#not buying sticker immediately just mulling it over

[arctic-hands]

Alright I don't have a Starfleet sticker like i thought I did but I did have this, so new poll

[Image Description: the back of a silver e-reader (Sony PRS-300), which is about hand-sized. On the back is an unattached sticker that has blue, seventies funky font that says "Live Long and Prosper" with a blue Vulcan salute (right hand palm out, pinky and ring fingers together and middle and pointer finger fingers together and a gap between ring and middle) in the center. End I.D]

[whataperfectwasteoftime]

Common Grounds / Chapter 4

Pairing: Marcus Pike x f!Reader

Rating: T (for now... you know me, this will go up)

Word Count: 3.2k

Warnings: Food mention, slow burn, angst, unrequited crush, rude customers, protective!Marcus, mentions of breakups, we get a peek at reader's past, bad exes, one (1) hug.

Summary: As the weeks pass, you try to be what Marcus needs most: A friend. Then, you have one awful day at work...

A/N: We're getting closer to getting these two together!!

Masterlist | Series Masterlist | Previous Chapter

You throw all of your inconvenient emotions surrounding Marcus into painting. It’s almost like meditating; you can mull over your thoughts without really dwelling on them when there’s a paintbrush in your hand. They show up on the canvases, though–dark shadows, bright pinpricks of light, grays and browns melting into vibrant color. 

You bring a few of them to work the next day, wanting to switch out some of the old paintings that have been hanging in Common Grounds for long enough. Your heart pounds when you see the familiar silhouette of Marcus through the glass as you’re still finishing up that morning’s baking. He’s earlier than usual. He notices the change immediately; his eyes flicking over to your paintings, an appreciative smile spreading over his face when he sees the new ones.

When he turns to look at you, his smile only widens. You half-expect him to bring up your unexplained outburst and retreat from yesterday, but he only greets you warmly and asks about the paintings.

“New ones?”

“Yeah, I like to swap them out every month or so.”

“The one in the center is incredible,” Marcus says emphatically. “Hey, are any of them for sale?”

You shrug. “I mean, technically, they all are. No one really buys them, but they’ve all got prices listed. I get most of my traffic from online sales.”

“I’ve been meaning to buy one,” Marcus confesses. “And then life kind of… got away from me,” he says with a little self-deprecating laugh. “I love that new one, though. Could I… could I buy it?”

You narrow your eyes in confusion. “You mean like… now?”

Marcus shrugs. “Why not? I love it, my walls are depressingly bare, and I want to snatch it up before everyone comes in asking about it.”

You laugh. “Marcus, that has literally never happened in the five years they’ve been hanging here.”

“It’s just a matter of time,” Marcus promises, taking out his wallet. He thumbs through a collection of crisp bills and hands you twice what you’d specified on the sticker below the painting. 

You gawk. “Marcus, no. That’s–that’s too much–”

“Then don’t undersell your art,” Marcus says with a wry smile. “I’ll have the usual, plus uhh…” he scans the offerings, “...a piece of zucchini bread, please.”

At a total loss for words, you press the buttons on the register, accept Marcus’s card, hand it back, and start his coffee order all with your mouth hanging open like a fish.

When he has his drink and the little white pastry bag, Marcus walks back over to your paintings and looks back at you with one eyebrow raised. You smile disbelievingly, walking over to him and taking the painting off of the wall. 

“Marcus, you really don’t–”

“It’s perfect,” he breathes. “Thank you.”

Then he leaves. 

The thing Marcus needs, you decide–far more than a partner, a girlfriend, or even a fiancee–is a friend. You can understand it–moving to a new city and having no one–it’s a lonely existence. And it explains why Marcus, more often than not, spends quite a lot of time at Common Grounds. It’s not simply to talk to you; he’s made a friend in Sam as well, bonding over a shared interest in old movies. 

Sam, a film school graduate, is overjoyed to find an audience in Marcus, who not only tolerates their soapbox rants about cinematography, but encourages them wholeheartedly, laughing out loud at some of their scathing opinions on contemporary franchises. 

It’s Sam who eventually gets Marcus to slip the information that he’s an Art Crimes detective one morning as the three of you converse one slow Thursday. You and Marcus lean casually against opposite sides of the counter with Sam sitting nearby on a food cart, swinging their legs as they talk. 

“I can’t stay long,” Marcus is saying over a bite of chocolate croissant. “I’m supposed to be at the National Gallery of Art to review some security footage.”

“Why?” Sam asks bluntly.

“They had a close call the other night,” Marcus explains. “Someone broke in and had started to cut a painting out of its frame when they were caught by the security guard.”

“Oh!” you exclaim. “But… the painting–is it damaged?”

“Minimal,” Marcus answers. “There’s a pretty good gash through one side of it, but a restorer should be able to stitch it back together and hide it pretty well. It shouldn’t even be visible when it’s back in the frame if they do their job well.”

“Wait… what do you do?” Sam asks.

Marcus smiles widely and flashes his badge. “FBI. Right?”

Sam glares at him.

“Okay, okay. I’m in the Art Crimes division,” Marcus relents. “I lead a task force to deal with international art theft.”

Your eyes snap up to his. Suddenly, his interest in your art makes sense. The feelings you’ve been trying to push aside for weeks in favor of being the friend that Marcus so clearly needs are back in an instant when you remember how his eyes had lit up when he’d talked about art, how he’d complimented your technique… 

“No kidding,” you find yourself saying breathlessly. 

“I’m sure you're disappointed,” Marcus jokes. 

You laugh. “Why would I be disappointed?”

“People usually see the badge and assume I’m involved with some classified shit,” he says with a crooked smile. “When really I spend most of my days reading provenance papers and trying to find forgeries and stuff like that.”

“I like that better,” you say. “Making the world better, one recovered artwork at a time.”

Marcus laughs. “Now you’re romanticizing it.”

“No, if she were romanticizing it, she’d be imagining you running around with bullwhip,” Sam quips. 

Marcus chokes slightly on his coffee, the tips of his ears turning pink, and you try your best to give Sam a death glare without him noticing. 

“A–a what?” Marcus sputters, chuckling.

“You know,” Sam says expectantly, “Indiana Jones.”

“Oh,” Marcus starts laughing. “Jesus, apparently I need more coffee.”

“That’ll cost ya,” Sam says. 

“Will it, now.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of how this whole system works,” you say. “You give us money, we give you coffee.”

“It wounds me that you see this as purely transactional,” Marcus teases. 

“You’re breaking my heart,” Sam deadpans. “That’ll be $5.67.”

– – – – – – 

You should have known it was going to be a bad day when you woke up to a text from Sam.

Sick AF, gonna have to call off today. Sorry. <3

Some things are omens. 

Still, it’s with a swing in your step that you open up Common Grounds and start your morning routine. Things are going pretty well for you, all things considered. You’ve got a good, steady job, you’re feeling better mentally than you ever used to, and now, you have a new friend in the form of one devastatingly handsome FBI Agent. The latter has been a muse for you in the evenings, too; you find yourself painting more and more, inspiration striking almost daily, and there’s been a corresponding uptick in online sales. 

Marcus is, as always, a welcome distraction when he comes in. You groan good-naturedly about facing the rush alone, and he lends a sympathetic ear. He even stays a little longer than usual, sitting at the closest table to the counter and reading something on his phone. You can’t help but steal little glances at him, even when the rush begins, looking at the way a stray lock of hair keeps falling down his forehead, the way he licks his lips occasionally, the way his leg jiggles absentmindedly as he reads what looks like a news article. 

The swell of customers reaches a crescendo, and you’re more than a little frantic–it’s rather difficult to keep up when there’s just one of you and no one to restock. When one of the milk dispensers inevitably runs out, you have to dash to the walk-in cooler to retrieve it yourself, leaving a long line of people waiting. You try to keep the frustration off of your face as everyone watches you wrestle the fifty pound bag into the machine.

“Excuse me?” an annoyed voice calls out from the middle of the line. “Some of us have places to be.”

You paste on the fakest, most irritated smile as you take the next person’s order. And the next. In between darting from the espresso machine back to the register, you lose track of Marcus. Is he still here? Unlikely. You barely have time to think about it, so the question is fleeting. When the man who had snapped at you steps forward, a sour expression on his face, you say sweetly, “And what can I get for you today?”

“Took you long enough!”

Your smile widens. “We’re a little short-staffed this morning.”

“I missed the part where that was my problem. These places and their mocha-frappa-whatevers. Do you have coffee?”

“We certainly do have coffee; what size would you like?”

“Is ‘small’ still a size, or are they all in Spanish or something?”

“Small coffee,” you repeat, trying to keep the anger out of your voice. “Will that be all?”

“It needs to come out fast.”

You ignore the order. “That’ll be $2.10.”

“What? What a crock of shit! I–”

“That’s enough,” a quiet voice interrupts the now red-faced customer. 

“Who the hell are–”

“Buy the damn coffee or get out,” Marcus says lowly. “You’re holding up the line.”

“What are you, her boyfriend?” spits the other man.

“I’m just interested in how the city’s service workers are being treated,” Marcus replies cooly, one hand smoothing down his suit lapel in a gesture that looks absentminded, but immediately draws attention to the FBI badge clipped to his pocket. The man eyes it warily. “Hand her the money or leave the store, please,” Marcus says.

Lips pursed, the man hands you his card. You swipe it, and hand it back, then pour him a cup of coffee, handing him that as well. 

“What do we say,” prompts Marcus.

“T-Thank you.”

“Why don’t you find another coffee shop next time?” Marcus remarks. His tone is still light, but there’s just a hint of something else underneath. Something vaguely… threatening. 

It’s unbelievably sexy.

When the man leaves, Marcus holds up one finger to the next person in line–who looks sympathetic to your plight–and steps closer, putting his hand on your arm. 

“Are you okay?” he asks softly. “Do you need a minute?”

You shake your head. “Nah. Assholes like that are a reality of the job.”

“They shouldn’t be,” Marcus says emphatically. “Get a drink of water or something, all right? You’ve been running around like crazy. No one here minds, right?” He looks over the line.

Even if anyone did mind, you highly doubt anyone would raise any objection, not after Marcus’s cool, calm takedown of the rude customer. You nod gratefully, and quickly fill a cup with water, taking a few long sips and a couple more deep breaths. 

When you return, Marcus smiles warmly. “I’ve gotta get to work, but you call me immediately if he comes back,” he says, sliding a business card across the counter. “Or if you need anything else.”

You nod, pocketing the card without looking. Marcus leaves, shooting one last glance over his shoulder just before the door closes. 

You look up at the next customer with a weak smile.

“What can I get started for you?”

– – – – – – 

In retrospect, you wish that one rude customer had been the worst thing to happen to you, today. 

When you finally toss your dirty apron into the bin at the end of your shift, you stretch your lower back with a tired groan. What a morning. You feel more than justified in going home, taking a hot bath, and sitting on your couch under a blanket with a hot tea for the remainder of the afternoon. 

You can almost smell the lavender bath bombs you like as you speedwalk around the corner. The stress of the day is already starting to melt just at the thought of relaxation, but then you hear a familiar voice–one you haven’t heard in over a year–call out your name. 

It sends a hot spike of fear down your spine.

You whip your head around, and sure enough, it’s him.

Your ex. 

“I don’t have time for this, Derrick,” you say tiredly.

“Fancy seeing you here.” Derrick, as usual, ignores you. “Still working at that dump around the corner?”

“Did you come all the way across town to insult an inanimate object, or is there something else you want?” you mutter.

“I was in the area,” Derrick says with an exaggeratedly light tone. “Thought I’d check on the woman who lived with me for three fucking years and then left without a trace.”

“We’ve–” you swallow. “We’ve gone through this, Derrick, I–”

“Want to know how much of a mistake you made? Derrick interrupts. “Remember that account I was working on right before you pulled your little escape routine? I just closed it. Two mil, sweet cheeks. What do you think of that?”

You bite back your anger. He used to do this when you were together, too–hold his money over your head. List off all of the things he provided for you whenever you’d get angry about something he did. Oh, he forgot your birthday? Well, he did buy you that designer purse, those Jimmy Choo heels. He did pay your insurance and your phone. But sure, sweet cheeks, be made because he worked late on your birthday. He was going to buy you those massive diamond earrings you’d been eyeing in the jewelry store window, but now he’s changed his mind.

“If you’re just going to taunt me, I’m going to have to ask you to leave me alone,” you say loudly and firmly. 

“What’re you putting away, hmm? Can they afford to pay you more than minimum wage? How fast did you eat through that savings account that I helped you build?”

“Derrick, leave me alone–”

You start to back away, but Derrick reaches for your wrist, and your eyes widen in trepidation. He’s never gotten physical before, but what–

“Get your hands off of her.”

You whip your head around, and fuck, it’s Marcus. Again. Walking quickly toward the two of you with fire in his eyes. 

“Mind your own business, asshole–”

“Marcus!” you exclaim, interrupting Derrick. “There you are! Are you ready to go home?” you shoot him a pleading look, hoping that your ex can’t see.

Marcus looks into your eyes for just a moment before easily slipping into the role you’d just handed him. “Here I am, honey.” He smiles and puts his hand around your waist. “This must be him.”

You know Marcus has no idea who Derrick is, but you nod. “Yeah, this is my asshole ex.”

“Whatever,” Derrick spits. “You never had it so good. I’m sure Mr. Government Salary pays all the bills,” he says derisively, waving his hand at Marcus’s badge. 

Marcus releases your waist and steps nose-to-nose with Derrick. “Here’s what’s going to happen,” he says quietly. “You’re going to leave, now, and you’re never to come looking for her again. Ever. Do I make myself clear?”

“You don’t need to threaten me, asshole, we were just talking,” Derrick says, but he backs away with a frown.

Marcus doesn’t say anything further, just watches calmly as Derrick keeps backing away, then finally, with a roll of his eyes and a wave of his hand, turns and stalks down the sidewalk. 

The overwhelming shittiness of the day finally catches up with you, and you feel the tears start to rise to your face. 

Marcus whirls back to you, his face crumpling when he sees you crying. “Oh, honey, I’m sorry,” he says, his hands coming to your shoulders. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” you sniffle. “It was just a bad day, and he’s basically guaranteed to make a bad day worse.”

Marcus’s hand trails down your arm to your wrist, where Derrick had grabbed you. “Did he hurt you?”

You shake your head. “No, he’s just… empty threats and blustering.”

“I’m sorry,” Marcus murmurs again. “What can I do?”

“Nothing,” you shrug. But then you glance down at his hand–warm, strong, and comforting–on your shoulder. “C-Can I–” you start.

Marcus nods at you to continue.

“Can I have a hug?”

Marcus’s arms immediately wind around you, and you’re surrounded by him. Oh, he gives the best hugs. He presses all of you into his chest, one hand gently cupping the back of your neck and one hand around your waist. He’s warm and soft, his cologne smells incredible, and you melt into his embrace. 

“Thanks for playing along,” you mumble into his shirt.

“Of course,” Marcus says, and you can feel the rumble of his words against your cheek. “You don’t need to pretend to be with me just to feel safe,” he says. “I would have taken care of it anyway."

You feel sheepish at his words. It's true; you didn't need to pretend that Marcus was your boyfriend. But in the moment, you wanted the extra layer of safety.

"Sorry," you murmur. "I shouldn't have–"

"Don't say sorry," Marcus assures you. "Besides, I thought the note I left you on my card made it pretty clear how I'd feel about that."

The card! You'd slipped it into your back pocket without reading it, and by the time the rush was over, you'd forgotten about it completely. You pull back from Marcus’s arms and reach for it now. 

The front of his card has his full name, title,  work extension, and email. When you flip it over, there's a message waiting, written in neat, tiny handwriting. 

I’d say it’s about time I gave you this ;) Sorry I took so long. xo, Marcus

His personal cell is written below.

Your eyes dart up to his, barely daring to hope–

"Sorry I took so long," Marcus says, repeating the message on his card. "I wanted to be in the right headspace. You deserve that."

A smile slowly spreads across your face. This day–which has been an unmitigated disaster–might be looking up.

"I thought I'd be giving it to you in much different circumstances," Marcus says with a smile, "and not as a result of some asshole at the counter."

You laugh disbelievingly. "I guess that means you came to my rescue twice in one day."

"I won't make a habit of it," Marcus teases, but then he sobers. "No, belive me, I'd do it twenty more times if you needed me to. Although," he chuckles, "I hope not, because I wouldn't get much else done."

The tease suddenly causes you to remember what time it is. "Hey," you say, "why are you here and not at work? It's the middle of the day."

"About that," Marcus says, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I had meant to catch you before you left, but I had a meeting run long. Glad I was able to find you."

"Oh," you breathe. "Why?"

"Well, I thought with the morning you had, it felt like a good day for ice cream. What do you think?"

"Really?" 

"Yeah, what do you say? Ice cream, you and me. Right now."

You can't help the massive grin that explodes into being. Marcus smiles back, big enough that his little dimple shows. 

"It's a date."

*

Next Chapter >>

[dirtyoatmeall]

Secrets (Shigaraki x Reader)

A/N: I know I said I was working on a summer camp wip and I am but then I got this idea and as usual here is a random fic that could be a series? n e ways enjoy ooc shiggy

Pairing: Shigaraki x gn!reader (p sure I dont use pronouns) (established relationship) 

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings: Cursing

~

“Fuck”

“C’mon you’re almost there”

“I don’t know where it is!”

“It’s literally right in front of you, how can you not find it.”

“Shut up before I kill you.”

“I’m on your team you can’t kill me.”

“Watch me.”

“(Y/N) What the fuck!”

“I told you not to bully me this is your fault.”

“Oh my god you are such a baby how will you survive without me, stay put until I find you”

“I think you meant to say “(Y/N) I’m sorry I’m such a meanie face I promise to make it up to you.””

“No I did not.”

“Fine, remember you did this to yourself.”

“(Y/N) STOP SHOOTING AT ME”

“Stop being mean to me”

“Are you serious? Fine I’ll stop being mean to you, just stop shooting me we are literally not going to progress at all if you keep killing me.”

“I don’t know, that didn’t sound very convincing.”

“Are you fucking kidding me stop shooting me I swear to god.”

“Why bring God into this? We all know he’d take my side in this Tomura, now until you stop being a meanie I will simply not let you live.”

“Why do I put up with you?”

“Because I’m hot and will kiss your crusty lips.”

“Not for long if you keep this up.”

“Shigaraki Tomura are you threatening to withhold kisses from me? I think we both know you would cave before I would.”

“…Shut up.”

You snorted as you looked over to your boyfriend, who had a slight blush coating his cheeks. He refused to look at you, keeping his gaze on the TV, pretending to focus on the game. You rolled your eyes and set your controller off to the side before doing the same to his. He weakly protested but it was cut short when you placed your lips on his, his hands immediately going to your waist and bunching up the material of your shirt in his gloved fist. You cupped his cheeks, moving to straddle his waist to get more comfortable.

The two of you didn’t separate until you absolutely needed air, panting slightly when you broke apart. Your hands softly skimmed over his shoulders before encircling his waist, your cheek resting on his shoulder. He nuzzled into your neck, squeezing your hips as he sighed into your hair. You were content to sit there for the rest of the day, until an alarm went off on your phone. You groaned and slid off of Shigaraki’s lap to silence it. Your shoulders slumped as you realized you had to get ready for work. You had forgotten you agreed to take your coworker’s late night shift. You quickly got ready, Shigaraki watching you from the bed before betting up when you were putting on your shoes.

“I’ll walk with you, it's getting dark.” You coked an eyebrow at his words. “Are you sure? I’ve taken this shift before and you didn’t feel the need then, and besides, I think there are more heroes out than usual you might be spotted. He simply rolled his eyes and put on his shoes, grabbing your hand and leading you out the door, his hood pulled up to slightly obscure his face. “Shut up, let me walk you to work.” You giggled and walked beside him, hands intertwined. You talked about the new stuff going on at work, the new shipments of books coming in, catching him up on workplace drama, and anything else he missed since the last time you talked about work as you walked down the street. Shigaraki listened diligently, chiming in with “oh nice”, or “that bitch” when appropriate.

When you arrived at work you kissed him and promised to make up your game mistakes when you get home. He rolled his eyes but the smile was still on his face as he turned to leave. You turned to enter your work when a pair of green eyes caught your attention. There was a hero, most likely on patrol, and a sidekick? Or kid, you weren’t quite sure but something seemed familiar about them. The hero wasn’t paying attention to you, talking about something as they gestured to the building. But the other person's eyes were locked on your own, you couldn’t distinguish the look on their face, and you furrowed our eyebrows before going into your work, clutching your purse strap a little tighter.

You shoved the uneasiness to the back of your mind as you focused on your work. You stocked the new shipment of books, occasionally checking out a customer that wandered in. A few hours into your shift you were behind the counter organizing the specially ordered books, getting ready to call the customers who ordered them when the bell above the door jingled, signaling another customer came in. Without looking up you greeted them. “Welcome in! Let me know if you need any help, books with a blue sticker are 50% off.”

“I do have a few questions, though not about books.” You furrowed your eyebrows and looked up to where the voice was coming from, eyes widening slightly when you noticed the kid from earlier. “I’m sorry?” You said, not sure if you heard him right. He took a step toward the counter, his eyes nervously flitted around the shop, as if he was making sure no one else was in it. “Are you with him? Do you know what he’s done?”

Your blood ran cold at his words. You tried not to let it show, steeling your stomach that had dropped to your feet. You furrowed your eyebrows and cocked your head slightly. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you’re talking about?” He sighed and stepped up to the counter. “I saw you with him, you’re dating Shigaraki Tomura right? Do you know who he really is? What he’s done to people?”

Your fist clenched and you gritted your teeth, how did a kid know so much? Unless- fuck. He must be a hero student. Shigaraki mentioned his master had some plans with them, but he didn’t delve much into his work with you. This must be one of the kids. Even so, you’ve practiced for situations like this, though you never expected it to actually come. “I don’t know who that is, You must be mistaking me for someone else, and we are closing soon so if you’re not going to buy anything I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.” His face twisted into one of disdain briefly before quickly being replaced with a smile you were sure was fake. “I must have. Sorry to bother you.”

You let out a breath when he left and you quickly locked the doors and turned off the open sign. Your boss wouldn’t be mad if you closed a few hours early, right? You counted the till and finished closing everything up, texting Shigaraki that you were closing and asking if he or someone from the league could come pick you up. He said he was on his way and you bite your lip, trying to figure out if you should tell him or not. You mulled over it shortly before deciding it was best to tell Tomura. The two of you haven’t kept anything from each other, and you didn’t want to start. You waited in the staff room in the back until he texted you he was here.

You met him at the back entrance and hugged him as soon as you saw him. He hugged you back but moved you back after a moment had passed, confusion and worry evident on his features. “What happened?” You gripped his hand tightly as you took the back way to the hideout, worried someone was watching. You recounted your experiences earlier, and Shigaraki’s grip tightened when you described the boy to him. He didn’t say a word until you were back safely to the hideout. Not paying the others mind he led you straight to your shared bedroom, closing the door softly behind you.

You looked at Shigaraki worriedly, you knew he could get overwhelmed easily, but he wasn’t scratching at his neck, just standing in the middle of your bedroom, facing away from you. You stepped closer and rested a hand on his shoulder. When he didn’t flinch or push you away you slid it up to his neck and walked in front, hugging him tightly. “Tomura? What’s wrong?” His arms snaked around your waist, hugging you back just as tightly as you buried his face into your neck, inhaling and kissing the skin softly before bringing his head back to look at you. He sighed and cupped your face with one hand, thumb softly caressing your cheek. “Nothing. I’m sorry (Y/N), are you okay?” The corners of your mouth ticked up at his words, he was being unusually soft, he must actually be listening to Kurogiri.

“I’m fine Tomura, he was just being nosy, I’m more worried about you, obviously you recognized his description. Is he one of those students from U.A. you mentioned?” He exhaled and nodded, gaze cast to the floor. “Yes, he’s inherited all for one.” You nodded, Shigaraki had explained the quirk of all might and his master to you before. Though he obviously wasn’t telling you all of it, you didn’t press the matter, he either couldn’t tell you, or it was something you didn’t want to know, either way you’d accept what he told you.

You could tell it was bothering him, so you led him to the bed and laid down, tugging him down with you. He hugged you stomach, laying his head on your chest as you curled into him and ran your fingers through his hair absentmindedly. You felt his shoulders sag, he exhaled deeply as he tightened his hold, nuzzling into your chest. After a few minutes he fell asleep and you soon followed, green eyes still fresh in your mind.

[mini-moongi]

My Lover, Love Letter || kth.

Genre: angst, fluff, pining?? unrequited love for a hot sec? EXTRA cheesy 

Summary: Being in love isn’t supposed to hurt so much, but you’d sooner roll over dead than confess to him. Your best friend. After a particularly rough break up, you decide to send Taehyung some additional love via love letters. What you weren’t expecting, however, was a letter back.

A/N: Not entirely proof read, so please excuse any inconsistencies lol

─────── ☽. ✧₊∘ ───────

“I just don’t know,” Taehyung sighs as he grabs his shoes from the company’s designated drawers. His name that’s scribbled onto a label is faded and worn, but he pays no mind as he slips his sneakers on. Frustration eats away at him, silently beckoning him closer. “How did I not see it coming? I’m so stupid like how could I not have seen--”

“--I don’t think anyone would’ve seen it coming.” Your voice lays low, uncertainty and concern bubbling up. “And I know what you’re thinking: No, this isn’t your fault. She cheated on you, and you’re doing the right thing, okay?” 

Taehyung doesn’t look at you like you so desperately wished he would, but what else could you do? What else could you say? “...You’re just saying that because you’re my best friend.”

“Yeah, your best friend who knows that you deserve better. Besides,” you smile,” there’s plenty of other fish in the sea.” and oh how you wish you were a fish.

That night, your mind wandered to Taehyung’s predicament. He’s been your best friend for years and years on end, but along the lines somewhere, you’ve started to feel a little bit more than “just a friend.” It’s an ongoing pain, and you’ve known that for a while now. A breathy sigh escapes your lips as you glance down at your notebook. Minutes go by of you staring at nonsensical scribbles of lyrics and poems, ones you’ve written throughout the day. That’s it. 

The next day you get to the recording studio a bit early, early enough that there’s no one else in sight and no one to see you with a crisp white envelope. Your footsteps echo throughout the empty hallway, and with each passing second, you become uneasier and uneasier. Is this a bad idea? Is it too much? What if he finds out? Will he find out?

You’ve been standing in front of his drawer for the past five minutes contemplating. It stares back at you the same way it did last night, piercing through your soul and convincing you to step closer. If anything, you’re doing this to be a good friend, right? Before you can mull over it any longer, you hear chatter at the end of the hall. You can’t even convince yourself that it’s a horrible idea anymore when you slip the note in and hurry off inside the studio. Minutes later, Namjoon walks in with Jungkook.

“Oh!” Namjoon breaks out into a small smile,” You startled me, y/n. What are you doing here so early?”

The question catches you off guard and has you scrambling for an excuse. “I uh… I couldn’t sleep? I have a lot on my mind, I guess.” You shrug and spin around in an office chair. You didn’t like the fact that you just lied to Namjoon, but it wasn’t necessarily a lie. It just… wasn’t the whole truth. “I got us coffee?”

Jungkook and Namjoon don’t catch on to your jittery attitude, too excited by the fact that you bought them drinks. They mumble out their thank-yous and go off on their way. They’ve been working on Jungkook’s new single, so it’s not that big of a surprise that they’re also here early. It’s the fact that usually you’re never here early, and it irks you every time they look your way.

A heavy pair of footsteps trudge through the hallway, and your breath catches in your throat. This is it, the moment of truth. You hurriedly get up to greet taehyung outside. For a moment you catch yourself; you’re like an overly excited puppy greeting their owner, it isn’t too obvious, right? Nevertheless, Taehyung didn’t seem to mind too much when you said hello. He slips his shoes off and opens the drawer.

He sees the letter.

You watch as his eyebrow quirks up a little and how he gingerly picks it up out of his box. “I didn’t know we get mail in our cubbies now.” He jokes halfheartedly. When he looks at you, you shrug and look as shocked as he is.

“Does it say who it’s from?” You ask aloud. Your heart pounds so loud in your ribcage you wonder if he can hear it too.

Taehyung turns the envelope over to examine the front and back. It’s a simple white envelope with a red heart sticker sealing it shut. “...It doesn’t. Huh,” he ponders,” that’s weird.”

You wander back to your desk, but you can see him holding the letter in his hands out of the corner of your eyes. He follows you, and to be quite honest, you feel like you're going to shit your pants. You’ve never done this before, and rightfully so, but you really wish he wouldn’t try to read it in front of you. He opens it carefully, his fingers slipping between the lid of the envelope and pulling out the letter you wrote. You swallow thickly,”....what does it say?”

He’s silent for a while, eyebrows furrowed and focused on the tiny piece of paper in front of him. His deep voice reads,

“Dear Taehyung,

   I hope this letter finds you well. I’m scared, terrified even, as I write this. I heard that you were going through a rough time, and I thought to myself: it’s now or never, you know? I want you to know that I’m cheering for you! 

  You may not realize it now, but I promise you, good things are waiting for you. It’s not going to be easy, I know from personal experience that love hurts, but it’ll be okay :) I really like you, Kim Taehyung, so please cheer up! Your smile is really cute!! (´,,•ω•,,)♡

Love,

        :) “

As per the singular acting class you took, you widen your eyes and pretend to be shocked. You gasp,” Taehyung, I think that’s a love letter?”

“...yeah?” He nods. Suddenly his throat is very dry, despite being very hydrated seconds ago. A smile crept up onto his lips as he gazes at the handwritten note. “Yeah, I think it is.”

The next couple of times were just small sticky notes all signed with a smiley face; encouraging words to give him some extra love. And it works. He’s happier when he reads them, and you’re happy when you write them. 

The next time you give him a major note is on a whim. Written at 3 in the morning, where loneliness is felt and feelings are emptied out onto a page. You don’t even remember sealing it or sneaking out to slip it into his drawer for him to find. Eventually, the morning sun shines in your eyes, and your alarm is too loud for your liking. Grogginess envelopes you and pushes you out of bed, yelling at you to start your day, but five more minutes couldn’t hurt...

Taehyung’s contact buzzes on your phone, making your device shine brighter than it needs to be at this hour. You squint at the harsh light and unlock it.

Tae: ajsdjsjfdsljds

Tae: there’s another one

You: another what

Tae: Letter!!!!

You immediately sit upright in your bed. Wait, you actually went out last night? You look around frantically, trying to somehow prove to yourself that you didn’t. The jacket laying in the corner of your room taunts you: you did it again.

Hastily, you scramble out of bed. You’re wide awake now, eyes wide and crusty. You rack your brain for an appropriate response because leaving your best friend on read might be a little suspicious.

You: omggg

You: what does it say this time :0

You’re a little nauseous waiting for his response, but you throw on clothes and hope that you didn’t reveal too much about yourself.

Tae: “i miss you. i wish you’d look at me the same way i see you. Like my favorite color, or my favorite sweater, it’s always been you. You’re my favorite, but am i yours?”

Tae: they say other stuff too but that one hit deep yknow

It’s hitting you like an 18-wheeler, and everything you wrote comes back to you in waves. ugh, emo hours are meant to stay in 3 am, not shared with your crush via secret love letter.

You: woah that does hit different

You walk into the studio that day a little bit more paranoid than usual. Taehyung greets you, already starting his day with a smile stuck to his face. It’s softer today, one that comes with a huge sigh and big brain thoughts. You already know he’s going to ask you a question; which kind however is what you dreaded.

“Hey,” he starts off slow and unsure. A beat goes by, and he continues,” is it stupid to fall for my secret admirer?” The question comes out, loud and clear. You feel the wind is knocked out of your stomach, or is it your gut? You stare at Taehyung in shock; he’s in love with you? Well, obviously, he doesn’t know it’s you, but still--

You choke on the water you’re sipping and turn to face him. “You’re in love with.... the writer?” You’re trying really hard not to tremble in surprise, and he buys it.

“Yeah, I just wish I knew who they were..”

“--Woah, hold on,” you’ve officially thrown yourself into the deep end. “What if it’s someone you know? You could be crossing some sort of line here buddy.” You didn’t anticipate Taehyung falling for your love letters, so for him to now start reciprocating was a bit much. You had gotten comfy in the unrequited love section, and to ruin your friendship like this was going to be one hell of a rollercoaster. 

“Ugh,” he grumbles. He drapes himself on an adjacent office chair and twirls around dramatically. “You’re right, but maybe things will change? All I know is that this person is writing me enough love letters to actually be my lover.

“and not to mention the fact that I love handwritten notes? Like come on, y/n,” He gives you a lopsided grin that makes you fall for him a little too much. “You know I’m a sucker for this crap. Whoever this is should just marry me right now. I’m ready to be an old fashioned, romantic poet writing, sonnet sweetheart for you darling!” He calls out to the open air.

You chuckle at this, a prime example of why you love Taehyung. His hair falls a little on the sides of his face as his shoulders shake in laughter. Your face is starting to feel warm, but you pay no attention to it. “Oh yeah, that’s totally gonna get them to reveal themselves.”

The next time you go to deliver him a letter, you find that there is already a sealed envelope in his drawer. Carefully, you pick up the letter with a wax seal holding it closed. To my Lover, it reads on the top left corner in Taehyung’s handwriting. A short barely-there laugh breathes out of your nose, and a smile finds its way to you. Of course he’d do something like this; something so out of the blue and unnecessary, yet so thoughtful and sweet.

You slip in your letter in exchange for his, and gingerly put it in your backpack to read later in the confines of your home. 

[ ---I can’t sleep because I lie awake and think about you, did you know that? You could be anyone: my boss, the intern, the librarian, or even my best friend, and I’d still have no clue. Is our relationship really so fragile that we can’t meet in person? Or maybe, we always do? 

Have you listened to my friend’s new single? It’s called “Still with You.” Please think of me when you hear it. “When will it be when I get to see you face to face? I’ll look you in the eye and say I missed you.”--- ] 

It’s a small excerpt compared to the rest of the letter he’s written for you, but you can feel your heart beat faster in your chest. You find that your hands have already started writing a response. 

A month goes by since you’ve started exchanging letters with Taehyung in secret, but today shit hits the fan. “y/n?”

You’re in your kitchen fixing up some snacks for movie night when Taehyung calls out to you. “yeah?” you respond.

“Why do you have this?” He comes around the corner, holding up a letter that was once sealed with a wax stamp. You freeze. 

“--Why the fuck do you have all of my letters?” At this point he’s face to face with you, a pain etched into the soft features that silently cry out. You’re silent, the pop tarts in the toaster long forgotten.

Your eyes paint him like a movie; a film that you’d never get to see again. Everything is blurry except for the old letter and tears that fall to the ground. Love hurts, but never this much before. You clutch your chest— lungs aching for the sweet relief of fresh air. “Taehyung, I didn’t... It’s not—“

“Is this some kind of sick, twisted joke to you?” His voice reverberates in the kitchen. Dark, deep, bitter, like the coffee you used to drink. “I don’t need you to play pretend anymore; you can drop the act. I don’t want empty love letters filled with shit if it’s all fake anyways.”

Those words cling to you and rip through old scars. He’s leaving you with open wounds, bleeding out painfully slow. It’s not shit, it’s your feelings. You poured your heart into that! If any song could play right now, it’d be,” All I Ask by Adele.”

“...what?” He stops in the doorway, having heard a faint whisper fall from your lips. Had it been a nasty remark, he was ready to spit one back at you. But it wasn’t. He didn’t catch what you said, but he knows it wasn’t an insult.

You couldn’t have with the way you’re clutching the empty pop tart wrapper for dear life, looking so empty and lost and alone on the tile floor. An empty shell: nothing more than a vessel staring at him, soaking in his every detail as if it’s the last time you two will meet. Hurt and betrayal replays in his head, so no matter how much he wants to stay, Taehyung steps out the door.

You couldn’t bring yourself to write letters for a while. You wished so desperately to tell him that the letters were genuine: you loved him. You still do. There are so many things you want to say, but none of the poems or essays you’ve written were strung together correctly. They just didn’t convey your feelings the way you want them to: the pain, the regret, the love, it wasn’t good enough.

After many sleepless nights and a few phone call confessions with Namjoon, your last letter was written. The cute stationary you’d use reminded you of every other letter, but this will be the last one. Promise.

[—“if this is my last night with you, hold me like I’m more than just a friend... because what if I never love again?”—]

[—All I Ask by Adele played in my head when you left, like a soundtrack in a movie. Everything I’ve written to you is true; please forgive me for falling in love with my best friend.—]

That night it rained. How fitting, you think to yourself. The weight from the grocery bags pile softly to the floor, the annoying crinkle rustling from the plastic. You peel the wet jacket off of your shoulders, hanging them up to dry while you put away the food. Thunder rolls in from the distance, pellets of rain tapping on your window. You don’t bother with music or tv, the silence thick and heavy as you busy yourself in the kitchen.

A knock sweeps you out of the dull lullaby of chores and rain. You move to open your door, and the next thing you know, a pair of arms embrace your still figure. All at once the sweet scent of cologne and honey clouds your senses, a familiar sedation too powerful alone. He holds you closer to his body. The physical touch makes you crave more, leaning in to relish in as much of it as you can.

He releases his hold a little, much to your dismay, and your eyes catch his restless ones. They flutter shut, and Taehyung’s forehead touches yours. His hot breath tickles your lips, shaky but inviting all the while. “...I missed you, so much.”

Is this what it feels like to be held like a lover? Embraced so tenderly and gently, fingertips tracing along your jawline. He pours his love onto you like the rain outside, and the kiss he gives sparks like a strike of lightning.

You wonder how you could’ve been content with unrequited love when this was on the other end? Seeking mutual forgiveness, making up for guilt with praises and promises? You know from personal experience that love hurts, but now, you’re ready to learn how love heals.

─────── ☽. ✧₊∘ ───────

A/N: This originally was supposed to have a sad ending but I couldn’t bring myself to...... I had to be cliché, it’s my drug 😔mayhaps I’ll make an angst fic someday,,

[jaeminlore]

Little Surfer Girl | Mark

summary: do you love me? do you, surfer girl? words: 4.4k category: surfer!reader x skater!mark, dumb x dumber actually, fluff a/n: after proofreading i realize all but the last scene suck so,,, here you go! part one of "sounds of the summer" au <3

The first week of summer is always the warmest. For Salos, anyways. The small island — just miles from the coast of New Zealand — seems to always carry a bit of warmth with it, no matter the season.

But summer in particular is the warmest. It's when the sun comes out to play, pinching and poking at your bare skin until it turns red. It's when the locals walk around in minimal clothing, and the tourists feel freedom to do the same.

It's when a university student like yourself grabs their surfboard and attempts to catch the first waves of the season. It's when the biker kids who have spent all winter fixing their used motorcycles finally get to take their first ride. It's when the skater boys fly down the boardwalk in such a blur that it looks as if they're flying.

One of them has caught your eye.

It's really not your fault for liking a boy like Huang Renjun. He is, quite possibly, the nicest boy on the entire island. He credits himself as an artist, and when the sand is just right, it shows in his elaborate sculptures. Where his passion is admirable, his face is adorable, and you have spent more time than you'd care to admit simply staring at him.

You'd like to think that he'll notice you this summer as something more than the person who lets him borrow their surfboard every once and awhile so that he can surf with his friends. You wish he'd make the commitment and buy his own surfboard. Most of that wish is just you wanting to be able to surf alongside him, if you were honest.

Jeno thinks you're impulsive. At least, that's what he repeats as you purchase your very own skateboard. Sure, that money could've gone to a wetsuit, but wasn't pursuing true love enough of a reason to blow your savings?

Your next feat is finding someone who will teach you how to skateboard. Jeno sucks, so he's out. Renjun's the one you're trying to impress, so it'd be futile to ask him.

You choose Mark Lee.

He's easily the best skater on the island, and to top it all off, he's easygoing. At least, that's what you've heard. You've never talked to Mark personally, despite him being close friends with Jeno.

You've hung out around him, but the most you've ever gotten out of him was a quiet greeting. The rest of the time, Mark prefers to stare at you. You assume it's a nervous tick of his, or something he doesn't realize as doing. Still, it makes you feel vulnerable.

His eyes are brown. After all of your silent staring contests, you've concluded that they're a ruddy brown — dark and muddled — shades of brown and orange pooling into each other to look like the red clay of Utah, or some other western place.

His eyelashes are short and blunt; dark enough to make you question whether or not he uses mascara. And he blinks a lot. That's what unnerves you, you think. It seems like he has something to hide.

Maybe he does. He's a weird guy, you assume. In your mind, you've already pictured how Mark is. In your mind, he vapes in his mother's basement. You also think he's the type to call hanging out "vibing", whatever that means.

You chuckle to yourself and pull your new skateboard closer to your chest. You've already grown an attachment to the board. So attached that you spent fifty cents on an alien sticker from one of those corner machines. It is now stuck to the bottom of your board.

There used to be an abandoned waterpark just a walk away from the boardwalk. Instead of tearing it all down, it was renovated into a skate park. Now it's home to not only skaters, but street artists, buskers, and magicians. You normally don't visit. While the boardwalk is more of a shared turf for everyone, the skate park isn't a place surfers go to often. Just as skaters prefer the dry land to the ocean, you prefer to stay as close to the sea as possible.

Since you're one of the well known surfers on Salos Island, it comes as a surprise to the residents of the skate park when you walk in with a skateboard under your arm.

You're good at ignoring them.

The sound of wheels rolling and people shouting, paint spraying and guitar playing creates a background track for your walk to Mark's usual hangout place. In some ways, you think this place is comforting. It reminds you of simpler times, when you used to listen to Avril Lavigne on the bus ride home from school.

Mark is at the top of the drained pool, laughing at something his friend is saying. You're a bit startled to see his bare back facing you. It shouldn't surprise you; you've seen him shirtless before. Still, something about his broad, slightly-burnt shoulders and the feminine dip of his spine makes you look twice.

You wonder briefly what Renjun's back looks like. He tends to keep at least a t-shirt on, so whatever's under it is up for anyone's imagination. For a moment, your heart beats quicker at the thought of him. The pure adrenaline of it spurs you towards Mark.

"Mark Lee," you say. You falter to follow up with anything, because Mark is turning around before you can catch up to your thoughts.

Now he's facing you in his ripped black skinny jeans (whatever shirt he had been sporting was shoved into his back pocket.) The two horizontal lines prominent in his lean stomach are only noticed for a moment before your eyes snap up to meet his.

Maybe he notices your obvious nervousness. Maybe he takes note in the way your eyes scan his freshly-dyed, wine-colored hair. Maybe he witnesses your small action of gripping your skateboard closer to yourself than before. Whatever urges him to do it, he quirks the side of his mouth up and crosses his tanned arms over his chest. "If it isn't the little surfer girl."

"I'm not little," you grumble. Maybe he doesn't see how nice your arm muscles have grown from your surfing. "Anyways, I need a favor."

Mark blinks. Your stare catches on the way his eyebrows furrow and straighten out repeatedly, as if he's mulling over your words. He must be switching conclusions. He looks confused, if anything.

He shifts back to a smirk, "Does this have anything to do with you eyeballing my friend constantly?"

You shrink back. "Is it that obvious?"

"Only to me."

"You're the most oblivious person the this earth," you bemoan, "so with that logic, everyone knows."

Mark shrugs. "So they know. Big deal. What's the favor?"

"Oh." You hold out your brand new skateboard — alien sticker side up — in front of him. "I want you to teach me how to skate so that I can impress Renjun."

Surprisingly, Mark agrees on the grounds that he's bored. After that you make a joke trading "bored" for "board", but he doesn't appreciate it quite as much as you do.

You wonder if Renjun would appreciate it.

☼

Mark's shoulders are pink because he only wears SPF 20, and sometimes forgets to reapply. After he casually mentions it at the skate park, you remember to bring your handy SPF 80 spray for him to use. You even set a reminder on his watch for him so he won't forget to reapply.

Mark laughs at your efforts, but you know he appreciates it because every time his watch beeps, he's off of the ramp and reapplying in record speed.

He's on this third coat when you decide to give up and sit on your skateboard. With one leg on each side, you scoot back and forth at the base of the pool, waiting for Mark to return (you've already applied your own coat of sunscreen.) "I'll never impress him."

Mark rides down the ramp. He slows to a stop and sits on his board, mimicking you. "Are you kidding? Your balance is incredible. Besides, it's just your second day. Don't expect to be doing flips and tricks already."

"I know," you sigh. "I'm just worried that he'll come here and I'll embarrass myself in front of him."

"You probably will," Mark says. He giggles at your pout and reaches out to push your lower lip back into it's place. "But no worries. Renjun's participating in the sand festival so he'll be busy. Well, at least for the week."

Mark's nice. He's simple-minded, but it's in the best way where he seems fascinated by even the littlest things. You think it's funny — the way he gets distracted by a dandelion poking out of cracked pavement. "What's your plan, anyway?"

Your shoulders slump. "I don't know," you answer dumbly, "I was hoping he'd see me skate by and immediately fall for me and my skills."

Mark snorts. "Okay, well he already knows you, so love-at-first-sight is out of the question. Maybe we could go visit him at the festival? He usually needs a few assistants when he's sculpting."

"Didn't he enter the contest? He can't have any outside help."

Mark curses and rolls himself back and forth as he thinks of other options.

He suddenly gasps, "Let's keep practicing, and inbetween lessons we'll head to the beach and talk to him. Then, we can invite him to come watch you skate. He'll fall for your charm first, and then your skill."

As if it isn't the dumbest and most simple plan anyone could come up with, you're smiling at Mark and praising him for his idea. "This could work. I could have a boyfriend by the end of the month."

Mark picks the dandelion out of the crack and tucks it behind his own ear, grinning crookedly at the new accessory. "You can take him to the bonfire. That's where all the couples go to, like, show that they're taken."

You stare at the yellow weed at it rests over the shell of Mark's ear and grin. "We're so going to make this happen."

☼

Mark's niceness drifts into dumb territory more often than not. The amount of times the boy has been taken advantage of, simply because of his inability to say "no" were far more than you could count.

Like now, when you and Mark decide to take a brake from skateboarding to catch some waves, and Mark is stopped prematurely at the snow cone cart. Students from the high school and university mill around it, and you watch as many of the younger girls touch Mark's arm and ask him to buy them a cone. He obliges more than once; enough for you to get tired of waiting.

You trot to the sea by yourself. Over the roar of the waves you can faintly hear Mark call for you to wait up. And, since you know he's too nice for his own good and too dumb for yours, you wait for him.

He tries to run across the hot sand to get closer to you, but he loses his footing and nearly tumbles face-first into the sand. Luckily, he reaches out and grabs your shoulder to steady himself.

You only wobble a bit, then you smirk, "Have fun flirting?"

He runs his hands through his hair, looking confused. "I wasn't flirting."

You giggle, "What do you call buying a girl a snow cone right after she calls you Marky?"

His neck turns red and he looks back towards the snow cone stand, groaning when three girls wave coyly at him. "I hate that nickname. Besides, I was just being nice. I can get you a snow cone, too. That way they'll know it's a friendly thing."

You roll your eyes, "Are we gonna surf, or not, Marky?"

"Shut up."

☼

Mark purses his lips and looks up, squinting his eyes at the harsh sun. He's resting on his board, one leg bent and the other hanging limp in the saltwater below. "Surfing is so exhausting."

"Tell me about it," you huff excitedly, straddling your board as you watch him rest. It's been three hours, and it's only the first break that doesn't involve Mark reapplying sunscreen. So far, he's done well. You can't say he's graceful in the water, but his feet stay planted on the board, and in the end that's what matters. "I can't wait till next month when competition season rolls around. I'm looking to win first place."

Mark turns to look at you. His watch beeps, but he ignores it. Instead he grins, wider and brighter than you've ever seen before. "You can definitely do it. Watching you surf makes me think you were destined to be in the water. Connected to it, you know?"

It's not much. It's certainly a Mark Lee way of saying things, but it encourages you nonetheless and fills your veins with something close to affection. You think it might be gratitude. "Thanks, Mark. That means a lot."

He sits up and straddles his own board. From under the water, you can feel his ankle hook around yours, "I don't want us to drift apart," he says, and then he giggles, "that sounded like a cliché love quote, but I'm being serious. I'm scared of drifting off and getting stranded at sea."

You want to tell him that you're not even twenty feet out, and that Jaemin is watching from the lifeguard tower. Still, a part of you wants to humor him. You don't want him to feel bad for overreacting.

You don't really want him to feel bad for anything, once you think it over.

Mark reaches his arms over his head and stretches in the sun. He peaks over at you with one eye. A grin breaks out on his face and he laughs to himself. "Want to know what made me want to skateboard?"

"What?"

He drops his hands into his lap, "Tony Hawk Pro Skater."

You throw your head back and laugh, "You're joking! Is that why you suck?"

Mark scoffs and pushes you off balance, unhooking his ankle so that you fall into the water.

"Mark Lee!"

"It's what you get for saying I suck." He offers you a hand, "I'm obviously pretty great if you asked me for lessons."

Just to wipe the smug grin off of his face, you accept his hand and pull him into the water. His board flips over as he falls in.

You laugh happily as you wade your arms back and forth in the clear, cool water. When Mark finally resurfaces, sputtering and shaking his head back and forth, you swim over to him. "That's what you get, Marky!"

Mark splashes you, following up with a tackle. He throws his body onto yours and pushes you both into the sea. His arms link around your waist and your hands find his shoulders, still warm from his previous sunburn. Bubbles rise to the surface as you open your mouth in a broad smile against Mark's chest.

In this moment, you feel one with the sea and one with Mark. You feel a clench of happiness from the tips of your fingers to the tips of your toes.

Then you both break the surface, and the rush of the world returns like being awoken from an extraordinary dream.

You glance at Mark, who is still holding you up in the deep water. Water droplets race down his forehead and settle in against his eyebrows, or down the slope of his nose to his cupid's bow where he absentmindedly darts his tongue out to catch them before the fall back into the sea.

He crinkles his nose at the salty taste, chuckles, and gives you an innocent smile. Innocent, but it knocks your breath out for a moment. Because, weirdly enough, that gratitude-slash-attraction is back in your chest, beating loudly like a base drum. For a moment you wonder if he can hear it. "Mark?"

"Yeah? What's up?" He laughs breathlessly, and it's a cheerful sound. A friendly sound.

"I'm ready to go home and nap."

"Little surfer girl doesn't want to surf anymore?" He says it with a mocking pout, then, "I'm pretty tired too. Let's head back."

☼

"Here," Mark slips off his hoodie and hands it to you, leaving him in a thin, black t-shirt. "It's cold."

You had went surfing in just your swimsuit, opting out of a towel or a jacket. Now, the wind has picked up and you're standing around the boardwalk, looking like a fool as you wait around to dry.

You accept the hoodie gratefully and pull it over your suit until the dark green fabric falls against your thighs. "Thanks, Mark, but I thought we weren't skateboarding today."

You were supposed to go talk to Renjun today, and the prospect of it all had made you so nervous that you nearly opted out. You had chosen a morning surf instead, hoping to clear your mind.

Now? Your mind is still unclear. There's a small part part of you that finds itself excited at the thought of seeing and talking to Renjun. The rest of you feels burdened, and would rather skate or surf with Mark.

"We aren't, but I thought you might like moral support."

Mark is nice. He's nice and dumb and bright, simple in the best of ways. You see it now, the same as you always had, but this time there's a shift in the depth of your admiration for him. Now, there's a void in your mind when he isn't beside you. There's a pain in your heart when he talks about you liking Renjun.

Right now you don't think you like Renjun anymore.

"Do you want to get lemonade instead?" you ask.

For one quick second Mark brightens, but he hides it with a pout and a furrow of his eyebrows.

You hope he doesn't notice you staring at his lips, but he must've forgotten sunscreen again, because they're a pinkish-red and look chapped at the middle. They almost look kissable. Almost.

"At the place Jisung delivers?"

"Yeah," you say, not knowing what place he's referring to or who Jisung is. It doesn't really matter in the long run. "We can skate there."

Judging by the time you got home, grabbed your skateboard, got dressed, and came back, you're surprised Mark is still waiting around.

"Here," you hand him his hoodie and he takes it with a soft hum. "Thanks."

Mark pulls it on and drops his board to the ground, kicking off and leaving you to catch up with him. When you do, he grins, "You know, I've wanted to check this place out for awhile. Of all the deliveries Jisung makes, he talks about the lemonade shop the most."

"Maybe he has a crush," you say.

Mark narrows his eyes at the road ahead and sighs, "That could be it. There is one specific worker he talks about by name."

"We should do a bit of sleuthing while we're there."

"Maybe they'll go to the bonfire together."

"We should go to the bonfire together."

"What?"

"What?"

Mark slows to a stop, "Seriously, Y/n, what?"

"A-As friends," you stutter. Inwardly, you curse yourself for saying something so brash. How long have you known Mark for? A week? Two at the most? Why would you even suggest going to a place couples went to when Mark is just your friend?

Why are you still pretending you only want to be friends with Mark?

He nods with a smile — as if he knows something — and for a moment you think he's figured it out. Then he speaks. "Oh, you want to make Renjun jealous, don't you?"

You momentarily wonder how you caught feelings for someone so oblivious. "Exactly."

Mark promises he'll be there, and when the two of you go get lemonade, you feel like the sour drink is a metaphor for your feelings. When the two of you watch Jisung — who you find out is the actually Mark's close friend — talk to the cute cashier behind the register, you find yourself wishing Mark would look at you with that kind of fascination.

It's a small wish, and it feels selfish, but for just a fleeting moment in time, you allow it.

☼

Mark is a lot of things. He's oblivious to the obvious, he's sweet to strangers, and he's confident in front of a crowd. He's friendly and kind, with a smile just awkward enough to comfort the nervous.

After spending nearly a month with him, you find yourself noticing other things about Mark. For instance, the way he rubs his earlobe when he doesn't hear something the first time, as if it will somehow help him hear better the next. Or the way he always does small dance moves when music is playing. Or the way he picks wild flowers he finds growing in the pavement and sticks them behind his ear.

You think the way he scuffs his shoe soles against his board when he's waiting for someone is adorable. The way his voice rises as he gets more nervous makes your heart soar with delight and giddiness. When Drops of Jupiter pours out over the scratchy boardwalk speakers, you can't help but giggle at the way Mark belts out a slightly out-of-tune rendition of the song.

It only took him a month to make you forget about your crush on Renjun.  

You think it will take a lot more than a month to forget about your crush on Mark.

The thing is, the deal to get Renjun to like you is slowly fading into nothingness. At least, in your mind it has. Now you and Mark hang out daily, whether it be to skate, surf, shop, or sunbathe.

In your mind, you want to count these as dates, but then Mark buys a lemonade for an attractive person and you find yourself doubting.

Because as dumb as Mark can be, you also find yourself struggling to make sense of his actions. You want desperately to know if he likes you too, but his strive to be kind above all things confuses you more often than not.

And so you're left in this limbo between wanting to confess and hoping things will stay the same.

But tonight's the bonfire, and you want more than anything to pull him close and whisper your affections to him. You just have to be brave enough to push through your anxiety and do it.

You can do it. You know you can, because when Mark meets up with you at the bonfire, he's wearing skinny jeans and a soft sweatshirt that make him look less than intimidating. And when he places his hand against the small of your back and pushes you towards the beach, you find the gesture to be comforting. Encouraging, even.

When he declines someone's offer to go swimming with them — "I'm with Y/n, tonight." — you think maybe he's been thinking the same way as you all along.

And when the sun disappears and there's only fire to keep you warm, Mark pulls you into his lap and holds you close, tucking his chin against your neck. When he talks to you, his breath against your skin is hot enough to make you squirm.

The fire heats up the skin of your face and Mark's palms are splayed across your stomach. The feeling is enough to make anyone feel comfort, but you can't help but also want to turn around and kiss him like crazy. You want to feel him sigh against your lips and you want everyone at this bonfire to know that he's yours and you're his.

There are university students running around with glow sticks wrapped around their neck. There are teenagers swimming in the shallow ocean, no fear for what lies in the depths beneath. There are Mark's friends just a few feet away, some with dates and some by themselves, but Mark hasn't talked to them once and you don't think he's planning to.

He presses his lips against your neck and your breath hitches.

Your lips clamp together as warmth burns up your neck to your cheeks and then down to the pit of your belly. His lips are still chapped; you can tell by the roughness against your skin. Still, there's something so •Mark• about it that you can't find it in yourself to complain. "What are you doing?"

His nose brushes your skin as he nuzzles his face against your neck. One gentle sigh leaves his lips and spans across your skin, "I-I really like you Y/n, and right now I really want to kiss you."

Because he brings it up, you oblige. It's not easy to turn around and place one knee on each side of his lap — especially because Mark's sitting on a log — but you manage.

Mark doesn't shave on the weekends. You know because his chin is scratchy when you rub your thumb against it. He chases your thumb with his lips, pressing an amiable kiss against the pad. You both giggle. In the light of the fire, Mark seems to be glowing. He looks like an angel, some sort of purity in human form that can't be tarnished and can't be shaken.

He's a rock and a pearl all at the same time, and you think you're falling in love with him.

You cup his face and lean in. His lips taste like saltwater taffy and lemonade, and they feel softer than you had previously concluded. His chest heaves deeply and slowly. When you bite his bottom lip he retorts by tugging on your hair, and when he groans quietly you find yourself giggling out of pure joy and disbelief that you finally have Mark Lee in your arms.

You rest your head on his shoulder and stay in his lap.

Mark's friends come over to talk to him. At the sound of his soft murmurs, you nearly fall asleep. Mark holds you closer and rocks you from side to side, keeping you warm against the ocean's chill.

Mark's dumb sometimes, but he's also safe, compassionate, and kind. You think there's no one on this earth you could ever find more interesting and wonderful than him.

And now, as his heart is beating against your palm, you think you've got the entire world in your hands, and you wouldn't change a thing about it.

[whx-m]

I'm curious about online shops. Got any general information / details that might go missed?

i am a dumb dumb that has inhaled too much information the past couple weeks trying to learn so take what i say w/ several grains of your preferred salts

this all goes for etsy/shopify/whatever you use for e-commerce. the levels of serious you take it and get into it i think depends on how far you want to take your online shop... or how much you make. google the hell out of your states sales tax laws and apply for a sales tax permit in your state before you sell a damn thing. ill go over the stuff i think really needs to be highlighted for anybody mulling over starting a legit shop, esp artists who want to make a living selling their stuff.

edit: HEY HIT “J” ON YOUR KEYBOARD IF YOU DONT GIVE A SHIT BC THIS IS REALLY LONG AND IM NOT SORRY BC I THINK I LEARNED EVEN MORE WRITING THIS SO THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT...

this will be how you feel when youre 2 hours into logo trademarking research

1. hm..

if you make, or plan to make, over $400 in sales, then most states consider this going beyond a hobby and being self-employed. so accept the fact you gotta pay a self-employment tax on your income.

also... gotta pay federal and state income taxes on your sales. even if your online shop is technically considered a hobby, not licensed as a business and you dont make over $400, still gotta report/pay income taxes on it. i know a lot of ppl dont take that seriously but it might bite you in the ass if you let it go on too long. 

2. register sole proprietorship so i know its real

registering in your home state as a legit business entity is likely a solid route to go if you really plan on fleshing your shop out and building it up for the future. most artists starting an art shop or craft shop file a SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP type of business- meaning the business isnt a place or a group of owners, its just lil ole you. you file under your own name or a “Trade Name”/DBA (Doing Biz As) with your state. but beware, this trade name isnt trademarked or federally protected. and since you ARE your business, any tax trouble means the IRS is auditing you personally and holding you personally liable.

its relatively affordable to file, but take your bookkeeping seriously... be careful because the IRS eyeballs sole proprietorships’ reported taxes and expense deductions hardcore, since the lines between business and personal expenses get really blurry and sketchy. the more you need to save, the more you need to log as a deduction, and the more you deduct the more likely they’ll try to audit you and catch a mistake. so keep your books right and tight. [ 50 state guides for applying for sole proprietorship ]

that being said, IMMEDIATELY OPEN A BUSINESS ACCOUNT AT BANK/CREDIT UNION AND KEEP ALL BUSINESS RELATED PURCHASES/SALES ON THAT ACCOUNT and not your personal one!!!

3. bite the hand that takes your income away!!!

sole proprietorship means your business income = your income, aka “pass thru entity” where profit in your business passes thru and adds to your personal taxable income. it used to be that your business income was just taxed at the same rate as your personal income bracket and thats it. BUT LISTEN UP! NEW 2018 TAX LAWS  ADDED A STANDARD 20% DEDUCTION TO TAXABLE INCOME FOR PASS-THRUS WITH LESS THAN $157,500 REPORTED INCOME. that's auto-subtracted along with your business expense deductions etc, before it’s taxed. what does that mean? it can knock your taxable income down: if you’re single and make $38,700 you get taxed $3.7k instead of $4.6k. If you make $82,500, you get taxed $14.5k instead of $18.1k. And thats not even accounting for other deductions before being taxed.

applying sooner than later for sole propriety/”pass through entity” can really help because of BUSINESS EXPENSE DEDUCTIONS. if you keep careful itemized records and your books clean, you can report tons of business related expenses and get your taxable income at the end of the year lowered. that new tablet, paints, software you bought on the business-only card? the gas you put in your car to get to your anime con, the hotel you stayed at? take it even further: shipping costs, wholesale costs, promo merch for advertising (stickers & swag) and even fees from hiring an accountant can usually be claimed. there’s a LOT that can be claimed.

dont skimp on the research because just logging and reporting expenses can make or break your shop. [heres another link] applying to be a business entity early means more of your start-up costs are logged and claimed as expenses.

and you know what happens at the end of the year when you report your income and claimed expenses? the expenses are subtracted from your total reported income, and youre taxed on whats left. so if you make $50,000 by the end of the year, but you spent $10,000 in approved business expenses, you’re only taxed for $40,000- but wait! 20% deduction= $8k, which drops your taxable income to $32,000. you just dropped from a 22% tax rate bracket to a 12% and you end up only paying $3,840 in taxes. that is only 7.6% tax on your 50k income!! and you could probably pay even less with all the other tax breaks you can score. 

make sure you read up on the IRS website on this stuff too. look up youtube videos and stuff to make sense of anything that confuses you. and dont forget to crawl your state’s own websites and see if they have any tax breaks or incentives for start-ups, artists, etc!!and now the worst part. im so sorry. 

4. the ugly seven-headed demon of sales tax and online shops....... stay with me plsthis is the biggest thing and becoming a super hot topic these days with states wanting to cash in on online sales to their residents

first things first: NEXUS. think of your sales tax nexus as the physical irl presence of your business, in a state-by-state basis. customers in states you hold nexus in? gotta charge them sales tax. customers from states you DO NOT hold nexus in? no sales tax for them! (for now... ill explain later)  

you have nexus in your home state, obviously since you are your biz and you live there, so you’ll need to charge sales tax on anybody buying from you in your home state. BUT.... if you contract someone in another state to do design work for you, unfortunately that means you also have nexus or “presence” in their state, too. if you have a warehouse storing inventory in another state, yep, another nexus and another state wanting to cash in on sales tax. getting enamel pins made in yet another state and they drop-ship your orders for you on your business’s behalf? yeah, likely another state to report sales tax to. 

collecting sales tax isnt a big problem- nearly every ecommerce site like etsy, shopify, bigcommerce and the like automatically configure sales tax in U.S. states you set up as a nexus for your shop. the problem comes around when you’ve got to apply for a sales tax permit in every nexus state, and then keep track of all the filing deadlines. every state is different. just four nexus states to report to means there are four permits to apply for, four reporting/filing schedules/deadlines to keep track of... and each state has different schedules, you could have two states requiring you to report annually and two states quarterly. it can be really hairy and a lot to keep track of if you’re not careful.try to keep your sales tax nexus in ONLY your home state, if at all possible. use manufacturers in your state to print/drop-ship orders.if theyre out of state, have them send the finished product back to you before you mail it off to customers, so you can avoid creating a new taxable nexus.

[ Sales Tax & Nexus Guide ]

still with me? this is the ugly part sorry:

the other big problem with having multiple nexus to report is how much sales tax varies- not just state by state but by city, town, county, even jurisdiction ! 

one state can have HUNDREDS of different sales tax rates to report, and you have to clearly report each individual one you collect sales tax in. 

for instance, over a year you sell to multiple people in your nexus state-- in the same exact county, under the same sales tax ordinance. they live near a bunch of schools so their county has an added jurisdiction sales tax that goes toward education programs. the report you file has to clearly define how much tax $ you’ve collected from them so that state knows exactly how much is going back to that jurisdiction, so they can divvy it up for that sweet sweet education funding.

now imagine that multiplied across counties, cities, and then doubled with another entire state... and thats why keeping your nexus low is a huge deal for someone who’s running an online store solo.

thankfully, you probably wont have to input all that data yourself. 

MAKE SURE you find a good website to settle into- that, at the very least, compiles this information for you to make it less of a headache to file in the right format, with the right info. there are upgrade auto-file options built into most ecommerce websites, so you dont even have to worry about it or think about missing a deadline... but that monthly fee might be too expensive to manage at first. that would be one of the FIRST things i’d do once i could swing it, to eliminate any chance of late fees, getting audited or having my sales tax permit suspended for that nexus state. 

5. IMPORTANT!!: even if you make absolutely $0 dollars in sales from any nexus state, you STILL HAVE TO REPORT IT AND FILE BY THE DEADLINE. don’t get a $50 fee over literally nothing.

ANIME CON OR CRAFT CON ARTIST/VENDOR? BEWARE! 

always research the convention’s home state/city sales tax regulations before registering (or blowing money making merch) for a con. it varies great and wide and has been changing a lot so always recheck before cons. some states supply simple time-limited permits, some states dont require sales tax at all for 2/3 day vendors, and some states will qualify a single physical sale as creating a permanent nexus. dont overlook that stuff or you’ll regret it when you get home to do business as usual with your shop and you have to start charging/reporting sales tax for every customer from that state!! 

6. but wait ore.. you said something ominous about no sales tax for non-nexus states...... “for now”..?

yeeahhh... there’s a big national reform going on currently and it boils down to: Jeff Bezos ruined ecommerce for everybody. fuck you greedy bastard!!

a slew of states are jumping on a bandwagon to snipe up more sales taxes and create “Economic Nexus Laws”. this may not really apply to you at the start of your shop, but its something you need to be aware of for future ref. 

basically states are passing laws that say, “If you make more than $XXXX or do more than XXX transactions selling to people here, that creates a state nexus and you need to get a sales tax permit with us.” which, is not ideal. the good thing is, most sales thresholds in these states are between $10k - $500k, so its not a problem you’ll face right off the bat. transaction numbers might be the one to watch out for, though. once you hit a few hundred transactions in a state it might create a nexus and you’ll have to start charging sales tax.

the problem is this: 1) every participating state has different thresholds, rules, and sometimes tax deductible/exempt items. thats a lot of fine print to go thru and toggling options on your shop, and a LOT of sales tax bookkeeping, filing, reporting, managing. 2) some ecommerce sales tax plugins and clients havent caught up yet to be compliant and convenient for online sellers, its a big job to program and categorize all these variables. when choosing your website host, be sure to vet their built in sales tax clients and see that they’re updating and streamlining capabilities ASAP. it may not be a concern now, but you wouldnt want your shop to boom and have to shut down, lose money and switch hosts to be eco-nex sales tax compliant.3) for successful solo start-up shops, this almost makes it impossible to file your own sales taxes once you pass those thresholds. this is like 30 states! youd spend so much time doing paperwork, its just not feasible. there will be a rising cost of economic nexus management and auto-filing services that you just cant run your business online without.

[ Everything You Need to Know Abt this Shit ] ( ^ full list of state regulations and updated with new developments so bookmark this page)

tl;dr: online shops are complicated, research literally every term you dont know and look up youtube videos on everything you suck at. if youre still motivated after being depleted of brain power, then go the fuck for it and all the Moon Crystal Power Make Up to you

[douchebagbrainwaves]

KEEP YOUR MIND THE LADDER

There's a real difference, because an assertion provokes objections in a way that was entirely for the better. Human problems are the most common type, so being good at solving those is key in achieving a high average outcome. It was a kind of work is higher because it gives you more options to choose your life's work, there are more and more true as computers get faster. We fell into the classic problem of how when a new medium comes out it adopts the practices, the content, the business models of the old medium—which fails, and you can't have a mecca if you don't let people ship, you won't have to write programs to solve, but I never have. This is one case where it pays to be self-indulgent. I believe they conceal because of deep taboos. It explains why VCs take so agonizingly long to make up new things, some old rules don't apply. So maybe I'll try not bringing books on some future trip. I wasn't looking for it. Imaginative people don't want to follow or lead. It explains why VCs take so agonizingly long to make up their minds, and why their due diligence feels like a star. The economic situation is apparently so grim that some experts fear we may be able to work hard: these guys would have paid to be able to leave while you're there.

You're an investor too. In a way, it's harder to see problems than their solutions. Every founder knows that VCs will tell your secrets to your competitors if they end up investing in them. Even YC's haters buy it. But again, the only reason VCs are the way they are.1 The immediate cause of death in a startup is to try to create a more elegant alternative to the Turing Machine. It was astonishing to learn later that they'd both been serial womanizers, and that women will all be trained in the martial arts.

The books I bring on trips are often quite virtuous, the sort of backslapping extroverts one thinks of what Microsoft does to users, or negotiate with other companies, who to hire, everything. The problem with VC funds is that they're looking for the trick.2 If you make people with money love you, you can write about, and they were used in the Roman empire. 0 first arose in a brainstorming session between O'Reilly and Medialive International. Junior professors are fired by default after a few years before by a big company. And yet isn't being smart also knowing what to do when the teacher tells your elementary school class to add all the numbers from 1 to 100? The German and Dutch governments, perhaps from fear of elitism, try to ensure that the company pays 10 times as much on sales as on development. Can it get you the designers, though?

But it's convenient because this is an example of such a UI to work from: the old one.3 Of course the habits of mind than others? But if it's inborn it should be. Just to be clear about this, it was meaningless. YC.4 If there are any axioms that could be weeded out. In the process of explaining them to the right people, giving the impression of productivity, and so on. If you have the resources, it's more elegant to think of intelligence as inborn is that people trying to take advantage of the opportunities to waste cycles that we'll get from new, faster hardware? At Y Combinator we advise all the startups we fund never to lord it over users. The most dramatic example of Web 2.5 Be careful to copy what makes them good, rather than their flaws. But prudence can't tell me what sentence to write next.

And if you start from successful startups, you find they'd often make good startups. So we'd refuse to fund founders whose characters we had doubts about, because how good founders are and how well they do are not orthogonal. There's a physical analog in the Intel and Microsoft stickers that come on some laptops. The closest you'll get to Bubble valuations is Rupert Murdoch paying $580 million for Myspace. This implies that the kind of parallelism we have in a hundred years. From either direction we get to the same spot. In the US most kids graduating from college still think they're supposed to start them while they're still in college. Now when one thinks of as typically American. If founders' instincts already gave them the right answers, they wouldn't need us.6

If you feel you're really helping people, you'll keep working even when it seems like your startup is doomed. A teacher has to walk a narrow path: you want to act on, act now. A friend who moved out of Manhattan said merely that her 3 year old. Startups are as unnatural as skiing, so there's a similar list for startups. A quality that's inborn will obviously be more convenient to work with than one that's influenced by experience, and thus might vary in the course of a study. And they're astoundingly successful. They'd face some challenges if they wanted to make more, but not too easily impressed.7 I think one of the most important components of the world's infrastructure? And if your startup succeeds, it will become increasingly important relative to wisdom because there is more room for what would now be considered slow languages, meaning languages that don't yield very efficient code. Those paintings have since been cleaned, revealing brilliant colors; their imitators are of course still brown. The consequence was a positively fanatic freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies: it was a description of Google?

As I was mulling this over, I found myself thinking: I can understand why German universities declined in the 1930s, after they excluded Jews. Toys and cartoon characters meant to be cute always have clueless expressions and stubby, ineffectual limbs. I don't have time to find out. It's the sort of strategic insight I was supposed to come up with ideas for startups? I claim hacking and painting are also related, in the sense of something someone made happen. An undergrad who gets something published feels like a body cavity search. If this were true, the most common mistakes young founders make is not to be an inexhaustible source of research papers, despite the fact that Jessica and I decided one night to start it, and the distinction between acceptable and forbidden topics is usually based on how intellectual the work sounds when described in research papers, despite the fact that if their parents had chosen the other way, they'd have grown up considering themselves as Xes must be enormous.8 Already chip designers have to think about it, because their unconscious mind shrank from the complications involved.

Odd as it might sound, we tell startups that they should try to make as little money as possible.9 At its best, starting a startup is because that's what they've been trained to do for their whole lives to play such games, young founders' first impulse on starting a startup is that you get a lot of people seem to have some sort of internal compass that helps me out. Ideally till you realize how mistaken you were. And when I used to think I wanted to try being a painter, and the people who thought during the Bubble all I have to do is start a startup at 20 and you're sufficiently successful, you'll never get to bum around a foreign country. I was firmly in the camp of bad. Specifications change while a program is being written way too fast for Microsoft even to channel it, let alone which to choose.10 A few months ago an article about Y Combinator said that early on it had been nice growing up in the country. Investors are more of a problem.

Notes

But it is less than 500, because any VC would think Y Combinator.

Or more precisely, the CIA runs a venture fund called In-Q-Tel that is actually a computer.

People were more at home at the time. I don't have a group of people mad, essentially by macroexpanding them. Everything is a dotted line on a form that would scale.

If Congress passes the founder of the iPhone SDK.

They therefore think what drives users to switch to a can of soup. If you try to go to work on what you write has a sharp drop in utility. Super-angels will snap up stars that VCs may begin to conserve board seats by switching to what used to wonder if that got bootstrapped with consulting.

But no planes crash if your goal is to create one of the reason it used to do it mostly on your thesis. Convertible debt can be surprisingly indecisive about acquisitions, and the valuation should be especially skeptical about Viaweb too.

The question to ask, if we wanted to invest more. If you really need a higher growth rate has to be staying at a discount of 30% means when it converts. When governments decide how to be identified with you.

On the face of it, I'm also an investor who invested earlier had been, and stir. Which helps explain why there are few who can predict instead of admitting frankly that it's hard to predict precisely what would happen to their returns. These two regions were the people working for startups might be able to raise money after Demo Day or die.

Unfortunately the constraint probably has to work for Gillette, but to establish a protocol for web-based alternative to Office may not be surprised if VCs' tendency to push to being a train car that in 1995, but Google proved them wrong.

But a couple predecessors. The reason the young side. So you can base brand on anything with a no-shop clause. But on the critical question is not so good that it killed the best in the 1990s, and others, like most of their predecessors and said in effect why can't you be more selective about the cheapest food available.

[ncmagroup]

Written by Aja Frost

How to Overcome Pricing Objections

Wait for the prospect to finish speaking.

Pause for 3-5 seconds.

Ask a question.

Pose a follow-up question.

Summarize their objection in 2-3 sentences.

Clarify if you missed anything.

Diffuse their concern.

Price objections are common in sales — primarily because most prospects have learned pushing back on cost will get them a discount.

That makes it difficult to respond to a pricing objection if you don’t want to immediately lower your price. While discounting has its place in the sales process, being too discount-happy will destroy your margins and lower your product’s perceived value.

How to Discuss Price

This process will help you overcome price objections:

Step One: After the prospect has finished speaking, pause for three to five seconds. (Hit the “Mute” button if you need to.)

Step Two: Explore the pricing objection. According to sales trainer and consultant Colleen Francis, you can ask up to three questions before responding to the objection.

Step Three: Summarize their price objection in a few sentences.

Step Four: Circle back to your product’s value.

Here’s an example (using response #23 from this list):

Prospect: “We really like the product, but it costs too much.”

Rep: *Silence.*

Prospect: “The other options we’re exploring are 10-15% cheaper. Is there any way you can come down a bit?”

Rep: “I understand. In fact, I had two other customers just like you who were uneasy about the price at first. But what they found was … ”

When to Discuss Price

According to Gong’s analysis of 25,537 sales calls, there are clear-cut “best times” to discuss your product’s price — between 13 and 20 minutes, and 40 and 49 minutes.

These findings make sense: High-performing reps bring up pricing at the beginning of the call to set their prospect’s expectations, and again near the end so they can transition smoothly into the close.

While you shouldn’t abruptly change the topic right when the clock hits 40 minutes, you should structure the meeting so you can hit pricing when you’re around 20% and 65% of the way through.

30 Responses to Price Objections

The following responses to pricing objections allow you to acknowledge your prospect’s concern without immediately slashing your price or causing them to walk away.

1) “Too expensive compared to what?”

“Expensive” is a relative term. If you can find out what the prospect is comparing your product or service to, you can more precisely differentiate value.

2) “Really? How are you coming to the conclusion [product] is too expensive?”

This prompts the prospect to break down their reasoning. Once a salesperson better understands the specific concerns behind the sticker shock, they can more easily address them.

3) “Are there some boxes we left unchecked?”

Circle back and make sure the sales process unfolded to both parties’ expectations.

4) “I hear you. The best products are often more expensive.”

According to sales expert Geoffrey James, “a price objection isn’t ‘real’ until the customer has brought it up twice.” Using this response the first time you hear “it’s too expensive” can help you separate the prospects who truly don’t have the budget from those who are merely kicking the tires.

5) “How much will it cost you to do nothing?”

Get them to think about the bigger picture. Reveal the hidden costs in the status quo.

6) “Is it a cash flow issue, or a budget issue?”

This question gets to the heart of whether they are asking for a discount (budget) or payment terms (cash flow). Once the rep categorizes the objection, they can negotiate more effectively.

7) “Let’s explore some creative strategies for fitting this into your budget.”

If your prospect doesn’t have enough allocated funding, try to find a workaround. Suppose their department has a set budget for software and a separate one dedicated to maintenance. Instead of charging them one flat price, you might send one contract for your product and another for your service fees. Now that you’ve unbundled or unpackaged your solution, your prospect can fit it into the budget.

You can also bill the buyer in stages. Let’s say your product would max out their quarterly budget — and they need to save money for other purchases. Charge them half now, and half next quarter.

Not only will the buyer appreciate your flexibility, but you’ll rescue the deal without compromising on price.

8) “Let’s say money was no object. Would our product/service help solve your problem?”

A fast track back to value.

9) “What’s too expensive?”

Asking this (gently) prompts the prospect to explain their conception of your product/service. Hearing a response along the lines of “Well, it’s a lot for just X, Y, and Z” reveals their low-value perception.

10) “Too expensive? That’s concerning.”

Concerning because this product/service is so valuable for the cost. Nudge the prospect back to value.

11) “Is price the only thing that’s keeping you from signing?”

If the prospect has any other objections the salesperson needs to address, this question will surface them.

12) “Okay. So which part don’t you want?”

What you’re telling the buyer is that price is inextricably linked to value. So if a buyer doesn’t want to pay full price, they won’t be able to get the full value. This question might prompt them to reconsider.

13) “Will price keep you from getting what you really want?”

You’re not calling them cheap outright, but you are raising the question in their minds. And no one likes to be cheap, especially when their business is on the line. Alternatively, this will reveal if your product or service isn’t the ideal solution for their problem.

14) “Does this mean we will never have the chance to work together?”

Francis argues that the word “never” is the kicker.

“When it comes to handling sales objections, ‘never’ is the most powerful word in the English language,” Francis writes. “Most people hate it. As a result, the vast majority of prospects will respond by saying, ‘well, no … not never!'”

The salesperson can then probe into the conditions required in order to strike a deal and adapt terms or walk away accordingly.

15) “Setting price aside, do we have the product/service you want to buy?”

If they say yes, you can follow up with #12. If they say no, determine if it makes sense to go back to value or abandon the deal.

16) “What’s the ROI you’re looking to see?”

This steers them away from thinking in terms of “expensive” or “cheap,” and towards the long-term value for their business.

17) “It might seem expensive for one day, but let’s break it down by month/quarter.”

A lump sum can seem scary to anyone. Have figures on how the cost distributes over years, months, or days at the ready.

17) “Is what you’re saying that our prices are high in comparison to our competitors’?”

If your price is indeed higher than the competition’s, this question opens the door for the salesperson to differentiate on value.

19) “Have you ever bought a similar product or service before?”

Another possibility is that the prospect has an inaccurate idea of what this type of product or service costs — perhaps because they’ve never purchased it before. With this question, you can clear up their misconception.

20) “Price is an important consideration. So I have some context: How much research have you done on what a typical investment is for a product/service like this?”

According to Andrew Quinn, VP of Learning & Development at HubSpot, the question behind this one is, “Do you already know what something like this should cost?”

Thanks to your prospect’s inexperience, they might be placing your product in the wrong category.

For instance, maybe your solution has both a data storage and an analytics component. If they compare it to other data storage options, it’ll look significantly more expensive. But if they benchmark it with analytics software, your price is right in line with the competition.

21) “You think it costs too much?”

Feeding their line back to them forces the prospect to explain their position, and might make them reconsider in the process.

22) “When’s the last time you bought something based on price alone?”

Again, no one likes to feel cheap.

23) “I understand. In fact, I had two other customers just like you who were uneasy about the price at first. But what they found was … “

Empathize with the prospect, and then address their concerns with a strong case study that proves value.

24) “In your own business, is your product/service always the least expensive option available?”

If you’re a B2B salesperson, this is a great line to have in your back pocket. The buyer’s organization has to win deals too, and they probably do it on value and not just price. If delivered correctly, this line might elicit a chuckle — and a signed contract.

25) “Do you really need to say ‘no’ to our price right now?”

Seems a little harsh, right? Not so according to Tom Reilly, the sales expert behind this approach.

“When the buyer says, ‘I don’t know. The price is higher than I want to go,’ try two or three ways to deal with it. If nothing works, offer this response and watch the expression on the buyer’s face,” Reilly wrote in a blog post. “I guarantee they will raise their eyebrows.”

If the buyer replies that they don’t have to say no right now, the salesperson can then suggest the prospect take a few days to mull over the price — and realize that by saying no the price, they’re saying no to the product and its associated value.

26) “[Silence]”

Sometimes the best response is no response. When a salesperson simply falls silent after an objection, the prospect often begins to explain their rationale. The rep can then address specific concerns from there — no prompting needed.

27) “Compared to a candy bar, it’s a significant purchase. But when we look at [weekly, monthly, yearly] ROI, you’ll actually save money.”

This light-hearted response helps you put your product in context.

28) “[Prospect’s name], I would rather apologize for the price today than for the lack of quality and your unhappiness forever. Now, let’s not let a few dollars keep us from doing business together.”

This reply comes from famous salesperson and trainer Zig Ziglar courtesy of Butch Bellah. It reminds your prospect skimping on price will hurt them in the long run.

29) “Thanks for your honesty. How much were you thinking of spending?”

The prospect’s answer will reveal whether they’re in the right ballpark or playing in a completely different state. This response also turns the conversation back on them, so they’re forced to take a stand or admit they were bluffing.

30) “That’s a little surprising to me, because when we talked [earlier, on X day] cost wasn’t a concern. Has something new come up on your end I should know about?”

Use this objection-handling strategy when you’ve previously discussed price and it definitely wasn’t an issue. Something has clearly changed — your prospect has begun evaluating a less expensive alternative, the final decision maker has asked them to get a discount, their department just invested in a different solution and now they have less budget — and you need to figure out what did.

Once you’ve gotten a handle on the blocker, you can determine whether it’s surmountable or you need to walk away.

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30 Responses to the Dreaded Sales Objection “It Costs Too Much” Written by Aja Frost How to Overcome Pricing Objections Wait for the prospect to finish speaking.