#the princess switch: romancing the star | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jayflrt · 11 months

Text

golden boy

❝ c’mon, this is exactly like the bahamas if you close your eyes. ❞

PAIRING ▸ lee heeseung x fem!reader

GENRES ▸ fluff, crack, best friends to lovers, summer romance au, rich kid au

WARNINGS ▸ profanity, underage drinking, heeseung is the biggest simp ever, and he calls you princess, mc has a stepdad, she is also a little spoiled in the beginning, tooth rotting fluff (like might be the fluffiest thing i’ve written), mutual pining ofc because this is a jayflrt fic, friends being insufferable (mainly 02z)

SUMMARY ▸ in the summer between high school and college, lee heeseung is determined to make you fall in love with the city of los angeles after your vacation plans in the bahamas fall through. somewhere between the lines, though, you end up falling for your childhood best friend.

WORD COUNT ▸ 16,375 words

PLAYLIST ▸ youth by troye sivan • tongue tied by grouplove • ribs by lorde • sanctuary by joji • cruel summer by taylor swift • stars by duncan laurence

AUTHOR’S NOTE ▸ i have been waiting AGES to share this one so i hope u guys like it !! ♡ also pls play stars by duncan laurence during the observatory scene if you’d like :’)

IT WAS THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER VACATION WHEN YOU RECEIVED THE GOD-AWFUL NEWS.

“Your father and I are finally gonna have our honeymoon this summer!” your mother exclaimed, grinning excitedly as if she was expecting you to reciprocate the same energy.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t god-awful, but this was the one summer where you didn’t have to shoulder the responsibilities of being a student. Having recently graduated from high school, you were basking in the glow of finally becoming an adult and an incoming college freshman. You were finally free from AP exams, college applications, and the pressure of balancing academics and a social life. So, given all that, you were rather upset that your parents were leaving you behind before you had to fall into the routine of being a student all over again.

You didn’t mind having this talk. In fact, you were glad your mother was telling you in advance instead of just jetting away to another country and leaving a note behind. However, you didn’t understand why she had to have this conversation in front of your best friend, Lee Heeseung.

It probably didn’t help that you two had been joined at the hip since you were wearing diapers, but your families had gotten far too comfortable with each other. Just last week, Heeseung’s mom was asking you if you both had finally “tied the knot,” to which you replied by explaining that you had just graduated high school.

You were happy for your mother and stepfather, really. Your mother had experienced her fair share of bad relationships after your father left, so you were glad that she finally met someone so kind and genuine. You weren’t ever one to judge the men your mother brought home, but your stepfather always got brownie points for playing Mario Kart with you whenever he came over. Not to mention, he bought you the Nintendo Switch to play it on. He seemed to be the only man who didn’t feel insecure about your mother’s success and lavish lifestyle, so you only had good things to say about him.

While you were genuinely glad with the outcome of your parents’ relationship, that unbecoming, spoiled side of you was slipping through the cracks. Even your brain was shouting at you for complaining about having to stay in Bel Air for the summer. Yet, you were just far too frustrated with the bleak vision of your own summer to care about your parent’s honeymoon. In two weeks, you should have been vacationing in the Bahamas with a piña colada in your hand, not waiting for your parents to come back from Rome.

“That sounds so fun,” you chirped with fake enthusiasm, although you supposed it was easily detected due to your gritted teeth, “and that’s not gonna interfere with our trip to the Bahamas, right?” When she didn’t respond, you asked again, “Right, Mom?”

Your mother wore an uneasy look on her face at the sight of your displeasure, so Heeseung cut in quickly, “I think you should probably forget about the Bahamas this year, Y/N.”

“Heeseung!” you whined, sending him a sharp glare. He did not just tell you to forget about the Bahamas. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“Not around your mom, dude,” he muttered.

“He’s right, Y/N.” Your mother smiled as she placed her hands on your shoulders. “I mean, it would be good for you to stay here with all of your friends for once; I don’t think you’ve ever not left the country for the summer.” When you sulked, your mother tried to encourage you by gently squeezing your shoulders. “Heeseung and your other friends are here, and you have a car now! Yeji’s family moved to Irvine now, didn’t they? You can drive down to see her.”

You nodded, a little more encouraged. You and Hwang Yeji had been close ever since you met at Choi Jisu’s birthday party in middle school. When Yeji’s parents decided to move to Irvine, finding that housing was much more expensive in Los Angeles County, you were absolutely crushed. Plus, it wasn’t like Orange County was any less expensive, so you felt even more bitter about their sudden move. It wasn’t like you could drive and see Yeji whenever you wanted, either; the one hour drive felt like three with all the Los Angeles traffic.

You hung your head, dejected. “I guess so.” You turned your head to the side, noticing the snicker that Heeseung was holding back. After shooting him a dirty look, you looked back at your mother. “When are you leaving?”

“This weekend,” she responded, eyes fixed on her phone screen now. “I have to sort out my PTO with my boss today, though.” She kissed the top of your head and started heading for the door, heels clicking against the linoleum flooring with each step. “I’ll see you later tonight, Y/N! And make sure Heeseung actually goes home tonight!”

You shot a glance at your friend, who didn’t seem to have a care in the world in reaction to your mother’s words.

Heeseung tended to be scared of everything—everything except actually scary things, like biblically accurate angels or the wrath of his mother.

You gave your best friend a condescending half-grin, which he returned sheepishly. As of late, Heeseung had become notorious for staying out late with Jay Park, Jake Sim, and Park Sunghoon. (Yang Jungwon often joined them, but he was adamant about going home before midnight. Something about not wanting to miss out on his beauty sleep.) Everyone thought this was the beginning of Heeseung’s teenage rebellion (which was rather delayed), but then you discovered that all they did was play games in an internet café and occasionally use their fake IDs to get into VIP lounges at clubs.

When you heard the door shut, you circled around the couch to sit next to Heeseung.

“This sucks,” you said flatly. “Summer means an ungodly rise in temperature—hot enough to melt the skin off my bones, and I’d rather have that happen while I’m sunbathing in the Bahamas!”

“Do you realize how spoiled you sound right now?” Heeseung snorted, looking up from his phone where he was playing Cookie Run from the umpteenth time. You swore he was addicted to the game despite the numerous times he told you he was just playing it as a joke. Your best friend continued, “You should be happy for your mom instead of complaining about your summer being ruined.”

You sank back in your seat. You hated to admit it, but Heeseung was right; you were being uptight about this whole situation. You just couldn’t help but feel disappointed about the one thing you were looking forward to all year long.

Heeseung leaned closer so that you both were shoulder-to-shoulder, and he nudged you. You looked over and were met with his dazzling grin. Frankly, you were honored that you were graced with his attention in the middle of his Cookie Run gaming session.

“You can spend the summer with me instead,” he offered.

You snorted. “That was gonna happen, anyway. You spend all your free time at my place.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Heeseung asked, brows knitting into a frown.

He looked at you so intensely that your breath caught in your throat for a moment. The proximity coupled with the shift in tone made you feel self-conscious, and you were scared that Heeseung was going to let some unspoken feeling slip.

However, his face broke into a mischievous grin. “You guys have a jacuzzi.”

You pressed your lips into a thin line and shoved him harder. This time, Heeseung was laughing as he fell against one of the cushions on his side. You grabbed one of the throw pillows and started pummeling him with it.

“You have your own jacuzzi, too, dumbass,” you retorted. “You’d know if you actually stayed at your own house for once! Also, you’ve lost your pool privileges here after you poured bubble bath in ours.”

“Come on. It wasn’t that bad.”

“You clogged our jets and we had to pay someone to get rid of the bubbles, Heeseung.”

“Jake was the one who poured the bubble bath in!”

“And who was the one who gave him the idea?”

Heeseung grimaced, and you were seconds away from reminding him how you took the fall for him when your parents asked what happened to the hot tub. Before you could, though, he spoke up.

“I was being serious, though,” he started, “do you wanna have a fun summer with me, or do you wanna stay bitter and do nothing?”

Something about Heeseung’s condescending tone was pissing you off. You stared at him before delivering one last blow with the throw pillow.

“Ow! What was that for?!” he exclaimed, rubbing his arm. You rolled your eyes at his dramatics; you didn’t even hit him that hard.

“I’ll see you later,” you told him, turning on your heel to head upstairs without seeing your friend out. “I have plans with Yizhuo now.”

You weren’t exactly sure how you became friends with Ning Yizhuo, but throughout high school, everyone knew the two of you came in a package deal. When you were in third period AP World History, everyone knew that Yizhuo would switch out of her second period section to be in your class; when you didn’t show up to calculus, it was no surprise that it was because you were ditching with Yizhuo; when Zhong Chenle asked Yizhuo out, he realized that commitment came with becoming your friend as well.

At first, you assumed that it was because your mothers were close, but that didn’t explain why you spent countless nights at her place and picked her up for school every single morning. Heeseung even once admitted that he was jealous of your friendship with her. He was drunk when he mentioned that, of course. He would never admit to that while he was sober.

When she got into a school on the west coast and you got into a school on the east coast, though, you thought your life was over. (When you figured out your meet-up plans were somewhat manageable, you felt a little better.)

On the bright side, you were stoked to attend Yale with your partner-in-crime, Heeseung.

“Wait! Let me drive you,” said partner-in-crime offered.

You turned to face him, wide-eyed. “It’s like a thirty minute drive, Heeseung. I’m going to her country club.”

Despite your protests, you knew that Heeseung would be more than willing to drive all the way over there. Hell, you could tell him you wanted to go to Las Vegas right now, and he’d somehow manage to arrange a trip for you two. You had never met anyone as spontaneous as him.

Now, though, you were trying to get away from him because you were a little bitter about his comment. On the other hand, you really didn’t want to drive alone, so you kept his proposition on the table.

“Oh, her country club? The one up north, right?” he inquired. “Can I bring Jake, too? We’ll just hang out at the mall while you do your thing.”

You mulled it over—not for long, though, because you found yourself caving easily. “Fine.”

You forgot that Heeseung bringing Jake meant that Jay and Sunghoon were coming along for the ride, too.

The three of them were squeezed in the back of Heeseung’s Tesla, with Jay incessantly complaining about how he had to take the middle seat. He even went as far as to compare heights, and Sunghoon used his one centimeter on Jay to his advantage. Jake remained silent for once.

You ran your finger along the smooth leather of your seat and snorted.

“Are you making fun of my car?” Heeseung asked with a chuckle.

“No, I’m making fun of how you dropped extra money for white seats.”

“And for the seven-seater.”

“What?!” Jay exclaimed, swiveling in his seat to look behind him. “And you still squeezed me in the middle seat?”

“Not my fault you didn’t look behind you, dude.”

Sunghoon and Jake proceeded to laugh at their friend, and you were about to do the same until you realized you had looked to see if Heeseung was laughing along with you. To your delight, he was. That, and the wind was blowing in his hair so perfectly. The golden sun shone across his face in a way that made his eyes crinkle up and his smile grow. You would always scold him for not having sunglasses on him, but, this time, you were a little distracted by how he glowed.

Heeseung then turned to you, one hand on the steering wheel and the other on his thigh. “What’s up?”

“N-nothing at all.” You coughed, tearing your gaze away to look ahead at the freeway. “Are we almost there?”

You just then registered how the backseat had gotten awfully silent, and when you turned to check on The Three Idiots (you deemed this title upon them back in high school, and it stuck), they all had Cheshire grins spread across their faces. It was a little scary, honestly. Their antics were nightmarish on their own, but what their eyes suggested was something that would haunt you. You fought down the heat creeping up your cheeks in an effort to appear indifferent, and you turned back to look at the GPS.

Ten minutes. You had to deal with them for ten more minutes. That was 600 seconds. Maybe you could tune out the testosterone if you counted down your arrival time.

To your relief, though, ten minutes passed by much faster because the four boys got into a heated argument over the superior boba shop in the Bay Area. You had to interject by reminding them that none of them were even from the Bay Area. Heeseung wound up going on a tangent about how he and Choi Yeonjun went on a day trip last weekend, which you would have remembered “if you were a better friend.”

You did remember, actually. Heeseung was texting you the entire time about Yeonjun forcing him to choose between him or a PS5. You presumed that Heeseung chose the PS5 because Yeonjun posted a black screen on his Snapchat story with the caption “dhmu” followed by a wilting rose and broken heart emoji.

(They wound up gaming all night afterward, anyway.)

The Three Idiots sensed tension from the back seat, so they started a new debate: the superior boba shop in Los Angeles.

You couldn’t believe that this was the depth of their conversations.

When you finally arrived at Yizhuo’s country club, you were being nagged by Sunghoon to get out of the car. He was eager to go to the mall and try out a new sushi place that everyone had been raving about. For someone who seemed to lack any seriousness, Sunghoon was extremely diligent about his frequent Yelp reviews; he even got promoted to the Yelp Elite Squad.

“Alright, alright, I’m going!” you complained, shooting Heeseung a withering look—a please save me from your friends, which he grinned at. “Bye, then.”

“Have fun, princess,” Heeseung called as you were closing the door, and you were grateful your back was turned so that he couldn’t see the look on your face.

(“Princess?” Jay questioned. “Did you just call her princess?”

“It’s an inside joke!” Heeseung rebuked.

“And were you just checking her out?” came Jake’s muffled voice from inside the car, and a bark of laughter followed immediately after from Sunghoon and Jay.)

You shook your head when Heeseung sped off as quickly as possible. You could picture it so vividly; he would be defending himself to his dying breath, cheeks bright red as his mouth ran. Although you found it funny, you knew that Heeseung was probably just glancing out the window to make sure you weren’t too close to the car before he drove away.

“Y/N!” Yizhuo called from the entrance. You turned to see her clad in a cotton shirt and tennis skirt, standing next to Zhong Chenle. “Did you think we were swimming or something?”

Yes, you most definitely did think you were going to be sunbathing by the poolside. With a sheer cover-up over your black one-piece, you were definitely not ready to play tennis with Yizhuo and her boyfriend. You even had your red heart-shaped sunglasses on your head.

You let out a petulant whine, taking your walk of shame over to the two. “I’m already in the racquet club, so why would I come here to play more tennis?”

Yizhuo shrugged, but the one thing you loved about her was that she was flexible with plans. “I’ll just change into my swimsuit, then. I’ve been wanting to sunbathe,” she said before handing Chenle her racquet. “Looks like doubles didn’t work out. Are you and Jisung good with playing singles?”

“I don’t mind as long as I win,” Chenle answered with a grin. “See you two later.”

He was clearly delighted because you were probably the only competition he had to worry about. You were sure Park Jisung would complain when he found out that you weren’t going to be his partner. Jisung was utterly hopeless when it came to tennis—or, rather, he was scared of anything flying in his direction.

Yizhuo grabbed her Prada leather tote bag, pulling out a white two-piece with a gold clip in the front after some digging. She excused herself to change quickly, and came back within five minutes. You were grateful she came prepared. For her, though, it was inevitable considering she drove thirty minutes most days to lounge around her country club with Chenle.

“They’re renovating the banquet room right now,” Yizhuo informed as she settled into the lounge chair next to yours. “I was going to invite you for the opening next week, but you’re gonna be in the Bahamas, as usual.”

“Yeah, about that,” you drawled, “vacation plans fell through, so I’m not going anymore.”

“What?” Yizhuo sat up, startling the server who brought over cocktails on a silver plate. “But you always go to the Bahamas!”

You gingerly took one of the cocktail glasses, mouthing your gratitude before turning your attention back to Yizhuo. “My parents wanna spend their honeymoon alone, and Heeseung thinks I’m acting spoiled.”

Yizhuo smirked against the rim of her glass. “How is it that Heeseung always manages to come up in our conversations?”

“He doesn’t!” you exclaimed. “He’s just always around, you know? Like a fruit fly.”

“Just like how Chenle’s always around?”

“Chenle’s your boyfriend; Heeseung’s just a gnat.”

“I’m telling you, Y/N, you and Heeseung are the dictionary definition of couple behavior. I swear, you two are meant for each other.”

You sighed. “Heeseung and I have been best friends since, like, forever. Our relationship is just… different from my other friendships.”

Yizhuo raised a brow, a coy smile still creeping across her face. “So how come you refer to everyone else as friendships, but with him it’s a relationship?”

“Psychoanalyze much?” You sent a mocking smile right back at her. “Can I not have a friend of the opposite gender anymore?”

“You can have one that doesn’t make heart eyes at you,” Yizhuo replied with a scoff. “I’m telling you, the guy’s head over heels.”

“Whatever.” You slipped your sunglasses down to rest on the bridge of your nose. You didn’t want to think about potential romantic feelings for your best friend that could threaten the stability of your life-long friendship. “Let’s circle back to what’s actually important: my summer.”

“Poor Heeseung.” Yizhuo tutted. “Bahamas over love.”

“Love can happen any time,” you said, “but the window of opportunity only opens once, and that golden period is the summer between high school and college. Think about it, Yizhuo! Every summer after this one is gonna be loaded with classes, internships, and work.”

“So, what’s your game plan?”

You pondered on her question. There were only so many options you had, and, clearly, going to the Bahamas was not one of them. Honestly, you hardly felt like a real Californian with the little knowledge you had about what you could even do around your area; all you could think about was the beach or Disneyland. Plus, with Yeji doing a summer program in Irvine and Yizhuo spending her days at her country club, you didn’t have much room for spontaneous activities with them.

Unless you wanted to spend every single day like you would on a regular weekend, you had to find someone who knew how to make things fun.

And, unfortunately, that narrowed it back down to Lee Heeseung.

You turned back to Yizhuo with a sheepish look on your face. “I think I have an idea.”

“Be my summer escort service.”

“Excuse me?” Heeseung nearly choked on the tea your mother made for him. You watched as he set the cup down as delicately as possible while his eyes welled up with tears. He hit his fist against his chest a few times before calming down. “I don’t think you know what an escort service entails, but I think I know what you’re getting at.” He grinned slowly. “You’re taking me up on my offer.”

You did a lot of thinking on the car ride back to Bel Air.

A lot of thinking during the time when Sunghoon wasn’t complaining about the quality of the sushi place they went to. You were almost inspired to write a negative review yourself because of how passionate he was.

“Well, it’s inevitable that I’m gonna be seeing you almost every day, anyway,” you said, “so we might as well make the most of it, right?”

“I knew you’d turn around.” Heeseung reached over and ruffled your hair. “I’ll make sure you have the best summer of your life, Y/N.”

Lee Heeseung excelled at virtually anything. You were sure he would surpass your expectations with these impromptu summer plans, too.

You deemed the nickname “Golden Boy” upon him for this very reason, and it had everything to do with the fact that Heeseung was absolutely perfect at everything he did.

For a while, you even coined a theory that he had been created in a laboratory, specially designed to be absolutely flawless in every way imaginable. Of course Heeseung was born rich, smart, and handsome. Some people were just born lucky into the world, and, when you were younger, it was harder to accept that. Heeseung grew up with the world at his disposal; he got everything and anything he wanted, but that didn’t necessarily mean he took his privilege for granted.

You had to admit that Heeseung was a hard worker when it came down to it. Although he was definitely affluent as a fourth generation trust fund baby, Heeseung made sure his parents were never disappointed with his results.

Throughout high school, he consistently ranked first every single year, always coming right above you after the semester ended. Not to mention, he had even been scouted by several Division 1 schools to join their soccer team. He was even published at the mere age of sixteen for the research he did with a college professor. And, with a face and personality like his, any reasonable mother would’ve loved for their daughter to bring Heeseung home for dinner.

Another thing he never failed to accomplish was making you absolutely flustered.

“Well…” You turned your cheek. “I always have fun when I hang out with you, so don’t let it get to your head.”

“Too late. It’s getting to my head.”

You groaned.

“Hey, we might as well have fun,” Heeseung tried. “It’s not like any of us are vicariously living through each other’s summer romances.”

“Whoa. You said ‘each other.’”

“Yeah?”

You shot him a questioning look. “You’re implying that you have a summer romance that I’m not allowed to live vicariously through.”

“What? No!” Heeseung frowned as he tried to do the mental gymnastics to piece together your reasoning. “I said—actually, you know what, it doesn’t matter what I said. Who cares about being cuffed? Let’s just enjoy the last moments of our youth.”

“You know what, you’re right,” you agreed, getting fired up just by his words. Maybe it was the realization that time was fleeting, but you were determined to have the best summer ever now. “This summer, I’m Percy and you’re Grover. No one’s getting in the way of our side quests.”

“Why do I have to be the half-barnyard animal sidekick?” Heeseung deadpanned. “Can’t I be Annabeth?”

“No, put some respect on a satyr’s title.”

Your best friend picked his cup of tea back up when it had cooled. He blew gently on the surface before taking a careful sip, and then confidently drank more afterward. He set his cup down again and held a finger up, signaling that he wanted a chance to speak again. You were half-expecting it to be about the damn Percy Jackson lore.

“Your parents leave soon, right?” he asked instead. You nodded in response, somewhat surprised about his inquiry, so Heeseung continued, “Do they need a ride to the airport? We could have a sleepover after.”

“I think—”

“We would love a ride to the airport, Heeseung,” your mother gushed from the staircase as she was lugging suitcases down, “but you’re going straight back to your house after taking my daughter home.”

Heeseung swallowed thickly. “O-of course, ma’am. Straight home.”

You pouted a little. “You’re not staying?”

He smirked a little at your reaction, and you were a little flustered and disappointed that you managed to inflate his ego even further.

“Nah, I’ll just—” Heeseung cut himself off quickly when he noticed your mother was suddenly towering behind where he was seated on your couch. “I’ll—I’ll go straight to my house, like I said.”

“Come on, let the kids spend some time together before college,” your stepfather chimed in, following suit with a suitcase of his own. “Y/N hardly ever gets to stay in LA for the summer.”

“We’re going to the same college, Dad,” you pointed out.

“Of course,” He walked over to ruffle your hair, and Heeseung stared up at him as if your stepfather was some respected higher power, “but you never know what could happen in college. People grow apart whether you like it or not, and the life of a college student gets busy, so you two might as well enjoy this summer.”

When all you could do was stare at your stepfather in horror, he added, “I’m not saying you’re gonna stop being friends! It’s just easier to spend time together now than it is in college.”

“That’s why I’m your daughter’s escort this summer,” Heeseung spoke up.

“Escort?” your stepfather pressed. “That’s… a little concerning. Keep it PG, you two.”

“It’s not like that!” you whined. “Anyway, Dad, don’t you have to get to the airport soon?”

He checked his watch quickly and nodded at your mother. “Y/N’s right. We should get going soon, honey. I’m gonna go make sure I didn’t forget to pack anything.”

With that, your stepfather jogged upstairs with Heeseung’s curious eyes following him suspiciously. When you nudged him, trying to figure out why he was mugging your dad for no reason, he grinned a little. He gestured for you to lean closer so that he could speak quietly.

You leaned in close so that your ear was by his lips, and Heeseung whispered, “He’s totally packing your mom’s honeymoon present.”

“How do you know?”

“Classic move. My brother did the same thing for his wife.”

You pulled away, covering your mouth with a shocked look on your face. You had to keep yourself from audibly gasping since your mother was only a room away. Your face broke into a little smile. Seeing someone care for your mother so deeply made you so happy, especially with how she was the one who usually put in the most effort in her past relationships.

All your life, you wanted a relationship that was the complete opposite of your mother’s; now, though, you aspired to find someone who loved you that much.

Speak of the devil. She was walking over as you and Heeseung exchanged mischievous grins.

“What’re you two smiling about?” she asked.

“Nothing!” You smiled and fixed her hair. “Have fun on your honeymoon, Mom. I’ll make sure Heeseung doesn’t get into trouble.”

“Hey!” Heeseung interjected. “I’m not even that bad! Honest-to-god, Jake’s worse than me—just ask Jay or Sunghoon. Actually, don’t ask Sunghoon because I think he has it out for me right now.” He paused before adding, “Now that I think about it, don’t ask Jay, either. Just trust me on this one.”

You scoffed. “Nice going, Hee.”

Your mother smiled, and you could tell that it was a little sad. “We’ll take you to the Bahamas next time, okay, Y/N?” She did a quick sweep of the room before leaning in a little and whispering, “By the way, your stepfather was really happy that you started calling him ‘dad’ the other day. I think he almost cried!”

You hated to admit it out loud, but you felt inexplicably happy at those words.

“I’m ready!” your stepfather called as he came down the stairs. “Do you have everything you need? Are we ready to go?”

“Ready as ever,” your mother answered and turned to your best friend. “Are you ready, Heeseung?”

“Yep.” He got up from the couch, spinning his car keys around his fingers. “Come on, Y/N. Time to say bye-bye to mommy and—ow! Don’t hit me!”

The car ride to the airport wasn’t too long, but you and Heeseung fell into an uncomfortable silence while your parents were gushing about their vacation plans to each other. They weren’t even sitting next to each other. Your mother sat next to you in the back seat and your stepfather sat in the passenger’s seat to accompany Heeseung, but they were still going back and forth. You nearly considered asking your stepfather to switch seats with you so that you wouldn’t be caught in the crossfire of their incessant flirting.

When Heeseung pulled up to the drop-off zone, however, your parents pulled themselves together in record time. You received two kisses on your head from each parent after they got out of the car.

“Heeseung, let’s walk together for a bit,” your stepfather called. When you exchanged a shocked look with your best friend, your dad clicked his tongue with a laugh. “Just until the gates over there. I need some help carrying my bags.”

Heeseung, floundering for words, wound up not saying anything and scrambled to get out of the car to help him out. The conversation seemed to be light and easygoing, but you were craning your neck out of the car window to get a glimpse of what the hell was going on.

“Mom,” you whispered harshly, “tell me Dad isn’t telling Heeseung something weird right now. He’s still traumatized from the time he was interrogated about being my Homecoming date last year.”

Since neither you nor Heeseung had actual dates for the Homecoming dance last year, he made you a poster and asked you to be his date at your doorstep. At the time, you two were binge watching Parks and Recreation together, so he used that as inspiration for your poster: Please don’t REC my plans and say KNOPE to Homecoming. You vividly recalled being impressed by how neat the handwriting was only to be told later that Yeji helped Heeseung make it.

“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Your mother waved it off. “You should be more worried about how Mrs. Lee calls us in the middle of the night and asks where her son is. That’s gonna traumatize your friend.”

Wow. Lee Heeseung was already a pain in the ass to begin with, and only now you realized how his mother had it a thousand times harder.

“Have a safe trip, okay?” you told your mother after you helped her bring the rest of her bags to the gate. “And—don’t worry—I know when the gardener's coming by, so I’ll be home to let him in.”

She smiled fondly and kissed your forehead. “I’ll text you when I land,” she said. “Have fun, sweetheart, but not too much fun.”

“Mom!” you complained, cringing at whatever she was implying.

Heeseung and your stepfather were already at the front doors, and your best friend’s eyes lit up at the sight of you. You wondered if he needed saving from your father, and you confirmed this when you noticed him cower a little after shaking your stepfather’s hand.

“Heeseung,” your mother started, “thanks for bringing us here. I made brownies in the afternoon, so make sure Y/N gives you some before you go home.”

“Brownies?” Heeseung turned to you with a grin and thanked your mother profusely. “I hope you guys have a fun trip.”

After you all exchanged goodbyes, you and Heeseung headed back to his car. You were able to watch your mother and stepfather disappear into the crowd, a strange feeling lingering in your chest. You weren’t sure what it was, but you supposed you felt a little lonely. This was the first summer you were spending without your parents, and you weren’t sure what to expect.

As if Heeseung could read your mind, he said, “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you have a fun summer.”

“It better be the best summer of my life.”

Heeseung laughed and opened the passenger’s side door for you. “Then let’s start now.”

“Huh? Right now?”

“Let’s get bingsu,” he said. Come to think of it, you were craving shaved ice; you had mentioned it to Heeseung last week. “You said you were hungry, right? And then we can go home and dig into those brownies your mom made.”

“I never said anything about being hungry.”

“But you’re hungry, right?”

The corner of your mouth twitched before breaking into a little smile.

“Alright, let’s go.”

In all honesty, you didn’t expect anything special from Heeseung. That was why you had your own plans laid out for the coming week, and first on your agenda was going shopping with Yizhuo in Beverly Hills. Since your best friend was so adamant on spending the summer with you, though, you let him tag along.

“I hate you,” he muttered through gritted teeth as you handed him yet another shopping bag—Armani, this time. Heeseung was carrying at least six of them, letting them dangle off of his arms. “I said I’d show you how to have fun, not be your butler.”

“You said you would be my summer escort service.”

“Not like this!”

“Y/N, I swear,” Yizhuo started in a low voice, only loud enough to hear (although you wished you didn’t), “he’s like your boyfriend.”

You sped up to walk ahead of Heeseung, and Yizhuo matched your pace. Your poor best friend was lagging in the back, trying to keep up with the weight of your spending spree in his hands. Even though you told him virtually everything, this was a conversation that you couldn’t let him hear.

“He’s just my escort this summer!” you defended.

“His dad’s the senior vice president at Apple. You really think Lee Heeseung would just agree to be anyone’s manservant?”

“Well, I’m not anyone; I’m Y/N, and Heeseung and I have been best friends since forever, so it shouldn’t be surprising that he wants to spend time with me.”

“I’m just saying, it’s a little strange.”

“Yeah, yeah.” You waved off her concerns and pulled out your phone. “By the way, is the group hanging out tomorrow or something?”

“I kept seeing it in the groupchat, but I wasn’t sure whose house it was at,” Yizhuo replied. She turned and called, “Heeseung! Do you know whose house we’re all going to?”

“Tomorrow?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Mine.”

“Yours?” you chimed in. “I thought Jake said it would be at his place.”

“He backed out ‘cause his cousins are visiting this week,” he clarified, “so I offered mine. My parents are going out of town, anyway, so why not?”

You were surprised that Heeseung was willing to host. Most of the time his house was the absolute last resort because he hated cleaning up after everyone. For this reason, it was normally at Jake’s house because he was the only one who would tidy up himself without nagging everyone else (read: Jay Park).

You always went to Heeseung’s place on your own. There were never times where the entire group hung out there together, so it felt like everyone was encroaching on your space with Heeseung.

Even though it was his house, technically.

“You’re coming,” Heeseung added, pointing straight at you with narrowed eyes.

You frowned. “You can’t decide that for me!”

“You agreed to let me be your summer escort service, so it’s within my power,” he argued.

You made a frustrated sound. “Fine. It better be fun, though. I’m sacrificing my Pretty Little Liars marathon for you.”

Heeseung rolled his eyes. “We can just watch it together.”

“Lovebirds!” Yizhuo interjected. “I would’ve called Chenle if I knew I was gonna be a third wheel.” Both of you turned to her with wide eyes, watching the blonde’s lips curl up in a small smirk. “What?”

“That’s not what any of this is,” your best friend grumbled.

“Oh yeah? Then why are you blushing?”

Heeseung shook his head, completely turning his face away from you. You managed to catch the tips of his ears flaming bright red. It was rather easy to make Heeseung flustered, so this wasn’t something out of the ordinary, but, for some reason, you felt butterflies in the pit of your stomach.

He walked ahead, saying something along the lines of, “Let’s just keep shopping!”

You and Yizhuo exchanged a look before hooking arms and bursting into a fit of giggles.

Yizhuo called after him, “We’re going to Miu Miu next!”

Slumber parties with your friend group sounded cute and tame, in theory. Add six men into the mix, and they became slightly terrifying.

“This is why we need to make plans in our group chat without the men,” Shen Xiaoting muttered to you with her eyes fixed on Heeseung’s flat screen TV. “This is not the girls night I was envisioning.”

Your friend group of eleven (excluding Yeji, who was away for the summer) was currently playing their ninth round of Mario Kart 8. You were all taking turns, though, since the game only catered to co-oping with four people. Frankly, you were starting to get tired of the game after about five rounds. You were hellbent on beating Jay, who was talking smack about how terrible you were at gaming, but it turned out that he was no better. You ended up beating him in the first race itself, and now you were just waiting for them to wrap it up.

“Fuck,” Jake hissed once Choi Beomgyu used his blue shell on him. Jake had been consistently winning every game he played despite everyone trying to get him in last place; in the last round, Kim Minjeong made a valiant effort to use most of her Crazy 8 items on him.

You were surprised that Jake showed up in the first place. Everyone suspected that he would be stuck at home because of his cousins visiting, but he somehow managed to get his way out of it. Although he was late, he showed up at Heeseung’s door with a pillow and a handle of cheap vodka. It probably tasted rancid, but there was no room for anyone to complain.

“Get the item box, get the item box!” Chenle yelled. “But you’re kind of screwed if you don’t get a super horn or a super star.”

“So, when are we wrapping up Mario Kart?” Nakamura Kazuha asked, sighing in frustration after being hit with a shell for the umpteeth time.

“Uh, after this game,” Heeseung replied.

“And how many more rounds is that?”

“Three.”

“Jesus Christ.”

The only girl in your group who enjoyed gaming was Yizhuo, but even she was tired of the seemingly endless rounds. Since the boys were going along with the girls’ plans later on, though, you had to be patient. Appease them with Mario Kart, and then the rest of the night was yours.

Somehow, you managed to grit your teeth and sit through the next three rounds (won by Jake, Yizhuo, and Beomgyu, respectively). Afterward, Jake got up to grab the case of Mike’s Harder on the kitchen island. He proceeded to open it up and hand each person a can.

Xiaoting cracked open her can and asked, “How’d you even buy these? Didn’t your dad confiscate your fake or something?”

Around a few months ago, Jake’s dad had caught him wasted at one of their charity galas. Apparently, the Sims didn’t care too much about their son drinking, but they were furious about Jake acting disorderly in front of their guests. Naturally, Jake was grounded for a month and got all four of his fake IDs confiscated. He deeply missed the one from Connecticut where his name was printed as Nathan Fielder, even though Jake looked nothing like Nathan Fielder.

“I got Vernon to buy them for me,” Jake said, “and please don’t remind me about the fakes. It still wounds me to this day.”

You remembered you used to have a little crush on Vernon Chwe, who was a senior when you were a freshman. When he graduated, you almost cried actual tears, but you stayed strong when you went to congratulate him after the ceremony. You figured he would have been a little freaked out if you started breaking down out of nowhere.

Jay, who was inspecting the handle of SKYY Vodka, let out a scoff. “Vernon? Then you could’ve at least asked for good vodka.”

“We can just make mixed drinks,” you spoke up, scrunching up your nose at the memory of blacking out because of alcohol during your prom afterparties. “Plus, it’s not like we’re actually trying to get drunk tonight.”

“Yeah.” Heeseung stood up and rested his arm on your shoulder. “Y/N and I can make the drinks. The rest of you can help put snacks out. Someone can put a movie on, too.”

Since everyone was impressed with Heeseung taking the lead for once, the plan was set into motion. While Kazuha and Sunghoon bickered over which movie to play, the rest of your friends brought out different snacks for the movie. Arguably, you and Heeseung had the hardest job, but you didn’t need any extra hands for drinks. By the time it took you two to finish eleven mixed drinks, they probably would have settled on a movie.

You looked back to see Heeseung eyeballing a shot into a glass cup, and then he proceeded to down its contents. You cringed when you saw him drinking. The last time he got drunk resulted in you trying to calm him down after he went on a long rant about how he just ate sushi, and the alcohol in his system would cause the raw fish to start swimming. You had to convince him that no, vodka would not bring an already dead and sliced-up fish to life.

Heeseung’s face soured and he pushed the handle aside. “Y’know what, let’s just take something from my parents’ liquor cabinet. This shit is vile.”

“You got triple sec and decent vodka?” you asked. “We could make Lemon Drops.”

“You read my mind.”

“You weren’t even thinking about that, were you?”

“Not at all.”

While you and Heeseung were making the drinks, though, you noticed some giggles coming from the living room. You raised your head to see about five of your friends look away as fast as they could. It hit you before you had time to process what was going on; they were making fun of you and Heeseung together.

You had no clue why. Sure, Heeseung and you had some strange moments here and there. But you two were just making drinks, for crying out loud. Nothing about the situation warranted this reaction from them.

You side-eyed Heeseung to see if he noticed. Thankfully, he was just focused on pouring the right amount of vodka so he didn’t accidentally kill anyone. You, on the other hand, were fighting down the heat rising in your chest.

After a brief war between you and Yizhuo, consisting of you glaring at her and her smirking at you, you ended up setting down a glass and sighing.

“Heeseung,” you said, “go crazy with the vodka in the rest of their drinks.”

“Huh?” he asked, genuinely contemplating whether or not to do it.

“Pour as much as your heart desires,” you muttered and set down six of the Lemon Drops on a tray with a little too much force. Without sparing him a glance, you picked up the tray and went to the living room to hand everyone their glasses. While you handed Yizhuo hers, though, you whispered, “I despise you.”

She grinned. “What? Still denying you like him?”

“I don’t like—”

“You like someone?” Heeseung called from the island, completely frozen in place.

You turned and stared at him, mouth agape.

Chenle spoke up, “No, she likes y—”

You kicked Chenle’s shin with enough force to shut him up, and he grunted before he could continue his sentence. Satisfied, you turned back to Heeseung and shook your head quickly.

“They’re just being idiots,” you explained. “Hurry up with the drinks. We’re watching My Best Friend’s Wedding.” You did a double take and turned back to Yizhuo, harshly whispering, “Why the fuck are we watching My Best Friend’s Wedding?!”

Yizhuo removed Chenle’s hand from her knee and stood up to loop your arm with hers. “Come.”

“Where are we going?” you asked, but she was already dragging you away from the living room. “Is that movie supposed to be some sort of sick message?”

“Oh, good. So you’re aware.”

After making some excuse about needing your assistance to get something from her bag, Yizhuo walked with you to the foyer until she turned on you. You nearly tripped backward over one of the boys’ shoes, so you used the wall to regain your balance.

“Tell me what’s going on between you two,” she ordered.

You let out a sound of exasperation. “Yizhuo, for the last time, Heeseung and I are just friends. That’s all there is to it.”

“I’m just saying, the two of you are going to college together and all, but you have to sort out your feelings before you end up figuring them out after Heeseung finds someone else,” she said. “I mean, what’re you gonna do when Heeseung starts dating someone else? He looks decent enough to pull, so there’s no telling what’s gonna happen when he’s cut loose in Yale.”

You snorted. “He’s already cut loose. I highly doubt Yale’s gonna change anything.”

“You never know. I just don’t want you to realize your feelings too late—you know, when things get messy.”

You both were silent for a few seconds before Beomgyu called, “Y/N, Yizhuo, we’re gonna start the movie!”

“Coming!” you responded.

You chose not to respond to your best friend because you truly had no idea what to think, but it did leave seeds of doubt in your head. It almost distracted you from the fact that Heeseung grabbed your arm and pulled you to sit down next to him. This was bad; you were quickly becoming overly self-conscious of every little thing he did, and that would not bode well for your friendship.

Whatever, you told yourself. Push it down.

“Are there any more pillows?” you asked, scanning the room to see that everyone seemed to have one except you. You looked back at Heeseung and narrowed your eyes at his throw pillow. “Give me yours.”

“What? No way.”

“I wanna lay down,” you whined. He was really the only person you could act a little spoiled around. “Give me your pillow before I—”

Before you could finish, Heeseung threw his arm around you and pushed your head down so that you were laying on his lap. You were startled with the sudden gesture, but you didn’t complain. He was comfortable, after all, and you two usually watched movies like this in your house. So, you adjusted your position a little and continued watching the movie, making a mental note to scold Heeseung later for being all touchy in front of the friend group.

What you weren’t used to, though, was the way he started threaded his fingers through your hair.

You did the only thing you knew how to do in order to deflect; you showed Heeseung a TikTok of a baby otter. Your volume was all the way down, but you still bookmarked the video.

“Look,” you whispered, holding up your phone. His gentle fingers did not stop running through your hair, but at least you could hold onto his friendly hum of acknowledgement. It was the only thing that made any of this feel remotely platonic. “It’s a little guy.”

“Oh, it’s so cute,” Heeseung mused. “Kind of reminds me of you.”

Screw platonic.

He just grabbed platonic and drop kicked it to the next dimension.

That was it. You were going to put your phone away and ignore Heeseung for the rest of the movie. The rest of the movie would be watched in complete silence. In fact, you weren’t going to spare Heeseung any attention for the rest of the sleepover.

That didn’t end up happening, though. Ten minutes later, you cracked and started commenting about the movie to Heeseung. Unbeknownst to the others, you two ended up texting each other messages that threatened to make you burst into laughter. Even though you were sitting right next to each other, you felt like this made your conversation feel like a little secret, like even Heeseung wanted to keep what you two had to himself.

When the movie ended, you two were surprisingly still awake, although there were several moments where you were tempted to doze off on Heeseung’s shoulder. Minjeong, Beomgyu, and Jay were still up, and they were taking pictures of Chenle and Yizhuo to send to the group chat. You immediately separated from Heeseung, feeling a little terrified that you two would be the victims next. However, the others were so preoccupied with Chenle’s arms wrapped around his sleeping girlfriend and their foreheads pressed together.

“Should we wake them up?” Kazuha asked.

“Nah, let them sleep,” Heeseung answered and stood up. “I’m gonna brush my teeth. You guys can use the other bathrooms—just not the one in my parents’ room.”

Minjeong stretched as she let out a yawn. “Alright, I’m gonna wash up, then. I’m exhausted.”

After Minjeong, Beomgyu, and Kazuha left the room to get their bags and wash up, you stared at Heeseung. Your best friend looked confused until you pointed toward his glass.

“Chug it,” you said with mischief dancing in your eyes.

“You’re kidding. It’s bedtime.”

You mocked a pout. “You’re gonna waste the drink I made just for you?”

“Oh, come on—we made it for everyone!”

“But I definitely made this one.” You took the glass and held it out to him, which he ended up taking reluctantly. “I wanna see you finish it.”

After a wince, Heeseung tilted the cup back and downed the contents. Although his face scrunched up, he relaxed once he had finished swallowing it down.

“That was actually pretty good,” he said.

“See? When have I ever let you down?”

“Honestly? Many times.”

You elbowed him in the side. “Hey!”

“Kidding!” Heeseung held his arms up in surrender before wrapping them around your waist. Another gesture you weren’t quite used to, but you went along with it. There was something funny about Heeseung; nothing he did ever made you feel the slightest bit uncomfortable, but sometimes you weren’t sure if it was meant to be friendly. “Let’s go brush our teeth.”

“I can just use the bathroom on the second floor.”

“Huh? Just use the one in my room,” he said. “Come on.”

You hesitated before following your best friend upstairs. First of all, you were feeling overly-conscious about going into Heeseung’s room with him. Secondly, you weren’t too enthusiastic about the fact that you had to use a man’s bathroom.

To Heeseung’s credit, he kept his room and bathroom mostly spotless. Sure, there were a few sweaters piled over the head of his chair and some books left scattered across his desk, but it was definitely cleaner than Jake’s mess of a room. You remembered Yeji stepping across his piles of dirty clothes left on the floor, as if they were hazardous to her health.

As soon as you stepped into the grand bathroom, you realized that you had forgotten your toothbrush. It wasn’t the first time this happened, so you knew to just take one of the unopened toothbrushes from the drawer. However, Heeseung told you they moved some things around, so you wound up searching for the spare toothbrushes for around five minutes.

It was almost ridiculous how Heeseung needed a bathroom bigger than a living room.

You two brushed your teeth side-by-side. Heeseung occasionally cracked jokes that made you giggle and tilt your head back so that your toothpaste wouldn’t dribble down your chin. When that happened, he reached over and wiped your lower lip with his thumb, despite your complaints about how gross that was.

But, to you, it wasn’t really all that gross.

If only Heeseung knew how his actions made your cheeks burn hot under your skin.

The next week was interesting, to say the least.

Heeseung wouldn’t let you rest for a second. You were going out with him every single day, having to see his face from sunrise to sunset. Even when it was nightfall, he would just invite himself over to your place and crash on your couch.

You pointed out that you had a perfectly tidy guest room for him to use, but he insisted that he preferred your couch. You didn’t mind him sprawled out across the cushions because you could take as many pictures of him sleeping as you pleased. You would show him your collection later when he woke up, and Heeseung would get embarrassed to the point of tickling you until you were in hysterics and gasping out that you would delete the pictures from your camera roll.

At this point, it was almost like you two were living together. Even though his parents were out of town, you felt slightly anxious about one of the adults in your parents’ circle discovering what you and Heeseung were up to. Not that it was anything scandalous.

But, you had to admit, you were having fun.

On Monday, Heeseung took you to the beach. You complained incessantly about waking up at six in the morning for cold water and sand all over your clothes, but you managed to drag yourself out of bed. Still, Heeseung had to put up with your grumbles and groans until you were energized enough to stop complaining. All it took was Heeseung feeding you a granola bar and making you coffee while you did your hair.

“C’mon,” he told you, the wind sweeping his hair to the side as the first rays of sunlight shone bright against his glowing skin, “this is exactly like the Bahamas if you close your eyes.”

“Uh-huh.”

You rolled your eyes at him, but you spent the entire day at the beach with Heeseung, anyway. You finally warmed up to going into the water with him, letting him take your hands and guide you deeper until the water was up to your waist. At one point, a particularly heavy wave pushed him closer to you until you both were chest-to-chest. You had to hold onto his bicep to keep yourself from floating away. And you swore you caught Heeseung checking you out in your bikini later on, but he turned away with pink-tinged ears immediately after.

Later, when the sun was starting to set and you retreated from the water to curl up in your towel, you sat on your large beach towel and waited for Heeseung to bring over food from the food trucks. The tide was getting higher, so you had to move yours and Heeseung’s belongings further up the sand.

Heeseung returned with two takeout boxes of tacos, taking a seat next to you with a relieved sigh. Since you two hadn’t eaten a proper lunch, you had been waiting for this meal all day. You were properly tuckered out from all the swimming and beach volleyball, so you dug in immediately.

“Good?” Heeseung asked, watching you eat with a small smile on his face. He must have been impressed that you practically inhaled your first taco in under five seconds.

“Good,” you confirmed, voice muffled.

With the back of your hand shielding your eyes, you looked off into the horizon to watch the sunlight ripple across the water’s surface.

And, yeah, maybe it was a little like the Bahamas.

Just a little.

You didn’t expect Heeseung to wake you up on Tuesday morning and drag you to an empty field. Although he told you that he had a surprise for you, you didn’t think it warranted being woken up at 5:30 a.m. without a clue of where you were going.

“Alright, close your eyes, okay? It’s a surprise,” Heeseung said, gesturing for you to cover your gaze. You found it adorable that he was fumbling so much, so you closed your eyes with a grin. “Keep them closed—hold on.”

“Heeseung, how much longer?” you whined.

“And,” he drawled, stretching out the syllable, “open!”

When you opened your eyes, towering over you was a 60-foot tall hot air balloon, its brightly-patterned nylon reflecting the bright sunlight. You boggled at its impressive size—absolutely massive. The pilot got down from the basket, walking over so that he could greet you two and provide a rundown of safety measures and procedures.

An hour later, you were in the sky, eyes sweeping over the expanse of Los Angeles. You were never that great with heights, but, somehow, you weren’t too afraid as you peered down. Heeseung stood beside you, keeping one hand on the small of your back as he pointed out different landmarks he recognized.

“I’ve never seen LA like this!” you yelled over the wind, cupping your hand around your mouth so that Heeseung could hear you.

He grinned. “Isn’t it beautiful? Makes the city actually feel peaceful for once.”

You wouldn’t dare admit it but, all the way up in the sky, thousands of feet above ground level, what made you feel like you were soaring was Heeseung’s arm slipping around your waist.

On Wednesday, Heeseung took you fishing. You absolutely hated the idea, but once you had the fishing rod in your hands, you were determined to catch the biggest fish. Heeseung ended up catching more than you, but the two fish you caught were stars in your eyes. By the end of the day, you were laughing hysterically as Heeseung’s hat got stuck in your hook and was flung into the water.

On Thursday, Heeseung took you to play mini-golf. You had gone golfing before with company executives and their kids, but this was different. You didn’t have to show off or try to be the best one there; you just had fun and laughed whenever your best friend missed the ball. You two ended the day by going to an arcade and playing almost every game inside.

By Friday morning, you were exhausted. Your limbs were aching when you woke up the next morning, but Heeseung promised to actually let you rest over the weekend. Tonight was Yizhuo’s country club’s party to celebrate the opening of their new banquet hall, so Heeseung only planned one thing for the morning so that you would have time to get ready for the party later.

Pushing your red Jacquemus sunglasses onto your head, you fixed your best friend with a puzzled stare. He was acting weird all morning, from nearly snapping at you for trying to open the trunk of his car, to staying silent when you asked where he was taking you.

For a moment, you wondered if this was the climax of a horror movie where the killer drove you to a quiet place to get rid of you. Your suspicion raised more when Heeseung parked by a marina with a hiking trail nearby.

This is where your body’s being dumped, you concluded grimly.

But, then again, this was Lee Heeseung. He cried when he was eleven because there was a spider on his backpack; he didn’t have the heart to hurt anyone, especially not you. In fact, you recalled when he nearly passed out in middle school because he thought he caused you extreme pain once. (It turned out to be your period cramps.)

“Are you gonna tell me where you’re taking me?” you asked, exasperated. “If we’re swimming, I’m gonna tell you right now that there’s no way I’m getting my hair wet before the party.”

Heeseung chuckled. “Don’t worry your pretty little head, princess. We’re just going for a spin on the lake.” He nodded his head in the direction of the yachts lined up by the shoreline. “Jog your memory?”

When your gaze landed on the gorgeous white yacht gleaming under the sun, you couldn’t help but gasp at its glorious sight. Heeseung had gotten the yacht for his birthday last year, but he never had the time to actually use it. One reason was because he didn’t trust his friends to not trash it, and the other being that he wanted his first ride on it to be special.

Your face burned. His first ride was going to be with you.

“Shut up.” You were gaping at the sight before turning to your best friend, who looked smug while he parked his car. “Shut up. You’re actually letting me go on your yacht?”

“Yeah, why not?” He tried to brush it off as something casual, but your heart was still doing cartwheels and flips. “It’s about time I went out on it.”

You two walked down to the harbor together, your hands sometimes shyly brushing and pulling away swiftly. There had been moments of thick, unspoken tension throughout the week, but you didn’t have the courage to bring it up.

Once you two reached Heeseung’s yacht, he firmly slapped his hand against the smooth, brilliant white surface. “Carver c52 Command Bridge,” he gloated. “Isn’t she beautiful?”

You snorted. “You talk about boats the same way old white men do.”

You allowed him to help you into the yacht, gripping his hand tight as you stepped onto the deck. You hadn’t questioned it before, but as soon as Heeseung let go of you, he set down the picnic basket so that he could spread out the blanket.

You helped him with the corners of the blanket. “What’s this?”

“Well, I thought we could sail out a little and then have breakfast on the deck,” he replied coolly, as if the sincerity of his words wouldn’t make your heart twist painfully in your chest. You really didn’t deserve such effort from him, and it almost made you feel guilty that you had acted so spoiled before. “I’ll go start the engine. You can just enjoy the view.”

However, you followed him to the cockpit. Heeseung raised a brow at you, but you giggled as you took a seat behind him, watching as he stood at the helm, fiddling with some controls you knew nothing about.

“You actually know how to operate this thing?” you asked.

“My dad taught me,” he explained. “I’m not licensed, though, so I don’t think this is exactly legal.”

“Not like that’s stopped you before.”

Heeseung grinned to himself. He started up the yacht’s engine by pressing a button on the dashboard. You watched his hands fly across the levers and controls before he started turning the wheel to steer out of the marina.

“You wanna head out to the deck?” he called out over his shoulder, but you just took the empty seat next to him. “Don’t you wanna sunbathe? Or you could check out the stateroom.”

“Nope,” you said, resting your chin on the palm of your hand as you watched him. “I’d rather wait for you.”

Sometimes, you’d almost catch Heeseung getting flustered. He’d always laugh and rub his nose, looking away shyly before anyone caught onto his awkwardness. The same reaction was unfolding before you right now, and you couldn’t help but smile like an idiot yourself.

You wondered if he ever felt butterflies in his stomach, too.

Once Heeseung had driven the yacht out far enough—far out enough in the water where the water was still and no one was there to disturb you two. You both headed out to the deck again. He took a seat to lay out what he packed in his picnic basket, and you removed your sundress so that you could tan a little in your bikini.

“Champagne?” he offered, holding up a bottle of Dom Pérignon that he most definitely stole from his family’s wine cellar.

You pulled out the two wine glasses in the basket and held them out for Heeseung to pour your drinks, smiling wide as he tipped the bottle. “Yes, please.”

“See, you wouldn’t be able to experience this if you were in the Bahamas right now.” He pushed his sunglasses up onto his head. “We didn’t get to hang out like this any of the past summers.”

“As if we don’t hang out almost every day.”

“But this is different!” he argued. “It’s summer. It’s not like we’re making impromptu plans to New York and flying back home a day later to study for an exam. We have all the time in the world right now.”

He was right, in a sense. You and Heeseung were always together, but you two never really got to spend long days together like this. You two got to make plans without involving anyone else in the friend group for once, and it was a lot more fun than you had expected.

“Do you think we’d be this close if we weren’t rich?” you asked after a while. Heeseung raised a brow at your question, so you clarified, “I’m serious! We wouldn’t be able to do stuff like this—flying in hot air balloons, driving yachts, going to country club parties—if we didn’t have rich parents.”

Heeseung crossed his arms behind his head and pondered, looking up at the sky with a wistful expression. He hummed before answering, “I’d like to think that we’d make it work the same way everyone else does.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“What if… you were rich and I wasn’t? Or vice-versa?”

“Yeah, I mean…” he trailed off for a moment, eyes cast down as if he was trying to find the words on his tongue. Then, he continued, “I think I’d be happy doing anything with you, even if all we could do together was sit at home and watch TV.”

Whatever response you had prepared at the back of your throat had died on your tongue. All you could do was look at him helplessly, wondering why his words were making your heart beat faster than when you were thousands of feet up in the sky days ago. You wondered why such gentle words from your best friend had roused a violent storm in your heart.

The wind picked up, sending your hair flying every which way. Heeseung reached out to brush a loose strand of hair away from your face, fingers lingering on your cheek as he pulled back. You went completely still, chest frozen mid-breath as he pulled away.

“You had something in your hair,” he mumbled, quickly scrambling to offer you a caprese skewer. If you looked closely enough, you would’ve noticed that his ears were bright red. “Eat quickly before the food gets stale.”

“I don’t think food normally goes stale that fast.”

“Shut up.”

There was one thing about formal gatherings that all trust fund babies could agree on: only get drunk behind your parents’ backs.

They definitely knew what was going on, but they paid no attention as long as their children were staying safe and not embarrassing themselves. When you were much younger, you would always catch sight of the older kids sneaking away to get drunk in the bathroom, but you never understood the excitement they felt until you became a freshman in high schooler, being dragged away by Yeji to drink with the older kids.

Back then, you were doe-eyed and curious as Vernon would pour shots for you in moderation. Now, you were nearly gagging when Yizhuo handed you a shooter of Pink Whitney.

You two had locked yourselves in the bathroom with Xiaoting, Kazuha, and Minjeong as Yizhuo pulled out various shooters from her purse. It was fine for you to drink wine with the other adults, but you were all certain that the adults would frown upon you drinking hard liquor in front of the other guests. So, the five of you snuck away to get drunk secretly.

For the past fifteen minutes, as you all were downing shooter after shooter, the girls had been pressing you about something going on between you and Heeseung. After he posted you on his Instagram story, showing off his boat in the process, you were bombarded with texts that you were only able to ignore until you got to the party.

A loud knock at the door nearly scared you out of your wits, causing Minjeong to bark out a laugh at the sight of you flinching.

“Occupied!” you yelled, although the syllables slurred together strangely.

“It’s us!” came Jake’s voice. “We’re going drunk golfing.”

You frowned and stepped aside to let Yizhuo open the door for Jake. He scanned his surroundings nervously before shoving his fists into his pockets and stepping into the girls’ bathroom.

“Jake,” Xiaoting started. Although her face and neck were completely red, she focused her eyes on him to keep a serious tone. “We need you to tell us if Heeseung’s into Y/N or not.”

“Xiaoting!” you complained.

“You know what, I’d like to know, too,” Jake replied with shocking enthusiasm. He leaned against the crystal sink, folding his arms across his chest. “Screw drunk golf; this is way more fun. Y/N, do you have feelings for Heeseung? ‘Cause everyone wants to know if—”

“Jake, we didn’t bring you in here for girl talk,” Minjeong cut him off with a wave of her hand. “We brought you in here for answers.”

He let out a childish whine. “But I wanna be here for girl talk.”

“Wait, but answer his question.” Yizhuo turned to you with a wide grin on her face, handing you yet another shooter—probably to make you more honest. You seriously wished you could call Chenle over to put a leash on your friend. “Do you have feelings for Heeseung?”

Did you? You had never been so confused about where you and Heeseung stood until this week. You two had always been close—always did everything together—so why were you feeling conscious about everything now?

But, despite all of your confusion, the one thing that was clear to you was that you felt something for Lee Heeseung with every beat of your heart.

Everything he did, everything he said—you weren’t sure what it was that had you so intoxicated on his attention, but you knew you would’ve felt sick to your stomach if he did the things he did with you with any other girl.

You felt it whenever you saw him lounging around your house, digging into the brownies your mother made as if he lived there. You felt it whenever someone told a joke and the two of you made eye contact with each other first, hoping to see if the other person found it funny, too. You felt it whenever he touched your hand and called you princess, unaware that your heart was fluttering pathetically in your chest.

His smile, his laugh, his happiness—you wanted to be the cause of it all.

You caved with a defeated sigh. “Yeah, I think I might actually have feelings for him.”

A collective cheer erupted in the bathroom, the sound echoing for a few seconds after. Jake stood up just to high-five Yizhuo so hard that the impact left their palms stinging, and then Yizhuo proceeded to scold Jake for putting his full force into the high-five. You pinched the bridge of your nose with embarrassment flooding your chest.

Jake decided to abandon the boys’ plans to go drunk golfing and spent the next ten minutes discussing strategies to get you and Heeseung alone. He had integrated himself into your circle so well that he almost seemed like one of the girls. You slowly backed up into one of the stalls during their conversation, starting to feel horribly nauseous and lightheaded. You were pretty sure that Yizhuo handing you shooter after shooter was starting to have adverse effects on your body.

“How about we tell him that Y/N’s puking in the bathroom and he needs to—” Minjeong cut herself off as soon as she heard you retching by the toilet. “Oh, wow, she’s actually puking in the bathroom.” She turned to Jake after opening the door for him. “Go get Heeseung.”

“If you let me join girl talk next time,” Jake bargained.

“Are you seriously negotiating with me in this situation?”

“Yes.”

Minjeong groaned. “Okay, fine, Jake, we’ll invite you the next time we have girl talk. Now go fetch Heeseung.”

“On it!” he agreed quickly. “Don’t die, Y/N.”

“I’ll try not to” you croaked out weakly, your head hanging between your knees as you willed yourself to not barf out your guts.

“Are you okay?” Kazuha pouted as she rubbed your back in soothing circles. “This is all because you kept making her drink, Yizhuo.”

“I didn’t make her,” she retorted. “Y/N, do you need water or anything? I can ask someone in the kitchen for liquid IV, too.”

You shook your head. “No, just bring Heeseung here.”

They shared a secretive giggle, but you didn’t care. You felt way too sick to mind the girls teasing you. You even tried to distract yourself on your phone, but the bright screen just made you feel worse. You closed your eyes and leaned your head back against the wall, groaning miserably.

It had really gotten to the point where you didn’t care that you were sitting on the country club’s public bathroom floor. It was all fancy and sanitary, of course, but you would normally feel icky about this sort of scenario playing out.

You weren’t sure how long it had been, but eventually, you heard the door opening and the rest of the girls rushed to make sure it wasn’t someone outside the group. You heard them ushering Heeseung inside, explaining what had happened to you before they left the bathroom.

Heeseung knocked on your stall as a formality but let himself inside, anyway. The crooked grin on his face upon seeing you only made you turn your head away and sigh in exasperation.

You turned your head back to face him when you heard his shutter go off.

A scowl was plastered across your face. “Did you just take a picture of me?”

Heeseung snickered. “Yeah, I’m posting it on my story. Right after the one of you looking all pretty on my boat.”

“You’re supposed to be here to help me.”

“That’s why I brought soda,” he replied, holding up an entire bottle of Sprite. You were confident he snagged it from the kitchen, which you were pretty sure would result in Yizhuo scolding him for treating the country club like his house. “Anyway, why’d you drink so much? Just because I’m driving you home doesn’t mean you’re allowed to give yourself alcohol poisoning.”

You settled back into your previous position with your head between your knees. This way, Heeseung wouldn’t be able to see how stupid in love you were. There was absolutely no way you could tell him that you were mindlessly drinking while you were spilling your feelings for him.

“Where’d the girls go?” you asked instead.

“I told them to go drunk golfing while I took care of you.”

“Don’t you wanna go play, too?”

Heeseung shrugged. He took a seat on the floor next to you, not minding the indecency even though he was sober. You felt like your heart was going to explode if he kept doting on you like this.

“I can always go play another time,” he said. “Plus, I’d have more fun if you were there.”

You both went quiet for a moment. The weight of Heeseung’s words only made your heart feel heavier, and you weren’t sure how much longer you could go pretending that you only cared for him as a friend.

Then, your stomach started churning and twisting with the need to puke out your guts again, and the silence was filled with your retching. Heeseung rubbed your back sympathetically and held your hair back while you hunched over the toilet seat again.

This was definitely going down as one of your most unflattering moments.

“Want some soda?” Heeseung tried.

You shook your head.

“Drink some water, then—here,” he said, handing you a red solo cup that was filled to the brim. “I stole it from Hoon.”

Reluctantly, you lifted your head to accept the cup from him. When you took a sip, though, you just ended up hawking and spitting out the contents into the toilet.

Trying your best not to gag, you got out, “Not water—vodka.”

“Oh, my bad.” Heeseung frowned, inspecting the cup. “Why’d Hoon pour this much? No wonder he drove the golf cart into the lake.”

After throwing up basically everything in your stomach, you started to feel dizzy all over again, stumbling and wobbling all over the bathroom until Heeseung had to hold you upright. He had already gotten Yizhuo’s approval to drive you home for the night, but there was no way you were making it to his Tesla in your heels. Heeseung had you hang tight while he ran to his car to get your Dolce & Gabbana rubber slides, knowing there was no possible way for him to carry you out to the car without the adults getting suspicious.

You felt much more comfortable in your slides, so you walked out hand-in-hand with Heeseung while he held onto your heels. Although you felt bad about leaving Yizhuo’s grand opening party early, you figured that it would be more shameful for her parents to see you in this state.

You had greatly underestimated the power of alcohol.

After you had walked up to about three different cars that weren’t Heeseung’s (including Jay’s Mercedes Benz, which started going off once you pulled on the handle), he had finally grabbed you by the shoulders and manually directed you to his Tesla. You giggled as you got into the passenger’s seat, allowing him to buckle you in and watch over you as he called Jay to turn his car alarm off.

Heeseung shot you a glance as he drove out of the country club’s gated entrance. “You’re going straight to bed when we get home.”

“Don’t wanna.”

He surprisingly gave up fast on trying to convince you. “What do you wanna do, then?”

“I dunno.” You shrugged. “Anything. Wanna bake cookies? Or watch a show?”

“Down for a show. Don’t know if I trust you around kitchen appliances right now,” he answered. After letting out a giggle, you caught Heeseung’s smile illuminated by the moonlight. “See? Aren’t you having more fun than you would’ve had in the Bahamas?”

“I wouldn’t ask this question after I nearly got alcohol poisoning.”

“The important thing is that you didn’t.”

You snorted, but something fond unraveled in your chest. You rolled the window down and looked outside, watching the bright lights of the city twinkle and shine under the inky black sky. You remembered all the skies you watched with Heeseung this week—the hazy gray in the morning, the bright blues of the afternoon, and the faint peony glow at sunset. And, yeah, you would’ve given up the Bahamas any day for this.

“Yeah,” you answered him, though you weren’t quite sure if he could hear you over the wind, “I’m having a lot of fun, Hee.”

Two weeks flew by far too quickly.

You were dumbfounded when you realized your parents were coming back the next day. You had spent two entire weeks solely with Heeseung, and you were having so much fun that you totally lost track of time. You were so caught up in your adventures that it had completely slipped your mind that summer would eventually come to an end.

Heeseung suggested that you two spent your last night doing something special. You had no idea what that meant, but you went along with whatever he had planned.

Apparently, he had been wanting to take you to see the stars, but you didn’t realize that he meant the observatory until you were in his car, parking on the steep slope of a hillside.

“It’s so far,” you complained.

He tutted. “It’s a five minute walk, princess, and it’s worth it. Trust me.”

You hesitated before grouching again, “It’s cold.”

Without another word, Heeseung took off his sweater. You tried to peel your eyes away from his white shirt that kept hiking up as he did. He passed it to you, and you couldn’t do anything but accept it because he was already getting out of the car. You wanted to hand it back to him because you knew he would be cold (made evident by the goosebumps that pricked his arms), but he profusely refused. He seemed perfectly content at the mere sight of you joining him.

He waited as you slipped on his sweater, the biggest grin stretching across his face. You were a little blindsided by how blinding Heeseung’s smile was, especially under the glow of the moon. Your cheeks heated up a little when you smelled faint traces of his Blackberry & Bay cologne in the fabric.

“You’re microscopic in my clothes,” he teased. You started walking a little faster to catch up with your friend, but his comment made you punch his shoulder.

“Oh, shut up.” You waved off the comment, but part of you liked how the sleeves of his sweater fell past your wrists. “We used to be the same height in, like, middle school.”

Heeseung barked out a laugh. “That was so long ago! Look at our height difference now.” Before you could anticipate his actions, he stepped in front of you and compared both of your heights.

You looked up at your best friend, raising a brow at his comment. Of course you were aware. Maybe at one point you denied it, but that was when you both were in elementary school and Heeseung would tug on your hair because he sat behind you.

Being this close to him made you a little nervous. After realizing that you had feelings for him, it was becoming difficult to keep them at bay. It was very clear that Heeseung had become much more masculine over the years with his buffer chest, muscular arms, and deeper voice.

And he looked extremely attractive.

“Yeah, I know you’re tall,” you replied flatly. It was normal for Heeseung to tease you, but whenever he did so in public, you always felt your heart squeeze in your chest. Then, he’d brush it off, and the feeling would fade out like bubbles floating to the ground. “You know, giving me your sweater and messing around like this probably gives people the wrong idea, right?”

“Oh… does it?” Heeseung mumbled, voice an octave higher than usual, and he turned his face away before you could detect the dust of pink across his cheeks. “By the way, have you been to a planetarium before?”

“Nope.”

You had always heard of the large domes that showcased the night sky. People sat underneath as a narrator droned on about stories from the past and the history of the universe. However, you hadn’t ever actually been to one, although you almost would’ve if you hadn’t gotten grounded before a class trip, resulting in all of your friends going to a planetarium show without you. You remembered Yizhuo was texting you throughout the entire trip, complaining about virtually everything that was going on and telling you how much she missed you.

“You’re kidding,” Heeseung’s eyes went round. “No way! You’ve never been to a planetarium?”

“Well—”

“Oh my god,” he continued, absolutely astounded. “Have you even lived?”

“I’ve just never had the chance!” you argued. “It’s not like anyone’s ever asked me to go to one. Plus, if there’s anyone I’d go with, I’d rather just go with you.”

Silence.

You and Heeseung had been settling into a lot of awkward pauses lately. It always followed some odd comment or action between you two, like when he got extremely close to you on the yacht. You still had no idea what exactly his intentions were during that whole ordeal, but your heart had never raced so fast.

Eventually, your silence was broken by an employee ushering you and Heeseung to walk past the velvet ropes and into the observatory building. You both were still silent upon walking in, but when you saw the signs pointing to the planetarium, you nudged your best friend’s side.

“It says the next showing starts in five minutes,” you pointed out.

“Fuck.” He slapped the pockets of his jeans, feeling for something solid in them. “I have my tickets—somewhere. Give me a second.”

Thankfully, he managed to figure out that he saved his tickets to his Apple Wallet. The sign stating that the shows were sold out nearly made your heart drop, but, of course, Heeseung had planned this out well in advance.

As always.

“Where should we sit?” you asked when you walked into the room, looking up at the dome-shaped ceiling in awe.

“Anywhere.” Heeseung grinned at you. “All we have to do is lay back and stare at the sky, so wherever you wanna sit.”

You both settled with two seats in the middle. It was smack dab in the center of the dome, right where the screen curved. Heeseung made a comment about how this was the ideal spot because it felt like you were getting sucked in by the stars.

When the show started, you gazed up at the screen in complete awe. Swirling nebulas and galaxies were painted across the night sky, blinking down at you. The narrator’s soothing voice made you feel absolutely immersed, and you had to grab the arm rest whenever the animation started speeding through the universe.

Heeseung booed when they showed Earth, throwing up a thumbs-down and then quickly shoving his hand back into his pocket, as if the planet would take offense.

And you realized you were in love with him.

You didn’t know why it hit you right then and there—a person droning on about space overhead, glancing over at your best friend to see him gawking at the solar system—but you were certain you would never feel this way with anyone else again. The feeling stampeded through your body, making your blood rush and your bones feel light. You were engulfed in a fire that burned only for Heeseung.

It felt so simple, yet all the more complicated. You were in love with your childhood best friend—the person who had been with you through everything.

It wasn’t like fireworks. Not a splash of ice cold water or like you had been kicked in the chest. It was more like slowly sinking in quicksand, not even realizing how deep you were until you were completely submerged.

You had been in love with Golden Boy for a long time now.

Later, after the show was over, he took you outside to overlook the city. Apparently, it was quite the sight to behold from this high up. You were still gushing on and on about the planetarium show, but as soon as you took a glance over the railing, you forgot all about the wonders of space.

Now, looking over all the bright lights really made it feel like the City of Angels. You were completely captivated by the sight. It was different from how it looked from the hot air balloon; everything was so miniscule from that height, but you could see how far the city stretched from here. The lights blinked past the horizon, and you were certain this was your first time seeing stars down below instead up in the sky.

Heeseung folded his arms onto the railing and tucked his head in them. “You can’t get this view anywhere else.”

“It’s beautiful,” you said, hardly audible.

“Yeah,” he replied. You wondered if he was talking about the stars above or the city below, so you turned your head to catch where he was looking. There was an alarming spike in your heartbeat when you realized he was looking at you, but Heeseung didn’t look away this time. “It really is.”

You never fully appreciated how gorgeous Los Angeles—never really looked past all the traffic and smog and crowd. The bustling city was tiring to keep up with at times. You saw it more as the city of burnouts than the city of stars.

But here, where the stars weren’t in the sky but down below, you realized that the brightest star of them all was the one right next to you.

It was Heeseung.

“You don’t still wish you were in the Bahamas, do you?” he asked suddenly, which spurred you to start laughing.

You stared up at him with incredulity in your eyes. “Hee, I never once wished I was in the Bahamas when I was with you.” You nodded to yourself. “I’d say you made this a successful summer.”

Your heart flipped in your chest when you saw those gleaming eyes and bright smile of his. It almost lit up the sky brighter than the city of Los Angeles itself. The way he was looking at you made you forget everything you were saying.

“Actually,” he started shyly, “there's something else that could make this summer perfect.”

“What’s that?”

“Will you go out with me?”

The question knocked you off orbit, electrifying every nerve in your body like it was cut wire. You weren’t sure what expression you wore on your face, but the shy look on Heeseung’s face was plunging you deeper in that inescapable quicksand. Of course, your friends had suspected this all along, but hearing it yourself was entirely different. You felt like you were glowing brighter than Polaris.

“I’ve liked you since we were kids,” he started to explain after gauging that you still needed time to process his words. “It’s not like I just felt this way overnight. I was just trying to make the right choices so that I could stay by your side for as long as I could. I mean, I’ll always be your best friend, Y/N, but I also wanna be something more than that to you.”

“And it’s okay if you don’t feel the same way,” he continued. “I knew that this could possibly ruin our friendship, but I also knew that if I didn’t tell you how I felt, then I would’ve been lying to you through college, too.” He sucked in a shuddering breath. “It’s only ever been you.”

Change was hard. You’d been at war with your mind for a while now over starting something new with Heeseung. Although it was unfamiliar and new, and although you were scared of things potentially not working out, you still wanted to try for him.

“You don’t have to worry about ruining our friendship.” The words were on your tongue like a pearl. Your soul leaked out of your body, straight into the Earth, then seeped back into you with newfound bravery. You blinked back tears that dared to spill and sounded so stupidly breathless when you confessed, “I’m in love with you, too, Hee.”

His eyes were as wide as saucers, unblinking. “You are?”

His voice was soft, imploring, almost desperate, so you stepped closer and cupped his cold cheeks with your warm hands. Heeseung’s gaze seemed faraway, but he placed his hands over yours, as if he was trying to make sure you were real.

“I don’t think there’s anyone else out there who would rent an entire hot air balloon just to make sure I wouldn’t miss the Bahamas.” You laughed, a moonstruck grin on your face. “And, for the record, I’d choose you over a stupid vacation any day.”

You had been waiting to see his face break into that dazzling smile of his where his eyes crinkled at the corners. Instead, Heeseung just gazed at you longingly before he placed a hand on your cheek and bent down to kiss you.

His mouth moved with yours carefully, almost like he was too scared to go any further. You moved your hands to loop around his neck, drawing him closer so that you could slowly deepen the kiss. You were grateful that Heeseung waited to match your pace, and soon he was dropping his hands to grab at your waist and pull you closer to him, too. It sent butterflies straight to the pit of your stomach whenever he smiled between kisses, mumbling something about how pretty you were or how he had been waiting to do this forever.

Sometimes, you realized, feelings didn’t need to be expressed through words. You didn’t need the confirmation because with Heeseung’s lips pressed to yours, you felt like you were glowing brighter than the stars above.

You supposed you could say your parents were a little shocked to come back home and discover a major change in your relationship status.

You had to give them the rundown of what happened, of course. It wasn’t very hard to do, considering you had reiterated the same story to Yizhuo about a hundred times until she was satisfied. Thankfully, your other friends just needed to hear it once to fully grasp that Heeseung was now your boyfriend. For Yeji, you had to bring out a whiteboard just to draw everything out to her over FaceTime.

As you broke down what happened while your parents were in Rome, you noticed the silver necklace on your mother’s neck that glimmered whenever the light caught it. You smiled to yourself when you realized it was probably your stepfather’s honeymoon present, and you were grateful that your mother was able to experience such a wonderful love herself.

“See?” There was an excited gleam in your mother’s eyes as she bit into one of the chocolate chip cookies you and Heeseung made for them last night. She pointed the cookie in your stepfather’s direction. “I told you they’d get together!”

“I thought so, too!” he agreed. “That’s why I had that little talk with Heeseung when you two dropped us off at the airport.”

“That’s what you guys were talking about?!” you exclaimed, jumping up to your feet and then sinking back down in your seat with your hands covering your face. “I knew it was gonna be something embarrassing.”

“Oh, honey, don’t say that. Have a cookie.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Heeseung, who had been silent the whole conversation, spoke up. He reached over and took the cookie from your mother, but you smacked his hand lightly while he was bringing it to his mouth. “Hey! You almost made me drop my cookie!”

You huffed. “She was talking to me, idiot.”

You were honestly over-the-moon that dating Heeseung was this easy. You worried about having a boyfriend and having to go through the hassle of introducing him to your parents and waiting for them to warm up to him. With Heeseung, though, he was already like family in your household, so nothing felt too different.

Except that your parents could outwardly tease you both now.

Since you were in his parents’ good graces, too, everything seemed to click for you two. Both of your parents were planning to go out for dinner sometime this week to celebrate your new relationship, which you felt was a little over-the-top. You suspected that Mrs. Lee was hoping you would be her future daughter-in-law.

They were even planning on renting a Airbnb together for yours and Heeseung’s move-in at Yale. It was almost terrifying how everyone in your life seemed to be fully on-board for this relationship.

Not that you were complaining, though.

“Are you guys going somewhere now?” your mother asked, eyeing Heeseung’s white button-up that you were wearing over your swimsuit. “Make sure you wear sunscreen. It’s supposed to be the hottest day of the year.”

You checked your bag to make sure your sunscreen was, in fact, there. Heeseung took his baseball cap off to put it on your head, which made you crack a smile.

“Yeah, we’re going to the beach,” you said. “Yizhuo and Chenle wanted to spend the day at Santa Monica, and then we were gonna head over to Jungwon’s house.”

“Well, have fun.” Your mother moved to the kitchen to grab Tupperware to package the cookies. Your stepfather followed her in to help her out. “I’m sorry we couldn’t go to the Bahamas this year, but the beach has to be the next best thing, right?”

You shared a grin with Heeseung, and his eyes crinkled beautifully at the corners. “Yeah, it’s exactly like the Bahamas if I close my eyes.”

AUTHOR’S NOTE ▸ thank you for reading all the way to the end if you made it this far !! :’) i have always wanted to write pure fluff without any room for misunderstandings or angst LOL and heeseung is just the perfect embodiment of bff2l ♡ i hope you enjoyed reading this as much as i enjoyed writing this !!

TAG LIST ▸ @mmsriza @changmin-wrlds @13isacoolnumber @from-xero @acciomylove @nyujjan @goldenhypen @bbanggami @lvsunq @cb97curls @ily-cuz-i @jakeyuni @soobisms @rikibae @soobin-chois @sjyuniverse @outrologist @kyukittie @nabinthegardnn @viagumi @kpoplover718 @duolingofanaccount @jjongsha @teawithbucky @baekhyunstruly @mykalon @heelariously @hobistigma @ja4hyvn @candidupped @shmooooo @pr0dbeomgyu @heeyunkist @sunshine-skz @hiqhkey @baekhyuns-lipchain @fakeuwus @wvnkoi

#enhypen imagines #heeseung imagines #heeseung fluff #enhypen fluff #heeseung x reader #enhypen oneshots #heeseung oneshots #lee heeseung #enhypen

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malusokay · 10 months

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⋆⁺₊❅⋆ My Christmas movie watch list ⋆⁺₊❅⋆

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅̩̩͙‧͙Romance ‧͙̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

The Holiday 2006

Love Actually 2003

Love Hard 2021

Holidate 2020

A Castle for Christmas 2021

The Shop Around the Corner 1940

Christmas in Connecticut 1945

Holiday Affair 1949

EXmas 2023

The Holiday Calendar 2018

A Merry Scottish Christmas 2023

The Princess Switch 2018

The Princess Switch: Switched Again 2020

The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star 2021

Four Christmases 2008

Last Christmas 2019

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅̩̩͙‧͙Comedy ‧͙̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

Elf 2003

Home Alone 1990

Home Alone 2 1992

Noelle 2019

Surviving Christmas 2004

Jack Frost 1998

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms 2018

The Christmas Chronicles 2018

The Christmas Chronicles 2 2020

A Christmas Story 1983

Jingle All the Way 1996

Jingle All the Way 2 2014

Deck the Halls 2006

The Santa Clause 1994

Christmas with the Kranks 2004

Christmas Vacation 1989

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅̩̩͙‧͙Animated ‧͙̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

Barbie in the Nutcracker 2001

Barbie in a Christmas Carol 2008

Barbie: A Perfect Christmas 2011

How the Grinch Stole Christmas 2000

The Grinch 2018

The Polar Express 2004

A Christmas Carol 2009

The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993

The Elf on the Shelf: An Elf's Story 2010

The Year Without a Santa Claus 1974

A Charlie Brown Christmas 1965

Arthur Christmas 2011

Frosty the Snowman 1969

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 1964

I've also put all movies in a Letterbox list --> ˗ˋˏ click here ˎˊ-

If you guys have any more suggestions and/or recommendations (maybe some shows and series as well!!), please feel free to share them with me in the comments!! <33

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vhudgens · 10 months

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THE PRINCESS SWITCH 3: ROMANCING THE STAR (2021) dir. Mike Rohl

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emiim23 · 2 years

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Vacation!Nanami x Black!reader

♡genre: established relationship , romance, fluff, smut

♡warnings: +18 𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗬!! MDNI!! fluff,slow to rough sex, fingering, cunnilingus, squirting, cutenames ( my love, beautiful, good girl, princess), pwp(barley there plot) , sub!reader & dom!Nanami [ i think thats it pls let me know if i missed anything :) ]

This tiktok inspired this headcanon😭🤞🏾

Masterlist

So we all know that Nanami doesn't go on vacation, he's a certified workaholic but if he does it's only because his best girl wants him with her, of course he brings his work with him, online meetings and all of that.

When his beautiful angel of a girlfriend offers to go out for lunch he absolutely cannot resist the pout on her plump lips and the way her sundress flows around her frame, he just has to go with you.

So now here you are hand in hand enjoy the breeze and the sun on your skin. Matching outfits making your pictures so much better.

Having lunch on the deck was amazing until the waitress kept trying to flirt with your man.

Key word TRYING because nanami was not giving her the time of day, keeping his eyes on you playing with your hand.

"Excuse me sir what would you like anything off of our special menu" she said leaning closer to him

Before you could tell her off Nanami moved his chair closer to you so you could sit side by side.

"No, how about you my love, I'll have whatever you're getting" Nanami said kissing your shoulder as he pulled your arm closer to his chest.

"I'll get a chicken salad, fries and lasagna please" you said smiling at the waitress

"Can we also get one mango, pineapple smoothie two waters and a new waiter, thanks" Nanami said not even looking at the woman as she scoffed and stomped away.

Lunch went perfect after the change and the next place to go was the private pool attached to your suite.

When the occasion does arise for Nanami to go on holiday he goes for luxury and comfort over anything especially once you two got together.

And the most important thing about a good vacation is privacy.

A dip in the pool turned into a playful water fight splashing about, laughter being carried by the wind, the sun turning the water droplets on your skin into stars, making Nanami fall deeper in love with you, as you tried to swim away Nanami pulled you into his arms basically lifting your body halfway out of water.

Wrapping your legs around his waist and your arms around his neck, one hand weaving your fingers through his hair, your acrylics scratching his scalp making him close his eyes and hum in satisfaction.

Taking this opportunity you leaned down and kissed him the kiss you shared intensified his tongue making its way into your mouth.

His hands roamed around your body switching between squeezing your thighs and your ass not knowing which to choose. The heat growing within your bodies contrasted with the cool water surrounding the both of you making you want to get closer to each other, closer than the way you already were.

Breaking away from the kiss the both of you breathing heavily trying to catch your breath.

"Let's go inside" you said as you kissed his neck loving the way his body felt against yours.

Nanami walked to the edge of the pool sitting you down on the edge so you could stand up. Making your way to the room you started stripping your bikini making a show out of it, taking off your bikini top you tossed it over your shoulder hearing it his the floor behind you, as you reached for the ties on the side of you bikini bottoms you heard Nanami get closer to you.

You giggled as Nanami led you into the room. His entire body was pressed to your back and you nearly moaned as he sucked on your neck.

“Gimme a kiss,” Nanami murmurs, deep voice low in your ear. Turning your body around he picked you up his hands are on your hips, fingers digging into the softness of your skin walking towards the bed until his knees hit the bed. Breaking the kiss he remained quiet as he tossed you onto the bed and spread your creamy, brown thighs.

A low, hungry growl rumbled in his chest as he stared down at your pussy. Licking his lips, he started to go down to have a taste, but stopped as an idea came to him. "Baby, want you to put your pussy on my face." He laid down on the bed and beckoned for you to come.

Biting your lip, not sure if you could do what was asked of you. You let out a squeak when he grabbed you by the ankle and pulled you over to him. Untying the strings of your bikini so quickly that you didn't notice.

Lifting you up easily, he placed you into his lap and grabbed your chin. Nanami pulled you in for a deep, slow kiss that left you panting and wanting more. His dark eyes had a serious glow in them as he firmly said, "Sit. On. My. Face."

Your hands grabbed the headboard of the bed almost immediately at the feeling of his hot tongue swirling over your puffy folds, The sight of Nanami underneath you was honestly one of the sexiest things ever. Your head fell back as your felt you walls beginning to quiver on his tongue.

It's messy the way he eats you, dragging his tongue over your clit as he pushes back your thighs. your folds spread out allowing him to push his tongue between your tight walls.

he moans as your pussy tightens around his muscle. he slurps your cream, fucking you with his tongue.

"fuck, you taste good" he breathes, "you're fucking soaked." he's drunk on you, his fingers dig into your thighs as he buries his face deeper in your folds.

"feels so good" you pant, tangling your fingers in his hair. he groans as he closes his lips around your clit, sucking your swollen bud and reducing you to a moaning mess. "fuck, Kento," you gasp. your thighs twitch under his fingers as a heat fills your body.

You gush over his mouth, rocking on his lips, cumming. your lips part to let out sweet moans of his name.

Nanami made slurping sounds as he devoured you. Your sweet taste dripping down his chin as he found pleasure in hearing your cries and moans as his tongue worked orgasm after orgasm from your pretty cunt. His fingers came up to slide into your sticky hole as his lips closed your swollen, protruding clit.

Thighs trembled around his head as he pulled another orgasm from you with his greedy tongue. "Ken, baby...I can't anymore." You tried to lift yourself up, but his fingers dug into your plush thighs, yanking you back down onto his hungry lips.

"One more beautiful. Give me one more and I'll be satisfied." Nanami was drunk off your taste. He could be smothered by your thighs all day if he could. Sucking your tender clit back into his mouth, he flicked his tongue over it as his fingers pushed back inside, thrusting in and out of you and making loud squelching sounds.

Your mouth dropped open into a silent scream as you ground your hips down onto his lips, his tongue sliding over your weeping pussy. Gazing back down at his face, the sight was enough to make you cum hard on his tongue.

Nanami tried to catch every last drop of your sweet release, but some managed to drip down his chin and cheeks as he swallowed what fell into his mouth. He gave your pussy a few gentle licks before let you fall limply to the side. "I needed that." He said as he sat up. "Thank you, baby." Nanami kissed your forehead

Situating himself in front of you he started lifting your legs around his waist. Looking at him with basically hearts in your eyes your eyes glanced down you didn't realise that his swimming trunks were long gone.

" How are you feeling my love" Nanami asked as he kissed your chest making his way up to your lips.

"So good Nami~"you sighed loving the feeling of his weight on your body.

“Gonna let me fuck you, baby?” He asks against your mouth, trailing his lips down your neck and kissing your skin gently.

He pulls back for a moment, just long enough to situate himself comfortably between your thighs and align himself with your entrance.

And then he’s pushing into you slowly, making you feel every single inch of it.

Your mouth drops open and your legs wind around his hips, pulling him even deeper than before. He’s pressing against every sensitive spot inside you and it feels heavenly. "You' re taking it so good" he sucks in a breath, his voice deep and calm as he works his thick length into you. "good girl" he praises you, pulling out slowly only to work his thick cock back into your throbbing cunt.

“so good baby, you take me so well”

“you like being stuffed with my cock, huh?" he groans out as your eyes roll back in pleasure.

“Fuck, you feel good, baby. Feel so good....shit you’re like heaven.” He rasps the words against your throat, lips trailing up over your skin to rest on yours for a quick moment before he pulls back to gaze into your eyes.

“I love you, pretty girl, you're just so good for me.”

Your heart swells at the praise you lean up to kiss him, gasping against his lips when he pulls his hips back and slams them forward.

Kento! ” you’re gasping, high pitched and whiney with your lungs desperate for breath. they expand wide between your rib cage and the mattress your boyfriend has you pressed into— all of his weight, heavy over you and his chest against you. “‘m gonna…gonna— oh fuck, baby! gonna make me cum.” you cry still sensitive from your previous high.

Nanami laughs, his warm breath tingling gently against the shell of your ear— contrasting with the force behind each of his calculated thrusts, hips lunging forward to push his fat cock deeper along your soaked squishy walls, “uhuh, you close, angel? can tell with how your greedy little pussy clenches around me,” as if in queue, his seedy, blistering tip nudges new pleasure spots along the ridges of your insides— making you seize up and ripple around the stretch of Kento's girth. He chokes on a moan that sends dopamine crackling across your brain. "Lift your hips up for me princess" Nanami says right in your ear making your head spin.

you do your best to lift your hips , shuddering at how his luscious blonde hair tickles your shoulders as he quickly slips a pillow under your bruised hips to keep you arched how he wants. the new angle has your cunt squelching with lewd suction noises every time Nanami pushes into you, and his rough fingers slip between your mess of sweaty and arousal stained limbs to fumble with your swollen clit as blood rushes to it. You barely have any room to breathe between the way Kento fucks you and the way he touches you— treading on the thin line of euphoria and losing your sanity.

“Be a good girl, be my pretty girl and cum f’me, I wanna see your eyes when you cum for me baby. ” he slurs against your skin, practically drooling as his heavy length hits deep and churns up your insides— cockhead never letting up on your abused g-spot. “that’s it, make a mess for me, fuck. You're my good fucking girl.” He moans throwing your legs over his shoulders and pressing deeper into you.

“i can’t, can’t. K-ken-!” clawing at the sheets, your tiny mewls become louder, heftier and fill the room with their song combined with the wet slaps of skin on skin and bed creaking beneath the weight of sex. You let your head fall back against soft pillows beneath you, mouth hanging wide open when your orgasm washes over you in a wave that threatens to drown you. The knot in your stomach unravels way too quickly, and you gush clear streams of your arousal straight from your pussy.

“fuck, you’re squirting,” Nanami sounds elated, drawing wide and fast circles on your clit, never letting up with his thrusts no matter how much you squirt because he’s just so thick, so heavy that all his cock does is plug you full. “That’s it baby, lemme see you fall apart on me. uhhuh, you like that?” cooing condescendingly, he only slips deeper inside the heat of your puffy pussy as clear streams of arousal bathe his cock, your entrance clinging to every vein on his shaft.

He leaves you a drooling twitching mess against the crushed sheets, pressing his hips flat against your pelvis to grind into you in slow circles. “wan’ you to cum baby, please Kenni. cum inside me, please.” You beg, hiccuping and twisting the duvet between your shaky fingers. you squeal as Nanami picks up the pace, your arousal splashing against his tummy and pelvis, fat drops of it running down to the sheets.

His thrusts were sloppier, signaling his release. You clenched your walls around him as he kept hitting that sweet spot that made your eyes roll back, your stomach tighten and your hips buck against his.

With one last sloppy thrust he spilled himself into you, milking every single drop of his cum. Your body dissolved into pleasure, coming undone underneath the man you love.

Kissing your ankle where an anklet with both of your initials lay he trailed his hands all over your body helping relax your muscles as he praised you for being oh so sweet for him. Barely hearing a word he was saying you relished in the warmth of his kisses and the feeling of his hands massaging your thighs.

"I'm going to draw us a bath okay love" Nanami said as he slowly pulled away from you making you wine at the loss of contact.

"I'll be quick" he said as he went to the bathroom, the sound of the water running combined with the smell of lavender made you feel more relaxed, your body sinking into the bed.

"Princess you can't go to sleep just yet" Nanami said with a small laugh, you just looked so soft surround by the pillows, your body curved around the duvet the sun making the whole situation look like it was straight out of a movie.

"mhm" you said not really having the energy to reply without realising it Nanami came to the bed and picked you up as if you weighed nothing. This made you laugh as you were caught by surprise from the sudden rush of air.

As you made your way to the bath Nanami set you down on the counter. "Beautiful, I forgot towels, I'll be right back" he said as he kissed you before walking out.

Jumping off the counter you quickly used the toilet and cleaned up a bit before he came back. Looking in the mirror you saw the complete hot mees he left you. Braids in a tangled mess, hickies scattered all over your neck and chest going down your stomach as you looked back at your face your lip gloss from earlier was basically non existent, eyes hooded with content and a small smile on your face. Nanami walked back in with not only towels but also two bottles of water.

"Ready?" he asked as he set everything down on the counter.

"yep" you smiled back as you made your way to the steaming bubble bath. Sliding in you sighed in complete bliss as the water surround you. Hearing Nanami get in behind you you leaned back into his chest as he wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you closer.

"I love you Kento" you smiled back at him.

"I love you too my darling princess" he said as he kissed you.

A/n: so part two of ma Belle evangeline is coming soon I just really need to get this off my mind as soon as I saw that tik tok I just had to do something about it. this turned out longer than I thought 💀buuut I still love it, please let me know what you think, like share and comment <3

P.S please let me know if you want to be tagged in my future fics or part 2 of ma Belle evangeline

#nanami x reader #kento nanami smut #nanami smut #jujutsu kaisen smut #nanami x black!reader #jjk smut #nanami x y/n #black reader #black!reader #cw.squirting

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monsterfactoryfanfic · 15 days

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The Hacker

Detente for the Ravenous launches in TWO WEEKS! Time to share one of the weirdest, and what I hope will be, most interesting, classes: The Hacker.

DFTR takes place in a world caught between the 17th Century and Cold War, which means technologically, it's a disaster. Since the novel is structured like a heist, I wanted to keep some fun tropes from films like Oceans' 11 and Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star in the text. And one aspect of that is using computers and technology to break into highly guarded locations and spy on enemies with little gadgets and doodads. I took the novel's "hacker" character and morphed him into a character class which is, I hope, a really cool way to play a trad game.

As technology changes, so too must intelligence operations evolve. Hackers exploit weaknesses in network security and electronic tools, turning our enemies' defenses against them. Even when operating from a distance, our hackers provide crucial tactical support to teams in the field.

That "from a distance" part is crucial, because the Hacker is largely going to be away from the main action of the game. They're squishy, skilled in Analysis, not any of the main combat verbs. What they can do, however, is provide backup from the comfort of their gamer chair.

Core abilities are pretty straightforward. You can cause minor electrical malfunctions, which will harm hostiles and worsen their ability to hurt your teammates. You're also, crucially, more effective when you're sitting at your Gamer PC. The Hacker is built around the assumption that the majority of the time, you're going to be the eye in the sky, using cameras and radios to monitor your team's progress.

Case in point:

There, now you have a convenient excuse for how your character is able to interact with the mission, even when you're chilling in a bunker somewhere.

This still doesn't get around the problem of your character not really being able to fight the Ravenous when they show up. Which I think is a fair criticism. But Hackers aren't really meant to be muscle, they're meant to be worked into a version of the game that's much more about manipulation and distraction. You can't hurt the kaiju, but you can rally the population into a mob who will fight it for you.

I want the Hacker to feel like a character who can still make huge impacts on the world of the game even if they're not shooting crossbows and dodging cavalry, and I hope these advances give players options to play DFTR in a way that is not entirely focused on combat. I love a good fighting system, but sometimes I think it's a lot more fun if you just say, "fuck it, I'm starting a financial crisis."

#detente for the ravenous #long post

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promisemvself · 10 months

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VANESSA HUDGENS as FIONA PEMBROKE in THE PRINCESS SWITCH 3: ROMANCING THE STAR (2021)

#Vanessa Hudgens #vhudgensedit #vanessahudgensedit #hsmedit #The Princess Switch 3 #netflixedit #Netflix #christmasedit #ruinedchildhood #dailycelebs #dailycelebsedit #dailywoman #dailywomanedit #dailywomen #dailywomenedit #femalestunning #userveronika #My Edit

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corrodedseraphine · 2 years

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so close | one shot

pairing: eddie munson x fem!reader

summary: Seeing the movie Enchated for the first time you let an image of romance form in your teenage mindset based on the story. When you watch the film again a few years later, the circumstances are completely different and the situation much more messed up. angst/fluff, friends to lovers, modern!AU

the one shot is also avaliable on ao3

8 428 words

songs that I used: So close and That's how you know from movie Enchanted | Lita Ford ft. Ozzy Osbourne - Close My Eyes Forever

here it is after I almost deleted it twice, here you have super corny, obvious and a little bit angsty love story, enjoy (or not, I really can't promise you will like it.)

eddie munson masterlist | general masterlist

"Jeff texted that he will be 20 minutes late," Eddie sighed, sinking onto the couch in the Harringtons' grand living room.

"That means we still have at least an hour before he shows up," Gareth laughed.

"A real star must have a good entrance" Steve commented while switching channels on the TV.

Steve, with much persuasion from Dustin and Eddie, agreed to let Hellfire hold its campaigns at his house from time to time. The rest of the group also took the opportunity to come and watch the game or just spend some time together. Your group of friends looked like a mass of mismatched jigsaw puzzles, each of you diametrically opposed to the other, but that didn't stop you from creating your own little "family."

When you saw the princess fall into the well to find herself a moment later in New York you jumped up on the couch.

"Stop!" you shouted, snatching the remote control out of his hand. "I haven't seen this movie in ages! God I was so obsessed with it!"

"There's no way we're going to watch some princess bullshit." Munson whined reaching towards you to take the remote from you, but you quickly moved away squashing Max in the process.

"Get lost Munson! We are always watching what you want!"

"Because my taste is amazing?"

"And mine isn't?" you muttered.

"And mine isn't?" he began teasing you in a high-pitched tone of voice.

"If you don't like it, there's the door," you pointed in the direction of the exit. "Today we are watching what I want."

"Fine!" He grumbled melting into the soft cushions of the couch.

El was watching the movie enthralled, and Max rolled her eyes every time a song started, but still smiling as she watched you sing along with the actors. Despite the mean comments, Eddie also couldn't get out of his awe at how word by word you kept up with the melody adding a bit of drama to it as if you were getting into the moment in the movie. Additionally, he felt somewhat enchanted by it, but he didn't want to admit it so he struggled to hold back the smile creeping onto his lips. Play it cool, Munson. He repeated in his mind. Just play it cool.

"Now the most beautiful scene in the movie." said in a disheveled voice as the ball scene began.

"Oh my gosh this is so corny. It is obvious, that Robert and this redhead will dance together and this will be the moment when they will realize that they came there with the wrong people." Eddie commented.

"This Redhead's name is Giselle. And even if corny, it doesn't change the fact that it's romantic! And that song? Purest magic."

As the first notes of So Close began to come from the speakers, the metalhead jumped off the couch, standing in front of you with his hand outstretched. "Get up." he said. "Dance with me." A wave of heat washed over you. You nervously looked into his eyes seeking reassurance that this was for real. "Faster before it ends."

Now, Without hesitating you grabbed his hand and walked away the couch so that you were standing behind it. Eddie gently rocked you to the beat. The smell of his colonge intoxicated you. You had never been so close to each other. So close. His large hand rested firmly on your back generating a pleasant warmth that further dulled your sanity. For several months you had been aware that your relation to Eddie was not purely friendly. Every time you managed to shrug off your silly crush, he would then do something like this and your every effort would be in vain. Did he just make one of your teenage dreams come true? Yes. How could you not fall in love with a man who unknowingly made one of the fake scenrios in your head from a few years ago come true? At that time, you dreamed that the real Robert was in Eddie's place, but this change didn't bother you one bit. This version was much better. You looked at him with disbelief and a kind of enchantment when you danced. When his gaze met yours he smiled showing dimples in his cheeks, making you feel that he was about to have to grab you even tighter because you wouldn't be able to stay on your feet on your own. Unfortunately, beautiful moments have a way of coming to an end very quickly. When the music died down he took one last look at you. His gaze went from your eyes to your lips. Did he want to kiss you? the quiet voice of hope in your head made you feel like your heart was about to explode.

"See?" he grunted suddenly snapping out of his trance. "Nothing special."

Your heart didn't explode. Your heart broke. Nothing special. For him. For you, it was special. Too special. Brutally brought down to earth, you returned wordlessly to the couch sitting down between Max and El. When a few single tears ran down your cheeks you explained that it was because of the movie and the touching ending. Everyone knew perfectly well that you were easily moved by movies, so they easily believed it teasing you later because of it. No one needed to know that you couldn't focus a bit on the end of the movie replaying in your head the moment when you had Eddie so close and still so far.

The next day was not the happiest either. Still feeling the weight of Eddie's words on your heart, which dragged you down to the very bottom, you spent most of the time in bed self-pitying. Unfortunately, you eventually had to get up to get ready for work. Not long ago, Eddie helped you get a job as a bartender at The Hideout by recommending you to the owner. So from now on you were present at every Corroded Coffin concert cheering them loudly from behind the counter, where you also had a perfect view of the guitarist, who ran around the stage like crazy and made all your attention not necessarily on the customers.

The bar was slowly filling up as Gareth and Simon sat by the counter waiting for Jeff and Eddie. Sitting with them were members of the band that always performed before the CC.

"So." said Gareth looking you deadly in the eyes. "When are you finally going to talk to him?"

"What are you talking about now?" you asked pretending not to know what was going on.

"Ugh, I'm begging you! I can't look at you two anymore!" He whined. "The latest dance-thing in Harrington's living room? Hello?"

"It was nothing special." You replied recalling Eddie's words to which Gareth rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure if we hadn't been there he would have stuck his tongue down your throat at the end!"

"It's obvious that you like Eddie, and I think the feeling is mutual." interjected Simon taking a sip of beer. As long as the guys played there for half free and paid for the drinks the bar owner pretended to be convinced that they were all 21 years old.

"Aww our little barmaid fell in love with crazy Eddie? How adorable!" at the very sound of her voice you winced. Diana was the bass player in the other band. From the very beginning there was no sympathy between you two and she was always looking for an excuse to get on your nerves. Now Gareth and Simon have handed it to her on a silver platter. Cursing in your soul, you ignored what she said.

"I think that's enough beer for you today." you said taking the drink from his hand.

"You should talk to him as soon as possible, for example today when he drives you home after work."

"There's nothing to talk about." Nothing special. Those two words haunted you on loop.

Never before watching their performance was so difficult for you. You had the impression that Munson was looking in your direction a little more often than usual. However, telling yourself that it was just a delusion caused by your stupid crush, you tried not to worry about it too much. What scared you more was the thought of the way home where you would be alone in his van. You always loved your comebacks. Especially when he took the longer route home because you were having a too-good-to-be-true conversation, or a song that was playing was too good to get out of the car. Now thinking about it, you felt anxious. It turned out that you sensed an impending disaster.

You left the bar accompanied by Gareth. Eddie had disappeared earlier saying he was going to pack his guitar in the car, but when he suspiciously did not return for a long time you decided that you would meet him in the parking lot. As you approached the place, the sounds of muffled moans began to reach you more and more clearly. When the source of the sound appeared in front of your eyes you felt as if fate had dropped a ton of rocks on you. Eddie pinned Diana against the van with his body as she tried to undo the belt to his jeans. They were kissing like there was no tomorrow.

"What the fuck-" Jeff asked loud enough to tear them away from each other. Breathing heavily, all red and with a messy hair, he looked at you. Diana only watched with a smile of satisfaction on her lips as you clamped your mouth into a thin line. Don't give her more satisfaction. Don't cry. Not now. Not in front of her. You repeated in your head over and over again.

"Shit, y/n, I know I was supposed to drive you home-"

"It's okay!" you shouted. "Gareth will drive me home." you said, and without waiting a moment longer you got into the other car. Through the window you saw Eddie saying goodbye to the others and, together with his new companion, getting into the van.

Despite numerous attempts by the guys, you didn't say a word on the way back. Struggling with thoughts of what he might be doing with her now was exhausting enough.

Love is beautiful. Beautifully painful. Especially when only one-sided. You cried for so long until you fell asleep, and in your dreams, annoyingly enough, some ominous voice repeated like a mantra two words.

Nothing special.

Since that evening, Eddie has completely disappeared from your life, except for Hellfire evenings. He forgot all about the whole of God's world with only Diana in front of him, who had him wrapped around her finger. His absence was horribly felt, and although a part of you was grateful for it, the other part was languishing. You weren't the only one hurt by this fact. The younger boys, like lost sheep, missed how they talked for hours about the next ideas for the campaign, Corroded Coffin stopped having their rehearsals twice a week limiting themselves to once a two weeks because Eddie said they didn't need to see each other that often anyway. Their music was still good, but by doing so they also lost something a little bigger, as they always stayed at Gareth's house after rehearsals hanging out and having fun as a small group of freaks. Now that bond was fading and when Eddie finally mercifully showed up for a rehearsal all the positive energy was gone. Instead, there was more and more arguing and disagreement. Even Steve and Robin sincerely missed his presence and how he always managed to entertain everyone with his jokes or stories. Each one of you brought something unique to the group, so it was no surprise when the absence of one of that group left visible traces.

In this way, a month had already passed, and you were wrong to think that time heals wounds. You changed all your Thursday shifts at the Hideout so that you wouldn't be present at CC's performances, kept your phone use to a minimum so that you wouldn't accidentally be surprised by their photo together which would be another stab. For El, high school turned out to be extremely difficult, so you devoted yourself entirely to helping her study, spending most of your free time preparing notes, researching materials, anything that could keep your thoughts away from Munson and his new girlfriend. Still, you felt as if all your life and joy had escaped you that day, not knowing what you could do to find it again. Your worse state didn't escape the eyes of others, but you kept dismissing them by blaming it on fatigue, which wasn't entirely a lie. In fact, you were tired of the whole situation, fed up with the sharp pain in your chest every time you saw him. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, of course you were proven wrong.

Everyone was very surprised that instead of once again turning down your offer to go out for burgers together, Eddie declared that he would be there. Everyone was happy to think that this was a chance to get back to something good. You sat at the biggest table in the diner talking about the upcoming freshman prom. El was incredibly excited, Max even though she wanted to hide it, also became more spirited as she showed you pictures of the dress she wanted to wear and asked if you would help her get her hair done on the day. Suddenly a cold gust of wind that came through the open door cooled the atmosphere considerably when Eddie appeared in it with none other than Diana. Gareth and Steve sent each other questioning glances and Robin just rolled her eyes taking the menu in her hand. As they approached the table a grave silence fell.

"Hi?" he said finally. "I know you all haven't had a chance to get to know each other so this is Diana." The younger part of the group muttered a greeting while looking suspiciously at the girl.

"Ed, I thought kids were the only in your funny club. What are they doing here?" she said with a goofy grin measuring Dustin from top to bottom.

"Hellfire is not silly." replied Mike wrinkling his eyebrows.

"Of course sweetie." she replied with a mocking tone as if Mike was actually 5 years old.

"So what are we eating?" Eddie interrupted before the conversation could go too far. Diana took the seat opposite you sending you a triumphant smile. Because of this, you were forced to watch her whisper something in his ear every now and then, making his cheeks turn redder as he showed his playful smile. Of course, they also gave you a show when their lips couldn't keep away from each other, with each time he embraced her she looked you straight in the eye and winked as if to show that she had won. But was it any competition at all knowing that you never had a chance with him? Nothing special. That's what you were to him. Having no strength left, you let her do it. You let her take satisfaction in the sadness you could no longer hide, and even sitting at the table with the people you loved, you were unable to focus on anything else. Your leg shook nervously under the table as you waited until everyone finished their meals and you could finally leave the cursed restaurant. Before leaving, El and Max went to the bathroom. When they disappeared behind its door Lucas turned to Eddie.

"I know Principal Higgins made you guys play our freshman prom," he said.

"Yeah, the asshole threatened me that if we don't play then once again I won't be able to graduate."

"I overheard Max talking to El about how super romantic it was when you danced with y/n to that song from the movie we watched before hellfire, uh Enchanted? the one from that scene at the ball... I thought you guys could play it at ours?" he explained. And no matter how romantic and touching his plan seemed to you the very memory of that evening was not so pleasant. Would you perform that song with Eddie now? Despite the fact that it could kill you seeing Lucas full of hope and the image of a happy Max won. Seeing your surprised faces he continued. "Y/n knows this song by heart anyway, she could sing it and you would play it, I guess it's not that complicated to learn?"

"I can help you." you finally said, and for the first time since he entered the restaurant you looked at Eddie, who was also looking straight at you. That was a mistake. Looking into his big dark eyes for more than five seconds was a terrible mistake that violated the cracks on your heart.

When Eddie opened his mouth to respond Diana wouldn't let him. "Babe, I don't think you're going to agree? You're a metalhead, you can't play some song from a dorky movie about princesses."

There was thought on his face, however, everyone knew what the answer would be. All of Lucas' hope was extinguished like a candle when Eddie admitted she was right, joking that he wouldn't want his reputation to change because of something like that. He tried to apologize to Lucas, but the boy ignored him completely. When the girls returned, the moment of salvation arrived an you could leave. The next stop was supposed to be bowling, but knowing you couldn't take it anymore you said you weren't feeling well and wanted to go home. The rest of them quickly decided that bowling could wait and you would do it another time. Eddie stopped to smoke a cigarette, watching as everyone parted in the directions of their cars, wondering why everyone had given up on further plans with such ease. Seeing Diana hanging on to him without a word you walked past them, feeling your vision getting blurrier and blurrier.

"Y/n!" you heard Robin calling you and after a moment you felt her grabbing your hand.

"I have to go Robin, really." Your voice was slowly breaking down.

"You're not alone with this." Steve grabbed your other hand squeezing it tightly.

"Do you want to come with us? A movie night for three?" she suggested smiling gently, to which you just nodded. Maybe you actually didn't have to be alone with all this? That evening you cried out in front of them all the emotions that had been boiling inside you for a month. Both of them admitted that they knew from the beginning that you felt something for Eddie, but they were convinced that he reciprocated those feelings, which is why they are unable to understand such a sudden change in his behavior.

Seeing Robin holding your hand was nothing new, the fact that you are close with Steve was not strange to anyone either. He had seen the two of you hugging many times, but now that you had ignored his existence all evening, had not spoken a word to him, and had only looked at him once Eddie seeing Harrington's hand tighten on yours felt something strange. It was definitely not a pleasant feeling. He also didn't understand why, despite Diana lying half naked in his bed, the only image he has in front of his eyes when he closes them is two hands holding each other. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't focus on anything else, and even more surprising was the fact that when he pulled away from the girl who was covering his neck with hot kisses, she just shrugged her shoulders and left, leaving him alone with his thoughts in the trailer, which now seemed very big and empty.

One day at the cafeteria, everyone was talking about a small meeting over the weekend that Eddie, as standard, didn't attend. Everyone was so busy looking at pictures that they didn't even notice when he approached the table.

"What are you guys talking about?" he asked finally getting their attention.

"Pictures from Saturday, we had a little spontaneous pool party." replied Will.

"Oh, was it fun?" He couldn't help the upset that was slowly creeping into his system. He felt sidelined, and the worst part of it all was that it happened at his own request.

"Wanna see?" The boy handed him the phone.

Your presence in most of the pictures made his heart beat faster but it was filled with something strange. Longing? And what did he feel when he came across a photo of you making braids out of Argyle's long hair while sending him a wide smile? When you are sitting on Jeff's shoulders in the pool holding an oblong sponge and on the other side is Robin sitting on Steve's shoulders as you imitate a sword battle? The sight of his friend's hands on your thighs made him nervous. The final realization was the photo in which Steve embraces you as you sit covered in one big towel and Dustin in the water poses pointing a water gun toward the camera.

"Too bad you weren't there dude." Gareth said. "What were you doing that you couldn't come?"

"I uh- I was with Diana." What he didn't mention was that after twenty minutes she once again left him alone for the same reason as before.

Confused by his new discoveries, he muttered that he had to go and left the school. He knew that as long as Corroded Coffin played hopeless pop songs at the freshman prom Principal Higgins wouldn't kick him out of school, so skipping the last two classes didn't seem like too big a crime to him. Not wanting to be alone now, he got into the car and headed straight for Diana's apartment. Where another surprise awaited him. She opened the door for him dressed only in an oversized men's shirt.

"Hi Eds! What are you doing here?"

"I thought maybe we could spend some time together?" he replied uncertainly. From the end of the apartment came their male voice calling her.

"As you can see I'm a little busy." she said wanting to close the door but he caught it at the last moment.

"What's actually going on?" he asked trying to comprehend the situation somehow.

"What do you mean?" she looked surprised, which made Edde feel even more confused.

"I thought that me and you... that we..."

"Oh my God Eddie." she paused him. "I think you misunderstood the situation a bit. I like you and sex with you is really good, but there is nothing more between us. I thought you were aware of that." Seeing the shock on his face she continued. "The truth is that I started all this to make your little friend who is pathetically in love with you angry."

"You did what?"

"Y/n? The barmaid at the Hideout? I heard her talking about it with your band mates. I never liked her so I thought I'd get on her nerves a bit." she shrugged her shoulders. "I thought you knew that what we were doing was just fun. Definitely nothing special. And now I have to go, it was nice to see you, bye Eddie!"

Never before in his life had he felt so foolish. Gaining a whole new perspective on the situation, the dots in his head were connecting. Your behavior toward him was also making more and more sense. Everything suddenly seemed so obvious now. The problem was that it was too late.

You were awakened by the sound of several messages in a row.

Gareth: hey y/n, u here?

Gareth: it's important

Gareth: y/n?

Gareth: ?

You: what the hell happened

Gareth: there is an urgent meeting at my garage in an hour, will you come?

Gareth: it's super important

you: fine

Half asleep you rolled out of bed with great difficulty. But considering his behavior whatever the meeting was about it really had to be very important. The thought crossed your mind that it could have been about Eddie. Will he be there? Will he be there with her? Will you have to look at it all again and repress the voice in your head that constantly screams That should be me? Flushing your face with icy water, you returned to earth. Satisfied that you had temporarily succeeded in stopping the train of thoughts in your head as quickly as possible, you finished getting ready and left the house without leaving yourself a spare moment.

You were relieved to see that in Gareth's garage there was no trace of Eddie and Diana exaggerating their feelings for each other. But the sight of Robin and several other kids from the school band sitting fiercely discussing something surprised you. As you approached they all greeted you, and Robin began to explain the purpose of this odd gathering.

"We want to help Lucas, you know very well yourself that these kids deserve one fairy tale evening." she began. "So we've gathered some people who are able to help us and play this song from the movie," she said.

"We just need someone to sing, and since you already know the lyrics we thought you'd want to join in." Simon added smiling.

"Besides, we want to show Eddie how much we don't care about his girlfriend's opinion," Gareth rolled his eyes making a disgusted face at the mere sound of the word girlfriend.

"But...the prom is tonight." you said disoriented.

"We've got four hours to try to figure it out, I think we can make it."

"You can't make it if you keep wagging your chins!" Robin clapped her hands rushing you guys to work.

In this way, for the next few hours the whole neighborhood listened to the same song over and over again, the beginnings were very difficult to synchronize but the final product seemed to be really good.

As you promised before the ball you helped Max to become a divinity. Seeing her smile you yourself couldn't hold back yours despite the fact that at the very thought that you would soon have to be in the same room as Eddie a big nervous knot was forming in your stomach. When Max looked like a princess you dropped her off at the Sinclairs' house from where Lucas' mom was to drive them further. You, Robin and Steve agreed to get ready together at your house. When you pulled into the driveway they were already waiting for you, rushing you and panicking that you were late. Fortunately, the preparations went smoothly, except for the process of making Steve's hair.

Corroded Coffin were moving their instruments into the hall when you drove to the back of the school to park next to them. Eddie watched in amazement as you exited the car. Steve in an insanely expensive, elegant suit and perfectly styled hair, right behind him was Robin in a loose white shirt over which she wore a gray blazer and matching pants, and right behind Robin came you in a slightly airy black dress. All three of you looked like you had walked straight off the catwalk, but Eddie's eyes saw only you.

"Dude you okay?" asked Steve seeing his stupefaction.

"What?" he asked snapping out of his trance.

"I'm asking if you're okay."

"Y-eah, I'm just surprised to see you guys," he answered.

"Dustin declared Steve as the caretaker for tonight and someone to act as a host." Robin explained.

"Always the goddamn babysitter." you teased the boy with a laugh.

"I found two stragglers on the way, so I thought I'd take them with me," Steve bit back.

"Dude! That's not fair, you'd share!" Jeff shouted walking up to you.

"In your dreams!" Steve grinned embracing the two of you. "Ladies?" he asked arranging his arms so you could grab him under the arm, which you did giggling. You said goodbye to the guys and moved toward the entrance. Seeing your hand gently touch your friend's biceps, the gloom that had been with him for days began to deepen. Eddie knew that the evening might be very long and difficult.

To his delight, it turned out that the school had hired another band, so Corroded Coffin played at the beginning, and the second half of the prom was to be taken care of by the other one. When Munson reached the long-awaited ending and left the stage he noticed that the rest of the band was not following him. Surprised, he watched as Steve walked on stage and grabbed the microphone.

"My dear friends, before we say goodbye to Corroded Coffin for good we would like to present one more song." he said in the voice of a TV presenter. "This is a very special request, so don't be afraid to invite someone even more special to dance." He smiled. "Ahead of you is Corroded Coffin in collaboration with the amazing Hawkins High band!" Applause rang around the room. Together with the rest of you, you entered the stage taking your spots. All the younger part of your team pushed straight to the front of the stage looking at you with excitement. The first notes released by the piano were like the bullets of a gun to Eddie. Piercing his heart to the core, making him realize how devastated everything had become.

You're in my arms And all the world is calm The music playing on for only two So close together And when I'm with you So close to feeling alive

Your voice spread through the room, echoing a permanent mark in his brain. He had heard you sing many times, at various meetings you sang together while he played the guitar, but now everything was completely different. The warm light of the reflector illuminated your skin, making it shine from you with a beautiful radiance that enchanted him with every word. Even if he was standing completely in the shadows by the stands, he didn't miss how your eyes found their way to him, but quickly changed direction without giving him a chance to do anything.

A life goes by Romantic dreams must die So I bid my goodbye And never knew So close, was waiting Waiting here with you And now, forever, I know All that I wanted To hold you so close

He remembered that day. He remembered how for about three minutes the whole world was gone and all that mattered was that you were in his arms. Not expecting the whole situation to have such an effect on him. After all, he had always avoided anything related to romance. Even if he wanted to, he never had anyone with whom he could try such a thing. Then you showed up, looking at him much warmer than everyone else. Always available to him, always helpful and giving support. When, after a whole day of listening to nothing but insults in his direction, you met and your heartwarming voice with a hint of something he couldn't identify before dispelled all the coldness leaving only a pleasant calm. Now he knew it was affection. Even when you teased and called him an idiot, you said it in such a way that he felt as if the most beautiful praise in the world had been poured down on him. Why didn't he notice this earlier? Why did it take the entire messed-up situation with Diana for him to realize it? Why didn't you ever mention anything about it before?

So close to reaching That famous happy end Almost believing This one's not pretend And now you're beside me And look how far we've come So far we are, so close

How could I face the faceless days If I should lose you now

At that moment he wanted so badly to kiss you. To give himself to the magic of that moment and just kiss you. But he remembered that you are not alone. He remembered that you are friends, not a couple. Not knowing if you would want the same, he panicked.

We're so close to reaching That famous happy end Almost believing This one's not pretend Let's go on dreaming For we know we are So close, so close And still so far

You were so close. So close, just within reach, yet panic won out over desire. Not knowing how to act, the only thing that came to his mind was to step back and pretend that it didn't affect him even the slightest. Now he understood your sad expression when he said it was nothing special. Listening to the same song performed by you now, he had never felt so far away from you before. He lost you at a time when he was just beginning to understand his feelings for you. At the time he didn't know what was happening to him, now he felt like the biggest idiot in the world.

When the applause sounded in the hall again you started to go backstage. Without a second thought he ran there.

"Y/n!" he called out to get your attention. "Can we talk?" he reached out a hand to touch your shoulder, but you moved away from him quickly enough that he didn't.

"I don't have the strength to talk to you right now Eddie, I'm sorry." Your voice was weak.

"Please, give me a chance to explain..."

"What do you want to explain? There is nothing to explain."

"Why didn't you ever say anything? If only I had known that you felt something for me, things would have been different!"

"What would it change?"

"Everything..." he said almost inaudibly.

"Don't lie to me Eddie!" you blurted out. "Don't lie to me in a situation like this, because I can't stand it. I can barely handle what happened, I don't need your fucking lies!" you didn't mean to sound so harsh, but you were barely holding on.

"I'm not lying, why the hell would I lie to you?!"

"Because this..." you pointed at both of you with your hand "This is nothing special for you."

"y/n, it's-"

"I don't want to hear it Eddie." you said swallowing tears. "I don't want to hear it because I know it will hurt even more. You've made your decision. And as much as I was able to understand that you didn't return my feelings, I will never accept how easily you forgot about all of us. We were so close Eddie! So fucking close, but now? As far away as possible." Without waiting for his reaction, you turned and walked away, leaving him alone with the despair that was slowly consuming him all over.

All weekend, Eddie was immersed in sadness. Your words kept sounding in his head, refusing to let go. He wondered how badly he must have messed everything up that you didn't want to believe his words. Saying that he had forgotten about you wasn't entirely true either, but he realized that from your perspective that's what it looked like. He regretted his behavior. Now he knew that the hot moments with Diana in were definitely not worth it. He didn't even care too much about the fact that she used him. He focused all his energy on experiencing and condemning himself for having participated in breaking your heart. This was something he could not forgive himself for.

Sunday afternoon passed peacefully in the Munson's trailer. Eddie had done nothing all weekend except playing his guitar and sleeping. When Wayne entered his room a picture of misery and despair was painted in front of him, but he didn't want to push his nephew, saying only that if he decided to talk he knew where to find him.

The man was dozing off in front of the TV when a firm knock on the door snapped him to his feet.

"Hi Mr. Munson," his eyes were met by the entire Corroded Coffin squad. "Is Eddie home?"

"Hi boys. He is, but I don't think he's feeling well," he said, letting them inside. "Maybe you guys know what's going on?"

"Oh, it's very simple, Eddie instead of being guided by his feelings was guided by what's in his zipper and lost the girl who for months you were in love with him," said Gareth.

"He was in love with her, too, but he realized it a little too late." Simon added.

"You forgot to add that I also lost my friends." Eddie's voice surprised them.

"We're here, so I guess you haven't lost them yet." Jeff replied waiting for his friend's reaction. He just merely opened the door to the room wider in a gesture of inviting them in. Simon took a seat in a chair at the desk, Jeff on the floor opposite the bed and Gareth, without waiting for permission, spread out across the bed. Eddie sat on the floor next to Jeff playing nervously with the rings on his fingers.

"Dude, you look like shit." Simon finally said, causing everyone to laugh.

"I look just like I feel, asshole." Eddie grabbed the dice that was lying by his leg and threw it towards the boy.

"So..." began Gareth.

"I'm sorry. For everything. I acted like an idiot." Munson breathed out.

"And?"

"I know you guys think I forgot about you, but it wasn't like that. I just-" He couldn't find the words to describe the whole situation.

"Did you think with your dick instead of your brain? How is Diana by the way?"

Eddie with embarrassment told them how the whole situation looked like. About how he let himself be screwed into her hopeless manipulation, about how it all ended, about how he felt when he saw you perform with them on stage during the prom and your conversation after the show. A lot of emotions weighed on his heart, he had been feeling so lonely for a long time that now he did not hold back from opening up and sharing everything he felt with his friends. Even as they continued to make mischievous jokes, he was grateful that he no longer had to be alone with it all.

"Okay, I'm a little guilty about all of this. If it weren't for my loose tongue Diana you would never have known that y/n was in love with you. I feel obligated to help you get her back."

"What?" Eddie didn't expect that. Get you back? Was that even still possible?

"Do you feel anything for her?" interjected Simon

"Yeah, of course I do".

"So I guess it's worth fighting for her?"

"But... I don't know how."

"But I do." Gareth pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Are you ready to make a romantic fool of yourself?"

"What do you mean?"

Eddie didn't get an answer instead the boy smiled broadly and clicked something on the phone from which a song came after a moment.

How does she know you love her? How does she know she's yours?

"Oh my fucking God!" Eddie covered his face with his hands, and Gareth paused the song. Is he really going to seek help from a song from a damn Disney movie?

"This can be your final chance! And I don't have any other idea, so- Remember how excited she was about that movie? You've already used the dance to that song and screwed it up completely."

Eddie pondered his friend's idea for a moment. The truth was that he had nothing to lose, instead he had a great deal to gain. It was definitely worth it.

"Alrigh Giselle... enlighten me."

does he leave a little note to tell you, you are on his mind? send you yellow flowers when the sky is gray?

When you found a small piece of paper and a yellow tulip lying behind the wiper of your car on Monday morning you thought it was a joke, but you knew this handwriting very well. You would recognize it anywhere. Throughout the week, a new note with a flower was waiting for you every morning. On Sunday evening you decided to show them to Robin.

I think about you.

I miss you.

I hope your day will be nice.

So close together, and when I'm with you, so close to feeling alive You made me feel emotions I had no idea about before.

I never thought being romantic was for me, but you make me want to try it.

Romantic dreams must die? What if we tried to bring them back to life and make them come true?

Let's go on dreaming For we know we are So close, and NOT so far

The last change of the text especially reached your heart. Of course you wanted to be the closest to him in every way possible, but what if you once again gave your heart to him and after a while he would say it was nothing special?

"They started to appear so suddenly?" she asked looking at them.

"Yes, I completely don't know what to think about it Robin. First he tells me that one of the most special moments in my life is, in fact, nothing special, and then I witness how in love they are with with Diana, and now this all of a sudden?"

"Maybe it didn't work out for them?"

"And now I'm supposed to be a consolation prize?"

"I am so sorry." she said resting her head on your shoulder. The thought of you being his second choice was killing you from the inside. Why was he doing all this? Why couldn't he let you forget in peace and move on?

does he take you out dancing just so he can hold you close?

Nope. Not gonna happen. The previous dance turned out to be a disaster and he wasn't going to risk it again.

dedicate a song with words meant just for you?

This. He could do that, but a little later.

he'll wear your favorite color just so he can match your eyes, rent a private picnic by the fire's glow

After a week of getting flowers and notes, there was silence. You wondered what you should do. Why did he stop? Maybe because you didn't respond to any of them? Maybe he got upset and decided it was all a mistake? It's been a long time since you felt so confused and lost. Then, suddenly, your phone rang, and you were relieved that it was only Robin.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Hello to you too." you replied sarcastically.

"Steve and I will be outside your house in ten minutes, we're going for a ride."

"Wha-" before you had time to finish she hung up.

This was no joke. Punctually ten minutes later the honking of Steve's car sounded on your street. The ride didn't last long, less than ten minutes to Lover's Lake during which they both ignored all your questions. When you got out of the car Steve stood behind you covering your eyes with his hands and Robin grabbed your hand leading you forward. When Harrington finally let you see, you froze. A large blanket was spread out on the grass with thick candles in glass jars. Next to it stood a vase with yellow tulips, the same ones you had been getting before. Beside it was a backpack with your favorite snacks sticking out of it and Eddie's acoustic guitar.

"Guys, what's going on?" you asked turning around. But Steve and Robin had disappeared from your sight. Now in front of you stood Eddie dressed in his Hellfire T-shirt. But it was slightly different than the rest. This time the skull was in your favorite color.

"Please." he said walking up to you. "Before you leave, please give me a chance to fight for you." He grabbed your hand. Feeling you not snatch it from his grasp he led you to a blanket where you both sat down. The sun began to slowly hide behind the horizon. The warm orange created a beautiful spectacle by combining with other colors and reflecting in the surface of the calm water. The view was calming. It was as if the sky wanted to tell you that everything will be fine. You decided to trust it. Without a word, Eddie grabbed his guitar and began to play a song quietly singing the words. He sang as if he didn't want to startle the moment with being too lound. You listened in silence still not taking your eyes off the setting sun.

I know I've been so hard on you I know I've told you lies If I could have just one more wish I'd wipe the cobwebs from my eyes

This was the moment when you finally decided to look at him. When your eyes met and you saw in his sincerity, you knew this was the moment you forgave him everything. It was the moment you decided to trust him once again. To risk breaking your heart once again. You knew that he was worth it. Not wanting to waste another moment you put your hand on the strings to stop him. Scared that you were about to get up and leave, he swallowed the gulp in his throat, preparing himself for rejection.

"I forgive you, Eddie." Those three words were like salvation to him.

"Really?" he put down his guitar quickly and squatted closer to you.

"If you promise to be honest with me."

"Of course, sweetheart."

"I want you to tell me the truth Eddie, I want to hear it, please." Your voice was nervous.

"Let's start from the beginning when I lied that the dance in Harrington's living room was nothing special. Because it was. So damn special that I think I got scared of my own feelings and panicked and lied. Later that whole situation with Diana? I swear to you on everything that if I knew you had feelings for me I wouldn't even look at her. I couldn't believe that someone as hopeless as me could find his place in your heart..."

"Eddie you are not hopeless-"

"Let me finish, please." he put his hand on your knee. "I've missed you so damn much. Day after day every time I didn't come to meetings with you I couldn't stop thinking about you. And when I saw Steve holding your hand? Believe me it was like a nightmare that haunted me for days without a break. Once Will showed pictures of a pool party I once again didn't attend. I was jealous as Hell and angry with myself for being so distant from you. But what hurt me the most was that in those pictures you were so smiling, so happy... Which made me realize that you don't need me to be like that at all. I know it's terribly selfish, but you wanted the truth so you got it..." he took a deep breath. "It turned out that Diana only needed me to make you angry. She heard Gareth talking about you being in love with me and decided to take advantage of it. Of course, I have nothing in common with her anymore and I am disgusted with myself to the core because I took part in it.

"You didn't know that..."

"But I took part in it, and I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for it. When I wrote on one of the notes that thanks to you I felt emotions I had no idea about, I wasn't lying. Damn it, before I thought I wanted to have nothing in common with anything romantic, but for you? I even watched that movie again, I planned it all inspired by a song that refuses to leave my head and drives me crazy because I wanted so badly to find the answer to the question how does she know you love her? Letters, yellow flowers, dedicating a song and a picnic? I even tried to train the raccoons from the trailer park to dance and sing but I guess they didn't like the idea." He grinned causing you to giggle. "The whole situation came about because neither of us had the courage to confess what we felt. That's why now I don't want to hide it anymore. I don't want to hide the fact that I am in love with you."

"And I am in love with you too, Eddie." you said without stopping the smile creeping onto your lips. The sun was long gone from sight however the night and its starry sky were equally beautiful. Your faces were illuminated by the soft candlelight making everything look like a scene from a movie. But it was much better than even the best movie in the world. You and Eddie now played the leading roles, and no one else but you decided what to do next.

"From what I remember they also mentioned something about a true love's kiss" No more running away. Early on he had taken too many steps backward and he had no intention of repeating that mistake. From now on, every step he took was forward toward the door behind which lay your future together.

"Oh, and what specifically?" You laughed, bringing your face closer to his.

"Something about pulling a tail," he curled a strand of your hair on his finger and pulled lightly.

"Really?" you asked touching his curls gently.

"And uh... somethin' about the lips I guess..."

"Lips?"

"Yeah. Lips." He nodded. "Listen. I know that I was an idiot. A complete asshole. An obvious blind man. But even the biggest idiot in the kingdom deserves a second chance."

"A chance for what?"

"For true love's kiss."

"Is this our happy ending Eddie?"

"No sweetheart. This is our happy beginning." And then, without waiting a moment longer, your lips finally connected. Kissing him was a much more magical experience than you expected. At first shy kisses became more and more thirsty for closeness. So close. Never before had he been so close as now. You wanted this closeness to consume you completely, so that you were short of breath. And if the true love's kiss was a real thing, you knew that only Eddie's lips would work in your case.

taglist: @i-me-mine

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pantoneyoongi · 1 year

Text

the sun & the stars | 01 | kth

title ; the sun & the stars pairing ; taehyung x you

word count ; 5.4k

description ;

taehyung’s known you almost his whole life - his sister’s best friend, the girl who invades his home and his life on the daily. you’re the one who gave his sister the nickname ‘sky’ to begin with - and also the one who relented when he whined about it at age five and said okay, you can be the stars, then.

it’s funny, because to him, you’re just the petty, mischievous neighbor from across the street with a penchant for stealing his snacks. but over the years, you’ve somehow landed yourself a reputation that stretches beyond the 1.5 year age gap he has with you - for someone who generally likes to keep things low key, you sure have a way of drawing attention.

sky’s friendly, teasing best friend is known for being cold, impassive, and immovable. which is weird, because when he’s around you, all he sees are unabashed grins and terrible jokes. until he realizes maybe he doesn’t know you like he thought he did. maybe they’re right - it just so happens that the walls you throw up around him look a little different from the walls you throw up around everyone else.

tracklist ; willow - taylor swift, give me your forever - zack tabudlo ft. billkin, limbo - keshi

notes ;

ok so i don’t have a masterlist for this yet but this is going to be part of a universe called the sun & the sky universe, about two besties and their love lives and friendship and originally it was supposed to be a one-shot for each character but i have spiraled wildly out of control and now this character (sun) has a mini-series, oops.

anyway this is the first installation in the sun & the sky universe and eventually i will get around to making a masterpost. thank u for reading !!

tags ; college!au, best friend’s little brother!au, childhood friends to lovers, you have a cold/ice princess reputation, angst, fluff, mentions of absent parents and financial instability, you’re referred to as ‘sun’, taehyung’s sister referred to as ‘sky’, mentions of some dude being kinda pushy at the beginning, some business major slander (sorry) (sort of), there will be pov switches later, there will also be seokjin slander (he’ll deserve it unfortunately i’m so sorry), slow burn?? i think??, brief mentions of infidelity at some point later too, honestly this whole fic is probably more about friendships than it is about romance but anyways, yes this is the fic that i wrote 10k for and then randomly decided to rewrite the entire thing bc i have no control over my life thank u very much, anyway here it is i hope u like it

to be very clear: you don’t like freshmen.

irritation crawls up your spine, and you spare just enough time to glance both ways before crossing the street to reach your friend, who looks increasingly uncomfortable. she’s already backed up enough that she’s only centimeters from the wall behind her, which, in case the relief on her face at the sight of you didn’t already spell it out, tells you plenty enough that this one’s persistent and unwelcome.

“hey.” you don’t raise your voice when you reach them. you generally make it a point not to expend more energy than absolutely necessary, but particularly when it comes to men, and especially when they’re harassing your best friend. you hardly look his way, instead speaking to your friend with a tilt of your head towards the campus dining hall. “let’s go.”

jinyoung calls you blunt and a little rude (affectionate), but you prefer the terms ‘concise’ and ‘clear’. as in, you are concisely and clearly indicating the freshman should leave. you know, something about a-b conversations and how he should c his way out.

your shoulders raise ever so slightly when, predictably, the freshman opens his mouth to argue. that’s the thing about freshmen. and transfers. and men who don’t know what’s good for them: they don’t know you, and they don’t know your reputation, and that causes more problems than you care to deal with.

lucky for him, he happens to know someone who’s been out of the womb for longer than the ten seconds this kid appears to have been. in your peripheral, you watch the freshman get yanked back by a junior you think might’ve been in one of your roman history lectures last semester. “what the fuck is wrong with you,” he hisses to his friend, eyes darting nervously between the boy and you. his voice raises to normal speaking levels. “i’m so sorry. he’s so sorry for bothering you,” and then he’s dragging the kid away with hushed, frantic whispers. you watch them cross the street and head down and away, before turning back to your friend.

“you good, sky?”

she gives you a half-smile. “i’d be better with food in me.”

your lips twitch, and you sling an arm over her shoulders, tugging her through the dining hall doors. “good thing that’s what we’re here for.”

your reputation is more tall tale than fact, but you let it carry you through the four years of high school and now clean through your four years of college, too. for a group of students who are so rarely capable of meeting your eyes, they speak fairly condescendingly about you. it probably has a lot to do with the ‘sun’ nickname, seeing as it just seems laughable to associate the most well-known star in the galaxy with you.

you’re not warm. you don’t light up a room. none of the good cliches line up with you, and to most people, the nickname is more irony than anything else. but you didn’t get the nickname from them, you got it from sky, shortly after you gave her hers when you were seven.

(seven year old you was a lot friendlier.)

your eyes slide closed, chin propped against your palm as you wait at the lunch table. sky is grabbing food while you save the table, waiting for her brother and his partner in crime to show up.

the four of you grew up on the same street - sky and taehyung in the house across from you, and jimin a couple doors down. jimin and taehyung are technically the same age, the way you and sky are too, but taehyung’s birthday is so late in the year that he’s two grades below you instead of just one. they say you and sky have been inseparable since day one, but taehyung and jimin must be conjoined at the hip - you don’t find one without seeing the other.

you feel someone brush past you, a hand hovering by your head, but before it can nudge you, you say with closed eyes, “watch it, kid.”

your eyes flutter open, finding jimin pouting in front of you, hand returning to his side. “how’d you know it was me?”

“who else would dare?” you arch an eyebrow, and he sucks his teeth, dropping into the seat diagonal from you. taehyung takes the seat to your left, nodding his head in greeting towards you.

your lips quirk to the side. “do i not deserve the honor of your voice today, taetae?” you give him doe eyes, just to watch him scowl at you.

growing up with taehyung and sky right across the street from you meant watching taehyung turn from an adorable toddler, to a mildly annoying child, into a definitely annoying teenager. this also included a two year stint in which taehyung refused to speak to you (or in general, really), only making vague grunting noises and giving you curt nods in an attempt to come off as stoic and brooding.

(as a shock to no one: it was ineffective as far as ‘stoic’ and ‘brooding’ go.)

ever since he decided to grace you with his voice again, you take any chance to remind him of it. you grin wickedly as he lolls his head back with a groan. “i was shy,” he protests, bordering on a whine.

you scoff. “i’ve known you since you were three, fuck outta here,” you cuff him lightly upside the head, taehyung’s lower lip jutting out at the action. “you were just an angsty teenager.”

sky makes her appearance at that moment, setting her tray down. “can confirm,” she agrees with zero proper context. “you were just an angsty teenager.”

taehyung huffs. you poke your tongue against your cheek, amusement lighting your eyes. he tries to glare but taehyung’s always been a little soft on you, even if he won’t admit it. he marks defeat with a switch in subject. “you look tired.”

you sputter out a laugh. “i’m a college student,” you smack his shoulder lightly. “i always look tired.” you redirect your attention back to jimin and sky, joining the conversation they’d started, but taehyung stays quiet, studying you. eventually he gets up to grab food, jimin following after him, but you opt to just lay your head against your forearm, letting sky pat your head sympathetically.

you raise your head only when the boys return, eyes widening slightly in surprise when taehyung comes back with two trays, sliding one in front of you wordlessly. “you raised him well,” jimin sighs dramatically to sky. “treats his elders with respect.”

“that makes one of you,” you quip, just as sky goes, “are you calling me an elder?”

the two of you burst into laughter at the look on jimin’s face, halfway between being offended by you and defensive against sky, and while you’re busy teasing jimin, you don’t notice taehyung watching you, wondering how anyone can see you as cold and standoffish, not when he sees you like this, voice loud and eyes crinkled in the corners, always the brightest whenever you make the people you love and care about laugh. they say you’re cruel and unforgiving, but he’s known you for years and he doesn’t really feel like you’ve changed much - still wildly dramatic and bitingly sarcastic - and also apparently still endlessly prone to stealing food from him and sky, he thinks dryly, as he throws you a dirty look for snagging a french fry off his plate despite having your own.

you smile pretty at him. “sharing is caring, taetae.”

he can’t retort when you blink your eyes at him like that because there’s just no winning when it comes to you. all he can do is let out a deep sigh and fight the smile making its way onto his face when your laughter chimes in his ear.

“what if,” you start, just for jinyoung to cut you off.

“no.”

you throw the towel down onto the table, affronted. “you didn’t let me finish.”

he stares flatly at you, then makes a jerky, ‘go-ahead’ gesture with his hand.

“what if,” you start again, pointing your finger at him. “i drop out of school-”

“what if,” jinyoung smiles like he’s got knives for teeth. “i get you fired?”

you scrunch your nose. “then i’d be young, dumb, and broke.”

“just like all the cool kids,” jinyoung sighs, clearly not giving a fuck. “hurry up, we got company.”

the bell above the restaurant door rings as probably an entire fraternity funnels in, forty-five minutes before your shift ends. “perfect,” you mutter, picking up your towel again, scrubbing the table clean while jinyoung puts on a (notably knifeless) smile for your customers. the closing shift can never end quietly, always some group coming in last minute to interrupt your peaceful night. you always know jinyoung happens to like you because he sidles up to the group with his full charm and a notepad, ready to take orders, letting you slink off to the back to finish cleaning up so the two of you can get out of here as quickly as possible as soon as the sign flips to ‘closed.’

jinyoung returns to the back to rattle off orders five minutes later, then leans with his back to the counter as you rinse dishes to put into the industrial dishwasher. “you should stop taking extra shifts. your eyebags have eyebags,” he informs you, as gently as he can. you glance at him, wondering if it’s worth it to flick him with water. but you know he’s just trying to be nice, so you opt against it.

you suck in a breath, setting another dish down onto the rack. “i can’t,” you shrug. “i am, in fact, young, dumb, and broke.”

he presses his lips together in a non-smile. like you, jinyoung is here on scholarship and part of the pity-party program your school has for kids who meet the criteria of “too poor to afford higher education.” you met him in said program over the summer, when you were all forced to come in for summer classes, just in case you came from a district without sufficient resources to teach you calculus.

he runs a tired hand through his hair, offering you a small smile before heading out with an array of dishes balanced impressively on his arm. the frat has approximately twenty minutes to shovel it all down before the restaurant officially calls it lights out. you have no doubts they’ll make it with time to spare.

you flip the settings for the dishwasher and let it run, tugging off your gloves and wandering towards the front. absently, you stare out the glass that makes up the storefront, eyes nearly glazing over until you spot them - your head lifting slowly as you lean forward a little to squint.

she’s a little too far out, but the person heading down the street looks an awful lot like sky, flanked by someone who looks half a foot taller than her, which is saying something, considering sky is half a foot taller than you. your head tilts, curious, but by the time you’ve blinked enough times to get your vision back in focus, they’re out of sight.

shaking it off, you check the clock to see that you’re ten minutes to closing, confirmed by the way you hear the frat boys noisily filing back out just the way they came in. jinyoung’s eyes meet yours and you give a tired nod, the two of you working in tandem to clear the remaining dishes to finish cleaning up and close up shop.

jinyoung bids you goodbye outside the restaurant with a pat on the shoulder, parting ways. it’s late, little ways past ten at night, and you slump your shoulders as you trudge down the street back to your apartment.

you take a half step back when taehyung’s face suddenly appears in front of yours, familiar dark eyes peering at you. he’s got his hands in his pockets and he’s bent over slightly to meet your height, and you frown at him. “what are you doing here?”

“jimin dragged me out,” he explains, straightening back up. “but now they’re getting drunk, so.”

of the four of you, jimin’s always been the only one with anything close to a social life. he parties, he drinks, he gets hungover, and then he gets straight a’s. go figure.

you hum, the two of you falling into step together. the silence is comfortable, padded with the general ruckus of the downtown, cars speeding past and drunk students being rowdy. you make your way back to the main streets on campus, taehyung slowing his steps to match your snail pace.

“sun,” he breaks the quiet between you. you look at him.

he opens his mouth to speak, but there’s only empty air, the words dying on his tongue when he sees how dull your eyes look after a long shift. your eyes have always sparkled, glinting with trouble and quick wit, so it sort of stings to see the light fade out with how weary you are.

“never mind,” he smiles, tilting his chin towards your building’s front door. “we’re here.”

you look confused but don’t press the matter, patting him on the arm with a warm smile. “get back safe. thanks for walking me home, tae.” you tip-toe to ruffle his hair, like you always have, despite the near foot of height he now towers over you with, then disappear into your building without a second glance back.

taehyung sighs, hand absently pressed to the spot where you’d touched his arm. he knows your smile better than anyone else’s, that dazzling grin of yours that you reserve only for your closest friends. even when taehyung went through his brooding phase, you always offered it out to him with a friendly wave.

the campus might not understand the nickname ‘sun,’ but taehyung knows it suits you perfectly.

“am i still allowed to live in your basement if i fail out of college?”

you punctuate the end of your question by dropping the bag of take-out you brought with you onto the table, though the end of your sentence sort of peeters off a little when you realize there’s someone else departing the table, a low voice murmuring a goodbye to your friend. you don’t catch his face before his tall frame walks away, but your brows furrow, puzzled. you don’t recognize him.

“i think you’d live in my basement regardless of what i say,” sky responds, seemingly unaware of your perplexion. “but unfortunately you’re not allowed to fail out of college.”

your eyes are still on the man who’d just left, even as you pull out the take-out and hand it over to sky. you’re tempted to ask, but when you glance back at her, she has an unnervingly neutral expression on her face, and you falter, deciding to drop it.

sky likes to keep her circle small. most of the time it’s just you, jimin, and taehyung, though both of you do still keep in touch with yoongi and hoseok from high school, and there is that one girl from her major, soojung. but for the most part, sky prefers keeping to herself, so much so that on occasion she’ll just drop off the grid without any warning. you suppose you’re like her in that way, though her version of dropping off the grid is usually more accidental (read: a new video game came out and she forgot she has to remind people she’s alive) whereas yours tends to be very intentional (read: you’re overwhelmed and so much as seeing or interacting with another person could equate to a new, special kind of torture, built explicitly for you).

you slide on a smile for her, settling down into your seat. “eat,” you gesture. “need at least one of us to make it past graduation if i’m gonna live in your basement.”

as sky tucks in, absently scrolling through her phone, your mind wanders. it’s not that you need to know every last detail of sky’s life, but she’s your best friend, and it just tends to happen, anyway. sky’s life is so heavily interwoven with yours, since you were five and moved into the house across the street from hers, and she let you into her home like you’d always belonged there.

then again, that was a boy you’d seen walking away. your eyes shift back to sky, who isn’t paying you much mind, and you look away again. the truth is, the tightly bound friendship you hold with sky feels as fragile as it does indestructible, and you have no one to blame but yourself.

food is your love language. giving it, receiving it, whatever the case is - it’s love. it might also be your sole motivator for doing just about anything, but that’s besides the point.

you use food as a means of taking care of the people around you. it’s not exactly a flashy show of affection, but you don’t have a particularly heartwarming vocabulary, or the disposition to shower people in your affection, so this is what you do. most people seem to take the hint. you figure that’s why taehyung puts up with you on at minimum a weekly basis, grabbing a meal together whenever he’s free.

today, he’s seated at your kitchen counter, glancing around your apartment like he hasn’t been here a million times before. you set your ever-gourmet pot of instant noodles down on top of a pot holder. “ta-da,” you beam at him, waving your hands dramatically. “my specialty.”

“you treat me so well,” he says dryly, but his eyes are affectionate and he’s still picking up his chopsticks almost immediately, tongue poking out at the corner of his lips in anticipation. you press your lips together to hide a smile, watching him gather noodles, messily sucking them into his mouth, flicking soup everywhere.

you click your tongue a little but don’t nag, though the look you give him makes him settle down a little, chewing slower and acting at least somewhat more like a civilized human being. he looks properly chastised, and the corner of your lips lift in a small smirk of amusement.

the two of you eat quietly, taehyung because he’s always been quiet and you because you’re lost in thought, enough so that you forget to entertain taehyung the way you usually do (read: complain about almost every class you’re in and lament your age, as if you’re anything more than a year and a half older than taehyung, max). your eyes are distant, chopsticks absently picking up noodles to eat, on autopilot.

you glance back to taehyung, who doesn’t seem to mind your quiet. he’s used to your noise, but you suppose at some point he also grew used to your quiet, too. maybe that’s just what decade-long friendships are like. you learn the usuals, the unusuals, and all of the in between.

teeth gnawing at your lower lip, you wonder if he knows about the guy who’s been hovering around sky. this guy who sky doesn’t want to introduce to you, not yet, which means he’s important enough to her that she cares whether you meet him or not. whether because your opinion matters or because of something else, you haven’t figured out yet.

taehyung’s eyes rise to meet yours, chopsticks halfway to his mouth when he sees the way you gaze at him thoughtfully, head tilted to the side. your brows are drawing in, and he wants to press his fingers to the crease in the middle, undo the tension, but instead he just asks, “something up?”

you hesitate. for just a fraction of a second, but he catches it. because that’s what decade-long friendships are like. but you’re too quick for him to push it, too easily pull on a smile and reach over to tug on his ear like he’s still a child, nagging at him. “i’m fine,” you admonish. “don’t you worry about me, kid.”

he grumbles something incoherent and swats at your hand, grumbles bordering on whines when you don’t let up, until he catches you grinning at him, mischievous as ever. you retract your hand, satisfied by the grumpy look on his face, though your smile falters a little when you see that it’s not enough to wipe the worry in his eyes.

you focus on your food instead, just so you can avoid that look. but you can still feel him staring at you, like he’s waiting for you to give in to him, so you lift your head back up with a beam and start rattling off, extensively, until he loses that look in his eyes. until he’s back to just regular taehyung, sky’s little brother taehyung, neighbor from across the street taehyung, and not grown-up taehyung, walks you home taehyung, eats with you weekly because he doesn’t want you to be lonely taehyung.

you’re not ready to admit it. taehyung’s only gotten more handsome and charming in his own right over the years. it makes it so that you can’t stand the way that he looks at you sometimes, like he can see right through you.

he’s not supposed to. he’s taehyung. he’s part of your safe, little bubble; the one you built, where the sun can only shine.

waking up is such a miserable experience, you muse.

it’s ass o’clock in the morning. honestly, any time you need to wake up before noon is ass o’clock, but you have to study for your exams and you have a help desk shift later too, so unfortunately, 7am it is.

you force yourself to roll out of bed, look vaguely human-shaped (aka: wear respectable enough clothes), and lug yourself to the library. you could study in your room but you’re a weak bitch and the bed being two feet away is too strong a temptation. therefore: library.

you find a corner to hide away in, scribbling away in your notebook in hopes of retaining an ounce of the information you’ve written down. the hours pass like that, and by some miracle, you don’t develop a stress-induced headache by the time you need to leave for your shift.

you toss your belongings into your backpack, tugging it onto your back, a quite physical reminder of the weight on your shoulders.

you don’t necessarily think that life is unkind to you. you just think everyone gets dealt their deck of cards, and yours happens to be slightly shittier. but hey, if you’re broke enough, you get free housing at the nicest set of apartments on campus, so you win some, you lose some, right?

the losing part right now is the multi-set of jobs running you into the ground. between the restaurant, your help desk job, and the work-study program, it’s a miracle you haven’t failed any of your courses.

you heave a sigh, letting yourself feel bad about it for a minute. you deserve at least that, in the quiet of the library this early in the morning, while most of campus is happily sleeping in on a saturday.

‘most’ is the key word here. you should’ve known your best friend has the integrity of a monk, seeing as she’s at the library at nearly 10am on a weekend.

you slink your way over to her, sneaking up behind her and slinging an arm over her shoulder, mouth already open to whisper-shout her name - that is, up until you spot the man standing before her.

the smile slides off your face immediately. for someone at his towering size, he’d been pretty well hidden behind the shelves. he looks suspiciously close in height to the person you’d seen that night at the restaurant, and the other day when you’d brought sky lunch.

he smiles politely at you, dimples denting in his cheeks. your frown deepens. you’re certain now, that you don’t recognize him in your catalog of sky’s acquaintances, and she seems comfortable around him, much more than she is around any of her classmates.

“hi, sun,” sky greets, gentle smile rising to her lips, though you’re too busy sizing up this guy she’s talking to. he’s sort of huge. he has kind eyes, though, hair swept off to the side, white tee tucked loosely into light colored jeans. but you still stand wary, too familiar with boys who have sweet dispositions and not enough good intentions.

see, the first thing anyone notices about sky is that she’s nice.

well, okay. the first thing most people notice about sky is that she’s pretty. elegant, like she was a princess in some past life, between her perpetual good posture (what college student do you know that isn’t hunched over like a gremlin at least 73% of the time?) and perfectly set hair, not a strand out of place. she’s pretty, in a way that carries into her personality, patient and open. she’s always listened to whatever blown-out-of-proportion story you have for her, letting you drag her into any and all of your bad ideas, no matter the consequences.

the point is that sky holds the sort of kindness that knows no boundaries. she’s content to go with the flow, and despite all the times she’s been let down by passing acquaintances who you’ve ensured can no longer call her a friend, she’s still willing to help. she gives out second, third, fourth chances, doesn’t let the hurt get in the way of her ability to care.

her walls don’t go up as high as yours do. so you make every effort to make sure that the people who take advantage of that never get a chance to hurt her.

“who’s this?”

sky blinks, looking between you and him. christ, he is massive. his biceps are probably the size of your head.

you mostly keep your eyes on him, but turn to glance at sky when she takes a minute longer than usual to answer. she looks a bit startled, like she’s just now realizing you’re actually here; moreover, that you don’t know who her new friend is.

“oh,” she says, lips turning downwards a little, conflicted. something inside you flinches. but then her expression clears and she smiles. “this is namjoon. we have class together.”

namjoon lifts a hand to wave even while you’re narrowing your eyes at him. but still, your hands return to your pockets and you take a step back, forcing your stiff shoulders to lower.

you’re intruding, you realize. sky is having a moment with this tall, handsome person who could probably twist you into a pretzel if he wanted to, and you’re intruding.

a weight sits on your chest at the realization, but you force a smile to your face for sky. you and your reputation and your trust issues need to step out of this.

“i.. i gotta get to work,” you say, anxious hands tugging at your backpack straps just for something to hold onto. “i just popped by ‘cause i saw you.” you glance towards namjoon, trying your best to maintain the smile you generally reserve only for close friends, but it turns too quickly into a grimace so you settle for a curt nod of acknowledgement, before lifting a hand to sky. ��see you ‘round.”

you pretend not to notice how sky’s expression falters, heading out without turning around once. the discomfort rolls over in you, pulling at your heart, keeping your shoulders tense.

the way sky looks at namjoon is different. you can tell. two minutes in the same space, and you know sky isn’t just being polite like she was raised to be. she’s content to be around him, their eyes darting to meet each other in quick glances, like it’s difficult to let their gazes stray for too long.

namjoon doesn’t give you any immediate warning signs, and sky’s gotten a lot better at picking her friends. you don’t have to protect her, she’s perfectly capable of it herself. but you still feel wary, still worry that dimpled, unassuming namjoon will fuck her over like any number of people have in the past.

including you, your brain reminds you. you’re the worst one.

your heart tightens in your chest and you shoulder your way out the doors of the library, like barreling into something will shake off the memory any easier.

high school is hard for anyone. emotions are at all time highs; everything feels like it’s high stakes. grades, friendships, romances. everything is always, constantly, on the line.

sky always says it’s not your fault. kim seokjin was not your fault. you were teenagers - kids, really - but no matter how she spins it, you know you’re the one who messed up. even if sky doesn’t blame you, you still do.

how are you supposed to trust your instincts, when the last time you let your guard down for a boy with a disarming smile, he hurt not only you, but your best friend?

sky’s your most important person. her family was there when no one else was, and they didn’t ask questions, either. you don’t think you’ll forgive yourself for letting her down once, and you know you can’t afford to let it happen again. no matter how many times sky says you’ve never had anything to apologize for.

you’re so lost in your own head that you almost bump into someone, so wound up that you nearly fire off immediately before realizing it’s taehyung standing in front of you, looking equal parts amused and concerned. “i think i know what they mean now when they say, ‘blaze a path,’” he muses, and you scoff at him, shoving him to the side without any real force.

“walking with purpose is not what that metaphor means, tae,” you keep marching forward, not bothering to check if he’s matching pace. he’s got long legs, he’ll be fine. “‘blazing a path’ means-”

“sun,” taehyung interrupts, voice low enough that you actually stop lecturing him. his voice softens a little. “you alright? you look like-”

you don’t let him finish, nor give him the courtesy of even a glance his way. “i’m dandy, taetae. just going to my nine to five.”

“you don’t have a nine to five. you’re a student.”

“good job, einstein. wanna tell me how the sky is blue, too?”

“sun.”

you know you’re being curt. you’re lashing out at the wrong person and you stop in your steps to breathe in deeply, exhaling slowly.

“i’m just tired,” you finally spare him a look. you sigh. “i’m sorry. but i really do have to go to work, and if i don’t haul ass, i’m gonna be late.”

he looks at you like he doesn’t believe you, but you both know he’s going to drop it. “you should sleep more,” he settles on. you know he’s about to lecture you with a series of hard facts. “people need eight hours-”

you smirk at him, “you know damn well there’s not a single college student out there getting eight hours of sleep.”

he shrugs. “maybe the business majors?”

you snort. “no. they’re out partying.”

he snaps his fingers. “right. forgot about those.”

“you can forget about parties when your best friend is jimin?” you ask in mock amazement. he scoffs out a laugh in return.

“shut up, sun. i’m serious, you need more sleep. you look like death.”

“oooh,” you tease. “you really know how to make a girl feel pretty.”

taehyung turns his gaze skyward, and you know he’s asking some higher being for the patience to put up with you. you snicker, patting him on the arm. “you’ll get it when you’re older,” you blink forlorn eyes at him, smile overly sympathetic. he scowls back. you make a vague attempt at hiding your amusement, but otherwise continue towards the office, taehyung keeping you company. he doesn’t say anything else, just walks with you. you don’t ask where he was supposed to be headed before you bumped into him, and he doesn’t tell you, either.

it’s when you’re almost at the door that you break your silence, that nagging feeling pulling and pulling at you until you crack. “hey,” you spin towards him, stopping in your tracks right in front of the building. “do you know a namjoon?”

he tilts his head, surprised. “namjoon? yeah, he’s like uhh,” taehyung pauses to think. “i think he was sky’s project partner or something, and now they’re pretty good friends. they have class together. why?”

you make a noncommittal noise. “nothing. just saw them together earlier. sky’s never brought him up before.”

you try not to think too hard at the way taehyung’s eyebrows shoot up. it’s a sign that you’re not overthinking this, that it is weird that sky never mentioned him, because sky tells you everything.

but she didn’t tell you about namjoon.

#taehyung x you #taehyung x reader #taehyung x yn #taehyung #taehyung x y/n #series: tsns #series: kths

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