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soobadnoonecanstopher · 4 months ago

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Rat Bastard - Part 2

Pairing: You x Kyungsoo

Rating: M (Mature)

Word Count: 8800

Warnings: There were too many beds, Enemies to Lovers, Spiders (imaginary spiders in a fictional story, as fake as you can get)

Links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Not a single soul had spoken a word to you in more than three hours.

You’d spent the first two of those three hours watching saved Netflix movies on your phone. You still didn’t have any signal and after two solid hours of mindless television, now you didn’t have any battery either.

The third hour was spent laying on your bed, the one situated as far away from him as physically possible, in various positions of extreme unrest and terrible boredom.

Your latest position was an upside down pose with your legs propped up vertically against the wall and your head hanging off of the edge of this tiny bed. It was weirdly comfortable feeling the way the blood pooled deep inside of your brain and your view of this room flipped upside down, the ceiling was the floor now. If you walked across it you’d have several speed bumps in the form of fluorescent tube lights to contend with. One couldn't just walk straight either, there were a few big ceiling fans that might slice up your ankle at a moment's notice if someone happened to flip the switches on the walls. You wondered if the fans still worked. They all looked as if they hadn’t spun in years and you found yourself finding common ground with them for it had also been years since someone had flipped your switch and sent you spinning. You probably had a few cobwebs too. Maybe even some loose wiring.

You tried closing your eyes but this room, with its lifeless cement walls, was too still and too quiet. You started to hear new sounds the longer you existed in this perpetual state of oppressive silence.

You could hear your own heart beating inside of your chest. It was a noisy racket. You could hear your own annoyingly steady breathing and when you held your breath you could hear your absence of breathing and then worse, the count down to your eventual suffocation. You could hear that timer and the small grunts of your lung muscles fighting against your own death and the noisy gasp for air when your survival instincts kicked in and jump started your breathing again — your silly brain refused to let you die. Again and again you listened. A gurgle in your stomach paired with the twinge you felt with the growl. The sound of your throat constricting and the saliva that pooled inside of your mouth was swished backward and swallowed down your throat, temporarily closing up your ears and the sound of the pressure that changed as it went down. Every sound that happened inside of you was up for grabs. Every twitch and breath could be a source of some stimulation for your brain. Eventually your ears drifted further.

You could hear wind outside and some sort of groaning sounds of what you assumed was the building you were stuck inside the belly of, shifting and shaking with the strong winds outside. Even those sounds eventually shifted to the background of your focus and at the tail ends of the third hour you swear to God you began to hear him.

A small shift on top of his bed at the far end of the room. The quietest throat clearing. A rustling of, now, dry cotton fabric as blunt nails scratched three times over an itch on his skin. A deep breath pulled into his lungs slowly and exhaled through plump parted lips. Once you’d managed to tune into the sound of the air of his lungs, you heard another breath. A steady in and a steady out. A quicker, deeper pull of air as his rhythmic pace stuttered just a bit, and the eventual evening out again of his breaths. Was he asleep? Had that lucky bastard actually been fortunate enough to drift off to sleep and spare himself some of this agonizing boredom?

For absolutely no reason you could imagine, and there really was very little reason happening inside of you right now anyway, you could feel the pace of your own breathing even out. It felt almost involuntary the way you felt compelled; with his inhale, your lungs breathed in. With his exhale, your air left your nostrils and you pursed your own lips just a little, allowing some of the expelled air to pass over your tongue and slip over your lips. Your next inhale was perfectly timed again and you didn’t even have to think about the exhale; you were in sync.

It was absolute madness that you were paying attention to this. The only thing that saved you from actual insanity was that you were aware of how insane this was. The really insane people didn't know they were insane, right? This could be what you told yourself. This could be your absolution.

How much longer could you stand? You could always…leave, right?

You weren’t technically trapped inside of this room. Your mind was drifting through the memories of walking into this place following Sara who navigated the confusing hallways easily. She knew the way. You did not. You recalled walking by a few doors and many dark corridors with many large and mature spider webs in some of the corners.

You pictured leaving this room and walking with fake confidence. Just a harmless little journey. A bit of exploration without a flashlight, through some of the sections of this bunker that didn’t receive the benefit of the generator's power.

The exploration would quickly grow spooky with the soundtrack of the howling winds and the lifelike groaning of the building around you as you prodded on down an unknown path. And when you felt the first strings of sticky spider webs brush against your skin, you would soldier through them. When you felt the bigger, stickier ones attach to your arms and legs and lightly pull against you as you tried to take them off, stubbornly transferring them from fingers to hands and thoroughly coating you so that no amount of flicking could shake them loose and when shaking turned harder you’d only gather more webs. Your cool exterior would crack as the panic set in. They would cover your arms, your torso, reaching up to your neck and your face. And by the time the spiders came out, with their pokey legs and their angry jaws sinking down into your skin, the screaming wouldn’t help any. Screaming would only give them another dark and damp orifice to crawl inside of and bite down, giving you some sort of tongue infection caused by their venom that didn’t even have a cure yet because the scientists that study spiders hadn’t had a chance to reach this part of the world to develop their anti-venom yet. Your tongue would turn black and fall off. The spider would lay eggs inside of your windpipe and burrow into all of your tubes, spreading their venom and eggs and crawly legs and biting jaws and you would die an agonizing death, alone in the darkness.

You reached a hand up and scratched at a tickling sensation you felt on your arm. You swear to god you felt the slight tingle of tiny traveling legs the more you pictured trying to leave this room on your own just because you were bored.

What would your obituary say? ‘A testament to her generation’s short attention span, she couldn't tolerate even the slightest bit of boredom. She bravely ventured out into the darkness where she was eaten alive by man eating spiders just for something to break the monotony.’

You heard a real sound. The genuine squeak of old mattress springs compressing on the far side of the room. The squeak was more than just someone shifting in the bed. This was a squeak of real movement. Kyungsoo was moving.

You heard the push off of a body from the bed, followed by shuffling footsteps moving in your direction.

You turned your head to watch him. From your vantage point he was defying gravity and walking on the walls of this upside down room. The silent man caught your eye for a second as his hand landed on the doorknob and he pulled it open.

“Where are you going?” You couldn't help yourself. You had given yourself the heebie jeebies with all the spider thoughts and even though he sucked, he was the only other human being here that you could use as a spider shield. Surely they would go for him first. He smelled good and had soft smooth skin, easier for tiny fangs to bite into. You’d already planned on pushing him through the webs first.

“Out,” he said flatly.

You tossed your legs away from the wall and sprung to life. Leaping to your feet, you reached the door before it slammed shut and you pushed yourself through the opening taking several frantic steps to catch up with him.

Your steps were very quick. You were fueled by fear as you moved and you hadn’t been paying attention enough to his steps to catch the moment he reacting to the sound of you coming up behind him.

He stopped walking forward before you had a chance to shift and you embarrassingly hurled yourself into him, bouncing your chest right off of the warm, solid wall that was the back of the man. You hadn’t braced yourself at all. Your nose bumped against the back of his head.

You bounced off of him with a surprising force. Why did he have to stop so suddenly like that?

You stumbled when you hit him and took three tiny steps back to keep your balance upright and covered your nose with your fingertips. You managed to keep the small yelping sound from the impact concealed under your hand but it felt implied with the obvious thud of both of your bodies hitting together.

Kyungsoo spun around halfway and looked into your surprised face.

“Where are you going?” His eyes bounced against your face lightly and you quickly closed your wide-open mouth and dropped the hand from your nose.

“Out,” you said with a shrug and a tiny lift of your chin.

It wasn’t as if you weren’t allowed to leave, right? You didn’t need to stay back there in that room all alone. You had been planning on venturing out all along. You couldn’t help it if you just happened to leave at the exact same time that he left, and you just happened to be traveling in the exact same direction that he was traveling in.

His eyes narrowed on you for a moment, no doubt jumping to his own conclusions.

You stood your ground, crossing your arms over your chest to really sell it and you did your best to ignore the light tickle you felt running up your leg just above your sock. Spider. Big hairy spider crawling. The second he gave up and turned back around, resuming his forward momentum, you reached down and swatted away whatever it was you’d imagined crawling on you.

Your hand came back empty which you took as a good sign. You hadn’t squished something with a belly full of a hundred eggs against your leg. You didn’t feel the scattering feet of thousands of tiny babies crawling up your leg, under your shorts, seeking refuge in your own personal orifices.

While you’d done an excellent job of matching his breathing pace back inside the room, you were doing a shitty job of walking at the exact right speed to keep up with his quick legs. He wasn’t outright running away from you but he was definitely putting some cardio in right now. This was the pace of a speed walker at least. You caught up to him though and you even managed to read his posture enough to catch yourself from running into him again when he abruptly stopped and turned fully around to face you again.

His eyes were wide and his eyebrows were raised.

“Stop following me,” he warned with a low voice. Yes, yes. The very menacing man is very threatening. You tried not to visibly roll your eyes.

You simply shook your head and shrugged your shoulders in full denial.

You had no idea what he was talking about. The man was losing his mind. You were just out for a stroll. This was a big coincidence and frankly he was acting silly with his suspicions of you.

“I’m not following you. I’m just…going out.”

“Going where?” He challenged.

“Out.” You countered, “Out. Out of the room, just out.”

He definitely seemed like he had a destination in mind as he moved. You wondered if he got some sort of a grand tour of this place that you didn't get before you arrived. He knew you were full of shit, and you knew you were full of shit, but of course you weren't going to give him the satisfaction of admitting it. You wanted to see what he was up to and where he was going because you were not about to be left back there in that silent concrete tomb all alone while he explored and adventured over here doing who knows what.

You’d gathered enough to know that he was headed toward whatever room was behind that solid big blue door at the end of this hallway.

You were going to witness it. You needed something. Anything.

He gave up again and he was moving.

You were on his tail, stepping inline right beside him where he walked so you could pry some intel from him. He obviously knew more about this place than you did.

“What’s in there?” You asked, pointing to the blue door.

“Kitchen.”

“Ooo, a kitchen.”

You reached for the handle when he reached for the handle and you pulled at the door when he pulled at the door. You pushed yourself through the narrow opening when he pushed himself through the narrow opening and you found yourself shoulder to shoulder with this man as he pushed hard against you, trying his absolute best to beat you through this doorway. You weren’t about to just let him have it. The struggle made you grunt and you could feel his body tensing beside you. The struggle turned into a silent shoving fight of hands, elbows, and fingertips; causing you both to get stuck right in the middle of the doorway. The hard wooden door frame on one side of you and a brick wall of a man’s shoulders and thick biceps on the other side of you, pushing you back, forcing himself to move through the doorway before you could manage, with sheer brute strength.

He grunted and pushed back harder and he popped out on the other side of that doorway first.

He won.

You wrinkled your nose and scowled at him, deciding then and there that if it came down to it, he was getting fed to the spiders.

Beyond the doorway the room opened up into an industrial looking kitchen space. It was lit up and to your surprise was occupied with five people. Five whole people were in this room. Their surprised heads turned to look at the doorway the moment the door opened and five people witnessed the fight to get through the doorway with varying expressions of curiosity on most of their faces. Two faces, the two people you found most familiar here, Sara and Mr. Chen had different looks in their eyes. More amusement than confusion.

“There they are! You two are right on time.” Mr. Chen smiled widely with a note of excitement in his tone that you struggled to return with your greeting. You felt too caught off guard with what seemed to be happening inside here.

In here Doh Kyungsoo was a different person. The shift was jarring. He was friendly and smiling and bowing politely, shaking the hands of the three other people in the room. Making their acquaintance. Being very pleased about it. Catching their names and using them immediately to commit them to memory.

He was grabbing a stool and pulling it up, taking a seat around the big stainless steel countertop as if he knew it would be there and he knew something was coming.

Your feet were slower to follow him in here. The more you looked around you began to notice details. There were bags of supplies on the counter. Nothing bad there. Enough food and goods to get you all through the week without being able to leave this place. Pots and pans and kitchen utensils were on the stoves and you could even smell something delicious cooking in here. Aside from the kitchen equipment, you also saw bags, small office supplies for writing. A few had power banks charging their phones. There were wired earpieces unwound on the tables and a portable radio that was on low, giving some weather related reports.

There was a big white board with scribbles on it. The moment your eyes zeroed in on it someone else cleared their throat and another person grabbed the whole thing and flipped it upside down. You were still able to make out your name written there before it was flipped. Below your name, a small list with different bullet points. Details about you. Very basic things. None of it bothered you much. What did send a wave of annoyance though you, was the other column with Kyungsoo’s name written atop and a matching bulleted list. In all other instances that would have also been fine. The real issue you had was the single red hand drawn heart that sat in between both columns.

Someone in this room, maybe even all of them, had been crafting a scheme, it seemed. A scheme that warranted a red heart. It seemed that the five of them thought they were still working on a love match, despite the hurricane outside, despite the change of setting, despite the fact that there was no way…not even if he was the last man on this entire island… not even if the rest of the world ceased to exist and it was up to the two of you to repopulate the human race or it would face extinction…there was no way. RIP to humanity.

Your eyes reached for Sara. She avoided you as you expected she would. The single sheet of hand written paper she held in her hands was her excuse.

It seemed that they had been working hard to prepare something for you both. A fact that surprised the hell out of you given the current limitations and the unusual circumstances, but something that struck you as even more shocking was the nonplussed expression on Kyungsoo’s face. He merely sat down on the stool, chatted with one of the staff members who was preparing some dish on the other side of the counter and acted like he did not find a single thing about this puzzling.

The howling wind outside grew louder for a moment and the lights flickered.

”Okay then. Let’s get started shall we? The first thing on the itinerary that I’m sure everyone has read, the first event tonight is dinner. And of course the meals you will enjoy will be a fine dining experience. Made with locally sourced ingredients and freshly made in house. Luckily Javier, our head chef and our wonderful staff here prepared for such an emergency situation and even though we may be temporarily displaced here in this shelter, we will do our best to give you the most authentic Shifting Sands experience we are able to. Whatever we are lacking in facilities, we hope to make up for with our passion and sincerity.”

Wait a minute, there was an itinerary?

You never got an itinerary. You looked down at Kyungsoo and where he sat leaning his elbow against the countertop and the man seemed much too relaxed in his posture for him to also not have an itinerary. In fact he was the one who came here at the exact time that this event had been scheduled to take place. Not only did he have an itinerary, but he also had planned on coming here for a fancy schmancy dinner without telling you about it; and even had gone out of his way to dissuade you from following him here.

Mr. Chen continued speaking, “Now in the grand fashion of the Shifting Sands Resort. In spite of the unconventional kick off of the Seventh Annual Singles Retreat, and in accordance with the fine print, A. K. A. the terms and conditions that you both agreed to and signed during registration—”

You leaned just a little bit so you could ask Kyungsoo a question without the rest of the group hearing and without interrupting the explanation of what today’s dinner menu would be. It smelled delicious and you were sure you would enjoy whatever they gave you. You’d been getting pretty hungry actually. You hadn’t had a thing since the snacks on the airplane and you’d been trying to ignore your own stomach growling for the better part of three hours since you weren’t sure what kinds of emergency provisions this place had been stocked with. Now that you could smell the food you actually began to relax a little bit. You even spied some alcohol in one of the corners. Some tasty high end food and some cocktails sounded like exactly what you needed right now.

“I didn't get an itinerary,” you whispered over his head, “did you get one?”

Kyungsoo heard you but did not look up at you. His eyes remained fixed on the man in the suit giving his talk.

“Mhm,” he mumbled.

Mr. Chen continued. You admit now you may have missed a bit, “…and your partner will complete a series of fun activities designed to test…”

”So you knew this was going on and you didn’t tell me?” You gasped with the realization of his dirty trick he’d tried to get away with, “You even tried to leave me behind back there!”

“bring you both closer…”

”It's not my job to take care of you, Princess.”

You stretched your hands out toward him but stopped just short of making any actual contact. You did, in great imaginative detail inside of your mind, bring your hands right up to him and wrap them tightly around his exposed neck, letting your fingers dig into the sensitive and squishable windpipe that supplied this man with oxygen and allowed him to say such rude things to you; shaking and squeezing hard enough to get him to make that satisfying ‘GAK GAK GAK’ sound just before the lights went out.

“…and of course, the ———— the specially prepared five-course meal our head chef, Javier, has ready for you. It smells delicious doesn't it? If you don't eat it, we certainly will.”

Mr. Chen and company were all giggling amongst themselves.

Your hands were still raised for attack when Kyungsoo looked up at you but you were quick to drop them and hide them behind your back as you pushed a sweet smile up to your face. If he had noticed your murderous thoughts he didn't mention them because he was looking up at you with his big brown eyes as if he had something else on his mind entirely. Why was he suddenly interested in what you were doing? Why were his eyes so clear and big?

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he whispered under his breath. Whatever it was seemed to have shaken him up a bit. You suddenly wished you had been paying more attention to tonight’s menu.

The next words Mr. Chen spoke sent a chill down your spine.

“If you lose, you’ll face some stiff penalties.”

Wait a minute…

“Although you will still have a chance to win some basic ingredients with certain…limitations attached to their use. Break those rules and you lose ingredients one by one. If you aren’t careful you could find yourself dining on plain white rice tonight.”

He couldn't be serious. You’d agreed to this in the registration terms? You had to be imagining this. Maybe you’d gone mad with hunger.

“Dammit. Son of a— ” Kyungsoo was still having a dramatic reaction under his breath. There was cursing. For once you agreed with the man. There was no way you had agreed to this.

He was standing up and he reached a warm hand down and he grabbed ahold of your wrist, pulling you toward the side of the room with an oddly serious look in his eyes. You hadn’t expected to suddenly be manhandled so your legs reacted with hesitation. He had to pull you a little bit harder to get you to actually move but you protested, “What? What’s happening?” You were unprepared. You felt more confused than you were hungry, if that was even possible.

“Were you even listening? This is why you don't have an itinerary. Come on, we have to win dinner. I’m so damn hungry.” With his complaint, your stomach sounded out in agreement as it growled noisily enough for him to hear it too. “Good, maybe you’ll be motivated enough to cooperate.”

“Cooperate? What are we even doing?”

“Games, Princess. Are you slow? We need to play together and win the right to eat that dinner they’ve got us smelling.”

The games, had your partner been anyone else but him, would actually have been fun. They might actually even be something you could win.

You couldn't wrap your brain around feeling bamboozled. When you raised your hand before the first game to ask, “Excuse me, I never got an itinerary,” the upward inflection at the end made it sound like you asked a question and Sara, who had been setting up for a game, was the one to respond.

“Each pair received one itinerary to share,” she said as she moved to another table where she filled a big plastic bowl with cotton balls. She lifted an index finger and pointed at Kyungsoo. “He’s got it and was told to share it.”

His big eyes looked at you and then away from you. Between your hunger and his crimes against you, you couldn't bring yourself to say anything to him. You felt on fire inside.

It had been sabotage after all. This was who he really was. The more you learned, the more you wondered if the universe had saved you that day you’d been stood up by him.

There was a game involving little plastic spoons and cotton balls, the object of which was to work together to scoop up cotton balls while wearing a blind fold with a spoon held between your teeth and place them into a bowl on top of the other person’s head. It required both parties to get close enough to each other to be able to feel where the bowl was. The goal was to get five cotton balls in the bowl. Five cotton balls and you would eat dinner. Just five. This could have been so easy if only you could trust yourself to touch him without wringing his neck.

When time was called and you removed the blind fold you had a single lonely cotton ball inside the bowl on top of his head. His skin was flushed and he looked slightly damp from the effort. He wouldn't meet your eyes. His straight black hair was tousled on top of his head and it laid in a way that was infuriatingly attractive for how much of a scoundrel he was.

The second game was an instant loss. It was some sort of a trivia game in which you had to act out the name of a popular song for him to guess. The man did not know a single of the top 5 hits making their rounds on social media right now. The next round was him acting out the titles of popular animated movies. You hadn’t watched an animated movie since The Land Before Time betrayed your trust and scarred you for life.

The last and final game was back-writing. He drew something on a sheet of paper stuck to your back and you had to guess what it was. He was allowed to choose his own drawing.

It started out well enough. You were 80% sure it was a pair of eyes. Something with a pair of perfectly round circles. Not too big, not too small. There was a smaller round circle in the center of each bigger round circle and there was something wrong with you when he drew the next part. It should have been something easy, something with a face, but there was something strange you were feeling coming out of the tip of his marker.

Something that threw your mind back to more than three hours ago, the little bickering fight you had with him in the room. His wet shirt and muscles below the shirt. His toned and defined bare chest and — and yours. Your transparent top. That comment he made about your wet t-shirt and about just how much he had been able to see of you. The red hot embarrassment you felt when you realized he had seen everything. You’d dwelled on it for a significant amount of time during the time spent upside down on your bed in solitary confinement. His marker was making a double sweeping motion below the circles. The shape of your breasts below your round areolas and perky nipples in the center. There was no mistaking it. You felt your face grow hot. Your breathing quickened and you could feel the upset brewing inside of your belly. How dare he?

Nipples.

Nipples in the center of breasts. No doubt as seen through a wet transparent pink t-shirt and a very sheer lace bra.

Was this man drawing your own nipples on your back?

You gasped out loud at the thought and before you could control yourself you whispered out a scandalized, barely audible guess.

“N-n-nipples?”

“What did she say?” The two people across from you were whispering to each other. “I think she said nipples.”

“She didn't say nipples.”

“She definitely said nipples.”

Kyungsoo’s marker had stopped drawing. You turned around to look into his face, spinning further in some foolish attempt to see the paper that was stuck to your back in the process.

“Did I get it? Did you draw my nipples? Just to fuck with me, right? Because you saw them earlier?”

Kyungsoo’s jaw was clenched and his marker was still hung in the middle of the air. His face was pink and his eyes were closed.

“My nipples, she said. My nipples. He saw her nipples earlier”

After a few seconds he lifted a hand to run over the length of his own face and he reached for the cap of his marker, quickly covering it and tossing it onto the table in front of you with a noisy clatter.

You were straining, reaching behind you to grab the paper with your fingertips. You ripped it off and quickly brought the paper around to look at it.

It was Pororo. The little cartoon penguin from the children’s television show. It was a pretty good likeness. He did a great job. It didn't resemble a pair of tits at all.

You were a fool.

Across the room, you heard the squeak of a dry erase marker. Someone was writing something on the white board. Sara had made a note below the little red heart that sat in the center space between your names.

- he saw her nipples

“I saw his nipples too. Put that down.” You had your finger lifted and you were pointing at Sara. After a few seconds of her looking at you she turned back around and the marker was squeaking again. She placated you and made it even again. You were temporarily satisfied to see, ‘- she saw his nipples too,’ written below the heart.

“I think one of them is more significant than the other.” One of the staff members, Jun spoke up.

“That’s what I said,” Kyungsoo said in agreement.

“Right?” Jun was going now. “I mean a guy’s nipples, that’s everyday stuff. But when a guy sees a woman’s nipples…that’s first base at least.”

Sara was squeaking again. Long slow squeaks. She was circling the ‘nipples’ bullet points. Beside it she wrote “1st base.”

“Wait a minute,” you spoke up, “how is that first—”

“That's not—” Kyungsoo started to object too.

”Okay,” You were both interrupted by Mr. Chen, clapping his hands together, “let’s move on. So you lost the game. That means we get to eat the five course dinner Javier has prepared.”

Another squeak sounded out as Sara flipped the white board over, effectively ending the discussion that the two of you probably weren’t ever supposed to witness anyway. Heads were nodding around the room. You were outnumbered.

Soon you were distracted by a new task he was explaining.

“Not to fret my lovelies, We still have a kitchen loaded with fresh ingredients for you to win. These games will be easier. I’m not a monster,” He was laughing to himself.

Kyungsoo had come to stand by your side and was leaning in to whisper something to you as you tried to pay attention this time to Mr. Chen’s instructions.

“I need you to stop fighting me if we are going to eat anything. We just need a few things and I’ll cook something good. Can you just be nice for like an hour?”

Was he asking you to make a deal with the devil right now? Yeah you would win these ingredients but you weren’t about to forget how he revealed the incident with your nipples during the drawing game.

“You didn't have to do that…talk about the nipples thing like that.”

You felt his hands on you then. He had gripped you by the arms and he spun you around so you could look into his face. His eyes were wide and his expression was deeply, deeply flabbergasted.

“Are you stupid? You did that. You did it. I drew Pororo. I never said anything about your goddamned nipples. They would never have even known about your nipples if you hadn’t said it.”

Oh he was heated. He must also get grumpy when he is hungry.

But he was right. His eyes were full of fire and passion and you replayed the recent betrayal again in your head. You remembered Pororo now. You had just been in such a rush to blame him for everything that you forgot yourself for a bit. You felt like maybe your brain didn’t work right around him. Maybe it had been the strict no carb, low calorie diet you had been on for the month before this trip. You’d packed plenty of sexy bikinis and you’d finally reached a level of confidence in your body at the expense of your own health to wear them. This was supposed to be a beach vacation, afterall.

“Oh yeah, sorry. Yeah that was a good Pororo. I’m just so hungry, I feel like I’m going to pass out.”

The fire in his eyes went out and his expression softened a tiny bit. If you hadn’t been watching his face so closely you might have missed it, it was so subtle. He was looking very closely at your face. His frustrations were replaced with something else entirely. Something you’d never seen before. Something you didn’t feel comfortable commenting on here. You didn’t need that kind of observation written down anywhere that could come back and bite you in the ass later.

“When’s the last time you ate?”

You closed your eyes with his difficult question. You couldn’t remember times anymore. You’d changed too many time zones to get here. “Barracuda,” you whispered with a little head shake. You really did feel awful. You could feel a sticky dampness on your skin.

“Hey, can she get like a banana or something, I don't think she’s okay.”

You’d had something shoved into your palm. Something sweet to eat. You lifted and you took bite after bite, chewing and swallowing and you were steered to sit down. Sara was beside you as you slowly began to feel human again and you looked up into all the faces in the room, admonishing yourself for seeking out one face in particular. You had no business looking for him first.

“I’m okay now. Thank you, Sara.” You patted the back of her hand twice and you stood up, keeping careful control over where your eyes wandered. Sara seemed to be looking at you much too closely and after a few moments she looked behind her where Kyungsoo sat on his nonchalant stool with his nonplussed elbow propped up on his aloof countertop as he waited for you to get your shit together already so he could eat something at some point tonight. She looked back at your face with a slight narrowing of her eyes before she was standing up and making her way back over to that goddamned white board.

You had to ignore the squeaks. She was reading into things again. She had watched way too many romantic comedies and read too many romance novels.

Mr. Chen was explaining the game as her marker squeaked and squeaked and before you had the chance to read what she wrote, the whole board was flipped around again. You’d caught enough only to notice another two entries had been made into the love column between both of your names. You had no idea what she added, and the curiosity was probably going to give you an ulcer.

Mr. Chen wasn’t exaggerating when he said that the games for the ingredients would be easier. They were laughable really; very basic trivia questions that either of you could have answered back in elementary school. You both soon had a pile of things that Kyungsoo would surely be able to spin up into something amazing. You’d never tried his food before but Claire had once said one of his dishes had almost made her leave her husband, so you were sure it was about to be good.

You should have been more on alert. The games were too easy, you should have known that this psychopath Mr. Chen had something up his sleeve.

“Now, If you recall earlier I mentioned that these ingredients that you won come with certain …limitations to their use,” He was explaining again.

“Only one of you will be allowed to handle these ingredients and cook them,” He said.

The limitations were just that. You were both made painfully aware that the use of these ingredients carried with them the extra rule that only one person would be able to cook.

Well that was easy. Kyungsoo would cook. He was literally a chef. You weren’t that great in the kitchen anyway. You could do very basic things but nothing fancy like he could do. Just when you’d allowed your posture to sag a little bit Mr Chen hit you both with the other half of the rule.

“And the one who cooks, will have to be blindfolded as they do it. Whoever is not cooking will be allowed to see, allowed to speak, and allowed to touch the other person, but none of the ingredients. Only the cook will touch the ingredients and as long as ingredients are touched, the cook must remain blindfolded. Any ingredient the non-cook happens to touch will be forfeited. You will have one hour.”

There it was. You felt so very tired.

You felt blindsided. This was ridiculous. One glance at Kyungsoo told you he had similar thoughts about this. It was evident now that those easy ass games to win these ingredients was a sham and the real game was starting right now.

Kyungsoo had reached your side and you could feel the warmth of his arm as he leaned in beside you.

“So, I guess I will cook. You’ll be the one telling me what to do. This isn’t my kitchen, but just tell me where things are and it might work. You wouldn’t,” his eyes narrowed at you and he lifted a finger to lightly gesture in your direction, “you wouldn’t try and actually kill me, right?”

“Kyungsoo,” you rolled your eyes at his silly question, “I promise I will not intentionally kill you today.” It was the best you could do. You were about to blindfold this man and give him fire and blades. You would probably do your best.

“I guess that’s the best I’m going to get. A flimsy promise.”

You had a sudden thought and you reached for his arm, pulling him back from the pile of ingredients he was examining as he got the kitchen area ready.

“I just had the best idea!” You heard your own excitement. “Let’s just eat the ingredients raw. Like a salad maybe.” You’d been looking at the mounds of veggies, you saw zucchini, lettuce and tomatoes, Picking up the mandoline and pretending to slice the cucumber as you added, “Sometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber,” with a giggle. He didn't laugh. He didn't get it.

He looked at your face and shook his head back and forth. He was not online enough to get the reference.

“Are you a grizzly bear? Eat this raw?” He asked bluntly while motioning to the entire fish complete with head, scales and tail fins that laid on the countertop in front of him. “No way am I wasting this. Look at its eyes. This was caught this morning. Right Javier?”

“Yes, Chef Doh!” Javier shouted in excitement from the big table where the crew, Mr. Chen, Sara, Javier and the two younger staff members, Jun and Roxy, were already eating the fancy dinner, just as Mr. Chen had promised they would. It looked and smelled delicious and you frowned toward Kyungsoo, giving in, out of defeat to whatever maniac-esque idea he had about cleaning and cooking this entire fish while blindfolded.

“Just because I’m eating doesn’t mean I’m not watching you two. Remember the rules!” Mr. Chen shouted across the table between bites, lifting his steak knife and pointing it toward you for emphasis.

Kyungsoo had his blindfold on. You waved a hand in front of his face to make sure he couldn’t see anything and you even dipped your head down below his face to see if he could somehow peak through the bottom. He gave you no reaction and you motioned to the group at the table that the blindfold was secure.

Kyungsoo was just standing there and you very quickly realized the entire point of this.

You had to touch him.

“Umm…” you mumbled out, “I’m going to touch you. Just a warning,” you added lamely.

“I figured you might,” he monotoned and you lifted both of his forearms so his hands were elevated, grabbing each of his hands you turned them palm up.

Ignore this.

This was survival.

Ignore this, it’s not even happening. You repeated this to yourself again.

His skin was warm and smooth. The backs of his hands had some of the softest skin you’d ever felt below your fingertips and you had to actually cradle his hand within yours to hand him the vegetables. He was standing beside the sink, washing things. It was a splashy, messy thing. You grabbed his wrists to guide him to the colander and towels.

“Which way is the bowl?” His hands were reaching across the countertop.

“Left,” you said while also trying arrange the cutting board and knife on the counter.

His hand reached out fast and he knocked a head of lettuce, sending it flying as it rolled off the counter onto the floor.

You heard giggles at the dinner table.

“Sorry, I meant right.”

“Right?” He reached right and found the bowl easily. That lettuce was gone. You weren't allowed to pick it up.

“Yeah, I get them mixed up. Sorry,” It was definitely your mistake. You always had trouble with the horizontal directions. You didn't know what it was about them but they never came out right the first time. Not when you were rushed and didn’t have a chance to really think about it.

“You get right and left mixed up?” Kyungsoo was talking now, he was lining up carrots and zucchinis on his cutting board and he was carefully feeling everything with his fingertips; the location of the knife, the location and orientation of the vegetables and he made a quick cut of the tops of the vegetables, clearing the scraps away with the blade.

“But they never change. Right will always be right. You only have to learn it once.”

“Feels like it moves to me, I guess. I never get it right. East and West too. I’ve always been like this.”

“Ahh, so just touch me next time, instead of saying right or left, okay?,” His small concession left you feeling odd in a kind of warm way. It wasn’t judgmental or pushy. Just accommodating. You didn't dwell on it. He was chopping. He was quick, even without his sight you could see the small touches he made with his finger tips curved in a way to direct the blade. The resulting slices were all perfectly even and he made such quick work of the vegetables you actually had trouble clearing the spaces as he worked. You had to work twice as fast as you thought you might to keep up with him.

The team of staff members had slowly finished their meal and had made their way to the countertop to watch.

One thing that struck you was how very calm he sounded here. Nothing felt urgent or angry. He was very controlled in this environment. There were small whispers.

“Where is the filet knife? It’s long and skinny and very sharp.” And you would respond by leading his elbow in the direction of the knife handle, always being sure to hand him only the handles and never any parts that might injure him. He found a rhythm naturally; moving around the space as if he could actually see where he was going. He even mixed something sweet looking into a container and popped it in the freezer behind him with minimal help from you.

Each of his questions received a quick response from you. Each instruction received immediate action.

“Can you fill the two saucepans on the stove with water and put them on high to boil? She can touch the water, right?”

“I need tweezers and a damp paper towel placed above the cutting board.”

“Where is the trash?”

You were moving as instructed, feeling quite proud of yourself when you’d anticipate something he needed and giving it to him the second he began to ask.

“Towel?”

“Here.”

“Oil?”

“Right here.”

“Garlic?”

“Here it is.”

Eventually a sauce was made. Fish was cut up in sections with a little, “are you very hungry? I’ll make bigger pieces,” as he touched the filet with his fingertips to gauge the size and thickness of the cuts.

Maybe this was your calling. Maybe you were meant to be a seeing eye person for a famous chef. You cleaned up behind him with ease, leading him to the tongs and even letting him know the moment you thought his frying pan was hot enough for the fish. He reached a hand out very close to the pan and you pulled his back hand fearing he might not realize how hot it was.

“It’s okay, I need to feel it.” He got very close to it and said, “You’re right, it’s perfect.” You felt about as full as you could. That was a compliment, right?

He hovered with his tongs over the fish and asked, “do I have it?” And you adjusted his position just a little before you confirmed, both with a soft “yes” and a little tap of your fingertips over his hand that held the tongs.

From your peripheral vision you could see Sara scribbling something on that damned white board of hers.

Most of his mixing and seasoning seemed to be happening by smell. You noticed he leaned in very close to smell everything he was using. Mixing sauces was done by smell too. He would add more of something after getting a good smell of it and finally he dipped his pinky finger in to taste the result. He was mostly quiet as he did this but after a few simple nods of his head he must have particularly liked something he came up with because he dipped his finger in again, holding it out in the direction of where you stood.

“Try this,” he said and you stared at his outstretched finger with some thick light colored sauce on the end of it. Both of your hands were full. You were holding the next things he would need for the fish and he was shaking his finger, looking for you, “where did you go? Taste this.”

You leaned then, letting your lips part over the sauce and trying to get only the sauce between your lips. You left behind most of it on his finger.

What you tasted though, was almost magical. How in the hell did a flavor like this come out of that random pile of ingredients you both won in the games?

“Oh wow,” you remarked honestly. Kyungsoo pulled his hand down and stuck his finger back into his mouth licking off the rest of the sauce you left behind and nodded his head in agreement.

“Good, right?”

Behind you, there was a furious squeaking as Sara wrote yet another bullet point on that blasted white board. Probably calling this little exchange your first indirect kiss with the man. Probably highlighting how you hesitated before moving in and how nonchalant you acted about it while your ears turned bright red from the embarrassment of technically having swapped saliva with the man.

Your hour for cooking was almost up. Mr. Chen had been occasionally announcing the amount of time remaining and you were gathering plates for him to serve things up.

“He can’t see can he?” Someone asked as they watched him work. The other members of the staff were enthralled and you watched in wonder as he plated dishes in pairs, starting with some puree he had made, swirling it beautifully on the bottom of the plate before placing the fish on top and topping the whole thing with two different sauces. On top of all of it went some sprinkling of something bright green and bright orange. The other plate had a chopped salad with greens, nuts and fresh fruit. He even pulled a sorbet out of the freezer for dessert and you could hardly believe this man had really made all of this in an hour while blindfolded. Even with your help the results itself were remarkable.

When the timer went off he removed his blindfolded and looked down at the spread, giving the smallest nod of approval.

“Now don’t go doing something stupid like falling in love with me after you eat this, Princess.”

It had been a joke, of course. It was received as a joke and the room erupted in chuckles. You had trouble with forcing the laugh in a way that was natural and convincing and you knew the reason why.

It was because part of why you’d been so hurt by everything cruel and mean that he had said and done to you so far was because you knew deep down inside that you were already very much in danger of doing the very thing he had warned you against.

So you did not laugh at his joke and the food was probably the most delicious meal you’d ever experienced in your entire life.

You did not laugh at his joke, not like Javier who chuckled whole-heartedly from the kitchen as he took taste tests of everything Kyungsoo had cooked.

You just ate your delicious food in silence and avoided the curious eyes of Sara who, alarmingly, also did not laugh at Kyungsoo's joke.

Sara who only watched you while you avoided Kyungsoo’s eyes for the rest of the night.

Sara, who came to some sort of conclusion that required her to stand up, walk up to her insufferable white board and squeak, squeak, squeak out some new bullet point below the hand drawn red heart that sat between your names.

Links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

#exo fanfiction #exo smut #kyungsoo #exo fic #kyungsoo fic #exo story

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fallregain · 6 months ago

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I like this game. Kpop Academy. Easily addictive for kpop fans. The work they put on it over the years is amazing and it's very underrated. I enjoyed it through and through. Man I hope it gets mainstream. It's worth it to show my support through ads for coins and gems, this freemium app is awesome. Also

He's my bias, Kai. I can't seem to get a hold atleast ONE of his cards. He's the most bear looking idol out of all of them. If you read this Hyperbeard PLEASE!!! create another idol from one of his ribs. 🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️

My bias wrecker, Eli. He didn't change a bit this update. Totally perfect the way he is.

Though I will comment on the changes others that had made me quite uncomfortable like chanyeol's eye distance iykyk. And Hyun's visual changes which pleasantly came out better, looking like Doh Kyungsoo. However kind've made him unrecognizable to his old idol cards. It might take away the excitement of obtaining his idol cards since well it has a resemblance of Hak-kun.

Not that I think these are big problems of the game. It's something I need to get out my chest. Also, these are fictional characters so

Bugs with dialogues will be fixed I hope.

Fellas, it's releasing on 8|13|2024

#kpop academy #hyperbeard

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cyberexo · 2 years ago

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FAR, FAR AWAY | Kim Minseok x Fem Reader

"his eyes sparkled as though god had taken a constellation of stars and placed them within his beautiful orbs"

you can also find this fan-fiction on wattpad under the username @mrkswrld

word count: 689

･ﾟ☆ 11

Minseok shifted in his seat nervously waiting for Kyungsoo to show up, agreeing not too long ago on a time & place for Minseok to confide in him. Kyungsoo was a couple of minutes late, Minseok still silently prayed that he would cancel on him or anything to stop this meeting from happening, but that was just his anxious mind talking. He knew he had to speak to Kyungsoo, he needed to.

As if on cue with his thoughts, Minseok heard the bell of the cafe sing its short tune, seeing Kyungsoo walk into the place, eyes scanning for his older friend, finally their eyes met and an automatic smile was shared between the two.

Minseok waited for Kyungsoo to finish ordering whatever he wanted before he bombarded him with what was going on his life, "So," Kyungsoo started off, "What's been killing you?" he got straight to the point, Minseok always liked that about him, he wasn't one to beat around the bush, “Before I start, I just want to ask if you could hold back your judgement a little here, at least till i’m done” Minseok uttered in a quiet voice, the knot in his stomach churning with nervousness.

“I’ll close my eyes and listen,” Kyungsoo offered before closing his eyes and leaning back in his seat, “Go on,”

“It’s about Y/N, the one from highschool. Not sure how much you remember of her, I actually found out that one of our old teachers was her mom-“ “Was?” Kyungsoo questioned.

“Y/N ran away during our last year of school, I don’t really know her status of whether she’s alive or not..”

The statement made Kyungsoo furrow his eyebrows in confusion, already thinking of possibilities as to why, before contorting his face back to an expressionless one, egging him on to continue. “I met her mom by chance not that long ago, she invited me over to her house & at that point I was still clueless but you know how I used to feel about Y/N and as pathetic as I may sound, I still am attached to the thought of her. She left a parting letter, she talked about me in it, & her mom asked me to help find her,” he trailed off, looking anywhere but at his friend who’d opened his eyes, staring at him intently trying to read what he was trying to say exactly.

“I can see it on your face that you want to go, and you know it too, why are you telling me?” he pushed for an answer, “I need help on how to go about it, she could be anywhere- I don’t know! I’m so lost, i’m thinking of a million possibilities on how to start or where to start and I have the burden of work on my back, and I know I shouldn’t just abandon everything I have just to go search for someone who might not even be out there.. I need guidance, please.” Minseok lowered his gaze, his expression painted with frustration, it tugged at Kyungsoos’ heartstrings.

There was a short silence between the two, but it felt like the deafening sound of nothing went on for more than just a couple of seconds before it was broken with a defeated sigh emitting from Minseoks’ lips. “I knew it, I shouldn’t have called-“

“I’ll help you,” his younger friend quickly interjected, “But you owe me, big time,”. Minseoks’ expression changed into a more delighted one, grateful for his friends’ willingness to help him out, “First, we need a plan, do you have that letter she left?” “Yes!” Minseok quickly pulled out the multiple pages from his bag, handing them over to his friend.

“Oh boy, this is a lot..” Kyungsoo trailed off, “But I guess a lot is good,” he reassured, a soft smile tugging at the corner of his heart shaped lips, “Let’s do this!” pulling a pen out from his front pocket, Minseok watched him completely confused by the sudden action, seeing him skim through your letter whilst making small notes on the fragile paper.

It’s great being friends with a detective.

chapter 12

#eventual smut #exo minseok #exo xiumin #x reader #xiumin #slow burn #sort of #far far away #kim minseok

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jongbross · 1 year ago

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Hii bestie :)

First of all, I really love reading your works, they give me a good feeling and that I’m being loved (even if they’re just fiction). ❤️

Secondly, sorry if it’s not really EXO related.

Please allow me to express my opinion and feelings to you, and forgive me for the next thoughts. So this thing has been on my mind lately… I don’t think idols realise that fans exist outside Asia and the US… and yeah, if I had to be honest, I’d say it kinda saddens me. I’m talking about the idols in general now (don’t get me wrong), and when they say stuff like “I love my fans so much” etc, I feel excluded, because I only see mostly Asian fans getting the chance to go to their concert or a fan meeting, or just simply see them at the airport and giving them presents.

I know that feeling like this is not a behaviour of a true fan, but! aren’t we allowed to feel, let’s say, jealous sometimes? I mean, it passes soon but it can also bring me down and I even feel guilty for not being able to be that fan who supports their idols in that way. Of course, I know how much easier it is to travel to those countries near Korea, but still.. especially, when a group/soloist has been in the industry for a while now, I think they could visit further countries too to give at least a tiny bit of chance to see them live.

If you read it, thank you for your time, you’re the best, girl <33 I love you and keep doing what you do 🥹😘

Also, I wouldn’t mind if you shared your own thoughts tho ;)

i went to the theaters the other day to watch nct's concert, the "nct nation", you know? as i was going back home, i was talking to my sister's friend about the shows we went to, how much fun it was, and how much we wanted to see our favorite groups live (mine being exo, and hers being enhypen).

i told her that i already made my peace with the fact that maybe i'm gonna have to travel to asia to see exo live as a whole group, and that's okay. kpop is gaining more and more attention through the years, and that's amazing of course, i'm happy for that! but still, there are some things that will take more time to change.

i do believe exo cherish every fan and that they wanna go and meet as many of us as they can, but there's almost a gatekeeping with groups in korea, to the extend that some of them (not only exo members but other idols as well) think they're only famous and loved in korea. when nct 127 came to brazil, they were SHOCKED to see that we knew every song, that we screamed for every member and not only for our bias, etc. they did 3 concerts in a row, with very little seats left at the venue. they realized they're big here, you know?

i think exo would be just like that. they already know that places like japan, china, indonesia (and many more) love them, but they didn't have the chance to see that around the world and i partly blame it on sm. but things are changing for them now, baekhyun and kyungsoo have their own companies, so maybe that means we'll have more chances to see them live, who knows? it might take a while (and in exo case i think it will take a while, considering sekai's enlistment, the whole lawsuit that was going on and that definitely left a bitter taste for sm, etc), but eventually the way they see the whole world will change and opportunities will come their way.

so it's okay to feel that way, there is no such thing as "true fan behaviour" in my opinion. just please, know that you are loved and that exo do appreciate you! <3

#j talks

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dreamylittlesugarcube · 3 years ago

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A little *bump* for my Masterlist. Have a great day, everyone!

Masterlist

Hello, all! Here is my small, but mighty Master List:

Kyungsoo

-All You Knead is Love: Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt.3, Pt. 4 (AU)

-The Beat of My Heart (AU)

-Check Me Out (AU)

-Steam (Canon)

-It's the Love Shot (Canon)

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oshbluepacific · 4 years ago

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Discreet

Type: Angst

Character: DO Kyungsoo x Reader

Words Counted: 3k2+

questions and request are available / masterlist

To you, being an idol isn’t the easiest job in the world. Or the most ‘joyful’ one either. It’s almost like a one-way ticket with no way to return to where you came from. You’re in it, to make a living out of it. There are ups and downs on being an idol. Yes, being an idol means you get the opportunity to see the world, meet new people, being invited to the A listers party, and to inspire people all around the globe. But, being an idol has it’s down too. People would literally comment on everything you say, do—even wherever you go. One false movement then you could end up in the gossip column or even be thrown at a scandalous news to the world. Small conversation with the opposite sex might attract new romance rumors, when really—they’re just having a friendly conversation. If you’re going on a hiatus, people might think that you’re hiding something, of you’re waiting until some scandalous news about you die down before you go back. It’s hard.

But it’s harder when you’re dating another idol.

You met him right after an award show. At that time, it was raining and you were wearing a revealing dress. It was cold, so you were hugging yourself basically.

“You cold?” A voice asked you. You turn to see none other than the man standing with a matching blue suit.

“Ah, yeah… My manager is… somewhere, I guess… She left my coat in the car, so here I am, freezing to death.” You joked, and he let out a chuckle before he could take his suit off.

“Here, wear mine first.” He said giving it to you.

“Oh, no it’s okay! I’ll be okay—” “Just wear it, it’s fine…” He said putting it on to you. He then leans in closer to your ear.

“There are photographers above us, I just don’t want them getting pictures that they shouldn’t take.” He whispered. You turn to him, who was pressing his lips together firmly as he took a step away.

“Keep it, maybe we’ll meet again someday.” He said before walking away from you as you pull his suit tighter to cover you.

“Congrast on the win by the way!” He shouted happily and you just smiled.

And you’re glad that the both of you crosses paths for the second time. He was out with his friends, while you were dining by yourself. Wearing a black hoodie and sweats, while he was wearing a black cap, a white t-shirt and a sweatpants with a pair of sandals.

“The girl with the dress is now the girl with sweats.” He said as he approached your table, and you just giggled.

“Since, my dress was too revealing for the paparazzies, I need an outfit that covers most parts of my body too.” You winked and he chuckled.

He looked at his friends for a brief second before turning back to you.

“So listen, I’m with my friends right now, but I would really love to have a meal with you and get to know you a little bit more in the future, so… can I call you or text you later?” He asked. And you just smiled before both of you could exchange phone numbers.

You talked to him almost everyday until he finally asked you out on dinner. He didn’t want any public media knows about it, so he invited you down to his place where he cooks all of the meal.

“You cook this much?” You asked as you approached the dinning table in his house.

“Yeah, I didn’t know how much we’d both be eating, so… I made this much.” He said.

You turn your head to him and he was smiling from ear to ear. “The more the better.” He said.

He asked you to be his girlfriend on the third date, which was at his place, and the both of you were just watching Netflix until you both got into an intimate conversation.

“Umm… I don’t know, I think it’s too risky.” You whispered before his forehead could touch yours.

“I know… but it’s a risk I’m willing to take.” He said.

You could feel his hand on your back, pulling you closer into his arms.

“If you don’t want to do it, it’s fine—but I really want to take this chance, even it’s risky.” He said.

“Nobody can know about us—especially the media!” You pointed out to him, staring deep into his eyes.

“Especially that.” He said.

“We have to tell both of our manager so they can help us with our meeting plan, so no media can ever see us.” You told him, and he nodded his head.

“Of course, we’re just going to keep this out from the media, and our friends.” He said.

“Okay…”

“Okay… So you want to do this?” He asked as his eyes traveled down to your lips before he could look back into your eyes.

“Yes, yes, I want to do this with you.” You nodded your head with a smile, your arms reflexively moved, wrapping it around his neck.

“Okay…” He said in a low voice before he could press his plump lips on yours.

You’ve been dating THE Do Kyungsoo—the singer and actor—for 6 months now since that night he asked you to be his girlfriend. You kept this information really close. Your head agency and also Kyungsoo’s head agency already knew about this, and they agree to keep it as a secret as long as it can. Both yours and Kyungsoo’s manager knows about it too, and both of them have been working together to keep all sorts of public attention, medias, tabloids, fans away from you and Kyungsoo. They also helped to arrange on how you get to Kyungsoo’s place without being spotted, or the other way around it and it has been working so well—

So far.

You were currently eating lunch with you co-star near where you were shooting your drama. You could see some fans whispering as they pass by and some of them let out a squeal of excitement. Not long after that, public media starts to trickled in one by one.

“Ah, the media’s here.” Minjae said, prepping himself to get off from his seat.

You looked over yoru shoulders and you could see people hurling the front door with their camera ready in hand.

You nodded your head before getting up from your seat.

“Shall we go?” You asked, and Minjae nodded his head.

Before you could leave the place, you thanked the owner by bowing your head slightly as Minjae followed you. He pulled your hand so that he exit the building first, pushing the both of you through the paparazzi and exciting fans.

Questions were started being thrown at the both of you. Starting from the questions about yoru drama, then to yours and Minjae’s dating life.

“Can you tell us what the drama is about?”

“Can we confirm that you guys are having an off-screen romance?”

“KIM MINJAE WE LOVE YOU!”

“Is it true that you’re dating (Y/N)?”

“(Y/N), are you dating DO Kyungsoo at the moment?”

You heard the question, but you didn’t react to it, otherwise people would already get a confirmation. You and Minjae didn’t answer to any of the questions and proceed to Minjae’s car.

“Aish… can people move aside, we’re trying to get out from this place.” He said turning his car engine on.

You let out a light laugh, but really your head was too distracted by the question that was asked by the media.

“(Y/N), are you dating DO Kyungsoo at the moment?”

As Minjae drove his car slowly out from the parking space, you fished yoru phone out from your purse to send a quick text to Kyungsoo.

Hey, are you busy today?

You send the text and as you reached the set, you got a reply from Kyungsoo.

From: K

Just finished rehearsing, why?

But, as you were about to reply, your director was already calling out for you and Minjea to get on the next scene. So you placed your phone back into your purse before you get back into your job. But as the day goes by, you didn’t feel safe, everything was distracting, you lose focus, to the point Minjae asked you if you’re okay. Right after the shoot, you thanked everyone before proceeding to go straight home. You plopped yourself on the couch of your living room as you opened yoru phone.

4 Missed Calls from K

3 Unread Messegaes from K

From: K

Are you home?

For: K

Yes

As you placed your phone on your stomach, you let out a sigh before you could feel your phone vibrating on you.

“Hello?” You answered.

“Hey, I’m on my way to you right now, there’s something I need to talk to you about.” Kyungsoo said, and you could feel your body went rigid as you sat up. He must’ve known something.

“Soo, I don’t think that’s a good idea, I’m scared if the media has secretly followed me home.” You said, getting up from the couch, stepping out to your balcony.

You saw a couple of people hiding behind the bushes, seemingly ready for Kyungsoo to be caught red-handed to come by to your place.

“Where are you right now?” He asked you, his voice was stern.

“I’m at my apartment.” You answered him, your eyes still looking down on the people below.

“Let’s just meet at my house—but make sure no one is following you.” He added.

“Okay.” You said, walking back inside before locking your balcony glass.

“And (Y/N)…” Kyungsoo called.

“Yeah?” You stopped your tracks as you were putting your coat on.

“Becareful okay? I love you.” He said.

“I love you too.” You replied before you could hung up the phone and went straight down to your car.

By the time you hit the road, you knew you were being followed. But you made turns that just didn’t make any sense, you stopped by McDonalds to kill time as well.

When you got back into the road, Kyungsoo called you.

“Where are you? I’m already here, waiting for you.” He said in a worried tone.

“I’m on my way, I was driving around and stopped at McDonalds first, so that nobody is really suspecting a thing.” You told him.

“Okay, I’ll be waiting for you okay? Becareful.” He said again.

You hung up the call and continue to drive towards Kyungsoo’s house… while trying to enjoy the fries you just bought.

You parked your car and you can already see Kyungsoo waiting for you outside. He was wearing a khaki pants and black sweater.

“Hey, come in.” He said, taking your hand before closing the door and locking it.

He then greeted you before pulling you into a hug.

“How was your day?” He asked you.

“It was fine… Until I finished up lunch with Minjae, and then suddenly someone asked if we’re dating—I got distracted.” You told him, pulling away from his hug.

“You mean, you and Minjae dating?” Kyungsoo asked.

“No Soo, I mean us…” You said, your voice getting small.

You can see his expression changed, and his jaw clenched after you said it.

“I know, because I was asked the same question as well when I walked out of the studio and…” He then walked to the living room where his laptop was sitting on top of his coffee table. He took it with his hand and he showed you the screen.

THE MULTITALENTED DO KYUNGSOO IS DATING THE BEAUTIFUL NATIONAL ACTRESS, (Y/N)

You turn to Kyungsoo, who has his arms crossed on his chest. You took the laptop from him before taking a seat on his couch and proceed to read the article.

It is no mystery that DO Kyungsoo is one of the most favourite idol in the world. And (Y/N) is one of the rising star in the acting world, and is currently working on a drama with Kim Min-Jae. Fans are speculating that there will be an on-goingm on and off screen romance between the two actors. But to what we know is, the actress is having an off screen romance with the Idol, DO Kyungsoo. Both DO Kyungsoo and (Y/N) has been spotted together last month but, none of them shares any statement about their relationship.

You read the article further and it just makes you nervous and furious even more. You placed it back on the coffee table before bringing your legs up against yoru chest.

“My manager sent me the article, and I told him that I want to talk to you about it first.” He said and you reply by nodding you head.

“Did he say anything else?” You asked him, but your eyes avoiding Kyungsoo’s.

“He gave me options.” He said, his tone sounded heavy.

You turn your head to finally look at him with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s either, we verified the news, and announce that we are indeed dating, or, we have to part ways for a brief moment.” He said.

“How long?” You asked him, but he just shrugged.

“You know it’s a bad idea to come out as a couple for the both of us right?” You asked him. He pressed his lips before letting out a long heavy breath, agreeing to the hard truth.

Kyungsoo is planning on coming back with a new album with his friends, while you’re still working on your drama. You thought about the damage if you both come out to the public as a couple. Kyungsoo’s music wouldn’t be supported, so will your drama. Fans would start to attack you—especially you, because you know how fans are in this industry. You thought about other scandals that might turn up. Having a relationship with Kyungsoo then, media might stir it up that you’re also having a relationship with Minjae, because most of the time you’re going to be seen with him.

There was silence between you and Kyungsoo, both of you deep in your own thoughts. You then suddenly felt Kyungsoo’s touch on you knee and you turn to him. He gave you a small, assuring smile before you could smile back. You knew that he has made his decision.

“You want to take a pause?” You asked him.

“I think it’s best we take a pause first, right?” He asked again, and you bit your bottom lip before nodding your head.

You stared at his closed laptop, feeling your eyes started to sting.

“I don’t want it to pause, but we have to right?” You asked him, tears started to stream down your face. Kyungsoo quickly moved closer to you as you scrambled yourself to get into his embrace. You could feel his arms pulling you tighter.

“It’s not fair.” You whimpered burying your face on his chest.

“I know… but I think this is what’s best for you too baby.” He said, and you just nodded your head. You hate that what he was saying was right.

“Hey… look at me.” He said, pulling your face and he let out a chuckle as he saw your crying face. He always find it very cute.

“I thought taking Chanyeol and Sehun to a club would be hard, but this is much harder than I thought. He said, sucsessfully made you laugh a little. “We’re taking a pause, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be there for you, that doesn’t mean that I won’t take your calls or answer your text okay? I’ll try to be there for you as much I can.” He said, only to make you tear up again.

“Maybe right now is not the right time for us to be together, but I’m certain that we’ll be together again soon enough when the time is right.” He smiled, despite how heartbroken it is to see you cry.

You both stayed like that for hours until it was time for you to get back home. As you both walked towards the door, your steps and heart felt really heavy. You turn around before you quickly could put your arms around Kyungsoo’s neck. He was surprised at first, but only to hug you tighter seconds later.

“I love you (Y/N)… so much, this is the hardest decision we both have to agree on.” He whispered, and you could tell he’s trying his best not to cry too by the sound of his voice cracking.

“I don’t want to let go…” You whimpered, but you heard him chuckle.

“Don’t be silly, you have a shoot to do tomorrow right?” He asked, pulling his face so that he could see you.

He tucked strands of hair behind your ear as he gave you a warm smile.

“I love you.” He said again.

“I love you too Soo.” Your voice sounded so small, it was almost a whisper.

He leaned in, pressing his lips against yours. You felt his grip on your side getting stronger, his lips getting warmer as his tongue explored your mouth. You got your hands all tangled up in his hair as the other one gripped his shoulder.

You’re going to miss his kisses.

You’re going to miss his touch.

You’re going to miss his attention and love.

You’re truly going to miss him.

You didn’t want his kiss to end, you didn’t want him to let go of you, you didn’t want this relationship to take a pause. You don’t want to leave. You don’t want this to happen. You wished all of this was a dream.

Once his lips parted from yours, both of you were gasping for air before you could meet his eyes.

His hands moved to the sides of your face before he could look down on the ground, and you could heard him sniffed.

He cried.

“Be careful okay?” He said, a tear stream down his face.

You nodded your head and he kissed your cheek and you lips for the last time before he could fully let go of you.

You opened the door and walked towards your car. You got into your car and tried to control your mind and you breathing because you’re going to be behind the wheel. You start your car and you saw Kyungsoo standing in front of the door. You saw him with a smile before raising his hand, waving to you. You smiled before you pulled away from the driveway and drove back to you apartment.

As you reached your apartment, you closed the door behind you before you could lean your back to it and slid down to the floor as you started crying. For the past 4 months everything was in the clear. 4 months went by beautifully. But anything beautiful could come to an end as well. You thought about where did it went wrong? Where did you both slipped? Has somebody been spying on the both of you all month long? You continue to run through you memory before turning up empty handed and drag your steps to you bedroom. You changed into you sleepwear and as you were washing your face, you just noticed how puffy your eyes are and how messy your hair was.

Slipping under the covers, you kepts sniffling, and tears just kept on streaming down your face.

“I love you Kyungsoo…” You whispered to yourself, hoping that maybe you both could be together again.

Because you felt your happiest when you’re with him.

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jongixun · 5 years ago

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Ashes

Blinded by love chanyeol fails to notice the dying flame of a once blooming love. Hours before his wedding Baekhyun elopes with his best man Kyungsoo, rumors circulate and chaos ensues. The two families are at each other’s throat’s. This was to be a wedding for the ages. Two of the biggest corporate Heirs Would join hands in holy matrimony along with their businesses creating the ultimate financial empire. while the families are busy throwing slurs at each other the groom .....Chanyeol he, he never leaves the altar....he waits there all day. And well into the night. Before finally breaking down into a deafening cry.

He cries and drowns himself in liquor. When his best friend sehun comes to check on him he finds the man unconscious on the floor. Cold and lifeless.

Chanyeol curls his fingers into sehun’s hair nuzzling into it, he doesn’t wanna leave for work today, he rather just stay here with his boyfriend. He looks down at a sleeping sehun and smiles he honestly didn't know what he would've done if sehun hadn’t been there for him. Through all those drunken evenings and weeks spent wasting away in his apartment, sehun had been there for him no matter what. Who would have thought that one of those drunken nights would turn into sweet lovemaking? With sehun a moaning mess beneath him, chanting his name like a mantra as he screwed him open. For a while, he was happy Sehun made him happy. But whenever he would think about Baekhyun his heart would still sting.

It’s been six months Since he last saw or heard from Baekhyun six months since his attempted suicide. As much as it pains him to say it he still not over Baekhyun. Sehun understands this. He knows how much Baekhyun meant to Chanyeol.

His phone on the Side table vibrates and he glares at it from where he’s lying down, with a long sign he reaches over for it and answers to call.

“Yes, this Park Chanyeol speaking “

“ Mr. park this is Detective Kim from Gannam police station” The voice on the other end begins.

“yesterday While our officers were on Woodland patrol We found a crash car that’s co-registered to your name and a Mr, Byun Baekhyun...”

Chanyeol gulps ”Crash? What do you mean, c-crashed!? ” he shrieks into the phone. Jerking up Startling Sehun awake.

”We’re looking into that now sir, And based on some evidence, we’ve gathered from the wreck we believe it to be caused by foul play ”

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elementsoflovesaga · 5 years ago

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사랑의 요소 (EXO) - #0 - Prologue

“Where there is light, there must be darkness,” the evil witch cackled as the wind continued to howl over the barren wasteland that served as the aftermath of the battle that had just taken place. Scattered on the dry dirt were lifeless bodies, covered in blood and sud, drained from all life and magic they once possessed. The ground was dry and cracked, scorched and trembling with little earthquakes as the core so desperately tried to seek the balance.

“I will not let you corrupt this world any further,” Amaré spoke firm, the tattered fabric of her dress fluttering in the wind, her piercing blue gaze locked on her wicked older sister. Up until now, she had always believed that there was still a bit of hope in her heart and she would give up on her jealous ambitions, but alas her heart had been corrupted and her soul had turned the deepest shade of black.

“Fool!” Odité mocked her younger sister, the gem in her staff swirling with pools of black magic and pulsating with every tremor of the world beneath their feet. The ground was crumbling underneath the pressure of the dark magic that had started to consume it whole. “Look around you! God has forsaken you. Magic has forsaken you. Your guardians have forsaken you. Humanity has forsaken you. Paradise is no more.”

“Magic will always live on in the hearts of the pure, humanity will always be able to create a paradise of their own.” She continued, her hands now gathering in front of her as she summoned up a ball of bright white light. She had watched her older sister destroy all she loved and treasured and had enough. It was her duty to protect the sacred paradise the Gods had given civilization and failed due to her faith in her own flesh and blood. But in the aftermath of all that had happened, there was no other way but to stop this once and for all. “But I will not allow you to corrupt those who only wish to be happy.”

“Resistance is futile, my dearest sister,” Odité cackled, her bony fingers hovering over the radiating orb on top of her magic staff, drawing magic to her fingertips anticipating the other’s next move. “You have lost. You have failed! It’s time to surrender.”

“I will never surrender to the darkness. I have sworn an oath to protect this world with my life and that oath I shall keep!” The light between her hands grew bigger and brighter, enveloping her with a piercing white veil, drawing in every last bit of magic and life energy that remained on this plane of existence. Her mind wandering off to her guardians, her friends, who had sacrificed so much for her sake. Guilt tearing through her heart realizing that she couldn’t protect them the way they had always done for her. Praying for their souls to help her in this last act to save what had been lost.

“Then so it shall be” Odité’s thin lips curved into a satisfied smirk, drawing the power from her own magical source as dark shadows pulsated from her fingertips.

As Odité flicked her staff forwards, commanding the dark magic towards her younger sister in a beam of pure black, the light that had collected from Amaré’s soul moved forward to meet the darkness and the magic collided mid-air as a pulse of invisible energy released from the impact, shaking the earth to its core. The air was thick and tense, the clouds against the grey sky darkening as electricity sparked the atmosphere. The ground continued to rumble and crumble as dark and light were at even odds.

Odité pushed back against the light protruding from her younger sister, her magic growing more and more intense, swallowing the light magic inch by inch. Amité struggled to fight against the darkness, she had been exhausted from the battle and lost so much. Her sister’s hatred had grown far stronger than she had anticipated and it fueled her power even more.

“Where are your Gods now, Amaré?!” Odité cackled, a victory so close she could taste it. All these years living in the shadows, watching as her younger sister was praised as if she were a God herself. Gifted with magic but none of them shared with her. Lifted on a pedestal, living in the center of paradise while Odité was left to fend for herself among the commoners. Stripped from her birthright, separated from her loved one, ridiculed. And now look where all that privilege had gotten them. The world was bending to her every command, the Gods had forsaken the people and now her sister - the undeserving younger sister was the only thing standing in her way of what should always have been her right. “Farewell, sister.”

There was just one last chance for Amaré to stop the madness, to save what was left of this world from succumbing to her sister’s corruption. The Gods hadn’t forsaken her, she believed they had faith in their chosen one. She could feel their warmth watching over her as she protected that which they had created. If she was going to die, she wasn’t going down alone. She couldn’t. “Sperolapis, soul of the Gods, heart of the living, please lend me your strength one last time.” With her final breath, she gathered all the power she had left, in her heart the memory of peaceful times, loving times, the memory of her friends and loved ones. And from her heart, another piercing white light emanated, cascading from her body onto the ground and into the sky, enveloping the world in a warmth it hadn’t felt in a long time, extending rapidly around them. “Let humanity be reborn and find paradise.” The creatures of shadows that had been feasting on the remains of the fallen kingdom evaporated as the light reached them. Fires were doused, cracks were filled, the ground stabilizing. Odité let out a piercing screech as the light burned at her skin, drawing the darkness from her veins before swallowing the world whole.

From the core of the illuminated planet, a beam reached up into the sky as the world below began to heal itself, restoring itself bit by bit. But not as the paradise it once was. The Gods were not as kind this time, humanity had caused a rift between good and evil and had shown their creators that they weren’t ready for paradise, they weren't deserving. They were too easily swayed to evil intentions such as lust, hate, jealousy. The Gods listened to the desperate pleas of their chosen one and intended to do just that. Let humanity be reborn and find paradise - only those able to resist the darkness and walk the straight and narrow path would be able to find their way to paradise once more.

And as the world reset, as humanity was reborn, as life started anew, the beam shattered in thirteen orbs that scattered over the entire planet.

#exo #exo fan fiction #exo-k #exo-m #x-exo #suho #xiumin #lay #kris #luhan #chen #chanyeol #baekhyun #kyungsoo #sehun #kai #tao #elements of love #exo scenario #exo fanfiction #exo AU

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manggojooz · 5 years ago

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Bona Fide (Prologue)

main pairing: Namjoon x Kyungsoo x reader

word count: approx. 2,500

genre: lawyer!au, drama, slice of life, romance

summary: They say good and bad as though it is black and white, but through whose eyes do we see whether it is black or white?

warnings: none

comments: I’m back guys... i’ve missed y’all T.T just a little prologue to force start my lawyer au fic..

“You are called to the what?”, “A bar?”, “What’s a bar?”

The two most common assumptions of why the legal qualification is termed ‘the bar’ are that 1. all lawyers require alcohol to function, or 2. it is a metaphorical reference that the people who practice the law has met an undefined (but presumably higher) standard of certain qualities.

So how high is this ‘bar’? Apparently not that high.

---

You rather disliked the fact that it is a common assumption that whoever wanted to study the law should have an altruistic mission.

The age-old question at law school interviews almost never deviates from the conundrum of “why do you want to study the law?”. And here, you faced the first paradox of your legal life – if you wanted to be a member of the bar, you should always act honestly, but if you always acted honestly, you will never make it into the bar.

You tried to recall what generic idealistic answer you had given at your own law school interview. Meanwhile, the new batch of interviewees waited nervously outside the seminar rooms for their turn to be called in. “Look at them... bright-eyed and bushy-tailed... were we once like this too?”, Doyoung cringes as he turns to look at Lucas and you, and he pretended to be taken aback, “whatever happened to you guys man, you look like zombies now?”

“As if you look any more alive. It's almost finals time and... I feel like I aged ten years in the span of three weeks”, Lucas gripes, dragging his feet along the squeaky floor.

---

The years in law school taught you a lot. One of the first was that the law does not exist for an altruistic purpose.

“The law is fair”, the professor said stoically, then abruptly breaks out into a chuckle, “if someone told you that... check to see if they have eyes that are bright and a tail that is still bushy.”

To add on to that, law school was ‘university’ after all, and ‘university’ teaches you about life. So other than the occasionally disillusioning lessons about what the law actually serves, the characters whom you encountered in law school were more even more educational.

Sure, maybe there were a handful of law students who truly intended to pursue justice. But most of them were just mortal. There were those who hail from a family of lawyers, there were those who only came because their grades were good enough, there were those who liked beer, there were those who slept around, there were those who wanted the mirage of prestige and pride, and there were those who only wanted a stable job.

Most, if not all of these people will eventually make it into the “bar” one day.

---

You carried a bag of stuff into the monochrome office. The cubicle walls and the chairs were a nasty shade of old navy blue. It was unusual not to have Doyoung and Lucas to cling on to but there was a slight flutter in your stomach. Graduation was a while ago, and now you were embarking on the arduous journey known as legal training, pupilage, or whatever they preferred to call it – basically you had to fulfil a slavery term before you could reach that seemingly prestigious end goal known as “the bar”.

The office manager was a no-nonsense lady who quickly briefed you and all the other trainees about the office policies before showing each of you to your dingy little seats.

Half the morning was spent with you setting up your work station, the cubicles around you were occupied by a handful of trainees just like you and your neighbour was a charming and cheery girl named Chaeyoung. After a round of awkward introductions, you settled back into your seat only to have the ringing of your phone make you almost jump back up.

Did someone call the wrong number? Was the call actually for you? You picked up the receiver and uttered in a hushed voice, “Hello?”

“Is this Y/N?”, the caller spoke rather quickly.

“Yes, I am.”

“Grab your notepad, pen, whatever you need and come over to my room now”, a low husky voice commanded.

“Ok, sure... I-”, your hands somehow started to tremble a little and you started looking around for your stationery but the man on the other side slams down his phone.

Wait, wait... who is he? How would you know who to look for? “Shit”, you mumbled softly as you put down your phone and Chaeyoung peeps out from her cubicle next to you. “You okay?”, she asked.

“Yeah, I better try to figure this out...”, you replied with a sigh and an awkward smile.

You quickly grabbed your things and walked towards the larger office area, where all the qualified lawyers were housed. Loitering around the printers tentatively, you were just dragging out each second trying to ponder what is your best way out of this. Unfortunately for you, because you were such a nervous wreck, you didn’t even catch the extension number which would have showed up on your phone.

“Are you alright?”, a voice startles you as you leaned against one of the printers, fingers poking your temple harshly, lamenting your stupidity.

His voice was deep and a little husky too, but it wasn’t that voice. You turn around to face him and he gives you a customary smile, a tiny dimple forming on his cheek. It was the first familiar face you saw that day. Kim Namjoon, a fairly well-known senior from your law school because he was always one of the top students and had been Law Club President for a year. Everyone was shocked when he rejected the offers from all the bigger law firms and joined this not so famous one instead.

“If you are alright, could you please let me take my print out?”, he said with a curious expression and pointed at the printer you were hoarding with your body.

“Oh I’m so sorry!”, you immediately jumped aside.

“Are you one of the new trainees?”, he asked in a friendly demeanour.

“Yeah, I am...”

“You look lost, are you looking for something?”

“Uhh, actually I’m looking for someone”, you answered sheepishly.

“Who?”, he looked up at you.

“Somebody called me just now and told me to go look for him but he didn’t give me his name and I didn’t catch his extension number”, you slurred your words, trying to hide your embarrassment.

“There’s a call-log function on the phone, you can use that to see who called you earlier”, he said matter-of-factly as he flipped through the pages of paper he just took from the machine, looking back down at the papers now.

“OH! Is there? Thank you so much”, you gasped at your own dumbness, and you were prepared to run back to your seat to try just that when he stops you.

“I’m Namjoon by the way. What’s your name?”, he introduced himself quickly.

“Yeah I kind of know you... I mean I’m two batches below you, so we haven’t spoken before... I’m Y/N. Thanks so much for your help, I better go-”, you were processing your words as systematically as you could.

“Oh nice... so you are from my school too? And you said you are Y/N?”

You nodded. “If you are Y/N, then don’t bother running back to your phone, I think I know who called you, follow me”, he smiled a little bigger at you this time, his dimples becoming more visible. Guess this is why you always heard that he was popular back in school – nice and cute, what’s not to like?

---

Namjoon kicked the door open, the other occupant looked up at him in annoyance.

“You are going to break that door someday”, he tosses the remark at Namjoon.

“Hopefully before they break my sanity... I can’t believe this, this guy just sent me a document that isn’t even marked up. How can they not even know to mark up the changes?”, Namjoon huffed while throwing the document onto a desk.

The room was occupied by two tables, Namjoon saunters in and sits down at the one further from the door. He sees you still standing at the door and flicks his head to gesture towards the other guy in the room.

“He’s the person you are looking for”, Namjoon said to you before turning to his roommate, “Kyungsoo-ya, next time could you at least say who you are when you call someone? How do you expect a newbie to know that it is you?”

“Why didn’t you ask if you didn’t know?”, the guy named Kyungsoo stared at you with his intensely huge eyes.

“I... umm...”, what were you supposed to answer? Because you didn’t give me a chance to? Because I was too nervous?

He just continues to stare you down until Namjoon cuts in again, “Stop terrorising the trainee, our team is only getting one this year, don’t drive her away please. Plus, she’s my junior from school”, Namjoon said with a lop-sided smile.

“Kim Namjoon, rule number one, never reveal your weakness first, how many times do I have to...”, Kyungsoo sighs and closes his eyes in frustration.

When he opened his eyes again, he just looks back at his computer screen, “come in, leave the door open, we don’t want a ‘me too’ situation to arise here”.

---

Soon you found out that as a trainee, you stood in the most awkward position.

There were the qualified lawyers, like the partners, the senior associates, the associates – these people would treat you like their slave and not a comrade who was fighting alongside with them. It was understandable, after all being called to the bar as a practising lawyer seems to make them think that they were above everyone else.

On the other hand, you have all the secretaries, the paralegals, the supporting staff – there was always an undercurrent of hostility between them and the lawyers, which transposes onto all the trainees. Some of them obviously had an inferiority complex while other more capable ones felt it was unfair that their status were always beneath the qualified lawyers when in reality, they probably played a more important role than those “lawyers”.

Thankfully for you though, at least one of the paralegals on your team was amiable. Eunji graduated from a not-so-great law school and didn’t get through the bar exams, which is why she is slogging away at her paralegal job, trying to make a living while studying to retake the exams.

---

“Namjoon, you must bully your intern a lot. She would rather hang out with your paralegal than with you and Kyungsoo”, Steven, a senior associate from the corporate team joked as you entered the staff lounge after lunch with Eunji.

“Looking at them reminds me of when I first started practising, always looking so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed everywhere I went. Are you afraid of us? Do we scare you?”, Steven taunts while talking to you as though he was cooing at a baby.

Namjoon only quietly sips on his coffee, momentarily contemplating whether to correct Steven on his use of the term “intern” since you were actually a “trainee”. He decided against it ultimately, lest he be called pedantic again.

Eunji squeezed her lips together preparing her words to retort Steven but you beat her to it. “We are all colleagues in the same office, why is there a need to differentiate?”, you replied in an amicable manner.

Namjoon raises an eyebrow approvingly, not of the point you made, but of your guts to say something back to the senior associate.

“Lesson one for our new intern, in this industry, qualification is king. One day when you are qualified too, you will see the difference”, Steven’s tone was sarcastic to say the least.

Namjoon subtly rolls his eyes and was deciding whether he should extricate you from this when someone else enters the lounge.

She reminded you of the stereotypical lawyer portrayed in all legal dramas. There will be at least one character like her. Power aura, power heels, power red lips and just powerful all around. Namjoon looked up to see her entering and he seems to be affected by something. She too, looked at Namjoon fleetingly.

Whatever Namjoon was feeling it obviously made him uncomfortable because he abruptly calls out to you, “Y/N, we have a new matter coming in later, Kyungsoo and I need your help with some research. The meeting starts in two hours, let’s go... there's not much time”, his words were fast and pointed, and he quickly stood up to leave.

---

You sat across from Eunji and Chaeyoung in the pub on the first Friday since you joined the firm. The three of you were already slightly drowsy. “What’s so great about getting called to the bar? Does that make them as powerful as the President? As great as the Gods? I don’t care about being called to that stupid bar... I would rather have a handsome guy call me to a bar”, Eunji slurs and giggles.

That's right, what is so special about this ‘bar’ which you are striving towards, you asked yourself?

You suddenly recalled what happened that afternoon. You were standing at attention in the associates’ room. Namjoon was looking worried while Kyungsoo was lashing out and demanding an answer from you. The words Kyungsoo spat in your face is still freshly etched in your mind, “if you are going to act like this, don’t bother becoming a lawyer!”

Tears start to form in your eyes again but you held it back. “It’s not great at all! And the standards aren’t even that high!”, you exclaimed loudly to cover up your emotions. Your volume was loud enough to startle the table next to you and Chaeyoung sheepishly apologises on your behalf.

“As my best friend, Google, will tell you... the ‘bar’ actually used to refer to a physical barring thingy which separated the common people from those who were part of the court of law...”, you blabbered on in a tone mimicking your professors, but dropping to a whisper now as if this was a secret.

It is a secret – the bar does not denote a certain caliber, standard or quality. The bar is but a demarcation of territory – that this is ‘us’, and they are ‘them’.

“How can a law, that differentiates between people like that ever be fair? How can it?”, you whined. Chaeyoung uses her hand to cover your mouth, almost suffocating you in the process of trying to stop you from causing more disturbance. Eunji nodded furiously at you as she pours herself another glass of the alcohol, “It never is”, she whispers.

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writinginthesparetime · 5 years ago

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You’d like an exo one shot?

#exo #fan fiction #story #exo kai #exo baekhyun #exo chanyeol #exo sehun #exo suho #exo chen #exo xiumin #exo lay #exo do kyungsoo #exo imagines

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soobadnoonecanstopher · 6 years ago

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Only the One you Love, Part 8 ( A Kyungsoo Series)

Genre: Angst / Romance / Fluff

Characters: You X Kyungsoo

Only the One you Love[M]: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9

There was a comfort in his arms. It was thick and warm and it coated your skin with sticky honey that wouldn’t have been easy to shake off even if you tried -- which you didn’t. The weariness of the day must have worked against you; you gave in to that comfort so easily and your eyes were closed as you let it have its way. You let it have you, for just a moment. Just for the amount of time it took for the tears to stop falling and for the shaking inside of your chest to quiet down.

Kyungsoo held you securely within his arms and the steady stream of hopeful promises that flowed from his lips had hushed in time for your breathing to even out. Could he feel the erratic beating of your heart through his chest wall? Did he know about the longing? It was a powerful spell that took hold of you whenever you let your guard down. Your heart coveted him and it ached on each downbeat with the denial.

With your eyes closed, you could feel the exhaustion in your bones so much more. It was magnified and you let your balance shift just a little, just enough to borrow a little bit of his substantial strength, he had so much to spare and you were so very tired tonight.

You heard him whisper your name and it pulled at your sleepy mind enough for you to hum in response.

“You should sleep,” he said and you nodded your head. You would sleep. He would leave you for his own bed and you would settle for the warmth of your hotel blankets. They paled in comparison to his arms; they were so much less than him.

Nonetheless, they covered you as they were made to do and you were pulled under the surface.

And you heard his voice. It sounded crystal clear and he was singing a sweet song. One he sang for you countless times on the phone in the middle of the night, in the middle of your nighttime when he had the sun; keeping it safe for you, he said. He had learned the English version for you. You remembered the first time he sang it for you and it was as close to a promise of forever as you were ever going to get. Hell, it even said the word forever right there in the song. The lyrics were a vow and they were yours. He was never going to let you go for the rest of your life. It had been right there the entire time and you...you hadn’t realized how significant those words were at the time as he sang them to your sleepy mind and you drifted off.

That song...that sweet and soft love song he once sang only for you was now amplified as it was fed through the enormous sound system that sent it through the ears of countless fans who sat enraptured by his beautiful voice. The volume was loud enough to vibrate against your chest and you stood just off of the stage holding your clipboard and wired up with the mic and earpiece, just off in the darkness where you could just make out the shape of his face as he held the microphone to his mouth. You were close enough though that the dark irises of his eyes made their way to brush against your own as he sang and you could feel the intent.

In this arena filled with thousands of his fans, Do Kyungsoo was singing a love song and he was looking at you as he did it. He was looking at you for too long now, you could feel the flush against your skin, on the back of your neck and over the skin of your scalp and the focus of his eyes did not shift away from your face despite the small shake of your head you gave him, urging him away from this. Quickly and before someone notices, look away, you fool.

The song was reaching a crescendo and you lifted your hands to lay over your face. It felt hot and embarrassed at this display. You hoped and you prayed that no one else noticed this. Maybe from the outside observer he merely appeared to stare off into the crowd with no destination in mind as he sang. Maybe no one else could see the steady eye contact he held and the look of pure adoration on his pretty face. It was dark over here and you held your clipboard tightly over your chest like a shield as if you could block the unwanted attention of the curious eyes that began to glance your way as one by one, curious heads turned and looked in the direction he was staring. He was singing this song to someone. They were beginning to realize this.

Why were they looking? Could they even see anything? It was so dark where you stood.

You had taken your eyes off of him up on the stage for only a moment. You had to look away, the eye contact was too burdensome, but when you looked up again, when you found his eyes again you saw more than just a stare. His hand was lifted and his finger was extended and he was pointing at you.

This was why. This was why they looked. This was the reason for all the eyes to search and all at once you felt the gaze of thousands of people land on you. It felt like being crushed by an anvil. The oxygen was sucked out of your lungs and you gasped noisily when a blinding white light hit you in the face. You felt the heat from it. A spotlight flared and illuminated you where you stood alone with your little clipboard offering absolutely no protection from the eyes and judgment of thousands. The only thing you could do was lift it up higher to hide your face when the arena cameras turned to film you.

The song was ending. It was the final line. Kyungsoo’s voice expertly caressed the last sweet words of the love song and at the end, where the lyrics should have ended he added an extra word -- no, not a word, it was your name. It was your name. He sang your name into the song and you peeked out from behind the clipboard toward the big screens behind the stage and you saw your face there. Worried and embarrassed. The hot spotlight heated you and pooled beads of sweat gathered over the surface of your goosebump-prickled skin. You saw yourself on full display; caught in the horror of this as a sinking feeling deep in your stomach pulled hard against your insides. No! This was bad. This was worse than just bad; this was dangerous.

Why would he do this? Why would he do something so public; something so reckless; something so stupid? Was it an act of desperation? His last-ditch attempt to win you back? To show you how much he loved you? Didn’t he know this was suicide?

The sinking in your stomach hit a bottom and you felt nauseated when the panic rose up fast in the back of your throat.

The arena was awash with a sound -- a collective gasp. Thousands of people shocked at once. Their dumbstruck faces all watching you, all watching him. Your co-workers, the other members, everyone with ears and eyes all peaked around corners and out from behind curtains to gawk at the truth and Kyungsoo stood on the center of that stage alone with his eyes smiling — so in love — and his song finished; his moment made public.

And then it began. The first shouted boos from the crowd started from one or two corners of the arena but they spread like wildfire through the flood of people and the noisy anger was staggering and overwhelming in an instant.

And his face, the sweet face he wore which had held such a wide and pure smile; oh, it changed. You watched his face crumble before you. From the corner of your eye, you saw a wave of anger. A group of people lunged forward and brought with them chaos and disaster. Screams and cries were muted and muffled as people, so many people surged forward toward the stage, toward where he stood elevated like a god on a pedestal. And the look in his eyes was disappointment. It was crushed hopes and then it was genuine fear.

As quickly as it appeared, you lost your spotlight. The air cooled around your skin and it was a refreshing change as your darkness enveloped you once more.

But Kyungsoo’s spotlight, it burned brighter than ever. He had two, then three, then six from all corners of the arena shining all at once and he took a step back as his hands fell to his side and the mic went clattering to the ground with a noisy boom that echoed throughout the arena.

There had been barricades. There had been shouting of security guards toward the crowd, but the thousands of angry faces overwhelmed and you watched as they mounted like ants and climbed over one another and they climbed up, up, up, their relentless hands reaching and grasping. They weren’t faces anymore. They were just madness. Nails and teeth and vicious grabs and Kyungsoo took another step back from the commotion, but from the other side of the stage, where the security guards had simply stepped aside with little to no resistance at all came another wave. It came from behind his back. He hadn’t seen them coming for him at all.

You saw arms first. So many arms, reaching up from beside the stage, powerful and strong and they reached for his body. They ripped at his clothing with tight fists. They grabbed for his hands and pulled hard and his balance was thrown before his scream was heard over the roar of the crowd and in an instant, he was gone — right before your eyes he was gone.

He was fully enveloped and consumed and the spot where he stood on the stage sat empty. A spotlight illuminated a single abandoned microphone on the floor and the trembling inside your chest made you weep and scream and cry. The sound hardly reached your own ears over the deafening cacophony.

You opened your eyes and felt the wetness coating your face and soaking your pillow below your head. Your own hands reached up into the empty space above your hotel bed and trembled as they grasped at nothing.

They had taken him.

They had hurt him.

Because he loved you.

You sat up, blinked twice and then twice more to clear the fog in your eyes and wiped at the wetness on your face with fingertips that still trembled from the dream.

It took you only a moment of heavy breathing to recognize your hotel room. You remembered checking in. You remembered the hectic work day and then the disaster with your phone and then you remembered the door — the one that linked your hotel room to Kyungsoo’s — you sat up straighter and pushed the warm covers off of your bare legs. It was colder in here than you remembered, but you had fallen asleep rather abruptly last night. You didn’t remember plugging in the loaner cell phone and setting it down on the bedside table but there it sat, fully charged and ready for tomorrow’s busy day.

Kyungsoo must have done this before returning to his own room to sleep. He would’ve brought the charging cable from his own room to charge the phone for you and you inhaled a deep breath to rid yourself of the uncomfortable feeling that came along with the realization that he must have trotted back and forth between the two rooms, busy with this little task as you slept soundly and unaware in this bed. These actions felt very intimate and that uncomfortable feeling was confusing you with how it shifted and swelled and warmed you from the inside. How could such an uncomfortable feeling be so warm? You had been used to feeling quite empty. Perhaps this feeling felt too full to be at home inside your body.

Because he loved you.

The remnants of the dream still pulled hard at your chest and you inhaled a deep breath that trembled as it inflated your lungs. Your feet were on the floor and you were pushing yourself up with a glance at the phone to check the time. It was after 4am. You’d been sleeping for a few hours at least. He would also be sound asleep by now.

As you rounded the foot of the bed you could see the wood of the door and your steps paused to see that it had been left open. Yours sat completely open and you could tell by the slight light coming from inside his room that he had also left his door open.

The floor was carpeted but you walked light and slow regardless; careful not to make a single sound as you approached the open doorway of his hotel room. You might have even been holding your breath when you placed a careful step out of your room and into his room.

There was little difference between the two rooms. The decor was an identical, although reversed, layout. Even the chilly ambient temperature was the same and you shivered quietly; remembering how he liked to sleep in a colder room than you did. He got hot at night and shed pants before sleep when the temperature wasn’t cold enough. You hadn’t minded the chill in the air when you had his body heat with you under his covers.

This must have been why your room felt cold. His thermostat was working overtime to cool both rooms.

Despite the obvious parallelisms, walking into Kyungsoo’s hotel room at 4:19am as he slept soundly on his bed with his back away from your approaching footsteps, it felt like walking into a completely different plane of existence.

You only needed to see him; to calm the storm in your soul brought on by the nightmare. You only needed to witness his safe and sleeping face with your own two eyes. You would only look.

You would only see; you would not touch. You would not kiss and you would not weep to see him safe and sound. A single look would do.

He slept in the middle of his bed, curled over to his side with a pillow wedged between his knees. He often overworked his body and his muscles would ache from the constant exertion. He slept this way when he was very tired. There was a space on the side of his bed, plenty of room for you to sit beside him as he slept and you moved in slow-motion; careful not to make the bed dip or rock as you did it. You only needed to look.

Kyungsoo slept. His black hair laid flat over his forehead with bits in the back fluffed by his pillow. His lips were parted as he breathed in and out through his mouth. His breathing was even and slow. He did not move when you sat down and you watched the steady rise and fall of his chest with an ache in your fingertips and that annoying longing deep within your chest. He slept and you craved. He breathed and you yearned.

His forearm was uncovered by the blankets. The smooth skin was taught and thin over strong muscles that sat relaxed and your fingers felt too cold and itchy all on their own. He was real. He was safe. You’d already verified this with your own eyes yet that urge for warmth and connection was as strong as any other desire you had ever felt in your life -- all of the desires you had given in to in the past, oh god, you had a bad track record by now -- you reached your hand out to him and he was warm and he was alive. The blood pumped through his veins and warmed the skin that your fingertips explored.

The contrast was shocking. Your hands were cold and you heard an inhale from him. You felt the tensing of the muscles under his skin that sat below your hand and you were so cold and you were still so tired. The nightmare had robbed you of the peaceful sleep your body needed.

With his first inhale came a sound. A soft and confused groan that made you pull your hand away. You hadn’t intended on such a disturbance. You hadn’t meant to touch him. But you had (that was your weakness winning again) and he made another sound as his hand moved; he reached. He turned over and he reached and you felt caught. Quite literally, you felt his hand wrap around your wrist and his sleepy eyelids pulled open to see you sitting on the side of his bed in the middle of the night; uninvited, unexpected, and yet unforced.

“Are you okay? What happened?” His voice was thick with sleep but he pushed through it, forcing his eyes to open as he tried his hardest to wake up. The hand that had wrapped around your wrist released you and he rubbed his own face roughly with his fingertips pressing over his sore and tired eyes. “What time is it? Do we have to go?” His sleepy mind was trying to make sense of this sudden awakening and you shook your head with a small frown of your lips.

“No, it’s not time to get up yet,” you confessed, but he was already sitting up now. He let out a low groan again, still fighting hard against the sleep.

“What happened -- come here,” he was shifting in the bed and he reached for your arm again, this time pulling and oh -- oh, he was very warm. He was all of the warmth you craved and you needed and his smell was inviting and familiar. “Come here, baby, did something happen?”

The lowness of his voice was heady. It was a salve. It would save you for sure.

It was a drug. It was a dirty habit you really should quit already, but...

He moved the blanket aside and you recognized the invitation to come into his bed. He would share his warmth. He would speak softly, only to you, with that voice and he was safe and he was real and you were---you were so cold and you were so tired.

“I had a nightmare,” you confessed into the darkness of this room. You felt the smallness of yourself. A silly girl spooked by demons in the night, you sought comfort and pacification. There was a street lamp just outside of the window on the opposite wall and it shone just enough light for you to make out the features of his face. He was beautiful. He blinked at you; sitting up on his bed and you sat up, resisting the small tug he gave your arm until you simply did not want to resist anymore.

He pulled and you sank and felt the warmth of his body encircle you entirely. You were pulled under. You never stood a chance with how empty you were feeling and how warm he was. Your chest against his chest; his body your cocoon.

“A bad dream?” Kyungsoo whispered into your ear and he rubbed hot palms over the skin of your arms and over your back. You hadn’t even realized how cold you were until he began thawing your ice. “You’re so cold,” he said as he lifted his legs and wrapped them around your bare ones.

“You were hurt, in my dream,” you said softly, but the warmth felt too good to keep your eyes open.

“I was?”

“Mhmm,” you hummed into his neck where you had tucked your chin. “You disappeared and you were hurt and I couldn’t do anything about it. I could only watch it happen.”

“It was just a bad dream. I won’t get hurt and I won’t go anywhere. Stay here and go back to sleep.” his voice was slowing down as he spoke and you recognized the comfort of the embrace that threatened to pull him under. His hands slowed their rubbing and you tried to breathe comfortably from your spot below his neck with minimal success. It was too tight here, and the air was hot.

Your sleepy mind only marginally recognized the danger of your spin. His arms loosened their hold for a moment for you to do it and you found yourself pulled tighter against his body once again, this time with your back against this chest; your ass against his groin and the lure of his hands over your breast.

You were both too sleepy for restraint or propriety. His hand opened up over your breast and you felt the nudge of his hips as he nestled himself tightly against your ass.

It only took a moment for you to fall into tricky waters. You shifted your hips just a little bit. The long sleep shirt you wore had rolled up and you had to angle yourself to pull it down. The shift of your hips made him move, quite obviously half-hard against you and you felt his hand move from cupping your breast to land securely over your hip. He pressed your hip down very firmly into the mattress and he held you there. He wanted you to stop wiggling your ass against his dick like that.

“Sorry,” you whispered and you heard a small grunt of a response from just behind your ear.

You held still. You didn’t need to test his self-control any more this evening and you were entirely too sleepy to be convinced of much otherwise. After a few moments of stillness, the storm seemed to pass and you were drifting again when you heard a slow inhale from behind you.

It came with a slow brush of his fingers along your hairline and the unmistakable softness of his lips pressed into the skin of your temple.

“Asleep?” He whispered and you opened your eyes to see the flicker of that far away street lamp from the window.

You shook your head and he inhaled another slow breath. It made his chest press up against your shoulder blades.

“What do you want me to do?”

The question felt too heavy for 4:35am the night before a scheduled workday.

You didn’t answer.

“Tell me what you want me to do. I’ve never… I realized that I never asked you what you wanted from me — throughout all of it. I was...I was upset that you didn’t share things with me, that you didn’t just tell me what you wanted but then I realized that I never asked you. Ever. I just did whatever I wanted and then wondered why you never told me anything about you.

“Remember that time I was hesitant about accepting the web-drama while doing the tour with EXO? And what you said to me — you said ‘What do you want to do, Kyungsoo. You should do what you want to do. You’ll do the work. You’ll feel it the most. If it’s what you want, then do it.’ Well, I think now it’s time for me to ask you. What do you want me to do? About us. Because it affects you too. You feel it just as much as I do. You’re going through this — so what do you want me to do?”

This definitely felt too heavy for 4:35am when the shine of the street lamp’s light was interrupted by the steady drops of rain that had begun to patter against the window pane.

“What do you want?

“Do you want me to give up?

“Do you want me to give you up and move on?

“Do you want me to forget about you?

“I can close my door at night and you can stop crying over dreams of me being hurt and we can delete the pictures for good and we won’t have each other’s secrets to keep anymore.

“Tell me what I should do, because I’m lost. I need to know what you want.”

What did you want? You wanted peace. You wanted a happy existence. You wanted him to be healthy and happy above all else and for you, you wanted…you wanted...

It was the question to end all questions. Six months ago the answer would have screamed at you. No, you didn’t want him to move on. You didn’t want him to leave your side. You wanted what he promised in the song. You wanted to be his forever and you wanted him to be yours.

But now? What did you want now?

“What do you want?” He said it again, only this time without the added speech.

What do you want? It replayed in your head. It prodded you with its pointed tines. This time it felt more direct. Now more of a general question for your hopes and desires and less about how it would affect him when you answered.

“I—don’t know what I want, Kyungsoo. I’ve just been trying to survive for a while now. A lot has changed in my life.”

“Okay, so you don’t know. That’s… that can be an answer.” You could feel his chin over your shoulder as he nodded his head and spoke. “That’s not a yes. That’s not you telling me to give you up, right? You’re not telling me to move on. To forget you, right?”

“That’s … that’s a maybe, right?”

What? If ever there was a grand leap in logic it was happening in this man’s head right now. You let out the smallest chuckle at just how big of a reach he had made with your answer. Well after 4 in the damn morning.

A maybe.

If ever a maybe was flimsy, cheap, and shaky as hell then this was that maybe.

“Ask me what I want.” His voice lifted a bit and your small sleepy chuckle returned to seep out from your lips.

When you didn’t ask right away you felt the smallest nudge as he shook his chest and rattled you just enough to feel it. You had to roll your eyes at the persistence you always knew he had inside of him.

“What do you want, Kyungsoo?” Your delivery was flat and lifeless and you were so damn sleepy as you closed your eyes at the sight of a tiny sliver of sunlight peeking up over the horizon. What in the fuck time did the sun rise in this country?

“You.”

You’d expected it. That didn’t lessen the impact any. Luckily your eyes were still closed and you didn’t have to look into his face as he said it.

“I want you to be with me. I want you to love me again — like you used to. God, I want your trust back. I want a time machine and about ten fewer beers that night. I want you. I want you to come to my house and stay there with me and I want ...just...y-you’re the only one I love. What do you want me to do? Tell me what to do.”

It was too late for this. You were too tired and so weak to him and he was so lovely when he was sleepy. He always did this — grew soft and sappy in the middle of the night and made you want to give him the whole world.

“What if I come over and never leave, Kyungsoo? That sounded a little bit like a proposal.” You heard the laughter on your voice and he was silent and motionless behind you. His silence dragged on for three seconds after your giggles ran dry and you turned your head to look to where he was lost in his own head.

“Do you want a proposal? Is that what you want me to do?”

This...oh, this made a genuine chuckle burst from your lips. He had a glint of amusement in his eyes as he watched you smile and you turned back toward the rising sun with an incredulous sigh.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” you whispered.

“Don’t tell me not to be ridiculous. I can be ridiculous if I want to be ridiculous.” His whisper matched your own and he outdid yours by adding a petulant, self-righteous tone to his words.

“I’m ridiculously in love with you. Do you want to meet my parents and tell the members? Do you want a public display?”

This last question made your eyes pop open — wide and on-alert — you turned over swiftly making his head pop up from where he had nestled in behind you — breathing his air supply straight from the spaces in between the strands of your hair. Your alert made the soft smile vanish from his face.

“No! No public anything, Kyungsoo. Don’t be reckless and don’t be rash. Never public anything. Do you hear me?”

He watched your face through the outburst and after he was certain you were done talking he gave you a calm and simple head nod. There were no prying questions about your reasons. He simply agreed.

“What about the rest? We could...tell our friends and my parents and your—”

“Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself for a maybe, Do Kyungsoo?” You interrupted the big plans he was making in his head with a dismissive hand wave and you rolled back over to face the window again as you tried in vain to close out the early morning sunshine. You were pretty sure you heard some birds singing some stupid song outside and the thought of wasting all that precious sleep time because of a nightmare was making you grumpy.

It wasn’t lost on you that Kyungsoo hadn’t responded to your interruption and you sighed wearily before turning to look at him once more.

He was watching you and he had a smile on his lips as he did it.

“You said maybe,” he said in wonder and it took you a solid second to replay what you had said to him. He was right. You’d said it and you’d meant it at the time. You had said it to quiet him down, sure, but you could definitely feel the sweet warmth of the flame of hope that sparked inside of your chest.

“You want to know what I want? What I really, really want, Kyungsoo?”

“I think I know where this is going,” he spoke under his breath but you ignored it.

“I would like to go to sleep. We have 3 more hours before we have to be awake and worth a damn. Please, can we just sleep?”

“I knew you were going to say sleep,” he mumbled again and before you had the chance to grumpily turn yourself away he leaned down and pressed his lips to yours and he kissed you. It was soft and it was unexpected and it was quick; before you had the chance to react or return he had popped his head back down behind your neck and he wiggled his body back and forth seeking the comfort of the embrace he held you in.

“Oh my god. I’m so tired. Ugh...Go to sleep already. You’ve kept me up all night.” He was grumbling inside your hair and you were laughing out of genuine exhausted frustration as you finally closed your eyes to the world that was just beginning to come alive outside of that window.

Inside this room, you had a warm body beside you and hopefully a few uninterrupted hours without any more bad dreams.

For the second morning in a row, you woke up in bed with Kyungsoo. Only unlike yesterday, today felt completely different.

He was still asleep and at some point, he had turned over to face the other direction. Away from the bright sunshine that came through the window, shining directly into your face. It was the reason you had woken up. You knew it must be time for you to shower and get ready for work.

You moved like a ghost. There was something just a little guilt-like bubbling inside of your stomach as you extracted yourself from the tangle of his bedsheets and carefully replaced them to cover his bare legs. Your face had a little bit of a tingle. Just a little bit of heat under the surface of your skin and it was an odd feeling, akin to waking up early and taking the last cookie from the cookie jar as everyone else in the house slept soundly.

You tiptoed, cartoon villain style (much to your own horror) through the room and you made it to the doorway and through it onto the safety of your own identical matching carpet flooring. It was, of course, completely in your head, but this carpet felt just a little bit softer and more inviting. It felt just a little less like the burning hot coals that his floor was made of.

You closed your own door once you were safely inside and you even flipped the lock over to keep up the charade that you had everything absolutely and completely under control in your life.

No big deal...just a few hours of sleep curled up in bed with your ex-boyfriend. It didn’t mean you were back together right?

Maybe.

Kyungsoo understood completely that you weren’t ready for that, right? He wouldn’t wake up alone in his bed confused and blindsided that you would leave first thing in the morning without so much as a farewell kiss. He was an adult capable of rational thought. He would assume you had to get ready for work and you knew that he also had to wake up and get ready at some point. Performers didn’t start as early as the staff did and he would report to the venue for sound check in the afternoon.

You had plenty to prepare for today’s fan-meeting, although your preparations the evening before had made a significant dent in the workload.

The stress of today, compared to yesterday already felt less. Maybe your mood was better. Maybe the work itself was easier. Perhaps it was how clear the languages sounded to your ears today and how light and swift your tongue moved inside your mouth as you translated. You felt sharp. It must be this amazing Japanese pour-over coffee you had picked up from the café on the corner. Or maybe it was the happy song the birds sang over the sound of the city as you skipped your way down the sidewalk toward the staff van waiting to take you to the venue.

The weather was perfect and a light breeze blew against your bare legs. You’d opted for a skirt today, matching it with a flattering top that hugged the right spots. It was your favorite outfit and you were absolutely certain you looked amazing in it. You’d caught your own reflection in the glass shop windows and wondered to yourself whether your hair always looked this great. You really did your makeup well too. Today was going to be amazing. Today was going to go smoothly and perfectly and you wouldn’t stumble on your words or hear any trembling in your voice over the arena loudspeakers like you did yesterday. Today was going to be perfect. You were claiming it now.

You climbed into the staff van to sit in the middle row beside the wardrobe crew, two young Korean women named Sungmi and Hyojin, who generally avoided many conversations with you outside of the occasional, yet obviously forced, pleasantries required for the job or the odd translation request.

Today, their hushed whispers quieted down the instant they saw you enter the van and you forced a bright smile on your face. Whatever that was about you would ignore it. The girls here tended to whisper to each other, especially when you entered the room, but maybe that was just how they were. You wouldn’t let it get to you because it didn’t mean anything. The stifled giggles you heard exchanged after you sat down grated against your spine but you would not let it make an impact on your day. Let them have their secrets. Lord knows you had yours. You inhaled and exhaled and forced your nerves to calm themselves. It didn’t work that well. You still felt the nagging of uncertainty.

The phone in your bag was vibrating and you pulled it out to see a new notification for a game generated through the messenger you used. A familiarity hit you and you recognized it as a word game you had played with Kyungsoo a few times. You lost every one of these games the handful of times you had played with him and you attributed it to his superior grasp of his own language. He should try playing in your language and see how well he did.

Still, you opened the game and saw that he had played the word stricken first and it sat there waiting for you to take your turn. You stared down at the letters you had available to use and shuffled them a few times to see if any words came to you. It was useless. You hated this game. You saw a possibility that you could play but the word was entirely too uncomfortable for you to place down. It was kind of a sexy word. You refused to play sexy words in this game with him.

“Sultry,” Hyojin, who sat beside you, spoke into your ear and you looked up into her face, both surprised that she was talking to you and that she was paying attention to your phone screen, “you have sultry. That’s a good word.” Her fingertip pointed to the letter’s of Kyungsoo’s word as she spoke. “You can put it there.”

“I can’t play that word,” you shook your head and looked down at your phone again. Hitting shuffle once more to find something else.

“Or...slut, you could play that word.” She giggled as soon as she said it and Sungmi covered a noisy laugh with a fake cough.

“Too bad she can’t spell Sehun with her letters, I’m sure he would love that.”

“Sungmi, you can’t use people’s names. What about gold-digger,” Hyojin said and you could feel the warmth pooling just underneath the skin of your cheeks as their words sunk in like sharp knives all over you.

It was office gossip. Just rumors. It was, of course, complete bullshit, but that didn’t make it sting any less.

You had caught hints that the nature of your relationship with Sehun had been in question after your very sudden and abrupt promotion as Exo’s exclusive translator and it didn’t take too long for the staff to find out that he had been the one to submit the request for your transfer.

You’d spent the better part of your month on the job practically killing yourself to prove your worth in this place. You’d worked yourself to near exhaustion on many occasions and even gone so far as to pull a few all-nighters when it seemed like you wouldn’t have enough time to finish something. You skipped lunches, always stayed late, and submitted assignments early and without errors. You’d performed exemplary on each and every task thrown at you and none of that mattered because, with a few choice words, a few lies, every single bit of effort you had put into this job was lost on them.

All they saw as the connection you had used to get the job. All they saw was the way he looked at you and followed you around sometimes; holding your hand or bringing you coffee whether or not you asked for it.

You stared down at your phone screen as the irritation grew inside your body and a word suddenly jumped out at you. Your fingers were moving in an instant and you dragged letters across the playing board.

“Oh, look I have a word. Slander. Do you know that word? It’s the crime of making a false statement that damages a person’s reputation. I’m sure you’ve both heard that word before.

“You can be sued for slander.” Your smile was wide and you even laughed a little bit at the hypothetical thought of witnessing such an amusing event.

The triumph in your chest was palpable. Both because of the way they both physically recoiled from you when you said the word out-loud and because it was a great word; worth three times the points that Kyungsoo’s word had been worth. If you kept this up you were going to kick his ass at this game.

“I bet Mr. Oh Sehun knows the word,” you added for the hell of it with that smile still on your face as they both turned pink and avoided your eyes. Hyojin, who had been leaning against your arm as she looked over your shoulder at your phone had actually scooted away from you and was no longer touching you at all. “He certainly has the kind of money to sue someone, or even two people, for slander...spreading false rumors...defamation of character. That kind of thing.”

“We didn’t say anything about Sehun,” Sungmi chimed in defensively from the other side of a silent Hyojin and you lifted your eyebrows with a tilt of your head.

“I didn’t say you did Sungmi. I’m just playing a word game with my boyfriend...who is not Oh Sehun, in case you were wondering.”

It felt like winning until you looked down at the notification of Kyungsoo’s next play to learn that he had played some big dumb word worth fifty points that you were pretty sure was not even a real word. It had to be a glitch. The game had accidentally allowed nonsense to be played. Was he using a dictionary? You’d both agreed never to cheat and only use words you both actually knew and there was no way that was a real word. Now he was winning and you could practically see the smug look on his face as he waited for your next pathetic attempt.

Well... he could just wait. You grumpily closed the game and locked your phone to deal with your next play at another time because the van had arrived at the venue and it was time to get to work.

Day two of the fan meeting had a different schedule of events and a different script. There were new games the members played and changes to the songs they performed. Despite all of the changes, you felt better about today. You didn’t bumble on any words and you had a moment to go through the host’s questions the evening before so that when the time came to translate the member’s answers you were ready and unswayed by the words they used.

You translated accurately and quickly and even mirrored the same intonation and inflection some of the more playful members used when speaking to the audience. You were a tool to connect them with their fans and you kept their intentions intact as you translated. Speaking exactly as they spoke and garnering a huge fan and member response with your translation delivery when you imitated Minseok’s aegyo punishment -- the forced and embarrassing childlike phrases and mannerisms that was a popular fanservice -- you translated it into Japanese for the audience and from your position on the sidelines you could see several members laughing along with the crowd.

While you recognized the humiliating nature of it, you pushed through and told yourself you weren’t actually you today. You were merely an extension of the person who was speaking on stage. You were Exo. You were Xiumin’s whiny baby voice complaining about a bad dream. You were Chen’s dramatic whining when he was ranked first by the members for pettiness. You were also Sehun’s weird chicken sounds which were weird in any language. You were forced to make the same exact animal sounds into your mic to get him to go on with the scripted activities when he actually paused for your translation and the entire arena waited for it to happen, much to Sehun’s immense amusement.

In stark contrast to yesterday’s program, you actually found yourself enjoying this so much that by the time the final curtain was pulled you were a bit sad to see it over. You took your time with it. Basking for a few more minutes in the afterglow as you watched the crowd slowly began to thin and staff members began the task of tear down and clean up and after such a large event, they would no doubt be working well into the night.

Pleasant feelings aside, your job was actually done for the day. You de-wired and made your way to the back of the stage area where you would reconvene with the shuttle that would be returning to the hotel in about an hour. You had a small waiting area to occupy with a few other staff members and you pulled out your phone to check messages and emails for any tasks that might be waiting.

Nope. Nothing that required your immediate attention. You felt good. You felt free. You longed for a long soak in your hotel bathtub and a movie in your bed.

You’d made it to the hotel. Made it as far as your room where you had slipped off your shoes and began rubbing your tired soles when your phone buzzed with a message.

It was Sehun. You groaned right out loud and swiped to open it.

There was what he claimed to be some sort of translation emergency that required you to put your damn shoes back on and head over to Junmyeon’s hotel room.

You were skeptical. You wanted to remind him that this was different than the European Tour of last year and you were no longer on call 24/7 and that if it was a real emergency he could just send you a picture of the foreign text or call you and put the person on the phone who he couldn’t understand.

But Sehun was a friend and you were soft for your friends.

Also, you were a fool.

It was not a translation emergency.

It was an after party and Junmyeon was mixing drinks using the recipe printed on the back of a mixer bottle that was written in Japanese. Some gifts from a sponsor, the alcohol itself was expensive even for their standards and there was a lot of it. Junmyeon’s hotel room was crowded with a few members and a couple managers and staff milling around doorways with drinks in their hands and a couple of members, Baekhyun and Minseok, were playing a noisy fighting game that was set up in the living area on what looked to be an older and very used gaming system plugged into the hotel tv. It was loud in there and you were still too keyed up from the busy day to fake exhaustion and decline the invite.

Besides, they seemed to be happy to see you there.

And somebody had to read the instructions on the back of the bottle for Junmyeon. You were already there. It might as well be you.

Once they got you through the door, the cheering-slash-teasing started and there was clapping, with pats on the back and side hugs all around and impressions of your chicken sounds and Japanese Aegyo attempts.

“The translations were really, really great today,” Sehun said with his eyes turned up into happy little moons, “I wish we were doing more shows in Japan.”

“Don't you just mix them together? I don't understand why you need a translator for mixing two things together.” Kyungsoo stood beside Junmyeon with two different bottles in his hands and a perplexed look on his face as he read the backs. “Look it says it right there in English. Mix with sake -- Junmyeon--” Kyungsoo pointed at the bottle with a squint in his eyes and tapped Junmyeon on the arm to get his attention. “Junmyeon, everything is in English right here, what’s wrong with you?”

“Oh...is it?” Junmyeon said without looking at Kyungsoo and there was a tense smile on his face that didn’t convince you at all that he was being given information that he didn’t already know.

“Oh, well since you’re here…” Junmyeon spoke to you now, his eyes looking up from the glass he was topping off with soda, “...might as well stay for the party.”

You now inexplicably had a drink in your hand. You could smell the whiskey coming from the glass and you grabbed the soda can from the counter to add more.

Kyungsoo was watching you and he abandoned the bottles and took a step to stand beside you at the counter. You could feel the warmth of his arm against your own.

“You look really pretty today,” he whispered under his breath, just loud enough for you to hear but definitely drowned out by the noise Baekhyun was making in the living room. Minseok had lost a round and was doing shots now. Baekhyun was hooting and making all the noise in the world because of it and when Jongdae joined in the taunting, the commotion was suddenly in stereo and louder a sound than you thought possible for only two people create.

“Oh...umm…” was your only response, because there were many, many people in this place and he wasn’t one to throw out compliments, not usually. You felt caught off guard by it. It was flirtatious and it was whispered just for you. It took your ability to speak and tossed it around with the ice in your glass. You lifted the glass to rest the rim against your lip and the bubbles of your drink tickled and popped just below your nose, making it itch. All you could smell was whiskey and you made a face and pulled it away.

Kyungsoo grabbed your glass and lifted it to his own nose for inspection and winced once. Then his hand moved to hover over the sink where he tipped and poured half of the contents down the drain, topping the glass off once again with more soda.

He didn’t speak as he did this and you just watched him silently as he returned the glass to your hands with a pass of his soft fingertips over the back of your hand as you gripped it.

“Hey, uhh…” someone spoke from the other side of you and you looked up toward the sound of Sehun’s voice. He didn’t seem to notice Kyungsoo dropping his hands to his sides or the lightning speed with which he did it. His focus was on your face and he fidgeted with the water bottle in his hands; unscrewing and rescrewing the cap again and again. He cleared his throat once and you smiled reassuringly as you waited for him to speak.

“Can I talk to you?” Sehun’s face looked uncharacteristically serious, even for Sehun. Or was that a nervous look? Either way, you nodded your head and took a step away from Kyungsoo and closer to where Sehun stood with that bottle gripped tightly enough to crush the top of the plastic.

“I...uhh...I heard something from the makeup noona today. You know, Hyojin?” he whispered and stopped talking to take a deep breath of air into his lungs. “She asked me if I’ve ever played this word game app in the chat and I’d never seen it before. And then she said something else about you.”

You couldn't help your reaction as you exhaled a noisy breath and your temper flared up inside of you. Stupid office rumors again, stupid gossipy women and their bullshit. You were pretty sure you knew where this was going. She must have let the rumors reach Sehun. You were sure he had heard about how you were weaseling your way into his close circle, getting close with him so you could what? Fuck him to get to the top? You didn’t want to get to the top. You didn’t need millions of dollars of someone else’s hard earned money. You were just trying to live your own damn life and make it out with a little security of your own. Why these people couldn't just let you live your damn life, you couldn't understand.

“Yeah, about that Sehun, I’m sorry,” you inhaled to calm yourself in an attempt to control your reaction. “Uhh, because of the uhh...the transfer? You pulling strings to get me that translator position and all that, there have been a few rumors about, I guess my intentions with you? I mean they’re completely baseless, obviously, we both know that, right? I’m not trying to date you. I’m not a slut or a gold digger or whatever it is they’ve been saying about me.” You were going now. Both annoyed and embarrassed that he would have to hear these rumors with his own ears when he had been nothing but helpful to you since your arrival in Korea.

“And I’m just really sorry that you being a good friend to me has brought about these kinds of rumors. That’s not fair to you and it was never my intention in working here--”

Your apologies were interrupted when Sehun spoke over your rant. “She said you had a boyfriend.”

His words put a stop to whatever else you were saying because you honestly felt thrown. “Boyfriend? Hyojin said that?”

You tried your very best to keep your eyes on Sehun and to not let them wander over to the man standing a foot away from you reading the label on his water bottle as if it had all the secrets of the universe printed amongst the ingredients. You tried and you failed and you met Kyungsoo’s eyes for a split second before Sehun was talking again.

“Yeah, she said that you said, you were playing the game with your boyfriend.”

What? Impossible. There was no way you said that word. But you stood there trying to recall the conversation in the van. You had been mad at the time. Perhaps not quite in command of your languages like you usually were when you were calm. You felt like your whole head might be on fire. You could see Kyungsoo out of the corner of your eye lifting his water bottle to take a drink after clearing his throat quietly.

“I mean...I was playing the game with someone,” your lips hung open and you carefully considered your next words. They bounced around your mouth, desperate to come out but you couldn't quite decide which ones to pick. “...but I don't think I said that word.”

Your eyes met Kyungsoo’s again and he was watching your face in all it’s confused and burning glory as you scrambled to explain yourself when you yourself didn’t even understand what you were trying to explain.

“I don't think I said the word boyfriend. I mean it was a … a friend, but I don’t--”

“Okay... everyone playing, grab your drinks and join us in the living room please.” Junmyeon was shouting over the sound of the party and you jumped at the chance to abandon this situation.

“Oh look, a game,” you said and you grabbed your drink and walked very quickly toward the spot where Junmyeon set up markers and sheets of paper for a game. You didn't know what it was, but it had to be better than what was happening in that kitchen.

You had been followed though. Both Sehun and Kyungsoo appeared beside you holding their stupid water bottles and Sehun had a frustrated and somewhat wounded look on to his face that you did not have time for right now. Kyungsoo on the other hand, he looked quite pleased. And because you literally could not help yourself, you looked at him, again and again, each time catching the tiny smile on his lips and even the smug lift of his eyebrows.

“Okay we need two teams,” Junmyeon was talking. “How should we make the teams?”

“How about by age?” Minseok suggested and the group shrugged and looked around at each other, ready to divide by some mysterious birth year mark when Sehun’s voice spoke up.

“Why don't we do, Single vs. Taken? If you’re in a relationship, you’re on the taken side. If you’re single then you’re over here. I think that will make pretty even groups.”

You were standing somewhere in the middle of the divide and people were moving around the room. Minseok, Baekhyun, Jongdae, Manager Kim and Manager Lee all moved to the opposite side of the room and Sehun stayed put where he was.

“Is there an it’s complicated section?” Park Chanyeol spoke from somewhere in the middle of the room and you nodded your head at his suggestion. You also wondered the same thing.

“It’s not complicated, you’re just a slut. That’s considered single. Sit down,” Sehun grabbed Chanyeol’s arm and pulled him to sit down on the sofa where he had established the Single headquarters. Jongin sat down with a pout on his lips next to Sehun and you looked back and forth between the two groups.

You had to do this quickly and you had finally made your mind up, taking a step toward the Taken group before turning back and taking two big steps toward the Single group.

“Hey, are you not listening again? Single is over there, Kyungsoo.” Minseok was pushing on Kyungsoo’s chest to get him to move from where he stood in the Taken group and he looked up to where you had made three steps toward the singles. Kyungsoo’s expression changed.

Now that you were well within their territory, it was very clear where you had been headed and Kyungsoo pulled his face into a small grimace, wrinkling his nose once in response to Minseok.

“Sorry, I was confused,” he said with a forced laugh to cover the pink you saw in his cheeks. When he lifted his hands to run through his hair and adjust the black cap he wore on his head you recognized the nervous and slightly embarrassed behavior from him. Seeing him struggling because of you was making you feel very conflicted about picking this side.

He was going to join the Taken team. He was over there already and when he saw that you chose Single, his face changed and fell and well … that guilt was building again. The same guilt you felt when you tiptoed out of his room this morning when he was still asleep. You felt like a jerk.

You sat on the sofa next to Sehun who’s expression looked much better now than it had looked before the groups were made.

Kyungsoo sat down on the floor in front of the sofa with his shoulder resting against your knee. He didn’t look at you and he didn’t speak to you when he sat down. The nape of his neck and the tips of his ears were both pink. You reached forward out of instinct; out of habit; out of love for him, and you slipped the tips of your fingers along the hem of his black shirt. You were close enough to each other that no one would be able to see the hidden movement of your hand. You saw the stiffening of his shoulders as you reached his skin and slipped your hand over the back of his exposed neck. You laid it flat over him and you lightly squeezed once for consolation. It might have even been an apology squeeze. You wished you could lean forward and whisper into his ear or kiss the side of his pretty face to get rid of that look you had seen on his face.

After a few moments, you felt the warmth of his hand reach behind your leg down on the floor and he squeezed your calf once in response. He understood you and your indecision. He would not hold your not-being-ready-yet against you in any way. That one tiny squeeze made you feel better in so many ways and you were suddenly excited for the game.

The game started. It was a drawing game with answers to draw out for your team members to guess and the penalty was alcohol. Of course, they would make this into a drinking game.

The Single team was composed of a group of people that weren’t very loud, or very good with words, with the exception of Chanyeol who was loud but little else. In short, the group was full of a bunch of dummies and frankly, you were entirely too competitive to stand by and let the Takens steamroll over the Singles like this.

Minseok and Jongdae seemed to share a brain. It was honestly disgusting and you probably hated them. At one point, Minseok drew what didn’t even look like a gun on his paper and then Minseok only had to look at Jongdae with a single eyebrow up and finger lifted for Jongdae to guess the movie Kingsmen in literally a fraction of a second and you stood with your arms flapping up by your head, making an elephant’s trunk and making yourself look like an idiot for the entire 30 seconds of your turn as you frantically circled literally the best elephant you had ever drawn in your life and none of these fools could guess the movie Dumbo.

They mostly just laughed and shouted movie titles related to flying. There was an elephant right there! It was right there! Kyungsoo said Okja and you had to actually restrain yourself...it was useful that you weren’t allowed to talk during your round because you would have screamed at him. Okja was not an elephant. Did he even pay attention to the movie? You both watched that together for Christ’s sake.

Out of frustration and trailing by a single point for several rounds now thanks to a lucky guess by Jongin that had brought the Singles up to one point behind the Takens, Kyungsoo picked a topic from the science pile for his next clue. You could already taste the shots you would be forced to swallow when you watched him pull from that pile...with this group Kyungsoo? Really?

He opened the clue to read the answer and his eyebrows rose as he looked into your face with a purposeful expression that made you sit up straight on the edge of the sofa.

When he began drawing Jongin and Sehun simultaneously shouted Volcano and Kyungsoo kept drawing. You saw him draw a small circle in the center of the volcano with a black stone mounted on the top of the circle and he turned with his eyes wide to look into your face.

“Lord of the rings!” Chanyeol shouted, forgetting that this was no longer the movie category.

“Obsidian,” you said and Kyungsoo clapped his hands and smiled widely at your guess, cheering in celebration as he came back to the group with hands up for a double high-five with you. His fingers interlocked between yours after the high five and he shook your hands into the air with the most beautiful smile on his face.

“How in the hell did you guess that?” Baekhyun complained from the other side of the room and the Takens were wincing as they swallowed down their punishments, annoyed that this round had finally tied the score up.

Your team lucked out by the next round because Baekhyun was up and pulled something that nobody in the room had even heard of. He spent his 30 seconds trying to get his teammates to guess the individual syllables and time ran out. Your team could not guess the answer either so no shots were ordered as punishment.

It was, however, your turn and with the scores tied there appeared the chance to actually win this thing. A chance that had eluded the Singles for about an hour. A finished pile would end the game and there was only one clue left in the Person Place or Thing pile. You grabbed it.

The clue you read was Fear of Heights and you were scrambling to think of the best way to draw this as your team waited and the timer was started. You had to be quick. You had to use your history with Kyungsoo to your advantage and you remembered the past with him. That time in Montserrat in the cable car suspended on a thin wire, billions of miles above the ground when you nearly peed your pants for how scared you were. The time in Paris when he lamented on being unable to ride the giant Ferris wheel because of your fear of heights.

So you looked at him with determination written all over your face and he straightened his spine and looked at you with his lips parted and his eyes wide.

You drew a mountain and Sehun, Jongin and Chanyeol all shouted things. One of them, you weren’t sure who, said Titanic. You drew an X through the mountain and then you pointed at yourself. Kyungsoo watched you and didn’t speak.

Next, you drew a thin line from the peak to the ground and a little box with windows hanging from it and you drew another X with your index finger thrust into your chest for emphasis.

You were halfway through the giant circle for the Ferris wheel when you heard Kyungsoo’s answer.

“Fear of heights,” he said and you tossed the marker down onto the tabletop in celebration and jumped up and down in happiness. He got it! He got it! You were elated and the Singles team was clapping their hands noisily as the Takens all groaned loudly and complained from the other side of the room. You heard protests and questions.

How could he have known what that was? All I saw was mountain hate, what does that even mean. No hills allowed. How the hell is that fear of heights? What was the thing coming down even?

You’d reached where Kyungsoo stood with his smile wide and bright and his arms outstretched and you rushed, you leaped and you leaned in celebration and you felt the hug of his arms around your waist as you both jumped in celebration and unrestrained laughter.

And it happened so fast.

It just...

It happened before you even realized what you had done and when you heard the cumulative gasp of so many people in the room and the pounding inside your own ears clouded your mind and made it swim in a confusion that made you pull yourself out of Kyungsoo’s arms instantly and most importantly, the gasp made you pull your lips off of his.

You had kissed him. You had been celebrating the win and you had been a little bit drunk and you leaned in when he did and it just happened so damn fast.

You’d kissed him and his eyes were huge; his lips were hanging open as he looked at you in complete shock.

You had kissed Kyungsoo on the lips … in front of everybody.

Only the One you Love[M]: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8 , part 9

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cyberexo · 2 years ago

Text

FAR, FAR AWAY | Kim Minseok x Fem Reader

"his eyes sparkled as though god had taken a constellation of stars and placed them within his beautiful orbs"

you can also find this fan-fiction on wattpad under the username @mrkswrld

word count: 603

･ﾟ☆ 15

Minseok paced around his house, it was finally the weekend so there was nothing he could distract himself with that required his 100% focus, his clutter at home was gone, he'd cleaned everything from top to bottom, he would be on his phone right now like he normally would spend his day off texting away but Kyungsoo had taken it off him.

After finding your profile and messaging you, he'd let Kyungsoo know, however he wasn't so appreciative of that gesture, suggesting it would've been better to just not interact at all, since it could've not been you and if it was he didn't want anything from your old life scaring you off to somewhere further, so he took his phone, he knew Minseok wouldn't do anything other than stare at his screen in anticipation and wouldn't hold back if this same name baring profile messaged him back. It would disturb Kyungsoos' speculating.

I wonder if she's messaged me back yet.

･ﾟ☆

Kyungsoo almost felt bad once he received your message through his friends phone, clearly he was chasing after a woman who had zero recollection of him. It reminded of him of highschool and all the nostalgia that came with it. He stared at your message for a little while, of course there was no way he was going to tell Minseok anything about a text back especially since this was your reply.

He sighed for the umpteenth time that day, his working hours were over but he stayed back to use resources to see what he can do to find you. Kyungsoo wasn't all that passionate about your case, but it gave him something to do other than going back to his empty apartment where he did nothing but work, might as well hang back at the office.

He'd managed to comb through camera surveillances and pull out a couple, showing how you might've disappeared 10 years ago, getting his hand on this was far from easy, he was lucky they hadn't destroyed the hard disk of irrelevant footage.

He couldn't catch anything from your neighbourhood, there wasn't any traffic cameras situated in your old neighbourhood since it was a private road and nothing was put up without the approval of residents.

I guess they just really value their privacy, Kyungsoo silently thought.

He wasn't really looking for you in the footage he was combing through during the time of your disappearance, since studying your letter he'd pick up a few hints and ideas of where you could be or what sort of area you'd be heading to, since you wanted to be somewhere far away from here, he knew you wouldn't just run away on foot, you had a plan, Kyungsoo was looking for a vehicle that resembled a cab from a decade ago, since they looked different now.

There were speeding cameras situated on the outskirts of the neighbourhood, he was trying to catch a license plate of one going into the neighbourhood at the same time of his timings.

And he did find one, matched perfectly with his timeline, but the ending of the footage wasn’t all that perfect, disappearing into the vicinity of another city, he’d have to travel to get his hands on the hard disk, it seemed like an awful lot of effort, before anything though, he was ought to speak to Minseok, and maybe even discuss arrangements when it came to contacting you.

He sighed already thinking of how much work he’s going have to do to pinpoint your exact whereabouts so this doofus could pour his heart out and gain the closure he needed.

chapter 16

#x reader #eventual smut #xiumin #exo minseok #kim minseok #slow burn #sort of #far far away

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soocouldbemyonlystar · 6 years ago

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Chaebols: The Arrangement Pt7

Genre: Exo Chaebols Au/ fluff/ angst

Length:4k

Pairing: Kyungsoo x OC

Warnings: mentions of domestic violence/ abuse

Note: This chapter is a little shorter that previous chapters. I was initially supposed to be longer but I decided to split it because I’m having trouble with the second half and my fabulous readers have waited long enough.

First Previous Pt7 Next

Pain radiated through her entire body as Jae-Eun stepped off the plane. Despite this, she helped Nate support Alana on her right. Through all the hurt, she still didn’t regret going. Alana needed her and Jae-Eun would never hesitate when her friend called. She could only imagine how it had been for Kyungsoo when the phone had been knocked out of her hand and broken, but she had to stop that bastard from laying another hand on her friend.

Alana had thought Seth, her ex-boyfriend, would be gone long enough for her to pack and leave, but he caught her and Jae-Eun walked up on him roughing her up again. She jumped into action. Probably not her smartest move, especially when Kyungsoo was still on the phone and when Seth knocked Jae-Eun back, her phone went flying and crashed against the wall.

They fought, he was larger and stronger, but Jae held her own, that was until he stole her bag with all of her I.D.’s, credit cards and her passport, and ran off. Thank God, it had been recovered and she was able to get them home.

Alana had called Nate since he was her lawyer and friend. He had accompanied them on the flight and planned to wait until they were comfortable and settled before discussing their legal matters. Nate would not only represent them, but also stand as their proxy since neither Jae Eun or Alana wanted to face Seth again.

“Damn,” Nate said looking at the group of nine men waiting outside of the terminal. “That’s a lot of guys. I’m assuming the one being held back is yours.”

Jae looked past the glass wall at Chanyeol and Jongin holding Kyungsoo by his arms to stop him from trying to go the wrong way through the terminal doors. As he struggled against them, his eyes never left her. Jae Eun thought again, that Kyungsoo had missed his call as an actor, the worry on his face was visible from where she stood. He almost had HER convinced he was worried. She didn’t care at the moment. He was her home.

“Yeah, that one is mine,” she said as she gently released Alana, at her urging, and increased her pace to the door. She watched as the guys let him go and he bolted to the rotating door to wait for her. Jae limped through the doors and into his arms, Kyungsoo wrapping his arms around her holding lightly, enveloping her in his warmth and scent.

Jae-Eun had missed him more than she thought possible those few days she had been gone.

Jae-Eun sighed as he pressed his lips to her forehead. The stubble from his unshaven face brushed against her skin. Now that she was closer, the signs of stress and worry were more prominent. She knew instantly that it was not an act. The dark circles around his eyes told of little sleep and the slightly sunken angle of his jaw and cheeks showed he probably hadn’t eaten well in the last couple of days.

“It’s okay, you’re home now.” He whispered to her. The sound of his voice created a ball of pressure in her chest. Kyungsoo released her, moving the hair away, looking over the damage that continued to mar her face. His eyes narrowed and Jae-Eun thought she saw something dangerous in their dark depths.

Kyungsoo turned away as Nate and Alana came through the terminal doors.

“Miss Song, I wish we could have met again under better circumstances,” Kyungsoo bowed to her. Alana was the only one of Jae Eun’s friends from the states that was able to attend their wedding. He must have remembered her from then. “We have a room ready for you, my friend Kim Jun Myeon will be close by to help you.”

Jun stepped forward and gave her a nod, “I’m willing to help in any way you need, Miss Song.”

Nate held his hand out to Kyungsoo, “Mr. Do, I’m Nathan…”

“I know who you are, my wife’s ex.” Kyungsoo interrupted him. His words were clipped and his brows furrowed.

“Mrs. Lee and Miss Songs lawyer.” Nate corrected.

“Are you going to make sure this guy is put away?” Kyungsoo asked with what Jae-Eun thought was a suspicious glare.

“It’s my sincerest goal.”

Kyungsoo took his hand, “Then you’re welcome to stay in our home as long as you need.” Then turning back to Jae-Eun, “Our parents are waiting at the house. Your mom has been a wreck”

He kept an arm around her as he ushered Jae-Eun through the guy’s and the “glad you’re okays.” They had all been there when Kyungsoo had realized she was missing and Jae-Eun was thankful for it.

Walking back into her own house lifted a weight off Jae-Eun’s shoulders. The apprehension she had felt months before, because of Kyungsoo, was gone. At the time she would have never thought she would feel comfortable here again but this was where she wanted to be. Some how they had made this a home.

Kyungsoo, showed Nate to a room, while Jae-Eun consoled her mother.

“So many things could have happened, I’m so glad Alana is okay, but he could have hurt the both of you so much worse.” Her mother cried. She was a dramatic woman.

Alana had taken the worst. The whole left side of her face was swollen, she had a cracked cheek bone, some broken ribs, and a broken arm. All that was before Jae-Eun jumped on him to take his attention off Alana.

She had gotten some good hits on him too. Seth left bleeding with her purse and Alana’s passport. They called the cops, filled a report, but a couple hours later, two men from PCY Entertainment came with her things and a phone for her to call home. Hearing Kyungsoo’s voice made her feel strong again. The police had yet to find Seth, the Park employees had retrieved her belongings, but they were unable to capture him.

Jae-Eun’s mother was a sobbing mess, so Jae insisted she get some rest. As well as Kyungsoo’s parents, who were all put up in rooms for the night.

Alana was given Jae-Eun’s room, it had a jack-and-jill bath room that would allow Jun Myeon, quick access if Alana needed it.

“He had a friend from primary school who ended up in an abusive relationship. Jun tried to help her, get her set up on her own, but she kept going back. It didn’t end well. But Jun has a lot of experience dealing with the aftermath of that kind of abuse.” Kyungsoo explained as he helped Jae-Eun to his room.

Kyungsoo explained that the guys knew the truth now, he had told them the truth after arguing with Chanyeol. Alana knew the truth, but the parents didn’t know that they didn’t share the same room, and as-far-as Nate knew, they were a happily married couple. They would need to share Kyungsoo’s room until their guests left. Right now, Jae-Eun was too tired to fight it or suggest another option.

That was a lie, she wanted to be near him. She wanted to inhale his scent, feel his hands on her and know that she was at home and okay. Only Kyungsoo had thought ahead, bringing in a lounge chair for him to sleep in while she took his bed.

With the click of the door shutting, Jae-Eun grabbed a hold of the footboard to stop from collapsing, because the truth was, she just got the crap beat out of her and it could have been so much worse.

“We should get you changed and ready to get some rest,” he said calmly, taking her around the waist and moving her to the bed. “The doctor said you won’t be able to raise your arms very high for several days, so I got you one of my big shirts to change into.”

He had the shirt laid out. “I’ll get Na-Ri to help you change.”

Kyungsoo turned to the door but Jae-Eun caught him by the hand, “Wait, don’t leave, please.”

He turned back slowly, and Jae-Eun let the tears fall, “I don’t need Na-Ri, I just need you. I need you to stay with me because if you walk out that door, he’s going to walk back in.”

Kyungsoo wrapped his arms around her delicately. “He’s not here. It’s just you and me. I won’t go anywhere.”

Jae-Eun let it all go then, the tears falling on his dress shirt where she pressed her face to hide. Kyungsoo held her as she let reality pull her back to the ground, back to where she wasn’t invincible, and everything could end in an instant.

Once her sobbing had ebbed, Kyungsoo took her by the shoulders and leaned back to look at her. Thumbing a tear away from her face he said, “Better now?”

Jae-Eun nodded her head, wiping tears away as fast as she could manage.

“You should get changed and in bed. Rest will help you heal.” He turned her away from him, grabbing the shirt and throwing it over his shoulder. Jae-Eun could feel his fingers on her skin as he raised her shirt up, over the wrap around her ribs and helped her pull out her arms and lifted it off. Then he dropped on the shirt and allowed her to slip her arms in easily. He guided her to the bed helping her in and covering her up.

His gentleness and silence put her on edge more than eased her.

“I know you’re angry with me. Will you talk to me please?” Jae-Eun asked him.

“I’m going to get changed, I’ll leave the door open slightly.” There they were, back to his typical aversion tactics.

As promised, he left the door slightly open.

“Kyungsoo,” she pressed.

His voice came muffled through the door, “What do you want me to say?”

“Anything just don’t shut me out again.” Jae sighed.

Kyungsoo echoed her sigh, “Yes, Jae, what did you expect?”

“For you to be angry with me, but what was I supposed to do? My best friend called me crying and she needed me, you should know how that is. If any one of eight guys did the same, you wouldn’t hesitate.”

He walked out of the bathroom, “You’re forgetting someone. I told you if you needed me, I would be there, but the first time you need help you run off on your own and don’t even let me know. I have resources, I have a private jet. I could have gotten you there. I could have helped you.”

Jae-Eun didn’t know what to say, guilt was like a screwdriver in her gut. Kyungsoo was right, he had told her he would be there, and she stole the first chance he had to prove it.

“Do you know what we had to do to get you back? Thank God, Jongdae remembered Alana. And, you have no idea what Chanyeol had to do to find that guy and get you and Alana home. I only hope I can repay him for what he’s done.” Kyungsoo went on. “You could have at least called instead of putting me through twelve hours of hell.”

He was right, she had had other options to get a hold of him, “I was worried about Alana, that was all I was thinking about. I could have found another way to get a hold of you and I didn’t. I’m sorry.”

Kyungsoo threw a blanket over the lounger for himself, adjusting his pillows, “I didn’t know what to think. Chanyeol said you had talked about leaving me. I didn’t know if you had just left or worse you were hurt or dead in a ditch somewhere.”

“Oh, don’t worry, my parents would honor the agreement they made with yours if something happened to me.” Why did she say that?

Kyungsoo stood straight and turned to her, a look of pain on his face, “If that’s what you think this is about, you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

He turned from her taking his robe from the hook and slipping it on.

“Where are you going. Soo, you said you wouldn’t leave.” Jae begged.

“I just… can’t look at you right now.” He tied his robe and closed the door hard behind him.

Jae-Eun jumped at the sound, fighting the urge to panic. He hadn’t deserved that. She knew he was worried for her and not about the money or arrangement with their parents. Anxiety about the ordeal was constricting her chest, and guilt was eating away at her. It had scared her when he said he was worried she could be dead, because it had been a very real possibility. From what she experienced with Seth, he was more than capable of committing murder. What would happen to Kyungsoo if Seth had succeeded in his attempt to dispose of her. He hadn’t even taken care of himself over the weekend she was gone. How would it affect him if she had gotten herself killed. It was the first thing that popped into her head and then out of her mouth. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. They had done enough of that to each other over the last year.

Jae-Eun ducked further under the covers. The physical pain couldn’t eclipse the pain in her heart. All she had wanted since she had made it to Alana was to be back home with Soo, and she screwed that up in a matter of minutes. Tears fell despite her willing them away and her throat ached from holding back the lump.

Then her pain turned to fear. It was silent outside the door, what if Seth had followed them home? What if he was out there now? Could she fight him off this time? Or would Kyungsoo try to save her? What would she do if Seth hurt Soo?

No, no one had seen Seth, he was a coward, abusing his girlfriend, but he wouldn’t dare face Soo, or Nate, or any of the others that would be here in minutes if she called. She would not cower. She was stronger than that. Jae may have been injured, but she didn’t go down without a fight of her own. Seth was bleeding when he ran from her.

The door opened again, and Jae pulled the covers higher over her head. She would be brave in a couple of days when things calmed down.

“It’s just me,” Kyungsoo said, noticing her hiding under the covers, “The doctor gave Alana some meds to knock her out for the night, Jun is keeping an eye on her. Mr Lawyer is working in your office and the parents are settling in.”

She could hear his slippers slide across the floor. The bed dipped beside her and the covers slid slowly away from her head.

And she launched herself into Kyungsoo’s arms.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.” She blabbered almost incoherently, “I don’t think you only care about the money. I know you’ve been worried, I can see that you haven’t eaten well or slept. He could have… he really could have… I saw it in his eyes. He would have if Alana hadn’t hit him.”

“Hey, hey,” He held her close, his voice calm and gentle, “Its okay, you’re home and safe, I promise he won’t hurt you again.”

“What if he comes here, what if he finds you, Kyungsoo? I can’t get that thought out of my head.”

“Well then, just how good of a lawyer is this Nathan? I may need some representation myself.”

Jae-Eun huffed, “It’s not a joke, how could you joke about this?”

“Oh, I’m not joking. But for the first time in three days you’re at home, safe, and in my arms. How could I not be happy?”

Jae-Eun was speechless. If he was still angry with her, he showed no sign of it.

Kyungsoo urged her head off his shoulder, smoothing her hair away from her face he asked, “Can you stand to be up a little longer? There is something I want to show you.”

Jae-Eun didn’t question. She nodded her head slightly and slid off the bed to her feet.

“The night you left,” he told her, “I was going to give you a gift. Something I’d been working on for a few months. I want to show you now. Maybe it will help you understand how I feel better than my words could.”

Kyungsoo treaded his fingers through hers and showed her to a door. It would lead to his personal office, she knew. There had only been one time she had been inside. It was large, decorated in dark wood and colors, big windows and old designs throughout the wood awnings. He’d once told her he loved the traditional designs.

“Open it.” He told her as they approached the door.

Jae-Eun looked to his nervous face as her hand grasped the knob. She smiled as Kyungsoo’s cheeks pinkened. This was another reason she loved him.

With a turn of the knob she was in another world. Kyungsoo’s office had been completely redone. The colors in the room had been brightened and the wood had been sanded down and re-stained lighter so that the carved designs showed darker. A mix between her taste and his.

Jae-Eun stepped in slowly, afraid if she moved to fast it would disappear.

“Kyungsoo, what is this?”

He pulled her in further, “I thought you needed an actual, legitimate art studio, so I had a designer push back the far wall and added one.”

Jae-Eun let Kyungsoo’s fingers slip out of hers as she took in the massive room. Kyungsoo’s office was still set up as before, but past his area was a large drawing desk, a computer set up with pad and pen for graphics, an easel and drawers full of paints, brushes, pencils and chalk. On the back wall was covered in shelving slits for canvases.

It was everything she could ever need.

When she turned back to him she was stunned to see her drawing, the one of the flowers his father sent, framed above Kyungsoo’s desk.

He stood beside her, his face reddening even further. “I actually meant to take that down before I brought you in here.”

She smiled, “I wondered what happened to that. I wasn’t finished with it.”

“It looked finished to me. You needed new art supplies. I asked around and bought an assortment of things… I don’t know if I got everything… um… you can always just get whatever I missed… but I tried to at least get the basics…”

“The basics? It’s a fully stocked, professional, art studio. This is your office, why would you do it here and not another room in the house?”

He sighed, turning and leaning against his desk to look at her. “Because I’ve discovered its rather calming to watch you. I thought it would help me relax when I have to work late, and you are in here drawing or painting.”

“This is… just…I can’t believe you did this.” She glanced back over her new studio, “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Kyungsoo chuckled.

“You like it then?” He slipped his hand into hers and gently guided her to face him.

She smiled, “Of course, I love it.”

“I wanted a way to say thank you, for everything. I don’t want you to ever wonder if I care.” He told her.

“I know.”

“No, it’s not coming out right.” He murmured shaking his head.

Jae Eun leaned forward, she needed his eyes, it was easier to coax his feelings out when he couldn’t hide. Her ribs, on the other hand, didn’t agree with that decision and protested with a sharp pain across her midsection.

She moaned, slipping her arm around herself to help with the pain. Kyungsoo stood quickly, wrapping his arm around her waist and guiding her to the door.

“I’m sorry, I’m keeping you up when you should be laying down and getting some rest.” He led her back to the bed helping her in and pulling the covers over her. Kyungsoo was skirting around his feelings again.

Jae Eun took his hand as he tucked the covers around her. “Soo, say what you mean to say.”

His eyes narrowed at her, and he was quiet, so long that her nerves began to fray.

“How do you do that?” He mused, more to himself than to her, his lips turned into a little crooked smile, “Around you I’m a bumbling fool, until you tell me to say what I mean. It’s as if I become a coherent human being again.”

She smiled, “Takes the pressure off.”

Kyungsoo lifted his eyes to hers. “You… are more than our arrangement to me now. You’re my friend, my family. I’m happy for the first time in a long time. I’m happy with us, our friendship and our partnership, what we are building here. You have only been exactly what you said you were. I want you to be happy too. I just… wanted you to know that. I was going to tell you the night you left.”

“You are a lot better with your words than you think you are. I know you care.” Jae-Eun sat up again, pressing her palm against Kyungsoo’s cheek, tears building up around her lid. His eyes closed as he leaned into the touch. “I can see it on your face. You look exhausted and like you’ve lost weight. You haven’t eaten well. You have to take care of yourself, no matter what, Soo. Promise me.”

Kyungsoo’s hand slid over hers, holding it against his face. “How could I eat when I didn’t know where you were or if you were hurt. Then knowing you were hurt and you wouldn’t let me come to you.”

Tears fell, she couldn’t stop them as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. He linked his arms around her, holding on just tight enough that it didn’t hurt. Jae Eun had begged him not to come after her. She didn’t want Kyungsoo to see how bad she looked at first. That and she didn’t want him to be anywhere Seth could easily find him.

Jae-Eun sniffled, “Honestly, I just wanted to be home. I wanted to hear your voice and hold on to you, I…”

She stopped herself. With her emotions so raw, Jae-Eun almost confessed. She wanted to. Her heart was full, sitting here, wrapped in his arms, knowing he was scared for her when she was gone, knowing that he saw her as more than the woman who was arranged for him. Friend, family, happiness, it was more than she could have ever hoped for. But at the same time, doom hovered just over that joy. Kyungsoo may care for her, but his heart still belonged to someone else. A woman who was so close he would never have a chance to get over her. Jae-Eun’s happiness came with chains. She would not use her love to hold him down.

It felt as if the lump in her throat had moved to her chest sitting in just the right spot to stop her heart from flying away.

“I missed you.” She was barely able to push her voice out.

Kyungsoo turned his head and buried his nose in her hair, breathing in deeply. “I missed you too.”

His deep whisper hurt worse than all her injuries.

Kyungsoo’s hands released her and as he moved away she expected him to tuck her back in and head for his chair, but his eyes locked on hers. His hands captured her face, thumbs gently wiping away the tears, then he kissed her. No teasing, no pretty words to distract her, just his lips pressed to hers softly coaxing hers apart. Jae-Eun sighed and melted into him, his scent, surrounding her, his touch branding him into every part of her. His lips played over hers delicately but bruising her in a different way.

Jae-Eun would never be able to forget this. Kyungsoo’s beautiful soul laid bare, his tenderness, his pain. It was too much, how could she see these parts of him and know that they didn’t belong to her. He didn’t belong to her. These kisses were substitute for the ones he really wanted. It was the emotions in the moment that drove his actions. Jae-Eun couldn’t take advantage of the situation, no matter how badly she wanted to.

Turning away was the hardest thing she had ever done.

“It’s been a long day for everyone, we should both get some rest.” Jae-Eun said to her hands. She couldn’t bare to look at him, see whatever expression that covered his handsome face.

“Of course,” he stood quickly, “I’ll be over here if you need anything.”

His words were clipped, and he took the few steps to the lounger, but he didn’t get in. Jae-Eun glanced up as he stared down at the lounger as if it were a foreign object. Then he turned walking around the room to the opposite side of the bed from her. She watched as he kicked off his slippers and pulled the covers down.

Noticing her stare, he shrugged, “We’ve slept together before. Plus, it’s easier if you need anything. I’m not being kicked out of my bed by my wife.”

Jae-Eun laughed then, slowly leaning back against her pillow and turning to lay in his direction. “I wouldn’t dream of kicking you out of your bed, dear husband.”

He climbed in, dimming the lights just enough so she could see and laying on his side facing her. They stared at each other, both stifling a laugh. Then Kyungsoo reached forward, taking her hand in his.

“Sleep, Jae. I’ll be here.”

She nodded, repeating his promise. “Sleep, Soo. I’ll be here.”

Jae-Eun scooted a little closer to him, hand in his, exactly where she wanted to be, she fell asleep peacefully.

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