#strange devotion skz collab

[crispy-chan]

awaken | han jisung

❖ pairing: ghost!jisung x gn. reader

❖ genre: angst, fluff; mystery, supernatural, ghost!au, romance

❖ word count: 14.5k

❖ warnings: descriptions of death and blood (not extremely graphic though), grievance, mild language, ji is a cocky (but sweet) lil' shit :> | pg-13

❖ summary: ten days ago, you heard someone knocking on your apartment window. seven days ago, you saw a bloody fingerprint on your table. today, you found a stranger lying on your couch. wait a second, is that blood on his hands?!

❖ a/n: hello!! this fic is so long overdue :(( but she's finally here !! my contribution to the strange devotion collab by @bearseungmin. tysm @sunshinelixie-lee and @gyukult for beta reading this piece and making it infinitely better!! i'm really grateful to you guys and i appreciate all your comments <3 thank you so so much <3

  masterlist

“Hi there.”

The raspy voice startles you into dropping your keys, a metallic thud resounding against the polished hardwood floor. Turning your head, you rake over the cheap furniture that occupies your cramped living room until your eyes land on something that shouldn't be there.

Or rather...someone.

There's a man sprawled on your old, navy couch, his large frame draping over the small seat, further emphasizing the pain he must be in to lay in such an uncomfortable position. After blinking away your initial shock, you catch sight of the thick droplets of blood seeping from his fingers, inking his entire arm with a crimson hue.

You almost scoff in annoyance—he's staining your new throw pillows!

When he notices your furrowed brows, a boisterous grin appears on his face as he waves his hand—the one that isn't occupied with preventing his guts from spilling out on your floor—and winks in your direction, causing your heartbeat to race. Your eyes trail from his ruffled hair down his chest until they reach his arms.

Almost choking on your spit, you take in the myriad of bruises and welts that mar his pale skin. You've never seen one singular person sport so many on just one arm alone. You suppose you're rather lucky the sleeve of his button-down isn't rolled up on the other arm, only God knows how many more he's hiding under his clothes.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” he asks, concern lacing his tone as he searches your face for any signs of fear. Instead, he finds pure rage.

“What in the fucking world are you doing on my couch?!”

Your voice cuts through the air like a sharp sword, bouncing across the walls of your cramped apartment. The man is visibly taken aback, the coy smirk that plays on his lips faltering before he manages to regain his confidence and return your intense gaze.

“I-I...actually, I need something from you.”

The single sentence manages to throw you off completely, brow shooting up as you ponder what could this person possibly want from you.

After a small pause, he adds, “but you must promise that you won't involve any authorities.”

You part your lips to take in a breath. This encounter was turning scarier by the second. From what could he possibly be running?

When you sense his unease, you realize you still haven't replied. “How exactly do you want me to help you?”

Another smile stretches across his lips, one that's followed by a relieved sigh. You seem more annoyed than angry. That's good. He tells himself that it could be a lot worse. You're pissed but you haven't thrown him out yet.

“I can't tell you,” he adds after a while, supplying an apologetic grin as he runs his hand through his hair, wincing at how greasy it feels. He would have to wash it soon.

The face you make almost makes him laugh. The angry pout on your lips, the vein popping at the top of your temple—it all creates a funny visage that he tries to keep a mental picture of.

How adorable.

But to you, it is nothing of that sort. Watching him chuckle to himself—as if there's something humorous, to begin with—the rage only grows inside of you, clutching your insides together with an iron grip.

Blowing a strand of hair from your face, you growl, “you either tell me what you want, or I'm calling the fucking cops on you.”

❖ ❖ ❖

You suppose you could call yourself lucky.

Starting your first year of college in a different town meant that you had to find a place to stay. Usually, most college dorms or apartments were either extremely overpriced or so small that you felt like you were living in a shoebox.

This apartment, however, was anything but that.

The spacious living room had enough room for you to fit a medium-sized couch, along with a few rows of bookshelves that wouldn't fit in your room. The kitchen was also nicely equipped, something you noticed when you first got a tour of the apartment from the very fidgety landlord, Lee Minho.

The man had led you inside the house with a shaky step, almost dropping his keys while unlocking the door, likely due to the fact that he wasn't even looking at the lock. Instead, he kept nervously looking around, which struck you as unusual. His hands were trembling, something you found somewhat unsettling, as he showed you around the apartment.

When you asked him, jokingly of course, if the rent was so cheap because the place was haunted, he stared at you wide-eyed before excusing himself and running off. To this day, you haven't understood what triggered such a response from him—why he was so nervous and jittery—but it seemed like it wasn't something you'd find out soon.

Or would you?

❖ ❖ ❖

The frosty wind bites at your skin harshly, numbing your cheeks as you struggle to unlock your door.

“Finally—” you groan, dropping your bag on the floor and heading straight for the thermostat to raise the heat so you won't freeze to death. The late-October weather is progressively getting colder; light jackets and hoodies no longer suffice against the chilly temperature.

Settling on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate, you scroll down your Netflix watchlist, deciding on a lame Halloween-themed movie that has less than fifteen percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Sighing, you sip the sweet beverage, eyes focused on the flat screen of your television. A small chuckle escapes your lips as you see the main protagonist jump out of his skin as he enters the haunted house.

Through your window, you can see the full moon peek from behind the lace curtains hanging in your living room. A weirdly eerie feeling creeps over you and settles in your bones, causing goosebumps to prickle at your skin. The wind is still relentlessly attacking everything in its path—you can tell by the way the trees are swept from one side to the other, and you feel shivers run down your spine.

Why do you feel like you aren't alone?

Suddenly, you hear a couple of loud knocks, as if someone were tapping on a hard surface.

Your eyes dart at the abrupt drumming noises that hit against the wooden front door of your apartment. Gripping tightly onto the fuzzy blanket that sits over your shoulders, you gingerly place the mug on the coffee table before slowly getting up from the comforts of your couch to approach whomever it was that decided to come at this late hour.

Once you reach it, you peer through the peephole, curious as to whom it could be. A frown appears on your lips as you lean back. There's no one there.

Weird.

Returning to your seat, you press play on the movie, trying to ignore the shiver that just ran down your spine. It almost feels like you aren't alone, as you could swear that you feel someone's eyes are boring into you.

The feeling that you're being watched follows you for the rest of the evening. The lingering sense of unease doesn't relent. Instead, it hangs over you like a raincloud, putting a damper on your mood.

Even as you're falling asleep, you could swear you hear someone knocking on your window, the taps more sporadic and louder than before—almost as if they're in a frenzy.

As your eyelids are slowly closing, you think you spot a shadow passing your window. You desperately try to fight the urge to sleep but eventually, the fatigue manages to wash over you, and before you can do anything about it, your eyes are closing shut.

❖ ❖ ❖

Three days have passed from the ominous encounter. 3 days. 72 hours. 4,320 minutes. Long enough for you to convince yourself that it was but a figment of your imagination, nonetheless not fleeting enough for you to forget the entire ordeal.

You think you've managed to get your fears under wraps, locking them into the very back of your mind and throwing away the key. Yet the chill that runs down your spine every time something seems out of order in your apartment says otherwise.

As you enter the quaint, lightly decorated hall of your place, you sigh while pulling off your shoes and heading for your bedroom with the big stack of papers securely tucked between your arms. Stepping on the fuzzy carpet, you drop your bag by the bed, turning to shuffle through your closet for more comfortable attire for the night.

The wooden doors creak as you pull them apart, grabbing a pair of cream-colored sweatpants and a warm hoodie with the name of your college printed on in Comic Sans.

It is truly wondrous that people still haven't stopped using that atrocious font, and you wonder which doofus was trusted with the task of designing the school merchandise this fall.

After you slip on the soft articles of clothing, you head towards your bed to pull out your journal from the front pocket of your backpack. Leisurely, you unzip the bag and grab the black, leather-bound book before your eyes fall on your nightstand.

Your heart skips a beat.

There, on the smooth surface of the varnished hardboard, is a small, dark red smear. Scrunching your nose, you scooch a bit to inspect it from a closer proximity.

And behold, it's a bloody fingerprint.

You can almost feel your soul exit your body upon realization that someone was in your bedroom. Specifically, someone who was bleeding… a lot. Your fingers start to tremble, dropping the neatly organized stack of papers onto the ground.

It doesn't take long for you to grab some of your belongings and sprint out of the bedroom.

One thing was certain, you definitely wouldn't be sleeping there.

❖ ❖ ❖

Over the last few weeks, the paranoia has settled inside of you, whether it be in the form of constantly looking over your shoulder, or jumping out of your skin when a classmate places his hand over your shoulder.

All that led to the fateful night, exactly ten days after the first encounter in the living room, when you found a stranger lying on your couch.

The stranger, as you just recently learned, was called Jisung. And despite your insistence that you wouldn't help him otherwise, he outright refused to tell you more about himself, mumbling something along the lines of you wouldn't believe me anyway.

“Soo...Jisung,” you gently call his name, hoping that a calmer approach would do the trick. “You want me to help you with...with that?” you gesture towards his injured abdomen. He looks down, almost as if forgetting that he is currently bleeding out on your sofa before nodding sheepishly.

“If you have a first aid kit, I could do it myself,” he chuckles. “Wouldn't want to inconvenience you.”

You stare at him incredulously, as if he's lost his mind, “Don't worry, you've already inconvenienced me enough. What more is it for me to bandage you up?”

Lowering yourself on the ground, your hands reach for his soiled t-shirt, looking up at him for consent to slowly peel it up. As you slowly pull up the crimson-stained cotton, your fingers start to shake with each additional inch of skin you uncover.

The smooth planes of caramel skin are tarnished by a gash that runs across the entirety of his lower abdomen. It doesn't seem particularly deep, however, you can immediately tell that he's losing blood at an alarming rate.

“Oh damn,” you mutter to yourself, taking in the gruesome sight. From the couch, Jisung winces when your fingers graze over his skin. “Is it really that bad?”

Holding back the bitter words on your tongue, you force yourself to smile. “No. We just need to properly disinfect it. I should probably stitch it up too so it can properly heal.”

The boy nods in agreement, biting down on his tongue to hold in the pained groan that was threatening to slip out. He watches you gracefully stand up and dust off your pants before heading towards the bathroom, probably where your first aid kit is stored.

As you exit the living room, you feel your head turning around to glance at Jisung.

It completely takes you aback, the way his head hangs low as he runs his hand through his hair. Even as you enter the tiny bathroom, you can't help but stare at the handsome boy. His calmness throughout the night was what surprised you the most, but it seems like he wasn't as chill about the situation as he let on.

Opening the small cabinet above your sink, your hand reaches for the medium-sized red box with a white cross on it. It was a first aid kit you bought over three months ago during a sale at your local drug store. At least it would be of some use.

When you return, immediately, you notice how droopy his eyes have become. He looks up at you sporting a weak grin and your heart breaks at the sight. It's almost as if you could feel the pain he is going through, despite his best efforts to hide it.

Bringing the cotton pad stained with alcohol, you mutter a quick apology before you start dabbing it on his stomach. At first, you don't hear anything. A sigh of relief almost escapes your lips.

“Ouch—” he suddenly winces, digging his fingernails into his palm to numb the pain. Less than two seconds later, an apology leaves your lips in a soft murmur as you concentrate on disinfecting the area on his abdomen.

“D-Don't,” he whispers, giving you a side-eyed smile, “don't apologize...you've done n-nothing wrong.”

Once you're done cleaning out the wound, Jisung groans in relief, wiping off the sweat from his forehead. You take the time to look at him again, inspecting all the blemishes on his skin, the beauty mark on his cheek, and the sharp curve of his jaw.

And it truly startles you, just how attractive he is.

The realization hits you—you've got a handsome stranger sprawled across your couch. Your face heats up when his eyes suddenly lock with yours.

When Jisung notices you carefully checking him out from the side, his lips stretch into a sly smirk. He caught you staring. However, when he sees your head whip to the side, eyes widening in both embarrassment and bewilderment, he feels the nagging guilt tug at his heart.

So to break the ice, Jisung decides that now truly is the best time to ask you for yet another favor. Blinking, he musters his most sympathy-inducing expression and mutters, “Do you think I could stay at your place for a while?”

And if you thought that he couldn't surprise you anymore, you were wrong.

With Jisung, one never knew.

❖ ❖ ❖

The sounds of your rusty showerhead can be heard all over the apartment, pelting drops of water banging against the glass panel. Groaning, you try to block out the sounds by pressing your pillow over your head, creating another barrier between you and the shower.

It has been exactly two weeks since Jisung appeared in your apartment, and other than the undeniable presence of another person in your living space, you seemed to be adjusting quite well.

As for Jisung, he has managed to make himself at home.

“Y/N!” a loud screech echoes throughout your apartment, making you almost jump out of your skin. An annoyed grumble leaves your parted lips. Perhaps he is feeling too much at home.

“Yeah?”

You suppose Jisung doesn't hear the slight edge to your voice, because in the following second, he's yelling his request over the shower. “Could you please bring me a towel?”

Although a little bit disgruntled over the noise, he has managed to relay his wishes to you, who, unfortunately, were the one who had to get out of your soft bed and search for some fresh towels.

“Asshole,” you mutter softly, mindful of the fact that he is only two drywalls away.

Yet it seems like, despite his rather infuriating tendencies, Jisung has managed to worm himself into your heart. Yeah, you undeniably have a soft spot for the young man, even if he's a constant pain in the ass.

“Jisung.” You carefully knock on the wooden door. After receiving only silence, you shout, “I'm coming in, okay?”

A rattling noise can be heard, likely the sound of all your bottled products falling off the shelf, courtesy of Jisung's sharp elbows. A groan leaves your lips once you realize that you will be the one who has to clean the mess.

Clutching the frothy towel, you push the door open, blinking at the moist fog that impairs your vision. Suddenly, a pair of deep brown eyes materialize right in front of your face, making you yelp in surprise. But right before you can open your mouth to chastise him, a large grin breaks out across his face.

“Thanks, darling. You're a lifesaver.”

It's only then that you notice how his wet hair clings to his forehead. Your cheeks heat up at the sight, and you can't help but let your gaze drop down, watching the clear droplets of water cascade down his chest.

Jisung smirks when he realizes what distracted you, “my eyes are up here, Y/N.”

You almost want to smack yourself for letting him catch you staring. Breathing in, you grumble, “Here you go,” before shoving the towel into his chest, slamming the door in his face, and running off to your room.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Jisung—” you whine from your comfortable spot on the couch, gripping onto a mug of hot chocolate that you managed to cook up from some expired chocolate you found at the back of your cupboard. It is truly wonderful how little you need to make a good hot chocolate.

You can hear something tumble down, landing on the floor with a thud. You glare towards the kitchen—Jisung better not be breaking your house down.

“What the hell is taking you so long?” you cry, frustration evident in your tone. Your chocolate was slowly cooling down and the television screen had the pause button on for over ten minutes.

“Just give me a second,” Jisung pleads, “Rome wasn't built in a day, you know?”

You almost facepalm at his stupid argument. “You aren't erecting the Colosseum from the ground, dimwit. You're microwaving a bag of popcorn for God's sake.”

Jisung goes silent for a second before you hear him yelp. “Sorry. It's just that...it's been quite a while since I used one of these. And they used to look a lot different back in the day…”

The last sentence is something you aren't sure was meant for you to hear. Back in the day? What could he possibly mean by that? However, once he returns, seemingly unscathed with a bowl of only slightly burned kernels, you shrug it off.

It was probably nothing, right?

❖ ❖ ❖

“Fuck, I'm late,” you curse, running around your living room trying to gather all your things. Your backpack, water bottle, keys...oh shit, your laptop is still charging!

Running into your bedroom, you collide with the still very sleepy Jisung, who looks like he will fall asleep at any given moment.

“Oh, are you okay, darling?” The crash must have shaken him into a more aware state as his arms immediately secure themselves around your waist. He steadies you against his chest before yawning. “What's the rush for?”

Scoffing inwardly, you pull away from his disgustingly toned body. How did this loser manage to get ripped, you wonder.

Suddenly, you remember why you were running in the first place. You slip past him, ignoring his bewildered gaze as you grumble. “Not all of us can sleep around all day. I have an 8 am class today.”

Pulling out your laptop from the wall, you shove it inside your backpack. “Aren't you going to eat breakfast?”

Jisung clearly seems shocked by the fact that you’re leaving your house without eating anything. “Nope. Don't have the time.”

A pout appears on his lips as he watches you slowly depart, exhaustion clearly visible on your face. He tries to recall a day where you actually went to sleep before three o'clock in the morning, but as terrifying as it appears, he can't remember a single one.

❖ ❖ ❖

The apartment seems eerily empty without you.

That's an observation Jisung made long ago. It's one he made when he accidentally called your name while reading something funny in a book, forgetting that you weren't there. The sudden urge to share something with you overwhelmed him so much that when he realized that you weren't there to witness it, his heart started to feel empty.

Loneliness has filled him ever since.

You have done so much for him. From patching up his injuries to letting him stay at your place, even though he was a complete stranger. In the past days, you have shown him nothing but kindness and compassion, allowing him to see just how big your heart was.

And maybe...maybe it was time for him to help you out too.

He looks around, glancing at the pile of clothes on the floor, the crumpled-up blanket on the couch, the dishes in the sink…

There's a lot of work to do here, but Jisung decides that it is all worth it. You are worth putting all the effort in. At least, that's what he thinks.

With a clear goal in mind, he grabs a pair of yellow, rubbery gloves from underneath the sink and pulls them over his hands. He gazes over the piles of plates stacked on top of each other in the sink with a grimace, but then he remembers how tired and lifeless your eyes were this morning.

Squirting some dish soap onto the sponge, he starts scrubbing the dishes clean.

After dealing with the mess in the sink, Jisung heads over to the living room. Slowly, one by one, he begins to pick up all your discarded clothing from the floor, separating it into two piles. One for clean clothes and one for laundry.

Minutes later, it doesn't even feel like a chore anymore.

He dumps the dirty clothes into your hamper, proceeding to fold the rest into neat little squares that he delicately places on your bed. Glancing over at your desk, he notices a printed document neatly splayed on the polished wood. The title of it seems somewhat familiar.

Wait a minute…

It was your research paper. A research paper that you spent the entire evening on. The one that took you over a week to gather all the needed materials. And also, what terrifies him the most, it was the paper you said was due today.

Shit.

Jisung glances at the clock hanging above your door, the gears spinning inside his head. If he were to run all the way to your campus, he could make it, right?

With no time to lose, he snatches the paper from your desk and runs to the door. His shoelaces are untied, flapping in the air as he sprints down the sidewalk. He has to bring the paper on time.

Trying his best to recall the shortest way to the campus, Jisung reminisces his old memories from this street. The neighbors who always greeted him when he passed by, how he used to play in the nearby park and feed the stray cats...everything that led up to that one night.

The night that changed everything.

The pain, the screams, the flowers that scattered across the asphalt...everything was coming back to him.

No… this wasn't the time.

Jisung tried his best to shake off the nauseating feeling creeping down his spine, instead, focusing on his current goal.

Right—bringing you your paper.

After a few sharp turns, Jisung finds himself on the college campus.

A wave of emotion crashes over him when he sees all the students running around from one building to another, eating their lunch under the large trees that provide shelter from the sun, and clutching cups of hot coffee from the cafe nearby…

It all overwhelms him to the point of tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

This was supposed to be me too, he realizes bitterly. I was supposed to be one of these students.

It's almost as if all the pent-up anger and frustration just swells up inside of him and bursts, no longer able to contain itself within his fragile heart. He can almost feel the fragments of his heart piercing through his insides.

Out of nowhere, a group of students passes by. He's about to yell out a “watch out”, but something stops him. A throbbing pain spreads throughout his body, lighting every inch of his skin on fire, and allowing a yelp to run past his lips. Panicking, he looks around to see if anyone heard, but to his utter terror, he can't find them anywhere.

Correction—he can't find them anywhere around him. The students are no longer passing by, they are going through him, almost as if phasing through his body.

Not almost...they were phasing through his form.

The prickling pain settles in his guts, one akin to a thousand tiny needles piercing him all at once, and the moment the last student finally emerges on the other side, he sighs in relief.

Now, a much harder quest awaited him. He had to find the professor's office so that he could deliver your papers on time.

Taking a deep breath, he blends with the crowd of sleep-deprived students and makes his way to the main building.

As he's running down the hallway, a familiar sense of grief washes over him. These very halls of the town college were supposed to house him for four years too. Inside this old building, he was going to build his future…

“Forget it, Jisung,” he mutters under his breath, “the past is in the past.”

Looking down at the slightly crumpled piece of paper, Jisung scans the top corner of the page.

“Aha,” he whispers, “Professor Kang.”

Luckily, he could remember in which teacher’s lounge she resided. When he was in his final year of high school, the professor used to give lectures about her subject, hoping to get more students to apply for college. He remembered her kind, brown eyes, the ones that always smiled at him when his hand excitedly shot up in the back of the room to ask another question.

Once he arrives in front of the large, double doors, he carefully raises his hand curled into a fist, but before he can begin knocking, someone hastily bursts through the doorway, nearly slamming the door in his face.

“Woah,” he just barely manages to jump back, evading the dark oak. Yet despite the rather unpleasant experience, he is now left with the door wide open, allowing him easier access to the room.

So without a moment of hesitation, Jisung slips inside the room. The smell of orange blossoms greets him, courtesy of the Yankee candle that someone, probably professor Kang, took the liberty to light. Faster than lightning, Jisung finds her desk and drops the paper on top of it.

And just like the wind, he's gone…

❖ ❖ ❖

“Please hand over your papers if you haven't yet,” professor Kang hollers over the racket, tucking a strand of silver hair behind her ear. As much as she understands why you're all so noisy—after all, lunch break starts in five minutes—her patience is running thin. She hasn't had a good night's sleep in weeks and all the ruckus is bringing back her headache.

Bending over your desk, you reach into your backpack to pull out your paper. Your fingers relentlessly search through the pocket, pushing away all the school books and random scraps of paper. Your research paper, however, is nowhere to be found.

A feeling of dread washes over you. Just then, you remember something. The image of your paper laying on your desk is still fresh in your mind, and then it hits you...you left it at home.

Tears well up in your eyes, frustration bubbling up inside your chest as you try to recall what repercussions you would face. And you realize they would not be pretty…

All the hard work you put into that paper, all the effort that went into it. Gone. It would all go out the window.

Ignoring Jeongin's question about eating lunch together, you sprint to the door hoping to catch professor Kang before she exits the classroom.

You almost trip in the process, but in the last second, you manage to regain your balance.

“Professor Kang!” you cry, panting as you finally reach her by the door. Your clothes are disheveled and your shoelaces are untied, but you ignore that for now.

“About the paper, I wanted to ask if—”

“Oh, don't worry, sweetie,” she interjects, pushing her glasses up her nose. “I got your paper right here with me.”

To your utter bewilderment, she waves the paper in front of your face, and your eyes widen when you realize that it is yours, indeed.

But...how?

When she spots the puzzlement on your face, she laughs. “Oh, Y/N! You left it on my desk this morning, remember?”

The gears are spinning inside your head. Forcing yourself to laugh it off and nod, you zip up your bag and say goodbye to her, and head to the cafeteria.

That's when it hits you. Jisung. He's the only one who could've done it. No one else has access to your apartment, not to mention the only one who knows you've been stressing out about this paper for days. He must have realized you left the paper at home and ran to your school to deliver it to Professor Kang's desk.

A large grin appears on your face. That idiot truly saved your ass. You would be in a lot of trouble if you hadn't handed in the paper today.

On your way back home, you pass by the local pizza shop and a lightbulb suddenly lights up in your head: as a thank you gift, you can bring him back some pizza!

Jisung's stomach is the equivalent of a bottomless pit. That guy could eat three ramens, two whole burgers and still have room for dessert. One of the biggest setbacks of having an unexpected roommate was your food bill nearly tripling.

The first week, you almost yelled at him for finishing the four cups of pudding that were in your fridge in less than two hours. Now, you felt quite guilty for putting him through hell (also known as your wrath) for simply craving some sugar.

That's why you decide to splurge—buying three large pizzas for the two of you to share.

“I'm home,” you greet from the doorway, panting after having run up the stairs so the pizza wouldn't get cold. When a startling silence welcomes you, a frown appears on your lips. Usually, Jisung would've been at the door already, taking off your coat and welcoming you with a hug.

“Jisung?” you call as you tip-toe into the living room. Your lips stretch into a knowing smile when you see the boy lying down on your couch, eyes shut and soft snores escaping his lips.

There is no doubt—he is fast asleep.

As you slowly make your way closer to him, careful not to wake him, you can't help but coo at his current state. Jisung looks nothing short of adorable with his bunched-up cheeks and a little bit of drool trickling down his chin; he reminds you of a squirrel.

A rowdy, yet lovable squirrel.

“Hey…Ji,” you whisper, tracing your palm against his cheek. Smoothing down the soft flesh with your thumb, you run to the closet to grab a blanket you can cover him with.

That's when you finally get the chance to properly look around, and your eyes widen when a startling occurrence comes to your attention.

Did he clean the entire apartment?

After carefully placing the fuzzy throw over his resting body, you take a seat on the floor next to the couch. Threading your fingers through his hair, you whisper, “you really saved my ass there, Ji. Bringing my paper to school. I'm really grateful, you know.”

A soft sigh escapes his lips, and you move your fingers upwards to gently massage his scalp.

“Thank you for cleaning the apartment too. It was a big mess before I left this morning but you cleaned it up, didn't you?”

You stay there for a few more minutes before you start setting the table. You don't want to wake him, so you decide to let him rest for now. Grabbing yourself a slice of pizza, you begin munching it down, mindlessly scrolling through your phone.

You don't even notice Jisung opening his eyes from his spot behind the couch, looking at you from under his lashes with a fond smile.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Can you pass me the milk?” you shout over the loud noises from the construction right behind your building. A yelp sounds from behind the fridge, and you turn around just in time to see Jisung juggling your favorite bowl in his hands.

You shoot him a glare, “careful there, buddy. That's my Lilo & Stitch bowl, you better not drop it.”

Jisung laughs in bewilderment, a sound you've truly come to love in the past few weeks. “Lilo and Stitch? Seriously? How long have you had this bowl for? Fifteen years?”

You grumble; he's not that far from the truth. The bowl was given to you when you were still a child by your great grandmother. It's a memento you've cherished for your entire life and something you've kept around ever since she passed away.

Jisung notices the slight shift in mood. He can sense the harrowing thoughts infiltrate your mind one by one as they push away your cheerful spirit and settle inside of you.

Immediately, he walks up to you, pressing his warm hand against your back and rubbing comforting circles into your skin.

“Here you go,” he hands you the bowl with milk. His hand grazes over yours as he reaches for the cereal.

Strawberry cini minis—your favorite.

As he tips the box above the milk, ready to dump some into your bowl, he notices you looking at him intently.

“What?” he questions, feeling queasy from your intense gaze. You glare at him for a few more seconds before bursting into laughter, thoroughly enjoying the fact that you finally caught him off guard.

“N-Nothing,” the word barely comes out of your mouth as you're too busy holding in the fit of laughter, “it's just that you're the first person I've ever met who pours in the milk before the cereal.”

“Hey!” his ears turn pink, “I'm sure there are other people who pour in the milk first.”

The pointed look you give him sends chills down his spine.

“Okay,” he sheepishly rubs the back of his neck, “maybe not.”

❖ ❖ ❖

“You look hideous,” you grumble pointedly when Jisung finally comes out of the changing room, a cheap hoodie three sizes too big draping over his frame and tight sweatpants covering his legs.

Jisung pulls a face, but after looking in the mirror, he realizes that you're right.

“Look, we can get you a nice outfit somewhere else, okay?”

Huffing out a dramatic sigh, Jisung whines, “But where? Nothing I try on seems to fit me. I'm starting to think I just don't look good in clothes.”

You almost bark out a laugh, catching on to what he's trying to convey. Yes, he had a nice body—something you get to see first hand whenever he stumbles out of a bathroom shirtless, looking for his t-shirt, but you won't let him get to you again.

After he changes back into his (yours, actually) clothes, you drag him out of the store and head to another place. One you deemed would have a nicer selection.

“Here, I think this size should fit you better.”

He gladly accepts the articles of clothing you shove in his hands, pulling the curtain in the stall. Meanwhile, you take a seat on the small, wooden bench, curious how he will look in the things you chose for him.

And as always, the universe has proven you have impeccable taste.

The curtain slowly peels, revealing Jisung, who is nervously treading from place to place, rubbing at the back of his neck. Uncertainty hazes his eyes, but at this moment, you can barely recognize him.

From the boy who appeared in your house all roughed up, to a handsome young man, clad in jeans and a simple, white t-shirt.

You can't believe how much the outfit affects you, and the heat rises to your cheeks as you take in the sight. The form-fitting shirt sits deliciously tight around his torso and arms, further emphasizing his toned body. The light wash jeans have a couple of rips on the knees, allowing slivers of his tan skin to peek through the stiff material.

One thing's for sure—he does clean up nicely.

Heat rises to your face as you look away, not wanting him to see you embarrassed again. Jisung knows the power he possesses—he is far too cocky for his own good and you figured he would never shut up about it if he knew how attracted you were to him.

“Do I really look that bad?” the question startles you from your distracted state, brow shooting up. Does he think he looks bad? Is he joking—

However, when you turn around to look at him, you can't help but notice how out of place he seems. The way his head hangs low and his fingers clutch onto his jeans—he almost seems like an entirely new person.

Out goes the confident and cocky guy who sometimes walks around shirtless in your apartment and in comes the shy, introverted boy who more than anything else, values your opinion and always puts your comfort before his.

It's truly startling to see those two flip sides of a coin merge into one, creating a masterpiece of a guy that Jisung is. And more than anything, you want him to realize his worth.

“No,” your hand comes to rest at his shoulder, making him slowly lift his gaze until his chocolate orbs are looking straight into yours. With as much confidence as you can muster, you continue, “you look really good, Jisung. How do you feel in it?”

“Uhm… it's actually kind of nice,” he muses, smoothing down the creases of his shirt. “The material is really soft and comfortable. I'm just—”

You stare at him intently, waiting for him to continue. A nervous smile play on his lips. “I'm just not sure if these kinds of clothes suit me. I'm not really a gym rat,” he chuckles, tugging on the tight sleeves.

You quirk your brow. “You're not a gym rat? Really?” you almost feel like bursting into laughter. Dropping your gaze to his arms you scoff. “Yeah… definitely not a gym rat.”

“Oh,” the word comes from his mouth in an airy breath. “You mean these guns?”

As soon as the words leave his mouth, Jisung cringes internally. Why did he always have to make such a fool out of himself? Well, at least he had managed to humor you—the burst of laughter you fall into is a symphony for his ears. He supposes he's grateful for his high school years where he used to spend hours at the gym, believing that it was the only time he could get ripped.

“Let's get going, you dork.”

Shoving him back inside the stall, you pull the curtain before taking a seat on the bench. Pulling out your phone, you notice it's already past two, and your gut was telling you that neither you nor Jisung were going to last without food much longer.

Once he emerges from the small stall with the small heap of clothes in his arms, you head to the cash register. With a swipe of your card, you purchase the items and hand his the small paper bag.

“C'mon. Let's get something to eat.”

Upon arrival at the overcrowded food court, Jisung gasps in awe. When you turn your head to him, raising a brow, he shrugs. “Hey, it's been ages since I've been here. This mall changed a lot.”

Was he from here? Your brows furrow at the though; this wasn't the first time he hinted at knowing this place. Nonetheless, you already knew that asking him personal questions would get you nowhere. For God's sake—it was like talking to a brick wall!

You end up ordering some chicken nuggets and a smoothie. Jisung, on the other hand, opts for a cheeseburger. Well… three, actually. Wincing at the thought of your drained bank account, you swipe your card on the terminal.

“I'll take it,” he grips the tray before you, walking towards an empty table in a secluded corner at the back. It's a lot less noisy here.

Dipping your nugget in the sauce, your eyes wander off, landing on the boy in front of you. A chuckle escapes your parted lips as you watch him wolf down the burger in three bites.

“This is really good!” Jisung grins, practically inhaling the second burger with how fast he was eating. During your silent observation, you manage to notice a particular detail.

He stores his food in his cheeks.

Oh fuck, he's so damn cute, he almost looks like a squirrel. Your heart swells up at the realization that he has so much in common with the adorable rodent. With how mesmerized you are, you don't notice Jisung's gaze landing on you.

A small smirk plays on his lips—you were watching him.

Suddenly, he stands up to his full height, bending his torso over the table until his face is right in front of yours. His lips stretch into a large grin as he watches the heat rise to your cheeks, looking at you like you held the entire Milky way in your eyes.

You feel bashful under his intense gaze, unable to properly deal with your emotions and simultaneously handle his cocky smile. Biting down at your lower lip, your eyes slowly close in anticipation, gripping at the soft material of your hoodie. You aren't sure what makes you react that way, but before you can properly dwell on it, you feel something touch your cheek.

Jisung watches your eyes close with amusement, giddy at the fact that he managed to elicit such a reaction from you. His deep brown orbs fixate on your face, taking in all your pretty features before his thumb brushes off the sliver of sauce that stains your cheek.

“You got a lil' something there, darling.”

Your eyes instantly open, an inaudible gasp leaving your parted lips. You stare at Jisung for a couple more seconds, blinking a few times, before your eyes dart sideways.

A heavy silence falls between you.

You're too flustered to speak, meanwhile, Jisung, who is currently sipping ice tea from his jumbo-sized paper cup, flashes you a toothy grin. Rolling your eyes, you slowly get up and grab your tray.

“We should probably head back home.”

“Yeah,” he chuckles, placing his hand on your lower back and gently guiding you to the exit. “Let's go home.”

❖ ❖ ❖

“Done!” you softly mutter under your breath, sliding your finished bagels into a paper bag. You haven't been really enjoying the food in your canteen for the past few days so you decided to make your own. And you have to admit—your homemade bagels look a thousand times better than the mystery meatloaf your school offers to the poor, hungry students.

Upon smelling the toasted bagels, Jisung materializes right behind you, placing his hands on your waist and resting his chin on your shoulder. Your heartbeat quickens when you hear his raspy voice whisper in your ear.

“These look so good. What's the occasion?”

His hand slowly reaches for one of the bangles, but you promptly slap it, wrapping the bagels before he can eat them.

“Hey—” he whines playfully, pinching your side. “What was that for?”

A pout appears on your lips as you chastise him. “This is my lunch today. The food's been terrible this week so I decided to make something myself.”

“I see. Are you sure you can't spare a little something for me?” He juts out his lower lip in an attempt to make you change your mind. However, the anticipation of hunger overrides his cuteness and you manage to hastily decline.

“Sorry, Ji. I'll need all the energy I can get today. I have two evening classes so I'll need to stay awake.”

Jisung grumbles something about how you're practically starving him (while he's eating some of your cereal straight from the box), before waddling away, the fuzzy blanket that's draped around his shoulders dragging across the floor.

You bite your tongue in exasperation before angrily shouting, “Jisung! Get my blanket off the damn floor!”

Rushing back to your room to grab your books, you dump everything into your backpack. You even fill up your water bottle—having the time to do so for the first time in months—before walking out the door.

“Goodbye, Jisung!” you shout over the sound of the washing machine, smiling softly at the fact that Jisung is already helping out so early in the morning.

“Bye, Y/N. Enjoy your day!”

Unbeknownst to you, the brown, paper bag lies forgotten on your kitchen counter.

❖ ❖ ❖

You sigh bitterly, dropping your backpack on the soft, green grass before you lower yourself until your back is pressed flush against the stale, oak tree on campus grounds.

The loud grumble of your stomach makes you drop your head in your hands, gripping at the roots of your hair in frustration.

How could you have forgotten something so important? Again. Are you really that forgetful?

From the corner of your eye, you see Seungmin and Jeongin walking up to you, both sipping cups of boba from the new boba place that just opened two weeks ago.

“Hi, Y/N,” Jeongin waves, the straw never leaving his mouth. “Mind if we take a seat?”

You nod in agreement, moving your backpack so that there's more space for them to sit. A loud grumble of your stomach makes the heat rise up to your cheeks.

“Quite the whale coming out of your stomach,” Seungmin quips, pointing at your lower belly with a toothy grin. Jeongin joins in on the laughter too, a teasing smile appearing on his lips.

“S-Shut up!” you cry, hiding your face in embarrassment as you instinctively cover your abdomen. “I forgot my lunch at home, okay!”

As the two of them continue to laugh at you, you notice a quick movement materializing from the corner of your eye. Once the person finally comes into view, you break out into a large grin.

“Jisung!” you yell at your friend, waving at him frantically before getting up and breaking into a sprint.

As the distance between you and him shrinks, Jeongin's eyes are blown out wide.

His hands start trembling at the mention of the familiar name. Chills run down his spine as he watches you run, eyes helplessly searching for him.

He finds nothing.

All the memories of that day—the worst day of his life—start slowly trickling back into his mind, drowning him in the dread and agony he went through exactly ten years ago. His hands start clenching into fists, gripping at the emerald green grass and pulling it out of the soil.

Both him and Seungmin are watching you intently, but neither of them are able to spot this “Jisung” you're speaking of.

“What are you doing here, Ji?” you whisper into the boy's chest when the two of you finally collide, his strong arms pulling you into an embrace. Sighing at the soft scent of your washing detergent, you bury your nose into his neck.

With just his presence alone, he has managed to lull you into a state of bliss.

Jisung rubs comforting circles on your back with his right hand before he pulls something from behind his back. A sudden silence hangs over you, your brows furrow for a second before you squeal in awe, realizing what he was holding.

“You brought my lunch!”

You look up at Jisung, giving him the widest smile you can possibly muster. Overwhelmed by your exhilaration, he sheepishly rubs the back of his neck. He's happy to see you so joyful—your smile has the ability to light up his entire universe and simultaneously bring him to his knees. Something he realized when he saw you flash him a grin for the first time.

Till this day, Jisung remembers the twinkle in your eyes—the ones that carry entire galaxies in them—when he says something remotely funny. It's the way your eyes lighten up and look at him with such fondness and admiration—it's a deadly combination that makes him weak in the knees.

Jisung knows he's weak for you. Utterly weak.

“C'mon, we can share!” you wiggle your brows, suggestively waving the small paper bag in front of you. Jisung's eyes lighten up as he recalls how good they smelled in the morning.

“Yes, please!”

As the two of you walk away with your arms linked, you fail to notice how pale Jeongin has gone and how incredulously Seungmin is looking at you. With a quick turn of his head, Jisung searches for the people you were sitting with prior to his arrival. Curiosity gets the better of him—he truly wants to know who your friends are.

However, once his eyes land on the two guys who are currently standing up from the ground, one of them patting the other on the back, a wave of nausea washes over him, chilling him to the bone.

No… it can't be.

He almost refuses to believe it at first, but when his eyes focus on the sharp, fox-like features of your friend, it feels like someone punched him in the stomach. With his eyes blown wide, he starts connecting the dots, one by one.

It really is him.

Other than the massive growth spurt over the past ten years (his shoulders have broadened unbelievably, he notes), he looks exactly the same, down to the mischievous twinkle in his eyes and the black beanie he always wore.

“Are you okay there, Ji? You're not hungry anymore?”

Your voice pulls him out of his trance, and shaking his head, he gives you a forced smile.

“I'm fine, just got a bit distracted. Let's go over there.” He points at a secluded area behind the gazebo, suggesting that you two sit on the bench.

“Sure.”

❖ ❖ ❖

The smell of lasagna wafts through the air as you paddle down the hall leading to your living room, careful not to trip on anything that could possibly be in the way (like Jisung's dirty laundry). There's a makeshift blindfold tied around your eyes, causing all your other senses to heighten.

“Careful! There's a sock at three o'clock!” Jisung warns, his hands that are securely wrapped around your waist gently guiding you to evade the garment on the floor.

You sigh, placing your palms gingerly over his. You could feel his breath lingering on your neck, making you shiver. “Jisung, what am I even doing? Running around my apartment blindfolded…”

A childish whine leaves his lips. “C'mon, darling. Lighten up! I promise you it's nothing bad—it's just a little surprise. That's all.”

Although still a bit skeptical, you nod, threading your fingers with his as he walks you into what you assume is the kitchen, judging by the fact that the lovely smell has intensified.

“What's this?” You sniff, surprised at how good the food smells. “You ordered takeout?”

A brief chuckle escapes his lips at the implication. Unbeknownst to you, he has no idea how to order food from those apps on your phone. He doesn't even have a phone in the first place!

Instead of replying, Jisung's hands reach for the back of your head, fingers working to untie the knot that keeps the blindfold secured around your face.

“Surprise!” he yells in your ear, throwing his hands in the air for a dramatic effect. You let out a surprised gasp, eyes widening at the scene before you.

“Jisung!” The shock still hasn’t worn off as you take a few steps forward, gently placing your hand on the fresh table cloth lying on your table and examining his handiwork. “I-I can’t believe this!”

While you were working on your assignment in your room, Jisung cleaned the entire place up, changing the table cloth and setting the table. There were long candles placed between the plates that he set up, just like in a fancy restaurant. On top of that, a large bouquet of daisies stood in the center, completing the entire picture.

“It's…” You rack your brain, desperately trying to find the right words, but failing. “It's really beautiful.”

Discreetly wiping off the moisture under your eyes, you turn around to face him, pulling him into a bone-shattering hug.

He gently pats your back before placing his palm against your cheek and motioning for you to look him in the eye. “Thank you. I hope you'll enjoy what I've planned for you today.”

Leading you to the table, he pulls out your chair and places his hand on your lower back to guide you to sit down. The heat rises to your cheeks at the action, one usually associated with couples, as you slowly take a seat, breathing in to calm your racing heart.

Pulling on oven mitts, Jisung turns off the oven and pulls out the lasagna. Your mouth waters upon seeing the finished product of his hard work. He catches you lovingly staring at the food and flashes a grin.

“Here you go.” He cuts out identical pieces of the dish and places them on both your plates. A soft “thanks” leaves your lips as you watch him run back into the kitchen, grabbing some matches to light the candles.

“There we go.” He calls out cheerfully once all is ready, taking a seat opposite to you. Rubbing your hands together, you smile appreciatively before digging in.

The burst of flavor on your tongue is something you truly aren't ready for. Eyes widening in surprise, you open your mouth to speak. “This is really good.”

Although muffled by the food you are chewing, Jisung understands and chuckles at the sight. “Thanks. I found a really cool recipe online and changed it up a bit. I'm glad you like it.”

And it truly hits you then—just how much Jisung has done for you. His presence has become somewhat of a constant in your boring, ordinary life. An unpredictable force that came barging through the window like a warm gust of wind, changing all your days for the better.

Over the time that he has spent with you, he always came rushing whenever you needed help. He had cheered you up during the times you were at your lowest, allowing you to cry your heart out while rubbing comforting circles on your back and whispering sweet nothings into your ear. He cooked, he cleaned, he even brought you things to your college whenever you forgot them—like your assignment or your lunch. As horrible as they sometimes were, his cheesy jokes always managed to put a smile on your face—something you have come to love.

After swallowing the last piece of your lasagna, you were about to get up to wash the dishes. However, Jisung places his palm over yours, stopping you from doing so. “It's okay. I'll do the dishes later. I still have something planned for today, remember?”

The twinkle in your eye manages to set your heart onfire, a large smile decorating your lips as you follow him to the couch. Your eyes widen at the setup of the coffee table; a couple scented candles are placed across the surface, there's a massive bowl of ice cream, and in the middle sits the star of the evening.

A beautifully decorated fruit cake.

You let that sink in for a moment—Jisung baked you a cake.

A stunning one at that.

Ever since that baking fiasco in grade 7, you've known first hand how hard it is to bake and decorate such a nice cake. And to know he went through all the trouble—it makes you really emotional.

“Thank you, Ji. I absolutely love it!” You wrap your arms around his shoulders, burying your head in his chest.

Jisung's eyes widen, a crimson hue painting his cheeks as he pats your head affectionately, a goofy smile appearing on his lips. “I'm glad you like it.”

After that, he rests his hand on your back, pointing at the couch. There, spread across your fluffy throw blanket, lays a selection of DVDs, ranging from rom-coms to popular horrors. You sigh at the sight; it has been quite some time since you saw those, having opted for purchasing a Netflix subscription years ago.

“I borrowed these from your neighbors. They said we can return them anytime next week.”

Gazing from one end of the couch to the other, you look at all your possible choices before a title catches your gaze. Gently hovering your hand above the plastic case, you lower it to grab the movie, flipping it to the other side so that you can read the description.

A small chuckle escapes your lips. “Look—it's a ghost story. That should be fun since it's almost Halloween.”

Unbeknownst to you, Jisung, who is standing right behind you, pales, all the color draining from his cheeks. “A-A ghost one?”

You curiously glance his way, immediately noticing his unrest. Upon seeing the frown etched onto his face, you raise a brow.

“I take it that you're not really one for horrors.”

When he doesn't reply, you place down the DVD. “It's okay—I get scared quite easily too. We can watch something—”

“—No.”

Slightly amused, you look at him, chuckling at his rushed response. “You sure? I'm really okay with—”

He places his hand gently over yours. “It's fine. I want to watch this.” You look at him incredulously, but he gives you such a cheeky grin that you can't help but give in. Sitting comfortably on the couch, Jisung puts the DVD into the player and plops into the empty spot right next to you, grabbing a knife and cutting off two slices of cake.

After placing the delicious treat on a plate, he hands it to you, making one for himself too.

Curiously tapping the spoon on the edge of the table, you press play before digging into the cake and shoving the spoon in your mouth. A groan leaves your lips.

“Jisung! This is so good!” You gush, excitedly taking another piece. Next to you, Jisung sits cross-legged, quietly observing you with a fond smile. His eyes crinkle when he sees how much you're enjoying his treat. A familiar feeling spreads throughout his body and he feels warm and fuzzy from the inside.

“I'm glad you like it.”

Selecting the language options, the two of you recline back in your seats, eyes focusing on the TV.

❖ ❖ ❖

“I wasn't scared at all! I swear!” Jisung tries to convince you as he's gathering all the plates, about to carry them to the sink. You snicker. “Yeah sure, Ji. I totally believe you.”

A pout appears on his face as he juts out his lower lip, feigning hurt. “I really wasn't!”

“AAAAAA. Heeelp, Y/N. I'm so scared!” You yell in a high pitch, trying to imitate his voice.

A mild blush covers his cheeks, and Jisung can't help but realize he may or may not have screamed something like that at one point. But it's not like he could help it—cinematography has progressed a lot in the past years, and he wasn't used to all the flashy effects.

“It's okay,” you pat his back, pinching his soft cheek before grabbing one of the plates and beginning to wash it. “I was pretty scared too.”

The crease in his brow disappears, but he still looks a bit distressed. Puffing out his cheeks, he joins you in front of the sink and starts washing the dishes too.

The two of you work in relative silence—each of you too lost in thought to lead a proper conversation. But even though no words are exchanged, a familiar ease hangs in the air, the atmosphere between you very pleasant—like two people who have known each other long enough to communicate without words.

Even though your fingers struggle to grip the plates properly, you still manage to clean them at a moderate pace. And as soon as you're done with washing it, Jisung is there to take it from you and dry it with a fluffy towel.

“Thanks for helping me out with the dishes.”

His body tenses for a second, before he regains his composure and continues drying. “Yeah. It's no problem, really.”

You glance up at him from underneath your lashes, admiring his sharp features as he focuses on the task at hand. Your heartbeat starts racing as you notice, one by one, the little quirks and subtle things that he does.

The way his eyes stay sharp and focused—there's something truly magical about that. The little scrunch of his nose when he stands on his tippy toes to reach the top shelf. The way his Adam's apple bobs and his strong arms gripping onto the plates.

Everything about him suddenly seems so enchanting you can't take your eyes off him.

They say love makes you blind. Well, that may be true, but for you… it was different.

It made you foolish. Stupid. Crazy, even. Like something straight out of a fairytale. Who would've thought that you, out of all people, would be the one to fall for a guy who just appeared at your place, asking to stay. His skin was littered with bruises, and he refused to go to the hospital, despite his serious injuries. He was a guy you knew nothing about.

Yet it seems like once again, fate has found a way to bring you two together, tying your heartstrings and forming a special bond between two virtual strangers.

Ever since you found him lying on your couch, your world was quite literally flipped upside down. Jisung came in like the wind, unpredictable and wild, throwing things out of place like a hurricane—in this case, those things were your own feelings—and wreaking havoc in your heart.

Yet despite that, this miracle of a person has managed to establish himself as a solid part of your life. It didn't take long for you to realize how happy you suddenly became when he was around, how the mood shifted whenever he entered the room and how a smile instantly appeared on your face. He's always there for you, something you never thought you'd be able to confidently say about someone.

He has become your anchor. Someone you can rely on when things aren't going well. Someone who isn't afraid to put your needs before his when needed. Someone who knows exactly when to tell you to stop if you're pulling another all-nighter or neglecting yourself in any way, shape, or form.

And you decide to tell him exactly that.

“Jisung,” you whisper, keeping your eyes trained in front of you. Said boy hums, not looking up from his work as the tip of his tongue darts out in concentration.

“Yeah?”

You take a deep breath. This was a lot more stressful than you anticipated, you realized. “I—” the words get lost on your tongue just as you're about to ask. Swallowing the ball of spit that formed in your throat, you continue.

“I'm really grateful for having you in my life. I know we don't know each other for too long, but spending time with you has become one of my favourite things. Whenever I'm with you, I feel like all my problems disappear. Like everything's going to be okay…”

You trail off with a solemn tone, keeping your eyes down as you feel all these overwhelming emotions take over you.

Suddenly, you hear the room go quiet. Blinking away the confusion, you notice that the sink isn't running anymore, the corners of your eye catching Jisung's palm closing the faucet. You nervously grip onto your shirt, closing your eyes and allowing the demons to whisper in your ear once again.

You shouldn't have told him. He doesn't care. Nobody ever does...

“Darling…”

A familiar voice shakes you from your thoughts, preventing you from sinking any lower. It's a sweet melody calling out to you and pulling you out from the trench you were currently falling through.

As your gaze slowly rises, you notice a pair of intense, brown eyes looking at you, carefully studying your face.

Shying away in embarrassment, you feel the heat rise to your cheeks. The serious expression on his face worries you slightly—his usually cheeky demeanor gone and instead replaced with a fierce gaze as his lids flutter.

In a flash, he leans forward and presses his lips to yours, pushing you against the counter. Your eyes widen in surprise, hands immediately gripping onto the sleeves of his shirt to anchor yourself. You feel his hands snake around your neck, gently cupping your cheek as he pulls you closer to him, until there's no space between you.

A few seconds pass before he lets go, detaching his lips from yours with a smile. His eyes twinkle, gleefully watching you fluster before he finally speaks up.

“I like you too, you know. I have for a while, actually…”

With another press of his soft, kissable lips, you close your eyes in bliss.

❖ ❖ ❖

Jisung is scared. Shivers are running down his spine as his breath heaves; he looks down at his arms to try and understand what's going on with him. He's utterly terrified as his sharp gaze manages to quite literally pierce through his hand.

Except, there's no longer a hand for him to look at.

He's dissolving.

The chilling truth sinks in as he comes to a realization of what's going on. Perhaps he has been testing his luck for far too long, dancing on the edge of what was deemed appropriate for someone like him. But he thought that it could be different… that you could be the person for him. One that would bring him back from this misery he was about to fall back into.

Your soft snores echo through the apartment, a painful reminder of today's events that he would never want to forget. The sweet smile on your lips, how your eyes glossed. He thought that he had finally found peace amongst the thorns of the afterlife.

But it seems like fate had other plans, granting him the sweet taste of love before cruelly ripping it away, leaving his shattered heart behind.

Why is it always like that for him? Ever since he was young, he knew he wasn't particularly lucky. As a child, he wished he could get his hand on the infamous Felix Felicis potion for years. It was a ridiculous and naive wish—he is now aware of that—but thinking back, it would really come in handy.

A sharp ache flutters through his hand as he gasps at the sight of his appendage. From the wrist down, it's all gone. His heart clenches when he realizes what that means, pain ebbing through his entire body at the mere thought.

He can't.

He really doesn't want to, but unfortunately, fate doesn't listen to what one wants. Instead, it does its own thing, intertwining, separating or melding the lives of millions of people, all according to its own ways.

Fate isn't something he can escape, and sadly, Han Jisung is very much aware of that fact.

He won't dare go against such a powerful entity. At least not when the stakes are so high…

Ignoring the pricking pain in his left hand, he grabs a piece of paper and a pen, scribbling a quick goodbye note. Tears are streaming down his face; droplets of salty water dripping onto the paper as they create small blotches of smeared ink.

But Jisung can't afford to even remotely care, his left hand is slowly dissolving and it's only a matter of time until his entire body disappears. He has overstayed his welcome.

A choked sob leaves his lips, one full of hurt and anger, as he hurriedly jots down his last words of love, encouragement, and apologies. For the last time, he takes a look around the apartment—the one that housed him for the past few months—and wipes his tears off his face.

And just like the wind, he's gone.

Except this time, he has no plans of ever returning again...

❖ ❖ ❖

You're freaking out. It's the only thing you've been doing for the past few hours, other than frantically running around your apartment, calling for him like a maniac. But despite your best efforts, you haven't been able to find him. Fresh tears start rolling down your cheeks as you open the folded piece of paper, re-reading its contents for the 100th time.

But even if you read it a million more times, you still won't understand the reasoning behind his actions.

What does he mean by I really can't stay any longer, it isn't physically possible anymore. The words seem like they aren't even his to begin with. They're rushed, serious, and full of apologies, and it almost feels like Jisung was going through a great deal of pain while writing them.

The splotches on the paper indicate that he was also crying, something you find especially heartbreaking, and it only serves to make you sob louder.

You can't believe he's gone, especially after what happened yesterday. The entire evening was full of laughter, half-lidded gazes, and sweet words that the two of you exchanged. It was the day you finally confessed your feelings, something that took a lot of effort and courage on your part.

You thought your life was finally coming together. Relief washed over you when you ultimately thought that you found someone that was going to stay by your side. That wasn't going to leave you behind like everyone else did.

Despite your best efforts to deny it, it seems like you were wrong.

❖ ❖ ❖

It is raining again, the dark clouds painting the sky a murky grey as they release a waterfall of droplets onto the city, but you can barely feel the water touch your skin.

You're running, running down the sidewalk with no plan in mind—only a feeling of desperation. Puddles of water are sloshing under your feet as you sprint straight through them, anger and betrayal mixing inside your head.

You don't know what to do, quite frankly; you don't even know how to feel.

A few minutes ago, you bumped into Minho, your landlord, as you were running down the stairs. The handsome man gave you a wide smile, greeting you as he slowly took in your state.

Disheveled, messy clothes; tears running down your face; red eyes… Yeah, you probably weren't looking your best right now.

A frown took over his face when he caught sight of the tears spilling from your eyes. “Y/N? Is everything alright?”

You choked on a sob, shaking your head in denial. “N-No, h-he's gone…”

He watched in fear as you almost broke down in the hallway, hands clutching onto your arms as you tried to lull yourself into a state where you could think normally.

“Who's gone?” Minho inquired, brows furrowing. His arm slowly wrapped around your shaking shoulders, guiding you towards his apartment. Perhaps he could offer you a cup of warm tea to help you calm down.

Taking a deep breath, you whispered, “Jisung.”

You never saw the color drain from someone's face as fast as now.

Minho's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, his arm immediately letting go of you as he took a step back. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead, a pained expression appearing on his face.

“J-Jisung?”

His voice was strained, the single word pronounced in a quiet stutter. You almost had to crane your neck to even hear what he was saying. The shift in his expression scared you, though.

His eyes darted sideways, as if he was expecting someone to appear out of nowhere and startle him. Glancing down, you noticed his hands were shaking, something that very much reminded you of the way he reacted to a joke you made when you first moved in.

“I-I… I h-have to g-go,” he mumbled before dashing down the staircase and leaving you behind.

Frankly, it wasn't even the worst reaction you got.

After Mr. Lee left you standing in the hallway, you asked a couple more people if they knew where Jisung could've gone, and to your utter surprise, most of them replied that they had no idea who you were talking about.

That bit was what startled you the most—they had seen you and Jisung hang out multiple times. You even greeted them as you passed by, indulging in a little small talk for God's sake.

How could they have not known?

It isn't until you reach the local internet cafe, stepping inside and shedding your coat. You wipe off the tears from your face before walking up to the main barista, Hyunjin.

Everyone knows that Hyunjin is the main gossip girl in town. If you need some information, be it the latest buzz about celebrities, or who asked whom out from your college, Hyunjin is your guy.

Walking up to him, you try to smooth out the hem of your shirt so you don't look like you just rolled out of bed. Hyunjin greets you with a friendly smile and a familiar 'sup as he finishes up a caramel latte.

“How have you been?” he mouths, spraying a generous dollop of whipped cream on top of the beverage. You give him a broken smile, exhaustion peeking through the mask you're trying to put on, and his face immediately shifts.

“Are you alright? You don't really look too well," says Hyunjin. "No offence!” he adds hastily.

A sigh leaves your lips. “Yeah… I've been better, honestly. It's just that my friend is gone and I don't know what to do or how to find him…”

At this point, you're exhausted enough to plop down into the cushioned seat near the cash register to watch Hyunjin work. You always found his presence calming.

Said boy glances at you, curiosity glimmering in his eyes as he wipes down the counter. “And who is this mysterious person you're looking for, if I may ask?”

“Jisung… his name is Jisung.”

For a moment, everything goes so silent you could hear a pin drop. Hyunjin halts all his movements, dropping the plastic cup he was holding and letting it fall to the ground.

He pierces you with his eyes, his gaze no longer friendly and cheerful. Instead, you see pain, agony, and anger. Anger that has now apparently been redirected towards you.

The stare he gives you chills you to the bones. His sharp eyes glare daggers into you before he sighs, massaging his temples. “I don't know what you're playing at, Y/N, but I suggest you stop whatever little game you're onto.”

Your eyes widen. Game? What game? This is perhaps the most perplexed you've been in a long time. And that was saying a lot given you lived with a stranger for months.

“Hyunjin,” you whisper, furrowing your brows. You extend your hand forward, intending to place your palm over his in a friendly gesture. But he rips his hand away before you even get close.

You feel a bit offended by the action, hurt that he's going this far to avoid you.

“H-Hyunjin? Is everything al—”

“—Y/N!” He cuts you off, not even allowing you to finish your sentence. His eyes are sharp, piercing through you judgmentally. “I know you're not from here, but you should know by now that you don't bring up Jisung here. Ever.”

Your eyes widen as you take a step back from him. You 're scared. This reaction was by far the worst one you've received. You're afraid that you're missing something… something crucial. It's a piece of information that everybody in town knows, you assume.

Except for you…

“H-Hyunjin?” you call after the boy, hoping to find some answers, but he gives you one last glare before walking off, disappearing behind the ‘staff only’ door.

The overwhelming urge to start sobbing consumes you from the inside. You're puzzled, baffled, confused. Everything starts blurring, and for a second, you think that he may just be a figment of your imagination. That there never really was a Jisung—he was just someone who came to be in your head.

No. It can't be true… you remembered him clearly. His nose… lips… smile. The twinkle in his eyes. The taste of his lips. Everything was there, there's no way you could've imagined this all… right?

Right.

Your hands dig into your pocket, retrieving the small piece of paper that was neatly folded into a tiny square. You're sure of it—Jisung is real!

Suddenly, your eyes dart, catching sight of the computers lining one of the walls.

Computers. Internet. Technology. Bingo—online archives! Whatever part of the story you were missing, you could just look up! Shivers run down your spine in anticipation as you're about to make your way to one of the devices, but a chilling call of your name stops you.

“Y/N.” Hyunjin's jaw is set in anger, something you notice once you turn around to follow the voice. “I think it would be best if you...if you went home.”

Embarrassment settles deep within your core. His eyes—laced with fury—are something you would never expect to be on the receiving end of. Humiliation boils in your veins as you excuse yourself, tears crystalizing at the corners of your eyes. Wordlessly, you run out the door, a clear goal in mind.

Home… you wanted to go home.

❖ ❖ ❖

The blue light from your laptop screen illuminates your face as you hunch over the table, squinting your eyes to read the tiny text.

For the past two hours, you've been searching the internet for anything—just a sliver of information on Jisung.

To say that you're confused would be an understatement. You're baffled, perplexed… bewildered. It feels like there's this big secret going on around town and nobody thought about filling you in. Nothing seems to make sense anymore, nothing at all.

Your brows furrow, a large crease appearing in your forehead, as you notice something that catches your eye. You bite down on your lip nervously as you realize that it contains all your key phrases; Han Jisung and your town's name.

Your blood runs cold as you read the headline, freezing in your spot for a second. This… this can't be true, can it?

In your chest, you feel your heartbeat stall as you nervously move your mouse and click on the article. It's from ten years ago, you notice.

It takes a while for the page to load, these few seconds allowing you to ponder upon what you saw. Did you read it correctly? Will there be some sort of continuation that will allow you to make more sense of the headline? Could this be another person they're talking about?

The article finally loads, and when you see the words, black on white, you feel like your heart stops in your chest.

18 year old Han Jisung crushed to death on Park Avenue construction site:

The denial comes almost immediately. For a full minute, you shut your eyes and try to convince yourself that you read wrong. It just can't be possible! That's what you tell yourself. However, after taking a deep breath and opening your eyes, you scroll down to read the article, and this time, you know it's true. Tears well up in your eyes as you gloss over the words.

❝ The beloved town resident was found dead under a construction pillar on October 31th at 10:40 PM by 9-year-old Yang Jeongin, a boy with whom the late teen used to play. The paramedics described the scene as “brutal” and “gory”, adding that there hadn't been any hope for the boy to survive.

“When we arrived at the scene, he was still alive. Crushed under the weight of the pillar and likely in a lot of pain, but breathing. But everything from his torso down was buried under the collapsed beam and unfortunately, we couldn't save him. When he stopped breathing, we were all relieved—the pain must've been excruciating.” said local firefighter, Seo Changbin.

Our sources tell us that the boy was picking flowers before the metal beam collapsed over him. These accounts are supported by the fact that when he was found, an array of hand-picked flowers was scattered around his body. In his right hand, he was clutching onto a cluster of chrysanthemums. ❞

Your heart clenches at the irony. Chrysanthemums. An almost-laugh escapes your lips but your voice cracks midway as a choked sob wracks your throat.

In his last seconds before death, he was holding onto flowers that represent love, happiness, and longevity. It's almost too cruel, you think. Like the higher power did not only think such a brutal death was not enough, but also had a flair for dramatics.

Scrolling down, you notice they've attached a photo of him, and you almost break down after seeing the familiar face. He looks exactly the same as you remember him; bunched up cheeks, goofy smile, and the familiar twinkle in his eyes that gave him that laid back, mischievous look. If you weren't sitting, your knees would definitely buckle under the weight of your body. He doesn't look a day older than nineteen.

Way too young to have passed away...

By now, the tears are fully streaming down your face, dripping onto your white t-shirt. You try wiping them off but it's no use—fresh ones replace them in no time.

You're taken aback to the point you start questioning everything. This article managed to throw off your entire life here, making you question what was real and what was just a figment of your imagination.

Was Jisung really ever here with you? How could he—he's dead for God's sake! With a solemn glance, you confirm your suspicions. Ten years have passed since his death. The anniversary was actually quite recently—it was the day you met him for the first time...

As the clock strikes ten, eleven, twelve… you sit by the table, weeping as you recall all your shared memories. The fuzzy blanket weighs down on your shoulders heavily, as a constant reminder of his warm and comforting presence.

“I… I'll miss y-you, Jisung.”

❖ ❖ ❖

The wind is light and breezy, sweeping through the empty streets as you make your way down the street. It's fall again, almost a year later, and the leaves have turned a pretty orange hue, crunching under your boots.

In your hands, you gingerly hold a small bouquet of chrysanthemums and a plain, white candle.

A sad smile appears on your lips as the gate of your town's cemetery starts materializing in the distance, long black beams cutting through the fog.

Along the main road, you see multiple carved out pumpkins lining the entrances of each house. A fleeting thought crosses your mind, one where you and Jisung spend Halloween together, carving out pumpkins and going trick-or-treating in ridiculous costumes. And as soon as it comes by, you shove the idea to the very back of your head, not wanting to think about all the what-if's.

You have come for one thing and one thing only.

When you arrive at the entrance, the old man gives you a once over before letting you in. After your third visit, he had managed to remember you and always let you in without asking further questions.

You give him a quick smile before quickening your pace and walking towards your destination.

The gravestone is cut out of a darker shade of granite than the ones surrounding it. Although a bit smaller in size, anyone can tell it's a lot newer—the edges are still sharp despite the light signs of wear.

      In memory of Han Jisung

      A loving son, friend and brother

      September 14th XXXX — October 31th XXXX

No matter how many times you read it, you'd always end up sobbing uncontrollably. Today is no different.

You place the bouquet of carefully picked chrysanthemums on the grave, taking a step back to absorb the painful setting. Like usual, there's another bouquet there already, matching yours almost to the T. You used to wonder who this person was, but after some time, you learned to let it go.

They obviously come here secretly for a reason. You assume they knew Jisung personally from his teens, likely a friend or family member.

It's then that you remember the small candle weighing down your pocket. With a quiet sigh, you light it with a match and gently set it on top of the stone. Another tear rolls down your cheeks as you say what's on your mind.

“I really miss you, Jisung. I'm not sure under which circumstances we met, and whether you were even alive, but I miss you. I'll come back again next week, I promise. Halloween should be over then—” a choked sob escapes your lips. “A-And it'll be time f-for Christmas. Don't worry, I'll bring you a present!”

A sudden blow of the wind blows out the candle, allowing the suffocating darkness to envelop you as a whole.

With a sigh, your hand extends towards the grave, in a sort of desperate plea, before you walk away.

Unbeknownst to you, a pair of twinkling eyes is watching you, a gentle smile on their lips...

© November 2021 by crispy-chan — all rights reserved. do not modify, copy, repost, translate or claim as your own.

a/n: thank you guys for reading!! i hope you enjoyed :>. please let me know your thoughts, i worked really hard on this :). it's a bit different for me - i'm not really good with mystery and this whole anticipation and buildup stuff but i tried my best!! thank you to both xie and gyu <3 lots of love and stay safe 

[dom--minnie]

Ring Ring, Who’s There?

Witch!Reader x Fairy!Seungmin. 18+ content rating, explicit

Summary: Life as a witch living in the woods is amazingly peaceful. Though there are the occasional odd hours leading to lost sleep, including tonight. Tonight you venture into the forest on a full moon to collect some special ingredients. You get just a bit sidetracked when you find that you’ve stepped into a fairy ring, and now you can’t get out. You’ve heard the stories about what sorts of punishments they give out to people who’ve stepped in, but what can you do? The man, Seungmin, who shows up is kind and brings you with him instead of forcing you to dance or making you invisible. Once you get to the fairy celebration is when things start to get really strange. Can a human make it back out of the fairy land alive? or will you ‘choose’ to stay with them forever?

Word count: 6.7k

Genre: fluff, smut (OOPS), light horror elements, modern fantasy au

Content: much talk of magical intoxication, mildly dubcon (reader wants it but also Intoxication so be safe), magical manipulation, moment of blood, seungmin is not the good guy! or really even a good guy!, fingering, unprotected vaginal sex, 18+ rating (there wasn’t supposed to be smut guys ;-;)

a/n: so I know we’re not in spooky season AND I missed the deadline for the collab but school and seasonal depression whooped me so. Also link to the rest of the works here! Thank you Dawn, you were amazingly patient with my chaotic dummy self the whole time ily <3

Living by yourself in the forest isn’t so bad. Sure, you get a bit lonely sometimes, but with a bit of time, the animals get used to you and become your new companions. It’s not a substitute for human conversation where you can understand the words, but it’s the best you’ve got. Being so close to nature also has practical benefits, namely ingredients. Of course, plenty of people are willing to ship it to you, but it just doesn’t replace the feeling of picking everything yourself. 

Somewhat annoying, you have to go out for ingredients that can only be found at night, and are at their most potent on full moon nights. Why plants were so picky about their flowering times and the phases of the moon, you’ll never know, but she is your main source of energy so who are you to judge? 

Being so far from the city also allows you to interact with any creatures that aren’t fond of the human made controlled chaos, which you entirely understand. Fairies are the main contacts of witches, good witches at least, and so you’ve heard of them plenty from your mentor and her friends. You also know very well of the existence of fairy circles and how easily they can be hidden, but you’ve avoided the few you’ve seen over the last 5 years, so you assume you’re fine. 

You’re idly looking up at the branches so nothing you may need will escape your notice. The only indication of any difference is the ground is much softer. So, you look down just to make sure you haven’t stepped in mud, but lo and behold, it’s worse. There is a circle of mushrooms surrounding a patch of very green grass that you happen to be in the very centre of. All the hallmarks of an active fairy circle, perfect for you!

Once you’ve entered the fairy circle, nothing can stop the consequences. You can leave it and run as far away as you like, they can still find you. It’s like the circle puts a tracking device on you somehow. So you stand and wait, hoping the fairies will reward, or at least not punish, your compliance. 

It doesn’t take long before you can see a figure approaching. At first it’s just leaves rustling and twigs snapping as they walk along, but soon enough you can see a tall shadow emerging through the branches. 

“Hmmm, a little witch has stepped into our circle? I thought you all knew better by now.” The fairies voice is light and playful, a certain softness to it that you’d otherwise appreciate. 

“I thought I did, too. I was too busy looking up to find pin cherries, unfortunately.”

Pin cherries weren’t necessary to find on full moon nights, unlike some other things you were looking for, but if you could find any you would take them. The small cherries have so little flesh that you have to pick many to be able to use them, and the preparation time to get the flesh off is unfortunate. But, the slight tartness of the ones in this forest were perfect for food or potion making purposes, so you weren’t looking for a replacement yet.

“Unfortunate for you, yes. But very fortunate for me, and us. I’m sure you’ll understand that you have to come with me. Leave that pesky basket, I’ll make sure it stays safe here.”

You didn’t relish the idea of leaving your half full basket here for anything to find, but it would probably be safer inside a fairy circle more than anywhere else other than your cabin. So, you put it down next to you and wait to see how exactly this works. The fairy steps forward and now you can see how utterly soft he looks as well. The gold leafing on the edges of his tunic are brighter than they should be, but the rest of his black outfit makes him blend in with the night. You briefly wonder if you’re the only person he’s somehow trapped tonight. 

You expect him to pick you up and fly away over the forest, or something equally dramatic and exciting. Actually, teleporting is probably fairly dramatic, now that you think about it. Considering your previous work with spirits who teleported just to mess with you it didn’t seem entirely implausible. One moment you were standing looking at the fairy, you blinked and now you were standing in front of a large tree in an entirely different forest. It didn’t seem like a different country since you recognized almost all of the plants, but these were not the trees of your forest. 

Hopefully, when this was over you could still find your way back to your forest. That is if you even get to leave this place, a fate you had considered as the only option before reality decided to crash back in. 

There is no entrance anywhere that you can see, whether human or regular fairy sized. The fairy next to you seems content to let you examine the trees around you to try and find any sign of a fairy colony living within them. Eventually, your eyes land on him again and you glare at the wry smirk painted across his face. 

“Do you mind actually doing what you were meant to and bringing me in?” You bite, but he only seems to become more amused at your harsh tone.

“I just said you had to come with me. For all you know this is the end, and I’m just going to leave you here.” He shrugs.

You narrow your eyes at him and then roll them back when he maintains a poker face. You look up and wonder if there are any spirits that are content to live this near to the boisterous fairies. They might not even help you, depending on how far away from home you are.

“I doubt any fairy would pass up such a prime opportunity to further toy with a human, witch or otherwise.”

You speak with confidence, though you have not had an extended interaction with any fairies. The many stories you had heard about interactions of decades past where witches and fairies lived together provided more than enough. Thankfully, you seem to be correct as the fairy leads you back to the tree you landed in front of. 

“You’ll need to draw some blood, I don’t care how. There’s a spot that will transform you when you push your blood into it.”

Hastily, you draw back a few steps. The urge to run is strong, though you assume he is far faster than you and likely far stronger as well. 

“Can I at least know your name before making a blood sacrifice to your colony?” The question is half joking, half serious since you have no idea if they will get access to said blood and what they may do with it if they do. 

“Seungmin. Can I have your name as well, little witch?”

You scowl at the innocence his face is projecting again, being well aware of the usual fairy tricks.

“No, you cannot have my name, good sir. You may know it, if you so choose to ask.”

The fai- Seungmin laughs at your easy evasion of the trick. It’s a rather simple trick all things be told, but it has tripped up many humans and witches alike in days past. Days past you say, though you don’t doubt that this fairy may have taken someone’s name like that last week. 

“Alright. Can I know your name then? No having or taking involved.”

Only after a moment of scrutinizing do you tell him your name. It was a brief moment of trying to figure out if him mentioning having or taking counted as enough for any of his strange fairy magic to kick in. It didn’t end up being so, and now you were satisfied enough to make this blood sacrifice, acting as if you had a choice. 

Looking around you can see a convenient firethorn tree nearby, knowing the branches contain many sharp thorns. Indeed, with hardly any effort at all you find many a thorn beneath your hand. It takes a bit more mental work to get your brain’s natural defense system and prick yourself on it, but you’ll have to hope the minimal amount of blood will do. 

It seems completely imperceptible to you, but Seungmin points out a specific point on the tree that you’ll have to put the blood on to make it work. When you lift your hand up he tuts and gently grabs your wrist, moving your hand up a few centimeters. You freeze and tense in his hold but he doesn’t seem to notice as he guides your hand to the right spot. Without a word from either of you he lets go and disappears, supposedly to get his own blood offering. 

You really question what has happened in your life to have you here, and what you may have done to deserve it. Either way, you don’t know what they can or will do if you don’t obey, so you drag your hand down over the spot and wait. 

With milliseconds, there’s a strange tingling at your feet. At first you assumed it was from the cold of the night, but then it quickly started spreading upwards. It was quite unlike anything you had ever felt before, like sparklers had been lit on the inside of your body. Flickering and jumping every which way inside of you, consuming your body.

One second you blink, and the next you are somewhere else again. Somehow, they had teleported you again, to a place where everything was giant. Wait… no. That was one of the bronze bells you saw earlier while looking for thorns, it was right next to the tree. Looking around, the scenery is familiar even if you didn’t fully take it in earlier. The world didn’t turn giant, you turned tiny.

While still looking around in wonder and confusion you hear a little giggle next to you. There’s Seungmin again, his innocent look back on. Both sides of himself are obviously him, but he switches between soft and hard, light and dark, so quickly that it nearly gives you mental whiplash. 

“Come on, little witch. They’ve already started without us, I wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.”

He skips and floats along the grass towards the tree, and you hurry to follow behind him. It was not a graceful set of movements, but you arrive at the door with him all the same. With hindsight, it all seems fairly obvious that the door would be on the ground and regular fairy size, but perhaps your lack of sleep affects you more than you had thought. If you listen, beyond insect and bird calls, there is the distinct sound of music that you’re not sure how you missed before in the silence.

It only gets louder when Seungmin opens the door, and an enticing beam of light spills out with the sound. He lets you step in on your own, but once you’re over the threshold he wastes no time in grabbing you by the wrist again and leading you through a complex set of hallways that makes you dizzy. Extra confusingly, with every turn Seungmin makes it’s like he isn’t quite leading you towards or away from it and it never gets much louder or quieter. 

No time to ponder, as he finally stops at one door. It is unmarked like all the others and you wonder how he knows this is the right one, how anyone knows they have the right door at all. Once again, all thoughts are gone from your mind when he knocks only twice and lets himself in. Two people sit on one side of the room and he hurriedly brings you to them. Seungmin stops himself in front of them and gives a gesture you don’t understand, but would assume means respect of some kind. 

Their eyes go to him, then to you, and back to Seungmin. When he starts to speak, it is a strange, chittering little language that you can’t make any heads or tails of. It seems they speak quickly, and you swivel your head between them so fast you fear it will get sore. 

The chittering sounds end quickly, and all 3 turn back to you, speaking in a way that you clearly understand. They mention nothing of the chittering before and what they were saying, moving on to what tonight will be like for you. The woman speaks first, but everyone else’s eyes stay locked on to you. 

“We have agreed to let you into our gathering tonight, young witch. Unless something is agreed otherwise, you are to stay with Seungmin the whole time. If you discover something and reveal it to anyone outside of the colony there will be… consequences. I’m sure you understand.” 

“I understand clearly. Any friends I have are smart enough not to ask about any such secrets in the first place, I am sure.” 

All witches have heard of what happens to those who go against the rules of the fairies. It seems complicated to interact with them, and you wonder how the witches of the past had maintained such positive relationships while dancing around all of these rules in every interaction. You’ll ask that later, once you get out of this place and sleep for a solid 10 hours in your own bed. 

Seungmin wordlessly leads you back to the door, turning to the two fairies and doing the same gesture, before taking you back through the winding halls. You want to say something, to talk to him, but you can’t think of anything to say as your brain goes over the overwhelming mess of events you’ve been through. This time the music only gets louder, and it seems like the halls get brighter at the same rate. 

The door to the gathering hall is large and ornate, carvings embedded into them, and the fibers of the tree are made into the design of it. Seungmin doesn’t hesitate in pushing the door open, letting everything inside flood your senses at once.

It’s decorated with flowers, mushrooms, berries, and leaves of all kinds and colours. The room is filled with tables and each of those is filled to the edge with food. You can’t tell what half of them are meant to be, but they’re every bit as colourful as the decorations. You can hardly make a scent out of any of it, everything just blends together in the air. Fairies are chatting loudly, yet you still hear the music as if the room is silent, an interesting bit of magic that you had never thought of or needed to be possible. 

No one notices you at first, even as Seungmin brings you to a smaller table at the far end of the room. He brings you right down the middle and for a moment you wonder if he put a cloaking spell on you, since no one is acknowledging you at all. Once you reach the smaller table, it crosses your mind again what kind of role Seungmin has? He was the one to bring you back here and to, what you presume are the leaders, and now he has a table practically all to himself at this gathering? In your interactions he seems perfectly normal, by fairy standards, mischievous and curious but not smug or overbearing in any way. 

Once you sit down, you are more than happy to dig into the spread in front of you, basically ignoring the existence of Seungmin right next to you. It can only last so long, as when someone outside the table comes up to speak to him they notice your strange presence, of course. Seungmin gives a short explanation of what happened to bring you here, but also strict instructions not to bring special attention to your presence. This is a celebration of their colony, not of the attendance of a witch. 

It seems like the message gets around the room quickly, since afterwards anyone who comes up interacts with you normally, you assume anyways, or doesn’t talk to you at all. Honestly, you’re fine with it, since just watching is entertaining enough. You hadn’t quite noticed at first, but whatever Seungmin keeps pouring in your little goblet heightens the experience. It all seems sparklier, the music brighter, and the food better. Once you do notice, you have a moment of wondering if you should keep drinking it, but since you’re here you decide it can’t hurt. 

It tastes like what looking at the stars feels like, a sense of awe and wonder at the dots shining so far away from you. It’s sweet in your mouth, and you can feel it tingling pleasantly all the way down your throat. As the night passes on, you are hardly aware of it, feeling like you are in the most pleasant limbo of your life. 

The night only improves, in your humble opinion. Everyone stands, you follow them confusedly, and the tables and chairs disappear. Abruptly, the song changes and everyone rushes around the room. You stand stock still where you are, trying to make any sense of what is going on. They’re finding partners, you realize, and before you can wonder about finding your own Seungmin grabs your hand. He tilts his head, puppylike, at you, and you nod back at him. You don’t know anyone else here, and even if you did he’s still more than attractive enough for you to be flattered that he chose you. 

Then the real fun begins. It is mostly choreographed partner work that takes you a while to figure out, only getting a slight handle on it before everyone moves on, but it’s fun nonetheless. It repeats again, and then you manage to have fun, laughing about the way that Seungmin twirls and steps with you. Each time he presses his body close is captivating, but he is gone just as fast every time. 

When you think about how long you have been dancing, you think about how it feels like you have done 8 to 10 songs in a row, and yet you hardly feel tired or out of breath at all. Your shoes were made for walking, not dancing, yet your feet feel light as feathers. 

It certainly helps with all of that, you notice, that the drink from before is still running pleasantly through your veins. The same little tingling sensations in the tips of your toes, and on the curve of your lips. Seungmin seems to be letting go just as much as you are. As much as he seemed like a mischief maker before, now he is simply free and letting go. 

After a while, your mind starts to wonder about how long it’s been, because surely it’s been at least a few hours now. You pose the question to Seungmin when there’s a small break in the music, but he doesn’t acknowledge what you said at all. Instead, he hears the next song and guides you to the lines for the next dance. 

It floats away soon enough, especially since you’re content to let this go on for a little longer, to just let yourself have fun with these fairies. Your cape swirls around when he spins you, and the way his warm hand fits firmly with yours is pleasant. 

A few songs later, you ask again. Seungmin responds this time, but with an odd question.

He tilts his head, “are you having fun?”

You nod your head aggressively, you thought it had been obvious enough that he would have no need to ask. 

“Well then why do you need to leave?”

Such a simple question but something doesn’t quite feel right to you. Sure, it has been a fun night but it’s not like you can stay forever. To avoid tripping while being too lost in your thoughts, you move to the side for a moment. Seungmin quickly joins you with a goblet for you, and a hand around your waist. Sipping it, you melt into his side. 

For someone you had only met tonight, Seungmin is amazingly comfortable to be around. His body is warm and comfortable, and you just want to lay next to him. At the same time, his personality has an initial layer of snark and teasing, but really he is just as open and comfortable in that way as well. 

Your mind starts to drift again as you get closer and closer to Seungmin, why did you want to leave again? This place is so lively, and there are so many people. All by yourself, the cabin in the woods is so lonely, but here, Seungmin has been your constant companion. As well, you are the only one that works in the cabin to keep yourself alive, but tonight you have had no worries at all other than having fun! There is no responsibility to be found here, it’s almost as intoxicating as your drink. 

A little plan starts forming in your mind. Seungmin was the one who so graciously brought you here, right? Now, you feel like you should give him a little present. Even if it’s only a flower you find outside, it would be something to convey the time you have had with him tonight. 

When he leaves you for just a minute to go talk to someone, you take your chance. The halls are immensely confusing but through vague memories combined with trial and error, you make it back outside. 

Once you stumble out the door everything feels different. The sun is rising and you are acutely aware of where you are, how you got here, and why you’re here. You need to leave now, but there are a few obvious problems. How to return to your normal size, and how to get home. Even if you got home there was nothing you could do at this size, but if you figured out how to get bigger then you would also know how to figure out the way home.

Before you can get too far with either of those, the door opens behind you and out comes Seungmin. His eyes lock on to yours and he stands close to you, asking something. You shiver, whether from the early morning cold or from the memories of the night, you’re night sure. It is truly wild how much the environment in there had affected you, but your head is clear now.

“Hey, hello? Why did you leave, weren’t you having a good time?”

You hesitate because sure, in the moment, you were having a good time with him. Now though, you’re all too aware of everything on the outside, everything you’ve ever known that you forgot in just a few hours. 

“It… it doesn’t matter, I need to go home.” You shiver a bit, both from the cold and just how easily you lost yourself. 

“You’re cold, you just shivered pretty badly. Please, come back where it’s warm?”

“Listen, Seungmin. I did have fun, but that was just for a few hours. I need to go home now, back to my regular life.” You level him with a hard stare, trying to get your point across so he’ll stop pushing.

He seems to disregard it entirely and steps closer to you. “It doesn’t have to be just for a few hours, you can stay here with us, with me. Everything tastes as good as what you had, and I know you liked it. We have celebrations like that regularly, just hours of lively fun. Didn’t it feel good to let yourself go like that for a few hours? To forget your regular life and just celebrate? Just come back in and enjoy the rest of the night with me.”

He’s compelling, that’s no question. Voice low and passionate, eyes dark and intense, and he knows what he’s doing. With each sentence, Seungmin takes another step closer to you, until you can smell the sweet drink on his breath. Being outside, your thinking is much clearer, yet you still want to kiss him and taste him.

Either something shows on your face, or he feels like taking the chance, when he leans down to kiss you. It shouldn’t be so easy to melt into it, to melt into him. You can’t stop yourself, leaning closer, and his warm hand on your that burns even through your clothes. His lips are sweet, and it only gets stronger with his tongue in your mouth. At first you just put your arms around his neck, but it only lasts for a second before you move your hands to the back of his head to try and bring him closer. It got heated almost embarrassingly fast, but you don’t even care anymore. 

While your brain turns to mush, Seungmin turns you to the tree and pushes you against the rough bark. He doesn’t wait a second before moving in closer and pressing as much against you as he can. Reluctantly, you have to pull away for a minute to breathe. You’re both panting but Seungmin stays so close that you find it hard to just give up breathing and drown in him all over again. When he takes one then two steps away you nearly whimper, but hold it back by biting down on your lip, almost drawing blood. 

It doesn’t take long before he returns, now quite as close as before, but enough. He’s holding the strange drink again, and you can nearly taste it already. 

“It feels even better if you drink this, trust me.”

Trust is a strong word in this situation, but you do remember how you felt as you just kept drinking and drinking it before. Such lightness, and not tiring at all, just letting yourself do whatever you want. You contemplate it, because you know what happened before. While you do, Seungmin takes a drink then presses his lips back to yours. Instantly, you follow his lead and open your lips. It startles you a little when you can feel some of the liquid come from his mouth to yours, but you swallow it. 

As you wait for the same tingling and lightness to come back, you continue the routine of only pulling away from each other when breathing becomes a necessity. A few more times, Seungmin gives you some drink, but you’re remiss to let him pull away for even that long now. 

The first time, you hardly even noticed the intoxicating effects, but this time you know. It’s still a creeping feeling, but you notice as Seungmin’s presence makes you go from happy to wanting to weep from pure joy. The bark on your back feels comfortable now, not the best feeling but hardly noticeable at all. 

Suddenly, Seungmin brings one hand up to the back of your head, pulling you away from the tree. Slowly, he lowers you to the soft grass, and follows closely after. This time a tear really does slip out from how close you feel, even though it’s really the same as before. His weight on you makes you feel secure and protected, even if you reasonably know you’re not. 

It gets messy now, as you both let go of your inhibitions, shame falling away with no audience. Seungmin’s hair is entirely ruffled from your hands, and you assume his red and puffy lips are a mirror of your own. Strings of saliva connect your mouths when you pull apart, distantly connecting your lips.

“Will you come up to my room with me?” Seungmin proposes, “you deserve far better than a moment of impatience out here on the grass.”

The cute fairy you saw earlier, is gone, gone, gone far away and now he sounds just as needy as you feel. Before, he wasn’t wrong about drinking that and making it feel better, but you want him regardless. 

Your answer is hardly audible, but it’s all he needs, “yes.”

It’s difficult to make it all the way to his room, as your hands both wander the whole time. His over your lower back, and yours up and over his wide shoulders. It’s a really good thing that the halls are deserted since you really don’t need anyone knowing what’s going on here. 

Once Seungmin finally opens a door and brings you in, you wonder what his position is in this place. It must be of high ranking to be in possession of such a large and luxurious room. Very quickly, you seize to care because he was only giving you a moment before his hands are back on you. Behind you, he slams and locks the door, then pushes you to his bed with one hand on your chest. 

With you sitting below him on the bed he strays down to your neck and collarbones. You want to give him the same treatment of marks, kisses, and bites, but instead your head just falls against his shoulder. Briefly he lets go and leans to the side, only to grab more of the drink. You’re really getting to the point where you’d happily drink it yourself, but having it come from him only makes you more eager. Instead of waiting for him, you let your tongue explore his mouth and taste every bit of him. 

It only makes you want more. It feels like Seungmin’s hands burn where they touch you, but it is the most pleasant fire you’ve ever experienced. Perhaps it’s because each touch lights a similar fire in your core, begging for more. When he starts gingerly pulling each piece of clothing off Seungmin pulls away. Almost painfully slowly, he caresses each bit of skin that is revealed. You appreciate the tenderness, but also want him to hurry it up, and in the end just resolve to let him do as he pleases. 

Once you’re uncovered, you turn to him to do the same. Immediately, you realize why he took so long. Every inch of his skin feels like a pot of gold being revealed to you. It feels so strange, because you do know that you want this but whatever magic is happening to you in here makes it more a need than a want. You have this constant burning desire that you’re stopping to just push Seungmin down and go for it all at once. 

Everything feels blurry yet you feel hyper aware of every movement and sound and feeling from both of you. It feels like you could stay here forever, and you want to. This night feels like it could go on forever and you would gladly let it, you never want this to end. This process of touching and revealing each other with Seungmin, you want to repeat it over and over as the days pass. Is this what infatuation feels like? Being on your own for so long, you had never felt it, but maybe this was what your rare romance novel had talked about. 

Seungmin never lets his body stray from yours for long, doing a very good job of convincing you that he wants this just as badly, though you’re not sure if all this magic affects him quite as much. He uses the tactic of passing more drink from his mouth to yours, which again distracts you from any further movement since you just want to stay there, connected with him. But even pressed so close together like that, it doesn’t feel like enough. 

With enough shifting and whining, Seungmin seems to get it and lets one hand drift down. He groans into your mouth when he feels that you’re already dripping, pulling away with a smirk on his face.

“So wet, and we’ve barely done anything yet. Are you that desperate for me? How adorable.”

It seems patronizing, the way he says it, but you don’t care and eagerly nod along. He knows he’s right already, you can tell. His fingers are far thicker than any of your own and as he pushes one in slowly you bite your lip and muffle any noises that try to escape. With his other hand, Seungmin pulls on your lip, shaking his head.

“I want to hear all your pretty noises, doll. So don’t bite that lip and let them all out, hm?”

He punctuates it by pushing a second finger into you, making you gasp and nod hastily. It was embarrassing how loud you were being already, but if he was asking then you could surely provide. 

The embarrassment faded almost instantly when you could feel his dick hardening more and more against you, only making you bolder in looking at him as he slowly fingered you. It was a cute little push and pull that had you gasping. You would smirk at him, or some other cocky gesture, then he would give a particularly good thrust of his fingers to make you gasp or whine. 

A third finger and now you were getting impatient. Once the stretch of that finger had gone away you scrabbled with your fingertips at his shoulders. 

“Please, Seungmin, please. I’m ready, fuck, I promise.”

Seungmin just hums at your pleasure, and for a moment you worry that he’s not going to give you what your body desperately desires right now. But he seems affected enough that he acquiesces. 

It is amazing. The more you think about it, the more you’re convinced that the long years of being alone in your cottage were not doing you good in the stress relief department. It doesn’t matter now, because Seungmin fills you up just right, with just a little bit of stretch to make a burn that isn’t uncomfortable somehow. 

It has the unintended side effect of every time one of you shifts you can feel him press into you differently, and it just makes you want it so badly. Seungmin is insistent, not letting either of you move much until you’re sure that you’re completely comfortable. It’s a sweet gesture, but considering how you just want to be wrecked by him right now, a bit unfortunate. 

Not too long later, you tell him that you want it, want him so badly and that sparks something in his eyes. With one swift movement he pulls out and lays you out under him. You blink a couple times in shock before he enters you and fills you up again, just as good as the first time. He wastes no time in making long, smooth thrusts. When your hands move up to grab his shoulders he moves quickly and pins both of them down next to your head. 

At first you whine at the lack of contact but Seungmin opens his eyes and gives you a distinctly devious smile which makes you shut up very fast. You bite your lip but his words from earlier ring in your head, so you let it go and let your sounds go freely. The moment you do so Seungmin gives you the same look, leaning down to give you a little kiss, and tell you how good you’re doing for him. 

Even without any more magic entering your system, it’s a heady feeling. You try not to let it get to your head that this probably important fairy has chosen you, even if your meeting was chance, and now here you are in his bed. It doesn’t work, especially when he keeps muttering about how good you are, only amping it up when he feels how it makes you clench. 

You gain use of your mind enough that you can focus on Seungmin for a minute, watching his face twist in pleasure as you’re sure yours had earlier. Each minute movement draws your attention, and each sound has you look back at how his mouth opens just a little and his breath spills out. 

He opens his eyes again to look at you, slowing down for a minute and staring into your eyes like he can see something inside of you. 

“Stay with me. We could do this every night. Slowly reveal ourselves, touches burned into our skin, feeling as good as this. Forever, just you and me, and our pleasure.”

It sounds so inviting, especially since you know what you could get. As you think about it, and as he moves to give you even more pleasure, you nearly say you love him. Because it feels like love. The depth of it, neverending like his dark eyes. A bottomless pit, but strangely it feels safe. You want him to take you apart and put you back together bit by bit, piece by piece. You want to do the same to him if he’ll let you. As his hand moves down, you don’t say or think another coherent word. Only gasping pieces of his name as you watch each other.You keep your eyes open to watch him finish, and the heavenly sounds from his mouth drive you to the end as well. 

Your head is swimming, and you can hear a loud moan, nearly a yell. The stars dancing behind your eyes fade, and you open your eyes not realizing you closed them. Oh, that must have been you. Seungmin leans forward, and this time the kisses aren’t leading to anything, but are the road leading away from it. A hand at your back, guiding you towards something more. Tongues twining, and spit lines between mouths are just a connection between you two. Same as how he sits inside you still, warm and pleasant instead of the burning need. 

“I can give you that, and more. Just stay with me, say you’ll stay. I don’t care how long we’ve known each other, not when it feels like that.” 

His words feel so sweet, so real. The pleasure feels like it drives the haze of the drink from your mind and as you come down from it you wonder about the outside world. Surely, not every day is as happy and joyful as this. Not every day can be a celebration. But being with Seungmin, that was at least partially real. 

Someone’s words echo in your head, like a wave crashing over you. Then suddenly, something else cuts through it, grabbing your attention. 

Your old teacher, the woman who had taught you everything about how to be a witch, everything before she sent you to learn on your own. 

“If it feels too good to be true, then open past your eyes. You must open everything to see if it is real. Open your heart and your mind, they will tell you the truth.”

She had first said that in response to your first original spell, when it looked perfect after hardly any work. Of course, she was right, it only took a bit longer before it blew up in your face, literally. A little awkward that your old mentor is showing up in your head now, but it works. 

You weren’t supposed to be here in the first place, it was only an accident. It’s difficult, but the haze on your mind fades a little and allows you to think. Seungmin is frozen in front of you, but you’re not sure why or what that means for you. 

Either way, you can see it now. You’re not sure what benefits keeping you here would have for him, but it would certainly be something. Capturing witches isn’t common anymore, so you’d be a hot commodity around here. The answer seems so easy now, but one look at Seungmin and you still feel something tugging in your chest. 

It wouldn’t really be as easy as he’s saying, but would it be all that bad to stay? It wasn’t like you were close with anyone out there, so you wouldn’t be missing any of that. All these strong emotions are giving you whiplash, from the immediate reaction to say no, to the sharp reversal to deny, and now the conflicting feelings of both. 

Would staying here really be so bad? Who knows, not you.

[bearseungmin]

always ask, never wish.

You had noticed it: the change in energy, his lingering eyes, sharp tongue and deep voice. Felix, your happy-go-lucky college roommate who never failed to shine a smile at anyone, was never like that before. The summer had changed him, Felix was no longer with you. And now you have to survive an entire semester with whatever he has become.

DETAILS — [ 18+ | fic | 5k ] PAIRING — void! felix x gender-neutral! reader GENRES — nogitsune! au, college! au, psychological thriller, romance, supernatural, horror, angst, smut, slight slow burn WARNINGS — mature content & suggestive content, possession, nightmares, mentions of insomnia, insects (fireflies), physical altercations, blood + injuries, drowning, virginity loss, & dimension shifting do not interact with this if under 18. this fic is based off the tv series ‘Teen Wolf’ (season 3)!!! part of my strange devotion halloween skz collab!!!

[taglist]: @sleepylixie @dom--minnie @aliceu @lixesque @jaerisdiction @fairygirl18​ @doie-sun

prologue.

It was trial and tribulation. Shadows held the scariest things: beings, creatures, whatever considered most frightening. The temptation of the darkness had surpassed him so many times.

But it was the blood-curdling voice echoing from those very shadows, the name whispered that had him halting in place, and the deal to be dealt that led him to decide his own fate.

The summer had swallowed him, melting heat bringing sweat to his skin. Hair matted down to his scalp, eyes shifting along the patterns made by the moonlight above, he had no moves to play here.

"What do I have to do?" The question didn't bring chills to his quickly cooling skin, but the answer did.

"Lend me a hand." Claiming voice, chattering teeth, and a now stone cold room to accommodate the situation. "Lend me a limb. Lend me your brain."

His breath caught in his throat, a sorrowed look in his eyes.

"Lend me your shadow."

one.

The familiar sound of door hinges squeaking brought your eyes to clench shut. "Glad some things didn't change." Your whispered voice laughed, eyes engulfing the comfortingly small kitchen as you entered into the dorm.

Nearly four months of freedom diminished, the school year lapped back into your daily schedule. Studying for exams was horrid, and the college curriculum was overbearing. Majors and minors caging you inside to learn everything you can only to forget it all the moment the test was at your fingers. Late nights reading through outdated books, taking notes with ink pens that either ran out or bled across the page every other time you wrote with them, snacking on foods and humming to the tune of the faint music playing from your small speaker until a gentle laugh pulled your attention away from it all. Oh, did you miss Felix's laugh.

Your roommate had easily turned into the best part of your college years. Felix, the guy with a big, dumb, and stupidly large smile on his face over any little thing, had been by your side for three years now. With the final year before you, you had only one, true hope. Never to lose someone like him.

But the comfort of the shared dorm eased away with each step. Single bag over your shoulder, the important part of your entrance was missing from the living room. Even the dent left from where he always sat on the sofa was cold, your hand leaving the fabric as you walked by it.

You wanted to shake it off, pretend the air wasn't thick. The blank walls freshly repainted made the dorm feel smaller as you walked down the hallway, closing in on you so tight that the sight of his back facing you was startling.

"Felix!" He stood still, back hunched over one of your tall cardboard boxes brought up by staff earlier that morning. He didn't falter at your voice. He didn't even turn around.

"I was wondering when you'd come in. I thought we agreed to return by this morning so we could order lunch and eat while we unpack?"

His eyes met your form in the mirror of your vanity, the simple piece of furniture giving him full sight of where you stood in the doorway. To you, you stared at him. But to him, he seemed to only stare at his reflection.

The corner of his mouth twinged at your silence, his index and middle fingers holding a single polaroid picture between them. "Freshman year at the fair. I remember this." He smiled with his words, eyes growing soft at the younger version of you. "You were so cold that night so I gave you my jacket. And you never gave it back."

His eyes only shifted back to the mirror for a second, your awkwardly standing body moving in on him at a slow pace. Laughter bubbled in your chest the moment you looked at the picture close up. The air around your best friend was almost as chilly now as it was that night.

"I wanted a relic for that night. It was one of those moments where you realize-- in time, you won't get to live through something like that again."

"So, you resorted to stealing." The grin on his face was as wholesome as it was stirring, the rapid beat of your heart heard easily in your ears. "Hmph—"

"My excuse is solid." You chuckled.

Back falling down flat onto your unmade bed, the mattress was just as soft as you remembered. Felix's irises were softer as they floated over you, blinking slowly. Now tilted over your form, the man wore a glistening shine on his face similar to when you're sick and attempting to break a fever.

You had seen the look before. The never-ending puppy eyes he gave you on the daily, only they grew colder the longer he stared at you. Almost uncomfortable at the stern glare, your body twisted and sight fell down to his clavicle.

"Did you get hurt?"

Even he had ignored the strange purple and red marks flaring beneath his skin until now. Felix's fingers rose to the blemish, the vein-shaped lines making his eyes blink to a close.

"Ahh, this." He mumbled, sighing. "I think I got a rash or something from walking through the woods back home. Some old friends and I caught up and went searching for our hangout. All we found was wooden planks and darkness hidden in the moonlight."

"Sounds like the outdoors nearly a decade later." You shook your head, memories of your own childhood floating back but dismissing at Felix's silence. His stare was almost overbearing, eyelids appearing heavy with dark circles surrounding the bottom of them. He looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep.

"Still getting nightmares?"

You knew him as well as anyone could over the duration of three years, but the long nights of comforting him only rolled back into your mind now. The beady sweat gliding down his skin, his fingers prying at his covers as he screamed out disoriented claims. Waking him from the absent sleep was the hard part, but watching him become conscious from within the terror of what he saw was somehow worse.

"They weren't as bad when you slept beside me." Head hanging, your fingers ran through his soft, blonde hair. The affection was normally enough to make him shiver, yet he only sat still.

"I'm right here again, Felix. You have me for an entire semester, and then wherever the world takes us when we graduate. I'm not going anywhere."

"What if aliens reigned down upon us and tried to only take you from our Earth?" This was the Felix you knew; the one who made strange jokes that hit your funny bone harder than anyone else could.

"They'd have to pry you from my cold, dead hands." You laughed.

His laughter was deep, eyes darkening as his head sunk back down and lips went flat. "That could be arranged."

It was impossible to pretend that Felix wasn't different.

two.

His body thrashed within the nightmare, limbs moving in different directions as if he could stop the impact, keep away from  whatever was trying to get to him. Cries and whimpers fell from his mouth, Felix fighting his own mind like he never had control of it in the first place. The shortest breaths surrounded his shallow words, a faint whisper moving through the air. “Please, make it stop. I wish that it would just stop.”

It had gone on for months, your reassuring voice always pulling him from the depths of his nightmares right at the time you pulled him into your arms. Routine, more like it.

He consumed your every thought and worry. Watching purple shadows form under his eyes took something from you, but witnessing him losing himself destroyed you both.

You never complained, but you feared for him. Each night you'd lose him to sleep, feel his skin run hotter than the sun until he broke with a sweat, feel his limbs hit against you as he fought nothing in reality: all for as long as it took the sky to turn black to purple, then blue.

There was even a time where his nightmares abated his grip on reality. Such as with severe insomnia, the two meshed. His nightmares were twisted tales of daily life according to what he would recall when he woke and tried to remember. Sometimes he'd have to ask if he was awake—if you could see him—multiple times before he would leave the bed.

Insanity, a lesser-known term for the situation. He had long hit a bend in his normality, turning himself on and off. He couldn't fall asleep, and he couldn't stay asleep. When he did the nightmares flooded in continuously until he was awake again. It was like an inception.

But that night, the one filled with too many soft touches, gentle kisses, deep groans and hallowed moans only to end in a sweet, double release, it lifted it from him. The nightmares vanished, he slept soundly, and you stayed too close.

"What's on your mind?" The honking traffic out on the road was nothing like his voice that could slice through any thought in your brain keeping you from him. He knew you too well to ignore when you zoned out. But as your eyes matched his face, the smile he always wore was merely faded all the way away.

"Thinking of old times and wishes." You smiled, the warm drink in your hands keeping you from shivering all over again as your eyes met. Still Felix, he just seemed distant.

"They aren't true." He asked, a painted smile reforming on his mouth. "It's easier these days to act it out in reality than to wish and hope. Less time consuming."

Laziness, he stayed glued to an easier way until truly challenged.

The dim walk back to the dorm was just as it had always been in September. Cloudy sky, bright moon, chilly air, warm drink, and Felix at your side. He usually tripped over his own shoe laces, regretting not re-tying them before leaving the campus' coffee shop. Right under the same lamp, like clockwork. No matter when, how often, or how scarce. But he didn't trip; in fact, his laces were tied and tucked into the lip of his shoes.

"If you keep looking down—" Hoarse and crooked, his voice breaking while catching you staring at the apparel below. "—you'll trip."

"Right." He is here, but not himself. How can one person change so much over the summer?

But the one charming piece that never changed in yearly-life was the last of the fireflies still around in the night air. Hovering around trees or in bushes, only slightly swaying towards those who walked by them or attempted to catch them. Their lights were so bright, yellow-green glowing like headlights as they gathered closer and closer.

"That's odd." Your whisper went unheard, the insects flying around Felix as if he were a beacon.

It was only in their light that you took in your best friend for what he was. An opposing expression as he glanced around, finding each and every one in a confused way. They glistened enough to show you the growing darkness in his veins, how his arteries seemed to thump with his heart beat, the whites of his eyes being paired with a white filter over his pupils, and the creepy smirk growing on his lips.

"See something?" His voice was so innocent. Like running your hands through flower petals, Felix's cherishable voice sounded normal for a split second. "Because you're looking real hard." But there it was again, the grained chord in his voice that wasn't there before.

The whites of his eyes were yellowed, a theme of sickness clearly wreaking havoc on his form. His skin still held the paleness of a fever, warm to the couch but dichotomized with many bumps from visual chills. Felix only got sick once a year from allergies, this appearance made no sense before the well-lit bugs illuminated him.

Tender flesh and body tainted with something more sinister than the naked eye could see. The fireflies only showed you what your gut already knew.

"I'm looking for you."

"Well." His teeth didn't chatter with the wind, but his eyes grew larger. "Here I am."

three.

It was the bear trap around your ankle that caught his breath. Cold air seeped in through the small building, wooden planks fallen and decayed from the elapsed time causing anything to make its way in.

But Felix stood disoriented, just as he always did in his dreams. "They're only forms of my imagination." He'd speak to calm himself, but sometimes his breathing would only speed up to that of a panic attack.

Everything in its place, the blood seeping from your skin as if reality was right before him. The scent of metal in the air from your blood-loss, the short whimpers from between your lips, and your eyes falling on his stone-cold form.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

The question in his direction daunted him. Never once, not even for a moment during the three years, had any of his nightmares starred you. Dark tales and twists, things seen and heard that would give anyone the heebie jeebies. Even his imagination knew to keep you from such danger.

Yet, here you are—in the flesh.

So much had been removed from his mind by it, including the promise you made to visit him at his hometown that first summer during your yearly travels. It had his tongue, let it lap the words, and pulled you right into him. But why did it wait?

"Let go." A command came from Felix, the one thought to be in control. His limbs only ran cold at the laughing hum in his ears. "Let. Go."

"At what price?" The voice was sinister, one you'd hear as a voice-over in a horror movie. Aura dark in the looming place, the sound was the creepiest of all. "You only see what you want to see."

"Why would I wish to see this?" Felix asked in a stern voice, but the faded marks around your form only made him grow hush.

"Your mind is sick, Felix. Tainted and twisted, all on your own." Its cackle was like a gunshot, Felix's frame held still on a chair not far from the figure itself. Old, face concealed by gauze that had long been stained by time. Even its walk was other-worldly, a wobble from side to side as if it was injured. "You must let it be released, or it will eat you alive."

"Everything you're saying is a lie."

"Oh, but I don't bargain such tactics freely. Those that walk amongst you have seen you change. And they're worried—worried about you, Felix."

His hands tried to swing upwards to his head, cover his ears with his palms and keep the rogue creature from his senses. But his wrists were bound down to the leather seat, the chair becoming a cage. He had only been seeing what it wanted him to see.

"Why are you doing this?" He growled, teeth clamped like a rabid dog at the sight of you wounded and in need of help.

"Always ask, never wish." The creature hummed like a metaphor only it understood.

Felix's limbs jolted, the steel binds now unlocked from the seat. He felt his limbs bring him to stand, but felt the thump of his heart warning him of what was to come.

"There are so few things that require companionship. But you humans are the exact example of weakness." It lifted foot from foot, waltzing slowly towards Felix. "Lovers, friends, family: you'd die without them. Those you care most about—the one you see now—what could you do without the existence of someone so important?"

"You can't do any real harm." Almost on impact, your cry met the sound of his ears. Top teeth sinking into his bottom lip to keep him from screaming at the sight alone, Felix's weak legs shook until his form hit the uneven flooring.

"Stop! Why!—" His cries were most painful, but the pain had yet to begin. "—Why are you doing this?"

"Same question, different context. If you have to ask, your gut already knows the answer. Why don't you try—" If it had any real teeth to show, Felix would see its wicked smile. "—saving a life?"

"What do you want from me?!"

The ceramic bath only came into frame for him now, his peripheral hiding such a standoffish piece in the heavy room. Water flooded in, ice topping it off, and it was now cold to the touch.

"If you get in, allow your body to fall into a silent slumber—you can wish to find the one you love in time before death comes knocking."

Felix shivered at the sight of the bath. Tears brimmed his eyes as his flat hand sunk in for an idea of what he'd feel as he got all the way in, but the pleading sound of your cries were too much to bear. Wherever you were, wherever it put you—he had to find you.

His body sank in slowly, every limb running numb from the paralyzing temperature. He wanted to scream, but his body could make no sound. Each nerve in his warm body ran still, the blood in his veins moving at the slowest pace possible to preserve his life. Like he was contributing himself to science, becoming a test subject—the life drained from him until little remained.

Pale form floating in the bathtub in the middle of the place he once considered happy, where he shared kind times with acquaintances, where he wanted to share time with you—he only laid still.

"Always ask." It repeated in his ears only. Black filled his veins, laughter filled his mind. He let it in to save you, but you were never really there. "Never wish."

four.

It all made sense. His weird, continuous vibe of being himself and not at the same time. Felix was too bright to be so dim like this, how did you not notice right off the bat?

Weeks were passing like days, the leaves of fall changing from bright colors to the browns of deadened plants. The grass had withered into itself more and more every time you stepped out of the dorm, a tactic to keep a distance from Felix.

In normality, the man would have found his way around your odd tangent. He wouldn't keep his eyes locked in on you as you walked past him, he'd chase you down and wrap you in a hug while asking about your day. He wouldn't bring home dinner for one, but two. And he most certainly wouldn't be sleeping so peacefully.

Back straight on his mattress as you peered into his room, he looked like a corpse lying within a coffin. His skin was a milky-white, thin enough that you could see the dark veins controlling him. His eye lids were shut, relaxed and not the tightness of Felix fighting himself to rest as usual.

"I've been wondering when you'd check up on me." His groggy voice was even deeper than the bass-y tone it normally was. A single eyelid rose, his black iris found you where you stood, and a shiver went directly down your spine.

"I-I thought you were sleeping." You choked out the words like you had something caught in your throat, fingers latching around the edge of the door-frame for your own comfort.

"How could I sleep on a night like this?"

His question daunted you, face attempting to conceal what he meant but ultimately shining an unhinged smirk in the process.

A pitch black November night, the sky filled with nimbus clouds that threatened snow at any second. Peering out his window from where you stood, it was too easy to recognize the almost identical scene.

"You know what I mean?" His sentence ended in a high-pitched tone, your face distorted with the memory you had completely pushed out due to Felix's current state. "It's not every night that two virgins lose themselves to one another."

It was taken from a love novel, the laced fingers while your hands held tightly together and your bodies rocked against one another in unison. You had known Felix was special, a ‘first real love’ situation. But that night solidified something far greater than you imagined it could.

"Y-You remember."

"Of course."

It was the first memory he spoke of off the top of his head, not from the sight of evidence such as the polaroid picture of the day at the fair.

You wanted the uneven breathing of his heavy panting in your ears to be forever recorded in your brain. The way he shivered each time your fingertips ran across his skin or your hand clamped on his shoulder for support as you both rushed to your own climax. Too easy, the sweet release of those in love without stating it.

"You gave yourself to me." Felix claimed sitting up from his lying position.

Palms digging into the mattress as his arms propped him up, it was the obvious gleam in his eye. The way his tongue swirled through his plump lips before rushing over the dryness of them, leering you to finally make a decision.

"I gave myself to Felix."

He only scoffed, head turning to the side to stare at the blank wall parallel to his skinny bed.

You knew, he knew, it knew.

"Who was running from me." His eyes only turned colder, the figure showing itself within your best friend like a distorted reflection in the mirror.

Felix's dyed blonde roots had become overgrown, now exchanged for his natural black hair. Small patches of the yellow color still dried and brittle at the middle of the length, it was a direct visual to how whatever was inside of him was taking over.

"Tell me."

"Tell you what?" His soft-toned voice like Felix's was so condescending that your fingers curled into your palm and created fists at your sides.

"Why Felix?"

"Pure then tainted. He was a lost cause the second your lips landed on his."

In every horror story, the virgins losing themselves is what gets them killed. It was figurative until it was reality.

"You gave yourself to him, me." It smiled outside of him, but you could still see Felix's eyes watering with tears from within. "So easily."

"Why are you doing this?"

"You took his place once. Would you do it again?"

"What do you mean?"

For a split second, everything had changed. Felix had a door opened by you that night, one that allowed in any and all that needed a place to stay. You gave yourself to him, but he gave himself to the world. And that caused someone to come knocking.

His nightmares only stopped after that. Originally haunting and tolling every second of each day, it was really you who had corrupted him until he was lost.

The pain of seeing him go through that, and now living inside of it. It was so much to bear.

"Is there anything I can do?" Your chest swelled from the words spilling past your lips. No matter how much you loved Felix, you feared this creature’s power much more.

"What is the cost of a loved-one?" It asked, voice narrowed and eyes on your form like it could see right through you. "Love is an abstract way of coping with your human life. It leads you down many paths, brings you to meet many different kinds of people. But where does it end?"

"Sorry?"

"How often do you forget things?"

"More often than I believe I do."

"So, how easy would it be for Felix to forget you?"

The question had never come up. Not for the three long years you had been his roommate, not for the two unveiling years you realized you were falling in love with him, and definitely not now when he was no longer before you.

The answer was easier than it should be.

"He won't."

"Would you wish to save him, even if you had to take his place?"

"Of course."

The two words were so simply executed, like a reflex. Felix had become someone you couldn't be without, but this torture—this never-ending torture—was far higher on the priority scale.

"He's my soulmate." You admitted, watching the creature twist and turn with little comfort. Almost appalled by your response. "What do I have to do?"

"Let me in."

In all things evil and tainted, you were upon one of the worst. It didn't take a bright mind to see the trickster and its ways. But it did to see the true exchange being made, and you were blind-sided.

"You already are."

epilogue.

All things are trivial. If human-like senses are the extent of survival, then when do other things become involved such as pain, heartbreak, emotions, starvation, and the gut feeling where your stomach twists?

The pain set in, your world shifting in an instant. Light sounds of a post rainstorm patting against the wooden planks through the open ceiling. Bright, blue moon right above to light your surroundings. And the clamped bear trap on your ankle.

A screech never subsides or explains just how terrible the pain is. Tears breaking from your eyes, mouth agape from the shreeks you released, and the demented creature's final stage running steady.

The metal was sharper than anything possible as your fingers tugged at the clamped trap. Squeals of its hinges, but no movement. A chain mounted to the ground brought a lack of motions you could make to reach for anything to help break yourself loose.

Replacement, it had brought you to where it all began.

This was the first summer shared with Felix outside of school, his hometown welcoming. The large tree in the middle of the same forest had thousands of fireflies to light up the sky as you walked hand-in-hand towards the run-down building he used to spend time in as a kid. Everything was meant to be, fated and scheduled.

Your hands clasped around your bleeding ankle, the skin broken and releasing blood faster than you could reach for the bottom. A thin tray beneath the clamp, the trap had to have a latch to release it. Your fingers fiddled, hope still on your mind, and found the small release. Weight lifted off, body stumbling to stand, your eyes locked on something you felt you hadn't seen in a lifetime.

Porcelain bath broken and leaking the ice water from a small crack, Felix's body floated with a state of rest you had never seen on the man.

No black veins, no black roots, and no wicked smile. You had found him as he was before, your body limping to the bath and pulling him above the water.

You hissed at the cold temperature of the bath water, using all the strength you had left to tug him over the side and down onto the deadened grass beneath the old, wooden floorboards of what once was a run-down cabin.

Thumb and index finger pinching his nose, deep breaths into his mouth filling his lungs, and pressure applied to his chest to restart his same heart that fought so diligently to survive and be with you again.

"F-Felix!" The warmest feeling wasn't finding him, it was the hot tears streaming down his cheeks onto your hand as he awoke from his never-ending sleep. "Felix." A relieved sigh broke from your chest and through your nose.

His words were shaken, mumbled and quick. But they were his, for once they were his. "I f-found you."

You were never far from Felix. And he was never far from you.

"You're okay—" First a whisper, then a reassuring statement. "You're okay."

Felix's long, blonde hair dripped the remaining cold water onto the skin of your shoulder, summer air floating into the open space like a deep breath. His eyes found yours, bright and alive like always.

"All I did—" Hefty breaths between syllables, no physical affection or words could comfort him from what he had been through. "—was wish for it all to stop. That was all. How did this happen?"

"It was in your shadow for a long time, Felix." Crying together with him was more relieving than all the time spent at his side. "It had you longer than I even knew it did. I won't let it come back."

Your voice rang in his ears, eyes blinking for only a moment. In a world less tangible, less understood, the crossing paths of what's alive and what's taken was fading.

The coldness crept up your back like a cold hand, an itch-you-can't-scratch feeling filling your veins. It was waiting for you.

"Do me a favor?"

Replacement. In your world, you were inside that deteriorated cabin holding up Felix with the last of your strength while staring into his eyes.

In his, he was only sitting in his pitch black room. Alone, the memory of you fading until even your voice was unknown to him.

"What's that?"

The fresh feeling of meeting him that first day, someone who stands out in a crowd and shines on his own. He was a beacon before you even knew they existed. With all evil removed from him, he was just your best friend again. The same friend who took you to the fair. The first man you ever made love to. The first person you claimed fate brought you to. Felix was himself again, but he'd never remember you existed.

The voice leaving your vocal chords was now darker—it was no longer yours. Felix's eyes opened from the deep tone alone, the last flash of your face in his memory leaving him.

"Never make another wish."

© copyright bearseungmin 2021, all rights are reserved. do not modify, repost, or translate without my permission. please.

[hanjizung]

♡ End of the Earth. ♡

Han Jisung x Reader.

Word count:  7K

♡ Warnings ♡: Mature content; crime scene description, mentioned intended murder, gore (descriptions of blood and wounds) obsession, mentions of death, amnesia. Smut; unprotected sex, fingering, multiple orgasms, creampie, possession kink.

A/N: hello, this is my contribution for bearseungmin's strange devotion's collab, I hope you all enjoy it and remember to check the other member's fanfics! ♡

It all began in ancient times, longer ago than what you would imagine first., when a young man moved from Korea to Japan and saw the most mesmerizing person he had ever seen. Perfect to his eyes, he had to pinch himself to make sure he was not dreaming. He smiled like a child eating candies when he realized he wasn’t.

Then he approached you. “Excuse me,” he said, poking your shoulder carefully. If he hadn’t spoken, you wouldn’t even have noticed his presence. “My name is Jisung, are you from here? I need a little help...”

That was the start of your friendship with him. You told him that you weren’t from there originally, and that you were visiting because you always wanted to see how it was, struggled to learn the language and even messed up a little sometimes. He told you he was visiting distant family members and that he himself messed up sometimes. Jisung was kind enough to offer to show you around and even teach you the vocabulary that you struggled with.

You ended up accepting, visiting him everyday at 3 pm. Those classes eventually evolved into something else, and sooner than you realized the two of you were in a beautiful relationship.

He got a better job, you did as well and then the two of you were living together in a little house in the forest by the river. He told you that if you wanted to stop working he could provide for the both of you. You had no children or were planning on having them soon, so you agreed and you would wait for him at home.

It was like that for a while, but things aren’t forever. He learned that the hard way; the day he lost you.

He left for work as usual in the morning, a smile on his face after he kissed you goodbye and left for his shift as normal. His day went as it usually would, by the end of the shift he would go to a flower shop and get a bouquet of roses, it was Friday, he remembered. He wanted to give that little detail and ask you out, have a little fun.

Jisung wouldn't have expected to see the police surrounding his house considering how far it was from the others, panic flooding his heart when he told them that it was his home and to please let him in.

One of the officers blocked the front door, warning him that he wouldn't like what he was about to see, Jisung's mind running through all the possible scenarios that could've happened while he was gone, peeking over the detective's shoulder and seeing something crimson staining the wall. He prayed that it was red paint, and that all these people were in his house because you fell, just that.

'Please, let it be an accident,' Jisung chanted in his head over and over after confirming that he wanted to step inside.

Following the trail of red, Jisung tried his best to ignore the intruders in his home, bumping into them as his only focus was to find you, until he eventually did, his blood running cold, body freezing upon what he saw.

You were in your bedroom, one of your hands holding one of your side that had the most blood, your other hand holding a pen and a bloodied note under it. He couldn't see your face, it was hiding with your extended arm, and even if he could Jisung would probably not want to see it. He couldn't bear it.

He almost wanted to throw up, he felt… weak. Hurt. This mere image of you lying lifeless in front of him, in one of the places that you brought so much life with your beautiful laugh, or your voice when you sang whenever you got up and made breakfast in the morning.

He wouldn't have that anymore. You weren't here anymore, someone had ripped you from his life. Someone had to pay for wha–

"Excuse me, sir? Are you related to her?" someone asked, bringing him back to reality. He breathed in, nodding.

"Her boyfriend…" he stuttered.

"She left a note, here it is," the person said, handing Jisung a little paper with scribbles and more blood on it. Writing it was probably the last thing you did, it must have cost you all the remaining energy you had.

'you're my happiness, I love you. Thank you for everything. I hope you can forgive me for hiding–'

… and that's where it ended. You last message to him and it wasn't even finished. He was sorry for not being there for you, or for making you feel like you couldn't tell him something. Were you hiding something? Why, why did you decide to not tell him? Was that why you weren't alive, kissing him because he arrived home? What was your secret?

What happened after that, Jisung had no clue. The following days he took care of your funeral and where he would bury you. The police closed the case because they assumed you had committed suicide, but that didn't sit right with him, Jisung knew the police were lazy and didn't care about what had really happened to you, unlike him.

He quit his job, out of sadness or rage against your murderer, he had no clue. He had set the goal of finding them to avenge you. It was all that was on his mind. He didn't know where to start looking for clues, probably in your stuff.

His other friends went to check up on him, tried to make him happier and show him that he wasn't alone, but he brushed them aside, becoming a hermit obsessed with finding who to blame for your death. Obsessed with the thought of you.

Did he succeed in that task? No. The little town started making fun of him, treating him like a mad man, no longer caring for the tragedy that ruined his life.

Jisung lived frustrated since that day, there was no moment in which he didn't regret what happened to you. Days passed, months passed, years passed, until he was no longer part of the place's society. He became an urban legend. Some mothers would tell their children that the mad man who lived in the forest would go looking for them and sacrifice them in exchange for his dead wife.

People exaggerated things, like calling you his wife when the two of you were never married in the first place, or saying that he would sacrifice kids just to have you back. That wasn’t right, everyone knew that.

Except that he did think about it; not sacrificing kids exactly, but giving up his own life so you could live yours. He wondered, what could possibly happen if he sold his soul? Was that even possible?

His mother taught him to not deal with unknown forces as a kid. His grandma showed him ways to protect himself from evil energies, and it was all for what? So he could sneak and steal books to study how to bring you back?

Jisung was smart and he was completely in love with you, but still he was in utter shock when a somber being took the form of one of his friends from Korea and asked him if he needed anything.

"I want my girlfriend back," Jisung said, serious tone demonstrating that even if he was scared, he wanted this more than anything.

"Very well," the shadow said, morphing Bang Chan's beautiful face with an evil smile.

"What are you asking from me in return for doing this?" the human asked. His friend laughed.

"Nothing, boy. Just look at you. You're drowned in despair, young man. There's nothing you can offer to me that I want. Consider this a favor, but I want you to remember, okay? Everything has consequences, and you, Han Jisung, will have to pay a lot for this," his neck hairs stood when he heard the impostor say his name.

Swallowing, he nodded, stood up from the floor where he was sitting, the noise of the water flowing in front of him deafened his ears, he had chosen that place in the river you adored so much, where he wanted to propose to you one day, and finally shook the creature's hand.

Jisung blinked, and the figure was gone, and he supposed that he would have to wait.

He would do it, happily, if all the time in the world flying meant that he would get to see you again, of course he would wait.

Patience was not one of Jisung's biggest virtues. He was excited, expectating, and he stayed in that spot, his back facing the tranquil river and eyes looking in the direction where you always walked when you and him went there to have a picnic. Nothing mattered to him, a normal person would've left after a few minutes, maybe even hours, but he didn't.

No, he stayed there, static after a few seconds, then the accumulated minutes became hours, then the sun shone above him hurting his eyes, but he still stayed there. He witnessed the passing of the sun through days, then months, and lastly, years even.

There was a moment where he questioned his sanity, but he felt guilty about it, you were worth losing it if that meant he would have you again.

Luckily, it seemed like the deal he made with the other force ridded him of normal necessities; he didn't feel hunger anymore, he didn't feel the need to talk to people again. And then he realized, he didn't feel anything.

Some people still wandered through the forest, playing by the river but they all ignored his presence. Some ran after seeing him just sitting there, expression blank, until eventually some brave people went up to him and tried to make him go away, resulting in a bloody mess, with those who attempted to hurt him being the ones harmed, almost dying by his hand.

That was how he realized he couldn't die, and it made him happy. Because when he finally finds you again he will be able to stay with you forever, until your last breath. That was what he wanted, to be with you, until the end of the earth because that's what you were to him, something beyond the love of his life. You were his earth, his planet, his whole universe, the sun that brightened his existence.

One day, after many centuries of waiting still like a statue, he heard three different voices, one of them getting his attention the most. This was the first time he ever moved in a long, long time, his extremities feeling stiff when he tried so hard to move; after he decided to stay put near the river people created urban legends of him, word passed of the haunted statue that was resting there and some even visited him.

Through all his years standing there he got to hear many stories, he got to witness many moments there; couples, kids playing, tourists wanting to ask him for wishes…

"I believe that we're close, I think I can hear the river," one unknown voice called. It was a masculome voice, one that he didn't really care about.

"You're the one with the map, Seungmin, if we're close you would have to know," responded the one voice he wanted to hear. He felt something for the first time in ages, he was hopeful to see you, but realizing what his state was… it probably wasn't a very bright idea.

"I can't believe he's the one reading the map, we could've just hired a guide, or even better, go fishing like normal people" a third voice intruded, sounding like they were here against their will.

Footsteps were becoming louder and louder as the trio neared him, and yes, he had moved but his body still felt like he was made of rocks. The closer you got, the more panic he felt; he wanted to laugh, he felt… human again. He felt as anxious as the first time you went to his house to study.

"Look, we got here!" a beautiful voice exclaimed. You found the spot where the famous statue resided, but no sign of any statue was there.

"Aw, I was really hoping to see it. At least now we know it was just a scam from the residents," the unnamed man said, gaining a sarcastic laugh from the taller one.

He was there, Jisung was viewing all of it happening in front of his eyes from behind a tree, deciding to hide because his appearance wasn't appropriate to meet your new reincarnated self.

You were as beautiful as before, and he felt his dead heart wanting to dance inside his chest. Seeing you again, hearing you, it was all worth it just like he hoped it would. You were alive again, and most importantly, you found him like he knew you would. Being able to see you so full of life, it was like falling for you once again.

"Too bad. I wanted a picture with it" you pouted, making Jisung feel a little sad.

"Let's go eat something," one of your companions said, patting your back comfortingly. Your other friend nodded, turning around.

"Yeah, this time I agree with Minho, Y/N. We better go eat."

Y/N… a beautiful fitting name, like the one you had before. There was no doubt that the being accomplished his part of the deal, making Jisung's impossible wish come true.

While you and your friends went to a restaurant, Jisung followed you, trying his best to go unperceived by everyone. He observed the clothing first, stealing some jeans and a goodie he found drying in someone's backyard and putting it on, then the problem were his shoes, because where could an undying man like him find cheap but modern shoes?

He ended up stealing a suitcase from a visitor, hurrying to go to his house and open the luggage, putting on what clothing seemed more appropriate for the time, then running back to where you were.

He observed you, every move you made and waiting for your friends to leave you so he could approach you and make the first move again. It took longer than what he was hoping for, but when you were finally alone he tapped your shoulder just like the first time.

"Excuse me," he started, shocked by how hoarse his voice came out, probably for neglecting his vocal cords for decades. He cleared his throat before he continued, "you aren't from around, right? I have a question…"

He watched your surprised expression, getting a little scared when your brows furrowed. Why were you so confused? Had you recognized him? Nah, he didn't think that could be possible.

"Sorry, do I know you? I think I've seen you before," you said, trying harder to focus and remember where you had seen this man. This sudden meeting, it was like it happened before, maybe in a dream. You weren't sure, the only thing you were certain was that you had seen his face somewhere else.

"No, I don't think we've met bef–"

"Hey, baby, who is this you're talking with?" he was suddenly interrupted by your smaller friend walking towards you and wrapping a protective arm on your waist. Jisung's heart almost broke again when he repeated the pet name he had called you in his head.

"Ah, Minho, hello. This person just said he had a question for me, because I'm not from here?" you explained, looking at Jisung with a raised eyebrow waiting for him to say the question.

The man in front of you stared intensely at how your boyfriend was holding you, words dying as he shook his head and blinked, saying a quick 'nevermind' and turning to walk away. What an awkward encounter.

"That was weird," Minho commented, letting go of you. You forced a smile, still trying to figure out where you had seen that stranger before.

You turned to face him, hesitating if to ask him or not but you decided to do it anyway. "Hey, do you remember seeing that guy before?"

"No, and he said that himself. We don't know him," Minho scoffed, laughing and turning around, calling Seungmin's name so he could reunite with you two.

That stranger… you could swear you'd seen him before, how else would you explain the sensation of deja vu when he approached you? Why did his voice sound so familiar as well? Maybe you'd dream of him, but then, why did you feel like he was a friend you hadn't seen in a while?

The three of you went back to the hotel, both Seungmin and Minho taking the elevator to the reserved room without you. 'I'm going to get a drink,' you explained, going to the bar while your brain still tried to remember where you'd seen that man before.

Sitting by yourself in a small table, looking at the scenery before you through the opened window, the sound of the chair in front of you brought you back to reality, the motive of that being the same person whose face you couldn't forget.

"You still need help?" you asked him, raising a brow as you took a sip from the alcoholic drink you ordered so you could sit there without being asked to leave.

"You know that was just an excuse to talk to you. I'm Jisung, by the way. I felt bad I couldn't present myself earlier and I saw you here alone, it was too much to be just a coincidance" he offered you a smile, his eyes shining while he looked at you.

"Nice to meet you, Jisung, I'm Y/N," you smiled back, bowing with your head after saying your name.

"It's a beautiful name, it really suits you" he winked after complimenting you, your cheeks slightly heating up after hearing the tone of confidence in which those words left his mouth.

Thanking him, you took another sip if your drink and turned from the window to face him.

"And were are you from, Jisung? Your face… I really feel like I've seen you before" you questioned, revealing that you hadn't dropped the familiarity if his face since your first encounter. He disimulated a smirk hiding behind his own drink.

"No, we don't know each other, I believe? Maybe I have one of those faces, you know? I certainly would remember if I saw anyone as beautiful as you" he winked, avoiding your gaze by looking out the window.

"I… I have a boyfriend," you mumbled, furrowing your brows and waiting for his reaction, but he didn't seem to mind. He just hummed when you said that as if he didn't care about Minho in the minimum.

"With how pretty you are I'm not really surprised," he winked, putting all his attention back to you. You were speechless, because not only did this man approach you, but you also couldn't decode what his real intentions were. It was very confusing to you.

"You're very flattering, Jisung. You're not too bad yourself, if you want my opinion," you chuckled, trying to not sound too awkward. It probably didn't work, because he chuckled.

"Might I ask, Y/N, what brought you here?" he suddenly asked, his eyes shining with clear curiosity.

"I don't really know. Since I was a kid I wanted to come here, then as a teen I started investigating places and I found a legend of a statue, the waiting man or something like that, it was called" you happily explained, excited about the story of the stone figure.

"The waiting man…?" he repeated your words, his face showed how he had no clue what you were talking about, then he asked: "do you know the story behind it?"

Nodding, you kicked your lips before you started explaining.

"Well, apparently it was a figure of a man whose wife was murdered, it said that they lived by the river so the man took his life there in so his woman could be reborn again, and heald dead, he sat seeing the horizon waiting to see her again" you sighed as you recalled what you read online. It was a beautiful story, but as you told it Jisung's eyes widened. You didn't comment anything about it.

"Ah, I see. That's a romantic yet tragic story" you nodded.

"Yeah, but it's just a myth. I went to see it today and there was nothing" your tone of disappointment didn't go unnoticed by him. He thought it was ironic that you were interested in him, but yet, that was what was supposed to happen. The only thing that took him by surprise was you having someone else. It didn't sit right with him, but he didn't know how to get rid of your new boyfriend, in a certain way he couldn't blame the other fool for falling for you.

"Such a shame. I'm sorry you couldn't see it," one of his hands covered your own that was resting on the table, it was a sweet moment.

"Have you thought about seeing the house they lived in?" he suddenly asked, gaining your attention successfully.

"Not really, no. I don't even think it exist," you shrugged.

"I know where it is, I can show it to you" Jisung smiled, making your unsure head scream at your brain to accept, and you surely did.

"That'd be cool, whe–"

"Let's go, then" he stood up quickly, drinking the rest of his drink in a long sip and extending his hand to you to take. Now it was your turn to have your eyes wide open in clear surprised.

"Wait, right now?" incredulous, you asked again. The man nodded, his arm getting closer to you urging you to take the invitation.

'What could possibly go wrong?' you asked yourself. The logical part in your brain rang with a loud alarm, telling you of possible scenarios where you very probably wouldn't come back from, but something very deep in you told you to accept. You wanted to trust him.

It was a miracle you remembered about the existence of smart, you took your and quickly send Seungmin your location so he could know where you last were, just in case. You knew you could trust him, which was the major reason why you decided to simply send it to him and not Minho.

Looking up with a mischievous smile and putting your phone in the back pocket of your jeans, you took the stranger's hand. It was a little cold, but nothing too uncomfortable.

He started walking out without letting go of your hand, following a way that seemed a little familiar to you, the city light adorning the busy streets.

"How do you know it's the house of the myth?" you wondered, getting his attention.

"I've been here for a long time, you have to trust me, it's the same one" he winked again, turning so you could see him but then continuing the route that you couldn't put your finger in where you had seen it before. Maybe a movie, maybe you walked there that same morning, maybe it was alike some place in your home town… maybe you were just crazy.

You kept walking hand in hand until you reached an area with lesser people, it was mostly dark and the houses had a lot of distance separating each other. Jisung guided you until the last one, almost entering the forest and you silently watched him admire it.

Seeing it this close, it was… pretty decent. To be as old as the story told, it wasn't too bad. It had a few graffitis on the outside, but at least there weren't broken windows.

Too focused admiring the house, you jumped scared when you saw Jisung looking for something in his pockets at the door. You hurried to get to his side, the outside lighting illuminating the two of you as best as it could.

Jiaung stopped looking, taking his hand out of his pants and looking at a key before putting it on the knod and turning it, finally opening the door and stepping aside to allow you to get in.

He must've sensed that you were waiting for him, so he walked in and instead of waiting for you at the door, he hurried to go somewhere. You walked in, leaving the door open to allow the light to enter with you, then another source of lighting got your attention and you turned to see Jisung holding a gas lamp.

"This is the house, wanna know where the woman died?" he asked, low tone to not disturb the perturbing silence of the house.

Making a noise that sounded like a positive answer, Jisung then grabbed your hand again, walking you through the old residence until you were in a bedroom.

Everything was left as Jisung remembered. He remebers putting on large disposable sheets on all furniture before heading to the insides of the forest, wanting to prevent the dust on all surfaces because he didn't know when he would go back. Now that he was home again, he felt quite nostalgic.

"This is where the police found her body, she was lying there…" he pointed to the opposite side of the room, leaving the lamp in a high surface and sighing when he kneeled to touch the spot he pointed earlier. A little strange behavior, you thought.

"How do you know all this? All this information is new to me," you mused, looking everywhere while Jisung removed the sheet from the tatami in the middle of the room so he could sit in it. You looked at him with attentive eyes, waiting for his answer.

"M-my grandpa, he was the owner of this house. The real story passed through generations, I guess the most famous version is the romantic one" he explained. You wanted to believe him, but something in you knew there was more to it than he allowed you to know.

Sitting next to himyou felt how soft the tatami was under you.

"Can you tell me more, then? I'd love to be familiar with the real story" he nodded after hearing your whisper, clearing his throat to tell you what he knew.

"They were two foreigns, the man was Korean and his partner from somewhere else, they met here. As far as I know, he fell in love with her at first sight, and he offered her to teach her the language and she said yes, that was how their relationship started. He asked her to move in with her, but when he was about to ask her to marry him, she was murdered and he went crazy, he completely lose his mind," he paused, swallowing saliva and breathing in before continuing. You were too immersed in the story, imagining how that must've been, everything playing in your head almost as if you'd seen it before.

"He went to the river and made a pact to bring her back, the supposed statue was rumored to be him waiting for her to come back" he finished, carefully looking at your eyes to see your reaction.

With a hand on your mouth and watery eyes, you stood still, glaring at him, scaring him. He had never seen you look that focused, but your mind was running wild inside your head. He was scared, yet hopeful at the same time.

"Oh, Jisung… you did that, just for me?" you murmured, the hand covering your mouth going to rest on his thigh, a single tear falling from your eye. Jisung left go the breath he didn't even know that he was holding, looking at you with scared eyes.

"... For you?" he mumbled.

" I remember you, I finally remember" you cried out, smiling and moving to throw your arms around him.

"Yes, of course, and I would do it again, Y/N. You know I love you, I waited so long for you and now I'm glad that you're back!" he corresponded your hug, squeezing you so lovingly. Being in his arms was like returning home after a bad day out, like a cozy fire in a freezing cold weather. It was your favorite place.

"C-can I kiss you?" you shyly asked, moving to face him. He wiped his face with a free hand and nodded vigorously, stopping when you cupped his face and pressed your lips against him.

If you could capture any moment and revisit it again and again, it would be this one; reunited with the man who loved you enough to give up his own life to have you back, he was all you wanted, both in your past life and in this one too. Your heart danced when the veil of modernity fell from your eyes and you saw who he truly was, your other half, your soulmate, your true love. He was your sun and your moon, and you were his earth.

With his hand on your hip and the other in your face, the kiss passed from being sweet to a whole different flavor when your tongue entered his mouth and explored his wet cavity shamelessly, playing with his tongue as well until you had to separate from him to allow some oxygen in your lungs.

"Make me yours, Jisung" you whispered as sensually as you could, chest heaving while you tried to recover from the intensity of the first kiss you shared with him.

"A–are you sure? Here?" he asked, looking at the old room. It was a little dirty, but nothing that could be too uncomfortable.

"Would you rather do it in the hotel room, with my friends present?" you playfully asked.

"Friends? I thought one of them was your boyfriend?" he asked back, pushing you back so you would be in a lying position and caging you with his arms, kissing your cheek and starting to travel down on all the skin he could touch with his pillow lips.

"No, we just pretend to be if someone wants to flirt with any of us. I'm all yours, Sungie" you could feel how he smirked when you called yourself his, sighing in satisfaction when he played with your neck.

"That's right,you belong to me, you're just mine, you'll always be mine, and I'll always be yours, my beautiful darling" and kissing you again, he left you breathless after trying to imitate some moves that you pulled on him earlier, making you moan in his mouth and place your hands in his biceps, slowly going up and then pulling him by the neck so he could lay on top of you.

This time, it was him who broke the kiss, removing his weight from you to stare at your bruised lips and your disheveled state with loving eyes.

"Can you stand up, sweetheart?" he sweetly asked, moving to the edge of the bed. You nodded and did what he wanted, standing between his spread legs with your hands on his shoulders, then he stood up too and with shy hands, he started to take off your top, admiring every inch of new naked skin under the dim lighting of the gas lamp. He threw the clothing to the floor and sat again, keeping you standing with a hand on your hip that later found itself undoing your jeans.

Standing in just your underwear, he stood up again, pushing you gently to the bed and taking off your shoes and socks, taking off his own clothes before returning to kiss you with heavy passion while one of his hands snaked between your legs and touched your most sensitive part, making you tremble under him, the noise that you made obligating him to separate once more from you so he could hear you clearly.

"Take this off" he ordered as his other hand went down on your body with a ghost like touch, taking the hedges of your underwear and pulling it down, exposing your wet heat to him while you struggled to get your bra off.

His fingers teased you again, his other hand keeping your legs open as he slid the pad of his index finger up and down, collecting your wetness and rubbing it on your clit, then adding his middle finger to the mix and playing with your bud, making you moan.

"It feels great, don't stop" you murmured after a moan, one of your arms above your head and the other playing with one of your nipples.

He continued his movements, but he stopped for a second causing you to whimper in protest. He hushed you, slowly inserting one finger inside you and continuing massaging your clit with his other hand, the combination of movements provoked you to try and close your legs from the suddenness of the pleasure over you.

A knowing sensation coming from your lower stomach made you babble as a warning to Jisung, who could tell you were close to your organs by the way that your walls were tightening on the now two fingers inside you, but he kept his movements until you were holding onto his wrist trying to overtake your high, breathing heavily, your head thrown back and eyes shut.

He started slowing down along with your breathing relaxing, and finally he pulled his digits out of you, taking his hand to his mouth and kicking them clean, humming in approval under your lusty eyes, then he took them out of his mouth, and smiled seductively at yours.

"Are you sure you want this?"

"Fuck, Jisung, you already made me cum once, just fuck me please" you begged, moving your head from side to side and kicking with your tired legs, making him laugh.

"Just needed a confirmation, darling, I'll make you mine happily," he commented, pulling down his boxers and squeezing his hard member in his large hand, kneeling between your legs and pressing his tip against your entrance, hissing.

Slowly entering you, you gasped when you felt his entire length inside you, stretching you so deliciously. He groaned too, when he felt your velvety inside embracing him, and then he started to pull out at the same pace in which he entered you; slowly to prolong the pleasure for both of you.

It was great at first, but as you started getting demanding and telling him to go faster, he did as you wanted, getting both of you closer to your climaxes, your bodies covered in a coat of sweat, the room filled with moans and the explicit noise of skin against skin with each thrust from him.

"I'm gonna cum" Jisung announced, slowing the rhythmic pounding as his brain became static from the nearing explosion of bliss.

"C–cum inside me, fill me up please" you begged him, both of your hands on his back and nails digging on his skin.

"Can I– should I do it?" he asked, struggling to form coherent sentences in his state.

"Yes, I'm pr–protected" you said back, and in that moment Jisung allowed himself to do as you told him to do and released his seed inside you. The warmth of his semen so deep in you causing you to reach your high one more time, calling his name in a illicit way, sending shivers down Jisung's spine for hearing you like that.

Pressing a kiss to your forehead, he pulled out of you, staring with fascination in his eyes at the mess between your legs, causing you to get a little shy.

"Is there anything to clean myself with?" you asked, getting his attention. He reached down to put on his forehead, taking the lamp with him and walking to the bed room's bathroom, coming out with a folded towel in his hands. You were expecting him to give it to you, but instead he kneeled on the floor and spread your legs, wiping the fluids from your used pussy.

When he was done, he took a spot next to you in the bed, hugging you and drawing circles on your shoulder with his thumb.

"Are you going to stay with me?" he quietly asked, getting your attention from whatever was on your mind.

"I want to. I loved you before and I still love you now. I don't wanna leave you, but…" your trail of voice got cut off, as you didn't know what else to say.

"Is there a problem?" he shoot another question, now playing with your hand.

"Besides telling my friends and family, not really. I'm sure they'll understand, it's just… that I have a question for you."

"Tell me, then. I'll answer everything you have to ask," he said so confidently.

"W–what are you? I died– oh my God, saying that feels unreal…" you mused, shaking your head to focus on what you had to say. "I died centuries ago. How are you even still alive?"

This time, he stayed quiet. He didn't quite know what he was either, all he knew of his living condition was that finding you was his wish, and now that it was accomplished he didn't know what else to do.

" I guess I'm… kind of like a spirit? Hmm, or maybe not? I'm not s– Oh, wait! There's a word for people like me, I've heard folks use it, it's yokai" he said, recalling memories of people who went to see him and ask him questions about him being evil or bad, some called him that. A lost man, blinded by his sadness and rage losing his will to live and becoming a yokai from those strong emotions.

"Yokai… then, you can't die, right?" you asked, a little sad. He shook his head, knowing by his own experience that he was part of the undead.

"How did you become one? Do you think I can be one too?"

"You wanna be a yokai?" his face showed pure incredibility to what his ears heard, face morphed with many emotions.

"I want to be with you forever, until–"

"–until the end of the earth…" you said in unison, almost like he knew what you were thinking. But it was right, you loved him, you didn't need anything else besides him. Why not have an eternity together, if it was possible?

"Do you really want that, Y/N? You're a mortal, you can travel the world, you can have children, visit many places… I don't think I can even leave this town. If you want to experience more things, go ahead. I won't price you of this, love. I waited for you for so long, I can wait longer if you want. I'll always be here" he tried to reason with you, kissing your temple and caressing your face.

Too bad for him, because you had already set your mind in staying with him.

"Alright. I'll leave and do all that, just because you want me to" you sighed, hugging him.

It was right then when he understood the words of the demon who turned him. This was the big consequence that being like him brought. He either helped you become like him, or he would have to bury your mortal body… even thinking about it hurt him, but at least he had given you the choice to think about it and decide for yourself what you wanted to do.

Because yes, he loved you, but he wouldn't force you to live like him.

The two of you slept cuddling, and then the next morning he talked you to the hotel. He said he would fix the house to have it prepared for when you go back, and hugged you goodbye while you went to wake up your friends.

"Where were you?" Seungmin worriedly asked, making you sit and tell him everything.

"I spent the night with someone," you simply said, brushing it off.

You also told them to continue with the trip, saying that you would be traveling home to tell your family that you would be moving soon, and to not worry about you.

A month and two weeks later after gaining knowledge of your past life, you were standing in front of the supposed haunted house with a suitcase full of your belongings, a smiling man waiting for you by the door.

When you left your things in the room where the two of you reunited, Jisung took your hand and guided you to the place where he was still for ages by the river, finding his friend Bang Chan waiting for the two of you there.

"Han Jisung," he greeted him, voice coming out distorted. Not human, obviously. Probably the being that turned Jisung like that.

"Thanj you for keeping your word," Jisung responded to the greeting, standing in front of you protectively.

"How can I become like him?" you bravely asked, getting the imposter's attention.

"I knew you would ask that from me one day. I thought it would take more of your reincarnated lives, but seems like I was wrong. You want to be like him?" he pointed at Jisung, and you nodded in response.

"I want your soul, child. Give it to me and I shall grant you eternity with the one you love" he demanded.

You stepped forward, ready to shake his hand when Jisung's arm interrupted you.

"Why do you want their soul, but didn't ask anything to make me like this?" he asked his supposed friend.

"You were of no use to me, Han Jisung. But her… a soul that had been loved for multiple lives? That is gold. I need to have that. So do you accept, my child? Are you willing to give me your soul to stay with him?" standing aside after hearing the thing's explanation, Jisung left you to take your own decision.

Either one step back, or forward. Give away your soul to stay with Jisung forever, was it worth it?

Taking the extended hand, you shook it in acceptance to the proposed deal. Then you blinked, and you were shaking the air.

Placing a hand on your shoulder to remind you of his presence, Jisung took one of your hands and stared at the flowing water in front of him.

"I love you, Y/N. Thank you for choosing me" he whispered, looking at your eyes.

"Of course, now we can be together forever" a tears slipped down your left cheek.

"Until the end of the earth."

[littlestarhhj]

forbidden fate pt.1 h.hj

part of the strange devotion collab by @bearseungmin

pairing: hyunjin x self-insert siren f. reader

genre: romance, siren/mermaid, supernatural, soulmate, angst, fluff

warnings: anxious thoughts, mention of eating people (nothing comes from this), a few swear words

wc: 2.2k

summary: having lost himself, hyunjin decides it best to move far away from everything. he settles on a beautiful house that is only a walk away from the beach. from the outside this seems perfect, though to him it still seems so foreign and unwelcoming. then one night while feeling extra lonely and just melancholy, hyunjin goes for an early morning walk on the shore. even there he can’t find comfort or peace, though what he does find is quite shocking.

*lowercase is intentional also not proof-read and i’m dyslexic :)

as hyunjin walked along the shore accompanied only by the calming sounds of the sea, he began to lose himself to his thoughts. he still ponders if moving here was the best idea or not, but it’s a little too late to go back now. he needed a change and deep down he knew it was the right decision but sometimes he just couldn’t help giving into the anxieties that kept him up all night. hence why he’s here walking along the shoreline at nearly three in the morning. the sound of his teeth chattering is what saved him from succumbing to his own mind. he truly is kicking himself over not bringing a sweater, but how was he supposed to know how cold it got on the beach at night?

deciding it was best to go on home he used his phone’s flashlight, the only source of light he had, to light the path he had just taken. however he was accompanied by a new sound that stopped him dead in his tracks. the voice of what he could only describe as an angel. she was singing the most beautiful melody he had ever heard. he quickly turned back, shining his light in the direction of where the voice seemed to be coming from. frantically he searched out for her, but was only met with confusion as it appeared that he was still alone. the melody gradually got louder as he moved closer to the sea, which further puzzled the boy. anxiety began to take over he wanted to go home, but yet something told him to stay.

having finally escaped the trance the poor boy was under he rushed away from the water to go home. once reaching his house he still wasn’t able to find something to ease his distraught mind, having found no comfort in what was still such a foreign place. he longed for something familiar, something that actually felt like home.

somehow hyunjin managed to drag himself up the stairs to his bedroom. only to be greeted by the unsettling presence of the dark. usually he would pay no mind to the darkness, he would even find comfort in it but tonight something was different. he just couldn’t shake the bad feeling he had. pushing past the uneasiness he felt he forced himself to change into his pjs and crawl into his bed.

there it was… that angelic yet eerie voice. this time her voice whispered out to him in his dreams, she whispered the tune of such a haunting lullaby. even though he could not see her he knew that she was crying. her voice was filled with so much pain and it was as if she was reaching out to him. hyunjin shot up in a panic. it felt so real. even though he knows that it was just a dream he feels drawn to go back to the ocean. he can’t help but feel like she needs him, like she’s waiting there for him.

…

hyunjin has yet again found himself walking along the shore. he feels so stupid because here he is on the beach when it’s about to storm looking for a girl who more than likely does not exist. deep down he knows that he was just tired last night and his mind had played tricks on him, but he just can’t bring himself to leave the beach. he can’t bring himself to give up looking for her. something’s telling him that she’s actually here.

after walking for a while he finds himself short of breath and decides that it’s best to just take a break. the boy sits while burying his feet in the sand. he knows this is pointless and he just feels so crazy, but that feeling is still there. there’s this part of him that tells him that this is exactly where he needs to be.

the sound of someone splashing in the water quickly gets his attention. though, he could have sworn he was just alone. nobody was here due to the storm quickly approaching. though sure enough on the rocks only a couple of feet away from him a girl, the prettiest he had ever seen, leaned up against them. she was splashing around and looked to be having a blast. then a big wave came and the girl seemed to vanish. he waited for her to come up but she never did. hyunjin then sprung up and rushed over; he knew that she might be in danger. he skimmed the water desperately searching for her, though she was nowhere to be seen. hyunjin frantically took his shirt off and dove into the water.

y/n’s pov:

no i can’t do this. i know i’m supposed to, it's what we’re supposed to do but i can’t. i’m so stupid, so, so stupid. last night it felt so right and i was so drawn to him but i can’t. hopefully he didn’t see me and he’ll just leave.

oh my god no he’s coming into the water he most definitely saw me. he probably thinks i’ve drowned or something. i need to go as fast as i can. he’s human so he most definitely won’t be able to swim as fast as me and if i hurry he won’t see me.

hyunjin’s pov:

please just let her be okay… i’ve searched everywhere and i still can’t find her. she has to be here somewhere…

hyunjin being a skilled swimmer, dived further into the unruly water searching for the girl. however, to his dismay there was no trace of her. the boy began to panic because how does someone just disappear like that… he began to think he made her up. maybe he had been alone the whole time. he feels like he has lost his mind, maybe he should just go home.

…

the boy shivers as he wraps yet another blanket around his freezing body. not even a hot shower or now three blankets were able to warm his poor body. jumping into the cold water in search of a nonexistent girl, yeah not that great of an idea. she had just seemed so real. he is truly astonished that his brain was able to imagine something like that, but he also feels so foolish. he shouldn’t have gone to the beach in the first place it was a stupid idea. instead of spending anymore time wallowing in his mistakes he turned on his favorite movie, and buried himself further into his mountain of blankets.

as the night went on hyunjin was able to finally find comfort as he had drifted off into a deep slumber. though his peaceful state didn’t last long as his unconscious body began to toss and turn. he was once again dreaming of the singing girl, though this time he could see her… it was the girl from the beach. she laid on the exact rocks he had seen her leaned up against earlier today. she was so beautiful. what the boy did next was so out of character he began to sleepwalk. he had never done this before…

when the boy came to, he was laying in the sand. he started to panic, becoming short of breath. how did he get here? he quickly sat up only to realize he wasn't alone. the girl she was there she’s real, and she’s looking back at him.

y/n’s pov:

i know this is my fault, but i didn’t call him this time. i don’t know why he’s here and how the hell do i even explain this? eventually he’s going to wake up. maybe i should just swim away. i mean he would never know that i was here. no i can’t do that… god i can’t stop staring at him. he's so mesmerizing and he has such delicate features. i can’t help but feel so attracted to him. i’m such a disappointment… oh shit he’s waking up.

“s-so you are real” the dark haired boy stuttered, barely able to get the words out. his eyes slowly drifted downward and the fear became even more evident on his face.

“please don’t be scared” i smiled gently at the frightened boy.

“b-b-but how are y-you real… i-i-i’m dreaming right” his voice and body was trembling. i gently placed my hand on his. he immediately pulled back and then the boy pinched himself “no, no, no i have to be dreaming please tell me this isn’t real.” tears began to fill up the boys eyes. oh how my heart aches.

“i’m so sorry… i really didn’t mean for any of this to happen but i can explain if you’d let me ``i'm trying to plead with this boy. i can’t let him leave unless he’ll hear me out and then not freak out otherwise i don’t think i’ll have much of a choice…

“o-okay i can’t believe i’m doing this but go on” the boy choked out while avoiding my gaze.

“well uh… as you can see i have a um… tail and i live in the ocean… so that’s the first thing” i hope he can’t hear how hard i’m breathing “and i’m the one who you heard singing and i um lured you here. well not this time i actually uh don’t know how you got here this time, but the other times were me. i’m very sorry” i can’t bring myself to look him in the eye as i tell him everything. “so yeah uh my people we lure humans with our singing and then we well we um you know…” i point to my mouth to try to signify that we eat them because i can’t bring myself to say the words. the boy gasps letting me know that he understood the gesture. “look i’m sorry, and i swear you don’t have to be afraid. i'm not going to do anything to you. that first night one of my siblings sensed you were there and i had never done anything to a human before. so she brought me to the surface and told me to practice on you. that’s when i sang out to you. but the next day when i had felt your presence on my own i felt this connection. that then intensified when i laid my eyes on you. i knew that you were different and i couldn’t bring myself to keep luring you back. so that’s why i swam away and you couldn’t find me… but i promise i didn’t bring you here this time i have no idea why you’re here.” when i met the boy’s eyes he somehow looked both terrified and relieved.

…

it’s been a few days since i last saw him. he left pretty quickly the other day i'm sure i’ve scared him off forever. though i feel our connection is growing stronger. it’s so strange. i have no idea what it means and i can’t ask anybody because they’ll be so ashamed of me. i can hear them now lecturing me about how we’re supposed to eat humans. we don’t interact with them, let alone tell them about our whole existence and try to befriend them. if only they knew the bond we shared i’d think they would maybe understand why i couldn’t do it. oh he’s here, i feel him.

when i come up to the surface i see him over by the rocks. “h-hi” i give him a genuine smile and to my surprise he flashes his perfect one in return. oh how could you not be in awe of his precious smile and just his ethereal features…

the sound of his voice is what brought me back from the trance i was in. “hi, i’m sorry i left in such a hurry the other day it was just well you know a lot… but after i went home i just kept feeling drawn to come back i don’t know what it is” so he feels it too, and he can’t even look at me while he says it.

“do you feel what i feel, like we’re not meant to be seperated” i avoid his gaze because this is so awkward to say face to face with him. “because ever since the first time i saw you every time we’re apart my body craves for your return” there i said it. when i finally look up i realize he still can’t look at me, and the blush that paints his cheeks confirms that he feels it all too. “which is insane right? because like i’m a well you know and you’re human… and i still don’t even know your name.”

“hyunjin, my name’s hyunjin,” he says as he finally looks at me. hyunjin, what a beautiful name.

“i like your name” i smile up at him “oh and my name is y/n.”

*author’s note: i’m sorry this went up way later than i had intended it to, but if you’ve read this far i just want to say thank you so much and i hope you’ve enjoyed and i hope to see you at part 2 <33

[sleepylixie]

/Where you will find everything to do with the stories I am working on behind the scenes. Each will be marked with the group, member and respective Universe. I will be updating this fairly often.// - Elliana.

(The banners for both my series are the brainchild of the amazingly talented @blueprint-han - Dawn, you queen🥺💕)

Series Masterlist

The Ash Envoy

Member/Group: Lee Felix/SKZ

Universe: In Umbra Universe

Genre: High Fantasy, Fae! Felix.

Synopsis: Concept thoughts Here.

The Clockwork Traitor

Member/Group: Seo Changbin/SKZ

Universe: In Umbra Universe

Genre: High Fantasy, Vampire! Changbin

Synopsis: Concept thoughts here.

Unnamed:  Charmspeaker! Jisung, Skinwalker!Seungmin.

Series Masterlist: Coming Soon.

Blood Mosaic

Member/Group: Unassigned Member/SKZ

Series: Twisted Fairytales.

Genre: High Fantasy (A retelling of Little Red Riding Hood)

Synopsis:  Concept thoughts Here.

Ocean’s Aria

Member/Group: Lee Know/SKZ

Series: Twisted Fairytales

Genre: High Fantasy (A retelling of Peter Pan in the world of Neverland)

Synopsis:  Concept thoughts Here.

Take My Heart

Member/Group: Seo Changbin/SKZ

Series: Twisted Fairytales

Genre: High Fantasy ( A retelling of Cinderella)

Synopsis: Concept thoughts + Snippet Here || Teaser Here

Unnamed: Beauty & the Beast/ Bang Chan ; Snow White & Evil Queen / Choi San & Hwang Hyunjin

Write me the Stars

Member/Group: Bang Chan/SKZ

Series: Standalone/Oneshot

Genre: Romance(Fluff/Angst), Songwriter X Songwriter

Synopsis: Concept thoughts +Snippet here

The Secrets of a Starry Night

Member/Group: Han Jisung/SKZ

Series: Standalone/Oneshot

Genre: Fluff, Neighbours AU, Supernatural.

Synopsis: Concept thoughts here.

For more info on possible fics in the future, look here.

Upcoming Collaborations 

Behind the Scenes (Stray Kids/Han Jisung) 

Strange Devotion Collab (Stray Kids/ Kim Seungmin) 

Remember me for Centuries ( NCT/ Ten) 

The one who wears the crown, bears the crown ( ATEEZ/ Jung Wooyoung)

[hanjizung]

♡ Dancing With the Devil ♡

Seo Changbin x afab Medium!Reader.

Word count: 6K

♡ Warnings ♡: Mentions of death, spirits & demons, references to witchcraft, alcohol consumption. Smut themes; making out, tipsy sex, oral (m), penetrative sex, overstimulation.

A/N: This is a contribution for the Strange Devotion's collab (Organized by @/bearseungmin.) Remember to check the collab list to find more supernatural fics, and happy spooky season loves! :)

Being born with a gift like yours, you had very strange encounters as your life progressed, some funny, some scary. Of course, you had to be careful who you told about your… special quality, some people got very scared of knowing you could do that, and others would want to keep you by their side to exploit you.

Being a medium was no easy task; spirits everywhere tried to get your attention so you could text their family, or tried to prank you when they thought you couldn’t see them, that was when you got the most laugh, staring at their shadowy selves when they were about to drop something to scare you.

With a connection like that to the spiritual world, when you grow up to a young adult you decided to get a career path that could help you develop and perfect that ability of yours, studying medicine and graduating from college as a forensic medic, getting a job at a funeral house and helping the trapped souls with unsolved problems in the real world.

That was how you met him, an entity too solid physically to be dead but too somber to be alive. His existence perturbed you, you didn’t know who- what he was, or if he was aware that you could see him.

You weren’t at work yet, you were walking out a coffee shop before walking home after your work shift when you saw him for the first time, getting inside a guy’s car not even bothering to secure the belt around him, fully concentrated on the guy driving and touching him before he could turn on the car, then taking a small journal and writing down something in it, saving it in one of the big pockets of his trench coat.

He stepped out of the car, crossing his arms over his chest and resting against the door like he was waiting for something, and then you realized what it was that he had to wait.

The driver’s spirit came out of his body, looking at his body resting in front of the wheel with a panicked face when the man with the trench coat placed a hand on his shoulder and told him something. You weren’t a lip reader, so you had no idea what it was that he told him, but judging from the spirit’s body language, he understood that he had died, a few tears falling from his eyes.

The muscled stranger took the pen he had used to write on his journal and drew a rectangle coming from the floor, then he snapped his fingers and a door appeared magically; a portal to the undead realm, you imagined, and alas, both men walked through it and disappeared. You couldn’t believe you witnessed all of that like it was a movie, your drink getting colder as you stood still watching all that unfold before you.

Taking your phone out, you dialed the emergency number to announce that there was a dead body in front of you, hanging up and continuing to walk to your home, still thinking about the man who caused that poor mortal’s death while sipping your beverage.

It was strange to you, never before with your eyes that could see beyond normal sight had you encountered someone like that, so after getting home and turning on your laptop, you started to dig for information about that mysterious being.

'Man who touches people and kills them' was what you started searching for. Many results popped in, none of them being even near what you were looking for, so you continued looking with different words.

'Man dressed in black who kills people with a touch', 'killing people with a touch', 'entity that kills people with a touch' but still, you weren't satisfied with the info that showed in your bright screen, until your mind remembered something you had read in an old book in your house, a gift your mother had given you to help you understand your ability.

Recalling the title of the chapter you had read long ago, you typed in; 'grim reaper.'

This time, the title, images and link in front of your very eyes had more sense. That young guy, dressed in black who took someone's life in a non violent way and then wrote down about what he did was just doing his job, as a grim reaper.

Closing the laptop, you threw your head back in the comfort of your couch, staring at the ceiling for you don't know how long.

The sudden sound of keys outside your door made you turn to it, expecting your best friend and roommate to walk inside and greet you. Hopefully, his cheery personality would help you distract yourself from the grim reaper who had taken over your mind.

"Oh, hey. How was work?" he asked you, closing the door behind him, holding something in his hands that he walked to place on the table and then sitting next to you.

"It was fine, we didn't have a lot of bodies today. I saw something weird when I was coming home, though. How was the clinic today?" turning to face your freckled friend, you offered him a tired smile. He was quick to place a hand on your knee and massage you almost encouragingly.

"Normal, a little boring to be honest. I'm more thrilled to hear about what you saw, was it related to spirit or normal, human stupidity?" Felix asked, getting more comfortable in his seat patiently waiting for you to retell what you experienced not too long ago.

You did tell him, with all the details involved and also what you found out on the web about grim reapers.

"You should've seen it, Lix, it was so weird! He summoned a door and then they were gone" you exclaimed, breathless. Your friend listened attentively, his eyes wide open just like yours when you saw that happen. The impression the otherworldly entity left on you too big, you didn't think it would be possible to be that surprised ever again.

"That… sounds very astonishing, Y/N. I'd thought you'd be making all this out if I didn't know what you can do" you rolled your eyes with a playful smile, making him chuckle, stretching his arms and standing up and going to the table and picking up the forgotten item, a bag full of different donuts; he took one and brought you the bag to the couch, turning in the TV before sitting next to you once more.

"... I think I wanna see him again" you whispered, looking at the donut in your hand before taking a bite of the delicious dessert in your hand.

"What, the grim reaper? I– I thought you were happy with your life, Y/N! Why do you wanna see him again?" he choked after hearing you, a little scared because he didn't know whether you were being literal or not.

"It's not because I want him to take my life, I'd… like to ask him a few questions, learn more about what he does," hearing your explanation, Felix visibly relaxed.

"Oh, then that's a mission for you; mission death's door! Trying to find the grim reaper, huh? I hope it doesn't get too stressful" Felix said, finishing his own donut and licking the residue off his fingers.

"Yup, it'll take time, I guess. Hey, what are you doing on Saturday? Do you wanna go to Cat's Eye, dance a little and get a few drinks?" you proposed, smiling and winking with your right eye, patiently waiting for his response.

"Sure, it would do us some good to dance off some stress," he laughed, "and catch up with Minho while we're there. It's been some time since we went out."

You nodded, agreeing with his statement. Felix and you started frequenting Minho's club when you were almost done with college, after your 24 hours shifts in the hospital with your nerves on edge and stressed because the doctors lectured you too harshly, Felix and you went there together to forget about life, drink your lives away and dance until your feet hurt, even getting laid sometimes and waking up in a stranger's house, hungover and with a horrible headache.

Friday would be fun, for sure.

The rest of the week went by quickly, the next morning after the incident the stranger's body was at the morgue and your night shift partner had examined him and wrote down the cause.

What had been a simple touch on the shoulder to your eyes ended up being a brain dysfunction that ended with his life.

You didn't say anything about being present when that person died, no one at work knew what you could do, afraid that they would fire you and prevent other places from hiring you. It was too bad, because thanks to your gift, the spirits helped you determine the cause of death.

Luckily for you, the week passed by in the blink of an eye, and Friday evening after eating dinner, you took a shower and started getting ready, dressing up in a dress that didn't leave too much to the imagination, the tightness of the fabric favoring your beautiful body perfectly, then you continued to do your makeup, taking the necessary breaks to dance to the music coming from your phone.

At almost 9 pm, Felix made a knocking noise with his mouth when he stepped into your room, stopping by the door and whistling when he saw you.

"Looking good, Y/N! Are you all ready to go?" He got your attention. You turned around, looking at him and clapping your hands.

Felix was wearing skin tight black leather pants, a see through black shirt with a few lacy details here and there, a choker and a jacket on top. From afar, his makeup wasn't visible enough but you knew that he looked good, he always did.

"Wow, you're pretty handsome yourself! Yes, I'm ready to go, I just need a little bit of perfume…" you sad, grabbing your favorite one and spraying it on you as you spoke, "... And now I'm ready. Let's go!"

Taking Felix's extended hand, walking through the door and leaving to get inside the Uber who was waiting for you, hopping in excited to get to Minho's club.

After talking under your breath with Felix to not disturb the driver, you thanked him and hopped off, excitedly going to greet the bouncer, a buff man who got used to seeing you both and started letting you pass after seeing you close with Minho. After frequenting the place so much, you were like vip's.

"Heeey, Felix, Y/N! Long time no see. Have a fun night, both of you" was James greeting you, opening the door and moving aside to let you in. The music wasn't too loud, mufflers by the door separating the entrance from the actual club, and when you finally opened the other doors, the party ambient made your bones vibrate with the urge to dance; neon lights flashing everywhere, people kissing, dancing, making out in the uncomfortable couches and others at the bar completely drunk morphed the place from just another bar to the most fun bar for young people like you.

"Let's go for a drink first" Felix screamed in your ear so you could help him. You nodded and took his hand so you wouldn't get lost or separated on your way there.

Your favorite bartender waved at you from afar when he saw you two approaching, turning instantly to start making the traditional first drink you and Felix had before rushing to the dance floor.

"Glad to see you two here, how have you been?" said his lovely voice, placing your order in front of you.

"Hi Chan, we've been good. What about you, how's been work lately? " you asked back, answering for both you and your best friend while he emptied the liquid elegantly.

"I've been good too, work's been like normal, busy every weekend, you know, the usual? I'll let Minho know you're here, so don't be surprised when he sees you" he ended the small talk, going to another place in the long bar to take some girl's order.

That was only the start of the night, drinking, dancing, running to pee, drinking more, dancing more, meeting attractive people to dance with, taking a break to chat for a while with the owner…

You were coming out of the bathroom when someone's face seemed familiar. You couldn't quite tell where you had seen his face before, but he was attractive, body buff and well built, healthy.

He was sitting by the bar, so you decided to take a seat close and pretend to chat with Chan, actually asking him for a drink and following the steps in which he prepared it, glancing every now and then to the handsome guy.

Your telepathic game seemed to work, because half way done with your cocktail a string arm rested in the bar in front of you and the guy with the sharp jawline smirked at you, trying to seduce you. Little did he know, it was you actually seducing him to make him approach you. Mind games.

"Hey, hot stuff. Do you come here often?" he asked as a way to compliment you. You looked him up and down shamelessly, taking the chance to take in his figure. He wasn't too tall, but he wasn't too small either, not that you didn't care, he was hot regardless of his height.

"Not really, but if you do I might as well come on the daily. I'm Y/N, handsome" you winked, taking another sip of the alcoholic drink in front of you.

"Pleased to meet you, gorgeous. I'm Changbin," he said back, then signaling to your almost empty glass. "You want another one?" you nodded at his offering, enjoying the way in which his voice raised to get Chan's attention.

After a quick chit chat, he took your hand and brought you to the dance floor, body pressed against yours, hands traveling all around your body, making you flustered and provoking a heat between your legs; he was that irresistible, and he probably found you too sexy as well, whispering in your ear if you maybe wanted to go home.

You accepted, taking his hand and guiding him to the exit, laughing happily and telling James to warn Felix that you were going home when he walked out the door. His only goodbye was the same as his initial greeting; 'have fun and be safe.'

The taxi driver Changbin got would probably hate you for the rest of your life; after getting inside and shouting your address to them, and throwing your arms at Changbin, making out with him shamelessly. You felt a little bad for the driver, but your hornyness got the best of you.

It was Changbin's fault for being so hot and for kissing you so good, he left you breathless every time his lips left your kiss bruised ones; kissing him felt like the most pure of sins, his tongue knew how to tease you, his plump lips felt delicious against yours, and adding to that how he was touching you, you were sure you'd made inappropriate sounds in the backseat.

When the car stopped, you had no clue. All you knew is that you complained when Changbin pulled his body away from yours and stepped out of the taxi, taking your hand and helping you out too, fixing your dress so you weren't too exposed.

With his hand holding yours, you guided him to the front door and struggled to find the key you and Felix left outside in case you forgot your own keys (you hoped Felix was taking care of your purse with your stuff back at the club.)

Muttering a victory whisper when you found it, you opened the door and allowed Changbin to walk in before you, turning on the light, closing and locking the door quickly, suddenly gasping in surprise when Changbin slammed you against the cold material of the door and kissed you numb again.

This time, his mouth didn't limit himself to kiss your lips exclusively, traveling to your jaw provoking your head to tilt so he could have ample access to your neck.

"W–wait, let's go to my room" you pushed him away slightly, your hands on his chest making yourself feel things when focusing on the muscles under your hands, because damn, he was well built.

Changbin understood, stepping back and following you once more behind another door. You were glad you'd decided to tidy up a little after dressing up or else your room would be a mess, not that you would care in the tipsy state that you were in right now, but the next day you wouldn't have energy to clean everything. Past you knew you enough to have in mind that you hated cleaning after looking for what to wear.

Waiting by the bed for him to reunite with you, he took off his shirt, muscles flexing when he pulled over his head to throw it to the floor under your examining eyes. You bit your lips, because he had such an aura of confidence that made him 100 times more attractive. If you could play a loop of a moment you'd witnessed in your life, you'd have to choose between this one and the time when someone opened a portal in the middle of the street like it was nothing.

"Fuck, you're so hot" you whispered when he was close enough with you. He grinned at your compliment, words that you were sure he'd heard a million times before, but he responded with a compliment for you, a simple 'I could say the same, doll' and going to nibble on your ear, sending shivers down your spine.

Sitting next to you, he separated from you. His eyes were dark with lust, eating you with his eyes while he liked his lips.

"Let me see you," his raspy voice ordered. Almost hypnotized, you stood up from the bed, standing between his spread legs and putting maximum effort in trying to seem sexy while taking off your dress, revealing that you were braless and had a thong on.

His hands rested on the bare skin of your hips, bringing you towards him and biting the soft flesh of your abdomen, his face buried in your chest playing with his teeth, leaving kisses and bites here and there. You were about to straddle his lap, when you suddenly stepped back from his embrace and opened a drawer from your night stand, showing the confused man what you picked from there and giving it to him with a kiss.

"Can I blow you?" you asked after the kiss, your lips lingering over his. He nodded, spreading his legs more for you to sit on the floor.

Placing your hands on his thighs, you kneeled in front of him, the bulge inside his jeans seemed too tight for the erection it contained. Your fingers played with his zipper, finally working on it and setting his cock free; it was a lovely sight, rock hard with a pink tip, thick and veiny. Not too long, but you were sure the thickness would make up for the length, and besides, it wasn't as if you really cared. Sizes don't matter, but the way it's used, you always said.

"Shit, it's beautiful," you muttered, licking your lips. Changbin smirked, looking down at you from above, his hands had moved from the bed, one resting on your head and the other holding the base of his cock, maneuvering to make his tip rub against your cheek and then to your bruised lips.

Opening your mouth and sticking out your tongue, your hands made their way to rest above Changbin's bigger one, tongue playing with his tip, your head bobbing up and down and then attempting to take more of him inside your mouth.

Changbin groaned, his hold on your head tightened and he grabbed a fistful of your locks, head thrown back in pleasure, hips thrusting into your mouth forcing you to take more of his length in your mouth. He started using your mouth, manipulating your head to move like he wanted you to. You moaned, it wasn't you working at all, but him manhandling you for his own pleasure, it was kind of hot for you, so much that you couldn't help and moved one of your hands to slip into your tongue and tease yourself, you were already incredibly wet from having him in your mouth.

Groaning, his cock twitched inside your mouth, he was quick to remove himself from you, your other hand still on top of him and Changbin wrapped his own above yours so it was you stroking him to his release, and finally, he came. Hot spurs dripping on your face, heavy breathing and eyes closed so his semen wouldn't get in your eyes, you were such a delightful sight like this, his softening member getting half hard from looking at you.

You wiped your face with your hand, cleaning his fluids on the sheets and standing up. "Put the condom on," you whispered to Changbin, rushing to the bathroom and cleaning your face completely.

When you walked back to your room, he was sitting right where you left him, naked, condom on and cock against his abdomen, ready to please you.

"Come here, gorgeous," he extended his arms for you and you complied with what he asked of you, taking the remaining clothing on you off, aligning his cock with your entrance and slowly allowing him inside you.

Helping yourself balance on top of him, a hand on his shoulder and his face buried in your neck, you started controlling the pace the moment you got on top, bouncing on his cock and moaning in satisfaction from the friction.

His length brushed your sweet spot, it felt enjoyable, but soon your legs grew tired from doing anything; Changbin must've noticed, because he started thrusting and meeting you halfway, his hands on the flesh of your hips trying to help you until you couldn't move like before.

Then, he held you still carefully and moved you, shifting places with him. The new position with your arched back on the bed, hands holding his strong biceps and talons on his behind allowed him to be deeper inside you, reaching that magic button inside your tight insides more easily.

"Fuck, this feels way better, you're so deep" you moaned, trying to push him even further inside you.

"You're so tight, Y/N, you feel amazing" he responded back, continuing to roll his hips and enter you, his eyes focused on how well you took him. Truly, you felt fantastic.

"Harder" you ordered when you felt that familiar sensation starting to create in the pit of your stomach. Changbin followed your order the best he could, grunting when he felt your eyes hugging him tighter, making you whimper when he stopped completely inside you.

He bent down, allowing your upper half to rest on the bed and he spread his legs, getting more comfortable in the new angle. A growl left his mouth and he went back to work, harder and faster and just like that, you came undone around him, he kept the rhythm searching for his own release over stimulating you in the process.

He came again, slowing down and pulling out of you, tying up the used item and following your steps from when you cleaned yourself to find the bathroom and throw it away, dismissing it.

You supposed that the night had ended, and you didn't regret it at all, it had been a satisfactory session.

"You can stay if you want," you told him when he came back from the bathroom, you sitting on the bed. He smiled from the door, approaching you.

"You want cuddles?" he playfully asked, picking up his underwear and putting it on then lying on the bed and hugging your waist, pushing you on your back so he could hug you.

"I wouldn't be opposed, but also because it's late" you laughed, hugging him too, your hands feeling how he laughed when his back vibrated.

You stayed like that in a comfortable silence that soon was disturbed by a question.

"Are you free tomorrow?" he waited for you to hum in approval, "Do you wanna go on a date?"

"Sure, pick me up at 7" you agreed,and then the both of you fell asleep.

The next morning you woke up to some snoring next to you, memories of what had happened ran through your mind and you turned to see the one occupying the other space of your bed. The sun rays clearing your room helped you distinguish his features, and your fully sober brain was able to tell why he looked so familiar now, he had been the one you decided to look for a few days ago.

"Holy fuck…" you couldn't help but mutter.

Changbin whimpered in his slumber, and in your amazement and excitement combined you placed your hand on the shoulder that you had dug your nails the night before and shook him awake.

"Wake up, wake up!" you repeated, until he finally complained and opened his eyes.

"What happened, what's wrong?" he groggily asked, rubbing his eyes.

"You, you're a grim reaper!" his eyes widened when his brain comprehended your accusation, looking everywhere in the room while trying to make up an excuse. He couldn't invent something.

"W–what are you saying? I don't even know what that is?" he babbled, making you laugh.

"I saw you, liar. The man in the car? I was there, when you touched him and opened a portal. You should be more careful."

"How do you know all that? Aren't you human?" His voice was full of confusion.

"Yes, I'm a medium. That's how I was able to see you, I can't believe I found you, I wanted to ask you something" you smiled, still surprised that you had found him so quickly.

"Alright, why don't you think of all you want to know, and you ask later tonight during our date?" you blinked twice, forgetting that you had agreed to it hours before.

"Deal, then. I can't wait to see you tonight" Changbin stood up, collecting his clothes and getting dressed which indicated that he was ready to leave. You picked up a random shirt, putting it on to not be naked anymore.

"See you tonight," he said, walking to you and kissing the corner of your lips.

Contrary to how normal people would leave your house, he repeated the same motions and summoned a portal, walking through it and disappearing, leaving you amazed once more.

Walking to the kitchen, you started doing breakfast for when Felix woke up, you couldn't wait to tell him the news.

"G'morning" he greeted you finally coming out of his room. He looked wrecked.

"Good morning, princess. When did you get here? You look…" he shot you a look, stopping you mid sentence.

"Around 4 or so. I think I threw up everything I drank. Oh, your purse is in my room. How was your night, had any fun?"

"Excellent, and I had more than just fun. I found the grim reaper I told you about, Lix!" The excitement in your voice was clear, which made your friend smile. You served him a place and handed it to him, along with a cup of coffee.

"What? Really? How'd you do it, Y/N? That's great, congrats" he asked, then proceeded to stuff his mouth with your cooking.

"Yeah, we uh… we hooked up, he stayed the night and when I saw him this morning I connected the dots. He asked me out today, actually," you informed him, joining him and eating.

"Wow, I can't believe a night out led you to dancing with the devil and finding out that he was the one you were looking for. How romantic," Felix laughed after pointing that out, gaining a punch on the arm from you.

The rest of the day went by quickly, you stayed on the couch with Felix and made sure he felt better after the night he had until the moment you had to take a shower to get ready for your date. You didn't know how long it took you to finish until you walked into the living room and saw Changbin and Felix awkwardly sitting in silence, both of them looking at the TV screen.

Clearing your throat, both men turned to look at you, Changbin standing up with a smile.

"Ready to go?" you smiled back at him, Felix standing up last and the three of you going to the door.

"Bring them home by 11, they have work tomorrow," Felix said, staying behind the door making you and Changbin laugh.

"Sure, sir. I'll take good care of them," your date said, standing in front of you. You could only roll your eyes, responding with a sarcastic 'thank you daddy', pulling Changbin's arms and walking away.

Before you, Changbin presented a motorbike to you, handing you a helmet with a proud smile. You corresponded to it, waiting for Changbin to sit and doing the same yourself, hugging him and squealing when you started moving.

He took you to a fancy place for dinner, a completely different environment from the club where you bumped into each other. The restaurant wasn't too full, it wasn't 5 stars either but it was well kept. It probably was an old place, and it was obvious that the owners cared about the place.

When you were there, Changbin ordered for the two of you, and a long conversation started; you learned all you could about him, and he asked a question for each that he answered.

Thanks to that, you learned about his origins; he used to be a mortal once, like you, but he died during a storm. When he woke up next he was in the underworld, a high rank demon took him somewhere else and they gave him the option to become a grim reaper. They explained that if he accepted, he would have to take people's lives and bring their souls down. He could also have somewhat of a mortal life, the longer time he spent up there, with humans, the more lives he would have to take when he went back down. It was a price he was willing to pay, and so, Changbin accepted, because he was curious about what powers he would get.

You listened to him carefully, amazed by his story and telling him your own, about growing up as a medium and having to get used to dealing with spirits and entities, and when you were explaining another question popped in your head.

"How can you be invisible to the human eye? Do you have a switch, or cast a spell on you or something?" he laughed, moving his head from side to side.

"Nah, I need my work clothes. I have this, uh, a black trench coat. It is enchanted, when I wear it normal people can't see me, and it is also designed to keep… the tools that I need in its pockets. I supposed that you could see me because you're a medium and we have… a somewhat similar work with souls and all that."

"It could be it, you may be right, Mr. Grim Reaper" you winked at him, drinking a sip of wine.

After that one date, Changbin and you interchanged phone numbers. He was becoming a big presence in your life, taking you on lot of dates and doing variated activities. It was always fun to be with him, he had so many stories to share about the things he'd done, the places he had visited, and he liked hearing about your adventures when you helped lost souls cross to the other side in peace.

You spent so much time with Changbin, that eventually he and Felix also started becoming friends. It was now normal for you to have movie nights at least once a month.

It was inevitable when you had a mature conversation with him to discuss what you were. You occasionally had sex and you kissed on the lips from time to time.

"I like you as more than a friend, what does that tell you?" he smirked.

You shrugged playfully. "You love me as a best friend, then?"

Laughing, the nodded and you pouted you needed to hear the question formally asked.

"Alright, to name things… you like– no, that's not right. You love me, and I know so because I love you too, Y/N. So could I be your boyfriend? Formally, of course" his speech made you emotional, and then you nodded, thanking him contentedly.

You continued with your adult life, working at the morgue and him doing his own thing –he revealed that he had a bank account where the superiors would give him more than enough money to live, as a thanks for the job he did– and he usually spent it buying you things or taking you out.

Your growing relationship with him was the best you could imagine, one day when the two of you were lying on your bed you decided to tell him what your first impression of him had been.

"I thought you were really handsome, and I still do" you paused, giggling. You were resting on his chest, a hand and leg across his middle. He had one hand on your back, rubbing it gently.

"I saw you inside someone's car, and then he had died. I remember what shocked me most was that you summoned a portal like it was nothing? That was how I knew I wanted to get to know you, Binnie. And I'm so glad I found you at the club"

"Why, baby?" he asked, making you blush.

"Cuz I think you're the love of my life…" you confessed.

"Well, that's… something I can kind of confirm. One month ago before we met I asked someone who knows about love stuff when I would find my other half. I was guided to you. So, yes. We were meant for each other" he explained.

"Are you saying that you're stuck with me?" you moved, looking at him in the eyes to confirm that he was saying the truth.

"Yeah, and to be honest that's the best thing I've done in my… life? I don't know if I'm really alive but you understand what I mean. I love you, my medium darling" he cupped your face, kissing your forehead.

"Well, I never expected to kiss something from the other world, even less to have sex with them, and now look at me, I'm your soul mate!" you laughed, your eyes turning into crescent moons from the honest happiness of having Changbin in your life.

"Your bad luck will be when you die. I'll go wherever you go so we can be together even in the afterlife," his tone was serious. You loved when he said stuff like that, calling you his and being so possessive of you.

"I'd be offended if you let me go, knowing you can live either up with humans or spirits" you hit his chest with nonexistent force.

He blew air dramatically, faking that he was hurt from your punch.

"Of course, I'd go wherever you lead me. This is what you get after dancing with the devil."

"You're not a devil, you're a fool," you stuck your tongue out for him. You'd had the conversation before, of him calling himself things to make you laugh and you shutting him up with a kiss, responding that all he was, was a fool. And he always responded with the same thing.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm a fool, a fool for you."

[hanjizung]

✰ Dancing With the Devil; teaser ✰

Grim Reaper! Changbin x afab Medium! Reader

Summary: Seeing something that you shouldn't have, you decided to look for the cause of that memory burnt into your brain to ask them questions that were difficult to answer. Surprisingly, you found them faster than you would've thought, in the most unexpected time and place, and after a night, you realized that dancing with the devil was worth throwing yourself to a sea of uncertainty.

Genre: fantasy, romance, smut, supernatural.

Rating: M (+18)

Warnings: Mentions of death, spirits & demons, references to witchcraft, alcohol consumption. Smut themes; making out, tipsy sex, oral (m), penetrative sex, overstimulation.

Word count: 6k

Release date: October 27th, 3:10 am PST.

A/N: Just a little taste from a little something i wrote for bearseungmin's strange devotion's halloween collab.

Taking your phone out, you dialed the emergency number to announce that there was a dead body in front of you, hanging up and continuing to walk to your home, still thinking about the man who caused that poor mortal’s death while sipping your beverage.

It was strange to you, never before with your eyes that could see beyond normal sight had you encountered someone like that, so after getting home and turning on your laptop, you started to dig for information about that mysterious being.

'Man who touches people and kills them' was what you started searching for. Many results popped in, none of them being even near what you were looking for, so you continued looking with different words.

'Man dressed in black who kills people with a touch', 'killing people with a touch', 'entity that kills people with a touch' but still, you weren't satisfied with the info that showed in your bright screen, until your mind remembered something you had read in an old book in your house, a gift your mother had given you to help you understand your ability.

Recalling the title of the chapter you had read long ago, you typed in; 'grim reaper'...

[quokkacore]

matrilineal | s.cb [teaser]

summary: after receiving the news that your estranged grandmother has passed, leaving behind no will, you and your boyfriend offer to clean out your house so it’ll be ready to sell. but as you spend more and more time in the house, you realize just exactly what led your mother to never speak to her own mother ever again.

pairing: gradstudent!changbin x gradstudent!reader

genre: supernatural, romance, paranormal, suspense, angst, horror, establishedrelationship!au

warnings (subject to change as i’m still not done lol): language, mentioned child abuse (not inflicted on reader), demons, creepy images, eating, violence, broken bones, unsolicited groping

estimated word count: 13k

a/n: i’m SO excited to be writing for the strange devotion collab! everyone i’m working with is so talented, and i’ve been looking forward to writing this fic for a while now. i hope you guys like it, if you want to be notified when it’ll be posted send me an ask or pm me, and i’ll make a taglist!

The shower was a bit dirty, you noted as you stepped in. The bluish green tiles were no longer shiny, but cloudy and streaked with dried drops of water. If you were being fully honest, there was a suspicious stain in one corner that looked like mold. You definitely needed to get in here tomorrow and clean. The water was still cold.

Still, you grabbed the soap you’d brought in and lathering it across your arm and upper chest, eyes fluttering shut at the coconut scent. Your feet ached from cleaning the kitchen and the closets out. Everything in this house felt so odd, but there was an odd sense of familiarity to it. Yes, your mother hated her mother, but she folded her clothes the same way the clothes in the closets were. Your grandmother had taught your mother to write. The handwriting in your grandmother’s journals were eerily similar to your mother’s.

 And because your mother had taught you to write, you realized with a shiver, even though the water was slowly warming up… it vaguely resembled your own handwriting as well. You shook your head, taking a deep breath. Your mother’s paranoia was getting to you. There was no such thing as witchcraft, or ghosts, or whatever it was your mother believed was in this house. You knew that, and Changbin agreed.

Changbin. The tense nature of lunch this afternoon echoed in your head. Had you really drifted so far apart after everything the two of you had been through? 

You loved him. You knew that he still had to love you, otherwise he wouldn’t still be here. He wasn’t the type to drag things out unnecessarily. Still, you couldn’t deny it was frightening that neither he nor you could figure out what to talk about, and the pointedness in your words. You still weren’t sure where that had come from. 

I wouldn’t know. We rarely speak anymore.

You forced yourself to move on to washing your hair, now that it was finally at the warmth that you desired. Maybe that would distract you from your rocky relationship and everything else going on. Your nails raked over your scalp, eyes squeezed shut in both frustration as well as an effort to keep shampoo out of your eyes. 

As you began to wash the lather out of your hair, your breathing turned steady. You could feel steam around you now that the water was hot enough. You didn’t want to leave out of fear that you’d have to face Changbin once you stepped out.

But as your fingers combed through still soapy hair, you heard the door open. You couldn’t open your eyes still, so you furrowed your eyebrows instead. 

“...Bin?”

He didn’t answer, and you felt your stomach curl slowly in uncertainty. What did he want?

Working quicker now to get the shampoo out, you spoke up again. You could hear rustling from behind the shower curtain. “Changbin, what’s going on?”

You felt a soft gust of cold air move into the shower, at the same time you heard the shower curtain peel back. The rings clattered against the rod. You felt Changbin step in behind you. 

“You wanted to join me, huh?” You murmured, wondering if this was him trying to close the gap. You heard him hum lowly, breathing softly against the back of your neck. You smiled softly, wanting to feel him closer.

His hands gripped your waist, fingers digging into your skin. His thumbs were rubbing the exposed skin. His breath grew closer to the back of your neck, and you shivered. So that’s what he wanted. 

You felt your heart sink. You thought he wanted to speak to you, maybe just hold you. This isn’t what you wanted. Not here, at least. Not in the house where your mother had been abused.

“Binnie, no. Not… not here.”

You wiped your eyes, before finally feeling like your hair was free of any shampoo. Still, Changbin’s hands didn’t loosen their grip, instead moving lower. You inhaled sharply when you felt him squeeze your hips. 

Your eyes opened, and you turned to face him, voice stern. “Changbin, I don’t want to—”

 You felt your words die in your throat as you took in the empty space in front of you. 

There was no one there. 

Your chest felt tight all of a sudden. Even though the water was still hot, your whole body felt cold. 

“Ch—” You took a shaky breath, before calling out, “Changbin?”

A few seconds later, you heard your boyfriend’s voice, quiet, but there. “I’m in the kitchen, need anything?”

if you liked this, buy me a coffee?

[hanjizung]

✰ End of the Earth; teaser ✰

Yokai Jisung x afab Reader.

Summary: Love at first sight, two foreigners living in a beautiful paradise until a tragic event takes place and changes their lives forever. How badly do you have to love someone to do unthinkable things and become the town's mad man? Are the consequences worth shaking a shady guy's hand, even if he's not certain it'll work? The strength of his love for you is tested, just like his patience. How long will it take for things to go back to normal? Would you two even go back to how you used to be?

Genre: supernatural, angst, romance, smut.

Rating: M (+18)

Warnings: crime scene description, mentioned intended murder, gore (descriptions of blood and wounds) obsession, mentions of death, amnesia. Smut; unprotected sex, fingering, multiple orgasms, creampie, possession kink.

Word count: 7k

Release date: October 31st, 3:10 am PST.

A/N: This is just a teaser for my part in bearseungmin's strange devotion's halloween collab. Please check it out and happy spooky season everyone!

Jisung blinked, and the figure was gone, and he supposed that he would have to wait.

He would do it, happily, if all the time in the world flying meant that he would get to see you again, of course he would wait.

Patience was not one of Jisung's biggest virtues. He was excited, expectating, and he stayed in that spot, his back facing the tranquil river and eyes looking in the direction where you always walked when you and him went there to have a picnic. Nothing mattered to him, a normal person would've left after a few minutes, maybe even hours, but he didn't.

No, he stayed there, static after a few seconds, then the accumulated minutes became hours, then the sun shone above him hurting his eyes, but he still stayed there. He witnessed the passing of the sun through days, then months, and lastly, years even.

There was a moment where he questioned his sanity, but he felt guilty about it, you were worth losing it if that meant he would have you again.

[littlestarhhj]

forbidden fate master list <3

part of the strange devotion collab by @bearseungmin

part 1

part 2

[bearseungmin]

two new wips just dropped!

feel free to join the taglists! — taglist post

WORKS IN PROGRESS :

— dates and details are subject to change at any time!

if any of these upcoming fics interest you: join the taglist by sending me💜 + fic name in my inbox so you get notified when it is posted!

Keep reading

[bearseungmin]

[ALWAYS ASK, NEVER WISH. teaser] — You had noticed it: the change in energy, his lingering eyes, sharp tongue and deep voice. Felix, your happy-go-lucky college roommate who never failed to shine a smile at anyone, was never like that before. The summer had changed him, Felix was no longer with you. And now you have to survive an entire semester with whatever he has become.

pairing: void! felix x gender-neutral! reader genre: nogitsune! au, college! au, psychological thriller, romance, supernatural, horror, angst, smut full fic word count: 5k [warnings]: mature content & suggestive content, possession, nightmares, mentions of insomnia, insects (fireflies), physical altercations, blood + injuries, drowning, virginity loss, & dimension shifting do not interact with this if under 18. part of my strange devotion halloween skz collab!!!

join the taglist here!

drops on: september 30th!

prologue teaser blow cut.

It was trial and tribulation. Shadows held the scariest things: beings, creatures, whatever considered most frightening. The temptation of the darkness had surpassed him so many times.

But it was the blood-curdling voice echoing from those very shadows, the name whispered that had him halting in place, and the deal to be dealt that led him to decide his own fate.

The summer had swallowed him, melting heat bringing sweat to his skin. Hair matted down to his scalp, eyes shifting along the patterns made by the moonlight above, he had no moves to play here.

"What do I have to do?" The question didn't bring chills to his quickly cooling skin, but the answer did.

"Lend me a hand." Claiming voice, chattering teeth, and a now stone cold room to accommodate the situation. "Lend me a limb. Lend me your brain."

His breath caught in his throat, a sorrowed look in his eyes.

"Lend me your shadow."

[bearseungmin]

strange devotion skz collab masterlist goes up in 10 minutes!