all the time for my writing. When I think about a scene, I think about how I would work through it as an actor, how the character would move, and how would things read to an audience. The GOTE ("Goal, Obstacle, Tactics, and Expectation") method of acting by Robert Cohen is really useful hear if you want a more technical breakdown of what I mean by that.

This leads to a lot of what we called "business" in acting, doing small tiny things while you talk or move around on stage to give the sense you're a real human. I don't have to think or try on these sort of things because they're in my skill set already!

Things I do Personally

As in, these are not transferable skills this is just the stuff I do while working on projects.

Find a Vibe™️

I come into any fic with usually a goal I want to hit, a line of dialogue or something I want to capture. Just like, the general idea of a feeling a song even if the lyrics don't match up. Make a mood-board, a playlist, just find something you wanna do. It's less about the actual words on the page and what you're aiming to do.

Look to things that inspire you

Don't Hesitate got written because I wanted to write a fic that captured the same vibe as a scene in Macross Frontier, where two characters have a bittersweet kiss before the final battle and that scene still has me fucked up six years after watching it.

My current WIP is doing the same thing but with the song All I've Ever Known from Hadestown. Two characters working through loneliness, the sudden feeling of falling in love and the frustration that feeling can bring on sometime.

I don't plagiarize them word for word, but these are scenes that inspire me! I also patchwork quilt ideas together. Using Don't Hesitate again, I also ended up pulling from a bunch of shoujo anime, Toradora, Sailor Moon, Yona of the Dawn, Princess Tutu...specific scenes I enjoy to blend and create something new.

Goof Off While You Write

I name my documents stupid things, I write dumb placeholder dialogue or vague sentiments like "insert better word here", I make memes when I'm struggling and roast myself and my predictable tastes.

I spent twenty minutes texting a friend Juro's name with different letters spelt out and then the "fuck your chickenstrips" vine saying it was Juro during destruction. Just have fun with it!

Listen to J-POP On Loop for Hours at a Time

i am not kidding I do this all the time. Perfume, AKB48, anime idol osts, Sailor Moon's OPs/ED, vocaloid songs. I like technopop and Japanese is good because it usually doesn't distract my brain since I only know random phrases, but still know what the meaning og the song is.

I love music, it helps me vibe out.

Thank you so much for enjoying my work ;o;

I hope this is useful to you in some way! I'm so sorry it's so long winded but I am overly thorough and love to teach people ;w;

[jawllines]

Gang Harry blurb???

oKAY IM SORRY I FELL ASLEEP LAST NIGHT BUT YETH HERE SHE IS, THIS IS WHAT WAS GOING ON IN THE TIME BETWEEN Y/N PASSING OUT IN THE CLUB AND WAKING UP IN THE HOSPITAL IN GANG HARRY! 

Harry has never felt such an immense, looming feeling of regret in his life. Like a two ton elephant sat on his chest, suffocating him, keeping him from relaxing at all. Though, even if it hadn’t been his fault, he doesn’t think he’d ever relax. Who could be when they’re rushing their person to the hospital, with a car full of her confused friends wondering what happened as Harry sits in the backseat, gnawing harshly at his lip. He answers none of their questions though, and he won’t for the time being, until he can conjure up a proper story that’s not, “I’m the leader of a gang, and your friend here accidentally got caught up in a ton of shit so now I’m keeping her at my safe house, and she pleaded with me to come out with you guys -- which I was reluctant to let happen in the first place -- but I caved, and we came out, and the man who has a bone to pick with me and subsequently her found her, grabbed hold of her, I saw and beat the shit out of the fucker, but when I turned around she was on the ground.”

That’d surely go over well, wouldn’t it?

So he just kept his mouth shut, letting them theorize as his heart was racing and his chest is twisting with a guilt he’s unable to describe. How could he let this happen? He should have gone with her, walked her to the bathroom despite what it might have looked like. Or better yet, he should have nixed the god damn idea of going out in the first place! But could he really have? That would be fucked -- he couldn’t keep her captive in that way. Couldn’t do that to her, not when she asked so nicely and seemed so excited when he had agreed. But he should have been more careful! God, should have had Grant and Dave scope out the place while Mark kept an eye on Y/N, or just planned it in a way much better than he had.

His thought loop stalls for a moment when they stop outside of bright red EMERGENCY room, and Harry wastes no time in running in. Stops at the front desk, rattles off who he’s here for, and nearly throws a proper fit when they tell him she’s not allowed visitors yet. “What the fuck do you mean she’s not allowed --”

But his phone rings before he can continue, brows furrowed as he stuffs his hand into his pocket to retrieve it, all but smashing it to his ear, “Listen, I don’t have any fucking time for --”

“Harry?” Nick’s voice rings out, “Harry is she okay? Grant called and told me what happened.”

Harry tries desperately to keep his cool, feels the threat of tears prickle at his eyes because despite being his boss, Nick is a few years older and a comforting figure that he can look to often, when things become too much. And right now they're too much -- way too much.

“Fuck, I don’t know Nick,” he walks from the desk, dragging himself to the nook with the vending machines, “I don’t know, she’s -- it’s my fault, innit? She’s never gonna want to see me again.” His voice feels close to wobbling, breathing out a heavy sigh and sucking his bottom lip into his mouth, biting down on it ferociously. Lets his forehead knock against the wall, letting a self-deprecating laugh huff from his chest, “How selfish of me, right? She’s in there unconscious and I’m concerned if she’s ever going to want to see me?” His brows dip in frustration, bumping his head against the wall again, “This is fucked, yeah?”

“Very fucked, Lovie, but listen to me,” he begins, “She’s going to be okay, yeah? Y/N’s a tough girl and a little bonk to the head won’t have her down for the count. And you know she won’t blame you, don’t you? She’ll hear you out.” Harry opens his mouth to tell him that there’s no bleeding way she’s going to even want to hear him speak probably because for all he knows these feelings are completely one-sided. . .Harry has no direct ties to her other than this, there’s no reason for her to want to stay -- but Nick keeps going, “I know you and I know you’re feeling guilt-stricken and think there’s no way she’ll want to speak with you, but if she’s been so understanding up to this point what makes you think she’s going to change tunes when she wakes up?”

Harry twists around, looking along the waiting room and seeing Y/N’s friends all sat in the chairs, looking to him like they’re expecting answers from him and for the first time in a long time Harry has an overwhelming urge to crawl beneath a damn rock. He’s face to face with the roughest, toughest, grizzliest people on a daily but the innocent confusion of his crush’s friend’s faces is enough to have him a damn nervous wreck. “Look, I have to go Nick,” he murmurs, “I’ll message you when I figure out what’s happening.”

He takes one more deep breath, pocketing his phone, straightening out his back and swallowing thickly as he makes his way towards them. They’re just college students. . .stupid college students, who would probably believe whatever bogus story that he fed them and he could only hope they don’t ask too many questions. He’s lied to people before -- has lied to police, to government officials, to opposing gangs and the likes of it. Had he been able to lie to Y/N? No, he hadn’t -- he’d cracked and told her everything at the first word of a question even though she was willing to drop it. So would it be the same with her friends? Did they all carry the same radiating charm that she did? Would he spill an entire load of his story, starting from why him and Y/N were spending so much time together and ending with why his father had pushed this job into his hands in the first place? Would they forbid her from seeing him ever again? Did her friends’ say have enough impact to actually sway her from seeing him?

“Harry,” Greta begins, and he braces himself, “Can I just say, you’re fucking amazing?”

Oh.

Oh?

“Wait, what?” Harry begins, brows dipping in confusion and Greta’s face lights up.

“You fucking rocked him! Right in the face, never seen a guy like that go down with two punches before,” she seems bewildered, giving these eyes that are so similar to Y/N’s -- those wide shocked ones that she gets when something excites her -- and his makes his heart hurt, twisting painfully, “You saved her I bet. She’s always picking fights with people twice her size. Should see her at a frat party when someone gets too handsy; a right devil when she needs to be.”

Adam doesn’t seem as starstruck by what had gone down, looking distraught with glossy eyes swimming with alcohol, popping his bitten nails from his mouth, “Can’t believe someone would just grab her like that. So scary -- m’never taking you lot out to a club again, they’re gross and sticky and have nothing but filth running amuck in there. If you hadn’t been there, I don’t even want to think about what could have happened.”

“Thank you, Harry,” Liam jumps in, “Is what I think they’re trying to say. Thank you for taking care of her.”

This doesn’t make him feel any better. Of course he’s glad that they aren’t trying to dig deeper in what had happened and had settled for Y/N just being a spitfire kind of girl, ready to pick a fight at a moments notice. However, they were thanking him when there was no reason to thank him. He was the one who’d gotten her into the mess, he deserved no thank yous at all.

“I can see why she’s always swooning over you.” Liam then notes and Adam swats him hard in the bicep.

“Shut up! Can’t go around telling her business --”

“But he’s not lying.” Greta notes, and Harry takes the seat from across them, sinking into the uncomfortable fabric chairs.

“Define swooning.” Harry encourages them to continue, his heart sparking, beginning to race.

Liam scoots forward, leaning in, “She’s absolutely head over heels for you,” he tells him, while Greta nods her head in agreement, “Gushes about you whenever she can; goes all starry-eyed when you’re mentioned and tonight -- tonight after seeing you guys together, it just confirmed that she’s gotten struck by cupid’s bow.”

“You feel the same don’t you?” Greta adds, wiggling closer, “You two are so cute together.”

Harry opens his mouth, but he doesn’t have anything to say. Thinks the smile that begins to worm onto his lips might be enough, with a small nod as he agrees. She likes him? Does she? Or are her friends just trying to pawn her off because they thought that she might like him?

He’s not sure of the specifics so he ignores them and decides that this feels too good to question right now.

It looks like there might be more they want to say but a woman walks up with a clipboard, standing before them, says that she’s looking for the group who are here for Y/N and when they all look up she continues, “She’s stable -- there’s no significant damage as of now yet besides a sprained ankle but everything else is fine as of right now.”

“Can we see her?” Harry asks, and the woman looks to him, shaking her head apologetically.

“She’s not awake yet, but visiting hours are over. You’re welcome to wait here but --”

“I’m her husband,” Harry says immediately, standing up, “And I’d like to stay in the room with her until she wakes, if that’s okay.”

She looks at him, brows furrowed, “Sir, I’ll need to see some identification --”

“He is!” Greta nearly shouts, “But Y/N’s new license hasn’t come in yet. All of us went to the wedding. A lovely ceremony, and amazing reception, we all got shit faced and I ended up grinding on his Aunt for the entirety of the Cha Cha slide, sadly -- we have all the pictures of it if you’re interested.”

The nurse still looks skeptical, but she doesn’t care enough to continue any further. “Okay,” she answers, “Follow me.”

And he does -- follows her to Y/N, who is hooked up to an IV with her leg propped up on a few pillows wrapped up in bandages. She looks too small in such a big hospital bed, and his heart wrenches in his chest. Tears beading up in his eyes all over again, as he thanks the nurse and takes his spot besides her. Sits there, wrapped up in all of his guilt, feeling like he’s drowning in it almost, the monitor beeping steadily, in great contrast with the speeding of his heart.

He’s there for a few hours before she begins stirring, a whimper drudging from her chest and he watches as her eyes blink open, looking around her, trying to figure out where she was, “Y/N?” her gaze falls to him, trickling from his face, down to his knuckles, and then a small frown pulls at her mouth, “What’s wrong Baby?”

“Your knuckles,” she answered, her voice all scratchy and deep, reaching for his hand and grazing her thumb over his knuckles that were bruised and bloodied, “You messed ‘em up again. Are you okay?”

Harry’s heart just about bursts.

[kpopisthereasonihavenolife]

Captured

Ooooh, I like this AU.  Very interesting to think about and write for!  Thanks for the fun request, I hope it lives up to your expectations and was (at least some what) what you were looking for!! <3 I also didn’t know if I wanted to make this a multiple chapter thing, but in the end I just made it one long one-shot.  It’s lengthy, but do enjoy the long request!  I’m actually pretty happy with it turned out so I hope you are too!! 

P.S. I can’t name stories for shit. It may change, it may not, who knows. 

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

GOT7 ft. Monsta X

Jaebum/Reader AU

Genre: Drama, Lil Angst, Fluff and, Uh-oh, some cursing too (just saying)

Words: 8.4k (dear lord)

Kidnapped [captured]: verb: to take (someone) away illegally by force, typically to obtain a ransom.

“I’ve already told you Changkyun, I work today.”  You spoke into the your small cell phone as you pressed it to your cheek with your shoulder as your hands worked on gathering the rest of your things to put into your small plaid purse.

“That is no excuse.  You could always call in and actually come out with us today.  Nothing wrong with playing a little hookie you know.”  You rolled your eyes as your young friend spoke back into the other end of the cellular conversation.  

“No means no, Im Changkyun.”  You chuckled at the childish whine that you receive as a response.  See, today Changkyun wanted to take you out with the rest of his friends, whom you were also close to because today was a special day.  Today was your birthday.  You were turning 23 today and you were stuck working.  Where you may ask? Well, none other than a boring old bank.  

Honestly, you didn’t mind the work, but doing it day after day, just like with most jobs, it gets boring pretty fast.  Accounting and working with numbers was something you had a skill for, which is how you landed this job in the first place and you couldn’t really complain about the pay, but in all honesty you wish you could get out of work today.

You had finished stuffing your purse with your wallet, some over the counter pain medication for your inevitable headache later, a small bag of bobby pins and hair ties in case the bank decided that in the dead of summer A/C wasn’t a thing that was going to happen and finally a small package of hand tissues and bandages of both large, medium and small variety.  You never know when you might need them and you’d rather be safe than sorry later.  

“Listen,” you set your purse on your small table by your apartment door and walked back to your room to change into your work clothes. “I’m off tomorrow, so all that’s happening is us pushing off plans by a measly day.”  

“That doesn’t change the fact I wanted to do it today.”  

“Yeah?  Well if memory serves, you wanted to go out to a movie and then probably go all out at a buffet didn't you?  It’s always busy in both of those places on a Saturday.  Going tomorrow would be better, it’s most people’s lazy days before a new week.  It’ll work out.”  

“No. No, see, that’s just it.  Sunday is the lazy day.  It’s hard enough getting Hyungwon out of bed on a normal day.  You don’t realize how the chore drastically increases in difficulty on Sunday’s that when we have literally nothing to do.” 

“Oh, it can’t be that bad.”  

“Y/N, we draw straws to decide who’s going to wake him up.”  You suck in a breath between your teeth as you slip on a pair of black slacks that buckle around your waist and tuck your white, collared, button up shirt into them.

“Wow, that bad huh?”  

“Don’t leave us hanging Y/N!!!!”  You scoffed at his whine again.  You pushed your bangs out of your eyes and grabbed your black cropped blazer before you left your room, not yet putting it on.  You set it in a heep next to your purse as you pull you hair back and loop a hair tie around it, pulling it into a bun to keep the hair off your neck.

“I’m sorry, but I need to go.  I’ll listen to you complain later.  I’m going to be late if I keep talking to you.”  You heard him dramatically feign a wounded noise as he wept into the phone, as he tends to do when he finally realizes what he wants to do, isn’t going to happen.  

“Uugghhh, fine.  You’re so buying me food to make up for this later.”  You grabbed your phone with one of your hands and swapped ears for a moment, straightening your neck and relaxing your shoulder finally.  

“Yeah yeah, send your orders in later.  I’ll pick something up after work.  Ask the boys what they want to and I’ll buy for them too.”  You rolled your eyes as you heard your friend cheer.  Funny how you were buying people food on your birthday.  

“Thanks Y/N, you’re the best old person I know!”

“YAH!”  He laughed at your sound of annoyance.  You weren’t that much older than him.  He wasn’t so young compared to you anyways.  

“See you later then. Happy birthday.”  You smiled as you huffed out a breath through your nose.  

“Thanks Kyun.  Later.”  You pulled the phone away as you ended the call and dropped your phone in your purse. Grabbing it, your keys to your car and throwing your blazer over your arm, not going to put it on, you left your apartment, locked the door and sped down the halls to the elevator of the 3rd floor to the parking lot before you plopped in your car.  Tossing everything into the passenger seat, you inserted your keys and the car revived to life with the turn of your wrist and before you knew it you were on your way.  

As you drove, you heard on one of the new stations about another recent convenience store robbery.  This is the third one this week.  Either multiple groups are striking at once to confuse the authorities, or someone is just clever enough to do all three and not get caught with so much activity going on.  Honestly, you didn’t really find it too concerning or interesting.  

Robberies are pretty common, unfortunately, and so long as there were no injuries or deaths, you wouldn’t find the time to really worry.  Sure, it’d suck pretty hard for the people who have to deal with broken windows and doors and have to figure out how to replace what was stolen, not to mention the cash that was left in the register, but none of that was really your business.  Call yourself cold-hearted, but if you had nothing to do with it, you wouldn’t dwell to long on the problem.

So, when you pulled into the large, over cramped parking lot of your bank, into the space that is reserved for employees, specifically you, you never expected to have anything other than another boring day tick on by.  

You entered the building, now slipping on your blazer, politely greeting coworkers you met eye contact with as you glanced at the watch on the inside of your wrist.

9:56 AM.  Just barely made it before your 10 AM shift, but even barely is making it.  You’ll just blame it on the, probably still sulking, Changkyun as he sat bored at home.  You slid into your window as you hung your purse on the hook you had placed on the inside of your window, just out of sight.  You turned your computer on as you pulled your keyboard out and opened all your documents and programs before officially opening your window to help those in need of managing their money.

By the time 10:47 AM hit, you had only dealt with a whining middle aged woman who was acting like switching money from checking to savings was the end of the world, an elderly man who was wanted to withdraw money for his niece’s graduation and a mother with her teenage son who wanted to open an account of his own.  It wasn’t too much, but it already made you feel tired.  Your shift lasted until closing today, since you had to cram for the day off tomorrow, so for the next nearly 8 hours, you’d be stuck in this chair unless you had the chance to get up and pee.  

It was almost a quarter past 11 when you decided leave your window for a moment, placing a ‘Be right with you’ sign on the desktop so you could go grab a mug of coffee.  You had brought in one of your mugs when you found out there was a coffee pot in the back lounge and whether you were a coffee drinker or not, anyone would grit through the taste of it to make it through this dreadful shift.

On your way back to your window, you spotted someone in the lobby, a man to be precise.  He had a baseball cap on his head, black with no logo or anything, just plain with an long tail on the back of it to adjust the fit as it bumped against his back with each turn of his head and a black mask covering his nose and mouth.  It wasn’t uncommon for them after all, it was summer and the cap would shield their eyes and the mask would keep out dust and pollen; well to some extent.  He wore a grey tank top that hung loosely from his body under a gray cardigan and his black skinny jeans had the knees torn out.  His sense of fashion was pretty good, whoever he was, you had to admit, but he seemed off.  He just kept fiddling with his phone, looking at it every so often as if he was lost.

So, with coffee still in hand, your slightly heeled shoes stepped against the hard floors over to him to see if he needed any help with anything.  You walked up beside him and looked under the bill of his cap to try and make sure he knew you were going to address him.

“Excuse me, sir?”  He jumped a bit.  Now closer, you noticed the hair that peeked out from under his cap and down his sideburns were bleached.  His eyes appeared to be brown, but it was tough to make out under the shade of the cap’s bill, even in the lit up bank lobby, along with all the large windows around.  “Do you need help with anything?”

He shook his head and cleared his throat.  

“No, uh, I’m just waiting on a couple friends.”  You opened your mouth as you understood.  Maybe a friend of his is going to take out money to have a night out, or maybe they’d just chosen this spot as a meeting place.  Whatever, the reason, you obviously weren’t needed here.  

“Ah, I understand.  Sorry to disturb you.”  It was when you were ready to leave the man, that the wooden doors to the bank slammed open and multiple rounds of gunfire were shot off, leading the entire vicinity into a panic. You also felt panic well in your chest as you turned to see where the fires came from, but before you could get anywhere your legs were kicked out from under you, and you were forced to the grown.

You mug was dropped and shattered as the hot contents of caffeine was spilled next to you and the man you had just spoken to held your arms behind your back as your chest was pushed painfully onto the hard floors.  You felt your blazer being ripped off your form as the man above and behind you pried it off and placed it over the glass of the shattered mug to avoid him stepping on it and then to into the liquid were he would leave liquefied shoe prints that could dry and be used to track him later.  

Lifting your head, the best you could from your pinned state, you saw the visitors and innocent civilians on the ground as two different men went and bound their wrists with zip ties, just in case someone wanted to try and play hero and do something stupid.  Looking around more, there were 5 men in the room, with the man on your back in the mix, there were 6.  All dressed in seemingly normal clothes, but all shielded faces and caps hiding their hair.

Their guns didn’t seem to be anything too extreme like what you would see in a dramatic bank robbery movie.  There were no M-16s, no semi-automatic rifles, no machine guns, just simple pistols and a couple with shotguns.  However, you weren’t going to judge them, if it shot and the bullet hit the intended target, pretty much any gun will do the trick. You were pulled out of your though process as one of the other men shouted at the man on you back.

“What!”  He shouted back as you turned your head.  The man was standing by your window that was vacant, before moving inside and rummaging around on your computer. Luckily all the important information was locked via passwords that changed on a daily, but just as you were thinking it, you felt yourself being pulled backwards onto your knees then lifted harshly to your feet.  

With the man holding your arms behind you, he shoved you towards your window, then behind it and finally down into your chair before he gestured towards the screen.  You knew what he was implying, ‘get into the accounts and get the information we want.’  You caught the glint of the pistol of the man in the corner of your eye as he pulled it from his waistband at his back and you’d really not push your luck.  

Honestly, if you could, you’d deny any order given to you like a trouper if you were alone, but here there were too many people and you couldn’t make yourself the culprit as to why one or multiple of them could get hurt or even killed if you didn't listen.  So, with quaking fingers, you followed the orders of the second man who stood behind you, pointing out everything he wanted to see.  

Codes to safes, information to the accounts of the more fruitful names that were well known, the amount of money stored in the bank’s safe in the back of the store and surprisingly enough a map of the area.  You figured the map would be so they could completely finalize their escape route, what with the authorities on their way from someone cleverly acting on that panic button under their desk before being pried away from it when this all began.  

When all the information and codes you knew were out in the open to the criminals, the one who had you previously pinned on the floor, zip tied your hands together and also put another zip tie through the belt loop of your high-waist slacks and your hand zip tie and kept your hands in place in your lap.  Again, you could try your chances and run since you weren’t actually tied down to anything and no one was holding you, but you’d rather not chance a bullet to the back of your head acting like a panic stricken fawn.

While you sat put with the second man from before watching over you, he noticed a wire running behind your ear and down into your shirt.  What he was looking at was a communication wire used for your bank, since the building was large.  Not, wanting to chance the idea of someone hacking into it to try and give you a way out, he began working on removing it.  The sudden touch of him around your ear and then suddenly gripping your shirt only to unbutton it and remove the wire, startled you to the point, you jumped.  

Everything happened in one go.  Your body reacted to it being exposed to this strange criminal and in shock, your body jolted.  As it did so, the back of your head collided with the face of the man, and was enough of an impact to make his mask slip.  His back was to the mass of people, so your eyes were the only pair of eyes that saw how his mask fell from one of his ears and revealed his face.  You two stared at each other before he hurried, fixed his mask and got a call from the back that they were ready to bolt.

You let out a silent huff, ready for this all to be over, but oh no, the universe wasn’t done fucking over your day.  As the man’s face was covered back up and his cue to skedaddle was clear, you felt him harshly yank up on your bicep and drag you with him.  Next thing you knew, you were listening to 6 voices all shouting in your direction, or rather the strange man’s direction, and you were thrown into a van that was in a hidden alley away from the press and media covering the robbery.  

“The hell?!  Who’s this?!”  A deep voice asked as the one who had thrown you in, slammed the doors and the van began to move.  Your, still restrained, body rolled and moved to the sudden driving and moving as you looked back and forth.  The man whose face you saw, removed his mask again, now in a safer environment.  

“The damn woman saw my face.  I can’t just let that go!”  As two of them bickered, one looked at you as he reached to pull you forward a bit and just as he saw the fear and panic in your eyes, it all blanked out as your consciousness faded with a harsh force on the back of your neck.  Now, with your reality distorting and the sounds of tires screeching and men bickering you let a final thought cross your mind.

What a shitty birthday.

When your mind started to fuzzily return to normal, you couldn’t bring yourself to pry your eyes open, and the ringing in your ears finally cleared out for you to hear arguing.  Much like the arguing from before you lost track of everything.

“You stole a fucking woman!”  This voice didn’t sound like any of the ones you heard echoing in the bank before hand.  It sounded new, and almost like it held a sort of superiority, it was like the harsh voice of a leader.  “I stay behind to cover our tracks, so that you don’t get your asses caught, but now you decide to grab a fucking person and bring them back with you?!”  

“It was Bam who did it!  He just grabbed her and threw her in with us!”  That was the voice of the man who had you pinned in the very beginning of this shitty story.  

“Shut up Jackson, no one asked for your imput.  You would’ve done the same thing if she saw your face you know!”

“I wouldn’t have fucked up enough to let her see my face, so this wouldn’t even be happening!  You know, the whole purpose of a mask is to hide your face so it doesn’t get seen.”

“Both of you shut the hell up!  I don’t care who did what or why it happened, now I have to deal with this problem along side the issue of throwing the cops for another goose chase, so you goons don’t get us located.”  The voice of the assumed leader of your group of kidnappers sighed as there was silence.  Then he spoke up again.  

“Youngjae, work on the computers.  Track where the cops are and make sure they don't find a trail.  As the computer wizz, I’ll expect you not to screw up.”  

“Right on.”  You heard a pair of feet fade off as it was silent a bit longer and soon your body involuntarily twitched, and it didn’t go unnoticed.  Feeling someone come closer to your body, you decided it was now or never, as you slowly cracked your eyes open to come face to face to a man who was kneeled down to your level.  

“Oh, hey, she’s awake now.”  He didn’t look away from you, or really speak loud to really announce it, but it was heard anyway as the remaining sets of eyes were now on you and your groggy state.  The man staring at you looked over his shoulder for a moment before he stood and moved away from you.  He was taller than you expected, but that thought was short lived as a new face was now in your view.

A man that seemed to be no older than yourself was staring at you.  Hair cut short, but moved out of his eyes enough to revealed two moles over his left eye that one could almost mistake for a piercing on his eyelid.  His face was slim as it was emotionless, looking you over just as you were him.  Even in this situation, as much as you hated to admit it, he was handsome.  If your mind wasn’t so dazed, you probably would have sneered at the man, but all you could do is just stare at him.  

He grabbed your arms and pushed you from you lying position to one where you back was rested up against the back of the presumed couch you were on and your legs hung over the edge of the cushions, you hands still bound to your waist.  Your hair, that still remained tied just barely in the bun from, whenever it was since you hadn’t known how long you had been out, had strands of all sizes and lengths falling from it.  Strands fell over your forehead, the sides of your face, and around the nape of your neck.  Given any other situation than the one you found yourself in currently, it probably would have seemed fairly attractive.

The man hooked his finger under your chin, using his thumb just below your lips, to move your head around, looking at you.  You slightly smeared eyeliner combined with the heavy stress filled bags under your eyes did nothing to your appearance and your lips had become dry from the lack of running your tongue around them on occasion. You found a bit of strength in you to jerk your head away from his grasp, chin slipping from his fingers as you glared at him.  He looked at you, surprised for a moment before dropping his hand and smirking at you.

“Ah, I see you’re finally coming around then darling?” His voice was slick, but beneath the dark undertone it held, it was almost as attractive as he was.  

“What’s it to you?” You had sneered back through your teeth and furrowed brows.  You took the time the man in front of you took to stand up and then place himself next to you on the couch, to look around.  You found yourself in wide open, nearly empty concrete building.  Looking up, there appeared to be a second floor that was divided visible from the second, only a railing running around the rectangular perimeter of the second story floor to make sure no one walked right off.  It was like an abandoned warehouse, or old state penitentiary that you’d see online for ghost tours.

The windows, or rather lack-thereof, were very few, you could count only a few on one hand all on the top story.  You deemed that perhaps most of the building was underground.  Of course there were individual rooms on both floors, small trinkets scattered around here and there, a space used as a kitchen and a decent television. You wouldn’t call it a 5-star stay, but it’s enough for someone to definitely live there, and undetected to boot.  

“Well sweetheart,” you were brought back with the man next to you started speaking to you.  You turned to look at him as he spoke, but he just kept his head down as he rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes.  He was clearly still annoyed.  “Looks like you have two options.”  He held out the hand closest to you and held up two of his fingers.  

“One, you run and try to rat us out, meaning you get to be pressed under social media scrutiny after being ‘kidnapped’, questioned non-stop, have all attention on you and help get us arrested, by the time you show up we’ll be gone and you’ll be known as the woman who cried wolf.”  He lowered one finger, leaving you silently dreading knowing what the other option will be.  

“Or, you could stick around and pitch in.”  You’d be crazy to stick around, especially with this lunatic, but the first option didn’t sound any better.  You watched as he lowered his hand all together and gave you a moment to think it over.  One might thing a life of living as someone who claimed something true, but to the rest of the world it’s a giant lie would be better than dealing with a gang of thieves, but your mind was thinking the opposite.  

Call you crazy, but as shitty as this situation was, and how stressful it had been, a part of you wanted to keep living the life he may or may not seriously be offering you.  You’re day of working boring power shifts behind a window would disappear, but a new life of constant hiding and a hushed life would be at your fingertips.  However, you’d also lose your friends, you’d lose your best friend, Changkyun.  

There wasn’t an easy answer to this, but you were leaning towards the option of staying around, but…

“I’ll make my decision, under one condition.”  You spoke to the man next to you, making him open his eyes and glance at you.  “If I can make a call and call just one person, just to let them know I’m okay, I’ll stay.”  The man raised his brow.  That could be risky for someone in his position, so you added on to your condition.  “I’ll let you listen in, you’ll be right next to me as I talk so I won’t try anything funny.  Just one call, please.” You couldn’t live with yourself if you went the rest of your, perhaps shortened, life without at least talking to Kyun one more time.  

The man waiting a moment before he sighed and reached into pocket of his dark jeans and lazily pulled his phone from it.  

“Cut her ties,” he simply ordered on of the men around.  Not arguing with him, one man came and cut your zip tied hands as well as the zip on your slacks.  Looking at the eyes, it was the same man who had you pinned to the ground at the bank. You clicked your tongue and without thinking slammed the toes of your heels into his shin.  He hissed as he dropped his knife and glared are you.  

“That’s for pinning me down before.  Asshole.”  The man next to you laughed.

“Forgive Jackson, he was doing his job.”  You rubbed your, now free, wrists.    

“Yeah, well he’s heavy.  Not to mention just laying on your chest as a woman hurts like hell, not to mention having my boobs pushed on the hard floor with a man on my back.  Criminal or not, have some tact.”  You hissed.  Jackson opened his mouth to protest, but just sighed and shook his head.  He wasn’t even going to go there as you silently applauded his choice to just shut up.

“I think she’ll fit in just fine with that attitude.”  The man the ground on the opposite side of you looked up at you spoke with a smirk.  

“And you are?”  You rose your brow.  You’d might as well learn names at this point.  You’re too deep in now.  

“Yugyeom.” The man next to you who fiddled with his phone answered for him.  “The guy on the ground is Yugyeom.  Jackson your familiar with.  Bambam was the one whose mask you managed to screw up; and also the one who decided to bring you here.  Youngjae is up on the second floor in our tech room handling some business. Mark’s not here right now, you’ll have your introductions later.  Jinyoung is handling repairs for our firearms, so you’ll get acquainted with him later as well.”  

“Alright, and now who are you?”  He smirked as he held his phone by one of the corners and slung his wrist to offer the phone to you.  

“Jaebum.  JB is just fine.”  You rose your brow before you took the phone.  You sighed as you started the process of just accepting anything and everything from this point on.  “Now it’s your turn for your name, or if you want we can just continue with the pet names darling.”  You rolled your eyes in annoyance.  Were all criminals this way, or just this particular group?

“Y/N, a pleasure.”  You spoke with a huff.  

“I’m sure.”  You rolled your eyes again looked at his phone then up at your audience.  

“Alright, I know I agreed for someone to sit in on my conversation with one one call, but I don’t need the happy hungry bunch as an audience.”  JB chuckled as he rose from his place on the couch and grabbed your bicep, pulling you up.  

“Well go to the roof, better signal and no audience.  Happy?”  You just scoffed as he pulled you along with him, leaving the rest of the group to do their own thing and probably discuss your sudden membership.

On the roof, it was just turning dusk you had opened JB’s dial pad, noticing the date was the same as your birthday still on his lock screen, and entered in Changkyun’s number, happy that you took the time to memorize it.  As it rang and you placed it to your ear, you hoped he’d pick up an unknown number. Thankfully, he did.  

“Hello?”  

“Changkyun?”  You head the sound of scuffling on his end as you assumed he was lying down previously before bolting up.

“Holy shit, Y/N!  Where are you?  What happened?  Are you okay?!”  You chuckled lightly as his concern.  You’d be a bit frightened if he wasn’t a bit worried for you.  

“I’m okay, I promise.  A lot has happened since the incident at work.”  You sighed.  

“No shit Sherlock, I texted you and you never answered, next thing I know Hoseok is shoving a news article of a bank robbery at your work and you’re the one employee who went missing!  I’ve been going crazy here!”

“I’m sorry Kyun, I am.” You sighed again.  “I can’t tell you much, but I don’t think we’ll be able to celebrate my birthday today, or tomorrow, or really again.”  JB behind you picked up on your conversation a bit.

“The hell does that mean?”  

“Kyun, I’m not coming back home.  I can’t anymore.”

“You’re not making sense Y/N.”

“I know, I know I’m not..just,” you ran you hand over your face, “something happened and I can’t go back.  I don’t even know if I’ll get to talk to you again.” You felt yourself start to choke up slightly.  Telling your best friend goodbye hurt like hell.  

“No, what?  You can’t just decide that by yourself!”  

“You think I wanted to do this?  I have no choice Kyun!”  He sighed as he heard the slight crack in your voice.  

“Are you really going?”  You could only nod, but he could hear the movement of your head against the phone speaker.  “Is someone there with you?” You looked slightly behind you at JB who stood with his hands tucked into his pants pockets. 

“..Yeah.”  You spoke softly.  

“Alright, can I talk to them?”  You blinked confused at his request as you turned to JB and brought the phone away from your ear slightly.

“He.. he asked if he could talk to you?” He raised his brow slightly and dug out on of his hands, walking to you and slowly grabbing the phone from you.  He took a few steps away from you before he started speaking.

“You wanted me?”  JB’s voice was monotone as he heard Changkyun on the other side.

“I don’t know what you did to make her stay, but if she chose this on her own, you better make sure I don’t ever see her on the news being arrested or worse her body being carried away by a god damn stretcher, you hear me?” JB looked back to you, seeing how your arms crossed over your chest and you held your arms, shifting in your stance, clearly try to distract yourself from letting go of your best friend.  

“Of course.  I’ll keep her under my constant watch.”

“Oh, and you so owe her.  You and your friends happened to kidnap her on her birthday, jerks.”  JB scoffed lightly.  

“I’ll think of something.”  He looked at our briefly again as you were now fiddling with removing your shoes, sick and tired of the aching in your feet.  He whispered into the phone, while you were distracted.  “I’ll have her contact you in the future.  I’d feel pretty bad if I took everything from her away.  Just don’t give her, or us away, understood?”  

“Wow, that’s pretty sympathetic coming from the bad guy.”  

“We have a good points to.”  With that JB walked back to you as you had kicked off your second shoe and handed the phone back to you.  “Finish up quickly.  It’s getting dark.” You nodded as you took the phone back and continued with a short conversation with Kyun.  

“Just, promise me you’ll stay safe. I’ll really miss you Y/N.”  You smiled at his words.  

“I know, I will.  I’ll miss you too.  Don’t cause any trouble for the guys either.”

“I’m the youngest, I live to cause trouble.”  You chuckled at him.  “Hey Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“Happy birthday.”  You felt your eyes sting as this would be the last time you would hear him say this to you.  You took a breath and looked at the darkening sky, keeping your tears in your eyes.

“Thank you Kyun. I guess, goodbye then.”  He cleared his throat on the other end of the phone as you started to hear the voices of the other guys.  

“Yeah. Later girl.”  The last thing you heard of him was someone asking who he was talking you, and him replying that it was ‘nothing important’ before the line went dead.  You pulled the phone from your ear and watched as the screen of the phone called showed the duration of the call before it returned to the standard keypad.  

Just like that, Changkyun was gone.  Your chest felt heavy as you felt something messing with your head.  You went to turn to see what it was, but were stopped when a pair of hands held it in place.

“Don’t move your head around.” JB then moved to mess with your hair.  “I’m taking your hair out.”  You stood there in silence as his hands wove through your messy hair and untangled it from the hair tie in the least painful way possible.  You felt your hair fall back, now loose, against your neck as you turned and handed him his phone back.  He took it, tucking it in his pocket.

He looked at the sadness in your eyes.  Clearing his throat he placed a hand on your head and ran his fingers through the thin strands of hair, snagging just a bit on the small tangles.  

“It’s late.  You need rest.” He moved his hands from your head to grip your hand and pull you inside after him.  You briefly ran into, and met with, Mark and Jinyoung the two who weren’t present earlier and watched as JB stopped by the tech room where Youngjae was sat with headphones on his head and computer monitors on every side of a large desk.  He offered you a friendly smile, still clearly busy where you just bowed politely back.  

After that, taking your hand again, JB lead you to a fairly decent sized room on the second floor before he shut the door behind him, dropped your hand and dug around in a closet for some clothes.  A large king bed sat against the rooms backwall in the center with a dresser under a window with a dark curtain covering it.  The room was void of anything really, just a standard room to sleep in.  

“Change into those.  We’ll focus on getting you actual woman’s clothes later.”  He had tossed an over large t-shirt to you with a loose pair of shorts to wear.  “I’ll offer you a hoodie if you want since you don’t have a change of bras to put a comfortable one on and I’m pegging you don’t want to go bra-less in this situation.” You were surprised he even thought about the annoyance that is the female chest, but took him up on the offer of a hoodie.  

“Grab your clothes and follow me.  You’ll probably want a shower too.”  You did as you were told and he led you to the bathroom down the walkway of the second story. “Just take your time. Since this place is basically off the map, we don’t pay any bills, but we still have connections to have working water and what not.”  He was setting up the shower for you as you stood there behind him.  He was awfully kind for someone who is supposedly the leader of a bunch of criminals.  

“Thank you.”  You thanked him as he looked over his shoulder.  

“It’s the least I can do.  We did ruin your birthday after all.”  You blinked at him them remembered Kyun had talked to him.  

“He told you, didn’t he?”  

“Of course he did.  He seemed like a good friend.”  You smiled sadly.

“He was the best.”  The past tense of your sentence almost made you flinch.  JB put his hand on your shoulder, ready to leave.  

“When your done, just head back to the room from before.  You can sleep there tonight.” You nodded at him.  

“Goodnight then.”  He nodded at you as he left.  You locked the door behind him, out of fear someone might just come bursting in and finally let yourself relax a bit.  It wasn’t until you were in the shoulder, you finally let yourself cry.  Unknowingly to you, JB stood at the door of the bathroom, arms crossed as he listened to your cries mix with the shower and soon walked off.  

Just like that, you started your life as a fellow second hand criminal, you called yourself.  You never really did any crimes, but you helped when Youngjae needed support with his tech, or when you could use your intelligence to help them in random things, you would.  You were almost acting as their moral support.  

Over the course of time you began close to every member there.  Jackson, whom you despised at first, soon became your best friend after one particularly large fight you two had that seemed to help you bond in a weird reversed kind of way. But, there was something you wanted to deny at first when you felt it in your chest, but the way your felt towards JB made your heart palpitate.

You first felt it when he surprised you with a phone that had been modified, courtesy of Youngjae, to be unable to be tracked. He gave it to you 2 months after you were brought by Bambam, and he deemed it a ‘late birthday present.”  You saw he added Changkyun’s number to it, under the name of ‘Kyun’, since JB didn’t actually know his name.  That’s just what he remembered you call him.  With that phone, you were able to text and call Kyun when you wanted, but of course you had to be careful with what you said at times, but it was like angels singing when you called him and heard him through the phone again.  

From then, it just started growing.  The feeling in your chest.  Part of you thought that maybe you could just be experiencing Stockholm Syndrome, and maybe that wasn’t too far off from home base, but you didn’t care if you were or not.  You weren’t trying to stay on their good side to stay alive, because you knew they wouldn't hurt you.  Sure you might have arguments, but the boys always leave or make sure you aren’t in arms length of them if they’re feeling angry enough to do anything.

The one time someone had accidentally cut your arm with a shard of a glass that he threw against, and smashed, on a wall near you, JB wanted to cut his arm by breaking a different glass directly on his arm, right on the same place you got cut. JB was a frightening leader, but more than that, he was honestly a good person.  He cared about things and people just like others did.  He even brought back a dog one day to give to Youngjae, who had been wanting a pet to liven things up a bit, as a surprise for his hard working tech expert.  

When you started sharing a bed with JB as well, since it was his room you were hogging the first week of your arrival, it wasn’t anything more than that.  Sharing a bed with a comrade, if you could call him that.  But soon, you wanted to be facing him when you slept.  You wanted to be pressed against his back or his chest and you’d flush when you caught yourself wanting to be held by him.  

So, for some reason, you decided to go to Bambam for help.  Why Bambam, you didn’t know, but you thought that if you went to Jackson for help, he’d just scream everything and make sure the whole world knew how you felt.  At least Bam could be a bit more dependable when asked.  It had been 8 months since you came to the base of the 7 boys, so if Bam wouldn’t be of help, there were always 5 move, with Jackson as dead last.  

As the two of you lounged on the room for privacy, Bam held a sucker in his mouth listening to you.  

“So,” he started, “in conclusion, you have the hots for JB?” You wanted to bash your face into the concrete floor as many times as possible until you passed out.

“Well, if you want to be blunt.”  You rolled your eyes as he gave you a smirk.  “Am I going to get an advice, or am I just going to get teased?  Because I will so leave and tell Jinyoung that you’d the one who wasted 4 magazines of perfectly good bullets just to shoot at a squirrel that was annoying you by throwing acorns at your window.” The Thai boy seemed to choke as he took the sucker out of his mouth and looked at you.

“You wouldn’t dare.”  You rose your brow in attack towards him.

“Try me.”  He ran his hand through his hair.  

“Okay, okay.  I’ll talk, but I get to tease a bit, deal?”  

“I’d expect no less.”  

“Alright, just let me think…” He closed his eyes and cupped his chin as he cross his legs and though.  His sucker moved from one cheek to the other as he tried to think of the best way to give you advice and not risk his neck at the thought of an angry Jinyoung wasting even more bullets trying to shoot him.  

“Well, I guess when it comes to JB, it’s best to be blunt?”  He was questioning himself, but he was trying.  “He’s blunt himself, and he’s also the most obvious person on the face of the planet, so he probably doesn’t even know.”  You nodded at that.  “He does seem to favor you over us, so I don’t think you confessing would go bad.  I think he’d be pretty glad actually.”  Now he lost you. 

“You think?  Honestly?  The leader JB accepting me, a backseat criminal, as a potential lover?”

“You wouldn’t think it, but you’ve help us a lot thanks to your brain.  Backseat or not.”  You shoved his shoulder a bit as he smiled.  “Seriously though, just tell him.  I’d go for tonight when everyone’s sleeping so no one interrupts you though.”  You nodded.  

“Yeah, I guess it’s worth a shot.”  You two stayed up there for a while longer just chatting as friends, and you teasing him about how you managed to make his mask slip that first day of everything. He still gives you shit for it, back then you were mad about it, but now you almost wanted to thank him that it happened because it lead you to meet all of them. But, that would just inflate his ego and we don’t need that.  

So, as the day continued and eventually started to dwindle, you found yourself changing into a large t-shirt of JB’s again with your shorts.  That hadn’t changed since day one, you always took more to the shirts of ones of the guys. Yugyeom’s were the most fun to wear, as he was a giant and walking around in his shirt was like a toddler wearing their dad’s shirt.  Not to mention if it was long sleeves sneaking up on someone and slapping them with the sleeves that went well past your hand was pretty entertaining.

You had just slipped the shirt over your body as the door creaked open and in stepped JB.  You hadn’t yet put your shorts on, but you were well past the point of being embarrassed around him, or anyone for that matter. You could probably comfortably walk around in shorts and a bra and not bat an eye at this point.

He strolled up beside where you stood, next to the closet, and began to grab his own change of clothes.  Or rather, a comfortable pair of sweats, as sleeping with a shirt wasn’t really necessary for him.  While the both of you changed in a comfortable silence, he started up a conversation.

“You were gone for a while this afternoon.  What were you up to?” He pull his shirt over his back and then freed his head, having the shirt rest on his biceps before letting it fall off his arms.  

“I was with Bam on the roof for a bit.  I wanted to talk to him about something.  He was surprisingly helpful.”

“Talk to him?  Something bugging you?”

“Eh, you could say that.”  There was a pause for a moment as he reached to grab a pair of sweats from the hanging cubbies in the closet.

“You could always come to me you know.”  You nodded.

“I know that, but I needed someone else’s opinion.”  You wouldn’t tell by the never changing look on his face, but that comment seemed to urk JB.

“I see.”  His comment let you know that he was curious as to what you needed help with, and you mind went back to Bam’s advice: be blunt.  You signed as you grabbed your shorts, stepped into them and slid them up our legs, letting them rest on your hips.  You casually tossed your clothes from the day into a bin separate from the one that help the clothes JB had yet to wash.

“Bam was helping me figure out the best way to tell I like you, is all it was.”  You head JB start coughing behind you and you just shrugged.  “He told me I should just be blunt, but I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”  You strolled over to the bed, sitting on the side of it as you grabbed your phone from your night stand on your side of the bed.  “I guess I could have just texted Kyun about it.  He’s surprisingly smart when it comes to things like this.”  

You lifted your eyes from your phone to see him pull the sweats over his hips and mess with the strings in the front of them, his back to you.  As always, you couldn’t read exactly how he felt in this particular situation. Thinking about anyone else in his situation ou just forced on him, you grabbed your phone and stood, stretching before turning towards the direction of the door.  

“Sorry for springing this on you.  I know your pretty busy running the rest of the boys and what not, so I’ll go bunk with Jackson tonight to give you a little space.”  With phone in hand, you strolled to the door and turned the knob, just barely opening the door before it was slammed shut.  From behind you, JB had pushed his palm against the door, shutting it before you would even peek out of it. Looking over your shoulder and following his arm to his shoulder and up his neck to his face, he just stared at you.  

“Jaebum?” You turned your body around to face him, as you back was pressed to your door and his free hand came to capture your chin in his fingers. He kept silent as he moved his fingers to rest on your neck.  It wasn’t at all threatening, he just let his fingers light hover around your neck, almost in an action of endearment. 

“Next time, come to me.”  He whispered a his breath, strongly scented of mint from his recent toothpaste, fanned over your face and he leaned closer to press his lips against yours. It took a moment for you to fully comprehend the situation at hand, but once your brain caught up, you found yourself relaxing into him.  The kiss didn’t last nearly as long as you had first hoped, but when he pulled away, he grabbed your wrist only to drag you back to the bed and have you climb in.

Placing your phone, you were surprised you hadn't dropped due to shock a moment again, back on your nightstand, you felt JB climb into the bed next to you as he did every night.  The new thing was him snaking his arms around your waist and extending the arm he lay on for you to use as a substitute for a pillow as you were now tucked into his bare chest.

“Uh, JB?”  He hushed you.  

“Go to sleep.  I’m tired.”  You chuckled at him.  He cracked open one of his eyes to stare at you.  

“What’s so funny?”  You shook your head.

“Nothing.  I’m just happy.”  You smiled up to him as he smiled back and placed a kiss on the crown of your head.  

“Good.  Now sleep.”  Like magic, the moment you closed your eyes, your consciousness faded and JB was able to admire your sleeping face. He hand the back of his hand over your cheek and brushed under your eyes with his fingers as you slept.  You face was so relaxed when sleeping, it seemed almost impossible for someone to seem so ethereal to him.  Soon after, he pulled you tighter to his chest, entangling your legs and drifting to sleep with you in his arms.  

The same way he had been wanting to hold you since your birthday.  

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I spent all day working on this piece, so I’m going to post reactions tomorrow guys!  I have a few ready to go, so until tomorrow I hope you enjoyed reading this long ass story!  ^^”