#okay so how Minho burned his dad's cake is

[minhoinator]

By My Side, A Hogwarts AU (18/75)

special treat - “Ugh...”

Minho glanced away from The Standard Book of Spells to look at Kibum for a second. He was digging around in Grandma’s latest care package, and Minho turned the page when he sighed again. “Something wrong?”

Kibum pulled out a pumpkin pastie with a frown, and Minho instantly frowned in return. “It’s the last one.”

master list // AO3 // AFF // first year - muggle-born, sorted, first day, homesick, hallowe’en, deck the halls, possibilities, belonging, exceedingly acceptable, return to king’s cross - second year - diagonally, taking flight, ten points, all that glitters, holly jolly, push and pull, shooting stars

@lockandminkey @minhosbowties @sapphicshawol @artfulkey @shinyexo  @posygal @bumkeyko @usuallydreamin @taespoon-of-sugar (if anyone else wants to be tagged in this, just let me know!)

* - * - *

“Ugh...”

Minho glanced away from The Standard Book of Spells to look at Kibum for a second. He was digging around in Grandma’s latest care package, and Minho turned the page when he sighed again. “Something wrong?”

Kibum pulled out a pumpkin pastie with a frown, and Minho instantly frowned in return. “It’s the last one.”

He leaned back against the wall of the closet, the tiny flames from the candles on the shelves wavering. Another long sigh and he split it in half, holding one part out to Minho. Reluctantly, Minho took it and Kibum licked the cinnamon glaze off his fingers before he started to eat his.

“Okay, so you said you were having problems with the spell today?”

Minho’s shoulders sunk and he flipped back a couple pages in his textbook. “Yeah, with the pronunciation.” He clenched his jaw when he found Alohomora on the page. They learned this last year, so why was he still having problems with it?

“S’okay,” Kibum said around his mouthful of pumpkin pastie. “Latin is hard.” Minho let out a huff of a laugh, and Kibum chuckled as he finished his half of the pastry. “So, Flitwick was explaining more about the history of Alohomora and its uses today. I was taking good notes if you weren’t able to follow it?”

“I’ve been doing better with Charms lately.”

Kibum beamed at him before he brought Minho’s textbook over between them. “Do you remember the wand movements?” Minho nodded and Kibum gestured to his backpack.

After a catastrophic ink spill last year, they both decided to not use quills when they were up in their study closet. Mom had bought him two packs of pens when they went shopping for school supplies, and now, that’s all they used. Kibum clicked the pen several times as he brought Minho’s textbook fully onto his lap. “Uh-low-huh-mor-uh,” he said slowly as he wrote out each syllable, passing the book back to Minho.

Minho squinted at the pronunciation guide. “A...loho...mora.”

“Yeah, you’ve got it! Do it again.”

“A-alohomora. Alohomora!”

“See? You remember it!” Minho stared at the pronunciation guide, hiding his small smile. “Were you able to follow when O’Neely was talking about yetis?”

“Mostly.”

“Hmm...okay.” Kibum turned, shuffling through his textbooks for his notes.

They studied for quite a while until Minho was struggling to keep his eyes open and Kibum was yawning more often than he was speaking. Eventually, they started to pack up their books and straighten up the little study closet. When Kibum scooted forward to grab one of his parchment scraps, Minho glanced over at the box Grandma had sent.

Was that her address written on the wrapping?

While he knew Kibum’s address, Minho still didn’t have it memorized. Plus, the polaroid with it written on the back was back home and hiding under his pillow. Kibum was still leaning forward, arranging his books in his arms, so Minho slipped behind him and grabbed the empty care package. He tucked it away in his backpack before Kibum even noticed.

Soon, they were on their way from the seventh floor to the basement. They parted ways at the corner, their tired goodnight’s echoing down the empty corridors.

Once Minho was in his dorm room, he rummaged around beneath his bed for the notebook he used to write letters to his parents.

“You’re writing a letter now?” Gilbert whispered as he crawled under his covers, and Minho nodded. “But it’s almost ligh -- “

Before he could even finish saying lights out, the lanterns posted around the room dimmed, their flames soaking back into their wicks. Minho felt around his nightstand for his wand, and once he found it, said Lumos before he ducked under his own covers to block the light so the others could sleep. He popped his wand sideways into his mouth, holding it there so he could have both his hands free.

After a couple of clicks of his pen, he started to write.

Dear Grandma,

Hi! It’s just Minho this time. I hope you’re having a nice day when you get this letter. The reason I’m writing is because I was wondering if you could send me your recipe for pumpkin pasties? They’re the best and I love them but Kibum loves them more. We ran out today and he was sad and I was thinking that it would be nice if I could learn how to make them because they make him really happy and some days are hard here at Hogwarts and you might not know about it right away and anyways I think he’d really like them.

If you don’t want to share the recipe that’s okay I understand.

Thanks and I love you!

Minho

P.S. This is a secret so please don’t tell Kibum

He took his wand out of his mouth and tapped it on his chin as he re-read the letter. “Sounds good to me.” Carefully, he tore the page out of the notebook and folded it into thirds. “Nox,” he said before he pulled the covers back, and set the letter and his wand on the nightstand.

“Night,” Gilbert whispered.

“Good night.” Minho curled in and nestled his head in his pillow. He stared at the silvery moonbeam cutting through the darkness until his eyelids grew heavy and he fell asleep.

The next morning, he woke quickly -- well, quicker than usual -- and was to and back from the owlery before breakfast started. His letter was well on its way to Grandma in the talons of Geum-nun. Hopefully, it would reach her by tomorrow.

Each day, when the owls would arrive, Minho would carefully watch for the arrival of his charcoal owl, but day after day after day, she didn’t appear.

Not until five days later.

A thick brown envelope plopped onto his plate of eggs and toast, and Minho thanked Geum-nun before she flew away. He tore into the letter, and skimmed the contents.

Dearest Minho,

You don’t know how happy I was to receive your letter! I am having a good day and your letter made it better still. I hope when Geum-nun returns that your day is also going well.

As for the recipe, of course I am happy to share. It’s sort of a family secret, but I think I can make an exception for you. Just be sure to read the instructions carefully! And if you need any help, don’t be afraid to write me. Or, you could even ask one of the kitchen elves. They’re very good at their job.

Good luck, my love! I’m sure you’ll do well with them.

Love,

Grandma

Minho smiled as he peeked into the envelope, seeing the card with the recipe.

“Is that from your parents?”

He jumped at the sound of Kibum’s voice and shoved the letter and envelope into his pocket. “What?”

Kibum’s brow furrowed as he chuckled. “The letter. Did your parents write to you?”

“Yes, uh...Minseok got first place at the science fair.”

Kibum squinted at him, his eyes darting down to his pocket for a second. “Ready to head to Transfiguration?”

“Yeah.”

Grandma’s letter and recipe seemed to burn a hole in Minho’s pocket during Transfiguration. All he wanted to do was pull it out and read it, but with Kibum right there...

He waited until Kibum disappeared behind the stairwell on his way up to Charms to pull the parchment out. As he skimmed the recipe, the furrow in his brow deepened.

This was going to be harder than he thought. Hopefully, Sookey would help him.

The rest of the day followed his usual routine -- class then lunch then classes again then practice with the team (even though the season was over, Tanner still wanted to keep their skills fresh in their minds) and finally going over today’s lessons with Kibum. Once they said their goodnights and Kibum was well on his way down the Slytherin corridor, Minho ducked down the hallway to the kitchen and let himself inside.

It was always eerie to be in the kitchen alone. Minho didn’t visit the kitchen often, and when he did there was usually a house elf or two to keep him company and point him in the right direction.

Out of all the Houses at Hogwarts, Hufflepuff had the unique right to enter the kitchen whenever they wished. When Rhys explained it last year, he mentioned an agreement between Helga Hufflepuff and the house elves that her students would always be allowed access, unless they disobeyed the house elves instructions. Her reasoning was that cooking was an important skill to have and that they should have the resources to do so. There were conditions, of course. The first was that they were to respect the rules of the house elves and help them if asked, and the second was to always clean up after themselves.

Many a Hufflepuff in Minho’s almost-two years at Hogwarts would go on a midnight snack run. Several would even sit at one of the magic tables and work on their homework. As for himself? He usually came to the kitchen to make hot cocoa after a stressful day.

Minho dug into his pocket, fishing out Grandma’s recipe as he walked over to the butcher block countertops. He heaved himself up onto the counter and smoothed the recipe out on his knee as he read through it again. He mumbled his way through the ingredients, pausing when he came to the instructions.

“Rub...the butter...into the flour mixture?” His forehead scrunched. “What does that even mean?” He skimmed the rest of the instructions for the dough and followed the tiny arrow to the margin where Grandma penned an aside.

Do be sure to chill the dough for at least an hour, dear. Often times, I will let it rest overnight.

“I guess I can just make the dough tonight?”

He set the recipe down on the counter before he walked over to the pantry. After a second of staring at the myriad ingredients, Minho walked back over to where he left the recipe and grabbed it.

“Flour, salt -- “ He grabbed them both off of the shelves, going up on his tiptoes to reach the can of salt. “Butter...” Minho rearranged the flour and salt in his arms as he reached for the tub of butter in the icebox. He set them down on the counter before he made his way to the sink, getting a cup of cold water.

Mom never really baked at home, and when she did, she never let Minho help. Well, one time she did. He had begged her to let him help with Dad’s birthday cake, but in the end, he had ended up accidentally burning the cake to an absolute crisp.

To say he was nervous about this was an understatement.

But, one thing working in his favor was that Kibum didn’t know. So he wasn’t expecting Minho to produce perfect pumpkin pasties by tomorrow. Or ever. He could take his time if he wanted to.

Which, he did.

Sighing, he started searching for a scale, and found one of the older ones that Professor Slughorn would use sometimes in Potions. At least he was somewhat familiar with that. Cradling the scale in one arm, Minho grabbed as many of the weights as he could hold and went back to where he had the ingredients. He placed a large bowl on one end and leveled it out on the other with the weights.

“Three hundred grams,” he said as he started spooning flour into the bowl. He watched the scale carefully, and once it leveled, he added the next set of weights and weighed out the salt. “Cube the butter?” Frowning, Minho looked around for a knife, but he wasn’t sure where the house elves kept them. Eventually, he shrugged and started tearing the butter into the bowl.

Once the block of butter was distributed, he stirred it around in the flour with his finger. “Rub the butter...” He picked up a chunk between his fingers, rubbing it into the flour. “Maybe?” Putting both hands into the bowl, he started rubbing them together, mixing the flour and the butter until it started coming together. He squeezed a bit in his hand and dropped the clump into the bowl.

“I...think that’s ready?”

When adding the water, do it a little bit at a time. You just need enough for the dough to come together. It should stick together but not be sticky.

He took the cup in one hand, stirring the flour mixture with the other as he started to pour the water. It was a slow process, probably slower than it needed to be, but eventually, the dough started -- maybe? -- looking right.

“Cover and chill for at least an hour. Uh...” He looked around for saran wrap, knowing full well that there would not be any at Hogwarts. “What spell did Sookey use?” After about ten minutes of searching, Minho found the spellbook and flipped through it, stopping after a couple of turns.

Use Segetenvis when you need to preserve leftovers until another time.

“What are the wand motions?” He scanned the page, finding none. “Swish and flick it is, then.” He grabbed his wand from his back pocket and pointed it at the ball of dough. “Segetenvis!”

A clear, slightly iridescent bubble shot out of his wand tip and enveloped the dough ball. There was a little whistle -- the last of the air escaping, he thought -- as the bubble sealed itself. He picked it up and carried it to the icebox, feeling somewhat proud of himself.

About five minutes later, he had cleaned up his mess and was on his way to his room. Just in time, too, as the lights dimmed as he was sliding into bed. His dormmates muttered their goodnights, and Minho smiled to himself, already imagining Kibum’s reaction to the pumpkin pasties.

“What are you so happy about?” Kibum asked as Minho sat down next to him after breakfast the next morning. He squinted in disbelief when Minho shrugged. “Does a girl like you or something?”

“What?” Minho’s smile faltered, looking over at Kibum. “What are you talking about?”

Kibum went back to his breakfast. “I don’t know. You’re just acting weird.”

“You always say I’m weird, though.” Minho smiled again when Kibum rolled his eyes to look at him. “I’m just happy.”

“That’s good.”

The bell rang, and they were off to Transfiguration.

The day passed by relatively smoothly, even though Minho felt like he might have failed his Potions quiz. At least it wasn’t the final. He hurried to the kitchen once he and Kibum were done studying for the night.

Once again, he found it empty. Minho smoothed his recipe on the countertop closest to the icebox and got right to work -- rolling out the dough as thin as he could. He had to stand up on his tiptoes to be able to roll it out, and his arms and legs were aching by the time he was satisfied.

Heaving a heavy sigh, he went off around the kitchen in search of a pan to bake the pumpkin pasties on. After quite a bit of shuffling and clanging, he found the pans he was looking for. He tucked them under his arm and hurried back to his counter, grabbing a porcelain bowl and a steak knife on his way.

He set the bowl down on the dough, tracing around the lip with the steak knife to make a practically perfect circle. He lifted the bowl, smiling to himself until he tried to lift the circle and transfer it to the pan.

It stuck.

Like, it was glued to the counter. He peeled it up, but it tore in several places. Crumpling up his failed first attempt, he tried again, only to have it happen. Again and again. Frowning, he pulled the recipe closer to him with dough-caked fingers and read it over again.

“Oh...flour first.”

Minho scraped up the dough as best he could, using the back of the blade for the particularly stuck spots. Once he got the flour, he dusted it over the surface and rolled it out again. He lifted the edge to make sure it didn’t stick and heaved a relieved sigh when it didn’t. He cut and transferred the circles to the pan, smoothing the little holes that appeared when he moved them.

“I guess I can make the filling now.”

It took longer than Minho would have liked to find all the ingredients for the filling, as it was dimly lit and the labels of the spices were hard for him to read. Once he had weighed and mixed them all, he plopped heaping spoonfuls on each circle of dough and folded them over, pressing his fingertip along the edge, like the recipe said.

He proudly carried both pans over to the oven, setting one down to open the door. The oven, Minho remembered Sookey mentioning, was cantankerous and was always preheated because the house elves did not have the patience to try to coax it to heat up every morning. He slid both pans into the oven and closed the door.

Instead of going to sit and wait, Minho stood in front of the oven, watching the pasties back through the yellowed glass of the window. The dough puffed up slightly, hopefully turning a nice golden brown.

As they continued to bake, however, his shoulders sunk. He watched the filling leak out through the seam and the cracks in the dough. It bubbled and pooled around the pasties until he was sure there was none left inside.

Minho grabbed the nearest towel and pulled the pans out of the oven, tossing the failed pasties into the nearest trash bin. He cleaned up his mess within ten minutes and was on his way to his room, Grandma’s recipe crumpled in his fist.

It was several days before he tried again.

This time, he told Kibum he wasn’t feeling well and that he couldn’t study that night. Kibum said he wasn’t feeling well either, and it would be good for them to get some extra rest. When Kibum was out of sight, Minho rushed to the kitchen, catching the house elves as they were cleaning up. Sookey waved to him, and he waved right back before he went over to the “Hufflepuff” table. He leaned against the edge while he waited.

There came a series of snaps and pops behind him, and Minho turned to find that Sookey was the only elf who remained, and she was standing on the table. “What can Sookey do for you, sir?”

She sat on the table beside Minho when he pulled out the recipe, she read it through twice, making comments as she did, and teleported back over to the kitchen. Minho jogged over to meet her as she was bringing all the necessary ingredients over to the counter. He rolled up his sleeves and started mixing the flour once she weighed everything. He followed every word she said, feeling much better about the finished dough once it was safe in the icebox.

“Now, while the dough chills, we’ll start on the filling.”

She showed him how to mix the filling thoroughly, which, he was pleased that he had gotten right the first time. While they waited for the dough to be ready, Sookey explained more about the process. Ah, he saw where he went wrong before. He didn’t seal the pasties properly and that’s why the filling leaked everywhere.

When the dough was ready, it didn’t take long for them to get the pasties in the oven and baking. Sookey had directed him to seal and brush them in what was called an egg wash, and they seemed to be browning up nicely. Once Minho could distinctly smell the pumpkin, Sookey directed him to pull the pans out of the oven and let them cool.

“You can finish these off with the glaze tomorrow, sir, once they’re cool.”

“Thank you so much for your help, Sookey. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

She smiled as she bowed slightly. “It’s always a pleasure for Sookey to help you, sir.” With that, she winked out of the kitchen with just a flash of light and a quiet snap.

Minho stood still, waiting for her to reappear after a couple of seconds, as she was known to be forgetful. When she didn’t reappear, he hurried to clean up and grabbed a semi-cooled pastie on his way out. He hummed to himself as he ate it, happy that it tasted almost exactly like Grandma’s did.

Kibum would be so pleased.

The next morning, Minho was very distracted at breakfast, as he was constantly checking to see if Kibum had arrived yet. He hadn’t, not even by the end of breakfast, so he found Aaron when they were on their way to Transfiguration and pulled him aside.

“Where’s Kibum?”

“Oh, that’s what I was forgetting!” Aaron slipped inside the classroom and Minho followed on his heels. “Sorry, he’s sick!”

“Sick?” Oh, right, he had mentioned not feeling well last night.

“It’s nothing serious. Just a cold, I think.” Minho sunk into his seat, hugging his backpack before he set it in Kibum’s usual spot. “He’ll be okay.”

“Yeah.”

In between taking diligent notes to share with Kibum later, Minho kept checking the clock on the side of the room and had his books packed up five minutes early. Once the bell rang, he was out the door and running to the kitchen. The house elves all stopped what they were doing as he ran inside. He stuffed as many pasties into his robe pocket as he could and was out the door as quick as he came and was on his way to the infirmary.

He skidded to a stop inside, startling Madam Pomfrey and Kibum, who was tucked into the third bed on the left.

“Do you need more aereveli leaves, dear?” Pomfrey asked as Minho started walking toward Kibum’s bed.

“No, thank you. My head is feeling much better now.”

Kibum sniffled and wiped his nose with one of Pomfrey’s handkerchiefs as Minho sat down on the side of his bed. “What are you doing here?”

“Heard you were sick.” Minho glanced over his shoulder; Pomfrey was busy tending to one of the other students. Slowly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pumpkin pastie. “I made you these last night.”

“You did?” His eyes were wide as Minho pushed it into his hands and reached for another one.

“Yeah. Grandma gave me the recipe.”

“She -- “ Kibum took a small bite of it as Minho placed another two beside him on the bed. “You did a really good job!”

Minho grabbed the last one out of his pocket when Kibum took another bite and set it beside the others. He brushed the flakes of the crust off on his trousers and looked down at the pasties. “Oh no! I forgot the glaze!”

“It’s okay, Choi, don’t worry. These are...they’re perfect, thank you.”

Minho beamed at him, relaxing as Kibum took another bite, only for the bell to ring a second later. “Gotta go! I’ll take good notes for you, okay!”

“Okay!”

* - * - *

“Sit up for me?”

Kibum rubbed his bleary eyes and pushed himself up, holding back the hair on his forehead as Madam Pomfrey checked his temperature.

“Feeling any better?” 

“Mm, a little.” 

Pomfrey went over to her cabinet of potions and poured one of them into a teaspoon. “Take this and go back to sleep. You should be right as rain in the morning.”

“Okay.” 

She dimmed the lantern beside his bed and walked over to check on Charity Mills, who was quarantined for chicken pox. Kibum watched them for a second before he tucked himself back into bed. He slid his hand beneath his pillow, found one of the pasties Minho had brought him earlier and held onto it until he saw that Charity’s lantern was dimmed. Once the door clicked shut behind Madam Pomfrey, Kibum started to eat the pastie, sighing happily at the first bite.

Minho really had done a good job. It was slightly saltier than Kibum remembered, but that could be because of the lack of Grandma’s usual cinnamon glaze. It was just…so sweet – no pun intended – that Minho went out of his way to learn how to make them. 

Whatever made Minho want to learn how to bake and whatever possessed Grandma to relinquish one of her family-secret recipes, Kibum might never know. 

Whatever it was, he was very grateful.

[kimistorm]

[Lee Minho] Cats are the Worst

Fandom: Stray Kids

Pairing: Lee Know/Lee Minho x GN! reader

Requested by: AvatarKyarra

Prompts: 6) “That wasn’t supposed to happen” and 9) “Don’t freak out”

Word count: 1.7k

TW: Mentions of food

AN: Lol <1k was a bit of a lie apparently. Anywho, thank you for the request! Sorry if the writing feels a little clunky/repetitive TwT BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, Hyunjin is back!!

“I don’t know, do you think he’ll like it?” you asked your phone that was on speakerphone as you scrolled through the list of recipes on your screen.

You heard an exasperated sigh from the other end of the line, “of course he’s going to love it. You’re his significant other.”

“Yeah, but he’s not that fond of sweets,” you bit your lip and ran a hand through your hair in frustration.

Han let out another groan from your hesitance, at this point, he was probably more frustrated than you, “have you seen him with Felix makes brownies?”

“Okay, but Felix’s brownies can make anyone melt.” You bit back in response as you thought to the cheery blond’s sweets. They always made you feel better, even after a rough day.

“He’s going to love anything you make him,” Han told you with finality, though this would be the fifth time he’s told you this. “But the more time you waste doing this the less time you have to make it.”

You snorted, knowing Han also had streaks of indecisiveness, “when did you become decisive?”

“Since you spent nearly an hour going in circles with me.” You let out a yelp of surprise, not realizing how much time had already passed. “Just make cookies! They’re going to be faster than a cake.” Your black-haired friend quickly told you, hoping to take this opportunity to give you a decision.

“Okay, okay, thank you!” you hurriedly clicked on the recipe with the highest rating and number of reviews.

“It’ll be amazing!” Han rushed to tell you as you fumbled with your phone to hang up.

“Thanks Han! If we have any extra I’ll bring you some!”

“Go, go go!” Han cheered before hanging up. With a determined nod, you ran around your shared kitchen for the ingredients. You frowned when you couldn’t find any more chocolate chips, Minho must’ve eaten them because you could’ve sworn you had some last week. It looks like you’ll have to change your plan and make sugar cookies. You found a simple recipe that allowed for decorating and decided that you’d decorate them. That’d be a cute gesture, right?

With clumsy precision, you measured out the ingredients and mixed them together to form the dough. You frowned as the recipe called to chill the dough for a couple of hours. You weren’t going to have time for that, so you’d have to skip that step and hope things still turned out all right. With the use of a couple of spoons and a butterknife, you were able to scoop out some relatively flat cookies onto the baking tray and pop them into the oven. It was a shame you couldn’t find the cat-shaped cookie cutters that you thought Felix gave you for Christmas, but they were very lost. Now that you think about it, you weren’t sure if you saw them since the day he gave them to you.

It was with a sinking heart when you realized you would have to wait for the cookies to cool before you could ice them. “It’ll be okay, right?” you worriedly mumbled as you glanced at your phone to see how much longer you had until Minho came home and the timer telling you that it would be close. Letting out a somewhat panicked but quiet, “aaaaaa,” you set to cleaning up the bowls and utensils you had used to make the dough. In no time they were on the drying rack and you grabbed a smaller bowl to make the icing.

You fished through to the back of your pantry for the somewhat old bag of powdered sugar that you used to decorate pancakes with and then never used again. You were glad to see it was still powdery and usable. You were measuring out the powder for the icing when a light body made its way to your side.

“Hey Doongie,” you cooed as you pet the cat who leaped onto the counter for some affection. “We’re going to make your dad cookies, what do you think?” dark eyes blinked at you lazily. “Ah, maybe that’s what I get for trying to talk to cats.” You sniggered when you got no response. You turned around to check the next steps of the recipe, but quickly spun around in fear when you heard the hollow ‘thunk’ of something plastic falling to the ground and an indignant ‘meow.’

“Oh no!” you panicked when you saw Doongie sitting cleanly on the counter where you left the white cat, but there was no bowl of powdered sugar. That was spilled on the ground. “Why’d you do that?” you wailed at the cat who you swore was smirking at you. You grew even more scared when you saw the disturbed flour on the ground. It was thrown all over the place and you saw pawprints leading out from the mess. “You didn’t!” you scolded as you followed the trail of white pawprints, already fearing for the mess that was being tracked all over your apartment.

Thanks to the visible trail, you were able to find the victim hidden in one of the cat houses perched on a scratching post. “You wanna come out?” you cooed to the cat enshrouded in darkness. You needed to see the damage that was done. Two eyes seemed to stare back at you from the darkness, blinking only once. You let out a sigh before returning to the kitchen to grab a cat treat. Doongie meowed pleadingly with you, going as far as to put a paw on your arm when you fished out a treat, “no.” You told the cat sassily, “you’ve caused enough trouble.” You swore Doongie rolled their eyes at you as you walked away.

“Come on out,” you gently cooed as you waved the treat in front of the opening to the cat housing. There was a moment of silence, and then a head popped out. You quickly moved your hand away so the cat would have to reach, and gasped when you saw the white cat who emerged. “Oh no Dori!” the normally striped gray cat was almost completely coated in powdered sugar. “On second thought,” you put the treat back into the housing, “you can stay in there.” You were not looking forward to washing the dark cat.

You left the cat to the darkness of the cat house and the treat before returning to the kitchen, letting out another wail when you saw Doongie playing around in the pile of sugar. “No! Bad cat!” you weren’t keen on another set of sugar tracks around the apartment so you slowly came closer to pick up Doongie. The white cat froze and stared at you, nimbly jumping out of the way when you lunged forward to pick them up. “No! Come back here!” you raced around the apartment chasing the white cat.

After a few seconds of chasing them, you decided to give up, hoping Doongie would calm down and sit instead of running around the entire apartment to cause an even bigger mess. You quickly closed the door to the bathroom where the cat was currently taking refuge and closed all the doors to the rooms. Hopefully this would keep the damage contained. With a sigh you set to cleaning up the powdered sugar that had splattered to the ground and somehow onto the cabinet right next to it.

You heard the deadbolt click and your heart sank as the door opened to reveal Minho, “hey,” while you were sad your cookies weren’t ready in time, seeing him always put a smile on your face and you got up from the ground to greet him, “you’re home early.”

“They let me leave earlier,” he smiled as the two of you quickly kissed. There was a meow and he looked down in confusion at the half-white half-gray Dori.

“Dori?” he kneeled down and rubbed the cat lovingly, “what happened?” he asked as he turned his attention to you.

“Don’t freak out.”

His dark eyes widened, “that’s not reassuring at all.”

“I was trying to bake you cookies, and then Doongie knocked the sugar bowl onto Dori.” Minho let out a quiet yelp and began inspecting Dori for any wounds. “Sorry.” You muttered shamefully, you were just trying to celebrate.

“Don’t worry about it,” Minho smiled as he pulled you into a hug, “that’s so sweet you tried to make something for me.”

“I guess I made something.” You muttered bitterly into his shirt, “a mess.”

“It’s the thought that counts,” he told you gently, “they’re self-cleaning,” he gestured toward Dori, “it’ll be fine. Probably.” You giggled at his last comment, relieved to find he wasn’t mad. He was an angel, if your positions were switched, you definitely wouldn’t be as cool-headed as he was right now. “Is something burning?” Minho asked after a moment and you let out a scream, running over to the oven and completely deflating when you saw the blackened cookies.

Minho aided you in opening the window and airing out the open oven so the fire alarm wouldn’t go off, “that wasn’t supposed to happen.” You mumbled sullenly as you took out the cookie sheet and cautiously broke one of them, causing it to completely shatter and reveal how deep the black reached. “I kind of don’t want to scrape off the burnt parts to get to the good stuff.

Minho peered over your shoulder and popped one of the broken pieces into his mouth. His eyes watered at the hot treat and he frantically waved a hand over his open mouth to try and cool it down. “Yeah, it’s kind of bad.” He answered honestly as he engulfed you in a back hug, “and it burned half of my taste buds before I even tasted it.” You deflated at his blunt comment, “don’t worry! Let’s go buy some cookies at the bakery down the street!”

“But I wanted to make you something to celebrate,” you pouted, looking sadly at the blackened sweets.

“Just being with you is enough,” he smiled into your neck.

You hummed and leaned into his touch, “you’re too nice.”

“Come on,” he gently tugged at you, “let’s clean up the cats and get some cookies.”

“I love you,” you told him softly as you gave him a kiss.

“Love you too.”

Masterlist

[taelme]

Vampire!Bang Chan

genre: childhood friends-to-lovers!au, vampire!au, (fluff, mild angst, slow burn, slightly suggestive)

pairing/s: Chan / Reader (ft Minho and Mingyu don't ask me why I just thought they would fit) 

word count: 20k (I didn't realise this would be as long as it is rip) 

tw: mentions of blood and fighting, coarse language

a/n: hope u guys have as much fun reading this as I had writing it!! its a little different from the usual vampire aus, kind of modern? in a way? but yes ! anyway requests are currently open! so do feel free to request~~ 

"Honey, you know it's not like...they haven't been in our neighbourhood before," your mom eyed your new neighbour suspiciously, something in the way she spoke and the way she held herself seeming too familiar to dismiss.

"You can't be serious..." your dad glanced nervously between the woman and their child, a pale curly haired boy who was currently making their way over to where you were in the classroom, wanting to play with the same toys as you, "they have a kid!" your father tried to reason.

"Va-" your mom lowered her voice, "vampires can have children...I've seen it happen before."

Your mom kept her gaze (or glare, it was a very fine line now) fixed firmly onto the neighbours.

"And don't think I haven't noticed how the blood bags in the hospital have been disappearing ever since they moved in."

"I mean, yeah. Of course they're disappearing, because we have to use them? For the patients?" Your dad shrugged, his grip tightening around his camera hanging from his neck, feelings of anxiousness building within him as well (even if he was dead set on not showing it).

Your mom glared at your dad.

"I'm gonna go confront them."

"W-What? Why? Where's all this aggression coming from? What if they kill us?"

Your mom rolled her eyes.

"They can't. I'm gonna strike a deal with them," she shrugged, "think about it, honey. Their kid is the same age as ours. And if anything, it's been ages since there were vampires living in our town, we've got to deal with it head-on to handle it effectively."

Your dad grimaced, reaching out a hand quickly to grasp at your mom’s wrist as she made to walk over to the woman. He looked as though he'd wanted to say something else to dissuade her, but the look in your mom’s eyes was too resolute to bargain with.

"Okay fine, but I’ll be close behind, alright? If anything's wrong just give me a signal and I’ll come over."

Your mom grinned, nodding firmly before making her way over to the woman who was currently fanning herself with a brochure given by the teachers.

Smiling at your mom in greeting, your mom returned the smile, "Mrs Bang, right?"

The woman nodded, giving your mom a friendly smile as her child ran up to her.

“Some weather, isn't it? Little Chan's having a bit of a hard time adapting," she laughed as she used a small cloth to wipe the boy's sweat from his face and neck, patting the curly-haired boy on the back and directing his attention to your mother.

"Say hi, honey,” she prompted her son.

The boy looked up, his slightly downturned eyes making his expression puppy-like, giving your mother a shy wave.

Your mom bent down to be on eye level with the boy.

“Is he? You sure seem to be doing fine, you probably don't feel a thing, do you?" your mom cooed, hoping her words would strike a chord with the woman.

"Go and play with your friends, Channie," she nudged her son in the direction of the other children, straightening up and looking at your mom with an oddly unnerving smile.

Perfect.

"What do you want?" her tone was a stark contrast from her expression, enough to make your mother's heart rate pick up at the thought that her assumptions were more than just that. Should she be this happy that there was an annoyed potentially lethal specimen standing right in front of her? Debatable.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question? You know, why come here of all places? There aren’t many people for you to....negotiate with." Your mother narrowed her eyes at the woman, folding her arms over her chest.

Your dad, who was watching closely from afar, had recognised her body language as her go-to attempt to look intimidating, wincing at the thought of the kind of conversation they could be having that would warrant such a 'power pose' (as your mother liked to call it).

Looking over to where you were, playing with the new neighbour's son, he could overhear you asking the boy for his favourite colour, preparing to make a birthday cake out of Lego for him.

Well, at least your kids seemed to be getting along.

Your dad watched for a short while, how you played with the curly haired boy, and how the boy seemed to be rather shy, though that didn't seem to deter you from dragging him into your many shenanigans.

This made your dad’s anxiousness grow slightly, deciding that it was about time to go over to your new neighbour and your mom to make his presence as head doctor known. Though, your mom’s conversation seemed to have ended prematurely, the said woman strolling calmly back to your father before he could intervene.

"Do I wanna know how it went?" your dad grimaced upon seeing the triumphant smile on your mom’s face.

"Yes, you do. It went absolutely great! We're having dinner tomorrow night to discuss our arrangement in more detail."

"And this arrangement is...?"

Your dad was interrupted by the presence of your new neighbours who had taken a seat next to your mom, your teacher's voice drowning out the rest of the noise.

"Parents, could you please take your seats now? The briefing will be starting soon."

You had caught the eye of your parents who were waving you over, making sure you grabbed Chan's hand to bring him over to where both your parents were seated.

"She's usually pretty unfriendly with strangers," your dad tried to make conversation with Chan’s dad, earning a nod from him.

“Yeah, Chan’s a bit shy with his peers too. But she seems to be including him pretty well.”

Your dad laughed nervously, “huh…. yeah,” he felt a slap to his shoulder, turning to see Chan’s father looking at him almost endearingly.

“Looking forward to this friendship with you.”

===

“Come to think of it, he’s not that bad, don’t you think?” You hummed, gesturing to your television where you were currently watching one of the vampire romance movies they were playing that night, shifting in your seat so you could tap Chan on the thigh, urging him to look up from his phone.

“Which one? The vampire dude?” Chan made a face at you. He never really paid attention to the show (well, not as much as you did, at least), the only things he remembered about it being that there were witches inside and a lot of people died.

“Yeah that one,” you pointed at the screen, “I thought he was a really big asshole at first, but now that I’m seeing more of him, he doesn’t seem all that bad. I think falling in love with the girl kind of like...reawakened the part of him that actually cares about things,” you laughed.

Chan shook his head, practically giggling in endearment at how invested you were in the show, “are you sure you’re not just saying that ‘cause you think he’s cute?”

You gasped, shoving Chan, shifting in your seat so you could lean against his shoulder.


“You know me so well,” you felt Chan’s shoulders shake as he laughed, bringing a hand over your shoulder to rest on the back of the sofa comfortably, allowing you to lean against him more.

“Come on, that’s totally impossible,” Chan laughed, gesturing to the scene on the tv where the vampire had pushed a big truck out of the way to protect someone in the truck’s way.

You rolled your eyes, shoving him lightly, “yeah? Says who?” You challenged, though you knew it was a little extreme for that to be possible as well.

“Physics,” he justified, making you shush him with a hand over his mouth before he went on another one of his rampages.

“Alright, alright, it’s not possible, don’t ruin the show for me.”

Removing your hand from his mouth, he’d continued watching with you in silence, before he’d suddenly asked you a question.

“Don’t you think I’d be cuter than him if I was a vampire?” Chan pouted, nudging at your head gently with his shoulder to get your attention, pushing his beanie up slightly.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen those vampires in movies have bleached hair before,” you teased in an attempt to calm yourself down, knowing for yourself your answer to his question was yes. However, your response only served to make his pout grow.

“Answer the question!” He whined, a giggle escaping his lips as he grasped your arm.

“You? A vampire?” You laughed, a hand flying over your mouth in a poor attempt to stifle your laughter.

Chan scoffed in disbelief.

“I don’t see why I can’t pass off as one if he can!” Chan pointed at the screen sulkily, making you shake your head.

“You’d never survive as a vampire who has to hunt on their own. You can barely hurt a fly,” you scrunched your nose at the thought, bursting into another fit of giggles when you felt Chan muss your hair, feigning hurt over your statement (but knowing all too well that you were right).

“You still didn’t answer if I’d be cuter or not.”

Rolling your eyes, you stuck your tongue out at him, “Invalid comparison, no comment,” your poorly stifled laughter had only made the both of you erupt into giggles, Chan shaking his head at you.

Once your laughter had died down, you let out a tired sigh.  

“D’you remember how our parents used to always talk about how vampires used to live in our town in the past?” You hummed, letting your train of thought steer away from the show.

Chan had a feeling he knew where your thought process was heading.

“You believe them, don’t you?”

“And you don’t?” you raised your eyebrows, lifting your head off his shoulders to look at him expectantly, curious to hear his reasoning even though you’ve probably heard it a thousand times already.

“I mean, it’s just a little hard to believe because of how it's portrayed in such a…fantasy kind of way in the media. And it just...doesn’t really make sense to me. As much as I hear the stories from our parents and all it’s kind of hard to find a biological explanation for it that I can actually accept.”

You shot him an amused look, your nose scrunching as you smiled.

“I still can’t believe you can even try to think about something like vampires scientifically,” you snickered, earning a shrug from him.

“You know who I always thought would be a vampire if there were any in our neighbourhood?” You continued, stopping to yawn as you awaited Chan’s indication that he was listening.

“Who?”

“That guy whose dad is in the town council,” your voice dropped to a mumble, “the one that basically threatened me to go to prom with him.”  

Chan pursed his lips, knowing who you were referring to even without you mentioning his name. He felt a pang of jealousy in his heart at the mention of that guy, but dismissed it quickly, knowing that you shared the same sentiments as he did, there was nothing to be jealous of.

“He’s the one that’s in the swim team our school always goes against, right?” Chan’s hand shifted from the back of the sofa to grasp your shoulder, squeezing gently as he rubbed your arm soothingly. Chan didn’t have to pretend to ask you for affirmation, he knew who you were referring to, a part of him just did it as a silent confirmation that you were sure you wanted to talk about him.

You nodded.

“There’s always been something off about him. He just really makes me...uncomfortable. Not that I’m saying all vampires are bad, more of like a…he’d fit the description if you asked me to think of those evil vampires in movies. You get what I mean, right?” you looked at him seriously, and Chan struggled to contain his smile, finding you absolutely cute but not wanting you to think he wasn’t respecting how you felt.

“The vibe I get whenever he tries to talk to me...just” you shuddered, “feels like he’s not even human.”

Chan nodded, remembering how shaken up you got on one occasion after one of his swim meets when that guy approached you.

You’d only told Chan about it a month after, and since Chan was Chan, he’d simply comforted you, telling you that you shouldn’t have kept it in for so long. But at the same time, you were thankful that you had someone as balanced as Chan to comfort you when you needed.

After all, Chan was never one to resort to violence.

“Let’s….not talk about him, kind of don’t wanna go to sleep thinking about him,” Chan huffed, making you let out a small giggle.

“Yeah, wouldn’t want you dreaming of him, would we?” You joked, earning a groan of agreement from Chan.

You’d felt his thumb rub your arm gently, his left hand checking the time on his phone, seeing that it was almost 2 in the morning.

“Are you tired? I kind of wanna pass out soon,” Chan yawned, earning a vigorous nod from you.

Leaning over to turn the tv off, you headed upstairs with Chan, walking into the bathroom and pushing Chan’s cup containing the toothbrush he used whenever he stayed over at your house to the unoccupied area of your sink. You’d already started to brush your teeth, seeing Chan walk into the bathroom shortly after with a tired smile on his face, noticing he'd taken his hoodie off.

“Your hair’s getting long,” your words were muffled around your toothbrush as you reached a hand up to touch his fluffy hair, which seemed even more curly now that you were seeing it in the light, having only seen it covered by his beanie for the whole day.

Chan couldn’t help the smile from his face as you did so, trying to distract himself with squeezing toothpaste onto his toothbrush, putting his toothbrush in his mouth with a grin directed at you through the mirror, his dimples showing cutely.

“I was thinking of dying it back to black,” he stopped brushing halfway to tell you, earning a sound of surprise from you.

Rinsing your mouth, you straightened up quickly to nod at him.

“You should, your hair would look just like it did when you were a kid,” you stepped into the shower to wash your face so that Chan could have more space at the sink.

“Is that a good thing?” Chan laughed.

You rolled your eyes, “of course it is, you looked so cute when you were a kid.”

Before Chan could react to your backhanded compliment, you continued, “when’s your next swim meet?”

“About a month from now?” He paused to rinse his mouth, starting to wash his face, speaking even as his eyes were closed.

“Who are you gonna be up against?” You asked, rinsing the face wash off of your face and stepping out again, Chan handing you a towel as he rinsed his own face as well, your routine flowing naturally from how regularly you would sleep over at each other’s houses.

“Who else?” He sighed.

You winced, stepping out of your bathroom before Chan, letting him turn off the lights as you slipped into your bed, and without even thinking, you had slung your arm around Chan’s waist, snuggling closer to him with your face pressing against his back.

“How’s swim meet preparation been?” You yawned.

Chan hummed, letting one of his hands cover your hand at his stomach, interlocking his fingers with yours as he rubbed the back of your hand gently. You’d found it strange how the action made you shy, dismissing the thought quickly as you took deep breaths.

“Can you breathe? Am I suffocating you?” Chan laughed, finding your sudden heavy breathing rather amusing, but most of all rather ticklish against his back.

You immediately stopped, not realising you were holding your breath, “uh-huh. Breathing’s fine.”

Chan smiled, “anyway, my dad’s been having me on this new diet and exercise plan, wants me to bulk up or something.”

You let out an amused snort, “I'm guessing this is a complaint?"

Chan nodded, even though he was pretty sure you couldn't see him, feeling your face against his back.

"Sure is. Honestly, I’m pretty sure he's only making me do all of this because he's been trying to get me as interested in exercising as him.”

“Aren’t you already, though?” You laughed, earning a shrug from him, as he turned to face you, his hand going back to playing with yours as he closed his eyes.

Struggling to keep your tone as steady as you could, you replied, "whatever it is, I'll be there to cheer you on. Win or lose."

Chan bit his lip, immensely thankful now that the light was dim enough that you weren't able to see his face clearly, dismissing the heat creeping onto his cheeks and the pounding of his heart to be due to how touching your words were to him.

Running his thumb over your knuckles, you didn't have to hear it to know Chan was thankful.

"Hopefully, I'll win, of course."

You scoffed, “goodnight, Chan."

You heard him hum, mumbling a soft "Night," before you lay in silence till you fell asleep.

===

"Chan? Chan, dude," Minho nudged the boy seated next to him.

Chan was struggling to focus in class. To him, he was hearing everything except whatever his teacher was explaining at the front of the hall. Things ranging from the low humming of the air conditioning to the hushed whispers of students that Chan couldn't even spot were beginning to sound deafening.

"Huh?" Chan turned his head to face his classmate Minho, who was seated at the table next to him, leaning over with his paper in hand.

"Did you get the answer for this question?"

Chan glanced at his worksheet, nodding and handing his worksheet to Minho to copy the correct answer, bringing his hands up to massage his temples, sighing as he shook his head.

What's wrong with you? just focus!

Chan rolled his eyes in frustration, giving Minho a small nod as he took his paper back, his leg starting to bounce and his hands beginning to fidget, twirling his pen only to stop seconds after because the sound simply added to the jumbled mess of noise in his brain.

“They should really fix that speaker,” Chan sighed, leaning back in his seat in slight resignation to the fact that he wasn’t getting rid of his headache anytime soon, wondering if it were possible that his head would just burst from how much it was pounding.

“Huh? Which speaker?” Minho frowned, making Chan’s mouth fall agape.

“You don’t hear it? It’s making this really loud buzzing sound!” Chan pointed with his pen to the speaker at the front of the hall, glaring at it as if it were buzzing on purpose.

Minho eyed Chan curiously, “dude…I’m really sorry but I’m not hearing what you’re hearing...”

Chan shook his head, “It’s fine, maybe I’m just hearing something else.”

"Are you meeting Y/N later?" he asked Chan, earning a nod from him.

"What are you guys gonna do?"

Chan's eyebrows lifted in confusion, "nothing?" he dragged out the word in his uncertainty on what Minho was asking him about.

Minho rolled his eyes, "how unromantic."

Chan sputtered, wanting to be upset but at the same time not quite knowing what he was getting upset about.

"What do you expect us to do? Have a candlelight dinner on a school day?"

Minho remained unamused, "I mean, you said you liked her, right? Why aren't you doing anything about it?"

Chan tapped his pen on his paper, taking down the answer for the new question on the screen as he replied Minho.

"Key word, I like her. It's not necessarily very mutual right now."

Minho groaned, "obviously you wouldn't know because you're not even trying to find out."

Chan gave Minho his best distressed expression, which only made him sigh, shaking his head.

"Whatever, it's not like you'd have the guts to confess to her without my help anyway."

Chan shot Minho a dirty look, returning his attention back to the screen, still struggling to place the various sounds he was hearing as his teacher's voice blared through the speakers.

He figured it would go away by lunch, but when he’d walked into the cafeteria, it only got worse.

You spotted Chan standing stunned at one of the pillars near the water cooler in the cafeteria, holding his bag strap tightly in his hand as he scrunched his eyes shut, shaking his head firmly as he opened his eyes again, spotting you immediately after.

Dressed in his usual all black attire (not that you’d expected anything else from him), he’d slumped onto the seat of the bench you were sitting at, giving you a pitiful pained expression, tugging his hood over his head as he murmured a greeting to you.

Looking at him curiously as you munched on your lunch, you tilted your head at him, “what’s with the face?”

“Okay, I don’t know if I’m just going crazy but…I literally can’t focus today,” he sighed, pulling out his bottle which you assumed was his protein shake.

“What do you mean?” You hummed, “also, is this the thing your dad’s been making you drink?” You gestured to the bottle, earning a grim nod from him.

Pulling it closer to yourself, you took a whiff of its contents, resisting the urge to hurl once you’d done so, immediately cringing and pushing it back to him.

“Oh, man. Life’s hard.”

Chan mirrored your expression as he took the shake back from you.

“Anyway, I don’t know. Just now in class it was like every single sound was suddenly super loud and clear, I could barely single out my teacher’s voice. Even now it’s really hard for me to not pay attention to all these conversations around us,” he frowned, making you hum in thought.

Bringing a hand to your chin thoughtfully, you narrowed your eyes before shrugging abruptly.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s like ADHD or something,” you shrugged.

“You think so? It was so bad I actually considered that for a second…like mostly the inattention,” he shrugged.

“Maybe you should ask your mom if you could get checked if it doesn't go away by next week,” you suggested, earning a half-hearted shrug from him.

Chan focused on downing the rest of his strange protein shake at one go, not wanting to prolong his suffering, letting out a loud groan when he was done.

“D’you have any plans after school?” He asked, earning a shake of the head from you.

“Why?”

Chan thought back to what Minho said during class, wondering if he should try to create opportunities (or excuses) to hang out with you more.

“Oh, you know, my mom's asking if you wanna join us for dinner..." Chan's gaze searched your expression.

"You know, since your parents are working late at the hospital today," he added as an afterthought.

Mental note to tell mom Y/N is coming over.

You grinned at that, having always liked Chan’s mother’s cooking, giving him a vigorous nod.

"I finish pretty early today, though. So, I might head home first and shower or something,” you spoke around your mouthful of food, earning a sound of distaste from Chan.

Swallowing your food with a sheepish grin, you continued, "you have training today, right?"

He nodded, stealing a piece of meat from your plate, "But don't worry about me, I'll just meet you at my house after I'm done."

===

"Hey, babe,” your mom had met your dad at the vending machine at the hospital lift lobby while she was on the way to another patient's room.

Looking up and spotting your mom, your dad gave her an exaggerated look of pain, “just got out of surgery.” He heaved a sigh as he bent over to wait for his drink to fall to the bottom of the machine.

“Poor you. Anyway, I haven't heard from Chan's mom whether they got the…extract packets yet, you did deliver them, didn't you?"

Your dad's hand stopped mid-grab at the can of drink, the realisation that he indeed hadn't delivered them yet almost causing the can to slip from his hand.

He could picture the box sitting on the countertop in the kitchen, he'd even taken it out of the cooler fridge in the morning since he'd wanted to drop by Chan's house to deliver it to his parents before going to work that afternoon.

"Uh...yeah," his voice cracked as he replied your mother, giving her a more confident nod and clearing his throat.

"Yeah, you know I think they probably haven't seen it yet. I can ask Y/N to help us check, she told us she'd be going over to their house for dinner."

Your dad had managed to successfully divert your mom's attention away from the blood bags, letting out a snort at the mention of dinner.

"I still can't believe they do those family dinner things, once Chan's father tried describing the taste of steak to me and I couldn't get it out of my head whenever I saw him cooking it."

Your dad gave her a knowing look.

"You know they do it more for Chan than anything," he explained, “plus, he's got a pretty big appetite."

Your mom frowned, "I guess that makes sense. It'll be easier to tell if his tastes are changing."

Your dad nodded in agreement, “especially now. Remember what they said the other day? That he would probably start showing symptoms of a transition around this period of his life."

His expression was grim as he spoke, unsure what that would imply for you since you were in such close contact with Chan, who currently had no idea about anything to do with vampires.

"I have to go, we can talk about this another time," giving your dad an apologetic smile, your mom left promptly after.

Heaving a sigh of relief, your dad pulled his phone from his pocket to send you a text before he forgot.

dad 3:42pm - r u at home?-

Your reply came in shortly after

3:42pm - yeah i am, whats the stuff on the counter? R they the extract packets for Chan's family?-

dad 3:43pm - yes can u put them in the fridge quickly please! can u be a dear and pass it to them when you go over for dinner?- 3:43pm - and dont tell your mother i forgot!-

3:44pm -alrighty-

You thought nothing of it, simply doing as you were told since it was a common occurrence for your parents to gift Chan's family with things like this, you know, with Chan's parents being fairly health conscious and your own parents being doctors.

Glancing at the time, you were confident that you had a few hours to kill, proceeding to think of countless things you could do in an attempt to satisfy your boredom.

You’d spent majority of your time lazing on your bed contemplating on getting work done (which you eventually decided against), choosing to watch a movie to kill time before dinner, putting on whatever you could find on Netflix. You didn’t really care what the movie was about, simply wanting something to play in the background so you wouldn’t feel so bored.

Gradually, though, you’d found yourself growing jittery, increasingly excited and impatient for Chan to be done with his training so you could hang out with him, not knowing that he was already done, having hitched a ride home with his dad.

You were almost about to fall asleep to the protagonist of the movie’s monologue when the buzzing of your phone had woken you up, jumping slightly from the shock. Squinting at the bright screen of your phone, you read the text from Chan that just came in.

Chan 6:38pm -im home alr, gna take a shower but u can come over ill be done rly quick-

You yawned, sliding out of bed and putting on a sweater over your shirt, shoving your phone into your pocket and making your way to your kitchen in your half-asleep daze.

Heaving the box of extract packets out from the cooler fridge and setting it on the counter, you reached over to grab your keys and shove them into the other pocket of your sweatpants before you left the house, kicking the door closed behind you.

Knocking on the door, you’d tried to shift the box higher in your arms, supporting it with your leg as you waited for someone to open the door.

Soon enough, the door opened to reveal Chan’s mom, a flowery apron wrapped around her torso, her eyes widening as she saw you, a loud squeal leaving her lips as you greeted her.

“Y/N! Here, here, let me get that for you.”

She lifted the box you were struggling to carry with apparent ease, setting it aside before giving you a big hug, giving you a tight squeeze before pulling away, her hands coming up to cup your face, smoothing your hair down from where it got messy from the wind.

“Do you want to take a seat at the dining table first? Chan should be down soon,” she told you, not waiting for your reply before she went behind you, lightly pushing you into the kitchen where you’d spotted Chan’s dad with a similar apron on.

“Is that Y/N?” His dad turned, giving you a warm wave with his spatula, urging you to sit down at the dining table while you waited for the food to be done. You figured you were waiting for Chan to be done as well, being able to hear the faint sound of a hairdryer from upstairs as you walked to the dining area.

You’d sat and waited patiently after many (failed) attempts at trying to help them set the table, spotting Chan coming down the stairs as his parents were getting seated.

Dressed in a black sweater, his hair looking freshly dried and fluffy, you spotted Chan entering the dining room, the smile he was giving you looking awfully giddy as he took a seat next to you.

Your stomach almost growled at the sight of the food on your plate, thankful for Chan’s mom’s queue for everyone to start eating, and you dug in almost immediately, letting out a small sigh at the taste of the food.

“Wow, this tastes really good,” you praised, earning a chorus of ‘go ahead! Eat more!’ From his parents.

Chan momentarily wondered if it was the protein shake that was making his appetite wonky, deciding to just dismiss his reluctant feelings and swallow the food, figuring that maybe he just wasn’t in the mood for lamb chops today.

“How’ve you been, Y/N?” Chan’s dad asked you, and you would’ve almost spoken through your mouthful of food if not for the warning look Chan gave you.

Hurriedly swallowing your food, you smiled, “honestly, things have been pretty boring. There’s not much going on other than homework and lessons,” you let out a huff of amusement.

Chan nodded in agreement, “right, I forgot you didn’t join any clubs.”

“What about you, Chan? You’ve got a swim meet soon, right?”

He nodded, prompting his mom to continue.

“Has your body been feeling okay? Any changes in appetite? You know, it’s important to be in your best condition during competition season.”

Chan’s dad inspected his face for any sign of affirmation as his mother spoke, both parents feeling anxious at their son’s imminent transition and obviously not knowing how to approach it since it was, after all, their first and only child.

Chan shrugged, unsure how to explain this to his parents since he’d grown so used to competitions since he was a child, but he was only seeming to notice changes now.

You perked up at the mention of changes, nudging Chan with your elbow, making him turn to you with an expectant look, “you should tell her about the hearing thing.”

"What hearing thing?"

Chan shook his head in dismissal, but you hadn't waited for him to continue, knowing he would downplay it like how he always did when he didn't want his parents to worry.

"He was saying how he found it hard to focus because he can hear so many things and keeps getting distracted," you began, missing the knowing look Chan's mom had cast towards her husband.

Chan’s dad was quick to respond, “your mom used to go through something similar, but don’t worry, it'll go away after a while."

Chan raised his eyebrows in question but nodded nonetheless.

That night after dinner, you had both adjourned to Chan’s room, the comforting smell upon entering, that you couldn’t describe as anything other than Chan, instantly putting you in a relaxed mood.

You'd flopped belly-down onto Chan's bed, closing your eyes and letting a satisfied sigh escape your lips while the said boy was bringing his homework over to where you were, pushing you so you rolled over to make space for him.

You opened your eyes with a pout that he'd made you roll over, leaning over to inspect the papers before flopping back down on his bed.

"What's that?" you asked.

"Chemistry homework," he murmured, twirling his pen between his fingers as he glared at the questions, filling in answers with ease.

"Ew."

Chan let out an amused huff, his tongue sticking out slightly to wet his lips before he spoke, "do you still need a tutor? I can help you if you need."

You let out a sigh, rolling over so you were lying on your back now, your head next to Chan's textbook, his flipping causing his knuckles to graze your face lightly, the sensation almost causing Chan to pull back his hand instinctively.

"It's a little late for that, already have one. And thanks to him my chemistry is kind of improving,"

"Who?" there was an edge to Chan's voice that you found interesting, not knowing why this information was so important to him.

"Mingyu?” You answered, your hesitance making it sound like more of a question than an answer, “he's my lab partner."

Chan clenched his jaw, nodding. It wasn't any secret that you'd mentioned that Mingyu was 'charismatic' countless times before, but it wasn't as if you meant anything by it.

To you, it was the same as admiring an actor on tv.  But of course, Chan knew that. Which was why he surprised himself with how jealous he was getting at the mere thought of Mingyu tutoring you, getting carried away by thinking of all the opportunities he would get to joke with you or to see the small satisfied smile you would always have on your face after getting a question right. He was getting unusually sulky.

It was just chemistry, wasn't it? There was no reason to feel threatened.

Yet, Chan couldn't shake from his mind the possibility of you being attracted to Mingyu on a deeper level, something Chan wished he could achieve.

He'd caught you off guard when he glanced at you, his expression almost unreadable. As Chan leant over ever so slightly, you felt your heart rate pick up, the racing of your heartbeat loud as ever in your ears, almost making it hard to breathe (or maybe it was how nice he smelled, you weren't sure).

"Why didn't you ask me?" he teased, making your eyes widen, shoving him further away in your panic.

"Y-you know, it just never crossed my mind! And plus, like, you know, it's easier 'cause Mingyu's my lab partner," you fumbled for an excuse, your mind picturing Chan tutoring you instead of Mingyu, feeling strangely shy at the thought.

What was wrong with you? it's just tutoring, it's not that romantic.

Chan huffed, dimples appearing on his face as he smirked, shaking his head at you.

"You say it like you don't spend hours lying on my bed doing nothing almost every day," He sighed, his hand that was next to your head clenching tighter on his textbook, hoping he was just hallucinating when he thought he could hear the quick thumping of your heart.

In your panic, you'd gotten up from the bed abruptly, removing your sweater from how warm you'd gotten after whateverjust happened.

"Is that a new perfume you're wearing?" he mumbled absentmindedly once you'd removed your sweater, his gaze still fixed on his worksheets, penning down an answer as he awaited your reply.

"Nope, it's the one I've always been using," you told him, hearing him hum in surprise.

"Really? That's weird. I remember it smelling good when you started wearing it, but I never remembered it smelling this good," he laughed.

Rolling your eyes, you stretched your arm out so your wrist was exposed just below his nose. Taking a whiff, Chan winced at the sudden dull ache at his gums, at the same time it was like his other senses were dulled, the only thing he was able to focus on being the sudden urge to….eat?  

Gripping your wrist firmly, you watched with wide eyes as he brought your wrist down away from his face, trying to figure out why his appetite was only coming back now.

Maybe he really wasn't in the mood for lamb chops today.

"I'm kinda hungry, might go and grab something from the kitchen. You want anything?" you shook your head.

Leaving you (very confused) in his room, Chan had gone downstairs to the kitchen, his heavy footsteps getting the attention of his mom who was seated at the sofa, “Chan, dear can you help me throw this away in the kitchen?”

He made his way over to where his mom was seated, seeing that she was waving a now-empty packet of the concentrated extract packets your parents always gave them, humming in acknowledgement as he took the packet from her hands.

Bringing it over to the kitchen, Chan threw it into the bin, pulling the fridge open, only then realising that he’d gotten a bit of the extract on his fingers, bringing his thumb to his mouth to suck it off.

Then, there it was again. That dull ache in his gums, except this time he felt as though he’d found a taste similar to whatever he thought he was craving, the sweetness of the extract surprising him, since he remembered trying it in the past once when his parents weren’t home and only remembering it to have tasted horrible.

Maybe they changed the manufacturer.


Chan shrugged, deciding to take one of the packets from the fridge discreetly and head back upstairs. Entering the room, Chan spotted you lying on the same spot he’d left you in, staring curiously at his Chemistry homework.

“Why do your questions look so much harder?”

Chan scoffed, “maybe Mingyu needs to tutor you more,” he sing-songed, and you told yourself not to imagine the spitefulness to his tone.

Tearing an opening in the packet with his teeth and taking as sip of the extract, Chan almost let out a groan, looking at the packet with his eyebrows raised, still not being able to understand how it could taste so different from what he remembered.

“What’s that?”

“It’s the red ginseng thing your parents gave us,” he murmured, taking bigger sips of the extract, gulping it down as easily as if it were water, making your eyebrows furrow in confusion.

“Isn’t it really bitter?” You made a face of disgust, earning a vigorous shake of the head from him.

“No, not at all. You wanna try?” Chan held the packet in front of you, and taking it from his hands, you’d taken a small sip, the liquid immediately being rejected by your taste buds, the packet long forgotten as your hands flew up to cover your mouth before you could spit it out, getting up quickly to run to his bathroom, spitting out whatever you had in your mouth into the sink, finding the awful metallic taste of the liquid lingering on your tongue.

You weren’t sure if you were overreacting, but you’d got the sensing that what was in that packet was definitely not red ginseng, your mind naturally wandering to the most extreme possibility you could think of at the moment.

But that wouldn’t make sense, would it? You dismissed the thought quickly, figuring it would be too much of a coincidence, turning the tap on to rinse the liquid down the sink, not wanting to look at it any longer.

You almost hadn’t noticed Chan’s presence at the door of the bathroom, “are you okay? What happened? Did you like, choke or something?” He asked, concern laced in his tone and expression.

You shook your head, hiding your conflicting thoughts with a laugh, “I really…don��t think I can drink that stuff.”

You rinsed your mouth and brushed your teeth in your desperate attempt to get rid of the metallic taste, turning to face Chan afterwards, who had his lips pulled into a thoughtful pout.

“That was really gross, I still feel like throwing up,” you groaned, watching Chan finish the rest of the packet and dispose of it in the trash.

“Maybe you should rest, do you want some water?”

You nodded profusely, pouting sulkily at him, “yes, please. Thank you.”

Chan had made his way downstairs again, this time, when he was on his way back upstairs with a glass of water for you, he’d bumped into his dad who looked as though he were about to knock on his bedroom door.

“Dad?”

“Oh, Chan, can I um speak to you for a minute?”

Chan shrugged, letting his dad lead him to his parent’s room, where his mom was seated on the bed, inspecting the contents of a small palm-sized box she was holding.

Sitting on the bed next to his mom, Chan’s dad stood next to them as his mom began, “your dad and I were thinking it was about time we give you this, since you’re growing up now.”

Chan accepted the box from his mom, opening it and seeing a thick rimmed engraved ring, with a translucent gem sitting nicely embedded in the ring.

“It’s for protection. Your dad’s parents gave one to him and me when we got married, and it’s been serving us well ever since. We need you to make sure you have it on you at all times, is that alright?”

“Oh…” Chan glanced briefly at his parent’s hands, inspecting their own individual rings, “protection?”

“Yes, we believe there’s a sort of… luck about the ring. Which is why it’s very important that you wear it," she stressed.

Chan felt as though he were in some sort of fantasy movie, having only seen these things in the likes of Harry Potter movies, nodding dumbly along with whatever his parents were saying.

“Alright, I uh…I’ll go back to my room now, Y/N’s probably waited really long already...” He stood up, holding the box tightly in his hand as he left the room.

"What was that?!" Chan's mom whispered harshly at his dad once Chan left the room, shuddering as she recalled their awkward presenting of Chan's ring.

"I thought parenting was hard but I didn't know it was gonna feel this weird too," Chan's mom sighed.

"I think we did pretty well," he shrugged.

And Chan thought they did well too, until he was walking back to his room and the swarm of questions started to flood his mind:

Was the ring water resistant? What about swim meets, would he have to take it off then? But his parents said wear it ‘all the time’, so didn’t that mean he couldn’t take it off?

Chan was ready to tell you everything that had happened, hoping you would indulge him and his many questions like you always did for each other, opening the door as he spoke, “I have a question-”

Chan stopped himself when he’d heard the light snoring coming from where you lay on the bed, your head nuzzled into his hoodie that he’d left there. Letting a soft huff escape his lips, he’d set the cup of water on the bedside table, walking around you and clearing the bed of his worksheets and textbooks, tucking an arm ever so slowly beneath your knees and behind your back to carefully shift your position so your head would be on the pillow.

Taking his laptop and bringing it over to the bedside table, Chan got into bed, carefully peeling his hoodie away from your face, seeing you frown in your sleep, rolling over only to have your face press against his side, a deep sigh leaving you, Chan momentarily tensing when he felt your hand sling over his waist, hugging him as though he were a bolster.

Taking deep breaths, Chan pulled his laptop onto his lap, clicking on his Netflix tab with a sigh, anticipating a long night ahead.

===

“Woah,” you gasped, gaping as you stared at the timer in your hands, the sloshing of water in the pool drowned out by your shock.

Chan's head surfaced from the pool, pushing his (rather freshly dyed and cut) hair away from his forehead as he looked at you, his hand going up to wipe the water from his face.

"How'd I do?"

You sputtered, too shocked to form words as you showed him his timing.

"That's literally...your fastest one yet."

Chan's eyes widened at the sight of the timing, staring at you with his eyebrows raised, "H... how did this even..." he sounded breathless, earning a nod of agreement from you.

"I don't think I’ve seen anyone swim this fast, what are you, a vampire?" you laughed, earning a splash of water in your direction.

"You know, I'm pretty convinced it's all the gymming and the whole diet plan thing.” Chan noticed your unamused expression, making him huff and roll his eyes.

Wading over to where you sat at the edge of the pool, he brought his arms to rest against the edge, using his arms to gesture as he spoke.

"No, like, seriously hear me out. Ever since I started like eating the protein shakes and whatever and I’ve been taking the red ginseng stuff too, and I feel great, like everything seems a lot…more intense?” Chan tried to explain, earning an intrigued hum from you.

“Like, it’s as if my senses are like…heightened. Do you know what I mean?” He continued, and you couldn’t help but think of all the stories your parents would tell you about vampires, about how common it used to be in the town back when her parents were children, looking at Chan who was busy touching the ring on his finger.

Chan’s parents seemed absolutely normal, it wouldn’t make sense, would it? Dismissing the thought quickly, Chan had noticed you staring at his hands, looking away and clearing his throat loudly in an attempt to get you out of whatever trance you were in.

You opened and closed your mouth, fumbling to swipe out of your timer app to do a quick search on the benefits of red ginseng.

“I mean, I did hear that red ginseng has a ton of benefits,” you shrugged, scrolling through the results, mindlessly naming the benefits to him as you tried not to stare at him getting out of the pool.

Maybe the gymming was starting to show, especially now that you were seeing him while he wasn’t drowning himself in his one-size-too-big hoodies. Looking away as he grabbed his towel, he rubbed the towel against his hair as he stretched his free hand out to you.

“Are you gonna tell your dad about your new timing? When’s the deadline for you to submit it to the swimming people?” You asked, grasping his hand and letting him pull you swiftly off of the ground, again surprising you with the ease at which he did so.  

“We’re past the deadline already, the competition's in a few days, I doubt they’d accept any more changes in entries this close to the competition,” he laughed.

Your lips made an o shape, a low impressed sound leaving you, “ohh, the other swimmers are really gonna be shocked, then. I don’t even remember your rival being this good.”

Chan shot you a pointed look, knowing you were referring to the town council member’s son, “he’s not my rival, Y/N,” Chan shook his head at you with a smile, and oh, how Chan it was of him to say that.

You rolled your eyes.

"Yeah, whatever, the bane of my existence, then. Speaking of which, he replied to my post the other day,” you murmured.

“Oh yeah? What did he say?” Chan grabbed his backpack, beginning to walk with you to the shower rooms. Pulling out your phone, you’d scrolled through your camera roll to find the screenshot of the post where you’d taken a picture of the pool, captioning it that you were still waiting for Chan to finish practicing so you could go and eat.

Chan squinted his eyes, trying to read the reply that guy had left on your post, “tell Chan not to work too hard to get his ass beat for me babe,” Chan rolled his eyes after reading the comment.

“I took a screenshot to show you before I deleted his comment,” you laughed, shoving your phone back into your pocket.

And as usual, Chan replied graciously, “don’t let him get to you,” he told you, setting his things down at the bench near the doors of the locker room.

You bit your tongue, knowing that Chan was right that he still bothered you, and showing Chan his stupid comments wasn't going to make him any more bothered about it than you were because that was just how Chan was.

Patient, forgiving, no-violence Chan. Maybe that was what you liked so much about him, how he made you feel balanced, safe. And picturing him as a vampire was not doing anything for this already-formed judgement of Chan, afraid that it might change if it turned out to be true.

“Wait for me a little bit longer? I’m gonna take a quick shower,” Chan gave you a pleading look, even though he knew you would say yes.

And though you knew it too, you didn’t miss the opportunity to give him your best look of annoyance, making him rush to reassure you.

“Really, really, I swear. I’ll be quick. Sit tight,” he told you, entering the locker rooms as you were left to scroll through your social media.

True to his word, he was done quickly, and you'd made your way out of the indoor hall, unfortunately having to squeeze together with the crowd of students who were all rushing to go home as well.

You walked ahead of Chan, making your way through the halls when you suddenly felt a hand grip your wrist firmly, turning to see a rather uncomfortable-looking Chan, who had his other hand covering his mouth, the dull ache in his gums returning as the students pushed past the both of you.

"Hey, you okay?" your eyebrows were knit in concern, watching as his glazed-over gaze met yours, nodding a little belatedly.

"Yeah," he let out a controlled breath, "just gotta get out of here, feel like I can't breathe."

You'd never known Chan was claustrophobic, the newfound information making you grip his hand tighter and quicken your pace so you were out of the school gates in no time.

You heard him let out a deep sigh, his hand still grasping yours firmly, turning your head to watch closely as he brought a hand up to touch his teeth, feeling almost as though he were hallucinating when he'd felt his canines become more blunt, if that were possible (even though he was absolutely sure he'd cut his thumb on them the day before when he was inspecting his teeth in the mirror to find possible reasons behind his toothache).

"What happened just now? Are you okay?"

Chan shook his head, "nah it was nothing just.... happens when I'm in crowds, makes me feel really giddy and breathless, almost like I ran 50 laps without a sip of water."

You nodded in understanding, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. Could this have been...bloodlust?

"Maybe it's because I didn't cool down after practice," he shrugged, and for now, you accepted that answer.

===

Chan was practically humming with excitement when it was competition day, having drank the red ginseng every day since the last time he’d met you to practice, and you were the same, sitting in the spectators stand with some people who you recognised to be Chan’s classmates, who had invited you to sit with them since they’d seen you come in late.

You recognized one of them to be Minho, who you knew Chan was close to, and the both of you had managed to get along quite well whenever you talked, and you were glad he was here, providing you snacks and making conversation with you, even updating you on the events and the people whenever you were lost without you having to ask.

While you were waiting for the swim meet to start, you'd made conversation with Minho, delving into simple topics like what you studied and what you were planning on studying in the future and things like that.

"I bumped into Chan just now when I was on my way here," Minho mentioned casually, "has he been kind of weird lately?"

You raised an eyebrow at Minho's question, wondering what behaviour Chan showcased to make him think that way.

"Weird like how?"

"Like, I don't know. I asked you because he seemed a lot more energetic, thought you guys were finally dating or something."

You scoffed; your attention momentarily diverted as you heard the horn blast to commence the first swimming event.

"What made you think that?" you let out a nervous laugh, making him shrug, watching the swimmers with a satisfied smile on his face.

"No reason."

You watched in anticipation as the swimmers for the next event (which was Chan’s first event of the day), walked up to their respective lanes, with Chan in the middle lane.

"That guy keeps staring in our direction," Minho murmured.

Your frowned, "which guy?"

Minho gestured with his hand in the direction of the swimmers, "Chan's rival."

Your eyes lit up, "I'm not the only one who thinks they're rivals!" you cheered, only then realizing what Minho had said. "Wait, he's looking?"

You let go of your hesitance to cast a glance at the direction of the town council member's son, you realized that he was indeed looking in your direction, casting you a wink when you'd met his gaze.

Looking away immediately, your expression hardened, not wanting to show any sign of being affected by what he had done, simply giving Minho a shrug, "never liked him very much."

Minho let out an amused grunt, "same."

Watching the swimmers intently, you waited as Chan had participated for the breaststroke, and freestyle events, his last one being the Individual medley, where he'd essentially have to do four different types of swimming strokes. Though you knew Chan's timing for yourself, you couldn't help the nervousness that crept up on you once the event started, knowing Chan used to be weaker in his backstroke, not knowing if he'd improved.

But Chan had proven you wrong when you saw how fast he was swimming, finishing a lot faster than the other players.

"Woah." Minho's eyes were wide, turning to share a look of amazement with you.

You couldn't help but notice the dirty looks the council member's son was casting towards Chan, even going to the extent of spouting a few comments to try to throw Chan off, to which the boy would always respond by staring straight ahead, refusing to entertain him.

This wasn't to say Chan wasn't annoyed, no, he was very much annoyed. He just didn’t feel a need to react, not wanting his own personal feelings to get in the way of his performance. Like you always said, classic Chan.

The crowd cheered loudly when the event was over, and you cheered even louder knowing that this meant Chan was officially done with his events and that he could finally rest.

But before you could celebrate with him by watching a movie and snacking at his house, you had to sit through the wrapping up of the ceremony, unable to sit still through the prize ceremony (which seemed as though it lasted forever).

Figuring you might as well put your restlessness to good use, you tried taking pictures of Chan as he received his medals, zooming in as much as your phone allowed to get a good view of him. Minho seemed to sense your struggle with getting good photos of him, laughing at your lack of common sense.

"Why don't you just walk over there and take them? You'd get a much better view compared to here," Minho suggested, earning an impressed hum from you.  Going over to the balcony of the spectator stand in your attempt to take better pictures of Chan, trying to ignore the way he looked absolutely radiant from where he’d stood at the top of the stand, or trying to ignore how he would wave his hand in dismissal as he covered his smile, probably refusing another compliment from the Guest-of-Honour. But most of all, trying not to let your heart flutter at the tiny wave he gave you when he spotted you at the balcony.

After the ceremony had ended, you’d went back to your seat, focusing on filtering your pictures of Chan, favouriting the good ones so you could send it to him, feeling someone tap your shoulder, looking up to see that it was Minho.

“We're gonna head out first, will you be alright?"

You nodded profusely, waving a hand in dismissal.

“Yeah! Yeah, of course, go ahead,” you told him and his other friends quickly, earning an appreciative smile from them.

“Thanks, tell Chan we said congrats!” They beamed, leaving you to continue editing your pictures of Chan.

You were surprised at the crowd that lingered, not missing the way you heard some of them saying they were just waiting for Chan to come out so they could congratulate him before leaving, and soon enough you heard hushed whispers, assuming Chan had arrived. 


Waiting for him to greet you, you’d looked up with a smile when you felt the tap on your shoulder. However, your smile immediately dropped when you saw who was actually in front of you.

Your blood ran cold, almost freezing up in place as you saw the smile he gave you, “hey, babe. Stayed to wait for me?”

In your attempt to look unintimidated, you’d scoffed, “nope,” you looked elsewhere, not daring to look him in the eye and letting your gaze falter.

You’d shifted away when he’d taken a seat next to you on the bench, his hand going up to grasp your shoulder, pushing your hair away from your shoulder to reveal more of your neck.

“What’s got you all angsty? All I wanted was to say hi,” he shrugged, one of his hands going to grasp your forearm, making you shake your hand out of his grip. You would've expected more courtesy from a council member's son.

“You’ve said hi, now I’d appreciate if you could leave me alone.”

You’d almost shivered when he brought a hand up to pinch your ear, flinching away and absolutely hating the dirty feeling that lingered when he removed his hand, all you could think of was that you were desperate for Chan to show up, not trusting your own ability to retort.

“Hmm, I have to say, Y/N. The more you play hard to get, the more it’s reeling me in,” he laughed, making you stand up abruptly, taking a step away from him, oblivious to the fact that Chan had heard your conversation, making his way up to the spectator stand as quickly as he could.

“I’m not playing…hard to get,” you took a deep breath in, clenching your fists and desperately trying to reduce the trembling of your voice.

“Whatever you say, babe,” he shrugged, leaving you to regulate your breathing as he sat at the spectators stands at the bottom of the section.

“Y/N,” you heard the voice you were so thankful to hear, turning to see Chan standing there, giving you a warm smile as he gave you a wave, his other hand full of his bouquet of flowers and his bag.

You heaved a sigh of relief, giving him a smile, hoping he hadn’t seen your interaction with that guy but knowing deep down he probably did.

Chan made his way to stand at the aisle next to where you sat, your hand reaching out to grab his free hand, relishing in the feeling of safety that washed over you instantly, feeling him swaying your hands gently as you resisted the urge to close your eyes.

“You did so well just now! I have so many videos, it was amazing,” you told him, seeing him shake his head, maintaining his modesty, never one to receive compliments very well.

“I was honestly really surprised myself,” he laughed, his free hand going up to grasp the back of his neck, pulling the hood of his jacket over his head in an attempt to hide his red ears.

Chan had unconsciously looked over to where the guy was sitting with his friends, noticing that they were looking in your direction as well, the guy letting out a scoff before gesturing to the both of you.

“Oh, I get it now, so the reason why she’s been so hesitant is basically ‘cause Chris’ got her on a leash,” he sneered, making Chan furrow his eyebrows.

You sensed his change in demeanour, frowning as you looked up at him, “hey, what’s wrong?”

Chan shook his head at first, figuring it wouldn’t do him or you any good if he were to get angry, choosing to ignore it as you stood up, your hands going to cup his face as you tried to place what emotion he was feeling. Your action had almost calmed Chan down, but it had also seemed to elicit a reaction from the guy’s group of friends as well.

“I don’t blame him, if it were me I’d want that all to myself too, I mean look at her, shit, she’d look so much hotter if she wasn’t always covering herself up,” one of his friends had sputtered out with a laugh, making the guy sigh loudly in agreement with his friend.

“Makes you wanna take it off for her yourself, doesn’t it?”

Chan’s expression hardened, making your eyebrows raise, concerned as to why he was suddenly looking so upset.

“What did you just say?” Chan’s tone was stern, making your eyes widen.

“Me?” Chan had peeled your hands off of his face, giving you a small smile as he tried to suppress his anger.

“Nothing, hey, can you go wait for me at the lobby first? I just need to grab something quick and then we can go,” he told you, making you a little confused at the sudden switch in his behaviour again but nodding nonetheless, wanting to get out of this place as soon as you could.

Once Chan was sure you were out of sight, he made his way to where the guy and his friends were sitting, staring them down as he found himself acting faster than his brain could process.

“I’d appreciate it if you keep your disgusting comments to yourself,” Chan snarled, his fists clenching at his sides.


This had only seemed to amuse the council member’s son, who raised a challenging eyebrow at Chan.

“What comments?”

Chan was practically seething with anger, his jaw clenching with the amount of sheer restraint he was trying to maintain not to lash out at the boy in front of him, finding it strange that he was feeling this way since he usually didn’t get so riled up from his comments.

“Don’t play dumb with me. I saw the way you acted towards her. Couldn’t you tell that she was uncomfortable?”

“Didn’t seem like it to me,” the boy drawled, “oh but, we do have a question for you. Is Y/N as good at using her mouth for doing things other than running it?” He looked at Chan, the lift of his eyebrows almost daring Chan to snap.

Chan let out a deep breath through his nose, his fists clenching at his sides.

“Comments like what you just said about Y/N, she’s not comfortable with it, and neither am I. So, I’d really appreciate it if you showed some decency and at least tried to keep such comments to yourself.”

The guy made an expression of realisation, turning to his friends to snicker.

“I completely understand," the guy stood up, his hand coming up to push at Chan's shoulder, forcing him to stumble back slightly. Bringing a hand up to slap Chan across the face, patting his cheek harshly after to prolong the sting.

“Chris here's just getting all emotional trying to protect his little pet, I completely under-“

Chan wasn’t sure what came over him in that moment, all he knew was that he really wanted to put that guy in his place, and he didn't care if he was gonna have to face the damn town council for it if it meant that he would stop going after you.

Throwing his first punch to the boy's face, managing to trigger a nosebleed as he stumbled onto the floor, fumbling to grab his seat to find some stability after the impact of Chan's punch.

Chan wanted to stop at that, since you were probably wondering where he was and why he was taking so long. However, something about the way the blood dripping from the boy's nose had smelled was making Chan hazier than he already was.

"What the fuck was that for, dude?" he sputtered, getting up and swinging a punch towards Chan, which Chan had seemed as though he hadn't felt, simply narrowing his eyes at the boy.

It was as though he was going in and out of focus, not even realising how far he'd gotten into the fight as the people in the swimming complex had gaped at the scene.

Chan, fighting? it didn't seem like it was real, especially not with the way the guy's friends had joined in in an attempt to defend their friend but yet Chan had seemed immune to the pain, his frustration getting the better of him.

"Hey, dude, don't think you can just run away after doing that," his friends threatened, grabbing Chan's arms as they tried to prevent Chan from leaving.

Meanwhile, in the lobby, you were busy trying to identify all the flowers in Chan's bouquet when you'd heard a commotion coming from the swimming area, hearing the large double doors open to reveal a few guys from Chan's swimming team that you knew the faces of but not their names, running over to you with panic-stricken expressions.

"Hey, uh, I think you should come with us, it’s Chris.”

You frowned, already following them with brisk footsteps, a sick feeling in your stomach growing as you tried to picture what could’ve possibly been going on.

“What happened?”

Pushing open the door leading to the swimming area, your eyes searched desperately to find Chan in the crowd.

“He got into a fight with uh-”

Upon spotting Chan in the crowd, your heart sank, “him.”

You saw people trying to break up the fight, yet also hesitant to do so in fear of the council member's son. You ran over to where he was, your hands shaking from anxiousness and your heart pounding so hard you could hear it, pushing your way through the crowd and flinching when you saw that guy grip Chan by the collar, as the rest of his friends had pulled Chan's hands behind him. Chan shoved his friends backwards, freeing his hands from their grip with apparent ease before taking the boy's hand that was grabbing his collar, pulling it away from his chest, making you wonder how hard Chan was gripping him for him to immediately cower in fear, desperately trying to pull Chan’s hand off of his.

“Chan!” You called, and you saw the guy turn to you, a look in his eyes begging you to stop Chan that you couldn’t help but pity.

Deciding it was now or never, you intercepted, pushing the guy away from Chan and grabbing Chan’s arms, successfully managing to direct his gaze to yours, and you almost sighed in relief when you saw his gaze soften, his expression changing to that of a kicked puppy, his haziness mixed with confusion at the sight of you.

The crowd had started to disperse, and you led Chan out of the swimming area, away from prying eyes. Mindlessly following you, he hadn’t uttered a word even as you left the school gates, too shocked to notice that the wounds on his knuckles were already healing, all he could process now being that he felt so embarrassed that he’d let himself act out like that, that he’d let his anger get the better of him even after all the times he told you not to let what he says get to you. Only now managing to let the haziness fade off now as you were walking briskly in front of him, the reality of the situation beginning to sink in.

“Are you mad at me?” You were shocked at the way his tone sounded so defeated, so afraid to hear your answer.

You shrugged, your hand still gripping his tightly. Glancing at his hand discreetly while walking, you noticed the smoothness of his previously bruised knuckles. His wounds were healing.

“Should I be?”

You didn’t know what the fight was about, or how it started, and frankly you didn’t really care at this point of time. All you knew was that you saw the way his expression looked when you stopped him, and you knew you wanted to make sure that he was okay.

“I’m sorry,” he stopped you before you reached the street you both lived on, his gaze directed towards anywhere but you.

“I don’t know what came over me, I just…got really angry and before I knew it you were stopping me,” he sighed, feeling as though he could cry thinking of how easy it was for him to underestimate his strength.

You nodded, “I know, it’s not like you to get into physical fights like these,” you murmured, regretting your choice of words when you saw him look even more upset.

Giving you a nod, he continued, “yeah…it isn’t.”

Chan felt like burying his face in a pillow and screaming, there was no way you’d be able to see him in the same light as before, all he’d shown to you was that he was reckless, and from what he was sure of, there was no way that was part of traits you looked for in a guy.

“I’m really…really sorry,” you heard him say, starting to walk again, and you were starting to grow worried at how Chan seemed as though he were beginning to shut down, knowing that it was best to give him his space to collect his thoughts now.

You’d walked the rest of the way with him to his house in an uncomfortably tense silence. Your phone was lighting up non-stop with notifications from different people, sending you the video someone had taken of the fight and telling you to look at it. While you were holding up your phone, Chan had caught a glimpse of the contents of the messages, only serving to make him feel even worse about himself.

Entering his house, Chan had let go of your hand silently after giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“I’m gonna go upstairs,” Chan gave you a sad smile before heading upstairs, ignoring the calls of his mother who was currently in the living room typing on her computer.

“Y/N, honey. What happened? Is Chan alright?”

Setting her laptop on the sofa cushion, she’d gotten up to approach you, casting a concerned glance upstairs.

You let out a nervous laugh, “uh... I guess? He’s not really okay, per se. It’s more of like a…” you trailed off in your rambling, unsure how to approach the topic.

You lowered your voice, “he kind of got into a fight at school,” you murmured, earning a wide-eyed look from his mom.

She opened and closed her mouth in lack of a response, tilting her head in disbelief, “fight?”

You huffed in nervousness.

“Yeah, I know, it’s pretty…out of character. But he seemed really upset about it, and I thought it was better if you knew… you know, before the school calls you about it and all," you shrugged, “or the town council, you really never know,” you added as an afterthought.

She let out a small sigh, nodding, “thanks for telling me, dear. I'll have a chat with him, are you going up?"

You shook your head quickly.

"Oh, nah, it's fine. I think it'd be better if I let him have his space...and stuff," you huffed, flashing Chan's mom a polite smile before leaving the house.

Meanwhile, Chan had taken the longest shower of his life, hoping the water would drown out the sound of you and his mom talking downstairs. He'd been in the shower long enough that his mom had turned off the water heater, Chan taking that as his queue that it was about time to stop prolonging his shower to delay facing his worries.

Once he was out of the shower, Chan wasn't sure why he'd expected to see you in his room, letting out a deep sigh when he was met with the opposite.

Checking his phone in the hope that you could’ve messaged him, he was surprised when he saw that he really did have a notification from you.

He scrolled past the pictures and videos from his swim meet, immediately reading the string of messages you'd sent:

7:34pm -text me so I know you’re okay :(- 7:37pm -and before you ask me again, I’m really not mad at you- 7:37pm -let me know if you need to talk, alright? Rest well-

Chan was about to reply you, hearing a knock at his door and hearing his mom whispering harshly outside to whom could only be his dad.

Chan 8:00pm -thanks, u shld get some rest too-

Chan watched as his bedroom door opened, his parents entering his room with serious expressions that only made him dread what kind of conversation they were about to have even more. Not that his parents had ever lectured him before, but he knew that this circumstance was different.

“Hey, honey, how are you feeling?” His mom began, sitting next to where he was sitting leaning against the headboard, his dad walking over to his desk table, picking up the packet of red ginseng Chan had forgotten he’d left there.

“Oh yeah, sorry. I forgot to tell you I’ve kind of been drinking the red ginseng extract,” Chan sighed, making his mom suck in a sharp breath.

“Right, that’s kind of what we wanted to talk to you about, honey. That’s…not red ginseng,” his mom began, pressing her lips together firmly before mustering a casual smile.

“Okay, remember how mom and dad used to tell you and Y/N stories about vampires in this town?”

Chan felt himself freeze up, his gaze immediately falling onto his ring, unsure if he was reading too much into what his mom was saying.

“There’s no other way to tell you this, Chan, your mom and I, we’re vampires,” Chan’s eyes widened, staring blankly at his parents as his dad continued.

“Your mom was turned after you were born, so we thought initially that you might not show the same traits as all vampires, but we only found out after you were born that you would only develop the traits later on in your life, which is…now.”

Chan felt as though he were dreaming, that this was just another story that he heard that he would share with you later on, except it wasn’t, because his parents had started to name the traits, and only then did Chan realise how much he’d been misidentifying his traits, potentially putting the people around him in danger.

“And uh…Y/N’s parents know, of course, since they’ve been providing us with the blood.”

“Does Y/N know?” Chan frowned.

His mom shook her head hesitantly, “we don’t…think so, from what we know she still doesn’t know.”

Chan inhaled deeply, feeling as though the weight on his chest had only gotten heavier. He hadn’t even told you he liked you yet, and now he had to tell you he was a vampire of all things too?

“And about the blood, usually one bag is enough to last you for a week, but we're thinking the reason you might be finding it a little hard to control your bloodlust is because you've been drinking it so regularly that your body, especially because you’re still adjusting, just needs more, do you understand?"

Chan felt like he was gonna be sick, this whole time he had been drinking blood? He recalled the time he'd let you try it and you'd almost puked at the taste; Chan hadn't found it weird then but now that he knew this, he felt veryuncomfortable.

"Is it…human blood?"

His dad nodded his head. “The hospital has a system where people donate their blood for the sake of this arrangement, similarly to how they did in the past when there were more vampires in the town. And it’s ensured that the people are taken care of and allowed to recover after donating.”

Now Chan really felt sick, not being able to quite process the events that had been occurring the past few weeks in a new light.

He thought about the fight that had happened, how hazy he was because all he could think about was how thirsty he was and how giddy with frustration that was making him feel, only now he could actually place what he was craving.

"Which is also why we gave you the ring, it's to protect you from the sun. If you don't wear it when you go out, you could pretty much burn to death." Chan’s dad shot a look at his mom for her bluntness, having been able to sense how shocked his son was.

Chan's eyes widened in shock, his hand instinctively going to touch his ring.

"Are we missing anything out?" Chan's mom turned to his dad to ask, earning a delayed shake of his head.

"I don't think so, but Chan, if you have any questions about it please come to your mom and I, we really...we were afraid of how you'd adjust to the changes so we just wanna make sure you're okay."

Chan nodded, still feeling as though his head was spinning with the sheer weight of the information he was suddenly receiving.

"I think I just need some time to get used to it, but I'll be fine...hopefully," he let out a half-hearted laugh.

Chan's dad mouthed to his mom while he was busy zoning out 'we should leave him alone'

Taking the queue to leave, Chan's mom patted his leg gently, "we'll go now, then. Goodnight, honey."

Giving them a small smile, Chan waited for them to leave before he could flop back onto his pillow with a groan.

===

That night, your parents had returned home earlier than usual, having eaten dinner already, you’d sat yourself on the recliner in your living room, debating on whether or not to watch the video that you now had multiple copies of saved in your phone from the sheer multitude of times it was sent to you.

Deciding to click on it, you went to the comments first, hoping it would give you a little insight on what the contents of the video were.

You scrolled through the comments.

‘wow he’s such an asshole, if I were that guy I wldve beat him up too’

‘is he talking abt y/n???’

‘I was there at the fight… he didn’t do anything wrong...I would’ve been mad if I heard someone talking abt my friend like that too’  

You let out a sigh, deciding to click on the video and turn the volume up so you could hear what he said, a strong feeling of discomfort building in you as you heard what that boy had said about you, flinching in shock when you saw the way Chan had punched him, the impact sending the boy stumbling to the ground.

You’d continued watching with wide eyes, the recording only stopping after you had intervened, setting your phone down with a small sigh, resting your head in your hands and closing your eyes, trying to process what had happened.

Chan was definitely going to get suspended because of you.

“Y/N?” You raised your head slowly, spotting your dad entering the living room with a bowl of fruits, going over to sit on the sofa closest to you, holding the bowl out for you to take.

You mustered a smile as you took the bowl from him, deciding against telling him about what had happened, not wanting to trouble your dad after his long day at work.

“Thanks. How was your day?” You asked him before he could direct the question to you, seeing him give you a knowing look.

“Got called in to treat this boy’s injuries today, boy called for the head doctor specifically because his dad was a council member,” your heart sank, wondering how badly he was injured since you’d left the scene so hastily. So much for not telling him what happened.

“The kid came in with a broken wrist, nose and ribs,” your dad continued, making you wince at the thought of the amount of strength Chan would’ve had to have to cause such injuries just from what you saw in the video. “So, you know. As a doctor, I have to ask how it happened, right?”

Your eyes widened, “dad, you have to understand, Chan really doesn't usually get into fights like this, I wasn’t there when it happened, I tried to stop him as fast as I cou—"

“I’m not mad at Chan, honey.”

You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion, “you’re…not?”

Your dad smiled, shaking his head, “I mean, of course, as a medical practitioner I should be against all sorts of violence, but…I understand why Chan did it. Hell, even your mom wanted to pummel that poor boy, you should’ve seen his face when he realised who we were. I’ve watched Chan grow up, I know he’s a good kid.”

You couldn’t help but laugh, shaking your head as you were able to picture your mom’s reaction.

Your mom had finished washing up, making her way downstairs to join you and your father in the living room, “are you guys talking about that stupid boy we saw in the hospital today?”

She’d huffed in annoyance as your dad nodded, taking a seat next to your dad as she munched on the remaining fruits your dad had left over for her.

“We saw the video,” your mom said, earning a grimace from you.

“I really didn’t like the things he said about you, baby. But I’m glad Chan was there to stand up for you when we couldn’t,” she told you seriously, “I have to say, I’m really glad you and Chan have each other.”

“How is he, anyway?”

You shrugged, “a mess, basically. He feels really bad for hitting the guy, thought he could use some space, so we haven’t talked much after I brought him home.”

Your mom scoffed, “yeah well that boy deserved it.”

Your dad gave her a warning look, letting out a small sigh.

“Chan’s a good kid,” he said, more to remind himself than anything, his previous reservations about how safe you would be around Chan beginning to dissipate. If today wasn’t enough evidence, it was clear that you were the last person Chan would want to hurt. Instead, you were the one he would go out on a limb for to protect.

You frowned. You knew Chan was a good kid, of course you knew that, he was your closest friend. You’d seen him grow from being too shy to even introduce himself to the class to someone who was strong, stood for what he believed in, and unashamed to be generous with his love (although he was still a little shy).

Knowing Chan, you couldn’t imagine the kind of inner conflict he was going through now, wanting to comfort him but at the same time knowing he needed space to think. If he was a vampire, how much of him would change? So far, all you saw were physical changes, but you were starting to wonder if there were actually changes taking place that you couldn’t see, changes that could’ve made him act up like how he did today.

“What’s with that expression, baby?”

You shook your head, “nothing…actually, do you remember all the stories you used to tell us about vampires?”

You missed the look your mom and dad had exchanged, shifting your position on the recliner so you were sitting on your legs, hearing them hum in affirmation.

“Uh-huh, what about them?”

You pursed your lips, a part of you knowing you had to ask but another part of you having an inkling on what reply they were going to give you, figuring you’d might as well ask now so you could stop theorising about it.

“I have a question, but it requires you to answer me with complete honesty, okay?”

“About what, dear?” Your dad asked.

You took a deep breath,

“Chan…is he like,” you huffed in amusement, finding the situation to feel all too unreal yet extremely real at the same time, “is he a vampire?”

===

You hadn’t seen Chan for the next few days, hearing from Chan’s mom that he was still resting and that he’d been suspended for a week after the fight. Sure, you’d text, but it was never more than asking what you did in school or telling him what he’d missed in lessons. It was as if neither of you wanted to talk about the fight, especially Chan.

You were waiting for him to reach out to you first, and it was only a matter of days before he did, sending you a text on whether you wanted to hang out that evening.

3:38pm -wanna come over to my place instead? We can watch the latest episodes of my vampire show-

You had texted him, and Chan was determined not to let the whole vampire situation deter him. He would have to face it at one point, anyway.

Chan 3:40pm -sure thing-

In the time that Chan was waiting for you to get home, he was busy trying to rehearse how to act.

Do I bring dinner there? But if I bring dinner there I won’t wanna eat it and she’s gonna sense something is up. Unless I just act really well?

Chan dismissed the thought. He couldn’t help but wonder if things would be awkward for the both of you since you were so used to seeing each other regularly. And would you be able to sense that things were off? Chan always whined about your vampire show, you didn’t even notice how compliant he was being this time, simply focused on how much you wanted to see him and make sure he was doing okay.

Chan had taken a shower in a poor attempt to make himself feel less stressed, changing into his black hoodie and sweatpants when he saw your text saying he could come over already, and that you ordered take out.

He’d also noticed another text from his mom

Mom 6:01pm -make sure to eat, alright? you haven’t eaten since your game day-

Chan sighed, replying his mother to appease her and going over to your house. Upon knocking on your door, you wondered why Chan hadn’t just let himself in like he always did, but you jogged over to the door nonetheless, hoping you didn’t look overly excited when you saw him.

If you did, it was gone quickly. Chan looked as though he hadn’t slept in days, looking more tired than anything, giving you a small smile when he saw you.

“You look tired, Chan,” you frowned, and out of habit, you’d brought your hands up to cup his face, your eyes filled with concern, which only served to make Chan even more shy under your gaze, knowing his…eating habits weren’t the easiest thing to explain to you at this point.

Bringing his hands up to grasp at your wrists, he gave you a reassuring smile, “I’m fine, Y/N, don’t worry about me.”

You removed your hands from his face, closing the door behind him and locking it before you’d gone to the living room, where he saw that the food you ordered was already sitting on the coffee table (as if he hadn’t been able to smell it the moment he stood outside your door).

“How’s house arrest?” You joked.

Chan let out a groan, “boring. I’ve already done all the homework so there’s literally nothing else for me to do.”

“What a nerd,” you scrunched your nose up, making him scoff, a satisfied smile appearing on your face as your comment elicited a smile from him.

You flipped open the pizza box and took a slice for yourself as your free hand switched the television on, “well, I must be your lifesaver, then, for asking you to come over. Though I wasn’t expecting you to say yes,” you shot him a knowing look, “you always make fun of my vampire show.”

Chan shrugged, letting out a high-pitched sound in his hesitance, “you know, I guess it’s not that bad,” he shrugged.

You hadn’t questioned Chan on why he wasn’t eating, not wanting to put him on the spot. You’d explained to him the context of the show when he’d asked, finding him awfully quiet while watching the show, a drastic absence of his usual comments on how it was unrealistic. Chan knowing very well that it was possible now.

When an episode of your show had ended, you’d gone to dispose of the pizza box and kept the leftovers in case your parents wanted something to snack on when they came back from the hospital. Washing your hands and cutting some fruits before returning to the living room.

In a momentary lapse of judgement, you’d offered Chan a forkful of fruit, only realising the absurdity of the question afterwards, but not being able to withdraw your offer without it seeming weird. Chan knew this as well, simply leaning over and biting the fruit off of your fork, swallowing it down after barely chewing it.

“Sweet,” he murmured, frankly not knowing whether it was sweet or not with how quickly he’d swallowed it.

You’d let the next episode play, looking as though you were watching the show intently but frankly not being able to focus on anything other than Chan’s presence next to you. It was strange, almost upsetting, how he’d suddenly not dared to wrap his arm around your shoulder like he usually did, or rest his hand on one of your legs so you could let him play with your fingers absently like how he usually did. Now all he did was fiddle with his own fingers as he sat restlessly in his seat.

“Are you…staying over?” You asked, preparing yourself for the disappointment of him saying no.

“Can I?” He asked, turning to look at you with an expression similar to that of a child asking for extra sweets.

You let out a huff, not being able to understand why he felt the need to ask you after so many years of doing so yet knowing why at the same time.

“Of course, you can. You don’t even need to ask,” you shifted your body on the sofa so you were facing him a little more, supporting your elbow on the sofa cushion as you continued to eat your fruits.

“Thanks for this, by the way,” he told you, making you furrow your eyebrows, giving him a confused frown.

“For what?”

“For inviting me over.”

You’d almost forgotten the show was playing, a loud commotion from the show dragging your attention away from Chan temporarily, the both of you having only being able to focus on this conversation you were having with each other.

“You were the one that wanted to hang out first, I should be thanking you” You murmured, seeing him poke his tongue in his cheek before shaking his head slowly.

“I didn’t wanna show up uninvited...and all…. didn’t sit right with me after…whatever happened. Felt like you needed your space too,” he shrugged, knowing you were just as shaken up as he was from your interaction with the guy, something you were still unaware that Chan had seen.

You couldn’t help but smile, “you’re always invited, alright? You could show up at 4am unannounced and I’d still let you in,” you laughed, seeing a hint of a smile playing at his lips.

“Thank you,” he took in a deep breath, “I was starting to come up with any excuse I could to come over.”

Chan huffed, his gaze searching yours for an expression he could place, “I really needed any excuse to see you.”

You felt as though you couldn’t move, averting your gaze from Chan so you would stop glancing at his lips. You just weren’t sure what was coming over you, all of a sudden feeling so enamoured of him as he was sitting in front of you, filled with so much unadulterated affection towards him that you’d just really wanted to kiss him.

You’d wished you could slap yourself, here you were having a nice comforting moment with Chan, yet you couldn’t stand the fact that he was sitting so far away from you. That wasn’t how these things usually worked, was it?


“Lets…continue watching the show,” you blurted, thankful he hadn’t refuted.

And so you did, except this time, you both did what you always did, snuggle up against Chan as his hand rested comfortably around you, his other hand playing with your fingers, pressing the pads of his fingers against your fingertips and smoothing his thumb over your knuckles, his actions exuding warmth.

And as habitual your actions were, somehow, they felt extremely new, the warmth and comfort Chan made you feel slowly lulling you to sleep, your show long forgotten by the both of you.

Chan had woken up when he heard the crack of thunder outside the window, not knowing how the both of you had ended up falling asleep, your head bent at what looked like an uncomfortable angle as you were fast asleep, your hand grasping Chan’s.

Chan had carefully lifted himself from the sofa, slipping his hands under you to lift you up, almost hissing when you’d stirred awake, your eyes opening to blink at him groggily. Chan decided to pull you all the way up into a standing position, his hand coming up to smooth your hair down, eliciting a tired smile from you. You’d wanted to turn your head, halting halfway when you felt a sore pain in your neck, Chan immediately knowing it was from your bad sleeping posture.

“Are you okay?” His hand gently massaged your neck at where your hand was, “let’s get you upstairs, hmm?”

You’d frowned, emotions heightened in your half-asleep daze.

“I missed you,” you frowned, as if you were only realising it now as he was standing before you, especially because there was a part of you that was afraid he wasn’t going to be there when you woke up and that you’d just dreamed up this meeting of yours.

“You’re always so…. nice to me,” you sighed, sleepiness taking over and causing you to let your head rest against his chest. Chan was thankful you weren’t awake enough to notice how flustered he was, letting his hand continue to gently rub at your neck.

“I care about you a lot too, you know?” you mumbled, making Chan halt his actions. His eyebrows raising in surprise, unsure how to react.

“You must be really tired, let’s get you upstairs so you can sleep,” his tone was gentle, leading you upstairs and into your room, as you slipped under the covers and waited for him to do so as well, stretching his arm out so you could come closer, wrapping your arm around his waist as your head pressed against his chest. Chan held you close to himself, too tired to pay any heed to the way his fangs ached, suppressing his hunger for your sake.

Chan wasn’t sure what came over him to warrant his next sentence, “what if I said I liked you?”

You smiled, already slipping into that foggy period between sleep and wakefulness, “I’d be glad.”

Chan’s eyes widened.

“You’re joking, right?” He asked. Figuring he was too late when he was only met with your light snoring in reply.

===

"I knew you'd cave," Minho's smug tone echoed in Chan's bedroom, earning an eye roll from Chan.

"Yeah, alright. Fine, so what do you think? Is it a good idea?" Chan brushed Minho's comment aside, already whipping his sketchbook out in his assumption that Minho would acknowledge the ingenuity of his idea.

"Absolutely not," Minho burst into a fit of giggles.

Chan scoffed, his hand halting before he could write anything down on the sketchbook.

"Why not?" he whined, setting his pen down on his sketchbook with a heavy sigh, leaning back in his chair to run his hands through his hair in frustration.

"Are you hearing yourself? You really think she’s gonna swoon if you re-enact some scene from some rom com you're not even a hundred percent sure she's seen before?"

Chan pouted. The idea seemed pretty romantic in his head, the whole 'love actually' sketchbook scene. There were many pros to it in Chan's eyes: Firstly, that he wouldn't have to speak, and secondly, that he would be able to plan his words beforehand. And Thirdly, it was certified as ‘romantic’ by the general public, so there was a higher chance of you thinking it was romantic too, in Chan’s opinion.

However, Minho had only seemed to see the cons.

"First of all, didn't the sketchbook guy get friend-zoned? Secondly, stop hiding behind these movie moments, this is like the 5th romantic movie related confession scene you've brought up in this one conversation."

"Then what do you suggest I do? Stand outside her window and shout out my love for her?"

Minho snorted, "okay, slow down, Romeo. Take this systematically. What kind of things does Y/N like?"

Chan's answers came from the top of his head, "I don't know?! Cute vampires?"

Minho guffawed, his laughter muffled obnoxiously over the phone, "well that's perfect, then, isn't it? You're already a vampire, get her a bit tipsy and she'll probably think you're cute too!"

Chan huffed, "ha, ha, very funny. This is giving me a headache."

Minho let out an intrigued hum, "headache?"

Chan sighed, "yeah, jokes aside, my head's been hurting since the morning."

Minho frowned, a short period of silence on his side of the line before he questioned, "are you seriously still not eating?"

Chan fell silent, not wanting to pursue the topic and end up getting another lecture from Minho. He was the only one that knew about it other than his parents, but in moments like this, Chan wished he hadn't told someone as sharp as Minho.

"No comment," Chan murmured.

Chan heard Minho let out a deep sigh, his following words falling on deaf ears when he saw your contact pop up on his phone screen.

y/n 10:14pm -wyd? kind of need ur help-

Chan replied quickly.

10:14pm -nothing much, want me to come over?-

y/n 10:14pm -yes pls that’d be great thank u-

That was all Chan needed you to say for him to get ready to go over.

"Hey, Minho, thanks for the help. I'm going to her house now, I'll talk to you another time."

Minho let out a displeased grunt, "yeah, yeah. Whatever, go."

Chan couldn't help the smile from his face, grabbing his jacket and heading downstairs.

“Where are you going, honey?” His mom asked, wondering why her son looked so happy to be heading out in the middle of the night.

“Y/N’s house, I’ll be late, bye!” he called, which Chan’s mom took as ‘I’ll be staying over’, in other words.  

Letting himself into your house with his spare key, Chan had heard the sound of your voice coming from the living room.

”Chan, I'm over here," you called.

Walking into your living room, Chan had spotted you sitting on the floor at the coffee table, leaning against the sofa with your eyes closed.

He'd noticed the haphazard layout of what he assumed was schoolwork splayed across the expanse of the coffee table, along with the almost empty cup of tea sitting at the edge of the table, making a ring on one of your discarded pieces of writing.

"What's the damage?" Chan huffed in amusement, his dimples appearing as you opened your eyes to look at him tiredly.

"I've been avoiding these questions for like basically half the day, but I really tried doing it and I really can't seem to figure it out," you lamented, stretching your hand out to beckon Chan over, eyeing him as he peeked over at the contents of the worksheets, figuring he couldn't miss this opportunity to tease you once he saw what it was.

"Chemistry, huh? Why didn't you ask Mingyu?"

Your eyes widened, looking blankly at him as he scooched over closer to you, picking up the paper with your circled, un-done questions.

"I...I don't know," you murmured, shrugging. You were too tired to think straight at this point, simply speaking off your mind in reply to Chan's question.

"Guess you were the first person that crossed my mind to call."

Chan had lifted the paper higher to hide his face from you, his smile growing as his shyness doubled, giving you a thoughtful hum.

Chan gestured to your first circled question, “this one is solved pretty much the same as the previous question. You got the answer at first, why'd you erase it?" he laughed, gesturing to your angry pencil scribbles next to the question, making you frown.

"That was correct? What the-"

"And for this question, you have to use this equation," he scribbled next to the question, "It's really similar to the one you used but you have to use this because the question mentions this," his words weren't making sense to you because of the tapping of the pen on the paper when he gestured between the equation, the questions and your scribbles.

"Are you following me?" Chan asked, seeing your delayed reaction of removing your gaze from your paper to give him a wide-eyed look. He knew you weren't listening, and that you'd ask him how to do the questions again later on while you were doing it, Chan just couldn't help but want to tease you, especially with how tired and sleepy you looked, practically begging for cuddles.

"Uh-huh," you nodded.

“As for this one, I think you should read the question out loud,” there was a slight smirk at his lips, handing the paper over to you as you read out the question slowly, only then realising what you missed out, looking at him with a sheepish expression.

After you’d done the questions, you’d wanted to go get a refill for your tea.

“Do you want anything?” You yawned, earning a shake of the head from him.

“Alright, I’ll be quick,” you told him, bringing your cup over to the kitchen. The hot water jug was full, since you’d just filled it before you started doing your work.

However, in your haste to pick it up, you felt a sharp pain in your wrist, reflexively dropping the jug back onto the table, knocking the teacup off of the counter in the process, causing it to break into shards against the tiled floor.

In your haste to pick the pieces up, you’d underestimated the crack on the glass, which nicked your palm painfully, making you let go of the glass as you sucked in a sharp breath.

Chan had gone over to the kitchen the moment he heard the teacup shattering, going over to help you clean up but stopping in his tracks when he’d smelled the blood from the cut, feeling the now-familiar ache in his gums.

Was not feeding for more than 2 weeks a good idea? In retrospect, probably not, Chan was realising now, as he struggled to suppress his thirst as he looked upon the scene.

“Wait, wait, don’t move,” his words were muffled by the hand covering his mouth, and only then did you realise the blood had started to drip slightly down your wrist.

You’d taken a step back, trying to stop the bleeding with a cloth as Chan helped you clear up the glass, disposing of it quickly.

He’d kept his mouth closed the entire time, not wanting to risk anything as he insisted on helping you to tend to your wound.

“Chan, it’s fine I can do it myself,” you dismissed, earning a stern look from him.

“With one hand? I don’t think so. Look, just sit here, let me do it for you,” he told you with his back facing you as he took the first-aid kit out of the overhead shelves, making you sit at the dining table.

Pulling his shirt up to cover his nose as you washed your hand, you couldn’t help but find his determination to cover his mouth rather amusing.

“Did they teach you this in first-aid training?” You joked, trying to stifle your laughter as he narrowed his eyes at you.

You didn’t miss the hazy look in Chan’s eyes as he was taking the ointment out from the first-aid kit, staring at your hand and visibly gulping.

“Chan,” you called, drawing his gaze away from your cut, only then realising that he wasn’t doing anything.

“Oh, right, sorry.”

Shaking his head, he’d squeezed the ointment on the cotton bud, applying it on your cut as gently as he could, his hands moving quickly to grab the gauze to cover the cut with, disposing of the cotton bud and returning the first-aid kit to its original place, walking past you to sit at the dinner table, his hands going back up to cover his mouth, not even noticing he was staring at your hand with a far-too-glazed-over-to-be-normal look.

“Chan, are you okay?”

He averted his gaze almost reluctantly from your hand, looking at you with wide eyes, his hands still covering his mouth.

“Yeah, just…yeah…”

“You look even more tired than you did the other day, are you sure you’re okay?”

Chan shook his head, “nah, yeah, I’m really fine.”

You had to stop yourself from looking too amused, standing up to walk over to your fridge, where your parents kept the other smaller box of extract packets that they hadn’t given Chan’s family yet. Taking one out of the box, Chan’s eyes widened as you brought it over to him, pushing it towards him.

“Hmm?”

“You look like you could use it, you know… all those… revitalising properties.”

Chan shook his head firmly, “no, no, really it’s fine.”

“I’m serious, Chan. Just drink it.”

Chan looked at you curiously, wanting to figure out what you were trying to do but at the same time not being able to resist the temptation of his food right in front of him.

He thought back to how dangerous it could have been for you if he had less self-control than he did just now, deciding it was in his and your best intentions to eat now.

Reaching over hesitantly, Chan had grabbed the packet from the table top, bringing it slowly to his mouth, “don’t look, please.”

“Why not? We’ve eaten in front of each other a thousand times,” you laughed.

Chan shook his head, “no I’m kind of like...a messy eater.”

You entertained him for now, looking away briefly but looking back at him just as quick, watching intently as he brought the packet up to his lips. Chan felt the ache in his gums return, ripping a slightly-too-big opening in the packet with his teeth in his haste, beginning to drink from the packet.

Chan was sure it was because of how he hadn’t fed in so long, but something about him was starting to feel so, so hungry.

You were absolutely fascinated, watching as he drained the packet quickly, almost letting out a moan at how satisfied he was.

He was still hungry. Pulling the packet away from his lips, he hadn’t noticed the blood lingering at the corner of his lips, his pupils looking blown and his face was already beginning to look less tired.

“Can I uh…can I have another one, please?” His voice was hoarse, making him clear his throat and look at you expectantly.

You nodded, standing up and walking over to the fridge, Chan following behind you like a lost puppy, his hand on your back impatiently while you were retrieving the packet, a slight heat creeping up in your cheeks at his proximity.

Clicking your tongue at him in feigned annoyance as you handed him the next packet, you hoisted yourself up onto the counter as he stood facing you, leaning against the chair of the dining table.

Too hungry to be shy at this point, Chan bit off another opening in the packet, squeezing the packet as he drank, draining it just as quickly as he did to the previous packet, a bit of the blood getting on his fingers and his lips in his greed.

You weren’t sure why the sight of him was so endearing to you. It was as if nothing was different, that after all this was still Chan standing before you, shy, stupid Chan.

You’d taken a few tissues from the box behind you on the counter, reaching over to wipe his mouth, gently grazing his fangs as you did so.

Holding out one of your hands, you let out a disgruntled noise as he brought his fingers to his lips instead, sucking the remaining blood from his fingers.

“You know, I know, don’t you?” You bit your lip, amusement in your tone.

“Huh?” He frowned in confusion as he brought his hand away from his mouth slowly, not missing the way he'd checked if he missed any blood out. Chan's downturned eyes and pout making you bring your hands up to cup his face, squishing his cheeks slightly.

“That you’re a vampire.”

Chan’s eyes widened in realisation, tensing up at your words, his mouth falling slightly agape in shock.

“What? You really think I would’ve just fed you red ginseng in the middle of the night? And that I wouldn’t have been able to tell with your fangs on full display in front of me now?”

Chan had closed his mouth quickly, opening them again when he was sure they had retracted, averting his gaze as much as he could, even though your hands on his cheeks were begging him to look at you, Chan almost leaning into your touch despite the feeling of your gauze against his cheek.

“Are you…grossed out? Cause I can totally understand that…”

You laughed, shaking your head as you let your thumb caress his cheek gently, “I…. don’t really care.”

“But like, I drink human blood now! That’s like… basically cannibalism!”

You hummed thoughtfully to entertain him, “now that you’re a vampire, it’s not quite cannibalism, is it?”

“Y/N, you can’t seriously not think of me differently—”

You shook your head, making him stop mid-sentence, “honestly, I knew for a while now. From the time I helped you train for your swim meet. But… after observing you, kind of, for a while, I realised that nothing really changed about you.”

"What do you mean nothing changed? so many things changed, I became stronger, faster, my eating preferences changed, I have fangs now-"

You rolled your eyes with a laugh, "you know that's not what I mean. I mean you're still...  you! You still wouldn't hurt anyone if you had a choice, you're always looking out for others before yourself. And don't even try to lie, I know you probably haven't been eating ever since you found out you were a vampire because you feel bad."

Chan frowned, hating how you were right because that meant he had less reasons to deter you now, yet at the same time glad that this was so, since he didn't really want to deter you in the first place, he just wasn't sure whether he could believe what you were implying.

You shrugged, pulling your hands away from his face to rest on your lap, “you’re still the Chan I know and love,” you smiled, not believing you uttered those words for yourself, and now it was your turn for your hands to cover your mouth in shock.

Chan couldn't comprehend how lightly you were taking it, a part of him practically able to hear Minho calling him an idiot for not professing his love for you then and there.

"You don’t know what you’re talking about. You can’t…love a vampire, it’s too dangerous. Didn’t you see how injured that guy got? It’s just not logical, I probably still don’t know the full extent of my strength!” Chan shook his head, finding the situation too good to be true.

You rolled your eyes, groaning, “shut up, Chan. If your mom could love a vampire when she was a human, why can't I?"

This had shut him up quickly, the urge to kiss you only growing. Your words implied romantic love, but Chan couldn't quite seem to come to terms with that.

Chan's gaze was unwavering, tilting his head at you, "you...huh?"

You shook your head, getting off of the counter as you let out a dramatic sigh, "fine, Chan. If you don't believe me there's really nothing else for me to do."

You had already begun walking away, leaving Chan speechless in the kitchen, following after you quickly once he'd realised what you said.

Finding you at your previous seat in the living room, you were packing up your worksheets as best as you could without hurting your hand too much.

Chan made his way over to kneel next to you, an unreadable expression on his face.

"I saw the video, you know," you told Chan abruptly, in your haste to find ways to prove to him that you meant what you said.

Chan had fallen silent, sitting on his knees as he rest his elbow on the sofa to support himself.

"I'm sorry he said those things about you," Chan muttered.

Letting go of your papers and looking at him with a childlike smile, you shook your head, "you got angry and stood up for me, that's enough for me."

Chan felt something stir in himself, feeling a sudden surge of confidence in him as compared to the usual uncertainty he felt approaching you.

“You really mean what you said?” He asked you, earning a nod from you, “fine,” he murmured, a certain hint of determination in his tone.

“It’s not gonna be easy, though…it’s gonna be really hard,” he told you, “and we’re gonna have to work at this everyday…but I wanna do that because I want you.”

You pressed your lips together in a tight line, trying your best not to burst out laughing at how adorable Chan was.

“Are you seriously…quoting ‘The Notebook’ right now?”

Chan’s lips parted in shock, again being able to hear Minho tell him ‘I told you it was a bad idea’, but before he could cower in embarrassment, he’d felt you take his hand gently, “that was really cute, Chan but….I’d like to hear it from you, and not one of those rom coms you’ve watched with me a thousand times.”

Chan huffed, “fine,” he took in a deep breath,

"I really, really like you," he murmured, before deciding that that wasn't enough to express how he felt.

"No, honestly? I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you. Like, if I knew anything about love...this would be it."

You were at a loss for words, looking at him blankly as he stopped leaning against the sofa, looking at you for any form of affirmation or acknowledgement.

"I.." you began, "I think this would be it for me too," you mumbled, your confidence from before dissipating, seeming to have been transferred to Chan as he gave you a confident smile, grabbing your good hand as he pulled you closer to him.

"I really want to kiss you right now," he told you, his dimples appearing with his smile as his hand made its way to your neck.

"Never thought I’d say this but... me too," you smiled.

Chan took that as his cue to pull you even closer to him, pressing his lips against yours, your arms wrapping around his neck for stability, almost feeling overwhelmed when Chan deepened the kiss.

Too distracted by each other, it'd felt like it was just this moment that was all you could focus on, feeling Chan push you further back, his hand going to the floor behind you so as not to hurt you when your back came into contact with the floor, which you couldn’t help but laugh at, even in his haste Chan could think about things like you hurting your back.

Chan was straddling you now, yet careful not to put too much of his weight on you, your hands absently running through his hair, knowing Chan was a sucker for you playing with his hair.

Chan was beginning to get lost in the kiss, and you swore you'd felt something sharp poking at your lower lip, hearing him hum softly as his hand behind your waist pulled you towards him, making your back arch slightly. Feeling a slight pain at your lower lip, you made a surprised sound when you felt his tongue lick your lower lip, almost absolutely certain he'd drawn blood, making you flick his head in a silent warning.

Your heart stopped when you heard the door unlocking, tapping Chan on the back quickly in an attempt to warn him, the said boy not budging until the door had opened, making you shove the nearest thing you could find between the both of your faces, in this case, it was a pillow from the sofa.

"Y/N, we heard Chan was-"

You shoved Chan off of you quickly, hoping your parents hadn't seen anything, but wanting to wince at the sight of messy haired Chan with a pillow shoved against his mouth and you, whose shirt was riding up and lower lip was an angry red.

Your mom pressed her lips together tightly in an attempt to hide her smile, Chan hearing her whisper to your dad that they should let you two be alone, making the heat in his cheeks worsen.

Your dad raised an eyebrow at Chan, who still had the pillow against his face as he bowed his head slightly in greeting towards your parents.

"There’s uh... pizza in the fridge if you guys want," you attempted to lessen your embarrassment, which wasn't very well working with how your parents were cooing at Chan.

"We'll... be upstairs. You're a good kid, Chan," your dad gave him a pointed look, smirking as he headed upstairs with your mom.

"Aren't you supposed to be the one with super hearing?!" you whispered harshly, making Chan give you a sheepish look, his hand going up to run his fingers through his hair, only serving to make it messier.

You reached over to pull the pillow from his face, only realising now why he hadn't done so sooner, spotting two clear tears in the pillowcase, right at the 'o' in 'home' that your mom had embroidered on the pillow.

"Sorry, got a little bit carried away," he admitted.

You gasped, "this is my mom's favourite pillow..."

Chan made an 'o' shape with his mouth in realisation, before turning back to you.

"I guess I could sew it back?"

You exchanged a look with Chan, the both of you knowing very well that a) Chan had no idea how to sew, and b) there was no way you could fix the hole he made in the embroidery with his beginner skills.

You'd erupted into a fit of laughter, the shyness from the events prior only hitting you now.

Taking the pillow from him, you tossed it aside, "we'll worry about that tomorrow, I'm too tired to worry about it now."

Chan glanced at you before looking at the pillow, pursing his lips as if in deep thought, making you let out an amused huff.

"What is it now?"

"Are you too tired to continue where we left off?"

===

"This embroidery is beautiful!"

Chan's parents were over for tea, with you at the kitchen preparing drinks for them and Chan in the living room with the rest of them.

"Did you do this yourself?" Chan gulped when he saw his mom pick up the 'home sweet home' pillow from the sofa, earning a nod from your mom.

"Wait a second," your mom's gaze had instantly spotted the holes on the pillow, narrowing her gaze at the letter 'o'.

"Y/N? What happened to my pillow?" she called over to you in the kitchen.

Almost snorting in amusement, you shrugged, bringing the drinks back to the living room.

"I don't know, why don't you ask Chan?"

Chan shot you a wide-eyed look, furrowing his eyebrows in warning before looking back at your mom sweetly.

"Oh, yeah, sorry that was my fault. I uh... I fell and uh... it got like caught on my ring," he held his hand up to show the ridges of his ring the pillow could've gotten torn on.

Chan's mom shot him a knowing look.

“You fell?" her tone was sceptical as she watched Chan fumble with his words.

"Oh, dear. Please be more careful next time, I really like this pillow."

You held back a laugh as you handed Chan his drink, noticing his fangs peek out as he took a sip, "awfully similar in width, don't you think?" you whispered, holding the pillow up near his face.

"Yes, please be more careful, honey," Chan's mom gave him a pointed look.

Chan nudged you, smiling innocently at your parents, "yep, we'll be more careful."

[kim-seungmine]

stay inside the hourglass

title: stay inside the hourglass

characters: reader x felix of stray kids

genre: slice-of-life (growing up is hard y’all), romance, gap year

warnings: mentions of drinking, kind of felix-centric, this has the ugliest title ever, sometimes dialog-heavy

word count: 4475 words

summary: time is about to eat him alive and felix wonders if it’s better to leave things unsaid. 

a/n: so here it is, the story based on chronosaurus and 19. i honestly don’t know if it’s good enough because i’m not in my best condition now but i hope you can relate and find comfort (and motivation!)

Seoul, D-90

“What is this?”

“Your birthday present.”

“I said I didn’t want presents, did I?”

“You did.”

“So why bother—”

“So you’ll always remember me. The one who still gave you presents no matter how many times you said no.”

Felix chuckled, staring at the small white box you forced him to take. He opened it, taking out a keyring you specially made for him. He could guess the meaning behind each pendant; a star because you adored his constellation-like freckles, a mosquito because his only talent that you acknowledged was his ability to imitate mosquito noises, a four-leaf clover because his name literally meant luck.

The last pendant, however, was something he didn’t expect. An hourglass. He stared at it long, racking his brain so he didn’t have to ask you what it meant. You were going to nag at him for hours for not getting it right and he hated it.

That, and he just didn’t want to disappoint you.

“What does this one mean?”

He didn’t want to disappoint you, but he also really had no idea. You smiled, watching the sand slowly trickled to the lower part of the chamber. “I’ll tell you later,” you chirped before flicking his forehead. “Happy birthday, Lee Yongbok.”

Felix would’ve flipped if it was anyone else who hurt him and called him Yongbok. But this was you, one of his very few true friends in Seoul, and he would keep you by his side for a lifetime, even though he knew that time would eventually eat him alive before he could tell you how much you meant to him.

“Okay,” he replied, already used to you and your so-called mysteriousness.  He opened his drawer to take out his airpods case. You instantly pouted as he attached your keyring to it while he just grinned at you. “You really know how to disappoint me,” you mumbled.

“Everyone knows you only use your Beats earphones, dipshit. You can’t fool me!”

Felix didn’t know which part of “I don’t wanna celebrate my birthday this year” that his friends failed to understand, but there was nothing he could do when Seo Changbin dragged him out of their shared apartment later that day, telling him that everyone threw him a party.

“You don’t even need to change, you’re already wearing black.”

“There’s a dresscode?” Felix snarked. “Even I didn’t know about that.”

Changbin sighed as they stopped in front of Bang Chan’s apartment, which was only 2 floors above theirs. Lee Minho opened the door, the glint in his eyes indicated that he was already drunk. He grinned, patting Felix’s back before smooching his left cheek. Changbin quickly maneuvered his way in and abandoned his housemate who was now struggling to get out of Minho’s tight embrace. “Are you sad now that you’re 20?” he slurred. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Look at me!” Felix removed Minho’s arms from his shoulders, giving him a pat on the shoulder as he slowly lost consciousness.

Walking to the living room, Felix finally realized what kind of party his friends threw for him. Black balloons were sloppily glued to Chan’s gray curtain, most of them already scattered on the floor. The host had covered his white sofa with a black cloth and exchanged his usual glass table with black wooden table. Someone had written “HAPPY MOURNDAY FELIX!” on the whiteboard pinned on the wall. He assumed it was you, since it was written with a bright red marker instead of the blue ones that Chan owned.

His eyes caught a glimpse of empty boxes of pizza and bottles of soju on the floor, causing him to scoff. His friends threw him a party but didn’t even wait for him to come before actually starting the party. “Hey Felix!” Chan yelled, smiling from ear to ear from the other side of the living room. Felix gave him a distracted wave since he finally saw you, playing Charades with Hwang Hyunjin while sitting on the countertop.

“O—oh! I know this one!” you yelled, biting your lips in frustration. “Come on Y/N we played this set before!” Hyunjin groaned, proceeding to give you more hints. Felix chuckled, knowing how much you hated losing to Hyunjin.

“Aladdin!” Felix quipped, laughing as you whipped your head at him in utter despair. “Don’t be so proud.” You punched his stomach playfully. “This just means you spend too much time watching cartoons.”

Felix placed his hand around your waist loosely, unable to contain his amusement at your rambles. He swore to God he had tried to keep his distance from you, to draw a straight line between best friends and something more. It never worked—especially when you didn’t push him away—but maybe Felix never tried hard enough, and he hated himself for that. Hyunjin gave him the look, which roughly translated to, “Stop being a dick and just confess!”

“Felix, play with Y/N. We gotta prepare your cake,” Hyunjin announced, winking at the birthday boy before dashing to the balcony, where Kim Seungmin was taking photos of the cake with his new Canon camera.  

“You have really nice friends,” you commented, shaking your phone so it showed a new word. Felix bit an imaginary apple before collapsing on the floor, his eyeballs rolled to the back of his eyes. “Snow White didn’t pass out like that, you’re so dramatic,” you said, smiling as he pretended to offer you the poisoned apple.

“So did you join the photography club?” he asked. You furrowed your brows, trying to understand what he was acting out. “Tiana?” you murmured. He nodded, signaling at you to move on to the next question. “Well,” you started. “I did. Seungmin was very persuasive.”

Felix darted his eyes to the drunken Minho who was fast asleep on the couch. “Did you tell your parents yet?” Your voice was barely a whisper, breaking Felix’s heart into pieces. This was the conversation he dreaded to have; he wanted to enjoy his last few months in Seoul without thinking that he wouldn’t meet you ever again.

“I did,” he answered, glancing at the word Peter Pan written on your phone screen. “Mum said no, but my Dad said he’d consider.”

“When are you leaving?” You no longer held your phone up, shoving it back to your jeans pocket instead.

“In three months.”

You huffed, resting your head on his shoulder. “Is this why you’ve been so gloomy these days?” you pointed out. Felix rested his head on top of yours, the familiar warmth of your body calmed his senses. “Who knows I’d get so attached to dumbasses like you guys?” he attempted to joke.

Last year, all Felix wanted was to figure out what his passion was and explore Korea. His parents were ecstatic because their son finally showed interest in his home country and let him take a gap year, with a condition that he’d enroll in university as soon as he returned to Sydney. He stayed with his aunt, accidentally met Chan at a restaurant where he struggled to order kimchi fried rice with his super limited Korean, and then he introduced him to all his close friends—including you.

Fast forward to a year later, Felix now lived with Changbin who desperately needed a housemate, got a part-time job at Ediya Coffee, discovered a burning passion in dancing, had 8 annoying brothers, and was helplessly in love with you.

“What did you tell them?” you said quickly, as if wanting to stop yourself. Felix pulled away to look into your eyes that he already got used to seeing at least 10 hours a day. “I told them I want to stay here and major in dance.”

“You did?”

“What did you expect me to say?”

“Well—”

“HAPPY MOURNDAY FELIX!!!!”

Chan carried the black cake (Felix wasn’t sure if it was edible) while the others sang for him. “Blow the candles! We don’t give a shit whether you want to do it or not, you have to blow candles on your birthday!” Han Jisung said. Seungmin snapped a photo as Felix closed his eyes to blow the colorful candles.

“Thanks guys, although I specifically said not to do anything today.”

“Y/N wanted to throw you a party, and they specifically said not to care about anything you said.”

You shrugged. “This isn’t even a birthday party, this is a funeral.”

“Goodbye 19!” Seungmin fake-wailed, dunking Felix’s face into the cake. The others clapped, smearing each other’s faces with whipped cream. You giggled, trying to run away but Felix caught you by the waist before squishing your cheeks with his palms.

“Ah, you’re back!” you exclaimed, looking into his eyes in a way that always made his heart stopped for a while. Felix wondered if you ever looked at anyone else the same way, but for now, he felt a bit reassured. You looked at him like he had stars in his eyes (in this case, his cheeks, but now they were all covered by whipped cream anyways), and at moments like this, Felix thought that maybe he wouldn’t lose you.

“I’m… back?”

You paused to step away from Changbin who wanted to ruin your face more before glancing back at him, still with that loving gaze Felix wanted to take a picture of and hang on his wall.

“The sparks,” you pointed at his eyes. “You’re happy again.”

The rest of the group turned to look at him better, and by the look on their faces, Felix knew they agreed with you.

Seoul, D-57

“Yongbok-ah, your Dad is calling!” Changbin shouted from the kitchen. Felix sighed, dragging his feet to where his phone was located. He didn’t need to answer the call to know what his father was going to say.

“Hi Dad.”

“Your Mum and I have talked. Are you serious with dancing?”

Changbin gave him a concerned look as Felix’s face hardened. “Yes,” he answered, firm and clear. “I have thought about everything, Dad. I want to dance. And I want to stay here.”

His father sighed on the other line, his Mum yelling something that sounded like, “That naïve boy knows nothing!”

“Have I ever disobeyed you before?” Felix argued. “I just want to do something that I love. That’s right, I was clueless when I first got here, but I’m not the same boy anymore. You guys can trust me.”

“I don’t know, son. You got good grades, why don’t you try challenging yourself?”

“Dancing is not easy, Dad.”

“We know that. Just, come home, okay? We’ll discuss this later.”

Felix let out a frustrated groan once the call ended. Changbin sat across him, opening a can of beer. “You know things won’t work out if you keep being like that, right?”

“Like what?”

“Like this. Snobbish and stubborn.”

Felix met his housemate’s eyes, biting his lips when he realized how serious Changbin’s eyes looked. “All you do is mopping around everywhere while you only have a few months to be here. Y/N and the others are trying to make you as happy as possible, and what have you done?”

“I never asked you guys to do any of that for me.” His tone was harsh and Felix regretted it as soon as those words slipped out of his month. Changbin got up from his seat, throwing the empty beer can to the trashcan.

“You’re right,” he answered. “You never asked anything but we did it anyways. Why? Because we think of you as our friend. Do you even realize how much Y/N has done for you?”

“It’s not my fault that I have to leave! It’s not my fault that I like Y/N, and it’s definitely not my fault that I can’t tell them that,” Felix challenged. Changbin shrugged, taking his jacket from the nightstand before walking out.

“None of this is your fault,” he agreed. “But acting like you’re the most unlucky person in the world and doing nothing to change that isn’t right either. Especially when feelings are involved. But you do you, man.”

When your name appeared on his phone screen, Felix wasn’t sure whether he wanted to cry in happiness or bang his head on the wall. He hadn’t seen you for weeks, and it wasn’t that he tried to avoid you, but he had been dancing any chance he got. He begged Minho to take him to every of his gig to observe, but after the second gig the dancer officially asked him to join his crew. But the truth was, he did kind of use it as a reason to reply to your messages late.

Felix had no idea how to face you and hid his feelings. Maybe he didn’t have to, but it would be unfair. He tried to ask Chan what to do, but his Sydney mate only said that all he needed to do was listen to himself. A very cliché, movie-like answer—although it wasn’t exactly wrong.

Another message from you came in, and as much as Felix wanted to make this easier for you (and him), he missed you a lot. So he replied, got out of his bed, and sprinted to your place.

“Can we order pizza?” he said as soon as you opened your door. You nodded, looking somehow surprised at his presence. “I thought you weren’t coming,” you mumbled, letting him in. Felix slipped into the pink slippers you specially prepared for him whenever he came over, and somehow, he felt like he was home.

“Where are the others?”

You plopped onto your beanbag, scrolling through movies on Netflix that had “zombie” in the titles. Felix took a seat beside you, watching you read the movies’ descriptions. “Jisung has a date—”

“Oh that’s surprising.”

You chuckled. “Changbin and Woojin are at work, Chan is busy composing for—wait. You didn’t read the group chat?”

Felix scratched the back of his head as if he had been caught. He hadn’t been really talking to any of his friends except Minho since his fight with Changbin. “I-I,” he stuttered. “Probably accidentally turned the notifs off.”

You frowned, but was quickly distracted as you finally found the movie you wanted to watch—which didn’t have any correlation to zombies. “I wanted to believe you, but I think you’re avoiding us. Am I right?”

The movie had started playing, but you shifted your gaze to him. “What’s wrong? Are you upset because we threw you a party when you said you didn’t one? Are you upset with me?”

Felix shook his head. “Not at all, but things have been pretty… complicated.”

“Mind to elaborate?”

“I’m leaving soon.”

“We’re fully aware of that, Felix.”

He ran his hand through his hair, desperately trying to form words that wouldn’t make him sound like an ungrateful asshole. “Yeah, it’s just—it’s hard. I want to stay, but—”

“Do you really want to stay?” you whispered, pausing the movie before giving him a stern look.

Felix felt his body burning—why was it so hard for you, Changbin, his other friends, and his parents to understand that he never wanted to leave? That he had found a new home which could be scary, but also beautiful?

“Oh God. First Changbin, now you. Why won’t anyone believe me?!”

You tried to blink your tears away, which broke Felix’s heart because he knew how much you hated crying in front of other people.  “Because you’re not fighting for it, Felix! You’re not fighting for us or even yourself and suddenly I’m not sure about anything anymore. Time never slows down for anyone!”

Now you were sobbing, your head hung low. Felix threw his arms around you, rubbing your back slowly as you let out everything you had been holding in. You didn’t say anything for the rest of the night, not even when he said he would come over again later.  

When Felix reached his aunt’s house at 2:48 AM, still wearing your pink slippers, it hit him. Out of all things he was afraid of, disappointing you was what he feared the most. Sadly, just like how this world worked, the one you were closest with was always the one whom disappointed you the most.

Felix had become that person for you, probably since a long time ago and he only realized it now. Tears started rolling down his cheeks, and before he could stop himself, he was already sobbing the way you did a few hours ago. He cried and cried and cried until his eyes felt dry and his throat felt raw.

He didn’t feel any better.

“You’re earl—wait what happened?!”

Minho panicked as he spotted Felix entering the dance studio with a camcorder and swollen eyes. The latter only shook his head and waved his camcorder. “Minho, can I record myself dancing for the rest of my time here?” he asked.

“Sure you can, we usually record ourselves anyways, but why?”

Felix smiled, turning on his camcorder and setting it next to Minho’s laptop before warming up. Minho joined him, and the stretching session soon turned into a flexibility showoff. Both of them laughed when Felix managed to do a perfect split and surprised himself.  

“Seriously though, why are you doing this?” Minho repeated, waving to the camera.

“I want to stay here.”

Minho ran to his laptop to play a new song. “Isn’t that clear?” he teased, glancing at his friend.

“Yeah, but not clear enough.”

“Y/N I need to tell you something,” Felix rasped the moment you opened the door. You made a way for him to enter your flat, ignoring his Converse that he forgot to wear on his way out yesterday. Before he reached the living room, you stopped him. “Leave them in the bathroom, they’re dirty,” you said, pointing at your slippers he was wearing.

“I’m sorry,” Felix responded. “For the slippers, and for everything.” He stared at them before taking them off. “I didn’t want to disappoint you, but I did just that, didn’t I?”

Felix cupped your face, automatically wiping the corners of your eyes when he noticed you tearing up. “You were so bright, like these slippers,” he whispered. “I did everything with you, but forgot to take care of you. Too scared to show how much you mean to me. Now you’re even crying in front of me.”

“I didn’t want to say I love you because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to stay with you. I didn’t want you to be sad, but maybe I didn’t want me to be sad. I know this is too late and I’ve kept you waiting for so long, but I love you.”

“I really want to stay, I really want to be with the others, I really want to dance. And most importantly, I really want to be with you, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make that happen. I’m sorry that the fight with Changbin and you needed to happen before I came back to my senses, I’m—”

You caught his lips with your fingers, chuckling at how much he resembled a fish with his lips puckered. “If you’re sorry, wash the slippers yourself, okay?”

Felix whined, but walked towards the bathroom immediately. “Wait, there’s no ‘I forgive you Felix?’, ‘I love you too, Felix’, ‘Please stay with me, Felix’?” he protested, pouting as you returned to your room.

“Make sure to turn off the lights when you leave, Yongbok!”

Seoul, D-15

“Where’s the submit button?”

“There, bottom right.”

“Where?!”

“Goddamn it, Felix it’s right. there!”

Changbin grabbed the mouse from Felix and scrolled down, clicking the submit button. “Okay, it’s done!”

“Now what do we do?” Felix asked, plopping back to his bed. “The announcement for early admission is still two months away, I feel so empty now.”

“Still no words from your parents?”

“Well they said we’ll discuss this again if I get accepted.”

“What if you don’t?”

“I’ll apply again? The new semester won’t start until next year anyways.”

Felix had decided to apply to one of the most prestigious Arts colleges in Korea after recording all his dance practices and competitions (he only joined 2, but Minho was kind enough to let him be the center for all of them).

You opened the door with a loud bang, your eyes twinkled even brighter than usual. “What happened? Did they respond?” Changbin muttered, getting more excited as you nodded rapidly.

“Who responded to what?” Felix frowned, but both Changbin and you ignored him and were busy talking among yourselves. “They’re gonna tell him soon. We did it!” you shouted and pulled him into a tight hug.

“Guys, what’s going on?!”

You finally looked at Felix who looked lost and betrayed. Changbin punched his biceps with a huge grin on his face before leaving with no words. As soon as the door was shut, you jumped to his lap, curling your arms around his neck.

“Mind to tell me what’s making you so happy that you forgot about me and hugged Changbin instead?” he said, failed to keep his sarcastic tone since your eyes twinkled with so much joy he hadn’t seen for quite a long time.

You released him, running to his balcony—where you two often hung out when it wasn’t too cold or too hot. Felix followed you, taking your extended hand before pulling you into his arms. “Come on, babe,” he begged. “I’m dying here.”

“You’re going to stay here,” you stated, adjusting your position so you could look into his eyes. “Stay… where?” he asked, completely dumfounded.

“Here. With us.”

Felix tightened his hold on you as his legs wobbled. “WHAT?! HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?”

You took out your phone from your pocket and played a video for him. “We took turns to record you during your last few months here, starting on your birthday. I thought that the only way to convince your parents that you love it here is by showing them.”

The video showed Felix on many occasions with you and his 8 friends; during his mournday party, during a movie night at Chan’s flat, during a dinner Felix’s aunt invited you to, during the random but entertaining dance battle with Minho, and also during a totally mundane afternoon with Changbin. 

Felix knew he was happy with all of you, but he never realized he was that happy. He felt his eyes brim with tears when he got to the last part of the video, in which he played Charades with you on his birthday.

Felix was the happiest with you, and he never wanted to let go.

“How in the world did you guys do this?” he sniffled, pulling you back to his embrace. You pulled him even closer, listening to his heartbeat. “How in the world did you not notice?” you giggled. Felix laughed along with you, pressing a kiss on the top of your head.

“I asked your aunt to contact your parents, and they allowed me to send the video,” you explained. “They called me this morning and told me that you don’t need to go back.”

“They told you before they told me?”

You slapped his back. “We dedicated a masterpiece for you and this is your response?”

“Sorry,” Felix winced. “And thank you.”

Felix pulled away, melting as you smiled at him. “Well done.” You patted his hair. “You’ve practiced so hard, I’m proud of you.” 

His heart clenched a little bit when you said that you were proud of him. That was exactly what he wanted to hear, but at the same time he wanted to hear more.

“And I love you.”

You gave Felix a quick peck on his lips and he desperately wanted to have your lips on his again, but he decided to stay still. You finally said that you loved him; that was all he needed to hear.

“You won’t ever have to doubt me anymore,” he said. “I’m not going to promise that I will never make you sad again, but I promise that I’ll always try my hardest for you. For us. I’m not going to hold back anymore, okay? Even if we’re running out of time.”

You were about to give him another peck, but he stopped you. “Speaking about time, will you tell me about the hourglass pendant you gave me? Can you tell me what it means now?”

Felix showed his phone to you, causing you to yelp when you found out that he had removed the said pendant from the original keyring and attached it to his phone instead. “Well, you’ve said it yourself,” you began. “I didn’t expect you to know what it means because it feels so personal.”

“Hourglass represents time, a reminder for us that time doesn’t stop for anyone, that everyone in this world has limited time. Time will catch up on us; we’ll run out of time and die, but I don’t care about that. Our time is limited, and I want to spend my limited time with you.”

“Is there anything else you want to say?” Felix asked after you stopped talking.

“Why?”

“I want to listen anything you say about time with that pretty voice of yours, but I also really want to kiss you.”

“Oh alright, kiss me then. But tell them to close the curtain first, please.”

Felix darted his eyes to the window, perplexed when he saw all of his friends standing there watching him and you. “No way!” Seungmin shouted, lifting his phone. “We have to show your parents this!” Hyunjin and Minho whistled along with the rest of the boys, causing Felix to hide his face on the crook of your neck.

“I was the one editing the video and I have many clips of your ugly faces that I won’t hesitate to post,” you threatened, still with a sweet smile on your face. The boys groaned, letting Chan drag them outside.

You caressed your boyfriend’s hair while he was muttering about how embarrassed he was. “You were acting so cool a few minutes ago, wanting to kiss me and all. Where did that Felix go?”

He lifted his head, his cheeks still a bit flushed. “Do you still want me to talk with this pretty voice of mine or—”

As soon as Felix captured your lips with his, everything that happened the past few months didn’t matter anymore. You were right there in his arms, mumbling about how you doubted that this was his first kiss because he was “so damn good in this.” His heart felt light and warm, and while he knows that this was only the beginning, he wasn’t afraid.

Felix was finally ready to confront time, to make every second of it worth the pain.  

more a/n: if you’ve reached this part, congratulations and thank you, as always! i’m sorry if felix can be so frustrating here, but that’s the whole point of this story: to allow him learn and grow from his mistakes. 

[honeyedmilks]

the longest gtk me tag to ever exist 🍰

i was tagged by the lovely @meanyoongis (thank YOU!! <3) for this extravagant tag! she is so long, even without my rambling, that under a cut she must rest!

the last…

drink: water! please stay hydrated this summer my friends!  time you cried: literally at 5 am at some point early in the week

phone call: my mum

text message: it’s literally me messaging rezka this: “did u just tell me to find a sugar daddy?” we were discussing my shitty laptop and a peach phone cover i wanted to buy- don’t ask anymore questions about this please lmfao.

song you listened to: don’t stop by shinee :’( (i’m going to report choi minho for his rap in this as well as my love jonghyun for his vocals that nearly killed me)

 have you…

dated someone twice: but… i’ve not.. even dated someone.. once… 

kissed someone and regretted it: nope! 

been cheated on: nope!

lost someone special: not in terms of them passing away but i have lost many friends and relationships i still remember; i feel their loss sometimes

been depressed: dfhhdjd i be livin’ that mental illness life right now hskjxk

gotten drunk and thrown up: no, but during my very bad times, i thought about doing just that, a lot. 

list three favourite colours…

omg okay: browns, pinks, blues 

in the last year have you…

made new friends: yes! i love them!! shout out to my cute tumblr friends :’))) 

fallen out of love: hmm… i would say so… THANK GOD 

laughed until you cried: i wish lmfao but rezka and allie have made me laugh loads :’)) 

found out someone was talking about you: hmm yes, but it’s ok :(( 

met someone who changed you: i know some people now who have given me sound advice that i try to remember, but other than that i don’t think so

found out who your friends are: yes :(( though i would like to think the ones who didn’t check up on me had their reasons 

kissed someone on your facebook list: i’m literally the most un-sensual person ever?? can u tell?? no action up in dis bitch y’all!

general…

how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: i should’ve mentioned before that i’m not even on that… place… imagine having all my asian family members tryna peep me on ‘the facebooks’ as my dad calls it… a living nightmare… also it just looks far too complicated to use and not worth the energy getting used to it, i love the memes that i see from facebook here though lmfaoo they’re lit

do you have any pets: no! :(( i used to have a bunny called bubbles but he is no longer with us :(( rest in peace bubbles :(( but our family wants a new pet! hopefully we’ll get a cat or another rabbit when my littlest brother is a bit older! i’m so lonely… i want a dog.. my family is so incomplete… so cold…so devoid… I JUST WANT AN ANIMAL FRIEND!!! but i would also have to get over my weird fear of all living things, and the pain that comes with having them such as scratches etc 

do you want to change your name: actually no, i’m okay with my name right now :’) though i feel like i have two depending on how people pronounce it! its more commonly pronounced as sof-ee-a but it’s actually soft, like sof-ya! also here’s a fact! my name’s already been changed :D when i was younger i was actually named bariah (pronounced br-ee-ya) but it was changed because my parents and stuff thought it was causing me lots of bad luck… i also somehow got picked on in primary school for having my name changed?? people eventually ended up saying i had changed my name like three times (the real case is that white people fucked up how to pronounce bariah and when my mum corrected them, they all flipped shit lmfao ah my head hurts thinking about this- it got worse after it went from bariah to sofia)                               

what did you do for your last birthday: it was so miserable this was the worst year to ask me this question, lmfao i’ll try not to give you any miserable details but i ended up buying myself cake and trying not to make it my departing date too

what time did you wake up: near 1pm i think! 

what were you doing at midnight last night: i think i was either watching the princess’ man or making my posters for it! 

name something you can’t wait for: honestly don’t know lmfao i want to go to the beach though so here’s hoping i finally do that, or go swimming 

when was the last time you saw your mom: like an hour ago, she’s making dinner i think… i can smell it… all the way from my depression hole (bedroom)

what is one thing you wish you could change in your life: so much? but mostly i would like my dad to get better and my mum to not have to do everything :(( and then go on more holidays and live life more :(( also mental illness be gone!!

what are you listening right now: fuckin artificial love by exo dropped on ma shuffle, i’m getting terrible flashbacks to the cane dance  

have you ever talked to a person named tom: aye i know a guy called tom, he got a part of his tooth chipped (It was a whole big wild thing and i don’t know the details but that’s all i remember of the dude) and he was in my english class once, but like, we don’t talk no more… i don’t even know if i’ve seen him around school when i used to go… 

something that is getting on your nerves: lots of things… my potato laptop… myself… no one in my gotdang family listening to me!!! the fact that it’s been two weeks and i still don’t have delicious cake… also the fact i end up hating everything i make on here- thank you guys for being so lovely in your tags tho :’(( 

most visited website: tbh tumblr, pinterest, pixlr and dramanice

about me…

mole/s: i don’t think i have any? maybe some small dark dots here and there on my legs and neck

mark/s: i have some burn scars and a bit of a scar thing on my elbow where i scraped it really badly as a kid, i also have stretch marks on my waist/hips etc and a blotchy mark in my inner left thigh

childhood dream: i think i was set on being an interior designer at one point? lmfao or a celebrity chef (i watched a lot of food network as a kid) 

hair colour: black

long or short hair: very very long, but i want to get it cut soon so it’s a bit shorter. 

do you have a crush on someone: i mean there’s this one boy in real life… but i don’t see him that much right now :(( i don’t think it’s full on infatuation though… but y’all also know i love jonghyun and changkyun 

what do you like about yourself: AKDNSKJDKJADDJ i broke out the caps for this!!! lemme think… i guess my eyebrows can be rather nice! and i can be funny sometimes i guess lmao… i like how i can be empathetic with people, though it’s not at all always fun being so sensitive

piercings: i have my ears pierced! just one in each lobe :) 

blood type: you trippin if you thought i would know this LMFAO 

nickname: binch i gots so many oh my god… my family, such as my aunt, call me brian (derived from my old name bariah- thank god i told you guys about that otherwise none of you would know why my nickname was fucking BRIAN), some people call me sofie/ sophie, and my mum calls my sofie pofie sometimes- my dad calls me sofar (so-fur) in the most desi way possible- he once accidentally called me sofa and it just stuck, it also explains my instagram user name (sofarsoogood) lmfao its a cute pun and i don’t know if this is a nickname but i get adressed as baji/baj by my younger brothers and sisters and cousins- its like the desi term for older sister 

relationship status: your local potato head (that’s me) is on her lonesome… she single as hell bitch!

zodiac: aquarius (i’m sure i spelt that wrong, rezka once dragged me for spelling it as some other dumb shit before BUT OH WELL) 

pronouns: she/her!

favourite tv show (s): i don’t even know, parks and recreation is a good one though :’)) oooh and I LOVE CRIMINAL MINDS though i’ve not seen much of the new season :(( oh and an idiot abroad is fucking funny bye i need to rewatch that ooh also lots of cooking shows and the jane eyre bbc (2006) mini series 

tattoos: no, but i would like to get some more henna done this year :’D

right or left hand: right!

surgery: i don’t think so? but i did get some teeth taken out when i was younger so i don’t know if that counts lmfao 

hair dyed in different colour: no, but it would be nice to get it done one day!! i’ve been thinking about it… but i don’t know what colour would suit me and my mum doesn’t want me to lmfao 

sport: i like cycling (its been ages tho) and i like badminton, yoga and i really want to go swimming :(( but i don’t do any of that anymore. the most i do is long walking 

vacation: i’ve been to pakistan, england, stopped in dubai for a while, italy, france, turkey and egypt! it was all so long ago though! and i would like to go to so many more places!

pair of trainers: i have converse! though i much prefer sandals over converse

more general…

eating: these days i’m very into chips and cheese plus donner (don’t knock it till ya try it!) and my mum’s roti salan lmfao 

drinking: hmm water! or icy drinks! iced tea is fabulous but i also gotta start drinking green tea again! i miss her 

i’m about to: pass out from trying to answer all of these LMFAO JOKES i might get something to eat.. such as ice cream… or actual dinner… and then maybe watch more of the princess’ man or make some stuff! but who knows i might just fall asleep lmfao 

waiting for: a new laptop, my mental health TO GET BETTER SDHKSHKSDH and for just… i dunno what the heck i’m doing, i’m just winging my life right now and for my dad to get better so he can go on trains and buses with me so i can get used to them  

want: new bath bombs and clothes, my writing passion back, hugs, affection, allie to reunite with her chicken hat one day

get married: i most likely will when i’m older! though i’ve been told i’m already in a relationship with jp and bevy maco 

career: HONESTLY DON’T KNOW!!!!!! but if i filter all my shit out then i can say, i want to get into film, defos want to be a published writer, maybe go into graphic design… who knows tbh maybe counselling? 

which is better…

hugs or kisses: it depends on what kind of kiss/ where it is, but i often get in moods where i just need to be held :’(( so both i guess!

lips or eyes: both :’) but eyes over lips i guess unless we’re talking smiles :’) 

short or tall: i guess tall but if i’m in love it might not really matter              

older or younger: hmm, i would say the same age as me or a little older, but it really depends on the mentality of the person :) 

nice arms or nice stomach: arms are nice :’) 

sensitive or loud: hmm i don’t know… probably loud, just not obnoxious or annoying

hook up or relationship: relationship :’) 

troublemaker or hesitant: hmm i don’t know! the boys i’ve liked have ended up being some troublemakers, but i guess it depends on what kind of trouble! 

have you ever…

kissed a stranger: nope!

drank hard liquor: never 

lost glasses/contact lenses: i don’t wear glasses or contact lenses but i have lost some sunglasses on holiday lmfao, it doesn’t even have to be a day before i lose something on holiday, or leave it behind

turned someone down: hmm i don’t think so! though one boy did try give me a valentine on valentine’s day but i was really having a terrible day and i didn’t take it from him, the encounter was a mess and i don’t know why he was tryna give it to me in the first place? i think he was just tryna get rid of it?? i don’t trust boys if they do stuff like that/ try ask me out tbh lmfao for many reasons

sex on the first date: oh no not my shy ass lmfao

broken someone’s heart: i don’t know :( most likely not! though there was one person i think i did hurt and let down  

had your heart broken: i’m not sure in the romantic sense, but i know it’s felt a lot 

been arrested: nope! i’m an angel ;)) LMFAO 

cried when someone died: hmm i can’t remember, i think i cried seeing my mum so upset when her mother passed away, i also have shed tears over michael jackson (i used to be a very heavy mj blog back in the day lmfao shout out to my mj mutuals who stuck around) 

fallen for a friend: i don’t think it was genuine, so i’m going to say no 

do you believe in…

yourself: pfff depends really, there are times when i don’t feel an overwhelming sense of insecurity and there are times i do                    

miracles: i guess so :)

love at first sight: i think you can be attracted to someone when you first see them or have a liking to them but real love is such a complex thing that i don’t really believe one can fall in love at first sight

santa claus: kjdcnjdcnjd who dat i only know dat cool guy in narnia who gave dem kids of old their death devices

kiss on the first date: hmm… depends… but in reality… probably no

angels: yes  

other…

current best friends name: rezka, allie, mhairi, (a mix of tumbly friends and irl) im such a loser bye but i love y’all, i honestly don’t talk to a lot of people these days :(( 

eye colour: so dark they look black and you can’t see my pupils sometimes

favourite movie(s): hmm… sabrina (1954), the mummy one and two, peter pan (2003), pride and prejudice (2005) and spy! i have lots more i’m so fond of!  

phew! time to tag some lovely people! : @youngjei , @allonsy-allie , @dansphil , @seokjinings , @junyeol-s , @bovrilcat , @alcenos , @astraelogy , @mahnoorjahan , @timrggins and @bonqhee! 💗