#that is some serious dramatic irony

[stephsageek]

[mariana-oconnor]

Everyone else in the Letters from Watson tag:

😭😭😭

Me:

It's Meme O'Clock, Baybee!

[arieslost]

cinnamon whiskey | ln4

lando norris x fem!writer!reader

summary: you meet a famous race car driver in one of the last places you’d expect— the adirondacks.

word count: 4,578

warnings: drinking, minor injuries (small description of bruising)

masterlist — join my tag list here!

© arieslost 2024. DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION.

Your editor was going to kill you.

Every day brought you closer to the deadline for your manuscript, and every day you could hardly help yourself out in getting to your self-imposed goal of 1,000 words. It wasn’t a difficult feat; you’d done it before, and you didn’t have anything else to be doing. You had absolutely zero distractions: it was just you, your notebook, and your computer. There was only one problem.

The words just weren’t coming to you, and you’d already gotten a two week extension on the deadline. It felt like all your writing abilities had been rescinded.

“I’m screwed.” You professed to your best friend, falling into a pathetic heap on her couch. You needed a serious pick-me-up after struggling to write a measly paragraph, and she had readily offered a girls night.

“I think you’re being a little dramatic. Scoot over.” She replied, shoving your legs out of the way so she could sit. “Maybe you just need to get out of your house.”

“And go where? I can’t just pack up and take a vacation right now.” You grumbled into the couch cushion.

“Why don’t you go upstate?” She suggested after a moment of silence.

“Upstate?” You repeated.

“Yeah, go to the Adirondacks. My dad owns a house up there, remember? We had a blast the last time we were there.”

You and your best friend had gone up to the Adirondacks when you graduated college, and you always prefaced the retelling of it with, “It was one of the best weeks of my life.” You almost felt silly for not thinking of doing something like that in the first place.

“It might be a good idea… Do you think your dad would be okay with me staying there?”

Your best friend laughed. “Yes, you idiot. He’s let me stay there by myself, he’ll definitely let you.”

A mere 24 hours went by, and you were settled in a cozy cabin in the Adirondacks with the desperate hope of having the rest of your manuscript ready by the end of your stay. Otherwise, you might as well just fire yourself and save your editor some time.

It wasn’t the only cabin in the area– it was more like a very small community made up of six houses built exactly the same. The area was usually used by people with a decent amount of cash lining their pockets, so you were extra grateful to your best friend’s father. He had taken one look at the dejection on your face when your best friend had mentioned her grand idea, and simply handed you the keys with the promise that your stay would be free of charge.

You did feel a little out of place, though– you could have sworn one of your neighbors was in a movie you’d just watched, and another one was just so ridiculously attractive there was no way he wasn’t famous for something. You’d seen him out on his front porch when you arrived, and had to force yourself not to stare or salivate over his bare torso.

The change of scenery around you helped tremendously. At first. You always felt refreshed when you went somewhere new, particularly if it was somewhere you felt more connected to nature. You had gotten into the habit of taking walks to calm yourself when you got frustrated, and having new sights was definitely an exciting prospect for when you inevitably slammed your computer shut and stormed out the door like you just did a few moments ago.

You’ll be the first to admit it: the story just isn’t coming together. Your main character has a goal, a purpose, but she is entirely lacking any kind of driving force to get where she needs to go.

She has no motivation.

You can appreciate irony, but there’s nothing funny about it right now.

The dirt and leaves crunch under your feet as you walk down the first trail that you see. It branches off from the main path that runs between all of the houses: yours, the attractive guy’s, and one other, and then the suspected movie star’s and the other two on the other side. Right now, you just want to see nothing but the path before you, the trees in your peripheral vision, the gentle summer breeze in your hair, and maybe a chipmunk or a squirrel here and there.

But, of course, you can’t even have that. You’re alone with your thoughts for all of two seconds before you hear a crash off to your left that sends a few birds flying. You would have ignored it if not for the groan that immediately followed.

“Um… hello?” You call out, doubling back to try and see just what the hell had happened.

If you were in a horror movie, this would most certainly be your death scene.

“Ah…” It’s definitely a man, and he definitely sounds like he’s in pain.

“Are you okay?” You step off the path, getting closer to where the noise had come from.

That’s where you find him— your insanely attractive neighbor, practically in the fetal position, entirely focused on the camera in his hand. His jaw is clenched, whether in pain or concern for the camera, you don’t know. You just know he has a sharp jawline, long eyelashes, and curly hair.

Ugh, you could cry because he’s so good looking.

He looks up at you, eyes meeting yours, and he has the decency to look embarrassed.

“What the hell just happened to you?”

“I, um… I fell out of that tree.” He confesses, pointing to a branch, not too high up, but now dangling in half.

“And you were in the tree because…” You trail off, gesturing for him to explain further.

“Right, well, I was taking pictures and had an idea for a good one from a higher vantage point, so I climbed the tree. Thought I had a good balance, but—” He winces as he pushes himself up into a sitting position. “I didn’t.”

“No kidding. You’re lucky you didn’t break anything.” You marvel, hands held out in front of you just in case he falls over when he starts standing up.

“I’m not too sure about that.” He huffs out a pained laugh.

“You wouldn’t have been able to stand up so easily if you had, and your wrist and shoulder look fine.” You point out. “I have no doubt that you bruised your side up pretty badly though.”

“Yeah? How would you know?” He leans against the tree he just fell out of, his miraculously unbroken camera hanging from the strap around his neck.

“I’m a writer. I’m like a black hole of useless information.”

“I don’t think it’s useless anymore.” He takes a step forward and his face immediately contorts into a grimace. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Well, you’ve already asked so much of me, but if you really have to, then sure.” You tease, and he laughs again.

“I’m probably going to need some help getting back to the house,” he begins, and then continues after taking in the surprised look on your face. “But you don’t have to. I can just crawl or something. Maybe I’ll get lucky and make it back before nightfall.”

Not just attractive, but funny too? You might as well make the most out of these two weeks and use whatever you can to help you finish that dreaded manuscript. Besides, the only other person you’ve ever met who can hold a torch to your sense of humor is your best friend. This has to be a sign of some sort.

“Alright, but at least tell me your name first.”

His name is Lando, you’ve known him for an hour, and you think you’re in love with him.

Sure, you’re frustrated that he completely ruined the solitude that you craved, but the ice maker in his house is broken and he desperately needs some for the bruise that you know is darkening by the second underneath his t-shirt. So he’s sprawled out on your couch, and you’re in the kitchen collecting ice cubes to wrap up in a hand towel.

“Alright, lift your shirt up,” you instruct, walking into the living room and taking a seat beside him.

“I usually take a girl out before I let her see me half naked.”

“But it’s okay if everyone else sees you out on your porch half naked?”

“You were looking?” He tilts his head down a little and raises his eyebrows. “Liked what you saw, did you?”

You blush. “Just shut up and lift your shirt.”

He hums a little to himself as he pulls his shirt up, revealing the beginnings of a bruise on his tan skin that is already swollen and definitely going to get worse over the next couple of days. It looks like it continues below the waistband of his boxers, but you’re not about to tell him to pull his pants down.

“That’s ugly.”

“I’ve had worse.” He shrugs, biting his lip when you gently rest the makeshift ice pack against his side.

“You have a habit of falling out of trees?”

“I have a habit of being in potentially life-threatening situations. It’s kinda part of my job.” He says it like he’s waiting for you to figure something out, waiting for something to click.

You take a moment to just look at him again. His fluffy curls, his infuriatingly handsome face, his thick neck, his toned stomach. And then something you’ve heard your best friend say a million times echoes in your head.

I bet every F1 driver’s contract has a clause that says they have to be hot in order to get in. I mean, you have Daniel Ricciardo, Charles Leclerc, and don’t even get me started on–

“Oh my God. Lando Norris?” You exclaim, almost jumping up from shock but stopping yourself so you don’t jostle him. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“I thought you knew!”

You glare at him. “Cocky much?”

“Well, what did you think when I told you my name?” He asks defensively.

“I don’t know, I thought your parents really liked Star Wars or something.”

He scoffs at this and smacks your hand away, holding the ice himself. “That’s real creative.”

“I’m sorry! My best friend is really into Formula One, but the most I’ve seen is bits and pieces of a race. I’ve never seen you, y’know, not in your car.” You feel like your eyes are practically bugging out of your head. “Wow, this is insane.” You knew he was too good looking to not be famous.

“Want me to sign something for you?” He wiggles his eyebrows at you.

“I will punch you right in your bruise.”

He stays for a couple more hours, readily enduring your endless stream of questions that follow your revelation of him being a Formula One driver, only getting a reprieve when the ice melts and you have to go get more.

He compensates for recounting his entire journey to Formula One by asking you his own questions the moment he’s done. You tell him more about how you became a writer– how you got your bachelor’s degree, got out into the world, and realized you had no clue what you wanted to do with your life, so you took a retail job. It paid a dollar above minimum wage, but it was worth it when something you heard a customer say once inspired you to craft a narrative that your editor liked enough to pick it up. She’d taken a gamble on you; you were her fourth client and the book wasn’t finished yet.

“So that’s why I’m out here,” you pause to catch your breath. “I need to have the manuscript done two weeks from yesterday, and I wasn’t getting anything done at home.”

“Needed a change of scenery.” Lando nods, like he can read your mind.

“Exactly.” You say quietly, suddenly feeling a bit self conscious under his intense gaze but refusing to look away.

The energy in the room shifts as the two of you look at each other, and you break the sudden eye contact when you take note of the fact that it’s dark out.

“I guess that’s my cue to leave,” he breaks the silence, pulling his shirt back down and letting out a quiet groan as he gets up. “I’ll see you tomorrow? There’s no way someone will be able to get up here to fix my ice machine by the morning.”

You blink at him a couple times, still trying to wrap your mind around the fact that you just spent hours talking with Lando Norris, all because he fell out of a tree. You didn’t even offer to make him dinner or anything, and he’s making plans to do this all over again.

You still haven’t spoken, so he waves his hand in front of your face. “Oh! Yeah, of course. Be careful, okay?”

He gives you an obnoxious salute. “I’ll try to survive the 50 steps it takes to get to my place from here.”

You go running for your laptop and start writing as soon as he’s gone.

He’s at your door in the morning, and spends the whole day with you. Then the next, and the next, and the next thing you know, you only have four days left in your best friend’s dad’s house and it feels like you and Lando have known each other your entire lives. He isn’t able to do much in terms of physical activity, and when he trips over a root after insisting he’s fine you make the executive decision to go back to your house.

“Make some room, would you?” You sigh, looking for a place to sit thanks to the fact that he’s taking up the entire couch.

He simply lifts his head up.

“You’re joking, right?”

“I’m in pain. Don’t you want me to be comfortable?” He pouts at you.

“You’re insufferable, and a liar.” All the same, you sit down, and he rests his head in your lap.

He ignores you, eyes closed with a satisfied little smile on his face.

For his antics, you decide to disturb his newfound peace by putting the ice pack directly on his face and laugh when he bats it away.

“That’s just mean,” he whines, pressing his lips together when you put the ice on his bruise.

It’s mostly yellow and green now, like a weird rendition of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Lando had made a game out of poking it two nights ago that ended just as quickly when he poked himself too hard and blamed you for it when you had been in the middle of telling him not to. After that, he hadn’t touched it, and now it looks a lot better. The ice probably isn’t needed anymore, but you’d prefer to err on the side of caution.

“You’ll live,” you say now, patting the top of his head to distract him from the discomfort.

“The last time I had a bruise this bad was when I crashed in Vegas last year.” He says, blinking up at the ceiling. “Took a while to go away.”

“I think I remember hearing about that. You crashed pretty early, no?”

“Yup. Barely got to race.” The sentences come out very clipped, like he’s still upset about it.

“It was a bad crash, huh?”

“Pretty bad.” You don’t have anything to say in response to that, so you start brushing your fingers through his curls. He relaxes instantaneously.

He almost falls asleep with his head in your lap, and that’s when you can’t take it anymore and have to kick him out. He’s almost to the last step when he stops and turns back, making direct eye contact with you.

“Y’know, it’s too bad you weren’t there when I crashed.” He gives you a soft smile. “You’re pretty good at taking care of me.”

Well, shit.

There’s a bottle of cinnamon whiskey sitting in one of the kitchen cabinets that you’ve been waiting for an excuse to open. You should drink it now when you’re thinking about him, but you decide to wait until you see him again.

You open your laptop and write until you fall asleep.

By the time you let him in the next morning, you’re stumped again. You only slept for a few hours and expected to get right back into your groove the moment you woke up, but when you read over what you wrote last night, your brain just refused to comprehend it. It feels like you’re back to square one, but you can’t be too upset about it when Lando makes his way through the door. He doesn’t mention anything about ice like he usually does, which makes you equally happy and disappointed. Happy that he’s feeling good enough to forego the ice, disappointed because that means that there’s really no reason for him to come over anymore.

But if there’s one thing you can expect from him, it’s his spontaneity.

“We should go out tonight.”

“And where exactly would we be going?” You ask, watching him kick back on the couch like he’s the one that lives here.

“I dunno, just outside, I guess. You like stargazing?”

“I love it.” You reply enthusiastically. “I bet the stars are gorgeous out here. I’ve been cooped up every night, I haven’t had the chance to see them.”

“It’s settled then. Cancel your plans, you’re all mine tonight.”

“I didn’t— never mind.” You silently will away the flush creeping up your neck. “Actually, I wanted to ask you a question.”

“Shoot.”

“How’d those pictures come out? The ones you were trying to take when you fell?” You lean over the back of the couch in order to actually see him as you’re talking to him.

“That was two questions.” He laughs when you smack his shoulder. “I got a couple action shots as I was falling. They’re terrible, but I’m thinking about keeping them for the memories. Fun story for the kids, don’t you think?”

“Sure.” The kids?! You’re definitely breaking out the whiskey tonight. It’s the first (and only) thing you grab when he goes back to his place to get a blanket.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” You ask the moment the two of you step onto the trail, and he puts a hand over his heart.

“Your concern for me is adorable.”

“I’m only asking because you almost ate shit last time.” You burst out laughing at the immediate change in his expression.

He ends up leading the way for a mile or two before you reach a clearing that you would’ve discovered had he not fallen out of the tree.

“This is beautiful,” you muse, taking in your surroundings as Lando lays the blanket on the ground.

The sun is just about set, a light breeze passing through; a few different wildflowers are waving throughout the clearing. You look around and can’t see any sign of civilization. While that should make you nervous, since you’re with a guy you’ve only known for less than two weeks, it instead makes you relax. You forget entirely about your computer waiting for you back at the house and busy yourself with getting the top off the whiskey bottle.

“Found it the second day I was here. I’ll have to show you the pictures I got once I upload them all.” Lando says, furrowing his eyebrows as you struggle with your task. “Need some help there?”

“Be my guest,” you hand it over and have to force yourself to remain calm when he pops the top off like it was nothing.

“Ladies first,” he hands it back.

With pleasure, you think to yourself. Maybe getting drunk will help you stop acting like a schoolgirl. You take a generous drink, squeezing your eyes shut and breathing out slowly. “That is strong.”

“Hand it over.” He lets out a low whistle as soon as he swallows and returns it to you. “Wow.”

“I actually had a dream like this once,” you say, wincing at the burn of the whiskey as it slides down your throat. “I was just laying there, staring at the stars, with no worries. It was so peaceful.”

Lando takes the bottle from your outstretched hand. “I don’t dream.”

“What?!” The high pitch of your voice slices through the night. “Are you serious?”

“Yup.” He takes a long sip from the bottle before placing it down in the space between you. “Never have.”

“That’s- that’s crazy.” You shake your head.

“I’d think it’s nicer that way, no?” he counters. “I probably sleep better than you.”

“I mean, I guess. But then you don’t have any crazy dreams to share.”

“You always remember your dreams?”

Now, you blush. You’re not sure why you’re embarrassed. “I, um… I keep a journal.”

Lando’s eyes widen. “No way.”

“I have dreams written down all the way back to 2015.” You confess, reaching for the bottle again.

He starts laughing, like he thinks you’re joking.

“I’m serious!” You exclaim, shoving his shoulder. “In my defense, I’ve actually come up with some ideas from my dreams. Fat lot of good they’re doing for me right now, but…”

Lando hums, eyes skimming over your now crestfallen expression. He passes the bottle back.

“Thanks,” you mumble, tilting the bottle up to your lips.

“I’m sure you’ll find some type of inspiration while we’re out here.”

“I only have two days left, Lan.”

He gestures for you to pass the bottle back, and you do. You watch as he takes a sip, looking from his lips, to his jaw, to his neck, to his Adam’s apple that bobs as he swallows. You’re really going to miss this view. He lets out a quiet hiss. “Damn, that’s strong whiskey.”

“I told you.”

There’s a lull in the conversation, and then he speaks again. “My ice machine got fixed.”

“That’s—”

“Last week.” He cuts you off, doing that stupid thing he does where he stares directly into your eyes.

Your heart is in your throat, and your voice is small when you reply. “Okay…”

“And I was supposed to leave three days ago.”

Now your jaw drops. “Why… Why are you still here?”

“Because you’re still here.” He answers evenly, the alcohol clearly working in his favor. “I initially came here for the same reason as you– needed a change of scenery. It’s summer break right now, and my friend Logan told me it was super nice up here. It is, but then I had my little mishap and… it’s been a lot better since you showed up. So I decided to stay a little longer.”

He’s close to you now, so close you can smell the whiskey on his breath, so you say the only thing you can think to say. “I can’t believe you fell out of a tree.”

“I can’t believe you took care of me this whole time.” He brushes your hair out of your face, and his fingers linger on your cheek.

Your internal giddiness rises when you realize he’s actually about to kiss you. Your stomach is doing Olympic level gymnastics and you don’t trust yourself to speak, so you let the whiskey do it for you: you kiss him first.

You can’t remember the last time you kissed anyone, but the moment he pulls you on top of him you know that you won’t ever forget kissing him.

“Lan…” you break away from him to catch your breath, smoothing his curls back from his forehead. You can just see the glint in his eyes as he stares up at you, and it’s borderline painful knowing that you only get to enjoy this view for two more days.

You don’t remember what you were going to say to him. It’s way too soon for “I love you,” and not the right time to say “I already miss you.” You still want to say both.

Like he can hear your inner turmoil, he silences it by touching his forehead to yours. “Kiss me again, please,” he whispers.

You don’t waste a second in giving him what he wants, wanting nothing more in this moment than to feel his lips against yours again. You’re careful to avoid his side as he lays back on the blanket, keeping a firm grip on your hips so you don’t go anywhere. You try to convey everything you want to say into the kiss: I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you. I know I’m going to miss you. Please don’t let me go.

He holds you closer and gently slips his tongue into your mouth, and you melt into him, knowing the whole while that Lando Norris has effectively ruined all other men for you.

Six Months Later.

Your phone is ringing in the other room as you’re in the middle of recounting the kiss to your best friend for the millionth time.

“Sorry, I’ll be right back,” you apologize. “It might be important.”

Thinking it’s your editor, because who else would call you at this late hour, you don’t look at the caller ID before you answer. “Hi, listen, I wanted to talk to you about—”

“The love interest falls out of a tree, huh?”

Your mouth falls open. “Lando?”

“That would be me. Or should I change my name to Darren?”

You roll your eyes, unable to stop yourself from smiling. “I thought you were never going to call me.”

You’d finished your manuscript the day before you went home. He’d been sleeping right next to you as you wrote the final words, and you should’ve brought it up that morning. Instead, you left your number on his porch the day you left, too deep in overthinking mode to actually face him and properly say goodbye. You truly didn’t expect him to call you after that act of such cowardice, especially after the two of you spent almost the entirety of your last days together at various levels of undress.

“I really wanted to,” he admits. “At least ten different times. I think Oscar might have assaulted me if I chickened out this time.”

“Yeah, because you won’t shut the hell up about her!” A voice in the background exclaims, and you hear something go flying.

“Get out!” Lando snaps, and you can hear Oscar’s laughter fading.

“Sweet of you to subject him to hearing all about me.”

“Come to the race at Silverstone.” He says before you can even finish your sentence. “I’ll pay for the flight, the hotel, everything. Just come.”

You feel like the floor just fell out from under your feet. “Lan—”

“I can’t stop thinking about you.” It’s said in a nearly unintelligible whisper, but his tone changes so suddenly you have to sit down.

“I can’t stop thinking about you either.” You confess. “That’s… kind of why I wrote you into my book.”

“Please, come to Silverstone,” he repeats, practically begging. “Come be with me.”

And when he finds you in the crowd after taking the win at his home race, and he wastes no time in wrapping his arms around your waist and pressing his lips to yours for everyone to see, you’re immediately taken back to those two weeks you spent in the Adirondacks, where you finally found the inspiration you’d been missing your entire life.

note: this one goes out to my fellow writers who desperately wish their inspiration would fall out of a tree— writer’s block will never defeat us.

this got a little long, so if you’re reading this, thank you thank you thank you.

requests are OPEN, and my inbox is always open for comments, criticism, and conversation! feel free to pop in!

reblogs are always appreciated <33

beautiful dividers by @/saradika !

tags (i’m sorry if i couldn’t tag you!): @venusacrossthestars @anathedivine @xfuckoffx @architect-2015 @violetiss3lfish @havaneselover08 @paigeworlds @whatever7justchillin @xoredmoonlightxo @dovieloovie @totowolffstablexoxo @maddie-bell @lalisgs11 @rrrraaaalllluuuu @formulasportworld @madisonbidaddy @anedpev @estherapz-blog @jess-wither @loveyatopluto @athena-artemis-dorian-gray @lou-larcher5 @clearlyabi @fizzpopsnap101 @fluerlaurent @mcmuppet @positiveaspirations @notturlover @crazymofo-96 @chanthereader @apollo-axolotl

[veritasangel]

Giving them the silent treatment

ft. Bokuto, Kuroo, Akaashi, Kita (pt.1 here)

⋆ ˚｡⋆ any pov ୨୧˚ warnings: nsfw in Kuroo's {mdni} ↣ {wc: 1.8k}

↣ I think it should be obvious but to clarify, anytime i write for hq, it's always post-timeskip

Tetsurō Kuroo

He laughs it off

Finds it funny that you resort to silent treatment and definitely teases you for being all moody as you ignore him

This man is 110% a brat tamer (don't argue with me on this)

Kuroo’s eyes sparkle with amusement as he watches where you’re sitting in his office chair, looking mad. “You didn’t have to bring me lunch.” he muses, “Thought you’d be too stroppy to stop by today.” he teases as he closes the door and savours the aroma of food in the air.

An eyebrow raises when you don’t respond, “Oh, we’re still mad at each other, huh?” he tuts a little as he leans against his desk, loosening his tie slightly, “Thought I fucked the attitude out of you this morning, no? I’d say let’s go for round two but we both know you can’t keep your mouth shut and these walls are way too thin.”

You feel your cheeks heat up as you try to ignore how his words make you feel. You continue to relax comfortably in his chair, occasionally looking up at him, his appearance already slightly dishevelled from the day and you so desperately want to fix the messy strands of his hair that are out of place, but you refrain.

“You’re cute like this… all grumpy.” he smirks as he goes through the lunch you brought him, his favourite. You look like you couldn’t care less but you still came all this way to give him a homemade lunch, he grins at the irony as silence fills the room.

“Oh okay, you’re serious about the silent treatment this time, my bad.” he chuckles half heartedly as he relaxes against his desk, beginning to tuck into his food.

After a few bites, he holds the fork out to you for you to have a taste and as you slowly lean in, he pulls it away, “Gotta' use your words if you want some.”

“But I made it-” you scoff

“Not the words I wanted but it’s a start.” he grins mischievously as you roll your eyes and he can’t help but give in, handing the fork back to you. “I’m sorry sweetheart, forgive me?” he tilts his head at you.

“I forgave you ages ago.”

“Then what the hell was the point in this?” he chuckles as he pulls you in closer to him, putting the lunch to the side momentarily.

You shrug, “Just wanted to annoy you a little more.” a small smirk tugging on your lips and he shakes his head, knowing damn well he’s gonna wipe that smirk off your face before you leave the office.

Kōtarō Bokuto

He gets grumpy when he realises you’re giving him silent treatment.

Pouts about it and acts all sad and mopey.

Tries to make you feel guilty for ignoring him so that you’ll talk.

It was a stupid argument, really, but you were both stressed and it escalated way too quickly. Bokuto brushed it off, but you were feeling so frustrated, you couldn’t help but give him the silent treatment.

Bokuto’s mood plummeted the moment he realised you weren’t responding to anything he said. His usual energetic self was replaced by a mopey, pouty version. He huffs dramatically, hoping you’d hear and take pity on him as he snuck a glance over at you in the car. When that didn’t work, he tried to look even more miserable, if that was even possible. Gave you puppy dog eyes and kept mumbling about how sad it was in the silence.

“It’s such a shame I have nobody to listen to my amazing gossip.” he exclaims, dramatically, his hand coming to rest on your thigh. “Meian and Atsumu have some crazy drama going on…Imagine I had someone to tell it all too-” he sighs.

He missed your voice, your laughter, even your frustrated groans when he teased you too much. This silent treatment was torture as he drove you guys back home.

“Fuck, I’m sorry-” the words come spilling out before you can stop them. It was too hard when he looked as sad as he did. He was like a big teddy bear and it didn’t look right seeing him so dejected. You were frustrated at him but you weren’t heartless.

His eyes widened, the joy practically already returning to his face as you smiled at him, your hand intertwining with his, “Spit it out then.” you try and sound mad but it doesn’t work.

The mood is instantly lifted in the car as he rambles on and on about the drama that happened at practice. Honestly your fight was long forgotten as the two of you gossiped for the entire journey back home. His boisterous grin was back on his face and you felt bad for ignoring him, if only temporarily.

“I’m sorry-” you begin but he cuts you off, squeezing your hand.

“Sshh, doesn’t matter. We don’t even need to think about it, let’s just be happy.” he grins at you, sending a wink your way as he parks the car.

“Pizza for dinner?” you ask.

“God, you’re an awful influence.” he sighs, before quickly nodding, “Pizza. Just don’t tell Hajime.”

Shinsuke Kita

He either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care enough to give you the satisfaction.

Will continue on with the day as if nothing’s different.

You give him silent treatment to annoy him and it backfires because you’re more annoyed that he doesn’t say anything about it.

You were already tucked up in bed when Kita came in from his shower, still getting ready for bed. Honestly you don’t even remember what the argument was about and you always said you’d never go to sleep on one and honestly this was probably more one sided, so you dropped the silence.

You looked over at him, trying not to admire his physique too much as you sighed, “I’m sorry Shin-”

He throws on some sweatpants as he gets into bed beside you, looking completely unphased, you weren’t even sure if he’d heard you, until he finally spoke.

“For what?” he mumbles.

“You know, for being silent with you all day…” you mumble, trailing off as you notice he’s not even looking at you, he’s just looking around the room.

“Had no idea.” He shrugs, eventually looking back at you as a small chuckle leaves him, “So that’s why it was so nice and peaceful today.”

And Kita swears you want to hit him over the head, with the glare you’re now giving him.

He shuffles sheepishly, “Sorry.” Kita mumbles as he wraps his arms around you, pulling you in so that your head’s resting against his chest and you can feel his comforting heartbeat. “Honestly just sorta forgot about our little spat, it was that stupid.”

*Yep, you were definitely in a one sided argument, giving him the silent treatment earlier*

“Really? It got a little heated.”

“It was heated because I was tired and Rin called earlier, pissed me off prior to our disagreement.” He says casually as he runs a hand along your skin, “I’m sorry if I upset you, shouldn’t have let everything get to me.”

“I’m sorry too.” you say softly as you look up at him, his eyes meeting yours, “Sorry for the argument and….maybe for being a little childish afterwards and trying to ignore you.” you mumble the last part quietly.

“You know I don’t care.” he says as he kisses the top of your head, “I mean, you should know this by now. After all this time of being together and you think I care about some ridiculous bickering? Baby, it was the most pointless argument ever. You think we’re even going to remember it 2 days from now? Absolutely not.”

You smile a little, knowing he's right, “I love you.” you whisper as you feel your eyes drifting shut.

“I love you too, idiot.” he says softly.

Keiji Akaashi

It’s definitely not silent treatment after an argument because this man is a green flag in a relationship. But you do it as a little prank to see how he’ll react.

He doesn’t take you seriously at all and knows you can’t ignore him for long.

Just so chill about it honestly.

When he arrived home and you didn’t greet him at the door like usual, he just knew you were trying something today. He tried to engage in brief conversation as he got changed from work but you didn’t budge an inch at his words, so he just laughed, shaking his head before going to have a shower.

“Are you doing one of those stupid trends on me again?” he mumbles as he approaches you after his shower and you squeal because he hasn’t dried off yet so he drips water onto you.

“Oh my bad, guess that breaks the silence, huh?” he teases as he runs a hand through his wet hair.

You shake your head, still refusing to speak.

“What? That absolutely counts, your mouth was open and a noise was emitted.” 

You still don’t give up, making an effort to act as though you’re zipping your mouth shut.

“I can tell you’ve been babysitting all day.”

And you laugh, unable to hold it in because it’s true. You were babysitting his niece and she wanted you to try the prank out on him

“That has to count! That was a full on noise.” he exclaims, smiling at your foolishness as you lean in to give him a quick kiss. You pull away far too quickly for his liking, but he lets it slide.

“Fine, fine, I’ll let you have that one-  But only because I have so much to tell you.”

He grins, knowing you too well, silent treatment never works with you because once he’s home from work, you always have so much to talk about. You’re like Bokuto, you’ll talk for weeks once you get going, he must attract the babblers, he thinks to himself.

“Ah, I gave in too easily, she’ll be mad at me for letting you win.” you groan as you lean into Akaashi,

“I’m sure she’ll survive.” he jokes, hands resting comfortably on your waist. “We could never have kids, you’d be like this all the time.” he croons, resting his chin on your head.

You fake gasp, “You mean you don’t want me doing anymore more stupid pranks?”

He has to take a moment to think about it, a slight smirk appearing, “I suppose I could handle the silent treatment if it made our little one happy.”

“Look at you, getting carried away already, you’ll have to help babysit next time.”

“Mhm, I will...And ’ll make sure to get you back.” he grins, leaning in to kiss you once more.

༄ m.list

© veritasangel ↣ 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴

[mono-blogs-art]

Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko - The Lesbian Office RomCom You Needed

Blatant flirting, hilarious misunderstandings, and lesbian shenanigans aplenty - this show is funny, over-dramatic, and most of all gay as hell. Here's my review! Spoiler-free version first, and a more detailed spoiler-y version under the cut. I hope you enjoy!

A quick summary: Overall: 9/10, you should absolutely watch this! Genre: RomCom, with some serious elements and a heartfelt exploration of sexuality Watch if you are looking for... : A silly and fun time, a happy ending, misunderstandings, and character development. Highly recommended to watch this with your partner(s) or your sapphic friends! Watch out for... : Although the tone of the show is mostly comedic, it contains discussion & depiction of homophobia at the workplace and past trauma relating to that Where to watch: Official TL on GagaOOLala, or Fansubs by @furritsubs (highly recommended!)

"Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko" (Ayaka-chan wa Hiroko-senpai ni Koishiteru) is a Jdrama adaption of a manga by the same title. The series premiered this year July 2024 and has wrapped up a short while ago, with a total runtime of 8 episodes of 24 minutes each.

The title of the show already says all; the plot is simple: Junior staff member Ayaka is head-over-heels for Hiroko, her senior at the company she works at. And she has decided to go on the offensive.

There are many obstacles in Ayaka's way: first of all, Hiroko is 13 years older than her (they are 23 and 36), and her superior at the workplace. Hiroko is beloved by both her superiors as well as her staff, so Ayaka's love for her is just one of many. And no matter how blatantly she ups her advances (and girl, she is BOLD), Hiroko is 100% convinced that all the flirting is just misplaced, straight-woman obliviousness.

The irony of it all is that Ayaka is absolutely barking up the right tree, because Hiroko is a lesbian, but has been firmly in the closet at work - something that she has no plans on changing. Her professional life and her personal must stay completely separate, at all cost. The only place she can truly be herself is the lesbian bar she's been a regular at for years.

^ Me when I'm a lesbian disaster doing insane mental gymnastics

However, "giving up" is not in Ayaka's vocabulary. As her seduction attempts keep escalating and being misunderstood, Hiroko's hard exterior begins to crumble bit by bit. Can Hiroko finally overcome her rigid ways, and let herself fall for someone?

Although the show is first and foremost a comedy, both Ayaka and Hiroko as characters are handled really well. They have their own problems, insecurities, reservations about the other, and both have a simple but great arc over the course of the series. Ayaka is discovering her sexuality, something she had never even considered before falling for Hiroko. What does being in love with a woman mean for her future? And Hiroko, who is already very confident in her sexuality, is confronted by her past trauma, and the fact that she's still not ready to come out despite the changing times. And while being undercover has saved her career in the past, it has also made her feel alone and isolated. She likes Ayaka back, but can't allow her true colors to show.

Something that I find very hard to achieve with comedy shows is the switch between funny and serious, and I think that Ayahiro manages this very well. Both of our main characters feel grounded enough in reality that when they get emotional, it feels relatable and sincere. For a silly show like this, striking a balance like that is crucial, and save for a few pacing issues in the later half of the show (that I honestly didn't mind at all), I think the show totally nails it. Ayahiro is not a realistic show, but it contains elements of reality that made me connect to it, despite all the insane shenanigans that go on. And because of that the show made me laugh and cry as much as it did, often in the same episode. It works, and Kudos to the writers (and actors!) for that.

Speaking of actors, one thing I must mention is that the show is very well made. The actors (especially Mori Kanna as Hiroko is the standout for me, she has a natural charisma and gay swagger) do a fantastic job, the leads' chemistry is great. The production overall has some real money behind it, with lots of changing sets that all look great and have been crafted with care. Ayaka's outfits are absolute KILLER, she is giving insane femme energy. The show also looks very pretty, the color graders turn that saturation up to 100 and it fits Ayaka's rose-tinted world well.

That's it for the spoiler-less part, I'll now get into specific characters and plot points with full spoilers up to the end of the series under the cut. If you don't want to get spoiled, I hope the review until now made you want to watch the show for yourself! I hope you enjoy!

First of all I need to disclaim that I have not read the original manga that she show is based on, so I can't compare the series to its original and how the plot is written there. I do intend to read it (I hope it gets localized to German so I can support the official release, but I might check out the English Official TL anyway before that) but for now, I will only judge the series as is.

Ayaka: Our protagonist is a femme fatale, in... another meaning of the word, I guess. She is a disaster, bad at pretty much everything she does except not giving up. Once she has set her mind to something, she will get it done. That leads her to often be inconsiderate and unable to see what others around her are feeling, which goes mostly for her best friend Risa, but also for Hiroko, whose feelings she also fails to consider even when pursuing her. Ayaka has to learn the hard way that her naivete is hurting others, and herself. She hasn't really thought her advances through, simply acting on instinct. But as the series goes on, she takes her feelings and her newly discovered sexuality seriously, and grows comfortable with calling herself a lesbian. She is also unashamedly horny, like, Oh My God, this girl is trying to get laid so bad. This is hilarious and refreshing to see, and although her seduction attempts are often played as comedic, it doesn't feel like she is being ridiculed for her sexuality by the show. Ayaka often crosses boundaries (physical and emotional) with Hiroko, both out of naivite and in deliberate attempts to seduce her. To me this was never truly infuriating, even though sometimes she really did go too far, but for me it always kept in tone with the comedy of the show. Even when Ayaka finally comes out in front of the entire office, she makes it clear that she doesn't want Hiroko to do the same if she's not ready.

Hiroko: Our deuteragonist is probably my favourite character in the show, and I think she's very relatable and well done. As an older lesbian, she's got plenty of experience, having even earned the title of "The Ace" in her lesbian friend circle for being a talented womanizer. But a traumatic experience of losing her last partner due to being found out at the workplace has changed her. She's afraid to get attached, she's unable to let people get close to her true self. So when Ayaka is fighting tooth and nail to get to her, Hiroko is caught in conflict between her feelings of attraction and her past trauma. She does everything in her power to dismiss Ayaka's advances to protect herself, and later when she learns that Ayaka is in fact not straight (duh), she still turns her down to protect Ayaka's (and her own) career. Hiroko is a bit of a conservative - something she's also called out for in her lesbian friend circle - she believes that coming out at work is impossible and irresponsible. And you know, I get it. Not only does she have personal bad experiences with exactly that, it's also not unreasonable to think it would be a bad idea to hook up with your junior of 13 years. Like, I get it girl. Hiroko is clearly attracted to Ayaka, not just physically but also emotionally, because Ayaka is everything Hiroko wants to be but can't. And that leads to Hiroko constantly underestimating Ayaka, even treating her like a child. She thinks Ayaka is not really thinking the gravity of her actions through, and she gets called out for that and has to overcome it. In the end, Hiroko ends up being a character that needs time, and needs to unlearn a whole bunch of shitty behaviour, something the show clearly also shows is being worked on and that Ayaka also respects (more on that later).

Risa: Easily the character I struggled with the most, Ayaka's best friend Risa is complicated. She's very observant but also shy, and secretly harbors a crush on Ayaka. Quietly struggling with her sexuality, she only decides to come out when she realises that Ayaka's feelings for Hiroko are serious. Oh, it's messy! She confesses to Ayaka, who in turn has to struggle with her feelings for someone else, but also not wanting to lose her closest confidant. And to her credit, Risa takes the rejection quite gracefully and continues to support Ayaka in her pursuit of Hiroko. However, Risa also outs Hiroko against her will to Ayaka, which... is just a shitty thing to do, even though she just wanted to help her friend. Good motive, still murder. After the conflict between Ayaka and Risa is resolved, Risa just kind of... is around, quietly worrying in her corner and kind of (in my opinion) overstepping her boundaries with Hiroko. I don't dislike Risa, but I thought her character was not done super well in parts, and although I understand the complicated situation she herself is in, the show doesn't really let her grow as much as the other characters. Anyway, good for her for bagging the hottest chick at the lesbian bar, though. Good for her!

The "break-up": The story's conflict comes to a peak when Hiroko finally realises there is only one way to shut this all down. She needs to fulfill Ayaka's desire, and then turn her down, once and for all. But Hiroko at this point still thinks Ayaka is immature and hasn't really thought her actions through. Ayaka sheepishly asks for a kiss, so Hiroko kisses her. "Now you've achieved everything you wanted." We're done, you can give up on me and this childish crush you have on me. And most importantly, I can let you go, too. Not realising that Ayaka wants much more. She wants a real relationship, she wants the kiss, sex, real emotions, she wants to see Hiroko's true self too. She wants a partnership.

The Finale: With the encouragement of her peers, Ayaka finds the courage to express her feelings to Hiroko one last time. And she finds just the right words to finally get through to her. Hiroko realises how much of an ass she's been all this time, how she ended up hurting the girl she loves and herself by denying herself happiness. This whole scene was so well done (Kudos to Kato Shiho as Ayaka, this is probably her best scene in the entire show), brother I cried so hard. And finally Hiroko can say what she should have a long time ago: "I'm sorry."

One year later: In the show's worst case of bad pacing, we immediately cut from their tearful reunion to "one year later", lol. I don't mind the sudden jump too much, but maybe a bit of a slower fade-out would have softened the blow, because I think a few people probably found this very jarring xD not too bad for me. I was actually positively surprised that we actually get to see the aftermath, see how their relationship has developed a year into it.

I've seen a few people complain about this "no-sex scene" (lol) and I just want to add my two cents. I actually really like how this scene played out, for two reasons. Reason 1 is that it's just very much in-character for Hiroko. We've seen her struggle back-and-forth with the intimacy Ayaka wanted from her for the past 7.5 episodes, and her own internalised homophobia and constant fear of "crossing the line". She's a traumatized person, and it makes total sense to me that even one year into the relationship, she's still struggling with sexual intimacy. Sure, a whole year is a long time not having sex with your partner (even though you both clearly wanted to from day 1) but like... it makes sense for Hiroko. She's still working through the past 10+ years of repression. I do understand how this scene can be interpreted as "the show is afraid to show them being horny and sexy together, they're cowards for making Hiroko so obsessed with Ayaka's "purity" etc" and like, yes, that is a totally valid interpretation, but IMO also a quite bad faith one.

"I'm happy to know you feel that way. Which is why, could you please wait a little more, just until I sort my feelings out?" "What?" "I want to cherish you, Ayaka." "Right." "I'm sorry for everything, Ayaka." "For everything?" "In the end, it seems like I still haven't came out yet. I understand that I'm making you endure something when you don't have to. But… I do want to be with you, and I want to keep my job. I'm really sorry for making you put up with my selfishness."

^ Like, that is the conversation that follows. It's not just about sex for Hiroko, that kind of intimacy holds a deeper meaning to her and she's just not ready for it yet, and trying to sincerely tell her partner that. And when Ayaka reaffirms her willingness to be patient in this scene and is respectful of Hiroko's choice, Hiroko realizes that she's being a stupid coward, and finally makes a decision...

... to come out in front of the whole office, who's been gossiping about their relationship the whole year anyway.

And that is the end of the show!

So really, Hiroko did manage to overcome her fears in the end, and it took her a whole year into a healthy relationship to do so. And I think that is honestly much more realistic than some people would like to believe. Is the smooch in front of the whole office silly and cheesy and over-dramatic? Of course, but that's the entire show so far. And if you think that kiss-and-dip is dumb then I can't help you, I think you just don't like fun.

Oh yeah, and my reason 2 why I thought that no-sex scene was done well is because it's just funny. Ayaka has been DTF since minute 1 of the show, and her still being unable to get it this far into it is just funny. I would have loved a little nod to them finally getting down at the very, very end, but eh, I can live with it like this. They've conquered the emotional hurdles, I'm certain they will cross that other bridge when they get there on their own time.

Conclusion: "Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko" is a great and incredibly funny lesbian show that touched me emotionally much more than I thought it would. It made me cry several times, the production and acting quality positively surprised me, and honestly deserves my Nr 2 spot of favourite Lesbian JDrama after Tsukutabe (which is a 10/10 show) for now. I really hope this type of show gets imitators, adapting relatively short stories into mini-series with great quality. I appreciate the more adult tone of this series, its shameless comedy while still being able to hit serious beats with real emotion. From what I've seen of the BTS, the actors and staff also handled the subject matter with respect and care and had a lot of fun making the show. I don't think a season 2 is needed, but I do hope that the series can inspire more similar works. I love Ayaka and Hiroko, and I'm so happy they got their happy ending, and by God, I hope they have the best sex ever in their beautiful lesbian future. God bless.

That's it from me, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this show as much as I did! Hopefully see you soon!

[senblades]

Hi :)

I love your art and your writing, and you have such a great grasp of these characters that I was wondering if you have any fic recs? Rating doesn't matter ;)

boy do I! (and ty for the compliment <3 <3 <3)

[cracks knuckles] alrighty:

The Dissapearence of Goro Akechi by Kupowonders - Probably my favourite fic ever, honestly- it's like. derailing the plot of persona 5 post-medjed thanks to the persona 4 accomplice ending years prior. (So, spoilers for p4 in that, too) it's. very good.

Marigolds by Colbub - Akechi gets ng+'ed to right when he started working for Shido, and has to take a good look at the future to come and be like "Aight how the fuck do I fix this". Fun times!

Daredevil, You've hit the wall by ez_cookie. Essentially, p5 Strikers but Sumire and Goro get to be in on the fun, too. And, there's a direct sequel currently being updated that's a similar premise for p5 Tactica. very very good stuff

A Tale of Two Tricksters by Zoe2k8 - Murder boyfriends! ...sort of? Angst! Angst and murder boyfriends! An oversimplification, obviously, but I'm not kidding when I say this fic is amazing and is also over a million words holy shit-

Throw away your mask by MollyPollyKinz - Another ng+ situation for Akechi, but this time the poor guy gets thrown all the way to 2009. You can imagine how well that goes (For the audience, less so for Akechi himself.)

The Crow Cries at Midnight by Dorked. hehe this one is very fun. Basically, a series of coincedencs causes Akechi to get thrown into the plot of persona 4. No time travel here! Just a grumpy 12/13 year-old Akechi trying to solve a murder mystery

The entire Tales of Chaos series by Eternalmomentss (The first one is called Like sand between your fingers) Very very good stuff! Something of a character study, I would say, of Ren and Goro. Plus, all the funky plot stuff that comes from trickster-typical bad luck and poor descision making. I really love this series hehe

uhh this post is getting very long I need to make this less wordy- lightning round?

Hunger for a life by Leonawriter - do you like vampires? I sure do! Mix that and the p5 plot and you get shenanigins. [evil laughter] a lot of shenanigins

Fishbowl by KivaEmber - Akechi has a terrible time in Maruki's reality. And I mean a terrible time

You have a beautiful smile underneath that mask by Saposaki - Akechi has a crush on Akira and Joker has a crush on Crow. No one is aware of the other's secret identity. Dramatic irony and hilarity ensues.

MASTERMiND by StumblingBlock - No Metaverse au where Akira really doesn't want to follow in the footsteps of his crime family, and fails miserably

Rose and Rot by SixteenJuniper - Read this!! I'm serious!! "A fun fantasy adventure" don't listen to Juniper. You'll be in tears by chapter two. (/pos, of course) (Seriously this fic is incredible)

Redressing the Balance by Convocated - ...almost a ng+? Ng+, in the sense that shuake are getting funky visions that are very quickly derailing the standard plot of p5r. This causes problems of the "Someone get the popcorn and maybe the tissues" variety

She's got a heartbeat full of lead (And she's aiming straight for the head) by Dots - This fic haunts me, often. In the best way possible, of course; but seriously, read it

Cracked into by SydneyHorses - Ren makes bad descisions and it becomes Akechi's problem. 2/2 timeloop, perhaps most notably featuring HaruGoro friendship! Love love love this fic

Okay that wasn't as "less wordy" as I intended but it'll do

Aaaand that's a wrap! Sorry for the long post.. and this is by no means all of the fics that I've ever loved (nor are the ones here in any particular order) but I swear we'll be here all week if I keep going HAHA

ty for the ask (and again for the kind words), anon! Hope this was helpful and to your tastes! (I... hope you like Shuake HAHA it's present in most of these- I assume you do, since you came to me (points at literally everything shuake I've made) of all people, but uh. Some of these fics are gen if it's not to your liking?)

[transpeculation]

Okay so let’s talk about dramatic irony.

Colin’s big Flaw right now is his inability to be himself. This impacts his relationships with team members and also his football playing.

Ted’s speech from a few eps ago where he says “without shame” and the camera focuses on colin? that is where this flaw ties in with his growth as a football player.

We have seen colin make mildly homophobic remarks in the locker room “okay i’ll fuck zava”.

We have seen moments like this increasingly this season as the audience becomes aware of his sexual orientation.

This provides the audience with dramatic irony. The irony is that we know he is saying this to hide as a gay man but the characters in the scene do not.

We also know that what colin is doing is harmful to him. but he is unable to see that. all he is able to do is protect himself.

This episode is the first time (iirc) that we see him say something misogynistic instead of homophobic.

“i know what i’m doing this weekend”

to colin, this is not different. To most of the other players, this is not different.

To us, the audience, this is worse than what he was doing before. He is no longer weaponising homophobia (something he is a victim of) but misogyny (which he is not). you might argue that isnt worse but personally it rubbed me the wrong way and i think a lot of people would agree.

Importantly, some of the players on the team are also opposed to this misogyny.

At this point colin stops joking, and starts defending his real opinion (he shouldn’t have to delete his personal files just because they might be leaked).

This is an issue that some members of the team have beliefs about.

Jamie, Sam, and Isaac, stand up for women by making it clear that keeping nudes when there is a high risk of leaking is not okay.

But colin has skin in this game. Usually, he is never “real” in conversations like this. But this time things are different. He wants to keep the photos.

we see him defend this position by mentioning “memories.” this shows us that his desire is not lustful but sentimental in nature. i’ve seen others point out that this is a facet of his identity (that he is unable to outwardly express!). The photos mean something to him and he is angry at the idea that he is doing something wrong by keeping them.

I don’t think we have ever seen him defend an opinion genuinely before as the audience? In s1 he was pretty much trying to impress jamie. there was one comment about welsh pride but that came across as a joke. (Ted lasso writers make colin more welsh challenge)

And the first time he breaks his facade, the first time he shows his real face, he gets outed.

If he hadn’t cared about the photos he would have stopped arguing, stayed quiet and nodded along. made a joke maybe. something we’ve seen him do many times before. but he was honest about his opinions, so isaac was able to tell he hadn’t deleted anything when everyone else was.

SO: dramatic irony.

The audience knows that he wasn’t being serious with his first comment. “I know what I’m doing this weekend”

We know that that was a joke meant to act as a hyper-masc, homophobic, misogynistic shield in order to disguise his true self.

But the rest of the team do not know that. Issac does not know that. He has probably been making “jokes” like this, off camera, for years.

He leaps straight from a joke about masturbating to leaked nudes, to defending keeping photos that he knows there is a risk of leaking.

We, as the audience, know that he only wants to keep photos.

But Isaac thinks he might as well be defending the leak.

When Colin says “fuck off” to Isaac, he prompts him to take his phone. Isaac is acting the responsible team captain, here.

From what information he has, it just seems like colin is completely out of line. He’s defending misigyny, probably risking the safety and privacy of multiple women, being uncharacteristically rude and angry about it.

He probably has to deal with toxic behaviour from team members all the time. His own captaincy has been a source of growth for him, from the bully he used to be, to someone who tries to make sure everyone is behaving respectfully and as a team.

In any other situation I would want him to take the phone and delete the photos.

But he didn’t know that Colin also needed privacy. And colin was unable to express that to him as someone who is desperately hiding parts of himself.

So Isaac takes the phone. 

I think this all explains Isaac’s reaction. Confusion, nods, leaves.

He is confused because he is learning that this interaction is absolutely not what he thought it was. He nods because he accepts that, bc it’s a totally different situation than he thought, he doesn’t need to delete the photos. then he leaves, because what else is he supposed to do.

And colin is left knowing that his slip-up (the first time we see him express a sincere and deeply held emotion in front of the team) caused the very thing he was so afraid of happening.

EDIT: oh also the irony of how isaac invades colins privacy while trying to protect other people’s because he doesn’t think of colin as someone who needs privacy from him. I allude to that but i meant to make is clearer. EDIT 2: corrected spelling of isaac

[fear-is-truth]

♪. ࣪ ˒ kai anderson | tiktok headcanons

requested by @lemoniiiiiii

a/n: i don’t have tiktok but i tried my best

Kai despises tiktok, but he quickly realised its potential to spread his controversial and extreme political views

he dons his three dick noses clown mask with three faces in all his tiktoks, which becomes his trademark

his content consists of intense, rant-style videos where he passionately criticises the government, promotes chaos, and spouts his radical ideologies

while he gains a substantial following, the majority of his followers watch his videos ironically, sharing clips of his most outrageous moments with sarcastic captions. they treat his content like a fucked up meme

he loves to replying to hate comments lol

despite the irony, Kai does attract a small, but fiercely loyal, group of followers who genuinely buy into his rhetoric and see him as a leader. they create fan accounts to spread his messages further

he was surprised to see his follower count skyrocket. even more surprised by the number of comments and duets his videos receive, with people either mocking him or egging him on

when Kai finally does a face reveal, his video explodes on tiktok and trends on twitter. people can’t believe that someone with such extreme views could actually look so hot

his comment sections are flooded with thirst comments and people fawning over his appearance. the new attention is both amusing and infuriating to Kai, who wanted to be taken seriously for his ideas, not his looks

his face reveal spawns countless memes and video edits, with people setting clips of him to dramatic music or creating ironic thirst traps

despite the influx of followers, Kai is frustrated that many people only follow him for his appearance rather than his message. he tries to double down on his rhetoric, but it only makes the internet’s obsession with him grow

ironically, his face reveal ends up bringing more attention to his political views. some of his ironic followers start engaging with his content on a deeper level

enterprising followers start creating and selling unofficial merch featuring his face, the dick nose clown mask, and his most “iconic” quotes. Kai doesn’t care about the money but is proud that his image is being spread far and wide

news outlets catch wind of his viral tiktok fame, leading to articles and segments on tv about the “hot, controversial tiktoker.” they try to dissect who Kai Anderson is, trying to dig into his background

Kai is invited to participate in online debates and podcasts, where his views are scrutinized. some hosts are serious, while others just want to showcase the viral sensation for clout. Kai enjoys the exposure but loathes the trivialization of his message

his most devout followers, those who truly believe in his ideology, start organising in real life. they create online groups to discuss his “teachings” and plot ways to support his cause, believing they’re part of something bigger than just a viral TikTok trend

 fear-is-truth 2024 — all rights reserved. do not modify, repost, translate, or plagiarise my content

[revel-inbluehues]

This is very much an essay. Consider this my praise for s2ep9. I'll fangirl in another post.

Xie Lian acknowledged that he's never seen Hua Cheng angry, but he approached him without any fear or worry. Even after he was unexpectedly paralysed, he still didn't doubt the fact that HC would never hurt. While he was confused and nervous, he still trusted HC with his life, despite having been out into a paralysis, and doesn't doubt HC's intentions for even a second.

Hua Cheng is angrier than we've ever seen him. He wasn't fazed at all by anything in season 1 except when XL mentioned being hurt or was hurt. He had, in the previous episodes, watched as the love of his existence discredit himself and hold back his tears. Even earlier, HC had accidently hurt him. Now, he gets to vent the anger at himself for his helplessness, anger at the Lang Qianqiu for his ignorance and anger at Qi Rong for his schemes. He is angry and one of the many people who hurt and mocked XL was in front of him. With every insult against XL, HC only gets angrier.

For the next part, I'd like to mention that LQQ in his daruma form is adorable and I laughed when he jumped out like a pokeball.

Onto the more serious look, LQQ is angry as well, but a lot more confused and the donghua team did a great job at expressing. He shifted between denial, confusion, reassurance and anger as he battles the words between XL and QR, and the donghua team did brilliantly to express this. The music was appropriately dramatic. It feels sharp, more like battle music, and paused and played at the right moments to increase the drama. He'd rather trust the man he thinks murdered his whole family rather than face the possibility that he condemned the wrong person and he lived a large portion of his life based on a lie, hating a person who might not have deserved and letting the men who did commit the murder get away with it (to some extent). Even Prince Anle was honoured as a friend of the king in death rather than a traitor to the nation.

Speaking of XL's words to LQQ, the fact that he yelled against QR's words the moment he could talk was a testament to his nerves and desperation and a shock to both LQQ and QR. It is an absolutely absurd situation from LQQ's view. He's watching a man argue that he was the guilty party behind the murders when normally, people would be trying to blame each other and prove themselves innocent. It's very obvious the XL is hiding something but LQQ chooses not to chase the answers and settles with XL's story because if it isn't true, then he would have to reevaluate the past few centuries and face the reality that his personal feelings blinded him to the facts, not that anyone can quite blame him for it. Meanwhile, Qi Rong is shocked because, from his view, a random man showed up and called him a liar, despite him very much telling the truth, or what he believes to be the truth.

When Xie Lian is talking about his second demotion, I love how they cut to HC, softer now that he was looking XL. HC knows exactly why his 'heart was uncertain' but he is also clearly hoping that part of it was because XL missed Wu Ming and he mourned him. The implications is something that novel readers can see and cry about; XL's second shackle was his own punishment for getting Wu Ming killed and it was sign that he did care for Wu Ming, the nameless ghost, his last believer. However, HC doesn't know that. He can only hope that he occupied a modicum of XL's heart but never think of asking because he's afraid of the answer. His love may be unconditional, but rejection would hurt and meaning nothing to XL would be a painful existence for him. In a single frame, I see the love, hope and adoration that HC has for XL.

There are a lot of good Hualian scenes in this episode. There is a lot more casual touches, where Xie Lian is trying to calm HC down and HC is too angry to be panicking about it. The irony is absolutely not lost when QR asks about who'd worship XL and make statues of him while HC, XL's most devoted follower who carved thousands of statues of him, was standing right there.

XL takes every one of QR's insults with a smile because he genuinely isn't offended. It's hard to be insulted by children's jabs after everything he went through. To him, it isn't a big deal, while HC was only getting progressively angrier at QR for insulting him. The moment QR insulted HC, however, was when XL instantly turned to violence, striking before he could fully finish. It wasn't that big of an insult, calling HC blind, but it was enough of a transgression that XL slapped him like a fly. To XL, HC quickly became someone he cared for, respected and wanted by his side, for what was probably the first time in forever. It only makes sense for XL to be viciously protective of the first person that he cared for on a personal level rather than 'the world should be protected' stance. Meanwhile, HC was genuinely surprised by XL's actions. While he would protect XL against everything, he was never expecting that protection returned but HC, in his insecurity and devotion, does not fully understand the fact that, while true devotion can be one-sided, true love can't be. XL does care deeply for HC, a fact that he hasn't comprehended yet.

Even when Hua Cheng blocks Feng Xin with E-Ming, he is extremely gentle. He knows that all of this is going to hurt XL but it needed to happen and Hua Cheng was there to catch. It was also fascinating to see Lang Qianqiu realise that he won't be able to stop Xie Lian from killing Qi Rong if it came down to it and there was a true worry that he might never find out the truth if Xie Lian got through him. On the other hand, Xie Lian was truly desperate; this was a secret he buried, and faced 100 years in a coffin to ensure that it stayed buried. Now, without much of a warning, all of it was coming out and Xie Lian is panicking.

One of my favourite parts in this episode is Qi Rong himself. His voice actor did a brilliant job at portraying the wild, manic and immature personality of Qi Rong. He is somewhat intelligent; you can't survive 800 years without some serious planning, and he did plot the gilded banquet along with other skirmishes everywhere else. However, he is childish and arrogant in a way that the other ghosts aren't. He's powerful enough to stand above other ghosts and too weak to stand as equals with the calamities, so despite his attempt to escape his mediocrity compared to certain others (e.g., Xie Lian and Hua Cheng) failed. His immaturity shines through in the animation. He is the most animated and restless character so far, moving constantly and expressing himself in his limbs a lot more than others. It makes him feel a lot less composed than the others, and his actions cement that. He crawls around, he holds his knees, and he gets red in the face when people don't respond to his riling. It gives a much more maniachal yet silly vision of him. While it doesn't make him a completely terrifying presence like White No-Face, he does make people weary with his antics. He is definitely one of the characters that I hate as people but love as character. I think Qi Rong was the part where the entire donghua team truly and absolutely outdid themselves, even though I do think they do an amazing job every day.

[stayinhellevator]

Hard To Love

Where Chan was hard to love but harder to not. Pairing: Bang Chan x gn!Reader // Lee Know x gn!Reader Genre: Angst with fluff at the end / friends to lovers Word Count: 4471  Warning: cuss words, implied toxic behaviour, mentions of a girlfriend and ragging. Playlist: Every Road Leads ~ Bette Midler

Bang Chan was hard to love. To you at least.

You had known Christopher Bang all your life. Your parents were neighbours turned friends which naturally passed on to Chan and you; childhood best friends keeping their friendship intact all the way to high school and even through college. And now, even as you both were adults, occupied in your own jobs, your friendship still remained, stronger than ever.

It was safe to say, you had the best memories with Chan. Be it breaking rules or crying over some soppy ass movie on a Saturday night; laughing at weird corny jokes or bawling over a nasty breakup. All your firsts also belonged to each other, call it curiosity or whatever. There wasn’t much to complain about your platonic journey with Chan.

Except when there was. Things weren’t all that platonic on your end, after all. And how couldn’t they? Chan was perfect after all, at least for you. To you. But it was hard to love Christopher ‘Chan’ Bang.

“Hey __!! Where’s Chan hyung? Is he not coming tonight?”

Jeongin’s loud call jerked you back into the present, as you noticed all of their attention was now on you.

“He said he’ll be on time and now everyone’s here while he’s slacking.”

Hyunjin dramatically shook his head, as if to expressly show his disapproval, not that Chan or anyone in the room cared much.

“How would I know? I’m right here, sitting with you guys, aren’t I?”

You tried using sarcasm as a way to ward off their attention from you, knowing that they thought you both must’ve fought and were now grovelling for each other. But the truth was, you really didn’t know where Chan was; you hadn’t known anything about him for a few months now.

“I don’t know, you guys are always attached to each other’s hip so…”

Jisung’s voice, masked with indifference, couldn’t hide the amusement that filled his eyes at the irony of the situation, which made you scoff in annoyance.

As Chan and you got into high school, you befriended Changbin and Minho respectively and together you guys made a lot of memories and unable to part ways, you took admission in the same college where you found Jisung and his younger brother Seungmin, then Hyunjin and lastly Minho’s younger brother Jeongin too joined your group, all of them a year junior to the four of you. The last to join your group was also a junior, another Australian, Felix, that Chan saved from ragging and introduced him to your group. Since then the nine of you are inseparable.

Honestly though, the group was always divided a little by biases towards Chan and you. Changbin and Minho sided with you for some reason. If teams were being formed, they would be the first to pick you, even when Chan wouldn’t and you could now for sure say that if things ever went downhill, they’d be the ones to never leave your side whereas Hyunjin, Han and Jeongin always biased Chan, dare you say revered him for some reason. Felix was the obvious one, Chan literally was his knight in shining armour though your friends always joked that he had some kind of bi-panic towards Chan and you. Seungmin on the other hand, couldn’t be bothered less. If it were casually picking teams, he’d go by whatever team he was feeling that day. But if it were a serious issue, he’d always side with whatever he thought was right. So he never really picked a side.

In his words, “I dislike you motherfuckers all the same.” But you knew that his precious heart would and could never pick sides. And you adored him and this little chosen family of yours, even if they gave you run for your money sometimes, a little less than you adored Chan though.

Chan was for a lack of better words, MIA these days. He used to tell you that he couldn’t survive an hour without you, which was somewhat true based on your history. You guys were indeed always attached to hip, no matter how much you wanted to punch the smirk off Jisung’s face.

“Sorry guys I had an emergency.”

Lo and behold, there he was. The man of the hour, truly. He was on everybody’s mind yet you couldn’t be sure what or who was on HIS mind. Strolling in so casually and effortlessly gorgeous, oblivious to the storm in your head, greeting everyone with that bright smile of his that easily made your heart skip a beat or two. He exuded main character energy; the handsome protagonist that makes all the girls in college swoon, that is adored by children and elders alike, the favourite friend of all the parents, the one that can easily make friends with even the coldest person in the world, the one who got the most roses during valentines and would smoothly reject them with the most innocent face as if he didn’t know the entire female population of the college liked him.

He was annoying and charming and you were just another female in that lot, who failed to resist him. But who could blame you when you were so close to him that you could almost taste the kind of love that you wanted from him. You were not delusional after all, just hopeful.

“Hey sweet girl! How are you doing?”

But it was harder to not love him, especially when he spoke to you like that. The sweet nicknames in his honey like voice, the genuine adoration in his alluring eyes and the way his words seemed to always melt your heart in a mush. You’ve loved him ever since you first understood what love was.

“I’m good. How about you?”

You could feel the squeak in your words, and so did the other seven men in the room, as if someone had wrung your throat and made you answer but Chan only passed you his infamous flashing smile.

“I’m good too, now that I’ve seen you.”

And he said it so casually, oblivious to the heat spreading the entirety of your face and the racing of your heart, that you knew it didn’t mean what you actually wanted it to mean. This was the real him, he had always been good with words, it came naturally to him. Maybe you weren’t a special case to him for he naturally had so much love to give to everyone, even if you selfishly wanted to be the only one.

Maybe, this was all he ever was-oblivious. He couldn’t see what the rest of your friends could, your parents could, the entire college could, heck you’re sure even a stranger would if they were to be in your vicinity. But he didn’t. He couldn’t see the person he said he knew the best. At least, not anymore. You should’ve known. He was the best at obliviousness.

“You were the one who disappeared and are now suddenly back with your cheesy words.”

You rolled your eyes at him, trying to feign nonchalance, pretend that you didn’t care about him, pretend that it didn’t hurt, his actions don’t hurt. After all, this was what you were the best at-pretence.

He sat beside you with a soft, dramatic ‘oof’ and wrapped his arms around your shoulders in a bear hug. You let out a sigh of relief, as if a burden was lifted off your shoulders.

“I’m sorry. I know that’s on me but I was going through something, that I’ll soon share with you, before you say it. You know I’d never abandon you like that, don’t you?”

You did know that, didn’t you? Chan had always been so attentive and caring towards you ever since your first day at kindergarten together. Holding your hands all the way up to class, tending to your physical injuries, lending his shoulders to cry on, memorised all your allergies and actively watched out for you, never letting you walk on the road side, crossing roads with you as if he were protecting a child, having your orders from all cafés and restaurants at the back of his mind and even healing all your mental scars, all but that which were related to him. How could you not love him when he made you feel like you were on top of the world, like you two were the only ones for each other, like he reciprocated your feelings? These little things were what actually attracted you to him.

Only to go on dates with people that could even give supermodels run for their money. His dates made you realise that you would never be close to his ideal type, you’d never be what he wants in life, thereby discouraging you from confessing whenever you mustered up some courage.

“Yeah you’re being unfair to all of us. Do you know how much __ missed you? Kept asking about you all the damn time.”

You glared at Felix with so much heat that he visibly squirmed at his place, beside Seungmin, who though had a blank look on his face, smacked his arm as if gesturing to stop his nonsense.

“The last time I remember, it was Chan’s minions, who were hassling __ for his whereabouts, Felix, wasn’t it?”

Changbin, as always, your saviour took your side and effectively shut the boys up, who were clearly enjoying your plight.

“Ah! My bad, guys. But what’s so wrong with my girl missing me, Bin?”

You jerked up from his hold to look at him but he didn’t let your hands escape his as he stared back at you with a playful glint in his warm eyes. You could hear a lot of ‘oohs’ and giggles around you but you couldn’t care less because he was doing it again; giving you hope that you guys were something more, only to turn around and switch to the same old best friends forever shit.

“No no there’s absolutely nothing wrong with YOUR girl missing you.”

You could hear Hyunjin’s annoying drawl but you held your breath, waiting for him to do just exactly what you expected of him, you knew him better than he knew you after all, heck you knew him better than he knew himself and you knew you couldn’t be wrong about him, even though you kept hoping against hope. You wanted to be wrong tonight.

“Exactly! So stop teasing my best friend about it.”

Yup! There it was; the tag that you once wore with honour gradually turning into a weight holding you down. The giggles quietened as your shoulders sunk and you relaxed back into the couch, you didn’t know what’s on everyone’s mind but you surely expected it to happen once again because you also knew that Chan had always enjoyed attention, you just didn’t expect to be one of his enjoyment sources as well but you slowly learnt that maybe you were too. He liked knowing that he had your heart on the palm of his hands; knowing that he was the only one for you, finding comfort in the fact that no matter what he did and no matter where he went, he could always come back home to you. And you would take him back with open arms, like a fool. Always.

But you had enough. You thought tonight you’ll tell him of your feelings and be done with it, once and for all. You knew he won’t accept them but at least you’d get your closure with his rejection and move on to a life without the hopes of Chan as your boyfriend.

“Then start being my best friend properly. I can’t be the only one in this friendship anymore, could I?”

You knew the weight of your words surprised not only Chan but also the rest of the group, who now looked alert and uncomfortable, knowing it wasn’t a jest anymore for you. Chan’s eyes widened with disbelief did nothing to deter yours filled with determination.

“Baby don’t be like that. For once, think about me and you’d understand why I was gone for a while. Please don’t make a scene tonight, when all of us are here and so happy together; when I’m so happy after a long time.”

His words, as much as had the powers to heal me, also had the powers to destroy me from within. How could he so subtly call me selfish? I don’t think about him? If only he still cared about me he’d know that all I ever thought about was him. Did he also imply that he was so unhappy but all I did was ignore him and make a scene out of everything? I didn’t listen to him? Hah! If he wanted, I could recite everything he’s ever said to me, word by word. That’s how much I paid attention to him.

“That was a little too harsh, wasn’t it Chan hyung? Why don’t you just get straight to the point and save us all the misery of your oh-so-unhappy-life?”

Seungmin, as always the blunt Angel that he was, said with a finality. When all Chan saw was the disbelief on everyone’s face and understood that he disappointed everyone with the choice of his words, he knew he took it too far.

“Okay! I guess it’s time to tell you all. You remember the hot girl I hooked up with in that downtown bar six months ago?”

Of course you did, even if nobody else did because you remember feeling like a 16 year old heartbroken kid all over again when you found Chan making out with a beautiful stranger when you turned to find him after a quick toilet break.

“Well we caught up again six months back and decided to see where it leads us. We took a break off to Jeju and damn I had the time of my life. I think it’s safe to say we’re ready to date now. I don’t think I’ve been happier in my life ever.”

Six months since Chan disappeared on you, leaving you wondering if you did something wrong. Six months since he left you and started thinking of a life with someone else, without informing you. Granted you didn’t have to know everything about his life but he couldn’t even tell you he’d be gone, as a best friend?

Oh! How pathetic you were, truly. When all your happiness only ever relied on him, he didn’t even think you had ever made him feel joyous. Were you jealous, angry, hopeless or heartbroken? You didn’t know; maybe all of it, in that order. Suddenly 24 years of friendship felt suffocating to you, useless even, if he couldn’t share his whereabouts and woes with you.

“Wah! You’re so cool dude. You got two of the coldest and the most gorgeous chicks of our college crazy in love with you. Damn!”

And of course Hyunjin was going to praise Chan, as if he had saved the world. Even Jeongin looked scandalised with the amount of bullshit that came out of Hyunjin’s mouth, then it was fair enough that Minho almost strangled him.

“Wait! Two? Who’s the other one.”

Hah! What a funny guy he was; couldn’t even keep quiet for once and let you silently grovel in your misery. Thankfully though, the chime of your phone from a colleague gave you an excuse to escape. Of course you weren’t going to actually answer the phone because you didn’t think you could form words without a tremor in your voice.

But you couldn’t stop your thoughts from going haywire now. Should you have told him sooner? Was it your fault? Were you not obvious enough? Of course he wouldn’t actually ever pick you, who were you after all? He had so many better choices, someone he would be proud to have by his side. You were never enough, you had always known then why did it hurt so much?

“You can stop blaming yourself now.”

Minho’s sweet voice tinged with sternness infiltrated your thoughts as you saw him take a seat beside you on the patio bench. You took deep breaths, trying to hold your emotions.

“You once told me it was okay to cry and let out my feelings in front of you because you’d never judge me for it. Tonight I ask the same of you. I think you’ve tortured yourself enough.”

An exhausted sigh followed by a stream of tears finally escaped you as you let your emotions wash over you and rest your head on Minho’s shoulder. Never had you ever thought that someone other than Chan would ever be able to comfort you, least of all Minho.

Minho wasn’t the most expressive person, even if you could swear that he was the one who felt the most emotions-the most hurt, the happiest, the most excited and even the angriest. You knew that he checked his emotions so damn much because sometimes they drove him, in his words, insane. While you knew he had your back as did, you his, he wasn’t your closest friend. You had the least amount of memories with him, you both were a weird bunch to be honest.

“This was bound to happen one day then why does it hurt so much?”

You didn’t even think he heard your whisper but he surprised you, not that you even expected a reply.

“Because feelings can’t be helped and you felt too many of them for just one person all your life.”

You buried your face in his shoulders as your cries turned into silent sobs and his arms tightened around you. You could swear it was the safest you’d felt in a while, dare you say like the comfort of a home and you wondered why Minho had never held you before for you swore his hug was soothing.

“I think it’s better this way.”

Your words prompted him to make distance so as to look at your face but you weren’t ready to look at his face, afraid of his judgement.

“He’s perfect in every sense and he seeks perfection in every sense while I can never be even close to perfection nor have I ever strived to be. You know those main characters of a movie who’s rich, good looking, charming, got a gorgeous troublesome ex but somehow ends up with a character that’s completely opposite of them? Chan is that main character to me. I think that even if I confessed to him and he had accepted me I’d always be anxious, trying my best to keep him in my life, make sure he’d never grow bored of me, be his perfect other half and that would’ve ultimately killed the person within me that he liked, or if ever liked.”

You gave a bitter smile at your fate and walked away from the bench while staring at the moon that looked so pretty yet unattainable, just like Chan. So close yet so far.

“He never deserved you any way. You deserve so much better and more than he could give you.”

You let out a sarcastic scoff at Minho’s words as you felt him coming closer to you.

“And who said that?”

“I’m saying that. Changbin says that. Heck, even Chan’s minions know that. If this isn’t enough for you, then all those roses in your locker say that.”

You were sure there was a frown on your face at his reply. Maybe Minho was more delusional than you because no way in hell so many people would ever think that way. You appreciated his efforts to make you feel better but he didn’t have to lie to your face. All of a sudden, you felt his fingers on your jaw, pulling you to face him as you stood wide-eyed in surprise.

“You never noticed these things because you were so busy noticing what Chan needed. You never noticed those roses and letters in your locker because you were focused on his; you rejected all prom dates because you were busy moping as he picked his date; you never noticed how the entire college stoped to look back at you as you entered the campus because you were always focused on what Chan was saying. You never noticed how much I love you because you were busy loving him.”

The only words that managed to knock your breath out after this sudden proximity between you two were the last few words that escaped from him as his eyes softened at your now misty ones while his fingers kept caressing your cheeks as if to ground you to the present.

“Minho!”

And a soft whisper of his name was all you could manage to let out. You were sure that your heart had pretty much skipped an entire rhythm right now. How could he be in love with you? He never even gave any signs. He was always so distant that you even thought he disliked you when you first spoke to him. He rested his head on yours as both of you closed your eyes, feeling an ecstasy that was never felt before.

“I’ve been in love with you ever since I first saw you in the college cafeteria. It was impossible to not notice you when you were practically glowing in my eyes; so pretty, had such a sweet giggle, spoke so passionately about how Toy Story 1 was the best movie and other sequels should’ve never been made, cried over a hurt kitten all in one day of knowing you; all these things made me want to wrap you in a blanket burrito and never let go.”

You let out a little chuckle as your grip tightened on his shirt and more tears escaped you.

“I wanted to approach you, tell you I wanted to date you but you were clearly not interested in anything romantic if it wasn’t with Chan so I settled for being friends. I thought it was better to have some of you than none of you. You said that Chan was the main character in your story but you were the main character in mine.”

This time you didn’t stop the sob that came out of you, thinking about how much you hurt him unintentionally. You also couldn’t stop thinking about a possibility of all that could’ve been if you took off the rose tinted glasses through which you saw Chan, even once.

“Maybe this is my punishment Minho. I kept hurting you, just as much as I kept getting hurt. I kept blaming Chan in my head but what’s the difference between him and I, when I did the same to you?”

He immediately shook his head and held you by the shoulders with so much resolve that it compelled you to stop rambling and listen to him.

“There’s a lot of differences between the two of you. You never gave me any mixed signals, you never played push and pull with my emotions, you always knew what you wanted; I was the one hurting because I couldn’t let go of you. Our situation is different than Chan and yours. How were you to know that I felt this way about you when I kept my distance? But you’ve to understand that I was reserved because I was scared about the intensity of my love towards you, even when we had so much space between us. What would’ve happened if I didn’t push myself out of the frame? Would that have been better for the two of us?"

As you looked at his doe eyes that reflected the depth of his soul, you knew for sure, that this man right here would’ve been able to break through all your walls of false hopes and easily made you love him, perhaps more than you’ve ever loved anyone.

“Maybe!”

“Maybe!”

Both of you nodded and whispered in a silent agreement but refused to let of each other, needing to believe that this moment was true, that it was really happening.

“Then would you wait a little more for me?”

You could see the glimmer of hope in his eyes that he squashed with confusion, not wanting to get disappointed for hoping about something that he long gave up on without even trying but you were determined to not hurt and get hurt anymore. Maybe this was a new beginning for you, for him and for Chan.

“Wait for what?”

You took a deep breath and clutched his hand that was still unknowingly caressing the back of your neck.

“Please wait for me to get over my heartbreak and let me get to know you as something more than just friends. I know what I’m asking of you is a bit selfish but I don’t want to treat you as a rebound, as a replacement of what I couldn’t have, as an outlet of my heartbreak. I want us to be real and our beginning shouldn’t be formed on the basis of my negative baggage. You deserve the best and while I may not be the best, I want to be at least my best for you; for us.”

His beaded eyes shone with something that you couldn’t really place but you knew that you could travel to the end of the world if it meant that his eyes would shine like that.

“I’ve waited for you when there wasn’t any hope or reason to. Imagine how long I could wait for you now that you’ve given me a reason to.”

Yes, you were definitely a fool to not notice this pure hearted man who might not have stood by your side but always around you, silently protecting you and loving you without expecting anything in return. But what you did notice was how you liked this kind of crying where you couldn’t even stop smiling at each other, especially when his bunny smile looked so endearing on him.

And as you both wrapped each other around in an intimate lovers’ hold you finally felt contentment, as if the last piece of a huge complicated puzzle finally snapped in place. You pressed your nose in his shirt, letting his scent comfort you and could already feel yourself wanting to drift off to somewhere only you and him existed.

While it may have been harder to not love Chan, you think it may be criminal to not love Minho.

What you both didn’t notice was a pair of eyes in the corner of the yard, observing you two since the beginning, overwhelmed but feeling a crack in his heart that he never even imagined he would. Were new beginnings supposed to make your heart twist like that?

Read On Wattpad

©️stayinhellevator2023: Please don’t repost, translate or copy my work on any other platform.

[lavenderbang]

Drunk-Dazed

 Vampire! Park Sunghoon x reader

genre(s): vampire au!, non-idol au!, Sunghoon is also your tutor, mystery (not really cause dramatic irony), fluff, horror, Jake is your best friend cause I’m a simp, also feat. the rest of enhypen, mainly Heesung and Jungwon tho

Warning(s): blood/gore, swearing (obviously), biting (OBVIOUSLY), and probably crime (if you consider killing a classmate and drinking their blood a crime)

W.C: 17.2k (Sheesh this is long...)

Summary: When a fellow classmate was found dead on the soccer field with all the blood drained from them and two pierce marks in their neck, you took it upon yourself as president of the paranormal club to find the vampire. 

A/N: Y’all, when I say I am OBSESSED with Drunk-Dazed! That song literally made me an Engene overnight and honestly I can’t stop thinking about writing this fic. I don’t usually like monster stuff, but watching the MV (which is here) really inspired me. Also I love Park Sunghoon with my whole heart... anyways, Enjoy!

A/N 2: If you couldn’t tell from the previous author note and the title, this has been sitting in my drafts since the Drunk-Dazed MV dropped. It’s clearly been a long time since then, but I’m now finally posting this fic under a random spurt of inspo. I hope you enjoy it cause I love this fic (its my baby) and its been two and a half years in the making!

he’s so ethereal

“uhhh, you’re late dude,” You scoff at Jake, “Slept through your alarm?” Your best friend doesn’t respond, and only then you realize how serious he looked; Jake’s face was pale, and he seemed to fumble with his bag as he sat down beside you in his usual seat for biology. His eyes were darting all over the place before finally landing on you; you grabbed onto his hands to stop it from shaking.

“Hey, you okay?” You ask, frowning at your usually cheerful friend, “what happened?”

“I went out to the field this morning to get a bit of early practice...” He starts off, licking his lips nervously before continuing, “When I got there, there was someone laying out in the middle of the field....”

“who?” You ask but are soon interrupted by the chairman of your school and the chief of police coming into the classroom. Jake immediately looks at his shoes, not wanting to look at the two men at the front.

“Good morning everyone,” The chairman greets in a serious tone, “I have some grim news to share with you all. Now I’m deciding to share this with you because you are all young adults and deserve transparency on the situation.”

“Whats going on Jake?” You whispered to your friend, who was trembling in his seat.

“This morning at 7:32 am, were were alerted by a student that there was a body found at the soccer field.” The chairman stated solemnly. The amount of tension in your classroom was suffocating, “by 7:46, we had identified that the victim was a student by the name of Lee Geonu.”

The mood quickly turned from tense to absolute shock; You couldn’t believe that Geonu, the guy that asked you to borrow a pencil just last Tuesday was now dead. It didn’t make any sense whatsoever; its not like you were friends, but Geonu was a good guy, healthy too. 

“I know this is frightening and disturbing news, but we will only take a few more moments of your time.” The chairman turned to the chief of police and continued, “I will now turn it over to police chief Kim to bring up what’s important.”

“Thank you sir,” The police chief nodded before looking down at the document in his hands, “Now upon inspection, it seems that your classmate was found with two distinct holes in the middle of his neck on the left side, as well as a very low blood volume. As of now, we are unaware of where his blood went, but we suspect it sank into the ground.”

You feel Jake’s hand tighten in yours, eyes brimming with tears from the traumatic experience. You squeeze his hand to comfort your friend, feeling sorry that he had see something so horrific.

“Now, we think time of death occurred at around 10:00-12:00 last night,” The police chief continued, before looking up at your class, “If any of you have any information as to what happened or anything you might know about the victim that is relevant to our investigation, please don’t hesitate to come to us.”

The room was silent for a moment, aside from a few sniffles in the back along with the anxious tapping of someones shoes on the floor.

“Lastly, I’m sorry to all of you for your loss.” Chief Kim smiled sympathetically, “I want you all to know you are safe and any information you can give us can help us find whoever did this to Geonu and give him justice.”

And with that being said, the two men exited the room, leaving a atmosphere of despair and melancholy over all of your classmates. You turned to Jake, patting his shoulder gently. He sniffled, blinking back tears. As hard as it was, your teacher put you all to work on a simple worksheet, hoping that it could take your guy’s mind off the current news.

~~~

“It was weird... The holes were small, no bigger than half a centimeter.” Jake explained quietly, whispering to you as you sat down at your lunch table, only to be followed by your friends Jungwon and Heesung.

“How far apart?” You asked cautiously. You still felt worried talking about this topic with Jake, as he seemed pretty shaken up yesterday morning. Since then he seemed okay, as it was a pretty big school and he didn’t know Geonu that well, having no classes with the guy.

“Maybe an inch, inch and a half?” Jake explained, opening his bottle of ice tea to take a sip.

“Strange...” Jungwon responded before teasing shoving your shoulder with a smile, “Maybe it was a vampire, right (Y/N)?” This made the boys chuckle, obviously amused to poke fun at you and your paranormal beliefs.

“That’s what I was thinking...” You responded staring at your sandwich, deep in thought. The laughter died and the boys all looked at you confused.

“Are you serious (Y/N)..?” Heesung asked, furrowing his eyebrows at you.

“Of course,” You replied, looking up at the oldest with a frown, “What else could it be?”

“Something real? Like a human maybe..?” Jake suggested, clearly concerned with your thought process.

“That doesn’t make any sense! Who kills a guy with two small holes in the neck and drains almost all of his blood from his body?” You leaned forward, picking at your food before sighing, “Besides, you guys are in the Paranormal Activities Club too, so why don’t you believe it could be a vampire?”

“Honestly, talking about ghosts and monsters and stuff during our PAC meetings is fun,” Jungwon started off before brushing his hand through his hair and sighing, “But it was never that serious. Not like ‘I think a vampire murdered our classmate’ type of club.”

“But don’t you believe in the paranormal? isn’t that the whole point of PAC?” You asked, seriousness dripping from your tone, “I just think it’s our duty to discover if this was actually a vampire-related incident or not.”

The boys looked at you like you had three heads, letting the silence be word enough that they thought you were insane.

“I mean, if its not, then no harm no foul...” You sighed, crossing your arms across your chest passively, “But it if it, that means we have a vampire on the loose and we need to find out who it is, as the closest thing to experts this school has.”

“I mean, it could be kinda fun to look for clues and stuff...” Jungwon smiled softly.

“We’d be like the Mystery Gang from Scooby-doo!” Jake beamed, suddenly interested in the idea of investigation.

“I guess we technically have to have other club activities besides chatting to count for credit..” Heesung agreed, shaking his head at the thought of actually agreeing to a vampire hunt.

“So PAC investigation to find the vampire?” You smirked, feeling excited to maybe see a real live monster.

“Yeah it’ll be fun!” Jake finalized, taking a bite of the apple he had pulled out of his bag sometime while having this conversation, “Lets meet back at the school tonight to look for evidence.”

“No can do actually...” You interrupted, shocking your friends at the odd change in attitude of inspiring them to do this and then suddenly bailing.

“What the heck (Y/N)!?” Jungwon huffed, throwing his hands up dramatically, “Why can’t you come?”

“I’ve got Calculus tutoring tonight.” You stated simply, “but you guys can go look for clues without me tonight and you can report back at tomorrow’s PAC meeting.”

“You have a tutor?” Heesung asked, “who?” You turn in your chair and point across the lunch room to a pretty boy sitting at one of the corner tables, headphones in and doing homework.

“Park Sunghoon.” You answered simply, “We go to the campus library every Tuesday and Thursday. One day he helps me with Calc and the other day I help him with Bio.”

“He’s in our biology class?” Jake asked shocked, scratching his head sheepishly, “I didn’t even notice him...”

‘Yeah he’s pretty shy, but nice enough.” You nodded and stuffed sandwich in your face before continuing with a mouth full of bread, “I don’t think he likes me very much though.”

“I wonder why...” Heesung cringes, watching bits of sandwich squish in your mouth as you talk with it full. Before you look away, Sunghoon looks up and around the room, only to catch your gaze. He blinks a couple of times before politely nodding at you. Feeling embarrassed you got caught looking, you whipped around and faced your friends again, feeling the burning sensation crawl up your neck. Of course, this appeared as the perfect opportunity for the boys to make fun of you; but you didn’t mind, as it was nice to see some cheer from the gloomy atmosphere that was hanging around recently.

~~~

Bzzt!

You looked down at your phone to see that you had gotten a message.

Sunghoon: hey, do you mind meeting me at the front of the school for our session?

You tilt you head in confusion, but nonetheless type out a response before packing up your things you had set up for your session.

(Y/N): sure, I’ll be right there :)

Quickly making your way to the front, you see Sunghoon standing there, expression blank and scrolling through his phone. Once he sees you, He puts it away and approaches where you stand.

“Hey (Y/N) I’m sorry about this, but do you mind if I teach you somewhere else today?” He asked, worry and urgency evident in the shakiness of his voice.

“I mean, I guess,” You respond jokingly, smiling to hopefully put the boy at ease, “I would have loved it you let me know BEFORE I set all my stuff out though.”

“I know and I’m sorry about that,” Sunghoon apologized, walking out of the building with you following, “My coach changed my practice to earlier so I had to make adjustments...”

“So where are we going?” You asked, walking beside your tutor fumbling with the zipper on your binder.

“My apartment, if that’s okay.” He replied, not looking away from where his eyes focused ahead, “since my practice is earlier, I’l be saving time by not having to travel home to grab my things before going to the rink.”

“Sounds good to me...” You agreed before falling silent. You felt a weird sensation bubble up in your stomach that you had never seemed to feel before. Maybe nervousness because you’ve never been to Sunghoon’s home, but why would you be nervous about something like that?

Silence filled the air as you walked onward. The sun was starting to set, setting a warm orange glow over the environment as you walked; Even in this light, Sunghoon looked pale; his eyes looking down at his feet as his dark hair swept across his forehead with ever step. Somehow you had never noticed until now, but Sunghoon had a mole right on the edge of the bridge of his nose. You though it suited him, even though you rarely talked about things other then your respective subjects.

“So” You cleared your throat, wanting to break the silence and overall your sudden appreciation for your tutor, “You play a sport? you said your coach moved practice...”

“Ah, yeah!” Sunghoon responded with a smile, turning to look at you for the first time since leaving the school, “I do figure skating” (A/N: I had to, I love ice prince Sunghoon). You nodded, finding it surprising that out of all the sports, he picked something elegant and precise as figure skating.

“Really? That’s cool!” You praised, excited to get to know more about him, “how often do you practice?”

“every weekday,” He answered, “usually after we have our session I go home and grab all my gear and head to the rink, but for some reason my coach moved practice ahead by an hour.”

“Damn coaches, Huh?” You joked, “Always ruining a perfectly good schedule. Not that I would know, as I don’t do a sport...”

“Oh yeah, you have your own club, right?” Sunghoon recalled, making a right turn as you continued to his house, “What’s it called again..?”

“Paranormal Activities Club.” You explained, “We usually shorten it to PAC because it’s a bit wordy...”

“Catch any ghosts?” Sunghoon asked smiling cheekily.

“We don’t catch ghosts, we talk about them.” You said before cracking a smile, “Behind their back of course, like we’re in middle school” Sunghoon laughed at your silly joke, warmth radiating from deep in his chest. For some reason, it felt good to make the boy laugh; maybe it was because he was so reserved that you were happy to see him ease up a bit with you.

You arrived at Sunghoon’s apartment within about ten minutes. As you stepped in, you noticed the simplicity of it; white walls, a glass coffee table, and a bookshelf off to the right. To the left, there was a small corner kitchen and a hallway that you assumed lead to the bathroom and Sunghoon’s bedroom. The only thing to note was the furniture; a expensive looking maroon love-seat that was perpendicular with the coffee table and a deep red, velvety sofa pushed up under the window. 

“You can set your things down here and we can get started.” Sunghoon motioned to the coffee table before going into the kitchen, “want anything?”

“a glass of water would be nice,” You respond politely before setting your binder on the table. You looked at the sofa, before ultimately deciding to sit on the floor in front of it, feeling the furniture looked to expensive to touch. Sunghoon returns, placing the glass on a coaster and then on the table.

“Thank you.” You accepted the glass shyly, feeling a sense of awkwardness being in the private of his home.

“Why are you on the floor..?” Sunghoon chuckled lightly before sitting on the sofa, “there’s a sofa right behind you... I mean if your more comfortable on the floor we can sit there-”

“No I’ll move!” You exclaimed, getting up and sitting beside Sunghoon on the velvet cushions, “It just that your furniture looks so expensive...”

“Really?” He scrunched up his nose before opening his textbook and flipping through it to find the assignment, “I found these at a garage sale for like $100. Some little old Victorian lady was selling them. They’re really nice, but it’s really hard to get stains out of them...”

“Oh, I see.” You nodded, feeling the fabric under your fingertips before grabbing your pencil, “So should we get started?” Sunghoon hummed in response and you began the homework you were supposed to finish for tomorrow. 

After a bit, things went back to normal and you didn’t feel as weird or awkward; it was like every other Tuesday in the library. It wasn’t long before the sun set, and you were packing up your things to go home.

“Thank you so much for accommodating my schedule today.” Sunghoon thanked, holding his door open for you.

“No problem! It was a nice change of scenery.” You said brightly, trying to be polite about the abrupt change of plans, “Have a nice night Sunghoon; see you Thursday!” You went down to the lobby and messaged Jake, hoping that the boys actually went to the soccer field to look for evidence while you were busy.

(Y/N): [dropped 1 location]

(Y/N): hey, pick me up cause its dark and there is a vampire on the loose?

Butt-head~: Of course, your highness. It’s not like I was just about to get into the shower or anything after being out in a field for an hour...

Attached to that message was a GIF of a dirty servant from that one medieval show doing a full bow. you rolled your eyes at Jake’s sarcasm.

(Y/N): if you’re busy, I’ll just walk home alone

Butt-head~: Don’t you dare

Butt-head~: I’m literally already in my car omw

Chuckling to yourself you sit down in the lobby and do what any person would do to pass the time; scroll through memes. It isn’t long before you get another text from Jake saying he’s outside. You hurry out and hop in the passenger side of his old red car.

“Hello your highness, I hope this chariot is to your standards.” He teased in a fake posh British accent, which wasn’t far from his usual accent.

“Well, there could have been a harp or trumpets playing when I entered, but this’ll have to do,” you sighed before smiling at your silly friend. 

He suddenly turned on a loud, heavy bass song and drove in the direction of your house. You both jammed out for a bit, rolling down the windows and screaming out the lyrics at the top of your lungs. Eventually Jake turned down the music in exchange to chat with you.

“So me and Jungwon went out to the field and-” Jake started before you screeched out and stopped him.

“Don’t tell me!” You hushed, almost reaching out to put your hands over Jake’s mouth, “Wait until the meeting tomorrow!”

“I just thought you’d want to know about-” Jake started again but you shouted out to avoid hearing about what the boys found. Jake sighed and shut his mouth, clearly not going to be able to tell you about the investigation.

“Wait, where was Heesung?” You asked, quirking your eyebrows becasue you were cofused on why he wouldn’t show.

“He said he had something important to do instead.” Jake responded flatly.

“What’s more important than vampires?” You huffed.

“I know, this is the most important thing in our lives right now.”

“Exactly! This is serious stuff he was missing.”

The two of you were silent for a moment, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Though, you soon broke the silence.

“i’m sorry I wasn’t there...” You apologized, fiddling with your things and feeling a bit bad, “I failed as a president today...”

“Dude, don’t worry about it! Your trustworthy vice-prez worked very hard in your place.” Jake complimented himself and jabbed a thumb at his chest; you giggled at his antics, glad he wasn’t upset with you.

“So how was tutor session with pretty boy? I’m sure you got lots of calculus done.” Jake teased, poking your shoulder.

“As a matter of fact, we did get a lot of calculus done,” You rolled your eyes and pushed his hand away before continuing, “Besides the awkwardness of me being in his house for the first time...”

“Finally seeing pretty boy’s house? Or were you too busy kissing him to see?” Jake teased yet again, followed by gross, wet kissing sounds. You give the boy a hardy slap to the shoulder before chuckling at his antics.

“That’s the second time you called Sunghoon pretty.” You joked before cracking a big smile, “You know, if you’re so jealous of me, I could introduce you two so maybe you could kiss him.” You then copy the kissing sounds Jake made moments before only to earn a laugh and a shove. 

“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll pass.” Jake finally said and pulled up in front of your house, “Anyways, here’s your castle Your Highness.” You jumped out of Jake’s old car, collecting your things. You said a sincere thank you and waved goodbye before scurrying inside to eat and then sleep. Besides, you had a big day tomorrow filled with excitement from vampire hunting.

---------------

“Alright as all of the members of The Paranormal Activities Club have arrived, as president I officially begin this meeting.” You sat down after saying your opening speech and look at the three boys in front of you. PAC always met in room 300, so you pushed four desks together to make a meeting table. The lights were usually off as well, with only a couple of flashlights and a single candle lighting your meetings; but since there was more serious stuff to discuss this meeting, you opted to keeping the lights on.

“Now, to start off this very formal PAC Meeting, I have something to go over before we talk about the findings from last night.” You said before turning to Heesung and pouting, “Where were you? I though you were all good for the soccer field last night...”

“I thought these two knuckleheads could handle it without me,” Heesung points at Jungwon and Jake before continuing, “So I went to the public library to see if I could dig up any similar instances of killings in the same manner. I just wanted to see if there was a history of a murderer or serial killer that murdered in this way, but no luck..”

“That’s because it was a vampire, not a serial killer but whatever...” You responded passive-aggressively before smiling, “But thank you for double checking, I appreciate the work you’re putting into this.” Heesung simply gives a thumbs up and looks to the other two boys.

“Alright, so now that that’s settled,” You sated, turning to the other boys as well, “Lets go over what our investigation brought to light.”

Jake stood up and walked to the white board where there were a couple of magnets. He pulled them all off the white board and turned to you all.

“Jungwon, You have the evidence right?” He asked. Jungwon dug around in his backpack before pulling out a file-folder and scurrying up to where Jake was standing. They first began by placing random photos of the scene on the white-board, including a blurry selfie of the two of them and a picture of the sun reflected on the school windows. Jake cleared his throat, trying to appear as professional as possible.

“I will now account what happened when we arrived.”

-

“Ow, I think that’s the seventh mosquito bite!” Jungwon groaned and slapped his arm. 

The boys trudged through the surrounding trees by the field. The area where Geonu’s body was found was roped off with police tape so Jake had opted to start looking in the surrounding area instead. 

“Quit complaining, we are supposed to look for evidence of a vampire.” Jake scolded before shuffling around in the bushes.

“This is stupid.There’s no way it was a vampire.” Jungwon huffed before sifting through a pile of dead leaves, “(Y/N)’s bonkers. I can’t believe I agreed to this...”

“Maybe, but it would mean a lot to her if we just looked anyways.” Jake reasoned, pushing through-

-

“Do you really need to be telling me all this? Especially the part where you guys basically say I’m nuts?” You frown before being shushed by Jake, who continues on.

-

“Hey there’s a footprint here in the mud!” Jake pointed out before turning to Jungwon, “It could be our vampire.”

“Or a random person going through the bushes.” Jungwon huffed.

“Just give me the camera Jungwon.”

“Fine...”

-

Jake places the photo of the footprint on the white board, securing it with a magnet.

“From my deduction skills, it is around a size 7 males shoe.” Jake confirms, “I’ll be studying the tread to see what kind of shoe it is.”

“Okay sounds good.” You praised, nodding to Jungwon, “Continue on with what happened.”

-

“What exactly are we looking for that the police wouldn’t have already found?” Jungwon sighed, climbing out of the treeline onto the red gravel track that separated the woods from the field.

“Paranormal stuff.” Jake answered vaguely, walking down the path closer to where the body laid just yesterday.

 He felt a strange sense of dread looking at the police tape, remembering the graphic scene all to well. It had etched itself into his head, not letting him get a wink of sleep the night before.

“Like... this?” Jungwon asked nervously. He held up a single silver ring, holding it up to the sky to get a better look at it.

-

Jungwon pulled the ring out of the folder; he had it in a zip-lock bag, almost afraid to touch it. Jake gave him a magnet, to which he hung the bag on whiteboard beside the footprint photo.

“What is that on it..?” You asked, leaning closer to get a better look at the ring. you could see that almost three-quarters of the outside of the ring was stained with some sort of black liquid.

“It looks burned in...” Heesung suggested, squinting to see the small piece of jewelry.

“Hey, I’m not done with the evidence yet!” Jake interrupted, trying to keep your attention, “Can we please stay focused?”

-

“Do you think we should go in there?” Jungwon asked, standing right on the edge of the police tape, “I feel like at that point, we would be tampering with actual police evidence...” 

Jake fiddled with the bright yellow tape, allowing it to slide in between his fingers, assessing the option of what they should do. He looked to the spot where Geonu had been, trying his best to recall every detail he could when he discovered him. Blanking on what happened, he turned away from the tape and went back onto the path.

“I think it’s best if we go home. The photos are good and the there’s that ring you found too.” Jake decided, turning to walk to the direction of the front gate. In all honesty, he just couldn’t bring himself to got to that spot in the grass; but he couldn’t just say that to Jungwon.

“Sounds good to me, I wanna take a shower, the bush was gross.” Jungwon said, jogging to catch up to Jake. the boys walked to the entrance of the school.

“Wait! I want to get a picture!” Jungwon insisted, pulling out his camera to get a photo of the reflected sunset on the windows. Jake waited, leaning against the gate of the school and gazing at the building.

-

“This doesn’t seem very relevant to our investigation...” You chimed in before Jake groaned and rolled his eyes.

“Oh my God! Can you just listen? I was literally getting to the relevant part...” He scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest, “Don’t interrupt, Stink-ass.”

“Sorry.” you responded, promising yourself not to interrupt again until the boys were finished.

-

The school was big and made of brick and glass; but something else was catching Jake’s attention.

“Hey, that flock of crows is trying to get into the dumpster over there!” He chuckled, before jogging over to the dumpster that was on the edge of the parking lot left of the building.

“dude, its actually called a murder of crows.” Jungwon corrected, earning a ‘whatever’ from Jake, who seemed much more interested in what was attracting the crows to the dumpster. After getting a nice photo, Jungwon came over too, curiosity getting the better of him.

“It’s whatever’s in this drug store bag...” Jake deduced, pointing at the thin, white, plastic bag tied tightly on the top of the trash.

“What do you think is in there..?” Jungwon asked, voice barely above a whisper. He seemed concerned, mostly due to the big, dark spot covering the bottom of the bag.

“I guess there is only one way to find out.” Jake gulped before grabbing the bag by the handles with one finger and dropping it to the cement, “I mean, if we really want to open it...”

“What would the Mystery Gang do?” Jungwon asked, half-joking/half-seriously.

“I think they would open it.”

“Okay so lets open it then”

“You open it. I don’t want to touch it...”

“Me neither! Besides, you already touched it!”

“Yeah, so it’s your turn.”

“How about we rock paper scissors for who has to open it?”

“That sounds fair.”

-

“This is what we found in the bag, and in all honesty, I don’t feel like I should even have it because its like... actual evidence...” Jake grimaced and opened his backpack to reveal a brown paper bag.

 He rustled in it before bringing out what was inside and pinning it to the white board. The room was silent as you stared at the item, feeling a sickness bubble up into your stomach.

Pinned to the whiteboard was an over-sized, white, male’s dress shirt; all around the neckline and dripping down, soaking into the chest area was dried, brown blood that had obviously been applied wet. The cuffs of the sleeves going up the arms was also covered in the dried liquid, tainting the pure white fabric.

“What...” You begin, not really knowing what you were going to say. What you even could say.

“We have to give that to the police.” Heesung stated frantically, like it was obvious, “That’s serious piece of evidence for their investigation and we shouldn’t have that.” The rest of you didn’t respond, earning a scoff from the eldest.

“You don’t think we should keep it, right?” He asked, clearing accentuating his tone to signify how stupid he thought that idea was.

“No, I don’t think we should keep it!” You exclaimed matter-of-factly, approaching the shirt and gently touching the hem of it, “But we could get as much information we need from it...”

“You’re joking right?!” Jungwon cried, clearly disturbed.

“Look at where the... blood is.” You pointed out, having a hard time actually say the word, “If it wasn’t a vampire and was just some guy, there wouldn’t be a focus of blood on the highest part of the shirt. We need all the clues we can to find out who our secret vampire is and this shirt has some.”

“I mean, we would only have it for a little longer and then after we get all the information we can from it, we give it in, right?” Jake supported, sitting down at the makeshift table to get away from the shirt. Heesung turned to you, worry and sincerity flooding his eyes.

“(Y/N), I don’t know how comfortable I am with this...” He warned, grabbing hold of your arm, “I really think we should give this in as soon as possible, along with everything else the boys found...”

“We will.” You answered firmly, holding Heesung’s grip on your arm with the opposite hand, “Just after we get the clues we need from everything.”

“How about a vote?” Jake suggested, “All in favor of keeping the evidence for a little longer and then giving it to the police after we are done?” Jake raised his hand, followed by you raising yours. 

“All in favor of giving it to the police right after this vote?” Heesung countered and raised his hand. The three of you then looked to the youngest boy who had not voted for either.

“Jungwon?” You asked, and he looked at you and you could see the inner conflict he was going through in his head.

“We give it back as soon as we are done..?” Jungwon asked hesitantly, playing with the cuffs of his jacket nervously.

“As soon as we finish documenting all the information we need.” You reassured, “Not a minute longer than needed.” Jungwon nodded along to your words, hummed and bit his bottom lip out of habit. He tapped his foot, deep in thought before finally nodding again.

“Okay, but only if we don’t touch it without gloves or something so we don’t wreck the police evidence...” Jungwon finally decided, to which you quickly agreed to his terms.

“I guess it can’t be helped,” Heesung sighed, brushing his hair back to release his stress, “but just for the record, I’m not touching any of that and this is a bad idea...”

“Noted.” Jake finalized before standing and making his way to the door, “I’m going to sneak to the biology lab to get some gloves and tweezers to start looking for clues, you guys should start photographing the things we are giving to the police.”

With tasks assigned you all got to work in documenting any clues you felt could lead you to the identity of the vampire.

--------------

(figure) skater boy: Hey, do you mind if we are at my house again today for our session? Coach switched practice for the next two weeks...

You immediately switch directions, walking towards the front as opposed to the library where you were planning on meeting Sunghoon until he messaged you. you typed out a quick reply that consisted of the absolute poetry of ‘k’.

As you approached the lobby, you saw Sunghoon standing by the door, except he was taking to someone today. It was a guy that you had occasionally seen your tutor with, but you had never actually spoken to him before. The stranger met your gaze and smiled as you walked up to the duo.

“I hope I’m not interrupting.” You said politely, turning your attention to Sunghoon with a smile.

“Not at all, (Y/N).” He reassured, before motioning to the stranger, “ Have you met my friend Jay?” 

“I have not.” You confirm, reaching your hand out to shake the other man’s hand, “I’m (Y/N), I tutor your friend.”

“Jay. I’m friends with your tutor.” Jay joked, taking your hand and shaking it. Feeling nervous, you look at the floor before finding the perfect thing to say to be less awkward.

“Woah! I love your boots! They look really cool.” You gushed, not taking your gaze off Jay’s feet. He was wearing a pair of combat boots that went up to his mid calf, and they looked to be made of an expensive material with shiny silver buckles on them.

“Hey thanks!” He chuckled in response, tilting his foot to model them, “I ordered them custom made because I thought they’d look cooler with my own personal touch, y’know?” You hummed in response, before feeling a tug at your sleeve, gaining your attention.

“We should get going if we are going to finish the biology assignment.” Sunghoon urged then turning to his friend and smiling, “See you! I’ll message you after practice.” Jay nodded in agreement before sending you off with a ‘nice to meet you’.

You begin the walk to Sunghoon’s place in silence before you decide to break it like you did yesterday.

“Jay seems nice.” You stated simply, hoping talking about his friend would help Sunghoon open up more, “How long have you been friends?”

“A couple of years now.” Sunghoon responded before smirking to himself, “You like him?”

“Sure, he seems pretty chill.” You said, given that you only had about a minute to interact with the guy.

“He’s a good guy.” Sunghoon finalized, looking out into the distance seemingly in thought, “He’s the kind of guy to have your back no matter what.” You hummed in response, falling silent as you walked towards Sunghoon’s apartment. 

Maybe it was the fact that you were going to his house, but you felt that maybe you’d become a bit closer with the introverted boy. Maybe he at least didn’t dislike you, but you were certain he didn’t like you. But maybe that could change, just given a bit more time.

You were pulled out of your thoughts due to Sunghoon roughly grabbing your arm and pulling you to the left, just narrowly avoiding walking into the busy street. You stumbled a bit, catching your balance on Sunghoon’s shoulder.

“Watch where you’re going!” He huffed, clearly anxious, “Gosh, I thought maybe you didn’t know we had to turn here, but I didn’t expect you to try to walk into traffic.”

“Sorry, I was totally zoned out,” You apologized, letting your grip loosen from his shoulder. You both continued to walk, but he didn’t let go of your arm. For some reason you felt a warm feeling bubble up in your chest from the contact, “Thanks for yanking me to safety though.”

“Did I pull you too hard? Sorry about that, I was just worried.”

“Don’t worry about it, you were just helping me not get hit by a car.”

“Pay more attention next time. You must have been thinking about something important to zone out that badly...”

You blushed, realizing that you were in fact, thinking about Sunghoon and if he was your friend or not.

“Oh? You’re blushing. You must have been thinking about something embarrassing.” Sunghoon teased, finally letting go of you. You surprisingly felt disappointed in this action, “Maybe it was your boyfriend..?” You turned to him, confusion and embarrassment flooding your features.

“Boyfriend? I know you’re not talking about me...” You joked, looking at the sidewalk beneath your feet as you trudged along. It was Sunghoon’s turn to be confused and he tilted his head and stared at you.

“Aren’t you dating someone?” He asked to which you shook your head no; you could feel the shame of this conversation burn up from the base of your neck.

“What about the guy that picked you up on Tuesday that you always hang out with?” Sunghoon questioned you, to which you burst out laughing from the misunderstanding.

“Jake?” You spat between a fit of laughter, “No way! He’s a really good friend that’s all.” It was Sunghoon’s turn to be mortified, his ears turning red as his eyes darted anywhere but you.

“Ahhhh! I’m sorry for jumping to conclusion, you guys just seemed really close at school and the he picked you up and I just assumed and-” He rambled before you cut him off.

“It’s okay. I understand why people might think that,” You assured before smiling to yourself, “He’s my Jay.”

“Your Jay?” Sunghoon asked, finally able to turn and look at you. You catch his gaze and give him a soft smile.

“The best kind of friend that would do anything for you.” You explained simply, “My Jay.” Sunghoon seemed to understand your comparison, smirking to himself because of the cute analogy.

Soon, you make it to Sunghoon’s apartment and begin your biology work. You immediately sat on the sofa this time, not fumbling with the floor; this time, you were conscious of how close he sat beside you, the warmth of his body radiating on your side. It made you anxious suddenly, having him this close to you. You were self-conscious of everything, like how your breath smelled or the way your hair laid. This feeling was one that you couldn’t seem to shake, no matter how hard you tried to focus on teaching Sunghoon about DNA; it was driving you bonkers

“Can I use your bathroom?” You asked, bouncing your knee nervously. He nodded and motioned to the door on the left before continuing working on the question you were on. You quickly shuffled into the bathroom and locked the door behind you, taking a deep breath. You washed your hands and looked up to fix you hair in the mirror.

Only, there wasn’t a mirror there. It was just a blank wall in front of the sink.

You frowned, blinking a couple of times to make sure you weren’t just seeing things. When you finally reached out and touched the wall you finally confirmed you weren’t crazy and there really was just no bathroom mirror.

Drying your hands and heading back to the living room, you debated bringing up the bathroom mirror. Maybe he just broke it and hadn’t bought a replacement yet?

Thinking that it was no big deal, you dropped it and decided to focus on the task at hand. Sunghoon had finished the problem you were on before you left and had moved on to the next one. The whole mirror situation had shaken you from whatever you felt earlier and you were finally able to focus on biology; so much in fact that you finished the assignment early.

“You can stay a bit longer... If you want.” Sunghoon offered, biting his bottom lip and leaning forward on the sofa, “If you’ve got stuff to do, I understand too.”

“I can stay for a bit.” You agreed, putting all of your things in a neat pile by the door before taking a seat on the opposite end of the sofa as Sunghoon, “Besides, I was supposed to be here teaching anyways. And it’s not like I have a ‘boyfriend’ dying to see me.” Sunghoon buried his head in his hands and groaned, making you giggle from the successful teasing.

“I’m so sorry about that, honestly.” He apologized again before cracking an shy grin, “I just though since you spent time with him and you’re...” He trailed off shaking his head from the thought, ears turning a nice shade of pink.

“Oh wow, was Sunghoon going to say something nice to me?” You gasped, placing your hand on your chest dramatically, “Could it be that, THE Park Sunghoon doesn’t hate his biology tutor?”

“Of course I don’t hate you, I assumed we were friends!” He exclaimed.

“Friends? If we were friends, I would have known more about you.” You countered.

“Like what?”

“How about the fact that I just learned you live in an apartment, have old antique couches, and that you figure skate less than a week ago, yet I’ve tutored you all year.”

“Okay that’s fair.”

“And how about the fact that we don’t hang out other than tutoring? Not very friend-like...”

“Okay I get your point. But maybe we should.”

“Should what?”

“Hang out.”

Sunghoon shifted his weight, turning to you before saying something you never expected in a million years.

“I have a competition this weekend, do you maybe want to come watch?” Sunghoon asked, smiling sweetly at you. You taken-aback for a moment, thinking you misheard the boy in front of you. He really wanted to see you outside of tutoring?

“I.. uhh.” You stammered, blinking a couple of times before grinning up at him, “Sure. I’d love to come and cheer you on.”

“Cool. And don’t worry, Jay’ll be there too!” Sunghoon reassured you, “So that way, you wont be all alone when I’m on the ice.” 

You replied with a small ‘cool’, feeling like your soul left your body. All this time, you were worried the guy didn’t like you when it turns out that he thought you guys were friends the whole time. It made you feel good that he actually wanted to see you, a sense of pride burning in your chest.

“Well, I better get ready for practice...” Sunghoon said, subtly hinting in it being your time to leave. You caught his drift and stood, making your way to the door and picking up all your gathered things.

“I better text Jake to come get me.” You responded from the door, slipping your bag over your shoulder.

“Does he usually drive you home from our sessions?” Sunghoon asked, leaning his back against the kitchen counter, seemingly like he was about to prepare food right after you left.

“He didn’t,” You replied, shifting from foot to foot, “but since you live far from me and.... well... there was that guy Geonu a couple days ago so you can never be too careful.”

You see Sunghoon visibly stiffen at the mention of Geonu. His smile falters for a fraction of a second before he approaches you at the door. He helps you with your things and opens it for you.

“It was a terrible thing that happened to him.” Sunghoon said weakly, voice barely above a whisper as he holds the door for you, “I hope whatever monster did that to him pays for what they did.” 

You walk out into the hallway before turning back to face Sunghoon, Feeling a strange sense of dread leaving the apartment. He was smiling, but you could tell it was fake. Why...

“Stay safe (Y/N).” Sunghoon warned before waving, “Have a good night. I’ll text you about my competition later tonight!” You waved back, turning away from his door and walking down the hall to the elevator. Once in the small, confined box, you shook away that sense of dread.

“Get in loser.” Jake called to you from the red hunk of trash he called is car. Hopping in, you quickly did up your seat-belt and Jake was off.

“So, how was tutoring with pretty boy?” Jake asked in a sing-song voice. Ever since he found out about your tutor, he teased you relentlessly, calling him ‘pretty boy’ and saying some obscene remarks about how much “””work””” you guys do.

“Good.” You stated simply before grinning to yourself, “He invited me to watch his figure skating competition this weekend.”

“What! That’s totally a date!” Jake exclaimed, pushing your shoulder over and over, “(Y/N)’s got a date, (Y/N)’s got a date~”

“Shut up! It’s not a date, dumb-ass.” You pushed Jake back, shaking your head, “His friend Jay is going too, so it’s just a friend thing because we are friends.”

“Pretty boy has a friend?” Jake asked, seemingly confused, “I thought he was a loner; Shy boy style...”

“Of course he has a friend,” You scoffed, rolling your eyes a Jake, “For your information, I met him today and complimented his really cool custom boots.” Jake seemed interested in that comment, perking up at the mention of shoes.

“That reminds me! I went searching online for the treads of our vampire’s shoes.” Jake informed you, quickly catching your attention, “But I couldn’t find anything that looked remotely close to the footprint.”

“Really?” You asked before humming in response, thinking about what to do, “Maybe you haven’t looked for the right brand?”

“There doesn’t seem to be any brand like our vampire’s shoes, but I’ll keep searching.” Jake sighed, “So far, all of the major brands were busts because they have their own distinct styles.” You tried to remember back to the photo of the footprint, thinking about if there were any distinct marking on the tread. But to no avail, your brain couldn’t produce an image of value.

“That’s really odd...” You said flatly, deep in thought, but turn to your friend with a sympathetic look in your eyes, “But I appreciate all the work you’re doing to find the evidence.”

Jake let out a small, defeated ‘thanks’ before slowing to a stop. You get out of his car (not without an awkward, sitting down car hug) and scurry inside your house, waving frantically to your friend as he pulled away.

---------------

“Did you hear the news? Apparently there was another attack down by 42 St.” Jungwon exclaimed, catching your attention from the sudden news, “They didn’t die, but the victim was hospitalized and is in serious condition...”

You had gathered in the lunch room at your usual table; it was just you and Jungwon for the moment as Heesung was busy doing a make-up exam in History.

“Hey, pretty boy lives pretty close to there!” Jake revealed, returning from a bathroom break with a bag of chips and an ice tea. He sits beside you and fiddles with the plastic bag.

“Who?” Jungwon asked, tilting his head like a puppy out of confusion.

“Sunghoon.” You replied before chewing your cuticle anxiously.

“Yes?” a voice from behind you asked, causing you and Jake to whip around to reveal the man himself. He was standing with Jay and another boy you hadn’t met before.

“Oh, we were just talking about the attack that was on the news.” Jungwon explained, glancing between you and your friend tutor. Jay stiffened, looking like he’d just seen a ghost while Sunghoon glanced between his friends.

“I heard about that,” The other boy said; he had a cute face and raven black hair that gave him a mature aura despite his adorable features, “It was only a block from your house, right Hoonie?” The group was silent, but you watched as Jay shifted his weight from foot to foot. 

“Yeah, it’s pretty close...” Sunghoon confirmed. He seemed slightly awkward, but you guessed it was because he probably wasn’t used to all the attention being on him. Jay seemed much more uncomfortable though, looking anywhere but your table. He chewed on his bottom lip before swinging his arm around Sunghoon’s shoulder.

“We should get going.” He urged, before smiling politely to you, “See you at the competition tomorrow (Y/N).” You nodded and grinned at Jay, noticing his strange behavior.

“Stay safe, Sunghoon.” You warned, earning you a soft smile from your tutor.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” He replied before the boys were off, going to sit in the corner table where Sunghoon usually was found. You turned back to your friends and they looked at you expectantly.

“Please tell me I’m not the only one who thought they looked uncomfortable...” Jungwon said, eyes darting back and forth between you and Jake.

“No, they were definitely uncomfortable.” Jake said and turned to you, “What was with that Jay guy? He looked like he wanted to sprint out of here as soon as we brought the vampire subject up...”

“I don’t know.” You frowned, glancing over to their table where they seemed to be back to normal, joking and laughing, “When I first met him he seemed pretty chill but he was super on edge the whole time he was here...” Your table fell silent, cogs turning in your brain that you weren’t sure you wanted turning. Your thought process was interrupted by Heesung sliding into the chair next to Jungwon.

“Hey nerds, I just failed that History test.” Heesung said nonchalantly before switching his demeanor upon noticing your serious moods, “What’s up? You all look like you saw a ghost!”

“Hey (Y/N), you said Jay had custom boots,” Jake asked slowly, hinting at exactly what you were thinking. You nodded looking between the boys, “do you think the treads would be custom too..?”

“We think we just met our suspect for the vampire incident.” Jungwon revealed, causing the lingering tension to suffocate your group and fill your stomach with worry.

-----------------

“You know the plan right?” Heesung asked, leaning forward from the backseat of Jake’s car.

 It was 2:00 on a Saturday and you were just outside the rink in Jake’s car with the boys; you were supposed to be going to the rink to support Sunghoon but because of the groups suspicions, you take it upon yourself as president of the PAC to do some spy work on the suspected vampire Jay. 

“Of course I know the plan.” You rolled you eyes, going to open the door to get out before a flurry of ‘aye’s came from the three boys in the red car with you.

“We should go over it again once more to be sure.” Jungwon suggested, agreement coming from the other two boys. You sighed, but retraced your hand from the door handle

“Okay so you need to get his shoe size and look for burn marks from the silver ring.” Jake re-iterated for what seemed like the tenth time.

“A confession would also be useful,” Heesung stated, “But those first two things would be most important.”

“Also, check the tread to see if the shoe is actually the one we’re looking for.” Jungwon added.

“And make sure you bring up the attacks and see how he reacts.” Jake pipped in.

“and-”

“Guys,” You interrupted, clearly annoyed at how they don’t think you already know all that, “I’ve got it.”

“This is really important (Y/N), don’t let the club down.” Heesung said and grabbed your shoulder reassuringly. You nodded to your group, trying your hardest to exude confidence before opening the door and stepping out.

“Oh yeah, one last thing,” Jake called out to you before you shut the door, grinning from ear to ear, “Have fun cheering on pretty boy.” You shouted that you would before hurrying into the rink, wanting to see Sunghoon before his turn.

Ever since he said he’d text you about the competition, you had began to text back and forth nonstop. You were really starting to enjoy his company and for some reason, you couldn’t help but smile whenever you’d get a notification from him. That’s why the whole thing with Jay was so hard...

You didn’t want to jeopardize the relationship you had with Sunghoon because his best friend was allegedly a vampire. As much as you hated to admit, you really were starting to like Sunghoon and you wanted to become even closer friends with him; and you were pretty sure straight up accusing Jay of murder would not bode well for your relationship with Sunghoon....

As you entered the skating rink, you first felt a blast of coolness from the low temperatures. The second thing you felt was excitement because you could see Sunghoon tying up his skates on one of the benches across the arena. Even from across the room, you noted how beautiful he looked and you finally understood why Jake’s nickname for him was ‘pretty boy’. He wore tight fitted black pants that accentuated his long legs and a rich, red coloured shirt that made him look like a prince. 

Tearing your eyes from Sunghoon, you scanned the crowd to find Jay; you see him sitting with the boy from yesterday and yet another unknown guy in one of the very front rows. How many other friends did Sunghoon have?

You scurry over to them, before poking Jay in the shoulder.

“Is this seat taken?” You asked with a smile, causing all the boys to turn and look at you. Jay smiled and scooted over, making room for you between him and the cute boy from yesterday.

“Hey (Y/N).” He greeted as you sat down, “Glad you could make it.”

“He’s on the ice now!” The newest boy pointed out, watching as his friend got onto the ice to warm up.

“Oh yeah, you must not know these two knuckleheads,” Jay said casually, getting the attention of the two boys he was accompanying, “Don’t be shy, fellas.” 

“I’m Ni-ki.” The newest boy greeted shyly. If it was possible, he seemed even more shy than Sunghoon, eyes meeting yours for a moment before looking back out at the ice.

“My name’s Sunoo!” The cute boy from yesterday sing-songed, grabbing your hand and shaking it excitedly, “So you’re the (Y/N) Sunghoon won’t shut up about?” Jay shoved his overly excited friend for revealing that Sunghoon talked about you. You felt your cheeks heat up at the thought of Sunghoon gushing about you to his friends like a schoolgirl, but tried your best to act cool about it and like you definitely didn’t care.

Speaking of Sunghoon, there was a knock on the plexi-glass that got your attention; He stood on the ice, adorning the biggest smile you think you’ve ever seen on him. You got up and walked towards him, followed by the three other boys.

“You made it!” Sunghoon cheered, although his voice was muffled through the layer of glass between you two.

“Well, I was pretty busy, but I managed to squeeze this into my schedule.” You teased, checking your nails for the dramatic effect. The boy on the ice just chuckled at your teasing, the sound causing you to smile.

“Thanks for coming, I really appreciate it.” He thanked you sincerely.

“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it.” You said sweetly before cracking a goofy grin, “It’ll be nice to see you do something besides fail at biology.”

“Good luck out there buddy!” Jay encouraged, giving his friend a fist-bump through the glass.

“I’m sure you’ll be great.” Ni-ki assured, nodding at the boy on the ice before retreating to his seat.

“We’ll be cheering you on Hoonie!” Sunoo exclaimed, making a fist before returning to his seat as well. Sunghoon waved as he skated back to the bench to prepare for his turn, which would be happening in less that five minutes.

“After you.” You gesture for Jay to go first, swaying your hands dramatically towards the isle.

“Thank you.” He bowed, before going to his seat. You are then reminded of the task at hand, and you make a mental note to ask Jay some of the questions you prepared, trying your best to come off as natural. You sat back down in your spot between him and Sunoo.

“So, how have you been?” you asked nonchalantly, “Busy week?”

“Not really.” Jay answered simply, “Mostly schoolwork and then hanging with these dudes. You?”

“Well, just tutoring and managing my club.” You said, grinning sweetly at the boy.

“You have a club?” Sunoo gasped, before pouting, “I wish I had my own club...”

“What kind of club is it?” Jay asked, seemingly interested in what you had to say.

“It’s called the Paranormal Activities Club. PAC for short. We meet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at around 4:00” You explained, glancing at Jay as you continues, “We talk about all sorts of paranormal stuff like ghosts, werewolves, demons... vampires...” Jay shifts in his seat at the mention of monsters, and you of course take notice of this.

“That’s really cool.” Ni-ki admitted, smirking at you before looking away.

“Yeah... cool.” Jay agreed, a hesitance slightly present in his tone.

“Do you believe in anything like that, Jay?” You asked, relaxing your demeanor and trying to seem as inconspicuous as possible.

“Me?” He said and cleared his throat, “Not really. It’s possible, but super unlikely...” You hummed in response, taking note of how he copied your stance by relaxing his back and opening his legs a bit more to seem comfortable. He wouldn’t meet your gaze though.

Interesting...

Just as you were about to say something else, The announcer came over the loud speaker and announced that it was time for the next skater to go and Sunghoon skated out to the center of the rink and stood in front of the judges. He bowed before doing a half a lap and gliding the other half with his arms spread, greeting the crowd. You clapped along with everyone else, making a mental note to put the whole vampire situation on pause and focus on Sunghoon.

He returned to the center where he waited; the music began. It was a a soft piano track and it filled the rink with the sweet melody. Sunghoon then began to skate and you could swear you felt all the air leave your lungs. 

As he glided, Sunghoon twisted and turn on his blades, spreading his arms like a delicate swan. As the song grew to a peak, He dug one of his blades into the ice and used it seemingly as a launchpad, jumping and spinning in the air like gravity didn’t effect him. As the song continued, he swiveled on one of his feet before jumping and spinning again; your eyes followed him, in awe at how beautiful and graceful he moved around on the ice. He then spun in one spot, long leg outstretched at a perfect 90 degree angle before transitioning into holding  his blade and creating a ring with his body, all while continuing his turns. You watched, almost in a trance as he moved along with the symphony, skating right by the crowd and right past the judges before launching into another jump. As the song came to a close, Sunghoon got into his finishing stance, which was his arms outstretched forward and sliding on one knee towards the judges, a 5-star smile on his face. You can feel your heart pounding in your chest from his performance, taking a moment to calm down before applauding your tutor friend. (Did I watch a ton of vids on Sunghoon skating today? Yes.)

“He did fantastic.” You whisper breathlessly to Jay, who stands and starts to holler at his friend.

“He did.” Jay responded, showing a sense of pride for his best friend. The boys yell words of encouragement to Sunghoon as he bows to the judges and then to the crowd. You catch his gaze and feel a certain swell in your chest when he smiles just a bit brighter at you.

~~~

“You were gliding across the ice like ‘swooooshh’ and then you jumped up and spun like ‘trrrrt’!” Ni-ki gushed, rotating his finger as you were standing by the dressing room to congratulate Sunghoon. He looked even more beautiful up close, handsome features glowing in the place he’s most comfortable.

“You were awesome Hoonie!” Sunoo agreed, smiling so bright his eyes basically disappeared in his eye smiles.

“Thank you guys, really.” Sunghoon said out of breath, brushing his sweaty locks off his forehead, “I’m glad you all came to cheer for me.”

“Of course,” Jay scoffed, “What kind of friends don’t support their friend?”

“You should have seen (Y/N) watch you,” Sunoo exposed, moving aside to make room for you to talk to Sunghoon comfortably, “She couldn’t take her eyes off of you, and stared like this.” He then did an over-dramatized of you, eyes sparkling and jaw open so wide you thought he was trying to eat an invisible cheeseburger. You felt your face heat up out of embarrassment before Jay shoves Sunoo to get him to quit.

“For the record, I did not watch you like that.” You corrected, before grinning and holding out your hand for a high-five, “But you were really cool.” Sunghoon’s already flush cheeks reddened at your comment before letting out a small ‘thank you’ and lightly high-fiving you. When your hand touched Sunghoon’s, you felt a jolt of electricity and it made you giddy.

“Should we go out for pizza or something? To celebrate?” Ni-ki suggested, earning a murmur of agreements from the group. Sunghoon mentioned he had to go change and you were secretly upset by this. Just because you were friends didn’t mean you couldn’t think he was attractive right? He looked so good in that costume, the tight-fitting pants and loose shirt that left only a little to the imagination. You ogled his exposed collarbones for a moment more as he was talking to Jay about if he’d place; Although you had just now notice something that was there.

Right above his right collarbone, there seemed to be a small burn-mark that was previously covered with makeup but now was visible due to Sunghoon’s sweat. It wasn’t very big, but it looked like it was in a starburst shape and you wondered what could have caused it. Maybe a cooking accident with oil?

The ice price disappeared in the change room and you and the rest of the boys waited out front in the lobby. When Sunghoon did emerge from the change room, you all wasted no time and began to make your way to the closest pizza joint. You walked beside Jay, watching the other two boys tease Sunghoon in-front of you.

“So...” You said, trying to fill the silence; You didn’t know how to transition in to vampire talk so effortlessly. It was a weird topic to bring up out of the blue and you didn’t know how to ask Jay about his shoes without seeming like you had a foot fetish.

“Yeah..?” Jay asked before chuckling, “You okay? You look a little on edge; something on your mind perhaps?” Perfect.

“Well, its a little late and there have been a few attacks recently...” You said wearily, stealing glaces at the boy beside you.

“Oh yeah, there have been.” Jay gulped, brushing his hair out of his eyes, “But you’ll be okay if you stay close to us.”

“Me and my club suspect its a vampire.” You stated bluntly, wanting to see how Jay would react; he stiffens, but overall keeps a good composure.

“Really?” He chuckled dryly, “That’s interesting.”

“I know you don’t believe in that kind of stuff though.”

“yeah...”

“But we are pretty serious about it. We are just trying to find out who the vampire is.”

“Do you have a suspect?”

“yeah.” You answered and turned to him, pausing before speaking slowly, “We actually do have one...”

Jay stared at you, panic concealed in his glossed over eyes. Before he could speak, the boys lead you into the restaurant.You drop the conversation as you enter the building. You all squish into a corner booth and Ni-ki orders a pizza for all of you to share.

“what’s wrong Jay? you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Sunoo asked concerned, placing his hand on his friends shoulder.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Jay said flatly, glancing at you before smiling, “I just can’t wait to eat.”

“Dude, I’m so hungry!” Ni-ki sighed, patting his stomach for emphasis.

“I’m not actually, so I think I’ll just hang out.” Sunghoon revealed, grinning softly. You were pressed next to him in the booth and for some reason you felt nervous.

 It must have been the vampire thing. 

Definitely.

Why else would you be nervous?

“What?” Sunoo exclaimed, “How could you not be hungry? You’ve exercised all day!”

“Not sure, but I’m good on the food.” Sunghoon explained, “I think I’ll just get an ice tea.”

Just then the pizza arrived and you all (besides Sunghoon) began eating. Lots of fun was had and you swear you felt like you were with your own friend group. The boys made you laugh and you felt pretty comfortable around them, even though you had just met Ni-ki and Sunoo today.

Not long after, it was dark and you and the boys had finished the pizza and it was time for you to go home; You still hadn’t gotten any information about Jay’s shoes or a confession about vampire activities. But you had an idea to maybe reveal some information, though you didn’t really want to do it...

As you guys stood up from the table, you “accidentally” knocked over Sunghoon’s half-drunken ice tea all over your shoes, drenching your feet and the surrounding carpet with the sticky drink.

“Ahhh!” You whined, feeling the coldness of the drink seeping into your socks. The boys reacted as quick as possible, picking up the glass and informing a waitress about the accident. You guys left the restaurant, embarrassed; You sat outside on the pavement, wringing your socks out, giggling about how silly the situation was. Now was the time to really get the information you need.

“What am I gonna do about walking home?” You sighed before looking at Jay playfully, “Maybe Jay will let me borrow his super cool boots! What size are they anyways?” 

Jay chuckled and looked down at his shoes before shaking his head at you.

“No way man! I don’t trust you with my babies.” Jay joked, “besides, they are a men’s size 7, so I doubt you would be able to fit into them.” That was the same size as the print at the scene...

“I know, I’m just kidding.” You chuckled, trying to hide the thought process going on in your head, “I’ll just wear these gross sneakers home!” As you began to put your shoes on, your vision is suddenly covered by a figure crouching down in front of you. 

“Hop on.” Sunghoon urged, looking over his shoulder with a smile, “You can’t live that far from here right?” You replied with a small ‘are you sure?’, to which Sunghoon nodded yes. You picked up your shoes with one hand before wrapping your arms and legs around the ice-prince. He stood up and adjusted you on his back, placing his hands around your thighs to support your body. You felt yourself become nervous, yet excited from the close contact, bringing heat to your face from these feelings. 

“See you boys tomorrow!” Sunghoon called out to the boys as you and Sunghoon prepared to leave. Ni-ki and Sunoo waved before starting their trek in the opposite direction, bickering back and forth. Jay lingered for a moment longer, feeling a sense of anxiety bubble up in his chest. Were you close to finding out about...? He didn’t like the idea of you and Sunghoon being alone, but he trusted his friend.

“You two be careful okay?” Jay said very carefully, eyes glued to his friend, “I’ll see you tomorrow Sunghoon.” And with that, he turned to leave and quickly followed after the other two boys. You tried to get a look at the bottom of his shoes, but you couldn’t see them very well in the dark and in the distance. 

You had let Sunghoon know where you lived and the two of you were off. For a bit, the only thing that could be heard was Sunghoon’s feet against the pavement and the beating of your heart in your ears. You found comfort in the smell of his cologne and the occasional street light as Sunghoon held you close.

“Hey, you didn’t have to carry me home...” You hummed, feeling slightly guilty about making Sunghoon carry you.

“Oh, my bad. I’ll just leave you here then.” He teased, loosening his grip on you. You squealed and clung onto his shoulders and let out a flurry of “no”s. He chuckled at your reaction before shifting his grip on you to hold you closer to him. You wrapped your arms around the boy tighter, burying your face in his shoulder. It was silent again, but only for a moment before you mumbled a quiet thank you; Sunghoon hummed in response, focusing on the warmth of you against his back and the thousand thoughts stirring in his head.

“Hey (Y/N), I have to ask you something.” He finally said; You had almost fell asleep on his back, focusing only on the sounds of his breathing. His statement intrigued you, causing you to perk up off of his shoulder.

“What’s up?” You said gently, tightening your grip.

“Say you had a really good friend...” He started out, voice low and serious, “and you found out they did something really bad, but it was an accident” You frowned, getting a sudden sense of dread. You suddenly felt how cold it was outside in the dark.

“What would you do?” He finally asked, “Would you stay friends with them?”

You were quiet for a minute, thinking of how to respond to this question. You had just passed the last streetlamp on the road you were walking so it was almost pitch black except for a few stars. The night atmosphere brought in a thick tension that made you feel nervous about the subject matter of Sunghoon’s question.

“I mean, I guess it really depends on what the bad thing is.” You stated, before continuing on, “But it was an accident and if I knew they were a good person, I guess I might stay friends.” Sunghoon nodded, thinking about your answer and breathing out weakly.

“Why? Did your friend do something really bad?” You asked suddenly, Jay popping into your mind. Sunghoon’s pace quickened a bit and you could feel his heart in his chest going crazy. He seemed anxious and you though about what that could mean. He adjusted his grip on you before clearing his throat.

“Nope. I was just wondering what you’d say.” He said flatly, seemingly more confident than before. You blinked a couple times, surprised by his sudden change of tone.

“Oh okay...” You replied nonchalantly, looking up to the sky and sighing, “I mean, if you did something bad on accident, I’d still be your friend because you’re a really great guy.” You didn’t even realize what you said until it came out of your mouth. You felt you face heat up and Sunghoon let out a hearty chuckle that made you even more flustered.

“Thanks I guess.” He said through giggles, Before chewing the skin on his bottom lip and responding back, “I think you’re a really great girl too.”

“Thanks” you can’t help but squeak, making you mentally want to punch yourself. There’s suddenly tension again, but for a different reason this time. Sunghoon’s grip on your legs is softer now and you notice his thumb beginning to mindlessly draw shape on your thighs. You held his broad shoulders tighter and you could feel him take a shaky breath as yours tickled the side of his neck.

But before the tension got too thick, you had arrived at your place. Sunghoon took you to the front door and let you down off of him before turning around to face you. His cheeks were red, but you were sure it wasn’t from the cold. 

“Thanks again for taking me home.” You said, feeling like your stomach was going to explode.

“Its no problem.” Sunghoon assured you, rubbing the back on his neck to get the goosebumps to go away.

“It’s pretty late, do you want me to call you a cab?”

“No I’m alright, but thanks for the offer.”

“Are you sure? I’d hate for something to happen.”

“I’m sure.”

Sunghoon bowed his head to you, bidding you a farewell. You felt your body move towards him and before you could even think to stop yourself, you did the unthinkable.

You leaned in and placed a kiss on his cheek, right on the corner of his mouth and you swore you must have looked just as surprised as Sunghoon did; His eyes were wide and he looked as if he was frozen in time.

“I- uhmmmm....” You stammered before saying the stupidest thing in the universe, “Good job skating today. Goodnight!”

 Sunghoon blinked a couple of times, finally seeming to wake up.

“Uh- Thanks!” He exclaimed, clearly flustered, before turning to leave you door. He had his hand on his face where you kissed as he waved back at you with the other when he realized he needed to say goodbye, “I- uhh, Goodnight (Y/N)!” 

It was official, you wanted to die.

--------------------

“Jake, did you even listen to the rest of the story?” You huffed, embarrassed at your friends relentless teasing.

“If you didn’t want me to make fun of you,” Jake explained through fits of laughter, “You should have left the part where you awkwardly kissed pretty boy out of the story!”

You shoved Jake into room 300 because he was about to miss the turn into the classroom (and for your own personal gratification). Heesung and Jungwon were already there, putting the desks together to create your meeting table. Upon noticing your entrance they both greeted you and Jake before gazing at the cackling vice-president of PAC.

“What’s so funny?” Jungwon asked, pulling out all of the evidence photos from his backpack. Jake sighed, wiping a tear away and finally able to catch his breath.

“I mean, you should ask (Y/N).” He chuckled, “I’m sure she’s dying to explain.” You rolled your eyes, trying to fight your body from heating up.

“Nothing new, Jake just bullying me.” You shook your head and took your seat at the head of the table. After setting up the rest of the evidence, the boys sat down too and you officially started the meeting.

“Alright, so here’s what I got to find out about our suspect.” You said and went up to the whiteboard. You picked up a black dry erase marker and wrote Jay’s name before underlining it.

“First, when we were at the rink, I mentioned our club and asked if he believed in paranormal things and he said no, but with hesitation.” You said and wrote down a summary of what you said, “Then, when I mentioned the attacks, he got really antsy, especially after I mentioned that we were investigating for a vampire.”

“So no confession I presume?” Heesung asked, jotting notes down as you went along to keep your encounter documented after club was over and you had to erase the board.

“No, but he was very defensive any time I brought the vampire stuff up.” You explained and the boys nodded.

“And the other boys, you said they were named Sunoo and Ni-ki..?” Jungwon asked and you hummed in response, “Did they do anything suspicious?”

“Not a thing.” You said simply, “Sunoo seemed more worried about the attacks than I did. And Ni-ki was a bit more focused on pizza and figure skating than engaging in conversation.”

“However,” You continued before writing your thoughts on the board, “I have reason to believe Sunghoon knows about Jay being a vampire.”

“You do?” Heesung said, shocked at your accusation, “Why?”

“Well, I wanted to get more information about Jay’s boots, but I couldn’t bring up shoes without seeming weird so long story short, I dumped ice tea on my sneakers and Sunghoon took me home.” You said before writing a side note, “Oh and for your information, Jay’s shoe size is a 7 in men’s,  but I couldn’t get a good look at the treads.”

“Okay, that useful information.” Jungwon said and jotted that down, “But continue.”

“Anyways, He had asked me if I would stay friends with someone if they did something really bad, but I knew it was on accident.” You explained, writing the point form of that conversation on the board, “So I suspect he knows about Jay and doesn’t know what to do, stay friends or turn him in.”

“I mean, that is an oddly specific question.” Jungwon agreed, furrowing his eyebrows in thought, “Why would you ask someone that unless you specifically have an experience to go by.”

“Anything else happen?” Heesung asked, looking at you expectantly.

“Yeah (Y/N), anything else happen?” Jake, who had been quiet this whole time asked, eyes fluttering and a grin on his face. You groaned, pinching the bridge of your nose.

“Relevant to the investigation, no.” You said before sighing, “But I also gave Sunghoon a really awkward kiss on the cheek, but that’s irreverent.”

The room went up in a flurry, and you could have swore you wouldn’t have gotten a bigger reaction if you said you had found Jay to be the vampire. All the boys were talking at once and it was so loud, you almost didn’t hear a knock at the door. You shushed them before going to the door and opening it to reveal the man you were just talking about.

“Uh, hi...” Sunghoon greeted shyly. The rest of the boys peered over your shoulder to eavesdrop on the conversation until Sunghoon met their gaze, to which they looked anywhere but the doorway. You’re gaze dropped, not being able to his face, feeling the heat of nervousness and embarrassment creep up your neck.

“Hey, what’s up?” You asked, suddenly aware of all of the writing you had on  the whiteboard; You pulled the door a bit closer, blocking most of the room.

“I just wanted to uhh.... I wanted to talk to you about something.” Sunghoon mumbled, clearly nervous. The boys let out a loud ‘oooOooOoOOoO’ from behind you and you reminded yourself to hit them later. You rolled your eyes feeling bad for how your friends were being.

“Sure, let’s just go out into the hallway.” You said and closed the door behind you. It was quite out there and you finally had the courage to bring your gaze back up to his face. Your eyes settled on the spot where you had kissed him a couple nights ago and you couldn’t help the butterflies from fluttering around in your stomach.

“Before you say anything,” You sighed, trying your best to hide your embarrassment, “I’m sorry about Saturday night. I totally don’t even know what I was thinking doing that and-”

“Oh please don’t apologize!” Sunghoon interrupted frantically, before clearing this throat and fiddling with an envelope; You hadn’t even noticed he was holding it until now.

“I mean, I don’t mind you kissing me like that...” He said timidly, smirking to himself before holding the envelope out for you to take. You do take it, feeling the red wax seal on the front, “I wanted to give you that. But please don’t read it yet!”

“Alright, I’ll wait to read it.” You agreed and gripped the paper tightly, “Is that all..?”

“Well, I was also wondering if you want to come over later today?” He asked, biting his bottom lip; your eyes were trained to his mouth, but instead of his lips, you were focused on his pointed canine teeth; how cute that he had little “fangs”!

“Yeah, I’d love to, but as a date..?” You asked timidly, rocking back and forth on your feet. Sunghoon blinked and gazed at the ground, ears red.

“If you want it to be, I’d like that too...” He said and you nodded, feeling like your heart was about to explode, “So I guess just be in the lobby of my apartment by 8 and bring the letter. Please don’t read it until then.”

“I promise.” You agreed again, smiling like an idiot, “I guess I’ll see you later.”

Sunghoon said goodbye and gave you a kiss, much like you did to him a few nights ago; Only this time, his lips attached to your mouth for a moment and you felt like you could die happy. Except he tasted oddly metallic, but you were too excited to care. He waved goodbye and scurried down the hallway and disappeared from your sight.

You go back into the classroom and are met with three pairs of eyes on you. You stared at the boys and they stared back in silence.

“So are we gonna talk about pretty boy asking you out or..?” Jake finally said and you scoffed, approaching them.

“Let’s just get back to work on things that matter!” You huffed, but couldn’t stop the grin from gracing your features.

~~~

Ice Prince: you’re almost here?

You text back a reply and quickly close your phone. Jake glanced at you before patting your shoulder reassuringly while keeping is focus on the road.

“Hey, everything will be fine.” He said and smiled, “I mean, I think you’ll probably spill water all over his floor and probably trip in the elevator, but I guess he’s into girls like that.”

“Oh god, don’t jinx me.” You groaned, pulling down the flip-up mirror in Jake’s car to check your makeup one last time. You take a tube of lip-chap out of your bag and apply another layer, worried about your lips being crusty. Jake chuckled and parked in front of Sunghoon’s building, flipping the mirror up and startling you in the process.

“You look great, dude.” He said simply and gives you a lopsided grin, “Just breathe and be yourself and everything will go great.” You take a deep breath in and thank Jake before giving him a hug.

“Hey, when you tell me all about it later, make sure to leave out all the kissing parts.” He teased, grimacing as you got out of the car, “I don’t need to hear about you and pretty boy swapping spit.”

“If I knew you’d be so jealous of me, I would have set you two up instead.” You grinned and walked towards the front door, thanking Jake for the ride before entering the lobby.

(Y/N): I’m here!

Ice Prince: Be right there to see you :)

Ice Prince: Did you bring the letter?

After reading the last message, you texted back a quick ‘yes’. Just then, the elevator doors opened to reveal Sunghoon, who beamed when he saw you. He looked almost as ethereal as when he was on the ice (almost).

He had his hair parted in the middle and a simple, over-sized white dress shirt tucked into his black jeans. The shirt felt somewhat familiar, but you couldn’t place where you’d seen one like that...

“Hey.” He said, shakiness evident in his voice, “You look so beautiful...”

“Oh thanks.” You replied, trying to hide your nervousness, “I think you look beautiful- I! Uhhhh mean handsome! You look really handsome...”

You mentally facepalmed yourself, but it must have been showing in your features because Sunghoon laughed, releasing all the tension in the room. After all, this was your calculus tutor and a friend you were with. He lead you into the elevator. Sunghoon lived on one of the top floors on his apartment complex, so you'd be in there for a minute; Sunghoon took the time to try and ease his nerves, staring at the doors and humming a soft tune.

You glanced in the mirror in the elevator, wanting to make sure your hair was perfect. And that’s when you saw it; more accurately, didn’t see it...

You were alone in the reflection.

Feeling like your eyes were deceiving you, you turned back to see Sunghoon standing there, humming away without a care in the world. You turned back to the mirror and saw that he wasn’t in the mirror. You felt your stomach drop as everything clicked together.

No mirrors in his house, the burn on his collarbone, not eating after the competition, his question that night, the metallic taste of his lips, and that stupid shirt...

“Come on (Y/N),” Sunghoon beckoned from the hallway; you hadn’t realized the doors opened and he was waiting for you. Sunghoon smiled and your eyes snapped to his sharp canines you had noticed earlier today, “Sorry, was I interrupting your daydream?”

“Not at all.” You said nervously, leaving the elevator and following Sunghoon to his place. You had to fight the urge to run away from him and not let him be alone with you in his apartment; he could be trapping you and every instinct was screaming run.

But you were curious about him. If he really was... then as the president of PAC, you needed to know. 

“Hey (Y/N), you don’t have to be afraid.” He whispered, facing his door and opening it. He held his door open to you and softly grinned, which filled you with comfort, “Its just me.”

You entered his apartment and everything looked like it had the last time you were here. It had felt like ages ago now.

You sat on the couch, feeling surprisingly calm; But you always had felt pretty calm around Sunghoon (up until recently when you started getting butterflies because of your feelings), so it made sense.

“Do you want anything?” He called from the kitchen casually, like he does when you study here. He was looking in the fridge, as if he didn’t notice the change in your behavior.

“No, I’m alright.” You hummed, sitting with your hands in you lap; the atmosphere was thick, and you watched as Sunghoon closed the fridge and approached the couch and sat beside you, “So, what do you have planned?”

“First things first, I want to address that letter I gave you,” He said and looked at your bag that was still around your shoulder; You moved it and went to take the letter out of it, shuffling around in the bag, “And then maybe we can go out somewhere or watch a movie or whatever you want.”

“Sounds good, I have it right here.” You said, still looking for it in your bag. You ducked your head to look in your bag for it, surprised you hadn’t felt it yet, but you couldn’t see it in there, “It should be in here... somewhere...”

Sunghoon watched as you start taking things out of your bag until it was empty; no letter.

“I could have sworn I brought it!” You huffed, frustrated and embarrassed you forgot the one thing you needed, “I’m so sorry. but maybe you can just tell me what it said..?”

“ahhh of course this would happen...” Sunghoon sighed, chuckling to himself, looking at the velvet cushion of the couch, “I can’t believe I have to grow the courage to actually say it, but you needed to know.”

“Maybe you don’t have to say it.” you grabbed his hands, causing him to look you in the eyes. There was a suddenly tension, and you could feel yourself growing meeker by the second, “Maybe I already know...”

Sunghoon was so close you could feel the heat radiating from his body. His eyes hid something you couldn’t read, but his expression laid stone cold. He licked his lips before responding to you, eyes not leaving yours.

“What do you know?” His voice was low, barely above a whisper.

“What you are.” You said breathlessly with your last ounce of courage. Sunghoon’s eyes flickered, leaning away from you and looking out the window. He pulls his hands from yours, placing them in his own lap.

“It was the elevator right?” He asked, continuing before you could answer, “I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if you figured out my little secret sooner, you being the president of the vampire hunting club and all.” 

It was silent for a moment; Sunghoon still couldn’t meet your gaze, looking out the window into the lit city streets while you couldn’t stop looking at him. He was still beautiful as ever, and your eyes wandered to the mole on the bridge of his nose. You remember walking home with him that day an finally noticing it; You thought it made him look so much prettier.

He was still the same man as he was that day.

“What happened with Geonu?” You asked tentatively, leaning closer to Sunghoon to look out the window too.

“I had it all written down in the letter, but I can tell you about it because I owe you at least that much.” He said, his voice sounding weak and tired.

-

God he was so hungry. 

He was off to buy some beef to curb the cravings (Sunghoon eats it raw), but the market he went to was closed until the next morning.

But it didn’t help that he was hungry now and as time went on, his willpower was dwindling. As Sunghoon walked down the streets, hoping some fresh air would help with the intense burning in his stomach, before a familiar voice called out to him.

“Hey Sunghoon, Why are you out so late?” Jay called, jogging to catch up with Sunghoon. Jay was known to enjoy late night shenanigans, so it was no surprise to Sunghoon why he was out at night. But the smell of Jay’s sweat was killing him in ways he couldn’t explain to his friend.

“Wanted to go for a walk.” He answered flatly, trying to control his rampant desires. He kept walking, trying to get away from Jay, but his friend wouldn’t leave him alone.

“Hey dude, wait up! You don’t look so good...” Jay said, concern laced in his voice, “I’m gonna take you home okay, you need to rest up.”

As Jay reached out to touch Sunghoon, it was the last straw. Sunghoon grabbed his friend by the arm and yanked him, causing Jay to stumble to the ground in the adjacent alleyway, trying to process what was happening. Sunghoon lunged onto Jay, holding him down.

“Sunghoon get off of me!” Jay shouted, struggling to get out of the vice like grip Sunghoon had placed on his wrists. He saw the pure predatory look in his friend’s eyes and the growing of his teeth; The sight was something that would never leave Jay’s head.

“Sunghoon snap out of it!” Jay yelled, finally being able to throw Sunghoon off of his body. Sunghoon immediately made some distance between the two and burst into tears, laying on the pavement clutching his stomach.

“I’m sorry Jay...” Sunghoon cried, regaining the littlest bit of composure, “I’m.. It... It hurts so bad, Jay.”

“Hey it’s okay...” Jay said through heavy breaths, still trying to process what was going on and that this was real, “You should just go home and try to feel better okay?”

But just then, another figure appeared in mouth of the alleyway; Geonu.

He was studying late that night, stopping at the convenient store for some late night snacks. He was on his way back to the library when he hears shouting and fighting in the alleyway. And like any other person, he went to see what was going on and if he was able to help.

“Hey what’s going on? I heard shouting and fighting...” He explained, gazing at the two boys on the ground before approaching them. He stuck his hand out to Sunghoon, who was closer of the two to help him to his feet when the boy lashed out Geonu, digging his fingernails into his forearm and wailing.

Geonu pulled his arm away, crying out in pain and shuffling away from Sunghoon, holding onto the deep gash on his arm that was oozing blood. Once Sunghoon caught scent of it, his last bit of control was gone.

He lunged at Geonu, but he was quicker, stumbling to his feet and running in the direction of the school with Sunghoon in pursuit.

“Sunghoon! Wait!” Jay shouted, running after his friend to get him away from Geonu. He watched as they were heading through the front gate in the direction of the soccer feild.

Jay ran to the woods, hoping to cut off the duo; Suddenly there was a scream of anguish, sounding like Jay’s dear friend. He ran faster, emerging from the bush to see the two boys lying on the field.

Sunghoon had Geonu on his back, holding Sunghoon with his palms firmly on his chest. However, Geonu was wearing a silver ring that was burning into Sunghoon’s flesh near Sunghoon’s collarbone, which made the boy cry out. He ripped the hand from his shoulder before twisting the silver ring off Geonu’s finger and throwing it out at the track.

Sunghoon then fiercely lunged towards his neck, sinking his fangs into the center of his throat. Geonu’s screeched out in agony but it was already done. He weakly pushed on the boy above him, trying to get him off as he grew weaker.

Sunghoon sucked and chewed at the open wounds on Geonu, feeling the burning pain in his stomach subside. He held Geonu firmly until he ceased to move.

Jay watched in horror, his head spinning. He felt like he was in a dream as he watched his closest friend turn into a vampire and kill someone. Sunghoon unlatched from Geonu, realizing what he had done. He scurried away from Geonu’s body as fast as he could before wiping the copious amounts of blood from his mouth and chin area. He gazed at the red on his hands, feeling sick.

Sunghoon let out a pained scream, sitting on his knees as he let out sobs. Jay, shaken by his friends reaction, tried to approach the boy. Sunghoon looked at him,tears in his eyes.

“I-” Sunghoon choked, “God what have I done?”

Jay stared at his friend with wide eyes, kneeling on the grass.

“I’m a monster Jay.” Sunghoon wailed, shaking and crying, “I didn’t mean for this to happen... I was just so hungry and- and I killed him Jay. I couldn’t-” He broke into heavy sobs, pulling at his hair with red spit dropping onto his knees.

“Its... It’s okay.” Jay reassured, not exactly knowing what to do, went to his friend and wrapped his arm around him to sooth him, “You’re okay...”

“I’m a Vampire Jay, but I try my best to not hurt humans.” Sunghoon sniffled, wiping his face with the back of his hand before trembling, “But I did... I killed him and I don’t know what to do... There so much red.”

Without a word, Jay took off his jacket, before reaching for the buttons on Sunghoon’s dress shirt. He didn’t know what he just saw, but Sunghoon is his best friend and whatever killed Geonu wasn’t the Sunghoon who was in front of him now. So he helped his friend rid himself of the red on his shirt before tying it up in the bag Geonu had gotten from the convenient store and wrapping his jacket around Sunghoon.

He walked his friend to his house, where he cleaned him up and put him to sleep on his bed, watching over him as he slept, trying to get the nightmarish images from this night out of his head.

-

“What I did...” Sunghoon sighed finally turning to look at you with a serious face. Tears were brimming the edges of his eyes before he swallowed, “It’s unforgivable. I’m gonna have to live with the fact that I’m a monster forever.”

You stared back blankly, not sure of what you felt. Nothing felt real at this moment; you should be horrified, angry, or even a bit stressed, however you felt surprisingly calm. You resisted the urge to reach out and touch him, not knowing how he would react.

Sunghoon sight and looked back out the window, a weak smile.

“Y’know, I don’t blame you if you want to run away,” He said nodding slowly before swallowing, “I just wanted you to know the truth and I felt that it was the only good thing to do. I totally understand if you-”

“Stop.” You interrupted, causing Sunghoon to turn to you. Before your brain registered what you were doing, you leaned in and kissed Sunghoon, hands coming up to wrap around his neck. He was shocked, but quickly kissed you back cupping your face with his hands. You broke free and he blinked expectantly a couple of times.

“Listen, I don’t know what I think, cause this is a lot to process,” You started to explain, playing nervously with the hair on his nape. You looked at Sunghoon’s face; His soft lips, his pretty eyes and his pretty features, reminding you of who was in front of you. And with that, you made up your mind

“But, I don’t hate you, and I don’t want to leave.”  You said firmly, “You aren’t a monster; you’re Sunghoon, the dork who figure skates, who studies with me every Tuesday and Thursday. You’re the guy who carried me home when my shoes were gross and the guy who my friends tease me about liking. This doesn’t change anything. You’re still you and I love you the way you are. So I’m not going anywhere.”

Sunghoon held your face, thumbs caressing your cheeks before he leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on you lips. It was quick but sweet. He whispered a ‘thank you’, finally able to relax a bit. 

You wanted nothing more than to kiss him again, so you did, leaning in and kissing him deeply. You felt dizzy, but the only thing you knew was you never wanted to stop kissing Sunghoon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“As president of the PAC, I officially begin this meeting. We have a few things on the agenda today.” You said simply, sitting down in your spot, breathing out a heavy sigh, “To start, I have an update for all of you about our vampire.”

You thought all night about what you were to do with the information that Sunghoon is a vampire. You had explained everything to him; about how you were looking for a vampire and how you had suspected his friend was the perp and not Sunghoon himself. and after much deliberation (and Sunghoon’s permission), you thought the best course of action would be to tell your friends the truth. it would be impossible to lie to them when you were so invested in-

“Is it that your boyfriend is a vampire?” Jake asked, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. You looked at him in shock, flabbergasted on how Jake came to the conclusion. Before you had the chance to speak, he nonchalantly tossed an envelope- the one Sunghoon had given to you - on the desks.

“You left this in my car when I dropped you off for your date.” Jake explained.

“So, you opened it and read it..?” you asked; Jake silently shrugged and you shook your head at him in disappointment.

“Anyways, the point is, he admits it in the letter.” Jake said simply, glancing to Heeseung and Jungwon, who looked between you and the letter, “I texted the boys about it while you were on your date.”

“And?” You asked, looking between all the boys, “What do you want to do with that information..?”

“What do you want to do, (Y/N)?” Jungwon asked, “I’m sure you have your feelings invested on what happens next?”

You took a deep breath and slumped back in your chair, “I mean, I think Sunghoon a good guy. I’ve known him for a while and obviously now that were dating, I believe it even more. I know the most logical thing is to turn him into the authorities... but truthfully I’m not sure if I can. But if you all want to, that’s your choice.”

The boys were silent before Heeseung cleared his throat.

“well, we have already talked about the next course of action.” Heeseung began, speaking gently as if you’d spook. Jake hummed, gaze soft as he watched your uneasiness rise. He swallowed before speaking, “I don’t know Sunghoon as well, but he seems nice. and he makes you happy. And I think everything will be okay if we just leave it at that.”

You felt a wave of relief wash over you as you watch Jake’s expression relax; it was as if he was just as nervous about the decision as you were.

“There was a lot of logic talk with it,” Jungwon explained, lacing his fingers together and placing his hands on the desk, “realistically, the police probably wouldn’t even believe us if we did explain everything to them, so there would be no point.”

“And we also thought it would be a cool opportunity to talk to someone who is paranormal.” Heeseung added, with a shrug and a smirk, “y’know, for more club activities.”

“Yeah! (Y/N), do you think you could get Sunghoon to come and we could interview him for our records?” Jake asked, almost jumping out of his seat because he was so excited. you chuckled at your friends, who not only seemed to be making the best out of this situation, but also who just genuienly seemed interested in supporting you and Sunghoon.

“Funny you ask,” You laughed, standing from your chair. You made your way to the door, “Because the second order of business is that we have a few new members joining out club today and I was waiting to introduce them.”

You open the door to reveal Sunghoon and Jay, who awkwardly wave at your friends.

“Sorry for the wait, you guys can go sit down at our makeshift meeting table.” You explained, watching as Sunghoon smiled at you before he leaned in a placed a kiss onto your cheek.

“Hey, uhm..” Jay began awkwardly, walking over to and pointing at the whiteboard, “Why does it say “Evidence Jay is a Vampire” on your board..?”

“Oh uhm, don’t mind that.” Jungwon squeaks sheepishly, going over to the board and quickly erasing it.

“Hey, what’s so wrong with that?” Sunghoon teased, wrapping his arm around you and nudging his friend with his other. The group let out a flurries of chuckles.

“Hey Sunghoon, come sit over here.” Jake gestures to the seat beside him, grinning wildly at your boyfriend, “I have so many questions to ask you!”

You watched as the boys settled in nicely; Jungwon was showing some of the ‘research’ of vampire Jay to human Jay, while Jake and Heeseung brought out notepads and began to ask Sunghoon about some of his habits. You couldn’t help the undeniable feeling your heart swell at the thoughts of what the future might hold. 

______________________

A/N: ITS FINALLY DONE!!! I know this writing quality probably isn’t good (it is from years ago), but I loved this concept too much and put too much work into this fic just to scrap it. I hope you enjoyed it and if not, stayed tuned for something better !!!

[see-arcane]

In which a Creature feasts and teaches another would-be Prometheus some painful truths he learned for himself a century ago. This Prometheus being one with considerably fewer scruples when it comes to getting creative about human experimentation and insisting his captive revenant spills the secrets of life, death, and cheating the latter.

Ah, well.

Some lessons bear repeating. With emphasis.

Merry Christmas, have a reanimated Victor Frankenstein getting grisly with the dramatic irony. Figured this needed a more serious counterpart to the meme-flavor version.

The placeholder title for the thing this scene hails from is, Was Frankenstein Not the Monster? I thought this was going to be another novella. Tidy. Petite. No bigger than The Vampyres.

But.

I am on chapter 5.

And I haven't even gotten to the laboratory yet.

Help me.

[snakebites-and-ink]

Prev | Next

CW: Deception/betrayal, internalized dehumanization, angsty dramatic irony

Everyone was ecstatic when Hero made it back largely unharmed.

They were a little worse for wear, of course. Hero had amassed a collection of bruises and abrasions. But considering they’d been in the hands of their nemesis, they’d gotten off easy. If Villain’d had Hero trapped well enough to hold them for that long, it was lucky enough they’d escaped in one piece, let alone without serious injury.

When they arrived at the hero agency’s base, there was a flurry of excitement and Hero’s colleagues and teammates were quickly fetched. Quite a few excited greetings were exchanged, and Hero was whisked off to the medical wing.

Medic welcomed them and a team member explained that Hero had just escaped from Villain and needed their injuries checked.

Medic looked over them. There were a few abrasions and a number of bruises in various stages of healing. Most of the abrasions looked like they were from not-so-gentle restraints holding the hero; most of the bruises looked like they were directly inflicted by Villain themself.

Not a comfortable thing to go through, but it could have been so much worse.

Medic conversed with them as they worked. Hero expressed how glad they were to be back. Something in the way they answered didn’t really sound like the usual Hero, but Medic supposed they couldn’t expect them to be quite themself after being held captive by their enemy.

Medic asked them questions about what they’d gone through, partially to find out what they needed to treat, partially to check in on them emotionally. Hero told them about the treatment they’d gotten from Villain. Maybe it was because they didn’t want to talk about the unpleasant experience, but the details were a bit vague. Medic gave them a scrutinizing look.

The more the two talked, the more Medic could tell there was something Hero wasn’t telling them.

They were a doctor, used to respecting patient privacy, and they worked with heroes, so Medic could respect that some things had to be kept secret. They weren’t going to force Hero to tell them whatever it was they wanted to keep to themself, especially not right after they got home from the clutches of their enemy, but… “I just need to know whatever it is you’re not sharing won’t put anyone in danger.”

Hero smiled. Somehow it didn’t seem quite real. “Of course not. Have I ever been a danger?”

The heroes had accepted the weapon’s cover completely, just as Villain had predicted. They welcomed it in as a friend and ally and showed no signs of suspecting what it really was. The doctor seemed to have some doubts but ultimately let it go.

When night had fallen, the majority of the heroes had gone to bed, and the excitement had died down enough for it to escape their attention, the weapon contacted its owner. It sent the preestablished signal that would broadcast its location to Villain, leading them to the hero agency.

Then it moved on to its next task.

Villain’s weapon went down to the basement level of the hero agency’s base. It didn’t look like much, but it was vital to the building’s structural integrity. The perfect place to target for maximum damage with minimum cost.

491 found the structural support piece it was looking for. Well built, but everything had that one special frequency that was perfectly tuned to shatter it. And one of the weapon’s abilities was finding such a frequency with minimal effort. It was well-attuned with sound.

It summoned soundwaves between its fingers at the exact right frequency, then sent the vibrations through the support piece, raising the intensity until it broke. 

The building groaned and tremors started running through it. With the job done, the weapon knew it had to get out of there quickly to make it back to its owner in one piece. It dashed back up to ground level, dodging falling rubble and new cracks on its way to the nearest exit.

The hero team fled the building too. They met up outside, watching the building falling apart in horror.

The team was devastated. They’d all made it without major injuries, but their home and sanctuary was ruined. Distressed cries and exclamations of “What went wrong?” sounded around the group.

But it wasn’t over yet, which none of them were prepared for. They were expecting this to be an attack in and of itself. They didn’t realize it was only to make them vulnerable to the enemy’s real move.

Called by the signal, Villain arrived, and caught the lot of them with far more ease than the villain could have hoped for before.

Tagging: @whumpsoda

[the-far-bright-center]

In discussions of TCW-Anakin vs. film-Anakin, I understand why some people see them as being incompatible or entirely different portrayals. But whatever problems I personally have with TCW are more to do with certain OOC dialogue lines that I don't agree with, or the overly-contrived situations that TCW tends to force him into just so an episode or scene can function as a 'meta-commentary' on his character or storyline. Believe me, I have issues with specific aspects of TCW's writing for Anakin, but the fact he's more outwardly 'suave' or 'dashing' than some people expected is not one of them. If anything, I see the 'Skyguy' persona as perfectly in keeping with Anakin as portrayed at the beginning of RotS, and I would argue that a great deal of the TCW characterisation is pulled directly from those Battle of Coruscant scenes. (TCW Anakin is also heavily inspired by Jake Lloyd's Little Ani in TPM, which, lest anyone forget, counts as FILM-Anakin.) The actual baseline 'persona' for both versions of the character isn't actually that different, and I'm tired of this idea that film-Anakin ISN’T supposed to be seen as ‘cool’ in-universe, just as much as I’m tired of the idea that TCW-Anakin ISN’T supposed to be viewed as a figure of pathos by the audience, either.

Imo, they’re both takes on the same character coming from different angles, set at different stages in his life, and portrayed through different mediums (animated series heavy on self-aware, darkly ironic humour in a more contemporary style intended to entertain and increase enjoyment of the Prequels-era and its characters vs. serious Greek tragedy with Shakespearean overtones made with old-Hollywood-style sensibilities as part of a mythic six-film saga). Just because TCW Ani doesn’t shed literal tears on-screen doesn’t mean he’s not emotional or emotionally vulnerable. As far as I remember, there's even a scene where Obi-Wan and Anakin discuss the fact that Anakin has trouble keeping his emotions hidden, which is the opposite of the 'macho' ideal the TCW version gets accused of being. And the amount of times we're constantly bashed over the head with dramatic irony about his fate as Vader in that series surely drives home the point that his trajectory is still a tragic one. (The way he cries out in agony in the Mortis arc, 'I will do such terrible things!' gets to me, every time.) Despite his powers and prowess, TCW Anakin is even shown as being physically vulnerable at times, as well. (See the Jedi Crash storyline which he spends mostly knocked-out unconscious, the nod to his mechanical arm as a liability in the Zillo Beast and Citadel arcs, and the scene of him futilely struggling like a wild beast before being captured with ropes in the Zyggerian arc, or the fact he gets captured and tortured by Dooku in 'Shadow Warrior'.) Fandom makes endless jokes about TCW Ani getting electrocuted every other episode, but then turns around and uses this to fuel the dismissive view of him as just some dumb himbo instead of understanding that this, too, is supposed to add to the character's pathos.

Likewise, fandom claims that film-Ani is 'uncool' and 'cries all the time', which is simply not true. Film-Anakin banters, jokes, laughs, makes daring jumps out of speeders, does bold piloting moves, is in fact an imposing duellist, and so on. Sure, his character is not supposed to be seen as aspirational (obviously!) and the most memorable and dramatic moments of the latter two Prequels films feature him in the midst of extremely intense emotions. But the oft-repeated view of him as 'uncool' completely ignores the fact that by the time that RotS starts, Anakin is also supposed to be a well-known and widely-admired charismatic general, aka the Hero With No Fear, who is viewed as almost singlehandedly saving the Republic. The audience may be privy to Anakin's inner turmoil, but in-story he is supposed to be seen as THE golden boy of the Jedi Order and the Republic. The RotS novelization frequently mentions that Anakin has 'dash', 'boldness', and a 'presence' 'like the Holo-Net hero that he is'. It literally says he's the best at what he does and he KNOWS it. He's not just supposed to be some sad, awkward idiot like the fandom thinks he is (rather, he's supposed to be shown as falling from a 'great height'). By the time of RotS, film Anakin has just as much swagger and self-confidence in his role as General Skywalker as he does in TCW. Just because that side of him is not the main focus of the film doesn't mean it's not supposed to be there.

[lucky-clover-gazette]

prince's gambit highlights & annotations

chapter 19 and a half

(quoted BY HAND from the PAPER BOOK)

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

Damen was happy.

i love that it starts like this. for the first time in the entire series, it really is that simple

He felt the warm, wonderful, impossible fact of the situation. Bed slave.

interesting subversion here. i love how it hovers over discomfort for the reader, like we get why damen is pleased by this, but we can't 100% be on board with the sentiment. demonstrates damen's tendency to look away from the unpleasant in favor of the pleasant, even when those things overlap

'Come back to bed,' said Damen. 'I, said Laurent, and stopped.

ooooh he got the laurent speechless "i" with that one. laurent's probably feeling some shame and disbelief and maybe some dissociation? which makes the fact that damen takes his hand after this even better. it helps to ground him

'I—thought to towel you down.' The sweetness of it was startling. He realised with a little pulse of his heart that Laurent meant it. He was used to the ministrations of slaves, but it was an indulgence beyond any dream of decadence to have Laurent do this.

i think laurent's need to be clean after sex is a trauma/shame thing, so him offering the same to damen is almost a weird kind of protectiveness? like "it makes me feel better and safe after this overwhelming thing, and i want you to feel that way too." it's sweet in a different way from damen's understanding, or i guess just a deeper one.

Laurent had indeed taken care of matters, and had removed any evidence of their activities from his appearance. He did not look like someone who had just been fucked. Laurent's post-coital instincts were remarkably self-denying.

see comment above

'I lack," said Laurent, "the easy mannerisms that are usually shared with,' you could see him pushing the words out, 'a lover.' 'You lack the easy mannerisms that are usually shared with anyone,' said Damen.

i am so sad that this exchange isn't in the original book, because it's one of my favorites in the entire series. it pulls together so many thematic and character beats at one, with the book's consistent poignancy and humor. it's a great example of pacat's subtle dramatic irony and damen's corresponding lovestruck distraction from the truth. damen isn't being neglectful by misunderstanding laurent, he's accidentally manifesting a safe place for them both to be silly and strange and loving despite all the things he doesn't understand. which is what laurent really needs, to see that he can be loved and trusted, even if he's realizing this while actively caught up in his own lie.

also i'm a sucker for affectionate teasing.

'You thought of it?' 'You kissed me,' said Laurent. 'On the battlements. I thought of it.'

the contrast of damen looking at laurent in book 1 chapter 1 and thinking immediately "he'd be a very expensive sex slave" and laurent only starting to consciously think about damen in a sexual way after they kissed in the end of book 2...

Laurent was silent, as he fought an internal battle. Damen felt the quality of his stillness, the moment when he pushed himself to speak. 'You were different,' said Laurent. It was all he said. The words seemed to come from a deep place in Laurent, eked out from some core of truthfulness.

different from [redacted?] i sure hope so

'You can call me by my given name,' said Laurent. 'If you like.' 'Laurent,' he said.

LET'S GOOOOOO

gonna be a while until we get a 'damen' from laurent, but that's okay, i like the fact that i thiiiiink it comes after the reveal? and kind of a synthesis of the disconnected damen and damianos currently in laurent's head

'I'm not afraid of sex,' said Laurent. 'Then you can do as you like.' And that was the crux of the matter, it was suddenly clear from the look in Laurent's eyes. It was Damen's turn to hold himself still. Laurent was looking at him as he had since he had returned to the bed, dark-eyed and on the cusp. Laurent said, 'Don't touch me.' He was expecting... he wasn't sure what he was expecting. The first hesitant brush of Laurent's fingers against his skin was a shock. There was an odd sense of inexperience in Laurent, as though the role was as new to him as it was to Damen. As though all of this was new to him, which made no sense. The touch on his biceps was tentative, exploratory, as though it was something new to be marked out, the span of it, the shape of the curved muscle. Laurent's gaze was traveling over his body, and he was looked in the same way that he touched, as if Damen was new territory, unexplored, that he couldn't quite believe was under his command.

at the risk of exposing too much about myself, i will just say... real. and to see an approach like this depicted as endearing rather than unattractively strange is nice. some of this analysis gets a little too close to personal stuff that i'm not going to share, but i know why a lot of it hits and why it's helpful to me as a writer and a person to analyze.

also, just beautiful writing here. so little dialogue says so much, and the stream-of-consciousnesses from damen is perfect.

'He hadn't given himself over to sensation, he'd caught it up in an internal struggle.'

yeah.

Dark-eyed, as though touch was to him an extreme act.

from damen's perspective, it simply isn't. but to laurent, and a reader like me... man.

Laurent said, 'I didn't think anyone was good enough to get past your guard.' 'One person,' said Damen.

okay i get that damen was aiming for a double meaning here about laurent, but i do also want to make an almost certainly incomplete list of people who we know, at some point in this series, have gotten past damen's emotional and/or physical guard (whether to hurt him, seduce him, connect emotionally with him, or all of the above):

kastor

jokaste

the regent

laurent

nicaise

ancel

aimeric

kashel

erasmus

Then Laurent's gaze lifted—not to his own, but to the collar. His fingers lifted to touch the yellow metal, his thumb pressing into the nick. 'I haven't forgotten my promise. That I'd take off the collar.'

i think this is the exact moment where laurent's cognitive dissonance starts to irreversibly crumble. irreversibly, because he can't bring himself to keep reinforcing it. he knows who damen is, and what he did, and he still wishes to show him honor. i think he wishes for a lot more than that, but doesn't believe it's something he deserves. he still doesn't plan to tell the truth, probably for damen's sake more than his own, which is a kindness within itself. but i think laurent is accepting that damianos is damen, and in this moment at least, he feels at peace about it.

of course then nicaise happens and damen sticks around and laurent gets tortured and then they have to co-parent an army and shit just gets REALLY complicated in general, and then laurent does not feel peaceful about it at all. but right now, in the simplicity of damen's inevitable departure, i do think laurent feels a saddened kind of peace and acceptance of who damen really is: damianos the prince-killer, and damen, his lover. who he will love in return by setting him free.

'In the morning, you said.' 'In the morning. You can think of it as baring your neck to the knife.' Their eyes met. Damen's heartbeats were behaving oddly. 'I'm still wearing it now.' 'I know that.'

i'm intrigued by what they're really saying here. i'm mostly stuck on "you can think of it as baring your neck to the knife." laurent's comment could be a reference to previous dialogue, damen saying that he's only let his guard down for one person. as in, laurent's saying that he knows he's that person, and damen can think of laurent freeing him as removing the guard that laurent has both managed to reinforce and get past (the collar was literally a guard, in the case of the battle where it saved his life, and figuratively in many instances where his station as slave protected him). without the collar, and laurent's figurative protection, damen will find himself significantly more vulnerable than before—baring his neck to the knife of... life.

meanwhile, i think damen just wants another round while he can still have it. so he reminds laurent that he doesn't need to worry about that shit until the morning

(also: OH MY GOD. "BARING YOUR NECK TO THE KNIFE." NICAISE.)

His touch, once there, made its inevitable discovery. 'Overconfidence?' said Laurent. 'It's not—to a purpose.' 'I seem to recall otherwise.' Damen was halfway to being pushed down onto his back, with Laurent kneeling in his lap. 'All that self-restraint,' said Laurent.

hooray for another round of "sam tries to figure out what the fuck the dialogue has to do with the actual sex!" here's what i came up with:

l: (finds that damen is physically keen) (in the context of telling damen he's not allowed to touch, allowing laurent to do whatever he wants) you think i'm going to do anything about that for you?

d: it's there, but it doesn't mean that i want/need you to do anything you don't want to do

l: (choosing to take the literal meaning, instead of what damen actually meant, to deflect from his own discomfort) there have been plenty of times where you've clearly wanted to get off adjacent to me before (makes intent to fuck known) you must be restraining yourself so much

As Laurent leaned in, Damen unthinkingly lifted a hand to his hip to help balance him. And then realised what he had done. He felt Laurent's awareness of it. His hand was singing with tension. On the boundary of what was permitted. Damen could feel the shallowness of Laurent's breathing. But Laurent didn't pull away, instead, he inclined his head. Damen leaned in slowly, and, when Laurent didn't draw back, he pressed a single soft kiss to column of Laurent's neck. And then another.

He wanted to slide his hands up over Laurent's body. He wanted to see what would happen if this gentle attention was lavished on all of him, one part at a time, to see if he'd relax for even one, if he'd slowly begin to come apart, giving himself over to pleasure, the way he hadn't quite allowed himself to do at any moment except the climax, coming with flushed cheeks under Damen's thrusts. He didn't dare move his hand. His entire world seemed to have slowed, to the delicate shuddering of breath, the skitter of Laurent's pulse, the flush of Laurent's face and throat. 'That—feels good," said Laurent.

Laurent had forgotten himself enough to start moving against him. There was not even anything practiced about it, just a closed-eye seeking after pleasure. It was a shock to realise in the slight tremors, the flickering of breath, that Laurent was close, and how close he was, that he could come from being kissed, and this slow back-and-forth.

Maybe Laurent had always been this sensitive to tenderness.

it would make sense that the mindfucker supreme would also be supremely mindfucked, if he actually allowed someone to affect him in that way :)

That's it, Damen wanted to coax, and did not know if the words would be condescending.

a good call not saying it. praise kink would drive laurent insane, but probably not in a good way given his specific trauma. too close to past stuff, and hard to distinguish earnest sweetness from condescension

still hot though, which is probably part of why pacat included it in thought form

His own body was growing closer than he would have believed possible, from the feel of Laurent against him.

sex god fucking-since-he-was-thirteen damen discovering new orgasm strats from the traumatized not-quite-a-virgin-but-close laurent

Damen was smiling helplessly. 'That was adequate.' 'You've been waiting to say that.'

it wasn't even cleverly placed he just wanted to be a part of the bit 😭 and laurent is so fucked out that he can only half-heartedly mock him for the poor execution

'Let me.' Rolling him over and towelling him down, softly.

this sex scene literally has an arc. at the start: laurent doesn't even ask, just helps himself clean up, and offers the same to damen. is dissociated and unsure about what they've done. at the end: damen cleans laurent and laurent lets him, after giving himself to damen sexually and genuinely experiencing pleasure in his body.

'You can,' said Laurent, after a moment, meaning something else entirely. 'You're half-asleep.' 'Not quite.'

laurent assuming that he owes damen sex is so sad, but it also makes sense. and the fact that he doesn't take damen's respect of his consent and sleepiness seriously, because he's never been led to consider his own consent an important factor in whether or not he gets fucked. it's incredibly sweet to have this deeply erotic and gratifying moment for laurent where he doesn't actually have sex, because he doesn't need to, and that's respected and okay and portrayed just as lovingly and passionately as the actual sex.

Order me to stay, he wanted to say, and couldn't. Laurent was twenty years old, and the prince of a rival country, and even if their nations had been friends, it would have been impossible.

okay, but you just thought a few chapters ago that you could have totally courted him in those conditions. don't convince yourself you can't have this, that's what laurent literally just learned not to do in bed (very clever juxtaposition, by the way). i hope that someday these dumbasses can both manage to be honest with themselves at the same time, but today is not that day

'Until morning,' said Laurent. After a moment he felt Laurent's fingers come to rest on his arm, curling there slightly.

i think it's really unfortunate that this scene is not included in all versions of the book, although i do recall sex scenes in book 3 covering similar arcs/character development territory. but still. beautiful scene and i love them very much, and it also makes the nicaise stuff coming up feel even worse, and laurent's subsequent regression even more sad :(

[milquedraws]

/!\ BLUE EXORCIST 152 SPOILERS/THEORY /!\

im sorry to say this because hes my favorite character but i think renzou is exhibiting some SERIOUS death flags...

like look at this dialogue... i really dont like this...😭😭😭😭 hes already exhibited some weird foreshadowing and dialogue earlier on in the story but for him to not play a huge role (so far) in the final battle despite his highly important place as a spy is very!!!! odd!!

second thing in this chapter that worries me is this interaction. i know it can be taken as dramatic irony (audience is aware all exwires have decided to fight, while the myoda are not), but i take it as something that can possibly turn tragic when looking back. we get shown a rare example of renzous family showing visible care/worry about him, as opposed to nagging, pressuring, or full-on annoying him, and its the one time he isnt there. in fact, its the one time hes in VERY REAL DANGER!!

ugh.. i really want him to be alright. id love the idea of him continuing to work as a spy for mephisto/the order post-canon 🤞