#kyungsoo fics

[soobadnoonecanstopher]

Rat Bastard - Part 1

Pairing: You x Kyungsoo

Rating: M (Mature)

Word Count: 7700

Warnings/Tropes: Strong Language, There were too many beds, Enemies to Lovers

Links: Part 1, Part 2

You were due for some good.

Genuinely and honestly you could feel it. You were due for something good to happen to you. So much lately had been so very bad. This kind of bad luck seemed defy all the odds. Surely, surely this impressive streak of the universe opening its big cavernous mouth and vomiting all over your head could not, absolutely should not keep going. You were due. Something good. Anything good. For the love of God, it wasn’t as if you were a bad person. It wasn’t as if you routinely bet on dog fights and stole money from the big charity jar for the sick kids next to the register. You’d never ever, not once in your life even so much as looked at a dog or a kid funny. You never raised your voice or lost your temper. You didn’t yell at service workers. You didn’t deserve the cataclysm of shit that had been flung your way and even if, okay maybe… maybe once or twice you’d told a white lie, it was only to spare someone’s feelings. Maybe you’d stolen a piece of candy from a corner store as an ignorant child. Maybe you stepped on an ant or a fly or a spider but you swear none of it had been on purpose. You weren’t a bad person, not in the way that those bad people who get punished by the universe are punished, that wasn’t you. This shit storm had to end soon. It just had to.

You had been repeating this to yourself during the entire flight. During the entire, eerily empty flight with the single flight attendant who occasionally looked up and smiled at you when you made eye contact and uttered out a sweet, “you alright, hon?” When your own smile dipped just a little too far as the turbulence grew to what you were sure had to be abnormal levels.

The plane was one of those tiny propeller planes. The kind that had a whopping nine seats total and what every creak and groan of its rusted out nuts and bolts barely holding the thing together as it fought through the high winds outside and sent shivers down your spine.

What if this was it? What if that pilot had flown this thing right smack over the Bermuda Triangle and your rotten shit ass luck sent the three of you down into a watery grave nestled up beside Amelia Earhart and her tangled barnacle covered wreckage at the bottom of the sea.

No.

No, you were due for something good.

“Is it normally this loud?” You shouted across the tiny airplane cabin but the lone flight attendant had her head turned as she peered through the open cockpit door. She didn’t hear your question and offered you no reassurances as she stood up, straightened her uniform, a tasteful pantsuit, and disappeared through the open doorway

“Fasten your seatbelt and prepare for landing, Hon,” she popped her head back out for the quick announcement and disappeared through the space again, leaving you completely alone to contemplate your own mortality and what you hoped would be a swift end. It felt impossible. You hadn’t even been able to see land from outside your window. It had been endless ocean for hours now. Maybe you wouldn’t even feel the impact. Maybe the adrenaline dump would protect your dying mind and body from the pain that came from with a water impact. Your knuckles were bright white as you gripped your armrests and you remembered that one episode of MythBusters that said the best position for a plane crash was with your body bent in two and your head tucked down between your legs.

The plane was shaking terribly. It was rattling and screeching. You were clenching down so hard on your teeth you half wondered if you might knock a few of them loose. You were praying to yourself with your eyes squeezed up tight and you wrapped your arms tightly around your thighs doing your best to hold yourself together even if this plane fell apart around you. There was a boom. You hoped you wouldn’t pee your pants but thought you might be justified if you did. The search and rescue team would understand as the collected your remains.

The roaring and trembling of this world around you creaked and moaned and swayed and eventually you could feel the change of speed deep inside your chest as everything, every groan and strain and clench came to a stop with a dramatic throwback on the landing that jostled your body and made you feel positively seasick.

The plane had stopped.

You were not dead.

“Ladies and Gent—” The pilot's voice broke through the tiny speaker over your head. You pulled your sweaty head up from your lap and looked through the still open cabin door as the man speaking paused for a moment to consider his words, “uhh…just lady, we welcome you to La Malinche Island. The temperature is a damp and balmy 89 degrees Fahrenheit and dropping as the winds pick up. Not sure what possessed you to fly to a tiny island in the Caribbean right before a hurricane hit but Barracuda Air does not want to know your business. We only care about our promise to you. Our promise of course, at Barracuda Air, with a … 0% flight cancellation rate, not counting that one incident with Jerry — be it rain or snow or sleet or hail, Barracuda Air does not care. Barracuda Air will get you there. Welcome to La Malinche. We hope you like 150 mile-per-hour winds and torrential rain.”

Hurricane? Is that was the roaring and terrifying shaking has been about? A goddamned hurricane?!

You’d checked the weather last week. There was zero mention of a hurricane. You pulled your cell phone out of your back pack and turned off airplane mode and you watched the cell service signal in the upper right hand corner spin and spin. It eventually gave up and gave you the saddest little no signal sign and you toggled airplane mode on and off again with the same terrible result.

But…but…

You were due.

“Thank you for flying Barracuda Air.” Your flight attendant was standing near the exit at the front of the plane; her voice just loud enough for you to hear it; her smile just wide enough for you to get the message.

You tried your phone one more time, this time turning the whole thing off and turning it on again while holding it up high above your head to be able to catch the signal better. You just needed a minute for it to come back on. You only needed one bar, one bar would be enough.

“Thank you for flying Barracuda Air.” This time her voice was closer. She was standing at your row now, her voice betrayed none of the urgency implied with the repetition. Her smile was still believable enough.

You looked down at the useless paperweight in your hands and outside of the window on the tarmac below, you watched the lone airport employee wheeling your checked bag away from the airplane. The wind whipped his rain jacket around his body fiercely in all directions and you swallowed down the very real sense of dread that was beginning to fill your stomach.

This was supposed to be a vacation. This was supposed to be paradise. It had been advertised as such in the brochure. The single’s retreat at the five star resort where only other eligible global singles of extremely high caliber would attend. The probably very expensive luxury retreat that was a gift from your very best friend in the entire world, Clare, who sold you on the idea that here — here you would surely find your soulmate. One that would be as delighted to meet you and you were to meet them.

Here you would be the most beautiful and captivating woman any of these sad, but not clinically; lonely, but not in a creepy way; brooding but not in a mean way; hurt and broken but not broken in some way that some sweet woman’s attention couldn’t fix — you’d be the most womanly woman any of these manly men had ever seen!

Definitely not the kind of man that still lived with an overbearing mother, but one who still loved his mother very much, but maybe lived far enough away from her that he didn’t have to listen to everything she told him anymore. Hell, maybe you’d get lucky and land a man with a dead mother. No, no, no. No need to be greedy.

But the kind of man — no, the kind of men who were very, very attractive.

They were going to be tall with clean skin and clean teeth and they’d be successful, but not too successful. They were smart, but not annoyingly so. Oh! And charming! But most importantly, they were men who would find you to be absolutely irresistible. These men were supposed to be waiting for you. They were going to be beside themselves when they got a load of you. They were going to flirt with you and call you sweetheart or darling with a southern drawl or and they would buy you drinks and feed you cheesy lines about how they’d never before seen a woman that held galaxies inside of her eyes like yours did.

“Ma’am,” a voice called to you, sharper than before, “you need to get off the plane. The airport is closing because of the storm. You can't stay here.”

You hadn’t even unbuckled your seat belt yet.

God forbid they give you a damn minute.

It was a disaster.

You quickly gathered all of your belongings. The flight attendant had pulled your carry-on bag down from the overhead bin and her smile had long since vanished as she held it out for you to take and get the hell off her plane already. You grabbed the handle, no longer grateful for her help. No longer thankful for the small bag of peanuts she’d fed you earlier or the two cans of soda she’d handed you hours ago. She was ushering you down the aisle, through the exit door, and had watched you navigate the scary stairs until you plopped your two feet right down into the cement of the tarmac belonging to the smallest airport you had ever visited in your entire life.

The wind came at you in waves. One second you were sure this whole hurricane thing had been exaggerated and the next your hair was taken and spun around your head, whipped into some sort of frenzied do as strands hit your cheeks like tiny, stinging whips. You did your best to grab ahold of it with one hand but lost your cardigan in the process. It flew a few feet and landed on the floor in a brown puddle of water beside the door with a hand-printed arrow directing you to open it for Baggage Claim.

You were an adult. You had been a responsible, self-sufficient adult for some years now. You had found yourself in situations that required you to navigate this cold cruel world by yourself before but as you reached down and picked up your sweater and watched the muck drip in slow, fat, thick drops from the once pristine knit fabric, you suddenly felt more alone than you’d ever felt in your entire life.

Behind you, far beyond this mystery puddle, the only one in this entire dry concrete hell; somewhere on that small runway you heard the Barracuda revving its engines for take off.

Maybe you weren’t due for anything good to happen in your life ever again. Maybe it was just going to be shit from now on.

Had you somehow brought all of this on yourself? Maybe it had been the bad thoughts you’d had. The ill wishes you’d genuinely hoped to fall on those who had done you dirty in your life. Your recent ex-boss, you’d hoped and prayed would face a bout of public uncontrollable diarrhea. Your ex-coworker who’d stolen work from you, lied about you and sabotaged you and who you believed led to you being fired, you hoped she would be hit by a city bus, not enough to kill her but you hoped at least three bones would be broken.

The ex boyfriend who cheated on you with your ex friend, you hoped the both of them would sail off into the sunset and be lost as sea, eaten by a whale or something scarier with suckers and sharp teeth.

And most recently, that friend of a friend, that charming, sweet, funny, and handsome man who would be absolutely perfect for you, according to Claire who set you both up — the blind date who not only stood you up, leaving you to wait for him for a whole hour at the fancy ass restaurant, but also, in some wacky attempt to tarnish your good name told all of your friends that you were in fact the one who flaked on the date. You could not imagine why he couldn’t have just come clean. Well you weren’t going to let him win. He was trying to play the victim when in fact you had been the loser who was stood up. You denied it earnestly. He maintained his lie and you both had been stuck in a bitter stalemate ever since. Any gathering of friends where he was scheduled to be there, you refused to attend. You heard through various sources that he had a similar reaction to the threat of your presence and this only fanned the flames even hotter. Any time his name was uttered in pleasant company you rolled your eyes and made snide remarks under your breath. Doh Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo. Chef Doh. Decorated and celebrated private chef, a genius with a knife and a frying pan. You wanted to vomit.

After a while the fight moved from only inside your own head to the real world. He would leave sarcastic replies to some of the things you said to your friends. Things you told them with love and respect would get a passive aggressive laughing reaction from him or some sort of contrary comment right below yours. You both evolved into taking little snips at each other in the comments of your mutual friends' social media posts and like the good friends they were, everyone of them politely ignored it.

Just, how dare he? There was nothing worse than men who lie. You hoped at the time that he would be exposed for the fake and liar that he was, although now as you wandered through this empty airport this punishment seemed not enough for your shitty mood. In this moment you hoped and prayed that he would have been the one trapped on a deserted island with a hurricane bearing down over his head. Even his name and profile picture filled you with an irrational rage. That sweet and innocent looking, fake ass motherf—

Wait.

Wait one goddamn minute.

Your forward movement abruptly stopped and you stood with your luggage in your hand on the sidewalk of an empty and deserted airport with no cell reception and no idea how to get to the hotel.

Wasn’t all this doom to my enemies wishing how you got yourself cursed by the universe? Was all of this really your own doing?

You took a step, trying to remember if the hotel was situated within walking distance of the airport. Trying to recall it was to the west or to the east or if maybe it was to the south.

This was a tiny island. Maybe it wasn’t that far. Maybe if you wandered around town someone might point you in the right direction and you wouldn’t be mugged or mudered.

You closed your eyes for a split second and smelled something crisp and funny in the air. You could feel the hairs on your arm standing on end and a feeling of panic surged through you as the first fat raindrops began to fall from the sky at the same time as an ear deafening boom sounded out over your head. It was so loud it shook the roof over your head.

You screamed and covered your head, taking several big steps back and away from the empty parking lot where the blinding flash of lightning must have struck.

There was a gross taste inside of your mouth. Your rational brain attributed it to the close lightning strike but you knew deep down what that taste really was.

It tasted like you might be about to make a deal with the devil. You shouted right out loud into the air above your head, “Doh Kyungsoo is great! I misunderstood him! He is a prime example of a man and a genuinely good person! I hope his pillow is always cold and his toast is never burnt!”

You knew it was silly. You were a silly lady.

Of course it was silly.

It wasn’t as if the skies would magically clear, the whipping winds would calm and five taxis would drive up each more eager than the last to drive you to your luxury resort for free.

You did hear something new and unexpected though. Something that had you spinning around to investigate.

There was a man standing behind you. He wore a clean crisp suit and a very wide and bright inviting smile on his face. He had cleared his throat. This respectable gentleman clearly had something to say to you.

“Yes?”

His smile widened with your acknowledgement, “Hello. My name is Mr. Chen. I’m the Concierge with Shifting Sands Resort, are you by chance Miss—” his eyebrows lifted and he extended a hand, palm up, the beginnings of your name formed on his lips.

“Oh my God, yes. I am her. She is me. Oh, thank you, thank you!”

His smile deepened and his eyes turned up into little moons on his pretty face and the relief that surged through you was complete and instantaneous.

“Might I take your bags, Miss?”

Was this man your savior? Would he have come to your rescue all along? Or was Doh Kyungsoo your karmic stabilizer?

You were loaded up and buckled in and well on your jolly way to your promised paradise of pampering and relaxation. Dare you wish for a handsome man or two desperately waiting to make your acquaintance?

Maybe you’d even settle for just one. One handsome and suave proper gentleman to spend the week with; to wine and dine with; to sweep you off your feet. Surely this entire trip wouldn’t be a complete waste. Surely you hadn’t dug yourself down that far deep yet.

Your driver had been maneuvering the big comfy van in silence up until now but you caught his kind eyes glance back at you in the rear view.

“Mr. Chen, please tell me some other people have showed up for this singles retreat.”

His eyes held on to yours for only a few seconds and his lips were pursing together in more thought than you figured was necessary.

“Ummm…” his voice trailed, “well…actually…”

His eyes drifted away from yours under the guise of watching the non existent traffic on this scenic road that, had it not started raining, might have been a beautiful drive.

You weren’t sure what kind of sacrifices the universe demanded. You wanted just one. You didn’t even ask for much, just another living breathing human male who was the complete opposite of that slimey, slandering, thought he was slicker than a bowl of shit, Doh Kyungsoo.

The car screeched to a halt and your seatbelt caught and firmly locked you into place, digging hard enough into your neck to leave a mark. The rain outside pelted the roof of the van, much harder now and Mr. Chen seemed to be breathing quite hard as he tripped the steering wheel tightly enough to turn his knuckles white.

“Miss, are you alright? I am sorry, this road is blocked. We will need to take another way around.”

Jesus. The near kiss with death had you gripping your seat very tightly and you closed your eyes.

That…that…ass— as lovely on the inside as on the outside, Doh Kyungsoo.

That saintly and angelic man.

That accurate and symmetrical and pragmatic and punctual, Doh Kyungsoo.

You could feel yourself running out of adjectives. What is the opposite of a rat bastard?

That legitimate, law-abiding, insured, and licensed to drive, Doh—

“Ahh, what were you asking? Other guests? Yes miss, of course. The singles retreat — well, we don’t have nearly the crowd we expected but there is at least one other guest who you should find most agreeable. He is very handsome and charming. All of the other staff members are positively enraptured by him already. Especially the ladies, but I have to admit I myself felt a bit of a flutter when he caught me in those big brown eyes of his.”

It worked. It fucking worked.

Son of a bi — son of a w-wise and gentle lady probably — what the hell did you know about his mother? She raised a f-fine excuse for a son, that much you knew. A real piece of work— err — art! A piece of art. A real, honest to god, adult male human being. You really needed to get that man out of your head. You could actually feel the first real dangerous slips into madness the more his name and his profile picture danced through your head.

You closed your eyes tight and you tried your absolute best to think about someone else. Anyone else. The mystery man who you were about to meet. The tall, dark, handsome, sweet and successful man who would sweep you off your feet the moment you met him.

The alternate route to the resort was down right pleasant. It was scenic and beautiful and you looked out the window as you drove the long way around, the very deserted road that took you along the breathtaking coastline. You continued the almost ritualistic positive compliments in your head Mr. Chen was chock full of his own compliments for the handsome and admirable guest who was to be your only other companion during this week’s retreat.

You were fine with that. Even if it didn’t turn into love — by the sounds of him and based on how Mr. Chen absolutely raved, you were sure the two of you would get along quite well and maybe even become good friends once this whole thing was over.

The fancy resort was as lovely and beautiful as the brochures had promised, yet your chest felt tight with apprehension. Something was wrong. There was nobody here. Mr. Chen profusely apologized for the shortness of staff due to the incoming storm which from the sounds of the serious news reports you could hear playing on the overhead television in the empty lobby, was already wrecking a neighboring island. The huge and scary category 4 hurricane which threatened to turn into a category 5 at any moment now and who’s outer bands were already knocking trees down outside and whipping rain fiercely against the windows. This wasn’t even the real storm and the wind and sheets of water hitting the window outside sounded so scary. It even sounded as if the building itself was moaning under the pressure of the wind outside. The longer you stood in this enormous and astonishingly empty building, it was becoming more and more evident that maybe you shouldn’t be here at all. Here you stood, your presence alone putting these people in danger. You, the only insane person who stubbornly refused to accept the reality of this storm. Not only would not be the relaxing and love connecting vacation you had been preparing for, but what if something really bad happened to you here? What if you died on this island? Fuck love, fuck men, fuck that man, Doh Kyungsoo in particular — what if you actually died here?

There seemed to be some sort of serious whispered discussion taking place between Mr. Chen and two other uniformed employees of the resort.

You weren’t being checked into your room. In fact, you still had your own bag in your hand and there wasn’t some moist young whippersnapper scooping your bags up to lead you to your room so you could snack on strawberries and cream and sip on champagne.

Someone made eye contact with you. There was a small regretful smile on her face and you caught the deep chest filling breath Mr. Chen took as he looked away from your curious face. It took him a moment of looking away before he exhaled, closed his eyes briefly to collect himself and the same rueful smile took over his face when he turned to come to you, taking several large steps to return to your side, he looked up into your face and carefully began to speak to you. His voice sounded grave and serious.

“Miss, I am,” he lifted a hand and laid his palm over his chest, “extremely, terribly sorry.” His eyes were sad, his eyebrows curved his face into a grimace, “I have received some bad news. The resort will have to close. We have lost power to all of the guest rooms. The ballroom was flooded, as it was closest to the ocean. The kitchens are down. It seems we are in an emergency situation due to the storm.”

This felt like a bad dream. Maybe you had fallen asleep on the plane and when you woke up it would be a bright sunny day in paradise like you’d been promised.

“We will all need to leave. The other guests have already been moved. I’m so sorry, Miss, of course the entirety of the cost of the stay will be refunded. We are prepared to offer a free week’s stay at any of our resorts for you and a guest to use at a time of your choosing. But right now we must go. The roads are beginning to flood and we can only go to the shelter at the highest point on the island. We have to move quickly before the storm surge.”

“Storm surge?” You could feel the panic and upset building inside of you. “Sh-shelter?” You knew it was evident in your voice. “The other guests were moved?” You looked outside the window. Anyone with any sense at all knew there was very real danger happening out there.

“Other guest. Sorry, there is only the one guest. I apologize but you both will need to bunk together in the barracks. The generators should last throughout the storm. There is no other place to go.” Mr. Chen was talking but you felt dazed. You were ushered into a different vehicle and the other staff members climbed in beside you. Mr. Chen was still talking about the place where you were being taken. Something about a room full of bunks, used during some historical war between two countries that didn’t exist anymore. Something about the man, the only other single from this god forsaken Singles Retreat. He was to be your bunk-mate. He, a complete stranger, was supposed to share the very large and spacious barracks with you. There would be ample space for you to spread out, as the space was designed for armies of 20 soldiers or more, but you were not to fear because Mr. Chen and his staff would be right next door should either of you need any assistance.

The road up the hill was bumpy and hectic. This vehicle was obviously well equipped to handle the rough trip, but you still found yourself jostled around, feeling seasick with the swaying back and forth and big bumps the wheels traveled over.

You began to think you might not make it. The queasiness from the ride had you closing your eyes and trying to breathe through it. Begging and pleading that you would not be sick inside this vehicle. You took deep steadying breaths through your nose, exhaling through your mouth, willing your overly sensitive stomach to calm down. The big truck soon began to slow and eventually crawled to a stop.

“I — I need to get out,” you mumbled just under your breath, unbuckling the seat belt and pushing yourself toward the door. You reached for it and pulled the handle, kicking hard with your feet. The rain was falling hard outside and you leaned over, breathing deeply as the raindrops quickly soaked your entire head.

You couldn’t meet him yet. Not like this. Not schrodinger's man of your dreams. Not fighting nausea while looking exactly like a drowned rat as you were babied by some kind hotel worker who probably shouldn’t be getting wet in the rain like this.

The cooling effects of the rain helped to calm the nausea and you felt a hand at your shoulder a moment before the deluge of rain falling over your head stopped. Someone had placed an umbrella over you. Someone was leaning into you; the staff woman from the hotel was talking to you.

“Miss, are you alright?” She rubbed a comforting warm palm over your back between your shoulder blades in slow and careful circles. You opened your eyes, noticing first the soft swell of what had to be a baby in her belly before you looked into her concerned face. She looked to be pretty far along too. She was probably due any week now. Her name tag said Sara and she had kind eyes.

You forced your shoulders back and pushed a smile upon your face. You worked for it and did your best to straighten out the expression on your face, gripping the stick of the umbrella and angling it so it covered more of her body. You’d be damned if you gave some expecting mother pneumonia just because you’d always had an overly sensitive stomach and the Barracuda Air pretzels were sitting funny.

“I’m okay. Just got a little carsick but it’s passed now that I’m out of the car. Let’s hurry inside before we get too wet.”

Your belongings were already rushed inside the drab, depressing, tan colored cement walled building that was to be your shelter for the next week or so and you rushed inside quickly with Sara stepping inside right behind you.

There was a click of the big heavy doors and aside from the two small windows next to the door, there wasn’t much in here for natural lighting. There was a musty smell in here and a thick layer of dust over most of the surfaces.

“I really am sorry that things have ended up this way, Miss.” Sarah waved hand back and forth in front of her face, waving away some of the dust in the air. She didn’t pause for long enough for you to absolve her of any guilt related to this messed up situation before she was speaking again, this time stepping further inside the space. There was a hallway up ahead that she turned into.

“If you could follow me, I’ll show you the room with the bunks and introduce you to Mr. Doh, our other guest. We changed all of the bedding so it’s clean and the space really is quite big.”

She was walking away from you as she kept taking. You felt a strange tickle along your scalp. A raindrop rolled down the back of your head, tickling its way down inside of your hair.

Did she say Mr. Doh? That same dream-like feeling that had been haunting you ever since you’d stepped off of that airplane returned.

Sara was turning a door handle and she had both of her hands pressing on a door.

“I’m sorry, what did you say his name is?”

“I’ll introduce you,” she smiled widely and leaned her head in closer to you as she dropped her voice, “He’s not that tall but he’s so, so, so handsome. He’s funny and witty too. I’m sure you’ll get along.” She said this last part with a genuine giggle of excitement. “I am just so excited!” She squealed. The eagerness in her face had a feeling of dread building inside of your belly. That stubborn queasiness you’d felt before returned.

The room was empty. Of course it was empty. Bunk beds lined each wall and a center aisle just wide enough for a person to pass through single file separated the rows of bunks and on one of the beds, the one closest to the door sat a black travel bag. A dripping rain jacket was hung over the metal frame of the upper bunk and whoever owned these items was not around.

“Oh, he was…just here…” Sara was spinning around, reacting to a sound, the sound of a door opening and your eyes followed to catch the movement of a person, a human, a man as he emerged from what you imagine was a bathroom. His head covered with a small white towel and a tanned arm rubbed swiftly over his straight black hair. On his torso, he wore only a simple white t-shirt and the fabric was too thin. The rain shower he’d been caught in made the shirt nearly transparent.

It only took a moment.

You knew what was going on.

It took less than a second for your eyes to touch deep inside of his big round brown eyes and you knew in an instant; you knew exactly who this Mr. Doh was, this esteemed and honored guest of the Shifting Sands Resort, you knew who he was and you knew exactly what this was — this man who stood in front of you; this man who was not very tall but so, so, so, and yes she was right, so handsome — because he was very handsome; even you could admit that, of course he was.

You wouldn’t have agreed to that idiotic blind date with him in the first place if you hadn’t found him to be incredibly attractive, with his clean skin, soft as hell full lips, achingly deep brown and oh so judgemental eyes, sexy and strong back, bulging arm muscles; his goddamned smart ass comments, and annoying as shit filthy lies that he told to tarnish your reputation with at least four good friends — this man who dropped the towel slowly as his eyes looked into your own stunned ones, this was that man; the one and only, Doh Kyungsoo.

You knew exactly who he was. The rat bastard, Doh Kyungsoo and you knew exactly what this situation was.

You were dead.

You had died in that airplane; gone down in the Caribbean Sea with the rest of the Barracuda Air flight and cabin crew.

You were dead and this was hell.

If your face betrayed the shock you felt right now, Sara didn’t notice. She must not have been paying any attention to you at all. She simply giggled as she gave her sweet introduction of you, raising a hand out palm up as she called out your name and recited some lame facts about you and what kind of man you were looking for in a relationship. Facts that you’d haphazardly typed out during the registration process for this Singles Retreat from hell, she said them all with a wide smile and a small silent clap of excitement as she got the words out.

Sara recited from memory, straight from your own mindless words, “Her ideal man is someone who is funny and witty. Someone who is just the perfect height for plenty of eye contact — and of course a man smells nice and is handsome.” Her hand motioned over and around his pretty face as if she simply could not help herself.

His eyes were wide with just as much genuine surprise in them as you had in yours.

Sara continued her introductions, bringing that palm right back around in front of his chest, at an even level with the nipples you could just make out through the sheer fabric of the wet t-shirt, and she proudly declared, “this is Doh Kyungsoo. His ideal woman is someone who’s as kind as she is honest and trustworthy. She is someone with an iron stomach who isn’t afraid to try new foods and explore new adventures with him.”

You felt too stunned to move. There was no way this was really happening. You felt the room spinning and it reminded you a lot of sitting with your head down between your knees as that airplane fell out of the sky. The same feeling as bouncing around the back seat of that off road truck that brought you up this hill to this bunker out of the immediate threat of the hurricane that blasted outside and into the waiting arms of a much more agonizing threat.

Sara had finished her introductions. Neither of you moved.

He was the first to break the silence.

“What the hell are you doing here?” His question was blunt. He hadn’t bothered with appearances or with how abrupt and callous his question was, or with how full of disgust that expression on his face might appear to Sara.

He never once considered just how far down her shoulders might deflate to have the cold hard truth splashed in her face. That not only did not you check a single one of his boxes, but you might very well be the last woman on this entire earth that he might fall in love with.

That he’d rather sneak out the back door after catching a glimpse of you waiting for him, all gussied up with your cheap drug store makeup and little black dress from the clearance racks at Target — a specimen so far below his level that he couldn’t even spare you the humiliation of faking a smile all the way to dessert before ghosting you the next day; instead he’d rather leave you stranded and embarrassed. Having to foot the bill yourself for your three glasses of white wine and no entree. Having to suffer through the pitiful glances of the waitstaff as they took turns asking if you were “still waiting for someone,” all the while knowing you’d been abandoned and publicly marked as unlovable.

“Me?!” You were too blindsided for tact. Your indignation at his bluntness filled you with just as many questions as he must have had in that pretty, stupid head of his.

“Why you?”

Once the first question was out, the second came out with gusto. He balked and his eyebrows furrowed. His fist clenched around the towel he was holding. You reached down deep within your diaphragm and the words came out too loudly.

You couldn't help the anger you felt. This was supposed to be your Prince Charming. This was supposed to be paradise. You opened your mouth and you let it fly. The frustrations from the trip so far, from the sham of a blind date, from being so unethically and undeservedly fired from your job, that fucking hurricane outside that stole the 5-star resort from under your feet and plopped you down inside this musty concrete prison from the 1940s and the words came out of you as if you threw them hard right into the eye of that hurricane outside.

“Why is it you?! Why are you the Mr. Doh that she is introducing me to?!”

“Because that is my name!!” His voice level rose higher and you actually flinched at the sudden volume he used. This motherfucker. How dare he shout at you. And in front of Sara. The poor girl took two steps away from the both of you and covered her belly with both of her arms.

“Why are you yelling?!” You took a step into him and shouted right back, right into his face. You needed answers for his awful behavior. He did not retreat. You could smell the light cologne he wore from this close.

“Because you yelled at me first!!”

His clenched fist gripping the towel tight was lifted, his eyes were wide, and his voice had so much more power than yours ever could that you nearly cowered. You almost backed down and backed off. Almost. He was clearly just as stubborn as you were.

Also the words he said took only one second to sink in and your next bit of anger got caught inside of your throat, refusing to come out.

Damn. He was right. You did yell first. It was you who did it first.

You’d just been so caught up in your awful mood that seeing him standing in here, knowing that what this man already knows about you would basically ruin your chances of finding any other man here to trick into falling madly in love with you. What if he told them all about your messy life. You hadn’t bothered concealing any of your recent failures on social media. You’d obsessively scrolled through his own profiles often enough to know that not only was this man a work-a-holic, but he was a big ol’ nerd. You figured he had done the same with you since some of his recent digs at you in Claire’s comments had been about you being recently liberated from your job. You’d been in his circle for long enough to know plenty about him, you were sure he had all of the dirt on you. You stepped back and away from him. From a normal distance he didn’t smell so damned nice.

“Oh I did, didn’t I?” you said in a much more normal tone, “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

Your apology was as abrupt as the yelling had been, but it seemed to have a bigger effect on him. His eyes seemed to grow softer or perhaps just more confused and he blinked rapidly as his focus touched lightly around all edges of your face.

“Sara, not this one,” you pulled your eyes away from his face, not quite finding the conviction to be able to fully look away from him, but your words were at least directed away from him and onto the woman who stood three feet away from you with what you almost thought was a fully enthralled expression on her face.

“Do you have any others?”

Kyungsoo made a sound. It was a scoff mixed with a grunt. It was disgruntled. You pulled your mouth into the sweetest fake smile you could manage and directed all of that sweetness at him.

“I mean the room, of course.”

“Sara, I think I’d also like to switch to another room. This one seems to have something fundamentally wrong with it.” Kyungsoo said without taking his eyes off of your face, “it’s not for me. This place seems undeservingly high maintenance and might even have some nasty pests hidden in the walls. I bet they really come out at night.”

Sara was silent for long enough for you to actually need to look at her. When you did, you smelled trouble. Sara was smiling. It was the kind of smile you got sometimes when you found a great drama to watch and you knew that these two wacky characters were about to thoroughly ruin each other's lives before they fell in love.

Her eyes were bouncing back and forth between you and Kyungsoo and with each pass her smile only widened.

“Sara.” You said in a flat tone. You had seen enough romantic comedies to know what she was thinking. “Sara, no. Not in a million years.”

She was giggling and nodding her head now.

“There are no other rooms.” She said with a voice three octaves higher than normal and she was giggling as she said it. “This is the only room.”

“You can’t even leave because there’s a hurricane outside.” She was outright laughing.

“I have to go tell Mr. Chen everything,” she whispered to herself and she was rushing toward the door, pulling it open with all of her might and vanishing through the opening much faster than you thought a woman in her delicate condition should be allowed to move.

“Sara, I swear to god,” you shouted down the dark hallway that she disappeared down, “Sara!” But she was long gone and behind you the huffing and puffing, very put-out man was grabbing every single bit of his belongings from his bed and moving them all down to the bed at the farthest end of this enormous room, putting himself and his itty bitty towel and his sheer white t shirt with his visible nipples physically as far away from you as possible.

It was actually funny to see him throwing such an obvious fit.

“I can see your nipples through your wet t-shirt, you know.” You said it under your breath but not at all trying to not be heard.

“I’m not the only one in this room with a wet t-shirt, Princess. Between the two of us, your nipples are far more eventful than mine,” he sing-songed back, using as much sarcasm as he could manage with the pejorative he used as a nickname for you.

You gasped covering your chest with both hands — the liar. The damned liar. There was no way. But when you looked down, you could very clearly make out nearly every detail of the entire shape and outline of your breasts, even the dark circles of your nipples in the center stood out. Cold and wet with your precious cardigan long tossed in the trash can back at the airport after it got wet in the puddle and you left with only the sheer bra you stupidly decided to wear under this light pink colored shirt and the hope that maybe, maybe this was one of those countries that didn’t extradite murderers and you might get away with killing him in his sleep tonight.

Links: Part 1, Part 2

[heywart]

੭୧ : Poxa Crush ׄ 🎤 ੭̠ kyungsoo x nayeon

🔍 : ꒰ indisponível para doação ꒱

📌 : ꒰ adotada por oshtape ꒱

🗓 : ꒰ 19 de abr. de 2024 ꒱

[kodalindissima]

CARTOMANTE

baekhyun + kyungsoo - exo psd heavenly @colour-source credite em caso de inspo visse?

[dilxcc]

ordinary days ᡣ𐭩 doh kyungsoo

domestic fluff, living the best life with kyungsoo, hes so in love with you tbh, grammatical error

kyungsoo x reader!

a/n this was totally not inspired by his song. also, testing if it was just a new account thing or my fic really sucks and people dont read it 💀 this was also posted at @jonginbear

the soft humming of kyungsoo as he danced around in the kitchen, cooking to his heart's content. he was alone in your apartment while you were out at work. despite your absence, he still showed up at your apartment, wanting to try out a new recipe he had come up with last night.

it explained why his eyes has a light dark circle.

the clanking sounds that came from the kitchen utensils filled the quietness. it calmed his excited heart from bursting. not a while later, he finished up his cooking and started to wash the dishes.

it was always like this with kyungsoo. your house was always tidied up whenever he's around. he couldn't stand seeing how disoriented you are.

the soft click from the door perked his ears up. it was just in time that he had finished setting up the table. your nose immediately picked up the delicious smell coming from the kitchen. "hey," kyungsoo smiled, his wet hands were wiped clean on the apron that he has yet to take off. his cute dimples showing from smiling too hard.

"hey," you returned his smile. he walked up to you and kissed your cheeks. "what did you cook?" you asked softly, taking off your coat and threw it on the couch. "a new pasta recipe," he said proudly. "i made it more spicy for you," he said, pulling out the chair for you. you gratefully took a sit all the while watching him take off his apron.

kyungsoo sat across the table, ready to eat his newly made recipe.

after dinner, both of you sat on the couch, huddled up close to each other and feeling content. you lay your head on his chest, wanting to listen to his calm heartbeat. his arm were wrapped securely around your waist and he nuzzled his nose in your hair.

likes, comments, reblogs and feedbacks are highly appreciated <3

© dilxcc

[sooinbloom]

Haven’t Met You Yet

pairing: kyungsoo x you genre: meet cute, fluff, neighbor AU, actor!soo word count: 3,302 description: Kyungsoo becomes enamored with his neighbor, and one chance encounter becomes the start of something beautiful warnings: language author’s note: hello dear reader! Long time no see! Sorry about that. this is another one shot that i wrote and never published. I came up with it listening to the song, “Haven’t Met You Yet” by Michael Buble. I have a bit of an idea for a second part, let me know if you liked this one shot and I’ll get to work on the second part! Thank you for your likes, reblogs and shares on my other work! It baffles me that these things get read. Please enjoy, this is lighthearted, no warnings… Just cuteness. Dividers by @saradika-graphics , gif is not mine.

- Aria

Kyungsoo watches his neighbor every day. 

He wasn't sure how it or when it started, he can’t remember anything before seeing her walking down the sidewalk that one autumn morning. Ever since, he was taken by her. He watched her from across the street from his living room window. Their townhouses faced each other, her house number was 111 and his was 112. Kyungsoo liked that, how she was before him in many ways. Out of anything in the world, he wanted her to be the first thing he saw in the morning and was determined to start his day with just a glimpse of her. Her shifts were opposite from his, she worked during the day and his call times were mainly at night for the first half of his project. When Kyungsoo would come home from work, she would be locking her door and leaving for the day.

Today was no exception.

Kyungsoo watched her lock her door as she slowly descended the few steps that gave her access to the sidewalk. He didn’t understand how one woman could look so perfect this early in the morning. Her hair grazed her shoulders in a pretty style he had never seen her wear before. The outfit she wore slowly became the actor’s favorite he’s seen her wear so far. The cream-colored chunky sweater, brown calf-length skirt and sneakers combination she was wearing looked like what holding her in his arms must feel like; cozy and warm. A badge hung from a soft pink lanyard around her neck, and he could never make out what the ID said, but from his best guess she must have worked in an office somewhere.

Kyungsoo couldn't tell what color her eyes were, but their serene gleam made him want to see the soul behind them. The man hoped one day he could muster up enough courage to speak to her and see those eyes up close. Having her at a distance was becoming too much to bear, just watching this beautiful woman he called his neighbor on her daily commute or weekend morning walks was not enough anymore.

 This beautiful stranger had a glow about her that Kyungsoo could not quite put his finger on. At one point, Kyungsoo wondered if the woman was even real or just a fatigued apparition that only appeared when he was too tired to realize she was not real. This theory was proven wrong on several occasions but stayed a theory in the back of his head. He would scold himself every time he would gravitate toward the window to watch her come home after her long days.

This is insane. 

This is creepy. 

You're stalking your neighbor. Your beautiful neighbor. 

The problem remained that Kyungsoo did not know how to approach her. Did she speak the same language? How embarrassing would it be if he opened his mouth, and she did not understand him! Kyungsoo spoke English, yes, but felt more comfortable speaking in his native language, Korean. He could express himself better and not second guess every word that came out of his mouth. Even worse... What if she recognized him? It’s not exactly impossible, but not something the actor would bet on.

Relocating to Los Angeles for his first major international movie role was a huge step in Kyungsoo’s career. He was on the cusp of his entire life changing, and dating was the furthest thing from his mind… Until he saw her. Losing himself in the idea of her became Kyungsoo’s favorite past time, living in a world where she was by his side. He loved the idea of her. She could be the worst thing for him, but he figured he would never know until he took the chance to put himself out there against the advisory of his management. Being alone in a new country was already hard enough on Kyungsoo, the isolation was starting to make him reflect on just how lonely he felt and the yearning to share his life with someone started to overtake him.

He also understood how crazy all of this was. He never even said a greeting to his woman yet he was certain she could be the one he wanted to spend his Sunday mornings with, doing nothing being close to her, holding her as she woke up in his arms. No one made him lose his mind more than her, this woman he never met before. He didn't want to make his neighbor feel uncomfortable around him if they ever met. He made a sincere effort to catch a glimpse of her without her noticing but the more he lingered at the window, the harder it was to be incognito.

He softly rehearsed what he would say to his neighbor if they ever met as he took a hot shower, even giving himself pause to make sure his words made sense. As he readies himself for bed, he runs through his monologue for filming after this mini production break he is on but seems to resort back to practicing his greetings for his neighbor. How could she make him lose his focus to easily?! His head hits the pillow, forcing himself to fall asleep as fast as possible. This way he could be greeted with her presence at 5:30pm sharp, just as he has been doing every single day for the last couple of months.

Kyungsoo's alarm chimes loudly in his ear, waking him from yet another dream of her. Part of him wanted to stay floating in the fantasy world he created where she belonged to him but he knew if he dawdled a second longer, he would miss her. Stumbling out of bed, the half-asleep man rushes to make coffee and turn the television on so it is not obvious he’s waiting for her.

Don’t be weird. Even though this is the weirdest thing you’ve ever done, Doh Kyungsoo.

He pulls the curtains back ever-so-slightly and waits for her appearance. 

5:29. 

5:30.

There she is. 

Her arms are full of grocery bags, she looks tired and out of it. More than likely, it must have been a long day for her. He’d been picking up on her physical cues for some time now and her shoulders told him everything he needed to know about her day without hearing a single word. Kyungsoo wondered what her voice sounded like, was it soft like clouds? Sweet like honey? Calm like a summer breeze? He pondered over this over and over, musing over what it would take to make her laugh, what her lips tasted like…

Stop being a creep. Is it creepy that I like her and never met her? I’m not surprised, Kyungsoo thought to himself.

It was clear that she was struggling, her shoelace gets caught under her other shoe, causing her to trip. Her bags spill their contents onto her cement-paved walkway. He watches her land on her lawn, her mouth uttering curses he can’t hear but can definitely make out from how her lips move. Without thinking, Kyungsoo bolts into action and crosses the street. 

"Are you alright?" Kyungsoo asks, nervously getting to her level. The woman looks up at him and the most beautiful eyes meet his. Now he was sure what color they were, and my God was it a beautiful hue. She tilted her head in confusion, and awe of the handsome man in front of her. 

"Sorry?" Her eyes plead with him, "I'm sorry, I don't understand."

Holy shit.

Kyungsoo was not expecting that beautiful of a voice to come from her. Well, to be fair, he didn’t know what to expect but her tone exceeds his expectations. He was hoping for such a harmonious sound and he got it. The man realizes what he had done and blushes in her gaze. He did exactly what he feared he would do: speak in his native language, a language she obviously does not understand. With a gulp, he hangs his head, the burn of embarrassment tingling his ears and neck as words that felt foreign on his tongue left his mouth.

"Sorry, sorry. Are you alright?" Kyungsoo helps her up and she dusts herself off. She mutters a soft thank you and their hands brush gently. Shivers run down Kyungsoo’s spine at her touch, he knew if he lingered, he’d become addicted to the sensation of her fingers touching his.

"Yes, I’m alright. No injuries except for my pride. Have we met before? Do you live nearby?" She replies, picking up a bag or two. He notices the grass stains on her skirt as gathers her groceries in their bags. He sets them neatly in a row and puts his entire focus on her.

"Maybe we crossed paths a time or two. I just moved in. I am from Korea." Kyungsoo admits. 

"Korea... Very nice! I’ve always wanted to go there. If you don't mind me asking, why did you move here? Lately there’s been so many new faces in the community, but I haven’t had a chance to meet half of my new neighbors. You’re the first so far.”

Kyungsoo debates on if he should tell her. Would she know he's an actor? Would it matter? Kyungsoo fought the rapid-fire thoughts in his head the best he could and tried to form an answer that would a) make sense and b) be in the language she understood.

"I'm... I'm here for a work project. I'm an actor." Kyungsoo lowly admits. He becomes surprised when she calmly nods as if he told her he’s an office worker.

"Makes sense. Most people that live here are. Minus myself and a few others. For the last year, the studio nearby leases a few townhomes in the complex until their projects are finished." She notes, grabbing a few grocery bags. "I'm so sorry, if it's not too much can I ask for your help getting these inside?"

"Of course I can help." Kyungsoo beams, proudly taking the rest of her grocery bags and following her. He couldn’t help but take her in from up close. She’s about an inch or two shorter than him, her body has curves that Kyungsoo eagerly travels down with his wonder-filled eyes to commit her to memory. He nervously bumbles behind her and once he passes the threshold… It is exactly how he had imagined it: not too neat, not too messy and very her… Or the idea of her in his head.

"The kitchen is here," the woman says, "Oh, my. I never asked your name."

"Doh Kyungsoo. In America it's Kyungsoo Doh, right?"

"Yes, that’s correct but you don’t need to change how you say it. It’s nice as it is. Doh Kyungsoo... Kyungsoo..." please, keep saying my name... "100 Days My Prince, right?"

Kyungsoo's eyes widen at the confirmation that she does indeed know who he is. He takes a breath and slowly nods. This can go one of two ways. She can just be a normal person or she can be completely unhinged, oh no... What have I done? 

"This is going to sound odd," she chuckles at herself, "I... Kind of knew who you were but didn’t know how to approach you without making it super weird." 

Kyungsoo blushes again, his shyness taking over. She's a fan? "So, you knew who I was?"

The beauty before him blushes this time, looking away from him. "I had a feeling, but I figured I could be wrong. You probably get recognized a lot. Like I said, there is quite a few actors living in this complex for work. I would not want to make you feel uncomfortable. You are truly kind for taking the time to help me. Thank you."

"Tell me your name." Kyungsoo can sense his desperation in his voice as he leans on the counter. He hears her name roll off her tongue, the sound of it echoing in his ears. He repeats it softly, then looks up at her.

"Beautiful," Kyungsoo breathes.

“Thanks.” She smiles again, now all he wants to do is make her smile like that again and again… Possibly make her face contort in other ways if he was to be so lucky.

“So, what is it you do for work? Since we are sharing.” Kyungsoo asks, now even more curious to know every small detail about her.

“I’m screenplay writer for a network… ABC.” She replies. Kyungsoo tilts his head and wonders if it is a fake company, or she does not want to say. She catches on and chuckles softly, “it is an American broadcasting station. Shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Abbott Elementary are on the network.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes widen. She seems pretty important. The woman chuckles softly at Kyungsoo’s surprised look and waves her hand.

“Trust me, I am nothing special. I haven’t gotten a chance to work on a big show like those just yet. I have written for other networks, but nothing major like a prime-time show. Right now, I am in between projects, trying to find a home with a writing team. Since you helped me… Forgive me if this is a bit forward but would you like to stay for dinner?”

There was no hesitation as he looked at her with his head already nodding.

“I would love to.”

“Great! I was planning on making steak and pasta, is that okay? No dietary issues or…”

“I have been craving steak for months. I have been on a diet for my role, and I need an excuse to break it, and your offer is the best excuse to go rogue.” Kyungsoo smirks, enjoying how her eyes crinkle when she laughs. She moves swiftly in the kitchen, taking the groceries out of the bags and setting up everything she needs to cook. He watches her for a moment, then realizes he doesn’t want to just spectate. He wants to cook with her and feels this is a great way to brag about his chef experience.

“Would you like some help? I’m… I’m a licensed chef in Korea.” The man stutters, his confidence waning as the seconds stretch to what feels like minutes in his mind.

“A chef? I’m starting to like you even more than I did a few moments ago, Doh Kyungsoo.” Her reply sounds flirtatious. Is it flirtatious? Kyungsoo’s ears warm and he stands beside her, looking over the ingredients laid out on the counter, “I’m not exactly a chef, this is probably one of the only meals I know how to cook. There really isn’t much room for cooking with the schedule I have.”

“Don’t you worry, I can give you a few pointers… If you’ll let me.” Kyungsoo hears his voice drop lower, that adorable crimson spreads across the woman’s cheeks. It is funny how his lack of confidence is making her bashful, and how that reaction alone fills him with pride. She watches him chop and prep the ingredients with ease, he loved every second of her eyes on him.

“You seem to know what you’re doing, I might have to take you up on that offer.” She smirks. “So, tell me more about your cooking experience, what made you want to become a chef?”

“Well… It started when I was in high school…” Kyungsoo began to tell her the story of how his love for culinary arts came to be. He had been helping around the house after his mother had a minor surgery and his older brother had assigned Kyungsoo kitchen duty. He had to search up how to cook basic recipes and followed them to the letter out of anxiety of killing everyone in his family by food poisoning. The anxiety quickly turned to ease as he fell into a rhythm. He enjoyed how the aroma of the dishes made him feel accomplished, calm and the idea of serving his hardworking parents pushed him even further to cook regularly.

Kyungsoo’s mother championed this idea, she wanted her son to be independent and not rely on anyone to do basic survival skills for him. As Kyungsoo relayed the story, the woman beside him rests her elbows on the counter fully immersed in him. He could feel his heart flutter at the attention. Being wonderstruck by how quickly they drew each other in, the conversation continued, each of them sharing little anecdotes as Kyungsoo absentmindedly took over the kitchen. What once was small glances through a window turned into a back-and-forth conversation between two familiar strangers.

The clock wound down the hours and the sun set behind the Los Angeles hills, but the two neighbors became familiar as time went on. Kyungsoo learned that his neighbor wasn’t from Los Angeles, she had moved here a couple years ago for work. She preferred black tea over coffee, her favorite color was mint green, and she was an only child. She spent her summers on her grandparent's farm in the countryside of a place he had never heard of but could picture perfectly as she described the flat land and meadows she would adventure on. The little bits she told Kyungsoo was not enough. He wanted more. He needed more.

Kyungsoo thanked the woman for her hospitality, reluctant to leave her. It was now or never, he had to see her again. What made it difficult was his schedule, it was going to get more demanding after this rare day off he had.

“Thank you again for helping me and giving me company.” She said as she leaned on the wall of the entryway to her house.

“It’s no problem, really. I’m glad that I was available to help.” Kyungsoo softly replies. The words were on the tip of his tongue, he was going to ask her out. But before he could, she took a breath and crossed her arms over her chest.

“So, how long have you been watching me through your living room window?” She giggles. Kyungsoo could feel the color draining from his face at the prospect of her knowing he was watching her like a stalker. Yet, she’s smiling. It did not make any sense; he was caught red handed and she is smiling? “Do you think I dress this nice every day on purpose? I was… Trying to get your attention, for awhile I thought maybe I failed or was delusional at the prospect of you looking at me.”

“No, no. It worked. It definitely worked. I love looking at you.” Kyungsoo blurts, immediately regretting his words. Now I blew it.

“I’m relieved that you do. Is it possible that we can see each other again?” Is she asking me out?

“It’s a possibility,” Kyungsoo replies smoothly, “maybe you can come to my place for dinner next time. If that’s okay. Is that okay?”

Her laugh echoes in Kyungsoo’s mind, he can’t believe this all worked out the way that it did.

“It’s definitely okay. You don’t have to be so nervous, Kyungsoo.” She reaches out and grazes his arm, her gaze warmly meeting his.

“I’ll have to look at my filming schedule and get back to you, but I promise you won’t be waiting long. I want to see you again soon.” Kyungsoo affirms, taking his phone out and offering it to her. “Can I get your number?”

She happily takes his phone and types her number in the contact, playfully setting her contact name as Girl in 111, her house number. She does the same and Kyungsoo sets his contact name as Guy in 112, enjoying this little game they are playing. The short walk home felt like 100 miles to Kyungsoo. He turned and saw her standing in the doorway, waving softly.

It worked out exactly how he imagined, and couldn’t wait to discover more of her.

[exouniverse]

Not by Happenstance

Pairing: kyungsoo x gn reader

Genre: fluff, angst, established relationship

Warnings: none, but if you find any please let me know.

Summary: Kyungsoo wakes up feeling lonely on his birthday, knowing you were not coming back on time, but well-intentioned friends whisk him away for a day full of surprises. Although the most important one was patiently waiting for him back home.

Word count: 3K+

A/N: I just had to add the angsty feelings, but I hope it stayed balanced. I had the idea after hearing Kyungsoo do the cover of Falling Like the Stars by James Arthur. Another happy late birthday, Kyungsoo!

MASTERLIST | MOODBOARD

The alarm went off, but while Kyungsoo would usually wake up right then and start off his day, this time he remained curled on his side, sighing as he burrowed deeper under the covers.

Gentle rays of sunlight touched his face, yet he kept his eyes closed as the alarm was still going off, wishing for a few more minutes of sleep. It wasn’t exhaustion weighing on him, but an intrusive longing for your warm embrace and smiles that greeted him constantly.

Soo, I’m so sorry. I’m afraid I won’t even make it on time for your birthday.

Your words kept echoing in his head. It’s not like he’s obsessed with birthday celebrations, but you’ve been away for so long already that the holidays were too monotonous for him.

He actually hates being too clingy—he really tries not to be—and he understands more than anyone how patient and considerate you have been before waiting for him when he is the one away. Kyungsoo groaned at his self-pity thoughts, grabbing his phone from the counter to finally turn the alarm off.

It’s his birthday, and while you couldn’t be there quite yet, your return would be all the sweeter for waiting. Belated birthday celebrations are fun too; it’s not the end of the world not having you there on his specific special day.

But he could still see you in every corner of his house. He smiled, noticing your coat and scarf still hanging inside his closet. You never seem to get those back or end up replacing them with other pieces of clothing as the seasons change.

He jumped out of bed, fixed on starting his day right, and tried to ignore his phone, which was already flashing with text notifications from Chanyeol. It had started at midnight, but he had already turned on the do not disturb setting. Chanyeol’s teasing would not be welcomed during his peaceful morning, even though a tinge of curiosity piqued within him to know what his texts could be about.

After showering, Kyungsoo's face lit up with a smile as his lovely dogs, Hoochoo and Meokmul, greeted him upon stepping out of his room with his hair still damp. He kneeled to accept sloppy dog kisses; their affectionate natures never failed to lift his mood. He filled their bowls with fresh water and food, tending to their needs before heading to the kitchen to prepare his own breakfast.

Kyungsoo chuckled softly when he saw your favorite snacks and ramyeon in the cupboards, still untouched. He’d stocked up eagerly for your planned week together, thinking you were coming on the sixth.

It dawned on him why he had been feeling so blue these past few days, since he would be busy with work after his birthday and not be able to see you regularly again.

With a shake of his head, he began to prepare his breakfast. The fresh coffee aroma filled the kitchen, complementing the eggs he was frying along with some savory kimchi. Cooking made him happy; it would’ve been better if someone else were there to share the food with, but so far he was content with how his day was going.

He set his toasts and kimchi eggs, accompanied by some leftover japchae and soy bean sprout soup. As he was about to fill his cup with coffee, the doorbell rang, leaving him puzzled since he was not waiting for anyone to come.

“Kyungsoo-yah! Let me in.” Chanyeol’s voice came through the speaker, and the dogs started barking excitedly.

He wondered if Chanyeol somehow managed to hack his video doorbell and speak through it because he had ignored his texts. Silly Kyungsoo, he knew that Chanyeol wouldn’t ever be clever enough to pull that off. Chanyeol would obviously resort to more annoying methods, like showing up at his house unannounced.

Kyungsoo hesitated, but his friend’s voice kept coming through along with the ring of the doorbell. He made his way to the entrance but only talked to Chanyeol through the speaker. “Why are you here, Chanyeol?”

“Happy birthday, Kyungsoo!” Chanyeol said it in a singsong.

Kyungsoo chuckled. “Thank you, bye!” he joked.

Chanyeol kept ringing to annoy Kyungsoo even more and get him to let him in, but Kyungsoo had opened just at the same time that he rang, so Chanyeol didn’t notice at first. “You’re going to break it; just come in,” Kyungsoo uttered.

“Are you ready?” Chanyeol entered, almost jumping out of his shoes and going straight to the kitchen. He greeted the cheerful little dogs on his way, who were the only ones who seemed truly happy to see him. “Smells pretty nice in here.”

Kyungsoo rushed to close the door and find Chanyeol before he could take anything from your snacks since he also loves the same types of bean chips. Luckily, he was only taking a look at the toasts for his breakfast. “Ready for what?” Kyungsoo finished pouring some coffee into his cup. “Want some breakfast?” he asked as he saw him looking for a bowl.

“I could eat some,” Chanyeol mumbled. “I brought you seaweed soup; my mom made some for you.” He offered a warm smile, winning one back from the lonely birthday boy in front of him.

The container was small but seemed spacious enough to have soup for both of them, so Kyungsoo grabbed two medium-sized bowls from the storage. “Go ahead and eat what’s already served. I can make some more toasts for me.”

Chanyeol rolled his eyes. “I can make toasts, eat your breakfast. I’ll serve the soup; it’s yours. I won’t eat any.”

Kyungsoo settled down at the table with his food and coffee, amused by his friend’s response. From a distance, he could sense the wheels turning in Chanyeol’s mind; whatever scheme he had planned, Kyungsoo was actually grateful for his taller friend’s happy virus energy to accompany him during the day.

Chanyeol sat in front of Kyungsoo, flashing him a small, mischievous smile before he dug into the delightful breakfast. Kyungsoo missed that gesture as he stopped Meokmul from climbing onto his lap.

As they ate and chatted, Kyungsoo seemed more and more at ease. Chanyeol caught him cracking a genuine grin at one of his silly jokes. “There’s that smile!” He teased. “Now finish that toast—we’ve got a full day ahead of us.”

Kyungsoo squinted at him suspiciously. “You still haven’t told me what you’ve got planned.”

The laugh that escaped Chanyeol was not at all convincing for Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo felt uneasy about Chanyeol's hidden secret, as he didn't want to be left in the dark. However, his patience hadn’t yet run out, so he decided to wait just long enough to get at least a clue before Chanyeol could drag him out of his house.

“You just trust me; you’re gonna love it.” Chanyeol stood up and took Kyungsoo’s emptied dishes. “I’ll clean this; you go put on a coat or something.”

Kyungsoo was hesitant at first, but he made sure to watch from afar for any hint that his friend could let slip while he was busy with the dishes.

His phone was still flashing with texts from his friends, so he checked all of their messages. He laughed silently as he saw the insistent ones from Chanyeol to let him in, as well as the funny birthday wish at midnight. His smile grew as he saw texts from fellow actors and idols, but his heart fluttered once he saw yours.

You: Happy birthday 🥳😘 wishing you all the fun and love you deserve on this day. I know I’m away, but I’ll be with you in spirit no matter what you do 😌 you are in my heart always. I love you so much, see you in a bit 😉🫰

Kyungsoo glanced up, a tenderness in his look that only the sun could witness. Your words warmed him up even more than the cozy clothes that he changed into, anticipating any activity that his friend could have planned.

Thrilled, he made his way back to the kitchen. He had almost forgotten about his friend’s suspicion, but his whispering on the phone served as a reminder. “What was that?” Kyungsoo asked, “are we meeting someone? Why—“

“Kyungsoo! Why are you—“ Chanyeol was a little startled because of his sneaky friend. “Hey, just wait there,” he said as he ended the mysterious call. “Baek will join us, and that’s all I’ll say.” He chuckled tauntingly.

So the two menaces were accompanying him. Kyungsoo just laughed softly, letting things flow their course. For a second, he considered texting Junmyeon back on his offer for lunch, but somehow, Chanyeol’s plans seemed interesting.

It was satisfying to see the white blanket of snow covering the streets while the sun battled to defrost the glistening icicles on top of the bare tree branches. At least the weather was nice and managed to cheer him up even more, somehow matching his friends antics and the eagerness of their dogs.

The park came into view as they drove along the bridge, and Kyungsoo smiled, knowing that Chanyeol was taking them to a park for their dogs to have some fun too. He will take care of making a snowman out of Baekhyun as payback for all the teasing he’s been doing during the car ride.

The dogs were eager to get out of the car once they managed to get a spot in the parking lot. Baekhyun’s corgi, Mongryong, even let out a joyous howl, asking to be let out.

Kyungsoo’s mood lifted even further with their enthusiasm. The park wasn’t crowded since it was quite early, so he released their leashes, giving the dogs permission to romp.

After some time playing with their pets, Kyungsoo heard a notification ding. He briefly excused himself for a little privacy, as he wished it was you, but it had been a message from Woobin.

“Hey, birthday boy!” Baekhyun’s voice distracted him, but he looked back at his phone to answer his hyung’s message.

He opened your text again, intending to reply when you were back online. Unfortunately, despite your lovely birthday wishes, you still didn’t seem to be around. He decided to simply send his reply for you to check later, along with some pictures of the dogs playing with his friends.

Soo: Thank you baby! ❤️😊 you won’t believe how your wishes came true 😆Yeol and Baek dragged me out to Seoul Forest with our pups. I’m having fun tho

Baekhyun playfully shook Kyungsoo’s shoulders, trying to make him go back. “Come, Soo! Don’t get lost, little penguin.”

Kyungsoo turned to level him with his most lethal glare. Though not the tallest among them, Kyungsoo possessed a presence that commanded respect, making Baekhyun shrink back instinctively and realize it was time to flee. Kyungsoo ran around trying to catch him to finally turn him into a snowman.

The dogs followed them, with Chanyeol on tow, trying to make them all stop since snow was starting to fall quite heavily. Baekhyun stopped first, making Kyungsoo bump into him. Kyungsoo was breathless from running and laughing, but he managed to get Baekhyun on the ground.

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo moved the snow around them, making snow angels as Chanyeol laughed. “Guys! Look up; we might need to go find shelter or go back—“ The ringing of his phone stopped him.

Chanyeol looked at the caller’s name and excused himself for a minute. He was almost whispering to the person on the other end, but Kyungsoo managed to listen to one sentence before Chanyeol walked farther away. “We’re going now then!”

Kyungsoo was truly enjoying Chanyeol’s plans, but he was too curious about who he was talking to on the phone so much. He unmistakably guessed it was Baekhyun earlier, but he is now right in front of him, playing along with their dogs.

The flakes started to whirl downward in swift blizzards, making the wind pick up pitch. They knew there was no stopping the snowstorm, so Chanyeol called out that it was time to get back home and stay safe before it would be too dangerous to drive.

Surely enough, after a quick stop at Baekhyun’s house, traffic began to slow down as it became harder to mobilize because of the snowfall.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay out there?” Kyungsoo asked before he got out of Chanyeol’s car. “You can stay until it’s clear.”

Chanyeol managed to contain his laugh and only pulled off a warm smile at his friend. “Nah, I’ll be okay. And perhaps, you know how much I love your dogs but the allergies might kick in and I need my meds.”

Kyungsoo nodded, understanding. They could also go and buy some, but it did seem like there was no stopping the snowstorm, and Chanyeol would be a lot safer in his own house.

“Hope I managed to lift your spirits for a bit. Y/N will come back soon; cheer up!” He winked and put his thumb up.

Kyungsoo seemed to not catch the clue, but as they reached his apartment, his dogs had a surge of energy. Hoochoo sniffed below the door while Meokmul barked up at him, as if trying to let him know something.

He only grew worried, thinking they were hungry because he hadn’t taken enough treats to the park, so he hurriedly entered his house as the dogs pulled on their leashes. He swiftly removed their gear as he hung his winter coat and beanie to leave them to dry.

The dogs kept barking and whimpering, but it took on a happy tone; soft shushing and whispers accompanied them, along with Kyungsoo’s hopeful racing heartbeat.

You were back.

You were here.

Kyungsoo stared in awe, stopping for a second to check if it could be his hopeful mind playing tricks on him. But as his watery eyes focused and took you all in, his lips curled into the widest of smiles.

He walked over slowly, taken by a rush of emotions. Your heart almost broke at the sight, but he reassured you that he was okay, chuckling between a couple of sobs.

The embrace didn’t take you by surprise, but he almost made you both fall to the ground. In that perfect moment, with you cradled safely in his arms, Kyungsoo found he had no words. All the lonely nights spent yearning for this very feeling evaporated as a warm and overwhelming emotion rose within his chest.

He buried his face deeper into your comforting scent, his fingers clinging onto you with a tighter hold than intended, but you made no attempt to break free from his trembling embrace. Your own hands stroked his back tenderly, soothingly, as if to say, “I'm here; it's really me. I've returned to you.”

After what felt like an eternity, Kyungsoo finally found the strength to pull back, his glistening eyes hungrily scanning your face, re-memorizing each cherished feature. His lips parted, but his thoughts eluded him; the snowstorm outside served as an illustration of the swirling emotions of gratitude, disbelief, and joy within him.

Sensing his struggle, you graced him with a tender yet radiant smile, one hand rising to cradle his cheek. "I've missed you too," you breathed, the simple words conveying so much.

At the sound of your voice, Kyungsoo's hesitancy crumbled, and he claimed your lips in a kiss that poured forth every unspoken emotion.

Breathless, you parted, but hesitant small kisses lingered upon your lips. You laughed as you gently kissed his chin, tracing over his lovely beauty marks, while Hoochoo playfully tugged at your pants.

“How are you here?” He finally asked, taking your hand and leading you to the sofa, where you cuddled with the two adorable poodles.

You continued to laugh, and he cupped your cheeks. His hands felt a little cold, so you covered them with yours. He lovingly pushed your cheeks up and down, as if he were still trying to convince himself that you were really there. His five senses were now aware of your return, but it still felt like a dream in his heart. It was only when he felt your fingertips dry a couple of tears that he fully assimilated your presence.

“I might need a couple or more cups of coffee to stay awake, but I managed to come back sooner.”

He pulled off a shy smile. “Oh, baby. You didn’t have to…”

You still felt his hands being cold, so you softly grabbed both of them and tried to wrap them in your warm ones. “No, I needed to. I wanted your birthday to be perfect.” You kissed each of his hands. “I wish you could’ve gone to all the places I had in mind for you and your friends, but the snow was pretty heavy.”

Kyungsoo shook his head, trying to comprehend your words. “Wait, wait… you planned-you asked Chanyeol to come and all—“

“Yes, kinda! He was visiting you, so I asked him if he could help, and he accepted quite easily.”

He gazed at you, filled with wonder and affection. “So Junmyeon hyung’s lunch invite, and Minseok hyung wishing we could’ve gone bowling, and Jongdae saying he’d stopped by to bring me a gift—“

“And all of the people who sent you any text other than to just wish you a happy birthday. I was planning on throwing you a small party when you came home, but the snowstorm happened and everyone got stuck, so I had to cancel.”

“Wow! How? Did you know you’re amazing?” He chuckled and tenderly kissed your jaw. “I think this is better though. Having you back and everyone else here… you would have been distracting.”

Curling into your embrace, he rested his head on your chest, listening to the sweet sound of your heartbeat. The furry little ones nestled around the two of you, sighing contentedly.

“This is all I need. Just being with you… you were my birthday wish.” Smiling softly, he tilted his face up for a tender kiss. At last, all he yearned for was no longer far away from him. His smiles were easier to pull off now that he got you back just in time.

[justwritedreams]

Hello

A headcanon of Kyungsoo realizing he has feelings for the reader

I'm enjoying that you're asking members that I haven't written yet CONTINUE!

KYUNGSOO REALIZING THAT HE HAS FEELINGS FOR YOU

Author: Maari

Warnings: minor errors probably because i wrote it in the break of work

So you and him have been friends for a long time

You have a lot in common

Enjoy having in-depth conversations on a variety of topics

You like to do the same things

And you are each other's excuse to get away from noisy and crowded places

And one day, you managed to escape from a club

How had you ended up there? Ask his extrovert friends

None of you wanted to go but it wasn't like you could say no

Thank you Chanyeol 🫡

So when you accepted his ride, you could finally breathe a sigh of relief as you got into the silent car

Both of your heads ached from the loud music

And you were so sleepy that you leaned against the car window even as he was driving

"I thought you couldn't get away from Baekhyun" he chuckled

And you, of course, laughed along, looking at him

He was so focused and so handsome

"I didn't remember he talked so much, I thought you were going to leave me there" you said and his laugh increased

"Don't think it didn't cross my mind"

And you were like 😲

Your plan had been simple:

The two would take a 5 minute break to go to the bathroom but actually you would run to the door and leave the place

But Baekhyun delayed you because he kept telling you how sad he was because his girlfriend had gone on a business trip

Although far away, you could see Kyungsoo's bored face in the middle of the crowd, waiting for you 🤣

But it wasn't like you were going to argue with him because

You would do the same lol

You just smiled and closed your eyes, too tired to talk

And he not only understood, he respected 🥺

And when he turned to face you real quick

Damn!

He never noticed before how you had a glow of your own

He frowned thinking it was some illusion in his head

Or that kind of intrusive thinking that no one has control

He dropped you off at home and you invited him in

And he was more worried about you because you had worked a lot during the week

And on Friday you looked like a zombie, you were so tired

So he accepted

He felt good in your house, it was quiet, it brought peace

You lay down on the couch and he helped you take off your shoes

As he already knew your house, he went to get a blanket so you wouldn't be cold during the night

And when he came back, you were already asleep

Sounds cliche, right?

But well, the time he put the cover on you

He couldn't help but push the hair that fell into your eyes

And it was only then, watching you sleep so serenely that he felt his heart warm

Anxiety in the stomach that wasn't bad at all

And an involuntary smile appeared on his face

And when he leaned in to kiss you

He was like oH 😳

He straightened up again but brought his hand to his mouth.

Not believing that he had almost done that because

Damn, was he in love with you?? Since when?

He was always very clear about what he felt, what he thought...

And he just now noticed that he likes you?

Poor baby left your house so confused he couldn't even remember where he had put his car keys 🤣🤣

But he wouldn't be the only one confused

Because good luck if you think he's going to leave things the way they were

Expect a very sincere confession 👀

[myrainbowgelpen]

EXO — fic rec

I’d do anything if it meant this could be forever

BYUN BAEKHYUN

₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊ fluff ₊˚౨ৎ˚₊smut ₊˚౨ৎ˚₊angst ₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

PARK CHANYEOL ᡣ𐭩 •｡ꪆৎ ˚⋅

to be updated…

DOH KYUNGSOO ✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩

to be updated…

OH SEHUN ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

to be updated…

[rikyangi]

— Love and Hate • Chansoo

— Escrito pro Kaimeow

Sinopse:

Kyungsoo odiava Chanyeol. Principalmente quando ele derrubava seus livros de propósito toda a manhã na troca de horários.

[soobadnoonecanstopher]

Rat Bastard - Part 6

Pairing: You x Kyungsoo

Rating: M (Mature)

Word Count: 11200

Warnings: There were too many beds, Enemies to Lovers, Slow Burn, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Idiots to Lovers, Fear, Spiders

Tag: @ilovemyapopbaby

Links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

You’d expected some downtime; some boredom. It simply wasn’t possible for these three desperate employees to keep the two of you entertained for every minute of the day.

You had to admit you were both surprised and shocked when you actually saw the giant crate of activities and games; there were tons of board games, even more possibilities with the decks of cards you saw. There were even a whole slew of movies and a small device which you were told was a projector which would show the movie on any blank white wall, of which there were many to pick from. Mr. Chen was unpacking what seemed to be an endless bottomed box and you weren’t the only curious observer lightly touching the things that interested you the most.

You’d been instructed to grab items and make a stack of things you were interested in doing. You’d reached for one of the word games, one of the ones involving strategic spellings of words which you remember playing as a kid with your Grandmother and you placed it in front of you. This was your pick.

“Oh that one is fun, I haven’t seen this in years,” Kyungsoo’s fingertip touched just on the corner of your game and he picked up another classic with a grin, “this one too,” he said under his breath. It was like he was speaking to himself but he seemed to be adding things to your personal pile.

Did he think he was involved in your pile?

Did he take this, like the cooking exercise, as a team activity? The instructions implied that you were to build your own pile but Kyungsoo had just added Uno to the top of the stack he was building with your first choice board game trapped on the bottom.

You reached for the deck of cards because there was always poker and it also was vital for the backgammon game you’d just grabbed. You slowly began to build a smaller, separate pile beside the one he had commandeered, removing your first choice from underneath his and moving it to your own side.

“Ooo,” his eyes widened and he plopped Monopoly down right on top of your second stack, “I'm gonna kick your ass at that one.”

You lifted his game off of your stack and plopped it roughly down on top of his own stack.

“These are my picks, those are yours,” you mumbled a rhetorical, “who even wants to play monopoly?” You remembered the game being long and tedious. He looked at you and laughed once, grabbing another game, this one a music themed game similar to charades but with musical guesses and you’d heard through friends that he actually had a great singing voice. You never thought you’d actually get to hear it. He pointedly ignored your stack separating attempts and plopped this game on top of your stack.

“You're gonna sit all alone in a corner and play Scrabble by yourself? Come on, quit being stupid.” He ignored the small sound you made and grabbed your games, placed them in the same stack as his games and lifted the whole stack and walked away from you to set them on another table. He was already pulling the lid off of one of his games to start playing it and the other three people in the room quickly followed suit and began to pull chairs out of the table he was setting up. Those traitors. Why did his game get to be played first? You’d been standing at your original spot with your arms folded over your chest when he looked up from the money he was counting and separating to speak to you.

“Come and get your ass handed to you like a good little princess.”

You rolled your eyes harder than you’d rolled them before. You rolled them hard enough to really sell your annoyance at his antics. You rolled them desperately and very convincingly. Inside of your chest there was the most annoying little tickle brought on by his choice of words. This nickname of his for you sure had a way of making everything he said sound just a tiny bit suggestive. Or maybe you had just read too many trashy romance novels in your youth. God, you were lonely.

But more than lonely, right now you were bored. You pulled up to your chair for the game. Javier was the last to sit down after bringing over some snacks and some drinks. You were handed a champagne glass with orange juice and the first sip told you it was heavy on the champagne. It wasn’t even noon yet. He was back to his old tricks when you looked up into his eyes and caught the secretive smile.

Kyungsoo was sipping on a Bloody Mary with a celery stick in it and you braced for the first round of the game. You had always figured he was the competitive type. He had to be in his line of work, to have reached the levels of success as he had reached in such a cut-throat industry. And nearly every interaction you’d had with Kyungsoo had told you such. This man simply had to win. The way he wouldn’t back down from his story and lie against you and that level of stubbornness, well, he basically pitted everything he had against you. This translated into something entirely insane when playing a board game against him.

The first round of the game, when someone would usually settle into the groove of things, rolling their dice and moving their pieces, was unlikely to buy the property they landed on in the very first round — Kyungsoo’s first round came after the rest of the players had had a go around. Mr. Chen had purchased his property, Sara had landed in a space that gave her a few bucks, Javier didn’t buy anything and neither had you. You weren’t particularly interested in the cheap ones at the start of the board. Kyungsoo’s turn came around and he landed on one of Mr. Chen’s neighboring properties and immediately purchased it. Then his deals started. He was making a deal with Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen was accepting. He was grinning widely and spending money like there was no tomorrow. What about the future Kyungsoo? What would you do if you simply went broke? He was buying housing for his land. He was putting up buildings and you watched this crazy man go full tilt into this stupid game.

You figured you needed to do something on your next round and you bought whatever you happened to land on. Not really paying too much attention to deals and such, you weren’t a big negotiator.

The game progressed and every single one of Kyungsoo’s rounds felt exhausting. He was doing quick math, making deals with everyone else at the table, but weirdly he never once tried to make any deals with you. He was putting up more property every single time. You were sure he was nearly broke. There was no way this was sustainable. The deals grew more intricate with each round. There were even loans passing around between Mr. Chen and Kyungsoo who seemed to have developed some sort of a partnership in this.

Again and again, you were overlooked by the man who seemed to be setting up some sort of a scheme. He was the owner or partnered with the owner of nearly every single space in this game. It felt unfair. There should be some sort of a law against this kind of thing, it was like a monopoly — oh god, oh god that was the name of this game. He was an expert at it. He had been planning it from the start and he showed you in particular absolutely no mercy. In every single round, you lost money to him.

His fat stacks of bills grew to obscene amounts and he had to cash in some 5s, 10s, 20s for 100s or 500s. He was relentless with you. But only with you. You noticed he had a lot of leniency on the other players at this table. He giggled and gave Sara a discount with a sweet smile on his face during one of her stays at his fancy property, and when you pointed out that he wasn’t allowed to do that he just shrugged and told you he could do what he wanted with his own property while you sat in jail for four whole rounds, unable to roll doubles to get yourself out. You actually began to enjoy being in jail as you sipped on your third mimosa because at least you weren’t putting your precious money into that man’s demanding palm.

It all came to a head when you had just gotten out of jail and landed in one of his places. You did have enough cash to cover rent but just barely and he sat beside you flush with his cash, property, even get out of jail free cards, which he had traded Javier for a free stay at his most expensive resort for.

You looked at him and he looked at you with the smallest lift of a single eyebrow because he knew you were screwed. You had a single property card left that you had been holding onto to keep him from owning every single space of that color. You swore you wouldn’t give it to him but at this rate you might end up homeless with only this to your name. It was a miserable sort of existence. You couldn't afford not to be in jail and you missed the peace and quiet and free meals of those metal bars that protected you from this mad man.

The more you replayed the entirety of this game, It was becoming more and more evident that his entire game plan had been to bankrupt and ruin you. He made no efforts to partner with you, make deals with you and only ever seemed to create situations that would affect you negatively. He was so good at it too you wondered if he’d been training for years on how to be a grade-A asshole to his friends.

“Can I have a discount?”

“You don't deserve a discount.”

“You gave Sara a discount.”

“Sara isn’t a four-time felon. I might have to charge you even more for a security deposit. Who knows what sorts of sordid things you’ll be up to in there. I know your type.”

Sara’s little metal train play piece had been sitting in the jail space and you watched as she carefully moved her piece to the outer edge so it clearly sat inside the ‘just visiting’ space around the incarcerated section.

“Excuse me, I was not convicted of any crimes. I never even had a trial.” You couldn't help the actual offense you took at his words. Your type? What type? The poor, marginalized, under-educated, school to prison pipeline, falsely accused and incarcerated type? This society has been set up to see you fail. The entire system was against you from the start.

“That’s what they all say,” he laughed out loud, “Everyone in jail swears they are innocent.” His outstretched hand moved closer to you and you hmph-ed back in your chair with your arms crossed over your chest.

You were annoyed. You couldn’t help it. He was such a jerk and he was ridiculously against you in this game and in this life. You dropped your voice to a whisper and you leaned in closer to where he sat on his mountain of gold. “Kyungsoo, do you remember when we were cooking breakfast together? Do you remember how well we got along—”

You had his attention. He watched your face with a little lift of his eyebrow, no doubt his mind flying through a multitude of possible things you were about to remind him of — the embraces, the gentle and slow touches between the two of you, the pride in his eyes when you’d done something to please him — he looked down the length of your face as if he was compelled to and when his eyes bounced back up to look into your eyes once more you inhaled to continue speaking, “—when you weren’t allowed to talk?”

He lifted a hand to cover over his mouth and he snorted out a quick and silent laugh. It burst free from him and no amount of steely resolve could have kept that laugh inside of him. His eyes rolled closed with it and then back open and he lifted a hand, palm up and opened and closed his fingers twice. You hadn’t expected any other outcome. Not after basically telling the jerk that your favorite part about him was when he wasn’t speaking.

“You’re mean,” you said with a grumble and a severe pout of your lips, feeling actually upset deep down inside of you at how badly he had been picking on you during this entire game. The others at the table just giggled. “He’s crazy,” you heard Javier and Mr. Chen say to each other. His greedy fingers were leafing through your bills as he grabbed enough money to cover your rent, leaving a few small bills left behind.

By the next round you were bankrupt and out of the game.

You were only his first victim. It wasn’t long before partnerships were quickly abandoned in the name of record-breaking profits and long-time friendships were severed by filthy greed.

You just shook your head each time it happened, adding a loud “I told you not to trust him. Didn’t I warn you? He’s evil!” which was quickly countered with his overly defensive and judgmental rebuttal.

“This is how you play the game, Princess. Don't cry just because you’re bad at it. Think of it this way, you survived for six whole rounds and you even bought and sold property, which is much more than some incredibly stupid people do in their entire lifetimes.”

The group was imploding around you. A heated discussion about loyalty and friendship was being held over the sounds of crinkling bills and plastic clanking as properties were sold off to pay the man who was evil enough to become an actual billionaire if only this game had printed enough fake money to make that happen.

He won the game by crushing everyone else around him. You swore then and there that if you ever had the chance to see this man again, which was unlikely once you left this emergency shelter, if by some twisted nightmare of fate you ever had the misfortune of spending any amount of time with him and you were presented with the invitation to play this game again with him, you would throw yourself off the roof, you would hurl yourself into the sea, you would rather literally watch professional golfing marathons on tv. Never again. Not this game, not with this man.

Everyone needed a break after the game was over. You retreated to your space for a small while, laying down under your comfy down blanket and quickly deciding that you were simply too sick of sleeping to be in here. It was late morning and you’d had a few drinks by now and after leaving your room you wandered through the hallways, finding a space where one too many spiderwebs touched your skin that you just had to turn around and head back toward the kitchen.

It was mostly peaceful and empty here except for one person who stood at the stove. Kyungsoo was doing something in the kitchen and instantly, like a magic potion had been cast you felt all of the hard feelings about that game fade with the possibility that he might be cooking something tasty.

You slinked up by his side and he turned to the sounds of you coming, quickly spinning around and stepping to his ‘interior’ side to block your view of the pot he had on the stove. You didn’t smell anything delicious in the air and his hands were out the moment you arrived, grabbing you by the arms and holding you at a clear distance.

“What are you doing? Go back to your bed.” Your suspicions were raised. He was hiding something delicious. He was about to have ramen, maybe even two packs from the communal goods that Roxy and Jun had left behind and the filthy cheater was about to eat them both all by himself. You didn't see any piles of ingredients anywhere on the countertop

“What are you making?” You were direct with your words. You pushed your shoulders forward, trying to free yourself from his hold. He held on tighter. Behind you on the stove you could hear the bubbling of the water starting to boil. He would have to tend to his secret dish soon to keep from overcooking it. From the few times you’d cooked with him he was a stickler for cooking times and temperatures and doneness levels. He was insane about it.

“No, no, just go away,” you were being shoved backward with the two steps he took foward. His words didn't sound too serious. Whatever it was that he was hiding from you was fair game. You heard the soft grunt as he struggled and you tried to peer your head around his shoulder. He countered by tilting his own head to block you again.

“What are you making? Let me see. You’re sharing with me, I caught you so half is mine.” You were already giggling when you lifted both of your hands like claws and quickly began to stab him with your fingertips right on his ribs. “That makes no sense. Are you a squatter?” He said through a gasp and he yelped and let out some quick giggles with the tickling.

His hands moved from your shoulders to your hands. He was grabbing them and you felt spun in place, suddenly looking at the door with one of his strong arms wrapped around your chest. Your two hands were trapped behind your back and he held on tightly to both of them with his other hand, in an instant he had you trapped and you were facing away from the bubbling pot. Your hands were bound between your two bodies but you could totally still get him from here. You reached again, lower this time, feeling the lower part of his abdomen. You could hear his giggling from beside your head and you swear to God you felt a euphoric sensation pulsing through your entire body to hear it. You felt like you weren’t quite in your right mind, not with the alcohol, not with the desperation for a win against him. You were pressed right up against his body again and why the hell was he so strong? Why did every single touch of his hands feel like it would consume you from within?

“Stop, stop,” he was begging but still refusing to let you go. If he wanted you to stop, wouldn't he have let you go first, his strong hand still held both of yours tightly behind your back and you moved your hand lower, feeling the very real and sudden danger of reaching for a part of him you should never, ever touch. You felt the waistband of his denim shorts, the leather of the belt he wore there and his shirt shifted and you felt the warmth of the bare skin of his belly that surged with each of the heavy breaths he took against your neck. The rough but steady exhales seemed to change when you touched him. Something was changing and you slowed your hand, still pressed up against his skin, your fingertips lightly touching the leather of that belt. His hand that held onto yours moved too and you felt the soft tips of his fingers move just over your hand there. You felt the trembling and staggered touch of his hand. Why was he trembling? Why was his touch more gentle than the previous rough gripping?

“I’ll stop if you stop,” you exhaled into the space in front of you, “besides, I already caught you. There’s no use delaying this.” Curiously, you had both stopped laughing but his arms were still around you, although the tightness of his grip he held you with had let up. You could escape quite easily if you wanted to. You could leave his embrace and you should. You really ought to put a healthy amount of space between the two of you, if you knew how an enemy should be treated, if you knew what was good for you, you would.

You took the smallest step forward, thankful for the drop in temperature that brought just a little bit of sense back into your brain. You took another step forward and his hand that had been holding your hand still gripped along your palm as you moved. You weren't quite sure why you did not feel compelled to let his hand go, you held on to him with the same amount of pressure as he held you and you turned to take one look behind him at the stovetop with the pot that sat bubbling and dancing behind his back.

You saw something green, something green and white standing up inside of that boiling pot of water. Something plastic.

Something hilarious. The crazy man was boiling his toothbrush. You saw it and you covered your mouth to keep the snort from escaping. It didn’t help. You snorted in laughter and you could feel the shift in his body as he sagged his shoulders in defeat.

Kyungsoo was frozen. He made no attempts to stop you from looking just as he hadn’t made any moves to let go of your hand, and when you looked up into his face he was standing with his free hand covering his closed eyes. He was pink.

You were openly laughing and you shook his hand that you still held as you did it, “did you seriously boil your toothbrush, Doh Kyungsoo?”

“Shut up,” he whispered through clenched teeth, “this is why I didn’t want you to see.”

You lifted a hand to lay over his pink cheek and you were almost laughing too hard to get any real words out, “d-did you want to get r-rid of my foot germs, Kyungsoo?”

“Shut up,” you felt the smallest push against your hand away from his face, then another push against your shoulder and he was quickly spinning, letting go of your hand as he did it, as if he hadn’t also been the one to hold onto you for much longer than necessary even long after you’d both swallowed down whatever might been happening with your hands behind your back a few seconds earlier.

“God, you’re so mean to me. I can’t believe you did that. I asked everybody and nobody has any extras. You know the worst part? I can't even tell if you’re telling the truth about it. Did she really use my toothbrush to clean her foot? Did she really scrub between her toes or is she just fucking with me again. You make me feel crazy. All I want to do is brush my teeth…but feet…toes,” he was whining now, full on whining half mixed with giggles because even he knew how insane he sounded. He was using the handle of the toothbrush to stir it into the boiling water. You could feel the spasms of laughter build up again in your belly. You had to hold onto yourself to keep from doubling over.

“Oh so I’m guessing you’re not one of those guys with a foot fetish then,” You joked as you busied yourself now with gathering things so you could make your own damn ramen.

“Sorry to disappoint you but I do not. Even so, a foot fetish is not an ‘ancient bacteria from the dirty floor of an 18th century, spider infested, bunker in my mouth’ fetish. What if you single handedly brought back cholera?”

“I don't think cholera is gone. I think it still lurks.” You still couldn't help the giggles even if you absolutely did not like the idea of your sleeping space being spider infested. You hadn’t quite worked up the courage to inspect all of the dark spaces around your bed for fear of what you might find.

“Great. That’s great news. How long do I need to boil this to kill cholera?” His face was exasperated now, half laughter mixed with a hopelessness that was absolutely adorable on him.

You found yourself staring at him. You came to when he’d long stopped giggling and his eyes bounced a few times over your face, his eyebrows lifting up with the tiniest bounce of his cheekbones, lips lifted in the corners slowly flattening out with the tiniest flinch of his face. It was the winding down of his laughter and he licked his lips, leaving them behind wet.

He cleared his throat. You closed your eyes, unable to keep them completely closed, your eyelids fluttered, fighting you to open back up and look at him for longer, and the breath you inhaled didn’t seem to help with any of this.

You needed something to do. You’d gathered some packs of ramen and the camping stove and fuel from the communal table and you plopped it all down on the countertop beside his boiling pot o’ toothbrush.

“Make me ramen,” you said with a little lift in your voice and tilt of your head. Not quite a request, not quite a command, more of a sweet suggestion. “Think they’d let us eat outside on the patio? I think the wind has died down a lot. It’s just raining now”

He’d finally reached some imaginary bacteria killing length of boiling time and he was tapping the toothbrush on the side of the pan to remove the excess water.

“You’re not going to try and commit suicide again are you?”

You shook your head back and forth, placing your hand over your heart, “I won't even go close to the edge, I promise.”

“Your promises mean nothing.” He deadpanned, but he was reaching into the fridge for some eggs, reaching into the shelves for the cans of spam he’d put there and stacking it all up on top of the the stove as he made his way toward the patio door.

“Bring the water bottle there,” he pointed to the countertop and you grabbed the big bottle and brought it along with the pan for him to cook in, and some chopsticks and spoons for both of you. For the first time since this trip started you cautiously began to feel a little bit happy to be here with him. He would make you delicious ramen and maybe you’d get to steal some more glances at his pretty face without getting caught.

He’d already been out on the patio to drop off the supplies by the time you came to the door with your arms full, he held the door for you. He seemed to be going back inside for something and you heard him call back toward you, “Hey! My batteries. You never gave them to me. I’ll bring them with the radio.”

So much had happened since then that you had just forgotten about them. You simply nodded as a response and told him they were in your luggage by the bed; wondering when in the hell you began to feel so comfortable with this man and you felt no qualms about sending him rooting through your luggage to find the batteries himself. You knew he’d have to get through many items such as the underwear you’d brought, the bikini he had already seen you in, the personal items such as your perfume, makeup, and your deodorant. All of those things were right there for him to witness. Little human things that had no business being embarrassing but were nonetheless.

A sudden panic built when you remembered a particular pack of items that you had brought along to this retreat that you’d all but given up on getting the chance to use here, the box of condoms you’d stuffed into your bag at the last minute. They would have been within touching distance of your big pack of batteries. There was no way he wouldn’t see them.

He took a while to return. You used that time to build up a thoroughly deep-set sense of embarrassment for what sordid conclusions you were sure he would have jumped to about you. Perhaps he’d find you to be some easy or cheap floozy. You were an adult. You were allowed to partake in and enjoy sex. You were healthy and alive and you had regular doctors appointments and you took your sexual health seriously. Why did it feel so weird though? That he might know this about you when he saw them; that he might have an opinion on the quantity of condoms in the box, a generous 20 pack, not because — not because you intended on having sex 20 times in a single week but, but because — Well … well, what if? The packs they had at the store came in 3, 10, or 20 and what if you had met the love of your life here and what if you just had to close up shop after 10? What if time number 11 was going to be the best time? You were thoroughly overthinking this. You were an expert at this, overthinking things and making yourself feel embarrassed for no reason especially when it came to Doh Kyungsoo. It was practically your default setting with him.

The door opened and you jumped in surprise; halfway through the scenario you’d imagined in which you hadn’t brought the brand new pack of 20 condoms and instead had just tossed in the already open box of 5 with one missing because you were curious about just how stretchy they actually were and you opened it to blow it up into a balloon. It was actually very stretchy and you might have just kept on blowing if you hadn’t been gagging from how awful the spermicidal liquid that filled it tasted when it got on your lips. Imagine if he found the open box with one missing already! Who had you used that one condom on at this stage in the game?! What would he think then?! You felt dizzy.

He was pushing through the doorway with a six pack of beers he’d swiped from Javier’s stash and he had his radio in one hand and in his other he gripped the batteries he’d found in your luggage right beside the big box of your stupid condoms.

He sat down on the bench beside you and you watched as he opened the little flap on the back of his radio and inserted each battery carefully, bringing it to life and switching between staticky radio stations until something clear sounded through with easy to listen to pop music playing. When he moved down to sit on the floor where the stove was set up, you quietly moved down to sit beside him.

You watched him work, feeling the very real remnants of the embarrassment you’d tricked yourself into feeling earlier still lingering in the warmth of your cheeks. He was setting up the stove and filling the pan with water, he was opening the packets of ramen and setting the flame to the right height below the pan.

You felt the need to do something too so you reached for the bags of snacks you’d brought, opening the bag and laying it flat, then reaching for the beers, pulling two off the plastic ring and opening them. You met his eyes briefly as he grabbed the beer you offered and after he took a sip of it he set it down and stared down at the pan full of water, just waiting for it to boil. He was quiet for a while until he inhaled to speak to you. You knew he had inhaled because you’d been staring at his face when he did it, when his pink lips parted and he pulled the breath in through his mouth and those lips stayed open enough for some words to come out.

“You alright?”

It was a small and quick question. He lifted his beer and tilted his head for the drink, a small stream of the liquid pooled inside his mouth and he dropped the can as he closed his mouth and swallowed it.

“Yeah,” you whispered just barely loud enough to be heard over the rain, “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

He shrugged, half of a shrug really. Barely even a shrug. “You’ve gone quiet,” he said and after the words his lips stayed open and you could see the tip of his tongue touching along the edge of his teeth for a moment. His eyebrows ticked above his eyes. “You’ve gone pink, too.”

You lifted your beer and took a big drink of it, holding the can up to lay over your cheeks. You could feel the heat in your face and the cold can helped just a little bit.

Not that he deserved it, but you felt weirdly compelled to fess up. You knew you were acting weird.

“I feel a little,” you started, turning your face away from him to continue, “weird…about something.”

“Weird like what? What about?” You hadn’t felt quite this disarmed around him before. It felt dangerous to let yourself speak so easily with him.

“Weird cause you hate me?” His next question came out very quietly and you pulled your eyes away from the raindrops steadily falling over to look at his face.

You opened your mouth to speak, finding the denial ready and heavy on your tongue. It was stuck there though and you closed your mouth back up and lifted the beer to take a long drink instead. The best you could do was the small head shake. You inhaled a breath and found he’d looked up from his boiling water to watch your face for your response.

Did he really want to ruin this nice moment to get into all of that right now?

“The water is boiling,” you said, meeting his eyes that still watched you without moving for two more swallows from this beer can you’d held onto for dear life.

He seemed to let it go. He was adding noodles and cracking eggs all fancy and one-handed, adding sliced spam and green onions on top. He was lightly prodding it all with the tips of his chopsticks and handing you the lid to use to catch the dripping noodles when they were done cooking.

You both grabbed noodles to eat at the same time and after he’d slurped up a particularly hot and noisy bite he sighed heavily while looking out toward the rain storm.

“Ramen really is the perfect food,” he remarked with his cheeks full of noodles.

Your nose was running a little from the steam and the spiciness of the broth but you held a ball of chewy and delicious noodles in your cheek and nodded your head earnestly. They were delicious and followed with the beer was even better than anything any 5 star chef could possibly whip up in the fanciest of kitchens.

It was when your mouth was filled with another bite some time later that he inhaled again, satisfied with his belly full of noodles, he turned to you and opened his mouth. His eyes narrowed at you before he said it.

“Twenty feels like a lot, though,” he said it so abruptly and you choked on the soup you were swallowing and started to cough, which he ignored, “logistically, I mean. This was originally a 5-day retreat.”

His eyes were still narrowed in your direction and you lifted a handful of the chips you’d opened up and threw several right at his face. His lips pulled into a teasing smile and he lifted a hand and swatted a few of the chips away. Two of them hit him in the face. His lips were pulled into a grin. You were still coughing and trying to keep your laughing from making you choke any more.

“No, no, listen,” he was laughing a little bit through the teasing, “that’s five times every single day, including day one. That means on day one, you have to have sex five times. Is it five different guys, or maybe two times for one guy, three times for another one? Or — god, is it one guy, five times in one day? Isn’t that too much pressure?”

You couldn’t breathe. You were laughing that painful laugh that takes every ounce of your oxygen away from you and never gave you a moment to pause for an inhale. You might just die right here, teased to death because Kyungsoo found your condoms.

“You just met them! I mean, I know that you’re obviously a beautiful woman. I will admit that,” his hand was lifted to his chest as he spoke, “and it’s much easier for a woman, especially one like you, to get laid; but five times? bam-bam-bam-bam-bam,” his hands were up and he was hitting one off the other one, a visual representation of the insane amount of sex you were having in this hypothetical scenario he was describing and you were trying your absolute best to breathe through your laughter. You felt tears running down your face from it.

He wouldn’t quit, “Sex. Straight away. No names, no facts about them, no rest because there’s no time. Right from day one, just … fucking. And then you have to keep up that momentum. Every single day, five times. It’s insane! How would you have time for anything else? Do you eat? Sleep? Shower?”

You’d moved at that point in his speech. You had leapt toward him. You needed to end this once and for all. This was what you feared might happen. You were laughing too much at his ridiculous analysis of the logistics of you bringing twenty condoms with you to be able to speak at all, you simply moved closer to where he sat on the other side of this pot of noodles and you reached up for him with both of your hands. You needed to stop him. One of your hands landed over his open mouth and you covered it tightly, the other one you wrapped around his shoulders trying to give yourself some leverage to stop him from talking about it.

He lifted a hand and pulled yours down from his lips, managing to eke out another giggle and a few more words, “t-twenty c-condoms,” he managed to get out and you struggled to pull your hand free so you could cover his mouth again. He was shaking with his laughter and you squeezed as tightly as you could, finding yourself practically sitting in his lap in the efforts to silence him. If he died from this he deserved it.

“Shut up, shut up, oh my god, shut up,” you cried through the horrified giggles, squeezing him tighter to try and end everything embarrassing that was happening right now. You hardly even felt the other hand of his that wrapped around your waist pulling you closer to him to keep you from falling into the hot noodles and burning yourself. It made your thighs part up high on his lap, right near his waist. The shorts you wore were so short you could feel the scratchiness of his jean shorts against your bare inner thighs. You could feel the warmth of him between your legs and you tried not to imagine how very tightly you were actually pressed up against his body, the warmth between your legs embracing the warmth of him. His grip around you was tight and this was probably only to keep you safe — the liability that you were, afterall.

You couldn’t have been the only one. There was just no way a single adult would come to something like this and not come prepared. When you managed to stop laughing enough to talk, you asked him.

“How many did you bring? And don’t lie to me and say you didn’t bring any.”

You released his mouth just so he could answer you and you watched his lips from up close as he licked them and opened his mouth to speak. You caught motion from his free hand and he held up his five fingers and his mouth silently spoke out the number.

“Five?” You flinched on top of him and his hand tightened around your waist, immediately pulling you back into him when you sagged away. You were slowly becoming more aware of how very close you were to him right now. The smallest shift of your hips and you would easily be straddling his waist. There was a growing humidity that built between the two of you where you connected with him here.

“Five,” he said with a slip of his eyes down on your lips, “a completely normal and reasonable pack of five.”

He bit down on his lips after the confession and you felt the muscles in his thighs below your ass shift, he wiggled just a little bit and with the wiggle you felt the slight change in how you sat on him. With that wiggle you could feel just a little more of his lap that you sat on and you could make out a definite flush in his cheeks, his ears, and the back of his neck. His lips in particular looked pinker when he bit down on them again and you struggled to pull your eyes up from them. You shouldn’t stare so long at his mouth. It brought up memories of the way he felt when he kissed you.

You could hardly make sense of his number though. You pulled your face back and shook your head in disbelief. You didn’t buy it.

“Just five?” You argued, “but — but what if you met the love of your life here and you’re both crazy about each other and wanted to just lock yourselves in a room for the whole week?”

He was giggling. You could feel it in his abdomen next to your inner thigh. Below your legs he felt firm and tense and his hand shifted as he adjusted his grip on you. His fingertips slipped beneath the fabric of your shirt and he felt even warmer than your burning skin felt that he now touched. His eyes were down on your lips again.

You couldn’t do this. You had to do something to stop this. This had crossed some sort of a line already.

“Well, maybe she’d be that one psychopath that brought twenty condoms with her.”

His words came out so quickly and they hit you like an electric shock.

The reality of this was back. It was an uncomfortable and dangerous feeling. It was splashing you in the face with cool water and you could feel the wrongness in it. This funny joke had gone too far. You saw it in his own severe reaction to what he had just said to you. He’d meant it as a joke, ultimately it had just been a funny joke.

After he spoke it, his lips flattened and the pinkness in his cheeks grew. His eyes which had been so playful suddenly dropped and he cleared his throat at the same time as you allowed gravity to take your balance and shift it away from him. His hand left your waist immediately and you scooted back and away from him, retreating to the other side of the noodles, off of his lap and out of his arms, where it was in your best interest to stay for good.

You had a renewed interest in your beer can. The brand was something local that you’d never had before and you read the back label from top to bottom without skipping a single word and without digesting a single word either. You could make out his movement from your peripheral vision and you heard the click and hiss of another beer can being opened, followed instantly by a second. It pulled your attention up from your own empty can and Kyungsoo was leaning forward with the beer in his hand for you to take, his flighty eyes not quite meeting yours except for the briefest of touches.

Without him perceiving you so closely you could feel yourself relaxing a little bit from the earlier humiliation and laughing fit turned inappropriate and stifling closeness that nearly suffocated you both with the unexplainable thickness of the air that had built up between the two of you.

Halfway through this beer Kyungsoo inhaled deeply, opened his mouth and asked you a silly question.

“Zombie invasion or Vampires?” he asked and you swallowed what was inside your mouth and looked into his face. He was looking down at his beer can absentmindedly while he clicked the tab with his thumb. It took you only a few seconds of thought and you shrugged, “Vampires, I guess.”

He nodded his head once and shrugged his face, “they’re only a problem at night,” he said in agreement. It was the same thought that you had about them. Zombies seemed like an all the time problem. Vampires would be solved with a curfew.

”Watching sports or playing sports?” You asked suddenly, figuring that this game involved taking turns. His eyes were lifted up into the air above his head and he pursed his lips, “playing sports, I guess.”

“Same.” You were nodding in agreement, finding sports on TV too boring to handle you much more enjoyed playing them even if you were never really great at any one sport in particular.

“Singing or Dancing?” It was his turn to ask.

You really enjoyed singing when you were alone, but you weren’t the kind of person to be able to do it in front of anyone. Still, if you had to pick one, you’d pick singing. You answered as such and his head ticked to the side with a cute eyebrow lift and a smile.

“Singing,” he said in agreement with you and you nodded your head, hoping he wouldn’t expect you to actually be any good at it. This was about enjoyment, not talent.

“Win the lottery or find your soulmate?” This one had him thinking. He had been such a crazy person while playing Monopoly you figured he would pick the money but after a few minutes of thought he shrugged and took a sip of his beer giving a soft “soulmate,” as his answer.

“Ohhhh, I didn’t expect that from you.” You teased and you swallowed more of your beer emptying the can completely as he watched your face for a few moments, probably expecting you to answer this one. You only nodded your head as a response. He lifted his eyebrows in question and you nodded again, confirming without words that you had the same response as he did. It was kind of spooky how many answers you both shared. Even weirder still that he understood what you were saying without you having to actually speak with him. It was something you’d noticed during some of the cooking challenges, the odd unspoken communication that just came easy with him.

“Right or left?” He asked very suddenly with a wide smile and you lifted up your right hand, shouting “exterior!” proudly and instantly. His eyes widened and gave you a round of applause before he asked another question, “East or west?” This one didn’t work. You lifted your hand and scratched at your lip, avoiding his eyes and pointing a finger in some direction that you’d just picked at random.

“That’s South.” He shook his head and furrowed his brows, “boooo,” he jeered at you and you shrugged in a hopeless sort of way with a giggle. “It moves around,” you whined and he shook his head slowly at you. “It absolutely does not. You move, it stays where it is.”

The sound of the patio door opening startled you both and you turned to see Sara sheepishly peeking her head out through the opening.

“Oh, here you are. I thought I heard laughing,” she said in her sweet voice, “we’re just starting a movie marathon, do you both want to join?”

It sounded fun actually. You’d wondered how much longer you two could play this or that before running out of ideas and you were nodding your head enthusiastically, pushing yourself up to your feet before Kyungsoo even had a chance to register the question.

“Oh, uhh — alright,” he said softly as if he’s only just now realized that he had been spending all of this time with you alone, the enemy — out of what, pure love for ramen? Need for fresh air and a distraction from the tedium? There was a movie marathon happening now, that was real entertainment. Not just a crazy girl who he could make fun of for packing way too many condoms for a 5-day trip, who doesn’t know directions, and who does awful things to him like call him mean names, attack his ribs because that’s where he’s the most ticklish, tries to suffocate him any chance she gets, and does terrible awful things to his toothbrush.

You were already cleaning up the space and gathering trash and used utensils to bring inside. Kyungsoo was only now standing up and picking up the last few beer cans and the remains of the delicious ramen he had made for you.

Inside of the kitchen the others had brought over some spare mattresses and pillows and laid them all out on the floor — they had turned out the lights and they were projecting a movie on the big blank wall.

It was something you hadn’t ever seen before, something grand and epic with a large sweeping universe, action, adventure and romance all in one. It honestly felt perfect for a movie marathon.

You could smell the microwave popcorn and you already had a cold beer waiting for you on one of the floor mattresses. You had a pile of pillows at your back and someone, god bless them, had gone into your room and brought your lovely winner’s blanket.

You eyed the rest of the group as they settled down in spots around the space, specifically leaving the space right beside you open for Kyungsoo. You noticed a cold beer next to his side as well. Normally you’d have gone out of your way to find another spot to sit. Or even drag a big heavy mattress over to use instead of having to share the same one with him. But now the movie was starting and there was really not enough time for all of that. You scooted closest to the edge of this mattress and out of your peripheral vision you saw him come up to the other side of this mattress and he sunk down into it, grabbing the beer and sitting a lot further away from the edge than you had done.

He wasn’t going out of his way to put as much space between the two of you as you had been. The lights were out and the movie began playing and soon this sitting at the very edge of this thing was becoming a bit too uncomfortable so you scooted yourself just a little bit closer to where he sat.

When you scooted though, you could suddenly feel the warmth of his thigh next to yours and as you adjusted you leaned against some of the pillows propped up behind your back, finding a bit more support when you leaned just slightly against his arm. You’d pulled your blanket up over your legs and pretended not to notice when his hand pulled the blanket over his legs too.

The movies were long and involved. Occasionally your mind would drift too far from the plot and the small whispered questions like, “wait, who is that guy again?” Would be met with whispered responses, “that’s the admiral’s son,” and your follow up realizations like, “ohh my god that’s why he’s being hunted,” got a white little hum as a response from him.

While you tried your best not to interrupt his movie watching experience you felt strangely comfortable asking him every single question that popped into your head and based on his calm responses you didn’t think he even minded it all that much.

The movie gave you whiplash though. It was quick with the surprises and it had reached a point when you’d already jumped four times from the dramatic twists and turns and you could feel some very real danger for the main hero when he found himself down in a dark pit, seemingly at the end of his luck. You could feel a creepy crawling sensation slipping up your back when you first saw them; it was spiders. Spiders. You felt a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach and you felt your breath feel sticky in your heavy lungs. There were so many. You were gasping. You were desperate for air but your lungs wouldn’t cooperate. Hundreds. Thousands of enormous, hairy spiders with thousands of legs and fangs; the sounds of their skittering feet and chomping jaws — the rooms filled with their webs, and human sized bodies trapped in those webs, wrapped up and wriggling and screaming. You felt your hands shaking and you had to close your eyes. You couldn't breathe. You couldn’t stop it. You were going to die right here without oxygen. You couldn’t stop it. You could feel their legs crawling all over your skin and you could feel their fangs sinking down into your skin. Ripping out chunks of your flesh. Burrowing under your skin. You had to dip your head down under the blanket and you were trembling all over and you couldn’t breathe.

“Hey,” you heard his low voice whisper out into your ear over the sound of the screaming, “hey, hey. Shh… you’re okay.” He was talking to you. You felt his arms rubbing over your back, you felt his arms wrap around your shoulders and he was rubbing you up and down in long slow pressured passes over your skin, shushing into your ear and willing you to calm down with the warmth of his cheek pressed up against your cheek.

“Shhh…They’re not real.”

“They can’t hurt you.”

“You are safe here.”

“You’re okay, honey, you’re alright.”

“Breathe in slowly,” he mentored the deep and slow breaths he urged you to take. You felt the slow rise of his chest as he did it. You gasped and your lungs stuttered as you tried to copy him.

“And out, slowly.” You felt the slow exhale he let out. He was so close, his breath warmed your face.

It took a long while. Your breathing was the first to begin to settle.

You’d lifted your face from where you’d been hiding against his chest and you found that you had been crying. It took you a few deep breaths to get your breathing to actually start to settle down and his words began to really sink in. You’d had some sort of a panic attack at the thought of all of those spiders and you must have been so stressed out lately being here with all of those bugs around you constantly, you’d simply lost your touch with reality for a moment.

“A-Are they gone yet?” You had it under control. You understood what had happened and you simply lost your mind for a short while but he brought you back. It was just panic. It happened occasionally and on those rare times when it took you over so completely, it took you hours to finally calm down. But here, here with him; he had been so quick to understand what was happening and he had been so steady and strong with his words and his distracting comfort. You felt taken aback and stunned.

It took him a few moments to lift his head out of the blanket and when he came back to you he gave you the smallest squeeze on your hand that he was holding and you knew it was over.

“They are gone,” he leaned his forehead against yours under this blanket and whispered the answer to your question.

“T-Thank you,” you whispered and you wiped your face with the back of your hand. You felt the small hum from his chest as a response and you held your breath when you felt the soft pads of his thumbs wiping the wetness from your cheeks. You felt like a mess. What a ridiculous human being you were. Unable to handle a little bit of fake spiders in a fake movie, you felt like an idiot. The shame from this was next to flood through your body and you whispered out a quiet word to him, “sorry.”

You felt his head shaking back and forth and he had already pulled both of your heads out from under the blanket that was quickly growing stuffy from the heat from both of your bodies.

“Don’t be. You’re fine.” He said it in such a matter of fact way, it felt so very true and finite. Don’t be sorry. You are fine. Then he squeezed down harder on your hand which he still held down somewhere under this blanket.

He wasn't letting you go. Was this just you being a liability again? Was he trying to keep you from weeping and screaming and causing a scene? You felt so caught off guard and nervous with him holding your hand like this that you felt too scared to move.

This fucking movie though, the whiplash continued because in front of you now, unfolded a sensual romantic scene. With you and Kyungsoo sharing this blanket with you on the same mattress and with your hand held tightly within his own, his fingers intertwined now within yours and the heavy weight of his bare knee resting atop of your bare thigh. They were kissing now. He had just walked in on her in the shower and he had shoved her roughly against the marble wall of the fancy hotel room and his hands moved to cup her bare breasts. The camera zoomed in on her nipples and his hands roughly gripped her ass. You stared ahead with your teeth biting down hard on your own lips when you felt the loosening of Kyungsoo’s hand as he straightened his posture and cleared his throat, and unwound your fingers from his fingers, your hand from his hand, he unceremoniously dropped you entirely and pulled his own hands together securely onto his own lap.

You felt oddly slighted but the scene had been too close to your first kiss with him for either of you to withstand.

The pair on the screen were fucking on a bed now. Seeing the quick progression of the love scene made you slightly thankful that he had let go of your hand when he did, even if you did feel a strange twinge in your throat for having been dropped like a hot potato by the man, his timing was spot on.

The second movie had finished. This was a trilogy and you’d all been watching this for hours now. You felt the need to get up and move your body some as a few of the others had done throughout the film.

You’d managed to untangle yourself from the blanket. Kyungsoo didn’t move when you left. He had taken on a more relaxed posture on the blankets and only the very slight reflection of the screen on his eyes gave you any indication that he was awake. But now when you looked at him, you no longer saw the reflection. His eyes seemed to be closed. You’d woken him up so early this morning; already it felt like ages ago.

In the back of this big room you caught sigh of Sara who had been pacing with an odd posture. You noticed she hadn’t laid down much on the mattresses during the films and she had opted for sitting up in a chair. She’d mentioned with a smile that if she got all the way down there she might not be able to get back up. Still, she was no longer seated but just doing slow and careful walking exercises here in the far back wall.

She caught your motion to join her and her shoulders straightened out as she greeted you with a smile. You noticed her hand fell down from where she had been touching her belly. Her smile was so bright that you figured she had just been absentmindedly touching her baby rather than feeling any sorts of discomfort.

“Are you here to join me in my walks?” She reached for you and linked elbows with you the moment you were within touching distance and you giggled beside this sweet woman and fell into step beside her.

You both took several slow and steady steps in a big lazy circle around the large open space. After a few moments of walking she squeezed a hand around your forearm and giggled into your ear beside you. “Has he kissed you yet?”

Always straight and to the point. You looked into her face with wide eyes and you could feel the heat filling your cheeks with the answer basically broadcasted with your reaction and her smiled widened further with the quiet little yelp of excitement that erupted from her chest.

“But he didn’t mean it,” you said in a whisper. She was still smiling and she nodded her head up and down, “Sara, he was just drunk.” She was giggling with her hand covering her mouth to keep her volume down.

“Oh psshh…” she waved a dismissive hand. “They never mean it,” she whispered, “until they do,” she added with a slow rub over her belly and a wild giggle and you gasped scandalously and tapped her arm to get her to cut that out. Your wordless denials had absolutely no effect on her. She had long ago left reality and now resided deep in la-la land.

“I am so serious,” she whispered with her head dipped down beside your face, “you don’t see the way he looks at you — no, the way he stares at you. If I didn’t know for the fact that he was terribly, hopelessly,” she inhaled and leaned into the dramatics with a suggestive whispered groan, “desperately in love with you, I’d think he was trying to set you on fire with his eyes.”

She lifted her head and touched the tip of her index finger to her chin, “actually I think it might be that too. He wants you to burn for him the way he burns for you. Gahhhhhh—” she was squealing again. You had to shush her to remind her to keep her voice down. Strangely she quit squealing quite abruptly and her hand was touching over her belly again with the smallest gasp.

This couldn’t have been a coincidence, you’d seen her touching her belly many times at this point with a sort of pensive look in her eyes.

“Sara, are you okay? What’s happening?”

Her mouth was shaped into an o and she exhaled slowly through her mouth.

“Just, normal aches and pains involved with growing a person inside of your body. It’ll pass,” she was assuring you of this but you couldn’t help but notice the light sheen of sweat that covered her forehead.

“Come sit down,” you pulled lightly on her arm, urging her to relax now but she pulled you back.

“The walking helps,” she said with her eyebrows furrowed together and her slow and steady exhale leaving her chest in a purposeful rhythm.

You felt a surge of worry with the realization that you had been watching her walking in slow and steady circles for the better part of three hours now. The walking helps, helps with what? Was she in labor?

“How long are the pauses in between?”

“It was — hours but they’re getting closer. It’s probably nothing,” her smile was back. She’d straightened out her shoulders and shrugged lightly, as if having a baby right now in the wake of a strong hurricane while not in a hospital was no big deal at all.

“We have to tell someone,” you said, moving through the large space of this industrial kitchen until you reached the space where the movie was playing. You found a sleeping Javier and a groggy Mr. Chen who noticed your movement. You kneeled down and whispered into his ear. He caught the important words, namely ‘Sara’ and ‘baby,’ and he was standing up instantly, tapping Javier roughly on the arm who woke up with a start.

“Javier, get up. Your wife is in labor. I have to call her sister. Oh my god, I’m going to be an uncle.”

Wife? Javier and Sara are married to each other? Uncle? Were all of these people part of the same family? The words came at shock to you and their quick movement woke Kyungsoo who sat up and rubbed his eyes.

The movie was turned off. There was a flurry of activity and movement and Mr. Chen and Javier were arguing with an impossibly stubborn pregnant woman who was so clearly in labor that she had to pause every ten minutes for breathing exercises before she would continue with her denials.

“I just don’t want to miss them,” she whined with a deep frown on her face and she motioned toward where you and Kyungsoo stood, “they got so close, it almost happened. And you’re telling me I can’t just cross my legs and go later? I think I can hold it.”

Sara was crying. She was irrationally invested in You and Kyungsoo’s story and she was in pain.

You assured her that there was nothing important here that she was going to miss and she needed to go with Mr. Chen and Javier now. She needed to go meet her new baby. They were headed to the hospital. Mr. Chen assured us that he was an expert at navigating the treacherous weather worn and flooded roads of this island and he would deliver her there safely. He even promised to return tomorrow as soon as he was able to and Kyungsoo got everyone’s phone number so they could send updates.

The big heavy door to the front of the building closed shut tight with a heavy bang and you found yourself standing in absolute silence opposite an equally quiet Kyungsoo. For the first time since you’d met him you were really completely and undeniably alone with the man who — against every single desperate and gasping breath and scream as evidence of your stubborn denial — alone with the man who you were in love with.

Links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

[ifdimpeul]

★ CAPA PARA DOAÇÃO | short ou longfic

todas indisponíveis.

[yeolsaintlaurent]

Nocturnal Reverie ch.11 [PCY]

pairing - chanyeol x fem reader

genre - mature, smut, angst

themes - power imbalance, romance, crime, justice, class divide, politics, sex

synopsis - In the sprawling, dystopian city of Emberhaven, where power and corruption reign supreme, the lives of two unlikely individuals collide in a tale of passion, intrigue, and moral reckoning. Chanyeol, an enigmatic and wealthy scion of the city's elite, finds himself captivated by the elusive Y/N, a cunning and resourceful thief who navigates the treacherous underworld of Emberhaven. Their first encounter, sparked by a chance meeting in a luxurious club called The Velvet Lounge, sets the stage for a whirlwind romance amidst a backdrop of crime, politics, and danger.

warnings - drug use

A/N - i am so so so glad to be back and writing. thank you for reading this series after my long ass hiatus. so many notifications kept popping up during the hiatus about likes and reblogs on Nocturnal Reverie and CVMF and it always made me smile and filled with joy. i am very grateful for all the readers new and old. as always, let me know what you think about this chapter. feedback is always welcome. love you all xx

Chapter 11: The Message

Y/N stirred awake in Chanyeol's bed, the sheets cool beside her where he should have been. She reached out instinctively but found only emptiness. Frowning, she glanced at the clock on the bedside table. 11 AM. He must have gone out early. Maybe he had things to take care of.

Yawning, she got up and padded toward the kitchen. Her cat, a sleek, black feline named Kat, greeted her with a purr and a brush against her legs. She picked him up, rubbing his belly affectionately. He purred louder, a comforting sound in the quiet apartment.

"Good morning, Kat," she murmured, setting him down to fill his bowls with wet food, dry food, and fresh water. He meowed appreciatively before diving into his breakfast.

Opening the fridge, Y/N found a carton of strawberry juice and took a long swig straight from it. She smiled to herself, enjoying the small luxuries of Chanyeol’s well-stocked kitchen. His fancy coffee machine caught her eye, and she decided to make herself a caramel macchiato. As the machine whirred to life, her thoughts wandered to Chanyeol.

She still knew so little about what he did for a living. He had mentioned something about cutting off his family and wanting to start a new life, but the details were vague. What could have been so important that he took such a drastic step? He had said it was something that didn’t align with his values, but why? And what exactly had he done?

The rich aroma of coffee filled the kitchen, snapping her out of her reverie. Her macchiato was ready. She poured it into a mug and carried it to the lounge, sinking into the plush couch. She turned on the TV, flicking through channels until she stopped at the news.

The headline on the screen made her freeze. "Apartment Fire in Emberhaven: Possible Arson." Her heart skipped a beat. The image of the burning building filled the screen. It was her apartment.

“Oh no,” she whispered, clutching the mug tightly. Whoever did this was sending her a message, and she received it loud and clear. Lucio’s men. It had to be them.

The reporter’s voice cut through her shock. "We have an interview with the lead investigator on the scene." The camera switched to a familiar face. Minseok.

“We believe the perpetrator is someone we’ve been monitoring for a long time,” Minseok said, his expression grim.

Y/N's mind raced. Was he talking about Lucio or her? She turned off the TV and leaned back, closing her eyes. Things were getting worse. She had to find a way to fix this before anyone else got hurt.

Reaching for her phone, she quickly sent a message to Kai. She waited for a response, but none came. As she was about to set her phone down, a notification popped up from a private number. Her heart pounded as she opened it.

"Come here at 10:30 PM tonight with the money and goods, and all will be forgiven", with a pin to what seemed to be an obscure alley leading to the docks.

A million thoughts raced through her mind. This could be her way out, but it could also be a trap. Whatever it was, it was her problem to solve, her burden to bear. She wouldn’t drag Chanyeol into this mess, not when she loved him as much as she did. She had to protect him, even if it meant facing the danger alone.

At the police station, Minseok sat behind his desk, the clutter of papers and case files spread before him. He was deep in conversation with a fellow officer about the fire when his phone rang, the harsh sound cutting through the room. He picked up the receiver, his expression hardening as the warden's grim voice crackled through the line.

"Lucio has escaped. Four of our officers are dead."

Minseok's face twisted in anger. "What the hell were you doing while this happened? How could you let a high-profile mobster away?" His voice was a mix of fury and disbelief.

The warden's response was muffled, but the weight of the news hit Minseok like a freight train. This was troubling beyond measure. He slammed the receiver down, his mind racing with the implications. They had to act fast.

Grabbing his cellphone, he dialed Kyungsoo. The phone barely rang twice before Kyungsoo answered.

"Lucio escaped," Minseok said without preamble. "We need to accelerate our plans. This is escalating faster than we anticipated."

Kyungsoo's voice was steady. "Understood. What do you need?"

"We need to find Lucio again, and fast. But there's more. The apartment that was torched—it was supposed to be abandoned. But the remains suggest someone was living there. A woman. I don’t think it is farfetched to assume that it could be the girl we saw during the sting."

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line. Kyungsoo's mind raced. He had his suspicions about who she might be based on his conversations with Chanyeol, but he kept his voice neutral. "I'll handle the matter of the girl. It's my responsibility to find out more about her."

Minseok agreed, albeit reluctantly. "Fine. But I'm increasing the number of people in this case. We need to catch Lucio, and fast. Once we have him, we can move on to Dom."

"I'll keep you updated," Kyungsoo said before hanging up. He couldn't shake the feeling that things were about to get even more complicated.

Y/N stood in the dimly lit alley, the shadows swallowing her slight figure clad in all black. She checked her phone screen for the time—10:15 PM. The cold night air bit at her skin as she waited for any message from the unknown sender. She took a deep breath and sent her live location to Kai. She knew he had her back, no matter what. Their bond was forged in childhood, built on trust and countless shared secrets. She smiled at the thought of how she used to entrust him with her precious beanie baby toys and her weekly allowance.

Suddenly, the alley was flooded with bright headlights. She squinted against the harsh light, quickly tucking her phone into her boot. The car door creaked open, and she heard the unmistakable sound of heavy boots hitting the pavement.

"Well, well, well," a raspy, sarcastic voice drawled. "Look who decided to show up."

Y/N's heart raced. Lucio.

He stepped into the light, a sneer on his face, his eyes raking over her in a way that made her skin crawl. "You did the right thing, sweetheart," he said, his voice laced with crude amusement. "Now, why don't you come over here and give me that duffel bag? Nice and slow."

Y/N swallowed her fear and took a tentative step forward, clutching the bag tightly. "Here it is," she said, her voice steady despite the terror clawing at her insides. She approached Lucio, her eyes never leaving his.

Lucio's grin widened, his eyes gleaming with a predatory light. "That's it, nice and easy," he taunted, his voice dripping with condescension. "Gotta say, you clean up nice. It's a shame you're mixed up in all this."

Y/N forced herself to stay calm, to focus on the task at hand. She held out the duffel bag, but Lucio didn't take it right away. Instead, he reached out and ran a finger down her arm, making her shudder with revulsion.

"Such a brave little thing," he sneered, leaning in close. "But bravery won't get you far in this world, darling. Especially not with the kind of people you're dealing with."

She pulled back slightly, her eyes flashing with defiance. "Just take the bag and leave me out of this," she said, her voice firm.

Lucio chuckled, a dark, mocking sound. "Oh, I don't think so. You see, you're part of this now. And there's no getting out."

He finally took the bag from her, opening it to inspect the contents. His eyes lit up as he saw the money and the goods inside. "Well, well, you actually came through. I'm almost impressed."

Y/N took a step back, her heart pounding in her chest. "You got what you wanted. Never ever contact me again."

Lucio looked up from the bag, a sinister smile spreading across his face. "Not so fast, sweetheart. We need to have a little chat first. About your boyfriend."

Her blood ran cold. "What about him?"

Lucio's smile widened. "Oh, don't play dumb with me. You think I don't know who he is? What he is? Chanyeol’s got a lot of people interested in him. And now, because of him, they're interested in you too."

She tried to mask her fear with anger. "Leave him out of this. He has nothing to do with your business."

Lucio laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "Oh! Is that what you think? How cute." He stepped closer, his eyes narrowing. "Get in the car while I'm still being nice," he said, his voice dripping with fake politeness.

Y/N's heart raced. "Fuck you! And what if I refuse?" she challenged, her voice steady despite the fear gripping her.

Lucio's expression darkened, the sarcasm vanishing. "Then your little lover will get hurt. A lot. I'll make sure of it."

As he spoke, Y/N's hand slowly reached toward the knife in her right boot. But before she could react, two large figures appeared from the shadows behind her, grabbing her roughly. She struggled, but they overpowered her easily, throwing her into the car.

Lucio smirked to himself as he turned and got into the car next to Y/N. By now, her hands and feet were tied, and a strip of tape was plastered across her mouth. She thrashed around, desperate to free herself, but it was no use.

"Quiet down," Lucio ordered, his voice cold. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small bag of white powder. He poured it onto a tray in front of him and meticulously cut lines into the cocaine. As the car started moving, he rolled up a 100 bill and snorted a line.

Lucio then turned toward Y/N, gesturing the rolled-up bill toward her as if to offer some. She angrily turned away, refusing to give him the satisfaction.

Her mind raced, searching for a way out. She glanced at Lucio, who seemed momentarily lost in his drug-induced haze. Despite her terror, she knew she had to stay calm and wait for the right moment to escape. Her life, and possibly Chanyeol's, depended on it.

As the car came to a halt, the tires crunching over the gravel, Y/N felt a shiver run down her spine. Lucio, still engrossed in his cocaine-fueled haze, clumsily opened the door and gestured for her to follow. The two large figures who had been his enforcers stepped out first, their imposing forms casting long shadows in the dim light.

Y/N was pulled roughly from the car, the cold night air biting at her skin. She was led toward a large, dilapidated building that loomed ominously in the distance. As they approached, the grandeur of the structure became more apparent despite its current state of decay.

It was an old theatre, its faded grandeur hinting at a time when it had been the heart of cultural life. The exterior was crumbling, with ivy creeping up the walls and broken windows revealing glimpses of the interior. The building’s once-majestic façade was now scarred with neglect, but it still retained an air of faded opulence.

The men pushed Y/N inside, and she stumbled into the grand foyer. The interior was a ghostly echo of its former self: ornate chandeliers hung from the ceiling, their crystals coated in dust; velvet drapes lined the walls, tattered and moth-eaten; and the remnants of plush seating lay scattered about, some torn and others still surprisingly intact.

Lucio led her through the foyer, his footsteps echoing off the high ceilings. The grandeur of the theatre’s stage was revealed as they entered the main hall. Despite the dust and cobwebs, the stage retained its regal charm, with its once-brilliant red curtains now hanging in tatters and the remnants of a lavishly decorated backdrop partially visible.

Y/N was brought to the centre of the stage, her heart pounding with anxiety. The vast space around her seemed empty and imposing. Lucio’s men roughly tied her to a sturdy wooden chair placed in the middle of the stage, securing her wrists and ankles with thick rope. A strip of tape was placed over her mouth, effectively silencing any protests or pleas for help.

Lucio stood at the edge of the stage, his presence looming over her. He gazed around the old theatre with a smirk, clearly amused by the contrast between its former splendour and its current state of decay.

“Now,” Lucio said, his voice dripping with false politeness, “we’re going to move on to the more important part of our business. I suggest you make yourself comfortable, though I doubt you’ll be enjoying the show.”

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small bag of white powder. He dipped into it with a tiny golden spoon. After snorting it, he turned toward Y/N with a mocking gesture, offering her some.

Y/N turned her head away in disgust, her anger and fear battling for control. Lucio’s smirk widened as he took another hit.

“Just so you know,” he said, his tone growing darker, “if you don’t cooperate, Chanyeol will be the one to suffer. I can make sure of that, believe me.”

He then gestured for the men to leave the stage, and they exited, their footsteps fading into the distance. The theatre’s oppressive silence enveloped Y/N, amplifying her sense of isolation.

Alone on the stage, Y/N surveyed her surroundings with a mix of hope and desperation. The grandeur of the theatre, despite its decay, might hold some hidden opportunities. She had to stay calm and find a way to escape, both for herself and for Chanyeol.

As Y/N remained tied to the chair, the echoes of Lucio’s footsteps grew fainter, leaving her alone in the oppressive silence of the abandoned theatre. The dim light from a single overhead bulb flickered intermittently, casting long shadows that danced across the stage. Her thoughts raced with plans for escape, but for now, she had to wait.

Outside, the night air was crisp and cool, and the city lights shimmered faintly in the distance. Unbeknownst to Y/N, Chanyeol was pacing anxiously in his upscale apartment, his mind a whirlwind of worry. The usual calm of his surroundings did little to soothe his nerves, especially with Y/N missing and the fire at her apartment still fresh in his mind.

Chanyeol’s phone buzzed on the glass coffee table, pulling him from his anxious thoughts. He picked it up, expecting a message from Y/N or a far-fetched text from Kai. Instead, the screen displayed a single notification from an unknown number.

He tapped on it, and the message that appeared was cryptic and chilling:

“If you want her back, you need to act fast. Tonight’s performance is just the beginning. Come to the old theatre at midnight. Time is running out.”

Chanyeol’s heart raced as he read the message, his face going pale. The gravity of the situation hit him like a freight train. The old theatre—he knew where that was. The message was a sinister hint about what was to come, and the urgency in its words made his stomach churn.

He quickly glanced at his watch; it was already past ten-thirty. There was no time to waste. Chanyeol’s mind raced as he grabbed his coat and headed for the door. His phone buzzed again, but he didn’t have time to check it. He had to get to the theatre and figure out what Lucio had planned.

The apartment was left in chaotic disarray as Chanyeol rushed out, his pulse pounding in his ears. He had to find Y/N before it was too late. The message had made one thing painfully clear: the night was far from over, and the real danger was just beginning.

[jongbross]

hello may i request matching couple items headcanon with exo? thank you <3

xiumin:

minseok would have matching mugs with you. as a big fan of coffee, he would go shopping with you one day and lose himself at the store. when he's back, he has two grey mugs with little drawings that complete each other. "look what i found! it's cute, don't you think?"

suho:

junmyeon would definitely have matching phone cases with you. he has a good collection of cases, so it would only be natural for him to receive a package one day and say "love, come see it!" - and when you appear behind him, you see two star wars phone cases with the words "i love you" and "i know". 🥹

lay:

i think yixing would either have matching necklaces or matching earrings with you, it just fits him. maybe he would be preparing to travel for a press tour, and before he leaves, he takes you out on a date and gives you a little box with a cute silver necklace, a tiny, shiny pendant on it. when you look at him, he pulls his own necklace from inside his shirt. "we're matching", yixing would say, with a big smile on his face.

baekhyun:

definitely matching shirts. baekhyun would tease you, looking online for corny matching shirts for couples - like those with bright colors and funny sayings. he would loooove to see you annoyed, rolling your eyes at him. in the end, baek would buy simple, minimalist matching shirts in a dark color - "we don't need to drought attention to our love, people would be jealous that you have me and they don't".

chen:

matching bracelets!!! the idea probably wouldn't be his, maybe jongdae would see someone doing it and just tell you "hey, what if we do it too?". next thing you know, you two would be at his couch on a sunday afternoon, making diy bracelets for each other - something that he would never, ever take it off.

chanyeol:

this man screams matching sneakers to me. chanyeol loves buying new shoes, and at some point he would start to look at a few sneakers and think that maybe they would fit you - and then it hits him. what if you two had matching sneakers? it would be nice, right? and this new nike air force is just sooo cute, isn't it? 🤭

d.o:

kyungsoo is a simple guy, he doesn't like to go too big for a lot of things - and one of them is matching items. i feel like he would maybe buy something small, like a keychain, at one of his trips. he would see the two keychains completing each other and instantly think about you. "i thought of you - and look, i have one too", kyungsoo would say, hoping you would like it.

kai:

soft, sooooft boy. jongin would definitely have matching pajamas with you, with cute little things all over it - his would probably have little brown bears, while yours would have little dogs or cats on it. jongin absolutely loves to sleep and to have comfortable clothes on, so the moment you said you needed a new pair of pajamas, he went "oh my god, i know just the place!"... and then you two left with two bags each.

sehun:

where the fuck is gifs from sehun on at sg photoshoot?

deep inside, sehun is a child - we all know that. so i absolutely think he would love the idea of having matching toothbrushes with you! the idea would be yours, but he would laugh his ass off once he saw it. "i want the spongebob one" "nope, that's mine" - as he grabs and puts in his mouth. "sehun, you didn't wash it!!!"

[kimbappykidding]

Imagine being nervous around D.O. because of his angry reputation and having no idea D.O. has a soft spot for you because he has a crush on you

Exo's Kai was your cousin and he was one year younger than you. You were both idols and being family and similar ages, interacted a lot. You saw each other often and were always at each other's houses, hanging out with the other's members and that was how Kai quickly noticed some things. D.O. was into you! His eyes would go to you when you entered a room and even though he wasn't obvious he'd follow what you were saying and was very aware of you. He'd tell Baekhyun to knock it off if he was messing with you and was sweetly protective of you. Drunk D.O. was even more obvious and would stare at you the way a prince looks at a Disney princess. Based on all this, Kai picked up on D.O.'s crush on your pretty much immediately and did everything in his power to get the two of you together but it was hard. For one, D.O. wouldn't outwardly admit he had a thing for you. Anytime Kai mentioned it he gave him a death glare and point-blank refused to engage in the conversation. Meanwhile, you were too nervous to say more than a few words to D.O. Kai tried talking him up to you and encouraging a conversation but frankly, you avoided D.O. and Kai had no idea why. D.O. was everything you wanted in a man but you just couldn't see it. So one day he asked you why you weren't comfortable around D.O. "I just get nervous around him Kai, I've seen him yell at Chanyeol and it scared me". Kai paused "wait when was this?". "At Sehun's 25 birthday party". Kai's eyes widened "but that was ages ago when you first started coming around". You nodded "I know, that was the first time I met him and it just stuck with me. I'd had a rough week and my manager had yelled at me all day so when he yelled it scared me and I don't know that's just always kind of stuck". What neither of you knew was D.O. was outside the room listening and folded his hands to stop them from shaking. He felt awful. He didn't even remember the party you were talking about but it sounded like him.

"Then I don't know, he can sometimes look angry and intimidating and I can never tell if he hates me or not" you continued. Kai shook his head almost laughing "he definitely doesn't hate you and I promise D.O. is not that scary. He's a bit tougher than say...Baekhyun but he's a softie really. You just have to talk to him to see it". You bit your lip "I'm just not sure" and Kai sighed "fine but just be open-minded yeah?" he asked. You nodded "okay I will be" but Kai didn't notice much change in your behaviour. So you were too swayed by an interaction with D.O. almost a year ago and D.O. wasn't the type to just insert himself into a conversation or go up to a girl he didn't know very well and start talking so despite his crush nothing happened...but Kai was determined to change that.

You had dinner at Kai's often but when he found out all his members would be out except D.O. he was very excited. Kai didn't say anything to you and welcomed you like usual. You were both playing Mario kart when he pretended to get a phone call from Suho. He then told you there was some problem and he had to go to the studio. "I'll be back as soon as I can and D.O. can keep you company, I've told him the situation" he explained. He'd told D.O. his friend was having an emergency and he had to go and had purposefully asked him to be welcoming to you but he needn't have told D.O. that. D.O. remembered the conversation he overheard and he wanted to put some things straight. D.O. figured a pretty good way to create a welcoming vibe was to bake. Everybody loved brownies and what said I'm not scary better than chocolate and raspberries? So D.O. got to work and you eventually came to find him in the kitchen, the nice smell wafting out to you. "Hi" you said coming into the room and D.O. smiled at you "hi Y/n, how are you?". You paused at his friendly voice but told him you were good and enquired how he was. "I'm good" D.O. told you "thanks for asking, I've made cupcakes if you want one". "Really?" you asked and D.O. nodded "of course". "Thanks" you said taking one and sitting down. "Do you like cooking?" you asked and D.O. paused. This was the first time you'd asked him a question unprompted and embarassed him how much that pleased him. "Erm yeah I really enjoy it. I like how it's a really practical hobby and you can make any dish your own". You nodded "it's hard to do though...I burn everything I make even stuff that goes in the microwave". D.O. laughed "really? How". "Well I get confused with all the buttons and forget how long it needs to be in for...it's a mess". D.O. laughed "well I was going to cook dinner tonight and if you want I can show you some things?". You paused "are you sure? I'm a pretty bad student". D.O. remembered what he'd overheard that day and smiled "don't worry I promise not to get annoyed or angry". You searched his face for a few moments before nodding "okay" and came to stand beside him "so what's first?". Kai returned home a few hours later with all his members and he was practically bouncing of the walls to see you and D.O. cooking dinner together. You announced the two of you had made dinner and D.O. was just helping you with the finishing touches. So you disappeared into the kitchen together and Kai watched you pretending not to. You looked so comfortable around D.O. now and D.O. himself was acting like a giant teddy bear. Dinner was served and you and D.O. fluttered around like nervous parents. You seemed especially worried that the food was edible but the boys soon told you it was delicious and you beamed. D.O. congratulated you and only then did the two of you sit down and eat. You sat together and Kai could see how happy D.O. was...which of course the other guys noticed too. "Is it just me or is D.O. glowing?" Baekhyun asked "anytime y/n looks at him he lights up". Sehun laughed "yeah now that you mention it, is he into her?". Chanyeol smirked "if he's not he's doing a good job of pretending". "They look good together" Lay said and Suho nodded "I was just thinking that". D.O. looked up and saw them all staring. His smile fell away and he glared at their smiles before turning back to you. "Awww pouty D.O. is the cutest" Baekhyun grinned. Kai popped a delicious piece of chicken into his mouth and considered this a huge success. And it was! After that the two of you grew closer and closer. Now D.O. would join you on your cousin days and Kai adored the way D.O. acted around you. He still wouldn't admit he had a thing for you but he also stopped denying it because all the guys teased him for it because he was just SO obvious. One night you were here late so it had gone dark by the time you were heading home. You only lived around the corner but D.O. walked you home just to make sure you were safe. Another time you were abroad for a few weeks and D.O. looked after all 5 of your house plants immaculately. Then when you heard D.O. wasn't going to be able to go home for his birthday you organised a small party and even baked a cake for him. Kai thought D.O. was going to pass out with pride when he heard you baked it yourself for him. D.O. didn't stop smiling the whole night and finally when the party was over Kai turned to him. "Still going to pretend you don't fancy my cousin?". In response D.O. just shook his head "I like her" and left the room. Kai squealed in delight. Now you were both aware of one another he just had to get you two together and he had the perfect opportunity...a wedding! Your joint cousin was getting married and the two of you had to be at the ceremony. You were stressing out because you'd just heard everyone had to have dates and Kai could've grinned at how perfect it was. "The wedding's in 2 weeks! How am I going to find a date on such short notice?". Kai smiled "Well why don't you ask D.O.?". You blushed "I...he's probably busy". Kai laughed "Have you forgot our cousin invited all of Exo and the boys are all going?" Kai asked. "But how do you know he hasn't asked someone else?". "Well let's ask him" Kai shrugged and yelled for D.O. "No don't! What if he doesn't want to?" you asked when D.O. appeared "what if I don't want to do what?". "Be Y/n's date" Kai said looking right at his friend. D.O. eye's widened and he blushed but luckily he was tanned enough to hide it. "To my cousin's wedding" you quickly clarified "I've just find out everyone in the family photos has to have a plus one but it's totally fine if you don't want to..." when D.O. shook his head "I don't mind, I'll be your date". "Really?" you asked and D.O. nodded "sure, it'll be fun" and you smiled hugging him "thanks D.O., I'll feel so much better with you over some random guy my mum would've got". D.O. smiled "no problem" and Kai had to hide his laughter at how dazed D.O. looked after you hugged him. So two weeks later the wedding rolled around and you, Kai and D.O. all travelled separately to the boys because you had to be there early. You checked into the hotel and then a few hours later were in the church for the ceremony. D.O. was the perfect date, he was polite, kind and seemed to always be there when you needed him. You cut your hand on one of the flowers and he just had a tissue for you. When the weather suddenly became rainy he was there with his jacket to cover you and whenever any family members asked if you were together he side-stepped the question without being rude. So by the time you made it to the reception you were so pleased D.O. was your date. He'd been perfect and you realised Kai had been right this entire time and you didn't know how to react. You vowed never to judge someone so quickly again and were having a really good time with D.O. Then you saw someone walk through the door and your smile dropped. D.O. noticed the change in your behaviour and how pale you'd gone but he couldn't work out why. He looked around the room and turned back to you "what is it? What's wrong?". You looked down and shook your head "nothing just my ex is here...Eun said he wouldn't be here but I guess he turned up". D.O. looked across the room and saw a guy watching you. "Do you want me to get security?" D.O. asked. You shook your head "no he'll just cause a scene. It should be fine, he probably won't come up to me because he doesn't know who you are and that'll intimidate him". D.O. nodded "okay then I'm not leaving your side". The smile you gave him was so amazing it have him the courage to go one better. "Actually how about we dance? There's no reason why you have to hide away and I'll make sure he comes nowhere near you". You seemed very surprised by D.O.'s request and he worried you'd say no when you nodded "I'd love to!". D.O. took your hand and led you to the sea of people. You were both adorably unsure around one another and took each other's hand delicately. D.O. gently put his hand on your waist and took the lead. You of course knew D.O. was an idol therefore, was experienced with dancing but it still took you by surprise how good he was! He took you around the floor effortlessly and it was very hot to see a guy like him be so good at dancing. You must've looked like you were having quite a lot of fun because you attracted attention from Eun. After dancing for a while you and D.O. grabbed a drink and headed outside to cool off. Eun followed you. Eun waited until you were halfway down the path before calling your name and you looked back and froze. “Shit” you said and D.O. saw where you were looking “do you want me to speak to him?”. You sighed “no just let’s stop and see what he has to say”. Eun caught up to you quickly and raised his hands “what no hello?”. “Hi Eun” you said and he looked you up and down “that’s a bit cold for a childhood friend”. You didn’t reply but he didn’t take the hint “you look good, have you lost weight?”. D.O. wanted to pummel him right then and there but as if sensing this you touched D.O.’s arm and looked at Eun “no I haven’t”. Eun looked you up and down again and made a surprised noise. “We’re going now, it was nice to see you” you said and turned to walk away. “So soon but we haven’t even caught up!” he called following you. “She said we’re done!” D.O. called but that angered Eun. “So who's this Y/n? Your boyfriend?" Eun replied. You shook your head and D.O. continued walking, ignoring him. "I don't owe you any explanation" you said and D.O. nodded "she doesn't, come on y/n" and he led you away but Eun followed. "If he's not your boyfriend then why were his hands all over you in there? If you're trying to make me jealous you should try harder" Eun called. D.O. shook his head "man this guy's an idiot". "What did you say!" Eun yelled and you tightened your grip on D.O.'s hand "come on let's just go back inside". D.O. was agreeing with you when Eun carried on. "I'm the idiot? You're the pathetic one y/n. Let's not forget you asked me out! You were the one chasing me Y/n. I have way more options than you and I was the best thing that ever happened to you but life finally started again when I was free of you". That's when D.O. lost it. "You have no clue what you're talking about! You came here, to her cousin's wedding to see her and she's the one who needs you?" D.O. asked yelling. Eun was slightly caught off guard by how D.O. had changed from a quiet sweet guy to a scary man ready to kick his ass. He went to reply but D.O. cut him off "no, you're done speaking and if you say another word I'll shut your mouth for you. Got it?" D.O. asked. You watched nervously, hoping D.O. wouldn't hit him if he made a smart comment but Eun was smarter than you gave him credit for. "Whatever" he muttered and walked away. Once he'd gone you felt better but turned to D.O. nervously. "Are you okay?" you asked and he nodded calming down "I'm fine...are you?". "I'm okay" you said cautiously and D.O. recalled your first impression of him and cursed himself for getting angry. "Y/n I'm so sorry for yelling at him like that and not just ignoring him like you said. I know you might think less of me now but I hope I can make that up to you". "Think less of you?" you asked “D.O. I couldn't think more of you! You defended me when you didn't have to and said things I wish I had the courage to say so thank you". D.O. blinked "you're thanking me? I was worried I'd made you nervous by raising my voice..." D.O. said but you shook your head "no I know you're safe so that didn't scare me". That was so nice for D.O. to hear he felt like dancing all over again. "But I don't think I want to go back to the party, so I'll head to my room". D.O. nodded "let me walk you" and you fell in step together. The hotel looked really pretty in the evening and the now quiet night made it feel like it was just the two of you in the world."Y/n just in case you aren't aware that guy is an asshole and you can do so much better than him. There are so many guys who would love to date you, who would treat you right and be there for you so please don't listen to that idiot". You laughed awkwardly and D.O. smiled "I'm serious! He didn't know what he was talking about, you were way too good for him". You didn't respond and when you turned D.O. realised you hadn't been laughing but were crying. "Ow y/n I'm so sorry..." he started when you cut him off "no it's okay. They're happy tears. Thank you. That was really sweet and I didn't expect it but I needed to hear that". "Of course!" D.O. said offering you a tissue and you took it. D.O. helped you sit down on a nearby bench and waited for you to stop crying. "I haven't dated since Eun and I've thought a lot of the stuff he said tonight about myself". D.O. shook his head furious "but none of that stuff was true! He was lucky to have you and you're far too good for him. Plus who cares if you chased him and it didn't work out? That just shows you're brave enough to go for what you want and make mistakes and that's one of the most admirable things in the world!". "It is?" you asked and D.O. nodded "totally...well that and not murdering a guy like Eun when you had so many opportunities". You laughed and D.O. smiled to see you looked happier. You both sat in silence for a while before you sighed "you know I just realised I've never asked about your love life, is it as bad as mine?". D.O. shrugged "well depends on what you mean by bad, if pretty non-existent counts then yeah it's bad". "You've never dated anyone?" you asked and D.O. paused "no there was one girl. We got together when we were 14, just kids really, and were together for 4 years...it got pretty serious but we were too young" he said "both of our lives were just taking off and we were changing as people. I wanted to keep trying but she broke it off and I guess the experience changed me. I'm of course glad when I look back on it, it was definitely the right thing to do but it made me more cautious and pessimistic. You might've realised I'm not exactly a ray of sunshine like Baekyun". You shook your head "you're plenty sunny to me, I always feel happy around you" and D.O. smiled "you do?". "I do" you nodded watching him and D.O. couldn't believe he had that effect on someone like you. You both stayed in that moment just gazing at one another for a few seconds before you blushed looking down. "Well I think whoever she is, she's probably kicking herself now to have lost you" you said and D.O.'s heart fluttered "thanks y/n". You smiled and gently squeezed his hand "thanks for telling me. I used to think you were so intimidating and scary and I'm so glad I got to know the real you". "I'm glad too" D.O. nodded "I know how I can come across so thanks for giving me a chance I guess?". "You never need to thank me for that" you said "I wish I'd have done it so much sooner". D.O. realised you were still holding his hand and looked down. You followed his gaze and dropped his hand "sorry! The alcohol and weeks of wedding stress are kicking in. I'll leave now before I do anything else embarrassing" and you disappeared. D.O. however didn't find it embarrassing at all. D.O. woke up the next morning feeling great! Which was hilarious as all his members were clutching their heads and moving slowly, nursing hangovers. After last night D.O. was in pretty good spirits and he still got goosebumps when he thought about everything you'd said to him. However one thing was bothering him. He'd mentioned how after his ex he'd become more cautious but he meant what he said about admiring people who went for what they wanted. It applied to him so much that he felt a bit like a hypocrite and so he knew he had to tell you he just didn't know when. Luckily you had a car ride back together so he could work that out then. D.O. was coming back with you because he had to be in the studio later today while his other members didn’t. So they were going to go film something and do some sightseeing which D.O. was upset to miss out on that for work of all things but when he realised he’d be coming back with you he warmed up to the idea. He was waiting for you by the front of the hotel when you appeared. You came around the corner and D.O. paused at how beautiful you looked. Your hair hung loose and you had no makeup on at all. You looked so naturally radiant his heart skipped a beat as he took you all in. "Are you ready?" you called and D.O. nodded re-discovering the ability to speak. "Yeah let me just put my stuff in the boot" he said and hid his face behind your car. The car ride was the most fun road trip D.O. had been on. With the members, there was always someone who was too loud or an elbow in his side or someone who wanted to play music D.O. hated but there was none of that with you. The car ride was so peaceful and just proved to him how well the two of you got along yet again. D.O. realised he just loved being around you and enjoyed seeing you happy. He adored that he could now make you smile and it was pretty much on his mind constantly. You stopped off at a cafe on the way back and got breakfast. You were both pretty happy and made the waitress laugh several times at your infectious happiness. When it came to paying the waitress had clearly taken a liking to you. "It's on the house for the young couple" she said "how long have you two been together?". D.O. went to reply you weren't together when you spoke first. "6 months, we met at work" you said and the waitress grinned "I thought you had that honeymoon period glow! But to be fair 6 months is a little late for that so the two of you must just be the real deal". "We hope so" you nodded and the waitress smiled. "Well have a nice trip home, it was nice meeting you". "You too" D.O. said and he held the door open for you. The two of you got back in the car and D.O. paused "so she thought we were..." he trailed off but of course you knew what he was saying. "Yeah, I agreed in case she charged us for our bill. I love a free meal". D.O. took a breath "is that the only reason you said we were a couple?". You paused and turned to look at him "why? Would you like there to be another reason?". D.O. nodded "I would" sending a shiver down your spine. "You would?" you asked and he nodded not showing how nervous he was. "Yes, I'd like you to want us to be a couple because I want that...I like you y/n". You smiled "you do? I had no idea! Since I met you I've been so pleasantly surprised and I felt myself falling for you but thought I might've ruined it with my preconceptions". D.O. shook his head "you didn't ruin anything" and kissed you. Having a first kiss in car is slightly awkward because of the positioning. You both had to turn towards one another to reach but you managed. It wasn't the most comfortable position but neither of you cared. D.O. couldn't believe you were kissing him back and you couldn't believe how sweet D.O. was. Then D.O. tried to move closer to you and elbowed the dashboard sending a shooting pain down his arm. He cried out in pain and you jolted apart. "Are you okay?" you asked and he nodded sighing "yeah I'm fine..." then you both started laughing. Once you'd settled down you turned to D.O. "you sure you're okay?". He nodded "I'm better than okay" looking at you and you blushed. D.O. had to rush off to work as soon as he got back in the city but he hesitated to get out of the car “so are you free this evening for dinner?” D.O. asked “we can go to a restaurant or I can cook you something”. You smiled “I am but let’s go to a restaurant, I don’t want you to have to cook after working all day. I want to take care of you too” and D.O. went bright red making you chuckle. “How did I ever think you were scary?” you asked and D.O. smiled “I get why you did but hopefully I’ve gotten rid of all those thoughts now?”. You nodded “completely” and shot him a warm smile that made D.O. just want to kiss you all over again. The thought must’ve been contagious because you glanced at D.O.’s lips before sighing “so you should probably go before I refuse to let you”. D.O. smiled “I’ll call you as soon as I’m done with work?”. You nodded “can’t wait” and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. D.O. practically strut into work and smiled and greeted every single person he passed. His manager remarked he was in a good mood and he smiled “it was a good wedding!” and got ready to start recording but before he did he pulled out his phone and sent Kai a text which you ironically also sent Kai a few minutes later. 

Both of your texts were three words long. 

“You were right”.

[kodalindissima]

In 1756: Honeymoon (disponível para doação em breve)

[archernarbeta]

Do better

✴︎ pairing : Kyungsoo x Reader

✴︎ genre : angst, stubborn characters, yearning, sensitive-themes, idol!kyungsoo , more angst, kyungsoo is a jerk here but reader is also stubborn

✴︎ summary : In which Do Kyungsoo is reader’s best friend and he wants her to do better. 

✴︎ warning : TW disordered eating (starving habits, relapse), trauma, mild cursing.

This fanfic contains themes of disordered-eating, some taken from my own experience. However if there are any misinformations that you would like me to take down, please do let me know and I will be happy to. Lastly, in no way whatsoever I am promoting disordered-eating habits. We are beautiful, in our own ways, inside and out. Therefore, there is no need for us to change our appearances for others.

✴︎ word count : 4.1K

✴︎ author’s note : This was so fun to write honestly! I spent all my pent-up anger writing this fic… I might do a part two because clearly, this fic is unfinished (let me know if we want a part two) Anyways, enjoy! As usual any form of appreciation is very well appreciated! 

—

It’s been exactly 8 weeks since you stopped speaking with THE Do Kyungsoo. 

Yes, you meant Do Kyungsoo the idol, the talented chef, the amazing singer and also THE best friend, not to mention THE imbecile. 

Silent treatments, were a common occurrence especially with the stubbornness you both shared when it comes to giving in for the greater good. However this was the longest period of silence that you both had gone through and frankly for you, there’s no room for truce. 

The reason behind it couldn’t be more trivial. 

Three weekends before, you had gone on a blind-date with a mutual friend, both of you were set-up by one of your colleagues. The date went smoothly, he was a polite gentleman who offered to pick you up and took you home. Before the date, he asked about your food preference too, in which you appreciated the gesture. Overall, he’s an all rounder and you’re totally sure you’d like another date with him, even if both of you weren’t looking for anything serious. It was just nice to have someone to spend your weekend with. 

You were astounded to say the least, that the  very nice gentleman sent you a set of fine bone china mugs with penguins on them, your favourite animal, duh. He also sent a letter, mentioning your love for coffee and penguins and how he’d thought of you when he came across the mugs a while ago. He wished that you would use the set to enjoy your morning coffee every morning.

—

On a given Sunday, Kyungsoo was supposed to come over to your place for a playdate since you haven’t seen each other in forever. He arrived with groceries and snacks for a pasta cook-out, he always mentioned that you were always too thin and too cold for his liking–that’s why he’s always so keen to feed you delicious and nutritious meals, even though you really didn’t like eating in general. 

You both settled on the dining table with each a cup of tea in hand and a plate of cookies that he’d baked beforehand, they were oatmeal and vanilla almond- with the least amount of sugar, suited to your liking.

After a much needed catch-up session and a plate with nothing left more than cookie crumbs, you helped him prep the ingredients for his anchovy pasta. In which, you chose to casually slip the bomb of ‘I’ve met a nice guy, we had a couple of dates, he was such a gentleman, he even gave me these super cute mugs.’ 

At your narrative, Kyungsoo replied with soft hums and nods before replying, “You know y/n— I really think he might be taking advantage of you.” He nonchalantly said while stirring the fettuccine, calmly raising the pasta strands with a fork to check how they’d cook through.

“W-what? Where did that come from?” 

“Why else would he be showering you gifts like these?” He waved around the penguin mug in front of your face in an irritating manner. 

You gasp at his groundless accusation, “Soo! He’s clearly just being a nice- decent human being! How could you accuse him of such things?!” 

You were literally in disbelief. Your best friend was usually the logical one in the friendship and having him belittle a guy like this, left you perplexed. He had no reasons whatsoever to insult a stranger, more so-your date. 

The timer rang before he had a chance to reply. In his relaxed composure, he turned off the stove and strained the pasta, moving them to the pan next to it. He continued cooking for a while, mixing the fettuccine with the pan-seared anchovies and tomato. If you haven’t been friends with him for all these years, you would probably be left speechless at how he just left you mid-conversation to tend to his cooking- but here you are, still amazed at how engrossed the man is in finishing his dish before anything else. He added the last touch of basil before facing his back to the kitchen counter as he faced you with a judging look, crossing his arms in front of his chest. 

“Y/n… You really are gullible sometimes, huh? He gave you a set of mugs and now you’re so swooned that you’re defending him? Over me- your best friend?” He half mocked you and rolled his eyes, giving off a much less of a smirk.

“W- what?! I am not! I can’t believe you right now? Can you hear yourself and how ridiculous you’re being right now?”

“Me? Ridiculous? What’s so ridiculous about protecting a best friend from strangers she just met!?” He exclaimed, shoulders shrugging showing his indifference. 

“He- he’s not a stranger! I told you! Why can’t you be happy that I had a good date?” You sassed back.

“I’m a man and I can see right through him! He’s just a jerk wanting a hookup from you!” He raised his voice.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!” You barked at his accusations.

“I got a nice date once and suddenly I’m gullible?” Anger seeping through your every word. You weren’t thinking clear anymore, all you see was red, you can feel the rage rising in the back of your head,

“You know what Soo? I’m sorry! I’m so fucking sorry that you’re jealous- and so fucking sorry for you because your glamorous idol life left you love deprived!”

The damage was done. You’ve said it and now you only wished you could take it back. You stopped yourself as you covered your foul mouth with regret. Your eyes were shaking as you looked at him with remorse.

He stared back at you, eyes unmoving. He was sometimes unreadable like this. It was in his character really, the unpredictability and the stealth gaze, often left you wondering what’s going on inside his head. He clicked his tongue once, enough to startle you and diverted your whole attention to him. He hummed, another habit of his. You mentally braced yourself for the storm coming. 

“Love deprived?” he darkly chuckled, your penguin mug on the counter, under his hold.

“That’s the lowest you could do?” His smirk wiped away from his face as he gave a flat expression while pushing the mug away from the counter with force.

The scene flashed before your eyes, the penguin-faced mug hitting the floor, the clashing sound of china in contact with the marble floor rang through your ears. You gasp in shock as the mug shattered in pieces and there was nothing you could do but stare at the once cute cup.

You had your mouth hanging open- speechless, unaware that you were shaking. The crime scene unveiling in front of you left you appalled and you wondered if this person is the best friend you’ve always known your whole life. 

“Shame. You could’ve done better Y/n,” he pauses, “Maybe you’ll realise that you have better options than Mr. Penguin Mugs.”

Your body kept shuddering as you tried to gain composure,

“Get out.” You trembled.

“Two can play a game, Y/n” His voice taunting yet his face stoic, staring at you.

“Out!” you screamed at him 

So much emotions were whirring inside of you that your eyes water. Anger? Yes, a lot of rage was brewing in you but disappointment and sadness was an understatement.

“WHO the hell are you and what have you done to Kyungsoo!” Your sudden voice must’ve taken him by surprise as his eyes were back to normal, you walked up to him hitting his chest with little to no energy,

“I don’t want a fucking asshole as a friend! You’re not welcome here!”

If you were angry seconds ago, now you feel like crying.

“Leave!” as you pointed at the door, gesturing him to leave.

Kyungsoo bent down to pick up remnants of the penguins face, slowly placing them on the counter, like it could change a thing.

His next action took you by surprise as he scooped the rest of the broken china with bare hands to throw the shards to the nearest bin, hurting himself in the process. You found that a bit later though, when a drop of blood stain was evident on the lid of your trash can. 

He exhaled a breath, “Eat. Do not skip meals. Don’t be stupid. Call me when you stop being foolish.” 

You wordlessly trembled, standing with no more energy in your figure as he exited your apartment.

—

Ever since the messy encounter with him 8 weeks ago, a lot had changed. 

You stopped contacting Mr. Penguin Mugs a week after your fight with Kyungsoo, you just didn’t have the heart to deal with the lovely man and it broke your heart (a little) that you threw away the chance to be with a nice guy. But a certain someone did fill your thoughts during that time, a certain imbecile with heart-shaped lips that you would really like to hate.

Again, you had your fair shares of silent wars with him but this one hurts the most, or at least your pride did. You could recall his last memo of him, asking you to not skip meals but you decided that Do Kyungsoo was not the boss of you. You didn’t care, you weren’t gonna listen to him.

The fight did trigger you and even though it was childish of you to purposely skip meals, you began to refrain from eating at all. In the back of your head, you knew better than this, you were better than this, however without Kyungsoo by your side to aid you, you faltered. 

In the past years, you had a history with disordered eating. Coming from an almond-mum and a Korean all girls school, appearance was something vital to maintain, yet it resulted in you finding ridiculously dangerous ways to abstain yourself from eating.

It was a rough patch but all those years, Soo was there for you. He’d do the cooking, the persuading and the gentle praising, making sure he won’t overwhelm you. Kyungsoo might seem reserved and unreadable at times but he was full of care, too much even- to the point that you felt like a walking ‘handle-with-care’ sticker.

After you recover, you’ve managed to fix your relationship with food a bit better but there are times where the wounds would open up. You haven’t relapsed in a long time now, having to attend coaching sessions for healthy intuitive eating programs and having Soo on the sidelines to support you. 

Nevertheless, your relapse now was justified that at this point you were blinded by hurt. You were in pain and no one was there to aid you this time. 

It doesn’t take a genius to figure that the constant meal skipping would lead to fatigue, weight loss and eventually malnutrition, which is exactly what you’re suffering right now. The worse thing than losing your best friend is this, but hey you’re experiencing both of them at the same time! In your defense, you did try to get better, drinking spinach juice to try to fill the anguish hunger in your stomach, just to throw it all up again.

Honestly back then, when you experienced disordered eating, spinach juice was your holy grail that kept you full for longer hours without having to physically chew anything. Yet as your metabolism went to shambles, your body wouldn’t cooperate with any of the food you intake. 

—

Kyungsoo wasn’t doing any better. 

Seconds after he looked at your startled face and stepped foot out of your apartment, he wished time travel existed. He admits that he was an asshole but he didn’t mean to get things that far and he’d say those things to protect you even though he failed to project them in a nicer-manner (which was totally why he’s at fault, he knows this too-by the way). He wanted to apologise the next day-though he thought that giving you space would be a better option as he was scared to hurt you further. What he didn’t expect was the silence that went on for weeks. 

Kyungsoo busied himself, he had his filming schedules packed as tight as possible and he picked up projects like they were cherries on trees. Even the members were astonished when he brought up his contract to join a variety show, which was so unexpected of him.  All the time not talking to you left him confused, if he was really trying to protect you or if he was jealous of you, or your date. He tried brushing it off, but you were always on the back of his mind. He’d try figuring out how he feels about you but that would spiral in a worse direction, he didn’t have the heart to admit that he misses you, his best friend. 

—

On the sixth-week mark of your cold war, you were admitted to the hospital for severe malnutrition and extreme weight loss. Chanyeol was the one who hospitalised you.

Chanyeol—who became friends with you because of Kyungsoo–had visited you a couple times after the fight to check up on you. You wanted to turn your back on him and his hospitality but the friendly man with cute giant ears was so hard to refuse. 

Initially, Chanyeol’s visit were out of concerns due to the fight you had with Kyungsoo, but the visits became frequent when he noticed you became leaner by the day, your moves were slower and it was visible that performing simple task were difficult for you.

He tried his best to discreetly offer professional help, even though he wasn’t aware of your disordered eating history, he simply wanted to help without offending you, in which you declined politely, saying you were fine. 

That day, even with arduous attempts to conceal your weakness, your body soon gave up after opening the door for Chanyeol. Given your conditions, you had no room to refuse anymore as Chanyeol carried you to the hospital. The only thing you managed to muster before blacking out was, 

“Don’t tell Kyungsoo.”

On the week you were hospitalised, Kyungsoo was busy filming somewhere in a rural area in Japan. It was a fresh experience, a breath of fresh air for his career yet all he could think of was you. 

The eight-week mark had passed and after two weeks of being hospitalised, it was a shame that you didn’t show signs of improvement regardless of the constant IV that kept you at bay. That’s the thing with relapsing, you know this, nothing will work unless you want to get better—and you haven’t found a reason to do so.

But it was a little bit bearable when Chanyeol came in to visit, sometimes bringing other members with him to cheer you up and give you extra encouragement. You particularly love when he brings Minseok along, the older was the most well-mannered of the bunch and he just feels like an older brother. 

— 

The sliding door of your hospital ward suddenly slammed open, you instinctively diverted your attention to the door, finding a familiar figure walking in with eyes ready to shoot lasers at you. 

“W-what the fuck?” you eyed him. “Why the hell are you here? What are you doing here?”  

You were surprised at your energy to snap at the man whilst you half-sat on a hospital bed with an IV attached on your hand. And here I thought I was weak.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that? Why the fuck are you here?” he retorted, “I heard you’re sick but I’m surprised that your stupidity still tags along after 2 months.” he scorned, his bluntness never goes away huh?

“W-what? What did you say to me?”

“Even though we’re fighting and you’re mad you could’ve hit me instead. Yell, scream, curse at me- I couldn’t care less if you did,” he paused, “but why would you starve yourself again?”

By the tone of his voice, although you could pick up his anger- his disappointment, you really didn’t want to put down your ego. 

“I’m not here because of you, idiot. Now what are you doing here? Go away” You countered him. 

“Are you blind? As you can see I’m visiting a friend. A very sick and a stubborn one at that.” he managed to scoff at your act. You rolled your eyes, not even baffled at this point.

“No one told you to. Now, leave.” you pointed at the door.

“A little tall birdie did, he begged me to come.” he stills on the ends of the hospital bed

“Well, thanks for coming but you are really uninvited here. Please follow the door to exit.” you gave him a sarcastic smile.

“And if I won’t comply? What are you gonna do?” he taunts back. “Would you tell Chanyeol or Sehun to take me away? And why do you think they’ll comply with your request? They’re scared of me more than of Junmyeon-Hyung,” he looked around the room before focusing his eye-contact back to you.

“The only thing you could do to kick me out in your sickly state is call the nurse… that’s if, you’re willing to bear the consequence of reporting an idol?” he rambled. 

“Oh you little shit..”

“Don’t you little shit me,” he mocked back,

“You know, Chanyeol might’ve given away your conditions but he’s certainly not the one watching MY reality show for the past weeks.”

You mentally cursed.

He gave out a laugh, before continuing in a stern tone,“The only person logged in my SBS account is you. Did you miss me so badly that you liked all those clips using my account?”

“Do better, y/n.” he finished, before abruptly leaving the room. 

You were left astounded, just like the moment he exited your apartment 8 weeks ago. But this time, not long after, he came back bringing what looked like a lunchbox. He quietly sat down on the chair next to your bed while opening one of the containers, you only could stare at him in confusion. 

Do Kyungsoo was indeed unpredictable.

“Do better, eat better, y/n. So you can fight me again.” He spoke up before offering a spoonful of porridge to your mouth. You gazed at the spoon in front of you before shifting back at him. You silently refused. 

“Open up,” he said softly and you did. There was something about his voice that made you comply with his requests, like it was laced with care and concern. 

You opened your mouth and carefully swallowed his cooking. The taste wasn’t foreign to you, it was his pumpkin and sweet potato porridge. He made it for you every time you’re upset, making the dish your ultimate comfort food. After the first spoonful, you were bracing yourself for a reflux but it never came, you were able to stomach his food just fine. 

“Good girl” he praised you before handing another scoop to your mouth, asking you to have more. 

As you ate quietly, he spoke, 

“You need to do better than this y/n. You need energy to curse at me- hit me…and that’s why you need to eat to recover,” his forehead creased as he expressed his thoughts yet it didn’t stop him from feeding you every spoon. 

“It’s- It’s so frustrating you know? Looking at you like this… I-I almost lost it when Chanyeol called saying you’ve been admitted for two weeks! I was in Japan and I never wanted to pack my bags so quickly..”

“Y-you..You’re so frustrating-“ he let out a breath he unconsciously held. You could see his eyes weren’t as calm, like he had other complaints he’d like to express but he held back. With the last spoonful, he closed the container and discarding it back to the lunchbox. 

He softly muttered, “Rest well, I’ll be back tomorrow,” he gave a quick peck on the crown of your head, an action that surprised you, before leaving the ward. 

He did come back the next day and the day after that, and another day after that. He made sure that he was the first sight you see in the morning. 

This time, he brought chicken soup. Sadly, the smell didn’t react well with your body as you instantly gagged. He immediately rushed you to the bathroom, pulling your IV off in one smooth motion in the process, leaving you unscathed even with the sudden movement .

You managed to hold it in until you reached the toilet bowl. As you threw up, you helplessly cried, Kyungsoo kept still and supported your figure by the elbows. He softly grasped your hair away from you while you hurled the contents of your stomach. The action left you breathless, exhausted as tears stained your face while you slid down the bathroom floor, you really didn’t have any energy left.

You pity yourself for your relapse, it felt- disgraceful of you to do so. You hid your face with your hands as you sobbed. Fucking disgusting, you told yourself. 

Kyungsoo was distressed seeing you like this, especially the fact that he might have some contributions to your relapse, it was even more upsetting for him. He didn’t hug you, he was too much of a coward for that. So he did what he could. Kyungsoo grabbed some napkins and a glass of water outside and came back into the bathroom. He kneeled down to gently tap the hands covering your face, signalling that he’d like to see your face. You slightly look up to see a calm attentive face, care- radiating from his eyes. He wiped your tears and then your mouth, offered you a warm glass of water in which you accepted without repulse. 

Both of you stayed quiet for a while before muttering, “Let’s go back to bed.”

He helped you stand up, tucked you back in the hospital bed and called the nurse to reattach the IV he skilfully dismantled. The nurse went berserk on him when she learned of the incident. The situation was truly unpredictable but his actions could’ve seriously injured you. He mumbled his apologies as he nodded in regret while listening to the nurse’s scoldings. Not long after, she left both of you to your own devices. 

“Don’t say anything, please?” you quietly begged while looking at him. 

Today felt like your turn to burst. He nods without hesitation, firmly holding eye contact with you.

“I’m tired Soo…” you audibly exhaled, tears welled on your already puffed eyes.

You took your time to look at the light blue colour of the hospital blanket, then shifted your eyes to the ceiling of the ward while trying to find words to carry on the conversation. 

“I am-“ you stuttered, “f-fuck. I’m fucking tired, you know?”

You just… didn’t have the energy as your tears flowed through your hollow cheeks, dropping to your chin and eventually wetting the blanket. His eyes never left you, catching each and every of your pained expressions. 

You had lost your spark, the burning passion and gleam behind your eyes were gone. Your being felt hollow, just a soulless body- empty, dull and glum.

He despised it, the dullness in your eyes. He hated it with all his heart, knowing his efforts were meaningless since he couldn’t stop you from getting worse. He loathes the fact that this time, he was helpless when the love of his life, his best friend, his light, is giving up in front of his eyes.

“Soo…” you whispered, reaching out for his hand with sorrowful eyes. He instantly held yours, warmth emitting from his hold as he looked at you with so much care. Even intertwining hands with you broke his heart at the coldness of your touch. 

“Do better, okay?” you let go of his hand from your hold.

The wet tracks of your tears hadn’t stopped yet you managed to prop up an expressionless gaze as you stared at him. You were in pain, so was he, and you didn’t want to hurt him more.

He knew what you meant, he knew what you wanted him to do. 

He knew exactly what to do, not that he wanted to. 

He was your lifeline, a drug to salvation- You needed to heal without him. 

He didn’t understand, he had so many questions formulating in his head but he knew better than to pry. He was hurt but prying meant hurting you further, which was the last thing he’d do.

He stood up, kissed your cheeks, stroked your hair and pecked the crown of your head one last time before heading out to the door. 

He slammed the sliding door hard, hopefully to let you know how wrong of you to ask him to leave. But he never looked back, because he was too much of a coward for that.

—

a/n: should we do a part 2 ??