#noo a second person has liked the message. i hope someones like hey lets not. do that

[shittywriterbrain]

watch me turn into the most evil person on this planet as i suggest the hamilton soundtrack for my history class' graduation song

[urfavmurtad]

(1) Hey, I’m a 19 year old Muslim girl living in Canada. I’ve lived my entire life raised around Western culture so I guess I’m what you would call a Moderate Muslim. Until about a year ago, I believed that Islam could be accepting of values such as feminism, lgbtq+ acceptance etc. But then I realized the noticeable lack of these values in our community and realized I was kidding myself if I believed that anyone in my family would accept someone coming out as gay...

(2) So I started to preach moderate values. I told everyone I knew that some great changes had to be made in our community. That was until recently. Now, I realize I can’t really preach these changes in our community if they contradict a fundamental scripture. I came to the horrible realization that I actually disagree with the Quran. In fact, it goes beyond that: I have a problem with the whole concept of organized religion and the many basic philosophies that accompany all religions…   

(3) I’m still double-minded though. I do hijab, and was previously extremely religious (prayed extra, learned the Quran by heart) and I find it so difficult to just leave the entire religion. I feel like I need to talk to someone, because the very idea is so daunting that I can’t even think it out loud, much less mention it to anyone. And that’s a personal struggle; I haven’t even started to think about the cultural and familial backlash. What is your advice for anyone in this kind of situation?          

Anon I’m so sorry it took me forever to answer this, I’ve been in everyone’s favorite desert kingdom for exciting family bonding adventures as of late. Lemme just say before I start what is sure to be another long post that I completely understand where you’re coming from. A lot of people who leave Islam, myself included, go through a sort of bargaining phase where you really want to make it work, because so much of your life is tied to it in one way or another, and it just… doesn’t. And you realize that most Muslims aren’t really into making it work, either, and you’re just supposed to accept that. We’re also basically in the same spot with still outwardly “performing Muslim-ness” despite our thoughts on the religion itself, both for family reasons and because it’s extremely difficult to go from being outwardly pious/devout to… less devout, without people judging you and asking questions. Like you, I have never told anyone in my family that I’m even sort of non-religious. That’s gonna be a hell of a bridge to cross and I’m not even thinking about it until I finish college. Financial independence has to come first.

So I can’t pretend that I have all the answers for you here. All I can do is share some advice that has been helpful to me. First of all: never, ever feel guilty for not being fully open with your thoughts on this subject or “hiding” until you feel ready to share them. I don’t need to tell you that things like this often cause lost friendships, family drama, and cruel gossip. You don’t need that in your life right now, and given your age, there’s not much to be gained from having your lack of faith be public knowledge. The way you feel is your business and no one else’s. If you don’t feel like you’re in a good place to publicly leave the religion, there’s nothing wrong with, to put it bluntly, faking it for a while.

Someone on here asked me once if I feel guilty for “cheating” my parents (in terms of them paying for school and such), knowing that they’d disapprove of certain life choices of mine if they knew about them. And the answer to that is no. The fact that I don’t believe in Islam is none of my parents’ business and won’t be their business until I choose to inform them of it. I live a perfectly fine Muslimah life and do not cause them embarrassment or Great Family Shame. Sure, I’m just going through the motions at this point and don’t believe in any of it, from praying to “modesty”, but that is none of their concern. There is nothing wrong with keeping it personal until you feel completely comfortable being open about it irl. I do plan on getting there one day, both in terms of my (lack of) religion and my sexuality, but I am fully prepared for the possibility of my family basically refusing to interact with me afterwards. That’s a lot to deal with, and I don’t feel bad about waiting for the right time to unload all of that baggage. You shouldn’t feel bad about it, either.

That brings me to the second order of business. I already wrote about this in this post here but imo it’s so important to find a community, or multiple communities, to fill whatever void might be created in your social net if you ever do end up totally leaving. A huge part of what draws people to religion is the sense of belonging and a sense of having people who will always be there for you in your time of need. If you pull that rug out from under yourself without anything there to catch your fall, it can make you feel really lonely. Make sure you have an irl support network of some kind. Whether that takes the form of an actual group (like I said in the other post, I’m part of a charity group that is rly awesome and full of great people) or club or just a few non-religious friends, it doesn’t matter–as long as you know that you have supportive and loving people around you, no matter what. And it’s just as important to have some hobby in your life that has some sort of communal aspect to it (I do community gardening and cooking in school!). It’s so crucial, especially if you’re like me and hate socializing, because it creates a safe community for you that’s totally separate from your religion and your family/religious friends.

Another to keep in mind is that leaving Islam and recognizing its shittier aspects doesn’t mean you have to, like, abandon your ethnicity and entire sense of self. Culture and religion go hand-in-hand in most Muslim countries, but they don’t have to be totally inseparable. If there is something you like about your culture, or some practice you enjoy that is “supposed to be” for faithful Muslims only, or something that’s “supposed” to be done only in a certain religious way, you can go ahead keep doing that thing without any issue. You can still enjoy the history and past and traditions of your native country, though you are also more than allowed to look at some religious traditions you grew up with through a critical lens. You don’t have to throw away your entire identity just because you leave a religion, and you most definitely don’t have to shut up and never talk about it ever again. Keep the things you love about your culture and your upbringing and feel free to throw the bad things into the trash where they belong, now that you feel no spiritual drive to defend them. Don’t let anyone guilt you into either staying silent about the bad parts or never participating in the good parts. If I ever have kids, they’re getting so much eidi it’ll be ridiculous. And they’ll get a Christmas tree because I like the way they look. We’ll throw a Black Santa in there too, because fuck it, why not.

So that’s the summary. Keep the good, get rid of the bad. Don’t feel any guilt for either part of that. And if someone tells you “noo you can’t do X if you’re not Muslim” or “nooo you can’t do Y without doing Z”, you can feel free to tell them

On a semi-related note, I think that you’ve already started a process that I found really helpful, which is to think about exactly what you find both wrong and absurd about Islam–as in the codified faith itself, not just “cultural” matters. Whenever someone leaves a religion, you’ll always have people saying “oh, they just don’t understand the real religion”. That goes 500x for Islam; virtually all people who leave Islam are told that they just don’t get it. It can feel like gaslighting sometimes. So it’s extremely useful to be able to point to specific parts of the Quran that I find objectively wrong, to say nothing of the ahadith. I have very solid reasons for no longer believing in the faith. I no longer question them, and I don’t let people tell me that I just don’t understand.

And that leads into another hugely important process, which is finding your own system of morality outside the realm of religion. I’ve heard so many shaikhs and dawah bros say “if you’re not religious, how can you have any morals?”, often taking that to absurd conclusions, like saying you have to be fine with murder or whatever. That is, obviously, insane. I don’t need a warlord and slave owner (PBUH) to explain to me why XYZ Is Bad. I can figure it out on my own and find a personal morality that doesn’t depend on any institution and is suited for the world that I live in. It sounds like you’re pretty much already there, and that’s a big deal. Having some moral structure in your life means that you won’t feel totally lost without Islam. You’re gonna be okay, sis.

So… like I said, hell if I have all the answers to these questions anon, I’m trying to figure all of it out myself. But that’s the best advice I can give you, and I hope it was at least semi-helpful? You can always feel free to message me or send me another ask if you ever just feel like ranting or screaming into the void, trust me, I get the feeling!! 💕

[stressedoutteenager]

Hi! I had an idea for a Yousana AU fic and I would love to see it written by you... the balloon squad are famous youtubers with their hey briskeby channel; Sana and Yousef have feelings for each other. The fic starts when they aren't together yet, but when they do get together they decide to keep it a secret from the viewers (1of the reasons is that Yousef doesn't want Sana to get hate from his fans). Sana, however starts appearing more and more in the guys' videos and the viewers start...

Hey :)

First of all thank you for this prompt! I don’t know if there was supposed to be another part to this ask but I only received this one. So I hope I didn’t miss anything important. 

I hope this is how you imagined it. Let me know!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

(The short parts in between the dotted lines are comments Sana concentrates on.)

“HEEEEY”,they all shout at the same time. Sana is used to them being this loud butstanding behind the camera now, she still jumps at how loud they really are.

Hei Briskeby, aka Elias, Mutta, Adam,Mikael and Yousef, are shooting a video for their YouTube channel. Once againin the Bakkoush house. 

Sana is at home most of the time theguys decide to shoot a video. Well, they actually have a weekly plan to have a clearschedule when to prepare, when to film, when to edit. However, they don’t keepto that plan very often. So it’s possible that they are at the Bakkoush houseevery day. One would think that they would have found another location to filmat when their channel got big, like really big. But no, they love filming hereand probably won’t stop so soon. Not that Sana minds much. This gives her theopportunity to see that one friend of Elias she might have a crush on. 

“What’s up everyone? Welcome back!How are you all? I hope you’re doing good! Like I always say, you look good nomatter what!”, Elias says with his usual grin and leans forward in hisseat and winks at the camera. Sana rolls her eyes until she sees Yousef lookingat her.

Mutta, Adam and Mikael are sitting onthe couch while Elias and Yousef are sitting on the floor in front of them.Yousef’s eyes keep wandering over to Sana and while Elias says ‘You look goodno matter what’ Yousef looks straight at Sana and nods while smiling at her.Sana immediately blushes and presses her lips together to not smile toobrightly and attract attention from the other boys. 

“Today, we’re going to do somethingthat has been requested a lot!”, Yousef says after Elias nudges him forhim to pay attention to the video. “We are doing a Q&A!”

“We haven’t done a video like thisin … well, never. We’ve never done this kind of video.”, Adam says.

“And since we’ve gained quite a lotof viewers in the last months and you all keep asking us about ourselves wethought we would do this.”, Mutta explains and Sana is amazed that theguys didn’t write a script for this. They work so well together but that justshows how great of friends they are. 

“And it’s impossible to answerevery comment you leave us so we’re going to try to answer as many questions aspossible in this video.”, Mikael concludes.

Sana looks down at her phone and readsthe messages in the group chat with her friends. She is still listening to whatthe guys are saying, though.

“We wanted to just read out thequestions we choose from this..”, Elias holds up a sheet of paper.“But since my lovely sister is here today, behind the camera, she can askus the questions randomly.”

Sana’s head shoots up and she narrowsher eyes at her brother. He always finds a way to incorporate her in theirvideos. She has been in a few before but she really doesn’t feel like being infront of the camera now. Especially because she came back from basketballpractice just minutes ago.

Because Sana doesn’t react immediately,the boys think they need to try and convince her. 

“Sana, it’s more fun thatway!”, Adam suggests.

“Pleeeease, sis! I know you’reexhausted right now but you can just chill behind the camera and read them tous.”, Elias says and shows his sister a big smile. 

While Adam and Elias talk, Sana noticesthat all of them look at her but one pair of eyes looks most hopeful. Yousefraises his eyebrows at Sana and just waits.

“It’s fine. I’ll do it.”, Sanasays. Yousef stands up to give Sana the sheet of paper with the questions andgives the paper more slowly to her than necessary. Sana plumps down onto thefloor, crosses her legs under her and waits for the guys to give her a sign tostart.

Most questions are stuff like age, wherethey all are from, this or that questions, who’s most likely to do somethingand what the guys do besides YouTube. Sana loves this question because thesefive boys are not just relying on YouTube for their future but all are eitherworking or studying at university. Sana is not too interested in thosequestions because they practically live here and she knows all of them prettywell. 

But the following question isinteresting. Not only because Sana knows that their fans are dying to know but becauseshe has been asked this about the boys too often to count. 

She rephrases the question and says:“Do any of you have a significant other?”

Sana can’t help herself. Her eyesimmediately find Yousef who is shaking his head. And looking at Sana with a …sad look. Sana and Yousef have something going on between them. They are notdating but there is something. And all the other guys know it too. 

Adam and Mikael look at each other asthe first instinct but quickly look away then. Elias shakes his head but grinsand Mutta just doesn’t say anything and looks into the camera with a lopsidedsmile. 

Elias looks around and answers for allof his friends too: “See, we’re all single!” Sana is ready to readthe next question but Elias continues answering. Her older brother looks atYousef who watches his best friend answer and says: “Well, you know.. it’scomplicated with this guy here.” He pats Yousef on the shoulder and thensends a look towards Sana. She wishes she could vanish in thin air then andthere. Sometimes she hates her brother. 

“Okay! Next question!”, Sanaannounces but Elias, Mutta, Mikael and Adam laugh about her reaction. They havesuch a great time trying to push Sana and Yousef to finally become a couplebecause it’s obvious to them that Sana and Yousef are gone for each other.Yousef pretends to laugh along.

—————————————————————————————————-

“Does this mean Yousef is NOTsingle????”

“Please tell me it’s complicatedbecause he’s in love with Elias’ sister!! How cute would they be?!?!?!”

“TELL ME HE IS NOT DATING THAT GIRLWHO IS IN THEIR VIDEOS SOMETIMES. NOO!”

“ I’m calling it! Yousana is athing. Look at his cute face when looking at - behind - the camera!”

—————————————————————————————————-

“Sana! Yousef! Get your cute littleasses over here! We need to start filming!”, Elias shouts from the windowto the couple sitting outside in the garden. Since Yousef and Sana starteddating a short while back and actually told people about it, Yousef has beenspending quite a lot of time with Sana when he was over at the Bakkoush house.Elias was a little jealous, actually, but he was glad that these two lovesickidiots are finally together.

“You think my ass is cute?”,Yousef’s first words are when he comes through the door. Elias turns around tohis best friend and nods with a sarcastic smile.

“Yes, Yousef! Unbelievably cute.But if you don’t go sit in your spot now that cute ass will belong to a deadperson.”, Elias says with the sweetest smile and has everyone in the roomimpressed. That he can threaten Yousef with such a cute facial expression…Sana always knew Elias is good at this kind of creative stuff.

They end up playing some version ofcharades that they changed a bit but only with YouTube related stuff. 

For example, Yousef had to describe the‘Don’t Judge’ challenge and says: “The challenge Elias and Sana hated somuch that Elias almost got in an argument with that dude at the gym!”

Sana is completely lost because shedoesn’t go to the gym with them but Mikael immediately shouts the rightchallenge and can’t help but comment: “Yeah, well, Elias was rightanyway!”

Elias impersonates Dan and Phil, yesboth of them, perfectly which Mutta guesses first, though.

Adam describes someone with: “Heserenades girls on College campuses with made up songs.” While Elias andMutta have no clue, Mikael is trying to think of the name. Well, Sana andYousef forget for a second that they are not alone and keep looking at eachother and have to lean forward for that. Elias is sitting between them becausethat’s how they always sit when Sana joins them.

“Sana!”, Adam shouts and makesSana jump because she’s ripped out of her small bubble with Yousef. “Youneed to know that! I’ve shown you videos and asked if you would mind if someonedid that to you!”

Sana immediately knows who Adam istalking about but needs a second to remember the name. She jumps up and down onher seat on the floor while trying to remember the name and nervously pats onthe couch. Yousef looks at her smilingly and then to the rest of the boys.

“Angrypicnic!”, Sana shouts assoon as she remembers the name. Mikael starts complaining how he also knew itbut just couldn’t remember the name which Elias and Yousef make fun of him forbecause that’s exactly the point of this game.

Sana takes a piece of paper from thesnapback the guys, or rather Mutta, took off of Yousef’s head because theyneeded to put the little pieces of paper with names of YouTubers, trends andchallenges in it. 

Sana reads what’s written on it:“The floor is lava.”

Sana looks up at the boys and looks ateach of them separately before trying to explain which wouldn’t be hard.

“Okay, it’s the challenge Yousefand I started and you all joined and now it gets dangerous!”

Yousef, Elias and Mikael shout:“The Floor is Lava” and as an instinct Sana looks around and seesherself sitting on the floor. Even though Yousef and Elias were two of thethree people shouting the answer, they both do the same thing as Sana and allthree of them jump on the couch, while the other three are still sitting onit. 

“I hate you people!”, Adam canbe heard crying, being squished between Elias and Sana.

—————————————————————————————————-“Why is she in this video? She wasin a video a month ago already!”

“Honestly if she’s dating one ofthe guys she shouldn’t be on your channel”

“Nobody can tell me Yousef and Sanaare not IN LOVE! LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY SMİLE AT EACH OTHER!”

“Girl! Concentrate on your brotheror something and don’t bother with Yousef. Keep your eyes off him!”

————————————————————————————————-

“Look who we found here. Studyingand being a good student as always!”, Adam has their vlogging-camera inhis hands and points the camera at Sana. It’s a Thursday afternoon and onceagain, the boys are at the Bakkoush house. Sana came home, immediately put oncomfortable clothes and took her make up off. She didn’t care that the boys arehere. They have seen her in her worst conditions, like when she’s sick, so itreally doesn’t matter. Sana looks up from her Biology book and smiles at Adam for a second, says Hiand looks back down on her book. She really doesn’t feel like being a part oftheir next vlog.

Adam goes to the fridge and turns aroundto Sana, still filming. “So why are you studying in the kitchen? And when’s your exam again?Tomorrow?”

Sana looks up again and plays with thepen in her hand. She nods and says: “Yeah, it’s tomorrow. And I’m in thekitchen because you guys are in the backyard and even with my windows closed Ican hear you.”

Adam turns the camera to himself andsmiles sheepishly: “Sooorry, we’ll keep it down.”

Sana just shrugs with a small smile:“Doesn’t really matter, really. I’m fine studying here.”

Adam stops filming after that and talksto Sana for a few minutes about what the topic of the exam will be. One wouldmaybe not think that but Adam is a science- guy. He might not have been as goodas Sana in school but he’s very interested in stuff like physics and biology.

Before Adam leaves the kitchen to jointhe other boys in the backyard, Sana calls after him. He turns around and Sanahesitates a little bit. Adam leans on to the door frame and waits. Sana pressesher lips together and wonders if she should bother with this or not. Then shesighs and leans forward in her seat and finally says what has been on her mind.

“Adam, could you maybe not includethat in the vlog?” It’s a good thing that all the Hei Briskeby boys,except for Yousef of course, are like brothers to Sana. She can talk to themabout anything and they’ll listen. But this topic in particular is uncomfortablefor Sana to talk about.

Adam pushes himself of the door frameand steps closer to the kitchen table. His eyebrows furrowed and a concernedlook on his face, which he quickly changes and smiles at Sana.

“Sure, that’s no problem. But …is there a reason why you don’t want that?”, Adam asks. He knows that Sanameant their short conversation he had filmed minutes ago. Usually she didn’tmind being in their videos, she is some vlogs too. Mostly in the backgroundbecause the guys are always in her house.

First Sana just shrugs and doesn’t wantto elaborate but if she explains once she might not need to talk about itagain. Adam is the one who vlogs their days, at least most of the times. He isthe best at it out of all the boys. Elias and Yousef comment too much whilevlogging; Mikael doesn’t comment anything at all and just films and Mutta getstoo excited about things happening so fast that most things he films areblurry. Adam has the combination just right.

“Don’t you read the comments underyour videos?”, Sana finally decides to say.

Adam nods but still looks confused soSana continues: “Then you should know that your viewers don’t like mebeing in your videos that much. Especially since some of them think I’m withYousef and they really don’t like that!”

She has noticedmany comments under Hei Briskeby’s recent videos expressing this view veryloudly.

Now Adam is even more confused. Sure,there are a few negative comments about Sana but it’s YouTube. There arenegative comments about Elias, Mutta, Yousef, Mikael and Adam, too. Before theytried to delete all the hate comments but now it’s almost impossible and theydon’t even care that much anymore. You get desensibilized when you’re on YouTubethis long with a big audience. 

“What are you talking about? Mostof our viewers love it when you’re in the videos! Some suggest you being in thevideos every day! And you are togetherwith Yousef so what’s the problem?”

Sana sighs and puts away her pen andinstead takes her phone in her hand and turns it in her hands whiletalking. 

“But if so many of your fans reactto the unconfirmed idea of Yousef and I dating, imagine how they’ll be if theyknew.”, Sana says and gets really sad. Adam opens his mouth to saysomething but Sana interrupts him: “Could you just please edit that partout. I’m not sure I want to be in today’s vlog.” She finishes her sentencewith a small smile and Adam nods. Of course he wouldn’t put her in a video isshe doesn’t want that. 

Adam starts to leave again and Sanashouts after him: “Please fix it! And not in the way Mikael always ‘fixesit’!” She only hears Adam chuckle at that and turns back to the books allover the table. 

She’s not alone for long, though. Aboutten minutes later Yousef enters the kitchen. Sana doesn’t notice anyone cominginto the room at first. He watches as Sana is really concentrated on thetextbook in front of her and slowly and quietly gets closer to her. He goes tostand behind her chair and leans down and places a short kiss on Sana’s cheek.Sana is surprised and looks at him so fast that she almost falls out of herseat. Yousef didn’t move much after kissing her cheek so that there are only millimetresbetween their faces now. 

Sana looks into his eyes and can’t stopthe smile creeping up on her face. She tries to act mad but it doesn’t work.“I hate you. Why would you do that?”

Yousef shakes his head lightly:“No, you don’t.” and grins at Sana. Then he pulls a chair close toSana and sits down next to her. They both turn to each other and just smile ateach other for a moment. 

Sana breaks the comfortable silence:“What are you doing here?“ 

Yousef tilts his head a little and looksat her innocently: “Can’t I just come and see my girlfriend?” Heloves saying that Sana is his girlfriend and she loves hearing him say it. Shestill can’t really believe that they finally managed to become a couple. That’swhy she doesn’t want anything to ruin that. 

Sana mimics her boyfriend and answers:“Of course you can. But since you were here half an hour ago and Adam justleft after I’ve told him something about us… there might be a connection,don’t you think?”

Yousef gasps dramatically and makes Sanalaugh and roll her eyes at him. “I’m offended that you would think that!… But a little birdie could’ve told me about some doubts you have.”

Sana quickly jumps up in her seat andinstinctively reaches for Yousef’s hand. “But there are no doubts about usbeing together. None at all!” She doesn’t want him to misunderstand that.

Yousef nods with an understanding smileand covers Sana’s hand with his. “I know, don’t worry. But maybe we shouldstill talk.”

This time Sana nods. She knows they haveto talk. She just didn’t know how to start this conversation. Saying ‘Hey,maybe let’s keep our distance while filming and I’ll avoid filming with youguys at all for a while because people don’t like me’ is not the right way togo.

“So you don’t want to be in ourvideos anymore?”, Yousef asks. 

Sana looks at their hands whileanswering: “Maybe for a while. Seems like a good solution. I’ve seenpeople comment rude stuff about you because of me being in the video and youlooking at me. I don’t want that for you.”

“Hey,”, Yousef says and makesSana look at him, “Don’t worry about that. I can deal with that. Nobodycan expect me to not look at my beautiful girlfriend the whole time she is nextto me.”

Sana starts blushing but shakes her headat him. Such a dork. “Yousef, I’m serious about that.”

He nods. He knows what she means. Yousefand the boys have gained a lot of YouTube friends since they started theirchannel and some of them have girlfriends. Yousef has seen what kind of stupid,unnecessary hate the girls have gotten because some fans didn’t think they werethe right person for their favorite YouTubers. It’s stupid. But he knows thatthat is something that happens, sadly.

“I know. And you know I love havingyou in our videos, so do the boys. But if you’re not comfortable with it, it’sfine. Just know that you don’t have to worry about it for my sake.”,Yousef says and adds with a laugh, “Because let’s be honest: You secretlylove shooting videos with us.”

“Ehh.. it’s okay.”, Sanaanswers looking bored. Secretly, she really does. She loves those boys and theyare a lot of fun to hang out with.

Well, turns out YouTube videos are notthe only thing to pay attention to when trying to be low-key about yourrelationship. Sana and Yousef don’t try to hide their relationship, Yousef justdidn’t talk about being in a relationship in their videos where that topiccomes up more often than one would think and Sana avoids being in their videos.At least in the main channel ones; she can’t escape the vlogging camera seeingas the guys are always at her home.

What Yousef forgot is that their viewersare not only watching their videos but are also on all the other social media.He loves it, don’t get him wrong. He loves how supportive they all are abouteverything he does. But he didn’t expect that much of a backlash to a picturehe posts of him, Elias and Sana and the caption: 'My two favorite people’. Itwas partly just a response to a picture Mutta had posted some days ago of himwith Mikael and Adam with the exact same caption. Elias and Yousef had jokinglyteased those three for leaving them out of the picture and when Yousef washanging out with the Bakkoush siblings he decided to post a similar picture.Even in the same poses as the other three.

There were a lot of really cutecomments, more than anything else, but he couldn’t ignore that there were somereally rude ones, mostly directed at Sana. Elias and Yousef were furious oncethey read those. While some of them were a little petty from super-fans, somewere straight up disrespectful which Elias and Yousef both deleted whenever theysaw them and reported the accounts.

—————————————————————————————————-

“Two favorite people???? What aboutyour best friends. since when is Elias’ sister that important. She needs tostop.”

“Aww, you’re family goals tho. Howcute would Yousana babies be?? And Elias as an uncle??”

“I’m sick of seeing that girl withyou all the time? Doesn’t she have her own friends?”

—————————————————————————————————-

Sana’s plan to limit her appearanceswith the Hei Briskeby boys failed completely. Her own friends, especially Evaand Chris, told her not to pay attention to any of those stupid comments becausethose who leave these comments are jealous because Yousef is such a good catchand him and Sana are so cute. At the same time she couldn’t hide from the boys.They genuinely were some of her best friend; one of them being her olderbrother and another one her boyfriends. 

Hei Briskeby doesn’t post vlogs everyday but every other day. In almost all of them you can see Yousef and Sanabeing all cute smiling at each other, flirting or something similar in thebackground. Of course there are not really physical and if you didn’t know thecontext of them being a couple you would just think they are only best friends.But since their audience suspected something between them Mikael had funleaving all those cute scenes of them in the background in the vlogs. At firstSana, Yousef and even Elias didn’t like that at all but now, now they have funwith it. Neither Yousef nor Sana feels obligated to announce on the Internetthat they are a couple and the longer they are together the less they careabout what people have to say about them. 

Now, it’s actually quite funny to themseeing some people being so invested that they theorize if they are together ornot and pointing out things that speak for or against it. 

“Hi to all of you beautiful peopleout there! How are you doing? All good? I hope so!”, Elias starts thevideo in his usual manner. Still looking straight into the camera he winks andthen claps loudly and continues to talk: “After a long, loooong time wehave a special guest in our video!” He points at the camera, or rather atSana who is standing behind it. “Sana, come join us!”

As soon as Elias says that the otherfour guys start clapping which Sana only shakes her head at. She sits downbetween Elias and Yousef, who are leaning on the couch Adam, Mikael and Muttaare sitting on. 

“Okay! What we’re going to do todayis: We’re going to see if we know Elias better..”, Mutta starts explainingand points at Adam, Mikael, Yousef and himself, “.. or if Sana knows herbrother better.”, and pats Sana on the head. Sana starts laughing, joinedby Yousef and Elias and looks at Mutta with an amused look. The way he pat herhead was really cutely funny. Adam and Mikael were too preoccupied withwhispering about something very close to notice that.

Elias explains the rules that they allwrite their answers on a sheet of paper and turn it around at the sametime. 

“Let’s start off easy! Who is mycelebrity crush right now?”

“I know this!”, Muttashouts. 

Yousef looks up and around the room andthinks hard about this one. He should know this. His gaze falls onto Sana’spaper because well, she’s sitting right next to him, shoulders touching. Shenotices that he’s looking and lightly shoves his shoulder and warns himlaughingly.

“Don’t look at me paper. You’recheating!”

“I’m not cheating. I’m didn’t lookat your answer!”

“Are you sure? I definitely saw youlooking!”, Sana answers and holds his gaze. Yousef leans a little closerand whispers something to Sana so quietly that not even the other guys could hearhim.

“Maybe I was just looking at you. Itold you nobody can blame me if I can’t keep my eyes off of you.”

He makes Sana blush furiously so shelooks down at her paper. All that time those two were in their own bubble Eliasalmost shouted at Mikael because he looked so lost. 

“What do you mean you don’t know?You told me we would make cute babies when I told you how hot she is!”,Elias sounds so offended that Mikael wouldn’t remember. 

“Dude, I don’t know. Iforgot!”, Mikael shouts back and Mutta and Adam are watching them fight.All they need to make this perfect is popcorn. 

Elias is so done with Mikael and looksat Sana and Yousef before looking at the camera and announcing that they allshould turn around their paper now. All, except for Mikael, havewritten the same name. 

“See, Mikael! Everyone knows it’sLily Collins! We watched that one movie together and I told you how hot sheis!”, Elias starts ranting while all the rest just laughs at him.

—————————————————————————————————-

“I missed Sana in yourvideos!”

“Okay, but honestly. I don’t careif Yousef is dating Elias’ sister but they would be so cute together. Look atthem!!!”

“I don’t know who I ship more:Yousef and Sana or Elias and Lily”

“Can I be Sana? She has the bestboyfriend, best brother and best friends! I’m highkey jealous!”

—————————————————————————————————-

Part II of this Youtube AU can be found here .

[drama-nerd]

Trees & Pee

Pairing: Xiuchen

Word Count: 1,323

Summary: To some, it is difficult to find love, no matter how hard you search. Yet, Kim Minseok found his chilling in a tree one fine summer day.

Tags: Humor

~

It had been a fairly normal day for Kim Minseok. He had finished his shift at the local coffee shop, Ghost Town, and was resting at home. At the moment, he was laying on his side on his couch, an extremely uncomfortable couch at that.

Minseok was a 23-year-old living on his own after earning his bachelor’s degree at a local college. He had many friends, including Byun Baekhyun and Lu Han, both of which he met during elementary school. Despite being twenty-three, he never had the time to have a devoted relationship with someone. Now that he thought about it, he only had one relationship during second-year college. Huh, he mused, I wonder how he’s doing.

The clock ticking resonated throughout the room. I’m bored, Minseok thought. Option one; he could go grocery shopping. The fridge had been empty for the last couple days. I don’t want to though, Minseok ruled out option 1. He could clean the house. But I already did that yesterday.

Minseok sighed loudly, absolutely bored to the point he was willing to do anything to entertain himself. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. I could go to the park and run some laps. Since he had no other options, Minseok shrugged. Why not?

Soon after, Minseok jumped off the couch that had seen better days and proceeded to change into his sports attire. He quickly packed a water bottle, his phone, and two granola bars (also known as the necessities) into a small, lightweight bag and headed to the park.

Once he arrived, he started immediately to run the perimeter, not forgetting to plug in his earbuds to listen to some empowering music he found on the radio. (He forgot the name of the singer but they had a nice voice).

~

It had only been 20 minutes and Minseok started to feel the burn often associated with exercise. Beads of sweat effortlessly glided down from his forehead to his cheeks. He ran about four laps, judging from the fact he passed by the same tree four times now, yet Minseok was still bored. Since nothing was stopping him, he continued to run the perimeter of the park, not noticing a young man in the background scaling a tree?

~

Minseok ran five more laps before he decided to take a quick snack break. He settled next to a large tree, its branches flowed with the slight breeze. It was calming and aesthetically pleasing, the perfect spot to rest in after such an intense workout.

Minseok unplugged one ear bud as he took a large gulp of his water bottle, leaving approximately ¾ left in the bottle. After drinking his water, Minseok dug through his bag to fetch a granola bar, which turned out to be an extremely difficult task. I swear this backpack ate my granola bar. How large is this thing? How much stuff do I have in here? I need a new backpack. Wait a minute, I think I found it. Nevermind. NOPE. It was a wrapper.

Several moments passed before Minseok finally found the damned thing (Turned out it was in the outer pocket). As he unwrapped his prize, a voice suddenly broke him out of his relaxation time.

“Hey is that the chocolate chip one? Damn bro, that is some good stuff, I tell you!”

“AHH!” Minseok jumped, dropping his unwrapped granola bar on the grass in the process. He ripped out his other earbud, in the unlikely case the voice originated from his iPod.

“NOO!! YOU DROPPED IT!” There it was again. (Was it just him or did the voice suddenly become hotter?)

Surprised, Minseok stood up. “Please tell me that I’m not imagining things and that this voice has a body.”

“Up here!!”

Obeying the voice’s orders, Minseok looked up. There, he found a (hot) stranger perched on a thick branch in the tree. He took note of the stranger’s pronounced cheek bones and feline-like appearance, from his sharp eyes to the way his lips seemed to naturally curve upwards towards the ends. Overall, he wasn’t half bad, in terms of appearance that is. Apparently, Minseok was staring (He was not! He was studying this new person) because the stranger suddenly smirked and said, “Checking me out? I’m flattered. You aren’t bad yourself.”

Minseok reddened before blurting, “No! I was not! I was just… wondering why you were in a tree.”

Nice save, Minseok, he mentally praised, let’s just hope he didn’t notice the hesitation.

“Oh, this?” The stranger gestured to himself. “I was just enjoying the nice view and the beautiful air.”

From the seemly sarcastic tone of the stranger, Minseok thought otherwise. “You’re stuck, aren’t you?”

The stranger sent a sheepish smile toward him. “Yeah… My cousin left me here after I scaled this tree to retrieve his kite. After I threw the stupid kite out of the tree, he dashed… Damn you Jongin… That was an hour ago.”

Minseok gave out a low whistle. “Tough luck.”

“I know I just met you 5 minutes ago, but can you get me down. I really need to take a whiz. I’ve been holding it in for an hour and a half now.”

“Oh… yeah… sure…”

~

It took Minseok several attempts to get that mysterious stranger, whom of which introduced himself as ‘Jongdae’, out of the tree. First, he asked Jongdae to jump from his position of the tree. The drop was only 4 meters, therefore the worst case scenario was a broken ankle or something like that. Yet the scaredy cat (no pun intended) did not want to ‘damage [my] delicate skin’. Next, Minseok attempted to create a staircase for Jongdae to safely descend from, yet it looked as stable as a year’s worth of dishes piled on top of each other. Third time’s a charm, Minseok hoped as he attempted the third option.

“Minseok, I really need to take a whiz… I swear I’ll pee up here!”

“Hold on, Jongdae!” Below Jongdae, Minseok gathered a pile of leaves into a concentrated section on the grass. It resembled a bed of green, inviting Jongdae to sleep there. Suddenly, he felt the tree shake. Looking to his right, Jongdae found Minseok climbing the trunk of the tree. “What are you doing?!”

Without words, Minseok scaled the tree with minimal effort, landing on the stop next to Jongdae. “I have an idea but you won’t like it.”

“Great! Now we’re both stuck!” Jongdae complained. “Do you know how important it is for me to pee right now?”

“Not exactly…” Before Jongdae could respond to his cryptic message, Minseok roughly pushed him off of the safe branch into the bed of leaves.  

“THE FUCK!!!” Jongdae landed on his right arm, which was not broken thankfully. “Owwwwwww….” He gradually sat up and looked up to where Minseok was perched. “Why did you do that, idiot?!”

With grace, Minseok carefully scaled down the tree. How….? Jongdae silently whined as he stared at him. This is unfair. Curse him and his athletic abilities. It took a lot of willpower for him to not stare at Minseok’s ass because damn, does he have a fine booty.

Once on the ground, he rubbed his hands together, symbolizing a job well done, and glanced at Jongdae. “Because it was the last option and you would have peed up there if I tried to do anything else.”

“You could have done it with, oh I don’t know, a warning, you know!”

After a few moments, Minseok stared at Jongdae with a confused expression. “Don’t you need to pee?”

In an instant, Jongdae stood up, ignoring the pain due to the urgency of the situation, and raced to the nearest park restroom. As Jongdae’s figure grew smaller and smaller, Minseok yelled after him, “A ‘THANK YOU’ WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE!”

~

“- and that kids, is how I met the most beautiful person on this earth, your father.”

~

Congrats to me on my first Tumblr post. *Claps sarcastically for self* Hopefully, this is not my last.

-A