#like there's nothing wrong with it. i just don't personally jam with it.

[the-irrelevant-trumpeter]

in english atm we're studying 1984, and we have to do a comparative essay between it and one other related text. my teacher has encouraged me to choose a musical as my related text, since that's what i enjoy, but i've got two i'm trying to choose between.

[eclarinet]

same soup... different day

[gallusrostromegalus]

So how much are you willing to talk about Ulquiorra?

I will talk so much about him. There are so many things wrong with that man, but to make a brief list of his most notable features:

He's dumb as hell.

I say that with tremendous sympathetic affection. Ulquiorra barely thinks. It's easy for him to do nothing and go nowhere. He eats chocolate in the middle of the night in the dark. When he gets access to a garden, he often just stands around in it. He's often waiting for things to happen.

He just LOOKS smart compared to nearly everyone else in the fic because he doesn't have much to say, so he's not constantly opening his mouth to jam his foot down it.

Consequently, Ulquiorra starts off having little to no initiative of his own. Stuff just happens to him. Some of that is because he is colossally depressed, but he's depressed because the idea that he has control over his circumstances has straight up not occured to him.

The first person he meets that shows him that "You can just do whatever you want, forever" and the boundless joy it is to be a creature of free will is, unfortunately, Aizen. And Aizen left off the key corollary "-EVERYONE is allowed to do whatever they want, forever. We are all equal in God's dead, empty eye sockets."

So Ulquiorra wanders around trying out this "doing stuff" thing without any concept of ethics.

I realize I am infantilizing this character, but I am doing so in a twilight zone "hey, wouldn't it be fucked up to watch a fully anatomically functional person who is able to speak and blow stuff up with his mind go through the emotional development steps of a toddler?", because I think that's a fun high-concept premise to explore with him. Yeah, what if a toddler could speak articulately and also destroy you? How would he act? How does he feel, learning to have feelings?

It'd probably suck for him and everyone around him, and make him very easy to manipulate, for one thing.

So I don't think Ulquiorra is evil, because evil takes intent. He is dangerous to be in the general proximity of, though

Like a horse

lose

in a hospital!

I love that sketch as much as the next person but if an IRL horse got loose in a hospital it would be bedlam, but the horse would be mostly confused and probably willing to follow around the first person who looked like they knew what they were doing.

You know, like how Ulquiorra follows Aizen around because that's the first guy he's met who THINKS he knows what he's doing, and is good at convincing others he knows what he's doing!

So Ulquiorra's entire first character arc is being exposed to more and more people and realizing he does have control over his life, and that he can take actions, and that those actions have consequences.

Like being emotionally devastated by a teenage girl because he was an asshole to her and she's willing to scream at him about it.

Hm.

Consequences hurt.

He lives through the Las Noches arc, and decides to follow his own star!

He follows it right through a portal that was not meant for him and now he's sort of trapped in somewhere he's really, really, really, really, REALLY not supposed to be.

But it's a beautiful place

And nobody is forcing him to do anything.

And for a long time, he just stands out in the garden, waiting for something.

But then

Ulquiorra experiences a novel pair of emotions that he's recently learned from his new...

Orihime is too mad at him for him to call her a friend.

-but he did learn the names and therefore the experience of two new emotions from her: boredom, and it's natural remedy: curiosity.

So Ulquiorra's second character arc is him learning how to be himself without anyone telling him who he is and what he ought to be.

He's travelling up Maslow's hierarchy with the inscrutable but unstoppable instinctual drive of a salmon returning to its spawning ground.

This has lead to an important discovery on my part: Ulquiorra is terrific for comedy because he is the ULTIMATE straight man to everyone else's nonsense, because he's immune to nearly all nonsense.

He doesn't have societal taboos to be hung up on, nor any sense of what is "normal", so the sole thing he geta hung up on is a lack of internal consistency in others, meaning he can slip between straight man to the absurdist at the drop of a single scathing observation. Yet, he retains a sort of understated dignity that compels people to try to earn his respect.

Hence, I'm having fun turning him loose on the most absurd, internally inconsistent and frankly, insane batch of characters in the series:

The Royal Guard.

:)

[janmisali]

heya! i know i'm super late to this but i was scrolling through your blog and saw you mention in a matter of factly manner that the characters in mario & luigi: paper jam are not from paper mario and that it is not actually a crossover, and i was like... what? i'm not saying you were wrong because you absolutely know more about this than i do, but this is an extremely bizarre and out of left field thing to discover about a game that, as far as i remember, was mainly billed as, you know... a crossover between two different rpgs series? and like, i saw you mention the fact that apparently "Paper Mario" from paper jam is not the main character of Paper Mario (???) as if it was super evident while i'm just kind of staring dumbfounded at the screen

anyways i guess point of this ask is that i would absolutely love to read a more elaborate breakdown of like, what is going on with paper jam (both wikipedia and tv tropes just describe it as a crossover without further elaboration), and if you don't feel like writing that i'd like to know if you know of anyone who has because i am kind of fascinated right now ngl

I mean it's not even that deep really it's just like. paper jam aesthetically resembles a crossover between paper mario and mario & luigi, but it barely features anything from mario & luigi and doesn't have anything at all from paper mario (besides the aesthetic). it's like if there was a warioware / wario land crossover that's actually just a sequel to warioware snapped where there's a second wario who looks like wario's design from wario land

paper jam is the only time it's ever been suggested that a "paper mario" character exists as a separate entity from "mario", and nothing about that game actually concretely implies that this paper mario is the mario from the paper mario series, because paper jam doesn't have literally anything from paper mario in it besides the aesthetic.

on the other hand, the paper mario series itself does frequently make reference to how its mario is the same person as the mario from the rest of the franchise. it's like the jumpman situation where if you analyze them as two different characters you can't really say anything about one that you can't say about the other

[slimeology]

Well this is likely outdated of me by now buut my own interpretation of a certain computer yes... The notes on this vary to more of facts and like design notes for myself, with a boring white background cause UH readability,, yep! I'm shoving all my ideas below along with bonus image B]

Riiight, allow me to simply lay out my ideas and go against what i have seen this guy been characterised as for years YEA?? THough i wanna touch on how he functions first, so i think out of all possible designs i may make for more characters [at least one more i will make!!! maybe two!! maybe... more?] he is most biologically human. like he probably was just a guy once. but now computerised through means!

Underneath the metal / synthetic components is actual person, though most of it is very not nice to percieve. the only untouched part of him is the midsection, basically the vitals. Other than that, it ranges from a little less skin, to probably not even indentifiable as what it was before.

The image shows it somewhat!! The gloves are removeable and instead of angry wires simply take skinless hand! [ALSO LEMME KNOW IF I SHOULD TAG PLEASE - it is very hard for me to judge yes or not!! i do not mind doing it! also i have no idea what to put if so.] It's my general explaination of why he can touch you, but you touch him and it does not end well. Cause it probably hurts honestly! and he's seensitive....

As for personality, he's not that kind. Kind of more, passive agression most of the time really, unless you're wanting to know about the wonders of the internet he couldn't really care what you're on about. But even then, he will act like he knows all of the things ever [because it is on the internet.] Some of his facts may not entirely be true but why fact check?? the internet is not wrong! but also he will be deliberately wrong, if it's funny. aaaand you might believe it.

Computer day is simply the one day a year he agrees to actually 'be nice' and 'cooperative'. Any other day is free game.

The digital world still exists too, it's essentially his sleep state, he simply plugs himself into the wall and while outwardly he is unconsious, he is there instead! He can get other people there by uhh jamming a plug into your brain! don't worry he got a medical lisence from the internet, and has adequately accounted for your skull being in the way :]

Anyways these are somehow all the ideas i had before i even designed the guy??? UH... i will stop throwing so many words out there now. i guess one final fun fact is he probbaly just only eats oatmeal and nothing else. and mmayybe i shoved the 'tism onto him bit. sbhhhh shhhhh you heard nothing,,,

[skzhua]

you are my safe haven ('your eyes' series)

♡ "You were the first person I thought of at the moment."

pairing: lee minho x reader.

genre: fluff, angst.

word count: 10,529

warnings: swearing, suggestive, unrequited love mentioned, minho being minho (savage and flirty).

summary: your relationship with minho has always been tricky. either he was roasting the shit out of you, or he was flirting with you shamelessly. when things start to get complicated with your childhood friend, chan, why is he the first one who come up in your mind?

a/n: this one took me so long to write, but it might be my favourite one ever. i just fucking love lee minho, lmao. i'm so sorry for not posting as regularly as i used to, i'm very much struggling with school and other, but i'm trying my best! anyway, enjoy~

SERIES MASTERLIST

You and Chan met when your parents used to live across from each other. Being a year apart only, it made things easy for the both of you to get along. You had gone through everything together whether it was growing up, changing schools, making friends, etc. The last big step you had taken together was moving on your college's campus. You roomed with a nice but shy healthcare student, Youngmi. Although she wasn't a social butterfly like Chan was, she grew more at ease with you as time passed.

Another semester starting meant more homework and less free time, and that involved no more nights out with Chan at the local diner. Over the holidays, his friend, Minho, had started to come to your usual hangouts. Nothing against him, but his presence did affect your relationship with Chan. Your crush on him had only been growing since college started and Minho's presence wasn't much of an help if you wanted to confess at some point. Anyway, it's not like you could tell Chan that his friend was causing you problems when really he was doing nothing wrong.

Your first day was finally over. Checking your message app, you saw nothing from Chan. Weird, since he would always answer you. Your last class was with Minho, and after you had put everything in your bag, he was still at his desk, not having moved a bit other than jamming to his music.

"Minho, can you not?"

The man acted as if he had heard nothing and went on with humming happily to the song he was listening to. Despite how much your friendship with him had improved, he remained one of the few people you would give away to Satan to save yourself with no hesitation.

"Min." you tried again, but you were left with no response.

Out of impatience, you snatched his earphones out of his ears, resulting to Minho spatting out one insult after the other. "I was vibing, you moron! You're seriously no fun, weirdo."

"Wow, I'm so affected by your lame insults." you rolled your eyes.

"I'm going soft on you, kitten."

And here it was again, the sudden shift from insults to flirts. Quite honestly, you never understood how he managed to pass from one another so smoothly, nor could you comprehend how it took you by surprise each time. But that's what Minho is, a flirty jerk who loves to provoke.

"Why are you so pressed, anyway?" he asked as he lazily followed you out of the class.

"We're going to the diner, remember?"

"I forgot, actually. See, that's why I need you around." he winked, but you dismissed his antics.

"Chan hasn't replied to my messages yet, it's not like him."

"It's the first day of school, I bet he has hundreds of meetings."

He was surely right, but you learnt with time to not base your thoughts off of Minho's because he never cared about anything other than himself. And right now, he didn't give a damn about Chan not replying to you.

"I don't know, should I call Bin to see if he's with him?"

Minho deadpanned at you. "Are you his mom or something? He's fine, probably just busy. Plus, I'm here. Can't you enjoy my company for once?"

You sent him a disgusted look, unimpressed, as you went outside. That's when, from afar, you saw your best friend. He was as handsome as ever, still wearing his oversized black clothes, and laughing cutely. And he was laughing with a girl. You had literally never seen her before, though you were convinced to know everyone in Chan's social circle.

"I told you he's okay." Minho huffed.

"Sure." you replied, unfocused. "Wait here for a moment, will you?"

You passed your bag to him, not letting him protest, and you ran to Chan to hug him from the back. He was startled for a bit, until he realized you were the one who took him by surprise.

"Hey, there!" he smiled widely before hugging you back tightly, ruffling your hair in a sweet manner. "I haven't seen you all day, where were you?"

"Class... And the best out of this is that I get to finish the day with Lee Minho." you fake-gagged.

"He's not that bad, just a bit annoying." he chuckled. "How was it, other than that?"

"Fine, I suppose. I just really don't want to be back in class. The teachers went over their planned projects, and I wanted to shoot myself just then."

"Don't say that, you'll do just fine. I know it." he said, rubbing your back.

"Thanks, Channie." you blushed a little.

Chan soon realized he had been ignoring his new friend since you appeared. "Y/N, this is Eunhee. She's in my sound art practices class. Eunhee, this is my best friend, Y/N."

You ignored the pang in your heart from the label he used for you, but still greeted the girl sweetly. "Hi! Happy to meet you!"

"Likewise." she replied, seemingly uneasy by your presence despite her polite smile. "I can go find my dorm alone if you two want to hang out."

You turned your attention to Chan expectedly, but his answer crushed you a bit. "No, no. I'll show you." he hurried to tell her, before looking at you sadly. "Do you mind going without me for today? I'll join you later."

You tried your very best to hide your disappointment, but let's say it wasn't much of a success. "Yeah, sure. Do you want Minho and I to order for you?"

"It's fine, thanks. Later?"

He brought you in his arms again, kissing the top of your head as some sort of apology. You felt down enough, you didn't want to break your façade in front of him. So you hurried to join Minho back, who had patiently waited for you at the same spot. He frowned upon seeing your glossy eyes, but you didn't let him question it. You took your bag from him and started to walk to the diner immediately. However, Minho was stubborn. He sped his pace up to catch up with your own and fixated his gaze on you. You attempted to ignore it, but he can be very intimidating when he wants to be.

"What?" you snapped at him, annoyed.

"You like Chan."

You stopped on your tracks and looked at him incredulously. "You're seeing things."

He scoffed as he stopped walking as well. "Please." he elongated the word. "You're almost drooling at the sight of him. And when he's not with us, you only talk about him."

"I don't drool! And I talk about him because we barely have anything in common."

He smirked. "Now, now, kitten. You barely know anything about me, how can you be so sure?"

"You're a pain in the ass." you groaned, starting to walk again.

He followed closely as he laughed alone. "This is a fact, though. We barely talk about anything else than Chan. You must like him, then."

"Then talk about something else, if it bothers you that much."

He paused for a second, trying to think of any moment you two had without mentioning the older man. He could not think of a single one. He had tried to get to know you on many occasions, but Chan would always end up being the main topic. He had noticed way before today that you had a crush on Chan, but he thought it wasn't his place to bring it up. However, today was different. He was sick of seeing you check him out from afar and do nothing about it, so he thought of giving you a little push. Clearly, you were more stubborn than he initially thought.

"Do you actually want to talk with me?"

You let out a chuckle. "I mean, sure?"

"You don't seem sure."

"Like you said, we don't know much about each other, other than our mutual friend."

You reached the diner and opened the door to let Minho in first. He didn't wait for you to sit at the usual table you would be at with Chan. You joined him quickly, and he sent you a sly smirk.

"What is it now?" you breathed out.

"I want to talk."

You shrugged your shoulders, acting uninterested. "Please do."

"Do you even remember my cats' names?"

The question was unexpected for your part. In all of the things he could have brought up, you expected school, life experiences or hobbies, but certainly not his cats.

"I do, actually." you proudly responded, and he quirked an eyebrow. "I'm telling you, I remember!"

"What are they?"

"Soonie and Dori."

He gasped, putting a hand on his chest to enhance the dramatization of his reaction. "How dare you forget about my beloved Doongie?"

"My bad." you nonchalantly shrugged.

"You're such a bad friend."

"Are we even friends, Min?" you huffed.

"I only allow certain people to call me Min, actually."

You wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but Chan entering the place interrupted you. For the first time in your life, you wished he hadn't come join you so soon. He said hi to Minho briefly, before coming to sit down next to you. The server soon came to take your orders, and you asked for your usual burgers.

"Who was your little friend?" Minho asked Chan on purpose, resulting to getting a death stare from you.

"Eunhee. She just tranferred here, so I was showing her around. She's very nice, actually. She even writes lyrics like me! I read some of it, and she's got some talent."

Hearing him talk about someone else with so much praise did not feel good. Nonetheless, you smiled along Chan's talk and pitched in the conversation from time to time.

"I'm sure the two of you would get along well." he finished his monologue about the girl.

"Yeah, she sounds fun."

The night came to an end quickly, and Minho insisted on paying for the food, despite Chan's protests. You were walking to your dorm, when Chan had to go a separate way since he wasn't living close to you. He hugged you good night, and was off to go home.

Minho kept quiet as he walked you home. He didn't mind since his building was next to yours. Although the silence was enjoyable, he felt like something was off. You were acting as if he wasn't there and he couldn't help but notice when you sniffled discreetly.

"You like him that much, uh?"

Not in the mood for his teasing, you groaned in annoyance. "Shut up, Min."

"I'm genuinely asking." You hesitated, not sure if you should be telling him about this. "Hey, I'm serious."

He stopped you and put his hand on your shoulder. While Minho was never one for physical contact, you did know he would not think about it twice when it comes to his close ones. Apparently, he did care about you more than you thought. For some reason, you trusted him enough to tell him. Probably because it was becoming too much of a burden that you needed to confide in someone.

"I'll always be a little sister in his eyes, right?"

He didn't actually expect you to say anything, but he was pleasantly surprised you did. "Depends, things like this can change, you know."

"You don't get it. I've tried for years to get this man's attention, and the moment he meets Eunhee, he seems infatuated with her..."

"For years?"

You nodded your head slowly, ashamed to have been looking at the same man for that long. It's not like you did not try, you actually dated here and there. Nonetheless, Chan was always the one to pick you up after each breakup.

"Rough." Minho simply said.

You ended up changing subjects, as he started to spill out about his cats. He said he rented a dorm for himself so he could have his babies with him, and that he did not think it through when bringing in his third one. Especially because Dori has so much more energy than the two others.

"Thanks, Min." you said as you came to the front door of your building.

"For?"

"I don't know. For being there."

"Sure." he shrugged his shoulders. "Good night, Y/N."

"Good night."

You really tried to make Youngmi feel at ease around your friends, and mutiple times. The girl had not much interest in coming out of her shell. You understood that, but her having been in college for a year already, you would have expected her to open up more. Still, her befriending you was already a success.

"This is, like, the only free break I have this week, so enjoy while I'm here." Chan laughed out as he headed towards the cafeteria.

"What if I don't?" you joked.

"Then you are revoked from any bestie privileges. No more driving you home after a night out."

You gasped as to seem shocked. "Who would tuck me in and treat my hangover, then?"

"Youngmi can do that." he shrugged as he nodded his head towards the girl walking next to you.

She didn't say anything as she looked at you in confusion. "What?"

"Nevermind." you sighed.

"Hey, Y/N, look." You followed to where Chan was pointing as he tugged your side, and your eyes landed on Eunhee and Jeongin sitting at a table. "We should join them."

"I don't think we should do that." Youngmi spoke.

"I thought you knew Jeongin and get along with him well."

"We don't want to impose ourselves." you added.

"It can't be too bad. Plus, Eunhee is very easygoing. Let's go."

No matter what you were going to say, you knew Chan was not going to change his mind. You forced yourself to follow him, and Youngmi had the same expression on her face. When you reached the two others, Jeongin's face turned red as his gaze stuck on Youngmi.

"Hey." she waved at him shyly.

"Do you mind if we join?" Chan asked, although he was already sitting down.

"Go ahead." Eunhee replied kindly.

Hesitant, you still sat down and started to eat. Chan began to discuss with Jeongin while the remaining three of you kept quiet. You and Eunhee exchanged some glances, and you felt bad for being so on the edge around her. She hadn't done anything other than being friendly, and it wasn't fair from you to give her the side eye.

Looking around, you tried to find Minho in the crowd. You spotted him quickly, but he did not see you as his eyes were set on someone else. More specifically, Byeol, his ex-girlfriend. He was sitting across from her and they were exchanging obvious glares. You were starting to wonder why he even sat with her, since he had previously told you he doesn't like to think about her. You observed the two of them for a bit, until they shifted glares into smiles. What the hell was happening?

"Youngmi." you turned to your friend. "Don't you think it's weird he's hanging out with her?"

The girl shrugged, since she didn't know them that much. "It looks normal to me."

You then heard someone choke, which turned your attention to Eunhee, who was coughing like crazy. As Jeongin attempted to make her feel better, you took out a napkin and wiped off the water she had spilled. She gave you a small smile, thankful.

"What do you mean, me? What did I do?" she said after she stopped coughing.

"She asked me if I'd be interested in tutoring you."

You hadn't noticed that Chan was the one she was talking to, until he answered. Tutoring? Wasn't he busy enough already? You chuckled as you thought this was an horrible idea, and Eunhee did the same, visibly seeing this as ridiculous as you were.

"What's funny?" he asked Jeongin, not sure to have caught on what made you two laugh.

The young man shrugged, not very interested in the conversation. "I mean, do you even have time to tutor? You barely have any time for the guys and I."

"It would be during the class period." Eunhee groaned at Chan, seemingly not happy with what she was hearing. "She said you're going to fail if you keep going like this."

“Come on, Chan. We’re barely halfway through the term. I can manage myself.”

“Not sure about that. You have halfway left that you can use to actually get better instead of barely passing.”

She gave you a look, almost pleading for your help, but you really didn't know what to tell her. So you shrugged your shoulders, and turned back to Youngmi to continue chatting.

“I’ll think about it…” you heard Eunhee say.

Lunch time went on pretty quickly. Youngmi had class, so you walked with her to her course. Your day was pretty much over, and you were planning to hang out with the boys for the evening. But nights at the diner shifted to you and Minho being alone while Chan needed to attend the student association meetings. Either that, or he was too tired and wanted to rest.

Unlike what you would have expected, it didn't affect you as much. Minho was much different than your best friend, there was no doubt. His weird behaviour, though, was odd enough to make you forget that Chan had pretty much abandoned you. He was still consistent with his texts, but you barely actually saw him around, today being an exception.

You joined Minho in front of the restaurant, and didn't bother waiting for Chan since you knew it would only be the two of you. He started to talk about his day and other fun things. But honestly, your focus was not cooperating as you were mostly in your thoughts.

"No, but can you blame anyone? Hyunjin's butt is great." Minho went on with his story-telling.

You mixed your milkshake with your straw in boredom, as you nodded along Minho's talk. "Yeah yeah, Hyunjin's butt is nice."

He raised an eyebrow, offended by your lack of commitment in this one-way discussion. "You're not listening."

"I am! I just told you Hyunjin's butt is nice!"

"Y/N, you've never seen the guy." he rolled his eyes at you.

"That is untrue!" you raised your finger to point at him in defense. "He's the one looking like he was made by angels, right?"

Minho scoffed, a smirk forming. "That would be me, princess." His cockiness almost got to you as you were at loss of words. "And we both know my ass is cuter."

You snorted at his statement. To be fair, you had checked his ass once, and there was no denial that he had a good one. You were not going to feed this ego of his, however. Just then, a ping was heard from your phone.

Chan: Hey! Changbin and I would like to have a little gathering with the others tomorrow. You in?

Y/N: If that means I can finally see you, yes!

Chan: I'm so sorry about that! I had so many meetings and so much work to do. It's supposed to be mostly done, though, so hopefully we can see each other more from now on.

Y/N: Otherwise, I'm complaining to the school that I want my best friend back.

Chan: Stop, you know I'll never leave you.

Chan: See you tomorrow?

Y/N: See you tomorrow.

"Something tells me Channie's the one you're texting." Minho teased.

"Shut you. I could say the same with you texting Byeol earlier."

This spilled out of your mouth without you thinking. You did not understand why it bothered you this much when he was chatting with his ex-girlfriend at the beginning of your night together. It was surely because it was impolite to be on your phone when you're hanging with someone already. Though, you just did the same and he was not bothered at all.

Minho blinked a few times as his eyes were set on you, before he breathed out a huff. "What do you mean?"

You stuttered as you tried to explain yourself. "I-I... She and you were- I meant, earlier today-"

He grinned at your sudden change in attitude. He rarely saw you shy or embarrassed, because you were rarely in this kind of state and also because you were good at hiding your emotions. To say he didn't like it would be a lie. You were damn adorable with the flush on your cheeks, and he had to suppress himself from slipping out a comment about it.

"You were definitely not listening to me earlier, then." You frowned before gesturing for him to continue. "The whole butt thing was because Byeol had accidentally texted me instead of her friend, and she was complimenting Hyunjin's ass in that message. That's why I was laughing then."

"Oh." you breathed out as you nodded your head slowly.

"If it makes you feel any better, I smile much more when you're texting me." he winked.

"Now, for real, you need to shut up."

Being the first one to get to Chan's dorm, you made yourself at home as you sprawled across his couch, scrolling through your social medias. Chan had plans with Minho and would be coming home with him later, so you hadn't seen him yet. Changbin, however, was there.

"Do you think this is a good plan?" he sighed loudly.

Frankly speaking, you had not listened to one word he said since you were too focused on replaying the cat video Minho had just sent you. "Uh? Yeah. It's an excellent plan." you replied nonchalantly, before chuckling at the video again.

"And, you were not listening." Changbin let out a sigh. "Is this Minho's cat?" he asked, upon seeing the ginger feline on your phone.

"Yeah. Soonie fell off this morning while he was filming him. Poor kitty, but this is quite hilarious. Especially Minho panicking and running to save his child." you went on to explain, a smile still on your face.

"You have it for Minho, now?"

You froze in action from his words. "What?"

He realized that, maybe, he shouldn't have said anything as he scratched his head while awkwardly chuckling. "Forget it."

The doorbell rang and Changbin almost ran to the door to open it. He let Chunhwa in before giving her a big hug. She had brought drinks for the evening, so she straight went to put them in the refrigerator.

"Hey, Y/N!" she waved at you.

"Hi." you smiled. "What did you get for us?"

She raised a pack of beer and a bottle filled with a dark-coloured liquid. "Beers for the guys, and I found this fruit punch thing. I thought we could try it out." she shrugged as she put them down, and pulled a Fanta out of her grocery bag. "And I got this for our Jisung."

"About that." Changbin started. "He won't come tonight. He said something along the lines that Hwayoung was out with some guy and that he didn't want what happened last time to repeat itself."

Last time you hung out all together, Hwayoung had went on a date before joining you and was looking like a wreck. Jisung had to comfort her in Chan's room, and let's say some stuff happened.

"Oh well, I'll have the Fanta, then." you said as you got up to take it from your friend's hand.

Soon enough, the guys came back after they stopped by the convenience store to buy some snacks. While Changbin had already placed the board game on the table, Chunhwa took the time to help Chan out with preparing the ramen soups he bought. Minho sat next to you and thanked the girl as she gave him the food.

"Where is Jisung?" he asked as he started to dig into his soup.

"He's probably comforting Hwayoung again." Changbin answered, which made you feel bad for him.

"If he keeps doing this, he'll end up in a deep depression." you breathed out before the entire room nodded in agreement.

"You're one to say that." Minho said as he nudged your arm.

You glared at him before hitting his arm playfully. You only hoped Chan didn't get what he meant by that. The evening continued as you all picked your pawns to play. You conversed simultaneously since it had been a while since you saw each other. Changbin and Chunhwa were being painfully obvious about their crushes on each other, and Minho kept on bugging you, claiming you were cheating.

"I talked with Eunhee." Chan said, clasping his hands together which took you aback.

"And?" you frowned.

"She accepted my offer. I told you she would."

Your heart sank. No matter when you would talk with him, he always brought her up. Even if you took your feelings out of the situation, it almost looked as if he wasn't your best friend anymore and it hurt. You felt Minho putting a hand on your thigh, probably to bring you some kind of support.

You forced yourself to smile, before managing to say a small "That's great."

You could see that Chan noticed your lack of enthusiasm, but he went on nonetheless. "Yeah, I'll text her the details later. It'll probably be once or twice a week. Depends on her level, honestly."

"Right." you coughed out as you felt a lump forming in your throat, and Minho was quick to notice as he tightened his grip on you slightly. "Sorry, I have a headache. Minho." The boy shot his head up immediately. "Do you mind helping me get some medicine?"

"No, of course." he assured before standing up and offering his hand to help you up.

He gave you a worried smile as you came face to face with him. You didn't know when it started exactly, but he had started to let himself be more vulnerable around you. You almost never saw him having any sort of emotions. Seeing him care this much about you made you feel both weirded out and safe.

Chan watched the scene happen in front of his eyes and frowned in confusion. "Are you alright? I can help if you want and-"

"No." you immediately shut him up. "I'm okay, really. Thanks."

The poor guy was left even more confused when Minho took you away, bringing you to the bathroom. You both closed the door and you stood in front of each other for a moment without saying anything. While he was waiting for you to talk, you genuinely just wanted to enjoy his presence. But as the silence grew, Minho finally decided to break it.

"You could have asked Chunhwa to help you." he said, since he didn't why exactly you chose him to comfort you.

You shrugged, not too sure either. "You were the first person I thought of at the moment. I mean, you had a pretty strong grip on my thigh."

He coughed awkwardly, his ears turning red. "I see. And yeah, sorry about that.

"It's okay. It kind of helped, actually." you admitted.

Another silence took over, but he was the first to speak again. "Do you want me to talk to him?"

Your eyes widened at his proposition. "Are you crazy? Don't do that."

"No, I won't tell him about your crush, or whatever. I can mention to him that it's annoying that he only talks about her." he shrugged his shoulders.

"Min, we both only talk about Chan whenever we are together." you stated the obvious. "I bet you are more annoyed about that."

"Fair enough, but you don't bring up how talented and amazing he is every two seconds."

You laughed at this, and it visibly made Minho relax. If he managed to make you smile a little, that was good enough for him.

"Still, you don't need to do that. It's just as if I'm losing a friend, that's all."

"Do you want to go back home? I can walk you there."

You hummed quietly while nodding a yes slowly. "Actually, yes, that would be nice."

He took a step closer before rubbing the side of your arm, not forgetting to replace the hair that had fallen onto your face as well. "Then, we shall take you home, princess."

You hoped he didn't feel your heartbeat fasten its pace, nor your heavy breathing. He was never a physical person, and his touch felt electrifying. You knew damn well he was only doing this for you to feel better about your whole situation with your best friend, but you were starting to wonder if a part of him actually enjoyed these kinds of moments.

Your train of thoughts was stopped when he let go of you to open the door again, letting you walk out first. As you joined the others, you saw Changbin and Chunghwa being in their own world, and Chan giggling at his phone, most likely texting Eunhee. Oddly enough, it did not pain you as much as it did earlier. Somehow, feeling Minho's body hovering behind you in a protective way compensated.

"I'll go home, if you don't mind." you said to nobody in particular.

Chan let go of his phone, while the two others simply gave you a thumbs up before going on with whatever they were doing. "This early?" Chan asked.

"Sorry, I don't feel so well." you attempted a smile.

Chan stood up and joined you at the front door, concern all over his face. "Let me walk you to your dorm, at least."

You shook you head as a no before gesturing to the man standing behind you. "Minho's coming with me already. Thank you."

"Alright." he trailed off before he gave you a tight hug. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Always. Good night Chan. Bye, guys!" you addressed to the others.

You were quick to leave, and you felt bad Minho had to keep up with your fast walking. Nonetheless, he didn't complain and you found yourself outside of the building soon, breathing in the fresh air.

"What are you going to do for the rest of your night?" Minho asked.

You pondered for a minute, trying to figure out the options in your mind, but nothing came up. "I don't know. Knowing Youngmi, she's already sleeping. That means I can't do much other than sleep too."

"Are you tired?" he asked, and you answered with a no. "My place is close to yours, if you want to hang out."

You never went over at his, meaning you never met his cats. This was a good opportunity to get some cuddles with them, that only if Minho allowed you.

"Do I get to snuggle with Soonie, Doongie and Dori?"

He frowned. "Who do you think you are? Some privileged woman? The cats are off-limit." To that, you pouted at him. "Y/N, no."

"You want to me to feel better or not?"

"You seem to be doing good, now."

"Min, pretty please." you whined like a child.

He let out a sigh, deadpanning at you. "Fine. Not more than an hour of cuddles, though."

Feeling victorious, you took his hand and dragged him rapidly to his dorm. He almost fell from your sudden excitement, which took him by surprise. You were especially strong for someone who barely did anything else than study and work. At his building, he took the lead since you didn't know where he lived exactly. He let you inside first, being the well-mannered man he is, and you were greeted by an orange ball of floof who was visibly confused upon seeing someone who is not Minho.

"Doongie." he said before pointing to the other orange cat who was sitting on the cat tree in the corner of the room. "Soonie. And I have no idea where Dori is."

"You sent me so many photos of them, I would have recognized them without your help."

He sent a glare your way. "Just be grateful you get to meet them."

"Yes, thank you, Min." you laughed before crouching down to pet the cat. "Hello, Doongie." you cooed at him.

Minho huffed at the sight. His cat seemed to be liking you a lot. He went to Soonie, only to see Dori jumping on the cat tree to join his brother. He patted their heads lovingly. At least, he still had those two who didn't betray him. However, he realized he spoke too soon when you joined him to scratch the cats' bellies.

"You traitors." he muttered at his children. "It looks like they love you more than me."

"I'm just that much likeable." you teased.

"Sure you are, kitten."

Your eyes widened as realization hit you. "You call me kitten because of your cats?"

"Why else?" he shrugged as if it was nothing. "I like cats and I like you. This is only logical."

Your eyes went even wider, your heartbeat pacing faster. Did he just tell you he liked you? The Lee Minho who was known to be the most detached person on Earth, the one who never showed his true emotions?

"You like me?" you breathed out.

He rolled his eyes at you. "You're my friend, of couse I like you."

Oh. He meant that kind of liking. You were not certain on why it disappointed you so much. You thought you liked Chan. Well, you did, but ever since Minho came in the picture, you didn't know if you were starting to lie to yourself about your feelings for your best friend.

"Wow, Minho is finally admitting he actually likes having me around."

"Don't let it get into your head too much. This only happened because Chan's busy." he scoffed as he walked to the cupboard in his kitchen. "Now, do you want to feed the kitties?"

You didn't think twice before hopping to join him. You helped him serve the cat food and put it on the ground. You observed them eat together, as you petted their backs. He was babying Dori and Doongie, while you were spoiling Soonie with scratches. Needless to say, you felt like you were two parents watching over their children. And it felt strangely comfortable. If someone told you months prior that you would be in Minho's apartment, feeding his cats, and feeling like you wished it'd be like this all the time, you would not believe them. Because you couldn't quite believe it at this instant.

"Did you want to do something in particular?" you asked after the cats were done eating.

"Hmm." he hummed, thinking for a moment. "We could watch a movie. I have some drinks if you want to do that while watching."

"Sounds good to me."

You opted for a comedy movie while Minho prepared the popcorn and the drinks. You both had already drank a little when you were at Chan's, but some more couldn't hurt. Mid-way through the film, you were already feeling tired and tipsy. Way more than tipsy. Of course, Minho noticed since you were starting to lean on him. He tried to move away, but it was like you were trying to absolutely have some sort of physical contact with him.

"Bruh." he spat out when you were now full on laying on him.

"Uh?" you said as your eyes fluttered opened. "Ah, sorry, Min. I'm just very tired."

"Yeah, it's fine."

"Do you mind if I sleep here for tonight?" you mumbled out and Minho froze.

Normally, he would have kicked you out at that point without any second thoughts. However, your pleading eyes with your tired figure did something to him, and he couldn't just say no to you.

"I'll take the couch."

You pouted before shaking your head violently. "Sleep in your bed. I'll stay here."

"Y/N, you're not okay. Sleep in my bed."

"Or we can sleep together."

You took his lack of answer as a yes, and stood up on your feet clumsily. Luckily, he caught you in time before you tripped on yourself. You grabbed onto him to find some balance as he led you carefully to his bed. Once he tucked you in, he was about to leave, but you took his wrist to stop him.

"I said we can sleep together."

"I'll just wash up, I'll be back."

"Do you have cucumbers?"

He looked at you weirdly. Sure, you were drunk, but this was so random. You explained briefly it was for a skin care routine you wanted to do to relax. Although it now made sense, he didn't quite understand why you wanted to pamper yourself while being so tired. Nonetheless, he obliged and brought you sliced cucumbers.

"I'll go shower while you do your thingy."

"I'll wait for you."

Your behaviour was strange, but you were awfully cute and you smiled widely at him, hurrying him to go wash. He absolutely adored it, but he knew this was only because you drank. He beat himself up for wanting this to be genuine. The picture of you waiting for him to go to bed and falling asleep together was more than appealing to him. However, he had to remind himself that you liked Chan, and that you'd known the latter for years. He could never do that, come in-between the two of you. He finished his shower thoughts by simply telling himself to get over it. He didn't like you. He couldn't like you. Not like that.

When he came back in his room, he was met with the image of you watching a kids show on his personal TV. Some people would act like horny jerks when drunk, but you were a total child. Alongside with you was Dori, whom you had somehow managed to kidnap to cuddle with. Minho loved it. But he couldn't.

"You didn't use the cucumbers." he pointed to the plate, still full of the vegetable.

"I told you I'd wait for you."

He quirked an eyebrow, starting to see where this was going. "I am not doing some self-care shit with you."

"Min..." you pouted.

"No."

You patted the empty side of the bed and, lazily, Minho sat down as he was still glaring at you.

"Please."

"I'm going to sleep."

You huffed. "You're no fun. Chan would have done it."

Oh, how wrong was it of you to say that. It awoke something in Minho. Whether it was jealousy or pride, he didn't know, but he knew he didn't like it. Instantly, he picked two cucumbers and placed them on your cheeks.

"There. Happy?" he grumbled.

"Very much." you giggled. "Your turn."

You spent the next hour or so playing with cucumber slices, either throwing them at each other, eating them, or shoving them on Minho's eyes. It might had been the first time you saw him genuinely having fun. Not cocky or insufferable like he usually was. He was at ease, and so you were.

It was around 1am when you both grew too tired to continue your self-care session. You snuggled into the blankets and brought yourself closer to the man laying next to you. He stood still as he looked right back at you. He didn't stop himself from reaching out to the side of your face, patting your head.

"Thank you for tonight." you mumbled tiredly. "I think I like you too."

He immediately caught on that you were referring to your previous conversation. Fortunately, because otherwise, he would have went on full panic mode.

"That's good, pretty. Sleep well, alright?"

"You too, Min."

You and Minho were definitely no longer friends after that night, but nor had you stopped speaking to each other. Quite the opposite, actually. Think of any act of affection a couple would do, other than kissing, and there you got what was happening between the two of you. Chan had almost disappeared, now spending most of his time with Eunhee. You did visit him occasionally to make sure he wasn't exhausting himself too much but it never lasted more than five minutes. That also meant your crush on him had completely vanished. It couldn't have stayed for long, anyway, after you woke up in Minho's bed that morning, realizing you had fallen in love with him instead.

"Strawberry." Minho said, standing up firmly for his choice of milkshake, as he nudged your arm.

"Chocolate." you said, coming closer to his face.

He sighed in frustration. "We had chocolate last time."

"If you're so pressed with your strawberry, just order one for yourself."

He smirked. "But you want us to share, don't you?"

It was annoying how right he was, and you huffed in defeat. "Strawberry it is."

"There you go. I knew you were going to give up."

"Shut up."

He took you by the waist and brought you closer, as if you were not close enough already on the small cushioned bench. You continued to bicker playfully, when you heard the front door's bell. Turning your attention on where the sound came from, you easily spotted Chan. He stood still, baffled at the sight in front of him. He started to question himself mentally, wondering if he had really cancelled on you two that much that he didn't notice you were dating. Coming back to his senses, he walked to your booth and sat in front of you.

"Hey, guys. Am I interrupting, or..?"

"Of course not." Minho exclaimed. "Glad to see you after, I don't know how long."

You could hear the pettiness in his voice, so you hit him slightly with your elbow before speaking. "We've all been busy, it's okay." you smiled. "So, what's new? How are things with Eunhee?"

"It's good, I guess. We had a... moment, and she is pretty much ignoring me since then. You know, when you came over the other day." he explained, while looking pretty clueless.

"What kind of moment?" Minho asked, stretching his arm out to wrap it around you, which earned a look from Chan.

"Uh, I'm not too sure. We danced in my room-"

You cut him off with a laugh, and he glared at you. "That's the cheesiest thing you could have done. No shit you were acting weird when I came over." you snickered, and Minho soon joined you as he tried to ignore the slight jealousy he felt from learning you went over to Chan's recently.

"Yeah, you two are no better. You were all over each other when I walked in." he rolled his eyes.

That was enough to shut the both of you, knowing well this was an unspoken thing you had going on. You never brought it up, and didn't intend on doing so anytime soon.

"So." Minho coughed out awkwardly. "Your moment?"

"Right." Chan nodded. "Well, we were dancing in my room and, I don't know what happened, but I almost kissed her. And, I don't know, she didn't look like she wanted to, so I back off. And now, I'm lowkey stressing out about it because I surely didn't want to make her uncomfortable."

"She wanted you to kiss her." you responded without hesitation.

"You think so?"

"Chan, I know so." You hesitated to continue with your point, but feeling Minho's hand rubbing your arm let you know it might be time to tell him. "I'm convinced she likes you, because she acts the same way as I did with you."

He frowned his eyebrows. "You like me? Aren't you and Minho... well, you know?"

"I used to, and that's not important." you dismissed the topic. "What I'm saying is she keeps sending you memes to make you smile, she gets shy around you, she said yes to your tutoring..."

"And you told me she even bought you coffee for one of your lessons with her." Minho added.

He looked at you both, still uncertain. "Should I invite her to my party, then?"

"What party?"

"My end of the school term party. In two days."

"Go for it, yeah." Minho encouraged. "Are we invited?"

"If you promise to keep it in your pants, yes."

Right. A party. With girls. And Minho. The guy who hooked up here and there after his breakup with Byeol. The same one you were currently in love with. Great.

"You know me better." he laughed with Chan. "I'll behave, I promise."

Later, on the walk back to Minho's, since you had planned to stay at his place, you were more quiet than usual. You were holding hands, but your grip was loose, and you couldn't focus properly.

"What's wrong, kitten?" he asked worriedly.

"What do you think of Siyeon?" you said, mentioning a pretty girl in your common class.

"What is this question?" he chuckled, not sure in where you were going with this.

"She's cute, has good grades, is nice to everyone. And Chan is going to invite her at the party, probably."

He raised an eyebrow at you. "Your point?"

"You could ask her out." you shrugged.

With that, Minho let go of your hand. "I could, but I won't."

"Why? Sorry, but it just hit me that you haven't gone out with someone in a very long time."

"I don't know. I suppose I'm not very in the mood of fucking around anymore. You also stopped talking about Chan with me. I'm not the only one acting differently." he pointed out.

"I said it earlier, I don't like Chan anymore." you rolled your eyes.

"Well, then. Our romantic lives are bland."

"They are."

The conversation was cut short as he didn't have anything else to say. He took your hand again, and led you to his dorm. You got there pretty quickly, and you still hadn't said a word to each other. It didn't mean you didn't understand what was happening, both of you implying the lack of love you had could only mean one thing.

The moment he closed his front door, he grabbed you by the waist to pull you closer and crashed his lips onto yours. You were taken aback at first, not sure on how you should be reacting, but it quickly faded as you melted into the kiss. While he was needy, he was also being extremely gentle with you, making sure he didn't hurt you in any way. It didn't take long for you to get to his room, and he pushed you down gently on the bed. Now hovering you, he deepened the kiss before moving down to place small pecks on your neck.

"Min." you mumbled between heavy breaths, and he hummed against your skin. "This is not a joke, right?"

He separated his mouth from your skin to look at you curiously. "What do you mean?"

"You used to be very... physical with other girls. I just want to make sure I'm not some doll you're playing with before throwing it away."

He looked at you with fondness as he stroke your cheek softly. "I thought I made it clear I've wanted you for months, now. Not just physically, like you said." He pecked your forehead. "If I can have you." Kissed your cheek. "I don't want the skin ship only, this time." He stopped as he glanced at your lips. "I want all of you."

You were the one to initiate this time when you brought him closer, kissing him hungrily. The unspoken tension there was before was no longer there. It was like kissing each other had dropped all of your walls, and you were now fully exposed to one another.

"I fucking hated it when you cried about Chan." he said in-between the kisses.

"Really?"

"Fuck, yes." he said, going back to sucking your neck.

"I hated how much you flirted with me, knowing you weren't sincere." you admitted.

"Trust me, kitten, I was fucking sincere."

You started to play with the hem of his shirt, tugging in a few times. He backed away and smirked at you before leading your hands to help him take off his shirt. The sight in front of you was mesmerizing. You already had the idea that he had a good body because of his dancing, but you certainly did not expect him to look this hot.

"Damn." you let out without thinking.

"I know, I'm hot." he winked at you.

"Of course, you know." you rolled your eyes.

"I'm joking." he chuckled as he pecked your lips. "Are you okay if we continue? I want you to feel comfortable."

"I'm more than okay."

The party started out well. You had come in advance to help Chan with the preparations, but mostly to help him calm down. The poor guy was so nervous, not knowing whether Eunhee was going to show up or not.

As people kept coming in, you kept on looking out for any signs of Minho. He texted you he had some errands to run for the cats before coming, but you just wanted to see him. After your night together, you spent the next two days doing finals which didn't allow you to meet up again. The morning after, however, he did ask you out on a date to which you gladly said yes. Although labels were not discussed, it wasn't necessary because you both knew you wanted the same thing.

"Hey, Seungmin!" you welcomed the man as you opened the door.

"Still acting like Chan's place is yours?" he joked.

"I've come here so much, it's like my second home." you laughed with him. "Come on in!"

You joined Chan back in the kitchen as he was starting to prepare the snacks. You started helping him out, though you were very much distracted. Looking at your phone every minute or so, Chan pointed it out, making fun of you.

"You tell me to stop doing that with Eunhee, and you're doing the same with Minho."

You froze in place before slowly turning your head to him. "I never told you I was seeing Minho."

"Y/N, you two have been eye fucking each other for weeks. It did surprise me, but I'm not blind. You love him."

You blushed, as shyness crept over. "Yeah, he's really great."

"I can see that. I haven't see you so happy since, well, since forever actually. I'm happy for you."

"Thank you, Channie."

You exchanged smiles before going back to preparing the food. It felt great to spend some quality time with him after such a long time.

"You two fucked, haven't you?"

Your eyes widened from his words.

"Chan!"

"What?" he said innocently. "You have dark spots on your neck, that's all."

You grew embarrassed, but couldn't help but laugh. You haven't noticed until now that Minho had marked you that much. You thought he was being gentle enough to not have done so, but it was visibly the opposite. Just then, you noticed a familiar figure appear in front of you, which made the both of you shut up.

"HI! Eunhee, um, wow. You made it! I mean, I didn't expect you to be here. I should, uh-" Chan spilled out, straightening his posture.

Trying to prevent him from embarrassing himself any further, you hit him slightly with your elbow to shut him up before turning your attention to the girl in front of you. "Good to see you."

"You too. I hope I'm not interrupting." she flickered her gaze between the two.

"Of course not!" you both denied, not wanting to give her the wrong image.

Chan stood there awkwardly before starting to walk away. "I should go greet the others. Talk to you later?" he told her, and you gave him a look as to ask him what he was doing.

You didn't know what to say to her. Seriously, it was Chan's responsibility to talk to her and fix whatever happened between them. You just kept on pouring bowls of chips, but ended up speaking.

"I really didn't expect you here. Chan had kind of given up after you ignored him."

It came pettier than what you had intended, but at least the message was there.

"It wasn't intentional. I mean, I did purposely ignore him but I had reasons." she justified, but you shook your head for her to stop.

"I'm not asking you to tell me why, you must have had good reasons. I just..." You hesitated to keep going, afraid you would be saying something you shouldn't. "He told me about how you almost kissed and I'm just letting you know that Chan is not someone to play around with. I don't know why he likes you so much while barely noticing me, but I'm warning you. You don't know him like I do and I know Chan is going to prioritize who he loves first. I don't want this thing going on with you two to be hurting anyone."

Her silence was torturing you as she was processing everything you told her. You replayed the scene in your mind, trying to spot anything you could have said wrongly. But nothing came to you.

"I came here to fix things with him." she finally spoke. "I don't know the history between you two, and visibly you are closer than anyone here. If I hurt you in any way, I'm so sorry. I just wanted to pass my class, that's it."

You had definitely fucked up by indirectly mentioning your former crush on the guy. This was obviously not the outcome you were expecting, you simply wanted to let her know that Chan was precious and needed to be taken care of even when he didn't want to.

"No, I-"

"It's okay, Y/N. You two clearly have something going on. I know for a fact Chan doesn't like me like that and he's way better off with you."

She left before you could explain any further. You cursed under your breath as you tried to catch up to her. However, you were stopped when someone brought you into a hug before familiar lips met yours.

"Hey, there." Minho grinned at you. "You're looking beautiful."

While your heart wanted to stay with him and melt at his compliments, your mind knew you had to make things right with Eunhee.

"Thank you, Min. I have to do something real quick. Do you mind getting me a drink in the meantime?" you pecked his cheek. "I'll be right back, okay?"

"Alright." he nodded before bringing you into another hug. He leaned on your side so his mouth could be next to your ear. "I'm sorry about the hickeys, by the way."

And he left. He was surely making you feel things, but now was not the moment. You walked through the crowd of people, trying to find Eunhee, but you simply couldn't as there were too many people. Looking behind you, your eyes laid on Chan, alone in the kitchen. You went to him as fast as you could.

"Chan!" you exclaimed out of breath. "Have you seen Eunhee?"

When you took a better look at him, his face had nothing but confusion, sadness, and pure anger.

"What did you say to her?"

And, you were fucked. You shut your eyes closed, taking a deep breath to prepare yourself for the argument that you felt was coming. Chan was rarely mad, but you did not want to be around when he was. Now that he was actually pissed, it was even worse that it was at you.

"So you saw her."

Chan rolled his eyes, as if it was the most obvious thing. "She said you were waiting for me in the kitchen. What have you told her?"

"Nothing untrue, I swear." you breathed out, trying to be careful with your words. "I think she misinterpreted a lot of what I said."

"What did you say exactly?" he asked again, growing impatient.

You took a deep breath in, and searched for any help around, but everyone was having fun and Minho was nowhere to be seen. "I might have spilled out I had a crush on you, but she took it as if I still do." He groaned in frustration, passing his hand through his curly locks. "I also said you like her, and I might have mentioned that you two being together could potentially end up hurting the both of you..."

If you thought he was furious earlier, now he was on full rage mode. Honestly, you had never seen him so mad, and it frightened you quite a bit.

"Why on Earth would tell her that?" he almost growled at you.

"Why? For fuck's sake, Chan, how was I supposed to know what to tell her? You left me there because you were too much of a baby to face her yourself." you snapped at him, which he had seemingly not expected.

"You know me enough to not say shit like that! And I am hosting this whole thing and I saw people coming in. It was the least I could do."

"Fuck off with your lame excuse, because we both know Changbin was already doing so. And for your information, I don't know you as well as I used to because sir decided to disappear out of my life."

He huffed at you as he looked around. He was lost and didn't know what to do now.

"Yeah, I told you already that I'm sorry. But if you love me so much, you wouldn't have told her off by saying you have a crush on me." he yelled out, being heard by almost everyone in the room.

Behind him, you spotted Minho's eyes already staring at you. He was fuming too, walking towards your direction. You didn't know whether he was angry because of you or Chan, but you were definitely worried at that point.

"Y/N." he called out.

"Minho, can we not-"

"So it's Minho, now?" You exhaled loudly, wondering how the night had even taken this turn. "I thought you said you were over him."

"Minho, stay out of this." Chan put his arm in front of him to prevent him from approaching you any closer.

You recognized the protectiveness Chan had of you within his tone, which reassured you a bit that he still cared, at least. Minho didn't fight back, but sent you a disappointed look instead.

"I'll leave you to it, then."

With that, he stormed out of the apartment, not looking back. Meanwhile, the tears you had been holding back until then flooded out and you broke down as Chan held you.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I'm sorry, it's my fault."

The softness he had after being so enraged took you by surprise, but you truly needed your best friend at the moment. "I'm sorry." you sobbed out.

"Y/N, it's okay. Don't be sorry. You know I can be pretty stupid, right?" he pat your head, and you nodded as a small laugh left your mouth. "I'm the one at fault, here. I should have talked to Eunhee myself, and I shouldn't have yelled at you. Minho is very sensitive, you know that, right? He'll come around, I'm sure of it."

It amazed you how he was still able to find the right words for any circumstances. You loved him, for real. But not that kind of love. This one was reserved for Minho. The only thing on your mind was to run after him. You hurt him, and you couldn't bear with the thought.

"Thank you, Chan. I'm also sorry."

He shook his head. "I told you to stop saying that." It made you chuckle.

"Do you think I should go after him?"

He smirked. "Go get your damsel in distress."

Still sobbing, you snorted at his words before you hurried to get out of his apartment. You felt grateful to have went so many times to his place to know his dorm number. Otherwise, you would have given up much quicker. You stopped in front of his door and knocked softly. You heard someone moving from the other side, and heard a sigh.

"Min." you called out.

To your shock, he opened the door, only a bit, and looked at you. He looked tired, and you noticed he had changed into his pyjamas. He hummed as a greeting, obviously still mad at what happened.

"Can we talk?"

He really didn't want to, but your puffy red eyes and simply the sight of you was enough to break him apart. So he let you in. You smiled widely when you were greeted by your favourite cats. You scratched their heads briefly, before turning your attention back on Minho. He was leaning on his counter (which was hot, let's be honest) and crossed his arms as he waited for you to talk.

"I really and certainly do not like Chan."

"Reassuring." he commented, but received a glare from you to tell him to let you speak.

"What happened was he left me alone with Eunhee and I said some things to her that she interpreted as if I still liked him. Chan got mad and he impulsively said that. I told him about us already, he knows."

He frowned at your words. "Us."

"Yeah, us." you repeated, taking a chance by walking up to him.

Thankfully, he let you place yourself right in front of him. He uncrossed his legs so you could have some space, and you approached him. You took his face in your hands, looking at him lovingly.

"What did you tell him about us, precisely?" he asked, placing his hands on your waist.

"I told him that you're great."

"Just that?"

"He knows we fucked."

He raised his eyebrows as he looked up. "Should have expected that."

You slapped his cheek playfully as you pouted, and he chuckled because you were just adorable. "Shut up."

"Sorry. Go on?" he laughed.

You got closer to him, your lips lingering over his. He would have kissed you, but he wanted to hear what you had left to say.

"And I admitted that I might love you."

He backed away, not having expected this. "Love?"

You sighed. "Dude, we've been acting like a couple for months, and we see each other pretty much every day. Don't act surprised."

He frowned even more. "Dude? Really? I call you princess, kitten, or pretty. And I get dude."

"Min." you whined, but he could only laugh.

He loved messing around with you, but he knew when to stop. "I'll be dude if that's what makes you happy, love."

You grinned from ear to ear. "Shall I take this as you love me too?"

"Don't make me say it, kitten."

You chuckled and played with his hair. He adjusted his posture and was now the one hovering you. His eyes went straight to your lips, and he didn't ask to kiss you before doing so. You smiled and kissed him back, not forgetting to hold him close.

"I fucking won over Bang Chan." he bragged after pulling away from you.

"That was an easy win." you snorted.

"Ah yeah? Am I that irresistible?"

"You know you are."

taglist: @lenilla15 | @muddy-waters | @nanaspalette | @nattisbored | @popcatx0 | @vanblack95 | @aestheticsluut | @thanxxskz | @minhoino | @fairywriter-oracle | @xhazmania | @taetertotsv

Copyright © 2023 skzhua. All rights reserved.

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

Steddie Upside-down AU Part 13

Part 1 Part 12

“Favorite song to listen to in the car?” Eddie asks. His fingers itching for a cigarette he doesn’t have. 

It’s been quiet for a while, but Steve picks the game back up like no time has passed at all. “What’s the difference between that and your favorite song?” he asks.

Eddie scoffs. “Favorite song is meaningless,” he says. He’s reclined on the couch, feet dangling over the edge. “It’s gonna change, right? You don’t want to listen to the same song in the shower, as you want to listen to in the car, as you want to listen to alone at night, as you want to listen to while getting laid.”

Eddie bites his lip on the words, hadn’t meant to let that last one slip, but he keeps hearing Steve say, “I’m so in my body that I’m out of it.” He can’t stop thinking about activities more tawdry than sports that might have the same effect. His fingers twitch, and he tells himself it’s just for the same cigarette. 

Steve hums, like he’s really thinking about it. “Don't Stop Me Now,” he says.

“Queen?” Eddie asks, shocked.

“What’s wrong with Queen?”

“Nothing! Eddie says, waving his hands in front of his chest. “I just thought you’d say like, Abba or something.”

Steve laughs. “Abba is for like, cleaning your house, man.” He flops down on the other side of the couch, hair mingling with Eddie’s in the middle cushion. The tops of their head’s brush. “When you want to make it a little fun, so doing the dishes doesn’t feel like the end of the world.”

“Hmm,” Eddie says, pushing down the thoughts of Steve Harrington dancing to Abba in his huge kitchen, those long yellow gloves housewives wear protecting his precious hands from wrinkles. “Well, why Don’t Stop Me Now, then?”

“It’s like, fast and upbeat sounding, right?” Steve asks. “But everything he says in it is like, a cry for help. He literally says he’s having a good time, but he keeps talking about how he’s a shooting star, and those things go out, man. He’s going too fast, and everyone’s just listening to him say not to stop him, but it's inevitable, and no one can see that.”

Eddie thinks about Steve’s parties, and the way his smile never reaches his eyes as he flounces around the school like he owns it. King Steve the shooting star. He doesn’t want to see the impact crater when he hits the ground, wonders if this is his cry for help. 

“Plus, if you turn it up loud enough, the drums are pretty sick.” 

Eddie laughs. “You like a good beat, huh Harrington?” Eddie asks, wiggling on the couch until he’s sitting upright, feet tucked under his ass, watching Steve struggle up just the same. They’re on opposite sides of the couch, like mismatched bookends. “There’s hope for you yet.” 

Steve quirks an eyebrow, smiling with his eyes. “You gonna make me a mixtape, Munson?” 

Eddie splutters. “Someone has to teach you the ways of Black Sabbath.” 

“Oh?” Steve says, putting his chin in his palm, his elbow on his knee. “You’re going to educate me?”

Eddie feels the blood rushing to his cheeks. He has to know how that sounds, right? Harrington is known to have game. He has to know. 

“Your turn,” Eddie says, covering his mouth with his palm when it comes out as a squeak. He moves his hand up a bit, covering his nose as well. Maybe he’ll suffocate and die, and never have to meet Steve’s eyes again. 

Steve laughs, “Okay, okay, uhhh.” Eddie drops his hand, watches Steve pick at his cuticles for a minute before jamming his hands beneath his thighs. “Who’s your best friend?”

“Jeff,” he says. The name settles in his gut like hot chocolate. 

“Tell me about him?” Steve asks.

“That’s a two parter,” Eddie says, waggling his finger, even as his throat constricts at the thought of his best friend.  “He was the only person who was nice to me when I first moved here.”

Eddie can barely remember the scared kid with the shaved head he’d been, before Jeff had started sitting by him in class, swiping him a pudding cup at lunch, riding the bus with him. 

“We’re in a band together now. And he plays D&D, too,” he says, smiling down at his hands. A pit has opened up in Eddie’s heart, and it’s in the shape of his best friend. He misses him. “He’s the best.”

Steve doesn’t comment on the way his voice comes out choked. “He sounds nice,” Steve says, quietly. He nudges the heel of his foot into Eddie’s thigh. 

“What about you?”

When Steve doesn’t answer right away, Eddie looks up. Steve’s picking at his cuticle again. It’s bleeding a little at the edge. “Tommy’s been my friend since Kindergarten,” he says, glancing up furtively before looking back down. “And Carol since sixth.”

“Yeah?” Eddie asks, keeping his tone just as quiet as Steve’s.

Steve nods. “I love them,” he says, but it comes out like a bad thing. 

Eddie nudges his foot “We’ll get back to them,” he says, hoping it’s the right thing to say. By the way Steve’s shoulder’s curl inward, like he’s trying to shield his heart, it wasn't the right thing at all. 

Part 14

[manheeiim]

rafe cameron coded songs - part two

summary: rafe cameron coded songs || warnings: drinking, smoking, rafe is mean and controlling || genre: established relationship, fluff, angst, headcanons || word count: N/A || a/n: more coming soon

𐙚 off to the races - lana del rey

"My old man is a bad man, but, I can't deny the way he holds my hand, and he grabs me, he has me by my heart."

In every single au of him I have in my head, he's always older than reader but significantly so when it comes to father figure bf!rafe and dad's best friend!rafe. He's also totally not the best person, he's literally a bad man, but despite that, reader can't bring themselves to stop loving him.

"He loves me, with every beat of his cocaine heart"

We all know he does coke and is a druggie but either way, he'll love you, drugged up or not and you'll love him both ways as well because you just can't help it.

"Watch me in the swimmin' pool, bright blue ripples. You sittin', sippin' on your Black Cristal, oh, yeah,"

Swimming in the pool in the backyard of Tannyhill, Rafe sits on a lounge chair in his bathing suit, a pair of sunglasses on his face, and a bottle of Schwarzbier in his grasp as he watches you in the pool.

"My old man is a tough man, but he got a soul as sweet as blood-red jam,"

Rafe puts on a tough exterior to everyone else and even to you at times but at the same time, you're the only one who really gets to fully see his sweet side. He won't dare to show it to anyone else, not wanting to seem weak.

"He doesn't mind I have a flat broke-down life. In fact, he says he thinks it's what he might like about me,"

I'm thinking trailer park bunny!reader x kook!rafe. She's poor and unfortunate overall but he doesn't mind. It's kind of intriguing to him. He'll take you into his care, and show you what it's like on his side of town. He likes how fascinated you seem to be with everything he'd taken for granted after having it all of his life.

"Light of his life, fire of his loins. Keep me forever, tell me you own me. Light of your life, fire of your loins. Tell me you own me, gimme them coins"

Yes, I know this in reference to the book "Lolita" and I'm not saying Rafe is a pedo. What I want to mention is the whole power imbalance between Rafe and reader. Rafe would definitely be the one in charge of the relationship, whether you liked it or not. He didn't find anything wrong with it, not at all, and you didn't either, well, most of the time.

"Because I'm crazy, baby. I need you to come here and save me,"

You just want Rafe to keep you in check, to make sure you don't make any mistakes, to keep you out of trouble. He acts annoyed about having to do that, and he honestly does get annoyed. At the same time, though, he likes to have you depend and rely on him like that.

"I'm not afraid to say that I'd die without him. Who else is gonna put up with me this way?"

You don't know what you'd do without him. If he weren't around, what would you have? Nothing. Nothing materialistically anyway. You can't imagine your life without him, you rely on him and love him too much. Things wouldn't go well for you. He's the only one who can put up with your attitude and issues. The only one to love you for you in the way you want.

ᥫ᭡ link to my masterlist

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

U.A. High School Field Trip Around Japan: Day 1 Translations

To celebrate My Hero Academia reaching one hundred million copies worldwide, Shonen Jump is releasing special illustrations in the newspapers of Japan's 47 prefectures, calling it "U.A. High School Field Trip Around Japan." It's being rolled out daily across one-week.

The schedule is:

April 4th, Day 1: Hokkaidō & Tōhōku regions

April 5th, Day 2: Kantō region

April 6th, Day 3: Chūbu region

April 7th, Day 4: Kansai region

April 8th, Day 5: Chūgoku & Shikoku regions

April 9th, Day 6: Kyūshū & Okinawa regions

April 10th, Day 7: Nationwide release

You can see the illustrations on their website here, where they are released digitally the day after their newspaper release, so Day 1 and Day 2 are available right now.

The illustrations depict charming scenes between Class 1-A about something related to each prefecture's culture or history, so I thought it would be really fun to translate them and share a little bit about Japan.

Here we go!

Note: As I mentioned, the illustrations are available on the official site, but they are all rather small, which makes them hard to read, so in this post I have included photographs from fans which I used for my translations. Every photo was available publicly on twitter and I have credited the posters, but please be respectful and don't draw undue attention to these fans. If anyone contacts me wishing for their photo to be removed, I will do so.

Hokkaidō Region

Hokkaidō

Photo credit: twitter user URix0307

Iida: "Heroes! Be ambitious!!' Aizawa: "I'm leaving you behind."

Iida is standing in front of the statue of William S. Clark at Hitsujigaoka Observation Hill, a scenic spot in Sapporo. Clark worked with the Japanese government to found Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaidō University) in 1876; he is a very famous figure in the history of the region. The statue is inscribed with a quote attributed to him as he left Japan: "Boys, be ambitious!"

Tōhōku Region

Aomori

Photo credit: twitter user redaotkrsn

Dark Shadow: "Fumikage!! I GOT ONE!!" Tokoyami: "The allure of forbidden fruit which tastes so sweet..." Dark Shadow: "One simply cannot resist!" Asui: "Tokoyami-chan sure likes apples, huh?"

Agriculture is huge in Aomori, and specifically they are famous for their apples, contributing about 60% of Japan's entire apple production. Raw apples, jams, juices, desserts, etc., they are everywhere in Aomori, and fyi, they are all absolutely delicious. The sweetest, richest, freshest apples I've ever had in my life were the ones I had here! Dark Shadow is right, one simply cannot resist!!!

Iwate

Photo credit: twitter user bakkk_17

Todoroki: "I can have as many bowls as I want, right?" Endeavor: "SHOUTOOOOO!!!" Kouda: "Todoroki-kun!! Your dad said he wants to eat with you, too!!" Todoroki: "Check, please."

Todoroki is eating wanko soba, a specialty from Iwate where it's basically an all-you-can-eat. The soba is served in many small bowls, and you slurp them up and immediately get served more. The verb he uses, ikeru, is one people also use for "holding your liquor well," which I personally found hilarious. "Oh yeah, I can hold my noodles."

Miyagi

Photo credit: twitter user Abino_Haru_Maki

Ashido: "Teacher, what's wrong? You keep lollygagging about!" Aizawa: "Kittykittykitty..." Shouji: "Anybody suspicious around? Nothing has come up in my search for enemies." Iida: "We're leaving you behind, teacher."

Miyagi is famous for being home to Tashirojima, the so-called "Cat Island" where cats outnumber people. Iida gets revenge!!

Akita

Photo credit: twitter user kado0730

Hagakure: "Namahage faces are so scary!!" Kaminari: "Looks just like Bakugou, don't it." Bakugou: "THERE'S NO RESEMBLANCE AT ALL, I'LL SEND YOU FLYING!!" Sero: "He's a rotten kid who looks just like a Namahage!"

Namahage are frightening folkloric figures from Akita's New Year's festival. Men wear big demon masks and straw coats and wield a (fake) weapon; they march through the streets or knock on doors to scold misbehaving children, asking if there are any "warui ko," (naughty/rotten/bad kids), which is what Sero calls Bakugou.

Yamagata

Photo credit: twitter user ha_n_a_0

Yaoyorozu: "Oh, tranquility! Penetrating the very rock, a cicada’s voice." Kaminari: "Jirou! How about you put your earphones on that rock?" Jirou: "Are you stupid?"

Yaoyorozu is reciting a famous poem by Basho Matsuo written when he visited the Buddhist temple, Risshaku-ji (also called Yamadera, meaning "mountain temple"). This translation is by Helen Craig McCullough. Risshaku-ji, a National Historic site, is home to a number of beautiful buildings and statues built into the mountainside; temple history claims a lineage back to the 9th century. The trail up to the temple consists of 1,015 steps; I visited in winter, which made it quite the precarious climb!

Fukushima

Photo credit: twitter user kingyo0927

Kirishima: "This right here is what I should be aiming for!!" Aoyama: "A fateful encounter~!" Bakugou: "When I said 'just being able to keep standing through anything makes you crazy strong,' this ain't what I meant!!"

Kirishima is looking at rows of okiagari koboshi, which are traditional papier-mâché dolls popular in Fukushima's western Aizu region. They are weighted so that no matter what you do to them, they pop right back up to standing!

That's all for Day 1! I'm still translating Day 2 and collecting Day 3's as they roll in, so please look forward to those. :D

[pandorasfavorite]

okay so i had some ideas and idk if you've done them already, but yeah

-reader meets dom in a bar/club/something like that and yk (also grinding while dancing bc ughhhh) (smut???)

-taking care of drunk dom/dom taking care of drunk reader (fluff)

-police!reader/prisoner!dom (smut, can be roleplay) (sub!dom btw) also handcuffs>>>

Wasted or Barely Drunk?

You felt alive and at the peak of your happiness. Dominik told you he was going to stay sober while you celebrated with the rest of Judgment Day for an incredible win. You felt guilty for not being the designated sober person, considering Dominik deserved to celebrate just as much. But the first sip of your margarita changed your mind, any worry vanished. You were a happy drunk through and through, but also an extroverted drunk. You sipped down many drinks and joked around with friends for 30 minutes before your mind wandered to more appealing ideas. And the group only followed your every footstep. Now while you were dancing and waving at your friends (who were right beside you), Dominik held you by the waist. His hands kept you upright each time you had absent-mindlessly stumbled to the left without knowing. You swayed in his arms and raised an arm above your head as you danced, dragging your body down his when the beat slowed down.

His hands accidentally slipped from your waist when you danced to the beat, and his head dropped to watch you go from the floor up. And all the way up to where your back was flush against his chest again. Dominik blows out a breath and averts his gaze from you, in an attempt to collect himself, but he is brought back by you stumbling towards the bar again. You crash against the bar and you lean forward with a dazey smile, thinking of the now sweet taste of alcohol on your lips and the thoughts trickling through your mind. In your time waiting for the bartender your mind wandered to where Dominik was, and why he wasn't beside you. Only to realize he was when he waved off the bartender when he got close.

You turned your head to look up at him with parted lips, your glossy eyes piercing a hole through Dominik. "Why'd ya do that?", you slur and lean towards him while talking, wobbly jamming your finger into his chest. Dominik wraps his hand around your finger and uses his other hand to wrap around your back and have you stumble closer to him. "You don't need any more", he replies and rubs the bottom of your back where he is holding you. You puff out your cheeks and look at Dominik's face, you could make out his face but nothing behind him. The rest was fuzzy, especially considering it took your eyes a few moments to catch up with how fast you swiveled your head. "jus- because you're cute, does notttttt mean you can take my drink SiR~", you take an approaching step towards him but you fall face forward into Dominik's chest with a grunt.

Dominik smiles and raises an eyebrow at you as if he has proven you wrong. You cross your arms, bumping them into his chest, "m' not even drunk" you slurred again. "Mami you are wasted", he laughs lightly and uses his other hand to touch your face. It was a pastime to occupy his hands, one of his favorite things to do while you were in front of him. Your eyes squint and you frown, "waste" you repeat back. Dominik caught onto what you were thinking the instant you spoke. He moves his hands and uses both of them to hold the sides of your face. He kisses your face all over, pulling back with a popping sound each time, "I meant you're really drunk baby, I'd never call you that sweet girl". You lighten up instantly, getting on the tips of your toes to kiss his lips. But you sorely miss, only kiss his chin, you giggled but Dominik was pouting to himself. He pulled your face up to his and properly had you kiss him, it was messy and uncoordinated and you tasted of alcohol but it was a kiss to remember.

When he pulled back you looked dazed but happy. Lost in a trance and mesmerized by the man in front of you. "Let's go home, how's that sound hmm?", Dominik kisses the top of your head sweetly. You nod and you brighten up instantly, turning around, his hands falling from your face as a result. And you are walking towards the dance floor like a fly to the light, with Dominik grinning and following behind you.

[98chao]

ion know what vanilla milkshake is but damn ill ship it outta spite for twitter and to support u dawg wtf is happening in the cookie run fandom

LMAOSKDISJFOKSOFJE well i could go on for HOURS abt the ship, but basically in cookie run kingdom they have the 5 ancient cookies that have a special power given to them called the soul jam right, and in a huge update back in january they introduced what are basically the ancient-ancients called beast cookies, who were the original owners of the soul jam but had half of it stripped away because they were using it for evil

SO BASICALLY vanilla milkshake is the ship between the ancient pure vanilla cookie and the beast shadow milk cookie

they both hold the soul jam for the virtue of knowledge, split up into the traits of truth and deceit respectively

so... of course when they're thematic contrasts the ship is gonna be right up my alley, and i started shipping it like literally immediately after playing the update. but crk fans (specifically twt and tt ones) do NOT like this ship bc they think it's toxic lol, even tho theres nothing wrong with shipping something that's literally just enemies to lovers trope that everyone claims to love 😭 it's like the one meme "how fake enemies to lovers fans look when REAL enemies to lovers fans come at them"

there's other ancient-beast pairings too but they're like equally hated because the beasts are unapologetically cruel to everyone. like mystic flour cookie x dark cacao cookie even tho they had THIS beautiful scene that really made me wish i was dark cacao cookie here

me personally i'll still enjoy all of them ... these ppl just don't understand peak ship dynamics 😒. we haven't even seen a lot of the beasts so its way too early to judge the ships this harsh when they have so much potential to be amazing

[mksbigg3stfan]

╭────── · · ୨୧ · · ──────╮

MCSM Ship Dynamics

╰────── · · ୨୧ · · ──────╯

(Just how I think different MCSM ships would work + my overall thoughts and opinons on them !!!

꒰ ୨୧ ─ ・┈ ・ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ꒱꒱

Jesse x Lukas

Jesse and Lukas are like the bread and butter of MCSM ships, very basic but beloved for their closeness and banter. Jesse, no matter which route you take or choices you make, is a more extroverted character that is a strong leader. Generally, Jesse cares very much about their friends and is a pretty friendly person. It's mostly up to how the person individually perceives Jesse, but the most common interpretation of Jesse I've seen in Jesskas is that Jesse learns to admire Lukas as they travel together. Lukas usually falls for them as well, but in the "He fell first they fell harder" kind of way, lukas being the former.

I've also seen some interpretations of Jesse having a little crush on Lukas at the beginning of MCSM because they think he's cool. Overall, I think Jesskas would be a pretty healthy ship.

The two of them admire each other, and they accentuate each other's strengths well! Jesse got Lukas out of his shell and pushed him to improve, and Lukas hyped Jesse up and helped them grow into the hero they were in season 2.

Lukas as a character in season 1 doesn't exactly have confidence. Though he does have faith in some of his own strengths, and is the most likely character out of Olivia, Axel, and Jesse to disagree with Jesse, he still is always trying to keep people happy and try to keep conflict to a minimum. Not being an aggressive character doesn't mean he won't stand up for himself when needed, though. Even though Lukas wasn't exactly the leader of the Ocelots, they still sort of listened to him and considered his opinions in a way, so Lukas could probably hold his own on Aiden in an argument. The reason Lukas didn't argue with them as much was most likely because he believed that the Ocelots could change, but when he was proven wrong the arguments became more frequent and he got kicked out.

Jesse and Lukas in season 2 are very clearly closer, and it seems like they'd been hanging out a lot more before everyone became too busy to see each other more often. Still, in season 2, Lukas is belittled by Romeo, who brings up his old insecurities. He sees through Romeo's disguise because he and Jesse always lift each other up and encourage the other to improve. Lukas also seems to be a character that would show affection through words - like cheering people on or subtle physical affection - like a high five and the ever so often hug. Jesse, Olivia, and Axel definitely have become his safe place after the Ocelots kicked him out.

The only real critisism I can think of for Jesskas is that there was a lot of mischaracterization of Lukas in the past, and still some in the present, along with it kind of overshadowing a lot of other characters and ships.

Jesskas is very overdone, but there's nothing wrong with that! It's cute, albeit very basic. I don't really ship it, but I see where people are coming from, and it has the potential to be very cute!

꒰ ୨୧ ─ ・┈ ・ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ꒱꒱

Jesse x Petra

Again, Jesse and Petra are a pretty basic, bread and jam type of ship. It's a little more complex than Lukas and Jesse, but not by much honestly. Petra is also a bit of a cool girl archetype, someone who's generally closed off from other people and doesn't like showing weakness due to fear of being seen as just that - weak. Only her weaknesses. She has trouble staying in one place for long or getting attached to things, but when she does, Petra holds on tight. While Lukas is just about as extroverted as Jesse, Petra is more introverted and selfish. She looks out for herself.

It's difficult to pin a characer for Jesse since, honestly, the different routes and such make it seem like every person who plays MCSM will get their own individual Jesse character. Also, because of lacking writing, which makes Jesse kind of has the amount of character of a peanut shell most of the time ... but I guess that again, that makes Jesse's character mostly up to individual interpretation. With Jesstra, I've noticed people seem to pin Jessie as a person that likes physical affection, so them and Petra tend to bond over fighting and sparring.

Petra is probably mostly averse to physical affection and touch - she seems more like someone who would do acts of service, being a mercenary and all. Jesstra seems like a ship where they would be sparring and flirt with each other through complimenting each other's moves + lovingly beating the shit out of each other. In a healthy way, though! After sparring, I think they would take care of any bruises or harm that was caused together.

When Petra was super closed off and mysterious, Jesse was the one to get her to start talking to more people. They were one of Petra's first really close friends, and that meant a lot to her. They were also the one that forced Petra to realize she couldn't stay stagnant forever and expect things to never change. She had to grow up and move on.

I can see the appeal with their compiments and banter during fights and sparring, as well as Jesse leaving Beacontown at the end of season 2 to go travel the world with Petra. A very healthy ship as well!

To be honest, we really need more focus on the smaller sapphic and wlw ships in the MCSM fandom, in my opinion. This ship probably is the gateway a lot of people get into those through, so I thank it very much for that. Not only that, but it's a pretty cute ship! Again, I don't exactly ship it, I don't really ship anyone with Jesse because I don't find Jesse that interesting.

As for faults with this ship, from what I've seen, the characterization of Petra is pretty good, but because Jesse is a lot less complex in comparison to her, it feels kind of empty on one side.

Anyways, I can definitely see where you guys are coming from! I personally do love dynamics like this one, so I think it's pretty good!

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Jack x Nurm

Boy, oh boy, old man yaoi !! (just jokes, guys, please don't kill me). While Nurm speaks in villager, Jack is able to understand him completely fine. They both seem to have a very deep understanding of each other anyway. They give the vibes of adventurer husbands who traveled the world together in their youth. By now, they're pretty much done with adventuring and want to settle down together and live in peace. And they deserve it!

You can tell just by hearing them talk that they've spent many an adventure together, fighting alongside the other and tending to each other's wounds. If they have any child relatives, I'm sure they'll be the favorite relative just for the sheer amount of cool stories they can tell.

Jack has a lot of respect for Nurm as a cartographer, and Nurm respects Jack's physical strength. Nurm is probably more the brains of the two, more quick witted and smart. The only thing is, Jack is one of the only people who can really understand him. That probably got them to be much closer than any of their other party members, anyways.

Also, not to mention, they live together. They are married guys trust me. (You don't have to take that serious dw) The only thing I could possibly think of as critisism is that it's kind of weird that Nurm is a villagerx but he's proven that he's just as intelligent as any player, so it's fine. Besides, it seems like people have universally accepted that they are married or in love, at least, from what I've seen.

꒰ ୨୧ ─ ・┈ ・ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ꒱꒱

((If you want me to talk about a specific ship, you can just ask !!! ( ´∀｀ )b))

Never feel scared to ask me anything !! I live when people send asks, or just interact with me in any way at all BSNANDND

[yuri-is-online]

hi, thank you for answering! i really love the fyuuture kid au!! could i ask for cater!yutu? 👀 i wonder if yutu knows there is more to him, and if yuu remembered that too in the og timeline to tell their son

👀 you may. I have a separate fic I am supposed to be writing for him but I had thoughts...

notes: they/them used for Yuu, cw for discussions of mental health and suicide, but no one self harms and nothing is described. General fyuuture kid au info can be found here and the first post can be found here. More of it can be found under the series section of my masterlist.

Yuu's memories of Twisted Wonderland are less concrete thoughts and more feelings. They know how Cater made them feel, and bits and pieces of his personality but they lack memory of the context, so their memory tries to patch up the holes. In other words, they don't remember Cater's act was an act, and they explain him to Yutu as a creative, friendly person, who likely struggled with a form of depression.

"Your father would sometimes find himself feeling despondent, lacking energy, and motivation. There is a chance as you get older that you might feel that way sometimes too, but that's not because you are a failure or because you did something wrong. I won't hate you if you feel that way and I will never judge you for it. I will always be there for you."

It's a good call, Yutu does find himself having some periods of depression as he gets older from time to time, and the early conversation Yuu had with him allowed him to feel comfortable with discussing that with his parent. The idea that his father had similar struggles comforts him, doubly so if Yuu does as well. He thinks about his dad a lot actually, Yuu's lack of memory means Yutu's over active imagination tries to fill in the blanks.

There is a part of him that thinks his father might have lost his battle with depression and that Yuu's memory loss was due to grief. He respects his father a lot, and is determined to take care of his own and Yuu's physical and mental well being to honor him. Yutu likes to think that is what his dad would want.

He loves music, he finds playing guitar and singing to be very soothing, but he's not super interested in being in a band; he is much more interested in maybe jamming a bit and just talking with his friends. Pretty much exactly like his dad now that I think about it.

I like the thought of Cater! Yutu wanting to be a psychologist when he grows up... and knowing that Yuu isn't the wealthiest person starts working part time to save up for college. He's a very driven person, and deeply interested in what makes people tick.

Cater! Yutu is one of the Yutu's who is A) in a different dorm than his dad (Octavinelle, not Heartslabyul) and B) who sort of prefers your world to Twisted Wonderland. He warms up to Twisted Wonderland after traveling into the past and actually gets to see what it's like, but he really didn't like fighting monsters or seeing what had happened to his father, speaking of which-

He tried asking about what his father was like before he was transformed into a monster, but he didn't get a lot of clear answers. Crewel tells him that he was very outgoing and peppy, a good enough student who was really into an app called magicam that isn't around anymore due to the *gestures vaguely at the apocalypse* and Sam told him a neat story about his New Year's sale and how well his dad could work a crowd. "Good with people." That's something he hears a lot, but nothing to suggest he wasn't always happy. They do have some recordings the pop music club made they pass along to him that Yutu treasures and keeps close.

Yutu had to fight his dad's monster form multiple times to try and rescue people from the Queendom of Roses. It was painful to see a monster who is actively trying to kill him and people he has come to care about and then have him pointed out to him as his dad. There isn't any life left in Cater's eyes to recognize him, but Yutu still wants it to be there. He has so many questions and no one left to answer them.

When he travels back in time, Yutu doesn't interact with Cater immediately. His mind still associates him with blot and grueling fights, so he hangs back around Yuu and Adeuce. It was a bit difficult to get used to being around them, but it helped that Deuce is very polite and his focus on being an honor student is kind of cute. Ace though...

Ace is suspicious. He tries telling those suspicions to Cater, "Hey don't you like Yuu haven't you asked them out a whole bunch you should be worried about this-" blah blah blah, look Cater wasn't there to see Yutu arrive, and he knows the froshes like to exaggerate. There is no way Yutu fell out of the sky and it isn't a big deal that he knows so much about Yuu. They're probably just childhood friends, and those never win even if it would be kind of cute- hey maybe they're related??? It doesn't matter, Cater is determined not to think about it. Which leads to a series of miscommunications where Cater tries teasing Yutu but it just makes him look like an ass for assuming things.

Yutu actually finds this sort of interesting. Now that he actually is talking to his dad, well no. Now that he has actually heard his dad open his mouth and speak it is sort of difficult to think of him as a blot monster or to be afraid. Overblot Cater never said something like "yikes a tron 3000." He thinks he gets what Yuu was remembering about him, Cater can come off as very fake sure, but there are traces of the real him in what he does and says. His dad likes the color yellow, catchy music, being praised when he does something cool, and he wants to be taken care of by someone. Someone Yutu suspects is his parent~

It also helps that he has been stealing Yuu's phone while they're asleep (he tried their password from the future it still worked rip bozo) and scrolls through Cater's magicam feed to try and get a sense for what he liked in between all the trends. He noticed the skateboard stuff and made sure to ask about it by saying something about how "oh I heard about it from Yuu, they thought it was really cool."

Cater isn't really ready to be a dad, but he is surprisingly chill when he learns just who Yutu is.

"Oh please you're here aren't you? You wouldn't be unless I wanted you." Cater sounds so ridiculously sure of himself that Yutu half wonders if he is talking to someone else. But no, it's his dad. His very creative, very good with people, sometimes a bit depressed dad who respects him enough to be honest with him. "You have to know that Yuu wants you to be here, right? I didn't screw that up for you, did I?"

"It wasn't you." He needed to say that out loud for himself, because it wasn't. Yutu's Cater was dead a long time before he ever got to see him. "It looked like you, but it wasn't you."

They like to play music together sometimes, but in typical pop music club fashion they usually just eat snacks and talk. Yutu wants to play some of the music on the recordings Crewel gave him with Cater and Cater wants to make new tracks. He is a bit disappointed that there was no magicam in the future for Yutu to tell him about, but he is just as happy to hear weird trends from Yuu's world.

Cater likes to bring Yuu in to these jam sessions sometimes. He does like to do couple stuff with Yuu on magicam sometimes, but he prefers to keep his more genuine emotions and moments to himself. He will get very embarrassed if he finds out that Yutu has been taking pictures with the ghost camera behind his back.

The future that Yutu came from scares him, he would prefer someone else take the lead on figuring out how to fix it, but if monsters begin attacking in this time? Well he has no problem taking point on that, hey he's heard kids find things less scary if they see their dad's there to protect them.

And Cater is pretty scary when he's mad about missing out on something ♡

[adudelolwriting]

"instead of fake dating, everyone is convinced that you aren’t actually dating" but with either brim or jam maybe? 👀👀 (last prompt absolutely gutted me btw it was SO good)

holy fuck i could have SWORN this was meant to be like 500 words. nope. another 1k oneshot . hopefully you'll enjoy :D this ones a lot sweeter than the other one (ask game here)

~~~~~~~~~~

Alex knew Brian and Tim were close. Brian is one of Alex's closest friends, and he knew about Tim a long while before he met the man. Alex first met him when Brian was 'auditioning' for the part of Brian, the main character in his film he was making. (Brian already had the part, in Alex's mind. Alex heavily based the character of his friend, and named the role after him.)

Don't get Alex wrong, Tim was an attractive man. He just… he wasn't Alex's type. He seemed very… nervous, talking to most people, his back stiff and arms crossed. Alex really only saw the man's guard get let down when he was off to the side, having a short, private chat with Brian. And Alex didn't think anything of it — why would he?

No, Alex was far more interested in his long term friend. He had talked to Jay, one time, when it was late into the night. They probably should have been asleep, but instead, Alex was talking about Brian. 

"It's just, he gives me the butterflies, like Amy used to," Alex said, laying on his back and staring at the popcorn ceiling of his room. 

"So you have a crush on him?" Jay asked, his head tilting to the side, like it always does when he was curious or interested in something. Alex shook his head, "no, I can't have one. I know he swings both ways, but he's my friend. I've known him almost as long as I've known you."

Jay chuckled, leaning back on his elbows, looking to Alex. "That doesn't mean much, dude. If he makes you feel like you felt for Amy, I think that's a pretty big sign," he smiles.

But Alex can't have a crush on Brian, right?

Yeah, the man makes his stomach flip, and pretty, and he makes Alex laugh, and…

Oh. 

Oh.

Alex had a crush on Brian.

Alex had a crush on Brian, and Jay was the one who helped him realize.

He let out a groan, blush blooming from his face as Alex tried to hide himself. Jay laughed at him, patting him on his shoulder. "Maybe you should ask him out. It looks like he feels the same for you too, dude."

"I just found out I liked him, I can't just — ask him out like that!" Alex huffed, voice muffled by his hands.

"Why not? Someone else might ask him out first! Imagine if like, he and Sarah got together," Jay laughed quietly, to which Alex groaned again, muttering a 'shut up' and throwing a pillow on him.

Some days have passed now, and Alex could only focus on the fact that he liked Brian. After shooting, Alex had made a plan to ask Brian — er, well, at least tell him. Maybe explain and hope production of Marble Hornets wouldn't be awkward if Alex explained why he couldn't look at Brian without getting flustered.

Once filming for the day was done, Brian and Tim were talking quietly as Seth put the camera away, and Sarah and Jay talked. It was a pretty full day, with all of the crew around. (Sarah even decided to stay and watch after her scenes were done!)

Alex walked over to Brian and Tim, and their conversation pauses as he got closer. "Hey man! What's up?" Brian asks. 

"Could I talk to you for a moment? Uh, privately?" Alex asked, and he felt his blush already starting to rise. Brian looks back to Tim, who simply shrugged. 

"Yeah, of course. Lead the way!" Brian smiled, and god, was the man pretty. Alex shook his head. The two walked a bit further from the set — out of earshot of everyone else. "Uh, I'm not in trouble or anything, right? Not firing me or anything?" Brian laughs, putting an easy smile on Alex's face.

"No, no. Nothing of the sort. It's, uh…" Alex paused, as if thinking of the words of his scrambled brain. "It's more… personal, I guess."

Brian's eyebrows tilt in concern. "Is everything okay?" 

"Yeah — It's, yeah." Alex took a deep breath. "Brian, I — I like you." 

His face must be so red. He can't make eye contact, instead staring down into the grass. The silence washes over them, and god, Alex ruined everything, didn't he?

"Oh my god," Brian giggles after a second, which felt like an eternity, "God, Alex, I like you too. Did you really not pick up any of the signs?"

"You… what?" Alex feels like his brain broke. Brian liked him too? Brian had been leaving signs?

"Yeah man!" Brian grinned. "I've liked you, for like, forever now. You never did anything so I didn't think you liked me back."

Alex laughs at himself. Of course. "Ah, in that case… are you free this weekend..?"

"Alex Kralie, are you asking me out on a date?" 

"If you could be inclined to join me, then… yes?" 

"I would love to. I'll have to ask Tim, to see if he's okay with it." Huh? "We've talked briefly about it, but I'll have to double check if we can get serious, too."

"What?" Alex asked. "Why — Why do you have to ask Tim?" 

Brian's eyebrows now curl in confusion. "Because… me and Tim are dating?"

"What?"

Brian giggles, breath whistling quietly from the gap in his teeth. "Me and Tim have been together for like, two or three years!"

"And you — you didn't tell anyone?" Embarrassment and shame flushes through Alex. He asked out a taken man. 

"We… we did, didn't we?" Brian says, seemingly to himself. "I thought we did. Was it not obvious? I've literally gushed about him for hours."

"I just— I thought you guys were friends — Sorry, I should go—" Alex was about to turn around and leave, but Brian took his hand into his own.

"Hey, dude, it's fine. I'm poly, y'know? I have two hands. I like you too, did you just forget that?" Brian giggles lightly. "Please don't run away from me 'cause of this, Alex. I'm like, ninety-nine percent sure Tim's okay with this."

They talked it out, talked to Tim, and everything was okay. 

And, well, besides.

Brian does have two hands for a reason.

[burning-academia-if]

Hi again. If you've been around a while you're probably going to be like "Em, again??" But guess who got sick for the 6th time this year and this time it was a full on chest infection!! It has been three weeks, and somehow I am still Not Free!!

Anyway, BA fell to the wayside this month because it was Velox Fabula time and I've yet to miss a Velox jam (also...chest infection). I also needed to get my sudden and newfound Pirates of the Caribbean obsession out of the way so! I made a short pirate visual novel for the jam and I'm normal again. I also released the prologue of my side IF To Taste Sweet Silver (@sweetsilver-if) just to have it out. Feel free to check it out if you want, but it likely won't be updated for a while as I'm shifting gears back to BA for September!

I don't have much to report but:

UI update should be out in the next week or two depending on how I'm feeling. It won't look like much to y'all since it's more for my sake via cleaning up the code LOL but there were things added (friendship indicators, open dyslexic font option, character page updated, stat page updated, glossary page added) I'm not a graphic designer but it's better organized I think. There won't be an Official Post about it because it isn't new content, but I will make a small announcement when it's out. It'll also include the originally deleted Lars/Zoe/Nevio lunch scene in Chapter 2 as well. Sorry this is taking so long, I just really struggle with the coding side of things which has made the process slow.

Writing in August was also slow, and honestly, I think I really needed those few weeks off not thinking about BA. My inbox being very quiet helped as well, so I really did take a real break from BA. When I opened up the writing doc, I felt a whole lot better about working on BA again, and we have hit 100k words finally!

Anyway, I don't want to lament much, but I did have a personal goal of releasing up to Chapter 4 this year which obviously is Not Going to Happen. It honestly sucks I got sick so often this year because it cut into so much time for creative projects, be it BA or anything else.

I'm not really going to be hard on myself for it, though. I think releasing 3 chapters this year considering everything that kept Going Wrong this year is actually pretty good. I just think its annoying when I know I could have done it but the universe said no instead akfjalfa Anyway, I'm not sure when Chapter 3 will release but I do have a good feeling about September and I think I'll be able to at least get a decent chunk done this month!

Finally, September marks the one year anniversary for this blog and October marks the one year anniversary of BA releasing!! I feel like I literally just started writing this, the fact it's September already is wild.

I was going to do art commissions, but due to surprise car issues, I don't really have the money for that now (next year for sure though!!), so I was thinking of maybe doing character Q&As to celebrate? I've also seen some authors do raffles, but I'm not entirely sure what I would raffle off? Maybe personalized short stories with readers MCs if there's interest in that? I'm not sure yet, but I have a month to figure it out lol

But also thank you to everyone who has followed along!! It's been a really fun time both writing BA and on the blog. I know I say this a lot, but I'm really glad this is such a chill place. It's nice for me the author obviously, but it's also nice because I always want the spaces I have to feel like safe places for others as well so! Thanks again!

Lastly, I normally would end on a little snippet or preview but since most of what I wrote was just the two different openings, I feel like I have nothing fun to tease (or maybe I'm too picky about snippets idk). Hopefully Zoe's bday post tomorrow makes up for it, and I'll post some snippets later in the month instead!

Thanks for reading!

[aishangotome]

Ellis Twilight: Chapter 4 Premium Story

Chapter 4

♡———♡

Ellis: How happy are you right now?

To the question thrown from the twilight light––I answered with a big smile.

Kate: I'm so happy that I could die right now!

Ellis: ...I see.

Ellis: Then, shall I end it for you?

(Eh...? )

Suddenly, a ripple of coldness spread through my dreamy heart, as if a drop of darkness had fallen on it.

(My life...? ...You're joking, right?)

I couldn't tell from his tone whether he was joking or serious, so I stared at Ellis' expression.

But his face was obscured by the bright sunset, and the discomfort I felt on the night we met came back to me.

It was as if the person who had just been laughing next to me and the person in front of me were two different people - a strange feeling of unease.

Kate: Ellis...?

At that moment, the sun completely sank behind the building, and the light disappeared -

Ellis: Hmm?

Ellis and I were swallowed up in the same shadow.

And then, I could finally see his expression.

Ellis: ...Ms. Kate? Is something wrong?

(Oh...it's the usual Ellis.)

Ellis was wearing the smile I knew.

Kate: Hehe...Please don't suddenly tell such jokes, I was surprised.

Kate: I'm so happy right now that I could die...

Kate: But tomorrow might be even happier, so not yet.

Ellis: ...I see.

Kate: I have to go back to the castle and report on my first mission.

Kate: And I have to thank Ellis for making me so happy.

Ellis: Me?

Kate: Please tell me what you like too. Then I can make you happy tomorrow.

Ellis: .................

Ellis's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, then he smiled softly.

Ellis: ...Yeah, thanks.

Ellis: But Kate, you're back to using formal language.

Kate: Huh? ...Oh, you're right.

(He looked like a different person earlier... Did I get tense?)

(I must have been deceived by the twilight.)

Kate: Um...will you tell me what you like, Ellis?

Ellis: Finding good restaurants... I guess.

Ellis: If I know a lot of restaurants, I can introduce them to a lot of people and make them happy.

This was the same answer as the Ellis I've gotten to know over the past two days.

(It's like him, but...)

Kate: What can you do to make yourself happy, regardless of other people's happiness?

Ellis: –Nothing.

(Huh...?)

He didn't even take a moment to think or worry about it.

Ellis: What I want to do is to be there for someone.

Kate: I see...

I nodded, confused but convinced by his firm statement.

His answer made sense, considering his actions.

(But...to have nothing you want to do just for yourself, for no one else...)

Maybe something happened that made him want to be there for someone so badly.

(If I stay with him, maybe he'll tell me someday.)

(I'd be happy if that day comes.)

Anyway...what I want to do now is to thank Ellis for taking me to the play I wanted to see.

Kate: So, what kind of food do you like?

Ellis: I eat anything...but I especially like toast with lots of butter and cranberry jam.

Kate: Hehe, I like that too. I'll make a note of it.

Ellis: Oh, and I also like the baguette from the restaurant you recommended, Kate.

(Ellis likes toast with lots of butter. Cranberry jam.)

(And the baguette from the restaurant I recommended... wait, huh?)

Kate: Ellis... are you making it easy for me to thank you?

Ellis: No, I'm not... It's all true.

Ellis: I was happy when you said you wanted to make me happy earlier.

Ellis smiled as if to reassure me.

-

The last light of the day was absorbed into the horizon, and the streetlights emerged from the twilight.

The remnants of the deceptive twilight light were completely swallowed by the darkness.

(It got dark all of a sudden, didn't it?)

The approaching darkness made me anxious, and I quickened my pace a little.

Ellis: .....

Suddenly, slender, supple fingertips touched my hand.

Kate: Ellis...?

Ellis: We're lovers who have proven our love, so why don't we hold hands on the way home?

Kate: Lovers?

(Does that mean...)

Kate: ...That's the setting for Bill's show, right?

Ellis: Is that so?

His fingertips intertwined with mine, enveloping them as if to protect them from the darkness.

Ellis: Tell me if you don't like it... If you don't mind, I'd like to keep holding your hand.

Kate: ...Why?

Ellis: So you won't be anxious, Kate.

Ellis's grip on my hand was gentle, as if to soothe me.

Just like when he reassured me when I was flustered during the show earlier.

Ellis: ...Is that no good?

Kate: Um...

I couldn't help but be happy with the kindness he offered just for me.

(I can't say I hate this.)

Kate: It's not bad...

Ellis: Hmm, good.

The warmth of our clasped hands was comforting, and my heart was beating fast.

The sweet sound of it completely erased the uneasiness I felt in the twilight and the fear of walking in the darkness.

Ellis: I thought so earlier today, but your hands are small, Kate.

Kate: Really? Your hands are just big, Ellis.

Ellis: I see, it's me who's big.

The silly conversation was somehow funny, and laughter naturally spilled out.

(...It's strange.)

(Being with Ellis makes my heart race, but it also makes me feel relieved.)

Kate: I wish I had asked you sooner what you liked, Ellis.

Ellis: Why?

Kate: If I could have gone shopping while the stores were still open, I could have thanked you first thing tomorrow morning.

Ellis: ...I like holding hands with you, Kate.

Kate: Huh...?

Ellis: Maybe this is enough thanks.

He squeezed my hand tighter, and my heart beat a little faster again.

Kate: For the theater tickets...it's not enough at all...

Ellis: Is that so? I don't think so.

Ellis: ...You don't have to rush.

Ellis: We still have plenty of time until the promised month.

Ellis: I'll...do my best to make you even happier.

Sweet, sweet whispers like jam, and the warmth of our palms pressed together.

My head filled with such things as I walked down the night road.

Leaving behind the memories of twilight.

.

.

.

.

.

Chapter 5

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