#these two were rejects from the first batch because the designs were too busy

[fizpup]

birdies (again!)

[anemo-writes]

hello travelers! again, thank you for putting up with my inactivity, it’s been hard to write lately haha. anyways, i thought this would be something fun to post and for everyone to enjoy, whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day or not :) (note: this will probably be more fanon than canon so please bear with me, i’ll make it as canon as it can be :’) i also kept this pretty short, so hopefully that’s okay too,, and sorry for this being late haha—i wrote this very late at night so don’t mind any typos you find please)

much love,

~ anemo-chan <3

(The Playable) Genshin Impact Characters on Valentine’s Day (Romantically)

super romantic; gifts you a bouquet of flowers and takes you out to eat at a fancy restaurant/cooks for you.

Diluc

He is nervous. He’s never paid close attention to the countless amount of people who have lined outside the tavern to ask him to be their Valentine, only to be rejected. There was absolutely no way that he would turn to Kaeya for advice, so unfortunately this was something he would have to figure out for himself. He figures that it wouldn’t hurt to go traditional, so that’s what he does; he buys a large bouquet of roses (which he had to get from Donna, seeing that at the hours that he ended work were very late and Flora’s shop was not open at the time—yeah, that was not fun) and presents himself outside your doorway, to which he invites you to join him for a late dinner—which he makes!

Lisa

She leaves a letter on top of your nightstand, paired along with a singular rose. The letter states for you to meet her outside of Good Hunter, where you find her sitting at a table with a candle dimly-lighting up the surroundings. She greets you with a warm smile, gesturing for you to sit down—the two of you enjoy a candle-lit dinner as well as bolognese she specially requested for Sara to make for the two of you to enjoy together why does this remind me so much of Lady and the Tramp,,

Tartaglia

Oh boy. It’s always a fun time spending a holiday with him, seeing that it could go two ways; one, he would be too busy to celebrate it with you on the day of, and he would take you out the day after, or two—have a store’s entire line of merchandise presented to you outside your doorstep, in which a very, very smiley Tartaglia hidden within the pile (after all, he was the best present!) After you’re done moving all of the gifts into your house (it took up the space of your entire living room), he tells you to cover your eyes and follow him. He takes you to one of the most well-known restaurants in Liyue (which currently doesn’t have a name because it is very late here!), and insists that you order whatever you want, and however much you want.

Zhongli

Over the years, he’s witnessed many, many couples celebrate this holiday and every year he’s wished to do the same. He finds the perfect opportunity to do so when Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and boy does he plan it out for the two of you. He’s even made sure to have his wallet on him at all times—it would be extremely rude for you to have to pay if he happened to forget his wallet. He makes sure to stop by to pick up a bouquet of flowers, as well as a bottle of perfume (not in a bad way, just to clarify) from Ying’er’s shop that he recalled you liked. He makes sure to pick you up early from your work place to make sure you made it to your appointment on time; after all, being late to an appointment was similar to breaking a contract, no?

surprises you with homemade sweets.

Fischl

Oh, she is so nervous—of course, she doesn’t show this. The entire week, she spent researching recipes to create a special batch of chocolate-dipped strawberries just for you—she even sent Oz to the nearby farms to “borrow” the freshest strawberries for the treat (the farmers were too scared to confront the talking bird who “borrowed” their strawberries, so luckily they got away with it). She dips them in a purple-colored chocolate (because what other color would she use, really?) and drizzles on a dark-chocolate syrup to top it off. She’s too shy to actually give it to you herself though, so she has Oz drop it off for her.

Ganyu

Even though she’s quite busy, she’s somehow found time to whip up a special batch of chocolate just for you! She shapes them into Glaze Lilies (which she found quite hard, which is why there are so few of them) and presents them to you in a neatly-sealed box. She’s quite modest when your eyes widen and tell her it’s the best chocolate you have ever eaten, claiming that she only followed a recipe, when she really made it from scratch.

Keqing

Like Ganyu, you have no idea how she finds time to create a perfect array of chocolates, which she made herself! However, with her tightly-packed schedule, she has to drop it off at your house in advance, to which you accept happily. She tried to decorate them with designs of cartoon-versions of your faces, but they’re a bit...messy. Nonetheless, they’re tasty, and to her relief, you enjoy them.

Mona

Somehow, she’s managed to scrape up enough mora to buy you a necklace; yes, a necklace, and a real one at that—none of that fake, costume jewelry stuff! She even added a pendant shaped like star, just so you could be reminded of her whenever you fiddled with it or even glanced at it. She’s quite flustered when she gives it to you, ignoring the way you ask how she managed to save this much mora to be able to buy something like this, changing the subject on how you should never-ever take it off (because it looks great on you.)

Noelle

One word: pancakes. (Have you seen the ones she makes for her special dishes? They’re frigging amazing) As a dutiful maid should, she wakes up especially early to prepare a homemade breakfast just for you, to which she serves to you just as your wake up in bed. The fluffy stack of pancakes are decorated with fruits cut up in heart-shapes, as well the words, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Y/N”, written neatly with chocolate syrup—it’s quite a sight to see, to be honest, and utterly delicious. Lucky you!

Xiangling

The day before, she tells you to meet her at the restaurant around noon. When you arrive, the restaurant is adorned with Valentine decorations, as well as a terrifying amount of food; she insists that she only made it for you, so you better eat up! Before she can show you the other dishes, the restaurant is suddenly filled with a strong, bitter smell—something burning. With a yelp, she runs into the kitchen, coming out a few minutes later with a tray of half-scorched cupcakes, their Gouba-shapes adorned with...a lot of burn marks. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts, doesn’t it?

buys/makes a present for you.

Albedo

Without your knowledge, Albedo has been creating a collection of artworks throughout all the time you had spent together. The pieces include portraits of you, portraits of you and him (sucrose helped with this), as well as just random sketches of the little things that remind him of you, such as the bare, snowy-white terrain where the two of you first met, as well as its flora and fauna. If you request it, he’ll even make the painting come alive (literally), and the two of you run to Sucrose’s dwelling, who is very shocked to see the pair of you running from a Frosted Lawachurl when she peered out her window to see if she could pinpoint the sounds of distant screaming.

Amber

Is there anything better than a matching set of wind gliders? Not only that—they were homemade! She spent the last couple of weeks putting together a pair of gliders for the two of you, customizing them to your tastes (which she nailed!) She quite literally drags you to the nearest hill to test them out, and the two of you end up challenging each other on who can get back to the Knights of Farvonius Headquarters the fastest—spoiler alert: she did.

Barbara

Oh, she would make the cutest card for you—the envelope is decorated with cute stickers (some of them even had her face on it; there’s nothing like promoting merchandise, am i right? jkjks) She also pairs it off with a box of chocolates that she bought from Sara—however, what she didn’t know was that in the box was a special-edition spicy chocolate truffle. With your luck, that was the first one you chose—and boy, were you met a surprise (it was so bad that you were begging Barbara to use her Vision on you, which she refused of course). Fun times.

Chongyun

He’s real sweet. After his expeditions and commissions, he opens the freezer (yes he keeps them in there, don’t judge him) to an array of ice sculptures, shapes varying from flowers, hearts, and such—although it’s quite the simple gift, he’s put a lot of effort into them, even putting in the extra effort to cast a spell to make sure they would not melt; it’s all worth though, when he sees the absolutely giddy expression on your face, and the look of pure awe as you pick one up and study it closely, admiring all of the details and work that’s he put in.

Ningguang

She sends out informants to find out what you like, whether it be something that your gaze settled on for too long or something you’ve mentioned while talking to her—on the day of, you open your door to a mountain of gifts, with Ningguang herself peering out from behind it with a calm smile and a wave (which was the opposite of your reaction, because who has that much mora to purchase all of these gifts?!?)

Razor

He doesn’t have a clue on what the holiday until Lisa asks him if he’s planned something for the two of you during one of his lessons. When he shakes his head no, Lisa suggests that he make you something, to which he sets out on an adventure to do, looking for flowers and flower stems to weave into a pair of matching bracelets—they’re not the prettiest, but he is pretty proud of it; after all, it was his first time making something like that. He’s quite nervous to present it to you, afraid that you might not like it, but all feelings of worry melt away when you slide it on with a huge smile on your face, insisting that he wears his too.

Sucrose

At first, she considers gifting you a present that she created herself; of course, with her work being alchemy, she isn’t sure if that would be the safest option, despite being talented herself. And so, she resorts to buying a present for you—she is very picky with the present though, insisting that it should be perfect since she could not make one herself. She even consults Albedo when selecting some of the presents (he doesn’t help her unfortunately; he believes that she should figure it out herself haha). Like Razor, she’s quite nervous to give it to you, but lets out a huge sigh of relief as you thank her happily for the gift, wiping a bead of sweat from across her forehead (sucrose bby anything you give us would be perfect,,)

whisks you away somewhere sentimental, where the two of you can enjoy a special date.

Beidou

It’s ungodly early in the morning when Beidou presents herself in front of your doorstep, announcing that you’ll be joining her and the crew on a special ride. She tugs you along beside her until you reach the harbor, where you are met with the sight of her ship adorned with streamers and banners, varying between shades of pink and red. Onboard, there is a table filled with goodies the crew collected and made, and boy do they look delicious. The group sets out to sea, and you take your place next to the captain, who even lets you steer the boat (momentarily, at least.)

Bennett

He takes you to meet his dads; yes, yes—he knows that it’s not the most romantic thing to do on a day dedicated to lovers, but he figures it’s just as important. Besides, they’ve been asking about you for quite a while—they even set up a small party within the Adventurer’s Guild, with the help of Bennett, of course. You spend the day listening to their old adventuring stories, as well as bits from Bennett’s childhood (poor boy is flustered from all the information his dads are spilling, but he’s still happy either way; after all, he’s with the most important people to him.)

Kaeya

He quite literally kidnaps you; one second you’re walking in the streets of Mondstadt on your way to work when suddenly someone grabs you by the waist and pulls you into an alley way (that sounds so creepy but i swear he means it in a good way). He only chuckles and shields himself with his arms as you punch him lightly, retorting that he scared you. He doesn’t care that the two of you have an overwhelming amount of work to do—after all, Valentine’s Day only comes once a year, right? Surprisingly, he doesn’t take you the tavern, but instead...Dawn Winery! Diluc received quite the surprise when he is met with the two of you standing outside his gates, with Kaeya requesting a wine/grape juice taste-testing. Yeah...you guys didn’t get any of that, but you did manage to snag a couple of grapes on your way out! Good for you!

Venti

You wake up in your bed, opening your eyes to see a very-smiley Venti laying beside you, chin propped up against his hand as he watches you yawn sleepily as you force yourself out of bed. You’re then presented with a handpicked-bouquet of Ceceilias, the freshest of the bunch, if he may add. You barely have time to thank him before he hoists you up in his arms and out of your dwelling, gliding over the city of Mondstadt as he whisks you away to Starsnatch Cliff, where he’s prepared a special performance just for you (and no, you don’t need to pay.)

Xingqiu

While he’s not the most romantic, he does have a clue on what people look for on Valentine’s Day; after all, that’s what cheesy-romance novels were for, right? Unbeknownst to you, he takes you on a date very similar to the one the main characters in his favorite novels partook in—and you don’t find out until you catch him peeking into the pages while you weren’t (you were) looking. Again, it’s the thought that counts—

doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Jean

Sadly, she probably forgets about the holiday. She’s too busy holed-up in her office to notice the couples gathered up in the courtyard, sharing moments with their lover. It’s not until she walks out to take a breather that she notices the commotion—she immediately calls you over, apologizing frantically. Of course, to this you respond that’s it’s okay, but that you would much rather her take the rest of the day off to spend time together, to which she reluctantly agrees.

Xiao

“I do not have time to celebrate silly human traditions like that.” He would say as you bound up to him, exclaiming that it’s Valentine’s Day, the day where you can give sweets to your loved ones, and asking if he had someone special in mind to spend it with. He’s irked when your gaze falters and the grip on the object you’re hiding behind your back tightens—he only grows more irked as you mutter to yourself how you’ll give the chocolates you made to someone else. He scoffs loudly, avoiding your gaze as he lays out his hand in front of you to accept the chocolates (just because he doesn’t celebrate the holiday doesn’t mean he can’t get jealous!)

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Guiltrip

So, my week has been hell. In addition to working night and day on final essays for my classes, I've been really busy at work lately, and the second COVID vaccine shot really took a lot out of me this week. And that's not even getting into the bureaucratic nonsense that comes with applying for the MTEL which is slowly making me wonder if I actually want to teach in the first place.

But, despite all that, there was a single light of hope this week that almost made it all worth it.

STAR WARS: THE BAD BATCH, BABY!

OH MY GOD, THIS SHOW IS AMAZING! I ALWAYS LOVED THE CLONE-CENTRIC EPISODES OF THE CLONE WARS, AND NOW WE GET AN ENTIRE SHOW ABOUT AN ELITE TEAM OF THEM? KICKASS! AND IT TAKES PLACE AFTER ORDER 66 WITH GRAND MOFF TARKIN AS THE MAIN VILLAIN? SWEET MOTHER OF GEORGE LUCAS, I CAN'T WAIT! I DON'T EVEN CARE THAT THEY TRADED IN THE COOL SNIPER CLONE FOR SOME LITTLE GIRL CLONE, I ALREADY WANT TO SEE MORE THAN THE TWO EPISODES WE GOT SO FAR! GOD, I LOVE THIS SHOW!

Oh yeah, there was also a new episode of Miraculous Ladybug that aired on the same day too, I guess. It was pretty good. Hell of a lot better than the past three episodes I've sat through.

Let's get into the fifth (chronologically the eleventh) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Guiltrip

We start off in the middle of class where we see Marinette looking at Adrien lovingly.

Because the writers are still trying to push the Love Square on us as if they were trying to sell us some death sticks. And yes, expect a few Star Wars jokes in this review. This episode did premiere on May 4th after all.

Rose suddenly gets a headache, and asks to go to the nurse, saying that “Miss Dora” is back. While walking there with Marinette, she explains that it's a code name she gives when her head hurts and can tell Miss Bustier without letting everyone know. She probably felt a name like “Maya Grain” would just give it away.

At lunch, Juleka gets a text that really upsets her, so Marinette tries to cheer her up. Keyword being “tries”.

Okay, yes, this is referencing the previous scene, where Rose refers to a certain snack at the nurse's office she eats to recover her health whenever “Miss Dora” visits called “Mr. Coffee”, but it's just bad timing. I get Marinette has a habit of not reading the room, but why did she have to use the term “Miss Dora” when she knows what it's being used for? Sure, she doesn't know that Juleka knows, but did she really have to say “Miss Dora”? She couldn't have used any other name instead? It's like making a chemotherapy joke when you just found out someone close to you has cancer. Even putting the context aside, what is this joke's punchline supposed to be? That “Miss Dora” will visit Juleka if she eats her lunch? Even by the humor standards of this show, the joke fails spectacularly.

Marinette bumps into Adrien, and although she stutters a little with a little exaggerated body movement, she does manage to take things seriously so she can have an actual conversation with Adrien about Juleka, who wants to be alone. She explains that the text she got was from Rose, who was sent to the hospital because of her sickness, and the entire class finds out because Marinette texted everyone to come to check on Juleka.

Goddamn it, Marinette. I usually defend you for getting screwed over by the writing, but you really aren't on your A game today.

Juleka explains that Rose got this sickness when she was little, which naturally worried everyone else. To make things worse, Juleka also says Rose made her swear to not tell anyone about her to worry her. Everyone else swears to not let Rose know that they know, and the act of support is actually enough to drive away an Akuma targeted at Juleka.

Unfortunately, nobody ever said anything about being overly affectionate to Rose, so everyone in the class tries to do things for Rose like carry her bags, giving her a pillow to sit on in school, helping her take notes, letting her cut in line at lunch, and giving her apples.

All of this makes Juleka remorsefully tell Rose that she told everyone else, which worries her because she hates all the special treatment, so she goes to tell them all about her illness. While they seem to accept her, the next time she sneezes, they overreact like, uh... how can I make this joke in a tasteful way?

Rose says she's had enough with all the treatment, which makes Juleka feel guilty. In the bathroom, she gets akumatized into Reflekta (yet again) with a Sentimonster named Guiltrip. And then Reflekta immediately gets sucked into the Sentimonster, which will cause it to go out of control. Nice job, Shadowmoth.

While it might not look like much, this is easily my favorite Sentimonster by far. Granted, that's not saying much, given all we've gotten so far for Sentimonsters is bootleg Mothra, sentient candy, a robotic doll, a frog with a body count, yet another evil doppelganger, and an eye, but my point still stands. Rather than actually confront the heroes, it's basically a portal to another world where it can trap people in bubbles that represent their regrets and despair, and turn them into copies of Reflekta.

It's a really strong metaphor which reminds me of the villains from Kamen Rider Wizard, who tried to drive their victims to despair in order to turn them into monsters. Ironically, that show's main villain is also some asshole in white who was risking countless lives just to save someone close to him. In general, the area inside of Guiltrip is visually stunning, and easily the highlight of the episode. It's just so surreal, and it really sets the tone the episode's going for.

Ladybug and Cat Noir arrive on the scene, and also get sucked into the portal, seeing some of the victims before they also start to fall into despair. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but this is one of the few times where Angstdrien Depreste is thematically appropriate. Cat Noir points out that if they had simply defeated Shadowmoth by now, none of this would be happening, which is a good point. He even attempts to kill himself using his Cataclysm, but unlike RWBY, they don't try to glorify it.

This also leads to Rose managing to fight off Guiltrip's powers with her optimistic personality (so I guess you could say she's A New Hope for the heroes), inspiring Ladybug to compliment Cat Noir. While I'd normally be pissed that this is yet another way to boost his ego, it does fit in with the episode's theme of positive thinking. Well, with the exception of one line where she points out what her time as Ladybug would be like without Cat Noir...

BEING A SUPERHERO IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FUN. Yes, there are certain benefits to being a superhero, but it is not a fun game you play when lives are on the line. Why are the writers so dedicated to validate Cat Noir's beliefs that being a hero is just a fun extracurricular activity? Has there ever been a superhero who shares a similar mentality and isn't treated like a complete jackass?

So Ladybug and Cat Noir break free of the bubbles, and after summoning her Lucky Charm, a pickaxe, Ladybug realizes she needs more positivity to break free from Guiltrip. As such, she pulls out the Pig Miraculous and gives it to Rose, who transforms into Pigella. Funny how she forgot her little headache condition when she bangs her head like a death metal singer while transforming.

The design is... wait, she's not wearing a skin-tight jumpsuit? She's actually wearing something different?

Yeah, I really like the Pigella design. There's a good mix of pink and white, and the skirt really brings the whole thing together. It really reflects Rose's optimistic and bubbly personality.

So the three heroes find Reflekta, who has been consumed by tons of bubbles. Pigella uses her superpower, Gift, to show Reflekta what her heart wants the most right now. So it's basically a more specific version of the Fox Miraculous? In fact, what do pigs have to do with optimism?

Whatever reason, it works, which helps Reflekta to break free of Guiltrip's influence, letting Ladybug de-evilize her. But because we need to have a fight scene in this episode, the Reflekta clones start to attack the heroes, but Ladybug uses the pickaxe to climb out of Guiltrip and purify the Amok.

So Rose hands the Pig Miraculous back to Ladybug, and the episode ends with everyone treating Rose normally in class, realizing she isn't as delicate as she thinks she is.

So yeah, I really like this episode. Aside from a few stupid things Marinette said this episode, I honestly don't have a lot of problems with the episode here.

I also really like the lesson this episode is going for. It doesn't shame Rose for rejecting the help, and it doesn't shame the class for being to overprotective of Rose either. It tries to find a middle ground, which is an important lesson to learn, not just for dealing with a loved one who has an illness, but for disabled people and other kinds of situations where someone has a disadvantage. Even as much as I ragged on Marinette for the text, it's clear that she isn't the only one to blame. In fact, nobody really gets blamed for anything this episode. It's more of a misunderstanding, and both sides find a balance on how to treat Rose.

It's overall a really good episode, and the second best one so far this season. And you know what? This episode taught me the importance of staying positive, so with that in mind, maybe I shouldn't be dreading “Queen Banana” when it comes out this week.

Wait, what? It got pushed back two weeks? Oh, THANK GOD! Now I feel like dancing. And I know exactly what song to dance to...

[ve1vetyoongi]

better with you | ksj - 01

Chapters: index

Pairing: Seokjin x female reader

Genre: fake dating/arranged marriage!au, smut, angst, humour.

Word count: 19k

Summary: A part time job as a chef at Paradise Resort seems like the perfect way to spend your summer and save up some spare cash to open your own restaurant back home. That is until you cross paths with the CEO’s son who threatens to fire you if you don’t help him inherit his trust-fund-baby-fortune. How? By making you his fiancé. Well, his pretend fiancé at least.

Warnings: oral (f receiving), fingering, multiple orgasms, spanking, semi-public sex.

A/N: uwu hello and welcome to the first chapter of better with you, part of the paradise series! i hope you enjoy reading these characters as much as i enjoyed writing them because they’re some of my favourites 🥺💘 p.s. im honestly not happy with the pacing of this chapter, but i really wanted to share, so bare with me if it sucks!

Paradise Resort and the people in it are nothing like how you imagined them to be.

Sure, Paradise is a picturesque gated community with sparkling lake views surrounded by pear trees and sprawling green lawns and white stone fountains like the website described. And sure, everyone here drives foreign cars and loiters by the pool on weekdays and drinks bubbly for breakfast from fine China beneath chandeliers which glisten in the morning sun.

But you quickly realise there is something off; something that doesn't quite fit the expectations you had when you arrived here at the start of the summer, wide eyed and excited.

And that something is you.

You aren't one of the balding golfers leisurely steering carts across the perfectly pruned Paradise grass, flirting unashamedly with pretty young women in tennis skirts as they pass. And you aren't one of their wives, leaving lipstick stains on crystal wine glasses in wicker chairs on balconies as they giggle over finger food and afternoon tea and ignorance of their husband's infidelities.

And you certainly aren't the type of girl to spend her summer's horseback riding or wielding badminton bats or sipping copious amounts of white wine, paid for a la daddy's credit card.

No, because you are a culinary major. Nothing more nothing less. And lucky for you, Paradise was hiring - at least for the summer, anyway, and who better to work overtime in the kitchens at the expense of rich dudes other than broke students, right?

While most people came to Paradise to unwind and celebrate another year of prosperity, it was simply your job to watch from the kitchen window, grit your teeth and save enough cash to put towards opening your own restaurant back home.

Which is exactly how you find yourself slaving away over a plate of scallop sashimi on the stickiest day of August as the kitchen gets ready for the biggest event in Resort history — at least according to your fellow summer employee and designated dish washer duty-man Park Jimin, who seemed to be a constant fountain of gossip -- a trait which you secretly liked him for, despite feigning disinterest in his tittle-tattle.

"Do these people even know what good food is?" You frown at an underwhelmingly small plate of goat cheese salad as you wipe the edge of the plate with a cloth. "They can't seriously want to eat this. Don't they ever just, like, want a burger or something?"

"You're just noticing this place is bonkers?" Jimin snickers behind you, hoisting his weight onto the counter and pulling a grimace of his own when he lay eyes on the limp pile of lettuce leaves they dare to refer to as a meal here. "I saw someone order dessert for breakfast yesterday. Rich people have no rules, Y/N. Besides, it's not like we can serve burgers once Mr Kim arrives."

"Mr Kim?" You ask curiously. "Who's that?"

Jimin's eyebrows furrow, like he can't actually believe you're asking him such a question. Ever since you got here at the beginning of the summer he's been diligently keeping you up to date with the latest Paradise gossip, so you aren't sure why he's surprised you're as out of the loop as ever.

"Mr Kim. The founder of Paradise’s son?" You shrug, blinking at him cluelessly and Jimin shakes his head with a pained expression, lowering his voice like he's utterly appalled at your ignorance. "You haven't heard anything about the guy who is gonna take over this place once his father retires? Kim Seokjin?"

Ah, so that's who the infamous Seokjin is. His name has been buzzing through the kitchen for the last week, much to your confusion, and apparently he would be dining in the restaurant tonight.

You heard the senior chef's were working over time to perfect the cherry clafoutis he personally requested (despite not being an on-the-menu dish) and his impending inheritance of his father's dynasty seemed a topic of hot gossip, spreading in hushed whispers from the bar girls out front to the janitor, everyone seemingly desperate to get a glimpse at the Kim Seokjin. Meaning there are only two possible reasons as to why: he is rich or he is filthy rich.

"So what's the big deal with this guy. Is he some sort of celebrity or something?" You nudge Jimin in the ribs as you return to your station and start to sauté a fresh batch of onions. 

"Nah, just filthy rich." Jimin indulges and you nod. Just as I thought. "And goddamn hot if I should say so myself." He adds, returning to his dish washing station with a sigh, wrinkling his nose when his hands plunge into the soapy suds.

"Still, I don't see why I need to work over time for him." You grumble. The clock had chimed five o clock ten minutes ago and usually you'd be on your way to have a shower and shampoo the smell of grease and garlic out of your hair but instead you were still on the clock, orders lining up for you to prepare and stat. "What’s so special about him dropping by for dinner. Everyone here is rich."

"Well I was talking to one of the big guys," Jimin nods towards the senior chefs. "And apparently his parents have been trying to get him to marry his girlfriend for, like, ever." Jimin's voice dips to a whisper. "But get this. He broke up with his girlfriend last week when his parents suggested they get married!"

You narrow your eyes. "Right. So I'm working over time because some rich dude decided to throw his toys out of the stroller?"

Jimin rips off his pink rubber gloves and shakes you by the shoulders, like he’s trying to knock some sense into you. "Just shut up for a second would you? We're working overtime because his parent's have set him up on a date!"

You slap a hand over mouth, letting out an exaggerated gasp. "Not a date!"

"I know right!" Jimin shakes his head as if this is the scandal of the century, not quite sharing your sarcasm. "Can you believe it?"

"Is he talking about Kim Seokjin, again?" Jungkook, one of the summer buss boys, emerges from the restaurant through the double doors in his familiar black uniform. Jimin quickly smoothes down his hair, mentally chastising himself when soap suds coat his blonde locks, face burning as red as the tomatoes you chop beside him. It's common knowledge that Jimin has the biggest, all consuming crush on the oblivious chestnut haired waiter who flashes you an ever cheeky bunny smile now as he scoops up the dish you prepared onto the tray balanced on his forearm. 

He shoots Jimin an eye roll. "All he talks about is Kim Seokjin this, Kim Seokjin that." Jungkook shrugs. "I really don't see what the big deal is about this guy."

Jimin crosses his arms sulkily and you have to stifle a laugh at the pair. "The big deal is that this date has to go well - no, perfect - because Seokjin needs to marry someone "parent approved" or else his father will reject him as the heir of his dynasty."

You want to ask him about his impressive eavesdropping abilities but you have to admit, this is pretty big news - especially around here where the latest hot gossip was Han Seojin's husband's gambling problem when he hit up the casino after a few too many brandy's.

"So basically, the fate of the resort lies in his hands tonight." Jimin adds excitedly as he slams the dishwasher closed with a triumphant grin.

You roll your eyes. That is surely a bit dramatic. The guy was probably too blinded by the riches he would be inheriting to care about the poor girl he was getting hitched too. "You're invested in this, huh?"

Jimin nods eagerly. "Like I said. He's hot. Like sex on legs hot."

If you weren't watching carefully you may have missed Jungkook's eyes narrowing slightly or the way he tenses and puffs out his chest. "Pfft. He is not."

"So is!" Jimin pouts. "You're just jealous you're not as inhumanely gorgeous as he is." Jungkook raises a brow and Jimin rushes to smooth over his words. "Not that you're not gorgeous! No, that's not what I mean—"

The awkward moment is interrupted by the sound of a ladle banging against a frying pan, and you let out a groan when you hear the unmistakable yell of the head chef. "Attention everyone!"

"Speaking of crazy people." Jimin mutters with a roll of his eyes, rolling up his uniform sleeves and wiping his forehead with the back of his hand as all the employees gather in the centre of the kitchen. "Looks like Hoseok got out of the wrong side of bed again."

You stifle a giggle when you find that Jimin is in fact correct, head chef Hoseok rounding the corner with an ever serious expression on his face. He has always been the stern type, mouth constantly fixed in a permanent frown as he criticises your dicing skills or catches you burning another steak, but you can see by the bluish bags under his eyes and the furrowed lines etched into his forehead that he means business today and a hush quickly falls over the kitchen apart from the gentle hiss of frying onions.

"As you all know, today is a big day for Paradise." He begins. "Each and every one of our future's here as employees depends on it. Mr. Kim has chosen us to cater for his dinner date and I need each and every one of you to do everything you can to make sure it goes smoothly. Capeesh?"

Dang. Is head chef Hoseok himself nervous? He's usually irritatingly confident in his cooking abilities. Maybe this was more serious than you thought...

"I'm counting on you guys to prove our worth, you hear me? It's already an honour that he picked us to host such an important event, and if we fumble who d'ya think he's gonna fire first once he takes over as CEO?" Hoseok interrupts your train of thought, waving a wooden spoon now like he's conducting an orchestra. "Which is why I expect zero funny business. I'm looking at you Jeon Jungkook! Now scram, we have customers to feed."

A unanimous groan fills the room as everyone gets back to work, and the kitchen falls into a state of turmoil as the clock ticks away, Seokjin due to arrive in a few hours and you haven’t even started on his appetizer yet.

"This better be worth it." You grumble to yourself, suppressing a smile when Jungkook bounds like a Labrador puppy into the restaurant fit  with an armful of salads yelling "Rabbit food coming up, y'all!", despite the stern look Hoseok sends his way.

You turn to Jimin, rolling your eyes at the hearts in his eyes for Jungkook as he strains his neck to get a glimpse of the chestnut haired boy's ass through the kitchen's window. He blushes when he notices you looking, but not before he’s flashing you a grin.

"Just wait until you see him," Jimin calls cheekily as you rush to the stove you had abandoned earlier. "Then you'll be glad you worked over time."

As it turns out, you are not glad you worked overtime. Kim Seokjin is late. Unfashionably late. So late that you are considering eating the dish you slaved over for nearly an hour to perfect to his preferences only for him to let it go limp and cold.

At least you could add another trait to the list of what you now know about Kim Seokjin: filthy rich, (allegedy) goddamn hot, heir to the resort and most importantly douche bag who can't make it on time to the first date with his future wife.

To make matters worse, the level of unrest in the kitchens is unlike anything you have ever seen before as everyone nervously awaits his arrival. Jungkook has been out front to polish the wine glasses at the private table he set up and lovingly adorned with candles and a bottle of iced champagne of the expensive kind because it would "create sexy vibes" more times than you can count. Hoseok took extra care with the placement of the parsley on top of the steaks he grilled and you even saw Jimin fixing his hair in the reflection of a shiny pan.

When the clock ticked over to eight, everyone had gathered around the small kitchen window, eyes beadily trained to the door. 

"He'll be here any minute now, I can feel it." Jimin whispers as he sidles up beside you, practically vibrating. His excitement for the date has started to rub off on you, a funny fuzzy feeling settling in your chest — all this Kim Seokjin talk has you itching to see the guy in the flesh, even if it is just from behind the kitchen window.

Sure enough, Jimin's Kim Seokjin senses must be somewhat accurate because a hurried hush falls across the kitchen as a black car pulls up outside, a unanimous gasp filling the room as you watch him emerge from behind the tinted glass windows in awe.

You were waiting for a tight lipped guy in a suit and tie to step inside; a younger clone of all the middle aged men who frequented the resort when their "model" children got busted bunking off from golf games or whatever rich kids did to rebel. Except the guy that strolls through the sliding doors like he has time to waste is so far from the average Paradise resident that you are almost sure you're hallucinating. Or have onion in your eyes. Surely you aren't seeing this clearly?

The guy who crosses the threshold and takes a seat at the table Jungkook graciously guides him to is clad in a vibrant Hawaiian shirt, the floral a stark contrast to the luxe interior of the resort. The garment is unbuttoned lazily and draped across his broad shoulders, a pair of round,humorously large sunglasses perched on the end of his nose, and if you weren't so shocked by his...impressionable entrance you might find the whole situation comical.

"This is Kim Seokjin?" You splutter, unable to stop the giggles that leave your lips at the sight of him bobbing his head unnecessarily hard to the monotonous classical tune that carries through the restaurant, blatantly ignoring whatever words Jungkook (who looked completely starstruck) was stuttering.

The situation becomes even more ridiculous when you see the disgruntled look on the pretty girl who traipses behind him awkwardly, dressed in a floor length gown and pearls, face turning sour when Seokjin neglects his manners and forces her to pull her own chair out to sit while he zones in on the bottle of alcohol in the centre of the table.

They look like characters out of two separate worlds. Jewels glitter on her fingers as she taps them agitatedly against the table, clearly as dumbfounded by the situation as you are, especially when she offers her glass to Seokjin to pour her a drink, only for him to thrust the entire bottle of wine in her face.

Your attention is drawn away from the unfolding scene momentarily when Jungkook flies back into the kitchen in typical Jungkook fashion, except this time with an extra bout of zealousness if the stars in his eyes weren't already obvious.

"I take it back!" He puffs, slipping his empty tray beneath his elbow, hands now free to swing Jimin around in circles. "He's the most beautiful human I've ever seen!"

You cross your arms with a sneer. "Looks like a goof to me. That shirt? Not a good look on anyone."

"But his face!"

"Yeah, his face, covered by those obnoxious glasses."

"You didn't see it." Jungkook whispers, pulling your hands into his own. "He could end mankind with that kind of face! And I bet he has a monster dong too-"

"Okay, jeez." You push him away, scrunching your nose in disgust. "No discussing customer's monster dongs in the kitchen."

"So you admit he probably has one?"

"Shush!" You hiss. The kitchen huddle lets out a synchronised gasp and you elbow your way back to the window, peering past a tall chef's hat to fix your attention on the scene which had somehow escalated ten fold since you'd left it.

Seokjin's body is wracked with laughter, hand slamming down ferociously against the table, making his date wince every time the fine china jumps on the table cloth. Her hands are placed carefully atop the napkin in her lap, food untouched as Seokjin takes the liberty to pour himself another glass of wine. He looks utterly uninterested in anything she has to say, and she seems embarrassed by his mannerless behaviour, glancing around anxiously. The tension between them is suffocating, even from your safe distance, and you swear you could cut it with one of the knives hanging from the utensil rack.

Then, Seokjin leans in towards her. He removes his glasses, carefully tucking them neatly into his shirt pocket before resting his chin in his palm to stare at her intently.

Maybe he was finally taking an interest in her? She seems to think the same thing, a small smile creeping onto her face despite her awkward demeanour.

Until it slips from her face nearly as fast as it appeared, replaced by an expression of pure appalled horror when Seokjin whispers something into her ear. You can only see the back of his head so lip reading is out of the question; but if the way her chin drops into her lap was anything to go by, you have a feeling whatever he said was not something you wanted to hear on a first date and probably not from your future husband, either.

Without further ado, the girl throws her cutlery down with a clash, gathering the fabric of her dress and storming out of the restaurant in a manner that suggests the date went badly to say the least.

A ruckus has broken out in the kitchen by this point; Jimin and Jungkook stopping mid monster dong debate to gawk, a rumble of chatter erupting as everyone processes the events you had just witnessed.

What did he say? Do you think it was the steak? What does this mean for Paradise? Is he still gonna marry her?

The last one came from Jungkook and you couldn't help but bite your lip in an attempt to smother the laughter that threatened to spill at his question. "Somehow I don't think he proposed to her just then, Kook."

Your eyes zone in on Seokjin again. He is slumped back in his seat now, knuckles pressed to his eyes. He looks exhausted, a sudden change in demeanour considering this is the same guy who was shooting finger guns at his date a few moments ago. Now he just seems defeated

For a moment you think he is going to get up and leave. That is until he twists in his seat, motioning towards the kitchen window with a crook of the finger. Dessert? He mouths.

The kitchen staff disperse hurriedly, a tinge of red creeping up Hoseok's neck at being caught spying, although it is clear by the smirk on Seokjin's face that he knew you were watching him all along. There is something in his eyes that even has you wiping the amused expression of your face, though. An authority.

"Could this night have gone any worse?" You ask Jimin, referring to Seokjin's debacle. Except Jungkook is quick to interject, thrusting two black bags in your face with a grin.

"For you, yes. Your turn to take out the trash."

You blink at him a few times before reluctantly taking the bags from his grip. They were heavy, nearly making you stumble. How had Jungkook held them so easily?

"Fine." You manage to get out between gritted teeth, struggling to balance with the extra weight in your arms. "But you owe me."

"Oh believe me," There is a glint in Jungkook's eyes that you can't quite put your finger on. What was he up to? "I'll make it up to you sooner than you think."

It's dimly lit when you stumble out back armed with a pile of trash bags, the only light source some fairy lights strung around the palm trees lining the restaurant. It takes all your strength and three tries to haul the heavy trash bags into the dark mouth of the dumpster and you're out of breath by the time you're finished.

Finally satisfied with your work, you wipe your hands on your apron and turn to stalk back inside and flick Jungkook's forehead - except a loud ringing from somewhere in the shadows stops you dead in your tracks.

You stiffen, hand reaching for the door handle as a precaution, head snapping towards the direction of the sound. You can't help the small gasp that leaves your lips when you take in the figure of a tall man leaning against the kitchen wall just a few meters away, the ringing ceasing when he lifts a phone to his ear with a frustrated groan.

Shit! As soon as you realise you're not alone and before you can think better of it you're scrambling behind the dumpster, crouching so that you're just out of view but still in earshot as the figure starts to murmur into the microphone.

"Yeah, dad, I know she flew all the way from Morocco to be here tonight. It's not my fault we weren't compatible!"

Huh? A voice squeaks on the other end of the line, and though you can't work out what they say exactly the frustrated sigh that leaves the man a few meters away tells you it wasn't exactly friendly.

"What makes you think you know what's best for me? I never wanted this stupid engagement in the first place!"

Intrigued and against your better judgement, you brace your hands on the edge of the dumpster and pull yourself on top of a cardboard box discarded beside it to get a better view of the scene. If you strain your neck you can just about see the shadow of a tall figure pacing back and forth just around the corner and you can't help but lean in a little closer to hear his harsh words more clearly, curiosity getting the better of you.

"Because it's my life! I'm sick of you and mom always telling me what to do with it." You raise an eyebrow, ever intrigued when the voice lifts from a hush to a yell. "Fine! I'll go on another date, but you'll see. I won't end up like you. You owe me big time for this, dad."

With that the phone call is cut off with a monotone beep and you see the shadow of the man pinch the bridge of his nose, sighing sharply, before the soles of his polished loafers crunch against the gravel in the direction of where you crouch, eavesdropping. You had enough experience with the residents here to know they wouldn't take this lightly — you had to sign a handful of NDA's before you even got the job, so naturally your eyes widen with panic when you realise you're about to get busted listening in on a confidential call. But before you can dive behind a trash bag and take cover, you lose your footing and find yourself hurtling head first into the dumpster, landing with a crash.

A few seconds pass, the footsteps ceasing as you squeeze your eyes shut and pray your beating heart doesn't give you away, before a voice calls out.

"Hello? Is someone there?"

"No!" You squeak hurriedly, slapping a hand over your mouth when it's already too late and flushing a deep shade of red when you hear a sharp intake of breath and you realise you've blown your own cover

You silently hope the guy will give up and leave, but then you hear someone climbing the outside of the dumpster and you open your eyes to see a puzzled pair of eyes peering down at you from beneath a cocked eyebrow, followed my a loud snort. "You need some help down there, sweetheart?"

This guy might be a total stranger, but any questioning words die on your tongue when you look around and remember you're literally trapped inside a dumpster and your upper arm strength is definitely not enough to get you out of this thing alone and — hold up, there's probably rats in here, right?

You scramble to your feet, brushing your messy hair from your eyes with a nervous laugh. "Uh...yeah. I guess I do."

A steady hand emerges over the edge of the dumpster and with a weak and embarrassed smile you grasp it, suppressing a squeak when the guy unexpectedly launches you over his shoulder so that he can pull you out in one fell swoop and set you safely on the ground.

"Uh, thanks." You manage to get out when you find your balance, awkwardly brushing some dirt from your apron. "Good thing you walked by when you did..."

"Yeah, guess you could call me your knight in shining armor, huh?" The guy chuckles, long and smooth like velvet. A laugh you've heard before, just moments ago in fact. That's when you battle through your embarrassment to look up and face him for the first time, flushing at the involuntary gasp that passes your lips.

The man before you has the deepest eyes you've ever seen, sharp yet soft around the edges beneath the sparkle of the low light and you shiver when they finish looking you up and down to stare into yours directly. Your eyes slip down to the familiar Hawaiian shirt draped over his broad shoulders, eyes widening when you look between your bodies to find his fingers still clasping your own as he eyes you with a curious interest.

"S-Seokjin?" You splutter. He nods, letting out a deeper chuckle this time as though he could hold it back no longer. "What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask you the same question," He counters, letting you go so he can reach into his pocket to retrieve a half pack of cigarettes and a lighter, ironically just beneath the unmissable NO SMOKING sign. "What's a pretty girl like you doing out here hauling trash at this hour?"

"I...work here."

He nods and you just stare at him like an open mouthed idiot. He must think it's because of the way he fiddles to spark a light at the end of his cigarette, drawing his eyes from the stick back to your surprised expression. "What? Oh these? I don't smoke. Stole these from my father's coat pocket." He shakes the box back and forth with a smug grin. "Nothing pisses him off more than loosing his Lucky Strikes. Besides, I own this place, I can do what I like."

You shrug. "Well, your father does." You are speaking too quickly, mentally pinching yourself for not being able to bite your own tongue. "He owns this place I mean. Right?"

A blush creeps up your neck under his gaze which narrows as he draws closer to you. His eyes are a deeper brown up close, like a pot of warm hot chocolate - soft at the edges where they crinkle into a smile at your rushed words. Nothing like the steely glares you usually got from residents here.

"Correct," The toe of his shoe kicks at the gravel beneath your soles while he strings together his next words carefully. "For now. I'll be proud owner of Paradise before the year is out, though."

"Ha." You can't help but snort under your breath, Seokjin's head simply tilting in response with an almost amused curiosity. "I don’t know about that. Didn't look like your fiance wanted to marry you very much."

"Word spreads quick around here, huh?" He lets out a dark laugh, grimacing at the cloud of nicotine that floats away into the nigh from the cigarette between his fingers that flutters to the gravel before it’s even reached his lips. You wince when he uses the toe of his Balenciaga’s to stub it out into a pile of smoldering ash before reaching for another one that he lights in the same way as before. "She wasn't my fiance, actually.To be honest, I hadn't even met her before tonight."

You let out an awkward laugh. "I take it the wedding's off then?"

"Ha ha," You practically hear the roll of his eyes. "At least one of us finds this funny, because my father sure as shit won't." His tone is suddenly chilly and for a moment you think you offended him, though a quick scan of his face reveals a turn up of the mouth that says otherwise. He kicks off from the wall, slinging his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans and you swallow thickly as the safe distance between you grows ever smaller, so close you can smell his woody cologne. "It was never on, per se. And it never will be if I have anything to do with it."

You can't help but scoff at the way he tightens his jaw and throws his arms across his chest like a toddler in time out. Sure, you hardly knew the guy but something about his attitude rubs you the wrong way. This is the guy who has everything, yet he's trash talking his lavish lifestyle to a summer employee? 

"You're kind of an asshole, huh?"

"Can't say I haven't heard that one before." Seokjin agrees with a smirk. "But you don't seem like much of an angel yourself. First I find you eavesdropping on me, save your ass from a dumpster and then you choose to insult me?"

You shift awkwardly under his intense gaze, worried you might have overstepped, mouth dry as you spit out a response. "I...I didn't mean it like that—"

"God, chill out would you? I’m kidding. You're so stiff it's stressing me out." His tongue snakes out to lick his lips thoughtfully. "You're different, y'know."

"Huh?"

"I can tell you're not like everyone else around here. You're honest." Seokjin explains, unbuttoning the top button of his shirt to allow him some more breathing room as he continues. "Everyone around here is either a liar or a cheat. Or both."

"You don't even know me." You huff.

"You don’t know me either, princess.” Seokjin smirks. “So what makes you so sure I'm an asshole?."

He blinks at you eagerly, and you realise he's serious when he arrogantly waves his hand for you to go ahead and indulge him, like he's somewhat amused.

Well damn. If this guy wanted honesty you'd sure as shit give it to him

"You want the truth?" You suck in a deep breath. "I don't know what I expected when I heard the buzz about you but it certainly wasn't a rich guy who wears hawaiian shirts and makes girls cry on first dates. I don’t need to know a single thing about you to know that you’re an ungrateful asshole, just like everyone else at this resort."

A few seconds pass, Seokjin's eyes widening in momentary surprise like he wasn't used to people telling him the truth, before his face breaks out into a beaming grin. "I have a feeling we're going to be good friends." He glances at your name tag. "Y/N, is it?"

You half nod before you register his words. "Friends, what do you mean—?"

Just then the phone in his grip starts to vibrate violently, and he holds it up so you can see the bold DAD that lights up the screen.

"Sorry to cut this short pretty, but I need to take this. Better get back to work before I cut your pay check, sweetheart." You must look visibly nervous because he bursts into laughter. "What? I'm kidding, remember?"

You roll your eyes, hiding the way your face heats up by spinning on your heels and storming back towards the kitchen, pausing briefly before you can turn the handle when you hear Seokjin call your name.

"Hey. Wait up! One piece of advice. Don't let this place, get to you, okay?" Seokjin calls with a smile. "I like your honesty, it's...refreshing."

And with that he lifts the phone to his ear, disappearing around the shadowy corner with an irritating smile and a finger salute.

For some funny reason, Seokjin's words ring out in your head for the rest of the night. I have a feeling we're going to be good friends. Something tells you that isn't the last time you're going to see Kim Seokjin, and you can't tell if the way your heart skips a beat is a good thing or not.

Much to your surprise, that isn't the last time you see Kim Seokjin.

The next night he returned equally as late and equally as eccentrically dressed and left his date, blonde this time, (though equally as pretty as the last one) flustered and red in the face as she stormed out of the restaurant with glassy eyes and crushed dreams

The night after that you spot him arguing a little too loudly with a feisty lady outside the restaurant, the way he doesn't even stay long enough to finish his champagne a clear indication that the date went less than perfect.

Night after night, the same scenario played out with different unimpressed women, until finally, they just stopped coming. No more girls. No more dates. No more of Seokjin's signature laughter permeating the entire restaurant. Sure, the guy was a complete asshole, that much was clear; but you his absence left the restaurant feeling even more lifeless than before.

Obviously Seokjin's fucked up dating life wasn’t anything to laugh about. But you had to admit his antics put a smile on your face, something which had been few and far between as of late. Even when Hoseok was working you overtime, you found yourself biting your lip to suppress a grin every time Seokjin waltzed through the door. And now he was gone, and with it your small escape from reality.

"Do you think his parents finally gave up?" Jimin sighs one late evening, shaking his wet hands in the face of Jungkook who bats him away playfully.

"Nah, he probably just found a girl he likes." Jungkook reasons. "Made his parents see things from his point of view."

You snort. "They don't sound like the type of parents who would give up that easy." After more dates than you could count on one hand with various suitors deemed good enough for their son, it was clear they were prepared for him to rebel. You doubted they would give in without a fight.

"You might be right..." Jungkook trails off, rushing to smush his face against the window. "Unless...wait! I think he's back!"

"He's back?" You breathe, elbowing Jungkook out of the way and ignoring his ow! of protest, your own breath fogging up the glass now as your eyes dart from table to table in search of a familiar face.

You let out a breathy laugh. Sure enough, there he is. Hair gelled back tonight you noted, bouncing his skinny jean clad knee beneath the table with an impatience you can't quite put your finger on.

Wait...

"Ha!" You almost do a double take. Seokjin is sat alone tonight. No nearly-crying-twenty-something across from him. Just Seokjin with a single flute of champagne in his hand opposite an utterly empty chair.

Well. This is new.

"I think he's been stood up!" You lower your voice to a whisper when your burst of laughter gains a few strange looks. "There's no girl with him this time."

"What?" Jimin splutters, standing on his tip toes in an attempt to see over your shoulder. "No girl?! Let me see!"

You budge over and Jimin lets out a gasp of surprise when he takes in the scene for himself. "The Kim Seokjin got stood up. I can't believe it!"

"Maybe he's getting a taste of his own medicine." You muse.

A mischievous look crosses Jungkook's features and then he is pulling on his black apron and scurrying towards the door. "Let's find out!"

"What? — Jungkook!"

You watch open mouthed as Jungkook approaches the lonely table, fingers quivering around the order notebook he clutches like a safety blanket, with nerves or excitement you can't quite tell; before he exchanges a few words with Seokjin who barely even glances up, lazily folding a napkin in his lap. Jungkook nods vigorously before he speed walks back to the kitchen like his life depends on it, a smug grin appearing on his lips as he thrusts the order slip towards you.

"Two orders of sirloin steak, medium! Pronto!"

"Two?" You and Jimin splutter in unison.

Jungkook looks amused. Too amused for your liking.

"Yup! And guess what?" Jimin is hanging off his every word, desperate pleas of what? making Jungkook chuckle harder. "He wants the chef to serve it."

You narrow your eyes. "Hoseok? Why?"

Jungkook scoffs as if you're being clueless on purpose. "Not Hoseok, idiot!"

"Then who?"

"You." Jungkook points a finger right at you.

"Me? Wait! Jeon Jungkook, you get back here!" Before you can ask questions he is already bounding into the restaurant like a labrador on crack.

"Have fun!" He yells over his shoulder with a wink. "You'll thank me later, Y/N."

Half an hour later and you're stood with two steaming plates balanced on your arm. Why are you so nervous? All you have to do is go out there and serve the food. It's not like he was asking you to kill someone.

But every time you muster up the courage to go out there you remember your encounter with Seokjin outside the kitchens, and you instantly feel weak at the knees.

You smooth down your apron one last time, filling your lungs with the stuffy kitchen air before Jimin's hands clamp onto your shoulders and steer you towards the door.

"What are you—?" One forceful push later and you're stumbling out into the restaurant. "Jimin!"

"You can do this!" You hear Jimin call, the exasperated look you send over your shoulder in response prompting a not so reassuring thumbs up. The way your eyes downturn into a dark glare makes him collapse into a fit of gasps and giggles as he nods for you to keep going.

I'm going to get him back for this...

The table Seokjin liked to frequent is closest to the window, view casting out over the lake which the resort surrounds like a half moon, terribly modern in all it's white pillared glory in contrast to the natural beauty of the clear blue water. The lake is darkened now with the reflection of the midnight blue sky, the soft glow of lanterns lighting up the path around it and illuminating the picture of weeping willows which ripples across the water's surface, disturbed only by canoeists tying up their boats for the evening.

Seokjin doesn't seem interested in the quiet goings on of the resort. He has probably seen them a hundred times before. His back is facing you but you can see how his eyes are transfixed on the sliding entrance doors in the windows reflection. It was late evening and most people would be returning to their suites for the night by now, but Seokjin's steely gaze remains unwavering, like he's expecting it to zip open any minute. Is he waiting for someone?

Some part of you feels sympathetic. It doesn't look like anyone is coming to join him any time soon. Poor guy is about to get a taste of his own medicine and look like a fool sat opposite an empty chair harbouring a plate of uneaten food.

Ha. It's exactly what he deserves, you think. Karma.

Every step towards him feels heavier than the last until eventually you find yourself stood with knees knocking right behind him, food probably going cold with every second you spend coaxing yourself to man up and face him. You silently pray he won't hear the pound of your heart over the low hum of chatter and scrapes of cutlery against china plates that seem to fall away to silence in this corner of the restaurant where it's just Seokjin and you.

You're debating spinning on your heels and making Jungkook do it instead when Seokjin's unrelenting stare at the door snaps up to meet yours in the window's reflection, the authority in his eyes enough to have you hiding behind your hair in shame at being caught dwindling like an idiot.

"I wasn't expecting you to actually come." His voice is a deep hum that makes you jolt and nearly drop the plates. A heat burns your cheeks when Seokjin swirls the champagne in his glass amusedly, facing you with his forearm on the back of his seat and beckoning for you to set the plates down with a nod of his head. An order.

You narrow your eyes, unable to curb the irritation that laces your sigh as you obey him. You set down the dishes, one in front of him and the other in front of the seat still empty of whomever he is expecting. "I wasn't exactly expecting to be serving you tonight either. I usually just prepare the food."

Seokjin doesn't miss the roll of your eyes, snorting at the shake of your hand that gives away the anxiety beneath your front when crystal beads of champagne splash onto the immaculate table cloth as you try to top up his glass.

"Yeah and here's a reason for that. You're a shit waitress."

The way you slam the bottle down onto the table top is a little too aggressive, the legs shaking violently and drawing the eyes of a few of the surrounding diners who wipe their mouths with a delicate astonishment and flash you dark looks at the disturbance.

"Are we done? If I'm so bad then why did you call me out here?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you." His fingers fold the napkin in his lap carefully. He settles back into his chair with a grin laced with mischief while you practically hop from foot to foot with nerves. "Would you sit for a second?"

"I'm an employee." You raise a brow. "I don't think that's appropriate..."

"Please?" He rests his chin in his palms.

You hug your torso and self consciously glance side to side. With a roll of your eyes you sink down into the chair, if a little reluctantly, when you're sure the couple at the table directly opposite are too deep in conversation about the crème brûlée to notice the strange encounter happening beside them.

"Fine! But make it quick or Hoseok might actually shave my head."

Seokjin gets straight to the point. "I need you to do something for me."

There is a glint in his eye as he snatches up the glass intended for the rightful occupant of the leather cushion you perch on, pouring a small amount of champagne into the flute and pushing it towards you with an encouraging nod. You observe the fizzing liquid with caution, turning your nose up at the floral aroma. Was he trying to poison you with Veuve Clicquot?

"Okay, elaborate?"

"I'm going to need you to pretend to be my date." You wait for him to laugh but his lips are pressed together in a line that tell you he is being serious. "You up for it?"

"Excuse me?" An astonished laugh punctuates your widened eyes, voice raising incredulously at his request. "Your what?"

"Hear me out!" Seokjin hisses, holding a finger to his lip to quiet you down when you splutter on the air that feels like it's thickening in your throat. "I just need to get my father off my back. It'll be five minutes tops!"

By this point you are rendered speechless, pinching the inside of your thigh to check if you are trapped in some weirdly vivid nightmare.

You? His date? Oh god...why aren't you waking up?

Your lips curl around a single breathless word. "Why?"

"Hello, I'm Kim Seokjin? Dad owns the resort? Need to get married to inherit it? I thought we went over this the other day—"

Throwing your arms over your chest impatiently, you click your tongue. "I remember idiot! I mean why me?"

"For fucks sake — you want the truth?" He chuckles but it's devoid of any humour. "You're new around here so my father is less likely to recognise you, okay?" He downs the rest of his glass, picks up his fork and pokes the cold steak on his plate restlessly, hardly bothering to look you in the face even when you scoff in disbelief.

You bite your lip, voice quiet. "Is this some sort of game?"

You are no stranger to Seokjin's tricks — you watched them play out with your own eyes, more girls than you could count on one hand leaving the restaurant in tears or worse — and something feels funny in your stomach, an instinct that says he has an ulterior motive you just can't put your finger on.

From the corner of your eye you spot Hoseok poking his head into the dining area, eyes merciless as they scan the room in search of you, the tell tale tap of his foot against the ground a giveaway of his growing impatience which makes you duck out of view in fear.

"If this is just one of your sick jokes then congrats," You deadpan. "I could literally lose my job over this."

"What? No!" He seems genuinely surprised at your accusation, exasperated sigh sounding desperate while his eyes bore into yours with a look that says please. "I'll explain everything. Please?"

He winces when your chair scrapes loudly against the tile as you get to your feet with a disbelieving shake of your head. "Sorry but I have a job to do—"

Suddenly Seokjin lets out a gasp and you hear the automatic glass doors zip open. "Ah shit!"

Seokjin's eyes widen with panic but before you can twist to see who has arrived for yourself, you're being pulled back down into the seat opposite him roughly by the elbow.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Seokjin isn't listening, shrugging his jacket down his arms and wrapping the fabric around your shoulders hastily. "Cover your uniform, okay?"

The smell of his expensive cologne fills your senses and a warm hand squeezes your shoulder pleadingly, the glint in his eye replaced with desperation.

For a moment you falter and his face brightens, believing you to be finally convinced. Until you come back to your senses and slap his hand away. "Get off me!"

"Too late." Seokjin murmurs, but before you can shoot him a questioning glance a pair of polished black shoes stop beside you. Your entire body stiffens, aware of a pair of eyes probing the back of your head.

Oh no.

"Seokjin."

An unfamiliar deep voice rumbles beside you and when you dare to look up you're met with the peering face of an older man who you recognise from the Paradise website. There are traces of Seokjin visible in the curve of his mouth and the sharp edge of his jaw and he was probably considered good looking in his youth.

Ah. So this is Mr Kim?

"You lasted longer than fifteen minutes. This must be a new record, son."

Despite their likeness it's hard to believe they are father and son -- the stern frown keeping a pair of thin framed glasses balancing on Seokjin’s father’s nose along with his crisp tailored suit a far cry from the boy sat cross legged opposite you, wine colored shirt unbuttoned too far to be a mistake.

Seokjin plasters a false grin to his mouth and raises his glass towards Mr Kim, as if to toast. "I told you I would try didn't I?"

Mr Kim says nothing, averting his intimidating gaze to you instead. Your mouth dries when he addresses you directly. "What was your name again?"

Shit! Alarm bells sound in your head, instantly regretting coming out here in the first place and getting mixed up in Seokjin's mess.

You swallow thickly, hardly daring to look him in the eye. "It's — uh," Seokjin is signalling at you with an alarmed look, face falling into his palms with a muffled groan when you fail to catch on.  "Y-Y/N. I'm Y/N."

"Is it now?" Mr Kim scratches his chin thoughtfully, humming to himself as he studies your face. Shit, does he recognise you from the kitchen? Are you about to get fired? Your pulse goes into overdrive when his eyes narrow. "I'm sure I remember it being something like—"

"Her middle name!" Seokjin quickly butts in, cutlery clattering onto his plate in his haste to gain his fathers attention. "She goes by her middle name. We were just talking about it actually. Right, Y/N?"

All eyes fall on you again, Seokjin sending you a pleading look, but you don't trust your voice not to waver so you just nod and hide your rosy cheeks by wrapping your lips around rim of the untouched champagne glass.

"Funny middle name." He shrugs, landing an audible slap to Seokjin's back who winces at the hard contact. Mr Kim's eyes seem kinder as they look between you. "I'm proud of you, son. I'm glad you could finally see things from our perspective."

"Sure, dad." Seokjin shrinks away from his fathers touch with a look of distaste. "Now would you do us a favor and leave us to discuss...marriage things?" You choke on your mouthful of bubbly, eyes watering as you try to hold back a spluttering cough.

Thankfully, Mr Kim is already losing interest, flashing Seokjin a thumbs up before striding over to one of the waiters holding a platter of coconut shrimp appetizers and taking a handful for himself.

Watching him gain a safe distance and disappear among a circle of business men at the bar, you finally feel safe to let out the shaky breath you were holding. Seokjin presses his knuckles to his eyes, the vein in his neck protruding with tension.

"What the fuck was that?" He seems to have forgotten your presence, lost in his own thoughts until you rip his jacket from where it sits around your shoulders and throw it into his lap with contempt. Your laugh of disbelief sounds foreign to your own ears, unable to comprehend what actually just happened.

"You're crazy!" You let out breathlessly. "I'm out of here."

Before you can storm off like you want to, Seokjin's hand closes around your wrist and pins you in place.

"Listen, I know you think this is ridiculous but I'm literally about to get on my knees and beg you here. Just do me one more favour." You shoot him a glare and for a second you think he might actually drop to the ground and grovel if you asked him to. "Just one!"

No matter how hard you try to pull away Seokjin is persistent. "Why should I?"

"Because you have a conscience?" He pleads. "The human desire to help others in need?"

"This is crazy—"

"I'll repay you!"

You pause. "How?"

"Undecided." His head tilts in thought. "You need money?"

Disgust courses through your veins. This guy thinks he can buy you? You have encountered some entitled rich guys at Paradise but this has to be the icing on the cake, an unbelievable disconnect from acceptable social discourse — though are you surprised? He doesn't exactly have a reputation for being a good conversation holder for fucks sake, just ask his other dates.

You scoff. "I don't accept bribes. I think we're done here. Good luck with your plan or...whatever."

"Y/N wait—" Something in his voice makes you stop dead this time. An authority. No longer pleading but commanding. "I'll fire you myself right here if you don't help me out just once."

Your heart twists. Part of you knows that whatever Seokjin has in mind will be batshit crazy, if his antics tonight were anything to judge by. It would pain you to do something so demeaning but...you need this job. The decision was practically made for you.

You swivel to face him. He is standing over you now, hands on hips as if he means business. "One favor! That's it!"

He punches the air triumphantly. "You want it in writing or something?" He teases, the glint in his eye back now and taunting as you practically vibrate with a combination of embarrassment and rage.

"Don't push it." You warn. 

"Okay, jeez." He throws his hands up in defense. You are acutely aware of the hysterical giggles coming from the kitchen belonging to none other than Jungkook and Jimin and the way your face burns scarlet as you storm away from Seokjin with fists clenched. "I'll let you know when I need you, sweetheart."

09:04, from unknown: — 10 o clock. meet me outside the archery court. — go to locker 16, key will be in the lock. you'll find everything you need inside

The light of your phone stings your half-open eyes, slumber still clinging to your body as you rub away any remnants of sleep with your knuckles and re-read the strange text over and over again.

Archery? An accidental text to the wrong number, surely?

You glance at the clock next to your bed - the text was sent over twenty minutes ago by now. Whoever the recipient was supposed to be wouldn't have long to get ready.

09:26, you: — huh? who is this?

Before you can even set your phone down and swing your legs out of bed your phone pings, the sound enough to make you wince in your sleepy state.

09:26, unknown: — it's seokjin??? — you know, the guy you're supposed to be marrying?

Excuse you?

All remnants of sleep and/or inner peace are ripped away as soon as you see his name pop up on your homescreen.

"Seokjin?" You splutter out loud. A name you never thought you would have to see again, let alone at this time in the morning.

You scramble into a sitting position, back pressed to the headboard as you grip your bed hair in pure disbelief. The three little dots bounce menacingly at the bottom of the screen as you type and re-type a response. Eventually you settle on something simple and to the point:

09:28, you: — how the fuck did you get this number???

Ping ping. You resist a face palm as you gather the confidence to input your password and read whatever bullshit Seokjin responded with.

09:29, unknown: — i think you're forgetting i own this place — not to brag but ive got connections — anyway, you have half an hour to get your ass over here before my sister arrives.

As you thought - utter bullshit. His sister? It's almost as if Seokjin thinks you are actually dating - or even worse, actually getting hitched.

Wait...he doesn't...does he? You suppress a groan. Why else would he be dragging you out of your apartment to go and shoot arrows at targets with his sister instead of polishing his golf club collection or lounging with self made millionaires or whatever rich things rich guys do.

You are just here to get some culinary experience. To blend into the background like the rest of the employees at Paradise, to focus on making the lives of CEO's and retired business men as easy and as luxurious as possible. Why on earth is he even taking notice of you?

09:30, you: — your sister??

09:30, unknown: — yeah? who'd you think you were arching with? — i don't do sports. — count yourself lucky my mom had to take a rain check

Fuck. His mom?

"Get a grip!" You chastise yourself. You had barely spoken two words to each other before the other night, his existence unbeknownst to yours let alone yours to his; the exchange itself a glitch in the simulation and definitely not something which you wanted to make a habit - so why are you instilled with nerves at the thought of meeting this guy's family?

You don't have time to respond with a harsh reminder of your respective positions at Paradise and why this is absolutely a Bad Idea before Seokjin sends a series of reassuring follow up texts, almost as though he read your mind and all it's reluctant thoughts.

09:32, unknown: — don't worry so much this is just to make people think we're really seeing each ohter — other* — hurry, can't have people thinking my future wife isn't punctual — doesn't look good for the reputation 😎

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck!

This is actually happening. How did you manage to get roped into some rich dudes family drama and his consequent plan of deception? And why on earth you fly out of bed, desperately trying to pat down your fly away bed hair while simultaneously shrugging on a pair of jeans is utterly beyond you.

But deep down you know why. It's because you have a sympathy for Seokjin. A goddamn sympathy for the man who seemingly had everything and who every other resident at Paradise wished they could be.

You are increasingly aware of the way your heart hammers against your rib cage, pulse quickening with every tick of the clock that brings you closer to 10 o clock. Not because you're about to see Seokjin again, surely?

Pfft. Of course not! This is just a favour - a formality as an acquaintance if you could even call yourself that.

The clock ticks over to 09:40. No, you promise yourself as you scoop up your bag and your keys. It's doesn’t mean anything, it’s just because you hate being late.

You end up being late anyway, despite rushing to Paradise from your nearby apartment without so much as considering breakfast and somehow managing to gather the courage to open the door to the women's locker room.

Embarrassment pools in your stomach when you feel the quizzical eyes of Paradise regulars burning into your back over the edges of their martini glasses. It takes all your strength to pass by them with your eyes trained to your shoes, hoping to seem unbothered by their towel turbans and gossiping lips.

You’re unsure why you feel so out of place. It's not as if you are trespassing; they gave you a benefits card when you accepted the job, giving you access to some of the resort's facilities. Some would say it was generous, but it's not as if you ever had a chance to use them in between long kitchen shifts.

Luckily, you doubt there's a risk of them recognising you from the kitchen. The resort is mostly populated by younger club members and besides it's not as if they ever cared to study your face for long enough to commit it to memory.

Still, your casual sweater and jeans combo makes you stand out like a sore thumb in a room full of designer polo shirts and athletic wear and you can't suppress the sigh of relief that escapes you when you make it past a hoard of already merry day drinkers on their way to a hot yoga class in search of locker 16 as instructed by Seokjin.

Sure enough, a key sits snugly in the lock. When you open the metal door you find a tennis skirt with a matching polo shirt, both folded neatly beneath a pair of strikingly white sneakers.

You scoop the pile into your arms, surprised when a card flutters to the ground. You recognise the Paradise logo in the corner, an unfamiliar handwritten scrawl smudged across the front in black pen.

Put these on and meet me round the back of the range. I'll be waiting. - SJ

You roll your eyes. Would it kill him to say please? Not that he is used to asking nicely. Manners are few and far between when things are handed to you on a silver platter (or by an underpaid kid with a summer job). At least that's what you gathered from your observations since you got here.

You slip into the white ensemble, silently thanking the you from yesterday for shaving your legs when you notice just how uncomfortably short the skirt is. The fabric smells like one of those expensive perfumes you sprayed at the store once and you briefly wonder who these clothes belong to.

Fastening your hair into a high pony tail like you see the other girls here do, you take a deep breath and finally sidle up to the full body mirror.

Almost everyone has filtered out of the locker room by now, some to spa appointments, others to sports matches and you find yourself alone, nearly choking on the humid air when you take in your appearance for the first time.

You look like you belong here.

Collar popped around your neck, skirt falling in perfect pleats around your waist, hair falling against your cheekbones. Not a speck of dirt on the branded shoes cushioning your soles.

For a moment you feel a sense of pride fill your chest, head resting high on your shoulders as you bask in the confidence that washes over you until you feel giddy with belonging.

Until you remember what you really are. An imposter.

Despite your Paradise inspired appearance you are nothing but a fake. A smudge on one of the picture perfect Paradise postcard's in the gift shop.

Your shoulders deflate, the sudden urge to tug your sweater back on and run as fast as you can becoming overwhelming.

Your let yourself slump onto one of the plush couches, head falling into your hands. What are you doing here? Letting some guy dress you up like a doll and show you off to save his own ass?

Besides, his family would see through you as soon as you walked out there. After all a polished stone, although pretty, can never be a diamond. And these people know diamonds like the back of their hands.

Is it because he has the authority to fire you from the kitchen job you worked so hard to get? Or is it because somewhere deep inside you are curious to see what could be in this for you?

A vibration on the couch beside you draws you from your thoughts.

10:09, unknown: — where r u????? — you know where the range is right???

God, why didn't you just say no in the first place?

"Just get on with it," you tell yourself sternly. Meet his sister, smile politely and leave without owing Kim Seokjin a single thing.

You will save his ass, buy him the time he needs to convince his parents to get off his back. And then you can go back to your culinary uniform and back to serving up lobster to rich people and you can forget this ever happened and that he so much as exists.

With a shaky breath you get to your feet, throwing your familiar clothes into the locker along with your comfort zone and what feels like your entire identity.

If this is going to work you couldn't think like Y/N, you realise. You have to think like a Paradise country club member. And luckily for you, your careful observation of other residents from the kitchen gives you quite a lot of material to work with.

Before you can second guess yourself you're taking a deep breath and striding out of the locker room door and into the sunny resort grounds.

Oh god. I'm really doing this. You suddenly feel exposed as you pass the golf court, just managing to dodge a rattling cart before it flattened you.

A pair of girls stroll past with arms interlinked, tennis rackets swinging at their sides leisurely as they make their way to the course.

Oh god. They're gonna see through you. Oh god. Just smile!

You let the corners of your mouth curve up into the closest thing to a smile you can muster, pleased when you earn a friendly nod in greeting before they dive back into their conversation again.

Nobody is noticing. You hold your head high, telling your shoulders to relax and look natural. You can do this.

You reach the range but instead of following the group of middle aged men ahead of you up to the front entrance, you slip round the back. Your eyes land on him instantly; none other than Kim Seokjin, leaning impatiently against the wall, just like he said he would be.

His appearance is enough to have you faltering in your tracks. Unlike the last time you saw him when he donned a much less flattering eye sore of a Hawaiian shirt, he's put together from head to toe - white button up tucked into a pair of tailored trousers, brown loafers showing off his ankles, the whole outfit finished off by a knit sweater tied around his shoulders.

"Wow." You can't help it. You're starting to see why he had a reputation for being particularly easy on the eye.

You swallow thickly, shaking the stunned feeling from your head and ignoring the way your heart beats a little faster the closer you draw to him.

"Finally!" Seokjin hums as he lets out a frustrated huff, eyes glued to the Rolex on his wrist. "Where have you been-"

His breath hitches when he finally looks up and takes you in for the first time. You were surely imagining the way his eyes widen and look you up and down. Right?

"Well well," Seokjin regains his self control quickly, licking his lips. "Someone scrubs up well."

Smartass. "To my credit you've only ever seen me in my work clothes."

"Touché." He purses his lips. "Nobody could make those hats look good. Except me, obviously."

There is that glint in his eye again. As if he is messing with you to get you riled up again. If he wasn't the Kim Seokjin you'd mistake him as flirtatious.

You hug your torso, confidence dwindling with every second you stand beneath Seokjin's probing gaze, anxious to get out onto the range before it dissipates completely. "So? Are we just gonna stand here?"

"You turn up late and then have the audacity to order me around?" His eyebrows furrow and for a second you think he's going to warn you. Remind you who has the power here.

But then his face breaks out into an amused smirk and you let out the breath you didn't know you were holding. "Remember when I said I think you and I are going to get along just fine?"

Seokjin slings his hands into his pockets, striding towards the back door of the facility. He shakes the handle before using his key card to let you both into the archery equipment lodge.

You trail behind him. "Don't get too comfortable," You warn. "This is a one time thing."

Seokjin muses over a selection of crossbows in display cases before fishing in his pocket for a key, unlocking the glass and taking down two flashy ones. He grabs a quiver loaded with arrows from a stand and thrusts both into your arms without warning.

"Sure." He is slinging a quiver over his own shoulder now. He holds open the door to the archery range, gesturing for you to go first. So now he has manners? "If you say so."

The archery range is an expanse of perfectly pruned green grass, surrounded by the breathtaking scenery of fragrant rose bushes and trailing ivy that the resort boasts. And, as you're learning, an excuse for refreshments, as you find yourself now in a fancy veranda bar with high arching windows that overlook the distant targets, serving chilled lemonade and Prosecco and appetisers on fancy napkins.

"Pretty cool, right?" Seokjin asks, resting his elbows on the windowsill and smirking at your speechlessness and open mouthed expression. "But quit looking so surprised, yeah? You gotta make my sister think this is normal for you."

You don't have time to ask what he means before you are being spun around and engulfed in a hug. You freeze, sucking in a breath of surprise, the sickly smell of fancy shampoo engulfing your senses as your face is pushed into a head of perfect ringlets.

"You must be Y/N." The person, a woman, purrs into your ear. "It's good to finally meet you." The way she draws out the word makes you nervous.

This is Seokjin's sister?

Something about it doesn't feel how a hug is supposed to. Instead it feels like a silent interrogation. Are you good enough to be one of us? Nothing about it is warm. Instead it's sticky, your hands patting her back awkwardly, counting the seconds in your head until it is acceptable to pull away from her stiff hold.

When she lets go you are met with the tight lipped smile of a pretty twenty something, eyes scanning your face from beneath a sun visor. A customised hot pink quiver drapes across her shoulder and you notice the way she eyes your borrowed equipment distastefully.

"That would be me." You force a smile that ends up being a little too wide, glancing nervously at Seokjin who simply nods  in encouragement. "It's good to...finally meet you too?"

She holds you at arms length, giving you a once over before speaking tightly. "Well aren't you a doll?"

You must look as terrified as you feel because her eyebrows raise triumphantly. Seokjin senses the tension. He looks between the two of you almost worriedly, searching your face for any sign of discomfort. For a second you think his concern is kind of sweet...No! Not allowed.

"No hug for me?" Seokjin swoops in and his sister's features harden at his sarcastic tone, a punch landing on his shoulder which he pretends to rub better, emitting a small ow!

"You're late."

"Sorry Hyejin, couldn't find my best shoes." Seokjin throws an arm around your shoulders, pulling you from her grasp a little protectively and flashing an award winning smile that makes your heart flip...No! Definitely not allowed.

"Those are your best shoes?" She grimaces, shaking her head with an air of disappointment. "You left me waiting here for half an hour for those?" Her eyes narrow at you accusingly, as if she knows the truth and wants you to offer an apology.

Seokjin is quick to save you again. "Yup. All my fault. Shall we shoot?"

"Gladly." She smooths down a stray curl, studying her reflection in the glass windows. "I've been itching to see Y/N's aim since I got here. I hear you are a pro, no?"

You choke. A pro?

Luckily she's already stalking across the deck in her click-clacking wedges and out onto the damp green grass, missing the panicked glance shared between yourself and Seokjin.

"Uh-"

"Um-"

Seokjin shrugs his shoulders. Think of something, he mouths.

She stops dead, shooting a puzzled glance over her shoulder. "Well are you?"

"Not exactly-" You start.

"I think you're thinking of one of the other...candidates, Hyejin." Seokjin says carefully. He places his palm at the small of your back. The gesture was probably just for show but it comforts you none the less.

"I'm sure she's just being modest." She says to Seokjin, but she's looking right at you. Her forefinger taps against her palm and you can almost see the puzzle pieces falling together in her head before her expression smooths out and you let out a sigh of relief. "So. Shall we?"

Seokjin nods sheepishly. Hyejin slings an arrow into her bow with the ease of an expert, Seokjin quickly following suit. And it is in that moment, as you watch them shoot equally as precise shots to the centre of their respective targets, that it dawns on you. You have never shot a bow and arrow in your life.

"Let's see just how good you are." Hyejin steps back, offering you the main stage. You squint at the targets in the far distance, the rings blurring into one. How on earth did they make hitting those things look so easy?

"Sure thing." You wince at the strain in your voice as you fumble to pull an arrow from your quiver, fingers shaking as you try to sling it into the bow.

You can do this..

You lift the bow, close your eyes and hope for the best when you let go of the arrow, watching as it flies a short distance before sticking upright in the dirt just short of the target.

Cheeks scarlet, you glance at Hyejin who looks positively horrified. "When you said not exactly good I wasn't expecting you to be so...inexperienced. No personal trainer?" She muses, eyeing you quizzically, to which you shoot her an embarrassed smile in confirmation. "Anybody would think it was your first time!" You sheepishly giggle along to the hearty chuckle she enjoys at the mere thought, spluttering when her face suddenly darkens "It's not right?"

You freeze. "Uhhh..."

"It's just nerves," Seokjin insists, palms clamping your shoulders and thrusting you forward again. "She's probably just shitting it because you're watching."

"Language!" Hyejin scolds, letting the roll of Seokjin's eyes slip when she sees you fiddling with another arrow.

This time you prepare the bow with ease, a bout of confidence washing over you as you make eye contact with Seokjin over the top of the bow you raise to your shoulder. His eyes soften slightly and he offers an encouraging nod as you squint at the target and shoot the arrow straight into the centre ring.

You're momentarily shocked at your own abilities before Seokjin is letting out a genuinely impressed hoot, his hand coming between you to offer a sly high five unbeknownst to Hyejin. A silent congratulations for not completely fucking up.

"Pretty good." Hyejin nods, looking genuinely impressed, and you give yourself a silent pat on the back.

Holy shit. This is really working! She believes you belong here!

"Although I'm not sure where father got the idea of professional from with that technique," She lowered her voice, clearly only intending for Seokjin to hear the last part despite you standing beside her. "I must admit her figure seems better suited to tennis anyway..."

Or not. Maybe you still have some work to do...

Hyejin seems in a hurry to get to the next target, and Seokjin hangs back to whisper in your ear before you follow.

"Congrats," He hums with a smirk. "You fit right in. Welcome to Paradise, Y/N."

The next forty five minutes pass quicker than you expect.

"— and I said, 'How could you seat the Jeon's next to the Jung's when you know they're feuding about the business contract'?" Hyejin exclaims. "Scandalous."

"Scandalous." You reply with a bored attempt at enthusiasm, raising your eyebrows at Seokjin over the rim of your glass as you sip cloudy lemonade through a straw. To his credit he looks equally as exhausted with Hyejin's spiel, shaking his knee impatiently as he itches for an opportunity to pounce.

As Hyejin continues to make mildly interrogative small talk and you find it increasingly easier to think on the spot when she asks about your family's (imaginary) dynasty and the university degree in economics you (supposedly) possess, you start to feel more comfortable. But Seokjin still refuses to loosen the arm resting around your shoulders keeping you planted by his side all afternoon, as if he is nervous his sister might swoop down like a bird and take you away at any moment, like a toddler with a toy.

That's why when she suggests a trip to the little girls room to powder your noses, Seokjin throws you a reluctant look. He protests at first when you readily agree (hoping to splash some cold water on your face to cool the constant burn that seems to have settled into your every pore) and he still looks concerned, knee bouncing nervously, when you peel yourself away from his body and disappear into the bar a few steps behind Hyejin who doesn't seem interested in side by side small talk.

In fact, you use the bathroom in silence and she doesn't speak another word until you catch her gaze in the mirror as she emerges from a cubicle behind you.

"You might have my little brother fooled but I see right through you, you know." She sets down her cosmetics bag on the sink, retrieving an expensive tube of lipstick and swiping the pinkish colour over her lips nonchalantly.

The tap stops running over your soaped up hands as you try to curb the nausea her words induce. Does she know who you are? Who you really are?

Despite the shake to your voice you try to play it cool. "W-what do you mean?"

Hyejin's laugh is small and tight, nothing about it humorous at all. Her eyes never leave her reflection, fluffing up her curls with an air of superiority. "I see through parasites like you straight away."

Your mouth falls agape with astonishment. "Parasites?"

"You should know that I have people all over this place who will find out exactly why you came here." For the first time she turns to look you dead in the eye, a bitter smile lacing her lips smugly. She is eye level but it feels like she is towering above you. "What is it you want? Money?"

"No I—"

"Just wait." Hyejin slings her bag over her shoulder triumphantly, voice getting smaller as her heels click across the tiles to the door. She pauses, poking her head back into the room as if burdened with an after thought. "You could do with some more mascara, by the way, darling. Would make you look much prettier."

And then she's gone, leaving you to watch her hips swaying into the distance with hands dripping dry onto the ground.

By the time you calm your nerves enough to emerge from the bathroom looking semi-confident, Hyejin is already ordering another drink and Seokjin is straining his neck to search for you anxiously.

Even from a few meters away you can see the way he sighs with relief when he spots you approaching. It didn't last for long though as he must notice the slightly reddened rings around yours eyes that weren't there before and before you can give him a watery smile in greeting, he is on his feet.

"What happened?"

You bite your lip. "Seokjin, I think I need to go."

"I knew this would happen. Did she try and get in your head?" You nod and his face darkens. "I was an idiot bringing you here."

"It's fine, I shouldn't have agreed, you stay and I'll just go—"

"Right!" Seokjin makes a show of slapping his palms to his knees, practically jumping to his feet and dragging you up with him by your elbow, only a hare away from spilling the drink in your hands. "Sorry to cut this short but I think it's time for Y/N and I to be going."

Hyejin looks positively furious at the suggestion of saying goodbye, gesturing towards the bucket of ice in the centre of the table you had inhabited after your arms began to hurt from holding the archery bow. "But we haven't even opened the Champagne yet, Jin-"

"Oh I don't day drink." You wave her off, biting your lip with instant regret when you see how her face hardens.

"Sorry Hyejin but there really just isn't enough time," Seokjin insists, reaching for your bag to save you the trouble, slinging it across your shoulder and pushing you by the shoulders towards the exit. It's not like you have a choice in the matter but you have to admit you are relieved the whole fiasco is finished. "Send my best wishes to Wonho and Minhye!"

"Minhyuk." Hyejin splutters as she staggers to her feet, chair scraping obscenely. "Your nephew's name is Minhyuk!"

"Good to know!" Seokjin calls over his shoulder, already speed walking into the lobby before you can make out her response.

When Seokjin decides there is enough distance between you and the range he drops his arm from where it drapes around your shoulders. You didn't realise it was there until it was already gone, a cold emptiness settling over you. Why had it felt so natural?

He lets out a deep sigh of relief. "Thank god that's over with. I thought she would never stop talking."

You snort in agreement. "I've never told so many lies in my life."

"I find that hard to believe." Seokjin smirks when you slap his arm playfully. "It came too easily to you."

"It's your fault! Your deceptive ways are rubbing off on me!"

"Deceptive ways?" Seokjin splutters, a genuine laugh spilling from his lips. Heartier and much different to the strained chuckles he's been giving Hyejin all day. You decide by the way your heart lurches that you like it much better. "I'll have you know I never lie."

"You're joking right?" Surely he is aware that it was him that roped you into this identity fraud master plan in the first place? The smirk on his face says yes. It's your turn to laugh, mimicking his earlier tone. "I find that hard to believe."

"Then ask me a question and I'll tell you the honest truth and nothing but the truth."

"Uhh okay?" You pause, mulling over all the questions you really want to ask. Why did you choose me? Does this make us friends? Are you gonna look through me again at the restaurant when this whole thing is over?  Before you sheepishly settle on something more appropriate.

"How much is the resort worth? It must be a lot if you would go to all this...trouble."

"Five hundred."

"Five hundred thousand?"

"You're coy. Of course not." He chuckles. "Million."

Oh. Well now everything makes sense.

"Come on, ask me another." Seokjin bumps his shoulder against yours playfully, hair falling in his eyes that you’re desperate to push away. Your cheeks burn. "What's on your mind, kitchen girl?"

Don't say it...don't say it...

"D-did your sister hate me?"

Too late. The question slips out before you can stop it and you slap a hand over your mouth in shock.

He narrows his eyes. "Why do you want to know?"

Why do you want to know? It's not like any of this really mattered - it wasn't real after all. So why does your stomach twist when you remember the spiteful way Hyejin spoke to you?

You flash a sheepish smile. "J-just interested."

Your ego was just bruised that's all. It was natural to feel bad when someone didn't like you, right?

"Then yes."

Oh.

Your chest clenches for no reason. Maybe he really never lies after all, huh?

Seokjin must notice the way you pout. "It's not personal! That's just how she is. Honestly, out of all the candidates so far you're the one she hated the least..."

You snort. "Good to know?"

You come to a stop outside the locker room doors. You don't know what to say - what is left? Goodbye? Thank you?

You're probably never going to speak to him again, true; but goodbye feels too formal. Too real. Instead you stay quiet, the sound of cicadas and balls hitting racquets filling the silence as Seokjin’s chocolate brown eyes make you weak at the knees when they darken, his body drawing ever closer to yours.

"Aren't you gonna ask how I plan on repaying you?"

Seokjin's fingers wrap around your elbow before you can slip away and you gasp at how his skin burns yours. You swallow thickly. The light bounces off his face dazzlingly and you have to admit he looks good right now, with his shirt unbuttoned lazily and his bitten lips inches from yours.

"I-I forgot about that." You admit. Sure you had been uptight about this whole idea initially but you couldn't deny the fact that today had been kinda fun. Did you really need a reward? Maybe you'd got a little lost in pretending to be someone else. So what?

"Well," Seokjin draws closer until your back presses against the wall, his breath hot next to your ear. "I have something in mind."

Your pulse quickens when you feel his hand rest upon your hip, the rise and fall of his chest so close that you get tingles down your spine.

You swallow the lump in your throat. "W-what is it?"

His chuckle is warm against your sensitive neck and you shudder when his lips ghost over your skin, so so close. "Can I show you?"

"Sure." You breathe.

And then he takes you by the chin, lining up your mouths and crashing them together in a hot tangle of tongue and teeth, his chapped lips moving against yours with an urgency. Your arms snake around his neck, tangling in the hair at his nape and pulling him into you with a thump.

Before your eyes can flutter shut and your heart can get lost in the feeling of his teeth pulling at your bottom lip and the taste of sour lemonade that still lingers on his tongue, Seokjin pulls back with a smirk, eyes dropping to your parted lips and then back to your blown out eyes with a satisfaction.

He runs a knuckle down your cheek. You feel your legs weaken.  "I want you."

The huskiness in his voice makes your head spin, chest burning with the desire to connect your lips again. But you resist.

"Why?" You squeeze your eyes shut, head lolling back against the wall to avoid his gaze, embarrassed at how shaky your voice sounds after one kiss. God, you're weak. "Why me?"

"Like I said," Seokjin's fingers trace down your sides, eyes darkening when he notices the way the light touch makes you shiver under him. "I want you. Have since I first saw you."

He wants you? What about all those other girls, the ones he sent running? The ones who were much more suited to him than you would ever be?

"So what?" You scoff, biting your lip to stop a needy gasp when he presses a bold kiss to your jaw. "Want to add me to the list of girls who — mmf — w-who you seduced?"

He pauses, lips pressed against your burning skin for a little longer while he registers your words. "Maybe." He resumes his earlier actions, brushing a piece of hair behind your ear. "Is that so bad?"

"I can't do this." You bite your lip. This wasn't supposed to happen. You weren't intending on letting Seokjin get to you, didn't mean to become a mark in his black book or a notch in his bed post.

"Why not?" He presses his forehead to yours. Your breath hitches and you will the warm tingle in your stomach to go away. "I saw you checking me out on the range."

The way he grins tells you that you hadn't been so subtle after all.

"And besides," Seokjin grips your ass through your skirt, making you gasp to his satisfaction. "This way, I get to pay you back and have some fun of my own."

"H-how?" You can feel yourself slipping. Into his touch, into his words.

"By making you cum." That had your panties damp and he knew it, the heat between your legs distracting you from the way he groans against your lips when your hips buck into him involuntarily.

It's like he knows what you need, slotting his leg between your own and putting pressure on the growing ache in your core. "I know you want this too."

He's right, the way the cotton of your panties has begun to cling to your folds a tell tale sign of your arousal. Seokjin knew exactly how to make you putty in his hands. Every teasing touch of his lips to your neck, every feather light trace of his fingers has him chuckling darkly when you melt into his body, unable to resist the way he makes your core ache needily for his touch.

"Come on, I can make you feel good." Your breath hitches when fingers toy with the hem of your skirt. "If I just lift this up..."

Oh god. If you don't stop now it'll be too late...

His hand slips beneath your skirt, pads of his fingers hooking your sodden panties to the side, the flash of cold air against your needy folds making you whine into the crook of his neck. "P-please."

You feel him smirk against your hair, speaking with a tone so sickly sweet you would've rolled your eyes if your clit wasn't already pulsating for his touch. "Please what?"

"Make me cum."

"I knew you would come round." He pulls back to face you, drinking in the expression on your face which you presume is utterly fucked out. You have to admit the way his own irises have darkened with what you recognise as lust makes your stomach leap in anticipation. "So desperate for me already hm?"

You whine, somewhat in confirmation, somewhat in frustration at his refusal to touch you even when you buck against his hand. "Please."

"I wouldn't have put you down as the begging type." His hand suddenly cups your heat, pads of his fingers circling your entrance teasingly. He lets out a choked groan when he feels your arousal. "This wet for me? Already?"

"What do you expect?" You stammer, squeezing his shoulders and holding back on the urge to buck against his palm again. "You've got your hand up my skirt."

"Mmm, I could just make you come undone right here." His eyes darken, tongue snaking out to wet his chapped lips hungrily. "Could easily fuck you out nice and slow with my fingers if I wanted to, hmm?" Seokjin has begun to circle your entrance teasingly, making you squirm every time he nearly slips inside.

"Fuck." Your eyes are squeezed shut, breathing already laboured despite him barely even touching you, just the thought of him filling you up getting you dangerously worked up. "I want you to."

"What was that?" Seokjin's lips curve up mischievously, one of his fingers nearly filling you up before he removes his hand and you groan with frustration. "Gotta use your words sweetheart."

Your heart thumps at the use of the pet name but you choose to ignore it, instead reaching between your bodies to clasp his wrist before it disappears completely. "Fuck me," you pant, eyes roaming his with desperation. His staunch gaze never falters. "Please, fuck me now."

Seokjin connects your swollen lips again, but not before mumbling against them gruffly. "Remember you asked for it."

Then, his free hand to spreads your legs, knee stopping them from closing as his other hand closes in on your aching core. The feeling of his digits running down your soaked slit has you panting and you feel your legs buckle when he pressed two of his lithe fingers into your heat without warning. You are dripping by now, hole accommodating the stretch and allowing his fingers to slip inside easily.

Your clit pulsates with need and you want to feel Seokjin everywhere, have him take you in any way he wants, momentarily lost to the feeling of his fingers pumping in and out of your heat; until you remember that you have Seokjin's hand down your pants in broad daylight and anyone could walk by and see just how weak he makes you.

"Wait!" He halts his ministrations, raising a brow. "W-we can't, not here."

You mewl when his thumb ghosts across your swollen clit, touch light but enough to have you gasping into the crook of his neck.

"Let's take this inside, then." Before you can ask what he means his fingers disappear, leaving your hole clenching agonisingly around nothing again. He presses the arousal coated digits to your lips and you enjoy the way his jaw tightens as you eagerly take them into your hot mouth, humming when you taste yourself on your own tongue. "Fuck you'll drive me crazy if you keep this up."

You can tell you are getting to him, even if he is trying to hide it. The way his eyes roll back when you suck his fingers clean, how he bites his cheek to stop a lustful groan when his eyes dip between your bodies to your almost naked heat tells you all you needed to know.

He can't take it any longer.

Seokjin pulls his hand away with a wet pop, your throbbing heat protesting when he let your legs fall shut, linking his clammy hand with your own. "Come with me."

It takes a second to remember how to walk, letting him pull you behind him in your dizzy haze. His hand is warm in yours and your entire body aches to feel them on you again. It's already too late to hide your swollen lips and slightly mussed up hair before Seokjin drags you right into the men's locker room .

"Wait, we can't do it in here—"

"Everyone out!" Seokjin's voice bellows through the locker room, all its inhabitants pausing their ministrations to peer at you curiously.

You try to let go of Seokjin's hand to button up your shirt but he won't let you, squeezing your hand reassuringly as you hide behind him self consciously, knees knocking. "We need to use the locker room."

A groan erupts through the room, a chorus of again? permeating the sound of lockers slamming shut with frustration before one by one all the dudes in the locker room began to shuffle past you to the exit.

"Seokjin!" You hiss, standing on your tiptoes to whisper in his ear angrily. "Now everyone knows!"

Seokjin's thumb rubs across your knuckles soothingly. "Who cares?"

You feel your cheeks flush hotly when a man you recognise from the restaurant, now wearing nothing but a towel, narrows his eyes in a knowing look. You willed the ground to swallow you up.

The sound of footsteps ceases, the door swings closed and finally you're alone.

"Better?" Seokjin turns to you expectantly.

"I can't believe you just did that!" You cover your face with your palms. "God how am I going to look any of them in the eyes again."

"They don't care." He soothes, your unamused expression not faltering still.

"Are you even allowed to do that? W-What if they tell someone—"

"They won't," Seokjin smirks. "They value their memberships here too much."

You bite your lip. "Maybe we shouldn't do this."

Seokjin rushes forward to cup your face in his palms reassuringly. The act feels a little too sincere and you nearly melt at the intimacy, resisting copying his motion by pinching your palm instead. "It's okay, seriously! They're just jealous that I get lucky more around here than any of the old bastards have in their entire lives."

"I don't believe you." Your words are muffled by his chest, his chuckle vibrating against your cheek.

"They're jealous because they'll never get this lucky."

"Huh?" Seokjin's hands slide down the small of your back to cup your ass, lifting your entire weight so that your legs wrap around his waist. You let out a giggle of surprise when his face comes into view, smirking up at you.

"Lucky enough to get someone as pretty as you underneath them."

There they are again, the butterflies in your stomach, the skip of a beat in your heart, a warmth spreading through your chest that feels too good to question right now. "Technically I'm above you." You mumble. "Besides they were all, like, fifty years old or something."

"Just shut up would you?" Seokjin stumbles forward, throwing you roughly onto one of the couches. The fabric feels like velvet when your nails clutch at it desperately, trying to hold on to whatever control you have left when Seokjin drops to his knees between your legs to hover over you. "And kiss me for fucks sake."

You oblige, pulling him by the collar to connect your lips in a kiss even more heated than before if that was even possible. His tongue runs along your bottom lip, begging for entrance and you sigh contentedly into the kiss when he pulls your face even closer with his palms.

"F-fuck." He pulls back with a pop, hands roaming along the tops of your thighs too teasingly for you to handle. By now you're so worked up that you just needed him to take you roughly, the thought of his cock pounding in and out of you making you moan when you feel his bulge brush your leg. God you want him more than you knew it was possible, the way your clit pulses at the thought of how good it would feel to come around him or better yet feel him come inside you overwhelming.

"Seokjin, p-please fuck me." You practically whine, letting your head fall against the couch cushion when his thumbs fiddle with the lace of your panties. "Wanna feel you inside me."

The sound that comes from his throat seems strangled. "Fuck, what did I say about driving me crazy?"

"Need you so bad," You rotate your hips to emphasise your desperation, the action providing you with no relief when his steel like grip prevents you from putting any pressure on your dripping folds. "Wanna cum for you."

You blink up at him through your lashes and you swear you see his adam's apple bob as he swallows a moan. He liked it when you provoked him, you could tell. His resolve is crumbling with every word out of your mouth.

"Please, I'm so wet." Fuck, you are. You can feel it dripping down your ass, probably making a mess of the couch below you. You hope it can be dry cleaned. "Just fuck me now—mmf!"

Seokjin shuts you up with a hard press of his lips to yours, the action conveying he's just as desperate as you, the way his hands trembled telling you he isn't as unaffected as he wants to appear.

His breathing is nearly as ragged as yours now. "You like riling me up don't you?"

He runs a shaky hand through his hair exasperatedly and you look up at him hopeful, willing him to touch you, kiss you, anything.

"I'm not going to fuck you."

Oh.

You stiffen beneath him, his words shocking you still.

He doesn't want you. Simple as that.

This was just another one of his games and you fell straight into it. You close your eyes and braced for him to start laughing. To point his finger and tell you how lame you are for ever thinking that someone like him could want someone like you.

Except nothing comes. Just the sound of your shaky breaths and a shower running nearby.

"Why?" Your voice is small now and you draw your knees to your chest, trying to hide as much from him as possible. "You don't want to?"

He looks dismayed at your suggestion, palms shooting out to push you back down and pull you back into his hold again.

"It's not that, Y/N." You let out a relieved breath, not fighting Seokjin when his forehead falls against your chest in defeat, heavy breaths ghosting across the tops of your breasts. You're sure he can feel the way your heart beats uncontrollably in your chest.

"Then why?" You bite your lip. You sound too needy, to whiny. Why do you even care if he wants you or not? This is a one off anyway.

"God, I want nothing more than to strip you and see you bounce on my cock right here"

Oh.

Seokjin's lips attach to your neck, sucking harshly like a man deprived, as though he can't hold back any longer. His hands roam everywhere they can reach, rubbing your breasts over your shirt before his fingers work on the buttons eagerly.

"S-Seokjin..."

"Would give anything to see you come undone on my cock. Bet you'd moan so pretty when I pound you, yeah?"

Truth be told you'd let him right now if he said the word, the thought of him stretching you out making you see stars before he has even properly touched you. Your core is hot and sticky against your panties while you clench around nothing while his every word makes you writhe to be filled. "Then w-why don't you?"

"Because there's plenty of time for that, princess." He flashes you a smile. Plenty of time? Why did he make it sound as if this wasn't a one time thing? As if you'd be back for more? "This is for you remember? Gotta pay you back."

You yelp when Seokjin lifts your ass, thumbs finally dragging your panties down your legs and throwing them behind him before he spreads your legs with a hunger. "Let me taste you, hm?"

Seokjin pushes your skirt around your waist, exposing your core to his hungry eyes, drinking in how you look all spread out for him. Just the sight of him so close to your dripping heat makes the coil in your stomach tighten and you're sure you could cum just from the way his lips part in anticipation.

He looks up at you for confirmation, smirking when you nod your head before falling back against the couch weakly when he drags a finger down your slit teasingly, licking his lips when you mewl at the brief contact with your clit. "So pretty."

He sinks back against his heels, cheek warm against your inner thigh, hot breath caressing your clit. A moan escapes you at the feeling much to his amusement, his bruising grip on your thighs stopping you from bucking up. "Hurry up — mmf — please."

For the first time he listens to your request, skipping the teasing to run a long stripe up your soaking slit. Seokjin groans against your clit and you quiver, his staggered breaths hot against your dripping folds. "Taste so good, sweetheart."

"S-Seokjin," Hands spread your legs as far as they cN go and then plump lips engulf your clit, sucking with a perfect harshness that makes your legs shake and your head fall back with a gasp, hands tangling in his blonde locks tightly enough to have him groaning blissfully. "Fingers!"

The breathiness of your voice makes him chuckle against your heat, vibrations enough to have your knees straining to close around his head, the pressure between them almost too much. "What was that?"

"Fingers," You reiterate, aware of how fucked out you soundjust from feeling his tongue on your clit, every teasing flick making your entrance pulse. "Inside me, now."

"No please?" The drag of Seokjin's flat tongue down your slit to prod at your hole is sinful, the way he took to fucking you with his tongue teasingly drawing small whimpers from your lips. It's mesmerising how he knows just how to make you fall apart.

"P-please!"

The gentle brush of his nose against your clit nearly has you coming on the spot. "Turn over." He growls against your mound. An arm wraps around your waist and before you can protest his mouth leaving your heat, you are being flipped onto your hands and knees, Seokjin's palm pushing your head down against your forearms so that your ass comes up for his viewing pleasure. "That's more like it."

"F-fuck." It feels dirty being on display for him like this, dripping wet and wiggling your hips, desperate for friction against your spread folds. Pressing your cheek to the couch, you catch a glimpse of Seokjin's expression as he takes you in, eyes black with desire, lips still coated in your sticky arousal.

"Shit." His breath hitches. "Such a pretty pussy, hm?"

It's your turn to take a shaky inhale when a single finger circles your entrance, Seokjin humming approvingly when you clench hopelessly around nothing. Knowing you are so close to being filled even with a single finger gets you panting, circling your hips and trying to sink down onto the digit that smears your wetness through your folds lewdly. Seokjin pulls his hand away with a click of his tongue.

"That desperate to be filled, baby?" His tone is taunting, followed by a chuckle when you whine at the way his words make your clit throb. "Fuck, such a slut, dripping wet for just my fingers."

He reaches around to press the pad of his finger against your lips and you suck it instinctively, humming when you taste yourself, some of your sticky arousal smearing on your chin. Seokjin's head rolls back, the visual practically sending him into sensory overload.

"Such a slut," A loud slap fills the room, a palm landing flat against your upturned ass, the sensation making you cry out in surprise. His breath is hot and ragged against your ear. "You like that?"

Despite the embarrassed shake of your head another smack lands to the flesh of your other cheek with enough force to leave a mark this time. It stings when he rubs his calloused hands over the reddening skin that is now burning hot where it collided with his palm but the pain quickly dissipates to pleasure and you bite your hand to stop from moaning out too lewdly. "Use your words, princess."

"Seokjin!" You can't hold back from whining his name when his palm lands straight on your heat, the sharp pain a somehow welcome relief when he instantly rubbed a few soothing circles into your folds with the pads of his fingers, each graze of your clit making your legs shake uncontrollably. "I-I need more."

"This?" Without warning he presses two fingers into your pussy, entrance squeezing around him wildly at the pleasant stretch. Every flick of his wrist permeates through the locker room with a loud squelch, testament of just how worked up you were.

"Ugh!" Every drag of his fingers against your velvety walls has your eyes rolling back, the way he curls the digits with every thrust hitting your sweet spot perfectly, like he knew exactly how to drive you crazy. "S-so good."

You are starting to get out of breath, meeting his thrusts by rocking back against his hand and this time he doesn't protest, encouraging you by kneading the flesh of your ass and groaning in time with the sharp gasps leaving your lips each time the heel of his hand brushes your swollen clit.

"Think you can cum again with just my fingers, baby?" The way you clench around around his digits is a tell tale sign that your second high is close. Just his words alone nearly make you fall over the edge, words slurred as you try to focus on anything other than the unrelenting pulse between your legs.

"N-need more." You sound utterly fucked out, eyes squeezed shut and lost to the feeling of being filled but the stretch isn't quite enough and you need more to tip you over the edge. "Another one."

Seokjin lines up a third finger with your entrance, the ring on his finger cold against your hot walls as he slides it in beside the others at an agonisingly slow pace; to allow you to adjust to the stretch or to taunt you can't tell. By the time he gets to his knuckles your body is wracked with laboured breaths, quivering knees barely able to hold your weight as you bite the inside of your cheeks to curb a string of whines at being finally filled.

Of course, his fingers weren't as good as the real thing and you wonder how he is able to control himself when your mouth waters at the thought of feeling him inside of you instead of his hand.

The room is still a little humid from the showers, a layer of sweat glistening across your skin as you chase your high with determination, the stickiness between your legs dripping down Seokjin's wrist and making him tut, the click of his tongue heightening the sensation.

"That's it, cum for me." The authority lacing his tone tips you over the edge, another smack stinging your ass as you bury your face in the couch with a cry, the feeling of his fingers pumping you through your high almost too much to bare but as soon as they are ripped away and you're left clenching around nothing you miss the feeling of being full.

"So pretty when you cum." Seokjin murmurs. Under normal circumstances you would have been embarrassed, self conscious even with your ass up for anyone to see, release leaking on to the couch, but you're too fucked out to care about anything m, barely able to register Seokjin's new found gentleness as he flips you onto your back and tucks a piece of hair behind your ear while you focus on returning your breathing back to a normal pace.

"Holy shit." The beat of your heart seemsdeafening in your ears, the only other sound you can comprehend being Seokjin's own ragged breathing.

"Fuck, I nearly just came in my pants." When you manage to turn your head he is staring straight at you with disbelief, eyes travelling to your swollen lips. "I'm going to jerk off to this image forever."

"Me too." You murmur honestly.

Your lids fall shut in post orgasm bliss, not expecting the incoming peck Seokjin presses to your parted lips. It is barely a kiss, plump flesh of his lips brushing yours for less than a second but a funny warmth spreads through your chest at the gesture. Seokjin seems as surprised as you, as if he can't quite believe he just did that, shuffling to the other side of the couch to put some distance between you.

"You should uh, get dressed." He mumbles, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly and turning away to give you some privacy, as if he hadn't just had his head between your legs just a moment ago.

His behaviour, albeit kind of strange, makes you smirk and you decide it won't hurt to tease. "Well, at least now we're even."

Seokjin bites his lip when he turns around to find your skirt back around your thighs, overcome with a new confidence, sauntering over and palming your ass like he owns it. "Nope, not getting away that easily. I think you'll find I made you cum twice. So now you owe me. Again."

"And what do I owe you this time, Kim Seokjin?" You place your hands on his chest, no instinct to push him away for some reason. "Golfing with your brother up next?"

"No," He scoffs. "My brother wouldn't be caught dead with a club."

"Then what?"

You notice the glint in his eye again, the one you are starting to crave. "Let me get to know you."

"Isn't that what you did today?"

He shakes his head. "The real you."

[jar-full-of-pixel-hearts]

Sugar Kiss Part 3

Part 1 - Part 2

Space Force Netflix

Fuck Tony Scarapiducci x Reader

Notes: I get a little bit cared away by my inspiration so this part is kind of long. But, I hope you will stay until the end because it’s really important ! I hope you will like it !

* English is not my first language, I tried really hard to correct myself but, I hope you will excuse me if some mistakes are still there.  

—-

F. Tony couldn’t really explain what kind of impulse took him that Friday evening on his way home. But, one thing was sure, he needed to see you. 

After one week of feeling ashame and stupid. Writing draft after draft of tweets not sure of the good things to write, apologies, joke, publicity proposition, before immediately erasing them. He became foolishly hopeful to cross your path on the entry of the General Naird office or in the lobby.  It’s only when Wednesday arrived that the idea that maybe you were mad at him slowly started to drive him crazy, leading him to be distracted and sad. 

On many occasions that week, people had asked him if he were okay, confused in front of his unusual silence and the way he was absently biting the nail of his thumbs. 

Even Brad, who usually had a smile each time the four stars general became angry at Tony, started to ask questions that Friday morning.

“ Are you okay ? You are sit on this chair for almost thirty minutes now “ 

“ Yeah yeah interesting. Brad...did...Y/N is the kind of woman to do the cold shoulder traitement...or things like that...did she bring you a box of somethings this week...did she get ill ? “ Tony asked, ignoring the previous question of the one star general about his state of mind.

“ Y/N ?  No I didn’t see her this week, she had that new product she was preparing to release so she was kind of busy. And she certainly is not ill, my wife always knows when one of us is sick. I don’t know how she does it, it’s almost like if she ....” Brad replied half mumbling to himself. “ Why do you want to know if she is the kind to do the silence traitement...what did you do F. Tony ? “  

The joy that maybe you weren't mad at him, abruptly chasing the dark cloud, making him jump out of the inconfortable chair.  

“ She had a cake release ? It wasn’t announced anywhere ! How should I were suppose to known that !” He exclaimed, already writing his next tweet for the moonlight cake twitter. Returning to his office, letting Brad wonders what’s happening and repeatedly calls his name. 

But,once the funny tweet was ready, he still couldn’t send it either, having a strange feeling that it wasn’t the right thing to do. Feeling that Fuck Anthony Scarapaducci didn’t had often in his life.

And there he was, standing in front of the bakery door, waving at you, a smile full of hope plastered on his face . 

Like always, you were stunning even in your simple casual jeans and t-shirt . At your expression, who’s quickly shifting for the most adorable smirk he ever seen, you didn’t expect to see anybody tonight.

Trying to calm the now fast beat of his heart and stop the fog invading his brain as you were reaching to unlock the door. A thousand of sentences started to spin in his head. But, none of the brilliant introductions or explanations for his presence really seem to justify the impulse who’s caught him. Letting him totally mute in front of your amused gaze.  

 “ Well, I know you didn’t really have close hours in space, Spaceman, but on earth it’s kind of a  popular thing. “ You joke, your smile illuminating his night. 

“ Yeah I know...We work on that...I was near and I thought to come see if you still were there...” He lied. “ I can come back another day if you prefer…?” 

“ And let me eat all by myself the two last cinnamon rolls of the day ? No, come in, save me of a devastating sugar rush “ 

" If you insist on offering me a cinnamon roll…" He smiled, passing the door.  

Looking around, admiring the simple but elegant Moon theme you had put in the main room.  Succeeding somehow to make something like space, usually cold, welcoming and warm just like you.  

“ Welcome to Moonlight cake F.Tony “ 

“ Thanks, I like it, it’s really...it’s really you, but with the moon...like Space Force is great but here it’s...really moonie...Instagram aesthetic...” He replied, realizing too late that he was babbling. Closing his eyes,cursing against himself. He suddenly opened them at the soft touch of your hand on his arms. 

“ Thank you, it was kind of the idea... F. Tony, I’m sorry but...are you...are you mad at me, for not telling you sooner about twitter ? Because I swear I thought that you knew“ You shyly ask, the expression in your face, a mix of curiosity, hope and sadness, hurting him. 

“ Mad at you, me ? Naah, of course no...I didn’t reply because of all this job the general Naird had for me this week. That man is so lost if I’m not here to read his tweet and arrange his meeting...” Fuck Tony reply, exaggerating his expression. The last grumble of his own fear that you were mad at him leaving his body like a stone out of his chest” And your uncle tell me about that cake release so I just think that you didn’t need that kind of distraction, that all I swear “  

Seeing you smiling again, the expression so painful for him, leaving your face. He caught himself smiling, like if your happiness was sufficient to make himself happy, like a human bluetooth device.

“ Take a seat I will come back with the pastries  “ You offer him, disappearing being the double door of the kitchen. 

Absently sitting on one of the bistro chairs of the counter, passing a hand in his hair to keep them smooth and in order. F. Tony gave another look around him, discovering your touch in every little decoration and design. Passing from the soft grey of the wall from the blue roses on the counter and the framed picture of the moon. 

“ Sorry for making you wait, I put a batch of cupcake in the oven for tomorrow. So, what brought you here ? “ You asked, contouring the long surface before sitting at his side, putting one of the dessert plates with the precious roll in front of him.

“ I um...I “ He started, fidgeting with his fork, the thought of telling you that he simply wanted to see your face crossing his mind before being shut down by his ego and fear of rejection “ I’m here to offer you my help with the media and talking about an idea“ He suddenly exclaimed, the fog of his brain vanishing.  

“ I'm listening “ You reply, tearing a piece of your roll.

And the simple things that you were truly listening to him,giving you all your attention ,gave him one of the best feelings in the world. 

" When I plan a meeting or press conference we always have the same company hired by the government who serves us awful coffee and hard as hell cookies. No surprise after that, that these reporters ask stupide and horrible questions, they are angry. But, if we serve them your soft, sweet pastry...happiness." He explained, taking a bite of his own sweet. 

" That seems a really great idea, but what makes you think they will accept the change. They will maybe not like what I have to offer or my price. "

" We will probably have to make a plan with a smaller size of your product, bite size, smaller but more for the same cost to bake. But trust me, after a taste of your stuff they will say yes to everything you will ask." He replied, sure of his affirmation. Naird maybe didn't take him seriously when he was talking about social media, but, even he was able to see that in planification, F. Tony didn't play games. " The reputation of Moonlight cake is perfect in the town and at the base. Link to the space force event you will become a legend." 

"Did you think about what it will cost me to do this ? Transport, staff and stock ?" 

" I had thought of it too. If you bring some regular stock, we can sell them at the cafeteria, to the soldier and staff, creating a limited event. So, you will raise your sales of the day and It will also give the chance to gain new customers. “ He continu, glad to not lose all his capacity in front of your brilliant gaze.   

"That's smart,but I'm only a small bakery in a town in Colorado. Government won't hire small business like mine usually" You asked, your knee brushing his as you instinctively approaching him, caught in the discussion. 

" Please, I'm Fuck Anthony Scarapiducci. " He smirks, approaching his face of yours, like if he was about to give you a secret. " I have important contact. " He wink, his heart racing,your delicious perfume waking up is sense. 

" And you will help me, just like that, for my pretty eyes? " You reply,almost in a whisper playfully flirting.

" Y/ N I could do so many things for just the sight of your pretty eyes…" F. Tony flirty confesses, his face at only few inches of yours, giving a glance to your lips. 

Your gaze locked, you slowly approche of each other, attraction pushing you like a magnet. 

Before being suddenly distracted by the loud noise of the oven clock. 

" I...I have to take the cupcake out of the oven" You shyly tell, taking a quickly step back.  

" Yes, no problem I um…" He started misunderstanding your shyness for regret, preparing already himself to leave.  

"I will come back in a minute, stay there please “ You ask, giving him a shy look back before coming into the kitchen,a smile on your lips. 

"Yes! I... I will wait for you here….that you come back…here " He replied surprise, his mind slowly realizing that you almost shared a kiss. That you would actually let him kiss you.

“ They are perfectly gold and smell divine “ You announce, coming back in the main room where F.Tony was waiting for you, lost in his thoughts. “ Are you okay, you seem really serious right now “ 

Lifting his decided gaze on you, his heart beating like crazy, he didn’t bother to reply getting up off his chair before cupping the side of your face with his left hands, his finger tangling into your hair. Approaching gently his face of yours, building his courage, he suddenly kissed you, passing an arm around your waist. 

The kiss, at first sweet and gentle, becomes quickly passionate. Putting your hands on the back of his neck and his shoulder, trying to keep your balance as your head was starting to deliciously spin. You feel his lips leave yours, making you miss the pressure of his mouth almost immediately. 

“ I really have to go...both of my phone's vibrate...Naird need me...I...I text you...I swear…” F.Tony whispers, taking a step back before kissing you quickly one more time in the lips. “ I’m sorry“

Turning on his heels, passing the door, a mix of emotion bursting inside his chest. He let you in shock in the middle of the bakery, your fingers brushing your lips, your heart and his resonating at the same beat.

—

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[barbyisafangirl]

Let the heart melt - (F)

Paring: Namjoon x F.reader

Genre: Fluff & Angst

Summary: A big hug warms your body, a nice cup hot chocolate calms your soul and a sweet kiss makes you remember what truly means to be in love.

2.5k words

Part of the 25 Days of Christmas: A BTS Anthology Masterlist

☆゜・。。・゜゜・。。・゜★

The sound of metal clicking interrupts the silence, keys moving around as Namjoon finds the latchkey that belongs to his apartment. His big and bulky jacket makes it hard for him to move, the restriction making him even more clumsy than his usual self. As he inserts the key into the doorknob, he can smell the faint scent of beef in the air, the smell of different spices filling his nostrils. With the sound of the door unlocking and the sound of his feet on the floor, he opens the door to the warmth of his apartment. The smell of the food now stronger and combined with different tasty scents. While getting rid of his shoes and coat, hearing the faint Christmas song in the background. The “Feliz Navidad” lyrics being sung by the delightful voice of his sweet girlfriend.

Namjoon likes the atmosphere the holidays created, the heart-melting aura that carries this time of the year makes his mind more inspired. He wishes he could be able to celebrate these festivities like any other person but yet again, he isn't a normal person. He is a celebrity, a pop star that has a busy life and is surrounded by millions of loving fans. Time is something that unfortunately is not an element that Namjoon possesses. The schedule of an idol is a never-ending cycle of activities. But Namjoon is used to this lifestyle that he has appropriated since he was a teenager, his years of youth reducing down to nothing but a few seconds of existence. 

He wasn't complaining, his lifestyle is a vested one. Having the privilege of getting whatever he wanted whenever he desired too. Yet that does not mean that he felt unfulfilled certain times, but that's simply what life is. There are days where he feels down, with almost no energy to be in his life and he just wants to do nothing. There are other days when he feels lonely when working it's too much and he is not able to socialize and recharge. Those days are the hardest in his opinion, his body and mind not feeling like his own. The world around feeling like a dream and everything having an odd sentiment in his body. The only thing that brings him back to reality is the thought of going home and being met with a warm hug from his girlfriend and the familiarity of his apartment

With his fingers combing his wild hairs and his warm feet trembling against the cold wooden floor, he walks to the origin of such a sweet environment. He could see the little decorations that were scattered around the apartment, bright red and green colors bringing life to the pale flat. At the foot of the kitchen door, he sees (Y/N) swiftly moving around, following the rhythm of the song as she cooks. Too distracted to notice the presence of her boyfriend, she remains blissfully happy adding the finishing touches to the Christmas dinner. The melting warmth that Namjoon felt at the view was overwhelming.  

(Y/N) was excited for this Christmas, to say the least. Even though she has been dating Namjoon for over three years, they never had a proper Christmas together. His overpacked schedule never let him have any free time these times of the year. So when he told her that we would be home on Christmas Eve to have a three-day break, she felt ecstatic. She can finally have a Christmas with her loved one, the way she always imagined it. 

Back in her home, her family would always do the same traditions to celebrate Christmas, and all she craved was to share does traditions with Namjoon. The holidays to her have childhood nostalgia ingrained in them and she yearned to create new memories and traditions with Namjoon; to relive that nostalgia with a new sentiment added to it. Although time was never on their side, this incident was different. His schedule gave him three days free on the holidays and she was not going back to work until January, so this was the perfect time to feast with him. It was rare time would line up to something as perfect as this, and (Y/N) was going to get the advantage of that. 

As she was turning around to leave the room she makes direct eye contact with a smirking Namjoon. The dark color underneath his eyes displaying the tiredness in his face, dimples in display in his soft cheeks. The pink-tinted blush that covers her face is enough to show the surprise of seeing her boyfriend in the flat. 

"How long have you been standing there?"

"I arrived at the apartment about 20 minutes ago, but I’ve been watching you cook for around 10 minutes, and I must say the food smells delightful"

With the struggle in his legs and the burning sensation of his muscles as he slowly walks to (Y/N), he uses the little strength he has to stay up and embrace her into a warm hug. The instant reaction his body has to the softness of her shape makes his knees tremble, muscles easing. 

"You smell like chicken soup"

"Well, that's because I made some, you dummy " the giggly tone in her voice was music to his ears, her happiness radiating in the air. "And I also made some meatloaf, pudding and like two patches of nut cookies. You know, the ones I made for Jin's birthday" 

"I fucking loved those cookies, everyone at the studio ate them like crazy! You should make them more often"

"But they are a hell of a lot of work! It takes me an hour to cook one batch, I don't have time for that dedication"

Planting a kiss on her forehead their bodies started to sway from side to side, dancing accompanying the now faint holiday song. "I should help you then, more hands would get the job done"

"I love you Joonie but I won't let you anywhere near the oven, not after what happened last time" 

"Okay! In my defense, you were distracting me"

"How was I distracting you!?" moving from the comforting embrace, she walks over to the sink, removing her apron and placing it in on the counter next to it. 

"You were wearing only one of my shirts and some panties, that in and of itself was distracting" 

With a sigh leaving her lips and an eye roll, she washes the remains of food off her hands. "It was a hot day and the oven wasn't helping either, but it's truly your fault for being a pervert" with a playful smile on her face and a tantalizing tone in between her words, (Y/N) moves over to him once again, the playful banter elevating the already sparkling mood.

"I am offended you brought that up, and just to clarify you never complained of my not so PG thoughts before"

"That was before you almost burned the entire flat down" 

The silence that comes as an effect of that playful banter is light yet tense, the last Christmas song fading into the next one. The eye contact between the two is almost like a staring contest to see who breaks first. With the beeping sound of the oven shattering their joking engagement, causing their laughers to float in the air.

Grabbing the baking mittens and taking out the meatloaf to carefully place it over the wooden plank. 

"Okay, let this cool down before you start nibbling on it" leaving a kiss on Namjoon's cheek she walks to exit the room "I know you must be sweaty so let me take a quick shower then it is your turn" and just before she stepped foot out she turns to look at him one last time "I bought you a sweater! I will leave it on the bed so you can put it on and then we can start celebrating Christmas"

It all went too fast, taking him a couple of seconds to understand what was going on. She wanted to carouse Christmas eve night but Namjoon lacked the energy to do so. He would much rather just eat the delicious food then go to bed, but he couldn't deny her that. She worked so much to make this perfect for him and we would break her heart if he casts all of it away just to sleep. So with a deep sigh and a tired yawn, he walks to room his room, hoping to get at least some rest.

°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○

"I fucking hate this"

"You don't get to complain, I sent you pictures of the sweaters and asked you which one to choose but you never responded so you get what I chose" 

"Not going to lie love, this is a fucking disgusting design" with the itching feeling of the red sweater on his skin, the horrible pattern of white lines, a green Christmas tree in the middle and the horrendous combination of yellow makes his eyes dizzy "Why did you have to buy this one?"

"To teach you a lesson" filling her glass with white wine, a confusing expression is displayed in Namjoons face not getting (Y/N)'s point "To not ignore me" 

Placing the wine bottle on the table and graving the wine glass filled to the brim, she finally sited down to eat and savor the grand dinner. The silence in the room never went to the uncontrolled side of the spectrum, and that's something (Y/N) loves about their relationship. Even back before they were even a couple, they could be in each other's company and stay in complete silence. The atmosphere could never feel anywhere neither awkward and has time went on this never changed.

With the sound of the utensils against the porcelain plates and the chowing of their mouths, no conversation was being made. (Y/N) to concentrate on the joys of this evening and Namjoon too tired to make a proper sentence come out of his mouth. Dinner went out faster than what (Y/N) intended, has any afford she had on creating small talk has rejected by a quick response. Something felt off about him and she couldn't put her finger on it, it's almost as he is there physically but mentally his thoughts were somewhere on the moon. 

°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○●°•○

The smell of hot cocoa surrounded the air, the compact space of the small living room compacting its aroma. Into their third movie of the marathon, Namjoon could barely keep his eyes open anymore. His struggle wasn't that bad in the first movie has being cuddle up next to his beloved one made him regain some strength to be fully awake but by mid of the second movie, he was losing it. The only reason why he came back to reality was the loud and cute (Y/N) did to the events of the movie. A part of him doesn't think that sleeping throughout this movie wouldn't be so bad.

"It's not like she will notice anyway"

But the other part of his feels bad by not being there for her when she asks for him. When he's too busy with upcoming albums, touring, films and writing music she doesn't ask much from him, only making sure he gets enough sleep and eating healthy. He has missed so many important things in her life and she doesn't show any signs of being angry at him for the lack of support. So the least he can do is give her this, these little moments that would make her happy and show how much he loves her. 

"Oh my God! Namjoon can you believe that bitch did tha-" 

A small smile grew on her lips at her boyfriend's sleepy state, one eye closed while the other desperately trying to stay open. With a giggle falling from her lips, leaving the couch to go and pick up a blanket from the basket next to their TV. Carefully placing the soft material over him, making sure that his body was fully covered. Turning off the TV and taking the last sips of her hot chocolate (Y/N) cuddles with the now fully asleep Namjoon. 

The fluffy feeling this was creating on her was too overwhelming, her body tingled as a response to all of the emotions she was feeling at once. Joy at the thought of having such a wonderful boyfriend at her side, sadness that time is not one of the things they get to enjoy trying to savor moments like this where they at least are in each other's arms. Melancholy knowing that all of this is temporary and that once their time is up they would have to go back to being separated by work and life, but she knew that was a price to pay to be with him. He was worth the wait, the time she stays in the dorms and supports him with her daily call and check up on his studios. The molding of her schedule to fit his and be able to see each other once a day to have lunch and to spend countless sleepless nights awake in the living room just to greet him once he decides to come home from a long and tiring day at the studio. 

He wasn't easy to handle all of the time, stress and anxiety proving difficult, clouding all thought of reason and letting him act on impulses only. The fights proved challenging to resolve, almost always ending in a silent war until one decided to apologize and finally talk about it like a normal adult. It becomes more vexatious when in comeback season as Namjoons tolerance evaporates into thin air as the pressure of the album carries on his shoulders. But time has shown her that it all relies on being there for each other in the small things. Like watching their live performances in the living room and call to give her congratulation on the wonderful performance or him helping her plan her next English class for her class in fun and penetrating ways for the high schoolers. Does little expressions of care have been the biggest memories in her head, not needing a big act of true love to know that he loves her. because she can already tell by the small acting he does for her just like today. Even with the tiredness being all over his body he tried his best to make her Christmas the one she has been longing for, for so long. With the ugly sweaters, the exquisite, the hot cocoa and the movie marathon. He could have said that he was just too tired to do celebrate Christmas eve and to just go and sleep the holidays away but he didn't, he tried to make her happy and for her, that was enough. 

Hugging close to the hot body of her boyfriend she let her heart melt. Because while giving him a sweet goodnight kiss on the forehead it reminded her of how much she loves her beautiful dork.

[augfc]

British submachine gun trials, 1915 - 1939

It is often said of the British Army that before World War II, they completely disregarded submachine guns (or “machine carbines” as they were then known) purely on the basis that they were “gangster weapons”. This is only half-true - while the pre-WWII British Army was decidedly more conservative than most militaries of the time when it came to small arms, there were some steps taken to investigate submachine guns.

The first submachine gun to be tested by the British Army was the progenitor of the entire concept - the Italian Villar Perosa, demonstrated at Hythe on the 7th of October 1915. The weapon had been brought to England by an Italian representative, Mr. Bernachi, who submitted it to the Small Arms Committee. A further test took place at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield on the 18th. The report from the SAC described the weapon as “very suitable for trench work”, but there was no interest from the General Headquarters in France.

The Villar Perosa submachine gun demonstrated for the SAC. This model was a one-of-a-kind piece chambered in .455 Webley.

During the closing stages of the war, in September 1918, a captured German Bergmann MP18 (serial no. 214) was tested by the SAC, who sent a report to the General Headquarters. The GHQ took a very dim view of the MP18, who seemed to be under the impression that the Germans were planning to use the weapon as a substitute for rifles. For the GHQ, the MP18′s failing was its pistol-calibre ammunition, which they felt was far too underpowered - their concern was that use of low-power bullets would encourage the Germans to issue body armor, which the MP18 would be incapable of penetrating. The GHQ’s response to the SAC essentially dismissed the MP18 as a novelty and insisted that British infantrymen continue to be issued full-power rifles and machine guns.

Despite now being considered a revolutionary weapon, the contemporary British view of the MP18 was that it was little more than a novelty.

After the war ended, various new submachine gun designs did begin to emerge, although not all were based on the MP18. Brigadier General John Taliaferro Thompson’s now-famous “Tommy gun” was one such weapon, which he had conceived during the war as a weapon to break the stalemate of trench warfare. Ultimately he failed to get it into production while the war was still raging, and it was only perfected by 1921. Thompson went to Britain that year to oversee the tests of his weapon by the Small Arms Committee. The tests were conducted at Enfield on the 30th of June and the SAC did not draw comparisons to the MP18, describing the Thompson as a weapon of “an entirely new type”. Regardless, the impressions were generally positive, and the gun functioned well, attracting considerable interest, although there was no serious consideration to issue such weapons to British troops at the time.

The M1921 Thompson. Designed strictly as a military and police weapon, it earned a negative reputation as a gangster’s best friend during the 1920s.

The M1923 Thompson was a failed attempt to market the Thompson in the role of a machine gun. It was tested by the British and French armies but rejected.

In 1928, the Thompson was tested again at Enfield. This model was a British-made version that was the result of a combined business venture between Birmingham Small Arms and Thompson’s Auto Ordnance Company. Their goal was to arouse European (although primarily British) military interest in the Thompson. The BSA-made Thompson had rifle-like ergonomics but was basically the same gun as the Thompson M1921, but offered in a variety of calibers, including the standard .45 ACP, 9mm Bayard, 7.63mm Mauser, and 9x19mm Parabellum. The model tested by the SAC at Enfield was fitted with a Cutts compensator, which would become standard on the M1928 Thompsons, although the SAC was of the opinion that the compensator made virtually no difference to the weapon’s performance. The BSA Thompson was not investigated any further.

The same year, the Revelli automatic rifle - a single-barreled version of the Villar Perosa developed in Italy shortly after the war - was tested, again at Enfield, by the designer himself. There was little interest from the SAC.

The British-made M1926 Thompson. By all accounts a perfectly good weapon that should have been a success, but was hindered by conservative attitudes.

The Revelli, often called the “OVP” after its place of manufacture, was designed in 1920 and was used by the Italians in North Africa during WWII.

The Vollmer was tested in 1932 and the Solothurn S1-100, designed by German engineers but manufactured in Switzerland and Austria to evade the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, was tested at the end of 1934. Both guns were compared to the MP18 but failed to impress. On the 29th of September 1936, the Finnish Suomi was tested. The gun was expensive, at £31, but was considered by the SAC to be the “best “gangster” weapon we have seen”. This was the first use of the term “gangster gun” by the British authorities in regards to submachine guns, no doubt in reference to the notoriety that the Thompson gun had picked up in the US during the prohibition era.

The Solothurn S1-100 was an immaculately-made but very expensive submachine gun. It was adopted by Austria as the MP34 in 1934.

The Finnish Suomi gun was one of the better submachine guns on the market before the war. It performed very well during the brief Winter War of 1939.

1937 saw two submachine guns tested by the SAC. The first was the American .45 Hyde, demonstrated on the 23rd of June. It was fitted with a double magazine consisting of two interconnected magazines fixed side-by-side. The SAC liked this novel feature but paid less attention to the gun itself. In December of that year, the SAC tested what they described as a Spanish Star machine carbine, chambered in .32 caliber. I am actually unsure what this weapon might have been, since there were few Spanish submachine guns at that time and those that did exist were all chambered in 9mm Largo, but I assume it was a rechambered Star Si35. Regardless, the SAC held a low opinion of it.

The Hyde, chambered in .45 ACP. Considered a rival to the Thompson, it lost out to that weapon in both British and American trials.

An experimental .22-calibre Hyde demonstrated at RSAF Enfield in the 1930s.

In 1938, several weapons were brought to the attention of the SAC. They were the Japanese Nambu submachine gun, the Danish Brøndby, and the Finnish Suomi.

The Nambu gun, known simply as the Type 1, was of interest because of its small build and light weight. It was considered a decent weapon for vehicle crews - what we would now call a personal defence weapon or PDW. The Nambu was rejected for two reasons: its 8mm chambering, since the Japanese 8mm cartridge was not readily available in Britain nor was it considered powerful enough for British use; and its long, 50-round curved magazine, which was ergonomically awkward and made the overall height of the weapon over 11 inches.

The Japanese Nambu submachine gun was one of the first submachine guns to feed through the pistol grip, although it was too bizarre for it’s own good.

The Brøndby submachine gun was sent as part of a series of gas-operated weapons designed by Fridtjof Brøndby, including a rifle and light machine gun. They were tested in March 1938. The submachine gun was chambered in 7.63mm Mauser and fed from a small 15-round magazine. This wouldn’t have been so much of a problem if the fire rate was not as high as it was: 818 rounds per minute. The SAC gave the Brøndby a positive write-up and arranged trials to compare it to other existing submachine guns, including the German S1-100 and MP28, the American Hyde, and the Finnish Suomi. However, interested lapsed and the trials ended up not taking place at all.

The Danish Brøndby was an early gas-operated submachine gun that failed to attract any buyers, despite showing promise.

In the August of 1938, the SAC received the first British-designed submachine gun, the 9x19mm Biwarip. It was an unusual little gun, largely unlike any the SAC had encountered before. It had no stock or sights and was extremely light and compact; the overall handling felt more like that of a machine pistol than a submachine gun. The SAC decided it was uncontrollable in automatic fire and took no further action with it.

At the end of the year the SAC tested an Estonian Suomi with a 50-round dual magazine, similar to the Hyde gun described earlier. The SAC liked the idea so much that they asked RSAF Enfield to consider copying the concept and applying it to Bren guns, which, as far as I know, was never actually done. The Suomi gun itself was once again shot down by the General Staff, who unequivocally reiterated that no such weapon would be adopted by the Army.

The Biwarip was the first British submachine gun. It wasn’t great, but it served as the basis for the Sten and later the Sterling.

In 1939 the SAC was replaced by the Board of Ordnance, which only investigated two submachine guns that year. They were the BSA-Kiraly and the Erma MP38. The Kiraly design was submitted to the SAC via Mark Dinely, who himself had designed an experimental .32 submachine gun. Dinely’s firm, Dinely & Dowding, imported blueprints of a new design from Hungarian engineer Pal de Kiraly. The Ordnance Board were interested and ordered a batch of prototypes. Production rights were given to Birmingham Small Arms, who produced a small quantity at the low cost of £5 per unit.

The prototypes were submitted to Ordnance Board in May. The guns had some novel features, like pivoted magazine housing that could fold under the barrel. Firing tests were positive and there were no major reliability or performance issues recorded. The Ordnance Board was not as impressed by the almost indescribably complex trigger mechanism, which used a flywheel, tape, and spring mechanism to moderate the rate of fire. Kiraly offered to simplify the mechanism to make it easier to manufacture, but the Ordnance Board never showed any further interest, which was perhaps a huge mistake - at such a low cost, thousands of these quality submachine guns could have been produced by BSA and issued to British troops before the war had started. Ultimately, though, it was not to be.

The BSA-Kiraly prototype. An excellent weapon that unfortunately didn’t get very far. The design evolved into the Hungarian Danuvia submachine gun.

The last submachine gun investigated by the Ordnance Board in 1938 was also in May. It was the Erma MP38, the new German submachine gun, recommended to the Ordnance Board by the Director of Artillery. He was alarmed by the extremely fast production of this weapon in Germany and asked the Ordnance Board to consider such a weapon, especially now that war was looming. Tests were conducted and the MP38 was found to be a quality weapon but no action was taken. Even if there was any major interest in the design, the mounting tension between Britain and Germany would have made adoption of the MP38 impossible. Interestingly, in 1940, the Royal Air Force ordered 10,000 British-made copies of the MP38, a request that was shelved in favor of the Lanchester.

War finally broke out on the 2nd of September 1939. When the British Expeditionary Force were sent to France later that year, they filed a request to the Ordnance Board asking for an immediate supply of submachine guns. Several guns were sent for trials in France, conducted by the BEF. Not all the weapons tested were actually submachine guns; some were rifles and light machine guns modified to fill a similar role.

The submachine guns tested were the American Thompson and Hyde guns, the German-designed Solothurn S1-100, and the Finnish Suomi. The American Johnson rifle, the Czech ZH-29, and the French RSC were converted into automatic rifles and also tested. Modified Lewis and Bren guns were also tested in the role of a hip-fired submachine gun.

The Solely gun, a modified Lewis that was briefly considered as a stand-in for a true submachine gun. It used Bren magazines.

Unsurprisingly, the Thompson was favored. The British Army hurriedly pressed Thompson guns into service, but it was too little, too late. By the time fighting broke out in May 1940, the majority of British soldiers found themselves without a submachine gun and the Germans had plenty. After the disastrous “Fall of France”, the British evacuated from Dunkirk and found themselves in a precarious position, faced with potential invasion. British small arms philosophy was made completely redundant by German tactics and the Army was forced to reconsider its approach to submachine guns completely.

[ask-serious-sans]

PTA Reader (Platonic!Reader and PTA Sans) Part 1

Summary: A PTA meeting where Linda thinks attempts to befriend someone is the highest form of treason, Helen challenges you to 1v1 on Club Penguin, and Betty gets dunked on.

You walked down the hallway of the combined elementary and middle school your younger sibling attended, glancing at your watch. 5:58. You had two minutes to locate the room where a PTA meeting was being held that evening. Usually, your mother attended these meetings, but today she had to work late and had sent you in her place. You weren't entirely sure what to expect from the meeting; your mother never seemed to have anything positive to say about them, but she always attended them anyway. Finding the correctly labelled classroom, you opened the door with a bit of hesitation, glancing inside. A group of parents rather larger than you had expected stood inside, as well as a fair number teachers, and a skeleton. This didn't surprise you as much as it might once have, considering your younger sibling had mentioned being friends with a few of their new monster classmates, and anyway, you'd heard all about the monsters' recent release from their imprisonment under Mount Ebott which had been all over the news since its occurrence. One of the parents looked up from a stack of papers that you really hoped wasn't a list of things that would be discussed at the meeting, because if so you would probably be here til midnight. Actually, your mother generally got back from these meetings at around that time, so this did not bode well. "Look, sweetie, students aren't allowed in here. This is a very important meeting, for adults. If your parents brought you here thinking there would be daycare provided, they were mistaken." You knew you were short, and yes, sometimes you were mistaken for a high school student, but really? She thought you were in middle school? "Actually, I'm in college," you explained, smirking slightly at the shocked expression on the lady who had spoken's face. "And I'm here in place of my mother. She has to work late today." The response was in about as condescending of a tone as you had expected. "If you're in college you're still technically a student and can't be here." "My mother spoke with the principal about it and she said it was fine," you comment, trying not to sound as annoyed by the excuses as you actually were. One of the teachers spoke up, probably wanting to get the meeting started as soon as possible. "Yes, the principal did mention that older siblings could attend these meetings as long as there is an adequate reason for it. Now that that is settled, can we proceed with the meeting?" Looking just as irritated, the lady continued, "Well, if you really are the sibling of one of the students attending this school, who are they?" Wow, you hadn't been expecting an interrogation. Inwardly sighing, you stated your younger sibling's name and grade, half expecting the lady to pull out a full list of every student currently attending the school and start searching through it for the name. She didn't, but what she did instead almost made you wish she had. "Oh, right. That other kid who's closer friends with the monster children than their fellow humans." If you'd been drinking water, you would have done a spit-take. "Well, if the human kids act anywhere near as condescending as you have been, I understand the reasoning behind it." you retort before you could stop yourself. For a second afterward, you felt embarrassed- perhaps you'd taken it too far?- especially under the glare of the lady, who you by now were pretty certain was the one named Linda. Your mother often mentioned the self-proclaimed leader of the PTA, and it generally was not due to anything positive she might have said. Fortunately, your embarrassment was interrupted by an amused laugh. That was enough to give you the confidence to approach the table everyone was seated around. Many of the parents were looking at you with disdain, so you avoided any empty seats next to them and instead sat beside the skeleton, who no one else seemed to be making an effort to sit next to. The skeleton was smiling, and even if it was a permanent, unmoving one, it was still more comforting than the expressions on most of the humans' faces. Though, you noticed a few of the humans were trying- with varying degrees of success- to hide smiles. Perhaps some of them were secretly just as annoyed with Linda as you were. "Anyway, as I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted," Linda continued, with a very obvious glare in your direction, to which you responded with an innocent smile that only irritated her more, "Today we need to discuss several important matters. We will start with the new lunch plan I mentioned in the last meeting..." An hour into the meeting, which had thus far been spent discussing the pros and cons of various changes to the school that different parents had addressed, with no actual decisions being made- or any real debate, for that matter, as any time someone tried to bring up an opposing point, a trio of parents whose names you had by now learned were Linda, Helen, and Betty immediately rejected it without giving the opposition a chance to explain their reasoning- you noticed the skeleton seemed close to falling asleep. Honestly, you weren't far behind, and if your mother wasn't counting on you to fill her in on what she missed in the meeting, you probably would be. The entire meeting seemed rigged by the trio of parents; no one else was given much of a chance to speak, and everything the three said sounded rehearsed. Now you knew why your mother always returned from these meetings seeming so frustrated. Listening to these three talking for upwards of twenty minutes at a time without pause was more exhausting than sitting through four hour physics lectures. "Now, we should discuss the upcoming bake sale," Linda said, interrupting your thoughts. 'Well, at least I'll get to hear about delicious stuff like cookies and brownies for awhile,' you thought, attempting to remain optimistic. "First of all, we have compiled a list of everyone who has offered to bring something for the bake sale," Linda continued, nodding at Helen to pass around a sheet of paper. The parents and teachers read over the list before passing it along with a nod, at least until the list reached the skeleton. Now fully awake, he looked over the list several times before looking up from it, an annoyed expression on his face. "Excuse me, but you left off Muffet's spider doughnuts." "We didn't leave anything off. We told you last week that we will not be serving monster snacks at our bake sale." "Muffet and Frisk have been working for hours to create a version that's designed specifically for human consumption! You said that as long as it was safe for humans to eat, Muffet could participate in the bake sale." the skeleton stated. "Well, we changed our mind." Betty spoke up, "Too bad." The skeleton looked beyond annoyed, but didn't seem to have any way to counter the statement. You found yourself feeling bad for him; based on what he'd said, it had sounded like it meant a lot to him, Muffet, and Frisk. "These spider doughnuts," you spoke up almost without thinking about it, "are they doughnuts, decorated to look like a spiderweb?" "Yeah," the skeleton replied, seeming a bit surprised by your curiosity. Then again, it didn't seem too far-fetched to guess none of the others at these meetings had bothered to show any interest in the spider doughnuts. "I think those sound great! You'd probably get a lot of business, kids love creative stuff like that. I mean, anyone can whip up a batch of cookies or something, but decorating doughnuts? I've never heard of anything like that at a bake sale. Plus, it's October, so making them look like spider webs? That's a great touch." You say, noticing Linda, Helen, and Betty's scowls in your direction hardening with every word you said. "I hardly think your opinions are in any way necessary for this discussion," Betty said in a scathing tone. She'd probably been planning to bring cookies. "Actually," you say with an innocent smile, "I'm a student! Who knows better than another student what students would look for in a bake sale?" Linda, Helen, and Betty looked furious with this statement, the skeleton seemed impressed by it. "Kid's got a good point," he commented. "You-you...." Linda stammered out, looking irritated you'd been able to use her own argument against her. "Fine! You can bring your spider doughnuts!" You grinned, the expressions on the trio's faces more than making up for the awkwardness of speaking up as the lone teenager in a room full of adults. Linda hurriedly moved on to the next topic of the meeting after that, something about complaints about a piece of playground equipment potentially being dangerous, and you sat back to listen. Another half-hour or so passed without incident, until Helen spoke up, bringing up a new topic. "I am sure you are all aware of the planned field trip to the Museum of National History," she stated. You smiled; your sibling had been talking about that for weeks, they were incredibly excited for it. The smile dropped immediately when Betty spoke up a moment later. "Well, we're cancelling it. We believe the funds would be better used for other purposes." "Such as what?" demanded one of the parents who had seemed more friendly than the others throughout the meeting, frowning slightly. They sounded almost as annoyed as you felt. "For one thing, new uniforms for the softball team," Linda stated. "New uniforms? They just got new uniforms at the beginning of the year!" the lady pointed out. "Besides, you've already cancelled the fifth grade field trip in favor of one of your sports teams, and my daughter was really looking forward to going to the aquarium!" "Now, now," Linda said, trying to sound reassuring, "The uniforms are only part of the reason, and I'm sure you'll agree that this is for the best-" "I have to agree with Alicia," a man spoke up. "You can't keep cancelling field trips like this. The sports teams have plenty of funding already, and there's no reason to change uniforms halfway through the season." "Look, we've already made this decision, it's not up for debate," Betty commented. The two who had spoken up stopped arguing, looking irritated but apparently accustomed to accepting Linda, Helen, and Betty's decisions, no matter how unfair. But you weren't. "What do you mean, 'it's not up for debate'? Is this not the Parent Teacher Association, where parents and teachers alike discuss all potential changes before making a decision as a whole? What makes the three of you so special, that your opinions drown out those of everyone else?" "Listen, child. You're new here, so you don't understand how things work," Betty began with a fierce glare that was so well practiced you figured it was how she'd gotten her way so many times in the past. "Forcing everyone else to go along with what you want isn't an association, it's a dictatorship!" you continue, not letting her glare faze you.... or at least, not letting her know if it did. Several of the more friendly looking parents were glancing between each other, their expressions a mixture of surprise and agreement. The skeleton beside you was grinning, a more genuine grin than the permanent one etched on his face. Linda, Helen, and Betty seemed ever so slightly worried, their control over the meeting seemed to be slipping. However, they reacted by intensifying their glares. "Look," Betty said in a tone that clearly stated arguing was not an option. You had to feel bad for whoever her kid was. Unless they were just like her, since then she'd probably be approving of them rather than scaring them into submission. "You are not a parent or a teacher, in fact you are a child, so you should leave this discussion to the adults who are actually supposed to be here." "It's not like you let the adults who are actually supposed to be here have much of a say in the discussion either," you note, just to show her you weren't intimidated. Or at least, not intimidated enough to back down. "You do kinda act like you own the place," spoke up the man from earlier hesitantly, followed by a few whispered agreements from Alicia and a few others. "Silence!" Betty hissed, and the whispering ceased. "Look, the talking Halloween decoration was bad enough, we don't need some self-righteous teenager telling us what to do-" Your blood boiled at this, not as much at the comment about you but more at the insult directed at the skeleton. After all, from what you'd heard of the monsters, they were nice individuals, and this one hadn't done anything to make you question that opinion. Besides, you disliked bullying in general, and such blatant disrespect to another individual annoyed you. "If you're going to insult me, fine, but leave those who haven't even said anything in this conversation out of your tirade. It's extremely unprofessional." The skeleton snickered, whether at your comment or the look on Betty's face you weren't sure, but either way it gave you the confidence not to back down under her fury. "I am the adult here, who are you to tell me about professionalism, you little brat?" Betty asked. "You're right, this is pretty ridiculous," the skeleton spoke up, and you couldn't help but feel a bit hurt, after all you had just been trying to stand up for him, until he continued, "It's a real shame when adults need to learn something from children." At that, you grinned, a quiet laugh escaping your throat. It was kind of a relief to have someone on your side, particularly since Linda, Helen, and Betty were all glaring daggers in your direction. "The PTA was running just fine before you monsters showed up," Linda stated with a glare at the skeleton. "Ever since you... things... showed up, we've had so many issues to deal with-" "Let me guess, the majority of those 'issues' are simply you three having a problem with anyone other than humans attending this school and being annoyed when you don't get your way about it?" you interrupted, frowning at Linda's comment. "Pretty much," the skeleton said at the same time as Linda all-but-shouted some incoherent babble about how the monsters 'ruined everything'. "Well, I'll have you know that the monsters have been a horrible influence on my son," Linda stated after calming down. You raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to elaborate. "Frank has been playing with monster children after school recently, and even wanted to invite some to his birthday party!" You blinked, waiting for her to continue. When she said nothing else, you stared at her in disbelief. "So what you're saying is... They're being a horrible influence... By befriending him?" "Yes!" Linda replied. "They're trying to turn him against his own kind!" "I'm pretty sure they're not doing that," you state in a deadpan tone. "How would you know? Maybe they turned you against us humans too! Why else would you stand up for them?" Helen spoke up. "No one's turned me against anyone," you say, exasperated. "I just don't like hearing people insult others when they haven't even done anything." "Haven't even done anything? I know you weren't at any of the previous meetings but I'll have you know that they were plagued with puns, all because of Sans!" Helen argued. "Sans?" "Sup." Oh, that must be the skeleton's name. "So, you guys are mad at him because he makes puns?" you asked, surprised. That was their big reason for insulting him? "You have no idea how many puns he makes!" Linda replied. "So many puns," Helen shuddered. "A skele-ton of them," Sans added. A snicker escaped you at the pun. "Anyway," Linda attempted to regain control of the meeting with a glare at Sans, "The field trip is cancelled, and with that decided we can move on to the next topic-" "Woah woah woah," you piped up, "From my count, it's three of you who want the field trip cancelled and at least three who don't. Probably more, if you didn't just intimidate everyone else into keeping their opinions to themselves. What happened to majority rules?" "What, you want to put this up to a vote?" Linda scoffed. "Yeah, I do. Isn't that how these things are supposed to go?" you reply. "Fine. We'll have a vote." Linda said, before casting a glare around the room. "All in favor of not cancelling the field trip, raise your hands. But I suggest you consider it carefully." You raised your hand, even if you doubted they would count it. Some of the more vocal parents, and most of the few teachers present, also raised their hand. Sans also raised his hand, looking as though he was only barely keeping himself from saying several hand or bone related puns. You probably would have encouraged him to do so if this wasn't such a tense moment. A few of the parents' hands wavered under the glares of Linda, Helen, and Betty, but they remained up. "Hmm," Linda said with an expression of displeasure. "Ten of you, huh?" Then she smirked. "No matter... There's a lot more than ten of you who don't have your hands up." "Please, if not for yourselves... Stand up for the kids," you say. A few more parents and the rest of the teachers rose their hands, a bit hesitantly, but though they shrunk under the withering glares of the angry trio, they kept their hands up. Linda sighed. "Fifteen. But there's sixteen more of us," she announced triumphantly. You felt your hope fade a bit at this. Despite all your efforts, were they still going to win? It felt like you'd let your sibling down. "Now, all in favor of cancelling the field trip, raise your hands." She, Helen, and Betty's hands were all up in an instant. You could only watch as several other parents raised their hands, succumbing to the pressure of the trio's glares. Linda began to count the raised hands with a smirk, though it disappeared quickly when she finished. "Thirteen?!?" Your eyes widened in shock and excitement as you noticed three of the parents who hadn't raised their hands before kept them lowered now. "Raise your hands," Betty instructed them with gritted teeth. All three stared back defiantly. She repeated herself, a glare forming on her face, but the three remained still. "Well, I suppose that ended in a tie. Guess we'll have to make the official decision next week," Linda stated finally, when it became clear the three were only embarrassing themselves in their fruitless attempts to sway the parents' minds. You frowned, knowing they were trying to put it off since you wouldn't be there next week to stand up to them. "A tie? Last time I checked, fifteen was larger than thirteen." "As someone with a degree in mathematics, I can confirm this," the fifth grade Math teacher agreed. Linda, Helen, and Betty scowled, realizing they had lost. All three glared at you in a way that clearly said 'I despise you,' but you were too relieved to care at the moment. "Wow, you managed to get the glare that's usually reserved for me," Sans commented. "Pretty impressive for a first timer, kiddo." You weren't sure whether earning the undying hatred of three PTA moms was really something to be impressed about, but you decided to just smile and accept it. After all, you figured that would annoy the three more, anyway. "Fight me 1v1 in Club Penguin," Helen said to you in the most serious tone you could imagine anyone saying that exact statement in. "I-what?" You replied, honestly confused. Did she really just challenge you to 1v1... In Club Penguin? "You heard me! Or are you too chicken?" Helen said in the same totally dignified tone of a nine year old making a similar statement. "Alright, you're on," you say, because at this point... Why the heck not? Linda grinned, "Ha! Now you're done for! Helen is the best at that game!" "You're about to get owned, noob!" Betty added. '...Right....' You decided to just let them continue with the smack-talk as two computers were set up for what, if Linda, Helen, and Betty's comments were anything to go by, was going to be the battle of the century. Once everything was ready, you and Helen took your places at either of the computers. Linda and Betty had taken up a position on either side of Helen, who suddenly had a bandanna wrapped around her forehead. Well, they certainly take things seriously... Less than a minute later, you and Helen were locked in a fight for your lives... based upon two penguin avatars sledding down a mountain. Honestly, you weren't sure what your life had become at this point- this seemed more like something that would happen at a party where everyone's drunk rather than a PTA meeting- but you strangely enough were enjoying it quite a bit. Currently, you and Helen were tied, and despite Linda and Betty's efforts to distract you, you were able to ignore them well enough to keep up with Helen. Helen managed to get a slight lead over you as you missed a jump trying to avoid one of the obstacles, but then your avatar went over a patch of ice and suddenly you were way in the lead. "What./WHAT?" you and Helen said simultaneously, you in confusion and Helen in anger. When you crossed the finish line first about ten seconds later, you were still confused, and Helen was still angry. Despite your confusion, you still accepted the high five Sans offered. "How dare you attempt to take my title of Penguin Champion?!?!" Helen demanded, looking furious- and possibly a bit embarrassed?- as she stared you down, awaiting your answer. "You guys take this waaaaay too seriously," was your response. Clearly, it was not the response Helen wanted, as her glare intensified. "Hey, you're the one who asked for this," you remind her, shrugging. "That's enough, we're moving on now. No more wasting our time, child." Linda stated, trying to regain control over the meeting. "You guys are literally the ones who asked for it," you can't help but point out, feeling a bit annoyed they're trying to pin the blame for that little distraction on you. Linda huffed, but changed the subject rather than continue the argument, something for which you were grateful. It was now approaching nine thirty pm, and you had classes tomorrow. "Now we need to discuss some safety regulations for a few sports teams..." Sans seemed to have fallen asleep after hearing only that sentence, and you couldn't really blame him. Yes, safety regulations were important, but listening to a list of regulations wasn't exactly the most fascinating thing in the world. You'd almost prefer a rematch with Helen. Almost. Because you figured you would need at least five people to hold her back if you somehow managed to beat her in a race again. When the meeting finally drew to a close around eleven pm- and hour of which had been spent listening to Linda read through an entire handbook of regulations- you were relieved. That had certainly been something, you had to admit. And even if it had gotten a bit crazy at some points, you were glad you had attended the meeting. When you arrived back at your house, your mother looked at you apprehensively. "So, how did it go?" she asked, as if expecting you to burst into a rant of how infuriating everything had been. "Not bad. Think I can go again next time?"

[thesiamay]

PUBLISHED ARTICLE #4

https://push.abs-cbn.com/2020/3/13/fresh-scoops/guess-whos-baking-nikki-valdez-discovers-a-sweet-20205

I personally interviewed Nikki Valdez for this article. I drafted questions for her to answer and then used all the details she shared to come up with an article that tells the story of her life, showbiz journey and business discovery.

Guess who's baking? Nikki Valdez discovers a sweet new route to success

By Thesia May Molines

Who can forget Tudis of Ang Tanging Ina or Karen of Got 2 Believe? These are just a few of the notable roles the lovable Nikki Valdez has played throughout her career that spans two decades.  

Starstudio.ph was given the privilege to visit her home—which at this time was smelling like heaven, and for a delicious reason. 

Nikki Valdez as a child

Ma. Alinica Garcia Valdez takes us to a walk down memory lane as she shares glimpses of her younger years. 

She begins: “Medyo boyish ako, I like hanging out and doing boy stuff.” Hailing from San Pedro, Laguna, the young Nikki enjoyed outdoor activities such as rollerblading, volleyball, and biking. She even recalls how she would go out with her cousins to mountain hikes and enjoy the stunning view.

Nikki was also an active choir member and was always present whenever there is a church activity. “I grew up being a member of a choir, siguro up until I think I was high school.”

According to her, it's where she developed her singing, which gave her the chance to enter the world of show business.

How she entered the showbiz scene

Summer of 1996—she was at her cousin's house when 80s balladeer Marco Sison was being interviewed in a showbiz talk show back then called Cristy Per Minute. Marco announced to the public that she will be having a summer workshop. Nikki’s mom, Mommy Norma, immediately asked her to give it a shot. At first, she was hesitant, telling her mom, “Ayoko ma, eh kasi mag-a-audition, baka hindi ako matanggap."

“One fear of mine is failure and rejection,” says Nikki. However, when the day of the audition came, her mom and grandmother were adamant that she should join.

“Wala akong prepared materials noon, I just grabbed whatever materials or music that I had there."

Unprepared, Nikki and her mother went to Perpetual Binan Ano ito, school? Church? What's the complete name for the audition, a town away from the family's hometown of San Pedro. During the audition proper, Nikki Valdez shared how nervous she was because other contestants were being asked to stop midway during their performance. When it was finally her turn, she sang Let the Pain Remain by Rachel Alejandro. She fondly shares how she will never forget that piece.

Everything about the audition is still vivid in her memory as she recalls: “Eh 'di ayun, kumanta ako, ‘tas tumigil na ako kasi yung mga nauna sakin, tumitigil? Sabi nila ‘ay hindi, continue’ so they made me finish the whole song and sabi nila ‘alright, we’re getting you,’ ganun!”

Out of all the talents Marco Sison had during that time, Nikki Valdez stood out the most. He told Nikki, “I want to bring you to ABS-CBN for an audition.”

After the audition, Nikki thought she failed to make the cut because she never got a call back. However, it turns out the staff just had a hard time reaching her!

“You know how I was informed? Through telegram. Kaya hindi na ako umabot sa Star Circle Batch 3, sabi nila sa Batch 4 ka na ilalaunch, kasi there is no time. You still need to undergo workshops, so yun. That’s how it happened.”

Nikki’s journey to becoming a star proves that some things are meant for you, no matter how long the delays might be. Years later, she has become a household name.

The struggles behind the limelight

Nikki Valdez never imagined in her wildest dreams that she would become a celebrity. She discloses that one of her greatest aspirations was to become an interior designer. “My first choice was Interior Design, kasi ang dami kong ideas. Ano ako eh, frustrated interior designer.”

Yet, destiny led her to somewhere else.

Even before Nikki Valdez became a celebrity, she also experienced hard times. After graduating from high school, she did not have the chance to study college right away because her family was struggling during those days.

Her desire to finish schooling didn't fade away despite such hindrances, however. When she already had the means to pursue college, she enrolled the moment she could. She said, “Parang hinanap ko 'yung ano ko—to finish school, to get into college, So I did. I took my chance.”

She juggled both work and education, but when things started to take a toll on her, she decided she needed to set aside some things for now.

According to her, “School had to take a backseat because showbiz was my bread and butter, and sabi ko, paano ako mag-aaral kung hindi ako magtatrabaho nung time na 'yun?”

It's a good thing she has supportive parents who were always by her side to guide her.

A mother’s love for her child is truly unconditional. Mommy Norma had to give up her job back then so she could take good care of her daughter. Her dad on the other hand is always at bay to drive for them during tapings.

Now that she is already a mother as well, Nikki is willing to do the same for her daughter, Olivia.

“As much as possible, when she has activities that would need my presence, I’m there. When I tell her I will be there, I will be there. Kasi kung ano lang naman kinalakihan mo, yun lang din maishashare mo sa children mo.”

Her daughter is turning 12 this year, and her condition is no secret to the public. Olivia has a congenital malformation in which her fingers have not fully developed. According to Nikki, accepting her daughter’s condition wasn’t that easy. At first, she was in denial, and she began to question her faith. But when Olivia was born, everything changed for Nikki.

“Nung lumabas siya, ginanun niya yung kamay niya sakin, sabi ko, ‘Ay ganda ng anak ko.’ Ayun sa una, puro fear, puro takot para sa anak ko, 'yun pala, siya pa magbibigay ng lakas ng loob. Siya 'yung nagbigay sa'kin nung may mas empathy ako sa mga batang ganun ang condition—but I learned from her."

Nikki Valdez also had her fair share of heartaches. Even before she met her Prince Charming and experienced her own happily-ever-after, she had to endure a series of heartbreaking moments—one of which was the separation from her then-husband. Amidst the turmoil the separation gave her, Nikki bravely faced the obstacles head-on, for her daughter's sake. 

In her effort to heal her broken heart, she wanted to do something to set her mind elsewhere. That was her lightbulb moment—during those empty, low times, the smell of butter, and cream, and so much love, would slowly creep in, and happily fill those spaces.   

The making of Ms. Buttercream

It all started as a hobby, and an outlet for emotions that were piling up inside her—but as Nikki took classes one after another, she fell in love with baking even more.

However, this passion had to take the backseat for a time because she and her then-husband, who were both staying in Canada, had difficulty sorting things out between them.  

Nikki had to go back to the Philippines—and when she did, she stumbled upon a brochure that made her remember her love for baking.  And it prompted her to try again.

Her interest in baking heightened when she got a chance to join the class of Queen of Hearts Couture Cakes, led by two registered Filipina nurses whose passion was also to bake.

“Du'n ko natutunan magdecorate using buttercream, and I for one, am a fan of icing, pastries or cakes. I have a sweet tooth, so I said, ‘Ay, maybe this is something I want to do in the future’. 'Pag magbabake ako ng cake, ang gagamitin kong icing is buttercream icing.”

Nikki Valdez dedicated more and more time and effort in baking. She recalls:

“Umabot talaga ako sa point na yung mga taga taste test ko yung family ko. So, nung sinabi ng mommy ko nu'n na ‘Anak, para namang pati aso hindi kakainin yan. So ginawa ko siya nang ginawa, and finally when I served it to my friends at nakikita kong ready na sila, sabi ko, parang pwede na ako magtake ng orders.”

Thus, Ms. Buttercream was born!

Although Nikki Valdez set to turn her passion into a business venture, she also had hesitations pushing through with it, because she did not know where she was headed to at first. But when people around her started believing in her capabilities—and enjoying her goodies—it gave her a boost of courage to finally turn it into a full-scale business.

Ms. Buttercream turns into a booming business

It was in September 2016 when she started accepting orders. Four years later, everything is turning out great for the celebrity actress-turned-entrepreneur.

People are starting to notice her cakes, and inquiries started to come in, one after another. From weddings to birthdays, you name it! People are setting up appointments months before the event just so she can accommodate them.  Coupled with the sweet taste of a new relationship that ended in a beautiful marriage, Nikki is all set to serve—and set for life.  

Currently, she has two cake flavors—red velvet cocoa and classic butter, but she reveals that she might come out with a new one soon.

She also gave us a peek on how she handles customers and the process of designing itself. “Of course, they tell me how they want the cake to look like, and I send them pegs, but I still add my touch to it.”

When asked what is the most fulfilling part of her baking journey, she answered, “In all their milestones, I am there through my cake. Kaya it’s more than pag sinasabi nilang, ‘Oh I like the cake, it’s very beautiful'—it’s me being a part of their lives. It makes me happy. Iba yung nabibigay niya sa'kin na happiness.”

Nikki Valdez and her love for baking taught us that it’s never too late to pursue what you really love, no matter how long it takes.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

INSTEAD OF THINKING OF THE FUTURE WITH VAGUE OPTIMISM, EXPLICITLY SEPARATE THE COMPONENTS

What's different about your brain after you have experience, and can you make that change happen faster? But if you don't have a good idea, because most people haven't had a big enough sample to pick friends from before then. Startups don't seem to want to be smart.1 A sales force is worth something, I'll admit. Maybe it will help to separate facts from hopes. Probably the single biggest piece of evidence, initially, will be unusually localized. He said their business model was crap.

It allows you to give an impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it will take you through everything you need to know in this phase is how to build them, Wozniak was able to make himself one. The problem with feeling you're doomed is not just a barbershop whose founders were unusually lucky and hard-working. Not because we're particularly benevolent, but it isn't the real thing. Adults can't avoid seeing that teenage kids are unhappy. They may feel they have nothing to invest. Zod Nazem, who's in charge of engineering at Yahoo, said: I actually put more value on the guy with the failed startup. Most product acquisitions have some component of fear.2 For most of college I was a kid I was firmly in the camp of bad.

It might seem that it would be a good plan. Many things people like, especially if no one else cares about them, and startups were selling them for a year's salary a copy. Sometimes it's 100%. Over the next few years will be like—all too accurately, in fact. They need to work at something that pays the bills too, even though you don't need the investors' money as much as they used to. But of course it's not a coincidence. Why did we have to train longer for them. Startups are a counterexample to the rule that haste makes waste. Constraints give your life shape. They don't realize that it takes work to be done. Don't the French realize these aren't startups?

Like any war, it's damaging even to the winners. Prestige is the opinion of anyone beyond your friends. I think more about this project, I realized, is that they're looking for the trick. They have no function for their form to follow. They seem to work just as well to go work for another company as we're suggesting, he might well have gone to work for Microsoft, you can take. Needless to say, my imitations didn't say anything either. It's not just because the returns are high but also because such investments are so easy to oversee. A company making $1000 a month a typical number early in YC and growing at 1% a week will grow 1. Later when things blow up they say I knew there was something off about him, but I don't think that would mean less opportunity, because satisfying current needs would lead to more.

Most fairly good ideas are adjacent to even better ones. So why are VCs interested only in high-growth companies? A sales force is worth something, I'll admit. Pick the one or at most two best speakers, and have them do most of the time is work. Or to put it more dramatically, by default do they live or die? Google, and so on. Boston would be significantly bigger now on the startup radar screen. This is one case where it pays to be self-indulgent. But we'd have preferred them to have cofounders before they applied.

Here's the answer: Do whatever's best for your users. Whereas adults, by definition, are not very capable. Let's start with a distinction that should be obvious but is often overlooked: not every newly founded company is a startup. Instead think about why they're asking for something, but to design beautiful rockets, or to understand how to program. All parents tend to be such outliers that your conscious mind would reject them as ideas for companies to explore them all.3 You're worrying about construction delays at your London office instead of the broken air conditioner in your studio apartment. She's so sensitive to character that it repels her even to fight with dishonest people. Our first batch, in the sense of hitting some big need straight on.

Out in the real world, instead of learn a lot, and that anyone else who did was a crank. Nerds aren't losers. The disadvantage of this route is that it's much larger. For example, they like largely for the feeling of virtue in liking them. If you're really getting a constant number of new customers, but the ratio of new customers every month, you're in the home stretch, and if you look, you can cry and say I want to stay here, and that anyone else who did was a crank. Barbershops are doing fine in the a department. And while that would probably have been better for him. Google, and Facebook all got started. It's sadly common to read that sort of narrow focus can be.

Make something people want. Batch after batch, the YC partners warn founders about mistakes they're about to make, and the company dies. The most important thing was to stay on the premises. Most nerds like quieter pleasures. Exception: If one of the top handful in the world. So you don't end up having as much competition as you might expect. Would all good nonprofits be good companies? Our first building had been a private home. There are two routes to that destination: The organic route: as you become more eminent, gradually to increase the parts of your job that you like at the expense of knowing what to do. There are only two things you need initially: an idea and don't grow fast enough, competitors will. And startups are in turn the most important may be that once you have users, the tamagotchi effect kicks in. Being smart seems to make you say, for a while, most people who can work for equity at 5-person companies.

Notes

Analects VII: 36, Fung trans. She was always good at acting that way.

Watt reinvented the steam engine. MITE Corp.

The ironic thing is, obviously, only for startups, and most sophisticated city in the country.

[carltondmiller]

The Lean Startup: Key Excerpts & Take Aways

Process:

The MVP is that version of the product that enables a full turn of the Build-Measure-Learn loop with a minimum amount of effort and the least amount of development time.

After securing initial customers, we change the product constantly—much too fast by traditional standards—shipping new versions of our product dozens of times every single day.

Validated learning. — Startups exist not just to make stuff, make money, or even serve customers. They exist to learn how to build a sustainable business.

perpetual testing (A/B) – perpetual!

Innovation accounting. — we need to focus on the boring stuff: how to measure progress, how to set up milestones, and how to prioritize work.

Types of “engines of growth”

Viral

“Sticky” “Engagement” business - probably addictive.

Paid engine of growth

Viral coefficient. How many users did a user bring with them? Greater than 1 = epidemic, less than 1 = disaster.

Example: World of Warcraft

What matters is how much retention or how much engagement you get?

They would never make a decision that reduces the addictive quality of the product - even if it increases the other engines of growth.

Make money from each customer, then re-invest that money into advertising or customer acquisition.

Will product grow? Take lifetime value of customer and subtract out customer acquisition - if the number is positive you will grow, if negative you will shrink.

Four valuable key questions:

Do consumers recognize that they have the problem you are trying to solve?

If there was a solution, would they buy it?

Would they buy it from us?

Can we build a solution for that problem?

Six lessons and takeaways:

Tomorrow will be different: different services, products, approaches; management systems. Be in early on these tomorrow changes.

You simply have to be experimenting constantly. Constantly!

Learn what to measure. Only what brings actual growth is worth measuring.

Always be practicing “lean” – (lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources).

Get rid of all “wasted” effort. Do only what is needed. And, only what is needed for the next “step.”

Always be practicing continuous innovation.

Notes:

Startup success can be engineered by following the right process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught.

lean manufacturing, design thinking, customer development, and agile development. (This) represents a new approach to creating continuous innovation. It’s called the Lean Startup.

It is our challenge to do something great with the opportunity we have been given. The Lean Startup movement seeks to ensure that those of us who long to build the next big thing will have the tools we need to change the world.

To cite but one example, one often hears commentators lament the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States over the previous two decades, but one rarely hears about a corresponding loss of manufacturing capability. That’s because total manufacturing output in the United States is increasing (by 15 percent in the last decade) even as jobs continue to be lost (see the charts below). In effect, the huge productivity increases made possible by modern management and technology have created more productive capacity than firms know what to do with.

The Lean Startup is not a collection of individual tactics. It is a principled approach to new product development.

“Success is not delivering a feature; success is learning how to solve the customer’s problem.”

Early adopters use their imagination to fill in what a product is missing. …Early adopters are suspicious of something that is too polished: if it’s ready for everyone to adopt, how much advantage can one get by being early?

Successful entrepreneurs do not give up at the first sign of trouble, nor do they persevere the plane right into the ground. Instead, they possess a unique combination of perseverance and flexibility.

Customers often don’t know what they want.

Only 5 percent of entrepreneurship is the big idea, the business model, the whiteboard strategizing, and the splitting up of the spoils. The other 95 percent is the gritty work that is measured by innovation accounting: product prioritization decisions, deciding which customers to target or listen to, and having the courage to subject a grand vision to constant testing and feedback.

Remember that although we write the feedback loop as Build-Measure-Learn because the activities happen in that order, our planning really works in the reverse order: we figure out what we need to learn and then work backwards to see what product will work as an experiment to get that learning. Thus, it is not the customer, but rather our hypothesis about the customer, that pulls work from product development and other functions. Any other work is waste.

Excerpts:

“It’s not just about doing focus groups it’s not just about double checking your vision - it is really about integrating this concept of testing our ideas rigorously throughout the product development and marketing processes as we go, even as we scale up.“ - Eric Reis

Build, measure, learn feedback loop. We want to minimize the time it takes to go through that loop.

"In each iteration, are we getting closer to 1.0 (if we’re at .1) for Viral Coefficient - for instance”

“Thus, the right way to think about the product development process in a Lean Startup is that it is responding to pull requests in the form of experiments that need to be run.”

“The two most important assumptions entrepreneurs make are what I call the value hypothesis and the growth hypothesis.”

“when you have only one test, you don’t have entrepreneurs, you have politicians, because you have to sell.”

“They will ask to go back to the old way of working, in which they had the opportunity to “stay efficient” by working in larger batches and passing work between departments.”

“The CEO and VP of product, instead of building their business, are engaged in the drudgery of solving just one customer’s problem. Instead of marketing themselves to millions, they sold themselves to one.”

“Startup success is not a consequence of good genes or being in the right place at the right time. Startup success can be engineered by following the right process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught.”

“One remarkable part of the SnapTax story is what the team leaders said when I asked them to account for their unlikely success. Did they hire superstar entrepreneurs from outside the company? No, they assembled a team from within Intuit. Did they face constant meddling from senior management, which is the bane of innovation teams in many companies? No, their executive sponsors created an “island of freedom” where they could experiment as necessary. Did they have a huge team, a large budget, and lots of marketing dollars? Nope, they started with a team of five. What allowed the SnapTax team to innovate was not their genes, destiny, or astrological signs but a process deliberately facilitated by Intuit’s senior management.”

“if you are asking, you’re not there yet.”

“waiting too long to release can lead to the ultimate waste: making something that nobody wants.”

“there is no bigger destroyer of creative potential than the misguided decision to persevere.”

“Just as scientific experimentation is informed by theory, startup experimentation is guided by the startup’s vision. The goal of every startup experiment is to discover how to build a sustainable business around that vision.”

“This is the same problem that established companies experience. Their past successes were built on a finely tuned engine of growth. If that engine runs its course and growth slows or stops, there can be a crisis if the company does not have new startups incubating within its ranks that can provide new sources of growth. Companies of any size can suffer from this perpetual affliction. They need to manage a portfolio of activities, simultaneously tuning their engine of growth and developing new sources of growth for when that engine inevitably runs its course.”

“Product managers figure out what features are likely to please customers; product designers then figure out how those features should look and feel.”

“Part of the special challenge of being a startup is the near impossibility of having your idea, company, or product be noticed by anyone, let alone a competitor.”

“achieving failure: successfully executing a plan that leads nowhere.”

“Visionaries are especially afraid of a false negative: that customers will reject a flawed MVP that is too small or too limited.

The solution to this dilemma is a commitment to iteration. You have to commit to a locked-in agreement—ahead of time—that no matter what comes of testing the MVP, you will not give up hope. Successful entrepreneurs do not give up at the first sign of trouble, nor do they persevere the plan right into the ground. Instead, they process a unique combination of perseverance and flexibility.”

“You can’t take learning to the bank; you can’t spend it or invest it.”

“There is a reason all past management revolutions have been led by engineers: management is human systems engineering.”

“All innovation begins with vision. It’s what happens next that is critical.”

“Startup, I have always been a bit of a troublemaker at the companies at which I have worked, pushing for rapid iteration, data-driven decision making, and early customer involvement.”

“entrepreneurship should be considered a viable career path for innovators inside large organizations.”

“The Lean Startup asks people to start measuring their productivity differently. Because startups often accidentally build something nobody wants, it doesn’t matter much if they do it on time and on budget. The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build—the thing customers want and will pay for—as quickly as possible. In other words, the Lean Startup is a new way of looking at the development of innovative new products that emphasizes fast iteration and customer insight, a huge vision, and great ambition, all at the same time.”

“If we stopped wasting people’s time, what would they do with it?”

“Only 5 percent of entrepreneurship is the big idea, the business model, the whiteboard strategizing, and the splitting up of the spoils. The other 95 percent is the gritty work that is measured by innovation accounting: product prioritization decisions, deciding which customers to target or listen to, and having the courage to subject a grand vision to constant testing and feedback.”

“Most of the time customers don’t know what they want in advance.)”

“This is an important rule: a good design is one that changes customer behavior for the better.”

“Startups exist not just to make stuff, make money, or even serve customers. They exist to learn how to build a sustainable business

“the Lean Startup is a new way of looking at the development of innovative new products that emphasizes fast iteration and customer insight, a huge vision, and great ambition, all at the same time.”

“After more than ten years as an entrepreneur, I came to reject that line of thinking. I have learned from both my own successes and failures and those of many others that it’s the boring stuff that matters the most. Startup success is not a consequence of good genes or being in the right place at the right time. Startup success can be engineered by following the right process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught.”

“The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.”

“Zero invites imagination, but small numbers invite questions about whether large numbers will ever materialize.”

“We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.”

“Reading is good, action is better.”

“As you consider building your own minimum viable product, let this simple rule suffice: remove any feature, process, or effort that does not contribute directly to the learning you seek.”

“A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.”

“if you cannot fail, you cannot learn.”

“The big question of our time is not Can it be built? but Should it be built? This places us in an unusual historical moment: our future prosperity depends on the quality of our collective imaginations.”

“You cannot be sure you really understand any part of any business problem unless you go and see for yourself firsthand. It is unacceptable to take anything for granted or to rely on the reports of others.”

“What if we found ourselves building something that nobody wanted? In that case what did it matter if we did it on time and on budget?”

“Peter Drucker said, “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”2”

“In the Lean Startup model, an experiment is more than just a theoretical inquiry; it is also a first product.”

“Entrepreneurs are everywhere. You don’t have to work in a garage to be in a startup. The concept of entrepreneurship includes anyone who works within my definition of a startup: a human institution designed to create new products and services under conditions of extreme uncertainty. That means entrepreneurs are everywhere and the Lean Startup approach can work in any size company, even a very large enterprise, in any sector or industry. 2. Entrepreneurship is management. A startup is an institution, not just a product, and so it requires a new kind of management specifically geared to its context of extreme uncertainty. In fact, as I will argue later, I believe “entrepreneur” should be considered a job title in all modern companies that depend on innovation for their future growth. 3. Validated learning. Startups exist not just to make stuff, make money, or even serve customers. They exist to learn how to build a sustainable business. This learning can be validated scientifically by running frequent experiments that allow entrepreneurs to test each element of their vision. 4. Build-Measure-Learn. The fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. All successful startup processes should be geared to accelerate that feedback loop. 5. Innovation accounting. To improve entrepreneurial outcomes and hold innovators accountable, we need to focus on the boring stuff: how to measure progress, how to set up milestones, and how to prioritize work. This requires a new kind of accounting designed for startups—and the people who hold them accountable.”

“In my Toyota interviews, when I asked what distinguishes the Toyota Way from other management approaches, the most common first response was genchi gembutsu—whether I was in manufacturing, product development, sales, distribution, or public affairs. You cannot be sure you really understand any part of any business problem unless you go and see for yourself firsthand. It is unacceptable to take anything for granted or to rely on the reports of others.”

“Anything those customers experience from their interaction with a company should be considered part of that company’s product.”

[ginnyzero]

Bookstore Shelf Sadness and Sticker Shock

(originally posted July 2018, hasn’t changed as far as I know)

Last week Monday, I walked into a book store and walked out without buying anything.

Usually, this is a cause for celebration for me. It’s a test of my self-control. Can I go into the bookstore and not come out with arms full of books? This time, it was different. I didn’t want to buy any of the books I saw. I haven’t really been in a book store for over two years I think and while that brick and mortar chain isn’t my favorite chain ever, I can usually find something that I can get excited about.

Sure, I didn’t have a great deal of time. I don’t really have money to spending on a book or two or three. (My gift cards that I haven’t used are for another store entirely. I don’t think I can get to that store by bus.) And when I looked for authors I have been following, they didn’t have anything new. (Look, I’m not about to be capitulated by another book of short stories. Okay.)

So, I was reading the shelves looking for authors that maybe I haven’t tried or that seemed interesting. You know, in the few minutes I had and was confronted with the fact that virtually nothing was facing outwards and that big blocks of shelf space were taken up by very old, very stodgy, old school fantasy and science fiction with a few shelves of really big name current authors such as Butcher, Mcguire and Harris. So, they’ve got good agents or publishers, go them. And a very large shelf of Brandon Sanderson who is the “successor” of Robert Jordan.

Asimov. Asimov had a book turned face out. (A Foundation novel no less.)

And I didn’t have time to stand there and start pulling out books of the few names in between that I didn’t know or maybe I did know and have forgotten about. Nor, did I have the energy or desire because why the hell am I having to comb through the Ben Bovas and LE Modesitt Jrs and Asimov of all things to try and find someone who is new, fresh and exciting? (Yes, Tolkien is just as bad taking up space. I’m sure Tad Williams had his shelf too not that I could see it. There was a cart in the way and no one emptying it.) I could name more. Don’t get me started.

There was a very nice shelf of licensed fiction of Star Trek, Star Wars and World of Warcraft and so on too. (I can't complain, that was high school for me.)

Going onto websites is worse by the way. (There is usually no way to start editing “originally printed before X date” out. I mean, even fanfic archives have “most recently published” but I do that on a BOOK store website and I STILL get reprints of scifi classics. No. Bad. No biscuit. No sale.

By the time I would have taken out the old school authors and I’d include Lackey and McCaffery on this list despite liking McCaffery and Lackey. (Though Todd’s taken over from Anne and I’ve heard things about the quality. Good thing I didn’t really stick with Pern to care.) (And Lackey’s latest collab made me think of fairytales meets pirates in a historical fantasy setting and man that seems tiresome from her. Oh, a fencing protag? Really? Um. No thanks, not enough.) Then if you took the big contemporary authors off, there really wouldn’t have been a lot left.

And so I left my favorite section and wandered through the rest of the store looking around because I just like book stores. I’d done something good. I’d gone to a job place. This was a bit of a treat before I got a haircut, bought a sub, hopped a bus and went home. And if I’d seen something I might have bought it because “treat!” I came upon 3, yes 3, aisle length bookshelves full, and maybe we can call them overfull with books that were buy 2 get the 3rd three. AKA BARGAIN BOOKS.

At the first and the second, I was like “Okay, oh, look the soft cover of popular contemporary urban fantasy author, huh.” (I already own the hard cover.)  But at the third, my heart just kind of went out of the book store and I left. (I didn’t even see a local authors section, sooo…)

3 shelves of bargain books. 3 aisle length shelves.

I could, I could cry.

Think of all the wonderful authors, the great stories we could have  if we filled those shelves with bold, brave and new writers instead of publishers filling the bookshelves with scifi and fantasy authors whose books should be in classic anthologies and bargain books. (Hell, my copy of the Foundation Series was an soft cover three books in one anthology. Why are these being printed separately and faced out like they're new books again?)

Think of all the beautiful stories. Think about the creative people who could have their dreams fulfilled of seeing their books on a bookshelf. Think of all the agents who wouldn’t have to reject so many MSes. Think of all the voices that could be expressed.

I’m sure there are arguments. “Well, books are expensive and bargain books let people buy books.” -bluster-

A paperback book that costs 6.50 cents to make is being sold at 9 or 10 dollars. No wonder books aren’t selling. No one can afford them. (And they’re paying part time employees 9 bucks an hour and can’t pay authors a living wage of royalties. Ohkay. Right then.) I didn't see anything I wanted in the store, so I didn't look at prices except for the one hard cover book. I checked the price of paperbacks online, they said 16.00 with 9 or 10 being "sale" prices. I later went back to the store to check. Store price on the back is 9 or 10. (Remembers when books were $5 or even $4. -cries-)

Since books are too expensive then maybe traditional publishers need to figure a way to make them less expensive and I don’t know, pay their authors more at the same time. Or, how about, more companies around the world pay their workers a good living wage that goes up in accordance to cost of living instead of fixed percentage increases that leave workers way behind market value even after one or two years working for the same company. That way people could afford books.

Or how about we donate those extra books that don’t sell to libraries? Or maybe publishers should make smaller batches of books?

Or… hmm… there must be a solution somewhere.

Look, it costs as much to print on demand the Dawn Warrior PER BOOK as it does to print thousands of books for a traditionally published author. But that’s just print cost for DW. Their print cost is 50 cents and the rest is overhead. My print cost doesn’t include a sales team or a cover designer or an agent or an editor or any marketing or advertising or negotiating deals to go on a big book chain or indie book store shelves. That’s just the cost of printing. Should I up the Dawn Warrior’s price because of that?

I mean, not a lot of people are buying it anyways.

Bargain books aren’t a great deal if you want to support authors whose next deal depends on the first week sales of their latest books. That you have to buy full price (outside of any jazzy member discounts. And man, do they like jazzy member discounts.)

Maybe if they lowered the cost of books, more people would buy them, demand would increase and ebook piracy may go down. (Because publishers need to find a way to handle that too.)

I’ll be honest. I haven’t been keeping up with book stores and book prices. I’ve been too tired. I’ve been ill. I’ve been busy working on half a dozen little projects with what energy I have. Apparently, my authors that I read haven’t been publishing. So, I didn’t care because it’s emotional labor to find new authors and I own so many books, so many, that I don’t reread them all already. Maybe this is something you’ve already noticed. I mean, I’ve noticed the over stuffing of my favorite shelves with old school authors like Brooks and Jordan before. It wasn’t as important to me because I could still find new authors that had a bit of space on the shelves or were being featured face out. (And do Norton or Cherryh get the same treatment. I think not.)

You know, I was thinking of getting rid of some of my used books of authors I haven’t read in over a year or so. And now part of me is going “No. I’m camping out.” And is hiding all my books under my bed covers because just in case I want to read them again someday and they’ll be too expensive to get again.

This is rather a moot point at the moment as I’m not even sure how I’d divest myself of these books.

I think I need to go huddle somewhere and try not to think about how back in 1997 when I got into star wars paperbacks were 4.99 and I saved my allowance for weeks hoping we’d go to Wal-Mart and I’d have enough to get all 3 of a Star Wars Trilogy.

Bookstores used to be this place where I felt all my dreams could come true between pages of novels. And now, I don't feel that there anymore. And that's sad because I love books.

[yesyourusman-blog]

RISKS OF SEO TO TAKE AND RISKS OF SEO TO AVOID

Many business people have difficulty seeing the value of SEO, and we understand it. There is a lot of information and misinformation about search engine optimization, and it can really increase the difficulty of this decision.

While an effective SEO strategy will take many months to get positive results for a company, and the tactics may not make sense for those who are not SEO, it can make a significant improvement in a company's exposure and online earnings.

Many companies are naturally nervous about trying something they are not familiar with, but let's face it, almost any commercial decision will carry some risks. Some can be avoided and others can lead to sudden and severe growth.

The question that must be asked, then, is what SEO risks are worthwhile and which ones should be avoided.

However, before we start, let's put this first: the biggest SEO risk that a company can do is avoid SEO altogether. Everyone has that? Cool. Let's consider some more.

SEO risks to take

1. Make and test big and small changes

The general objective of SEO is to obtain traffic and, ultimately, transactions on your website.

None of these will happen if nobody clicks on your website in the first place.

So, what happens if your website is positioned well for certain keywords, but nobody is clicking on your link?

There may be several reasons for this, and it may take some time to concentrate on exactly why it is not working as well as expected.

And the only way to do this is through A / B tests. You'll have to take one item at a time, be it the meta descriptions, the titles, the content and more, and test them against new variations.

That is very good and even a little obvious. So what does a "risk" do?

It is likely to take a bit of trial and error to find the right combination of copywriting and design that results in maximum website traffic and transactions. During this time, you may find a combination that does not work well and ends up reducing the traffic you have, at least for a while.

However, the risk is worth it, because once you find the best results, you can concentrate on that element and continue directing more traffic and obtaining better returns.

2. Obtain and give high quality backlinks

Why would a company offer a link to the website of another company and risk the web user leaving your page?

Backlinks are a well-established part of SEO, and most companies want to get as many of them as possible. They help increase rankings and build authority.

However, it is not just about being the one with the most links. Sometimes you have to give back a little.

So, yes, you can risk losing some web visitors by providing a link to other high-quality sites, but at the same time, you are showing Google what you are using and referring to trusted sites with established authority.

Just keep in mind that web pages that knowingly include links to malicious websites and low-quality spam are at risk of being penalized by Google. You can also be penalized by getting too many links to your site from those low-quality sites.

3. Improve the URL structure of your site

Ideally, the URL of your homepage should be short, with only the name of the company, such as: www.yourcompany.com. Short, simple, concise and easy to remember.

However, subsequent pages must have specific keywords and be more specific about the content of the web page.

Even so, you should not let the URL get out of control. If they are too long and descriptive, the search engine will truncate its screen with one [...] after a cut point.

Therefore, it may be time to modify some of your URLs with a revision of the structure of the site.

The risk, here, is that any type of change like this can affect your ranking. As you modify old URLs and reduce 301 traffic to new ones, you can see some drops in traffic and rankings.

However, if you do it right, you can end up with an optimized structure that appeals to both search engines and Internet users.

4. Check your website

From time to time, websites need to be updated and redesigned. Web site redesigns can be risky and expensive, not to mention the time you spend.

However, eventually, your website may need a new update. Maybe it just looks very old-fashioned. On the other hand, it may be optimized for search engines, but it is difficult for human users to navigate. There could be several reasons to take another look at your website and maybe, just maybe, consider rebuilding it from scratch.

Of course, just like changing the structure of the URL, these types of changes carry a risk for their classification, since Google tries to re-evaluate your site. In fact, it carries the risk of alienating customers who have become accustomed to your website as it is.

However, Google generally understands that all websites go through these reviews from time to time, so their rankings will generally recover. You just have to be patient. Most of your clients will eventually also get used to the changes. More importantly, updating your website has a better chance of attracting many more new customers.

5. Buy expired or available domains

Some website owners, for whatever reason, do not renew their domains, so they are available for others to buy and use.

Buying some domains with a history and redirecting them to your site can be a quick and easy way to increase the number of valuable backlinks that add some content to your site.

However, there are some serious risks with this technique, so you should only do so when you know exactly what you are doing.

The domain, for example, has to be related to your business. It must be professional and legitimate, because if that domain continues to receive ratings and traffic, those visitors will be redirected to your site and there is nothing more frustrating than arriving at a site that is not related to your original search.

In addition, expired domains that were filled with spam content and links will also be transferred to your website, which will cause your site to fall in the rankings and be penalized by Google.

However, this tactic is economical and has the potential to attract serious traffic to your site if you follow best practices.

SEO risks to avoid

Now that you have an idea of ​​the SEO risks that are worth taking, here are SEO risks that will probably make your business more harmful than good:

1. Poor login pages (or any entry page)

Entry pages are simple and easy to create in batches to target specific keywords and groups of keywords. Reliable SEO avoids login pages as a general rule because Google does not like them and penalizes sites that use them.

Google's opinion on these pages should be sufficient reason to avoid this particular risk.

The only time Google will allow entry pages to slide is if they offer unique, clear and valuable content and information for the site visitor; in other words, only if it acts as the regular content of your website.

There's simply no reason to worry about them, so do not take chances

2. Dismissing neutral backlinks

You want good backlinks to your website, not bad ones. What about those who are neutral, who do not help, but who do not harm the ranking and SEO of your website?

It is possible that neutral backlinks will not give your website the SEO boost it needs, but neither will it be subject to the potentially harsh penalties of Google.

In fact, with the Google Penguin update, some penalties for incorrect backlinks are due to search engines realizing that the websites themselves have no control over every site that links to theirs.

As a result, it is more difficult for a site to be punished by Google for malicious backlinks.

The only way you can know if the backlinks on your website are bad, spam and low quality is if you have noticed that Google has taken manual actions on your site.

If Google has not taken any action against your website, the backlinks on your website are safe, although they may not be of sufficient quality to improve the search rankings on your site.

It is possible to reject certain links, but you must be careful about it. If you try to reject all your neutral links, you risk blocking sites that can improve your ranking.

3. Delete or condense content or entire pages

It may seem that it is not a big problem to remove a page from your website, especially if it is a product or service that your company has discontinued.

Once a page is deleted, the keywords you once classified are gone. The same happens with the URL of the page, which also includes those specific keywords on the page.

Instead of risking the loss of those classifications, consider maintaining the website even if you have discontinued the product. Simply leave a message on the page for the visitor who redirects you to a similar page with a relevant product or service.

If you are merging or condensing two pages into one, be sure to include 301 redirects in old URLs to ensure that all link traffic and traffic is not lost.

4. Use of exact match keywords in the anchor text

It may seem logical to have your specific keyword as anchor text for a link to your website. After all, you want your site to rank for that keyword or phrase.

This practice was popular for SEOers in the past who had the same logic. Unfortunately, this practice was abused by the "black hats" who used an excessive amount of anchor texts of exact match keywords to link to their websites, and the links did not come exactly from the most authorized sites.

Since then, Google has cracked down on this practice and will punish sites that exceed this practice. Do not take chances Look for more natural ways to link to your site and develop a more varied backlink portfolio.

5. Making too many "small" SEO changes in one place

From time to time, it is a good idea to update the content of your website. In fact, Google favors fresh and updated content.

However, constantly changing the content and appearance of your website, even if it is little by little, strictly for SEO purposes, will not go unnoticed by visitors to your website or Google.

If you make too many changes to your website or make them too often, the warning signs will increase for Google, which will probably consider your website as suspicious and will likely penalize your site.

Over time, visitors to your site will also notice the changes (especially since most of the changes were probably made to search engines instead of them). If this happens, they may find your site more difficult to navigate and find value. Some visitors may even begin to think that your site is suspicious.

Balance of risk and reward

SEO is essential for any business to succeed. SEO has many risks, some of which are worth taking because they can produce favorable results for a business. Other risks can damage and hinder Internet marketing strategy and the online presence of a company.

As risky as SEO is, the only risky thing is that a company does not do any SEO.

Social networks have their own share of risks. Therefore, before jumping to your next campaign, download and complete this checklist to make sure everything is ready to begin.

[topicprinter]

Matt Damon is known to tell people who ask him advice about acting that they should quit. The reason being, if you’re going to succeed in that business you’re going to be told “no” many more times than anyone will tell you “yes”. You might find more encouragement in trying to start a company, but you’re still going to face a lot of rejection, bad news, and unexpected downturns that you’ll need to overcome if you’re going to succeed.I wanted to give a case study based on my experiences, as a real example is always better than a hypothetical. My name is Sean, and I created the [Toast! gummy](toastgummy.com). Based on the latest clinical science, my gummy helps boost your body’s response to alcohol. The idea was born not, as you might guess, because I was a drinker who got hungover a lot. Instead it came about from a major illness, which was initially (as it turns out, erroneously) blamed on alcohol. I wasn’t much of a drinker so I started researching how alcohol interacts with your body, and found a number of fascinating recent studies about how that damage (not just long term, but even hangovers) could be prevented with a number of naturally occurring compounds.Enter rejection #1: I asked my doctors about the studies I was reading, and basically got blank stares in response. When I reached out to the authors of those studies, most of them ignored me. If I was going to go from reading clinical studies to some kind of product or business, I was going to have to do it on my own.Instead of just dropping the idea, I decided to double down instead and do some testing of my own. After I got healthy I started a MBA program, so I had a large pool of people who went out regularly. Many of the compounds I’d read about were fairly common supplements, so I started buying them and asked people to try them before they went out.Enter rejection #2: As it turns out, convincing people to take strange pills before they go out drinking is a challenge, even when you know them personally. Even though a lot of people were sketched out and wouldn’t try them, I found that the international crowd in my program was much more willing to try what I was offering.With trial and error, I was able to develop a formula that seemed really effective. Problem was, even with people vouching for it, the fact it was pills still scared off people. So I took that rejection, and turned it into inspiration: if people don’t want pills, maybe they’ll try something in a different format? So I started mixing my formula into liquid and having people try that.Enter rejection #3: While people were more willing to try a shot, it smelled and tasted positively horrifying. I got samples from flavor houses, talked to food scientists, tried a dozen different ways to get the taste down...nothing worked. Then things got worse.Enter rejection #4: My MBA program offered a variety of programs and services for startups that students were working on, and I applied for almost all of them. Funding? Applied for. Summer accelerator? Applied for. Pretty much across the board, I got turned down. I had one advocate in my corner, who led part of the school’s accelerator, and she confided that the “powers that be” had basically vetoed supporting my business because of its ties to alcohol.At this point, it would’ve been really easy to throw in the towel. Costs were building up from buying all the testing materials, and without any funding or support, it was either give up and get an internship, or debt finance the company...and put post-MBA job prospects in peril if the company didn’t work. Still, I knew my formula worked, and I knew people would want what I was making if I could make it in a form that wasn’t completely horrifying. So, I kept at it.As I entered the second year of my MBA, I gave up for the first time. No matter how many varieties I tried, no drink worked. But rather than give up entirely, I started experimenting with other ways I could make it.Enter lucky break #1: Another supporter of mine at my school was able to get me a free ticket to a conference at which a number of pharma and supplement companies would be present. While I was there, I saw how a number of them were marketing gummy vitamins and other gummy products. And that sparked an idea.When I got home, I bought some jello, some gelatin, and tossed my formula into the mix. Just like that, I went from god awful smelling and tasting drinks, to a gummy that actually tasted pretty decent! And the difference was night and day compared to the pills and drinks I had before. Whereas previously I’d had to convince people to try my formula, everyone loved the gummies. At this point I knew I definitely had something, but I also realized I couldn’t make a scalable company mixing my formula into jello in my kitchen, so I started looking into what it would take to do it at scale.Enter rejection #5: To sell a supplement, not only would it have to be made by a FDA registered manufacturer, but those manufacturers required massive minimum orders. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of gummies. I had already been financing the company through credit card debt for the better part of a year, but it would take multiple times what I’d already put in just to order the minimum. Still, it only cost a couple of thousand to run a small R&D trial to prove the concept, so once again I bit the bullet and kept digging.R&D proved successful, and were were able to make a gummy bear that the manufacturer could mass produce. At this point, my MBA program was just about over, but I had a product that people were really liking, and a pathway to bringing it to market. I just needed the funds to do it.Enter rejection #6: Ultimately, I decided to run a crowdfunding campaign. I spent the better of two months preparing, but still was trying to get the campaign ready for graduation. It was a disaster. The entire thing was rushed beyond belief, I had virtually no gummies to show, I hadn’t even finished the basic packaging design so I had no demos to show, and while I had a group of backers from my MBA program, it was entirely too self contained and overlapping an audience to work. So, for the second time I quit, and cancelled the campaign when it became apparent it wasn’t going to work.At this point, I was totally stuck. I didn’t have the funds to bring my product to market, nor could I legally make it myself in order to start slow and build up an customer base. So I started doing more fundraising. I’d met a few angels and VCs in the course of business school, and I met with as many as I could. I sat in on pitches, and gave pitches of my own. But, things were going slowly.Enter lucky break #2: while my crowdfunding campaign hadn’t worked out, it had received some positive attention from my friends and family network. Even after I cancelled it, a number expressed interest in the idea and the company, and I was ultimately able to raise an initial seed round that would allow me to make deposits on a first batch of gummies. But I still needed to raise more if I really wanted to be able to launch.Enter rejection #7: I spent most of the summer and early fall fundraising. It was a slog. Lots of conversations that went nowhere, and lots of “keep us updated”. I had some backing, but not enough if I wanted to aim for the kind of growth I was aiming for. I had bootstrapped a company with minimal funds once before so I knew exactly how much of a tooth and nail battle that was, and it was one I really wanted to avoid if I could. But I might not have a choice.Enter lucky break #3: One of the biggest parts of raising funds is networking. You never know who can make the right introduction, and in my case, that introduction came from an entirely unexpected source. Throughout my time working on the gummies, I’d had a number of CPG professionals inquire and basically pitch their services in launching the company; my background was in tech, so working with someone with more industry experience was something I had interest in. One firm in particular seemed like a good match, but it was definitely going to require me to raise more funds. As it turned out, that firm had its own VC network, and so an introduction was made. Less than a month later, I had a term sheet. Of course, things are never quite that easy. It took another two months and lots of back and forth with attorneys to go from offer sheet to signed deal.Of course, even now the journey is far from over. We have a great product, strong team, and high quality support, but curveballs still come from unexpected places, and there’s still plenty of ups and downs. But we’ll keep figuring out how to make things work, because if you’ve read this whole post, you know there are a lot of times I could’ve easily quit, but instead steady work (and a little good fortune) has conquered those obstacles. Problems of all shapes and sizes will come up. But building a quality product and a quality company means enduring through those problems.TL; DR: Starting a company requires facing a lot of challenges that can seem insurmountable, but with perseverance and creativity they can be overcome. Nothing good comes easy.

[drcchicago]

Brand Authenticity – Earn and Keep The Trust Of Your Consumers

Brand Authenticity – Earn and Keep The Trust Of Your Consumers

“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” Quote from Polonius in Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3, by William Shakespeare

It is often said that consumers are placing greater importance on authenticity when choosing which brands to support. Although there is still much discussion of what it even means for brands to be authentic, there are clear implications on what this means in terms of positioning, packaging, and innovation. We believe that fostering brand authenticity goes beyond having a “clean label” and “organic” ingredients, and that it is about creating an atmosphere of trust and goodwill between a brand and its consumers. Below are some ways that we believe brands can achieve this:

1- Be truthful and transparent – Understandably, brands want to put their “best foot forward” and highlight those aspects of their product that help close the sale. But when brands stretch the truth, or even worse, break the law, they can lose all respect, credibility, and trust. Consumers are also becoming savvier and less afraid to ask the tough questions, and when brands are caught in a lie, many consumers may leave and never come back.

2- Embrace your brand’s heritage – As with any relationship, consumers often judge a brand’s authenticity based on its history. That is why when a brand behaves in a way that is inconsistent with its past, and too far removed from its established image, consumers often reject it as fake or “two-faced.” The best brand strategy and design often helps to reinforce a brand’s heritage, while demonstrating its relevance in the modern age.

As a 4th generation family business, Enstrom has mastered the craft of making world-class confections. Every batch of traditional almond toffee is still made by hand and with only the finest ingredients. So when Enstrom needed to refresh its brand strategy, identity, and packaging design, it chose to embrace its heritage rather than run away from it. The brand’s toffee heritage also helped it stretch to other types of confections, especially chocolate, broadening its appeal to a wider range of consumers and occasions.

3- Aim to tell a story – Human beings are wired to remember stories, and telling the right stories can help generate trust. Whether it is the choice of materials, shape, or graphic design, your design can also help your brand tell the right story, or at least provoke a conversation. For example, Kyra’s Shea Medleys, a startup beauty brand, was born when founder Kyra Nicole discovered that pure, unrefined Shea butter is one of the healthiest ingredients for natural hair and skin. Because all its ingredients are organic, natural, and ethically made, its packaging focuses on telling the brand’s compelling ingredient story: Kyra combines unrefined Shea Butter with other natural ingredients, such a raw butters, essential oils, carrier oils and botanical extracts to yield outstanding results.

4- Have a decisive point of view – An all too common mistake brands make is trying to be all things to all people, so they “water-down” their design to appease the masses. Consumers can see through that, and when a more focused competitor better connects with them, they are likely to leave. Instead of diluting your message, you should unapologetically aim to tailor your brand design to your target. Hillshire Farm’s Bold & Hearty lineup, for example, is specifically designed to delight those seeking bold flavor variety. The packaging doesn’t just speak about bold flavor – it shows it.

5- Be a leader, not a follower – The most authentic brands prefer to carve their own path instead of just reacting to competitors. This doesn’t mean that brands should ignore what their competitors are doing in the marketplace, but rather, that brands should be more attuned to their consumers’ desires and needs. It means giving consumers what they really want, before they are even able to ask for it themselves. A great example of this is Sargento Balanced Breaks®, a winner of the prestigious, 2017 Nielsen Breakthrough Innovation Award. Sargento was quick to recognize an increase in snacking among its target consumers, who were seeking an exciting and great tasting snacking experience, without the guilt. Their solution was to create a modern line of multi-component cheese snacks that delivered a balance between nutrition and taste experience, generating $153MM its first two years in-market.

Authenticity is not a fad, but rather an ongoing effort that brands must pursue every day. A brand’s positioning, packaging, and innovation play a crucial role in establishing credibility with your consumers, so they need to be managed carefully and diligently. Brands who do this are best positioned to win minds and hearts, along with market share. 

from Design Resource Center http://www.drcchicago.com/news/22/brand-authenticity-earn-and-keep-the-trust-of-your-consumers

[billydmacklin]

#92: The Household Staples We Never Buy

Do you reject certain “household staples?” We do! And it turns out a lot of other people do too – to the point that experts are saying they might someday disappear. So this week we’re breaking down how and why the typical home (and its contents) might be changing, along with revealing what modern comforts we’ve deemed unnecessary in our house (one of them is weird, I’m warning you). We’re also sharing how we found the best spring break home we’ve ever rented, and how we navigated the stresses of flying with children, car seats, a dog, his crate – essentially ALL THE THINGS. Oh, and it turns out we’re storing lots of stuff in our garage that we probably shouldn’t be.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

Here’s the HomeAway listing for the Spring Break rental we got in Pompano Beach, Florida (just north of Fort Lauderdale). It’s not a 5-minute walk to the beach like the listing claims, but we still HIGHLY recommend it (we drove and it was always easy & cheap to park).

We’re planning to put a post together for everyone who has been asking for more info, but here’s a link to Cap’s Place, the restaurant that Sherry mentioned with all of the celebrity diners in its 100-year-history. Some of the famous folks who have eaten there include Joe DiMag­gio, George Harrison, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Al Capone, Ernest Hemingway, Mariah Carey, and Paris Hilton (quite the range, eh?). Our favorite part of the entire experience was the boat that you have to ride to get to the restaurant:

You can also check out Episode #45 to hear about our Spring Break last year in Cape Canaveral, FL. This is the Airbnb that we rented there, which we also liked – but it was a shared property with two other rental units (so it wasn’t quite as private).

We didn’t get a shot of ourselves and all of the stuff that we hauled through the airport (our hands were pretty full!) but here’s Sherry on the plane sporting what she calls her “signature crazy hair and that nervous-mom travel face.” The point of this picture is really to point out one of our favorite travel companions: Burger, who’s in his carrier under the seat.

And I’ll leave a shout out to Jordan Ferney from Oh Happy Day here, for the boost of travel confidence she gave us the weekend before we left.

What’s Not

Here are some lists of things you should NOT store in your garage courtesy of HGTV and Reader’s Digest.

And here’s a link to the current model of cordless electric lawn mower that we have (and can safely store in our garage!)

Also, don’t forget to snag a fire extinguisher for your garage if you don’t already have one.

What Millennials Are “Killing”

upholstered bed / night stand / pink pillow / favorite sheets / more sources: here

Here’s the full list from Business Insider that has attempted to gather all of the items in one place.

There’s also an article from The Washington Post that takes a deeper dive into how paper towels are replacing paper napkins.

The impending death of the top sheet was also reported in USA Today and Buzzfeed (warning: that Buzzfeed link has some NSFW language in it because the author is apparently very anti-top sheet). And thanks to Chelsea at Two Twenty One for bringing this “controversial” topic to our attention.

You can also revisit Episode #48 where Becky (aka Clean Mama) gave the advice to ditch the top sheet on your kids’ beds to make it easier to make each morning. We have taken that advice since it’s easy to toss their quilts into the wash with the fitted sheet (no duvet stuffing/wrestling required!).

But now let’s see where you guys stand on some of these (note: if you’re viewing this post in a feed reader, you may have to click through to our blog post to see them):

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

We’re Digging

Here are the exact MarvelBeads that a friend gave us as a Christmas gift. We put off making them forever, fearing they’d be messy – but now we love them… and have since bought more for another kid’s birthday! We’re still only halfway through our original bag because you don’t need very many to make a huge batch (remember, they grow to be about the size of a marble, so the ones above are about half-grown).

And if anyone has tried the Orbeez Foot Spa I’m dying to know if it’s as gross as it sounds.

If you’re looking for some good (but dark) reading, here are the three books I flew through on our travels: The Couple Next Door, Final Girls, and The Girl Before. The one Sherry also read with the focus on design/minimalism as well as sinister murder-y stuff is The Girl Before – and she’s currently halfway through Final Girls and is loving it too.

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to HANDy Paint Products for sponsoring this episode. If you’ve got a painting project coming up, we personally love the HANDy Paint Cup (with the little brush magnet) and the HANDy Paint Tray, which makes moving your roller around the room so much easier. You can find all of the bright red HANDy Paint Products wherever you buy paint.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

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