#what is de minimis and the impact on it

[thewritingrowlet]

The Anniversary, ft. tripleS Kim Yooyeon

tags: fuck it, no tags this time

length: 14k+

author's note: I've lost count of how many times I've been asked to write a Yooyeon smut, so for those who yearn for it, this one's for you.

-

Yooyeon stirs awake in the middle of the night, feeling uneasy about not having you, her husband, in bed with her like she usually does. She rolls onto your side of the bed and reaches for the framed picture sitting on the bedside table. It’s a picture of you and her, taken on the first night of the vacation trip to Europe to celebrate your first anniversary. “It’s been over 5 years, hasn’t it, love?” Her finger runs up and down on the side of the frame, recalling the memory from what feels like a lifetime ago.

A few days before the trip, Yooyeon and you had a disagreement over some things—things that mattered little but were handled poorly enough that they created a fissure in the new and fragile marriage, even though they shouldn’t have been to begin with.

“I don’t want to talk to you ever again! Leave me alone!” She yelled out, letting her frustration and anger be known to you.

Yooyeon remembers the way you slammed the bedroom door on your way out after the final argument of that Sunday evening. Yooyeon also remembers the way you skipped kissing her before leaving for work the following morning. Finally, Yooyeon remembers how her cheeks were drenched in tears because she thought you weren’t coming home on Monday.

At that point, she thought she had lost everything—over nothing but some de minimis matters. She vividly remembers the way she was leaning against the front door, praying to whatever higher being could hear her for you to come back home—for you to say that you love her and that everything wasn’t so doomed; for you to take her hands in yours and recite the vow: “together always, in joy and in sorrow, for better or for worse.”

Yooyeon recalls how surprised she was when the front door she had been leaning against suddenly swung open, making her tumble backwards. “My love, it’s you! Oh my God, it’s you!” She exclaimed when she saw you at the front door, her eyes red and her cheeks wet. “You took me in your arms and carried me to bed, love,” Yooyeon recalls, “y-you told me that you were sorry, and-and you promised that you’d work on becoming a better man for me.”

All this recollecting has her shedding tears subconsciously, but her mind doesn’t want to stop here just yet. It reminds her of that moment after the super late dinner on Monday where she bent over your lap, hiked up her negligee, and offered you her round butt to be spanked. “Punish me, my love; I’ve been a very bad wife,” she said. She shut her eyes to brace for the impact when she saw you lifting your hand. “I was so scared, my love; I thought you were going to really hit me,” she wipes the tear on her left cheek, “you have no idea how relieved I was when I felt you caressing my butt instead of hitting it.” “I would never hurt you like that, my love,” she impersonates you, getting your deep voice as close to the original as she can.

Yooyeon rolls around in bed as she contemplates calling you. She knows that you wouldn’t get angry about it, but at the same time, she wonders if maybe you were asleep—she hates disturbing your sleep. “Ah, I can’t take this anymore.” She grabs her phone and finds your contact easily. “Please pick up, my love.”

-

You just got off the airplane that took you from Florence back to Seoul. You’re very tired but at the same time, you’re very excited to get home. You’ve spent the last few days going through an absurd amount of work; you’ve met with foreign partners, signed countless documents, and the most painful of them all: eaten at good restaurants without your beloved wife.

Right after you get in your car, you feel your phone vibrating in your pocket. You read the name of the caller and see that it’s your wife.

“Hello, love.”

“Hello, love.”

“Are you okay, honey? Why aren’t you sleeping? Isn’t this super late in Seoul?”

“I-I was asleep but not having you in bed with me is awful”

“Really?” You tease her, smirking as you do.

“What—of course! You know this better than anyone, love!”

You try your best to stay in character and not burst out laughing—you even cover your mouth with your palm so that your phone doesn’t pick up any sound.

“Love? Why are you quiet?”

“Oh, sorry,” you clear your throat, “I was looking at the flight schedule.”

“Flight sche—are you coming home!?”

“I’m about to, honey—I’ll be home before you know it.”

“I’m waiting for you! I love you!”

“I love you more, honey. See you soon, alright?”

As soon as you end the call, you start laughing; you just told your wife a harmless lie and now you’re about to appear at the front door of your house and surprise her. Before you start driving away, you grab a velvet box from your suitcase that’s sitting on the passenger seat. You open it and inspect its content, “I hope you like jewelry, love.”

-

One last turn to make before you reach your house, and you start feeling nervous and excited at the same time. This electric car doesn’t make any noise, so that’s a plus and minus at the same time: you can approach the house without making any noise but at the same time, you need to come up with something to get her open the front door, since Yooyeon must be in the bedroom on the second floor, which has windows you can see from the driveway.

You think about whether you can pull off the surprise. “Oh, man, how can I get her to come to the front door at this hour?” Your eyes wander around the front side of the house as you look for ideas. They finally land on the CCTV that’s pointed at the front door. “Should be able to use that.” You pull out your phone and call her, and she picks up immediately thanks to her sleeplessness.

“Honey, I’ll be quick so listen to me,” you say in a serious tone, “I see someone at our front door.”

“F-front door? W-who?” She’s starting to fall for the prank. “Wha-what do I do, love? Do I call the police?”

“Just—oh, fuck,” you dramatize, “just bring a gun or a taser and check—be careful, honey!”

Your wife hangs up the call, presumably to get one of the self-defense weapons you’ve provided for her. You get out of the car and stand at the front door, and while you wait, you pray that she won’t pull the trigger against you, its master.

You didn’t have to wait long, because after a few seconds, the left half of the butterfly door swings open, revealing your wife, who is wearing a pink nightgown—she’s also aiming her gun at you. “Hi, baby,” you greet her with a smile, “missed me?” Yooyeon can’t believe her eyes; her husband, who she thought was still in Florence, is standing in front of her. “H-honey? I-is that really you?” You approach her and lower her gun so that it’s not aimed at your face. “Yes, love, it's me.”

Yooyeon lets the gun fall onto the floor as she falls limp into your arms. “Hi, love,” you greet the baffled woman one more time, “I’m home, love—I’m here for you.” She pulls away from the hug and takes a good look at your face. “Oh my God, it really is you, love,” she rubs your cheeks gently, “b-but how? I thought you were still abroad?” You reveal to her that you were actually in the airport’s parking lot when she called: “I literally just got in the car when your call came in.” Your wife lets out a deep sigh and shakes her head in amusement. “I can’t believe you fooled me like that, love.”

You ask her to let go of you for a second so that you can close and lock the door. You then pick up the gun from the floor, lock the safety switch, and hide it among the books on the nearby bookshelf. Once you’re done, Yooyeon wraps her arms around your body and leans against your chest. “I love you, hubby,” she says softly, almost too quiet to reach your ears, “I love you so much.”

Without saying it back, you lift your wife and carry her to the sofa. You carefully lower her and have her sit on it while you take a knee in front of her. “Are you proposing again, love? I’ll say yes again, don’t worry.” You chuckle, “no, but I do have something for you.” You fish the velvet box from your back pocket and open it for her. “Happy anniversary, baby.” The actual anniversary is later this week but whatever—there’s nothing stopping you from giving your wife a gift.

Yooyeon looks at the necklace you’ve bought for her in awe, seemingly very fond of it. “This looks expensive, love,” she takes the box from your hands and takes a closer look, “is this for me?” You chuckle again. “Well, yeah—who else deserves such a gift aside from my beautiful wife?” She hands the box back to you and lifts her hair off her neck. “Please, honey,” she says. You move behind her and connect the chain right on her nape. She then turns towards you and shows the centerpiece—it looks majestic hanging on the center of her chest, right underneath her neck. “Absolutely beautiful, honey,” you let out a praise, causing her to blush. “Me or the necklace, love?” You smile at her lovingly. “You are beautiful, and that necklace wouldn’t look as good on anyone else, honey.”

You take a glance at the square clock sitting under the TV: it’s now a little past 2 a.m. “Love, you said you couldn’t sleep because I wasn’t with you,” you run a thumb across her soft cheek while looking deep into her eyes, “do you think you can sleep now that I’m home?” Yooyeon takes a deep breath and smiles after. “When you’re with me, I can conquer the world, love.” You put on a sad face. “If you’re busy conquering the world, then who would I be cuddling every night?” She playfully slaps you in the chest. “Oh my God, stoooop,” she fans her red face with both hands, “anyway, yes, I can sleep now that you’re here.”

She opens her arms wide open while her beautiful eye smile is forming on her face. You lift her up with little trouble and walk towards the bedroom with her. “My God, you’re so beautiful, honey,” you let one more praise fly out of your lips. She accepts the praise with a giggle and returns it in the form of a peck on your cheek.

You let her down from your arms and move towards the wardrobe to find something to wear to sleep. You know that your wife likes seeing you undress, so to accommodate that, you take off your clothes in front of her. “You age so well, love,” she bites her lip sexily. You ask if she’s in the mood for sex: “sorry, love, not today.” “It’s fine; it’s not like we’re running out of time” you grab a pair of shorts from the wardrobe and put them on, “let’s just cuddle and go to sleep, okay?”

Yooyeon moves to the center of the bed and taps the empty spot next to her with a grin on her face, “over here, my love—right next to me, your lovely wife.” Your wife is indeed lovely; this is a verifiable fact. You join her in bed and without any word said, she moves to rest her head on the side your chest and place a hand nearby. You hear her yawning, a sign that she’s now ready to sleep—properly this time, with her husband’s arms around her. “I love you,” she suddenly says, “I hope you know that.” You roll over and get on top of her—yes, you know that she’s not in the mood for sex and that this is a very typical sex position, but this is necessary. “I haven’t the slightest doubt in my mind that you love me and I love you back,” you say to her, your tone serious but sincere, “I love you so, so, soooo much, Kim Yooyeon.” You haven’t addressed her by name like that in a while, so she is visibly surprised.

“Please lie down again, honey,” she says, “you’re going to make me horny if you stay like this.” “I don’t see the problem,” you shrug, “just say the word and I’m yours.” Yooyeon taps your cheek gently a few times, and that’s your sign that she’s really not in the mood for it at the moment. “Maybe later, honey, but not now—you need some rest first.” You lie down in bed and pull her into your arms again. “By the way, I’m skipping work today and tomorrow, love,” you say to her, “do you want to do anything?” She yawns audibly one more time. “I don’t know yet—I’ll tell you if I have ideas.”

-

Yooyeon is a morning riser; she’d rather wake up early and immediately start doing whatever she needs to than sleep in and not have enough time to do things. You, on the other hand, used to have the same habit as her, but after becoming a director, you often find yourself working past your bedtime, so you compensate for the lack of sleep by sleeping in. Thankfully, your wife never makes a big deal about the difference—she has used it to her advantage on a handful of occasions, actually. Last year, she woke up before 5 a.m. to make cookies for your birthday and finished just in time before you woke up.

Today, however, after not having seen her husband in almost a week, she’s opting to stay in bed, savoring the moment of having your scent in her nose and your warmth on her skin. You slowly wake up and see that your wife is still in the same position as when you closed your eyes a few hours ago: her face is on your chest and her legs are entwined with yours. “I love you,” you whisper to her, not expecting an answer. “I love you more,” she replies, surprising you.

“Honey,” she softly calls to you, “I’m tired.” You start massaging her arm even if you’re only partially awake. “You are, love? Can I help?” Yooyeon gathers her strength and moves to lie square on your body. “Just stay like this, please.” You put a hand on her back and move it up and down, just the way she likes it.

“Honey,” she calls to you, “can I ask what we’re doing for our anniversary?” You want to open your mouth, but the urge to yawn gets to you first. “What do you think about dinner at The Sapphire, love?” Yooyeon lifts her face off your chest and looks at you with a smile. “Yes, please,” she says, “I’ve always wanted to go there.” You apologize to her for not coming up with something grand for the 6th anniversary, but she rejects it. “As long as I’m with you, I’m down for anything. Without you, all I want to do is stay in bed all day,” she says.

-

“Wakey, wakey, my love,” she says, poking your cheek repeatedly to get you to wake up. You slowly open your eyes and look at her in the eyes. “Am I in heaven? Are you an angel?” Your wife slaps you lightly on the chest and covers her sheepish grin with a hand. “Y-yes, I-I’m your angel,” she looks away to hide her blush, “c-can you wake up, please? It’s almost 10, love.” With a grunt, you move to a sitting position with your legs hanging off the bed. Yooyeon takes the space in your lap, straddling you and placing her palms on your nape. “Love, can—erm—can we have some fun, please? I-I’ve missed you,” she requests shyly. “Sure, honey—one second, please.”

You inhale and exhale a few times to get yourself together and ready to please your wife. “C’mon, honey,” she urges you, getting impatient, “you haven’t touched me in 10 days.” You burst out laughing. “10 days? Really?” Your wife puts on a pout. “Look at that calendar, honey,” she points at a calendar hanging next to the mirror, “I bought a new calendar to keep track of our sex life.” You look at it and see that there are indeed 10 X marks on it, from the 1st to the 10th; three of them are in black and the rest are in red. “What’s with the red and black marker?” She explains that she’ll use a red marker for when you’re not at home and a black one for when you’re at home but have no sex. “That’s interesting,” you peck her once on the lips, “are we ready, then?” “That’s my—ah!”

Yooyeon didn’t expect you to move that fast, and now she finds herself lying in bed with you hovering closely over her. Your deep gaze overwhelms her, forcing her to look to the side. “Are you okay, love?” You peck her exposed cheek gently. “Do you want to change your mind? It’s okay if you do.” She shakes her head rapidly. “Sorry, love, I just got reminded of our first time.” What a great and special time it was; the both of you had saved yourselves for marriage and was each other’s first time almost 6 years ago. “I remember how nervous you were, love,” you show her a gentle smile, “we hugged for almost an hour because you weren’t ready for it, remember?” “I’m so sorry for that, love,” she finally makes eye contact with you, “I don’t know why I was so hesitant—hell, you’re my husband, not my boyfriend.” You tell her that she has nothing to be sorry for: “even if we hadn’t had our first time right there, it would’ve been completely fine.”

“I am glad that you’re of that opinion,” she grabs your hand and places it on her thigh, “now please, let’s start, love.” You run your hand up and down her thigh for a moment, enjoying how soft it is. “I love you, Yooyeon-ah,” you refer to her the way you used to, surprising her again. “I love you too, Harvey-oppa,” she replicates the gesture, referring you to by your other name—the name your dad gave you.

You and Yooyeon always start sex by kissing (sometimes going as far as tongue-wrestling when you’re extra thirsty), and today is no different. You come in for a kiss, and your wife welcomes you warmly. She likes placing her hands on your cheeks when kissing, and you like the way her soft hands feel. “Love,” you break the kiss momentarily, “you’re so damn hot.” Yooyeon knows that she’s very attractive (there were plenty of reasons why people called her the goddess when she was in university) but sometimes, she’s too shy to admit it, and that’s where you come in: you’re the husband who will never get tired of praising her beauty—let it be known, however, that beauty isn’t all she’s about.

Your wife responds by lowering the thin shoulder straps of her nightgown, partially revealing her breasts. “Oh, I know, honey,” she winks, “you’ve told me that so many times in the past few years.” You chuckle slightly in amusement. “Sometimes I can’t believe how lucky I am to be with you, love.” She gives you a fleeting kiss and tells you that the feeling is mutual, which is amazing to hear.

Yooyeon continues lowering her nightgown until her breasts are fully out in the open. You latch your mouth onto one of them and place your hand on the other, earning a mix of gasps and moans from her. “I-I wish they were bigger for you, hon,” she utters. The shock puts you to a halt. “That’s very uncalled for,” you say, your tone firm, “I didn’t marry you for your bodily assets, my dear wife.” She shuts her eyes when she feels your hand squeezing her breast. “B-but still, I—” You cut her off with a quick kiss, and while you’re there, you snake your tongue into the space in her mouth and fight her tongue.

You pull away from the embrace and pull your wife into a sitting position. You then move to sit behind her and wrap your arms around her body. “Look in the mirror, dear,” you point at the mirror that’s hanging right in front of you, “tell me what you see.” Yooyeon scans her reflection, her gaze going up and down from her head down to her toes. “I-I’m pretty,” she utters softly, “I-I look sexy right now.” You sneakily put your hand on her crotch and start rubbing her over her panties. “There you go,” you praise her, your voice gentle, “now, let’s never say such thing again, okay?” “Ah, ah—o-or what?” She dares challenge you. “Wha-what would you do if I said such thing again?” You bite the side of her neck lightly, earning a surprised yelp from her. “I will tie you to each corner of the bed and not touch you until you say sorry.”

You increase the intensity of your fingers’ movement on her crotch, and you notice that she’s starting to wet her panties. “H-honey,” she calls to you, “c-can I take off my panties, please?” You don’t answer her, and instead, you start rubbing more aggressively. “Oh, oh, oh,” she’s letting out moans freely, “y-you’ll make me cum, honey.” You started doing this to warm her up, but if she wants to cum, then she’s free to do so—in fact, you’ll gladly make her cum.

She uses one hand to hold your hand that’s busy stimulating her and while the other reaches for your nape. She then leans back against your chest and hands over the control of her pleasure to you—submissive as always. “Honey, please—oh, God, please, that’s so good, honey.” You can tell that she’s enjoying this; not only is she moaning freely, but she’s also rolling her hips around. “P-please, take off my panties—I’m begging you.” She sounds desperate enough for it, so you grab the waistband and pull down her panties recklessly, not worried about whether it’s properly off or not.

Yooyeon screams from the top of her lungs when your fingers are directly on her nub, finally getting what she’s been begging for. “Yes, yes, like that, hon,” she eggs you on, “please, please!” You put your mouth close to her ear and lick it, adding a dose of tease to the stimulation. “Cum for me, baby,” you whisper in a low voice, “cum for your husband like the good wife that you are.” To increase your chance of making her cum, you place your other hand on her left breast, alternating between massaging and tugging it.

Your wife lets out a very loud scream and lifts her butt of the bed as juice gushes out of her core—that’s her first orgasm in 10 days (because she doesn’t touch herself, ever), all thanks to you. You remove your hand from her crotch and place it on her stomach, gently rubbing it as she rides the high of orgasm, moaning oh-so-sensually as she does. “Good, baby, good,” you praise her, “such a good wife, aren’t you?” You notice that your wife is getting limp, so you lean backwards against the headrest so that she can lean against your body more comfortably.

“Oppa,” she calls to you, still weak, “thank you so much—I love you.” You peck her cheek from the side and tell her that you love her more. “How are you feeling, love?” Yooyeon takes a deep breath to compose herself. “I feel great,” she sighs, “you don’t know how desperate I’ve been, hon.” She takes off her nightgown and tosses it onto the floor, she then does the same with her panties. “That’s much better,” she says.

You spend a few more minutes just chilling; your wife’s heartbeat has returned to its normal pace, and she is now calm and collected, just like she usually is. That is, until she’s reminded of something: “honey, what about you?” You didn’t know that you were drifting to sleep again. “Huh? What about me?” Yooyeon slaps your thigh lightly, mildly annoyed. “Get your head in the game, hubby,” she says, “you haven’t cum yet.” You let out a yawn first before responding. “That’s where you come in, no?” Yooyeon turns her head to peck you quickly. “Of course, I’m your wife.”

With a small grunt, your wife moves away from your body and gets on her hands and knees in between your legs, your cock pointing right at her face. “May I, honey?” You give her your approval in the form of a nod, and she starts moving her head closer to your tip. Without breaking eye contact, she parts her lips and takes you in her mouth. “That’s good, love,” you put a hand on the back of her head and pet her gently, “you’ve gotten so good at this, haven’t you?”

It's not an empty praise; Yooyeon from 6 years ago wouldn’t even touch your penis, let alone put it in her mouth. It took her almost two years to muster up the courage to give you head—shout out to Kotone, your friend Yunho’s wife, who convinced her to try it. You still remember the first time she took you in her mouth. It happened around a week before your 2nd anniversary. She had her lips as far apart as possible and slowly moved her mouth along your length, gagging multiple times in the process. Fast forward a few years later, and she’s now much better at it. She’ll even give you head when she’s either not in the mood for regular sex, or when she’s having her period. She’s turned out to be crazy like that—she just needs a little push sometimes.

Your wife notices that you’re not paying full attention to her (because you were too busy recollecting the past), so she bites your shaft slightly to retaliate. “Fuck!” You let out a profanity when you feel it. “You didn’t have to do that, love.” Your wife removes you from her mouth and pouts. “If you’re not paying attention then I don’t want to do it.” You take a deep breath and apologize. “But do you know what was in my head?” She tilts her head in confusion, so you explain to her that the memories of your first time getting a blowjob from her were returning to you and that you were deep into reminiscing it. “Really?” “You know I wouldn’t lie about such thing, love,” you defend yourself.

Satisfied with the exchange, Yooyeon returns to the task at hand and takes you in her mouth again. This time, to make sure that she knows that you’re paying attention, you maintain eye contact with her, only breaking it when it’s impossible for her to look at you because she’s too far down your shaft. “That’s good, love,” you praise her with pets on the head, “keep going, please.” Your wife winks at you and starts going along your length faster, and there’s no better way to egg her on other than throwing praises at her.

You don’t know how many times praises have escaped your lips, but it matters little; your wife likes hearing praises and doesn’t care if they’re repetitive. “Love, I don’t think I can last long,” you announce, a hint of sadness in your voice because you don’t want this to end so soon. Your wife removes you from her mouth, looks at you straight in the eyes, and whispers, “give me your cum, honey.” You nod, and she returns to her previous position.

You wait until she takes you in her mouth again. Once she does, you palm the back of her head and force her down your shaft. Unready, your wife gags instantly, and you can feel your arousal peaking thanks to the sound. “Be good, love.” You use this final stretch to fuck her mouth—nothing too rough, though; you don’t want to hurt your lovely wife.

“God, fuck,” are all you can come up with right now, as the wetness of her mouth proves to be very pleasurable for you. “Love, I really can’t hold on,” you announce again. Just before you blow, you retreat from her mouth. “Oh, God—fuck.” You close your eyes and ride the high of your orgasm as your cock sprays semen onto your wife’s face. In the meantime, your wife grabs your cock and strokes it, trying to get every last drop of semen out of your system. “Mm, mm-hmm,” she mumbles, “that’s it, honey—give me everything.”

When you open your eyes, you’re met with the sight of your wife, whose smiling face is covered in cum. “Thank you, dear,” you don’t forget to thank her, “I’ve needed that so bad.” Yooyeon takes a bit of cum in her fingers and licks it. “Should’ve released in my mouth, but it’s fine,” she says. She probably just realizes how naughty she sounds, as she looks away to cope with the heat on her cheeks. You chuckle at her. “I know how naughty you are, honey; we’ve spent enough time together.” You peck her hair, precisely on the spot that’s not covered in cum. “Let’s get you cleaned up, love.”

-

After getting cleaned up with your wife, you take her to sit on the sofa. She turns on the TV and begins scrolling through Netflix to find something to watch, while you sit on the other side of the sofa and pull out your phone to catch up with work. “Ah, what am I doing—my husband is literally next to me.”

She turns off the TV and moves to sit on your lap. You ask if you can help her with anything, your eyes still locked on your phone. Yooyeon reaches for your phone and slowly takes it from your hands. “Love, I’m here,” she says, “can I have your attention, please?” You show her a loving smile and kindly ask her to hand the phone back. “Let me text Jeon Yunho one time, love,” you say, opening your palm to receive your phone, “you’ll have my attention after that, I promise.” She looks particularly sad hearing you say that, but you do need to text Yunho; you need his help to make a reservation at The Sapphire, and for reasons you don’t know, he has exclusive access when it comes to making reservations at these fancy places.

After sending the text, you put your phone on the sofa and turn your attention to your wife. “Sorry, love,” you take her hands in yours, “I need help making a reservation for our anniversary.” Your wife shakes her head and tells you that it’s fine. As you’re about to open your mouth to say the next sentence, your phone rings. Based on the ringtone, it’s one of the important people in your life. You can tell that your wife is quite unhappy about getting interrupted, so you apologize to her, even if it’s not your fault. “It’s your mom, love,” you inform her, “one second, please.”

“Hello, this is Harvey,” you greet your mother-in-law, “you’re on speaker, mama.”

“Hello, Harvey”

“Can I help you, ma? Do you need anything?”

“I tried calling Yooyeon-ie but she didn’t pick up—where is she?”

Hearing that, Yooyeon jumps off your lap and runs to the bedroom to find her phone.

“Oh, she’s home with me—she just doesn’t have her phone on her. Is there anything you want to say to her?”

“No, not really. I just wanted to say congratulations—you’re celebrating your 6th anniversary soon, aren’t you?”

“Yes, we are. I’m taking her to dinner this Thursday evening to celebrate,” you reveal your plan to her.

“Sounds great,” she says, “have you thought about getting her pregnant yet?”

The timing couldn’t get any better; Yooyeon was on her way back to you when her mom said that. You notice that she’s looking at you with a flat face that you can’t decipher.

“Erm,” you try to find an answer to the question, “we haven’t talked much about that, actually. We, uh, we’ll talk about that one day.”

“Is it you or her that doesn’t want to have children?”

You see Yooyeon pointing at herself, indirectly asking you to make her take the blame, but you can’t do that—you’re not throwing your wife under the bus, ever.

“It’s not that we don’t want children, ma. It’s just that we haven’t talked about it that much,” you deflect, defending yourself and your wife.

“Fine,” your mother-in-law gives up with little fight, “if you need help convincing my daughter to get pregnant, just call me—talk to you again soon, Harvey”

“See you soon, mama—stay healthy, please.”

You hang up the call and look at your wife. “Love, come here, please,” you tap your lap a few times. Instead of sitting on your lap like before, she gets down on her knees in front of you. “Love? Are you okay?” You’re unsure of her intentions. “F-forgive me, my love, b-but I’m not ready to have children yet,” she says while looking down at the carpet, “please don’t divorce me for that—please, tell me that everything is okay.” There’s no way you’d divorce your wife for not wanting a child, and you make it clear to her that it’d never happen: “I won’t leave you for that, love—trust me. I’m sure you have good reasons as to why you don’t want to have children, and whatever it is, I’m willing to accept it.”

Your wife slowly shifts her gaze upwards, and when you make eye contact with her, you show her a gentle smile. You tap your thighs again. “Come here, my love.” She slowly gets on her feet and moves to sit on your lap. She then hugs you and leans against your chest.

“Am I a bad wife, hon?”

“No, you’re not—please don’t say such thing,” you say, “you’ve been the best wife I could ever ask for.”

“Am I a bad daughter, perhaps? Am I letting my parents down?”

“No, you’re not—please don’t say such thing,” you repeat, “with respect to your parents, love, this life is ours, not theirs. We get to decide what to do, don’t we?”

Yooyeon stays silent, but you’re not satisfied until you get an answer. “Answer me, love.”

“Y-yes,” she says, “yes, we do.”

“Ding-ding-ding, that’s the correct answer,” you reward her with a peck on the head, “let me worry about your parents, love; I’ll tell them that it’s my choice to not have children, okay?”

Feeling satisfied with the exchange, Yooyeon thanks you. “I love you, oppa,” she says, her voice soft, “I love you so much.” “I love you more, baby.”

You notice that a text just came to your phone. “Yunho needs some time to make a reservation for us, love,” you say, “if he’s successful—he should be, honestly—then we can go to The Sapphire on Thursday evening, just like we’ve planned.” “Great,” she says, a hint of excitement in her voice, “I can’t wait, love.”

-

Before you know it, it’s now Thursday. You want to take Yooyeon on a little breakfast date today, so last night, you set up 3 alarms 15 minutes apart from each other to make sure you can wake up on time. When you wake up, though, she’s not in bed with you—even with alarms, you can’t beat her at waking up early; she’s just too good at it.

You collect yourself and start walking out of the bedroom. Your wife hears your heavy, sleepy steps from the kitchen. “Good morning, my love,” she greets you from the kitchen with a cup of (presumably) tea in her hands. You take the cup from her hands and put it on the counter. You then turn her around and hug her from behind, sinking your face in her hair. “Good morning,” you greet her back, “happy anniversary, wifey.” “Happy anniversary to you as well, hubby.” You’re not sure if she said Harvey or hubby—her accent makes those two words sound similar. You ask to make sure, “did you say Harvey or hubby?” “Yes,” she giggles, “it works either way, no?” True, it does work.

You hand your wife her cup again and let go of the hug. She asks if you’d like to have some tea, but you decline. “Let’s have breakfast out, love,” you say. “Sure,” she replies. She turns around with a smile on her face and points at the sofa. “Can we sit there, hon?” “We sure can, lovely.”

You sit on the sofa and your wife takes her favorite position on your lap. “My love, my honey, my world,” you call to her, “thank you for staying by my side all these years. I’m very thankful for you, love.” Yooyeon still gets shy whenever you praise her, which is cute, really. “Oh my God,” she covers her red face, “you’re always so sweet to me, honey.” She takes a deep breath and looks at you in the eyes. “I-I’m also thankful for you.” Her gaze stays strong and does not stray away from yours. “You’ve been the best husband I could ever ask for—I love you so much.”

After a quick kiss, Yooyeon tells you to take a shower. You lift her up and take her to the bathroom with you. “Ah, are we showering together?” She asks. You slap yourself internally for not asking first. “Oh, sorry, do you not want to?” “It’s not that,” she says, “it’s just that showering together takes longer.” That’s a valid point: “alright, you go first—I’ll wait for you on the sofa.” You lower her in front of the bathroom and turn around to walk towards the sofa again, but she stops you. “Look at me, please.” Your wife takes off her nightgown and shows you her nude form, and you notice that you’re getting hard—she probably notices it, too. Your eyes roam on her body, looking at her from top to bottom. “You look good, love—you always do,” you praise her, holding back your drool, “now go take a shower, please.” She mutters a soft thank you as she disappears behind the bathroom door.

-

After taking a shower yourself, you’re now ready to get breakfast with your wife. She says she wants to take a ride on the motorcycle, citing that she’s missed hugging you from behind while you ride around the city with her. She’s dressed for it, so you have no reason to say no, so here you are: riding around the city with your wife on the passenger seat, hugging you from behind as she wishes.

You arrive at her preferred breakfast spot after a short ride on Bob, your motorcycle, and your wife immediately jumps off in excitement—she’s so excited that she forgets that she still has her helmet on. “Not so fast, love,” you call to her via the intercom, “come here, let me take off your helmet.” She turns around comedically, and you can see her eye smile through the clear visor. You reach for the latch and lift the helmet off her head, making a small mess of her hair. She tidies it as much as she can, and you finish it by tucking a stray hair behind her ear. You then proceed to take off your helmet and walk with her inside the restaurant.

Yooyeon says that she’s been craving Singaporean-style butter toast, so she orders not one, but two toasts for herself—she even stutters when ordering, feeling embarrassed by herself. You, on the other hand, aren’t too interested in toasts, so you opt for congee with char siu beef, because congee in the morning is just too good to miss out on. After ordering, you find a table to sit at and talk to kill time.

Your wife pulls out her phone from her pocket. “Honey, your brother just texted me,” she says. “Which one?” You ask because you have twin little brothers. She scratches her head as she tries to remember his name. “Uh, erm, Jaehyun-ie—whatever his other name is.” You chuckle slightly. “Shane,” you remind her, “it’s Shane.” She puts on a grin as she nods. “Anyway,” she returns to the subject, “he said congratulations on the anniversary, and that he hopes to propose to Jiwoo by next month.” You’re glad that things are working out for your brother and his girlfriend; he’s a nice person and she’s an even better person. You tell your wife to thank him for the congratulations. “Also, tell him that I wish him a happy life with his girlfriend,” you add. “Alri—oh, he’s calling us, hon.”

Before she picks up the call, she moves to sit next to you. “It’s a video call, hon,” she says as she aims her front camera at the two of you, “I’m picking up in 3, 2, 1.”

“Hey, guys,” you greet Shane and his girlfriend, “good morning!”

“Good morning, hyung and noona,” he says, “congratulations on the 6th anniversary, guys. We wish you eternal happiness.”

“Thank you, Shane,” you put on a thumbs-up, “how are you guys doing?”

His girlfriend takes the turn to speak, “we’ve been very good, oppa. I know we’re not married yet, but our 2nd anniversary is around the corner.”

You put on a big smile, in approval of their relationship. “Ask Shane to take you on a dinner, Jiwoo-yah; I’m sure he has the money for it.”

You then turn to your wife and hand the talking stick over to her. As soon as she starts talking to them, you see a waiter walking towards you with a tray full of food in his hands. You help him place the bowls on the table and ask Yooyeon to show them the food. “Yah, look at this,” Yooyeon switches to her rear camera and aims it at the food, “you guys want to join us?” Through the video call, you see Jiwoo slapping Shane’s thigh repeatedly. “Ahhhh, unnieeee,” Jiwoo whines cutely, “that’s Morningside, isn’t it? Oh my God, I’ve missed Morningside!” Jiwoo turns to Shane and whispers something to him, and he responds with a nod—they probably just set their next date. “We’ll join you next time, unnie,” Jiwoo says with an eye smile on her face, “we have other things to do today.”

After a few more minutes of conversation, they’re now ready to end the call. “Harvey-oppa, Yooyeon-unnie,” Jiwoo says, her tone sweet and sincere, “congratulations on the anniversary, seriously. I hope me and oppa get to live happily together like the two of you.” You and Yooyeon thank her for the kind words, and after exchanging waves, they end the video call. “Love, text Shane for me, please,” you say as you sprinkle pepper into your congee, “tell him to visit us this Saturday for Jack-in-the-box.” She asks what it means, but you deflect: “he’ll know, love, don’t worry.”

-

“Let’s get changed, love,” you poke your wife, who is scrolling mindlessly through social media, “we need to leave soon.” She puts her phone down on the bed and moves to sit on your lap. “I have something special for tonight, hon; I hope you like it,” she says. “I’d say the chance of me liking it close to 100%,” you peck her on the lips, “get off me, please, love.”

Your wife returns the peck before jumping off your body, and in turn, the bed—and you follow suit after her. Based on how her face is decorated with a grin and pink cheeks, you can tell that she’s excited to show you what surprise she has up her sleeve. “Come oooon, get out of here!” She fixes her hands on your back and pushes you out of the bedroom.

You walk towards the spare bedroom that was turned into a walk-in closet a few years ago to find something nice to wear. You estimate that Yooyeon will be wearing a dress, but it’s the color of said dress that is the question. So, to anticipate, you grab some sets of jackets and trousers of different colors: navy, light grey, and dark blue. Along with them, you also grab a black shirt and a white shirt. “Do I need to wear a tie?” You tap your chin as you think about it. “Eh, probably not,” you decide, “I’m not in the mood." You then proceed to unlock your phone and say, “hey, Nudle, choose a number between 1 and 3.” After a short animation, the AI voice assistant picks 1. “Navy blue, it is.”

You quickly get rid of your T-shirt and shorts and let them pile on the floor. You then take the white shirt off its hanger and put it on. Before you put on your suit, you take a quick sniff to make sure it doesn’t smell when it’s being stored, and thankfully for you, it doesn't. “Oh, perfume—how did I forget.” You unbutton your shirt again and spray your wife’s favorite perfume on your belly button, chest, armpits, and nape. You continue dressing up and stand in front of the mirror to make sure everything is nice and tidy. “Heh, I look good,” you praise yourself, “no wonder Yooyeon-ie fell for me.”

After getting dressed up, you walk towards the bedroom and knock on the door. “Are we ready, love?” The door slowly swings open, revealing your wife, who is dressed in a fancy black sleeveless dress—she’s also wearing the necklace you bought for her. “Goodness me,” you feel your breath get taken away, “you look incredible, love.” Yooyeon reveals that she bought it when she went out with Kotone yesterday afternoon while you and Yunho played tennis.

“You like it, hon? I bought it specifically for tonight.” That’s an unnecessary question, isn’t it? “Of course, I do, love,” you scan her from top to bottom, “my God, aren’t you God’s most beautiful creation.” She smiles oh-so-beautifully thanks to your praise, and she rewards you with a peck on the lips. “Come on, hon,” she says, “I have a feeling that we’ll start getting horny if we don’t leave now.”

-

A staff member of The Sapphire greets you at the front door and asks, “are you here for a reservation?” You say yes and tell him your name, and after looking at his list, he turns to you again with a smile. “Follow me, please, sir and madam.” Your wife wraps an arm around yours as the two of you follow the staff into the restaurant to be taken to your table.

You follow him up the fancy stairs and onto the second floor, where a table costs more than any other part of the restaurant thanks to the privacy it offers. “I should thank Yunho for this,” you think. The staff stops at a table in the corner and politely points at it. “Would you like to have wine or champagne, sir and madam?” You decline politely, telling him that you and Yooyeon stopped drinking years ago—you’d like to have water in its place. “Of course, sir,” he says, “your course will start soon; please kindly wait.”

You show the staff a kind smile as he starts walking away, leaving you alone with your wife. “Love,” Yooyeon places her hands in the middle of the table, “thank you for taking me here—I love you.” You hold her hands and rub the back of them with your thumbs. “I love you more, love,” you say, “happy anniversary.” “Happy anniversary to you, too.” Your wife smiles at you lovingly, and you notice the way her eyes are glassy from unreleased tears.

“Love, listen to me, please,” you take a deep breath before saying your next point. “I know that sometimes I spend too much time working and come home very late but believe me that everything I do is out of love for you—you matter the most to me, love, and it’s been an honor for me to be able to provide for the two of us like this.” You don’t know what made you say that, but it just feels right at the moment. “I know,” her voice trembles from the emotions, “believe me, I know.” She pulls out a handkerchief from her purse and wipes a tear with it. “I always pray for you when you’re not at home, and when you are, I always want to show you how much I love you,” she adds.

You can tell that she wants to kiss you, but this round table is in the way. There’s no one else on this floor, so you summon her to you so that you can kiss her. She sits sideways on your lap—because her dress doesn’t allow her to sit like she usually does—and kisses you passionately, screaming at you how much she loves you. “I will always love you, Harvey,” she says, her eyes still glassy. “Did you say Harvey or hubby?” You crack a little joke to lighten the mood, earning a laugh from your wife. “Go back to your seat, love; the food will be here soon.”

“What are we having, honey?” Yooyeon asks. “Yunho showed me a list and here are the things I chose—you ready?” Before you can say the first thing, your wife shows you an open palm to halt you. “That’s alright, hon; I’m sure the server will tell us what we’re eating,” she says. You burst out laughing as a response. “Yeah, you’re right.”

You didn’t have to wait long until the first dish was brought out to your table. “These are the sea scallops with avocado, frisée, and key lime vinaigrette, sir and madam.” A server sets two small plates on your table while another server pours water into your glasses. “Please enjoy, sir and madam; we are glad to have you with us tonight.”

After the servers leave your table, you raise your glass. “Together always, in joy and in sorrow, for better or for worse,” you say. Your wife repeats the line and clinks her glass with yours. “I will never get tired of saying that line,” she says, “now, shall we?” Yes, we shall—let’s stop talking and start eating, hey? It’s what the two of you came here for.

-

You’re now back at home after a few hours of dinner. You sit on the sofa without changing your clothes, because you can’t be bothered to do so just yet. “Wait here, hon,” your wife enters the bedroom, presumably to get something she wants to show you.

She comes out of the bedroom while hugging a photo album. “Oppa,” she calls to you, “would you be down to go down the memory lane?” You nod, “sure, come and sit next to me, love.” She waddles cutely towards you, her face decorated with a beautiful eye smile and an adorable grin.

“First thing first,” she says as she opens the album, “your love letter to me, which you sent via Shane.” You feel your cheeks getting hot; you had Shane go to the post office and send a letter you had written to Yooyeon, in it a love confession and an invitation to dinner—the mail was under his name, too. “I wonder if Shane wrote Jiwoo a love confession like his brother did to me,” Yooyeon piles on. “Do you remember what you wrote, by the way?” You nod. “Of course I do—how can I forget? That was my last attempt at courting you.”

The letter went a little bit like this:

“Dear Miss Kim Yooyeon,

I’ve been meaning to share with you the thing that has been on my mind for quite some time.

From the moment we met, I felt attracted to you in a way that I couldn’t describe. Your sweetness, your sharpness of mind, and the way you perceive things around you have captivated me in ways that I never expected. In the short conversations we’ve shared, I found myself longing for the next one, and the next one, and the one after that. I eventually realized that there was something deeper than just mere excitement or admiration—it’s love.

With this letter, I would like to be honest and let you know that I cherish and treasure you more than words can express. Your presence in my life, despite being minimal (for now), has brought me so much joy and excitement, and I can’t help but think of a future together, where we share more memories, more laughs, and more dreams.

With that in mind, I would like to have the chance to spend more time with you in a special way. Would you like to join me for dinner? My family has a special place we often go to together, and I think that it would be such a great honor if you could be my guest. Perhaps we will be able to talk more about us and see how we might proceed from here.

Kindly let me know if you’re free next weekend and interested in this. Please understand that I want you to know how much you mean to me, and I look forward to hearing from you.

With affection and respect,

Han ‘Harvey’ Hyunjin.”

“I was so confused why you wrote your name like this,” Yooyeon says, placing a finger on your name, “I had always known you as Harvey.” You chuckle in response. “You’re not the first person to say that, love.”

Yooyeon then moves on to the picture on the first page. “Florence, honey.” She shows you a selfie of the two of you eating gelato while sitting on a bench. You sigh as you carefully tread the lane of memory. “We had fought a few days before we left for Florence, hadn’t we, love?” Your wife lets out a sigh too. “I saw a piece of paper on the kitchen counter, and I thought that was our divorce paper,” she says, “imagine my surprise when I found out that it was our plane ticket.” You wrap an arm around your wife and softly say, “I’m so sorry for that, love; I was so self-centered and didn’t take your feelings into account.” “It’s okay,” she pecks the side of your face, “I think we’ve learned a lot since that.”

“Next,” she looks at the other side of the page, “moving into this house.” The price of the house had gone up a few weeks prior, forcing you to sell your cars so that you could afford it. “You could’ve taken my money and kept the cars, you know,” your wife says, a hint of regret in her voice. “But that was your life savings, love; I couldn’t bring myself to take it,” you reason. “I know, but still, I wouldn’t have had a problem with that,” she counters.

She bursts out laughing when she sees the first picture on the next page. “Oh my God, I remember this like it was yesterday,” she points at the picture of her getting licked by a camel in Dubai. You join her in laughing as you recall the memory. “You were so startled that you fell backwards—if you hadn’t worn jeans back then, the camel guy would’ve seen your panties.” Yooyeon covers her face and shakes her head. “God, it was so close to being disastrous.” Aside from the photo, you also have a video on your phone of her sliding down a sand hill on a sled while screaming from the top of her lungs, which is both very funny and memorable.

Her smile fades instantly when she sees the picture placed on the 4th page—it’s a picture of you bearing your uncle’s pall with your twin brothers and dad, taken by Yooyeon from a distance. “Your uncle, hon,” she says, sadness woven in her voice. Your mom’s older brother passed away from cardiac arrest in the middle of the night, right when you were having sex to celebrate your 4th anniversary. You remember stopping abruptly when you heard the news through your smartwatch, thus ruining your and her mood. “What went through your head when we had to stop, love?” You ask, trying to understand what it was like for her. “Please don’t get mad, but initially I was so unhappy,” she says, “I had been so desperate for your touch, but then we had to end awkwardly like that.” You peck her head as a gesture of apology. “I’m sorry about that, love, but I’m sure you know what he meant for us.”

You move on to the final page of the album, which has two pictures on it. Placed on the top is a picture of Yooyeon holding a plate full of cookies with you sleeping in the background. Underneath that is a group selfie of you, Yooyeon, Shane, Jiwoo, and Shaun who was holding the phone (he was single at the time), taken after dinner at your house. Jiwoo made scones and they were so good that Yooyeon asked her to make one more batch before letting her leave. Jiwoo and Shaun ended up staying the night at your house because it was so late by the time she was done.

“Did you hear Jiwoo’s moans, by the way?” Your wife’s question stuns you momentarily. “Excuse me?” “Oh, you must’ve been asleep,” she chuckles, “I heard them when I was on my way to the toilet, and all I’m going to say is that Shane must be good at sex, just like his older brother.” “Shane, you—oh, my fucking God!” You palm your forehead, unsure of what to make of this information. You certainly did not need to know that your little brother was smashing his girlfriend while staying at your house. “Well, at least Shane and Jiwoo were happy,” you think.

“Speaking of moaning,” your wife moves to sit on your lap, “you haven’t made me moan yet—it’s time to rectify that, don’t you think?” You burst out laughing, amused by her stunt. Yooyeon from 5 to 6 years ago would beat around the bush whenever she wanted sex, but nowadays, she’ll say the craziest things to get you to touch her. “I never thought you’d be so crazy, love,” you say. “Can we start now, please? I-I’m impatient,” she says, her cheeks hot.

Your wife doesn’t want to have sex outside the bedroom, and as boring as it is sometimes, you don’t want to go against her wishes. With that in mind, you carry your wife by her butt to the bedroom. On the way there, you notice that her breathing is getting faster, so you rush to the bedroom and promptly sit on the edge of the bed.

“Love, are you okay?” You ask, concerned about how her heart is racing for seemingly no reason. She takes a deep breath before answering. “I-I have a feeling that I’m fertile today, a-and you might make me pregnant if you… y’know.” “Do you want to get pregnant, love?” She stays silent for a little while as she thinks of an answer—only to end up returning the question to you. “D-do you want me to get pregnant, honey?” “No, no, no, it doesn’t work like that,” you deflect, “this isn’t just about me, love; if you don’t want to get pregnant, then we’re not getting you pregnant.” She takes another moment of silence as she thinks about her options. “Don’t worry about your parents, love; this life is ours, not theirs, and we get to make our own choices,” you assure her. “Okay,” she says, “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to get pregnant—not yet at least.” You assure her again that she has nothing to be sorry for and that you’ll never let anyone press your wife into getting pregnant.

“I love you,” she says, seemingly out of nowhere, “thank you for everything, honey.” You want to say it back to her, but you think that it’s better to kiss her instead. Without breaking the kiss, your wife holds your hand and guides it to the zipper on her back, signaling to you that she wants to undress. With little effort, you manage to unzip her dress all the way down and sneak your hand inside to feel her soft skin. She abruptly breaks the kiss and jumps off your lap. You ask if she’s okay, and she responds by putting on a sexy smile and turns her back against you.

You keep an eye on your wife as she wiggles her body around, and would you look at that: her dress falls off swiftly with little effort and pools around her feet, revealing her strapless bra and matching panties. She turns her head to the side just enough to see you wiping drool from the corners of your lips. “You’re never going to get tired of me, are you?” “No, I’m not,” you say, “have you seen yourself? Do you need to look in the mirror again?” Satisfied with the exchange, she turns around and kneels in between your legs. “What are we waiting for then?”

You can hear the machine-like hum from the AC, so you know that the only reason it’s getting so hot in this bedroom is because of your arousal. With your wife still kneeling on the floor in front of you, you free yourself from the constraints that are your jacket and shirt, and you see that your wife is smiling at you. You’re struggling to decide if her smile is sexy or beautiful, though—you know you like it, that’s for sure.

“Would you like to do the honors?” You offer your wife the chance to take off your pants. Without saying a word, she unbuckles your belt and unzips your pants. “May I?” How cute is it that she’s still asking for permission in this position? “Yes, love, you may,” you say. She puts her hands on the inside of the waistband and makes sure that she’s also grabbing your boxers. She gives you one more look and you respond with a nod. With a grunt, Yooyeon pulls your pants and boxers down, thus freeing your cock from its constraints.

She starts stroking your shaft, admiring the length and stiffness. “Wow,” she utters, “it’s crazy how it fits in my body every single time.” It seems like she said it without thinking, judging by how she jolts a little after. “Anyway,” she chuckles, “here I go.” Your wife parts her lips and eases you into her mouth—nothing too crazy for now; she’s not rushing to take you deep right away. That said, it’s still very pleasant for you. You place a hand on her head and pet her gently, praising her for the good work and encouraging her to keep going. “Yes, love,” you say, “that’s very good, baby.”

She does love hearing praises (especially from you) but at the same time, they make her get overexcited sometimes, so you keep an eye on her and make sure that she won’t end up hurting herself while sucking your cock. “Ghlk!” Well, speak of the devil; she just choked on your shaft. “Easy, love, easy; there’s no need to rush,” you try to calm her down—alas, it doesn’t seem to work. In the moment of panic, your wife stumbles backwards, thus removing you from her mouth, and starts coughing. You pick her up from the floor and make her sit on your lap. “It’s okay, love—it’s okay,” you rub her chest gently, “you’re okay, you’re okay. Let’s calm down for a second, yeah?”

After catching her breath, she’s now able to function properly again. “I’m sorry,” she says, “I-I got excited because you praised me.” “I had a feeling that’d happen,” you peck her on the lips once, “thank you for trying, love.” Yooyeon accepts your thanks with a smile, which makes you smile yourself.

You move to the middle of the bed with her, and that’s when she says that she’s ready to continue. “C-can we try something?” She asks, and you swear that you can see a floating bulb over her head. “We sure can, love; tell me what you need from me,” you say. First of all, she asks that you let her go and lie on your back, which is very easy to do. She then moves to sit on your lap and tells you the next part. “I will ride you like this, hon, but you can’t touch me at all,” she says as she takes off her panties, tossing it over her head after. “That sounds difficult, love—are you sure you’re not asking too much from me?” She lets out a laugh at your joke. “That’s your challenge, hon; do that and I’ll make sure it’s worth your while,” she promises, “now, hands above your head, please.”

You do as she asks and put your hands on the bed above your head. “I’m all yours, baby,” you hand over the controls to her. “That’s usually my line, is it not?” With your cock in her hand, she guides it towards her entrance and slowly takes you in. “Oh, God, this will never get old,” she says. It feels odd to not have your hands on her, but you’re committed to completing the challenge. Your wife maintains eye contact with you as she starts rolling her hips back and forth, basking in the sensation of being stretched by your girth. “S-struggling, hon?” “Yeah, and so are you,” you say, “I know—” Yooyeon cuts you off with a slap on the cheek. “Quiet, you; I’m calling the shots today.”

“Fuck, that’s naughty,” you think to yourself. You’re not offended or turned off by the little act of violence—it arouses you more, in fact; you’re as hard as you can get in her tight core right now. “I’m yours, mistress,” you rile her up by playing submissive. “Damn right you are,” she puts on a naughty smirk. She leans forward to hold your wrists down and she’s far enough forward that her tits are within licking range. “Be a good boy and make me cum, will you?”

After getting a nod from you, she starts fucking herself on your cock, going up and down at her own pace. It’s cute to see that she’s moaning so freely despite her tough and dominant front. On the other hand, you’re having so much fun right now; your wife is taking control after being submissive for countless sessions over the years, and you seriously hope that this isn’t just a one-time thing.

You notice that she’s starting to slow down and showing signs of exhaustion. “Is that all you have, mistress? All that talk and you’re tired already?” You taunt her, hoping that it’ll trigger her into speeding up again. “Fuck you,” she snarks, “fuck, this is harder than I thought.” You lift your head off the pillow just enough for your mouth to reach her tits and bite a nipple lightly. “You’re such a naughty boy, aren’t you—oh, fuck, fuck!” You put on a teasing smirk, “what are you going to do about it, mistress?”

The teasing proves to somewhat work—she makes a move for your exposed neck and bites you lightly, making her annoyance at your disobedience known. “Apologize,” she demands, “you don’t want to get hurt, do you?” “N-no,” you adhere to her demand, “I-I’m sorry, mistress.” She pecks you on the lips, satisfied with your apology. “That’s a good boy.”

Your wife fixes her lips on your neck and starts moving her hips again, squeezing you with her tightness, and you can’t help but let out low-pitched moans right into her ears. You notice that she starts sucking on your neck harder. “Mark me, mistress,” you egg her on, “show everyone I’m yours.” Thankfully for you, she’s good at multitasking; not only is she trying her hardest to plant hickeys on your neck, but she’s also not letting up the bounces of her hips. “You’re so good, mistress—you’re so good to me,” you praise her, and you’re starting to wonder if this is considered being submissive.

It seems like she’s finally satisfied with her work on your neck, as she retreats from it and straightens her posture—she also frees your wrists and plants her hands on your chest. “Make me cum, my dear boy,” she reminds you of your task, “please, make your mistress cum.” Her wish is your command tonight, so you do your best to thrust into her from below, making her entire body bounce in the process. Your wife seems to approve this method, as the moans she’s letting out are louder and more frequent. “Am I doing it well, mistress?” “Yes—God, yes, you are,” she says with heavy pants, “please, please, I’m so close already.”

You pick up your pace and fuck her as fast as this position allows you—all the while you’re fighting the strong urge to lay hands on your wife. “Honey, honey,” she calls to you, “I’m about to burst—oh, oh, yes!” Her announcement removes whatever sign of exhaustion from your body and instead fuels the flame of your arousal. “Come on, love,” you subconsciously drop the name, “let’s cum—let’s fucking cum now.”

With a scream, Yooyeon lifts herself off your cock and sprays her juice all over your torso—some of it even hits your face, how nice. You take some in your fingers and have a taste—hmm, interesting taste. You look at your panting wife, whose eyes are closed and lips trembling, as her orgasm takes her to the seventh heaven. You guess that you’ve completed the challenge and are now allowed to touch her, so you take her in your arms and pull her into a cuddle.

“Did I do well, mistress?” You ask teasingly, not forgetting the name. “Ve-very well,” she shows you a thumbs-up, “I am spent, hon.” You ask if she liked taking the dominant role, and she covers her face in shyness. “I-I think I liked it,” she says, “y-you were cooperative too, hon.” You pepper her face with quick pecks, overwhelming her with them. “I aim to please, my love.” She puts her hands on either side of your face and comes in for a proper kiss, and you can really feel that she loves and appreciates you. “I love you,” she affirms, “I love you so, so, so, so, so much.” “I love you so, so, so, so, so, much more,” you say, chuckling after.

You excuse yourself to get some water and your wife asks you to grab her phone from the living room while you’re at it. “A missed call from someone named Jaehoon?” You furrow your eyebrows, a hint of suspicion in your head. “Oh my God, Jaehoon-ie,” you slap your forehead as the realization hits, “that’s just Shaun.” You almost forget that your wife saves you and your brothers by your other names on her phone.

You walk into the bedroom with her phone in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. “Love,” you call to her, “a missed call from Jaehoon-ie.” After getting her phone back from you, Yooyeon calls Shaun back in case he has something important to say.

“Hello, noona,” he says, “were you asleep?”

“No, I wasn’t,” she looks at you with a naughty smirk, “your brother was smashing me so I couldn’t pick up the phone.”

“What the f—I didn’t need to know that, you know.”

Yooyeon hands her phone over to you, and in exchange, you hand the bottle over to her and sit on the edge of the bed.

“Yo, hello,” you take over, “what time is it in New York, Shaun?”

“Uhh,” he takes a moment of silence, probably to check his watch, “around 9 in the morning—we just had breakfast.”

“Oh, right, you’re there with Seeun-ie, aren’t you?”

As soon as you say it, you hear a woman’s laugh from Shaun’s side of the call—wait, why is your wife crawling to you?

“Hello, oppa,” Seeun greets you warmly, “good morning from New York!”

“Good morning, cookie,” you say, still keeping an eye on your wife, who is now kneeling in between your legs like earlier—she must be up to no good. “So, what did you call us for?” Shaun is giving you an answer, but your focus is directed at your wife, who’s starting to give you head. You take a deep breath to concentrate and make sure you don’t arouse suspicion from your brother and his girlfriend.

“I have a feeling that you’re not listening to me, hyung,” Shaun notices, “is noona touching you?”

Well, you’re caught—might as well open the cards for everyone to see. “Yeah, she’s sucking me off,” you reveal nonchalantly, “talk to you guys soon.”

You hear a little surprised yelp from Seeun as you’re hanging up the phone but it’s whatever; you’re all adults. “You couldn’t wait, love? Are you that impatient?” You question your wife, who’s going up and down your shaft with her mouth. She gives you a little wink, and a naughty idea enters your mind. With her phone in hand, you open the camera app and aim it at her. “Say cheese, love.” As soon as she makes eye contact with the camera, you take a picture. You show your wife the picture of her with a quarter of your shaft in her mouth. You expect her to get mad and ask you to delete it, but she doesn’t—she just lets out a giggle. “I guess that’s our entry for this year,” she says, “anyway, I’m going again—don’t disturb me, please.”

You want to say that it was Shaun who disturbed the two of you, but the way she’s wrapping her lips around your shaft stifles your tongue. “That’s really good, love,” you praise her, “remember, don’t get too excited.” Yooyeon takes a deep breath through her nose before negotiating your shaft deeper into her mouth, possibly into her throat. “Fuck, you’re crazy, love,” you comment.

You see that she’s in a halt, so you ask if she’s okay. She pulls away momentarily to take a breather and possibly say something. “I’m okay, don’t worry,” she says, “how far do you think I can take you?” “Sorry?” You can’t believe your ears. “I want to see how far down I can take you, hon, but I think I need your help—you’ll need to push my head from behind.” “If I see that you’re uncomfortable, I’m pulling out, okay?”

Once the two of you have come to an agreement, Yooyeon parts her lips again and takes you in her mouth. You let her go as far forwards as she can while making sure that she’s not in stress or danger. It’s when she reaches halfway down your shaft that she stops. “Let’s try this, love, alright?” You place a hand on the back of her head and gently push her towards your crotch. “Fuck, you’re so fucking good at this, love,” you let another praise fly out of your lips.

Yooyeon closes her eyes as more of your shaft enters her mouth, and she can feel the tip of your penis poking the back of her throat. “Stay calm, Kim Yooyeon; you can do this—do it for your precious husband”, her brain tells her. She plants her hands on your thighs as she tries her hardest to keep her jaws as wide open as she can. She tries looking up at you to find comfort, and you make sure to look her right in the eyes, smiling as you do. “You’re doing great, love—you’re so damn good at this,” you pet her head gently, not pushing her further down your shaft.

You notice that she’s getting limp, so you promptly retreat from her throat so that she can breathe. You pull her into your lap again and immediately spam her with praises. “You were so brave, love,” you say, “I admire how you’re willing to go the distance for my pleasure.” You don’t care if it sounds so self-centered, but it’s true in your opinion. “You’re my husband,” she rubs the side of your face gently, “your happiness is the top of my priority.” You thank her for that attitude, but you also assure her that she’s equally important in this relationship, and that she’s always welcome to express her desires.

“Is that so?” She asks the obvious. “Yes, that is so,” you state the obvious. “Well in that case,” she places her hand on her crotch, “you haven’t been here yet.” You ask if she wants you to wear a condom, but she firmly declines. “I’ll just take the pill after, it’s not a big issue,” she says. You ask if she wants to take control again, but she says no. “Being dominant is tiring, hon,” she says.

With that out of the way, you stand up and lower your wife onto the floor. You then turn her around and bend her over the edge of the bed. “Oh, I’m going to be so sore tomorrow,” she says, letting out a chuckle after, “well, what are you—oh, God, honey.” You cut her off by plunging your cock deep into her. “Sorry, you were saying?” You tease her, but she can’t reply because she’s too busy moaning—she also doesn’t have to put on a charade like earlier; she just simply needs to act like she usually does: submissive and obedient.

You failed to notice that your hands were on her hips the entire time, so you remove them and put them behind your back. “Oh, oh—w-what are you doing? Where—ngh—where are your hands?” Well, it seems like she does like it when your hands are on her body. “Sorry, I thought you didn’t want me to touch you,” you say jokingly, “here, let me fix that.” You place one hand on her hip and use the other to deliver a slap onto her butt, making her scream. “Like this, love?” You spank her one more time with your other hand. “Or maybe like this?”

Your wife squirms around as she tries to cope with the sting from the slap, but your big hands don’t allow her to move too much. “H-honey,” she says weakly, “s-stop hitting me, please.” You stop your thrusts momentarily to apologize and ease her pain by rubbing her butt cheeks gently. “I’m sorry, baby—was I too rough? Would you like to stop for a moment?” Seeing that she’s nodding, you retreat from her warmth and flip her onto her back. You then move her into a more comfortable position in bed, giving her the time to catch her breath and calm herself down.

After getting herself together, Yooyeon reaches her arms out, inviting you to enter her warm embrace. “To me, please,” she asks, her voice weak and quiet. You join her in bed and wrap your arms around her, not forgetting to apologize for being too rough on her. “I-I often forget how lustful you are for me,” she says. “You are my wife, love; if I’m not lustful for you, then something must be wrong with me,” you reply. It is true, though, is it not? If a man like you is married to a woman like her but isn’t interested in getting sexual with her, then that guy must be fucked in the head—and the narrator shares the same idea, too.

She stays in your arms for a few more minutes until she feels ready to go again—she begs you to not be so rough this time. “Certainly, love,” you say. You roll over so that you’re on top of your wife, and without being asked, she parts her legs and wraps them around your body. “You know,” she calls for your attention, “I always feel loved when we do it like this, oppa.” Hearing her refer to you by that term makes your heart flutter—it makes you feel like you’re 26 again, back when you were still trying to court her. “I do love you, sweetheart—I will always love you until you’re sick of me.”

She places a hand on your nape and pulls you down towards her for a kiss, and while your lips are connected with hers, you hold your cock in one hand and ease your way into her warmth again. When it first goes in, Yooyeon breaks the kiss and moans right against your lips. “I love you, Hyunjin-oppa,” she says in a soft tone, “you’re always so kind and sweet to me.” “Thank you, love; I try my hardest for you,” you replicate the soft tone, “and I love you more, Yooyeon-ah.”

You start moving your hips slowly, really savoring how warm and tight she is around your girth. “Love, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can last too long,” you say, hoping that she won’t be disappointed. “That’s fine; I don’t want to work too hard for your cum anyway,” she says. You move your head to the side and latch on her neck, and your wife’s moans get louder in response.

You can feel your cock twitching in her core, and she can feel it too. “C’mon, honey, give it to me. Give it to—oh!” With a grunt, you blow your load deep into your wife, just the way she likes it. You stay inside her and wait until all of your cum has come out of your penis. At the same time, your wife is letting out a very long moan, as your warm semen enters her body.

You’re starting to get drowsy for some reason, though. “Kim Yooyeon, I… love—”

-

You stir awake in the middle of the night when you hear a thud. In your half-awake state, you move your hands around, and the fact that you can’t feel your wife’s presence makes you jolt in panic.

You lift your head and see that your wife is on the floor while rubbing her knees, seemingly in pain. “Love, are you okay?” You ask, still unable to fully open your eyes. “I am, honey—ow, shit!” You ask what she’s doing, and she tells you that she was trying to get the polaroid camera from the wardrobe, but her legs were too weak, causing her to fall on her knees. “I will—” a yawn cuts you off, “I will get it for you, love.”

You gather your consciousness and get off the bed. You first help your wife and place her on the bed before heading towards the wardrobe to get the camera and film. You insert one film into the one-eyed machine and hand it over to your wife. “What are you doing with it, love?” Your wife claps her hands twice to turn on the lights and asks you to sit next to her. “Let’s take a picture, oppa; I don’t think a picture of me sucking you is appropriate to be displayed,” she says.

You chuckle in agreement with your wife. You move to sit next to her and rub your eyes to fully wake up. “Say cheese, oppa.” Yooyeon aims the camera at the two of you and presses a button. After a short while, the film comes out and she shakes it with all her might until the picture is clearly visible. “Happy anniversary, my beloved husband,” she says, love and affection woven in her voice. “Happy anniversary, my dear wife,” you reply.

After a quick kiss, you hold her hands in yours. “Together always, in joy and in sorrow, for better or for worse.” “Indeed,” she replies, “together always, until death do us part.” “Hey, that’s new—did you come up with it recently?” She slaps your chest lightly while laughing. “Come, let’s go back to sleep, oppa.”

[strahdzine]

Physical Merch Cancellation

Hello, this is an announcement regarding the cancellation of our physical merch box. The digital zine is still on. Please continue reading this post for more information.

Hello everyone,

I have some sad news regarding our physical merch box production. Due to current US policies regarding tariffs and additional import fees, we will be unable to produce a physical merch box as planned.

I know that this may feel sudden--and it is. Unfortunately the current climate regarding US politics is extremely uncertain, with policies changing almost daily. The newest executive order has repealed de minimis--an exemption given to small purchases from overseas. You can view the link(s) below to read the executive order.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-closes-de-minimis-exemptions-to-combat-chinas-role-in-americas-synthetic-opioid-crisis/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/further-amendment-to-duties-addressing-the-synthetic-opioid-supply-chain-in-the-peoples-republic-of-china-as-applied-to-low-value-imports/

I urge all US members to contact their representatives. Let them know how these tariffs and fees impact you as a consumer.

Additionally, I would encourage US members to look into the HandsOff mobilization taking place this weekend, April 5th. If you have the opportunity, please use your voice. https://www.mobilize.us/handsoff/

FAQ

Alternatives We have looked into US Manufacturing Alternatives--unfortunately, the only companies available to make the merch we would need are MAGA-owned, which we will not work with for obvious reasons. We have looked into moving our production and shipping to a different country such as the EU, however, there are developing fees/tariffs that make this risky, especially as most of our consumer base is US-based. Taking all of this into consideration; we are unable to seek an affordable or reasonable alternative.

What about the charity drive? We will still have a charity drive--instead of the money going through myself as a middleman we will simply encourage you to donate to the three charities we have listed in the poll. The zine PDFs will be available for free download. Originally, we planned for the digital zine to be a PWYW (pay-what-you-want), with all profits going to the selected charity. There is no reason for me to be a middleman--so please donate to charity what you intended to spend on the zine. Our merch box planned to be up for sale at two tiers; one being $45, and one being $60. If you intended to purchase a tier, we encourage you to donate that money to charity. Thank you. I apologize once again. I wish there were more I could do, but unfortunately, all of our options are currently exhausted. You may see other zines take similar routes very soon.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

THE ZINE ITSELF IS STILL GOING ON! Just the physical merch is cancelled.

[mariacallous]

It’s official: As part of President Donald Trump’s roller-coaster trade war, the de minimis exemption no longer applies to packages arriving to the United States from China as of Friday, May 2. The provision previously allowed Chinese ecommerce giants like Temu, Shein, and AliExpress, as well as American companies like Amazon, to send goods valued at less than $800 to US customers duty-free.

Those same goods are now subject to tariffs as high as 145 percent. In response to the change, Shein announced it would begin adjusting prices starting on April 25. Temu, meanwhile, is currently blocking US shoppers from seeing products shipped from China, effectively narrowing the number of goods for Americans to choose from. Other retailers have started displaying tariff surcharges in their online shopping carts to help consumers make sense of where added fees are coming from.

What will the end of de minimis mean for American businesses and consumers? Will China’s ecommerce giants stop shipping to the United States altogether? WIRED senior business editor Louise Matsakis and senior China writer Zeyi Yang joined chatted with readers during a Reddit AMA this week to answer these questions and many others. Here’s what to know:

What’s the difference between the regular tariffs and the de minimis exemption?

Trump’s blanket 145 percent tariffs on Chinese imports are having wide impacts on almost every industry, whereas the change to de minimis specifically hurts platforms like Temu and Shein. It's not wrong to say Temu was invented, in part, because of the de minimis exemption. It made shipping small packages directly from China affordable and fast, thus making Temu's original business model viable. With that gone, Temu will have to transition to a different business model in the US (which it has been trying already, and that's what’s going on with the local warehouse products you are seeing now).

If the recent tariffs aren't removed, will Temu and other Chinese ecommerce sites eventually close down their operations in the US?

At this point, we really don't know, and Temu might not have made a decision one way or another. What we do know for now is that the American version of Temu has started showing only “local” products. But one important piece of context that might be helpful to consider is that Temu is owned by a Chinese company, PDD Holdings, which is already one of the largest online shopping platforms in China.

So unlike, say, Amazon, it doesn't need the United States to survive in the long-term, and it might be willing to walk away if the business environment becomes untenable. PDD Holdings has invested pretty heavily in Temu's American business (it has spent billions on advertising to US consumers, for example), but it wouldn't be an existential loss if it chose to pull out and focus instead on other markets.

I have heard that ports in the US are starting to receive less shipments as tariffs take full effect. How long do you think it will take for this to affect the average American consumer and brick-and-mortar stores?

We have been talking to US retailers who don't sell on ecommerce websites, meaning they have their own stores or are suppliers to Walmart, Target, etc. These companies are also freaking out because many of them have complex supply chains in China and can't easily move their manufacturing operations to other countries.

From what we’ve seen, retailers usually have stockpiles of inventory that should last at least the next few months in the US already. If the tariffs don't come down to an acceptable level soon, however, shortages will start to become much more apparent maybe in the summer or early fall, depending on how prepared individual stores are. US retailers of Christmas ornaments and toys, for example, are really concerned right now even though the holiday is seven months away. Perhaps December is when some American consumers will eventually find out the impacts of these policies!

Would it be possible for Trump to give an exception to Amazon for tariffs and not other retailers? Could he do this without anyone knowing?

Even if Trump were to try to spare Amazon from his tariffs, it would be pretty difficult logistically. Amazon's marketplace has millions of third-party sellers that each operate their own businesses, and they're responsible for bringing in goods to the US and clearing the customs process. But Trump could offer Amazon and other retailers tax breaks, subsidies, or other economic benefits to help offset the impacts of the tariffs. That hasn't happened yet, but there have reportedly been discussions among Trump administration officials about potentially giving American farmers subsidies.

What percentage of sellers on Amazon are importing goods from China?

It's hard to say how many Amazon sellers import things from China, but estimates suggest that more than 50 percent of Amazon's top-selling independent merchants are based in China.

Are there actually enough custom agents to verify that things imported from other countries actually didn't originate from China? If so, how will they do this?

Trump's tariffs are definitely going to stretch the capabilities of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to inspect packages and where the goods inside them originated from. The US Postal Service actually stopped accepting packages from China for about a day earlier this year because they were so overwhelmed when Trump initially tried to end de minimis overnight. His administration later delayed the policy for several weeks, giving CBP more time to prepare.

How has the tariff situation affected the actual vendors making products?

Factories in China are being hit hard by the tariffs, and some are considering laying off workers. They all want to pivot to other markets like Brazil, Russia, and the European Union, but the reality is that consumers in these regions simply don't have nearly as much disposable income as Americans do. Factories will be able to make up some of their sales, but those alternative markets are also now going to be hypercompetitive.

Small business owners say they are getting hurt because of tariffs, so who is winning here?

Honestly, we can think of very few parties that are winning here, at least right now. Even if you want to manufacture in the US, you almost certainly will need to import machinery and raw materials from either China or another country—meaning you will have to pay these new tariffs, too. One winner, perhaps, is the environment. Higher prices will likely result in people buying less, and this could be a moment when consumers start to reflect on their consumption habits. But if that happens, it will also be bad news for the US economy.

What if Chinese goods are sold to a third party (such as Canada) and then resold to the US, would Trump figure it out?

This would be an example of tariff evasion and is illegal. Going through an intermediary country in this manner is known as "transshipment" and it does happen from time to time, but if a manufacturer or retailer gets caught, they can be subject to pretty steep fines.

[sweet7simple]

So, if I am looking at the website right (https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/9495/text), this bill is called "Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act" - which sounds like it wouldn't impact 501 organizations at all, right? Except that is the tricky part.

The language is overall confusing, but what we want to look at Sec. 4 which is helpfully labeled, "Termination of tax-exempt status of terrorist supporting organizations". Well, what is a terrorist supporting organization?

Suddenly, the language is vague despite an entire section (B) being designated to defining the term:

“(B) TERRORIST SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION.—For purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘terrorist supporting organization’ means any organization which is designated by the Secretary as having provided, during the 3-year period ending on the date of such designation, material support or resources (within the meaning of section 2339B of title 18, United States Code) to an organization described in paragraph (2) (determined after the application of this paragraph to such organization) in excess of a de minimis amount."

Well, what's the meaning of section 2339B of title 18, United States Code?

"The Antiterrorism Act also created 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, which makes it unlawful, within the United States, or for any person who is subject to the jurisdiction of the United States anywhere, to knowingly provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization that has been designated by the Secretary of State" (https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-16-providing-material-support-designated-terrorist-organizations#:~:text=The%20Antiterrorism%20Act%20also%20created,by%20the%20Secretary%20of%20State.).

Am I understanding this correctly in that all someone has to do is say, "This 501 organization provided material support to a terrorist," and then that organization is at risk of losing their funding unless they can prove otherwise? It doesn't even say anything about material support relevant to terrorism or acts of terrorism. Just material support to a terrorist organization.

If so, can you fathom how easy it would be to shut down so many non-profit organizations, just by providing their usual services to the public? Especially online non-profit organizations that have such a wide geographical range?

As it stands, the bill passed House on Thursday (11/21/24), but has not gone to Senate yet. We still have some time before it can become an actual law.

Readers, make sure you have all your favourite Ao3 fics downloaded.

Writers, make sure you have copies of all the fics you have posted on Ao3.

I don’t want to be alarming, but things could get really bad really fast. OTW shared this today on Twitter, and I'm a bit worried about it 😅

Ao3 is a non-profit organisation. If they have to start paying taxes, I have no idea what will happen.

[tarankerecommercetools]

🚨 How Rising U.S. Tariffs Could Affect Shopify Merchants in 2025 🇺🇸📦

The 2025 U.S. tariff changes are reshaping the e-commerce landscape, and Shopify merchants need to stay informed to adapt effectively.​

Key Impacts: Increased Costs: New tariffs, including a 145% duty on Chinese imports, are significantly raising product costs, affecting profit margins for merchants relying on international suppliers.

De Minimis Rule Changes: The removal of the $800 duty-free exemption for goods from China and Hong Kong means more shipments are now subject to tariffs, impacting pricing strategies.

Supply Chain Disruptions: Tariffs are causing shipping delays and inventory shortages, leading to potential order cancellations and customer dissatisfaction.

Adaptation Strategies: Diversify Suppliers: Consider sourcing products from countries with lower tariffs or domestic suppliers to mitigate cost increases.​

Transparent Pricing: Clearly communicate any additional costs to customers at checkout to maintain trust and reduce cart abandonment.​

Optimize Inventory: Implement just-in-time inventory models to reduce upfront costs and adapt quickly to market changes.​

Staying proactive and informed is crucial. For a comprehensive guide on navigating these changes, visit: https://taranker.com/blog/how-rising-us-tariffs-could-affect-shopify-merchants-what-you-need-to-know-in-2025

[cleverhottubmiracle]

Updated on March 19th, 2025 If you’ve got a Forever 21 in your local mall, you might want to shop there soon — it could be on the chopping block. The fast-fashion giant filed for bankruptcy in March and plans to hold liquidation sales at its U.S. stores. Here is the recent timeline of events: February 19: According to Bloomberg , Forever 21 is frantically trying to find a buyer and planning to close 200 stores. February 27: USA Today reports Forever 21 will lay off roughly 358 employees and close its Los Angeles headquarters. March 17: AP reports Forever 21 had filed bankruptcy with plans to wind down operations. The company is still open to finding a buyer. In an official statement, the company’s CFO Brad Sell said: While we have evaluated all options to best position the Company for the future, we have been unable to find a sustainable path forward, given competition from foreign fast fashion companies, which have been able to take advantage of the de minimis exemption to undercut our brand on pricing and margin, as well as rising costs, economic challenges impacting our core customers, and evolving consumer trends. As we move through the process, we will work diligently to minimize the impact on our employees, customers, vendors and other stakeholders. A look at Forever 21 Forever 21 established its fame by selling affordable, trendy clothing in the 1980s. The chain quickly became a fast-fashion favorite among younger consumers. Through mall expansion and its online presence, the company grew into an international brand. Here’s a look at our coverage of Forever 21 over the years: At its peak, Forever 21 operated more than 500 stores worldwide. But changing consumer preferences — the broad shift to online shopping — and stiff competition — from Temu and Shein — created issues for the chain. Financial struggles led to a 2019 bankruptcy and a rash of store closures. Today, there are about 350 Forever 21 stores still open.  Source: Canva. What’s next for Forever 21 The company is working with a restructuring advisor to define a sustainable path forward. Lowering costs and closing unprofitable stores are key objectives, along with finding a buyer. The official line as of February 2025 was this quote obtained by USA Today: Forever 21’s operating company, which is the brand licensee in the U.S., continues to explore strategic options, including a potential sale, while also reducing costs and optimizing its store footprint. The efforts are ongoing and no final decisions have been made regarding the outcome of the process or the number of stores that may be closed. In late-February and early-March, reports of store closures in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and California have surfaced. Official bankruptcy filing news hit the wires in mid-March. Money and investing advice from Catherine Brock: That doesn’t necessarily mean the end for the Forever 21 brand, however. Remember what happened to Bed Bath & Beyond. After struggling for years, the brand was purchased out of bankruptcy by Overstock. Overstock rebranded itself as Bed Bath & Beyond, and the brand remains alive online today. And then there’s the Lord & Taylor saga. Lord & Taylor, once a top-end department store, has been sold multiple times to buyers with grand intentions of reviving the brand. Those efforts have failed so far, but there’s another one in the works. However, Foss notes that the Forever 21 brand and intellectual property may not be part of a bankruptcy liquidation. Could this mean a possible reboot by the current owner group? Time will tell.  What went wrong Forever 21 appears to be another retail victim of tough times. A global pandemic followed by an extended inflationary period have expedited the demise of mall traffic and the shift to online shopping. Meanwhile, overseas online retailers have mimicked Forever 21’s offering: huge selection, trendy clothes, and cheap prices. Those retailers can compete more effectively than Forever 21 because they don’t have the burden of 100s of physical store locations. The last time Forever 21 went bankrupt In 2019, Forever 21 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Then, analysts said Forever 21 had expanded too quickly just as consumers turned away from mall shopping. Meanwhile, H&M and Zara did a better job getting new inventory into their stores and stole market share. After the first bankruptcy, Forever 21 closed more than 100 stores in 2020. The brand was then rescued by a group of investors. Authentic Brands Group, Simon Property Group, and Brookfield Properties collectively paid $81 million for Forever 21’s assets. The hope was that new leadership would help turn things around, but here we are once more. A retail shift Unfortunately, Forever 21’s troubles are not unique. JCPenney filed for bankruptcy in 2020, also announcing plans to close 200 stores. Later that year, the chain was bought by Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management. Those names should sound familiar — they’re also involved in Forever 21. Simon Property Group owns and operates malls. Brookfield is an asset manager and property manager. In 2025, JCPenney announced a “handful” of upcoming store closures. Also in 2025, Kohl’s said it would close 27 stores. This is a small number compared to the chain’s total store count of 1,150. Ten of the planned closings are in California. Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Virginia will also say goodbye to at least one Kohl’s store.  Analysts largely agree on what’s happening with these big retailers: Physical stores are expensive, competition is tough, and more consumer are staying home to shop. I’d love for readers to weigh in on this. Have your shopping habits changed in the last 10 years? How often are you shopping in stores? When you shop online, are you favoring different stores than you would shop in person? Let us know in the comments.  Source link

[newsliveindia]

Trump Ends De Minimis Rule: Major Blow to Chinese E-Commerce, Higher Costs for US Consumers

🚨 Biggest E-Commerce Shakeup in Years! 🚨

US President Donald Trump has officially ended the de minimis rule, a long-standing trade loophole that allowed Chinese retailers like Shein, Temu, and AliExpress to ship low-cost goods to the US duty-free.

📌 This game-changing move aims to: ✅ Protect American retailers from unfair competition ✅ Enhance national security and crack down on illicit shipments ✅ Reduce reliance on Chinese e-commerce imports

What Is the De Minimis Rule?

🔹 Introduced in the 1930 Tariff Act, it allowed small-value international purchases to enter the US without tariffs. 🔹 In 2016, Congress raised the limit to $800 per person per day, leading to a boom in duty-free imports from China. 🔹 Retailers like Shein, Temu, and even some Amazon sellers leveraged this loophole to undercut US-based businesses.

Why Is Trump Removing It Now?

📊 Alarming Growth in Duty-Free Imports: 🚀 ➜ 2018: $5.3 billion ➜ 2023: $66 billion

🚨 Concerns Over Drug Trafficking The high volume of small packages has overwhelmed US customs, making it harder to detect fentanyl and other illegal drugs.

⚖ Unfair Advantage for Chinese Retailers US-based stores claim this loophole gives Chinese sellers a major cost advantage, forcing local businesses to struggle against cheaper imports.

When Does the New Rule Take Effect?

🗓 Effective Date: May 2, 2025, at 12:01 AM ET

📌 New Tariffs on All Imports from China & Hong Kong ✔ 30% tariff or ✔ $25 per item, whichever is greater

🚢 Full customs processing for all packages—even those under $800—increasing import costs for Chinese retailers.

Who Wins & Who Loses?

🚀 Winners: ✅ US-Based Retailers: Amazon, Walmart, and Target could gain a competitive edge as they rely on domestic warehousing. ✅ American Manufacturers: The move aligns with Trump’s reshoring strategy, potentially boosting local production.

💸 Losers: ❌ Chinese E-Commerce Giants (Shein, Temu, AliExpress): These platforms heavily depend on duty-free imports. Higher costs could slow their expansion. ❌ US Consumers: Expect higher prices on cheap fashion and electronics. Analysts estimate a $11–$13 billion annual impact, affecting lower-income buyers the most. ❌ Small E-Commerce Sellers: Many Shopify and Amazon FBA sellers rely on direct imports from China. They may need to restructure supply chains or face higher tariffs.

A New Era in Global Trade

This bold move signals a major shift in US-China trade relations, reinforcing Trump’s push for domestic manufacturing. However, it also raises questions about inflation, e-commerce competition, and consumer costs.

📢 What are your thoughts on this policy change? Drop your comments below! ⬇

[techstylemedia]

F-row at Shein

Hello y'all!

Most of us have or know someone who has, at some point in time, made purchases from websites like Shein and Temu.

Shein just showcased its recent Fall/Winter 2024 collection on 22nd Sept. via a 90-minute long ‘Shein Live: Front Row’ livestream, which, according to Retail Dive, was available on Facebook, X, YouTube, and Instagram. The show featured five collections tailored to colder months - Winter Edge, Effortlessly Casual, Keep Cool, Cozy Chic, and Modern Elegance. 

By integrating real-time shopping into an interactive fashion show, Shein capitalized on the growing consumer interest in livestream e-commerce by allowing viewers to purchase items in real-time through the retailer’s app.

They also used real-life customers as its runway models, which lent an authentic and relatable touch, and likely deepened the brand’s connection with its audience. This show aligned well with the participatory nature of modern e-commerce which uses social media interaction to increase D2C sales.

However, Retail Dive also expressed concerns about the Biden-Harris administration’s proposed restrictions on the ‘de minimis’ exemption, which allowed businesses to ship goods under $800 to the U.S. without tariffs, and how it could significantly impact Shein’s operations.

Since retailers relied on this exemption to maintain low prices on imported goods, the proposed restrictions could lead to higher compliance costs due to the potential need for detailed customs declarations on what are currently low-value, duty-free shipments. These legal changes could increase operating expenses for Shein, Temu, and other e-commerce giants, pushing them to find new ways to absorb these costs.

It then follows that economically, these restrictions would likely raise the price of goods sold on these platforms to offset cost increases from duties and tariffs previously avoided through the exemption.

This could reflect negatively especially on Shein’s USP of affordable, trend-driven fashion, and potentially reduce consumer demand. Price-sensitive shoppers who are used to low-cost fashion items might turn to alternative retailers, thus affecting the retailer’s sales volume and revenue.

Additionally, small U.S. businesses that rely on importing goods from overseas via platforms like Shein and Temu may also face economic strain, as they would need to deal with the same increase in import duties, reducing their ability to offer competitive prices.

These restrictions could also disrupt supply chains by discouraging frequent, smaller shipments and encouraging bulk imports, which would alter the current operational model of many such retailers as they rely on rapid, just-in-time inventory replenishment.

Any delays or cost increases in shipping could lead to inefficiencies and majorly affect how quickly they can get products to market. For consumers, this may mean longer delivery times and reduced options.

I believe that while Shein’s embrace of livestream shopping is a smart approach to blending fashion, entertainment, and e-commerce, external factors may disrupt not just their pricing model but also its entire supply chain, and create a more complex legal and economic environment for global e-commerce players.

So as Shein and similar companies race to adapt to these evolving regulations, I think they may need to reconsider their pricing strategies, supply chain logistics, and engagement tactics to maintain a competitive edge in this marketplace.

Did any of you guys watch the show? Let me know your experiences with Shein and other retailers in the comments.

Until next time,

Cheers!

http://newhouse.syr.edu

[seanettlles]

i added this to a reblog of my own, but since i am a tiny personal blog with not much reach, OP please see above from the official white house fact sheet regarding the policy.

"...eliminating duty-free de minimis treatment for low-value imports from China..." and "...is ending duty-free de minimis treatment for covered goods from the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Hong Kong..." are the sections that specifically say this.

does this mean they won't change the policy at some point in the near future?? no. but currently, as it's written straight from them, it will only impact chinese imports. if they change it, they'd need to add an addendum or a new announcement or something

i am not endorsing this nor am i happy about it. but i don't want people panicking or spiraling even more about things when currently, there is no written evidence from the admin to suggest they plan on enacting it more broadly. could i be wrong? absolutely, knowing how this admin has been. but we have no evidence other than what's been provided to us currently, and that's what i'm basing my expectations off of. everyone else is free to do the same, ofc, just pls do it in an informed manner

My fellow Americans, please be warned:

The De Minimis Exception, which previously meant that packages worth under $800 didn't pay tariffs, is being removed on May 2nd 2025. Packages coming into the United States after that will be charged tariffs AND a $100 processing fee per package (to be increased to $200 in June).

It is unclear to me if this only applies to new items. If it also applies to pre-used items then even eBay purchases from Canada, the UK, etc etc would be affected. Be cautious, you don't want to get hit with this bullshit fee and these bullshit tariffs.

As with all news from the US these days, this info could change on the whim of the Jackass In Chief at any time.

[hudsonmckenzie]

What is The EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation?

The long-awaited Implementing Regulation for the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) has been released by the European Commission. The Implementing Regulation provides crucial direction on the FSR's operational details, particularly the extent of the data that companies will have to provide to the EC as part of the filing procedure.

In this article, we highlight several beneficial changes that have been made to the Implementing Regulation since the first proposal in February and explain how they will affect The next stage for firms will be to set up a successful data gathering effort. Since most firms lack a method to recognize and record financial contributions, it will be crucial to simplify the data gathering procedure.

Describe the FSR.

Just in case you had purposefully forgotten, the FSR grants the EC authority to use three enforcement instruments to counteract the distorting impacts of non-EU subsidies. The first two entail ex ante notices that, in cases where specified criteria are met, organizations must make required filings. The third enforcement tool is a "catch-all" device that grants the EC extensive investigative powers (for more information, visit our dedicated FSR page here).

Disclosure is still used extensively.

Companies must provide the EC with extensive information about their interactions with non-EU countries when a notice is generated. This will span the three years prior to the signing of the contract or the filing of a tender and will include both transactions involving actual subsidies as well as many cash transfers made (ostensibly) on market conditions.

Naturally, companies had serious concerns about the initial breadth of the information collecting described in the draught Implementing Regulation. In particular, it appeared that the administrative (and related cost) burden imposed by the information had to be disclosed—which covered all manner of regular business transactions—was excessive compared to the goals of the FSR.

The final Implementing Regulation that has just been issued takes into account the enthusiastic comments. Despite the fact that it makes a number of beneficial adjustments, Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager's goal of "ensuring that the compliance burden on smaller entities is kept as low as possible" is not fully achieved. In fact, law firms in London continue to face a huge administrative burden, and preparing for the FSR will take a lot of work.

The following are the main conclusions from the final Implementing Regulation and what they signify for upcoming FSR notifications:

Pay attention to financial contributions at high risk. Detail information will be required for transfers regarded to be "high risk" (e.g., limitless guarantees, help for struggling businesses, support directly aiding M&A / public procurement bids), as opposed to line-by-line information on all financial contributions.

Exemptions for specific routine commercial transactions. The exclusion of certain ordinary course transactions from disclosure is a very welcome improvement.

The exchange of products or services at market rates won't require disclosure anymore. However, the EC has separated financial services from this beneficial development. As a result, information regarding financial services will need to be disclosed, including when applicable.

3. Investment funds: Financial contributions made to other funds managed by the same investment business will not be required to be disclosed under the M&A tool (with some restrictions).

4. Raised de minimis thresholds: From EUR 200k, only monetary donations above EUR 1 million will be required to be disclosed.

Although the above-mentioned modifications are beneficial, their practical impact could be limited since businesses will still need to decide whether the disclosure exemptions apply to specific payments. In order to reduce the danger of a delay, businesses will need to adopt a proportional plan to identify pertinent financial contributions for inclusion in the notification forms and to reply to EC queries.

The next stage for firms will be to set up a successful data gathering effort. Since most firms lack a method to recognize and record financial contributions, it will be crucial to simplify the data gathering procedure.

[captainmdhridoyhossain-blog]

[ad_1] Secure Data Masking in Data Warehouses: Pro Coding Tips & Tricks for Data Privacy Introduction: In today's data-driven world, protecting sensitive information has become more critical than ever. Data masking, a technique used to safeguard data privacy, plays a crucial role in securing data warehouses. This article delves deep into the concepts of secure data masking, providing pro coding tips and tricks to ensure maximum data privacy. Let's explore the intricacies of data masking and its significance in maintaining a secure environment. Table of Contents: 1. What is Data Masking? 2. Why is Data Masking Essential for Data Warehouses? 3. Types of Data Masking Techniques 3.1 Full Masking 3.2 Partial Masking 3.3 Format Preserving Masking 3.4 Dynamic Masking 4. Implementing Secure Data Masking 4.1 Identifying Sensitive Data 4.2 Choosing the Right Data Masking Technique 4.3 Designing an Effective Data Masking Strategy 4.4 Evaluating and Testing the Masked Data 5. Advanced Data Masking Techniques 5.1 Tokenization 5.2 Encryption 5.3 Shuffling 5.4 Salting 6. Challenges in Data Masking 6.1 Consistency and Referential Integrity 6.2 Performance Impact 6.3 Compliance with Data Privacy Regulations 7. Best Practices for Secure Data Masking 7.1 De-identification and Re-identification 7.2 Data Masking in Development and Testing Environments 7.3 Role-Based Access Control 7.4 Secure Key Management 7.5 Data Masking Auditing and Monitoring 8. FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) 8.1 What is the purpose of data masking? 8.2 Is data masking reversible? 8.3 How can data masking help in achieving compliance? 8.4 Does data masking impact performance? 8.5 Can data masking fully eliminate the risk of data breaches? 8.6 What are the legal implications associated with data masking? 8.7 Are there any industry-specific data masking requirements? 1. What is Data Masking? Data masking is a technique that involves replacing sensitive data with realistic but fictitious information. It ensures that the critical information remains obscured and cannot be accessed by unauthorized individuals. By preserving the format and structure of data while rendering it useless for malicious purposes, data masking helps maintain the integrity of data without compromising its functionality. 2. Why is Data Masking Essential for Data Warehouses? Data warehouses store vast amounts of valuable information, ranging from customer details to financial records. Such repositories become prime targets for cybercriminals looking to exploit data for various malicious purposes. Data masking acts as a vital defense mechanism that adds an additional layer of security to prevent unauthorized access. By rendering sensitive data useless for anyone other than authorized users, data masking reduces the risk of data breaches and subsequent legal ramifications. 3. Types of Data Masking Techniques 3.1 Full Masking: - Full masking replaces the original sensitive data with completely fictitious information. - It ensures that no traces of the original data are left, guaranteeing maximum privacy. 3.2 Partial Masking: - Partial masking obscures certain portions of the original data while retaining some essential information. - This technique allows for limited access to data when required while still protecting sensitive elements. 3.3 Format Preserving Masking: - Format preserving masking retains the format and structure of the original data while replacing specific sensitive components. - It ensures that the masked data appears realistic, minimizing disruption to applications that utilize the data. 3.4 Dynamic Masking: - Dynamic masking applies masking techniques in real-time, based on predefined rules and user access privileges. - It provides an additional layer of security by dynamically masking data according to individual user requirements. 4. Implementing Secure Data Masking 4.1 Identifying Sensitive Data:

- The first step towards implementing secure data masking involves identifying and classifying sensitive data. - Understand the regulatory and privacy requirements applicable to the data to determine the level of masking required. 4.2 Choosing the Right Data Masking Technique: - Assess the sensitivity of the data, the needs of the business, and the impact on the applications that handle the data. - Choose the appropriate data masking technique that balances privacy and usability effectively. 4.3 Designing an Effective Data Masking Strategy: - Create a comprehensive data masking strategy that includes masking rules, data flow diagrams, and access controls. - Incorporate data masking within the overall data governance framework to ensure consistency and compliance. 4.4 Evaluating and Testing the Masked Data: - Perform thorough testing to validate the effectiveness of the data masking implementation. - Evaluate the quality of the masked data, considering factors such as format preservation, referential integrity, and performance. 5. Advanced Data Masking Techniques 5.1 Tokenization: - Tokenization replaces sensitive data with randomly generated tokens. - The original data is stored separately in a secure vault, while tokens are used for processing and application functionality. 5.2 Encryption: - Encryption transforms sensitive data using cryptographic algorithms, rendering it unreadable without the decryption key. - By encrypting data at rest and in transit, data masking ensures secure storage and transmission. 5.3 Shuffling: - Shuffling involves rearranging the order of sensitive data elements. - This technique helps protect data while maintaining referential integrity. 5.4 Salting: - Salting involves adding random data to sensitive information before applying data masking techniques. - It adds an extra layer of complexity to prevent reverse engineering of data from masked values. 6. Challenges in Data Masking 6.1 Consistency and Referential Integrity: - Ensuring consistency and referential integrity among masked data elements presents a significant challenge. - Masked data should still be usable and relevant within the context of the application or analytical processes. 6.2 Performance Impact: - Data masking operations can introduce performance overhead due to additional computations and transformations. - Balancing the need for data privacy with performance requirements is crucial. 6.3 Compliance with Data Privacy Regulations: - Adhering to data privacy regulations and industry-specific compliance standards is vital while implementing data masking techniques. - Ensure that the chosen data masking approach meets regulatory requirements to avoid legal ramifications. 7. Best Practices for Secure Data Masking 7.1 De-identification and Re-identification: - Implement robust de-identification and re-identification processes to ensure data privacy and usability. - De-identification involves masking sensitive data, while re-identification allows authorized users to access the original information when necessary. 7.2 Data Masking in Development and Testing Environments: - Extend data masking practices to development and testing environments to maintain data privacy and security across the entire data lifecycle. - Test data should be masked to prevent unintended exposure to sensitive information during software development and testing processes. 7.3 Role-Based Access Control: - Implement role-based access controls (RBAC) to restrict access to masked and unmasked data based on user roles and privileges. - RBAC ensures that authorized individuals can access relevant data while preventing unauthorized access to sensitive information. 7.4 Secure Key Management: - Adopt secure key management practices to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of encryption keys used in data masking techniques. - Ensure proper key rotation, storage, and access controls to mitigate the risk of key compromise.

7.5 Data Masking Auditing and Monitoring: - Establish robust auditing and monitoring systems to track and record data masking activities. - Regularly analyze and audit masked data to ensure ongoing effectiveness and compliance with privacy regulations. 8. FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) 8.1 What is the purpose of data masking? - The purpose of data masking is to safeguard sensitive data by ensuring it remains hidden to unauthorized individuals while preserving its functionality. 8.2 Is data masking reversible? - Data masking is generally reversible, allowing authorized individuals to access the original data using re-identification techniques when necessary. 8.3 How can data masking help in achieving compliance? - Data masking aids compliance by protecting sensitive information, reducing the risk of data breaches, and ensuring adherence to data privacy regulations. 8.4 Does data masking impact performance? - Data masking can introduce performance overhead due to additional operations and transformations. Careful planning and optimization can minimize any impact. 8.5 Can data masking fully eliminate the risk of data breaches? - While data masking significantly reduces the risk of data breaches, it does not entirely eliminate the possibility. It should be combined with other security measures. 8.6 What are the legal implications associated with data masking? - Implementing data masking techniques should adhere to legal and regulatory requirements governing data privacy and protection. 8.7 Are there any industry-specific data masking requirements? - Different industries may have specific data masking requirements based on regulations, standards, and business practices in their respective domains. In conclusion, secure data masking is an essential technique for protecting sensitive information within data warehouses. By implementing the discussed tips and tricks, organizations can ensure maximum privacy while preserving the integrity and usability of their data. Remember to adapt the data masking techniques and strategies to meet individual business requirements and comply with relevant data privacy regulations. [ad_2] #Secure #Data #Masking #Data #Warehouses #Pro #Coding #Tips #Tricks #Data #Privacy

[mariacallous]

It was just last week that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was touring the Indo-Pacific and pledging his support for U.S. allies in Asia. That was then. By Wednesday, the script had flipped, with President Donald Trump declaring economic war on some of those very same countries. 

“In many cases, the friend is worse than the foe in terms of trade,” Trump said as he unveiled sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs, which sent markets on a downward spiral. The announcement, dubbed “Liberation Day” by Trump, brings the United States back to tariff levels not seen since the early 1900s, with a baseline rate of 10 percent on all countries and rates reaching as high as 50 percent. Even though the move was telegraphed for months, the final tariffs were higher than anticipated, shocking investors and officials across the world.

China unsurprisingly came out near the top of Trump’s list with a 34 percent tariff rate. The administration has already imposed two rounds of 10 percent tariffs this year, for what it said was China’s failure to curb the fentanyl trade. Together, the tariffs amount to a 54 percent rate on Chinese imports—a historic high, with some goods, such as electric vehicles, under much higher individual rates in addition.

China’s cumulative tariff burden is now formidable. With Trump targeting all countries, Chinese companies that have moved their production to Southeast Asia or Mexico will also be impacted. On top of all that, Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday eliminating the de minimis rule for China, which had allowed for packages under $800 to avoid customs inspection. Chinese companies in the drop-shipping industry, such as Temu and Shein, have exploited the loophole to make huge profits.

Overall, the new trade war may make Trump’s first-term trade war on China look mild in retrospect. Economists predict that the new total tariff burden could shave as much as 2.4 percent off China’s GDP this year, according to one estimate from Citigroup. China had set a goal of 5 percent growth.

So far, China has calmly weathered Trump’s tariffs, but the pressure is building. On Thursday, it vowed to retaliate. “China strongly opposes the move and will firmly take countermeasures to safeguard its own interests,” a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson said, calling the tariffs a “typical unilateral bullying practice.” 

China has responded to Trump’s earlier measures by imposing its own tariffs on a range of energy and agricultural products, blacklisting U.S. companies, and restricting the export of critical minerals. Wendy Cutler, a vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said China would likely continue to use the full range of weapons in its arsenal to respond but would try not to further aggravate the situation. “Beijing will most likely be careful not to escalate but to respond proportionally,” she said. 

Agriculture may be the softest target for China, following its imposition of 10 to 15 percent tariffs on key U.S. exports including chicken and soybeans this year. China is the largest agricultural market for U.S. exporters, and significant new tariffs would be highly painful for U.S. farmers, most of them in Republican-leaning states, who are already suffering from the cancellation of U.S. government contracts and plunging prices. 

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have both had preliminary calls with their Chinese counterparts, but the near-term possibility of a second trade deal seems increasingly unlikely. “While there seems to be interest on both the part of Beijing and Washington to negotiate a new trade deal, the prospects get more complicated with each action taken,” Cutler said. Any significant progress will likely require getting both leaders to the table. Chinese and U.S. officials have reportedly discussed a possible meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump in June, but no further details have emerged.

In the meantime, China will look for other ways to offset its economic losses. Analysts said China would need to unleash hundreds of billions in stimulus to make up for the loss in U.S. trade revenue. At the same time, Xi has been attempting to make China more appealing to global industry, meeting with foreign CEOs last Friday and promising equal treatment with domestic firms. It’s a hard sell, given China’s national security clampdown on private companies in recent years. China is also looking to bolster trade with other countries. Shortly after Trump’s decision, news broke that China and the European Union will return to the negotiating table to revisit tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. 

Although the Liberation Day plan will certainly harm the Chinese economy, weakening China doesn’t appear to be the Trump administration’s primary objective—since U.S. allies are being targeted as well. Japan and South Korea, key U.S. trade and defense partners, were slapped with 24 and 26 percent tariffs, respectively, in addition to the earlier announcement of 25 percent tariffs on imported cars, which will hit both countries’ auto giants particularly hard. Neither country immediately announced any countermeasures. In a press conference on Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who has spent months courting Trump, said the decision was “very disappointing.”

“I think they will want to avoid really angering Trump, but I think for domestic political purposes, there will have to be some response. They can’t just allow tariffs this high to go without any response at all,” said Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Japanese and Korean companies that announced investments in the United States recently—in order to curry favor with Trump—might come under pressure from their governments to walk them back in light of the tariffs, according to Cooper.

Taiwan is also in a precarious position. It has been saddled with a 32 percent tariff, just 2 percentage points below China’s, and Trump repeated on Wednesday his frequent complaint about the island’s chip dominance. “They took all of our computer chips and semiconductors. We used to be the king, right? We were everything. We had all of it. Now we have almost none of it,” he said. He lauded Taiwanese chip giant TSMC’s recent announcement to invest $100 billion in the United States, but that deal clearly wasn’t enough to dissuade Trump from levying tariffs. 

With Chinese military exercises increasing around Taiwan, Taiwanese officials have little room to maneuver. “Taiwan is in no position to retaliate. The Taiwanese government will try to express dismay through diplomatic channels, but this won’t result in any change,” said Jason Hsu, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute who previously served as a legislator in Taiwan.

The U.S. tariffs imposed on Australia, a longtime ally critical to military logistics in Asia, have made Trump a target across the political spectrum there. The ruling Labor Party is now turning against the AUKUS deal, a trilateral security partnership under which Australia would buy U.S.-made nuclear submarines and cooperate closely with Washington. China had strongly protested the arrangement.

Trump’s cudgel also landed heavily on Southeast Asian nations that have hedged between Washington and Beijing, with Vietnam facing a 46 percent tariff. These countries will likely be drawn closer into Beijing’s orbit as they look to its market to absorb their goods. 

“I think the reality is that Trump just doesn’t see economic issues and security issues as very connected and he doesn’t really care that much about security issues,” Cooper said. “Trump is undermining the case of those in these countries who want to maintain robust relations with the United States, and what will probably happen is that many of these countries will just slowly back away from from the United States, both as an economic partner but I think over time as a security partner as well.”

It’s difficult to see a coherent U.S. strategy for taking on Beijing in these measures. There are multiple competing factions of China hawks inside the Trump administration, some of whom are tariff enthusiasts. “Decoupling” from China is one possible end goal, which would require erecting major trade barriers. 

But this round of tariffs looks like an attempt at decoupling from the entire world, including the United States’ closest allies. The hope among China hawks may be that Trump’s supercharged trade war will force China’s economy into a crisis that threatens the Communist Party’s stability—potentially at the cost of a global recession. 

Many advocates of decoupling with China have looked to friendshoring as a solution, where key parts of supply chains previously dependent on China would be transferred to friendlier countries such as Mexico and Vietnam. Placing tariff barriers on these states—in Vietnam’s case, an even higher one than on China—makes that impossible and imposes harsh costs on firms that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars diversifying from China. 

Reshoring industrial production to the United States entirely is extremely difficult, since the country lacks the basic infrastructure for many industries, from rare-earth processing to board game production, that moved overseas. Labor costs in the United States are also higher.

The new tariff list also signifies a carelessness that runs counter to any notion of grand strategy and bodes ill for future trade negotiations, which require intense attention to detail. The tariff rate for each country was calculated using a universal formula based on the size of its trade surplus in goods with the United States, meaning that states that produce goods Americans want—most noticeably cheap textiles—were among those hardest hit. The near-universal application of this rate leaves no room for other strategic considerations.

The list of target countries is particularly incoherent. It includes numerous territories with no claim to separate sovereignty, from Australia’s Norfolk Island and the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands to the British Indian Ocean Territory, whose only inhabitants are U.S. and U.K. service members at the Diego Garcia military base.

[sindoshipping]

Understanding De Minimis and Its Impact on Import Taxes

Introduction: Importing goods from abroad involves various considerations, including import taxes. One crucial factor in international trade is the concept of de minimis. In this blog, we will explore what de minimis is and how it affects import tax shipments from abroad. What is De Minimis? De minimis refers to the minimum value threshold below which imported goods are exempt from certain taxes…

[maxwellyjordan]

Opinion analysis: A win for one taxpayer, but not many more

West Virginia cannot impose its state income tax on federal retirement benefits paid to a retired U.S. marshal while exempting its own pension payments to former state law enforcement officers, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a 9-0 decision. That result is a resounding — if unsurprising — victory for the petitioner, retired U.S. marshal James Dawson, who sought a $4,285 state tax refund from West Virginia for tax years 2010 and 2011. It may matter much less for other former federal workers inside and beyond the Mountain State.

The eight-page opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch makes the case look like an easy one. As Gorsuch frames it, West Virginia grants a “generous tax exemption” to retired state law enforcement officers but denies “the same benefit” to federal law enforcement retirees. That policy runs up against the intergovernmental tax immunity doctrine — first announced in the landmark 1819 case McCulloch v. Maryland and codified at 4 U.S.C. § 111, which says that state income tax laws cannot “discriminate” against federal officers or employees “because of the source of [their] pay or compensation.” In Gorsuch’s view, West Virginia’s disparate treatment of federal and state law enforcement retirees is a classic case of anti-federal discrimination that the intergovernmental tax immunity doctrine plainly prohibits.

Gorsuch’s opinion emphasizes a state trial court’s finding that there are no “significant differences” between a U.S. marshal’s “powers and duties” and the responsibilities of the state law enforcement officers who can claim the income tax exemption. He quickly makes mincemeat of West Virginia’s various arguments in defense of its tax distinction. It doesn’t matter, according to Gorsuch, that most state retirees who weren’t law enforcement officers (and even some who were) receive the same treatment as Dawson — there is no exception in the intergovernmental tax immunity doctrine for de minimis discrimination. Nor does it matter whether West Virginia’s law was motivated by anti-federal animus: The intergovernmental tax immunity doctrine depends on “treatment rather than intent.” And West Virginia can’t salvage its law by arguing that its tax exemption aims to compensate state employees whose pensions are less generous than those of their federal counterparts. As Gorsuch notes, the state’s statute on its face does not distinguish between larger and smaller pensions, and “an implicit but lawful distinction cannot save an express and unlawful one.”

With that, Gorsuch wraps up his opinion, reverses the West Virginia Supreme Court’s decision, and sends the case back down for further proceedings, “including the determination of an appropriate remedy.” That remedy will presumably include a several-thousand-dollar state tax refund for Dawson. But Dawson may be one of the few to benefit from the holding.

First, the Supreme Court’s holding applies only to federal retirees whose powers and duties were not “significantly different” from the powers and duties of the West Virginia state law enforcement officers who received an exemption. At oral argument, Chief Justice John Roberts asked whether a former U.S. attorney general, if she or he lives in West Virginia, would qualify as an official whose responsibilities were not “significantly different” from state police. That question drew laughter, and it probably doesn’t require a judicial response, as no living former attorney general is a West Virginia resident. But former employees of the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Secret Service and a range of other agencies will present harder line-drawing questions.

Second, West Virginia will have to decide whether to respond to the Supreme Court’s opinion by “leveling up” or “leveling down.” It will presumably have to make payments to some number of federal retirees whose job duties were similar to Dawson’s and whose refund claims fall within the state’s three-year statute of limitations. But rather than granting those retirees an exemption going forward, West Virginia could choose instead to roll back the exemption for retired state law enforcement officers. Or West Virginia could do what some other states have done in response to the Supreme Court’s earlier intergovernmental tax immunity holdings: It could repeal the income tax exemption for state retirees but raise their pension benefits at the same time. That move would leave the state retirees almost as well off as before (albeit possibly with a slightly larger federal tax bill), and it would be a rather hollow victory for the federal retirees who rallied to Dawson’s cause.

Beyond West Virginia, the impact may be more muted. As the solicitor general noted in a certiorari-stage filing in Dawson’s case, “the question presented here has not arisen with great frequency” in recent years. Ever since the court struck down a Michigan law that exempted state employees’ retirement benefits but taxed federal pensions three decades ago, most states have excised the remaining vestiges of discrimination against federal retirees from their tax laws. The few surviving state tax statutes that have been challenged on the ground that they discriminate against federal retirees apply to a vanishingly small number of workers. What Judge Frank Easterbrook once said about the Supreme Court’s civil liberties cases likely applies to Dawson v. Steager as well: The Supreme Court “extirpates … practices that have already disappeared or dwindled among the states. It obliterates outliers.” West Virginia’s distinction between state and federal law enforcement retirees was an outlier. The court on Wednesday obliterated it — and left the state to clean up the mess.

* * *

Past case linked to in this post:

McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819)

The post Opinion analysis: A win for one taxpayer, but not many more appeared first on SCOTUSblog.

from Law https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/02/opinion-analysis-a-win-for-one-taxpayer-but-not-many-more/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[bitcofun]

Key Takeaways Celsius' former Chief Financial Officer Rod Bolger could return to serve as an advisor during the company's ongoing bankruptcy case. Celsius says that Bolger has extensive experience with the company, making such an agreement in its best interests. Celsius' latest legal filing suggests that a hearing will be held on August 8 to determine whether Bolger will return. Bankrupt crypto lending company Celsius has asked for its former Chief Financial Officer return as an advisor.Celsius Seeks Bolger’s ServicesCelsius is looking to re-establish its relationship with its former Chief Financial Officer.According to a legal filing, Celsius is aiming to enter an advisory agreement with ex-CFO Rod Bolger for at least six weeks.Bolger joined the firm in February after its previous CFO, Yaron Shalem, was arrested in connection to Moshe Hogeg last year.Bolger then voluntarily resigned on June 30 at the height of the company’s liquidity crisis. He gave eight weeks of notice prior to his departure as required. Bolger himself has now been succeeded by another Celsius employee, Chris Ferraro. Despite Bolger’s resignation and replacement, Celsius is now asking Bolger to continue “providing advisory and consulting services” because of his familiarity with its affairs.Celsius says that Bolger steadied the firm, guided its finances, and “acted as a leader of the company” during its financial crisis.The firm has attempted to justify its request on the basis that the agreement is “an exercise in sound business judgment” and “in the best interest of the debtors [Celsius] and their estates.”Bolger Has Agreed to TermsThe filing indicates that Bolger has agreed to serve as an advisor to Celsius pending the approval of the court.A hearing for the request will take place on August 8 at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York.Celsius will hire Bolger as an independent contractor and offer him $120,000 CAD per month for six weeks. Though this amount seems to be higher than Bolger’s original salary, the filing notes that the rate is de minimis—inconsequential compared to the $6 billion of assets held by Celsius.The agreement is expected to last until September 16 but could be extended or terminated by mutual agreement.Celsius halted user withdrawals over a month ago on June 12. It went on to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 13.As bankruptcy proceedings began on July 18, Celsius revealed its recovery plan. It also confirmed it would attempt to restructure rather than cease its operations.While it is not clear what impact Bolger’s participation will have on the case, today’s development suggests that Celsius’ bankruptcy proceedings will continue for some time.Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies. The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information. You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing

or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities. See full terms and conditions. Celsius Unveils Recovery Plans in Bankruptcy Hearing News Jul. 18, 2022 A document has revealed that Celsius customers will be able to claim partial balances in cash or go long on crypto. Celsius Has Plans for Recovery Celsius representatives appeared in... Scrutiny Intensifies on Voyager and Celsius News Jul. 8, 2022 Voyager and Celsius are facing expanded investigations from Texas and Alabama regulators, according to Bloomberg. Securities Regulators Expand Investigation Texas and Alabama securities regulators are intensifying their gaze on two... Celsius Faces Lawsuit From Former Partner KeyFi News Jul. 7, 2022 KeyFi head Jason Stone says his firm managed $2 billion for Celsius. KeyFi Managed $2 Billion for Celsius Jason Stone, co-founder and CEO of KeyFi, says that Celsius defrauded it... Read More

[vempire-ddao]

U.S senators introduce a bill to exempt small crypto transactions from crypto taxes

If you're one of those people who still thinks crypto is only used by criminals and drug dealers, you're in for a surprise. Senators Pat Toomey and Kyrsten Sinema are introducing a bill that would exempt small crypto transactions from capital gains taxes.

The Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act would establish a de minimis exemption from reporting taxes on purchases made in crypto, sparing users from having to keep track of every single purchase for tax purposes.

The bill would apply to transactions valued at less than $50, with a provision to adjust that benchmark alongside inflation. It also avoids applying to trades between crypto and a fiat currency, as well as "all sales or exchanges which are part of the same transaction (or a series of related transactions) shall be treated as one sale or exchange."

So now you would be able to use crypto to buy your coffee, your groceries, and even your lunch, without having to worry about the IRS coming after you. Just make sure to report any large purchases, because we all know how the government loves its taxes.

Several influential members of the crypto lobby have endorsed the bill, including Coin Center, the Blockchain Association and the Association for Digital Asset Markets.

So, what does that mean for the average crypto user? Well, not much, to be honest. If you're trading small amounts of crypto, this bill won't have much impact on you. And if you're trading large amounts of crypto, the bill probably won't have much impact on you either - after all, you're not likely to be doing many transactions that are worth less than $50. But, at least crypto is starting to be taken seriously by lawmakers.

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