#today is the last of my super busy days and then my supervisor told me to take tomorrow and friday off so I WILL BE ALL OVER YOU 🥺💝 IF YOU

[tohruies]

coco tohruies deadbeat mutual era ends tonight.

[softsky-daily]

11/27/2023

I feel like this is like some stock image of a busy city. The headlights are even brighter than the sky.

Positive thing: Today was the last day of prac, and I rewatched a lot of 逃げ恥.

It feels like I have brainworms. I think I rewatched parts of the episodes several times over now and it gets me as giddy as ever each time. I can't believe there's people who just naturally feel this way more often than I do. It feels exhausting - but I do have to admit it's a little fun.

I literally woke up early thinking about it, then I went to prac feeling like I was daydreaming, and I came back and it hadn't let up at all. I kept gently smacking my head as if to wake myself up and it helped clear my mind sometimes but it's like I can still feel the giddiness in my chest and in my brain and I am trying so hard to be as normal as possible about it.

I can't pinpoint what it is about 逃げ恥 that is making me feel insane over it and I guess that's also part of the reason I can't get it out of my head. I rambled about it in that super long post earlier but I feel like that still didn't get to the heart of it. Maybe it's nothing in particular. But regardless I think this incredible high is just going to linger for a while yet so I'll just do my best to not let it interfere with my day-to-day.

Anyway, today was the last day of prac. I was in a complete state of J-Drama Brain so focusing was hard, and my friend shared his energy drink with me which didn't help, and then I got unexpectedly emotional about it being the last time I'd see one of my clients mid-session so basically I just ran the gamut of human emotion in a single afternoon. My supervisor literally told me in my feedback today that I was giggling in sessions and that it wasn't a bad thing but to just be aware of it. But like god, how embarrassing. And afterwards when I got home I was still so moony I couldn't focus even on eating.

Tomorrow is work as usual. Hopefully they mind less about how supposedly giggly I am.

[baepsaesbae]

None of Your Business

Pairing— Jung Hoseok x reader  

Genre— SMUT, enemies to lovers au, business/professional life au, slight angst, slight fluff, mutual pining bc im a slut for that

Warnings— inappropriate workplace behavior, explicit unprotected sex, face sitting, slight biting, one (1) butt slap, dirty talk, swearing, switch!Hoseok, Hoseok being a god damn nuisance, (also I’m not a business person so if you are and I state inaccurate/dumb things I apologize in advance)

Word Count— 8.9k

Summary— You have a shot at attaining a huge promotion at your company. The only problem standing in your way is the same one that annoyed you in college. Jung Hoseok. How will you manage to spend an entire weekend at a conference juggling impressing your supervisors while simultaneously battling Hoseok?

A/N— This super cool banner was made by the one and only @kimtaehyunq​, thank you so much! Please let me know what you guys think. Feel free to leave a comment or send an ask! 

The business world has always been mercilessly cutthroat; that’s one of the first things business students learn when they enter college. The competition to get an internship at a top company was fierce. Recruiting has to start at least a year in advance if you even want to give yourself a chance.

Luckily for you, you were the top student in your program. Well, one of the top students. Over the past four years, your position had been flip flopping with some surprisingly competent bonehead who annoyingly plagued your life.

“Excited to be graduating this semester, ___?” an all too familiar voice interrupted your studying.

“Excited to graduate as top of the class? Yes, of course,” you replied coldly. 

“Top of the class? That’s a little presumptuous, don’t you think?” the handsome boy sat on your table.

“I think it’ll be pretty much set in stone after this last final,” you returned your attention to your notes.

“Well, even if you’re number one, I think experience matters a lot in this field,” the boy refused to leave you alone. 

“Then it’s a good thing I did an internship with one of the top companies over the summer,” you glared at him.

“Oh yeah, how could I forget about the internship that you stole from me?” the boy pouted.

“I was obviously more qualified. And how could you say that when you stole my opportunity to go on a study abroad trip with my favorite professor last Spring Break? I’m still furious that he chose you over me solely because you were sleeping with his daughter,” you retorted.

“That was a coincidence! I don’t know how many times I need to tell you that,” he tried to defend himself.

“Whatever. Do me a favor and leave me alone, Hoseok. Hopefully today will be the last time I’ll ever see you.”

“That’s kind of sad to think about. Who else will get under my skin and annoy me every time they open their mouth?” Hoseok bantered, “Also, I told you to call me Hobi.”

“That would imply that we’re on friendly terms. I don’t like lying, Hoseok.”

“Fine. Good luck on that last final. See you around,” Hoseok hopped off the table and patted your head.

“Don’t touch me,” you grumbled as he walked away.

That was five years ago.

The company that you interned with gave you a job offer immediately after graduation. Quickly moving up through the ranks proved to be an easy feat since your tenacious nature made you the ideal employee. 

You were currently waiting outside of the CEO’s office. Seconds felt like hours as you mindlessly bounced your leg. It was eerily silent, and all you could hear were the click clacks of the receptionist’s keyboard as she worked. You looked around at the bleak décor that was a sorry excuse for modernism as you racked your brain. Were you in trouble? Did something happen? You were summoned up for a meeting but had no clue what it was going to be about. 

Once you were finally called in, you were greeted by both the CEO and VP of the company. 

“___, please take a seat,” the CEO politely smiled, “As you know, I am getting old. I am unmarried, so therefore I have no one to oversee the company after I’m gone. The executive council and I have been looking for people to fill my shoes. Or at the very least, take a seat on the executive council if one of them were to take my place.”

“Your numbers have been exceptional this month,” the VP chimed in, “And every month prior. After much deliberation, your name has been cast into the lot.”

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. Being a member of the executive council at your age was almost unheard of.

“There is one other candidate that has also been hand selected at the other branch. You both are to attend a conference in which you will mingle with executives from other companies. There will also be a time in which you will pitch an idea to me on how to make this company better,” the CEO continued when he saw your loss for words.

“First and foremost I would like to thank you for this opportunity. I will do my best to live up to your expectations,” you bowed to show your gratitude. 

“Perfect. The conference is in two weeks. I believe that should give you ample time to prepare your presentation,” the VP shook your hand.

After shaking hands with the CEO, you turned to leave. However, something was nagging you. 

“May I ask who the other candidate is?” you inquired.

“Jung Hoseok from the northern branch,” the VP answered without missing a beat. 

“Ah,” your brain exploded.

“Do you know him?” the CEO asked.

“We went to college together. I know of him,” you said curtly.

“Well you’ll finally get your chance to meet him. I’ve heard he’s very popular with the ladies at his branch. That’s not pertinent to his skills; however, you can’t blame an old man for wanting to know the gossip of his own employees,” the old man chuckled.

“Of course,” you smiled politely as you excused yourself from the office.

Jung Hoseok? That douchebag? Just your luck to run into him again (to fight for the next step in your career no less!). You think back on all the run ins you had with him during your collegiate days. Nothing but irritating memories of the two of you competing for the top spot came to mind. 

Whatever. It didn’t matter who the other candidate was. You had to get to work and come up with a brilliant plan that will impress the CEO. You brushed the thought of Hoseok aside. It had been a couple of years, maybe he wouldn’t even remember you. There’s no need to stress out over something so trivial. 

The weekend of the conference had finally arrived. You were instructed to travel together with Hoseok. You waited alone at the airport terminal. If you were lucky, Hoseok wouldn’t show up at all. You weren’t. 

“___!” Hoseok called out your name in a sing songy voice.

“Hello Hoseok. Glad to see you haven’t changed,” you were already irritated.

“How are you? It’s been so long. You look great!” he went in for a hug but you turned away. 

He stood awkwardly with his arms in the air for a second until he bounced back. He took the seat next to you and began chatting. You answered his list of questions apathetically. 

“Did I do something to offend you?” Hoseok finally asked.

“I just think it’s funny that even after all these years, I still have to compete with you,” you retorted.

“Still hung up on that? It doesn’t even matter anymore. We got good jobs and now we’re here. Together! Isn’t that cool?”

“No, not at all. Although I guess it will be nostalgic coming out on top once again,” you smirked.

“Your competitive nature always amused me. You’re so cute when you lose,” Hoseok teased.

“I never lost to you,” you gasped.

“That’s not what that one study abroad trip with Professor whatshisname says,” he cooed. 

“Professor Namjoon! You knew he was my favorite, you prick. At least I graduated as top of the class with honors,” you argued. 

“My GPA was off by thousandths of a point. That doesn’t really bother me. But I’m glad you have something that makes you happy,” Hoseok shrugged. 

‘This is gonna be one long fucking weekend’, you thought. 

The flight was short and pleasant since Hoseok left you alone. You wanted to see as little of him as possible during this trip. You intended to get that promotion no matter what. 

After the plane landed, the two of you made your way to the hotel that was hosting the conference. 

“Hi, last name ___ and Jung?” you smiled at the hotel concierge. 

“Ah yes, you guys are here for the business conference?” the concierge asked.

“Indeed we are!” Hoseok chimed in from behind you.

“Alrighty, I got you guys all checked in. Enjoy your stay!” the concierge handed you a singular set of keys.

“Oh, I’m sorry, there must be a mistake. We’re in two separate rooms,” you politely tried to hand back the keys.

“The reservation is for a singular suite,” the concierge explained.

“Probably cheaper that way,” Hoseok reasoned while nodding.

Your fake smile faltered for a second. How the hell are you supposed to spend an entire weekend sharing a room with the most despicable person on the planet?

At least the hotel itself was grand. There was no way you’d ever be able to afford to stay in such a swanky place. The lobby was decorated with ornate marble pillars that were laced with gold trimmings. It even had a fancy fountain in the middle to greet incoming guests, which you thought was a bit overkill. 

“Excited to sleep with me, princess?” Hoseok teased, obviously picking up on your annoyance.

“Fuck off. Stay the hell away from my bed and my things,” you spat.

“Who’s to say that you won’t be able to stay away from my bed?” he smirked. 

“You wish,” you rolled your eyes as the elevator finally stopped on the top floor. 

You led the way to your shared suite with Hoseok. The trip was exhausting; you couldn’t wait to take a nap on your large luxurious bed that was probably topped with Egyptian cotton (one can dream). 

You immediately dropped your bags on the side of the room and flopped onto the bed, shutting your eyes. 

“Interesting,” Hoseok said.

You ignored him.

“Very interesting,” he continued. 

“What? What is so interesting?” you sat up and glared at him in frustration.

“Take a quick glance around the room,” he suggested.

Your heart sank, “No fucking way.”

You loved this trope in fanfics, but in real life? Fuck no, not with this asshole. Yes, there was only one luxurious king sized bed in the room. 

“Well, looks like you're going to sleep on the floor,” you smiled sweetly at him.

“The bed is huge, we can definitely share,” Hoseok argued.

“I think the fuck not,” you dropped back onto the bed, “I’m sure you’ll whore your way into someone else’s bed each night anyway.”

“I don’t think I need to, not when I’m already sharing a bed with you,” he flirted.

“Bite me, Hoseok,” you sighed, not in the mood for a tit for tat.

“Are you into that? I’d happily oblige,” he responded as he sat on the other side of the bed.

“I’m afraid that’s confidential information that you are not privy to,” you huffed, turning away from him.

“Are you really going to make me sleep on the floor?” he asked quietly. 

“Would you listen to me if I said I wanted you to?” you were curious to know.

“Look, I’ll admit that I can be an asshole, but I’m not a creep. If you’re really not comfortable with sharing a bed with me I’ll sleep on the floor. All I’d ask of you is to spare me a pillow.”

There was a short silence as you mulled over your options. 

“Fine, we can share the bed. But I demand a pillow divider to be set between us,” you caved.

“Wahoo! Thank you so much for your generosity, ___. Do you want to use the bathroom to get ready for bed first, or shall I?” Hoseok celebrated.

“I’ll get ready first,” you lazily rolled off the bed and trudged to the bathroom.

You were so tired that you missed hearing Hoseok’s soft chuckle as he watched you stumble to the bathroom. He patiently waited for you to finish before it was his turn to get ready for bed. You were sound asleep by the time he was done.

The blankets were haphazardly sprawled out on your side of the bed. One leg was under the covers while the other was completely exposed. Your mouth was agape with a bit of drool seeping out, and your shirt lifted up to expose some of your tummy.

Hoseok smiled at the sight. Never in a million years did he think he’d ever be lucky enough to see you like this. He pulled down your shirt in an attempt to make you look decent, but there was nothing he could do about your drooling. He tucked you into the sheets properly, making sure that the blankets covered you up to your neck.

He settled into his side of the bed. You forgot to put up the pillow divider. Hoseok stared up at the ceiling, unable to sleep. He turned over to face you in an attempt to get comfortable. 

‘She looks so sweet. Almost cute,’ Hoseok thought. 

He quickly brushed the thought aside. You were his rival, and have been since the first day of college years ago. He sat up and created a pillow barrier. Bickering with you first thing in the morning was the last thing he wanted. 

The first day of the conference was filled with attending various meetings while attempting to make as many networking connections as possible. You got up early and left the room before Hoseok was even awake. The less time spent with him, the better. 

Of course, completely avoiding him was impossible. You were to sit with your respective company during the meetings and presentations. The VP sat between you and Hoseok, while the CEO switched between sitting on either side. You were thankful for the separation, but nervous nonetheless.

The CEO would occasionally lean over to ask you questions about the presentations, and he intently listened to your responses. The VP would merely look over occasionally to give you a smile or wink; he acted more like moral support. You knew the entire weekend would practically be an interview, but you underestimated how anxiety inducing it would be. 

The higher ups finally left you alone when lunchtime came around. You picked up your lunch in the hotel’s decadent ballroom that had been turned into an eating area. You scouted an empty table in the far corner of the room in the hopes of finding some peace and quiet.

Hoseok had other plans. He saw you sit down at the table and happily followed you.

“Hey there buddy!” he greeted you as he sat down.

“Shouldn’t you be networking with new people?” you rolled your eyes at him.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he retorted as he took a bite of his sandwich.

“I’ve been doing that since before you were awake. I think I deserve a break,” you replied.

“I forgot that you’re quite the hard worker. I couldn’t have asked for better competition,” he said.

“Was that a compliment?” you asked with an amused grin.

“Yeah, and it’s the only one you’ll ever get from me. Is your pitch to the CEO ready?” Hoseok inquired.

“It has been. And no, I’m not going to tell you what it is,” you proudly answered.

“Oh c’mon! Mine is ready too! You’re a damn fool if you think I’m gonna steal your idea. I’m just curious,” he pouted.

“Fine. I’ll tell you if you tell me yours first,” you offered.

“So distrustful,” Hoseok feigned offense, “Okay, so I think offering higher bonuses for working overtime would be a good start. There could even be competitive bonuses in each department for the person who gets the best numbers that month.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” you said at first, “But don’t you think that would just create more animosity between coworkers?”

“I think competition is a healthy motivation factor. It worked for me in college,” Hoseok defended his idea.

“Everyone is competitive in college. Especially in the business schools,” you argued.

“Yeah, but not everyone is you,” Hoseok stated. 

“Excuse me?”

“Honestly, I probably wouldn’t be here today if you weren’t always on my ass,” he admitted, “Being your rival was kinda fun. You got flustered so easily, it was almost cute.”

“I do not get flustered easily! Plus, it was always you who was on my ass,” you huffed.

“I see that you still do,” Hoseok laughed, “But seriously. The universe brought us together again so I guess it’s telling me to thank you.”

“That’s uncharacteristically nice of you to say,” you looked away from him to hide your reddening cheeks, “You pushed me too, so thanks for that...I guess.”

“Mhm, no problem buddy. I’ll see you in the next presentation room,” he got up to leave.

“Wait Hoseok!” you called after him.

“Yeah?” he turned around quickly.

“I didn’t tell you my idea--”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s brilliant,” he winked before walking away.

The rest of the day passed by quickly. You retired to your room, exhausted from all the forced socialization. Your mind was stuck on what Hoseok said earlier. Maybe he wasn’t as big of an asshole as you thought. Perhaps you mistook a friendly rivalry for toxic competition.

You were sprawled out across the bed in your pjs when Hoseok entered the room.

“Are you gonna sleep like that?” he asked.

“You’re gonna have to forcibly remove me from your side if you want it that badly,” you replied with your eyes still closed. 

“That’s fine,” Hoseok said as he abruptly rolled you over to your side.

“Hey!” you squeaked out in protest.

“It was either that, or I laid on top of you and suffocated you.”

“Hmph,” you let out a displeased noise.

“Oh my god, you’re so bratty. How old are you?” Hoseok chuckled.

“Old enough to know that you’re a meanie,” your response was muffled by the pillow you buried your face in.

“Sorry I’m a what?” Hoseok teased.

“A meanie!” you quickly got up and slammed a pillow into Hoseok, catching him by surprise.

“I’m the meanie? You just pelted me with a pillow!” he cowered away from you.

“And I’ll do it again!” you threatened.

“I don’t think so,” Hoseok suddenly lurched forward, tackling you back onto your side of the bed.

You’re both laughing at this point. Seeing Hoseok up close and personal made you realize how handsome he truly was. Had he always been this attractive? Hoseok’s cheerful laugh echoed throughout the room as he loomed over you, pinning you down.

“I’ll get off if you promise not to hit me with a pillow ever again,” Hoseok tried to say in a serious tone, but his smile betrayed him.

“Sorry, I can’t make such a ridiculous promise,” you sassed.

“God, you really are so bratty. Kinda cute, kinda naughty,” Hoseok tsked.

“There’s nothing you can do about it,” you stuck your tongue out at him.

Hoseok leaned down to whisper in your ear, “Oh, I’m sure there’s something I could do.”

That sent chills down your spine. This was perhaps the most intimate moment you’ve shared with someone in a long time. 

“Keep dreaming then, lover boy,” you said. Truth be told, just that one sentence turned you on, but you couldn’t let him know that.

“As you wish,” Hoseok released you and retreated back to his side of the bed. 

“Maybe you aren’t as big of an asshole as I remembered,” you chuckled.

“You thought I was an asshole?” Hoseok laughed.

“I did. Maybe I still do. Not that it matters, we’ll never see each other again after this stupid conference.”

“That’s not true,” Hoseok disagreed, “I’ll be on the executive council, so you may see me from time to time.”

“I like the confidence. Too bad it’s in vain,” you teased, “I’m going to bed. Our day starts early tomorrow.”

“Our?”

“The. The day starts early tomorrow. Just go to bed Hoseok,” your turned over to conceal the faint smile on your face. Maybe he wasn’t so bad afterall. 

The second day of the conference started off as boring as the previous day. The various presenters droned on about different strategies regarding the improvement of a company with a plethora of charts and numbers to back it all up. The CEO wasn’t as talkative today to either you or Hoseok. The VP still made his reassuring gestures to you, flashing smiles and winks here and there.

“Can I see you privately after the last morning presentation?” the VP whispered to you.

“Yes, of course!” you excitedly answer. Currying the VP’s favor may come in handy later. 

After the last presentation, the VP discreetly led you to a vacant corner. His tone became serious as he began to speak.

“The CEO discussed his initial thoughts with me last night. I know I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but he’s currently leaning towards Hoseok,” he explained.

The news made your heart sink.

“I’d rather see you on the executive council, if I’m being frank. My pride is on the line since I recommended you,” his voice lowered, “However, I think there is a way to sway his opinion.”

“Which is?” you eagerly asked. 

“Someone might overhear here, meet me in my room in an hour,” the VP covertly handed you his room key.

He walked away without another word. The fact that the VP was on your side gave you a faint sliver of hope. The next hour of free time was spent frantically networking while your mind was obviously elsewhere. Every now and then you heard Hoseok’s voice, and just the sound of it spurred you on to make even more connections. By the end of it, your face began to hurt from all the fake smiling. 

You were standing in front of the VP’s hotel room exactly an hour after your secret rendezvous. The door opened immediately after you knocked.

“You’re extremely punctual; that’s wonderful,” the VP observed as you entered, “Make yourself comfortable.”

You scoured the room to find a place to sit. Your uneasiness must have been obvious, as the VP gestured towards the bed.

“Thank you,” you said as you awkwardly sat at the edge of the bed, “What is your plan?”

“It’s quite simple actually,” the VP sat beside you, “I just need to get to know you better. That way I can give an authentic and flawless review to the CEO.”

“So, you’re going to conduct an in-depth interview?” you asked timidly as you noticed him scooting closer to you.

“You could say that,” he voice lowered as he rested his hand on your thigh, “We have about 45 free minutes remaining. I believe you should make the most of this interview, Miss ___,” he smiled slyly as his hand began to travel upwards.

“How dare you?!” you yelled as you abruptly pushed him off of you, “I’m going to report you to HR!”

“Then say goodbye to your promotion. You really think you were chosen just because your numbers have been decent? You definitely were not the CEO’s first choice. He didn’t even know who you were. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even be here,” he explained with a shit eating grin. 

“Then why the hell would you even bring me up to the CEO? Just so you could try and sleep with me?” you were enraged.

“Don’t blame me for wanting some eye candy to entertain me during this god awful convention,” he smirked.

“Fuck you, you fucking pig,” you spat.

“Ohhh feisty. I like that in a girl. If you leave now, you can kiss that promotion goodbye,” the VP called out to you as you stormed towards the door.

“And you can kiss my ass, and shove that promotion up yours,” you snapped, flipping him off before slamming the door behind you.

Tears welled in your eyes as you made your way to your room. You were absolutely distraught. Had all your hard work been for nothing? Had you been nothing but a pretty sight for men to stare at for the past five years?

You entered your hotel room to find Hoseok laying on the bed. You quickly wiped away your tears; you hadn’t expected him to be there. He appeared to be taking a nap. You watched his chest rise and fall slowly as you snuck into the bathroom. You freshened yourself up to the best of your abilities. Maybe a little power nap would help calm your nerves. Too bad Hoseok was taking up the bed. Fuck.

You left the bathroom to see if maybe you could curl up in one of the corners of the bed. Luckily, Hoseok was on his side of the bed. You set a timer for half an hour and slowly crawled under the covers. Your eyelids felt heavy as you closed them.

“If you wanted to cuddle you could’ve just let me know,” Hoseok’s voice surprised you.

“Well, I don’t. Leave me alone,” you responded.

“What if I want to cuddle?” he asked.

“There is an abundance of perfectly good pillows for you to use,” you sighed, then sniffled a little.

“Are you sick?” Hoseok asked with a worried tone.

“No, I’m fine,” you answered quickly, panicking. 

“___, what’s wrong?” Hoseok was sitting up now.

“Nothing, leave me alone,” you turned away.

“If you insist, I won’t push it. Just know that you can talk to me if you need to,” he offered.

You heard him get off the bed. You pulled the sheets over your head to hide your face. You cried silently as Hoseok shuffled around the room, presumably getting ready to leave. Suddenly, he pounced on you.

“Hoseok! What the fu--” you cried out as he yanked the sheets off of you.

“Surprise attack!” he gleefully exclaimed. 

His expression quickly changed when he saw your tear streaked face. You looked up at him with puffy eyes. You were too exhausted to hold your cold stare. Instead, you looked away in embarrassment.

“___, what happened?” he asked softly.

“It doesn’t matter. But congrats, you basically got the promotion,” you laughed in defeat.

“You spoke with the CEO?” Hoseok was shocked.

“No, with the VP. That stupid son of a bitch. He--nevermind. I blew my chance, so the job is all yours. I am almost positive that I am unemployed now as well,” the tears returned and you couldn’t stop them.

“Hey, ___, it’s okay,” Hoseok tried to comfort you, “If the CEO didn’t tell you himself, then you can’t be 100% certain.”

“I was literally only invited because the VP tried to get in my pants!” you blurted out.

“What?” Hoseok was dumbfounded.

“He just told me that I’d have the job if I had sex with him. Can you fucking believe that? How long have I not been taken seriously? This has been so demoralizing,” you let it all out.

“Aw, c’mere,” Hoseok pulled you up and gave you a warm embrace, “What did you say to him?”

“I told him to shove it,” you sniffled against his firm chest. 

“There’s the you I know. You haven’t changed a bit,” he chuckled, “We can talk to the CEO together tomorrow about this.”

“Why would you help me? The promotion is basically yours because of this,” you sighed.

“I don’t really care for it, if I’m being honest. I’m satisfied with my job now. I don’t want any more responsibilities,” he answered while stroking your hair. 

“Then why are you here?” you looked up at him.

“I only agreed to come after they told me that you’d be here,” he admitted. 

You didn’t know what to say. Too many things have happened in the past hour alone. 

“Don’t get it twisted, I was just curious to see how you’ve been after all these years. Plus a free trip is always enticing. Getting to share a bed with you has just been an added bonus,” he smiled.

Your timer rang, causing you to break away from Hoseok’s arms. 

“Guess it’s time to go to more boring meetings. Yay,” Hoseok feigned enthusiasm. 

“I’m gonna stay here. There’s no point in me attending anymore,” you stated.

“Nope, you’re going. I’m dragging you with me! You gotta show the VP that he didn’t frazzle you at all. Fuck that guy. Well, not literally,” Hoseok was pulling you out of bed.

Hoseok subtly made sure that you sat between him and the CEO the entire time. You caught him giving the VP dirty looks, which made you feel a little better. 

You quickly excused yourself after the last meeting and tried to make a break for your room. Unfortunately, Hoseok prevented you from doing so. 

“You got a date for the banquet tonight?” he asked.

“No. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem because I’m not going. Have fun with your date though,” you shook your head.

“Who said I had a date?”

“I’m sure women were basically throwing themselves at you.”

“You’re not wrong, but I turned them all down. I have my eyes set on one gal.”

“Lucky her, I guess,” you rolled your eyes.

“Indeed. Although I still gotta ask her,” he looked around the room as if he was searching for her.

“You better hurry. Isn’t it in a couple hours?”

“Yep. Alright, here goes nothing!” Hoseok rushed off, finally giving you the chance to disappear.

You let out a sigh of relief as the elevator doors start to close. However, someone’s hand shot through at the last second. Hoseok stumbled in as the elevator doors reopened. You groaned. Why can’t you escape him?

“Did she say yes?” you asked with an indifferent tone.

“Not sure yet. Will you go to the banquet with me?” Hoseok asked.

“Fuck off.”

“Alright, well she just said no. Ouch,” Hoseok clicked his tongue. 

“Wait, are you being serious?” your eyes widened.

“If the word ‘date’ threw you off, then I’m happy with going as friends,” he proposed. 

“I’m flattered, but I’m really not in the mood to party with random strangers.”

“You don’t have to. Just party with me. Why would I let you be sad and mopey all alone in a hotel room when you could be drinking free booze?”

“Is the alcohol is free?”

“Duh, it’s all being charged to the company. Plus dinner is served.”

“Ok fine, I’ll go. I guess I didn’t pack that stupid dress for nothing.”

“Let’s not allow a gorgeous dress to go to waste,” Hoseok agreed.

“You haven’t even seen it,” you suppressed a smile. 

“Anything can be gorgeous if you’re the one wearing it,” he winked.

“Oh, shut up,” a small smile cracked on your face.

Hoseok was the first to get ready for the banquet. He wanted your look to be a surprise so he insisted on going first. You were beginning to find his weird yet endearing antics kind of cute.

You weren’t prepared when he came out of the bathroom. You were well aware that Hoseok was a handsome guy, maybe even handsome enough to model. However, you weren’t ready when Hoseok emerged in a grey suit with his hair styled to reveal his forehead. His radiance was comparable to that of the sun, and he only shone brighter when he smiled at you. 

“You look good,” you tried to act cool.

“Thank you! I’ll admit I do enjoy dressing up from time to time. But who doesn’t, am I right?” he beamed.

You nodded as you hauled your things into the bathroom. After about an hour, you were ready: fully dressed, makeup done, confidence soaring. You had forgotten how therapeutic dressing up could be. 

Your dress was a deep emerald green that was elegant yet seductive. It had a side slit that flirtatiously showed off one of your legs. The neckline gracefully outlined your cleavage while still remaining on the classy side.

“Holy shit. You look amazing!” Hoseok praised you as soon as you stepped out.

“I was only trying to match you,” you said shyly, trying to hide your flushed cheeks.

“I think it’s safe to say that we’ll be the most breathtaking duo there. Shall we depart?” he extended out an arm.

The dinner started out with boring speeches by people you didn’t care to remember the names of. Hoseok elected to sit at the table furthest away from the stage, which was an excellent choice. That allowed the two of you to chat the night away in hushed voices. You both had already gone through five glasses of wine by the time the speeches were finally over. 

“The dance floor is now open! Enjoy the rest of the night, and don’t forget that there’s an open bar!” the MC shouted through the mic.

The lights dimmed and a disco ball lowered in the center of the room. People began to crowd the dance floor. You laughed with Hoseok as you both observed various awkward shuffles and sways. 

“Wanna dance?” Hoseok yelled over the music.

“I can’t!” you yelled back.

“I’m sure you can! Let’s go!” Hoseok didn’t wait for a reply.

He dragged you to an empty space on the dance floor. The two of you began drawing attention to yourselves as soon as you stepped out. Two beauties were dancing in the open for everyone to see. You shyly swayed to the rhythm of the music and laughed at Hoseok’s silly moves. However, Hoseok began to move in a way that was absolutely bewitching. He looked like a professional dancer with the way he commanded his body to hit every beat. Hoseok had drawn a very large crowd as people began cheering him on. 

You were amazed by his stage presence. You’ve always had a thing for dancers, and he looked downright sexy. The song ended and Hoseok gave his audience a dramatic bow, awarding him deafening applause. 

“I didn’t know you could dance!” you shouted when he returned to your side.

“I like to dance in my free time! Did you like it?” he shouted back.

“I’ll admit it was sexy,” you laughed.

“You think I’m sexy?”

“Maybe I do,” you winked.

You had more fun than you expected while dancing with Hoseok. He made you feel secure, so you were able to let loose. You didn’t care what you looked like, as long as Hoseok was there with you. 

The night progressed and you began to feel bold. A particularly raunchy song came on, as if it were asking you to grind on Hoseok. And that’s exactly what you did. You guided his hands to your hips as you grinded into his crotch

“You sure you wanna be doing that?” Hoseok spoke into your ear with a low voice.

“Absolutely,” you replied.

Hoseok spun you around and gazed at you intimately while he brought you closer into his body. Various body parts were rubbing against each other now. The sexual tension was palpable. 

Hoseok’s hands were running up and down your body, and your mouth was dangerously close to his neck. The scent of his cologne was intoxicating. You couldn’t help yourself; you leaned forward to plant a soft kiss on his neck. His low growl was an indication that he liked it, so you kissed him again with more vigor. 

“You’re going to have to stop,” he scolded.

“Shit, I’m sorry. Did I overstep your boundaries?” you were embarrassed.

“Absolutely not. But I can’t fuck you out here in public now can I?” he towed you off the dance floor and made a beeline for the elevators. 

Thank god no one else was in the elevator, neither of you could keep your paws off of each other. Hoseok’s hands were unabashedly feeling you up and down while his crotch was slowly grinding into yours. Your arms were wrapped around his neck as you planted kisses along his sharp jawline.

Hoseok couldn’t stop whispering naughty things into your ear during the entire elevator trip up to your shared room. His lowered voice sent chills down your spine as he expressed just how eager he was to finally have you. You felt yourself getting wetter by the second.

“I wanted to strip off that dress the moment I saw you wearing it,” he cooed, “God, I can’t wait to see how beautiful you’ll look underneath me.”

“Hoseok, do you ever shut up?” you teased with a coy smile.

“I dunno, you might have to make me,” he played along.

“Maybe sitting on your handsome face will do the trick,” you said as you nipped his ear.

“Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

The elevator doors finally opened, and Hoseok quickly dragged you out. He immediately tore off your dress the moment the hotel room door was closed. You did him the same favor as you frantically unbuttoned his shirt to reveal his toned body. 

“Why don’t you be a good boy and wait for me on the bed?” you suggested.

“Yes ma’am,” he complied, his eyes never leaving your body.

“Like what you see?” you asked, turning around slowly to fully show off the lingerie that perfectly complimented your body. 

“You are so fucking sexy, ___,” Hoseok smiled in awe.

“I’m so glad you think so. You’re not too bad yourself,” you winked at him.

You finally joined Hoseok on the bed. You kiss his body from his abdomen all the way up his chest before stopping at his mouth. You took a second to relish the feeling of his plush lips against yours before he deepened the kiss with a ferocious intensity. 

“Wanna try and shut me up now?” Hoseok lifted his eyebrows suggestively once the kiss broke.

“With pleasure,” you responded as you began to position yourself above him, “Wait, do you want me to take this off?” you gestured to your undergarments.

“No need,” he said before abruptly pulling aside your panties.

You slowly lowered yourself onto his face and stopped when you felt his breath on your pussy. Hoseok impatiently gripped your hips and pulled you directly onto his tongue. The sudden contact made you gasp. Hoseok didn’t waste any time getting down to business.

He flattened his tongue out to cover as much area as possible as he licked across your folds. He expertly flicked and lapped your pussy in the perfect places. Your legs began to tremble, and you had to grip onto the bed’s headboard for support. 

You looked down to see the beautiful man’s face buried in your pussy; that sight alone was almost enough to bring you over the edge. Hoseok’s hands slithered their way up to your chest, where he began to twist and pull at your sensitive nipples through your bra. 

“You taste--so good,” Hoseok panted out from underneath you.

“Should I get off--fuck!” you were interrupted by Hoseok sucking on your clit.

His mouth was heaven sent. Your body began to heat up and soon you lost the strength to hold yourself up even against the headboard. 

You cried out as you came all over Hoseok’s face. His face was glistening with your juices as he smiled up at you. He seductively licked his lips to taste you again.

“Your turn?” you asked.

“As much as I wanna see your pretty lips wrapped around my cock, I think I need to be inside you more,” he replied as he repositioned himself.

He stripped off the rest of his clothing. You watched with admiration as more of his skin became exposed.

“You can take off the fancy underwear now,” he said once he caught you staring.

“You don’t want to see it anymore?” you fakeed a pout.

“___, you’re drop dead gorgeous in it. However, I advise you to take it off yourself because I won’t hold back. I don’t want to ruin your underwear, just you,” he replied.

Hoseok mixed in little nibbles while he kissed along your neck. Your voice dripped with bliss as you quietly moaned. 

“I guess you do like being bitten, huh? What about this?” Hoseok licked your neck, causing you to squirm underneath him.

“I think I like that too,” you whispered, biting your lip.

You wriggled out of your undergarments, leaving yourself completely naked in front of Hoseok. You pull at the hem of Hoseok’s underwear, eager to see what he was packing.

You were not disappointed. Although he was well endowed, what he lacked in length was made up for in girth. 

“Do you want me to use a condom?” he asked.

“I’m on the pill, and I’m pretty sure I’m clean. I haven’t been intimate in an embarrassingly long amount of time,” you admitted, blushing.

“I find that hard to believe,” Hoseok said while kissing around your face, “Since you’re so damn beautiful,” his lips found yours and led you into a passionate kiss. 

His hips began to grind into yours, his dick rubbing against your bare pussy. You wrapped your legs around him, bringing him closer.

“Please don’t tease me,” you pleaded.

“What are the magic words?” Hoseok teased.

“Fuck me, Hobi,” you begged.

“Oh my fucking god,” he growled.

He slammed his hips into yours, not giving you enough time to adjust to him. The stretch was intense at first, but it soon turned into nothing but pleasure. Your euphoria grew as he rhythmically bucked his hips into you. 

Hoseok spread your legs out as wide as you could go, giving him quite the erotic view that only aroused him more. You tried to stifle your moans, but were failing miserably.

“Don’t hold back baby, let me hear you. Show me how good I make you feel,” he leaned over to whisper into your ear. 

You complied instantly, your moans resounding around the room. Hoseok’s position allowed him to hit you deeply with every stroke. Without a word, he pulled out of you and flipped you over onto your knees. He roughly forced your chest down, leaving your ass in the air for him.

“Your ass is so fucking fat,” he said as his hand connected with your bare skin, causing you to shriek.

He kissed it afterward while his fingers teased your clit. He realigned himself with your entrance. This new position was even better than the last. You could no longer hold in your moans even if you wanted to. Hoseok repeatedly hit your g-spot, and you could feel another orgasm welling up within you.

“Hobi, I’m gonna cum,” you cry out.

“Say that again,” he demanded.

“I-i’m gonna cum!”

“No, not that. That’s hot but call me Hobi again,” he chuckled.

“Hobi!” you said with an exasperated tone.

“Yes princess? Fuck, I’m close,” Hoseok’s movements were becoming more haphazard by the second.

“Hobi, right there oh my god keep going please,” you begged, “Hobi...ah shit!” you came undone.

It wasn’t long after until Hoseok followed suit, pulling out to cum all over your ass. He rolled off the bed to get something to clean you up with. 

“How are you feeling?” Hoseok asked.

“Better. You?” you answered.

“Doing pretty well. I fucked the girl of my dreams,” he said gleefully.

“Shut up,” you playfully pushed him.

“I’m serious. I’ve adored you since college. I lived for your playful banter,” he began to explain.

“It wasn’t playful,” you interjected.

“Yeah, I know. But that’s what made it fun! All the other girls just wanted to be with me for my looks or whatever. None of them knew the real me.”

“And I did?”

“More so than most. You always pushed me to do my best. I really just wanted to be good enough for you. Kind of silly huh? I even dated that girl in an attempt to make you jealous. Which backfired since her dad was Professor whatshisface who took me on that trip,” Hoseok opened up.

“Hobi I...I’m so sorry. I was such a bitch to you back then. And now too I guess. My competitive side gets the better of me. I was always annoyed by how you were seemingly good at everything. It even irritated me that you’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in my life,” you began to apologize, “Oh, and his name is Namjoon. Professor Namjoon.”

“Thanks for reminding me. I hate to admit it but he made me a little jealous. I wanted you to praise me the way you praised him. Anyway, things can change now that everything's out in the open,” Hoseok smiled, “You’re even calling me Hobi! I’ve been dreaming about this moment.”

“Was it everything you ever hoped for?” you joked.

“You said it when you asked me to fuck you, then you said it multiple times while I was balls deep inside of you. So yeah, I would say it was everything I could’ve hoped for, if not more,” he pulled you into his chest.

The two of you continued talking for what felt like hours while cuddling. You hadn’t been this relaxed in ages. You were nearly asleep on his chest when he stroked a strand of hair from your face. 

“Tomorrow will be interesting, huh?” he said softly.

“I guess I still have to pitch my idea to the CEO,” you sighed softly, “What a waste of time.”

“It’s not a waste of time if you’re gonna get the promotion,” Hoseok reprimanded.

“I already told you, I’m not. The VP will make sure that you get it. This is good for you. Don’t worry about me,” you kissed his cheek, “We should get some sleep now.”

“Alright. Goodnight, ___,” he kissed your forehead.

“Goodnight Hobi.”

“Fuck, I really love when you say that.”

It was time. Time to pitch your idea to the CEO for no damn reason. You were beyond nervous, and Hoseok could tell. He tried to ease your nerves by giving you a firm shoulder massage as you both waited to be called into a small conference room.

The VP emerged, ignoring your mean scowl, and called Hoseok in to present first. Of course he would go first, no need to waste time hearing your proposal.

It was an anxiety riddled wait. You recounted the previous day’s events, which was a mistake because that only infuriated you. The whole situation was an affront on your character, and you will not stand for it. You debated giving the VP another piece of your mind at the end of everything. 

“___, you’re up,” the VP called you after Hobi finished.

“You’re gonna kill it,” Hobi encouraged you, coupled with a pat on the back.

“This is pointless and you know that,” you sighed.

Hobi shook his head in disagreement. It was heartwarming to see how supportive he was being. Maybe it was due to the fact that the job was practically his already. It doesn’t matter now. 

“Good morning gentlemen,” you greet them.

“The floor is yours, Miss ___,” the CEO responded cordially.

“I’ll keep it short and simple. I propose that the best way to improve the company is to shorten work day hours and increase PTO days,” you said confidently.

“Is that it? Can you expound on that?” the VP cynically asked. 

“Yes, I’m so glad you asked,” you smiled coldly, “Studies show that employees are exponentially more productive when they are happier. Not only will the company become more efficient, but the overall company atmosphere will become more positive. Interpersonal relationships between employees and bosses will improve in an appropriate professional manner,” you glared at the VP.

“That’s a very interesting take,” the CEO said thoughtfully, “Do you have any suggestions regarding the actual work that the company does?”

“No sir. The company has been thriving, so I believe that the way things are running now are proficient. However, as a company, we should always be willing to listen to our employees’ concerns,” you stated.

“You’ve brought up interesting points to the table. As an employee, do you have any concerns you’d like to express?” the CEO asked.

“There is one pressing matter that comes to mind,” you stole a glance at the VP to see him shift uncomfortably in his seat, “I firmly expect that employee/supervisor relationships should be strictly professional.”

“Are you just giving us your opinion on office romances?” the VP sneered.

“I believe that trying to use intimacy as leverage is highly immoral, if not a fireable offense,” you held your ground.

“Of course,” the CEO agreed.

“Then said employee would simply need to file a complaint with HR,” the VP dismissed you.

“What better way to get my complaint heard than speaking directly to the CEO?” you smiled sweetly, “Sir, yesterday the man sitting beside you crudely suggested that I sleep with him in order to gain the promotion. He also alluded that all of my accomplishments are for naught, and that I am purely ���eye candy’.”

“Is this true?” the CEO asked his VP in dismay.

“Of course not. She’s grasping at straws. Look how desperate she is to get the job,” the VP quickly defended himself.

“I am not lying. I am fully prepared to be fired on the spot. I cannot continue to work at a company that allows this kind of sloppy behavior to go unpunished. Thank you for your time,” you bowed and quickly took your leave.

You released a huge sigh as soon as you were outside of the room. Hobi rushed over to your side. Suddenly, you began to laugh hysterically. Hobi looked at you nervously, obviously concerned about your mental state.

“Isn’t it so funny? All my hard work had just been flushed down the toilet by a stupid man drunk on power. I love that!” you wheezed.

“___, ___ calm down. What happened?” Hobi inquired. 

You told him what just went down. A smile crept across his face as you got to the part where you put the VP on the spot. 

“I wouldn’t count yourself out just yet dude,” Hoseok shrugged, “All we can do is wait.”

“Yeah, I’ll be the first one to congratulate you on your new job. Then I’ll begin my search for a new one,” you gave him a thumbs up.

The VP stumbled out of the room and angrily stomped towards the both of you.

“You fucking bitch! Who do you think you are? Do you even know what you’ve done? I know people. I’m gonna make sure your life is hell!” he yelled at you.

“That’s enough! You have been dismissed. I do not want to see your face around here again. Clean out your office on Monday,” the CEO ordered, “Would the both of you please follow me back into the room?”

You both timidly followed him, curious as to what he had to say.

“I apologize on behalf of the company for this incident. This isn’t the first time a complaint has been filed against him. Unfortunately, he always told me that they were just futile grasps for leverage and I foolishly believed him. However, his loss is your gain,” he smiled, “How would you like to be my new Vice President?”

You were agog. Hoseok’s eyes widened as he stood beside you.

“Surely there are more qualified people,” you stammered in disbelief.

“There definitely are. But none of them are what this company needs. It takes a special person to have their rival pitch all the reasons why you are a better candidate than they are,” the CEO happily nodded.

“I- he what?” you cast a surprised look at Hobi.

“Oh yes. He spent all his time highlighting your best qualities as an employee. It was quite a shock,” the CEO smiled.

“I will humbly accept your offer. Thank you so much sir, I will work even harder!” you bowed gratefully.

“That brings me to Mr. Jung. The position on the executive council is yours, if you want it,” the CEO offered.

“If the offer is unopposed, then I have no choice but to accept. I will do my best!” Hobi joined in your bowing. 

“Wonderful! It’ll be refreshing to see some lively young faces at those atrocious meetings,” the CEO laughed, “Oh, and one more thing. The two of you will have to relocate to the main branch, I hope that’s okay. I look forward to working with both of you.”

You both nodded gleefully. After the CEO dismissed the pair of you, the trip back up to your hotel room was nothing but joyous. It was like you were in a dream that you never wanted to wake up from. You even pinched each other to make sure it was all real. 

“I can’t believe you were advocating for me,” you hugged him.

“You deserve it. Your impressive diligence should not go unrewarded,” he squeezed you tighter, “Plus, this ended up being pretty sweet! Congratulations to both of us!”

“We need to go out to celebrate!” you wiggled.

“Yes! Let me take you out,” Hobi tackled you onto the bed.

“Where shall we go?” you playfully ask.

“Maybe we should go explore our new city together?” he suggested.

“Our?”

“Yes, our. And when I say I’m gonna take you out, I mean as a date. Because I want to date you. And have been wanting to for years,” Hoseok charismatically emphasized.

“I’m looking forward to starting this new chapter of my life with you then, Mr. Jung Hoseok,” you press your forehead against his. 

“Imma be all up in your bidness girl,” he joked.

“Your business is my business now loser,” you teased back. 

Looks like all that hard work had paid off, and there’s no better reward than finally being with Jung Hoseok.  

Published May 13, 2021. No editing, copying, translating, or reposting allowed. All Rights Reserved © 2021 Baepsaesbae.

[fuck-customers]

Fuck managers! I scheduled a surgery for mid june in mid april, plenty of time in advance. Also not for anything serious, but definitely something thats been bugging me for almost the entire year so far and has already caused me to miss work, so my supervisors at least vaguely know about it. Also something that will definitely take at least a week or two of recovery so I had to take some time off for it. Our time off request system is online and tells us what days are blackout days and can’t be requested off. Usually that’s reserved for holidays. The days I scheduled said nothing and didn’t seem to be blacked out which was why I picked those time in the first place. You can see where this is going

Fast forward about a week, I’m at work and one of my supervisors asks me to look at the schedule real quick, and she goes “so I denied the vacation days you took in June for father’s day weekend and the blackout days around it, but the rest are good to go :)” Now my managers are actually pretty understanding, and again I had completely forgotten that I had scheduled it over fathers day which was definitely on me, but again there was nothing indicating it on the request system either so I figured they would be fine! I work in a bakery so holidays do tend to be busy but...not fathers day. Most people get their dads steak and shit like that, not fruity colorful cakes (although they definitely should). I’ve worked there for nearly 5 years and fathers day has NEVER been especially notable in terms of sales.

So assuming my boss would be cool and help me work something out if I told her, I was like “oh, I actually scheduled surgery for that time.” Again, usually they’re cool and understanding and actually work around you very well.

Well not today! She was kinda just like “yeah?” and stared at me blankly. So kind of taken aback I was like “uh...I’ll see when I can...reschedule it for I guess?” To which she was like “sounds good!”

Now I had picked the days I did specifically because I’m going on a work trip in mid may and won’t be back until the 31st. Fathers day is the 20th of June and I scheduled surgery for the 11th. So I asked her “I won’t be back from the work trip until May 31st and the only other available surgery date was June 4th...instead of my current date y’all think you would be okay with me just...being gone for a whole month? Or back for a couple days between the 31st and 4th just to leave again?” And keep in mind, literally EVERY time I’ve taken time off in the last year, they’ve asked me to either just not do it or have texted or called me trying to beg me to come in. Every. Time. I know this won’t be any different, and I don’t wanna toot my own horn but I do good work and they STRUGGLE when I’m not there which is exactly why I asked this. But of course she was just like “no yeah that’s fine, hell, just take the whole month off!”

It kind of just ended there but the more I thought about it the more pissed I got. Like the schedule is already out until mid may and I’m not ?? prepared for surgery like right now even if that was an option. Then the work trip, and then doing the surgery on the 4th might not even be enough recovery time before the fathers day blackout starts! I’m not gonna be in pain and risk my recovery for that shit! Not to mention doing it after is out of the question since 4th of July follows so soon after and that’s DEFINITELY a much busier holiday for us. I don’t want to keep waiting to fix this problem and the date I picked really is the best option without pushing it out until almost AUGUST when it’s been bothering me since JANUARY. And I do feel bad for scheduling it over a holiday but again I got no indication that it was blacked out! It’s hard enough already to schedule anything longer than 2 weeks without accidentally doing it over a holiday, at least this holiday isn’t all that busy!

Not to mention the fact that that kind of behavior is on brand for her. She acts super nice and like I said is actually really cool and understanding and is totally cool with working with you with this kind of stuff...unless she’s in a bad mood. She’s very much the type to take shit out on us and sometimes she’s super weird and stubborn and vindictive and it’s just dependent on her mood and how shitty she feels like being to you that day. And since she’s a supervisor she just gets away with it. Earlier that day even my bf had texted me like “hey, (supervisor) is in a bad mood jsyk” and when I come in what does she do? Use her authority to be weird to her employees! She’s always been like that and I have stories on stories about her, this just really rubbed me the wrong way.

Anyways this story does actually have a happy ending! I continued my day and had just resolved to having to reschedule surgery and figured I would exact revenge by leaving for my trip and just staying away as long as I possibly could, when my team lead comes RUNNING up to me and goes “oh my god, do NOT reschedule your surgery jfc” and I was like “oh but I can if y’all really need me to?” (I’m too nice) to which she goes “NO!! That’s crazy!!! Thank you for even CONSIDERING doing something like that but no absolutely not. You’re not fucking around at home doing nothing for 2 weeks it’s SURGERY.” And ended the conversation by walking away so that was that lol. I’m very glad one of them actually has some sense.

Oh, and other supervisor came up and did this thing she likes to do when she’s wrong where she doesn’t apologize but DOES find a way to just brush off her wrongdoing. This time she comes up to me later in the day and was like “haha yeah I told (team lead) that you told me the time off request that I denied was actually for surgery and she stopped what she was doing, shook her head, and IMMEDIATELY came up to talk to you lol” like yeah no shit dude?? Oh the team lead was disappointed that you’re being a bitch and had to clean up your mess?? And is also actually reasonable and didn’t expect me to literally cancel getting my body cut open to come work a stupid holiday that’s not even busy? Real shocker lmfao

TLDR boss tried to make me reschedule a much needed surgery bc I scheduled it on blackout days that no one told me were blackout, other boss comes thru and is like “wtf thats fucking crazy please don’t do that jfc”

[novasintheroom]

Ooooo a fresh blog! Heyo there! So, my first request is some head canons, if you write them anyway, for the each of the turtles having a s/o who is usually the purest of beans. Like— she doesn’t get angry, usually shy when meeting new people, very humble, sweet and caring— but for the first time she does it’s like she realizes she’s frustrated and mad about something that happened during the day and it’s the first time she’s expressing it. the turtles notice her come in knowing something is off about her behavior when she’s usually so cheerful. Almost like “Sometimes it just makes me so— it makes me so... so...! Angry!” But she actually gets super surprised with herself realizing she’s actually venting just to say she’s fine in the end after bottling up for so long. The turtles just looking at her and asking if she’s okay 😂 If that makes any sense.. sorry if it doesn’t.

Oooooo my first ask!! I’m so nervous and excited! I think I got the gist of what you’re getting at. Thanks for sending this in, it means a lot to me! <3

Leo

·         Honestly caught off guard when you come in steaming

·         Your calm and sweetness is something he loves and looks forward to – it’s hard being the firm leader in his family when everyone pushes back, so you’re a pleasant break from the arguments and sassy remarks

·         Not today

·         It’s loud in the lair – Raph and Mikey are doing something with a basketball and hula hoop that’s got Raph raging and Mikey screaming, Donnie’s got a power tool going on the truck, and Splinter’s Celine Dion music is blaring to drown it all out while he works on pruning his plants

·         Leo’s up in the concrete rafters with a book, glancing down every other minute to make sure Raph doesn’t kill Mikey

·         He would have completely missed you coming in if Mikey hadn’t thrown the ball toward the entrance

·         You dodge the ball before it hits you, but instead of laughing it off like usual, you throw a dark look at his brothers and beeline toward the dojo.

·         Woah, that’s weird

·         Avoidance of his family = big red flag

·         You didn’t even say hi to him??

·         Hops down and follows, waving off Mikey’s calls to you

·         Finds you in the corner of the dojo, bag thrown to the side and hands smoothing out the sand of his small zen garden

·         Feels a bit awkward honestly

·         Listen, he’s getting better at it, but he’s not the best at feelings

·         Especially girl feelings

·         He knows something’s up though, and he wouldn’t be a good beau if he just let you simmer

·         Spooks you when he asks if you’re okay

·         Darn those ninja skills, how is someone as big as him so silent?

·         You sigh and just say you had a fight with your roommate and that it’s fine, you just needed some quiet before you went to his family

·         Okay, coolcoolcool. He can work with this. He and Raph fight all the time! “What was the fight about?”

·         Cue explosion

·         “She doesn’t pay her part of the bills on time, and she has her boyfriend over constantly and I can hear them through the walls when they’re screwing because the stupid cheap apartment has stupid cheap thin walls, and she leaves her dishes everywhere even when I ask her to not be a slob, and the landlord is getting after me for her rent when– “

·         W o w

·         He didn’t think you knew any swear words, but the names you’re calling your roommate would make even Raph blush

·         Your rant goes on and on

·         Anytime he tries to suggest a solution you get angry at him like why can’t he just listen omg

·         He shuts up quick

·         Somewhere in the process he sat down and your head moved to his lap while you laid all your problems out

·         By the time you’re finished your chest is heaving and it’s been an hour

·         Leo’s scared to say something in case you go off again lmao

·         He just plays with your hair and hums while you calm down

·         Finally you look at him with wide eyes, “Wow, geez, I didn’t think I was that mad.”

·         He can’t help but laugh, “Me neither.”

·         Your smile is back, though, and that’s the best thing he’s seen all day

·         “You feeling better now?”

·         You say yes, and give him a good hug and kiss as thanks for his patience

·         He asks you to come to him if things start building up again

·         Seriously, start talking to him – I don’t think the poor guy can handle another explosion like that lol

 Raph

·         Raph knows anger

·         Does he know how to deal with it? Ehhh that’s hit-and-miss

·         But he knows it

·         So seeing your tense shoulders, clenched fists, grinding teeth when you walk in – he knows you’re angry

·         It’s a bit off-putting tbh – you’re the calm to his rage, the quiet touch to wind him down when something gets under his skin

·         What happened to make his quiet girl so mad?

·         Did someone say something about your family?

·         Or something about your outfit?

·         Did a skeevy guy try to touch you?

·         Did someone try to kiss you?

·         Okay, now he’s getting mad

·         Decides to take a page from Splinter’s book and pulls you aside to talk

·         “What’s the matter?”

·         You pull at your sleeves, looking anywhere but him

·         You just mumble you’re fine, and that you’re hungry and try to move to the kitchen

·         Nuh-uh, that don’t work with him

·         Catches you by the arm and gives you a look, “Somethin’s bothering you, and you’re gonna tell me what it is.”

·         “And what if I don’t wanna talk about it?”

·         “Tough luck.”

·         Your glare could curdle milk, but you don’t say anything

·         Alright, you wanna play it that way? He’s got three brothers he grew up with; he can get it out of you.

·         Hauls you up and tosses you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and takes you to his workout station

·         Ignores your screams of outrage and the beating fists on his shell

·         They’re like little kitten paw pats; he can’t help but smile at how small you really are

·         When he sets you down in front of a world-weary punching bag, he crosses his arms and waits

·         You’re red faced and snarling. “What are you doing?”

·         He raises a fist, and gives the bag a good punch – “That’s for when Mikey backwashed into my water bottle today.” He throws another punch, “And that’s for Donnie’s stupid snorts waking me up last night,” and another, “and now I’m back on Mikey’s backwash!”

·         He stops the bag’s swaying and gestures for you to take a turn

·         Realization dawns in your eyes. You look at your fist and throw a pathetic punch at it. “That’s…for my fifth plant…dying this week?”

·         He almost laughs, but nods encouragement

·         You punch again. “That’s for whoever stole my lunch out of the fridge at work.���

·         And again. “And for those kids who spit on that homeless guy!”

·         And again. “And for Gina’s face when she made fun of my teeth!”

·         Punch after punch, you let out your anger and frustrations that boiled over today

·         Raph’s impressed – not just with how much crap happened to you, but how long you held it in

·         You’re a lot stronger than he gave you credit for

·         He’s also a bit freaked at seeing the rage in your eyes

·         Is that what others see when he comes at them?

·         Yeesh

·         You feel a lot better after the session, if sheepish for letting so much anger show

·         But he brushes it off, “Hey, you see how I am. It don’t bother me none, sweetheart.”

·         He pinches your butt for good measure as you walk back to the lair and laughs when you punch him in the arm

 Donnie

·         The one that takes the longest to realize something’s up

·         He can’t help it! He’s busy making sure his family is safe and hidden! He’s gotta keep the firewall up-to-date from all the new viruses being put out, check the perimeter lasers so that no one sneaks up on them, change the oil in the Turtle Tank, and why is the computer sparking over here, he needs to ask Raph or Leo to come with him to get new parts at the junkyard, but if he –

·         Bumps into you and is like ‘oh. how’d you get in here’

·         Delighted to see you though! It’s like all his worries suddenly vanished when he realized ‘oh yeah! I have a girlfriend!’ and that’s you!

·         Missed you a lot since it’s been a few days since you could visit

·         Starts showing you all of the progress he’s made on certain things, asks you how school’s going, how was that group project you had, did you get that interview for work?

·         It’s your clipped and short answers that finally makes him take a step back and really see how you’re doing

·         You’ve always been enthusiastic about his inventions, even if you don’t completely understand every technical thing he talks about. He thought you guys were past the awkward conversations too.

·         Clipped answers are a big no-no – it makes him shrink inside, like his words and ideas don’t matter

·         Takes a few seconds to look you over – awkward seconds, ones where you look down and away and not at him

·         “Are you alright? Did…something happen?”

·         You take a few deep breaths, trying to calm yourself, but then the words just start pouring out: “I’m sorry, it’s just, I can’t stop thinking about how my supervisors treated me the past few days. They scheduled me to work a triple shift! Without asking me! And I told them I had a date with you, and a million other things to do, but – “

·         You lay it out for him, apologizing every other minute for just putting this on him out of the blue, that you tried really hard to be happy coming to the lair but your boss just text you that you have another shift tonight instead of getting to hang out with Donnie, and –

·         Donnie sits you both down in a couple of chairs, his hands holding your own as you keep talking and venting

·         Rubs circles into your palm, eyes never straying from your own watery and frustrated ones

·         A breath out of the nose is the end to your rant, and you lean to put your head on his shoulder. “I just hate when people spring things on me! I just wanna stay with you and hand you tools to work on stuff.”

·         His heart warms at this, even if he’s sad at how sucky your job is

·         And it gives him an idea

·         He manages to hack into your work’s scheduling system and put your supervisors or fellow employees in your place for the night

·         Even sends out a text masked as your head boss to whoever he put, letting them know they’re on the job and that you had an emergency

·         You’re torn on this – those people had things they had to do too

·         But Donnie reassures you: “If they’re as bad as you say, then getting more people mad at them might just make them change. If not, we at least get to have our date night, right?”

·         Well, when you put it that way…

·         He gets a big, long smooch for pulling it off and for listening to you

Mikey

·         Listen, this boy is intuitive when it comes to emotions.

·         He kinda has to be with the type of older brothers he has lmao

·         Instantly knows something’s up by the sound of your feet coming down the tunnels – heavy, like you want to stomp them but don’t know how

·         He’s geared up though – his baby girl’s coming!

·         Hops off the couch and has the biggest grin for you when you walk in

·         Doesn’t even falter when he sees the glower on your face

·         Says something stupid to test the waters – “Woah, babe, I’m gonna have to call the cops – I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to be as fine as you are!”

·         Not even a smirk.

·         Okay okay. Obvi you’re not in a happy mood.

·         Man, he was hoping for a little blush at least!

·         Takes that heavy bag off your shoulders you’ve been lugging around all day and corrals you back to the couch

·         Grabs some sodas and a few chocolate bars from his hidden stash in the kitchen

·         He knows you need it more than him right now

·         Sits down and calls out to the lair that “we’re making out on the couch!!” Def keeps his family from coming in and interrupting lol

·         Isn’t even phased when you explode about your day – your coworker had it out for you, your professor told the whole class that your paper was what not to do if you wanted a good grade, etc. etc.

·         Mikey accents your day with “No!” and “He didn’t!” and “What a jerk!”

·         It’s cathartic to hear someone agree with you like that

·         He takes you in his arms when the frustrated tears start falling and you start to wind down

·         “It just makes me so angry, and I hate feeling embarrassed and…”

·         Rubs circles on your back to help calm you, just like his family did to him growing up

·         After a minute you’re better, and back to your sweet, happy self, if still a bit stuffy from the tears and snot

·         You’re surprised and apologize for your emotions, but he stops you

·         “Hey, everyone has their bad days! Sometimes you just gotta let it out, y’know?”

·         You give him a big kiss for being so sweet

·         Makes the day a lot better after that with the soda and candy and some video games

·         He’s a good turt <3

[yyxgin]

a lot has happened at work recently!! but who cares bleh. libra season!!! which means bday celebrations!! except i’m at work BOO 👎 and my two assistant managers have officially left (i’m helping them move on wednesday) and they were probably the only two who knew when my bday was apart from my supervisor but he’s gone to a different branch to train to be an assistant manager before coming back so i’m super bummed bc now i have to deal w al the new staff by myself 😭

also one of the ladies in kp read my palms?? and she told me i spend too much money impulsively which isn’t false… but i have to spend money impulsively or if spend none at all (which is good for saving ig) but i’d also be doing nothing other than working and that would make me sad lol. she also told me bc i’m a libra this month i’ll be unlucky with love but lucky with money so 🥺🙏🙏 i was having a relatively bad day that day so she was cheering me up n all of that.

did i tell you when my txt and skz albums came, they also came like a week or two later (again) bc they’d accidentally doubled up my order? it was like heaven with skz bc changbin baby is my ult n he was in some of the pulls for the second album 🥵🥵 the limited edition of no easy confuses me bc it’s not like the last one of theirs i bought and typically groups stick to a style when they design albums like mamamoo are all in these cute magnetic flip box thingies and nct’s are all little books type things as well as txt’s but skz switched it up and there’s a fair bit of loose stuff? but it’s okay bc i have two posters n all of the mini flip card things for the members and some bangchan (i’m gifted in pulling chan).

im also hopefully getting a car?? the barman hasn’t gone to prison yet bc the court keep moving his sentencing date(s?) so when i discussed this w my mum she said they’ll probably throw it out and relief filled me!! but ik i shouldn’t be so hopeful but at the same time it’s like why would you mess someone around so much? anyway i’ll move on, i wanted to drop him home in my car bc he deserves a lift everyday what a sweetheart❣️ my co-worker facetimed me today as it was my day off and i said hi to everyone it was so heartwarming to see everyone missing me but also not bc my manager overworks me and he knows that after this weekend 💉🩸

im jumping about with my points and things i want to say but i’m horrible at internet friends so this is okay for me as recently i’ve just not had energy for any friends which is awful of me but i’m still trying to find the balance between work and social. also everyone’s gone to uni and i’m just chilling. i like my life.

i want to redecorate my room. i don’t like the vibe other than when people compliment my kpop wall bc it’s a bunch of my art and then other peoples art and i thoroughly enjoy decorating w pictures and stickers and stuff but it’s literally just a door and it’s depresses me that my happiness is reduced to the back of a singular door now. i want to redo the vibe in my room and make it more me. i’ve never felt comfortable until recently and even now i’m going back to feeling uncomfy now that i know i want it a certain way and to give a certain vibe. idk, maybe it’s bc i watched sex education and seeing lily’s room in the most recent season (i won’t say much more in case you are watching/haven’t seen it yet) really made me realise i want to love myself and love the space i create for myself more. do you enjoy your space you’ve created for yourself? i always feel like peoples rooms say a lot about them as a person but how they see their room in their own eyes always says more.

i want to ask loads of questions and am awful at asking them so please just tell me everything i missed or should be updated on!! ily, always

~ 🌻

LIBRA SEASON !!! omg did i ask you when's your bday ?? i hope i didn't miss it. >:( happy birthday !!!! you deserve so much love. also, i'm sorry about your managers leaving. dealing with new staff is hella stressful and i hope you don't have to have too much responsibility and nerves <3

ooh palm readings are hella interesting. i've never had one but i think i'd like to try. spending money impulsively isn't a bad thing, if it's not an irresponsible spending. and if it is,, well who cares. yolo. i feel you on that tho, bc even tho i am really stingy w money, sometimes i just buy stuff i don't need and act on impulse.

OMG THAT IS A DREAM ?? getting free albums ?? (at least i hope they were free lmao). i like it when groups stick to one type of packaging although i must say i dont like the book thingies nct uses bc there is no magnetic part so it falls apart on my shelf and i hate that. i acutally like the sleeve packaging txt's albums have ?? everyone seems to bitch abt it on tiktok but i find it the most conveniet. also i'm glad changbin came home to you <3

YAAAY TO THE CAR !! AND ALSO TO YOUR COWORKER. i am praying he won't have to go, then, i am really hopeful. he is a sweet soul and doesn't deserve that. pleeease don't put up with your boss overworking you. take care of yourself :(

YOURE NOT HORRIBLE AT INTERNET FRIENDS we are besties. okay ??? and its totally okay to have no energy for friends as well, bc as you can see, i am struggling as well recently. it took me so long to reply to this ask and i feel so bad but it is what it is :// social battery has been low and i am busy with studying and work and trying to put my shit together. i am rooting for you !! <3

go for the decorating !! i actually haven't watched sex education and am not planning on watching so i dont really understand what you mean, but i hope you get to create a space for yourself when you feel free and comfortable. i share a room with my brother so its kind of difficult to decorate it how i want it, but i honestly like sharing a room tbh. he's not here half the time anyway so it's good to see him at least when we go to sleep lmao. but i have a bunch of stuff in my corner that are kpop and my side is full of plants, so i feel good surrounded by them hihi. i like it here.

i don't have many updates. i am actually living a very boring life, so i have nothing to share. preparing for graduation exams has been making me anxious and also depressed with everything that's been going on lately, but it's okay. i'll pull myself together <3 i love you a lot, take care !! i missed you

[nymphigeon]

From me, to you || 05

♤ Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

♤ Genre: fluff, angst, romance, hybrid au, hybrid!Taehyung, detective!reader

♤ Words: 2.3k

♤ Rating: PG-13

♤ Warnings (for this chapter): swearing, mentions of blood, mentions of hybrid abuse, mention of decomposition, mentions of murder (stabbing), mentions of gambling, mention of a sex club.

♤ A/N: Not super proud of this chapter, but I didn’t know any way to make it better. Hope you enjoy anyways!

Synopsis: A story in which he has never known love, so you’ll give it to him.

Series masterlist

04 05 06

It takes a solid 15 minutes before Taehyung has completely calmed down. All this time I’ve been holding him close, waiting for his sobs to die down. Despite Taehyung visibly relaxing more as time went by, his ears still lay somewhat flat atop his head.

“Feeling better?” There is no response for a while, but I know he heard me. Eventually he nods, just a tiny tilt of his head, but a nod nonetheless. He makes no move to sit up though, still leaning against my frame. If it wasn’t for him sniffing now and then, I would’ve thought he fell asleep.

So long he doesn’t want me to go I won’t. Thus I keep holding him, expecting him to push me away on his own when he doesn’t need my embrace anymore. I don’t mind holding him like this, I just want the bad memories to be forgotten about. Best case scenario would be his past disappearing from existing. Though, sadly, this is no fairy tale.

Not everything will be okay in the end. The damage his heart and mind sustained will never be fully repaired. All I can do is glue the remaining pieces back together, searching for the lost bits as I go. Some may be lost forever, stomped into the ground, buried by layers of dead leaves and decomposing insects. Then I’ll make sure he creates his own, new pieces to replace the ones missing. He doesn’t need whatever other trampled over.

“Lee Ji-hyun.” It’s a soft whisper. If the room hadn’t been dead silent as it was, I would’ve missed it. I don’t respond, letting him talk as he wants. Giving him space to open up and expose himself.

“My owner, Lee Ji-hyun.” His voice contains a bit more confidence this time. I can’t say I’m not surprised at his words, I didn’t think I was going to get a name today after all. The movement of my hand rubbing his back stills for a second, resuming just as fast. It was only for a second, yet he must’ve still noticed it, as he gives me a sad chuckle.

“I was never the pet he wanted. I wasn’t like the brutal animals he heard about on tv. I’m not like the first tiger hybrid who killed his owner trying to escape.” He takes in a deep breath, almost like he’s trying to keep his hatred for the man that hurt him in check. Or maybe he’s on the verge of breaking down again.

“I don’t want to fight underground for illegally obtained money. I don’t want to walk two blocks to threaten your drug dealer for free cocaine. I don’t want to sleep with others just so you can throw money at the strippers you care so little about.” If he was truly trying to keep his hatred at bay, it failed. Years of bottled up anger spilling out, breaking the dam he built high himself.

“And if I refused I’d get hit, stomped on, tased, or if I was lucky I wouldn’t get food instead. I should’ve wanted to harm him. Why was he never scared he would be the receiver of my anger?” Taehyung’s hands tighten around my arms, trying to find a way to hold on to the strong front he has been putting up all this time. His voice has drastically raised in volume since he first started talking, close to shouting out all the words he kept to himself.

“He wanted to see me struggle against my chains, trying to rip him to shreds, growling with my eyes blown out. He would’ve laughed in my face as I try to kill him with my own bare hands, purposefully getting the whip out, making me so scared I’d lose all of my humanity.”

All of a sudden he sits up in my hold, not slipping away from my arms, but also not snuggling into me as much anymore. Once again I should’ve been scared of him, ripping myself away from him and running out the door to safety. I don’t. His irises show the well-known gold colour of the predator’s eyes, his canines having grown longer in size. On the edge of shifting, but all I can see is the broken boy inside. The one that just wants to get away.

“I couldn’t do it at the time. I laid still on the ground as the leather came down again and again. It hurt so much and I still didn’t try to attack him.” His eyes are full of unshed tears. Did he mean to tell me this? Did he finally have enough? Perhaps this was all a mistake, led by emotions he was never able to reveal. Whatever it is, he doesn’t stop. Sometimes silence is suffocating, uncertainty hanging in the air as the other does not respond. However, now my silence is encouraging him, filling the quietness with his rants.

“Despite having always been taught to be a pleasing puppet, I started disobeying him more and more.” This particular memory was still fresh, it hurt more than the others. His eyes cast downwards for a second, swallowing a lump in his throat, before finding mine again. I think he was debating on whether to continue. Do I look shocked? Indifferent? Sad?

I’ve heard confessions of crimes for years, probably seen ten times more emotional outbursts than most humans. I’ve learned not to get affected by them, only looking at the facts presented in the story being told. I have played the role of a supportive law enforcement worker more times than I can count, slowly manipulating the answer out of those who belong behind bars. Though I would never use that tactic on traumatized witnesses.

This time should be no different, but it is. I wonder if it’s because I’ve had more time to connect to him. Getting to know the person underneath all the insecurities. Possibly it could be the way hybrids have been tortured for years and now they can finally break free. Humans sympathize, I’m no different.

“He didn’t have the money for basic human necessities anymore as I was his only source of income at that point. He was the self-proclaimed kind of gambling, yet he lost the mountain of money he had to that exact same game.” Stopping myself from sinking further into my pity for him, I start connecting the strings while he talks. A gambling addict bought an expensive hybrid who didn’t do as he liked, so he sold him. Or at least tried to, but killed the client for whatever reason.

“One day he called up this hybrid auction place. After hearing he had a tiger hybrid the owner himself offered a ton of money.” Taehyung’s hands start to shake. A picture starts to form itself in my head, pieces falling together. I know what’s coming, but I don’t want to hear it. As soon as I do so my suspension will be confirmed, no room for doubt. As long as he doesn’t tell me, I can still pretend it never happened.

“He wanted to meet up with us. Somewhere where there would be no traces of hybrid dealing left behind, as it is obviously illegal. You should know.” I slowly nod at his words, I do know. “We met up at The Pink Collar, the club you…” He trails off, the confidence in his voice gone when he mentions the sex club.

After the incident, the police shut the business down. Not only was the club completely illegal, having no licences whatsoever, it just so happened that a lot of illegal dealings went on inside it as well. It was a popular meeting place for those who wanted some dirty money. If mister Lee really is a gambling addict, he most likely went there more than once.

“David, I think my owner called him, ended up bringing a lot less money than he initially offered. My owner got mad and…. Well, stabbed him.” The last part gets said a lot quieter than the rest of the sentence. A tear rolls down Taehyung’s cheek as he recalls the moment. Something in me stirs. I haven’t talked the entire time. Now that everything is falling into place though, I need to know the full story.

“What about the girl?” My voice is soft, I don’t want to upset him more. Taehyung hesitates for a moment, before answering. “She heard everything. She was so so scared, thrashing around in her restraints and screaming as best as she could with the gag. He couldn’t leave witnesses so he.. he did the same to her.”

I want to ask more, though I’m not sure if I should. I’m not like my supervisor who forces answers out. I’m diving into dangerous territory here.

As if he can read my mind, Taehyung nods, giving me a small smile. “It’s okay, ask me.” He wipes his eyes dry and nods once again, encouraging me to continue.

“What about you? Why did you do?” I didn’t mean to sound accusing. Luckily, Taehyung doesn’t really catch on to the underlying question, answering before I can explain myself.

“Barely anything. When I did as much as try to get out my restraints he threatened to kill me too.” So he was tied up at the time too? I think back to the day I found him. He looks better now than he did before, although he still has a long way to go. I can imagine there was not much he could do, weak and terrified.

“And right after that you two left right?” Taehyung sits up completely now, letting my arms go and propping himself up against the wall. A few deep breaths and his eyes return to their normal brown colour, going back to looking exhausted rather than angry. “Yeah.”

If that’s all then why was Taehyung drenched in blood that day? Why was he alone at that playground? Thinking for a moment, I try to find the answer to it myself first, but nothing clicks. Taehyung tilts his head, silently questioning what caused the confusion displayed on my face.

“What happened after that?”

His head drops, hands clenching and unclenching against the fabric of his pants. “He took the money from David and left with me. Somewhere along our way back I had enough, I-” Scared that he’ll break through his own skin if he keeps his fists tightly closed, I am quick to put my hands on top of his. They don’t open up, but at least they relax a little. Hybrids are known to shift when in emotional distress. If his claws were to come out in this position then he-

“I jumped him from behind. Sunk my nails into his back and broke my leash in the process.” -he might scratch himself. It wasn’t him who got hurt at the time, but he who hurt. I’ve never believed in revenge being the answer, but Lee had that one coming. He was the one who wanted to create a rage filled tiger in the first place, well there he goes, wish fulfilled.

“Then you ran off?” Taehyung nods, pulling his hands away from under mine so he can wrap his arms around himself. His tail joins in the party, snugly held against his waist. This time it’s his ears that remain in their neutral position, listening to anything else I have to say.

“Will I get punished now?” The way he says it, is like he’s trying to sound unaffected, but in reality the idea scares him. For years that’s all he’s known, punishment after punishment. I want to be able to reassure him, to say that it’s all fine, but there is always the possibility of things not being fine. What will I do when that happens? Feel guilty, helpless?

So I tell him the truth. “If we can confirm that he really did abuse you with either a confession from your owner, verbal evidence of other witnesses, or stuff inside his home, you’ll most likely be fine. It depends on if the judge agrees with hybrid laws a lot of the time, though I’ll take care of that.” Just with a softer edge. I gave him the harsh reality wrapped in a pink fluffy blanket.

“You won’t be fired now right?”

I completely forgot about that. When my supervisor lashed out at me I had accepted her words, not thinking about the consequences a whole lot. “Well yeah, I guess not.”

I wonder if he was scared that I would get fired, if that’s the reason why he opened up. Selfishly, I want to believe that he told me because he trusts me more. Greedy, I am aware. No one has to know though, I won’t tell.

“C’mon, let’s get you back.” I stand, stretching out when I’m fully up. I regret not paying any attention to the position we were in, as my back is heavily complaining now that I’m back on my feet. Letting out a groan of satisfaction, I open my eyes, of which I didn’t know that I had them closed, and move to give Taehyung a hand. When I look at the ground however, he is no longer there. Instead, he already passed me on his way to the door, looking back to see if I was following. I smile sheepishly and take a quick few steps towards the door.

Remembering nothing can be left behind, I look around the room. Two chairs and a table, that’s it. Grey brick walls nobody wanted to paint line the sides, with a huge one way mirror at one side. All you can see is yourself and whoever came with you. Trapped, stuck with a grimacing police officer who doesn’t want to be there either. Thinking about it, this place is almost scarier than prison itself.

Looking closer at the table, I notice a blinking light. A small rectangular device being the only thing on the table, filling the palm of my hand nicely. Something my supervisor must have forgotten in her haste to get out of here, an audio recorder, still left recording.

Taglist

@suhappysuho @intellectualxprincess @sana-b @littlewolfieposts @nellaphine @daisychwe @deathkat657

[lozeyart]

do you have any friends you can talk to / vent about it? i’m sorry today was so bad for you :(

I do! I called my sister after I got off work and talked to her about it and we ended up laughing about it.

Thank you for this, my love! Thanks for reaching out and making sure I had someone to talk to <3

A tiny bit of what happened below (if anyone cares, but seriously no obligation to read it, I just like to complain)

A basic run down is we had a borrowed shift supervisor at work who was supposed to hand off to me (I'm also a shift supervisor) and she decided I was being "Mean" and that I was "Snapping at her" when I was just trying to tell her she didn't have to worry about a certain task she was doing and that I would do it for her. And she was not saying this to me, but to my coworkers while I was standing only a few feet away, and in front of customers. And she was basically yelling it. I told her that if she had anything to say to me, she should say it to my face and in the back room away from customers because of how unprofessional it all was. (keep in mind, she's been with the company for 12 years and she's in her 50s while I've been with the company for 7 years and I'm almost 26)

One thing led to another, I apologized but also called her out on her behavior, she stormed out of the store, I told my manager what happened. I might get a incident claim filed against me (but if she does file it against me, I'm filing one right back) it was also just busy, I had a lot I needed to get done, and it was just.... very overwhelming. And I had to go to the back room several times to make sure I didn't cry. I skipped my lunch again, it was just one thing after the other.

Fortunately the day ended well. Like the last hour of my shift swooped in and said "Oh shit bro I'm sorry, here have some super nice customers" and my manager let us order pizza and my friend brought me a salad from her work.

I'm doing better now, but I'm just very tired haha.

[nerd-of-many-layers]

I just need to rant about something. Luckily I have basically no followers and no one from my personal life that would be an issue is following me.

So, I got a really frustrating email from one of my Supervisors today. And of course I didn’t see it until I was getting ready for bed tonight and now I’m all angry and frustrated and emotional about the email and what’s lead up to it.

Some back story.

I work at two separate workplaces doing the same job. Unfortunately the first place I work at, let’s call it Job A, has some ties with my other job, which we will call Job B. My supervisor at Job A worked at Job B for a decent amount of time and the supervisor at Job B (who is still the same now) did something dirty to Job A supervisor when they quit. So there’s a little bit of bad blood between the two.

Now, I have worked at Job A (for a second time) since Sept of 2019 with a blip of nothing for a year due to Covid and repair issues. Since there was uncertainty of coming back I interviewed and got hired at Job B while I wasn’t working Job A. And since there was a lot of uncertainty even when we were able to work (until June of this year and my area opened up more) Job A had no issues with me working to get some more hours.

Come May I started coaching again so I was bouncing between 3 jobs (luckily coaching takes place in the same space as Job A) and Job A & B had more work to offer. So I took it. For June, July, and August I worked an average of 50-60 hours per week between the 3 jobs. I barely had days off and I averaged 4-5 hours of sleep during the weekdays. But I was fucking happy to be working again.

In July we had a training session at Job A where our supervisor basically berated us for being on our cell phones and that the public could see us and it was extremely unprofessional. In my job yes that can be a problem. However it hasn’t hindered our work ethic nor our ability to respond to things if needed. Our work still gets done well and on time.

During that same training session we practiced things that can happen at our job and our responses to them. And we got torn apart again. However, when we retrained before opening up after not working for over a year that specific retraining did not happen even though it was supposed to. And we have a lot of younger staff who had barely worked 6 months before Covid shut us down. The likely hood of them remembering that training is slim to none. So I was not impressed with being blamed for not doing our job (I had no issues with my responses but I’ve done the job for 8 years and am an adult) that they hadn’t helped us train for like they are required to. We were also told we weren’t coming in on our own time enough to practice our required skills. Which thanks to COVID Restrictions was basically impossible because all our space was limited capacity and we weren’t allowed to take space from customers. So I don’t know how they expected us to do that.

As the summer went on I started to burn out. Not surprising considering my work hours and sleep schedule. I told Job A that this was starting to happen, especially since I was teaching a lot between all 3 jobs and that can be exhausting. And I was teaching the most at Job A because a lot of staff they hired for summer had crappy availability and there wasn’t very many of us to cover the teaching that was scheduled.

With said teaching comes paperwork and reports that have to be done within a certain time frame. And because I was working so much I ended up taking work with me between workplaces. Which Job A supervisor didn’t like. And to be fair, they weren’t wrong on some of their concerns. Using Job A resources for Job B things for example.

However, with how much I was working there was literally no other way for me to get the things I needed to complete done. And I made sure it didn’t effect what I was doing at either workplace. I still did my required duties and did them on time. I just used some of our slower and quieter times to complete the extra work I needed to do. Yes I could’ve cut my hours down but that wasn’t really an option since both jobs were short staffed.

I had done similar things at Job B and not a single person raised a concern about it. Job B supervisor did not care as long as I did my job as was required. Granted my Job B supervisor is a lot more hands off and the full time workers are the ones who are the hands on people there.

In the last month an update came up from one of the certifications required by my job. Because Job A was behind on rolling it out to us I took initiative and Job B said they would pay for it so I did the required update. With that update there is a bunch of work I have to do on my own and since it’s a requirement for my job I had been bringing it to Job A to work on during quieter times.

But a day after starting to do that I got told I couldn’t do it on Job A time because I wasn’t teaching the course the update pertained to anytime soon. And since Job A knew I was teaching the course the update pertained to at Job B this fall my Job A supervisor felt I was miss-using Job A company time to work on this. I said that since this planning would benefit Job A too shouldn’t I be able to still do it. Nope. I also knew that I was being watched during the quiet times because as soon as I would sit down to do something someone would be checking in on me.

One last piece of back story. I had also applied for a promotion at Job A before covid shut us down and was turned down. The reasons were valid (at least I thought so at the time and now I’m not so sure) and so I worked on the things Job A supervisor asked me to. I applied again at the end of August and was told late last week that I had received the promotion.

I received the confirmation of the promotion and got told I was wasting company time all in the same week.

So, on to today’s email. It basically stated that I have been talked to about how I am using Job A resources (printing, lessons planning, report work) to benefit Job B and that despite having been talked to more than once (except each time was for different things) that they feel I know better and am choosing differently. They are apparently confused that our conversation this past week about lesson planning for the course update needed to be addressed again. And they want to have a meeting, sorry “connection”, this week to discuss the dynamics of the items in their email and how to move forward.

At this point I am so frustrated with how they have been micromanaging the team all summer and that it feels like we aren’t trusted to do our job. And though I’m probably way in the wrong (though it doesn’t feel like it right now) I don’t understand why I can’t prep for a job I’m expected to do later when I have the time and ability to do it now. I’m not allowed to be on my cell phone or prep for courses (whether I’m teaching them sooner at Job B than Job A or not) but I’m expected to busy all the time at a tiny and not super busy workplace. It just doesn’t make any sense. And I’m hella frustrated and ready to just say fuck it and quit.

So that’s my mini rant with a lot of back story. But that was a bit cathartic so I guess it sorta helped.

[btswishes]

I will adopt you.

Monsta X (Shownu) hybrid au

Part1 / Part2 / Part3 / Part4 / Part5 / Part6 / Part7 / Part8 /…

A/N:  Guys, this scenario is going pretty slowly.I am trying to balance a lot of this right now. I will try to finish all the fics I started pretty soon. Sorry for the delay and any mistakes made.

Word count:  2, 833

Warnings: I mean ,just normal 21 century teen cussing.

                               ——————————————–

  The sun warmed up a small area on your cheek. It took a few movements for you to realize that morning was upon you. Once your eyes opened fully ,you were surprised by the still strong warmth making you not want to leave the bed. Soon after, you remembered last night almost like it was a movie scene.

  Your back was currently facing Shownu and you didn’t know what to do. Your body felt frozen in place, or it might not have wanted to move. You could hear and feel his gentle deep breaths on the back of your nape. 

  After some pondering around the idea of doing something, you turned around.The breath in your throat hitched in it’s place, as your eyes were met with his. Shownu was awake. His look was calm, the blinking motion- elegant and gentle. It was so slow and soothing as the hypnotic effect of a watch,  swinging side to side in front of your face. 

  Shownu was just looking at you. His hand gently rose from under the cover, to move a small strand of hair away from your eyes.

“G-good morning.” your voice broke the silence. He huffed a breath of air together with a small smile. The pillow case under his head made a small noise and he came closer, touching your forehead with his.

“Good morning.” you couldn’t take your eyes off of him. From his nose, to his lips, his cheeks and his jaw. You were jumping from one place to the other, trying to take in everything you were seeing.

“We should get up.” you mumbled under your nose, shy from the close exposure 

“Do you want to get up?” 

“We have to, I mean...I have some stuff to do today.” business was on the schedule for the day and you wanted to finish as soon as possible. He didn’t say a word and just sat up in bed. Shownu’s back was big, almost like a mountain covering you. Your gaze soon ended up onto his extremely messy bed hair. It was a bit funny looking on him and a small chuckle slipped out of your lips.His head looked back at you a bit crooked like a curious pup.

 Now fully awake, you stood up on your knees and ran your hand through his hair, trying to calm it down. But it didn’t want to obey you at all. “Wait a second.” swiftly you jumped off the bed and grabbed the first brush you saw on top of your vanity. Shownu sat on the side of the bed as you walked back to him. With a gentle movement you began trying to brush through his hair, with the key word here being *trying*.

“Oh wow!” your hand was firmly on his forehead as you tried to pull the now stuck brush “Strange, your hair didn’t look so tangled yesterday.” the wood got caught in his thick fur like hair and didn’t want to let go. Placing your hands on your waist, you began thinking of something. “Let’s go to the bathroom.”

 Shownu was sitting on the edge of the bathtub as you rolled up the sleeves and cuffs on your pant. You didn’t want to get anything wet since this was going to be a tricky situation. Making sure his hair was wet enough, you put a big dollop of shampoo on your hand and began rubbing it into his hair. After the shampooing was done, you used the conditioner to smooth his hair enough to be brushed.

“Usually, any hairdresser would kill me for brushing wet hair.But you need all the help you can get.” it was difficult, you couldn’t lie about that for sure. He was very obedient, sitting still yet making strange faces as you tugged on his head. At some point you found yourself pulling the brush in one direction and pushing him in the other. It felt more like a fight between you and the knots is his fur. After what felt like an hour, you were able to turn it into something that resembled normal hair. 

“I am done, I am done.” you could hear him growl out from time to time, almost like an angry pup fighting for his favorite toy. Washing off the conditioner, you threw a towel on his head and pulled him back to the couch in the living room. Shownu sat down cross-legged when you rubbed his head furiously to dry it. He didn’t have long locks of hair to pull out the hairdryer, plus you kinda forgot where it was anyways.

  Breakfast was super fast, just some cereal.You wasted most of the morning on brushing Shownu, so you had to do things quickly. He was eating in front of you on the table and staring at the milk in the bowl. It was kinda quiet mainly because he was still shy around you. Or maybe he was more action and less talk type of person.

“I am going to go out for a bit today.” his head shot up in a nanosecond as he heard that you will be leaving for some time “I just finished up some documents that I need to hand them over to my supervisor. I have a meeting with him in a cafe close by, so I will probably take maybe 2 hours, more or less.”

“2?” he mumbled 

“I was planning on meeting some friends too, since I always stay home.” you added ,placing the metal spoon in the bowl. Shownu perked up, when you placed your fingers on his forehead and pushed him back down. Kind of like in those seal videos you liked to watch on YouTube. This man constantly gave off mixed energies- one moment he is dominate and breathtaking and the other he is a total pup that you just want to cuddle all day. “Stay.” pulling your hand back, you pointed at him “Eat slowly and don’t rush or you will get indigestion. I will go get ready.” 

  Quickly you dashed to the bedroom and pulled out the formal clothes you had. Winter or not, you were meeting someone of a high position so being appropriately dressed always gave you extra work points. It made you look like you take your job seriously, even tho you did most of the work in your pjs eating chocolate. 

“I am leaving. Do you want me to turn the TV on for you?” you placed the coat on your back and made sure the scarf was nicely tied around your neck- no cold air was going to reach you and that was the plan. Shownu was staring at you, but didn’t answer nor react to your question. “Ok...I am off then.” the shoes were on in a flash and you closed the door behind yourself. The elevator was taking longer to reach your floor today, since someone went to the last one and down again.

 The doors finally slid open ,when you saw your reflection in the mirror and realized “I forgot the documents!” tapping your head a few times ,you ran back to your apartment “Idiot, idiot. So much for being professional.” the key slid in easily and you swung the door open. Almost instantaneously you jumped up almost hitting the light in the hallway.

“GOD!” you grabbed your chest with one hand and the door frame with the other “SHOWNU!” you screamed out so high pitched it sounded almost like a whistle note.”WHAT are YOU doinggggg!” you were going up and done the scale mixing in emotions that you never new you could express.

  The boy was sitting literally in front of the door with his still half-full cereal bowl, staring. After catching your breath and making sure your heart didn’t relocate in your ears, you looked down at him. “Get up, it’s cold down there.” you tried to drag him to the fireplace, but obviously couldn’t ,so you asked him to move himself. “I made you a nice nest here so you can sleep and not catch a cold. Is this how pet owners feel when their animal doesn’t use something they bought for them? Probably.” the boy was just listening to you talking to yourself. 

“Why did you come back?” his voice cut your monologue short 

“I forgot to take the documents I need.” you grabbed them from the cozy spot on the table and closed the door behind yourself. You were about to lock it, when in your mind popped up a random thought. Slowly you pushed the handle down and slid the door silently open. Shownu was once more sitting on the cold ground looking at you, almost like the situation a minute ago didn’t happen. Eyes locked, you couldn’t take the somehow sad look he was giving you, so you burst into the room.Your hands were on your waist, scrunching the folder a bit. 

“Get up puppy we are going shopping!” he crooked his head to the side and you knew you completely lost the movie reference moment. “Get dressed, you are coming with me.” in a matter of seconds he turned into his hybrid form, standing in the pile of clothes.  He placed them on the bed and stared at you. From the hanger next to the entrance ,you pulled down the leash you got him, making sure it was lose around his neck. 

  Finally you were able to lock the door and jump in the elevator. It was silent until you grabbed his front paws and with all the strength you got pulled them off the floor. Shownu was confused and looking around like he was searching for the explanation in the environment. 

“There we go.” sighing deeply you stared at the small backpack you threw on his back “You are not leaving the house without clothes. I don’t want to get called in the police station to pick your butt-ass naked self up.” his eyes were a bit judgmental about the whole situation You could have told me before hand. “I know I know, I am just all hyper after you scared me.” It is a strange habit I have. “Well we need to work on that.” 

 Checking the time, you calculated that there was enough of it not to rush around town like a crazy person. As you were planning your steps for the day, Shownu’s head shot in your direction. You can hear me?! “Yes, give me a second.I am thinking about something.By the way, didn’t know you can talk in dog form.” I can’t. “Ha?!” you looked down where he was sitting with almost the same emotions on his face “Then how do I hear you?? ?” I don’t know, this never happens with humans. “Wait, there are more hybrids?” Of course, do you think I materialized myself out of thin air? “How then?” he was a different species you could say, so it was natural to expect some differences. When a mommy wolf and a daddy wolf love each other a lot the- “Ok let me stop you there!” you placed your hands in front of his face to indicate how you weren’t looking forward to the direction this was going in “I know how it goes, we are good. I don’t need Sex ED in the elevator. I am good, really.” It’s interesting though. “I said I am good.” I don’t mean that. I am talking about you hearing me. “Do you think you can hear me thinking too?” We can try. You concentrated your mind as best as you could on random things, so the experiment could be with clear results.

“Um, morning Y/N...” your neighbor stepped in the elevator, confused about you intensely staring at your gigantic dog.

“Hi!” you straightened your back and looked at the man “I was just making sure he...um...he didn’t get bit by this other dog.”

“Oh, he is a fighter then?” the old man calmed down a bit and even chuckled “That shows you he is a lively one.”

“Sure is.” you let out a mix between a fake laugh and embarrassment “Have a nice day.” you ran out the building as fast as you could.

“Never doing that again.” your hands were leaning onto your thighs as you took a deep breath. That made no sense to begin with.  “Don’t act all smart with me.” the alarm you set on your phone rang loudly and you cussed out “I am seriously going to be in trouble at this point.” Do you know where you are going? “Yeah, my boss gave me the address, I just need to pull out my phone and not drop it.” people were making way mostly because of Shownu’s size and fierce looks. “Here hold this!” your hand swung and you pushed the folder in his mouth, shocking even the people passing by.

“It’s around the corner we are close by.Oh wait!” stopping in front of the door you stared looking around the glass exterior. What are you doing? “I am trying to see if this place allows animals in.” Just go in.  You pointed at his reflection and Shownu very quickly realized what you meant. The bell above the door rang and a very nice girl with short baby blue hair smiled in your direction. Her finger pointed at the very top corner of the cafe next to the sign.

“We allow pets, you don’t have to worry. Come in.” you bowed a bit from the sudden introduction and followed her inside “We have an area you can leave your pets if you want to. “ the girl sat you down next to the window and gave you a menu. “Is it male or female?” 

“He is a boy.” you said 

“Most of the dogs in the pet area are female, so I am just asking.Some customers are very picky about the animals that play with their pets.” your eyebrows frowned upon hearing that “Strange, I know. But that is how it is I guess.Would you like to order?”

“Oh yes. I would like the cafe’s special please.” closing the menu, you placed it on the table and crossed your legs, making yourself comfortable. “Nunu, do you want to go over there?” you looked at Shownu I am too tired to run around with them.Plus I am not an animal, I am a hybrid. “Ok, suite yourself.” the girl was still next to you while you were having this small chat “I am sorry, I probably look crazy to you.” you laughed out, scratching the back of your neck.

“No, not at all. I am also a dog owner and I know how it is.” she smiled in your direction and grabbed the menu “I will be right back with your order.” you nodded 

  The cafe was pretty nice, even thought there were so many animals. It was quiet and calming. They were all playing and enjoying themselves as their owners were talking with friends or just enjoying a moment of silence. Shownu was strangely falling asleep while you scouted the area. It was cute the way his head bobbed from time to time and his cute eyes blinked, trying to stay open.

“If you want to sleep, just tell me.” you giggled, patting your thighs. I am too heavy. “Not like that stupid.” you grabbed his head and placed it on your lap. He was big enough to lay on the floor and have his head comfortably on you. “See?” you asked Shownu as he was dosing off fast. Mhmm he just mumbled.  The finishing blow came after you started petting his head, he just fell asleep in a second. Kids would come around from time to time wanting to pet him, because he looked like a big cuddly teddy bear.

 Shownu staid awake most of the night making sure you had enough space on the bed, you were warm and comfortable. His worrisome nature kept him awake for most of the time. Your fingers ran through his thick fur slowly. As he was resting and recharging his battery, you were looking out of the glass window, waiting for your supervisor to finally show up.

 Truth be told, you didn’t know who they were. You got a raise and placed in a higher standing branch of the company, so this was kinda you first day at work and your first evaluation. You were a bit worried that bringing Shownu was a bad idea, but his calm sleeping face and the way he would nuzzle himself closer to you, relaxed you and erased all anxiety you had. The tiny bell above the cafe door rang, but your attention was still focused on the outside world. The sun was illuminating your beautiful face and outlining your body in the comfortable yet formal clothes. You looked like an empress, petting her pet tiger and enjoying the empire she ruled over. 

  That picture formed in the head of the man that was walking towards you. 

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

2020 SU Fic Sampler - WIP Showcase

So in my continued attempts at distraction, I trawled through my SU fanfic folders, looked at the ol’ endless WIP pile. Figured I’d do a little roundup of some that are in something resembling a decent state. Maybe even see where interest lies and all that, get some attention and validation, you know, all that good stuff one craves. Of course, there’s loads more than this, and I might one day post some things I wrote but never quite managed to finish up, or that got super jossed in ways I couldn’t get myself to work around.

Now, in no particular order, here’s 8 draft snippets totaling almost 6000 words - not very polished, obviously, some quite rough around the edges, some long, some short, some that work better without context than others. But here they are anyway, with an utterly predictable array of focal characters. Any missing segments or my asides/notes in the text are [written like this], because I usually write very non-linearly. Hope you all like mood whiplash! 

P.S. I live for comments.

Like Talking To A Wall, aka Bismuth making friends with the wall, statue, and floor Gems. Early precursors to radicalisation and “I would have liberated everyone”, perhaps. Started as one of my first reactions to the Diamond Days episodes.

“Hey, thanks for listening.”

“Anytime. You’re lucky I’m so supportive,” Mica piped up from up on her arch.

Bismuth laughed. Bittersweet. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I am.”

Then, with a surprisingly gentle hand pressed to the carvings she’d been so careful about, she added a soft: “I’ll miss you.”

“Chin up! It’s gonna be a lovely off-planet adventure for you,” Granite rumbled from just above her head. “A brand new colony! Think of the sights!”

“You can tell us all about it when we see you again.”

Bismuth leaned back, pressing her whole back against the wall, reluctant to leave, even if a snooty shift supervisor was bound to come around and chase her off soon. “Yeah, I’ll make sure to do that.”

They all knew very well that, as always, when the building was done, it was goodbye. The chances of there being a need for repairs or remodelling - and the exact same bismuths being brought in to do them - were incredibly slim.

But pretending was nice, sometimes.

-

Hey, Steven, think I could get a moment before we leave? I won’t be long.

-

They were right where she’d left them, and the years had done very little to change them. A bit of a patina there, some dust, the tiniest bit of wear on sharper corners.

“Bismuth?” Several familiar voices cried out to her in shocked recognition.

She knew she must look a sight - battle-ready and battle-worn, but armour still gleaming, and with a bearing of one who had been through much and was always ready for more. She felt her back had never been so proud and straight, her shoulders so resolutely set.

“I think,” Bismuth grinned, “you’re gonna start seeing changes around these parts.”

---

One for that favourite Pearletariat/Pearl Solidarity fic sub-genre of mine: Clever Pearls Cleverly Getting Around Badly Worded Orders. A bit of an origin for an as-of-yet unnamed pearl OC, because I sure don’t have enough of those!

In the untold thousands of years of Homeworld and Gemkind, and the hundreds of thousands of commands given to hundreds of thousands of pearls, nobody ever thought to Order a pearl not to think. That would imply a they mattered at all, and who would ever put stock in a pearl’s thoughts? Most Gems weren’t sure pearls could think, anyway. I mean, if they could, all that standing around would be intolerable, wouldn’t it? And imagine not being able to say no to anything, even crushing your own gem - shards, at least I’m not a pearl!

They were, occasionally, when dealing with an owner’s important, private, confidential business, Ordered to forget, or, a bit less esoterically, Ordered never to tell.

And [OWNER] has always been all too eager with the Orders. As if she went to bizarre lengths in her thinking that pearl couldn’t - or wouldn’t? - do anything upon merely being told, let alone by herself. Every little thing, from sweeping up the shards of a broken decorative plate to taking down the minutes of an important meeting [OWNER] was presiding over - (im)pressed upon pearl with the crushing weight of an Order.

But she could still think.

Even when Ordered to wait by the door, freezing her limbs and anchoring her legs to the ground with all the force of a starship mooring mechanism. Even when Ordered into silence for days and planetary rotations on end because [OWNER] had wanted to read an important document without being disturbed and it simply didn’t occur to her to lift it when she was done.

In the wake of the Rebellion and the Renegade Pearl, it only gets worse, and soon enough pearl can barely remember the last time a single movement she made was voluntary.

---

SU Future-era Bismuth and Steven convo I scribbled down in between some of these recent eps - after Growing Pains in particular I think - because Bismuth is the absolute pep talk queen.

“You already said you were sorry for trying to kill me in the Forge, and really, it’s okay, it was all a misunderstanding. Besides, it’s more than a lot of people have done!”

Bismuth blinked at the pinkish sheen around Steven’s cheeks, around the downturned brows - strange trick of the light, that. “Steven, come on. Just listen to me for a minute.”

“Okay,” Steven sighed, and leaned against the railing Bismuth had fixed just that morning.

“Point is, for me, the war had never ended. It wasn’t only yesterday, it was today. It was over for everyone, it seemed, except for me. And getting over that, getting used to that, really seeing that as the truth, not living every day buzzed up with that anticipation of the next battle, just waiting for Homeworld to come down hard on us with whatever new horror they’d come up with… that took a while. And it took help.”

[sudden apparent non-sequitur but It’s An Allegory, Steven.]

“When you make a sword, you can’t make it rigid and unyielding. You can’t just temper it into toughness and hardness and make it unbreakable. It needs to have some give in order to be durable, it needs to be able to bend so as not to shatter on impact. And sure, maybe the first parry or strike wouldn’t be the one to do it, but the tenth, the hundreth, the thousandth? Any time you might just find yourself holding on to a hilt with the jagged remnants of everything, and shards scattered on the ground. And if you’re very lucky, that’ll happen during friendly sparring, not in the heat of battle.”

Steven shrugged without response, and seemed to be shrugging off all the words as well. Back to the direct approach it was, then.

“Now you, Steven,” that at least got a bit more attention, “Sure, you can brawl with the best of ‘em, and you put that gem to damn good use. You’ve got great technique drilled in, too - I’d expect nothing less from one of Pearl’s students. But that’s not how you won, in the end, is it? You never won because you were tough, or strong. You have a diamond in you but you’re not hard at all. Well, except on yourself.”

“In the end all of this was possible because you were soft. Just malleable and pliable enough when it was needed. And that takes guts.”

“Hey, I’m just saying,” Bismuth put a hand on his shoulder, and even with all the very human growing he’d done, he still seemed to almost disappear in it. “You put yourself out there for others… maybe it’s about time you let them help you.”

---

The next chapter of the His Dark Materials/Daemons AU which I am sooooo painfully late with it’s not even funny anymore. Already posted some excerpts [here] and [here].

“She’s been... away on business, but we’ve sent a zeppelin for her and she’s well on her way back. Hopefully.”

“You have a zeppelin?” Rose was rapidly failing in all her efforts to keep her voice down. 

“Of a sort. We, er, we... stole it.”

“Stole-!”

“Yes, well, stole might be a strong word,” Pearl tapped a finger against her chin. “You see, there was a small decommissioned postal craft left below the southern mail station aërodock that nobody would ever miss, all I had to do was fix it up a bit and-”

Rose blinked. “You fixed a decommissioned zeppelin.”

Pearl waved a hand almost casually. “I had some help, but yes. Svalbard, understandably, is hard to reach with other means of transport, and Bismuth needed to be able to go back and forth.”

“You,” Rose began, awed, “are utterly wasted on bringing me my slippers, I’ll tell you that.”

“Well then, maybe,” Pearl blushed, but there was nothing hesitant about her smirk and the strikingly proud tilt of her head, “maybe you could take them off with a bit more care than kicking them halfway across the room and sending them off under the cabinets and- and then I wouldn’t need to do that at all. And I could fix all the zeppelins in the world.”

-

[more from the super secret backroom rebellion meeting]

“They’re with the Consistorial Court of Discipline, no doubt. Always on the lookout for,” Bismuth grimaced, “heretics. A lot falls under that. A lot of good excuses to snatch someone off the street and do who knows what to them. And they’ve been funneling people there, people vanished by the CCD. Not lacking in test subjects lately.”

“How did you get this? Where?” It was Sapphire, this time. Ruby seemed overwhelmed, and sat clutching her hand desperately as the tiny frog and hare both whispered something to her.

“We traced the funding for all this. It was difficult and deliberately obfuscated, but we managed. A facility like this, an entire operation, cost a pretty amount, you’d assume - and you’d be right. It had to come from somewhere. And whoever was paying for it was likely to want to know what was being done with their investment.”

“So we followed the trail. And it turned out I was… ideally positioned to… to, erm, procure what evidence there was to be found. Because, well...” Pearl trailed off, and lifted one of the stolen report sheets for all to see.

It was as clear as day, the family crest right above the astronomical amount being granted. Four diamonds, neatly arranged.

Neshu’s ears were flat against his mane, and Rose found herself wishing the ground would simply open up and swallow both her and him and the chair that she sat on and he’d tried to duck under.

Bismuth spoke up, grim, every drop of earlier exuberance gone from her. “When the Diamonds look out from the windows of their mansion, they don’t see people. They see tools, toys, and weapons. Nothing else.” She sounded more tired than angry. “It’s just what they’ve always been doing, but writ large.”

---

And then, of course, the Longass PearlRose Fixit because I hate the gag order but at the same time want it gone… slowly and organically. Alternating Rose and Pearl POVs spanning throughout the rebellion era, all sorts of flashbacks and Imagining Things included. At one point they end up attempting to essentially jailbreak Pearl, because Pearl is, as we all know, absolutely the most hardcore. Also thank you SU Movie for confirming all the awful Alexa-flavour fanon/headcanons and giving me an excuse to dive into a bunch of Gems-as-AI tropey stuff, on top of everything. [another previously posted fragment here]

“I don’t want to. I never want to do that to you again.” She stops, takes a breath, reconsiders. “And I know it’s a lot to ask of you, the trust I just… trampled over. So I want to make sure that it’s not just that, you trusting me not to make the same mistake again, with no reassurance anywhere. I—I want to not be able to. Nobody should be able to do that to you.”

“Nobody should be able to do that to anyone,” Pearl corrects readily.

“You’re right,” Rose smiles, only a bit wry, “as always. My brilliant, brilliant Pearl. What would I do without you?”

“Never get back to the point you were trying to make, I imagine,” Pearl quips with something resembling sauciness, and Rose feels at least some of the weight starting to lift off her.

“Right,” Rose agrees, chastised, and tries to focus. “I just… I’m not sure how, or what I need to do at all. It’s not like there’s much precedent – ownerless pearls are unheard of. Even when their owners get shattered, it’s only ever temporary, and, with such high demand, very brief.”

Pearl nods in agreement, and hums. “Luckily, we’ve seen plenty of unheard of and unspeakable things here.”

[echoes of Scabbard convo]

“I want to know, I want to be certain, that you’re here because you want to be.” 

“So do I.” Pearl responds quietly, letting their fingers entwine.

  [Giving an order not to follow orders doesn’t work, failsafes exist. Then they try a sort of ownership transfer thing, and try to make the new owner Pearl. It doesn’t register, “invalid transfer target”, even when Pearl tries to hack it - some odd gem tool that scans and pokes at her gem - she gets all bummed out because she can’t even reprogram a very basic and modifiable handheld tool/device to recognise a pearl as an actual gem and person. What chance does she have against hearts and minds and an entire ingrained culture of an entire sprawling empire?

“You changed my mind,” says Rose all softly and earnestly.

Have I really? Pearl asks herself but doesn’t let it escape out loud. Still. Step by small step, she admits to herself. Incremental, slow, but persistent work. She can do that. Even as down on herself as she is, she can do that.]

“The… the override.” Pearl breathes out suddenly.

“What?”

“The administrative override - you, or, well... Pink Diamond should be able to trigger it, even without a Rejuvenator. We shouldn’t…” Pearl looks strangely scared now, swallowing small gulps before pushing onwards, hands trembling and fingers knotting together, “w-we shouldn’t need a full reset, really, but. But we can try modifying the owner identification...”

Having to… turn into Pink again (turn back into yourself, you mean, a small voice whispers, who are you trying to fool) doesn’t sit well with her, of course, but. Get a hold of yourself, Pearl certainly has it so much worse in this scenario.

[more here about how they both need to kind of “revert” a bit to try this and it sucks, because no! unpleasant poking of holes in the elaborate fantasy! For the greater good, but still.]

And oh, Pearl looks just about ready to either cry with some strange terror Rose has never seen her display, or dissipate her form on the spot - the small dam of coldly throwing around terms like administrative override activation and owner identification variable providing just enough distance for her to carry on.

“It shouldn’t be too risky if we’re… if you’re careful.”

[Pearl trusts her with everything, her literal entire self - with this thing that is such a blatant violation of her being and her person, that she now wants to turn against itself, using one of the most humiliatingly clearly objectifying aspects of her status as an instrument of her liberation. It is all A Lot.]

Rose remembers, also, with a sting, the way she grumbled and sulked over the gaping pit of guilt in her stomach and refused to even look at the glowing, floating shell Blue was so insistently pushing her towards. She wanted her Pearl back, not whatever White and the others had decided to foist upon her now. Not a pale replacement, nothing they deemed suitable.

-

“Please state preferred customisation options.”

“Come on, Pink,” Blue urges, softly but mercilessly as ever, large hands enveloping Pink almost whole from where they’re planted on her shoulders, “White had her specially made, just for you! And we helped as well - only the best for our Pink. Now it’s up to you to put your finishing touches, as is proper-”

“What for? You’ll just take her away when you feel like it anyway,” she grumbles into her arms, curling up on the floor and resolutely refusing to look even as the glow spreads from the corner of her eye, insistent.

Just as insistent as the awfully familiar little voice. “Please state preferred customisation options.”

“I. Don’t. Care!” But now with a newly noticeable, if strained restraint - not, like her usual, punctuated with a slam of her fist on the floor tiles, perfectly shiny and pink. No, she couldn’t- do something like that again-

“Default setting selected. Please stand by.”

Yellow scoffs and moves to leave. “Come on, Blue. No point to us wasting our time being here if she’s just going to throw one of her tantrums.”

But Blue refuses to leave it at that, and makes sure to cut with parting words, before slinking through the large pink doorway. “I am very disappointed in you, Pink. To act like that, and with White personally making sure you got such a lovely gift even after everything...”

“Waste of good nacre, if you ask me,” Yellow muses from somewhere up above. “At least try not to break this one.” 

The glow intensifies with a hum, and Pink screws her eyes shut and pretends not to see or hear anything. 

By the time she opens them again, the others are gone.

But then there is another presence at her side, hovering just behind, as is proper court protocol. The shuffling of tiny, soft slippers on the polished stone - weren’t pearls supposed to be endlessly, effortlessly quiet?

“Leave me alone,” she preempts quietly. The shuffling moves away.

-

“Please identify yourself.”

Calmly, now, calmly but firmly, just like we planned it. Don’t mess this up now. She’s counting on you. She trusts you. “Pearl.”

“Please state preferred customisation options.”

They’ve discussed this too, of course - extensive (over)preparation and planning down to minutiae is Pearl’s go-to at the best of times, and something she clutches at for comfort at the worst of times. And she’s always, to a sometimes comical extent, despised that ridiculous dress. To a wonderful extent, too, all things considered.

“Revert to last implemented appearance.”

“Settings selected. Please stand by.”

[Of course this doesn’t work because all it does is change the $username$ variable, not the actual identity of the person imprinted: it’s still Rose/Pink, she’s just nicknamed “Pearl” now, but she can still give orders and everything.]

[evolves into Pearl literally hacking herself… the most hardcore of modders]

---

Pearl Playing the Field aka “why not hyper-analyze that one brief shot of the notes and phone numbers in Pearl’s gem and write 9 meet-cutes”. Pearl goes out to “find herself”. Whatever that is supposed to mean. Supposed to be set pre-ASPR, but also extends past it. Ended up with some Bispearl in it too because I am predictable and can absolutely not help myself.

“Your hair is wonderful!” She feels like she almost has to shout to be heard over the din of the bar’s ill-chosen soundtrack, and she doesn’t appreciate it. Definitely not one of her favourite places she’s decided to visit recently. And the ventilation is atrocious.

But still, she’s come all this way, so she may as well make the best of it. And while the preoccupation with hairstyles during first meetings seems like a bit of an odd running theme (can it really be termed a running theme, though, if it’s happened all of two times?), it’s certainly worked in the past (recent, very recent, and hardly bursting with relevant instances, Pearl!). Oh, and this particular one is just too fascinating. Approaching a work of art, Pearl would dare say. Especially, well. Especially when paired with the lovely eyes and striking jawline and strong neck it seems to deliberately be drawing attention to.

Pearl leans on the bar, in the bit of space the woman happily makes for her, and tries to look confident and well-informed, but not smug, no, never smug. “I know... about the, uh, goop, of course. I know how one accomplishes this.”

The woman gives a bemused smile. “Thanks! Not too shabby yourself.” She leans in closer. “I'm actually in school for it.”

“School?” Pearl casts desperately back to what she's heard from Steven and Greg's often hasty instruction. That was for educating human children, wasn't it? She'd put one together for Steven that one time, with desks and a blackboard… and Connie attended one regularly...

“Yeah, kind of a late game career change.” Pearl nods along as she realises - or, rather, remembers - she is absolutely terrible at gauging human ages. “But I thought... after almost 30 years in accounting and not going anywhere I wanted to be going... it’s not like we have all the time in the world, right? So I figured, why not? Go for something I'm actually invested in and that I've always wanted to do, y'know?”

“Oh. Oh yes, yes I do.” And for once, she really does. Well, not the time-related bit, perhaps, but the very particular delight of getting to pursue one’s genuine interests after a long while of being denied? Absolutely. “I’ve done something of the sort myself, actually. Go for it! As they, uh, say.”

The dramatic gesture of almost punching the air with a closed triumphant/defiant fist might have been a tad over the top, but it wins her a smile that doesn’t seem unkind. The woman winks and tips her glass at Pearl, then finishes her drink - something sweet-smelling and almost as colourful as her hair.

“I had a classmate do this one for me, and I did hers after.” Pearl is nodding along again, leaning in to hear better as the woman’s voice dips lower. “I kind of like to experiment, push the limits, go wild with it. Hey. You interested? Promise I won’t go too wild on you.”

Pearl's mind goes blank there for a moment. The woman is… very close, and there are unignorable implications unrelated to hair styling so obvious here even she is picking up on them without issue, and the music hasn’t gotten any quieter. Interested in what, exactly, she wants to ask, but she came here for wild new experiences and exciting novelty, didn’t she, so instead comes out with a rather strangled-sounding: “Eughhhhh...uhhh.... Ye...s?”

The woman’s expression goes serious. “Hey, come on, we don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

---

Forge Showdown AU - aka in a twist of fate Bismuth poofs Rose during their confrontation and revelations happen that change the course of… well, pretty much everything - one of a bunch of AUs where the PD reveal happens earlier and under different circumstances (I had an idea of doing a 5+1 of those at one point).

The glow of the lava coloured the quickly dissipating smoke more orange-red than pale pink, and Bismuth stared numbly at where their revered leader, Rose Quartz herself, had been standing mere moments ago. She’d lashed out, true, but she hadn’t really been expecting the clumsy blow - more of a warning, or underlining a point in their continued argument-turned-fight - to land. In all their many sparring sessions, Rose had never succumbed to something like that, would have never so much as let it brush against her. But she’d been- frozen, distracted… by what? 

There, scraping softly against the ground as it rolled with leftover momentum...

That was not a rose quartz gem.

Bismuth raked her mind feverishly, thought back through the last few, oddly blurred seconds.

“We’re not using this, Bismuth! It’d make us just as bad as them!”

“No! You’re the one who’s as bad as them- look at you, lording over all of us, thinking it’s your right to command me, order me around, like you’re, what, my diamond?”

It… it had to be some kind of imposter, or spy. Right? Some kind of… awful Homeworld plan, trying to tear the Rebellion apart from the inside. Where was Rose, then? The real one? Captured? Being interrogated somewhere, her whereabouts kept strictly secret to minimise the chance of rescue? Shattered? Impossible, they’d never hear the end of the victorious crowing.

When could it have happened? The last few battles and meetings had been nothing out of the ordinary, and Bismuth couldn’t think of anything odd or off about Rose recently at all. Not a single hint or sign that anything was amiss. Not a single misstep. Homeworld would have trained and conditioned its agents well, but Rose- Rose was singular, and utterly one-of-a-kind, and how could they possibly capture all of it so perfectly-

Bismuth startled out of her thoughts as the beginnings of light seemed to gather in the core of the gem, and all but threw herself onto it, encasing it in a bubble.

Rose was rather special, wasn’t she? And not just in what she said or what she did or how she behaved or what she led and encouraged them to do, but… 

Her endless array of wondrous powers. Her sheer strength, overpowering ruby fusions and quartz battalions alike almost single-handedly. The healing which Bismuth herself had been on the receiving, lifesaving end of countless times. The way she called upon the organic creatures of the planet to fight for her, fighting in their name. And then, her regular absences. The way she seemed to know exactly what the Homeworld troops were up to - that wasn’t just some kind of tactical brilliance.

She dared to look at the gem again. Its hue was changed some by the bubble, but that was still in no way a rose quartz gem. No, it was an altogether different shape, but a terrifyingly familiar one.

But it made no sense!

Bismuth ran a slightly trembling hand down her face.

Pearl. Of course, Pearl would have to know, if anyone. About… whatever this was.

But if this, if she was… her, then Pearl-

Bismuth’s insides twisted in horrible ways as the implications began to flitter through her mind, each one worse than the one before it. There was the old call-and-response ringing in her ears, making her feel disoriented and sick with what had to be the beginnings of anger, could grow into a great fury, leaving her unnecessary breaths ragged: Who do you belong to? Nobody!

But-

Not Pearl, then. At least, not at first. Garnet. Garnet would know, and Garnet could See. They’d get to the bottom of this.

---

A metric ton of rebellion era ficlets, vignettes from my eeeEEeeEEeeEEE Bismuth collection mostly, which I’ve been accumulating since 2016 and have only posted some - Pearl, Rose, Garnet, Bismuth centric, occasionally with my takes on namedropped characters, some of which would now need an update to match actual canon.

Snowflake was there, held in Garnet’s arms. The familiar pattern of white speckles on black skin, the tight silver coils of hair sticking out every which way.

“We got her back. She wanted to see you.”

“Me? And you just listened to her? Are you out of your mind? How can I help? Have you taken her to Rose? If her gem- if she-”

“I’m right here!” Snowflake struggled out of Garnet’s hold, and stood up - wobbly, barely upright, but determined, on those legs that ran circles around Homeworld, and ran interference and messages faster than any Wailing Stone, in a pinch. “And I’m fine!”

“You don’t look fine, Snowy- listen, please just-”

Snowflake walked up to her, not stumbling a single time, and, gritting her teeth, looked right at her. The hairline fractures in her gem were visible from here, and Bismuth couldn’t help a wince. “Snowflake, come on-”

“I didn’t tell them anything.”

Bismuth wanted to clutch her to her chest and scream a thousand things at her, but You don’t have to prove anything to me and I’m proud of you and I’m going to make them pay for ever laying a finger on you all waged a war in her throat.

In the end she just settled on holding her close, very gently, until Garnet left, unheard, and came back with Rose, tears already in abundance.

[Later:] “I never properly thanked you, Garnet. For bringing Snowflake back.”

Garnet shrugged. “It was a group effort.”

-

A familiar voice sounded at the entrance to the Forge. “Now come along, it’s just here. Bismuth? Do you have a moment?”

“You know I always have time for you, Pearl,” she called back, putting her current project away. “What did you nee- oh.”

Bismuth blinked.

“Uh... wow,” was the only thing she could manage as pearl after pearl filed into her Forge, soon taking up most of the space around the anvil in impressively neat rows. “New recruits? A whole bunch of you, too.”

“Yes, well,” Pearl made her way to the front of the group, carefully avoiding brushing against the others on her way. She was fidgeting again, long fingers tangling and untangling rapidly, and that was one sure sign of mounting distress. “Garnet and I had planned out an attack on one of Blue Diamond’s supply lines. There was supposed to be a shipment of weapons coming in today, but it turns out it was… pearls.” 

There was something rather off about Pearl’s tone, too. Bismuth made a note to ask later, and do her best to catch her alone.

“Well, all the better for us. Nice to have you all on board.” Her jovial tone was only slightly forced - the pearls all looked like they clearly needed something resembling friendliness, but their skittishness was palpable. She turned towards a pale green pearl right at the front of the group. “Now, what do I call you?”

There was nothing but mild confusion, vague fear, and general quiet shuffling. “No ideas yet? Don’t worry about it! There’s plenty of time to decide and find something that fits.”

[she does indeed manage to talk to Pearl alone, later]

“What’s the real problem, Pearl? You can’t fool me. I can tell something’s wrong.” 

The rather flimsy front finally crumbled at that.

“I just… we- we took out the citrines they’d sent with the shuttle, and Garnet boosted me up so I could force the hatch open and I did, but then...” Pearl let out a distressed little half-sigh half-sob, one hand gesturing weakly. “They were all looking at me so wide-eyed and...”

She took a moment to at least attempt to collect herself.

“I don’t mind having them here, it’s not that at all. It’s just that… we were standing there, with all these newly-made pearls and… obviously I couldn’t just leave them there, in the middle of nowhere! And after what we did, whoever found them, they’d just have them shattered. Because of me. They were compromised. You’ve heard what they do now, haven’t you?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard. They’re the monsters, Pearl, and it’s not on you. It’s not you doing that to pearls, it’s them.”

“But it is on me! It quite literally is because of me, because of what I did, and continue to do. I made myself visible and played at being important and look what it got us,” Pearl was near tears, a frustrated blue colouring her face, “a handful of runaways and the rest being treated worse than ever.” 

The tears were out in full force after that, and Bismuth put an arm around Pearl’s shaking shoulders. “Hey, hey, none of that.”

“We ended up taking them with us, but it feels like… it feels like I forced them to come here. Is it really any better than what Homeworld does? All I did was say you’re going to be rebels instead of you’re going to serve and they never got a say in anything.”

“Have you asked them?”

“They don’t know what-”

“Hey. Just ask them, okay? Ask them what they want. We can help them either way. Of course I’d love them to stay. But it’s not up to me, and if they want to go to wherever it was they were supposed to go- we can do that, too.”

-

[Rose discovers her healing tears in a dramatic fashion - they come up with the idea to make the fountain - and thanks to Save the Light we have a pretty good idea of who lovingly made all those statues]

She gently wiped away some of the chiselling dust with the flat of her thumb, just like a tear. A magnificent, healing, life-giving tear.

This was familiar work. But with none of the endless chafing, none of the hated reminders of her former station - Bismuth couldn’t find anything in herself but reverence. And… inspiration. She was a Gem, stars knew she didn’t need rest, breaks, anything of the sort, but still - this pace wasn’t something she’d felt driven to in a long, long while. All day under the burning summer sun, and every night under the light of her own gem. All alone, as the sanctuary took form under her hands.

To get the curls just right, tiny detail by tiny detail, somehow communicate the softness of those cheeks in stone… it took drawing upon the very depths of her well of skill, because how else could she ever hope to capture the likeness of someone as extraordinary as Rose Quartz?

With small, careful movements, she formed the roundness of the lips that could spit fiery words of rebellion, inspire like no other, scowl fiercely in the heat of battle, smile contagiously, bellow out an outrageous fireside guffaw, murmur comforts so softly, kiss…

And then she did it again, and again, and again.

[in the end, Rose is presented with a veritable shrine to herself]

“Rose? Is something wrong? You… don’t like it?”

“No, no, Bismuth, it’s… it’s incredible.” The smile Rose turned on her was as beautiful as anything, but it wasn’t hard to notice it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

[quickspinner]

MLHolidays2k19 24. Jingle Bells

How many Lukanette meet-cutes can I write? Apparently a lot.

Luka stared at the wall of small jars in front of him, debating between actually searching through the hundreds of labels, and walking out and telling Juleka that this store was out too. His sister was on some kind of quest to find a very specific type of glitter that Rose desperately needed. Juleka had been to five craft stores and Luka to three, but he was beginning to feel like maybe he should just let Juleka work this one out on her own.

Except he couldn’t abandon his sister on Christmas, because he loved her and also because he was a sucker. Also because of a little niggling fear that she might know the way she sometimes did, and it was hard to guard against the revenge of a sister with whom you shared a room.

He jumped and whirled at a yelp behind him, just in time to see a girl tumble into a display of boxed jingle bells artistically but impractically stacked in the middle of the store aisle. Even as he jogged over to the help, the poor girl curled up and covered her head with her arms as jingle bells of all sizes tumbled from their boxes and rained down on her. 

Luka’s ears were still ringing from the disaster when he reached the scene and knelt next to the girl. “Are you all right?” he asked the girl softly, laying a hand on her arm. “That looked like it hurt.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal,” she laughed shakily, rubbing her head and looking over herself. “I mean when it comes to me a few more bumps and bruises don’t really matter. I collect them like some people collect stamps.” 

“I think you need a better hobby,” Luka chuckled, helping her up with a slight jingling as they sent bells of various sizes rolling, and his stomach did a little flip when she laughed. Oh no you don’t, Luka thought at it grimly. I am absolutely not doing this again. No more insta-crushes for the rest of the year, I swore. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Luka and the girl both turned their heads and winced at the look on the store employee’s face. He looked about Luka’s age and his name tag said Tim.

“I’m so sorry,” gasped the girl, looking at the devastation of bells around her. “I’m so, so sorry, there was one on the floor and I slipped on it and I—I’m so so sorry.” 

“Yeah, right, that’s why you were standing here laughing it up. You think this is funny? You probably knocked it down on purpose just to make more work for poor saps like me.” Tim scowled. 

The girl shrank in on herself. “N-no, I really am so sorry—I’m super clumsy, I tripped and—I’m so sorry, I’ll help clean it up I swear—”

“Hey, friend, listen,” Luka said, taking a quick step forward. “I saw the whole thing, she really didn’t do it on purpose. She honestly fell, and let’s be honest, man, it probably wasn’t the best display to put out in the middle of the aisle like that. It was bound to come down eventually.” He grinned. “I’ll bet you told management that, huh?”

“Yeah,” Tim admitted, folding his arms. “I did, and they made me put it up anyway. It took hours.” 

“I’m so sorry,” Luka said sympathetically. “That really sucks and I know you’ve got to be crazy busy today. But look, like she said, we’ll help you clean it up—”

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” Tim sighed, deflating. “At least I get paid to deal with it. Don’t worry about it. Are you okay?” he asked belatedly, looking to the girl behind Luka.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she said meekly. “Are you sure you don’t want help—”

“No, you guys just get on with your day,” he smiled, waving her off. “I have to be here until closing anyway, at least I’ve got an excuse not to talk to customers for a while.” He winced, looking over his shoulder, probably hoping his supervisor hadn’t heard.

“Thank you,” she said, and Luka thought she must have smiled, because the employee blushed a bit. 

“No problem miss,” he said. “I’ll just, um...go get a broom and a bucket to put all these in.”

“Thanks for being cool about it, man,” Luka smiled. 

“And thank you,” the girl said as the employee left, looking up at Luka with huge blue eyes and a soft smile. Oh wow, no wonder that guy—no, nope. No. “I should have said something but I couldn’t think anything except ‘I can not be the person who caused an akuma on Christmas Eve.’ Thank you so much. Uh, my name’s Marinette, by the way.” 

“I’m Luka,” he smiled. “Everyone gets a little tense this close to Christmas, especially retail workers. Most of the time they just need a reminder that they deserve to be treated like humans too.”

“That’s very insightful,” Marinette said, her smile growing a little. “You must be a very kind person, Luka.”

Luka’s face heated (oh no no no stop that) and he shrugged. “I just try to put kindness out there and hope it will come back to me.”

“Um, well, can I buy you a cup of coffee next door?” Marinette said, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “So at least a little bit of kindness comes back to you today?”  

Ugh, she’s too cute. “I’d really like to,” Luka sighed, and meant it. “But I’m here on a mission and my sister will kill me if I blow her off.”

“Ah,” Marinette giggled. “A Christmas craft emergency?”

“Something like that,” Luka rolled his eyes. “Unfortunately this is way out of my wheelhouse and her very specific instructions are Greek to me. I was going I to ask someone, but—“ He shot a look back in the direction the worker had gone. “I think maybe I won’t bother him again.”

“Maybe I can help?” Marinette asked shyly, and Luka smiled, pulling up the message from Juleka and handing it over. Marinette frowned at it for a moment, and then her face lit up. “Oh, you need glitter, not embossing powder, you’re totally in the wrong section! I can show you—“ She backed up a step and turned, but her foot caught on another display rack and she pitched forward with a yelp.

Luka had seen the whole thing coming as soon as she stepped back, and was already lunging after her as she turned. He caught Marinette with one arm around her waist and caught the display rack with his other hand just in time to keep it from toppling over. For a moment they hung suspended in a battle of physics, but Marinette managed to shift her weight into him just enough to give him the leverage he needed to get her fully upright. 

“Nice reflexes,” Marinette said weakly, hunching her shoulders. “I’m sorry, I’m so clumsy. I shouldn’t be let out of the house.”

“You’re fine,” Luka said, breathing a little hard from the effort. Marinette was heavier than she looked. “Maybe just slow down a bit?” he suggested with a smile. 

“Right,” she giggled, handing back his phone, which she had somehow managed to hang on to the whole time. “That’s probably a reminder I could use more often.” 

I’d be happy to—No, damnit!

“Well,” he said, gesturing onward. “You were saying?”

Marinette smile. “It’s this way,” she said, setting off at a less frantic pace.

“I guess you come here often?” Luka asked as she guided them through the store. She was surprisingly efficient, when she wasn’t crashing into things.

“Pretty often,” Marinette said cheerfully. “I make a lot of things myself—more with fabric than paper, but you know, sometimes you just need a touch of glitter to make things perfect! What’s your sister making?”

“I have no idea, honestly,” Luka admitted. “She just said she needed it, so here I am.”

“Aww, you’re such a good brother,” Marinette said, reaching out and squeezing his arm lightly. His pulse jumped. He could almost hear Juleka now. Ugh, you’re pathetic, a little attention from a pretty girl and you lose your mind completely. “Here we go, it should be down here,” Marinette said, guiding him down an aisle that looked exactly like the one he had been in before.

A label on the shelf caught his eye. “Wait, isn’t this it?” Luka paused, reaching for the jar. 

“No, no, that’s coarse and your message said ultra fine,” Marinette said, grabbing his hand and tugging him further down the aisle. “It’ll be down here.” 

She didn’t let go of his hand as she studied the shelf, and he didn’t quite have the heart to pull it back, though he continued berating himself in his head. He’d never much minded his tendency to develop spontaneous crushes. It gave him something to think about, something happy for his daydreams instead of day to day worries and the crushing weight of the future. He accepts it, he enjoys it, and then he plays it out and lets it go when it’s time for it to drift away and most of the time the people he’s thinking about don’t even know.

Not all the time though. The last one ended very badly, and rather publicly, and resulted in a lot of embarrassment for him. Luka had decided to make more of an effort to keep his heart to himself, for a little while. 

Apparently he’d let the bad habit go on too long, though, because he was having a lot of trouble resisting the pull now, and he didn’t even know this girl.

Marinette squealed in triumph and let go of his hand to go over to the shelf and reach up. She stood on her toes, and her shirt rode up a little, and Luka’s eyes widened slightly as she stretched. Marinette had great abs. No wonder she felt so heavy even though she looked so thin, if she was built like that.

“I can’t quite reach it, can you—” she turned to look at him, and Luka jolted as she caught him staring.

“Shit, sorry,” he said, blushing hard as he looked away. “I didn’t mean to stare, that’s just an impressive six pack you’ve got there.” Smooth. Someone just kill me, please.

Marinette grinned and winked at him, and he was sure he actually did die a little bit inside. “I’m secretly a superhero,” she giggled, and he couldn’t help laughing in return. No, no, don’t laugh, don’t watch her be cute, argh… “The glitter you need is right up there, but I’m not quite tall enough.” 

“Oh, yeah, I got it,” he said quickly, stepping up beside her. He picked up the jar that had been just out of her reach. “Wow, only one left.” Luka took out his phone and compared the label to the message Juleka had sent him. “Yes, this is it. Awesome.” He took a picture of the jar and sent it to Juleka, and then looked up and grinned. “Thanks, Marinette.” 

“I’m so glad I could help,” she grinned back, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet. “Mission accomplished, yay!” 

“So, uh,” Luka began (no, don’t do it, don’t do it), “Is that coffee still on the table? Although I think I might owe you now.” Idiot.

The way Marinette brightened was bad for his heart. “I’d love to. Um, let me grab what I needed and meet you at the checkout?” 

“Perfect,” Luka grinned. “See you soon.” Don’t flirt, what are you doing, dumbass, haven’t we been through this enough times this year? Ugh, but she’s really sweet.

When Juleka found him at the café with Marinette, their cups were empty and so were the plates in front of them. Luka was watching Marinette lick one last bit of chocolate frosting on her fork with much more than polite interest, when Juleka’s hand crashed down on his shoulder, making him jump nearly a foot.

“Juleka!” he scowled, “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“Maybe you’d have heard me coming if you weren’t distracted,” Juleka said, digging her fingers into his shoulder. “Hi, Marinette.”

“Hi Juleka,” Marinette grinned. “Merry Christmas.”

“Same,” Juleka replied, and he didn’t have to look up to know she was smiling. “Thanks for helping out my stupid brother. I’m assuming you’re the real hero here.”

“Oh. Oh!” Marinette’s eyes widened, eyes darting back and forth between the two of them. “Oh my gosh, I should have realized.”

“Nah,” Luka shrugged. “Juleka looks way more like our mom. Unfortunately I take after our dad. I didn’t realize you two knew each other.”

“She’s in my class, dummy,” Juleka said dryly. “You remember the pictures? I showed you Marinette specifically because she made them happen.” She leaned down, and for once he was grateful for her signature mumble. “You thought she was cute then too.”

“Shut up,” he hissed back. 

Marinette started to say something and then jumped as her phone alarm went off. She looked at it and her eyes went huge. “Oh no, Madame Chamack’s party—I’m supposed to babysit! I’m so sorry Luka, Juleka, I have to go!”

“Careful,” Luka said, reaching out to catch her arm as she got tangled in her chair trying to get up. “Slow down, remember?”

“I really can’t this time,” she smiled. “But I’ll try to be careful at least.” She headed for the café entrance. “It was nice meeting you!” Marinette called over her shoulder as she fumbled the door open, waving, and Luka waved back, a familiar smile stretching his face, and he knew he was doomed.

Juleka saw it, and rolled her eyes. “Again, Luka, seriously? Ugh, you’re pathetic, a little attention from a pretty girl and you lose your mind completely.”

Luka put his head down on his arms and groaned. “I know, right?” he grumbled. “I tried but she’s so cute and nice…”

Juleka gave an exasperated sigh, but then seemed to reconsider. “Well…” she said slowly. “Actually, you could do a lot worse than Marinette. She’d be good for you. She’s sweet, really smart, and a lot of fun. Even if she turned you down, assuming you got the guts to actually confess in the first place, she’d be nice about it.” Once again, he doesn’t have to see the look on her face to know she’s smirking. He can read the subtle changes of her dry tones just as easily as as his mother’s boisterous cries. “You’d get a lot of music out of a girl like her.”

“This is your idea of helping, isn’t it?” Luka said flatly. 

“No,” Juleka’s smirk widened. “Helping would be giving you her number, which I happen to have.” Luka sat up. “But what would I get out of this? If I’m going to have to listen to you sigh like a sap over my friend for a couple months, what’s in it for me?”

Luka raised an eyebrow and took the vial of glitter out of his pocket. “Thanks to Marinette, I got the last jar,” he said smugly, holding it up. “How do you think Rose is going to react when you bring her the last jar of ultra fine unicorn rainbow sparkle blah blah whatever in Paris?” 

“Done,” Juleka said immediately, snatching at the jar. Luka moved it easily out of reach. Juleka sighed and pulled out her phone. 

[brokebuckkmountain]

Today was the worst

(long rant ahead, mostly about workplace politics with irl problems sprinkled in for flavor)

So. I’ve already been in my feelings lately due to like: life sucking, it’s the plague times, I am struggling to find a psychiatrist despite being told it was imperative I get help immediately, it’s winter and winter makes me sad, I’m losing friendships left and right thx to Miss Rona, I hate my job, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my breakup, there’s tons of gossip about me at work for things I genuinely did not say, and some of my work buddies are ignoring me for no apparent reason (including my best friend who has been ignoring me since my literal birthday a month ago? It’s all her friends that are ignoring me to it’s hard not to think it’s something related to that). Also, those PMS mood swings are a bitch.

I wanted today to be a good day. I wanted to get up early. I wore my new clothes and new perfume and was excited to train a coworker I genuinely like who was never trained when she was hired a year ago and struggles to get through her shifts. I mean I volunteered to do it for free because she deserves the help. But no no. Today was not a good one.

-I was woken up at 3 am to a litany of text messages from an ex asking to hook up again. Promptly fell back asleep and missed my later alarm, causing me to have to skip my workout this am and rush my shower.

-My boss didn’t assign my trainee online learning or make a schedule, told me I was a “strong enough trainer” to just do what I felt needed to be done. That was all he said to me, no further instruction. This is important later. Trainers and trainees are considered non-coverage and I run into an issue with this everytime I train- shifts want us on the floor doing different tasks than what I’m actually teaching. I personally think being a little backed up for 30 minutes is preferable to new hires not knowing how to do things because they never got one on one time, but most supervisors think otherwise.

-My trainee and I had about 25 minutes until our joint lunch break. She had expressed to me that knowing more about the mechanics of coffee- what is the body of a shot, why does it expire, what’s the difference between blonde and regular- was helping her, so I decided 25 minutes whizzing through that part of training before lunch was fine. I was immediately chastised by someone we’ll call Manager 1 because that “isn’t part of the training”. It very much is, and is available on every training resource, it just never gets taught because of time constraints and corporate not really caring about coffee quality. Manager 1 has consistently made a scene every time I train a new hire over us doing training and not just whatever she wants to get done. Manager 1 is also known for berating almost every one, and has lied about altercations that never happened between me and customers before to our manager. So she’s not exactly a fan favorite of mine. I maintained that the coffee basics was part of training and returned to the back, planning to use that time to do coffee basics and more memory games for drink recipes.

-After about 5 minutes, my coworker came to the back and told me the two managers wanted us out there helping. I went out alone to tell Manager 2 (who was technically in charge and generally less awful) what we were working on and asked if they really needed us or if they’d be okay. She said they needed us and Manager 2 began snapping that we were floor coverage, that my trainee was supposed to be on the floor all day, and that she had no business in the back “staring at a computer screen” (which we were not doing, but I digress). Since this is about the fourth time I’ve had this issue with this particular manager, I responded that we were supposed to be doing whatever I felt needed to be done, not working the floor. When they maintained that they were “under the impression” from our boss that my trainee and I were to remain on the floor all day, and we were coverage, I said “I guess I got confused by the dashed lines on the schedule that signify non-coverage as us being non-coverage” and went to get my trainee.

-My trainee knew the situation because she had overheard, got super nervous, and started making drinks wrong that she had been making correctly all day. During this time I overheard Manager 1 and Manager 2 not-quietly discussing them both texting our boss to complain about me. Fair, I guess, since I planned on doing the same when I was on my lunch. At one point they both left the bar area to send their texts and squat by the safe while waiting for it to unlock (it’s on a timer and beeps when it’s ready, no need to hover) which only infuriated me more- they moved us to bar so they could leave it. When it was finally our lunch time I sent my trainee and was pulled aside by Manager 2. I tried to move the conversation to the break room (something I have always been adamant about- not publicly berating coworkers in front of others) but she stayed on the floor where multiple people were and reprimanded me for my bad attitude. I told her I was never instructed to stay on the floor, had a schedule, and would’ve been more flexible if they had actually spoken to me rather than yelling and demanding. She maintained that I had a bad attitude and needed to follow orders. I said, once again, “mutual respect goes both ways, if you want me to incorporate things into my training schedule then you need to have an actual conversation with me about it and not demand it at random”. She said that as my superior I wasn’t allowed to “talk back” (ignoring my point that they had both, indeed, begun yelling at me) and told me my bad attitude “wasn’t a good look” and that she didn’t feel I was understanding. I said I understood perfectly that I shouldn’t be rude, but that they shouldn’t yell at me either, and I wasn’t going to take unprofessional yelling to pull me off my job as a trainer. Manager 2 didn’t listen to a word I said and kept going “you can’t have an attitude, do you understand?” so after a period of staring at her silently I said “Can I clock out for my lunch now and proceed with training?” and walked away.

-After lunch I was able to continue training, only because that part of the training constituted us being on the floor helping. I apologized profusely to my trainee for putting her in that situation, reassuring her that regardless of who was in the “right” or the personal issues of the people on the floor, my first priority was her being able to successfully learn and feel comfortable. She told me she had a hard time focusing on drinks and was anxious after the scene, and that she felt the public reprimanding I received was far out of line and unprofessional. I told her I knew that, but being as it was two managers against one me, I would probably still receive a write up tomorrow morning and not to let it worry her when it did go down (tomorrow is our final day of training and my last day before a long break from work, so I know it’s going to happen in front of her). She said she would talk to my boss on my behalf and I told her not to worry, I didn’t want her pulled into workplace drama, but she insisted it wasn’t right (she is considerably older than everyone in the workplace and I think a little protective of me since we volunteered together and I’m the only one who doesn’t chastise her for small mistakes). We’ll see if she says anything tomorrow but I don’t want her to feel like she has to “go to bat” for me and involve herself in unnecessary drama against people who will lash out at her.

-While trying to clock out, I overheard Manager 2 trying to get other coworkers of mine to give accounts against our boss to his superior over not liking their scheduling. Perhaps I’m biased, because I am friends with my boss and literally vacationed with him this summer, but he is the type to listen to concerns and always give people the benefit of the doubt. I’ve never seen him give a write up and he bends over backwards to accommodate people. So whatever their issues are, something tells me they haven’t brought it up to him. Manager 2 frequently breaks safety protocols because she “doesn’t care if she gets Covid” and has vacationed out of state many times resulting in us not allowing her to come back to work and being short staffed. Despite this, I’ve never given my boss her name when he asks who is breaking safety protocols. Manager 2 is well known for being deeply unpleasant, her and my boss have been at odds for years from working together at another location, and has frequently tried to egg on other employees to get our boss in trouble while refusing to make any formal complaints herself. If you’ve been following for a while, she’s the same ass-kisser who used to say my old boss could break any rules she wanted and allowed herself to be constantly demeaned in hopes of a promotion (10 years without a promotion and she thinks it’s unfair rather than realizing she’s mean and unpleasant, chooses to attack the people who do get the promotions she wants). I know there’s a way to spin those two plotting against my boss as a way to cast some doubt on their accounts of me, but no way to do it without being a blatant shit disturber who’s just retaliating. Which is not how I want to live my life. But he deserves a heads up.

-Now I’m sitting at home with an arts and craft project I came up with to give my coworkers all a gift before the New Year and no desire to do it. Like, fuck these people, why should I do something nice for them? Even though I know the majority are good people, just not the ones in management. No energy, completely lethargic (yay depressive episode and still no antidepressants because I can’t get ahold of a goddamn psychiatrist even though my GP okayed the antidepressants herself), wishing I just could get a better job but I need the insurance at mine. It’s one thing to be constantly belittled and insulted by customers (and a very big thing, at that), but to get it from coworkers too just makes me feel awful, day in and day out. I know I’ve hated my job for the entire 3 and a half years I’ve been there and bemoaned how much less interwork drama I’ve had at every other job I’ve had (so I don’t think it’s all me, many agree it’s a toxic environment likened to a high school), but quitting a job you’re great at, passionate about (at times), live super close to, that gives you insurance, during a pandemic? Harder than it looks.

Life sux. Super anxious for tomorrow. Thanks for reading. Pls don’t reblog.

[cbk1000]

So, today I discovered that my presence is causing a ripple effect of evil acts. 

Last week, I went to the grocery store, and within fifteen to twenty minutes of my departure, a man calmly walked up to a 70-year-old lady in the produce aisle and slit her throat*. Today, as I’m walking toward the exit, I hear an employee on a walkie talkie telling the person on the other end (a supervisor, I assume) that she’s pretty sure a guy just stole an entire suitcase worth of stuff, that she had told him to stop and he didn’t, and she knew she wasn’t supposed to chase after him. As I’m passing her, two customers run up to her and tell her which way the guy went, so I assume they witnessed some of this and followed him to try and get a license plate number or something.

Anyway, it really makes perfect sense for me to be Chaos personified. No one expects the girl with Rapunzel hair buying flavored Smartwaters to be the downfall of humankind.

*If you missed my previous posts about this, the woman is physically fine. She was treated at the hospital and released the same day, so thankfully he didn’t cut her very deeply. It was wild, though. Some guy just calmly walked up to her in the middle of the produce aisle around noon, which is a super busy time for that store (and the produce aisle is right in front of the main entrance and is always very busy, so there would have been multiple witnesses; this wasn’t an isolated corner of the store), grabbed her by the hair, slit her throat, and just strolled right on back out. He drove away but was caught almost immediately because there were about a gazllion witnesses and several followed him out to the parking lot and saw the car he drove off in.

[jeonsduck]

Serendipitous Meetings (Wonho One-Shot

Descendants of the Sun!AU

You’ve unwillingly volunteered to work for Doctors Without Borders for a few months. While abroad, there’s one shining beacon of glory that keeps you going every day, regardless of your workload.

Gender neutral reader x Shin Wonho

Warning: uhhh, extreme thirst??

“Y/N! Wake up! Hurry, here they come!”

You startle awake, to find your bunkmate shaking you awake.

“The doves are about to pass by, you’re going to miss them.” he says.

You leaped out of your bed, nearly falling off of your bunk in your scramble to wake up.

“Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?” you scold, rushing to throw on a shirt.

“Not my problem!” your bunkmate retorts, leaving your tent. You grumble and follow him outside. You stumble over to the gate, rubbing sleep from your eyes and squinting at the sun. You slump against the gate and your bunkmate shoves a cup of weak coffee into your hand.

Being banished to the ends of the earth to work with your hospital’s chapter of Doctors Without Borders sucked for a lot of reasons. Yes, the work was important and rewarding, but being chosen involuntarily to join the volunteer group wasn’t super fun. There was no hot water, the coffee sucked, and you saw a fair share of horrifying and sad situations you could do very little to help. But there was one saving grace, one part of this assignment that made it all a little bit more worth it. And it came every morning at dawn, just like clockwork, parading right by your little tent city. And you’d hate to miss it because you overslept.

Outside, most of the doctors and nurses were crowded by the gate, waiting for your little piece of heaven.

Right on time, a platoon of soldiers came over the ridge in front of you. They were singing some army song you didn’t recognize but it wasn’t the song that mattered. It was the soldiers' sweaty, muscular torsos as they jogged by.

A few of the doctors whooped and hollered or whistled lowly, and the soldiers chuckled, some sending winks or finger hearts, or flexing particularly hard. And then they jogged right on by and around the corner.

You sigh dramatically, staring into the last spot they’d been.

“Honestly, that’s all I need to get through the day.” you comment, swallowing down the rest of your coffee.

Your bunkmate nods in agreement, heading back towards camp with the rest of the medical staff.

You head back to your tent and get dressed for the day. You had your long term patients to check on, plus an army’s worth of vaccines to administer. And then check-ups and assessments, so it was a very, very busy day for you. By lunchtime, you were absolutely exhausted. But of course, your 15-minute rest is interrupted by your supervisor coming to add something else to your plate. Even hundreds of miles from a hospital, your responsibilities never ended.

“We got a shipment of specialty supplies, but they won’t come out to the station. Some of the soldiers are going into town, catch a ride with them and sign for the shipment,” she says, reading from a clipboard.

You sighed, nodding.

“What time do they leave?” you ask, eating another spoonful.

“In ten minutes.”

You choke on your food, shove your tray at your bunkmate and jump up. Of course, they couldn’t have told you earlier. You sprinted through the medical camp, trying not to run over other doctors and patients. You barely manage to make it before the Jeep rolls past the gates.

“Hey wait! I’m with the medical crew! I need to go to town with you!”, you shout, running in front of the vehicle.

You’re panting heavily as one of the soldiers waves you over.

“Hop in, we gotta go!”

You jog over, still struggling to breathe. It’s difficult to catch your breath and also haul yourself into the open back of the truck, so one of the soldiers comes over to help you out. He leans out of the Jeep, grabs you by the waist and simply lifts you off the group and into the bed like it’s nothing. And suddenly you have a whole new reason to not be able to breathe.

He sets you down gently in the Jeep and you’re gasping down air in a very unattractive way, while he sits there, backlit by the sun, smiling gently at you. Fuck, no breaks for you today huh? 

Eventually, you catch your breath enough to wheeze out a thanks to the Adonis of a man that helped you into the vehicle. His smile turns even sweeter and brighter, telling you that it was no problem at all. 

“I see you when we jog by the med staff tents in the morning. Maybe you should join us one of these days? So a quick sprint doesn’t almost kill you.” he offers.

You’re halfway through respectfully declining his offer when the Jeep hits a bump in the road. As you’ve yet to sit down, it throws you off balance and you yelp, before falling directly into Adonis the Pretty Soldier’s lap.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry-” you start, but he just waves it off with a chuckle. He shifts you into the seat next to him and it’s a tight fit because the Jeep is pretty full so you’re squeezed against him.

“It’s fine uhh...” he trails off, looking for your name.

“Oh, I’m Y/N! Dr. Y/L/N, but please just call me Y/N.” you say, sort of blabbering nervously.

“Well Y/N, I’m Private Officer Shin, but you can just call me Wonho.” and there’s that adorable smile again. 

What man has the right to be that attractive?

When you get to town, Wonho is nice enough to help you down from the Jeep and abandons his team to help you pick up your supplies. You try to decline, but he assures you it’s not an issue, that they’re just here for a little leisure time. You talk a lot, learning about his time in the military, him learning about your work as a doctor. He laughs when h finds out how you ended up working for Doctors Without Borders and its an endearing sound you want to hear again and again. 

“Wonho, they were out the good stuff, so we just got a bunch of canned tuna and  chicken.” One of the other soldiers says as he climbs into the Jeep, handing Wonho a box.

“Ah, thanks Changkyun.” h says, settling the cargo between his legs.

You raised an eyebrow. The good stuff? Did they mean Spam?

Changkyun caught your interested expression and took it upon himself to explain. 

“Wonho likes to feed the stray cats that hang around the base, so he usually buys them food when he comes to town.” 

You turn to Wonho who’s smiling shyly and blushing fiercely.

“That’s so nice Wonho, you’re such a sweet guy.” 

“Do you maybe want to help me feed them? When you get a free afternoon that is. You could come eat at our kitchen for dinner too if you wanted. I’m no good, but Kihyun makes a mean pot of ramyun.” he offered.

“Ramyun? Sounds delicious. Count me in.” you say, patting Wonho on the arm, going to jump down from the truck. 

“Great, it’s a date.”

Wonho’s words surprise you so much you slip and fall off of the Jeep, nearly twisting your ankle. Date??

[yyxgin]

oh god she sounds like a karen 😭 but don’t worry you can say nasties behind her back <3 honestly don’t fret about people being too old for you. you’d be surprised, y’know. one of the waitresses has a kid n she drops me home given the chance. yesterday she offered but i declined n said she should go home n sleep (i was getting a lift from one of the others n i told her that and i think she needs more sleep than i do some days). also me n the food runner have a nice relationship (i would hope) n she’s like 52? you would not think that in a million years tho. she’s so cute. she’s our ‘giggler’. which is a play on words to the restaurant chain name. accepting a lift isn’t the worst thing!! could develop a friendship where you can have mutual interests (typically complaining about work tbh).

today after work we all sat (those who were on shift this dinner) and ate food n drank wine n cocktails bc our manager is leaving. it was quite nice. there’s plenty of pics n boomerangs (instagram). id show you then bc they’re fun n cute but for obvious reasons i won’t ❤️ thé barman and my favourite supervisor that i flirt w (even tho he’s like 40) went home n missed the rest of us getting drunk n wandering around and dancing to olivia rodrigo. honestly idk how i’m gonna survive without free wine n cocktails when she leaves 💔 the new manager seems super nice but for now if she gets in my way while i’m in my groove i will be having words. not in like a nasty way when i say ‘get in my way’ i mean like… when i’m doing things in a specific order and someone asks me to do something for them or to stop what i’m doing and do something for them i get incredibly annoyed. only when they expect me to do it straight away. and call me out if i don’t. like today one of the ladies (she’s a grandma now (legit like for one whole day) which is adorable, n she’s married to the male food runner) went on break w her husband n i was supposed to cover her section, no problem, she had a big table n when she came back she was trying to call me out on not clearing it properly and i was about to say ‘i was literally doing everything else that you so kindly left for me to do and have not stopped moving’ along with some other kind words xoxo n my manager saw me about to explode n came over n stopped me. thank goodness she did bc i don’t need to make enemies. i told thé barman afterwards n he was like 👀 fr she’s lucky the manager came n stopped you.

tomorrow i’m going in at 9pm for a party since it’s my managers official last day(?) idk all i know is im getting trollied n having fun 🤩 there’s more probably,, somewhere,, but i think i’m gonna get a good sleep!!

ps. honestly,, i love thé folk of thé air séries!!

ily ~ 🌻

SHE IS SUCH A KAREN ISTG EVERYONE HATES HER THERE 😭😭 she didnt go today and it all felt so calm. i love. anyways i started talking informally w my manager and also my coworker that is 42 years old so i guess i have some friends now. she even gave me a ride home today 🤩🤩

oh no i am sorry the old manager is leaving i bet you're going to miss her 😔 AND the free coctails 💔💔

djdj i totally get what you mean,,i get like this quite often too😔 like,,i have to finish the thing im doing first before doing something else and my mum always screams at me for it when im in the middle of something and she wants another thing from me 😩😩 im glad the manager stopped you tho,,the lady seems like she expect you to just do things youre not physically capable of doing in such time and she needs to realise you are, indeed, not a robot💗 glad u stood up for yourself tho !!!

i hope you had fun on the party !!! tell me how it went if you want to 🤩 also i am sorry for replying late but i was busy and also depressed💔