#im so disastrously weak for friends to lives don’t look me in the eyes about it

[idkwhatimdoingbutrandom]

Knowing that Emilia and Andi get together when all I wanna see is the greatest best friends to lovers between MJ and Andi :((((((

[jawnjendes]

don’t want your hand this time | shawn mendes

chapter 1/?, university au, shawn x goth oc

AN: i know i know i posted a thing yesterday but UUUHHHHH im just tryna get to the saucy parts of this bc SOMEBODY decided to be all hot n sexy in a certain music video ANYWAY this is just an intro chapter of sorts and we are introducing some new characters!! lmk your thoughts thots!

***let me know if u wanna be added/removed from the taglist

masterlist | playlist coming soon

When Annalise Flores has shit to do within a time limit, she forgets about everything else. Her phone goes on silent, she ignores her other obligations, and she makes sure to get whatever is in her focus done. This has proven to be disastrous in the past, like when Annalise just needed to clean the entire dorm before starting any homework assignment was due the next day. Or when she reorganized the filing closet at the dealership before adding up the gas receipts she was ordered to do. You get the idea.

Annalise was very determined to get all of her unopened boxes, and her clothes to fit in her tiny, beat up car so she didn't have to make multiple trips, given how far campus is from Shawn's apartment. He promised he would help her move when he got home, he had that huge Jeep after all, but Annalise was way too antsy. Besides, they already fought about this, and she didn't want to start anything all over again. She didn't want him to feel obligated to help if only one of them was into the idea of her moving out.

After pushing on the car door three times, it finally clicked shut. Annalise successfully managed to stuff all of her clothes and half her boxes into the backseat. The rest of the boxes were in the trunk. The windows were all covered, so maybe she wouldn't be able to see her blind spots, but at least Annalise wouldn't have to make a second trip. She silently thanked the Tetris gods for blessing her with the appropriate skills as she went back up to the apartment.

Shawn's living space didn't look that different with all of Annalise's belongings out. Most of it was all stashed into the "recording" room over the summer, and neither of them spent any time in there. There was more space in the closet now, too. It was no longer just a black abyss, and all of Shawn's belongings were now undisturbed. Annalise debated smuggling out his black Nike hoodie, but given the circumstances it was best to leave everything as it was. The apartment didn't look any different really, but Annalise still felt an ache from her throat down to the bottom of her feet as she removed the spare key from her chain and left it on the glass dining table. This was easier than saying goodbye to him in person.

~

Campus was nowhere near as quiet and lonely as the apartment. Students were running around like headless chickens, trying to locate buildings, schedules, and friends. She already had a key to her dorm, so she parked near her building and carried her backpack and two boxes up the walkway. Annalise's resting bitch face and the clunk of her boots on the ground gave her less of a struggle to push past other students. Weak and fragile as she was these last couple of months, she's still got it.

The dorm building wasn't too far from the last one she lived in, but it was going to be a bitch getting to her classes. Maybe she should invest in a bike… or she should get her shit together and take the bus.

Annalise's new dorm was on the third floor, and it was furnished. Weird, yes, but she was not going to complain. It was a bit smaller, but not cramped. There was a tiny hallway between the two bedrooms, and one cramped bathroom. She noticed one room already had boxes sitting on the floor, and she couldn't help but get just a little excited. Stella hadn't completely abandoned her. Annalise wasn't even mad about their three month long silence, she was just happy that she would be seeing a familiar face.

She didn't run into Stella at all during the multiple trips she took bringing all her stuff in. Annalise knew she was here, though. Her perfume scent was always left behind in any room she had been in, and Annalise definitely caught the scent in the dorm. The same amount of boxes were still in her room by the time Annalise finished bringing all of her's in. She figured she could have texted Stella, but she kind of wanted to surprise her… even though they both knew about the other.

She checked her phone anyway. The only text she had was from Shawn.

"How come you didn't wait for me?"

Pursing her lips and smudging the signature black lipstick, Annalise cleared the notification and went to sit in the armchair in the living room. She was way too tired to try to reason with him. She certainly couldn’t jump into the "I miss you" crap so quickly either. She didn't want to, but Shawn obviously did when he sent another text. Out of sheer habit, Annalise opened the notification instead of clearing it, and she cursed under her breath.

"You've been gone only a few hours and this place already feels so sad and empty. Why did you leave your key?"

Yeah, she left him on read. She didn't know what else to say to him.

Thankfully, the lock on the door jiggled and in came Stella carrying a large cardboard box. She gasped and her hazel eyes lit up when she saw her dark natured roommate. She quickly squatted down and set the box on the floor before coming at Annalise with open arms.

"Mi esposa hermosa!"

Annalise will never say this out loud, but Stella gives wonderful hugs. They two girls haven't seen each other in over three months, so getting a nice tight hug was something that was really needed. They rocked from side to side, giggling at the motions. It was like nothing had really changed.

"When did I become your wife?" Annalise asked, amused as she leaned back to look at her.

"When we decided to live together for the third year in a row!" Stella replied. “Oh you got a little…” Her thumb rubbed under Annalise’s lip, showing her the black.

“The struggles of being goth,” she joked.

Stella giggled, and then the rambling began. "How are you? I'm so sorry we didn't talk much over the summer. Did you stay with Shawn the whole summer? Oh, is he here?" She bounced on her feet, looking around the dorm.

"Uh yeah, I did stay with him the entire time," she told her. "And no, he's not here. He's working."

Annalise knew he wasn't. He had found her abandoned key, which meant he was home. And he was probably sulking. And he was going to sleep alone...

"But he'll be here later, right?" Stella asked, nudging her arm. "Y'all are gonna christen your room, eh?"

She really had to ask, didn't she? She really had to jokingly ask a question that would change the expression on Annalise's face, thus warning her of the things that had happened. She wasn't sure why she kept an obviously fake smile on her face as she silently stared at her roommate. The silence alone wasn't enough, apparently.

Normally, Stella would dramatically gasp, sit her down, and ask Annalise to spill every detail. Instead, she sighed.

"Fill me in while you help me bring my stuff up."

~

Classes and club meetings resumed within the next couple of days, so it gave Annalise plenty of excuses to keep her texts to Shawn dismissive and short. She knew he was coming and going from campus for class too, but due to their different majors, he was going to be very far away from her. Not to mention, he didn't know where her new dorm was located, so it wasn't like he could track her down.

Except… Annalise had to retake biology. She knew Shawn was at the science building quite often, and she had hoped her bio lab fell on a day that he was at the fine arts building. But you know, life just happens, and sometimes you see your mans between classes. Sometimes you just see him leaving classroom, towering over the other students because he’s a giant. Maybe you’ll see him with a very short girl at his side, and they’re both laughing at something. Maybe he won’t see you either because he’s balls deep in banter with this random girl.

There was a lump in Annalise’s stomach following that minor event, and it made her anxious and uneasy for the first day of that class. Still, she was determined to stay on board with the separation they both agreed on. It was better that way for now. She didn't know about Shawn, but Annalise fully intended on keeping the distance, suspicious-looking friends be damned.

Anyway, she could find friends of her own too. Gaming club meetings started up again that Friday, and it was something to look forward to. After god knows how long, Annalise attended said meeting after receiving an email from the head of the club, Josh. He and his friend, Paul, ran the club most of the time. They managed to get plenty of people to sign up during the rush earlier in the week but only seven of them actually attended the first meeting. Just like every year.

Both Josh and Paul were scrawny blond boys with "nice guy" complexes. They were polite for the most part, given that they inducted Annalise into the club the moment she signed up. But they also quizzed her on just about every popular, mainstream video game there was once they realized she would actually be showing up to the meetings. It took time, and a bit of Annalise telling them off, but they were civil towards each other now.

"Annalise!" called Chad as the lady herself entered the classroom in the communications building. He was another member, and he had his two frat bros with him, Kyle and Jared, and they both chanted her name in their deep, manly voices.

All different heights, but same amount of insane muscle. For lack of better words, these guys were meatheads with good intentions. Chad was a student with one of the highest GPA on campus, practically competing with Josh. Kyle was the star student in his major, sports medicine. Jared was that guy who beat up bigots as a hobby. All three of them were fully dedicated to their fraternity, Sigma Chi.

Then there was Patrick, who nodded to Annalise as a greeting. She nodded back and took the empty seat next to him in the circle.

The people who think Annalise Flores is a complete hardcore goth have not met Patrick Markowski. This was a guy who was always decked out in leather, ripped jeans, and black eyeliner. He had a proper faux hawk, which is what made people notice him the most. He typically surrounded himself with other goths, unlike Annalise. He was truly dedicated to the lifestyle, while she deviated from even that sometimes. This was the only guy in the club Annalise was actually friends with.

Anyway, all seven of these nerds shared the same appreciation for video games, which brought them all together in a circle, in an empty classroom, in the communications building this evening. However, Annalise's entrance caused the guys to deviate from the main topic.

Josh and Paul had been staring at her with their mouths open the second she entered the room. The Frats were visibly excited and each gave her a high five. Patrick merely stayed quiet and smiled.

"Heard you almost fucking died!" Chad told her. "And you didn't tell a single one of us!"

"I thought you had actually died," Josh spoke up. "Since you never miss a meeting and all."

So that got around. Cool.

“I wasn’t dying,” Annalise said, rolling her eyes. “I just had part of my colon surgically removed.”

“No way…” Jared said in wonder.

“Oh, that’s disgusting,” said Paul with a gag. He brought the collar of his red Pizza Planet shirt over his mouth.

The Frats stared at Annalise in awe, almost impressed by her vague explanation. She really didn’t understand the fascination, given everything that happened during and after the hospital. Of course, they knew nothing about any of that. At the same time, Annalise was annoyed at Paul’s dramatic reaction, so she kept talking.

“It might happen to you too if you don’t take care of yourself and listen to your body,” she told him. “Or worse, you could end up with a bag of your poop attached to your belly.”

Paul gagged again, much louder this time. Then Annalise decided that that was enough and directed the conversation to the club’s main topic: video games.

“So who’s played Team Sonic Racing?”

It was only the first meeting, so the group made a plan to bring their Switches and play next time. The Nice Guys prompted to play a round of Fortnite online later, but Annalise was not up for that game in the slightest. Too mainstream. Too chaotic. She never could get into it.

“Well, we can play without you,” Paul suggested, “not everyone has to join in.”

“Isn’t that a rule, though?” Patrick asked pointedly. “If we’re gonna play something together, we all have to agree on one game. Besides, I don’t play Fortnite either.”

Paul's eyes darted around, trying to look for a counterargument, but he sighed. “Fine. Anyone else got any suggestions?”

“What about a D&D campaign?” Annalise said. “Or some type of board game?”

Josh scoffed. “It’s video game club. Besides, me and Paul already have a campaign with our other friends.”

“‘Course you do,” she mumbled, folding her arms.

“Ooo! I got an idea!” Kyle spoke up, raising his massive hand. “We should hit up Bart. That bar with the art and retro games?”

Annalise perked up. Finally, someone with a brain cell. “I participated in a Smash Bros tournament there. It’s really fun, we should all go one weekend.”

“A bar?” Josh said in distaste.

“Yeah! It’ll be a class field trip or something!” Chad agreed. “It’s awesome, bro! They got a Gamecube and an N64! Sometimes they do karaoke night, but only with songs from different games!”

Then, Kyle looked at Annalise with a smirk. “Bet your boyfriend would perform there, eh?”

Even when she was far away from him, Shawn still had a presence wherever she went. “Heh, maybe…”

Luckily, none of these guys were the type to hover. The subject went back to going to Bart one weekend, and then the group chat was revived to discuss further adventures. Once the meeting was adjourned, Patrick followed me out the door.

“So, Annie. No offense or anything,” he said, walking in step beside her as they walked down the corridor, “but what the fuck is wrong with you?”

“My summer was great, thanks,” Annalise said, too busy glancing at her phone to cringe at that awful nickname. No new messages for once.

“Nah, seriously. You were in the fucking hospital, and I find out through Snapchat?” he asked seriously. “Did you even tell anybody? What the hell happened?”

She didn’t remember posting anything about her hospital stay anywhere on social media. However, the only two people who were there with her were social media freaks. Stella was the type to tweet every single one of her brain farts, and frequently Snap where she was every second. Shawn was less active on his platforms, but he was still quite popular in the Toronto area, so he had a sizeable following. Annalise knew he took a picture of his hand holding hers while she was in the hospital at least once. Maybe it made it to his Instagram story a couple of times.

Sighing, Annalise gave Patrick the gist of her exciting adventure with her large intestine. Some underlying guilt wanted to be felt as she recalled staying and Shawn’s for so long, but she decided to spare those details.

“Looked death in the face, eh?” he said, nodding in what looked like approval. “Badass.”

She chuckled. “Guess I wasn’t ready to be yeeted off this mortal coil.”

“Ugh, you use the word yeet? How much has that guy changed you?” Patrick stuck his tongue out at her, flashing the piercing he had on the muscle.

“Hey, I’m more down with the kids than he is.”

The pair were quiet as they made it out to the courtyard. The night was chilly and cloudy, the only light coming from the lampposts on either side of the walkway. It felt different knowing Annalise was with only a friend rather than her mans, and she tried to ignore the ache in her chest and the urge to talk about him.

“Do you remember what it was like?” Patrick asked after a minute. “Being so close to death?”

“Nope,” she replied simply. “Although, when I was under, I had a really vivid dream that my… uh, Shawn cheated on me.” Way to not talk about him.

“You sure it was a dream?”

They were passing by one of the picnic tables, where Patrick pointed to. There was a group of people standing around the table, and two people sitting on top of it. One of those people was Shawn with his acoustic guitar. He was singing with the girl who was sitting next to him, the same one he was walking with at the science building. It wouldn’t have seemed weird if Patrick hadn’t said what he said. It would have been left alone if Annalise hadn’t thought about that stupid fever dream.

“Come on,” she said to Patrick as she stalked off towards the group.

“I was joking!” he said with a laugh.

Still, Annalise walked with a purpose and he followed her. She clutched the strap of her shoulder bag and kept her chin up as she made herself apart of the tiny audience. It was quite the sight, two nerds decked out in all black and heavy eyeliner amongst a group of normals watching two other normals sing a pop song. No lie, Annalise just wanted to get a look at this girl she had never seen before.

Olive skin. Black, curly hair. Very short next to her guy. Very pretty voice coming out of very pretty lips. She looked at Shawn and he looked back at her as they sang an eerily familiar song. Musically speaking, they seemed good together.

“I’ll leave you with the memory, and the aftertaste…”

The tiny audience clapped. Patrick was nodding in pleasant surprise, probably having never heard Shawn’s songs before. Annalise applauded as well, but she couldn’t help the narrowing of her eyes as she watched Shawn and this girl high five each other.

They were both comfortable with all the attention, it was easy to see. Shawn was beaming in a way that hadn’t been seen in a long time, and then he laid eyes on Annalise. He still had that smile on his face, even though it faltered a little bit. She kept her face neutral and quirked her eyebrows at him as a silent greeting.

“Should I leave you guys alone?” asked Patrick as he and Annalise watched Shawn get down from the table top.

“No,” she replied simply.

She almost regretted having him stay. He had to witness Shawn and Annalise attempt to figure out how to greet each other. A side hug would have been awkward for reasons not only having to do with the guitar strapped to his shoulder. She definitely couldn’t kiss him, because that would have started something she had been trying to distance herself from. They finally settled for a mildly uncomfortable handshake, and Shawn kept holding her hand as he spoke.

It had been almost a week since Ann moved out, and she only sent him one text in that time span. It was the black heart emoji. Better than nothing, but not better than seeing her in person.

“You haven’t answered my texts,” Shawn told her. If she was going to decide when she'll give him attention, then he wasn't going to beat around the bush when he saw her.

“I’ve been busy,” Ann replied, feebly attempting to shake her hand away.

Shawn nodded, but he wasn't thoroughly convinced. Between work and school, Ann was a hermit. Or so he thought, given that she now had this new goth dude at her side. “So, who’s your friend?”

“Who’s yours?” she quickly said back.

“I’m Patrick!” said Patrick, holding out his hand. “Annie and I go way back!”

Shawn let go of her hand to shake his. “Nice to meet you, brother. Wait… Annie?” He chuckled.

Her cheeks heated up, and she decided to move her eyes somewhere else, specifically on Shawn’s unnamed singing partner. She was chatting with some of the other people still around the table. Annalise noticed she talked with her hands a lot.

“She lets me call her that even though she hates it,” Patrick said, snapping her back into the moment. “Right, Annie?”

“Do not,” she warned. Then she looked at Shawn. “So who’s the chick you’re singing with?”

Shawn took in an almost reluctant deep breath as he turned and called the girl over. If there was anything he had yet to discover, it had to be if his girl was the jealous type.

Annalise's dark brown eyes narrowed once again while he wasn’t looking. Call it anxiety or paranoia, but she was oddly suspicious. Patrick caught the glare though, and he nudged her arm to snap her out of it.

“Ann, Patrick, this is Alessia,” Shawn said when the very short girl joined them. “She’s a first year. Alessia, this is my…” He elongated the vowel. “Annalise. And her friend Patrick.”

Okay, so… a sinking feeling in the tummy. That’s what that felt like. Couldn’t be mad, though. Annalise wasn’t so quick to use the boyfriend word these days.

“You’re Annalise!” Alessia said in pleasant surprise. She did not hesitate to hug her, arms going around her shoulders and practically pulling her down to her level. “It’s so nice to meet you! I’ve heard so much about you!”

Honestly, Annalise was just glad she didn’t call her the goth girlfriend. Or the goth anything, for that matter. She didn’t hug Patrick, though, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“So, how did you two meet?” Annalise prompted. So maybe she was a little more than curious to know how and when Shawn found the time to get another girl at his side.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Shawn replied a little too quickly.

His eyes bored into hers, throwing them into a staredown. He broke through the fake, polite smile Ann had on. Of course he broke it. He was the only one who could. However, Shawn couldn't read the expression she had on. He couldn't tell if she was upset or not, happy or not… He couldn't tell if she wanted to change her mind about this separation or not… Ten months together and Ann was still a mystery.

“Uh, Shawn and I have like, every class together,” Alessia said slowly, looking between the couple, noticing the sudden change in atmosphere. She scratched the back of her head.

“Annie and I have been in the same club for two years,” Patrick added in the same tone. He too noticed the tension.

“Oh, which club? There’s some I’ve been checking out…”

Those two kept up the conversation. Shawn’s gaze on Annalise made her throat close up. He wasn’t smiling or feigning politeness anymore. His jaw was clenched and his eyes were hard and glossed over. Inexplicable guilt began to form in her chest yet again. She knew he didn’t understand.

_______

taglist: @normalcyisoverrated-beyou @ilsolee @mendesromano @1-800-khalid-mendussy @kitykatnumber @strangerliaa @iloveshawnieboi @poppyshawn @shawnsunflower @shawnvvmendes @yourdelightfullyleft @shawmndes @havethetimeeofyourlifee @calyumthomas

[minyoongijjangjjangmanboongboong]

Arranged Drabble

Request: you know how Im all hung up over Arranged? May I please request a Yoongi POV of any part you like of the story? as a one shot?

Description: This drabble is entirely linked with the first fanfic I wrote on this account, Arranged. So if you haven’t, I’d highly recommend reading that first before reading this drabble so it makes sense to you! For those of you who are familiar with the story, this occurs after Yoongi and Y/N have met at the music shop! This explores his motivations in asking Y/N to marry him that night, and what drove him to such a strange, sudden decision.

Word Count: 1.8k

Pairing: Yoongi x female reader

Tags: Arranged Marriage!Au, Non-Idol!Au, Chaebol!Au

Genre: Fluff 

Warnings: None

A/N: HELLO MY DEAR! I have your request here! As funny as it is, I actually had this prewritten long before I ever opened requests. I wrote this chronologically before the second chapter of the story, and it’s saved in my Arranged document as Chapter 1.5 haha. I hope you like it! I’ve been looking for an excuse to post it for ages, so this is perfect for me!

Also! If you’d like to support me on Ko-fi, I recently set up a page for it! Of course, absolutely no pressure and no expectation! I just figured I’d give the page a little plug at the end of this intro. Anything is appreciated! Here’s the link: https://ko-fi.com/mercurywriter

- Mercury

Masterlist

Boring.

That’s the only word Yoongi could use to describe his evening. He sat across from the woman his mother had set him up with, the woman she was hoping he would finally finally accept as his bride. Of course, this woman felt no different from the others. She stared at him through her lashes, the low lighting of the bar casting shadows over the planes of her face, the planes of her chest. She laughed at the things he said that weren’t even funny. She talked about her education, her pedigree. She mentioned Yoongi’s salary, and how it was impressive to her. He felt like an actor who had performed this specific scene so many times he had it memorized by heart. He’d ordered a drink only to abandon it since this particular date seemed very keen on talking, or rather getting him to talk. He sat at the bar, twiddling his thumbs, looking for any reason to call the meeting early and go home to his apartment and his Holly.

And that was when he got a call.

“I-I’m so sorry, Sir! Holly has-,”

“Holly what?” screamed Yoongi into the receiver. Panicked, he grabbed his things and shoved them into his pockets. “Is he okay? Is he sick? What happened?”

“Sir! Please let me finish!” whined his assistant, Jaehee. The young guy had always been a bit of a disappointing assistant, and he was often scattered. He came from an excellent family, and was only given the job because of that. But Yoongi often longed to have someone more qualified fill the role. “He got off the leash.”

“He what?” bellowed Yoongi.

His date stared up at him with a dainty hand on her lips, eyes wide. “What happened?” she asked quietly, placing a hand on his arm.

He jerked it away. “In Gangnam? Where?”

“Right outside your apartment,” he said, though his voice was pitiful and weak.

Yoongi’s heart raced and he turned on his heel to rush out of the bar. “Wait! What’s happening? Is someone in your family in trouble?” asked the girl, trailing behind him.

Yoongi nodded and turned to her. “My dog.”

At this she stilled and her face went slack. “Your…dog…,” she said.

“I’ve gotta go,” he said. “I’ll send you a gift in the mail to apologize.” And with that, he was gone.

It had been an hour of searching his whole neighborhood for his small Min Holly, and Yoongi was beginning to become really panicked. But, luck seemed to be on his side that night. When he spotted his beloved dog, Holly was half a block away from him, sitting obediently beside a girl in a smock, that girl crouching in front of him and examining his collar. Relief washed over him. Not only was he safe, but he seemed to really like that girl. The yellow street light washed over the two of them, just enough for him to see the girl carefully lift Holly off the ground and take him into the convenience store.

Well, what in the hell did she think she was doing with his dog?

He jogged down the sidewalk, frantic to save his Holly from the dog-napper, but as cars rushed by on his side he felt his worry subside just a little. It seemed the girl was just trying to get him off the busy street. His pace slowed, only slightly.

He threw open the door to the convenience store and, panting, called out for someone, anyone, to return his dog to him.

And that was when he’d seen her. The girl from the instrument store. On particularly hard days, Yoongi often made his way to music stores around Seoul, lingering there for hours at a time to settle his mind. Today was no different, except that he’d been pestered by another employee, asking if he wanted help.

No help that you can provide, he’d said to himself, but not to her.

But this girl, she was the one that had left a real impression on him, which was rare. Everything from her posture to her demeanor to her voice and the way she spoke was calm and relaxed, like a comfortable grandmother. Although, to be fair, Yoongi’s own grandmother wasn’t the most comfortable…

This girl, however, was. And when she’d taken him back to see the Steinway, his heart had begun to sing, just a little. That piano…

Then he noticed that Holly was not only sitting and eating well, but he was wagging his tail too. He wasn’t a disobedient dog by any stretch, but he could be a bit shy or slow to trust a stranger. It came as a bit of a shock to see that girl beside Holly, the two of them having made fast friends.

Naturally, Yoongi wanted to allow his Holly time to finish his meal, and didn’t want to rush him, so he came to a seat at the bar by the window, watching him eat fondly. He’d tried to give the girl money for the dog food, but she’d steadfastly refused, even going so far as to pry open her own worn wallet and produce a few small dollars to put into the register. He found himself quietly admiring her. Not in the way in which men admire women, but in the way in which one human admires another. Her hair was askew and messy around her head, restrained in a loose bun at the nape of her neck, her eyes slightly wild, and her smock was ill-fitting around her waist, a garish shade of bright yellow. He’d noticed it before at the store, but she seemed very sure-footed, very certain as she talked and sat and thought. It had unnerved him quite a bit when that strange girl had bowed her head and accepted a punishment she didn’t deserve for his sake. There had to be a reason why her eyes had gone glassy at her boss’s scolding, why she looked so terrified. How could a girl who seemed to possess about her an air of quiet, calm determination so easily crumble at the feet of someone above her? The image stuck with him throughout the day.

He’d found himself speaking a great deal more than he normally would, and the way that girl had just thoughtfully listened made him more bold. She was certainly something different, and after the hundreds of disastrous marriage meetings he’d had over the past year, it was reassuring to him to know that at least there were women in the world who weren’t after his money, weren’t so predictably boring and predictably perfect. He liked the loose hairs that hung around her face, he liked her wild eyes, and he even liked that horrible smock. Those things just proved to him that she was a real human.

“It’s good though, don’t you think?” she’d asked after he had explained about his horrible meeting. “You should marry someone whose lifestyle is compatible with your own. If she couldn’t accept the part of your life that belongs to Holly, then maybe it’s for the best that things didn’t go well.”

He thought for a good long moment about this, then took a glance down at the girl and was struck, once again, by how effortlessly she sat beside him, how her eyes were trained on Holly and not on him, how she seemed to barely even mind that he was there at all. He found it easy to sit beside her, whether they were talking or existing in a peaceful and total silence. He’d noticed it at the instrument store too, this feeling. She was an unpretentious person, someone who was too scared to play a nice piano because she didn’t think her skills matched the instrument. He’d found that somehow charming, that doubt. Because if she hadn’t mentioned it, he never would have guessed that she had any insecurities at all. She seemed like the kind of person he would like to spend time with. The kind of person he would like to have as a friend.

And perhaps that was why, when she rushed to save Holly from cutting his tongue and instead cut herself, an idea came rushing to him very suddenly and recklessly. If he couldn’t find someone he matched well with from his family’s picks, then perhaps he could pick his own. Truthfully, he’d never met someone with whom he could so easily connect like he did with this stranger. If the circumstances were different, and oh how he wished they were, maybe he would have asked her to go on walks with him and Holly, maybe they would get to know each other slowly, maybe they could become real friends.

But the circumstances weren’t different.

So, when he offered to help the girl and, resolutely, she’d replied that she could, “handle it herself”, that crazy thought bloomed into a full-blown idea, and that idea nestled into his brain. The more he thought about it, the more perfect it seemed. Marry a penniless stranger, gain positive media attention, raise her from poverty and set her up with a secure future, and then divorce in two years so she can live the rest of her life freely. That would sate his mother and father for the time being, get his neck and his place in the company off the line, ease tensions in the family, and help this girl in the process. Of all the things that contributed to this horribly strange idea, he found the prospect of helping the girl to be the most appealing. The way she’d shaken as she stood bowed before her boss proved to Yoongi just how badly this girl needed money. He didn’t want to exploit her, but rather to give her a hand. A kind, genuine person like her had to deserve some help.

For the small price of her hand in marriage…

He almost didn’t say it. Instead he’d voiced his thoughts in a different way, telling the girl how she’d somehow managed to be involved in the two things that meant to most to him: Music and Holly.

The thing that tipped him over the edge was when she’d exhaled slowly and, while petting Holly’s small head, gently said, “Well, I think both of those things are very worthy things to care about.”

She was right. Someone who couldn't accept where Yoongi’s priorities lied in his life was not a good match for him after all. Someone who couldn’t understand him, and understand the particular way in which he liked to live would only make Yoongi miserable.

But here was someone who met his qualifications. She was kind, calm, reliable, and Min Holly really liked her.

So he took the leap that he knew might change his life, and he did it blindly but with all the certainty in the world.

“Wanna marry me?”