#looking forward to whatever bs he gets up to this year!!

[nonphoto-blue]

Lucky Lucky ꕤ Cho Hyun-ju x Reader [1/?]

Read on AO3 Masterlist Summary: After your previous manager runs away to America with the funds meant to kickstart your debut, your band 4tune is left to pick up the pieces in an impending scandal. The new manager, Cho Hyun-ju, says she’ll do everything to ensure your debut is successful, but it’s a long road until she gains your trust, especially when her own secrets come to light. Or, the kpop/krock/band AU no one asked for.

Warnings: Slowwwww burn. Kind of an inherent power imbalance but reader isn't taking bs from anyone, and reader is 20+. Reader is AFAB and uses she/her. She's implied to be Korean/from South Korea but no physical description is used.

A/N: So I've had the horrible idea of a kpop au for Squid Game since the first season came out. Originally I'd thought of a Sangwoo x Reader fic but it felt in bad taste at the time. Season 2 came out and I can't stop thinking about Hyun-ju so uh. You're getting this.

Five years. You’ve been in trainee hell for five years, learning the ins and outs of PR, songwriting, language, appearances, how to fucking smile at a camera when all you wanted to do was sing and play guitar and look out at a crowd with more people than you can count on your hands. All for your dreams to be stolen away, packed up in bags and expedite-shipped to the United States. 

If you could go back in time to tell your past self to save herself the trouble and give up music altogether, you’d consider it. Or at least tell her to flip off the agency scout the second he approaches. Sure, you’d still be busking on the street, but you’d be spared this bullshit and continue life with hope still. You don’t want to be an idol. You want to be– you are a musician, and the evidence was going to be your debut.

Your band, 4tune, is slated to record your debut in a month, and begin promotions just a couple months from now, but thanks to your no-good-money-stealing-piece-of-shit ex-manager, the money set aside for appearances and advertising is no longer in the company’s bank account. With grim faces, you, your bandmates, and a few members of the company higher ups gather around a table in an emergency meeting.

“It’s ridiculous,” Se-mi crosses her arms across her chest, huffing her bangs out of her eyes. “What a coward.” She stands, crossing to a floor-length window and staring at the skyline of Mapo-gu, disbelief written on her face. 

Your mouth forms a thin line. “Who just… takes the money and runs? How was he allowed to take all of it anyway?”

“That’s all we know,” the CEO, Hwang In-ho, murmurs. He laces his fingers together and scans the rest of the band’s faces as you take in the not-quite-death-sentence he delivered your group. “We’ve got the police in South Korea and the United States investigating, but they haven’t found him yet.”

“So what does this mean for 4tune? I mean, are we… still going to debut?” Young-mi asks. 

“We don’t have a manager, we don’t have money, we don’t have a debut.” Jun-hee puts a hand on her forehead, closing her eyes in exasperation. 

“Actually,” In-ho raises a finger. “We do have a new manager for you. She couldn’t make this meeting, but she’s coming up from Busan after lunch. You’ll meet her tonight or tomorrow.” He leans forward in his seat, and rests both arms on the table in front of him. “Rest assured, you will debut.”

You can’t help but feel your lips curl into a sneer. A new manager? Who’s to say this one won’t make off with whatever scraps of money are left? You hear Se-mi scoff from the window, her thoughts echoing your own. Jun-hee looks hesitant, but Young-mi looks up at In-ho with hope.

“What’s her name? What’s she like?”

“Cho Hyun-ju. She’s an old acquaintance.” Looking over the group’s faces, In-ho stands, and begins to make his way to the meeting room door. “I’ve known her for a long time. She’s a good person.” Hardly glowing praise, but you suppose anyone would be better than the ex-manager. The other company members follow In-ho out of the room, meeting adjourned, leaving just your group members with their thoughts.

Your gaze lingers on the frosted glass door they left from. “Great. A manager, but no money. She can drive us around and shit, but we have nowhere to go. What’s the point?” Your words are bitter, spat in sorrowful resignation. 

Young-mi, ever the optimist, takes your hand in her’s. “Let’s give her a chance. In-ho sajangnim vouched for her, I say we see how she clicks with us before giving up on her.” She smiles meekly at the other members. None of you share her optimism, but with a shared side eye, the rest of you begrudgingly hear Young-mi out and agree.

“Fine,” you offer. “But if she does anything remotely shady I’m clawing my way out of this contract.” ꕤ

Despite the sudden wrench in 4tune’s future plans, you all have a schedule to uphold, so you go through the motions as if nothing was wrong. After a short break for lunch, language classes, pose training, you finally make it to the only part of training that doesn’t feel like a chore: rehearsal as a whole band. 

The rehearsal space is intimate; a small room with warm wood-panel flooring and a three-person couch in the corner. Se-mi’s drum kit is already set up on the drum rug, as is Young-mi’s keyboard and three amps, one for Young-mi’s bass, one for Jun-hee’s guitar, and one for yours, as well as a vocal mic on a long arm. Stepping into the space brings an energy you thought would be lost following this morning’s bad news, and you place your guitar’s hard case down with a determined vigor.

You unlatch the case, and pull out your guitar, a Fender Lite Ash Telecaster. The strap rests perfectly on your shoulder, the neck fitting perfectly in your left hand, a guitar pick in your right. The quarter-inch cable plugs into your guitar with a satisfying click and the amp hums to life when you switch it on. You set upon tuning your guitar, but it doesn’t take much adjustment for any member of the band, and soon your group is playing the first notes of what will be your title track for your debut.

It’s an upbeat song, and the lyrics are inherently hopeful and optimistic. You feel the stress pouring out of you as you hear how well the band plays together. From the wailing of Jun-hee’s guitar, to the machine-like precision of Se-mi’s drumming, to the effortless jumping from keys to bass by Young-mi, pride fills your heart knowing that you’re collaborating, and creating something beautiful in spite of everything going wrong.

You play rhythm guitar and sing. Closing your eyes, you pour your heart and soul into the high-energy chorus, the softer verses, and everything in between. As the outro plays out and you all play your final notes, a soft applause that crescendos into a quick flurry of claps breaks through your reverie. 

You hadn’t noticed when she came in, but at the door stands an unfamiliar woman. She’s tall, and seems a bit younger than In-ho. Her hair is cut at her shoulders with blunt bangs reaching her eyebrows. She’s dressed well, and she’s not standing timidly per-se, but there’s an awkwardness to how she holds herself, like she’s unsure if she’s allowed in this space.

“I’m sorry,” she smiles at the band. “I was told you were in this practice room and I heard you playing. You all sound amazing.”

Young-mi smiles back. “You must be the new manager! It’s nice to meet you! I’m-”

“Young-mi, right?” Young-mi nods. The woman turns to the drumset, “You’re Se-mi,” to the lead guitarist, “and Jun-hee,” and then she turns to you, and says your name so tenderly, so kindly, every fiber of your being is shouting at you to give her a chance. “And yes, I’m Cho Hyun-ju, your new manager.” ꕤ

Rehearsal stagnates after Hyun-ju’s arrival as the band seems more interested in the new arrival than playing, but you keep your guitar plugged in and guitar strap on. Young-mi puts down her bass and steps away from her keyboard to approach Hyun-ju immediately, Jun-hee following soon after. You pluck out a few notes here and there, trying to at least try to get through your part of the next song, but after Se-mi stands up from her drumset, you give up trying to continue rehearsal.

Hyun-ju seated herself on the couch in the corner. Jun-hee and Se-mi stand in front of her, and Young-mi sits beside her. “I’m excited to work with you all,” Hyun-ju half-bows in her seat. “You sounded amazing playing just now, your debut will be a hit, I can just feel it.”

“We’re happy to have you here too. I’m sure you’ve heard but our last manager flaked out on us.” Se-mi explains. Hyun-ju hums a condolence, eyes casting down to the ground. “We’re almost ready to record our album, so I’m sure you’ll have a lot to do coming up.”

You clear your throat, walking over to the group. “What experience do you have managing?” You don’t mean for it to come out as harsh as it does. It’s supposed to be a light conversation about her work history, not an interrogation into her credentials. Hyun-ju’s face falters at the stern tone, and you kick yourself internally.

“Managing specifically, I've done most of the tasks individually before. That is, things like schedule management and driving and the like. I do have experience in the music and idol industry outside of management.”

You try to school your expression, you really do, and you pull your lips into a not-quite-smile that ends up looking more like a grimace. “Well then,” you push out, “I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

[buckevantommy]

they will absolutely never mention the Abby Tommy connection again. It was a cheap stunt that had zero impact on the rest of the story in 8x6 or beyond and Tim droped storylines that had way more sense than this one. Most of the people who watch this show prolly did not even remember the boyfriend that was mentioned years ago which is why they had Josh come in for an exposition dump cloaked in this masturbatory Glee speech. I also think the fact that the timeline does not fit AT ALL was the reason they cut the scene between Buck and Bobby that Oliver talked about. What was Bobby going to say? "Yeah, Tommy was engaged while he worked here to this women you were pining over for months and I never mentioned it not even when you started dating him"

Tim just has to pack is bags already and move to the spin off fulltime. He is creating a mess on OG

I mean yeah, it would be so easy to not mention it and it would track with how the show treats continuity - which sucks for most things but i will fucking welcome it for this. Also there's no reason to mention it, so. 🤞

'masturbatory Glee speech' has me chuckling because YES that's EXACTLY what it was! 😂 gawd i hated it so much.

What was the cut scene between Buck and Bobby? What ep was it supposed to be in?

But yeah - the og 118 would've known something about Tommy's supposed fiance, and also Josh? Did he work at dispatch same time as Abby? He would've known things. The whole thing just reads like someone who had a random plot idea in the middle of the night and wrote it down without remembering that previous plotpoints and established timelines and characters negate it, like it makes no sense, like it should've had a few more passes instead of rushing off the hot mess that it was to get published as the final edit, y'know?

If tim doesn't have the time or care to give these beloved characters the narrative they deserve then he should pass the torch now rather than run them into the ground. Because it's not just the Abby shit, it's the fumbling of Gerrard's storyline which should've focused on his bigoted bs and Tommy and Buck (giving their relationship more screentime and meaningful plot) and yes the rest of the diverse 118 should've played a key part in dealing with and dismantling that. But especially Tommy, given everything he'd mentioned about Gerrard and what we saw of the og 118 and Tommy mentioning his father - it was the perfect opportunity for some angsty backstory and the development of meaty dramatic plot.

And Hotshots? I was so looking forward to some actual meta fun but what we got instead was irritating, plot-hogging drivel and too much fucking Brad.

I still maintain that a great filler episode would've been Hotshots playing on the tv in the background of various scenes at the 118 and on calls and at their homes, the camera transitioning between on-set or high-def Hotshots scenes that pull out into rhe physical screens of tvs and then into whatever the firefam was up to at various points throughout the week(s). It might have started as a watch party for Bobby's premiere episodes and that kickstarts or clues us into certain firefam watching the show whether to poke fun and complain or because they like the dramatised plot. And they could've tied some of what was happening on the show into the 911 plotpoints.

Tim dropped the ball so hard this season (8A). The only episodes i enjoyed start to end and thought were written really well was the premiere with the bees and the halloween ep (although i think the car crash was a bit much, wish it was just a fun filler ep like the treasure hunt ep or the bank robbery).

[thalunalovegood]

I’m on my Gwynriel era (been here since 2021 🤓)

So, I’m here thinking about them, and how they will challenge each other, make a lot of bets, make inside jokes, they have so much potential to grown together and heal together.

Look at this, they are so beautiful 🥹

[I hope the artist don’t mind, I found the fanart on Pinterest]

So here a few things that I think will happen, or I would like to see/read in their book.

I said here once, but I would to see that the shadows talk to Gwyn, I know we don't have evidence yet, but I think when Gwyn ask Az if he can sing it was because maybe she heard something, and the way she smiled to them (you can't tell me the shadows aren't the captain of the ship, and don't give me "it's good for Az if they left him", it's BS, the shadows are part of him)

Bets. We know they both are competitive:

Gwyn asked Az, her teal eyes bright, “What do we get if we finish the course?” Az’s shadows danced around him. “Since there’s no chance in hell any of you will finish the course, we didn’t bother to get a prize.” Boos sounded. Gwyn lifted her chin in challenge. “We look forward to proving you wrong.”

“Az had let his brother boast. Especially since Azriel had been planning his own victory for a year now.”

Encouraging. They will push each other to their best version, to recognize that they both deserve good things.

Chemistry. All their interactions are so good, and funny, they have a really strong set up. If they talking it's like this, can you imagine they flirting to each other?

“I blame Cassian for this. He's too busy making eyes at Nesta to notice such mistakes these days. Azriel laughed. — I'll give you that. Gwyn smiled broadly. — Thank you.”

Opening. Gwyn is comfortable around Az, he isn't self-conscious around her, so they will be able to talk to each other without their past, traumas get the best of them. [Don't give me the "she is a SA survivor speech", she is, but she isn't her trauma, and she can have everything she likes, she reads smut books, and she isn't a child.]

Spying together. Az is the spy master, and Gwyn showed abilities to become one.

She smiled crookedly at Nesta. “I kept to the trees the first two nights, watching the beasts, and I spotted that horrible male and his companions this morning. Saw they’d found my nightgown and displayed it, and I knew they were hunting for you. I thought I’d take them out before they could find you.” “You led the beast right to them.” “I learned where the beasts sleep during the day,” Gwyn said. “And that they get very angry when awoken.”

Gwyn and Az have so much potential, if you see the details, the songs references, the spark, the glow, all of this is used to describe a match bond, anyway, I'm here for them, I can't wait to read their story.

Something sparked in Azriel's chest, but he only nodded his thanks and left. He could picture it, though, as he ascended the stairs back to the House proper. How Gwyn's teal eyes might light upon seeing the necklace. For whatever reason… he could see it. But Azriel tucked away the thought, consciously erasing the slight smile it brought to his face. Buried the image down deep, where it glowed quietly. A thing of secret, lovely beauty.

[karmacharmeleon18]

I was all on board the RoyJamieKeeley train but ngl the fandom is testing me. Stop turning Jamie into Keeley and Roy's doormat

Jamie is the most confident of the three and apart from the slip up in the final episode, the most emotionally mature, sincere and direct

He's not an insecure, submissive doormat that lets the other two play with him and do whatever they want without communication

If anything, he'd be the glue holding the throuple together

He's not an afterthought, something added on to Roy and Keeley together, something they can take or leave, something they can use as a sexual object and then throw to the side

(I've legit read posts saying "they would treat him like a dog 🐶 make him sleep at the end of the bed or on the floor if he misbehaves! nudging him with a heel if they want to play with him! so hot!")*

Jamie Tartt commands attention... and affection, and respect

(And the same applies to JamieXRoy, Jamie would not let Roy get away with any of his bullshit, but a big part of the fandom can't look at a mlm ship without applying hetero norms to it, turning Jamie into the most effeminate, submissive, emotional person (which is misogynistic and homophobic!), because "someone has to be the girl in the relationship", while Roy is the "manly man who makes the rules"; how about you let Jamie be Jamie? That man would metaphorically (or maybe even physically?) kick Roy's arse and then laugh in his face as they eat kebabs afterwards if Roy tried to pull any of his bullshit with him)

Remember Keeley talking behind Roy's back to his BOSS and COWORKERS and her ex, making Roy feel humiliated (I'm still not over the fact that at the end HE was to one who apologized????)

Remember Roy's self-sabotaging and jealous behavior (who the video was for is none of your goddam business)

Jamie would not let that shit fly.

Jamie "look I know you're upset about something and taking it out on me" Tartt who forces the scariest man in football to follow him around as he recites info about a foreign city and then forces him into a heart to heart after showing him the most wonderful sights and teaching him how to ride a bike in honor of his grandpa

Jamie "I just wanted to see how you're doing, man" Tartt who goes to comfort his historic love rival for his breakup rather than seize his chance with Keeley

Jamie "I'm glad you feel good about breaking up with me" Tartt who doesn't take insults personally because even when he was an absolute prick he wasn't unaware that he was an absolute prick, he was 100% conscious of his flaws

Jamie Tartt who loves therapy

Jamie Tartt who learned what emotional honesty is, and is never ever going back, even if it gets him in trouble

Jamie Tartt the leader, the conductor, who puts himself in the center rather than at the front because personal glory is not as important as your team performing the best they can, and your teammates expressing all of their talent

Jamie Tartt who's not afraid of calling out Roy on his bs

Jamie Tartt who inequivocably has the upper hand in his relationship with Roy, because he's honest and at peace with his wants, needs, emotions, while Roy panics at the first sign of friendship and intimacy

Jamie Tartt who doesn't play with people's feelings and is always honest and forward, and tries to think before he acts, evaluating the pro and the cons, and apologizing preventively when he knows what he's about to say is out of line, but honesty (the funeral scene with Keeley)

Compared to Keeley who sleeps with Jamie when Roy ghosts her, and then with Roy when Jack leaves her and Roy is being emotionally vulnerable, without thinking of the consequences, using people as emotional crutches, not changing in 3 seasons

Compared to Roy, who, bless him, hasn't had a single coherent thought throughout season 3, actively regressing after two years of development (not a critique of the writing, someone as emotionally constipated as Roy would definitely regress after massively self-sabotaging)

Jamie is the one helping Roy feel joy again

Jamie is the one comforting Keeley after the leak

Roy and Keeley are the ones fucking up with Jamie

And Jamie is the one mature enough to know that he is not the problem, he doesn't take it personally, "it's just poopeh, let it flow"

Like, come on!

.

*if that's your kink and a dynamic you have explored and liked irl and are just projecting onto Jamie, by all means I think there's nothing wrong with it. But a lot of headcanons like this are blatantly born out of disrespect for Jamie's character, where Jamie doesn't "need to be put in his place" because it's the author's kink, but because he can't possibly be at the same level as Roy and Keeley. Some people want official RoyKeeley with a bit of Jamie sprinkled on solely when it's hot and convenient to do so, or for the drama and angst of it. That's what I have issues with.

[tokiko220]

Noone talks about The Drummer and the princess movie enough and ESPECIALLY not about the people behind it. It puzzles me to this day.

Warning, extremely long post but i really wanna archive all this.

For those who don't know, in 2018 Angels Pictures released a teaser trailer( CZ EN) for this movie and it obviously looked shit for a movie made after 2000 ESPECIALLY when people were claiming it cost 80 million CZK to make (3.5 mil USD-ish) which is an insane amount of money for a czech production. Plus in the czech trailer they have an uber popular czech singer Karel Gott appear revealing he's voicing in it, they even have a super low res photo with him from the studio.

(honestly i'm pretty convinced they met him once for the recording of the trailer lines)

So allegedly 80 mil CZK 3D animated movie with a bunch of celebrities voicing in it! Wowza! Why does it look so shit? EDIT: CORRECTION! After going through some more documents this is in fact and estimate of how much they think the movie is going to cost- they seem very upset people get that wrong. But honestly I don't think anyone actually thought they spent that much money on it.

Immediatelly bunch of czech news websites started rolling out articles about it because obviously, it was ridiculous. It looked ass the trailer is pretty cringy and they have all that stupid self congratulatory bs about giving 4% of ticket sales to kids because its made for kids. With love♡ People are ridiculing the hell out of it, obviously, but then a rumour starts that it's a all a publicity stunt. Obviously noone would make something that looks this bad in the year of our lord 2018! Angels Pictures don't hesistate and start nodding their heads aggressivelly. They pat themselves on the back for coming up with this new cool marketing strategy they dubbed "The Spites and Envy Promo."

They post this stupid, self congratulatory post talking about how they actually intentionally made the teaser bad, saying they modified it with "minor technical imperfections" (MINOR??????? IMPERFECTIONS????). According to this interview some guy named Jeremy came up with this genius and "innovative" plot. But if you read the interview (in czech unfortunately) you'll also find out the teaser probably looks so bad because no, there isn't actually really a movie at this point! Which is insane, given they released the teaser in September and promised a winter release! They apparently work by recording the dub first and then animating for it. In the interview he says they have about 20% of that done. But whatever, they keep insisting it's all part of the plan dude! The movie is going to release in like 28 countries and it's gonna be huge. (if you speak czech i totally recommend reading that interview it is enlightening lmao) I don't need to tell you I think the "spite and envy" promo is a bunch of boloney because if you're looking to drum up views and popularity through controversy you don't turn off your youtube comments about it.

Back in 2018 I was having a riot following this and despite being convinced it is not going to come out, I was posed to see it day 1 in the theatre if indeed it did come out (afterall, they're giving 4% of ticket sales to kids ♡) They continued to flaunt their genius marketing strategy and even bragged their teaser became the most watched czech animated movie trailer on youtube! Which while true, it doesn't really mean anything, because they second most watched actually came out and made money, while The Drummer and The Princess entirely missed their initial release date with no explanation why! On their website the release year kept shiftin ever forward and in 2019 they added the "RIP Karel Gott" to the trailer, so I know you're out there GIVE ME MY MOVIE!

Spoiler alert, it's 2024 and we still don't have the damn movie! But ever since then I've been completely fascinated with these guys, so let me bring you towards the about us section of their website, because it's frankly hilarious. Meet Angels Pictures!

Starting with Alex Pieter you'll notice he proudly states he's the author of the "project" The drummer and the princess. The second thing he mentions is that he's a member of MENSA and makes sure to explain it is an association of people with high IQ because you wouldn't know anything about that. Underneath that he lists a bunch of things he did which really just reads like when you put literally ANYTHING you think is relevant and makes you look good on your CV, like that he cooperated with big names like Vin Diesel or Catherine Zeta-Jones or Gerard Depardieu. Generaly a bunch of jargon to try and make him look super cool.

There's also this guy but he's considerably less funny and really jsut looks like your regular marketing guy. He's not even in MENSA.

Back then I was still wondering whether this was all an elaborate joke, and I may even believe it if these two guys didn't sound like the most start up "trust me bro" marketing guys. That really marks the end of The Dummer and The Princess, but I'm not done with Angels Pictures quite yet! You see, I thought they got me all excited for this movie and then dipped but no, they were planning something even cooler.

A video game.

Honestly, you need to see it to believe it.

After seeing this, I genuinely started doubting myself again. Like this has got to be a joke right?? What in the mother of all asset flips...

It was supposed to be a VR experience (but also non VR) about .. uh.. well....... Flying aroung?? And there will be vampires.. and dragons?? Whatever they found on the asset store I assume. But not in the base game! You see, the clever MENSA head over at Angels Pictures came up with this new game monetization model called "Modular System". You buy the base game called "The Radix" and then you can buy additional packs such as "Oh, Look!" which adds interesting sights to this flying simulator (making me wonder what the base game even does have). Then we have "Vampires" which I supposed adds the Italian Vampire Palmira who does not believe in wearing pants. Also a bunch of other "modules" that add things to "duel with for treasures". Yay.

Those with a keen eye might notice this isn't actually entirely their idea, this has basically been The Sims 4 monetization scheme since literally forever, but as much as I hate to admit it, at least the sims actually like.... You know.. Gives you something? And isn't an asset flip. And ... exists. Oh yeah, spoiler alert, the No*1 game with the funniest flying object (whatever that means) never did come out, I know, we're all shocked an crushed about it. The actual website for the game went down (which is why I'm making this actually, everday I fear all of this will dissappear) but there's still stuff about the game on their company website such as;

The release Timeline. Lofty goals, per usual. I don't need to tell you none of that happened because if it did I wouldn't be writing this and I would instead be playing Magic Carpet game swith the Vampire and Space module.

Continuing the scroll we can find that they claim to be a studio of "roughly" (???) 30 artists.

Ah yes, nothing is quite as innovative as a VR asset flip game that gives vague description of what it's actually going to be about. Reminds me Dream World.

I don't know what kind of artists they are but whoever made that purple green logo should be fired promptly. Also as you can see they are still bragging about the huge success their marketing campaign was and using it to seem credible- never mentioning that the damn movie never came out. The kids are still waiting for their 4% (which btw they never quite mentioned what charities they are planning to give that to.)

Now let's check out Alex's updated profile for the game;

He's really come to his own since The Drummer and the princess. He's still a member of MENSA, a global association of people with high IQs, but I think it's adorable he updated his photo to be a picture of him holding a controller like he's a gamer girl on instagram. He's just like you, fellow gamers. He's a 3D artist now and an IT specialist and programmer! Is there something this handsome devil can't do?! though despite his newly acquired 3D art skills, the game somehow manages to look worse than the movie trailer.

I also wanna point to this, purely because I wanna archive it. "A game that simply isn't on the market" yeah but what is it ABOUT Alex???? It's honestly a hilarious read and a look into "the sicks brains on their team."

After all of that, what's the conclusion?? I dunno! I think these guys really missed their calling as MMORPG Fundraiser scammers, I think they really would have popped off with that. My theory currently is they try to set up these projects and websites and try to make themselves look as credible as possible to get investors for their stuff?? But I also cannot imagine it ever actually worked out? And obviously they never delivered on anything they promised so I just don't know! Besides they actually did work with Karel Gott and that's nothign to scoff at! I wish I could find out whether it was because they have an in with him or whether they paid him (if so, with what money? I can't imagine getting someone of his caliber to voice for you is cheap).

That marks the end of this insanely long rambling about this thing I've been obsessed with for years now and really wanted to archive in some limited way. Now I'm just waiting for them to come up with some new project that involves AI.

[kay-elle-cee]

I would love to know about James' feelings that time they first meet eyes years later. Directors take OR a James POV 😍

HELLO Athena! Thank you for your patience since I've saved this in my inbox to answer after the final chapter of i'll be fine, i'll be good went live. Answer below the cut! (And a reminder that anyone can ask me for thoughts/Director’s Cut for any of my fics at any time!)

(sorry I tried to refine this but it still ended up a bit word vomity!)

ALRIGHT so we learn in chapter six that James was, in fact, really broken up about Lily for awhile (I mean....that's not particularly a spoiler, is it?). I like to think that by the time James sees Lily—like walking into the shop and having face-to-face interaction with her for the first time since he told her he loved her all those years ago (oh my god ow)—he's really processed everything and made peace with it all. He's had his eyes opened a little bit more by his work with the Order to just how difficult and dangerous it was for her. He's forgiven her, and he understands (to an extent) her actions, but he also knows that because of this he can't really be mad at her, and he just...is trying to be as normal as he can (even though a part of him misses her). So he has to be careful.

He's known she's worked at that apothecary for years. Remus absolutely told him immediately (well, maybe not immediately, but definitely within that first month). And he's likely agonized time and time again on if he should go in, how bad would it be to look through the window, maybe one of us should just, like, make sure she's okay...But then you have Sirius (and to a lesser extent Remus and Peter) reminding James of what kind of toll Lily took on him last time, reminding him that if she wanted to see him, she could reach out, reminding him how far he's come and fuck Evans because she hurt you. And James, even if he doesn't feel Sirius' anger at the whole situation, maybe listens to this, lets it bolster him to keep his resolve hardened and his guard up.

But then he gets paired up with Sam for the potions run. And he definitely panics and feeds her some BS line about him needing to wait outside so they're not ambushed in the shop and she's like whatever you weirdo I'm going to go see this really interesting girl I met and could definitely be friends with YOUR LOSS. And then she's chatting and he's out there just getting so nervous because what if Sam lets it spill to Lily that he's out here and then they get to talking, what would Lily say would Lily be mad would she want to say hi why do I care so much about what Lily thinks? He's done so well at living his life in a post-Lily world but suddenly everytime he's around this shop she's just there on his mind. So he gets a little overwhelmed and opens that little door and tells Sam to hurry up without ever looking in because he knows there's a real possibility that the second he sees Lily (really sees her) this resolve he has might crumble.*

*And I think it's important to note here that I'm not suggesting James would fall to her feet and confess his love with one glance, but he'd be James. He'd be kind (maybe too kind), and he suspects that somewhere in his heart he still loves her and is worried that it'd be too easy to fall back into that pattern after all the work he's done.

But yeah so he and Sam leave and he's in the all clear but then he gets injured in the field and Sam has to leave and suddenly he's in charge of the potions supply runs and he has no other choice—he has to SEE HER. He spends the whole morning fretting, trying to remain calm, trying not to run scenarios through his head and telling himself he can do it, that it's no big deal—he's just a patron and she's just a shopkeep. (He's definitely not looking forward to it, even if he had all of those musings about dipping in and seeing her over the last few years—that's idealistic James and this is practical James.) I think he goes so far as to even try to remember some of the anger he had felt towards her at one point of time—really grasping for anything to make sure and keep that distance between them. But it's this weird thing because Remus told him about the Snape encounter so he's also a little worried about her and it's this tightrope of keeping things professional. Not concerned, not angry, but something neutral in between.

And then he sees her. And he thought he was prepared, and he was so, so wrong. There's pain, when their eyes meet. The last time he looked into them echoes in his mind and there's pain and a little bit of that anger comes back and maybe it's anger at her but maybe it's also a little bit of anger for himself—for not understanding her as well as he feels he should have. But he leans on the anger, only giving her the shortest of answers, and he leaves. And he thinks: I can do this.

And when he gets sent again, he holds onto that anger a bit tighter and tries to ignore the undeniable way his heart beats faster when that bell over the door rings.

Listen I might do a James POV of some scenes one day, if the urge strikes and people are interested, who knows?

[sweetswesf]

Today, a new grad on my shuttle stop expressed that she was stressed. She asked how I liked my new team and was thinking of transferring to a new one. I offered I could help anytime she wanted me to. She said she would reach out. At times I feel ashamed for not having been able to finish out the year with my last team, but it’s stuff like this that reminds me regardless of where God takes me, it’s for a goal and he can always use me at whatever stage I’m at. I’m set up to help her out.

Additionally, today, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. I went in to work today and I finally feel like I’m getting back in focus. I’m grateful to be on this team. It feels like a good fit. The best blessing is waking up every day without the immediate overwhelming of stress knowing I would have to interact with a manager and teammates who hated me and thought I was dumb and wanted to get rid of me as my last team did.

Despite not being required to deliver real work right now, I have been taking really good notes. I have been focusing on practicing the main function of my team which is sending a few messages and doing my reading on the goals and objectives of my team, group, department, and side of the business. In this has been reading team charters and attending onsites. Knowing why the heck I’m doing what I am doing technically will help me fit the pieces together and help my BS meter: if something seems contrary to the plans established during planning, I can better tell the health of our side, if someone is lying, if we’re making bet, if we’re needing to throw a Hail Mary, etc. It also just feels good being able to follow the money and objective behind what I’m building to grow my strength of weighing the pros and cons of different approaches to solving a technical problem.

The next phase of my prep will be focusing on diving deep technically. Should I have started there first since I’m a software engineer? Perhaps, but I did a bit, stepped away to look at the forest, and now I can rerun to the trees. I know I mostly attend non-technical meetings with the product teams, so being able to speak their language is key. I won’t have as much time to do that when I’m deep in the weeds in tech, so I’m building the foundation now so I can gain credibility and influence with them since most of my time going forward will be deep in the weeds in tech. Often the business side gets neglected and I don’t want to rely on just the PMs to communicate the business details to me, because they be leaving things out, often unintentionally, because they don’t know what we need to know to build. Because there is a lack of them, they are always busy and sometimes leave critical details that we needed to build out and try to demand we build them last minute. By reading these charters, I hope I am growing my muscle of anticipating the types of challenges and business things I need to build for.

Aside from that, I’m going to resume the study schedule I planned to do daily after work that I set as my resolutions for this year and got so distracted from. YouTube, Pinterest, and Netflix are just too damn expensive for me to be on these days and I have to become detached from watching content on them as frequently as I do. It’s never too late to get back in focus though. There’s still one more month of the year so that I can practice for next year. It sucks that there are so many breaks though that will impact my ability to stay focused on my schedule, but that’s life, and I can’t expect to always be able to control all of my schedule, because that is not life. I need to be more flexible to ensure that I get this study time in. It will be long and feel like nothing for a while, but a little every day will help me go far.

Sidebar: what’s up with people watching videos on their phones on public transit without earplugs!? 🤨🤨🤨 I’m not talking about the regulars that typically do this, I’m talking about people with no presumed mental instability who are also not adolescents. Japanese public transit culture is what we need to adopt, in addition to other parts of their etiquette…

[amyyythestarry]

CHAPTER 109 OF TBHK!

I love how Tsu’s feet is just kicked up, like always. I find it so hilarious because people are calling him fruity💀.

Fruity a** pose.

Him and his brother, omg.

The bestie look, the look of secret telepathy I knew I would see it from them. I really want to see it from the Yugi twins too. Like, twin telepathy, then saying stuff at the same time/doing something in sync, maybe as humans people get them mixed up or they swap for the day. I always imagine them just being silly stereotypical twins.

Yes Teru is pissed.

Also Mirai not being able to read is funny to me.

In an au where they are alive, in my aus where they are all in the Near Shore, she just has dyslexia.

Tsu’s smug smile, enjoying his ambiguity and unknowing-ness. Just a drama king in disguise and wants to mysteriously introduce himself.

Mr. B**ch. Step forward.

Jesus.

They for real called him out. Can’t even claim it’s bs.

I didn’t realize this before, but the fact Tsukasa is surprised is really funny.

Because if you think about it, Hanako has been acting more like how he was as a human, ‘Amane’, than he is as a supernatural, as ‘Hanako’. Being embarrassed for himself.

The Amane Tsukasa knew was not perverted, and if he was then he probably kept that to himself, instead of Hanako, who outwardly acts as a perv.

“Amane, you want to do pervy stuff?” - 🫢

Tsukasa, as the very non-perverted person he is, must actually be shocked that his dear old twin brother would be and want to do such a thing. Maybe not disgusted like Teru and Akane obviously is, but since that’s not a part of Amane he know he will hold this in his memory bank. Now he knows you’re a pervert Amane. He’ll probably never let you ‘live’ this down.

She just a little baby, she can’t even reach over the thing!

Her first time in court she was only 3 years old.

I wonder when she’ll turn back to normal?

I love love love Akanene, I’m sorry y’all.

But c’mon, HE’S DEFENDING HER, STICKING UP FOR HER, WANTING HER TO WIN HER CASE.

Platonic or not, they are the sh**.

In the MangaUp translation it said “Do you really think I’m a sociapath?” ( Or something like that ) He definitely is.

Not Tsu saying he would. Everyone’s reading him like an open book, omg. 😭

Akane has nothing to say.

The way he just smiles silently, looks up to see if his fellow criminals will defend him, even a little. Not even Nene did though.

C’mon Teru, Akane was expecting a message of love. Whatever, they’re the yaoi ever.

Pose of innocence.

Then rats himself out.

He can’t help his brutal honesty.

The word ‘smithereens’ is something I don’t want to hear.

Feed him to the owls is crazy.

I love characters who talk in first person when addressing themselves. Doesn’t Tiara also do that?

Totally random, but Tiara and Mirai would be besties.

And Tsu smiling without concern.

I cannot be the only one who is dissatisfied that something didn’t happen to him?

Like really, we could have seen what the Tsu of TBHK future was, we could have seen him disappear/die. And I love him with all my heart, but you cannot admit that that would not be a plot turner, or exciting to see something bad happen to him.

He just had to use that little sprinkle of hope, the power of what? F**king friendship? Loyalty to carry out his job? From thin air.

He’s still amazing though.

Was he yelling as Amane, the caring big brother, or Hanako, the leader of the mysteries who used his twin powers to predict what Tsu was going to do and knew it was going to lead to something bad? Maybe both.

Also, is this just a general warning, or will this have consequences later?

Signature move I guess.

Jii-san. Says the person who doesn’t care for supernaturals, calling the supernatural that tricked and got him involved with the school mysteries, ‘grandpa’..

Let us just hope Akane will survive the next chapter ok?

I wonder if his body is actually different from his human body though? Does he actually have gears inside of him? Or is Tsu just making assumptions.

But, wasn’t he in Clock Keeper form when he got a hole stabbed in his chest in the severance arc?

Oh god.

Whatever, I’m just gonna place my bets that Tsukasa will somehow be stopped. Probably not by Akane though, he’s the weakest school mystery and can’t even stand a chance against Teru.

Nice chapter, I was honestly expecting jail time.

[shezurivera]

Tldr: I love everything about this series. Sorry for the wall of text. I would have commented this on the last SitM video, but this whole thing wasn't coherent in my brain until like a month after that vid released and it felt weird to comment at that point.

I just wanna say that I absolutely adore Sunshine in the Moonlight. I've loved werewolf stuff for years, but it's really hard to find werewolf audios that don't use the alpha/omega power dynamic (no hate to anyone that enjoys/writes those scripts, it's just not my thing) and it's even harder to find non-human listeners or stuff where the listener is the one with powers.

I'm also a sucker for modern fantasy, and the world building of SitM is amazing. I love that you tied in real world mythology to explain the existence of werewolves. And this might sound weird, but I love seeing different interpretations of pack structures. In a modern world there would most likely be some sort of council or whatever overseeing the werewolf population, but its not super common to see people go into it. (Also ngl I kind of love seeing the werewolf bureaucracy bs that can come from it)

And the characters are well written too! The werewolves we've met are just people. Like anyone you could expect to pass on the street. They aren't like, wild or overly aggressive just because they're werewolves. They're all so different, but they work so well together. Real found family vibes, and I love it.

You've also successfully created one of the most well written villains I've seen in a while. Evan is one of those characters you just love to hate. And he's not even a real threat, that's been established. He can not take Sunshine in a fair fight. He's one of those villains that you don't hate seeing him show up, because you know each second he's on screen is one second closer to his inevitable downfall. We all know Sunshine will end up winning the alpha fight, but it's not the suspense of "who will win" that draws you in. It's anticipation for the moment we finally see Evan get knocked off his high horse.

I could go on, but I know this getting long and I should stop.

All of this is to say: you have created one my favorite series on YouTube currently, and I eagerly await whatever is to come. (No pressure tho! I know this vids take time, and I'd rather quality over quantity.)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! You have no idea how much this means to me!! TT^TT This is absolutely going in my positivity box. This means so much to me, you have no idea. I'm so glad you're enjoying the story!

That's why I write and why I do what I do!

I love storytelling.

Always have.

And it feels amazing to have someone who's thought so thoroughly about my story that they have such a detailed and thought out opinion! I'm not one to shy away from long texts! I appreciate the detail immensely! I'm so glad you enjoy and I hope I can keep SitM going in a way that continues to give you something you continue to enjoy and look forward to! <3

Thank you so much!!

[raveneira]

hi, do you think when sarada awoken the mangeko (as much as i wish that trashy awakening wasn't real it unfortunately is) because of she cared for brto and was a die hard fan or was she just really upset that no one belived her and thought she was spouting nonsense? for me i low-key feel that it is the latter since sarada seems to have more concern for herself and the fact that she thinking that everyone denying her reality affected her so much to the point of awakening ms? it's still bad tho

Unfortunately if we're being realistic, nobody fkin knows what triggered it, there are two primary theories in the fandom and both are factually false

1 She was overwhelmed, everybody suddenly hunting/attacking Boruto, hearing Naruto was killed, her father not believing her, and finally her desperate plea for him to save Boruto is was caused her MS

2 her immense love for Boruto and fear of him being killed is what triggered it

Both of these are factually wrong, others may wanna live by Ikemoto's bs rules but Im not, Kishimoto didnt spend 15 yrs establishing this power up for us to just be like 'well none of that matters now cuz Ikemoto did different' stfu, the original creator >>> an incompetent assistant that constantly says fk what Kishimoto established in his own verse to make whatever bs plot/scenario he needs to work. In this case, he needed 'change Boruto's fate' and justify Sasuke leaving with Boruto for 3 years so he pulled that omnipotence bs and then made Sarada awaken her MS solely to convince Sasuke to believe her, there was literally no other purpose than that.

So for a memory refresher, why is her MS awakening factually wrong? because neither of the explanations people give are how the MS WORKS.

This is literally in part one where we're first introduced and explained to how the MS is obtained.

Itachi says you have to kill your closest friend to obtain the MS which isnt a lie, but its not the entire truth either, but the general idea is the same as I will show here where we get more detail.

Tobirama, like Itachi, are correct in their statements, but once again it is not the entire truth either because as we've seen several times the BASE Sharingan can evolve without feelings of hatred, but a strong desire to protect those dear to you, grief, and losing a dear loved one are all triggers for the Sharingans evolution, this is further proven by the fact that Kagami and Shisui never fell into the 'curse of hatred' and still had fully evolved Sharingan, Shisui even had MS despite wanting to follow a completely pacifistic path.

Now lets go over the actual difficulty in how it is obtained, lets look at the databook first, I took the liberty of highlighting the relevant parts for those who like to stay in denial whenever this topic comes up.

A cursed ocular ninjutsu only obtainable through great sacrifice.

Through the entire history of the Uchiha clan, it was rare for a member to be able to weild the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Here's the part I want you to keep in mind going forward because I WILL be coming back to it later.

Through the entire history of the Uchiha clan

Remember that for later, now moving on to the next point, ok so thats databook statements but what about in verse? the same thing.

It was rare to obtain the MS, the clan would literally slaughter eachother trying to gain it to no avail because its NOT a simple and easy thing to obtain, otherwise everyone in the Uchiha clan would've had MS if it was just as simple as killing your own kin or being overwhelmed etc [refer to the bs reasons ppl give for why Sarada gained hers] but it actually took SPECIFIC requirements to gain, and we were shown what those were several times.

I think you notice the common theme here, Obito got his MS from seeing his best friend kill Rin, his first love, Kakashi got his at the same time from the act of killing Rin by accident, Itachi got his from watching Shisui commit suicide, Sasuke got his after killing his brother and then learning the truth about Itachi and his clan.

The theme is clear, the requirements to awaken it are even more clear, there is literally no amount of gaslighting anyone can do to overrule whats literally been consistently shown in the canon danm manga by the original creator himself.

'Oh yall just wanted Sarada to be edgy like everyone else Im glad her MS was different' is the stupidest response to this, nobody said they wanted her to be edgy, they just want her danm MS to follow the rules that have been established for 15 years. Also Shisui wasnt edgy and he had MS, so I dont even know how anyone thinks thats a gotcha anyway, she could literally still be the loving Sarada she's always been and still get MS because hatred isnt the only way the Sharingan evolves. I dunno why someone actually thought that was a rebuttal, but it just goes to show how ignorant these ppl are about how the MS works and only care about things being 'different' instead of caring about the actual worldbuilding.

Now lets move onto Sarada, her base Sharingan, although lackluster, still evolved in a way that was consistent with what was set up in OG. She awakened her sharingan for the first time due to her years of pain and longing of missing her dad and then being overjoyed when she was finally about to meet him at last. This wasnt unusual because Sasuke awakened his third tomoe because of how overwhelmed he was that Naruto considered him a brother, his first bond, and his dear friend, despite Sasuke literally trying to kill him right now and cut ties with him, Naruto's sincere love for him made his final tomoe appear. This is why the base Sharingan evolving in this way is not unusual, as long as the emotions are strong enough and struck a cord with them, then the Sharingan will evolve.

This is not the same for MS though, it is a completely different eye with a completely different set of rules, this is why Sarada's awakening is complete ass and not only that but literally breaks the rules of the verse.

Keep this in mind, she hears Naruto, her idol, the man who she aspires to be like, who at one point she wished was her dad, is dead, but not only that, she hears Mitsuki say hes going to kill Boruto. Remember this for what Im about to say next.

This is several minutes after she was told Naruto was dead and that Mitsuki was going to kill Boruto, her eyes didnt budge when she heard Naruto was dead, nor did her eyes budge hearing literally EVERYONE is actively hunting Boruto now.

At the very least the news of Naruto's death was more in line with how the MS awakens, so if she heard that and got her MS from it then it wouldnt have been all that difficult to accept, but unfortunately thats not what happened, she just sat there and cried, no reaction to Naruto dying, and no reaction to hearing and seeing Mitsuki trying to kill Boruto.

So what did trigger it? her being overwhelmed? false because thats what she was in the panels I've shown, she had been sitting there for several minutes with all this chaos goin on around her and no MS, not even her dad not believing her is what triggered it, literally NOTHING anyone tries to say it was triggered it, your literally looking at the panels, her eyes didnt BUDGE.

So what did trigger it then? if none of that did it then what did?

I shit you not, I cannot make this shit up, what triggered her MS was literally because 'Why cant Boruto ever catch a break?'

When I tell you my blood boiled reading that line words cannot describe the rage I felt because the total and I mean TOTAL disregard of everything, EVERYTHING that has happened to her dad, her idol Naruto, and Kawaki was infuriating because she NEVER asked why they cant catch a break, but now all of a sudden because poor Boruto is going through it right now all of a sudden its too cruel.

Her father lost his eye and got fatally beaten up by both Borushiki and Isshiki, Naruto was nearly killed by Isshiki and Borushiki, Kawaki was hunted down by Delta, Code, Isshiki, and Momo, Amado put karma back on him without his permission or anyones knowledge, Kawaki was slowly being consumed by Isshiki through his karma the same as Boruto was with Momoshiki and she didnt give af about NONE of that.

NONE OF THAT

She didnt give af about ANY of it, know who she did tho? Boruto, in chapter 69 who is she telling Mitsuki she feels bad for being unable to protect? Boruto, who is she angry at herself for not being reliable for? Boruto, who does she want to get stronger for so she can help them more? Boruto. This is literally right after Naruto nearly died, Kawaki nearly died, and Boruto nearly died, but the only one she gave a danm about was Boruto.

So you want the real answer to what triggered her MS? Ima be real with you, its honestly anybodys guess because Ikemoto is so bad at properly building up and portraying things clearly compared to Kishimoto, you can see clearly what the MS triggers were for everyone I showed and it isnt up for debate, its clear as day, but Sarada? you literally have to friggin guess because it just pops up so randomly your caught off guard wondering where tf that even came from.

Im not even kidding I've reread this scene so many times and I can NOT pinpoint what the trigger actually was, the only thing I can say is that the turning point was Sumire telling Sarada the cause of everything thats going on, Sarada then falls apart more because 'This is too cruel, why cant Boruto ever catch a break' which again is complete bullshit but I digress...so then she pleads for her dad to believe her and help Boruto because he's innocent but Sasuke doesnt, this is supposedly where the shift happens because her eyes are hidden during these panels.

She basically tells her dad that even if none of this makes sense to him, just to please trust her and grant her this one selfish request, aka saving Boruto.

Im not even kidding but...this is just so danm bad for her...like if I were to be completely generous and unbiased here then I can only make one conclusion from whats been laid out here and that is that her MS awakened simply because she desperately wanted her dad to save Boruto, she wanted her dad to do her this favor no matter what, she wanted him to do it so badly that her MS awakened.

That is the only explanation that can be taken from this, and that is why this is rightfully seen as the WORST MS awakening we've ever seen and why its a complete and utter disappointment because look at this shit, LOOK AT IT, she's just standing there crying and beggin daddy to help when she's had the chance to do something her danm self.

Remember earlier when she heard Mitsuki say he was gonna go kill Boruto? if she was that concerned why she aint go try to stop him? she heard everyone else out to hunt him too and yet she didnt try to go protect him from them either, I mean she could jump infront of Boruto to protect him from KK, she could jump infront of Boruto to protect him from Kawaki, she can abandon her mission to come save Boruto from Shojoji, but FOR SOME REASON she cant stand up and protect Boruto from all the people hunting him right now? her childhood friend this fandom swears up and down shes madly inlove with? she cant stand up and protect him when he needs her the most!?

I aint sayin I wanted her to be the one to leave with Boruto hell no, but leaving with him and protecting him are two entirely different things, she could've easily saved him from Inoshikacho, Chocho would've definitely tried hearin Sarada out, Sasuke could've arrived and Sarada tries to appeal to all of them there, most likely Inojin and Shikadai wouldnt believe her, Chocho is her best friend so she'd know atleast something has to be wrong for Sarada to be so insistent, and Sasuke would be the most inclined to believe her because hes already witnessed something similar with the infinite Tsukiyomi, so is it really all that impossible that Ada, who literally has Otsutsuki dna, to mass brainwash ppl? Sasuke could've told Inoshikacho to leave and let him deal with Boruto and then thats when they discuss Sarada staying behind and Sasuke leaving with Boruto for the time being.

There was no NEED for MS to achieve that, all it would've taken is a little time and effort and CARE to make that ending WORK without having to throw in a forced af power up to justify it because you were too lazy to actually write something that made sense.

But if she MUST have gotten her MS before part one was over, I can show the best opportunities they could've made it happen at.

Kawaki was about to kill Boruto, she tried asking him calmly what is going on but Kawaki just tells her not to interfere if she doesnt wanna die which shocks Sarada because this isnt like Kawaki at all, they were all friends and teammates and not long ago Kawaki was on edge trying his hardest to protect Boruto and now hes suddenly trying to kill him. Boruto told her to run but she refused and chose to protect him anyway despite Kawaki being serious about killing her if she interfered, however when actually faced with that reality she froze which resulted in Boruto saving HER instead and losing his eye.

This was a good place for MS to awaken because someone she thought was a friend is now trying to kill her other friend, her friend shes known since childhood and she cant understand why. She thought she could protect him but failed to be able to follow through and that caused her friend SHE was supposed to be protecting to end up protecting HER and losing his eye because of it. She's feeling immense guilt, betrayal, frustration, helplessness, and now she knows for sure that Kawaki really will kill both of them without hesitation.

However for this to work the scene will have to be changed a bit, Kawaki would knock Sarada out of the way cuz she isnt who he really wants to kill and then proceed to seemingly kill Boruto right infront of her before she can react in time to stop it, I say seemingly because Momo has consistently saved Boruto from otherwise fatal/irreversible injuries. Anyway after Kawaki seemingly deals the fatal blow, Sarada's MS will awaken, right then is when everyone arrives to restrain Kawaki, things play out relatively the same but only even more hostile since he apparently killed Boruto, eventually after their back and forth Boruto wakes up but its Momoshiki in control now same as the manga and he helps Kawaki escape the same way too, only difference is everyones not just shocked Momos helping but that Boruto somehow even survived, this is just another flex of Momos healing capabilities however.

Anyway thats one way she could've gotten MS that is consistent with the established rules of how the MS works.

The other moment that would've worked is the Boro fight, when everyone was getting taken out one by one and seemingly all about to be killed and Sarada was helpless on the ground after being crushed, that was more than enough reason for her MS to awaken as Boruto, Kawaki, and Mitsuki were all out cold and as good as dead.

Unfortunately neither of those happened, and thus were given the weakest, stupidest, most lackluster MS awakening in Uchiha history. Speaking of Uchiha history, remember that like I told you to remember? this is why.

A cursed ocular ninjutsu only obtainable through great sacrifice.

What did Sarada sacrifice for her MS? nothing, she sat there and cried and then begged her dad for help.

Through the entire history of the Uchiha clan, it was rare for a member to be able to weild the Mangekyou Sharingan.

THROUGH THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE UCHIHA CLAN, it was RARE for a member to obtain the MS

Keywords, through the entire history of the Uchiha clan, so tell me Saradas MS is bullshit deniers, why was it SO RARE for Uchihas throughout their ENTIRE history to gain the MS if all it took was being a little overwhelmed and scared? this clan faught WARS, children DIED loved ones DIED Uchihas [and Senjus] lived in constant fear EVERY SINGLE DAY and they NEVER awakened it it from that, not even through killing their own kin willingly to gain the power up worked, so please tell me how Sarada can just change something THATS NEVER BEEN A THING in the ENTIRE history of the Uchiha clans existence, please tell me how you think Sarada can just completely change history just by crying and begging.

You cant, because its bullshit and you know it, the MS was rare for a reason, it took SACRIFICE, it took LOSS, you didnt gain it by just sitting on your ass crying and doing nothing, being scared wasnt enough to trigger it, being overwhelmed wasnt enough to trigger it, fearing for your loved ones life wasnt enough to trigger it, but you want me to believe suddenly NOW it is? do you have any idea how disrespectful that is to the entire Uchiha clan to say that none of them ever had to die, they just simply had to be in a chaotic situation [which they were] and cry about it and boom, every single Uchiha could've had their MS easy peasy.

Gtf outta here man and just be real, her MS is bullshit plan and simple and it breaks the established rules of the verse created by Kishimoto himself. IN NO WAY is simply desperately wanting your dad to save your friend enough to awaken your MS, maybe evolve your base Sharingan, but not MS.

So yea to answer your question, the most accurate conclusion to be had from this scene, although factually incorrect for the rules of the verse, In Ikemotos verse however, Sarada's MS awakened because of her desperation for her dad to save Boruto, she wanted that so bad her MS awakened as proof of just how desperate she was for her dad to grant her request, that is the truth of what triggered it.

Im not saying this happened out of some romantic love she has for Boruto, no, but thats still her dear friend shes known her entire life, I dunno why ppl treating her MS awakening in reference to him means she loves him romantically...like I literally saw a tiktok recently where Sarada says 'I awakened my MS for you' and when asked why/how she saids 'Because I like you' and I was just like 😑 yea no wonder people keep defending this garbage, they really do NOT understand how the MS works at all. Out of all the Uchiha's we've seen awaken MS, Obito was the only one who did out of romantic love, the rest was familiar or platonic love, so why her MS awakening is somehow proof of her romantic love for him that till this day is still unconfirmed is beyond me but whatever, these ppl will stay delusional no matter what the facts same so yea, I hope this was able to answer your question.

[ohnoichangedmynamecallthefbi]

He wanted a youngin knew it would look bad and decided to capitalize on his image and instead destroyed it.///

Omg I’m loving this conversation anons.

You’ll love my theory, it’s similar.

Chris used his IG as tinder, saw it myself but he was liking big booty fitness women.

Anyway he meets Alba via IG and after deciding he liked her enough to go public, he knew it would be a hit to his brand so his smart tail decided to use PR to make this seem like a guy who found his one vs a 40+ yr old having a mid life crisis like most his age and in his industry.

So just like with Jenny he uses the media to “clean” up this mess but it backfires because November 2022 this man goes public on the day her show debuts and that’s a red flag, but within a month times between Disney, Alba and her friend trolling, Chris and his friends breadcrumbing the past year, the fans end up finding her bff past tweets….they forgot to clean up her friends.

Anyway all racism and other bs is revealed, Alba panics and posts her nudes for whatever God awful reason and then boom he IG is suspended and now it’s all up to Chris to push this.

So he waits new years and post videos…..omg I bet that’s what is going to happen this year, rinse and repeat anyway he’s again trying to sale the “I’m in love” bs with people mag pushing articles about the couple no one cares about. Trying to paint her as mature and other bs but his fans know these people and who they truly are based on how they acted.

Fast forward they are married and still doing the same bullshit but now Chris is really pissed things aren’t going his way and still trying to control whatever bs narrative.

I honestly don’t know what he’s going for in the last pics, I do get college professor who left his age appropriate wife for his grad student and is slowly regretting his decision. 😂

I can’t wait for the next dump to show him in love. 🤮 the optics are bad so if they are thinking to push wedding pics, it’ll backfire tremendously.

.

[golbrocklovely]

i just read your 2021 colby tweets post…

“(it's so clear to me now that this man was clearly going thru so much. this is when things really changed for him and how he interacted with us. it's sad to look back on this now)”

im so curious… what happened? - aussie anon

i'm gonna give the briefest and quickest run downs, just bc as a fan that was on twitter around this time, i full on hated this time period in the fandom and literally contemplated leaving bc of how bad it got.

so between 2020-21, colby was getting called out for a lot of shit. some of it was warranted, but a lot of it wasn't. for example, he was getting called out for mouthing the n word in a video and musically. he addressed it and apologized. and obviously hasn't done it since.

he was also called out for not doing enough for stop asian hate, which according to fans was he needed to retweet the right links, bc him retweeting whatever post he did wasn't good enough.

but then it got into a different territory. he started getting called out for the following: not immediately talking about jan 6 as it was happening, wishing happy international women's day, getting called out for mimicking brennen's weird voice in a video which apparently sounded like he was mocking asian ppl?????, the queerbaiting shit (which to this day i die on the hill that ppl cannot queerbait you, and on top of that brennen and sam never had to apologize), not calling out his fans for apparently being transphobic (even tho how was he supposed to know that was happening). there's probably plenty more as well, but these were the highlights.

and then in 2021, if i'm not mistaken, he ended up getting a terrible death threat that was posted by some """"""fan"""""". it was a really disgusting, long ass dissertation basically calling him worthless in a 1000 different ways. once that happened, he really removed himself from twitter, literally taking like a week long break, and from that point forward did not come back on the platform the same. he kept his distance from us after that, and when his journal was stolen… he really parted from the fandom in a way. bc there were ppl in the replies of that tweet celebrating him losing it. and i think that tied with the two past years of bs, it was enough for him to separate himself from the fandom.

bc before, he would tweet a lot. balcony tweets had been a thing for over a year, and then once ppl started harassing him, he stepped back. and look, i'm not here to argue that he didn't deserve to get called out for the n word clips or stop asian hate stuff. yes - those made sense. bc it's not a call out, so much as "hey, you need to address this". but everything else that followed was just straight up mean and nasty.

i mean, for fuck's sake, one of the many fans that called him out and celebrated him losing his journal, i just found out, WAS HAPPY he got cancer. that's how far some of these ppl's hate for him ran. even to this day some ppl dislike him for dumb mistakes that he shouldn't have made.

and i know i can't accept his apologies. i'm not here to do that. i'm just here to say that it's one thing to hold someone accountable, but it's another thing entirely to wish someone the worst and be glad when it occurs. bc that's demented. he's made mistakes, sure. but none of them are bad enough to wish him misery. at least i don't think so.

[infinitemelancholie]

I feel awkward writing this if only because I feel like I'm devoting more energy to someone I don't want to devote more energy towards but I'm staying motivated to write this by reminding myself that I'm writing this for my benefit. I'm writing this because I need some boundaries for myself. I need some behaviors from others that are red flag behaviors for me to stay away from so that I can continue to live a fulfilling life.

I'm still mad at him for bailing on our plans earlier this year. I'm especially mad at him because I spent so much time trying to be his friend and this is what I got in return. Why would I have spent all that time and energy trying to be his friend if only for him to turn around and not do the same for me? Why is it that suddenly now he can't trust me with receiving bad news? Is he trying to people please and that's why he couldn't tell me? See that's a bs reasoning too. We planned on a date together and I know there was enough time for him to tell me he's unavailable days I was available but then found a day that worked for us. But maybe he was still embarrassed that we'd have to cancel but still couldn't just tell me what was going on? I don't have the patience for that.

Look regardless of whether or not it's people pleasing behavior etc the fact remains that ultimately he just couldn't be forward with me. And idk if I want to give him another chance. We've been talking since 2020. That's like 4 years. In 4 years time you mean to tell me he hasn't learned to trust me?

I don't think he's really wanted to be friends or anything with me. I don't know what he wanted or even wants but whatever it is I don't fit into that for him, but that's ok because he doesn't fit into what I want either. I want people who think about me and treat me like a person. I want people who feel like they can trust me, they can confide in me, they feel safe and comfortable with me. If he doesn't then I don't want anything to do with him.

I still have him on my friends list bc I don't like starting drama and because I'm trying to instead confront people about my decision to cut them off before actually going through with it. This time though I'm not going to try to reach out to him over it nor am I going to start the conversation. If he wants to talk then he'll just have to use his own words to talk to me. I'm not carrying this relationship and I'm not investing into this until or unless I see some changes. I guess that's the difference with me now vs from before. I'm giving more patience to people instead of just cutting them off without giving them a chance to right their wrongs. Even though I'm allowing them the opportunity to fix their mistake I'm not going to fix it for them. And if I have to explain it to him, idk if that's enough for me to continue with this connection. Because I've had to communicate the problems always and I don't see a change in anything.

Maybe I haven't been as good a friend to my bestie bc he's complained about a lack of behavior change too so it's possible I'm not as patient as he is so maybe I should just be more comfortable with having to talk about unpleasantness in relationships more, but also I want to take my feelings seriously and I want to establish a boundary that certain behavior just doesn't cut it with me and it's enough for me to walk away permanently.

I'm putting him back in timeout for now. Out of sight out of mind worked great before and while I am leaving the door cracked for him just seeing him and thinking about him sets me off so I'm just going to push him back away from me again until I get to a point where it's comfortable for me to see him pop up every now and again.

I don't care if he thinks the worst has happened between us. I don't care if he thinks I'm mad at him (I am) or if I hate him (probably do). However he feels about what's happening between us is his problem and not mine. Because no matter how feels about the situation his inactivity in doing anything about it just screams how he truly feels about the situation. It screams who he really is, and I just don't have the time, patience, or energy for those people these days. You either put in effort into our connection or you just don't care about our connection. It's really that simple.

[pleasantspark]

No one caaaares!!!!! you KNOW you were in the wrong. thats why you keep going on about this coz youre too scared to admit you were wrong. not only coz of the word, but how you acted and you overstepping others boundaries and trying to force people into situations they didnt wanna be in likebeso4real. This isnt about racism or ableism anymore, stop trying to be the biggest victim in the room and grow the fuck up.! like damn you get milked when the people havent even grabbed the carton to milk you yet.

Yeah no. You're wrong stop drinking the Kool aid and stay far away from me. Because of this silly little shit your side had doxxed me. If anything happens to my family I'm blaming this community, I don't understand why y'all make such a fuss.

If anything I'm lesser in this retarded pawn game y'all are playing. I asked several times for to handle this properly. You guys are surprised I'm mad? Nah congrats you doxxed my family. My mom was supposed to be private. I know it's one of you or the stans. I never overstepped boundaries you dumb idiot.

They came to me overstepping my fucking boundaries. Whatever beliefs your subbing to hope you get your life straight. Because if memory serves right none of this would have happened if they stayed in their fucking lane.

Imagine harassing someone after they got doxxed. I know I said I was going to do it myself but I guess I gotten beaten to it. Like come on you absolutely really had to victory lap? I honestly don't care anymore.

I made my stance clear I wanted to speak in private. I wanted to. But you don't understand until you get doxxed until you get several gore sent to you. Because you guys only care if it affects you. In fact look behind my catalog of the first shit happening. They came in my space forppirst or wait let me make a video TELLING you guys what the fuck went one I hope you guys can take your godamn rose coloured glasses and stop dickriding the morally righteous idiot of the day.

I'm PMSing rn and y'all are just as lulz worthy as the lolcow potential you claim I fucking have.

So let's reiterate this again you dumb idiot.

1. I called a situation retarded.

2. Crybaby little shitheads came into Inbox and not DM.

3. Mocked them for it.

4. Their flock of SJWs came forwards.

5. ImmoralCritques butts in, assumed my intentions and perpetrated ableism.

6. Requested numerous times for a private audience with these people.

6. Was denied so I decided to gather information on past shit these people did.

7. Several idiots victory lapped.

8. SatansBoot catches wind of this. Called all of you out.

9. More outrageous BS from borderline retarded people comes here.

10. The thread on the community was made.

11. Clears the air numerous times only for Fake News Critiques to block me. You know LIKE HE SHOULD HAVE HAD.

12. Gets a slanderous callout blog made against me which causes several people to try and contact my parents which FUCKING happened and now doxxed me.

So in part. You all can cry no victim impperfect was. When they butted into a situation they didn't have no reason to.

None of you all interacted with me prior and expected me to bend down at your wishes. How can you be so entitled to come into a space I cultivated for people who can be responsible and reasonable adults but you find it very acceptable to bully a disabled trans man because he said a word you guys don't have the right to be crying about.

I'd would be sorry if I was told privately about this shit. But no. I was harassed, doxxed and now im getting gore threats at me.

I'm sorry sincerely if you are affected by what I said but who gives a shit. Ten years ago all you crybabies said niggerfaggot alongside Idubbz and even had your own fair share of slur usage. You don't get to drag me and pretend you didn't give a fuck after words. You all are despicable pieces of scum who will never find the pleasure of understanding real people who can actually read through you.

I don't need a blank pfp who lacks the knowledge of history to tell me I'm a retard. I'm already one. I'm like sincere sorry that you were dropped on your heard to give you the right to claim who is a victim or who isn't. Impperfect lied, he spoke to me PUBLICALLY as a PR move and decided to claim they weren't being abelist by doubling down. But fine let's fucking target the retard here which is me.

Since no one in this circlejerk community is coming to terms with wanting to speak in private. I'm going to FORCE the confrontation and talking. I know you're watching.

If you have any semblence of basic human decency you unblock me and have a fucking DM chat with me. I'm sick of your bitch made behavior because both of you somehow don't want to talk this out. I tried being charitable at first. Going to bat about how harassing people isn't cool. But right now. I don't care. I literally had people harass me and all you guys could do is "erm pls don't harass people uwu" imperfect and the other person KNEW what they were getting themselves into when starting this shit. I told you guys to don't shit talk. I made it clear from the first shit this funking faggotory happened to talk it out. But it never did. No one in this community has a brain the size of a adult. This markd my claim that this shits retarded. You'd rather sperg and seethe about this rather then sit down for FUCKING once and talk to me.

So I'm like fed up. This community deserves to burn. I'm done. Like I'm fucking legitimately done. This was easily solvable. You all could have handled it. No one could've gotten hurt. But they fucking did. Asks are closed mothefuckers it's exposing time now asshats.

[solardick]

To find meaning in letters to attach an image.

Letter 21. To tarot, the world card. Letter У(oo) To english and latin. To be mistaken for judgement of the letter Y.

English letter 21, U. Obvious meaning of the one letter word, you.

Curious. Is it not?

One syllable russian words starting with letter У.

To tarot in the absence of vowels is letter Z. The two letters placed together are UZ. The russian word Уз(ооz) is;

Agree? So far, so good. But wait.

Before we go further. Lets see what google says. Tsh tsh.

Section 32. By cyclic repetition is letter H the lover(s). Or soft sign letter ь. Ep 16. The tower. Section 28, letter B(v). Or russian letter Ы. Section 21. The world. Da fuk? No, theres no BS here.

Pst. I am threatening your system? What about the film I.S.S.? Where has my “environemtal safety been these last 39 years?disnt america drop a bomb on an entire city of civilians who are still producing mutant children? But never mind all that its not important.

To continue. Maybe later. Ill list all the words they gave me on wiki. And we’ll peace them all together. But we’ll waste another pic slot for this. Look at this. Its insane tonight.

I dont have the power to distinguish or pronounce the letter ь from no letter ь. And конь is a male horse but, Лошадь means a horse of any gender. Their dictionary must be HUGE. Sorry its an eephus pitch. Though its not a word in this dictionary.

Though the suggestion is that the lover card is a man. Fallowed by the chariot card being a woman. Or driven by a woman. But whatever. In that case the lover card should be changed to appraisal. But since i dont drive. A woman driver seems ok to me. Chauff me wench! Onwards! And so far thats how it seems to be. For letter Ж comes in conjunction to the cahriot card. And that works too for cars are usually gendered as female. Even though english doesnt have a gender grammar system. So men step up inside the womanamd shes the force moving him forward. The problem there is that he’s controlling the woman’s body. While he’s thinking of all the buttons he gets to push with relish. And doesnt care about the deeper implications of being that vessel on the road. Which is a reason why men are more attuned to deeper sounding engines. Gender classing objects is a dubious endeavour. It all cones back to the it/they dilemma of personifying inanimate objects.

To further this sidetracking from google. And bringing it back to UZ. Is Utility. Use. Up. And automobiles in russia have always been lacking that desirable sexual hype.

The propositional accusative case of letter У suggests the same though with the added distinction of being with. У as a single letter word. The most powerful of all is, satisfactorily defined as being in, or With, the immediate proximity by being or having the subject or object of the question in the process of being answered. У меня. У тебя. I have. You have. I am with what i have. I do not necessarily own it. I have a car. I am not with my car. У меня есть машина. This keeps the person in question separate from the subject.

So is there a choice here. Or is it being premeditated by outside influences?

Words included one-syllable words starting with У are; limb, bond,ties , (horse)briddle, urn, ballot box, litter bin, wiskers, antennae, to float, to swim, Morning, dawn, to shoe. Though most of these aren’t standard but forms of grammar variations. While to some of the other nations using these same words based of the same proto-form-language mean variations negative things, like devils and death and so on. And word Уз, to My mistake isnt actually russian. It’s Serbia-Croatian. The mistake was corrected further down with the single letter word У. Which is the same thing. Word for word.

Not sure if i hit that slow ball or not. But all these words put together ontop of the world card Z. And you. Paints a picture of control and the extension of the body.

On a separate thought in conjunction to the russian cease fire on ukraine and my mis-information post. Which ended rather badly.

[here2bbtstrash]

look down on me like that - 1 (explicit)

genre: slow burn enemies to lovers hatefucking coworkers au, smut (w some eventual angst)

pairing: yoongi x reader

summary: your asshole coworker min yoongi has made it his personal mission to ruin your life.

word count: 7.2k

contains: no sexual content ~*~yet~*~ but ya know, slow burn!!! plenty of reader being a dumbass, bestie jimin, cutie coworker jungkook and asshole producer yoongi tho. (and me having zero clue what goes on at this fake workplace i made up but doing my best to corporate BS thru it lmao) oh and a lotta references to alcohol, that's gonna be a theme throughout this whole thing jsyk!

A/N: i've got BIG PLANS for this series (no seriously, i have a 40 card storyboard and my OUTLINE is 13k alone) so buckle in!!! this is also on AO3 like everything i write~

masterlist | chapter two

“I still can’t believe you actually lied your way into this job.” Jimin nearly has to shout to be heard over the din of the restaurant. He shakes his head as he takes a sip of his beer.

“Believe it, bitch!” You grin, flipping your hair over your shoulder for emphasis. “I’m just that good.”

“Until you show up in the morning—hey!” He catches you in the act of trying to steal a piece of pork off his plate and slaps your hand away. “—and they realize you’ve never worked a corporate job in your life.”

You scoff at his physical and verbal admonishment and return to picking at the remains of your own meal. “Whatever. I’m sure being a waitress was a thousand times harder than whatever an administrative assistant does.”

Jimin pinches the bridge of his nose in the way that he does when you’ve said something exceptionally stupid. “I’m trying to decide which part of that sentence is worse. One, the fact that you got fired from the waitressing job.”

Having managed to steal some of his food while his eyes were closed, you interrupt mid-chew. “That wasn’t my fault!”

“You threw a drink on a customer!”

You roll your eyes. “He was being an asshole, and I’d had a bad day. You try walking in on your ex-boyfriend fucking the hostess and then having to work the dinner shift.”

“Oh please. You knew they were fucking for months, and you didn’t care.”

You shrug, running a finger around the rim of your empty glass. “Yeah, but doing it at our place of work was disrespectful. And in the walk-in? Unsanitary!”

Jimin leans back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest. “So what happens when some corporate douche pisses you off? You throw a drink on him, too? There are a lot of assholes in the music industry, trust me. You can’t go acting on your first impulse whenever someone makes you angry.”

“I don’t need your unsolicited therapy, Park Jiminie.” You tap your glass with a small smile. “What I need is another drink.”

“Forget about it. I’m cutting you off.”

You pause, another piece of pork from Jimin’s plate halfway to your mouth, and whine. “Jimin!”

“This brings me to my second point— the fact that you haven’t even bothered to look up what an administrative assistant is supposed to do! Are you trying to get fired on your first day?”

Defeated, you shake your head as you chew. He’s not wrong. You’d meant to do a little research, but you never got around to it.

“You seriously need to go home and study.” You pout and he leans forward, smacking a hand on the table. “I mean it! I didn’t put my ass on the line all for you to blow it after one day.”

The reminder makes you smile, and you take his hand in yours. “I really appreciate that you helped me, Jimin.” He says nothing, just eyes you with that death stare that you know means he loves you. “Now do the voice.”

“I’m not doing the voice!”

You kick him under the table. “Come on! Do the voice and I promise I’ll go learn everything there is to know about administrative assisting.”

It’s clear he’s fighting to keep the smile off his face as he puts on a deep, oddly accented voice. “Why yes, she’s been an incredible assistant to me for the last five years. You’ll be so very lucky to have her.” You cackle at his ridiculous persona for the fake reference that absolutely helped you land this job.

“Have I ever told you that I love you?” You squeeze his hand.

“You fucking better.”

“So… will you pay for dinner?” You do your best to bat your lashes innocently at him. “I promise I’ll pay you back after I get my first big girl check.”

He shakes his head in disbelief, dropping your hand. “Drank twice as much as me, ate all your food and half of mine, and you want me to pay. You’re lucky I love you.”

You reach across the table to squish his cheeks with both of your hands. “Thank you, baby mochi.” He shoves you off of him, laughing even as he tries to look annoyed. He’s hated that nickname since you were both teenagers, but you’ll never let it go. As his best friend, it’s your sworn duty to annoy Park Jimin forever.

“Get your ass home! You have a lot of Googling to do!”

You stand up, slinging your purse over your shoulder. “I’ll be fine. It’s just answering the phones and shit. How hard can it be?”

~*~

Your alarm wakes you far too early the next morning and you stumble your way through getting ready. You attack your face with an ice roller, mentally kicking yourself for overdoing it on salt and alcohol the night before. You attempt to follow the first “office appropriate” hair and makeup tutorials you can find on YouTube. You slip into your boring corporate uniform of a blouse, pencil skirt and heels. You feel like a total impostor, especially when you check your phone and realize you should’ve left five minutes ago.

You have to sprint, but you just manage to catch the bus. Trying to fend off your nerves, you scroll back through the notes you took last night while Googling. Administrative assistant responsibilities include… Scheduling, reporting, filing, distribution, communications, time management, prioritization, organization.

You pick nervously at your thumbnail, wondering if Jimin was right, if you are going to get fired on your very first day. Why did you think this was a good idea?

The bus drops you off around the corner from the music company’s headquarters; your new office. You smooth out your skirt and take a deep breath, rolling your shoulders back. Fake it til you make it, you remind yourself, and then you put on your best corporate smile and walk in the front door.

Your new boss is waiting for you in the lobby, and he greets you with an aggressive handshake before guiding you to take the elevator up to the main office. He’s already a non-stop stream of information, firing off the agenda for your first day at a breakneck pace. You wish you had something to take notes on, but you nod along and try to keep it all in your brain. Tech set-up, then new-hire onboarding, lunch with the team, go over some highest priority deliverables in the afternoon.

“I know it sounds like a lot, but I’m certain you can handle it.” He smiles confidently and you do your best to return it. You step off the elevator and he pushes open the glass pane doors, gesturing for you to go first.

You’d forgotten how ungodly fancy this place is. The company is one of the biggest music groups in Seoul, so you don’t know why it surprises you, but it’s still just as overwhelming as it was when you interviewed. Your heart jumps at the polished decor, the expensive-looking art on the walls, and the sleek desk tucked into the corner just past the front doors.

“Home sweet home,” your boss jokes, gesturing to your desk, and you take a moment to take it all in. Even if you only last one day, you’re going to enjoy every second you can in this ridiculously bougie office.

You expected, especially from the brutal pace of his initial marching orders, that your boss would immediately throw you into work. Maybe ask you to run a meeting, or compile a bunch of reporting, or juggle flaming steak knives. But once tech support gets your laptop fully activated, which only takes a couple of minutes, your boss raps his knuckles against your desk.

“Well, I’ve got some urgent client stuff to process. All the onboarding should be on the company portal for you. You can call tech support with any access issues, and I’ll swing back to pick you up for lunch! Sound good?” You nod dumbly. He shoots you a thumbs-up and then disappears around the corner.

Just like that, you’re alone at your desk.

It’s suffocatingly quiet. You worry the inside of your cheek with your teeth and wonder if you’re allowed to put in your headphones and listen to music while you work. Surely a music company wouldn’t mind, right? Best not to chance it on the first day, you figure, and slide your purse under your desk.

Onboarding turns out to be a massive library of training videos, with the occasional interactive quiz. You learn about the company’s HR system, workplace safety, copyright and IP law. It’s mind-numbingly boring, but at least it’s easy.

Eventually the words start to blur on your screen, and you slump back in your chair, realizing you’ve been at it for over an hour. All that focus is more than enough to deserve a stretch break, you reason, and you push your chair away from your desk and stand.

The main corridor stretches off in either direction from the central lobby where your desk is. Both ways look identical to you, so you turn right at random and meander down the hall. You pass several glass-paneled meeting rooms, most of which are empty. When you walk by one that’s actually occupied, you do your best to quicken your pace and look like you’re headed somewhere important. There are the occasional closed, solid doors as well, most outfitted with name plates indicating someone’s office. The names are all unfamiliar to you, but you try to remember them in case you end up getting introduced later.

By the time you register the name on the third office door, you’ve already passed it, and you stop dead in your tracks. Surely you read that wrong. Your brain must be tired from all the training videos. You double-back, shaking your head.

Nope. You blink, dumbfounded at the sign. You did read it right. That absolutely says Genius Lab. You stare perplexed at the door and notice there’s a small paper sign taped to the wall next to it. “I’m busy working, please ring the doorbell.” Sure enough, a small black box with a single button is mounted there on the doorframe, and just above the door handle you see another box with a number pad.

A doorbell and a passcode lock? What the hell is in there? You try not to laugh at the spectacle. You’re wondering if this is your boss’ office, and what sort of nightmare you might have gotten yourself into with this job, when the door swings open and someone nearly runs you over.

You practically jump out of your skin and stumble backwards. He does the same, clearly taken aback by a stranger standing outside his door like a psychopath. “What the fuck?”

You drop your gaze apologetically, terrified to look him in the face. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I was—” you scramble for an excuse “—uh, just looking for the bathroom.”

You chance a glance up at him; his dark eyes are fixed on you. You’re nearly eye-to-eye with the added height of your work pumps. He’s young, probably close to your age if you had to guess, and he’s dressed in far from the business casual attire you would’ve expected of your fellow coworkers. He looks more like he’s headed to the gym in a white long-sleeve, black joggers, and pristine-condition sneakers.

Determined to save face, you extend a hand and give him your name. “It’s my first day. Apologies, still figuring out where everything is.”

He blinks once, twice, his mouth a flat line, his blank expression betraying no emotion. “Bathroom is at the end of the hall, on the right.” He brushes past you without another word, heading for an office door back the way you came.

You’re left standing there stupidly, and quickly drop your hand when you realize you still have it extended in mid-air. Great job, you mentally scold yourself. What an introduction.

You hurry down the hall to the bathroom before you can have any more awkward run-ins. Once safely behind the door, you press your palms against the cool tile of the sink counter and will your heart to quit racing. You check your appearance in the mirror, but your hair and makeup are still neatly in place despite how disheveled you feel. You fasten and unfasten the top button of your blouse, wondering how to straddle the line between fashionable and professional.

Whatever, you think to yourself, smoothing your shaking hands over your skirt. It was a fluke, that’s all. Maybe you caught him at a bad time. Maybe he was on the way to a meeting where he’ll be fired, and you’ll never have to see him again. You force a smile in the mirror, wishing it looked a little more genuine.

You’ve been away from your desk long enough now that you know you should head back, but curiosity forces you to check out the other end of the hallway, just to see what’s over there. You figure you can use the bathroom excuse again if anyone yells at you.

The first door on your right opens up to a large, sunny break room. It’s well-stocked with a wall of refrigerators, two coffee pots, and several vending machines. Sliding coins into the machine nearest to you is yet another coworker, and your stomach flips. You’re still so frazzled from the last encounter that you consider backing out of the room before he sees you.

You’re not fast enough. He’s already turning around, and you can’t stop your own smile at the joyous look on his face as he cracks open his vending machine prize, a container of banana milk. Already a thousand percent less intimidating, thank goodness.

He glances up and meets your gaze and his smile goes from sweet to blinding. At least you haven’t joined a company that’s entirely full of antisocial assholes. He’s even appropriately dressed in a simple button-down and slacks.

Your coworker pauses and looks down, seemingly realizing that his hands are full, then quickly replaces the lid on his drink so he can extend a hand to you.

“You must be the new admin!”

His handshake is firm but pleasant, and you nod sheepishly. “Guilty as charged.” You give him your name.

“Jeon Jungkook.” He takes his first sip of milk, clearly unable to wait a second longer, then continues. “Social media and marketing. It’s nice to meet you.”

This kid is adorable, and you return the compliment with a small nod. “I’m glad this introduction is going well,” you admit with a shy laugh. You don’t know why, but you already feel like you can tell him about your embarrassing moment. “Unlike the run-in I just had with…” It occurs to you that you have no idea what the guy’s name is. “… uh, Mr. Genius of the Genius Lab.”

Jungkook’s eyes crinkle knowingly as he takes another sip, then swallows. “I take it you met Suga.”

Your jaw drops. You may have entirely faked your credentials to work in this place, but you still listen to music. You don’t live under a rock. You’re absolutely familiar with the incredibly in-demand producer Suga. You just didn’t realize he worked here.

“Suga as in, Suga the producer? The one who’s worked with IU and Heize and Halsey?”

Jungkook nods. “And he did Psy’s comeback that’s coming out next month.” His eyes widen. “Oops. I didn’t tell you that. I mean, you work here now, so you’re probably allowed to know. But still, maybe don’t tell anyone.” You mime zipping your lips shut and he smiles.

“Wow.” You take a second to process this new information. “And is he always such a…” you trail off, unable to find a workplace-appropriate word to use.

“Pretty much.” Jungkook gives an uneasy shrug. “He just kind of stays in his lab, works crazy hours, drinks a lot of coffee. He can be a little cranky. I try to work around him.”

He looks like he’s going to say more, but his words have an idea already forming in your head. You cross the room to the dual coffee makers, opening nearby cabinets until you find one full of company-branded mugs. You retrieve one and fill it up with coffee from the half-full pot. You pause for a moment over the cream and sugar, then decide to go without. He definitely seems like a black coffee person.

“Hold that thought for two seconds,” you call over your shoulder to Jungkook as you slip out of the break room and back down the hall.

You approach the Genius Lab door, suppressing the urge to roll your eyes at the label, and press the doorbell, then knock a couple times for good measure. Enough seconds pass for your self-doubt to creep in—maybe this is a dumb idea, or maybe he’s still in whatever meeting he was on the way to—and then the door cracks open.

Suga has that same look on his face as before, somewhere between tired and mildly pissed off. His dark hair falls in his eyes as he leans around the door. You wait for him to say something, but he just stares blankly at you. You shine your brightest waitressing smile at him.

“Hi, Suga. Um, I think we maybe got off on the wrong foot. I’m the new administrative assistant.” Your eyes flicker down to the mug in your hand, then back up to him. “I was told you like coffee, so I thought I’d bring this as a peace offering.” You extend the mug towards him. “I’m actually a really big fan—”

He blinks at the mug in your hand and grunts, “I don’t like hot coffee.” Then he slams the Genius Lab door in your face.

You storm back down the hallway so angrily that you threaten to snap a heel. To his credit, Jungkook is still in the break room, now sitting at one of the tables and scrolling through his phone while he sips his milk. He winces when he sees the look on your face.

“Sorry, I probably should’ve stopped you. Suga only drinks iced Americanos.”

You grit your teeth. “Even his coffee order is pretentious,” you mutter as you dump the contents of the mug down the break room sink.

“Hey! I would’ve drank that…” Jungkook says softly. You give him an apologetic smile.

You politely excuse yourself, doing your best to not immediately ruin the only good first impression you’ve made so far. Your head spins as you slump back into your desk chair and return to your training videos.

He’s just one stupid person, you tell yourself. You know his opinion of you shouldn’t matter. Jungkook very clearly told you he’s like this with everyone. But you can’t ignore the nagging mixture of embarrassment and anger, or the heat that lingers in your face even an hour later. Is it that fucking hard to be nice?

Before you know it, your boss is back at your desk. “I see the training videos haven’t completely put you to sleep yet. You’re a trooper for knocking those out. Ready for lunch? I’ll round up everyone else.” You smile and grab your purse.

You’re introduced to a flurry of coworkers, most of their names immediately flying out of your brain the second after your boss says them. Jungkook is there too, and he beams at you and gives a tiny wave.

As you all file out of the building and head down the street, you fall into lockstep with your boss. “So, um… Will Suga be joining us for lunch?”

He laughs like you’ve told a joke, shaking his head. “A fan of his work, are you?” You have to fight to keep your expression pleasant. “No, he’s not much of a social outings guy. He really doesn’t leave the office much. Come to think of it, I don’t even know that he went home last night.”

You let out a small hum of surprise and your boss nods solemnly. “This is actually a great segue into something I wanted to cover with you today.”

He stops walking for a moment, just enough to let the rest of your group get a little further ahead, giving you some privacy. You stay behind with him, and he fishes into his pocket, retrieving a small silver key on a company-branded keychain. He drops the key into your hand.

“An important part of your job that I wanted to make sure we cover today is this: I’m asking you to be the sole key-holder moving forward. That means you’ll be responsible for unlocking our doors each morning, and locking up at the end of the day. Sound good?”

You nod, eager to add a responsibility to your list that you actually know how to do. Your boss continues.

“We’ve had some… issues recently when it comes to workplace security. And circling back to what we were discussing, I think it’s important to set a good example of work-life balance with our employees.” He chuckles. “Now, some of our employees may not take too kindly to this change, being used to coming and going as they please. You will probably need to stand your ground a bit. I remember you mentioned in your interview that you have a very direct communication style, so I’m not worried at all.”

It’s not hard to read between the lines of your boss’ platitudes. The thought of having to stand your ground with Suga—who apparently works so hard he doesn’t even go home—makes your stomach drop.

“It’s not good for employees to work too much, you know?” He turns to look at you, and you quickly nod your agreement. “I think this will be a good change for everyone, and good for the health of the company overall. Would you agree?”

You fake the brightest smile you can. “Oh, absolutely.”

Lunch is delicious, and the fact that it’s all on the company’s dime makes it that much better. You have to put a hand over your mouth to hide your laughter when Jungkook loads his plate up with thirds. The rest of your coworkers seem to be nice, normal people, and the conversation flows easily. You’re starting to believe that Suga’s attitude really is a fluke, or maybe just a byproduct of his work schedule. Lord knows you’d be a huge bitch if you worked for two days straight.

Once you all return to the office, your boss stays at your desk while the rest of the team disperses. “Alright,” he claps his hands together. “Boring stuff is over. Ready for the real work to begin?”

You do your best to look excited and not scared shitless. The act gets harder when he slides open the bottom drawer of your desk and retrieves a hefty stack of files. They land with a thud next to your keyboard.

“I know,” he starts, “it’s ugly. I’ve been putting these off until we were able to hire someone, and now, here you are! This is our spend data for the last quarter, and it really needs to get input and reconciled before accounting has my head. I know you used the same system we do in your last role; your reference said you were a pro at it.” You don’t know if you want to kiss Jimin or kill him for that. “Think you can knock this out today?”

You swallow hard at the intimidating stack of papers in front of you, willing yourself to act natural. “Um, yeah, absolutely. It won’t be an issue.”

“Amazing!” Your boss smiles, then glances down at his watch. “Oh man, I’m late for my pull-up. Gotta jet.” He’s already marching down the hallway, and he calls over his shoulder, “You’re killing it today!”

You let out a long exhale, staring wearily at your doom. It was a good run, you think to yourself. At least you got a free lunch out of it. You can already picture the disappointed look on Jimin’s face.

That thought is enough to snap you out of it. No, this will not be your undoing. You can bounce back from this. You know you’re not the first person to have lied about a skill on a resume.

And besides, you reason. You’re a millennial. You have the innate power of the internet on your side.

Trying to be as subtle as possible, you reach down and slip your earbuds out of your purse, plugging them into the jack on your laptop. You pull up YouTube in an incognito window and search for a beginner tutorial on this stupid finance system.

You open the application and dock it next to the video, following along as the steps are explained. It’s a painfully slow process, but you’re able to figure it out, even if you have to rewind the video half a dozen times until you understand everything.

You’re just starting to get into the zone, unaware of the passage of time, when someone clears their throat directly behind you. The sound might as well be a gunshot for how badly it scares you. You nearly have a fucking heart attack, ripping your headphones out of your ears as you spin around in your chair.

Suga is leaning up against the wall behind your desk, arms crossed over his chest. You have no idea how long he’s been there. He’s traded in his blank expression for the most patronizing smirk you’ve ever seen.

“Are you sure you’ve done this before?”

The question makes your mouth go dry, but he doesn’t give you time to respond.

“Wouldn’t think an experienced admin would need to look up a beginner tutorial.” He quirks an eyebrow. You’re silent, unable to think of any response as he kicks off the wall and begins to head for his office.

You’re on your feet before you can stop yourself. “Um, Suga?”

He stops and turns over his shoulder to look at you, saying nothing.

“I just wanted to make you aware that, as part of my duties, I am officially the sole key-holder here now.” You stand up straight and meet his disinterested gaze head-on. “We’ll be closing at 6:00 tonight, and everyone will need to be out by then.” You do your best to be as pleasantly assertive as possible.

Suga rolls his eyes. You tilt your chin ever-so-slightly as if to say, try me.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” He turns and continues down the hall. After a moment, you hear the unmistakable sound of a door slamming.

You’re so keyed up that you nearly miss your chair when you go to sit back down. For a moment all you can do is lay your head on the stack of files as adrenaline courses through your veins. When you sit back up to resume working, you can’t help the triumphant smile on your face.

The rest of your day passes in a steady stream of numbers and finance codes. It takes an eternity, but you finish the massive stack of papers just shy of your end-of-day deadline. Over the last hour, the rest of your coworkers have already trickled out for the evening, each saying their goodbyes to you.

You pack your things up slowly, wondering how the hell you’re going to drag the genius out of his lab, when you hear a door slam. Maybe you won’t have to.

As you slip your laptop into your purse, Suga rounds the corner. You wonder if you’re imagining it, but you think he looks even more pissed off than usual. That’s fine, you think to yourself. He doesn’t have to like you, so long as he respects your authority.

“Have a good night, Suga,” you say in your sweetest voice. His stride doesn’t falter, and he doesn’t even bother to look your way as he pushes the glass doors open. You wait for the telltale chime of the elevator’s departure before you follow suit. The last thing you need is extended time in a small space with your new least favorite coworker. You set the alarm the way your boss showed you, then fish the office key out of your purse and lock the door behind you.

You press the button for the elevator and text Jimin to meet you for a well-deserved drink.

~*~

The next morning, Jungkook is there waiting for you when you step off the elevator.

“Good morning!” He says with a cheerful smile, looking fresh-faced as ever.

“Hey, Jungkook.” You’re a little less enthusiastic, considering it's 7:30 in the morning. You do your best to smile back as you dig through your purse to retrieve the office key. “Sorry I made you wait. I was hoping to be the first one here.”

He steps aside to let you unlock the door, both of his hands grabbing the strap of the backpack he has looped over one shoulder. “Oh, it’s not a big deal. I do a 6 AM boxing class right around the corner, so I usually get here way early.”

The phrase 6 AM boxing class alone makes you want to crawl back into bed. Where does he get the energy?

You open the door and he follows through behind you, continuing on as you turn off the alarm. “I forgot that they changed the locks and my key doesn’t work anymore, so this one’s my fault, really!” He gives a self-conscious laugh and runs a hand through his hair. “Don’t feel like you have to get here early on my behalf, though. I can always go to a coffee shop or something.”

Stifling a yawn, you set your purse down on your desk. “I appreciate that.”

Jungkook rocks back on his heels, clearly searching for something else to say as you plug your laptop in and turn it on. “So, uh, you’ll be at the team meeting this morning, right?”

“Um…” You attempt to keep your composure as your email starts up. Grateful that Jungkook is on the far side of your desk, you blindly click random buttons along the menu bar until one pulls up the calendar. It takes an agonizing few seconds to load, and when it does, it is a virtual nightmare of overlapping events and names in a myriad of colors. You squint at the screen until you find Tuesday and— there it is, “Team All Hands”, your first meeting of the day. “Yep, I see it! I’ll be there.”

He smiles. “Cool, cool! What else did he put you on?” Before you have time to stop him, he’s circling around to peer over your shoulder at the screen. “Woah! Why does it look like that?”

You wince. Is it not supposed to?

Jungkook reaches for your mouse and you shrink back. “Ohhh,” his eyes widen as some realization dawns on him. “I guess you have access to everyone’s schedules. That makes a lot more sense, but wow, hard to read. Let’s turn some of these off.”

You internally praise every god you can think of as he opens a small pane on the left-hand side of your email that you never would’ve found in a million years. You see a long list of your coworker’s names, and he begins unchecking them in rapid succession. The overlapping rainbow insanity of your calendar dissipates with each click.

You’re watching Jungkook work, bottom lip between your teeth, when you hear the sound of the glass front doors being pushed open. Through them steps Suga, which surprises you— you didn’t exactly take him for a morning person. He doesn’t look like one in his dark wayfarers and all-black tracksuit, and he’s got a pretty obvious death grip on the large to-go cup in his hand. An iced Americano, naturally. You will yourself not to roll your eyes.

Jungkook finishes clicking down your calendar and steps back from the keyboard. “There, that’s better.” Your schedule is still pretty packed, but at least you can actually read it now. He looks up as Suga passes your desk. “Good morning, Min Suga!”

Suga’s pace doesn’t even slow as he heads straight for his office, saying nothing. Jungkook looks thoroughly unbothered by the lack of greeting.

“Thanks, Jungkook,” you say, mildly embarrassed. “We, uh— used a different software at my last job.”

Jungkook nods sympathetically. “Yeah, Outlook kind of sucks. I’m honestly jealous you haven’t been subjected to it until now.”

It’s nearly imperceptible, but you swear you hear a soft laugh echo down the hallway, from the same direction Suga headed. If Jungkook hears it too, his expression doesn’t show it. 

In fact, he’s still chattering away. “It’s just not very intuitive, you know? I’ve been trying to get the boss to switch to GCal forever, but no dice yet.” He pauses, stepping in towards your computer again. “Do you mind if I show you some stuff that helped me?”

It’s like he’s an angel that was sent from heaven to personally help you fake your way through this job. “That would be amazing, Jungkook, thank you.”

You try to keep up with Jungkook’s rapid-fire clicking and typing, but your brain is stuck on that damn laugh that you swear you heard. Did you hear it? You’re probably imagining things, you tell yourself. Just being paranoid. Focus, you tell yourself, and forget about Suga. Min Suga. Whatever his stupid name is. It doesn’t matter.

This train of thought circles around and around in your brain until Jungkook triumphantly hits a final key, then drums his knuckles on your desk. “Alright! You’re all set. I threaded your email conversations, which makes them way easier to follow. I set up some rules so that all the unimportant company notices go to their own folder and don’t clog up your inbox. Uh, I pinned your calendar to your inbox so you can see it at-a-glance. Oh, and I added a to-do pane so if you flag any emails for follow-up, they’ll show up right there, so you don’t forget.” He crosses his arms, looking thoroughly impressed with his handiwork.

“Jesus, Jungkook.” You maybe understood half of what he just said, and that’s being generous. “I feel like you should have this job instead of me.”

He shrugs. “It took me forever to figure this stuff out on my own. I won’t put you through that same torture for no reason.”

His words drag you back to your train of thought. You know you should probably wait and investigate your personal vendetta when your coworker isn’t standing over your shoulder, but you can’t help yourself. You flip back to your calendar and scroll through the list of names, clicking the box to pull up Suga’s.

Jungkook is already laughing as nothing changes on your screen. When you uncheck your own name to remove your calendar from the view, the week goes entirely blank.

You’re trying so hard not to be petty, but Jungkook’s giggling encourages you. “I’m sorry, is Suga allergic to meetings?”

“Kind of. He’s a notorious decliner, especially when he’s got a lot on his plate. I doubt you’ll see much of him, honestly. He doesn’t like to be disturbed.”

“I’ve noticed,” you huff. As you pull your own crowded schedule back up, you wonder how it’s fair that Suga gets to skip out on meetings just because he doesn’t like them.

Jungkook is unstoppable, and you wonder what his energy levels must be like before the morning boxing class. He talks you through the rest of your schedule for the day, explaining the purpose of each meeting, deliverables required, and who the key players are. You’re in awe that he can recall all of this like it’s nothing, and it seems like hours before he so much as pauses to take a breath.

He checks his watch. “Oh wow! The time went by so fast. We need to get to the meeting. Do you know where it is?”

You almost laugh. Of course you don’t. “Mind showing me?”

You grab your laptop and hurry to follow Jungkook as he hangs a right down the hallway. The two of you are the last to file into the large conference room, and you give a small wave to the rest of the team as you take your seat.

To your surprise, Suga is already there, his coffee cup sweating onto the fancy reclaimed wood table.

The team meeting is a blur of priorities and updates, and you try to match each face to a name you learned yesterday. You do your best to take notes on everything everyone is responsible for, but the pace is breakneck.

It also doesn’t help that Suga is sitting directly across from you; at this point his presence alone is enough to make you feel incompetent. He leans back in his chair with his arms crossed, saying nothing apart from the occasional grunt of acknowledgement when addressed. You can’t stop glancing up at the sour look on his face.

The hour flies by, and your boss closes out with a recap of everyone’s takeaways before adding a final comment. “One last thing, team. As some of you already know, our new administrative assistant has also graciously agreed to be our key-holder moving forward.” You try to keep your composure as you feel your face get hot. 

“To ensure security after recent events,” your boss continues, putting a strange emphasis on his words, “we have changed the studio locks, so your personal keys will no longer work. Our admin will be solely responsible for holding onto the master key, and she will open and close the office each day.”

This seems to be the first topic of conversation all meeting that actually piques Suga’s interest. He sits up in his chair, lazily lifting one hand as if to ask a question, his elbow resting on the table.

“Is that really necessary?”

The room goes dead silent. Even the normal little sounds—people shuffling, typing, and making side comments to each other—all evaporate. You get the idea that Suga rarely even attends these meetings, so the fact that he’s here and speaking up is more than enough to net him everyone’s full attention.

Your boss laces his hands together and rests them firmly on the table, seemingly unfazed. “I’d be very interested to hear your argument about why it’s not necessary, given what happened last month. An incident you were responsible for, if I recall correctly.”

You see a muscle in Suga’s jaw twitch. “Look, I fu—” He corrects himself, clearly trying to avoid an expletive. “I, uh, made a mistake. I was overtired and on a deadline, and I wasn’t thinking straight. It was a big mistake, yes, but I covered the expenses out of pocket. I don’t understand why I’m being punished.”

“I don’t understand why you are hellbent on viewing the company taking measures to heighten security as your personal punishment.”

It really feels like you shouldn’t be witnessing this exchange. You glance over at Jungkook next to you, but he’s staring down at his lap, anxiously twiddling his thumbs.

“Because it is!” Suga smacks the table with his fist and you flinch hard. “You know the kind of schedule I prefer to keep, and you’re forcing me to change it. How is that not punishment?”

Your boss leans forward and fixes Suga in his withering gaze. You hope never to be on the receiving end of such a look. You’d probably quit right on the spot. Or die.

“Min Yoongi,” he begins, and you and Jungkook instantly make eye contact. His eyes are wide and you’re sure you look about the same. Must be serious if your boss is using Suga’s government name. “The company is in agreement that your current work schedule is unsustainable. If you’re working so late and leaving in such a state of exhaustion that you can’t remember to lock the door, we’re more than entitled to step in and find a better solution. Especially considering your careless mistake led to a loss of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment and a potential privacy breach.”

Holy shit.

“I understand, I fucked up, but—”

“Now,” your boss cuts him off. “I’m sure our administrative assistant would be happy to coordinate with you directly to figure out something that suits your needs, while also keeping our assets secure.”

“But what about when I have a breakthrough in the middle of the night?” Suga is clearly not backing down. “Am I just supposed to call her and beg for the key?” He gestures a hand in your direction but doesn’t break eye contact with your boss. You’d laugh if the room weren’t so tense. Like he’d ever stoop to such a thing when he can’t even so much as say hello to you.

Your boss leans back in his chair and you can tell the conversation is over. “Why don’t you ask her what she’s comfortable with? We don’t need to keep the entire team tied up for your personal temper tantrum, Yoongi.” He pushes his chair back from the table and rises, buttoning his suit jacket. “Just keep in mind, she and I have already discussed this, and she confirmed she’s very comfortable with setting firm boundaries. I’m not going to ask you twice to respect them.”

You swallow hard, unable to look anywhere but at the wood grain of the table. That’s not exactly how you remember the conversation going, but your boss is already dismissing the team and exiting the room before you can say anything.

You scramble to save your notes from the meeting, but just end up aimlessly clicking around on your laptop for a few seconds, too overwhelmed to do anything. You finally snap your computer shut and glance over at Jungkook who is staring down at the floor, eyes still wide. He exhales a slow stream of air in apparent disbelief.

The room feels like a bomb has just gone off. The moment the door shuts behind your boss, everyone seems to move at lightning speed to pack their things and depart.

You stand, grabbing your laptop and praying it’s not obvious how much your hands are shaking. You can feel Suga’s eyes burning holes in you and you don’t dare look up to confirm it.

Jungkook is faster than you and is already halfway down the hallway by the time you push open the conference room doors. You hug your laptop to your chest and are about to hustle to catch up to him when a voice stops you.

It’s Suga, saying your name. You’re surprised he remembers it, given how cold he’d been to your introduction. You feel like you’re moving in slow motion as you turn to face him.

“I’m sure Jungkook will be glad to show you how to lock up, too.” His deep voice is monotone, betraying no emotion despite his outburst only moments earlier. “Assuming your last job didn’t have doors, either.”

It takes a second for his words to make sense. Your mouth drops open before you can attempt to put on a poker face. He’s calling your bluff, you understand. Loudly. Your boss or anyone who was just in the meeting might still be able to hear him if they were nearby.

“I-I don’t know what you mean,” is all you can think to stammer, but Suga doesn’t stick around to hear your reply. masterlist | chapter two