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jedifighterpilot2727 · 1 year ago

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All Myx'd Up Pt. 3

Hello all, as you can guess, this is part 3 to the 'fix it' fic for the episode "It's a super life". Not really necessary to read the entirety of this fic first, but you should probably at least read the previous 2 chapters! I hope you all are having a lovely weekend and enjoy!

It's a short walk from the street corner where Lena and Taylor met Kara and Lexi to the upscale Asian restaurant that Lena has standing reservations at.

In fact, it takes them less than five minutes to wade through the afternoon foot traffic and check in with the host at Wok Dragon.

Five minutes for Lena to be able to tell that something was definitely off with Kara.

In that five minute walk, Lena was willing to bet that Kara stared at her no less than 90% of the time.

Now, Lena was certainly used to her wife's gaze . . . lingering.

At any given time Kara would most likely be caught looking at Lena's profile - something about her having a "devastating" jaw line. Or if not her profile; then Kara's eyes were often glued to lips, cleavage, ass, or hands - depending on time of day and the outfit Lena was wearing. So the staring wasn't really all that different.

What was different, was how Kara reacted when she got caught staring.

Normally, Kara's response to being caught with her hand in the cookie jar - so to speak - was a wink and a grin, a waggle of her eyebrows before turning her attention back to whatever she was supposed to be paying attention to.

Today, however, Kara seemed almost guilty to be caught staring. Her eyes flittered away the instant Lena reacted to feeling eyes on her; and her cheeks were a constant state of rosy red. It reminded Lena very much of the "I flew here - on a bus" type of attitude that young and insecure Kara used to project. She certainly wasn't acting like the editor-in-chief of a multi-million dollar magazine who just so happened to moonlight at the USA's most beloved super hero by night, (ranked by People magazine - three years running).

Lexi was definitely right about one thing; there was no red kryptonite involved, Lena could confirm that much. Red K Kara was over confident at best, harsh and cruel at worst. But the way Kara was acting today, it was as if she was unsure of herself and her relationship with the world - her relationship with her family, for that matter.

Normally, Kara would be laughing and joking; eyes crinkling behind her glasses and white teeth flashing in a smile. Today, Kara is reserved and almost timid.

She looks lost as Lena pulls back from their kiss, and even the suggestion of food barely brings a smile.

She stutter steps when Lena reaches for her elbow to hold her arm as they walk, blue eyes telegraphing her confusion. After a moment, she settles in, her free hand coming up to pat the one that Lena has hooked in her elbow.

It's a position they've walked in a thousand times; but this time Kara seems distant, despite their close proximity. Her body is stiff and angled; and it's as if she's on high threat alert, with the way her gaze dances over their surroundings - like she's expecting to see something that isn't there.

Lexi holds the door for all of them when they reach the restaurant, and when her eyes meet Lena's, the fear in them is evident.

Ever since Lexi was a little girl and she'd found out Kara was Supergirl, she'd get this look about her whenever there was a threat. Lena didn't think that most people really noticed it, but her mother's heart felt it like an ice spike to her soul. She hated to think that her little girl ever had to worry like that. And even though Lexi is grown now, has saved the world in her own right, has probably been in more danger than Lena or Kara had ever been in at her age - Lena can still see the scared little girl at the orphanage, too overwhelmed to speak.

And so, despite the fact that Lexi will grumble about the public display of affection; Lena reaches out as they pass to gently cup her hand around her daughter's cheek and give a few gentle pats. She holds the position until she sees at least some of the tension melt from Lexi's shoulders, and with a wink, she boops the younger girl on the nose with her fingertip.

"Ma." Lexi's eyes roll, and her voice is an irritated whine, but her soft smile lets Lena know that the gesture wasn't unappreciated.

Lena gives her one last comforting look before following Kara into the restaurant.

It's one the've visited plenty of times because 'The potstickers are the absolute best when reheated with heat vision' - according to Kara at least; Lena's still a little wary of heat vision prepared foods.

The host welcomes them with a bright smile and a jaunty wave, and Lena's glad - hopes the normalcy of the interaction will make things feel less . . . off.

"Good afternoon to one of my favorite families!" His gaze settles on Lena. "Mrs. Luthor-Danvers, I'm afraid I didn't know to expect you, so the kitchen may be a bit slower than normal. I trust you want your usual booth?"

"If it's available, Eric, that would be lovely."

"Of course, right this way, ladies."

Kara's head is practically on a swivel as Eric leads them across the dining room. Lena's hand tugging gentle pressure on her arm is the only thing that keeps her from running into several dining tables. It's a beautiful restaurant to be sure. Low lighting comes from exquisitely hand crafted chandeliers made to look like paper lanterns, and the art work on the wall is art gallery quality. Still, Kara's been here enough times that she shouldn't be one wrong step from tripping face first into some poor diner's wonton soup.

"Here we are!" Eric announces, waving them into the corner booth. "The usual? Sparkling water for the table?"

"Of course, thank you, Eric." Lena answers, and with a nod and a bow, their host has disappeared among the sea of tables.

Lena and Taylor scoot to the middle, leaving Kara and Lexi on the edges almost across from each other. It doesn't take long for the waitress to show up with their drinks, and once again, Lena is glad to see a familiar face.

"Lena! Kara, Lexi, Taylor." Melody nods at each of them in turn. "I didn't know you guys were coming today! What can I get you for appetizers?"

Instinctively, the table looks to Kara.

"Oh, umm, I guess I'll have the potstickers?" she says before turning back to the menu.

The confusion is immediate, with everyone immediately shifting their, (now worried), looks to Lena.

Only, Lena too, is caught off guard, and she puzzles briefly over Kara's response before turning to Melody.

"She means potstickers out first, of course. Please." Lena adds with a smile. "And then we'll also have a party platter of the crab rangoons, the spring rolls, and the chicken skewers."

Melody closes her order book with a snap and a grin.

"Perfect! I'll have them right out"

Once she's out of ear shot, Kara leans into Lena's side.

"That's a lot of food, don't you think?"

Lena can feel Lexi's eyes on her, gauging her reaction, so she tries to keep her expression neutral as she asks.

"Are you not hungry, Darling?"

Mercifully, Kara's response is quick.

"No, I'm starving! That's just, uhh, a lot of food . . ." she looks around at the other diners as if she's expecting the paparazzi to filming them - "to eat in public."

Out of the corner of her eye, Lena can see Lexi's fingers repeating the nervous stim that she tends to favor when she's overly anxious.

It's then Lena realizes she's stuck.

Because on one hand, she's worried about her wife; something is definitely up, and there have been way too many Supergirl related close calls these last few weeks.

On the other hand though, she can tell her daughter is on the brink of anxiety attack, because again - way too many Supergirl related close calls these last few weeks.

Quickly she makes a triage decision.

Whatever is wrong with Kara, she can't fix it over lunch; and since there doesn't appear to be any immediate danger, she'll be able to fix things a lot easier once Kara is at least fed.

So she chooses an expression and tone that she hopes Kara will recognize as their 'let's not discuss this in front of Lexi' code, and offers a gentle reminder -

"Darling, I think the staff here would be more thrown off if you didn't order a small feast."

Thankfully, after a brief moment of hesitation, Kara seems to pick up on her cue.

"True, I just didn't want to overwhelm them, since they didn't know we were coming."

Lena smiles gratefully at her wife and Lexi's fingers momentarily stop their twitching,

"I completely forgot to call ahead, I was so busy watching Taylor try on some simply stunning wedding dresses." Lena's attempt to steer the conversation works beautifully, with her future daughter-in-law blushing and Lexi trying her hardest to squeeze out details about the chosen gown.

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

By the time the food starts to arrive, the table has fully devolved into wedding talk.

It's almost easy for Kara to pretend like she belongs here; the easy familiarity that everyone shows her acts like a balm to her troubled soul. In fact, she gets so caught up in the way Lena's hand feels in hers and the delicious taste of the food that she almost forgets that she doesn't belong in this universe.

She's a little uneasy, sure; but part of her brain is screaming at her to just enjoy the moment. Enjoy the universe where she's married to the incomparable Lena Luthor and they have a kid - a whole grown ass kid - that looks and sounds like Lena but somehow also feels just like watching herself in a mirror.

She hopes to Rao that whoever the Kara is that gets to live in this universe fully appreciates it; because she'd give up her super powers if it meant she got to stay here.

Once dessert is finished, Taylor leaves them for the art gallery with a kiss for Lexi and hugs for Kara and Lena, so its just the three of them as they walk to the street corner where Lena's driver is waiting in the loading dock lane. Unfortunately, as soon as they get in; all of the bad feelings that Kara has been pushing away ,or just straight up ignoring, all come rushing in.

Because who else is waiting in the front seat but Alex.

The tension in the small space immediately sky rockets.

Normally, Kara would be more than happy to see her sister. In cases like this though, Alex is all too often the harbinger of bad news. News that Kara really doesn't want to come to terms with right now. She suspects that much like the time she was under the influence of the black mercy, Alex is here to pull her back to reality.

Maybe it makes her a bad superhero, but she really doesn't want to go.

Before, with the black mercy, she had reasons to return; and she's sure there are reasons this time, but right at this moment she really can't think of them.

"Hey, Aunt Alex." Lexi offers cautiously as enters the car.

"Hey, Kiddo." Alex tosses a mock salute over her shoulder before turning to face them. "Hope I'm not messing up everyone's day if we make a quick detour to the DEO; some new computer software just came in that I want Lexi to take a look at."

Lexi and Lena both agree quickly, and Kara sort of gets the suspicion that they were expecting the intrusion.

Which is odd.

Because if Alex were really the Alex from Kara's universe here to bring her back, then surely Lena and Lexi wouldn't be expecting her.

Right?

Then again, if the software just came in; how would Lena and Lexi know about it?

She remembers Lena's face in the restaurant, the one begging her to just agree and not make a scene for Lexi's sake. She didn't really understand it then, but now coupled with the arrival of Alex, she can't help but wonder if she's supposed to be in on the secret too.

Still, she can't shake the feeling that this near perfect world is about to collapse in on itself. It sits like a lead ball sinking in her gut the whole way to the DEO, and she almost regrets that fourth plate of orange chicken.

Almost.

Luckily, (or unluckily, depending on how you looked at it), the restaurant was only a few blocks from the DEO. It was lucky, because the orange chicken mixed with Kara's nerves and the closeness of the limo style SUV was really not a good combination. It was unlucky, because a countdown timer had started ever since Alex had shown up - only Kara had no idea how long was left on it or what, exactly, it was counting down to.

She just knew that whatever it was probably wasn't going to be enjoyable.

The feeling of existential dread only gets worse when they step out of the vehicle and make their way into the DEO.

The whole place feels the same as she's used to, but somehow also different in a way she just can't quite but her finger on.

Heart hammering in her chest faster than she thinks is entirely safe, she feels her anxiety ramping up with every step they take into the government organization.

It isn't long before the anxiety melts into a panic, and she finds herself coming to an abrupt stop.

Lena is holding her hand, so when Kara stops, she stops too; but the others make it a few more steps before they realize what's happened. Once they do, the situation becomes infinitely more awkward - all eyes looking to Kara to see why they've stopped.

Only Alex seems unsurprised.

"The jig is up, gang. I think she knows we're not here for a software update."

With those words, Kara's worst fears have come true.

"Alex, just . . . just. . . stop" the dryness in Kara's throat cuts her off, and she swallows harshly before pleading - "Please, just let me talk. For just a minute. Please, just let me explain."

Kara's voice sounds desperate, even to her own ears, and she winces slightly.

"Kara . . . what are talking about, what do you need to explain? Whatever this is, we can figure it out. We can fix this, but you have to tell me what's going on." Alex's voice is so reassuring that Kara almost believes her.

Wild blue eyes dart across Alex's face before flicking to Lena and then settling on Lexi for a long moment.

It's so easy to see herself reflected back in the eyes across from her.

The same braids.

The same glasses.

The same crinkle.

She looks back at Lena.

It's her best friend, just as Kara remembers her. She can spot a few strands of gray dusting among her jet black hair, and there are laugh lines and frown lines creasing her porcelain skin.

But still -

The same green eyes.

The same perfect posture.

The same red lips.

Only now, Kara knows what it feels like to have those lips against hers; knows what Lena's skin feels like under her fingers without the boundaries of friendship; knows the completeness of Lena knowing all of her secrets and still looking at her without fear or judgement.

Rao, she doesn't want to give that up.

Regardless of whatever downsides this universe holds, Kara knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that family standing in front of her is more than worth it.

Even if the yellow sun were to suddenly fall from the sky, Kara knows that she would still feel just as powerful - bolstered from the pure euphoria that she feel radiating out from her soul.

In the end, it's that strength that forces her hand - the strength that isn't hers to take.

"I . . ." Kara allows herself one last look at the life in front of her before finally meeting Alex's gaze again.

"I don't belong here. This isn't -" she shakes her head "- this isn't my universe."

She hears Lena's sharp intake of breath; and she halfway reaches out before she stops herself, voice pleading with Lena to understand.

"I don't wanna go back; I don't. I'd give anything to stay here."

Tears cloud her vision before spilling down her cheeks, and she swipes at them with a shaking hand.

Kara expects Alex to agree with her, to be admonished before being forcibly dragged back to her own doomed timeline; but instead, Alex just looks . . . confused?

There's a long moment of uncomfortable silence, where Alex, Lena, and Lexi all share a concerned look before Alex finally speaks up.

"Maybe you should start by explaining to us exactly what you think is going on."

"Actually, maybe we should go to the med bay and THEN she should tell us what's going on." Lexi suggests, worry evident in her blue eyes.

"Kiddo's right, we should probably have this conversation in the med bay." Alex easily agrees.

"We should get blood work started immediately." Lena's shift into all business mode is instantaneous, heels clacking on the concrete floor as she leads the way down the corridor to the all too familiar yellow sun room.

"I knew there was something more to that alien you fought yesterday." Lena's voice echoes off the walls as they follow close behind her. "You weren't yourself last night and then Lexi said you were acting strange this morning."

Kara looks to the younger woman, who flinches slightly - almost as if she's been scolded.

"Sorry Yeyu, you seemed off."

It feels conspiratorial, like the two of them are used to teaming up to ensure that Lena doesn't worry too much about either of them - and Kara can't help but feel a surge of affection, despite the betrayal of Lexi involving Lena.

"It's alright, Little One."

The endearment falls from her lips unbidden, and she reaches out a hand towards the girl but stops herself before she gets too close, unfamiliar with the easy way that her body instinctively reacts to this universe.

As if she belongs.

Kara forces the thought from her head with a shake.

She doesn't belong here, she reminds herself; and the sooner she explains that and gets back to her regular universe then the less painful it will be for all of them.

Well, for Kara anyways.

She supposes that the universe will fold itself back together the way it's supposed to be after she's gone - whatever version of her that's supposed to be here taking her place.

When it's all said and done, today will be nothing but a memory for everyone but her; an eclectic fever dream of the time a Kara from another universe got stuck here.

But for Kara . . .

Well Kara certainly isn't going to forget this experience anytime soon.

At least she hopes she doesn't.

As much as it pains her to know that this is a life she'll never be able to have, she thinks it would be worse to never experience it at all.

Lena drops back, hand slipping into Kara's and giving a firm squeeze.

"We'll figure this out, darling, whatever they did to you, I can fix it."

Oh how Kara wishes that were true.

So much so that she almost lets herself fall prey to the confidence in Lena's voice.

She wishes it more than she's ever wished for anything.

And even though she knows all too well the devastation that comes with misplaced hope, her only response is to cling tightly to the fingers laced in hers and . . . well . . . hope.

#supercorp #supergirl #lena luthor #kara danvers #fanfiction #eyes like kryptonite

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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 11 months ago

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Breaking down the comics: BENDIS. PART 1.

READING THINGS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO!

ALRIGHT EVERYONE IT'S TIME.

It's 12 issues long.

When this came out, I thought "This is the worst thing ever." and was so disappointed and angry. I refused to purchase the trade and frowned at it real hard any time it was mentioned.

If I could go back in time and tell little me that there were far...FAR...worse things ahead I'm not sure I'd have believed me.

Lucky for me, something spectacular and wondrous and amazing was also ahead.

But we'll get to that later.

Moon Knight: (2011)

publication date: July 2011-June 2012.

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Alex Maleev

Editor: Jeff Youngquist

TIME LINE TIME!

Let's start off with a little bit of Comic History!

Moon Knight started in 1975. Moench and Zelenetz took it to 1990.

We hit the 90s and it was a rough go for our pal. I'll cover the 90s later.

Moon Knight then faded into obscurity and only the die hard fans that remembered our friend in white clung to every fleeting background appearance or mention.

He then returned to us in 2006.

The series of runs from 2006-2009 revived the series into a new glorious age of Marvel comics. The comics were far from perfect, the characterization was often WAY off, but it was better than nothing and a lot of good did come out of that age.

2009-2010 brought us Vengeance of Moon Knight, which was also pretty good.

Moon Knight was trucking along.

It was roughly in this age that I became aware of Moon Knight and started reading the old stuff.

Then 2011 they announced a new writer taking over Moon Knight.

I actually went to a convention and remember this announcement.

Marvel editor and Chief Joe Quesada was heading the panel and was super excited. He professed to love Moon Knight and was super enthused to see him not only be continued, but to also be in the hands of such an esteemed writer as Bendis AND joining a west coast team. (I'll get to that).

So from 2011-2012 we got...THIS....

Moon Knight was then swiftly canceled.

It was a disaster and did NOT do well on sales or reviews. (gee. Wonder why).

And in TRUE Marvel fashion, they quietly swept it under the rug. They claimed that interest in Moon Knight had died and they would not continue to write for a comic no one would read.

He had a few small background parts now and then, and fans continued to ask if they were going to bring him back.

It wasn't till 2014 under "Marvel Now" (a new age under Marvel) that he was brought back under Ellis.

Now, a LOT of people hate on Ellis. But they have to understand what Ellis had to work with. Where Ellis was coming from with Moon Knight, and WHY he had to do it so subtly like he did.

So let me show you WHY my appreciation for Ellis runs so deep.

You may have noticed something. I called Bendis an "esteemed writer".

So who is Brian Michael Bendis?

This is the man that is KNOWN for his work in the Avengers.

He was the man that relaunched the Avengers franchise in 2000. Marvel was NOT doing well in the late 90s. DC was on the rise and kicking ass.

I'm not saying this man saved Marvel comics... But he certainly brought the comic fans back in.

Secret War, House of M, Secret Invasion, Siege, Age of Ultron, Avengers Disassembled...

These are BIG name runs that he wrote storylines for and was in charge of. These are big name events!

You all know by now I hate events and tie-in cross-overs (There are two notable exceptions, but those are not Moon Knight related), but I have to appreciate them when they actually do make the comics thrive.

Also, it takes a LOT to keep these events organized. And it takes a good writer to write for large groups like the Avengers.

This man also created some very well known comic characters. Riri Williams, Jessica Jones, and...MILES MORALES.

THAT'S RIGHT. This man gave us MILES!

He's won five Eisner Awards.

He is GOOD at what he does. He's god at writing teams. He keeps the dialogue smooth and flowing. He keeps track of all the characters.

But... You'll notice something....

All those incredibly big name events and series? They are teams. They are groups. They are big hitters. They are mostly super powered and work well in teams.

This brings me to a very big point.

Just because you are good at one thing, does not make you good at all things.

And that's where Marvel messed up.

They happily put Moon Knight into the hands of someone who was used to writing for Captain America and Iron Man.

You all know by now, or you will soon, Moon Knight is a VERY different sort of hero.

He has no powers. He has no armor. He’s not super smart and he isn’t a leader. He's just a man. A man with severe trauma. A man with a past. Oh...And he's actually Three men in a white cape pretending to be one fully functioning normal guy and failing at it miserably. In fact, he’s been offered to lead teams MANY times and every time he turned it down. He doesn’t play well with others. Every time he meets up with another character, they start with a fight before they calm down and introduce themselves (one exception was Hilariously the Punisher who happily shook his hand and invited him into his chopper).

So I can’t be angry at Bendis. Bendis even admitted that he didn’t know who Moon Knight was when he was given the comic. He had to do some quick catching up.

The pressure was on, he didn’t understand the character, and there was a PUSH to introduce Moon Knight to the wider Marvel universe.

So I can’t 100% fault Bendis for the trash heap he gave us. He certainly isn’t Bemis, who is just an overall terrible person.

But I CAN fault him for not doing his research and not treating the major themes that tend to historically follow Moon Knight with respect. The biggest one being: Mental Health.

So if Aaron was a disaster of religious failure, Bemis was a disaster of hate crimes and racism, then Bendis is a disaster of the mind.

Without further rambling, let’s get into it!!

Issue #1 (same image as up top).

Title page as the standard blurb on who the character is.

"Left to die outside an Egyptian temple, mentally unstable mercenary Marc Spector believes himself to have been resurrected by the ancient deity Khonshu to be his supernatural avatar on Earth. When night falls, Spector dons the mantle of Khonshu and fights the darkness as Moon KNight."

Not a great start people. 'dons the mantle of Khonshu'. This is literally all Bendis knew about Moon Knight going in. If this is the only description you have to go on, you are not going to have a good time.

We open with a very Kirk Russel looking version of Marc Spector out in the desert with a dramatic retelling of his fight with Bushman.

What's interesting is that Bushman calls him "Lockley".

They have their shoot out, Marc is shot and Bushman leaves him saying "You were the best there ever was."

Doing his usual, Marc crawls through the desert to the Moon Temple.

He goes to the body of the dead Professor (Marlene's father) and wishes to make it up to him despite dying. He then goes to the Khonshu statue and begs before dying.

Marlene sobs over him, calling him "Jake".

The scene ends and it's to be continued.

Fade to black. Executive Producer Marc Spector.

Yeah... Marc went to Hollywood and made a show about Moon Knight.

You see, up to this point, no one realy knew what Steven was doing to make them money. In the 80s he gave to charities, set up entertainment things like Ballet and museums and things, and played the stocks a bit.

Later he became a producer.

Then, when the writers all decided they didn't want to write Steven anymore because he was 'boring' he turned into Marc and Marc headed the financial aspect of things and became the producer of the shows.

So here we see Marc making the show about himself and using the name Lockley so no one knows it's about him.

He...He's trying.

So the name of the show is "Legend of the Khonshu".

This is the pilot episode and they are at a launch party.

We see Marc hanging with a pretty blond that is NOT Marlene. At this point she’s left him.

"Is it true that you were a really for real mercenary?"

"Well, let's just say... I have learned I'm not the first person in the world to transition their career into Hollywood after a...Less than honorable start."

He gets a call and the person asks if he can go outside.

This is odd. And it should have been my first clue something was wrong.

But we'll get there.

We've got Captain America, Spider-man, and Wolverine asking for Moon Knight.

And while Moon Knight has been an Avenger off and on and off and on at this point, he also has never been well trusted or liked by the big guys like Cap and Iron man.

Cap tells him that "SHIELD's still tryig to gather formal intel, but there's been a rather substantial migration of criminal activity from the East coast to here. Right here in your new backyard. We need you to go to work."

(this was the reason for the West Coast Avengers, but that's a different run).

"Substatial Migration of criminal activity?"

"Maybe if you weren't so busy making crap TV--" Wolverine gets uppity.

"Have you seen the show, Wolverine? It's actually pretty good."

"Yeah, that's what I got time for, watching you sell your soul entirely."

"Good news, though, I'm getting paid a fortune for it."

Cap breaks up the banter and Marc asks for details.

Spider-Man explains that too many super heros lived on the east coast and too many villains were trying to be the kingpin of New York. So now they figure they can go to L.A.

"But now we have you here." "Me?" "You made L.A. your territory." "By living here?"

This has always been an issue. Ever since it became known that Moon Knight had mental issues, all the Avengers have always treated him like “the crazy one”. Especially since he’s the ONLY superhero that is publicly open about his mental health issues.

He’s even come out to the Avengers as having D.I.D and introduced Jake and Steven to them (see Spider-man encounters that was mostly used for LOLs). What’s interesting is seeing which heroes react in what ways.

I could do a whole breakdown on the response of each Avenger to those with mental health issues. From Captain America’s don’t ask don’t tell attitude that stems from being brought up in the 30s-40s to Punisher who takes it in stride and doesn’t care.

So they came all the way out to LA from NY to put him to work. Brings to mind the old meme: This could have been an email.

Cap reminds him that he's an Avender now and part of a team. "If things get to be too much...You send for us. Give the call. We're here for you. That's what being an Avender means. You're not alone."

Problems with that: 1. The Avengers are in NY. He's in LA. That's a few hours away even by Helicarrier. 2. To quote Sassy Steven Grant from MCU "Yeah that's sort of like the problem, innit?"

But ignore that. Look at this ART.

We head over to a warf where two criminal looking thugs are waiting by a van.

They're having some friendly banter about their job and their boss.

"Ask yourself this: This job you have--Who do you think had it before you? Where is that person now? Exactly how dead are they? And which one of the, I don't know, X-Men do you think maybe killed them?"

"I see your point. I just don't agree with it. I want to do the job we were hired to do and then I want to go home."

I do love some good hench men banter.

While they banter, Moon Knight sneaks around up top to watch as a ship comes in.

A very large man gets off the ship and demands to know which one of them has "Mr. Hyde's Money?"

They don't have money. They were just ordered to pick up what's on the boat. The man demands money for the thing on the boat.

He threatens to crush them to death, they threaten to shoot him.

The giant man lifts them up and smashes their heads together.

Alright, time for Moon Knight to swing into action. He first gets his attention with a crescent dart that cuts his cheek.

Just gonna put this right here….

Our buddy Moony has fought many giant strong men before. He's good at holding his own but he's also REAL good at getting utterly annihilated.

He gets in a few good hits but then gets thrown in the harbor.

Then a truck is chucked at him.

His cape gets caught on the front wheels and the truck drags him down into the harbor. (He ends up in the water so much)

One of the thugs from earlier is still alive and he chooses this time to shoot the giant in the arm.

Unfortunately this upsets the giant who comes over and crushes his skull.

Disturbing. But the it's done well with the art style. You see him place his boot then a black frame that says "CRUNCH". This is how you censor but imply the violence. Unlike in Bemis' run that just shows you all the gore in the worst way.

It's amazing how much better I can look at this in comparison.

But an aside: I enjoyed this run until it got to a VERY specific point. We'll get there together, friends. Until we get to that point, we're going to enjoy the art and have fun with our buddy Moony.

Big guy gets ack on the boat and starts to drive away. Suddenly he's whacked in the head by a fire extinguisher.

We see a cloakless/hoodless/maskless Moon Knight wailing on him.

Marc heads down into the cabin thing while the giant is dstunned. He wants to know what the cargo is.

Ohhh hey.... Okay.

So… There are some of you reading this that know exactly what that is. And there are a LOT of you that don’t know other comics or movies and have no idea what that is.

That’s an Ultron. Tony Stark did Tony Stark things and created a super power AI system called Ultron. And in classic AI comic book fashion, it immediately took over EVERYTHING and set out to destroy the world. They eventually defeated it, but it keeps popping up. You’ll find hidden saved files in old computers, SHIELD helicarriers often find ultron files in their systems. Sometimes you find one of the mass produced robots that still carry the potential to boot up and spread the virus around again.

Marc picks up the Ultron skull, wondering why they have a dead Ultron.

It's at this point that he realizes he just knocked out the only one on the boat that was driving.

He's doing fine.

He gets knocked off the boat again and clings to a rope hanging off it. At this point the boat is illuminated by something from above.

Giant man wakes up and yells at the sky about "you better have my money!!"

"You should have thought about that before you killed my employees."

The boat blows up and Marc manages to swim away with the Ultron head.

Back at his place, he calls the Avengers to give them an update.

Again, I want to remind everyone that the Avengers are based out of New York and Marc is in LA. Are they going to fly out there to look at an Ultron head? It's a 5 and a half hour non stop flight on a regular airline.

So...This is another clue that something is wrong here.

They debate on why someone wants an Ultron head.

It IS made out of adamantium alloy, which is very valuable.

I also want to say that I love how they draw Marc here.

So Marc, Captain America, Spider-Man, and Wolverine stand around staring at the Ultron head for a minute.

"You got a good look at the mystery power?"

"Nope. Not from lack of trying, though."

"Hey, Man, you went toe-to-toe with Mr. Hyde."

"Barely."

"That's pretty impressive, my friend."

"I think I broke a rib."

In trying to figure out who the new power player is, he decides that they at least have one up.

"Which means he's looking for me like we're looking for him. I'm glad you guys are here. We have our work cut out for us. This is going to take more than just Moon Knight."

This is heart breaking to hear once you actually know where this run is going. And he isn't alone. Where are Jake and Steven? Why are they banished?

I know that Jake doesn't travel. Jake never leaves New York. I've never really explored why that is. But in Moench's OG run, Jake NEVER left New York.

And writers always leave Steven out. No one since Moench has been able to handle him to this point.

So here we are, Marc Spector making home in a new place and Jake and Steven aren’t there. Then the Avengers show up randomly and tell him to start being Moon Knight again and that he is needed.

And then we are left with this image, which is our biggest reveal that maybe… Maybe something isn’t right here…

So what do we know in the first issue? We can’t trust Marc’s perception of things.

We also have yet to actually address Marc’s D.I.D. They’ve only casually mentioned him being ‘mentally disturbed’. He’s built up what looks like a nice comfortable life for himself in LA and here the Avengers come in (supposedly) and put him back into position to ruin this life.

We know Marlene left him. And his head-mates are being pretty quiet. We can only speculate that we are meant to believe that the ‘Avengers’ are only in his head.

There’s more going on here than Ultron. And in issue one, I’m optimistic. I love the art, Moon Knight is being Moon Knight. But you do get the sense that something is brewing and all you can do is hope that it’s not bad. We have no REASON to think it will be bad at this point. We’ve not had an atrociously bad run yet. We’ve only had mismanagement.

Issue #2.

DAMN fine art, Maleev. Look at the white! The face is a little creepy, but look at that cape!

Title page has the usual blurb and a recap.

"Marc Spector has resurfaced in Los Angeles as the creator and producer of the wildly successful TV show 'Legends of the Khonshu'. As Moon Knight, he intercepts an illegal delivery of an Ultron robot body. The mastermind behind it is unknown, but the battle is fierce and Moon Knight barely escapes.

Guiding him through this new mystery, Moon Knight is supported by his new multiple Personalities in the guises of Spider-man, Wolverine and Captain America."

YEP. There it is everyone!

2011. WAY past the point of DSM defining things and research absolutely could have been done.

But it wasn't done. They had zero interest in informing or teaching the audience about mental health. All they wanted was a gimik to lure you in and say "Look how crazy he is!" And now he's got "NEW" personalities that are also well known super heros!

*SIGH* Issue one was so hopeful. They could have gone so many other routes.

As I mentioned above, Marc has set himself up to be alone. When has Marc Spector ever done well when left alone to his own devises?

Marc has set himself up for massive failure and is on his way for another break down.

But they could have left him alone. Shown him being alone. Shown him struggling alone. They could have then re-introduced Steven and Jake and well....LEMIRE.

Anyways, let's see what happens in issue 2.

We open with Moon Knight, Spider-man, Wolverine, and Captain America overlooking the city.

I love when they get carried away with his cape. It’s like his cape is an entity of itself. Look at that majesty.

Marc has intel and they are deciding on who gets to go investigate. 'Wolverine' decides to go in.

Marc tells him no. "This is my city now. That's the whole point. I'll go."

"I think you should go in undercover first. Stake it out. Lock your target" -Captain America.

"You WOULD think that. I say dive in and tear the place up. That's the only language they understand. It's the only language they respect." - Wolverine.

Cap just wants to shut down the operation.

"A grenade can shut that place down. We're aiming higher. We're aiming for the person who thinks this city is up for grabs and thinks they need an ultron."

'Spider-man' volunteers. No one would expect him.

Moon Knight notes that "It's not like I can stop him."

We head to a sort of strip club sort of thing. The manager woman is in charge of info. A lot of powerful men come to her club/bar and these men often let slip information to the girls that help them 'relax.' She pays the girls for collected information.

She finishes her little speech and Spider-man interrupts.

"Did I miss the audition? I have a dream, you know. A dream to dance!"

"Get out of here or I'll kill you."

"I'm sorry, I don't care for the way you're speaking to me--I'd like to speak to the manager."

So they way they have it, the “Spider-Man personality” is in charge and the others watch and let him act. He has the mouthiness of the REAL spider-man, but he also lacks the strength and acrobatics. This puts him at a disadvantage, as he’s expected to do the same things, but can’t. This honestly is going to go for Wolverine and Captain America too. Three people that distinctly have super powers and skills that Moon Knight and MARC do not have!

An interesting solution is that Spider-man uses web shooters.

And THIS 'Spider-man has hidden Moon Knight's truncheons in the shooters so they get hit by the web and also whacked pretty hard too.

What is so frustrating is that I'd just rather watch Moon Knight fight the bad guys and not 'fake spider-man'.

And the boss lady gets hit by the web shooters with the hidden truncheons inside. She instantly knows "That's not Spider-man."

She starts to fight back, asking who he is.

"Who are you?"

"Who am I? I? Me? People have heard of me! The big question today is how far down the criminal food chain are you?"

She starts to kick his ass.

She puts him in a choke hold demanding to know who he is and who sent him.

Marc and Wolverine start to argue inside the head space. Wolverine wants to step in but Moon Knight wants to give Spider-man a chance.

The mask is ripped off and they start to black out. Wolverine steps in.

The webshoots extend out the retractable claws.

Just as he gets the upper hand, one of the stripper girls tasers him, knocking him down.

He fights through it. The taser doesn't really affect him.

He webs her and the main boss lady picks up the fight.

Captain America is not impressed with the fight. "You're not learning anything and you've made your point. Wrap it up."

Just as he starts to get the upper hand, one of the bounces shoots them in the shoulder.

He doesn't heal like Wolverine would.

He blacks out.

See, my issue is that the writing team doesn’t know anything about Moon Knight. In fact, they know so little that they think he’s boring. So they bring in familiar characters in an effort to ‘make him interesting’. But Moon Knight is NOT those characters. So you end up with a cluster of a whole bunch of mischaracterization on BOTH sides. You got Wrong Moon Knight and you got Wrong Spider-man.

Boss lady tells the other girls to go home and not to talk about anything that just happened.

She says that their BOSS will want to talk to this guy and find out who he is.

They go to move Marc and suddenly one of the stripper girls attacks.

She knocks out the bouncer then knocks out the boss lady.

Marc wakes up much later, patched up in a bed.

Mystery lady tells him "You ruined my cover, Moon Knight."

She tells him that they have mutual friends like Steve Rogers and Matt Murdock.

Her name? Maya Lopez. Hey! It's Echo!

"I was an Avenger for all of 44 seconds."

I...I've never read anything with Echo. I actually have a comic of her team up with Dare Devil waiting in my stack of comics to read.

She was supposed to get her own MCU show on Disney Plus.

I also know that when Greer met up with Marc in the MacKay run, Echo was the one that warned her about what it was like to be with Marc Spector.

I ALSO know that they call her Echo because she's deaf.

That is the extent of what I know about Echo.

Let's learn together!

She tells Marc to look at her when he talks. He figures out it's because she's reading lips.

"You're deaf?"

"I know what's wrong with me. What exactly is wrong with you?" She asks as she holds up the Spider-man mask.

Back with boss lady, we see her talking to her own boss.

She explains that she once fought the Black Widow and Captain America.

"This guy--This guy tonight knows how to fight. I know when someone has been trained. This guy--"

They talk about how they looked up Spiderman and found him still in New York. They also figured out that the one they were fighting was "Moon Knight dressed as Spider-man."

"And acting like a crazy animal."

"Moon Knight."

"Or a crazy guy who thinks he's both. In this world...Never underestimate a good crazy."

The big mystery boss knows Moon Knight. He's faced him rescently apparently.

"He has something of mine and I need it back."

He approves her to hire a team and hunt Moon Knight down.

END ISSUE.

Ya'll...There's so much going on here. My mantra? "At least it isn't BEMIS.'' That's not a good plug. 'Better than Bemis'. That bar is so low that it's buried six feet under.

Also the introduction of Echo is going to get messy. She’s there to be the ‘voice of reason’ to his ‘insanity’, but she’s also there to potentially be a love interest.

Lemme do a little google search real quick.

Okay... She's Native American of the Cheyenne nation. Created in 1999. She first appeared as Ronin in 2005 by Brian Michael Bendis. (That explains why she's in this).

After Kingpin killed her father, he adopted her. Fisk pitted her against Daredevil. She also had a relationship with Matt Murdock cause of course she did. (Everyone has slept with Murdock. EVERYONE.)

Her abilities are photographic reflexes, much like that of Taskmaster. Meaning she can learn people's fighting styles.

Okay. She's interesting.

Makes me sad that she’s just going to be used in this comic to give the reader a point of stability and also a love interest.

Issue #3.

I like the soft colors in the art. And at first glance you get excited because “Bullseye!” And I love a good Bullseye run. But then you notice that jaw line looks very familiar and also he’s holding a familiar looking crescent and you realize what’s about to happen and you’re just disappointed again…..

ALRIGHT. We open on Marc driving a car and making a call to Maya (Echo).

"Hi Maya...This is Marc Spector."

"I'm sorry?"

"From last night."

"What do you want?"

"You believe it's me...Cool."

He spoke to their 'mutual' friends who vouched for her. (I bet Murdock vouched for her).

"If you're not still mad at me for blowing your cover and maybe ruining your life, I thought mabe we could get together and discuss, um, strategy."

Sure. Sure Marc... Strategy.

He invites her to eat. She turns him down.

"I think you might be insane, and I have had enough insane men in my life to last me."

[....]

"I think you're thinking that last night was indicative of my overall behavior and personality."

"It wasn't?"

"It probably was, but I don't think that--"

"I'm hanging up."

"I need help, Maya. And you do too."

We have some serious discrimination going on. The constant use of outdated language to lesson Marc's credibility and constant second guessing him.

Marc gets to the studio to find his assistant there waiting with a list of issues.

The usual studio stuff.

Props have issues, there's calls, and "they still haven't cast the French Guy."

"Not French."

"I thought--"

"He doesn't HAVE to be French. I said he was based on a French person."

(Does this mean that I cacn still dream of Pedro Pascal as Frenchie?)

Anyways... He heads in to a tech person named Buck.

Marc hands him the Ultron head. He asks him to take a peak at it and let him know if it's legit.

We head back to three months ago when Marc was setting up the show and casting people.

Marc had asked for a list of "soldier of fortune consultants".

Marc starts to look through the files.

Honestly, considering his past and connections, he probably knows most of the old timers personally.

He finds one that makes him pause and he tells his assistant that he wants an interview.

Turns out Buck was that guy.

Marc asks Buck how long he's been an Agent of SHIELD.

He recognized the name of a company that Buck listed as work history on his resume.

A company owned by SHIELD and stationed in Latveria (Home of Dr. Doom).

Buck denies it. It's all classified, after all.

Marc tells Buck that "I need a guy who knows weapons and armory. I need a guy who thinks outside the box and knows not to ask questions. I need someone I can trust with my life."

Of course Buck is cagey. Wants to know how Marc got access to the files and what not.

"Do you know your super heroes?"

"Uh...Sure."

Marc tells him. We don't hear what he says.

"I...I, uh... Never heard of you."

"Are you serious?"

"Just messing with you."

Yeah, there was a long time when NO ONE knew who Moon Knight was. Somehow all the bad guys and street people knew him, but NONE of the heros knew him. Just called him "that crazy moon guy."

Marc hires the man as his 'weapons expert' for the show. He also asks the man to work on making special tools and weapons for his 'special needs'.

Here’s Buck at home relaxing.

Oh hey! Bullseye!

So we see "Bullseye" threaten to torture and cut up Buck if he doesn't tell him who Marc Spector is.

Buck refuses to talk.

Bullseye threatens him again and Buck figures it out. "Mister Spector? Is that---Are you--?"

Firstly, where did Marc even get that outfit? And the spike dagger. Bullseye got the spike daggers when he killed Electra (Daredevil comics my old beloved dumpster fire that you were).

Marc apologizes and Buck punches him. He beats on him a moment, pretty pissed off.

"You know I could disarm you and end this in a second, right?"

"You never touch me!"

"Come on. Compared to what they did when you joined SHIELD this was nothing."

"I don't care if you think I--"

"You know I had to."

[....]

"Man, how crazy are you?"

There it is again. And having Marc dress up and mimic Bullseye's manners and expressions is an interesting choice when we already know that he's dealing with being Spider-man, Wolverine, and Captain America too. He's plaing with fire and I can see where Bendis is going to take this and I don't like it.

And this brings us to the present with Buck analyzing the Ultron head.

Turns out to be a real Ultron head.

"The head of the most powerful artificial intelligence known to man cut off from its regenerating power source--"

Buck asks if they should take it to Tony Stark.

Marc doesn't like Tony Stark. This is fair. Tony has never exactly been fair to Marc.

Apparently Hank Pym also had a hand in creating Ultron. That hangs together. (I am not a fan of comics hank pym. He's not a good person).

Marc tells Buck he's going to give it to Steve Rogers when they are done with it.

Buck keeps telling him to get rid of it. WHoever the LA kingpin is, he's going to come looking for it either for parts, the dangerous tech, or to plug it back in and sick it on the world again.

Marc keeps brushing him off.

"Meaning that you should get rid of it immediately...Was my point...That you completely missed. Because you're crazy."

So we head back to boss lady, AKA "Snapdragon". She's talking to a group of assassins for hire. A group called "Night Shift".

Her boss wants to have a chat with Moon Knight and she wants to know who he is.

END ISSUE.

Yeah, you guys can see the growing motif of this run, can’t you? “Wow look how crazy he is!” And it’s going to get worse.

If Aaron was a problem because of the lack of religious sensitivity and research, then Bendis is a problem because of how he handles the topic of Mental Health. (Bemis was just a problem. Every problem forever. Too many to name.)

So let’s head into Issue #4.

Maleev did all his own covers for the runs. Not a common thing to do. I just love how all the covers have such striking colors and how the cape and cowl are always just so BRIGHT white. It’s pretty, okay?

Alright, we open up on Avengers Mansion somewhere in New York. Carol Daners answers the phone (Captain Marvel).

Maya Lopez (Echo) is calling them.

She's doing a check in to find out what the Avengers think of Moon Knight.

Which, fine. If you're going to work with a guy or potentially be interested in them, you check in with your friends that know them.

But ALSO...The Avengers have always been very discriminatory against Moon Knight.

They don't trust him because they think he's dangerous because they think he's insane.

They don't ever make ANY effort to understand what his illness/problems are. They never look into his disorder. They never look into Marc's PTSD. They never take the time to talk him through things.

Much like they never really accept or try to deal with the Punisher's PTSD. He's always just an evil murdering man.

Maybe this is why Marc and Frank have always gotten along.

Spiderman sometimes is kind to him and works with him, but there is always the background joke about Moon Knight being "Loony".

The only one that really gets on with Moon Knight is Ben "The Thing" from FF4. And that's because they're both Jewish and Ben needs more Jewish friends.

ANYWAYS. She asks about Moon Knight.

"I'm asking--How crazy is he on a scale of one to...crazy?"

Oh! This brings me to the well known panel that you should all recognize!!!!

Now you have the context for that panel!

Speaking of discrimination...

Echo calls people all the time. And each time, the person on the other side will go "Wait, how are you using the phone if you're deaf?"

She has a speech to text function that puts their words on her computer screen.

But no one thinks of things that are meant to help those with hearing disabilities. They instantly just think "She's deaf. She can't use the phone! She must not be deaf!"

Ahhh...Avengers...

Back in LA, we find MArc waiting at a hot dog stand where he invited Echo, waiting to see if she'll even show up.

He sits there with 'Captain America', 'Spider-man', and 'Wolverine'.

Wolverine tells him that Marc doesn't need her.

Spider-man thinks it's just a team-up.

"This ain't about a team-up. You know it and he knows it."

"Why can't it be both?"

"Because it just complicates it all."

"Why can't he have a nice girl?"

"Because the damn moon god Khonshu told him he brought him back from the dead so he'd make the world more livable.

Not make crap TV shows and date third-string Avengers."

"Why can't he do ALL those things?"

(I'm a spider-man fan and I love when he is the young innocent one that just wants people to be happy. And considering that THIS is not the real Spider-man, but just Marc's perspective of Spider-man, it makes sense that Spider-man be seen as the one that doesn't understand and just wants to do his best and make people happy. See, THAT is an interesting take and psychological analysis. But Bendis isn't aiming for that or going to explore it... Damn it.)

Captain America reminds them that Echo knows more about what's going on than they do and they need her info.

"The woman's been under-cover in the LA underworld. She knows more than us. We need her."

And Maya shows up.

"I must be out of my mind."

"Oh, come on..."

"Out of my mind."

So he asks her what she knows and how long she's been undercover.

She tells him to go first.

"Listen, if you're here, you checked on me like I checked on you. You know I'm not the idiot you're acting like you want me to think you think I am."

"What?"

"Let's just cut the sass down and have a real conversation. Wouldn't that be nice, if two people who do what we do had a real conversation?"

"It's hard...It's hard to trust...sometimes..."

"I know. Believe me, I know."

They talk a bit about Marc's show and her position in the strp club.

As they talk, a sharp dressed man shows up and comments on what a cute cupple they make.

"What a cute couple."

"Excuse me?"

"I SAID you're a cute couple. What are you, deaf? Oh yeah, you are, aren't you...Eco."

She asks if Marc knows who this man is.

"You see him too?" Nice Marc. Subtle.

The man introduces himself as "Tick Tock." He's a member of the Night Shift.

One of the guys has a pretty cool design. Reminds me of the Classic old old comic/radio show "The Shadow".

The lady's design is....Why is there always a naked lady with tape barely covering up all of her bits? How is that efficient?

Tick Tock claims to be able to see the immediate future.

He sais that in one future they fight and it doesn't end well for anyone.

Marc and Maya don't have powers, but the Night Shift members do.

'Wolverine' decides he isn't putting up with this shit. The flake claws come out and they elect to fight.

The Moon Knight cape comes out and he and Echo start to fight back.

It's a pretty good fight. Echo saves his tail a few times and he takes the hits easily.

The Wolverine claws come out a few times and make a mess.

They take out the baddies but the cops are on the way. Cops usually don’t like Vigilantes and this is LA, where they aren’t used to the New York crew.

And….The only cop that ever liked Moon Knight was Detective Flint.

END ISSUE. WOO! Blazing through!

What gets me is that this HAD the potential to be interesting. It could have been an interesting run! Why did he have to make up the Avengers? Why not just embrace Moon Knight and let him be himself? He’s interesting enough without made up Avengers!

What’s more, you only got three of them in. And the three of them are only bits of themselves based on what Marc knows of them!

So you have the angry and eager to fight Wolverine, who could have just been Marc. You have the up tight analytical and reasonable Captain America, who could have been Steven! Then you have the heart who is gentle and wants to give people a chance but is still tough Spider-man….JAKE!

This run could have been FAR better if it wasn’t the Avengers, but Moon Knight wrestling with himself. Having all three of them trying to suddenly make sense of what it means to work together and coming up with their own fighting styles.

…..HERE’S ISSUE #5.

I actually don’t like this cover. The colors are nice. The art still is on point. But I just really don’t like this cover.

So the cops show up and instantly go "WE GOT MOON KNIGHT!"

Yeah... Most of the cops don't know 'what a Moon Knight' is.

The internal conversation is Spider-man wants them to run. Captain America tells them that they are an Avenger and should explain things to them.

"Officers, I am here to cooperate. I will be more than happy to tell you exactly what just happened. I am actually, believe it or not, one of the good guys, if you'll just let me--"

He does try to calmly explain to the officers what's going on, but they start to get rough and push him around. What gets me is that Moon Knight IS trying to be reasonable. He tries to talk calmly. To explain things. He tries to be peaceful.

It never goes well for him. No one listens to him. No one lets him explain. They assume the worse of him.

Now Wolverine is pissed and wants to get involved.

Cap and Wolverine start yelling at one another and Moon Knight is not having a good trip.

One of the cops says he's going to sell the pictures of Moon Knight getting arrested for tons.

Wolverine wins the argument and Moon Knight starts to fight and breaks free.

The cops attempt to bring Echo in and she puts up a little fight then gets tazed.

Yeah so we get lots of scenes of them yelling at Marc.

They yell at him for leaving Echo behind. But Echo fights the police off and steals one of the cop cars.

Moon Knight follows and joins up.

I can’t fault the comic for the action sequences. They do have a good balance. (Unlike in Bemis where everyone is either just standing there grinning like idiots or it’s chaos and you can’t tell what’s going on except that there is gore).

The banter and conversations are also well managed. Coming from the Bemis run, where every other panel was just a WALL of exposition that made no sense, I appreciate the balance of conversation, action, and stillness. So, points to Bendis and Maleev on this one.

They park the car and have a small argument.

She blames him for bringing 'madness' into her life.

He points out that the Night Shift was actually looking for HER and that they were tracking her, so it's her fault for the madness.

She agrees. "So that makes us even."

She can't go home. The police and bad guys know who she is now.

He tells her to come to his home. Smooth.

They have a moment and he kisses her.

She punches him in the face.

A lot.

I won't make you squint.

"Hey! Listen I just thought..."

Gets beat up.

"Will you marry me?

Look at me...Brave guy making jokes to a deaf girl behind her back."

Alright we head back to Buck. He's at a club. He gets a phone call and heads out.

He's gotta go pick up Marc, who is sadly walking home in his Moon Knight skivvies.

"Hi, Buck."

"Mister Spector."

"Thanks for coming to get me."

"What are you doing in an alley?"

"I didn't start in the alley."

"Who used to do this before me?"

"A guy."

"Where is he?"

"He got sick of me."

"Is he alive?"

"I think so. I hope so."

Frenchie will forever be a sad place in my heart. I miss him and I hope he is alive and well.

We head to the police station where Tik Tok of the Night Shift is being interrogated. He's being interviewed by a former New York cop. He didn't like the Supervillain and Superhero business so he went to LA to get away from it.

As you can imagine, all this recent comotion doesn't have him very happy.

He wants to make sure the whole lot of the Night Shift stays behind bars forever.

But he gives him one opportunity to give up some info and walk out.

"Who hired you? Who sent you after Moon Knight? You give me a name... You walk out of here."

Tik Tok thinks it over.

"You don't, and I will laugh the day I hear that the punisher finds his way into the prison you're rotting in. Just say the name."

Tik Tok starts to talk when suddenly a lawyer comes in and tells Tik Tok that he's being sprung.

The lawyer tells him that they can't hold any of the Night Shift because the police let them be beaten by 'drug addict maniacs'.

Tik Tok walks out and the police guy is pissed.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Moon Knight. Because it's all on you."

END ISSUE.

So… You see my frustration setting in here? This comic run has SO much potential. There is so much more they could be doing and instead they are taking the “HE’S SO CRAZY” route. The art is good. The pacing is good. The Dialogue is pretty evenly placed. Even the overarching plot of the LA kingpin and Ultron head is not bad. It’s just… Why did it have to be Moon Knight?

When you can replace the main character with any other marvel character and still have it be the same, this isn’t a Moon Knight issue. And when the writer is so used to writing for other characters that they end up making it about those other characters, they shouldn’t be given the Moon Knight comic and should just stick with what they are good at!

….At least it isn’t Bemis…

Alright. Part two is coming soon! I’m going to start kicking these out fast. I got a timeline to get through if I’m going to hit all my marks by the new year! Stay with me people! We got this!

PART TWO HERE.

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight comics #Analyzing the comics #BENDIS #At least it isn't Bemis #Reading things so you don't have to #Marc Spector

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deancaspinefest · 2 years ago

Photo

Everything's Fine

Author: butterflyslinky | Artist: DeanCodedCasNB Posting on Friday March 3

Dean has been offered his dream job: Personal Assistant to Editor-in-Chief Castiel Novak. Unfortunately, his boyfriend Michael has other plans for their futures.

Keep reading for a sneak preview!

Castiel barely glanced up as Hannah knocked on his office door. “What?” She walked in, ignoring his curt tone, stepping around the clutter of papers and boxes all over the floor. “Just letting you know we’ve hired a new assistant for you. He starts in January.” “Another one? You know I hate having assistants.” “And you know you can’t do literally everything yourself. Don’t worry, this one seems better.” Castiel sighed and leaned away from his computer to actually look at her. “Fine, tell me about him.” Hannah moved a stack of files off the other chair and sat down. “Dean Winchester. KU, English Lit. Just out of school so you can train him how you like. He was very sensitive in the interview, and very charming…polite, but with a good amount of sass. Seems like a good snap-to little soldier anyway.” “Come on, Hannah. What am I even supposed to do with an assistant?” “Have him screen your mail and calls, grab you lunch, set up meetings, make sure nothing off the slush pile somehow makes its way to you without vetting…normal stuff.” “I enjoy seeing the shit from the bottom of the slush pile.” “You don’t have time for it, Castiel. You’re editor-in-chief now, you have actual responsibilities. And you need someone to help you organize this place” “I know, I know…shouldn’t have accepted the promotion if I don’t want to be the boss.” Castiel rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, well, this is why you don’t listen to the fuckwit who keeps pressuring you to rise above the point where you’re happy so he can squeeze more cash out of you. I mean, you’re a mess…you’re exhausted, you’re snappish, you’re three sentences away from offending our top author. You need someone to help lighten this load, and you’ve failed miserably at keeping anyone on board to do that.” Castiel sighed. Hannah was right, of course. The only reason he’d taken the promotion was because his last boyfriend had pressured him into it. But Bart was gone now, having ditched Castiel for some rich Broadway producer, leaving Castiel with nothing but a way-too-big apartment and several maxed out credit cards. Both of which meant Castiel couldn’t take a voluntary demotion, leaving him stuck in a job he hated. Okay, maybe not hated. Castiel did like some aspects of being the head editor. The corner office and salary were nice, and it was good to have the final say on what was published. But it also meant talking to a lot more business people than he liked, and that he missed the more fun but terrible books on the slush pile. Not that he would ever let those go out the door, but reading them was the best entertainment he’d ever had. And worst of all were the assistants. Castiel had only been in the job for a year, but he had already gone through four of them. He felt a little bit bad about it; it wasn’t like any of his previous assistants had been bad people. But none of them had been especially helpful to him, getting in his way more often than not, or messing up his routines too much for him to function. He hadn’t even fired all of them; the last one had quit because she thought he was too particular about things. Which he was, but it wasn’t something he could help. And now there was a new one he’d have to try and train. “Try to go easy on this one,” Hannah said. “He’s moving all the way here from Kansas, so it will be very expensive for both him and the company if you only keep him for three months.” “Fine,” Castiel said. “Can I get the resume?” “Right here.” She handed him a single sheet of paper. Castiel skimmed it quickly. The kid didn’t seem that special; a BA in English and several years working on and off as a mechanic. No clerical experience to speak of, but Castiel figured that could be a good thing. If Dean didn’t have experience, it meant he didn’t have any bad habits to break. “He just graduate?” he asked. “Back in May, yes…so he’s very young, even compared to you. I thought that would be easier if you do decide to fire him immediately.” “Fine, fine.” Castiel set the paper aside. “That all? I have a mountain of drafts to approve.” “That and your mother called the front desk again to ask if you’d consider joining her for Christmas. I told her to call your cell phone, and she told me you never answer it.” “Because she only wants me there so she can set me up with whatever nice girl she’s found now. So tell her I’m busy.” “That’s another reason you need an assistant,” Hannah said. “But until Dean arrives, you can tell her yourself.”

[continue reading on Ao3 on Friday March 3]

#Destiel Fic #Destiel Art #Destiel Fanworks #DeanCas Fic #DeanCas Art #DeanCas Fanworks #Pinefest Previews #2023 Dean/Cas Pinefest #Author: butterflyslinky #Artist: PetraAmia #Identity Confusion #Domestic Violence #Goose Girl Retelling

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jack-kellys · 2 years ago

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cannot remember if i sent you one sooo

Monster Hunters AU/World War I AU

- @we-are-inevitable ✨

this is the second one u sent but i had like a "funny" thought abt it??

so the time period is wwi. so this is a canon era vibe, but.. without the newsies part lmaoo the gang's like in their early 20s in this let's say.

it's 1919, and the attacks in new york city are the worst they've ever been. (they're bad across the country, but nyc's been hit hard.)

davey's family is stuck in their small apartment, having no choice but to stay since the prices are higher just about anywhere else in the state. the attacks are violent, of course– ravenous, torn flesh, only leaving gory destruction in their wake. but with his family getting closer and closer to being in real danger, davey's been paying closer attention, reading every story he can catch in the other local papers, and the attacks are starting to look strategic. like those things are capable of planning and analyzing.

said things are...hard to classify. he's never seen one, it's rare people do and survive or remember, but the descriptions are never the same. some are large, a decayed color, with no discernible face besides teeth. most are said to have long, sickle-like claws due to the usual nature of attacks. but some are small and run on all four limbs, some have long, mangy manes, or weeds growing out of their veins. they're monstrous, and there doesn't seem to be any other way to put it.

but there's a pattern now, he tells his chief editor (davey's a grammatical editor primarily, not writing the stories quite yet), and how has no one said anything?

until, quite suddenly, the president wages open war against the creatures, finally, though war is a strange thing to call it. but at least davey can do something, and get these things out of his city.

the "funny" part that i was thinking about is like... basically the government puts people into five person individual squadrons based on collaboration of skills and my brain was like "oh like a d&d party"! so davey is assigned into a monster hunting dnd party consisting of uhh lets say. mush, albert, finch, specs.

their second mission after basic training takes them north of the city around sleepy hollow, since plenty of attacks have taken place in vulnerable suburbs. in fact, most of the town had been deserted, most suburban dwellers able to afford housing elsewhere. there's been a consistent group of monsters traced to this area, and they're tasked with taking them out. it's grim, but if it gets these things further than his family, then davey'll do anything.

but it's a battle.

those things are fast, quicker than finch's aim or al's grenades, and davey's commands fall short too. it comes down to close combat, specs shouting out possible exit routes while davey and the rest do their best with knives against claws.

they sink into albert's leg, and finch's side. they scrape specs' face and mush's medical attention can't keep up before he's practically swatted against a tree. davey's arm gets raked, his skin tearing while he stabs the thing the best he can glaring into its deep, night-sky eyes. he gets slammed into the ground, something cracking, hearing albert call out for him before it all fades away.

he's surprised he wakes up, but when he does, he is.. elsewhere.

definitely further into the forest of the town, greenery and tall trunks of trees surrounding them- them, since through barely-opened eyes he can make out his squad. no monsters, though, and his team is bandaged up so mush must have... but mush is unconscious with the rest of them, so who–

"morning, neighbor," is said to him, and davey looks up. a young man is in front of him, accent a bit heavier than his own, but certainly manhattan. davey can barely move–pretty sure he's broken a few ribs–and the man seems to sense this and kneels down. he looks familiar. messy dark hair, deep tan skin with a rosy undertone, and even deeper, night-sky eyes.

davey's own widen. the man grins, and his teeth are a bit mismatched and sharp. now that he has davey's attention, he notices the man has bandages hidden under his shirt from where davey must have stabbed him.

"i'm called jack. i'm gonna tell you a story, but if you don't believe it, i'll have to kill you and your team so you don't squeal. deal?"

not like davey has much choice. "...deal."

soooooo Basically. the "monsters" are government experiments on young humans gone wrong and they are now getting revenge on the country <3. so the war is a front to basically exterminate the government's failure to create what was likely meant to be supersoldiers!!

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wonderlandleighleigh · 2 years ago

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Playboy follow up pretty please

In the end, everyone (Midge, Susie, Gordon, Lenny - all the people something like this would directly affect-) agrees an interview and a couple of tasteful, clothed photos couldn't hurt.

The interview goes fine. She's asked about the comedy, and the balancing act of work and motherhood and time for herself, and she's asked about her taste in men, which she makes a meal of, joke after joke. She mentions a boyfriend, and hints at his identity, and that they're happy, and it's the most fun she's ever had, being with a man; that it doesn't feel like a second job, the way her first marriage had been.

She meets with the stylists and the photographer and Hugh before the photo shoot, and they talk about lingerie and bikinis, and Midge shrugs them all off, feeling like that's too much exposure, and not very her.

Instead, she pulls out one of Lenny's white button-downs, and asks if that will do.

Hugh stares at her as if he'd like to carry her off to his bedroom and eat her alive. But he just nods. "That'll do."

Midge gives a pleased smile, and it all goes pretty smoothly from there. She's done a few photoshoots for magazines; Vanity Fair, once, and Vogue. But they were very, very fashionable.

She's never lounged on a couch for a camera before, in nothing but a button down and her panties, and it's...

Kind of freeing, really.

She's still not interested in nude photos, though Hugh does hint a couple of times. The most she does is pull the shoulder of the shirt down a tad.

When she gets home, Lenny is waiting with Chinese Food, and he laughs, delighted when he finds out his shirt will be in Playboy.

"I should have put my name on the tag," he jokes. "Interview go okay?"

Midge nods. "It was great. They actually didn't ask anything too weird. I was worried about sex questions, but they didn't go that far."

Lenny shrugs innocently. "Sometimes they don't go that far."

"Or my boyfriend threatened to chop the editor-in-chief into teenty tiny pieces and hide them all over Manhattan like the worst Easter egg hunt," Midge jokes, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"Hef is not exactly known for his subtlety with women," Lenny shrugs as he picks at his sesame chicken. "I may have...let him know that I'd be a little cross with him if he pursued you."

Midge laughs softly and shakes her head. "I've never seen you get possessive before. Not even Joel brings it out in you."

Lenny gives her a sheepish look. "Joel is a moron, and I'm much prettier than he is. Hef on the other hand..."

"The pipe reminds me too much of Papa," Midge tells him, wrinkling her nose.

He narrows his eyes, tilting his head. "I'm trying to picture Abe and Hef in a room together...I got nothing."

Midge laughs and gets to her feet, settling in his lap. "I love you, you know. You don't have to worry about Hugh Hefner."

Lenny slides his arms around her, nuzzling in against her neck. "Good. I don't wanna share."

She grins and strokes his hair. "Me, neither."

#fic #au #tmmm #Midge x Lenny #Midge/Lenny

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hausofredhq · 10 months ago

Text

FREDERICK AUGUSTIN, 72, HAS DIED.

For once, the circulation of information brings credits of truth with it: the man who pushed boundaries, created abstract silhouettes from traditional fabrics, and had no fear about deciding what beauty meant — has passed away on January 5th, 2024. It is with great sorrow that we announce this news to his beloved Haus of Red, its sister-writer in Superbia, and all those who live on the streets graced by the great shadow of Mr. Augustin. Or so — that's what the obituary says. Now, there is one less man to ask for clarification on rumours. Now, there is one less obstacle in the way of those who wish to claim the Haus for their own. Now, there is another rung empty on the great ladder for somebody else to climb. And if you thought his funeral wasn't going to be memorable? Think again, darlings. Just as his life had an impact across the world, so will his memorial. Superbia Magazine's Editor-in-Chief, Daria Ahn, has made the following statement: "Today, a light in our world has forever gone out. Frederick Augustin was equal parts mentor as he was creator. He leaves behind a mark that many will not soon forget. We, even at Superbia, will greatly feel his absence." ( but is it really that simple? ) And what do you have to say? Inquiring minds want to know.

OOC INFORMATION.

Welcome to our first plot drop! We are kicking things off with the death of the fashion mogul, Frederick Augustin. Your threads can be both general ones and/or concern his (un?)timely passing, be around/near his memorial service, etc. If you are involved in the subplot, the death of frederick augustin, consider this your time to start seeing if there really is a mystery behind the unannounced cause.

Now, Frederick was notorious in life. He's going to have a notorious funeral. The following muses will be doing something that will risk their notoriety to rise — or fall. We do hope it's worth it.

Vance Aldridge: drowned his sorrows with a model in a bathroom stall

Alexandra Jeolla: spoke up too soon, too loud, too much

Ezequiel Matias Gúzman: has one of the worst takes ever

Evrim Cemil: couldn't keep her sticky hands to herself

Voss Vanburen: who knows what terrible things he's overheard

Virge Oshita: walked in wearing — well, that. (a horror from the haus's vault)

Miles Morgan: shed a single, golden tear before fleeing mid-prayer

Gabriela Muñoz-Ramírez: arrived late and tripped? what a sham

Ford Gatete & Sheila Donovan: who knows what they said in their grief

We will be coin-flipping to see how these acts affect their notoriety on January 31st. Then, in February, they will be moving on with a new reputation behind them — for better or for worse in this unsteady climate. This is the first time we will be trying out the notoriety system so please be patient with us as we see how it plays out!

If you have any questions, would like your muse to be involved in another way, and so forth, you can ask us admins in the Discord. Otherwise, have a terribly beautiful time, darling. You'll need the good memories to last you.

#appless rp #new rp #active rp #city rp #oc rp #haushq.plot

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wrienne · 2 years ago

Text

My Cheating, Amnesic Fiancé

Chapter 39: Last Chance

“And… smile!”

The umbrellas lighted up the room, causing you temporary blindness. You rapidly blinked, the black dots fading as your eyes readjusted to the pastel walls, the countless of fake white and pink roses surrounding you and the portly man standing behind the camera positioned in front of you.

He held up a hand, which formed the universal “okay” sign. “Lovely, lovely,” he said eagerly. “Now, if you could just tilt your head a little more to the side and point your chin toward your right…”

You silently complied and was rewarded with another delighted squeak from the man, followed by a flash of light. “Yes, just like that! And if you could perhaps move your arm like this--,” he demonstrated with his left arm, and you obeyed, “--yes! Lovely! I have to admit,” he went on with a broad grin, “that you're the prettiest bride I have ever seen, (Y/F/N). Your fiancé is one lucky man.” The camera clicked and the umbrellas flared up again.

“Thank you, Seong-Ho,” you said after your vision returned to you. “I’ll make sure to send your regards to the hair and makeup team.”

Seong-Ho tsked several times while browsing through a laptop that was situated on top of the thin, wooden desk next to the tripod. “Makeup and that is merely to accentuate what’s already there. No, it takes real beauty for it to carry over from real life to a still image. Come here, little miss, and take a look at how beautiful you are. Your friend can come, too.”

Se-Eun, who had been on the border of falling asleep, bounced up from the sofa in the back corner of the room, an anticipatory look across her features. When she reached Seong-Ho’s side, her eyebrows rose. “Jesus, (Y/N). You look like you belong in an advertisement.”

You rose from the lush, dark velvet armchair you had been perched upon. Carefully, as not to disturb the corded lace or the well-ironed, silky material beneath it, you bundled up the front part of the ball gown in your hands before tiptoeing toward the table, wary of the three inch heels you wore. The inner parts of your upper arms chafed slightly against the silvery white beading and sequins across the tight bodice, and you were already getting tense in your neck from the countless of hair-colored pins, chains of tiny pearls, decorative clips or pieces of lace that were integrated into your updo. You didn’t voice any complaints, however.

Beauty was pain - and especially for a bride at the end of her marriage preparations.

Seong-Ho tsked again and gave Se-Eun a sharp glance. “Even the chief editors of High Cut would fight for a picture - and a model - as perfect as this. Don’t give her a compliment like that.”

Se-Eun’s eyes flitted over to you briefly before darting back to the screen, but that was enough for you to discern the uncertainty in them. She hadn’t meant her comment to be a compliment.

“Sorry,” she said meekly. “You’re beautiful, (Y/N).”

Seong-Ho pointed accusingly at Se-Eun while looking at you. “She’s your best friend?”

“The one and only,” you replied with a smile.

He rolled his eyes when Se-Eun winked at him. By then, you had reached the desk. They parted so that you could finally see the picture, the former wearing an expectant expression while the latter seemed concerned as you regarded the image of yourself for a few seconds too long for your response to come out genuine. And Se-Eun was right. Even though a part of you enjoyed the way you had turned out in a professional photography, beautified from head to toe, at the height of your youth and with a gorgeous, Old European-style backdrop, you spotted the reason why Se-Eun was worried.

The look in your eyes was anything but happy and excited. Yet, you didn’t look devastated or nervous at all. Lifeless. That would be the best word to describe it. Lifeless like models on advertisments posters. Like a pretty doll in a dollhouse.

And worst of all, you didn’t feel anything stir within you even as you recognized and acknowledged that fact.

“It came out very pretty,” you told Seong-Ho. “Thank you.”

“Sit down again, Miss.” He waved you back to the armchair and then called out to a girl about your age, most likely an intern, where she was standing next to the door. “Hee-Ra, bring in her fiancé.”

Hee-Ra lowered a bouquet of roses you just until recently had held onto the desk before disappearing. She returned a few umbrella flashes later, alone. “Sorry, but he isn’t done with hair and makeup yet.”

Seong-Ho groaned over his shoulder. “When did he get here?” he asked her.

“About twenty minutes ago,” she replied after glancing at her wristwatch.

Seong-Ho turned back toward you. “How come he has to work even on a day as important as today?” he asked you with a slight frown.

“He was recently promoted to be one of six department heads at Phoenix Inc.,” you explained calmly. “He cannot afford free time.”

“Not even an hour?” asked Seong-Ho incredulously.

You shook your head as gently as you could as not to upset the precarious balance of your hair. “Unfortunately, no. Not even an hour.”

Seong-Ho tsked, but didn’t say anything else. Ten minutes later and enough flashes to make you see dots before your eyes, the door opened, revealing Jung-Hyun in the doorway. Both Se-Eun and Hee-Ra gaped at him, their eyes scouring his tall stature from head to toe in an utterly dazzled state, and Seong-Ho’s earlier disdain disappeared like water from a shattered vase. You simply smiled.

Jung-Hyun looked nothing less than striking. Dressed in a tuxedo as dark as the night with various accents of deep blue and white gold, he looked as if though he had stepped out of a male clothing commercial. Normally, his height and physique generated him enough positive attention as they so were, but now that he had received professional makeup and hair styling, he looked just as good as any actor, if not even better. It wasn’t difficult to imagine him as some rich business heir and the male protagonist in a well-produced drama or movie.

Jung-Hyun’s eyes took in the room’s inhabitants, and though they had paused on Se-Eun while he nodded at her, they only paused briefly. When they finally landed on you, he didn’t seem to be able to tear his eyes away from you. The usually unreadable guise he wore crumbled ever so slightly as he took in your appearance, and you could almost swear there was affection in his gaze.

It would have made you blush if not for the dread his oh-so familiar brown eyes stirred within you.

“Jung-Hyun-oppa,” you said quickly as you tried to push an unwanted memory out of your mind. “How was work?”

He wasn’t allowed to answer before Seong-Ho cut in. “I’m Lee Seong-Ho, the best wedding photographer in Seoul,” said Seong-Ho as he hurried forward, hand outreached. “Yet, I don’t think I’m good enough to photograph the two of you, especially not in less than thirty minutes. Are you still sure you want my services?”

Jung-Hyun took Seong-Ho’s hand without hesitation and shook it firmly, which surprised you considering the former’s injuries. “Jeon Jung-Hyun,” he began with a slight smile. “And I’m sure that the best wedding photographer in Seoul is more than capable of taking a few pictures of me and my fiancée.”

His stiff, somber voice had a strange amount of warmth in it compared to when he spoke with you. It didn’t offend you, however, since you had come to learn that Jung-Hyun, when he wanted to, had an incredibly persuasive way with people no matter their sex and contrary to the strict air he had about himself. The fact that he used that tone with people that weren’t you or Se-Eun, made you relieved, actually. Because it made the receiver of Jung-Hyun’s words almost glow with confidence and pride and some kind of deep-rooted gratefulness despite not personally knowing Jung-Hyun. It was eerie, to say the least.

“I feel honored,” continued Jung-Hyun, “that you were able to take us even though I’m sure your list of customers is filled with substantially more famous men and women.”

Seong-Ho reacted no differently than the dozens of other people you had witnessed being subjected to Jung-Hyun’s influence. Even Hee-Ra seemed affected, and Se-Eun - though she would deny it with all her might - looked enthralled as well.

“But of course!” exclaimed Seong-Ho as he continued shaking Jung-Hyun’s hand eagerly. “I don’t know which one of you is the luckiest,” he went on, turning to glance at you. “The two of you look made for one another. I wish you all the happiness, truly.”

Jung-Hyun didn’t even twitch at the continuous assault on his hand, even though you knew he must be in pain. “Thank you,” he said merely.

“Come,” said Seong-Ho hurriedly as he practically dragged a man twice as tall as him toward you. “Let’s hurry with the shoot. Hee-Ra, adjust the lights please. And (Y/N)’s friend, bring another armchair from the outside please. Until then, let’s try have the groom stand behind the bride with his hands on her shoulders. Is that alright?” he added, directing the inquiry to you and Jung-Hyun.

“Sure,” you said, smiling.

“Are you serious?” said Se-Eun as she put her hands on her hips. “Look at me! Do you really think I can carry an armchair by myself?”

Seong-Ho waved her off. “Hee-Ra, will help you when she’s done with the lights. You could at least try on your own, though.” His eyes met yours, and he grinned. “Now, let’s begin!”

Jung-Hyun wordlessly went to stand behind you and did as Seong-Ho had instructed. His hands were cool, but not as cool as yours. You had never wanted to scratch your arm so badly as when Seong-Ho positioned himself behind the camera again, but knew you couldn’t. If only because your manicured nails would make quite the visible rash marks.

“It was fine,” said Jung-Hyun suddenly, his words only barely perceivable.

“What?” you asked as you tried not to move your mouth while talking, which was nothing compared to Se-Eun’s ventriloquist-like ability. Though Hee-Ra was setting up the lights differently with Seong-Ho’s guidance, meaning he wasn’t really taking any pictures yet, you didn’t want to disturb the duo or dilute the sheen of the lip gloss, which you had done several times already, much to Seong-Ho’s dismay.

“You asked me about work.”

You almost slapped yourself in the forehead. “Oh, right, of course. That’s good to hear.”

“How was your day?”

“Boring,” you replied. “I’ve been stuck here since eight and wasn’t even allowed to go to the bathroom until after about eleven when they were done with the nails.”

“I see.”

“When do you have to get back?” you asked as your stomach rumbled. “Do you have time to grab some lunch with me before that?”

“Unfortunately not. I have a meeting to get back to by two. Why don’t you ask Se-Eun?”

“She has tennis practice, and an important one. She’s competing this Saturday.”

His fingers squeezed your shoulders softly. It was a strangely tender gesture, one of many you had had to get used to ever since you had told Jung-Hyun about your new thoughts surrounding the marriage between you and him. However, you still hadn’t gotten used to the feeling of having Jung-Hyun touch you, even with the barrier that his bandages posed. “I’ll have to make sure and tell her good luck before we part, then.”

You lifted your own hand and placed it over Jung-Hyun’s. “She’d appreciate that,” you said.

Before you could withdraw your arm, Seong-Ho stopped you. “No!” he exclaimed heatedly. “Just have your fingers linger just like that, yes. And make sure that you don’t cover his ring!”

You obeyed. Seong-Ho snapped a few photos, and then smiled triumphantly. “Hee-Ra, don’t touch the lighting anymore. It’s perfect as it is. Move a few of the flowers away from the groom, and place them around her feet instead. And you--” he peered over his shoulder to find Se-Eun, who was hauling the armchair through the doorway by then, her cheeks flush with strain, “--hurry up! We only have until one-thirty!”

“These pictures better be worth it,” you heard Se-Eun grumble underneath her breath.

The photo shoot progressed smoothly after that. You and Jung-Hyun were directed into various positions, both sitting and standing, the most intimate being the one where you had to stare into each other's eyes lovingly. Seong-Ho wrapped up the session at 13.28, and told the two of you that samples would arrive to your parents’ apartment within a fortnight. The best one would be framed as well.

While getting out of your clothes and unlatching your hair in the dressroom, your phone vibrated, signifying a message. Your eyes widened when you read the sender’s name, and even though you knew you should hurry because of Jung-Hyun’s meeting, you afforded yourself a few extra moments to stare at the message.

It was Yoongi.

*13.34 - Do you have time to meet up this week? It’s about the wedding invitations.*

You gulped.

“(Y/N)?” There were several knocks on the door, followed by Se-Eun’s voice. “My mom’s here now. I have to go now, but I’ll call you later!”

“Yeah, bye!” you called absentmindedly. You couldn’t tear your eyes away from the screen.

“You should hurry up - I saw Jung-Hyun exit his dressing room half a minute ago. He’s probably smoking outside.”

Your mouth moved automatically. “Okay, thanks for telling me.”

“(Y/N)...” Se-Eun hesitated, and you could hear a slight thud against the door as it shifted half a centimeter inward. Her next sentence brushed against the surface of the painted wood. “You really were beautiful today. I mean, you’re always beautiful in my opinion but, well… I just wanted to say that one more time before leaving.”

Her compliment warmed, but you were still too frozen with shock to smile. “You’re going to be late to practice,” you managed in what you hoped sounded like a teasing tone.

Se-Eun didn’t answer immediately, and it was almost as if you could hear her thoughts through the door. You let out a small breath before you went on softly, “What is it, Se-Eun?”

“It’s nothing,” she blurted - an obvious lie. “I was just thinking about how beautiful you were.”

“Don’t be a creep,” you told her gently. “Go now before your mother gets irritated."

“I know. I know!” You noticed how the door readjusted, as if she had removed the weight of her hands or perhaps even her head from it. “Bye, (Y/N)! See you tomorrow!” Her voice faded as she started away from the door.

“See you, Se-Eun.”

While getting properly dressed, you mused over the message. You considered not answering, but now that you had checked it, Yoongi would know you had read it without replying. Thus, you had no other option but to respond. But how?

Frankly, you had no real reason to avoid him if he wanted to meet you. You liked him, and you should be able to see him privately without feeling weird about it, despite… circumstances. Also, the two of you had met once before without any awkward silences or uncomfortable atmospheres.

If only Yoongi hadn’t mentioned the wedding, you wouldn’t mind meeting him again.

You could just say no. You could just say no and ask Yoongi to tell you what he wanted to say through text or a simple call. But a major part of you yearned to hear how he was doing. If he was eating and sleeping well and how their practices went now that he was recovered. If he was happy. And thus, even though it would hurt, you were ready to go through with the pain of meeting Yoongi and converse face-to-face.

*13.40 - I’m available now, actually. Have you had lunch yet?*

You told everyone at the studio goodbye before heading down the elevator to street level. The answer came by the time you and Jung-Hyun entered the car.

*13.42 - No. There’s a small bistro I frequent near the company.”

The acrid cigarette smoke filled your nostrils as Jung-Hyun shut the door on his side and Jong-Yeol began driving. You didn’t exactly hide the fact that you were texting someone, but you angled your phone slightly away from Jung-Hyun’s field of vision. If only to avoid questions that may arise from you exchanging messages with another guy.

*13.43 - A bistro sounds nice.*

*13.43 - I’ll send you the address.”

After checking the area and distance on a navigator app on your phone, you tapped another reply.

*13.45 - I’ll be there in half an hour.*

*13.45 - Alright.*

“Jong-Yeol,” you said, catching the chauffeur’s attention. You told him the address to the bistro, and though you felt Jung-Hyun regarding you briefly, he didn’t ask you about it. His attention had returned back to the passing city view when you felt the need to stir some kind of conversation.

“How is your hand?” you asked as you eyed his right fingers. “What did the doctor say?”

“It’s getting better.” Jung-Hyun held it up for you to see. The gauze that was wrapped tightly around his knuckles and palm was clean white, but since it had been changed the day before due to the photoshoot, it wasn’t that odd. You knew, however, that the wound was healing slowly, partly because he used his right hand so much and partly because he - similar to him - wasn’t careful with the injury. Blood had seeped through the wrapping on several occasions already. “But the cut is still not fully sealed yet. It’ll take another month, she told me, and I still need to eat antibiotics.”

“But you've had that wound since end of May!”

“I don't heal fast.”

You sighed. “At least you know you got a good set of knives from… one of your many friends, was it?”

His lips curved, and his eyes found yours, unreadable as usual. “Indeed,” he replied.

“You'd do best to stay away from future cooking classes as well. Since you broke your phone that time, too.”

“As you wish.”

“How’s the apartment coming together?” you asked as you fiddled with your phone in your hands. The prospect of meeting Yoongi was making you nervous, you couldn’t deny that.

“The remodeling will be finished by the end of September. We should be able to move in before October.”

You tried not to gulp. “Nervous?” you asked jokingly.

Jung-Hyun placed his uninjured hand on top of yours, which were still playing with your phone. You stilled at his touch.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he told you in the softest tone you had ever heard him use.

Your face flushed with color, and you had to look away. You spotted in your peripheral vision that Jung-Hyun’s smile widened infinitesimally before he withdrew and looked back out the car window again. The warmth in your cheeks remained even after you and him parted outside Phoenix Inc.’s Seoul headquarters, but had since long faded by the time Jong-Yeol dropped you off outside the bistro Yoongi had sent you the address to.

To be honest, you regretted your decision as soon as you stepped out of the car. But the slim, dark eyes of Min Yoongi caught yours from the second floor before you could find the cowardice - or perhaps, right sense of mind - to run. And so, despite feeling as if though every step was through quicksand, every breath felt as if though you were trying to swallow oil, and your heart was racing as if though you were sprinting like your life was on the line, you had no choice but to enter the establishment.

“Serenity” was a crossing between a coffee shop and a bakery with a lot of vegan options that directly correlated the non-vegan counterpart. How one made cheesecake without cheese confounded you enough to make you order it from the front desk together with a large iced latte. You meandered through the round tables scattered across the tiny bistro, excusing yourself at times when it became too tight of a squeeze between patrons.

Yoongi sat, alone, next to one of the windows on the second floor where people weren’t as frequent. He was bare-faced, and he donned normal street clothes. White earbuds were draped around his neck, and a pair of sunglasses dangled from the v-neck of the t-shirt he wore. As you approached his silent, unmoving shape, you felt your palms grow rapidly clammy, despite the ACs keeping Serenity at a comfortable room temperature. His gaze was focused outward, onto the streets below, as you sank down opposite to him and with an almost overwhelming urge to scratch the skin off of your arm.

“Hi,” you said as you gripped your iced latte and sipped it quickly. The beverage was cool and sweet and filled with caffeine, which was exactly what you needed a day as hot as that day.

Yoongi blinked as he turned back toward you. “You’re wearing unusually much makeup today,” he stated quietly and then touched his own, unstyled hair. “And you’ve got something here.”

“It was for the engagement pictures,” you explained as you raked your fingers sheepishly through your hair. You caught a decorative clip with fake diamonds glued to the thin surface and dropped it into your purse. “Must have forgotten one,” you went on. “Is it too much? My face, that is.”

“I wouldn’t say too much, no.” Yoongi crossed his legs. “Did you take them this morning, or…?”

“Just now.” You finished his sentence with a half-hearted smile. “I left Jung-Hyun about fifteen minutes ago.”

“You must be excited,” he said, his tone neutral.

“Of course,” you replied.

“Is that why the wedding is set in the middle of August? In less than a month from today?”

You sighed. “I know it’s on a short notice, but I promise - I’m not pregnant.”

“Why so quickly then?” Yoongi tilted his head slightly as he continued. “Considering the fact that we got the invitations last week, it does seem suspicious.”

“Really, I’m not.” You sipped your drink. “I mean, you can’t really hide pregnancy.”

Yoongi’s eyes held yours, inspecting them for truth presumably, for a moment longer before he conceded. “No,” he said. “I believe you. But then, what’s the reason?”

“I… I don’t want to go into it,” you said stiffly.

The conversation halted after that. Yoongi had ordered an iced coffee without any dessert or anything, yet didn’t touch the half-finished beverage even once while you poked around in your cheesecake. You hadn’t actually been hungry, even when you asked Jung-Hyun to accompany you for lunch, and pushed the hand-sized plate away from you after a minute or two of poking the strawberry cheesecake apart with your fork.

“How--” you began at the same time Yoongi’s lips parted. With a small smile, you said, “You first.”

He shook his head and gestured for you to start. “No, go ahead.”

“Well…” You shifted your gaze elsewhere. “I was just going to ask how he is doing.”

You didn’t feel the need to clarify what you meant by “he”, and judging by Yoongi’s brief silence, you had been right. Your hands balled into tight fists as he spoke.

“I would like to say that he’s fine. And perhaps I could make you believe me, or at least want to believe me. But that would be a waste of time in the end, right?”

You nodded as you swallowed nervously.

“To put it simply: he’s been having meetings with the director. He wants to quit idoling.”

His words felt as if someone had struck you with a sledgehammer. Your eyes went wider than they have ever been, and you felt your breath hitch in the back of your throat. Instead of accelerating, your heart slowed down until it almost felt as if you had to will it to beat for you. You couldn’t believe what Yoongi had just said. “What?”

Yoongi’s jaw tensed. “He hasn’t told us that straight up, but it’s clear in the way he behaves. He hates it.”

“But his memory returned to him,” you said rapidly, your voice strained. “Even though it might be a bit confusing considering the last few months, he should be fine. All your songs, dance choreographies, memories together as a group… he’s returned to who he used to be. He’s whole again.”

“And he absolutely hates it.”

You felt your throat constrict, painfully, almost to the point where you couldn’t breathe. “But why?” you croaked out. “This is all he’s ever wanted. Even while amnesic, he kept going for the sake of his dream - why would he just give everything he’s fought for up like this?”

“Do I really have to answer that?” Yoongi’s tone had hardened, and so did his eyes as they settled on you. “Stop acting all ignorant and tell me the answer yourself.”

You averted your gaze.

“You’re not doing yourself a favor by acting stupid.”

You still didn’t respond.

He snorted. “Fine,” he began, his voice cool. “Let me illuminate you then: you are the reason Jungkook hates idoling.” When you opened your mouth to protest, Yoongi interjected. “Are you going to ask ‘why?’ to that as well? Or will you lift your head out of the sand and face reality?”

“But he has everything he wants.” You shook your head, completely in disbelief. “He has you, his hyungs, he has his fans… and he has Yi-Jae.”

“He broke up with her.”

You stared incredulously at Yoongi. “You cannot be serious,” you whispered.

“I am,” he told you earnestly, his slim, dark eyes regarding you closely. “As soon as you disappeared from eyesight, Jungkook--” you twitched at the mention, “--tried to run after you. Hoseok and Taehyung grabbed him, but it wasn’t until Sejin-hyung and some other managers came to help that we got him to stop completely.” Yoongi took a deep breath and gazed out of the window. “Though, if not for Namjoon and a slap from Jimin, Jungkook would have definitely caught up to you. And who knows what would have happened to either one of you if he had.”

Yoongi paused, evidently waiting for a reaction or a response from you, but you were paralyzed. He scratched the back of his head before continuing, his tone solemn.

“We managed to convince Jungkook back to the hair and makeup team since there was still a show to be had. Seokjin-hyung found Yi-Jae and led her to Jungkook in hopes she could calm him down, but he told her to… well, ‘go away’ is the nicest way I can put it. I haven’t seen them together ever since.”

“There’s been nothing about it in the news,” you said numbly.

“Neither of our companies have gone public with it yet.” Yoongi checked his phone. “It’s only a matter of time, though.”

You fidgeted in your seat. You didn’t know what to say.

“Have you tried calling him?”

“No,” you admitted as you crossed your arms over your chest. “No, I haven’t.”

“(Y/N).” Yoongi’s tone had softened, become low, barely above a murmur. “What are you afraid of?”

“I’m not scared,” you denied vehemently, an edge creeping into your tone. You glared at him, the mere accusation causing your temper to rise.

Yoongi leaned forward with his elbows onto the round wooden table. There was sympathy in his eyes, and even a touch of understanding underneath the otherwise hard guise as he crossed his hands and leaned his chin onto the small plateau they formed. “Then why don't you just admit the truth?”

Truth. For you to see the truth was what Se-Eun had told you after you had told her everything about Jungkook. And she in turn had gotten it from Yoongi, who was now repeating it to you. It was ridiculous, really. Parts of you jubilated with the word, yearned for the freedom it promised, but other parts of you, namely your mind, kept the rest of your system in check.

There was no truth, it had decided. Thus, no truth existed.

“What truth?” you snapped. “He’s a guy I grew up with and became forcefully engaged to at eighteen. He’s always been an utterly sardonic bastard, and in addition to that, he’s a cheating scumbag. There’s nothing more to it!”

People glanced nervously at you and Yoongi, and though the weight of their combined gazes made you uncomfortable, you didn’t really care. You were angry, increasingly so, and far more defensive than you liked.

Because what reason was there for you to feel defensive if there was no such thing as “truth”?

“He might be a cheating bastard,” said Yoongi quietly. “But you’re a lying coward.”

Your eyes narrowed at him, your next sentence getting caught in your throat. But before you could recover enough to voice a protest or retort, Yoongi went on.

“And worst of all, you’re too proud to admit the truth that’s as obvious as daylight in everyone else’s eyes but yours and Jungkook’s. So what if he’s a cheating bastard and you’re a lying coward - you--”

“Stop,” you tried, though he ignored you.

“--love him more than anything else in the world. Don’t you, (Y/N)?”

All the blood drained from your face. You simply sat there, staring at Yoongi, who had just said the most ridiculous, impossible, stupid, awful, frightening but true words you had ever heard. Because as horrible as it was to admit, even inside your head, you couldn’t deny it anymore - Jeon Jungkook was someone you loved. Utterly and undeniably. You absolutely loved him. For how long or why, you weren’t sure.

But when you even considered allowing yourself to love him, warmth filled you from head to toe, from the very core of your being to your fingertips. It was the kind of warmth that healed all the scars, all the wounds from the last few months - even the betrayal of his unfaithfulness. It was the kind of warmth that you would like to sleep, eat and laugh and talk and simply be with. It was the kind of blissful warmth that you could imagine experiencing for the rest of your life.

It was the kind of warmth only one person in the whole world would be able to provide.

“Are you going to lie to yourself for the rest of your life? Or worse, are you going to live a life of constant, everyday regret?”

Like a distant whisper from another being altogether, Yoongi’s questions trickled into your head, filled it, and cracked the mental barriers you had erected yourself and for yourself.

Yoongi leaned back into his seat, his fingers remaining intertwined over his stomach. “Because that’s the kind of future I see for you. Rich, married and perhaps satisfied with your life one distant day - but something like this…” He shook his head. “All you need to do is acknowledge your feelings yourself. Stop denying them, stop lying to yourself and stop running. Stop being such a proud, damn coward, (Y/N).”

And with that, the barriers crumbled like towers and walls of dust, taken away by a mild, passing breeze. For the first time in your whole life, you allowed your heart to take the lead. Recklessly, one might add, but recklessness was all you could resort to when the future of your life, your happiness and the cause of all that happiness was at stake. You couldn’t think, you couldn’t consider, you couldn’t discuss, you couldn’t reason yourself back to a place of acceptance.

No, you refused to be scared of the truth any longer. You refused to cower before the prospect of allowing someone to love you - and for you to love that someone. You refused to give up your last chance at seizing such a once-in-a-lifetime - for that is what this was, that is what Jungkook really posed to you - opportunity.

Now that you knew, truly knew, you couldn’t let it merely slip past.

Your heart wanted nothing more than a certain twenty-year-old guy, once your family friend, once your fiancé, once your amnesic idol friend and now, the latest: your brother-in-law. You wanted him with every cell, every fiber of your being.

A life without loving Jeon Jungkook would be like living in a world without color and sounds. A shadow of reality, a shell void of both creature and pearl, a poor simulation of something you had experienced and enjoyed for twenty years. Sure, you would perhaps come to see flashes of color, or hear the faintest of sounds at times, but it would still be a drop of water in an ocean endless.

A life without loving Jeon Jungkook would be hollow. As much as you had come to like Jung-Hyun, his gentlemanly ways, polite and silent nature and his gentle confidence, he was a mere firework in a sky full of stars. A sky full of stars, planets, the sun and the moon. It was cruel, but for you, in your heart, he couldn’t even begin to compare to the wonders of the sky.

The sarcastic, jeering, arrogant, stubborn, proud, beautiful, funny, hard-working, caring, strong, supporting and lovable wonder that was Jeon Jungkook. You would need a dictionary, or even more so, make up words on your own to fully describe the world-famous idol, the singer and dancer whose talents and sheer willpower were of such a high caliber, nobody could deny them.

And even then, you would merely have stirred the surface of the real human lying underneath.

As you pulled off the engagement ring Jung-Hyun had bought you, you saw Yoongi’s eyes visibly widen. He had watched silently you while all your thoughts rushed by, and it wasn’t until now that you saw how uncertain he really appeared while talking to you. Uncertain, surely, because he himself wasn’t sure if he was right.

But he was. He was and had been for months.

You loved the bastard known as Jeon Jungkook. You loved him more than made sense.

“Where is he?” you asked hastily. You needed to act before you could talk - or rather, reason yourself - out of canceling a marriage. “Where’s Jungkook?”

“I don’t know,” said Yoongi, his eyebrows rising high across his forehead. “But Taehyung might know. I could call him and ask.”

“Please,” you said.

Yoongi pursed his lips, his eyes still revealing the confusion he felt, as he pressed his phone to his ear. “(Y/N),” he said while waiting for Taehyung to pick up. “About the wedding…”

“Forget about the wedding,” you said and rose. Ignoring the disbelieving look he sent your way, you lowered the engagement ring into your purse and then started toward the nearest bathroom. “I’ll be right back,” you called over your shoulder.

Your heart was accelerating in line with your steps, and by the time you had locked yourself into the single, unisex bathroom, you felt tendrils of anticipation and dread curl in your stomach. You began wiping off the makeup frantically from your face and neck, for even though Yoongi had told you it wasn’t too much, it simply felt too much. Your face was practically as clean as it would have been after a shower when you were satisfied and went back out.

The table was empty, and you found Yoongi standing by the exit downstairs. “Come on,” he told you when you gave him an inquisitive glance. “Taehyung said Jungkook went to a karaokebar. If it’s the one I think it is, it should be in the nearby area.”

With a nod, you followed Yoongi out of Serenity. About ten minutes later, the two of you reached the steps leading up to a small, rundown karaoke bar without a real name. It felt as if though your stomach had curled itself up into a tight ball as you ascended the few concrete steps. But when you realized Yoongi wasn’t moving away from the pavement, you halted and turned around, a frown on your face.

He stopped you from talking by holding up a hand. “I don’t want to intrude,” he explained. “I’ve gotten involved with you two enough already.”

You smiled and hurried down the stairs. “Thank you,” you told him as you came to a stop right in front of him. “Thank you for talking sense into me. Even though he might not forgive me--”

“He will,” interrupted Yoongi firmly, his slim, dark eyes filled with assurance. “But only if you tell him what the people around you two already know.”

“Thank you,” you repeated. You almost wanted to hug him, but decided against it in the end. “And I will.”

Yoongi smiled. It was the smile that seemed to make all the invisible weight of the world on his shoulders disappear. “Good. Now, get in there.”

You could barely breathe when you spoke to the man and owner of the karaoke bar at the front desk. He told you a guy about your age and with his face covered was somewhere in the back of the building, but forced you to rent a room of your own before allowing you to head deeper into the karaoke bar. The money didn’t matter, however. You would have gladly paid ten--no, a hundred times more if the owner demanded it.

A glance across your shoulder revealed Yoongi still waiting outside on the street, watching you through the double glass doors. He stood with his hands inside his pockets, and nodded after you had waved a goodbye. He remained even as you headed deeper into the establishment, and it was you who first disappeared out of range.

No matter how the confrontation between you and Jungkook would turn out, you would be eternally in Min Yoongi’s debt. For he woke you up. Even if Se-Eun had tried, she wouldn’t have been as brutally honest or insisted on the subject as he had. She would have resigned, knowing your way of mind now after nine years of friendship.

But Yoongi, who didn’t know anything about you, had persevered and persisted. You owed him, and you would always be grateful toward him even if Jungkook would refuse to forgive you.

There were faint music coming from down the straight hallway the owner had instructed you to take. Since it was almost in the middle of the day, not even students would be there. Therefore, when you stopped outside the only door that seemed to hold an occupant, you were confident about the fact of who was currently inside.

You weren’t as confident going inside, however.

While you weighed yourself from foot to foot, nervously trying to build up enough courage to knock on the door, the song ended. You heard the cheering of a “100” point or “Perfect!” score, which the karaoke machine announcer said with an overly sweet tone, and then a loud chain of curses, which didn’t come from any machine announcer you had ever known.

No, you recognized it for who it was - Jeon Jungkook.

He continued to mutter curses, but then the song resumed. This close, you knew that it was familiar, but you couldn’t put your finger on it. You inhaled deeply before pressing your ear against the smooth surface of the door, and concentrated on discerning the words.

“I feel such regret right now…”

A shiver, starting from the crown of your head, traveled to the very tips of your toes as you recognized the lyrics. It was the same song Jungkook had sang that Friday night you had taken him up on the stupidest of bets.

A bet of ignorance and a kiss.

When the shock faded enough for you to think, you frowned. If now Jungkook was, for some reason or another, trying to recreate that bet by singing that same song right then, he wouldn’t have been able to lose the bet. Not with a perfect score. Yet, why was he getting so irritated and why was he replaying the song?

Cold fingers trailed down your back when you realized it. Jungkook wasn’t trying to win the old bet between you and him by recreating it - he was trying to get the exact same score as he had that day.

You didn’t even dare guess as to why.

Jungkook’s muffled curses were what brought you back into the situation at hand. You withdrew from the door and lifted your hand, forming a fist in the air. When you began moving it toward the painted wood, however, you found yourself freezing. Mid-swing, you simply stared from the door to your hand, and even though you willed it forward, propelled it with the weight of your body, the arm wouldn’t obey. It was as if though you had gotten stuck on an invisible wall.

You were terrified. Utterly and undeniably. Again, you felt the urge to just bolt out of the karaoke bar, and it took all your courage, bravery you scrounged together from all corners and nooks of your heart, not to. Besides, you had a feeling Yoongi was still outside, making sure you were actually doing what you had come to do. So much for not getting any more involved.

“You can do this,” you mumbled to yourself, fleetingly glad that you were the only two patrons there. Who knows what you would have done if there was an audience around. “Just knock on the stupid door and tell him how you really feel.”

But how were you supposed to formulate yourself? Thanks to Yoongi, you had acknowledged to yourself that you loved Jungkook more than you would ever admit out loud, more than you cared about the repercussions of your current decision. You loved him enough to not care about circumstances any longer.

You had been a fool, an ignorant, dismissive and dogged fool. You saw that now. Lying to Jungkook after his amnesia had been the biggest mistake of your life - one that you intended to rectify now that you had the chance.

You needed to tell Jungkook just that.

While musing, you hadn’t even been aware that the music had since long ceased. And so, when the door abruptly opened inwardly before you and a tall, brown-haired guy wearing a white t-shirt, jeans, boots and a mouth mask stepped out, you stopped breathing altogether. Even if you would have wanted to run away like you had the last time the two of you had been in the same space, you couldn’t.

All you could do was stare.

The familiar, large brown eyes of Jeon Jungkook rounded when they spotted you, and scoured you up and down several times before they settled onto yours. You jolted inwardly, your heart now also deciding to stop beating, as if not to disturb the suddenly deathly silence that had befallen the hallway in a shabby karaoke bar without name.

For an unknown amount of time, the two of you simply stood there, on each side of the doorway, doing nothing but looking at the other. It had been almost two months since you last had seen each other, yet it felt as if though it was just last yesterday you had seen Jungkook on stage for the first time. It felt as if though it was just last week that you two had been engaged. It felt as if though it was just last month that he had found you in the middle of the forest and carried you on his back to civilization, children both of you. It felt as if though it was just last year you had discovered the bruises his father secretly inflicted on both him and his mother.

Yet, it felt as if though an eternity had passed since you had confessed to yourself what exactly it was you felt for Jeon Jungkook.

“(Y/N)?”

Your name escaped his chapped lips in a whisper, a soft flutter of wings. He sounded so hesitant, so skeptical, so confused, you weren’t sure what really to say in return. Thus, you settled for a nod, and then lowered your gaze to the dirty floor.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you,” you mumbled.

“Why?”

His tone was impossible to read. Partly because he was speaking so quietly you only barely heard him over your own heartbeats, which had resumed beating again, fortunately. And then partly because you were so frightened and anxious to reply, you felt nauseous.

“Because…” You cleared your throat, still refusing to look up at him. Tears were burning in the back of your eyes, like strong alcohol down your throat. “Because,” you tried again, though your voice cracked.

“Did something happen to your parents? Or my brother?”

You couldn’t believe how calm and put-together he sounded. Though it was tempting to glance up at him, to at least be able to read his features, you knew you wouldn’t be able to refrain from crying if you met his gaze.

“No,” you told him, eyes glued to your shoes. “I came for you. To tell you…”

Jungkook was silent. You sensed the seconds tick by, but he didn’t push you.

Your hands balled into fists at your sides. “I came to tell you, Jungkook… that I… I…”

“You’re not wearing your ring.”

“I’m not,” you reaffirmed slowly, your voice trembling in a sickening mixture of nervousness and apprehension. You took a deep breath before continuing. “And Jungkook, the reason for that is--”

You never managed to finish your sentence. All of a sudden, you felt yourself being pulled into a tight embrace. It happened too quickly for you to react. You had barely blinked before you found yourself wrapped around a pair of strong arms. The smell of soap, warmth and uniquely Jungkook filled your nostrils for the first time since May 30th, and enveloped you in a familiar sense of safety. You inhaled deeply, and carefully placed your hands onto Jungkook’s broad back while you did your best to fight against the waves of tears threatening to assault the shores of your yet dry cheeks.

“You’ve lost a lot of weight.”

You swallowed against the lump in your throat. “Ten kilos,” you muttered into the fabric of his t-shirt.

“Of course. You just had to literally one-up me, didn’t you?”

Speechless. No words seemed to be able to form in your mouth. For you had been ready for a complete denial ever since Yoongi first had managed to make a crack in your defenses. You had been ready to not be forgiven. You had been ready to be cussed out and yelled at. You had been ready to have to grovel and beg and plead. You had been ready for the agony of fighting, arguing and trying to convince him you truly were apologetic.

You hadn’t been ready for the opposite of all that.

Hot saltwater trickled down your eyes. You could taste a few tears in the corners of your lips, and you sniffled as discreetly as you could, praying - in vain - that he wouldn’t sense, wouldn’t notice.

“Don’t cry,” said Jungkook gently, his grip of you tightening.

“I’m sorry, Jungkook.” Your fingers clutched his tee with painfully obvious desperation. “I’m so sorry for lying to you. I shouldn’t have, I know I shouldn’t have. I just… I thought it would be the best for both of us. I was stupid, so freaking stupid, I mean, I call you that all the time but--”

“I get it, (Y/N),” he murmured softly. “I really do, so please - stop crying. I can’t bear seeing you this sad.”

“You should be angry with me,” you insisted, the tears thickening your tone. “And you definitely were when you first found out. Why won’t you scream at me now? Why--” You had to clear your throat. “Why are you hugging me instead?”

“Of course I was angry.” His breath stirred your hair since you still refused to look up. “You made me think I was in love with someone I have never loved. Don’t you get how difficult it was for me to try and wrap my head around all that while I was amnesic, even less when I got my memories back? I felt betrayed by the person I came to appreciate more than anyone else in this entire word."

Despite his words, Jungkook sounded composed, unflappable even. You reacted at something else, however.

“What do you mean?” you wondered numbly. “You loved Yi-Jae, didn’t you?”

The answer was precise, curt, revealing not even a shred of dishonesty. “No.”

“But why--” you started.

“Because I was afraid.” Jungkook released you and brushed the back of his fingers against your cheek carefully. “I was afraid, proud and a complete fucking dumbass. And I’ve told you why. I felt like my family were leeching off of yours, and I hated being bound by some ridiculous promise your grandfather made my dad. I thought I could run away from my burden by cheating on you - I thought for sure the marriage would be off then.”

“But what about this?” you asked with a slight frown, your tears starting to dry up in their wells. You pointed from him to yourself. “What about us? If you wanted to get away from me--”

“I never said that, did I?”

For the first time since the start of that conversation, you lifted your gaze. When your eyes locked with Jungkook’s, you saw your own vulnerability, your uncertainty, your yearning and longing reflected in his.

“Then what?” you whispered, both happy and frightened at the discovery.

Jungkook’s hands dropped to curl around yours. He held your fingers loosely, yet your heart rate surged into gallop when he leaned closer to you.

“With time,” he replied quietly, “I wanted to do all that on my own.”

You inhaled sharply. Amusement briefly flickered in Jungkook’s familiar brown eyes before they grew solemn again. “You should already know by now, since I told you, that you’ve always been the light of my life. Though I used to despise having to be with you all the time, I eventually came to accept it and even started looking forward to seeing you.” He chuckled lightly. “No one else got as irritated as you when I disagreed with the person in question.”

“Bastard,” you managed, even though you smiled, too.

“For me to let you go would have been an impossibility,” he went on. “I don’t know when exactly I started feeling strongly for you, but I remember clearly realizing it the exact moment we became engaged.” Jungkook paused and his eyes darted elsewhere. “I’ve never been as terrified in my whole life.”

“Why?” you asked for probably the fifteenth time that day.

Jungkook brought you close to his chest again. You allowed him, and relaxed against the shape of his torso, your hands finding their way back across his back. You could get used to this.

“I didn’t know what you felt about me.”

“I didn’t like you,” you admitted, feeling that he had been too open and honest for you to be shy with your answers. “You were a pain in the backside, and you were cold and brusque and sardonic. You were also really arrogant and had this way about you as if nothing else but you mattered.”

“‘Pain in the backside’ was explanation enough,” he said dryly.

You shrugged the best you could as you tried to hide a grin. “I just thought I should define what exactly that meant.”

He sighed, though you could sense a smile bleed into his retort. “Why did I have to fall in love with a heartless brute like you?”

Warmth blossomed across your face, chest and neck. In fact, every part of your body felt as if though they had been set ablaze. Your heart was beating in rhythm with Jungkook's, which you felt accelerate when you squeezed him harder against you.

“I’d punch you if I could, you know,” you told him as a fresh batch of tears crested your eyes. “For making me cry.”

Jungkook chuckled, and it reverberated across his torso. “I know,” he murmured into your hair. “And I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

#MCAF #Ao3 #Wrienne #bts fic #bts x reader #bts fanfiction #bts jungkook #Jeon Jungkook/Reader #Characters:#Jeon Jungkook #Reader-Insert

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eliibang · 2 years ago

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➵ 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝟐𝟓𝟏𝟐, 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟎𝟐.

SUMMARY. Three years ago, the capital of South Korea plunged into horror, and no one could ever understand what happened. Jeon Jungkook, an intern in journalism, is in charge of this story. Will he be able to find the truth about what happened on that christmas night ?

PAIRING. kim taehyung x jeon jungkook. + bts [non idols]

WARNINGS. minor dni, +18 only — mention of blood, murders, insults, physical violence, verbal violence, detailed smut, unprotected sex, oral sex, betraying.

TAGS. @eunwhore , @sunboki , @spookysins , @lethallyprotected , @dipjria / comment or dm if you want to be in my tag list !

When Jungkook returned to his office, he was both excited and stressed. Interviewing Kim Taehyung was a challenge, it was almost impossible.

No journalist, even the most experienced, had been able to interview him, so it was truly a great opportunity for him to have this opportunity.

But he knew it wasn't easy, Taehyung could refuse to answer him at any time. It had been almost three years since the massacre, three years since Seoul City was completely misunderstood and awaited answers.

“So, Jungkook-ssi, how did the interview go with the terror of Seoul?” asked his manager, with an amused look, as he walked into the office.

He probably didn't expect Jungkook to succeed, just like the rest of his colleagues. And it's probably Taehyung's fault, for not answering until now, but Jungkook felt a little hurt when the silence appeared in the huge open office.

“Good, he said he'd answer my questions.”

As soon as the words had gone out of her lips, silence had taken place. He knew it wasn't his fault, that it wasn't a lack of confidence on the part of his new colleagues, but his ego had taken a hit.

No one ever thought they could make Seoul's terror speak, let alone Jungkook who only entered the business.

“And what is his explanation?” Asked the editor.

“The visit ended before he could say anything. He answered while setting up his things on his desk. But I have another visit with him in the late afternoon tomorrow. I think he'll tell me a little bit more.”

He smiled softly, while silence still prevailed. Jungkook was determined to know the truth, no matter how long and how many visits it would take him. He was certain, and Jungkook knew, that Taehyung wasn't going to tell him all of a sudden.

Gradually, the office resumed its normal state and the voices mixed in with each other, mixed with the sounds of keyboards and mice.

“Should we make an announcement? You know, to warn the public that Taehyung-ssi is willing to talk.”

The chief raised an eyebrow. “Taehyung-ssi, are you guys that close already? No, you better not. If he decides not to answer, it'll only stir them up and they'll think we lied if we don't give them answers.”

Jungkook nodded and finally sat at his desk. He took his time to write a first report on his visit with Taehyung, losing his mind several times.

He can’t understand how a man, who had everything for him, ended up committing such a horrible act. He was attractive, rich and loved, what could have caused him to kill his closest friends ?

What happened that night, what was the trigger, why and how did it come to the decision to commit not one, but two murders? These questions had been unanswered for almost three years, Jungkook hoped to finally be able to answer them and help grieving families.

On his side, Taehyung was laying on the bed of his cell with his arms crossed behind his head. He was thinking about his talk with Jungkook or rather, Jungkook. He was genuinely intrigued by this boy, his face was so angelic, and yet he had come to talk to the worst person Seoul has known in the last three years.

For a moment Taehyung thought of what he could tell him, that he could answer enough to explain his act; but he could not find any. He ruminated for a few moments, before he remembered old memories.

He layd there for a long time, thinking back to the past, to his friends, until the guard came to pick him up for dinner. From that point on, he didn't think about Jungkook and his visit, or even about his friends and his slaughter.

The next day, Jungkook mentally prepared himself for his interview with Taehyung. On one hand, he was stressed that he wouldn’t have an answer because Taehyung was considered unpredictable, but on the other hand, he grasped the answer Taehyung was going to give him.

He was so stressed, he got ready in a hurry. He forgot his glasses and didn't even button his shirt up. Taehyung thought it was pretty cute and he didn't miss to point out. He had fun watching Jungkook turn all red, while he buttoned his shirt and put his hair back in place.

“ You seem stressed to me, Jungkook-ah. He put on a smile in the corner of his lips. Don't be, it's just me.”

Exactly. Jungkook thought.

Of course, they had professional interactions in the past because Jungkook was a photographer and Taehyung actor, but it was always very brief.

“I'm not stressed. He's lying. I'm just looking forward to the details.”

And it was true in a way, but it still made Jungkook anxious. Taehyung wasn't judged crazy, otherwise they would have committed him. He had his whole head and he knew exactly what he had done.

However, unlike some serial killers — couldn't it be said that he was one? — he hadn't focused on the details, he never bragged that he had killed, let alone several people in one evening, in less than ten minutes.

“What do you want to know, Jungkook-ah?”

Taehyung was playing and Jungkook knew it. But this time, he took more confidence than the day before.

“I want to know why you killed your friends, Taehyung-ssi.”

Taehyung stood silent for a moment, staring Jungkook right in the eye. Then he moistened his lips before moving his upper body closer to Jungkook, delivered at the table.

“Well, that's a pretty complex question I can't answer you, Jungkook-ah.”

Jungkook stood on his ass, he should have known Taehyung was making it work. He had believed it, but on second thought, why would he answer to him? He was nothing special and far less experienced than the reporters who tried to interview Taehyung.

Jungkook's look was a mixture of anger and disappointment now and Taehyung could feel it. He finally went to his chair and waited for any reaction from the youngest. She was coming soon.

“Well, I guess I should have known. I should note that the accused does not wish to argue, unless you want to say something?”

“You didn't ask me why.”

Jungkook frowned. “Why what?”

“Why I can’t answer you.” Taehyung insisted that he couldn't answer, not that he didn't want to.

“Well, Taehyung-ssi, why can't you give me a reason for your act?”

“Because I don't have any. I have no valid reason for doing what I do. Not that anything justifies murder, but, in my case, there was no triggering event that made me do what I did.”

Jungkook stood on his ass, he didn't expect that. How could anyone kill in cold blood for no reason? Not that killing someone could be justifiable, but for no reason? There's something really wrong with him.

“What do you mean, you have no reason ? There must be something that made you commit this crime?”

“No, there is not. He looked down before he raised his head and smiled softly. But maybe I should start at the beginning, right?”

Jungkook nodded, and Taehyung moistened his lips before starting his story.

“I should start with my meeting with Jay, so you can understand how I met them all, and what happened.”

as said in the plot before, this fanfiction is also on wattpad, but in french. since i’m native french here is the link if you want to take a look ! i hope you liked it, i know it’s kinda different of all the fairies and butterflies fluff stories but i really hope you will get interest in it !! i’m looking forward your reactions and thoughts !!♡

#bts #bangtan #bts imagines #kim namjoon #kim seokjin #min yoongi #jung hoseok #park jimin #kim taehyung #jeon jungkook

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tolivewithout · 2 years ago

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welcome to london, DANIEL MEADE! did anyone ever tell you that you look just like KEREM BÜRSIN? well, no matter, we hear that you are 35 and are UNEMPLOYED. we also hear that you currently HAVE your memories from UGLY BETTY and have a tendency to be BOLD as well as UNFOCUSED.

side blog to @gotnorighttodoless.

this blog uses new editor.

// I have been binge watching Ugly Betty for the first time since it was still on tv and THIS SHOW. THIS MAN. THE HOLD I AM IN. !!!! Spoilers following for anyone who hasn't watched the series before, it ended in the worst way but also the best way for a writer like me.

STATS

casting: kerem bürsin fandom: ugly betty name: daniel meade alias[es]: danny; rich jerk. note: he will not speak to anyone who calls him danny. age: 35 sex: male sexuality: previously serial ONS hetero, now demi-hetero thanks to actual canon character growth. occupation: currently unemployed memory status: intact

NOTES

Daniel, once the Editor in Chief of MODE, quit his job after four years in the position and booked a one way flight to London because, as he finally told his best friend/former assistant, he couldn't live without her in his life. I'm going to cause pain for my Detty shipping self with this but Daniel ended up here instead of the London he intended to go to, which means the wonderful, squeal inducing conversation at the end of the series never happened for Daniel. I'm not crying...

WANTED CONNECTIONS

Betty Suarez People who work in publishing, or for magazines. Neighbors Friends

#『out of love』#wal: intro

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financialsmatter · 2 years ago

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What IF You Are Wrong?

It appears that no one in Western leadership will answer the question: What if you are wrong about war with Ukraine? Another question that should be asked – but will likely be ignored – is: Has this ever worked before? Because when you openly/publicly threaten a nation with sanctions and/or military advancement is there a precedent for it ever working? The answer to that is NO. Sanctions don’t work and never have worked in the past. So, why does the O’Biden Administration believe that openly threatening China for supporting Russia will make them back down? READ: Is O’Biden Provoking China to WWIII? September 23, 2022 (HERE) Within the last five days we’ve heard how China basically gave O’Biden the finger by sending arms to Russia. And they went on to say that China would not hesitate to engage U.S. forces stationed in Taiwan if the Chinese launched an invasion of the island nation. Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Global Times, reacted to a Wall Street Journal report about U.S. troops traveling to Taiwan… calling it “illegal.” And suggested that China would treat them as enemy combatants. Meanwhile – adding gasoline to the fire on the Russian front – former Fed Chairman Janet “Mrs. Doubtfire” Yellen visited Ukraine on Monday. And she discussed $10 billion in new budgetary aid for Kiev, and announced the first $1.2 billion tranche. Ironically (or NOT) that was after Ukrainian Pimp Zelensky berated and threatened Americans for not being supportive of his money-laundering racket. READ: Zelensky Berates, Threatens Unsupportive Americans February 27, 2023 (HERE) Wondering What If You Are Wrong As a result, Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned the west of the dire, worst-case scenario that awaits if it keeps escalating its support to Ukrainian forces. And he was quoted as saying: the Western policy of arming Ukraine could lead to "apocalypse." So, with China and Russia issuing dire warnings against the policies towards them from the West, will anyone give an answer to the question: “What if we are wrong?” Sad to say that the Neocons will never admit they’re wrong. And from the beginning they’ve had no intentions of entertaining peace talks. Bottom line? WW3 is imminent. And getting closer every day. So, what should you do about it? You can start by reading our upcoming March edition of “…In Plain English” (HERE). It’s where we show you where to protect your investments in times of war. Share this with a friend…even if they still don’t believe Ukraine is the most corrupt country on the planet. They’ll thank YOU later. Remember: We’re Not Just About Finance. But we use finance to give you hope. ***************************************** Invest with confidence. Sincerely, James Vincent The Reverend of Finance Copyright © 2023 It's Not Just About Finance, LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Read the full article

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ryuruwu · 5 months ago

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Ok as an avid wsj enthusiast I got curious and did some research, I hope you're ok with this miles long reblog lol

Personally I don't think that Akane Banashi will get "AXED" axed (hope you get what I'm saying with this lol), at least not like they did it with P6 and HSFam last year. The worst that could possibly happen to AB is that it gets transferred to Jump+ or monthly publication, considering it has gotten a crazy amount of covers/color pages, and the only two series to have been axed despite getting a cover more than twice are Samon and that dance club one.

Imo the only thing that’s enough to get Akane to be axed w/o anime is more than 5 new series in one batch, but I don’t think it’s ever going to happen unless the editor in chief changes, and that seems kinda unlikely at least until both BNHA and JJK end (probably take a couple more months for JJK? Idk).

Like I said before this is going to be one hell of a long post so I’m putting the rest under the cut, but under are comparisons of Akane’s average ToC ranks and other series’s Toc ranks. (Data courtesy of Jajanken)

This is the average 8 weeks toc ranks of all the current serials as of June.

As shown here, AB has a better average performance than half the series that got an anime.

And it gets consistent color pages too

Here are P6 and HSFam’s average ranks before they were cancelled.

HSFam

No color pages towards the last 8 weeks!

And Akane has gotten a lead color page 3 times BEFORE its first anniversary issue! That’s an amazing achievement for a newbie author!!

I mean with popular authors returning Hunter x Hunter might be coming back soon, but I don’t think we have to worry about it too much since they said something about leaving weekly serialization last time iirc, so like exactly what you said AB is far away from danger of cancellation, I hope these made anon’s worries go away a bit!

I don’t look at twitter much so this is just a word of mouth, but I heard that akane banash isn’t doing so good in the weekly toc lately and Im worrieds that it gonna get cancelled before it gets an anime,,,

I hear is fine so long as it doesn’t fall in to bottom5~1 of toc but considering how most of the manga that are currently in bottom 5 gonna end soon I’m still worrieds :/

If Akane banash gets cancel sooner than that unfunny copaganda I stfg

Oh no, I'm not on twitter either so I've been under the blissfully ignorant (?) assumption that it's happily settled in the middle. I hope it's not in trouble; I can't take another PPPPPP situation (but that did worse before it was killed before its time cancelled so there's that). Take my baseless speculation with a grain of salt, because idk how Jump decides what to keep and what to axe (besides pure popularity/sales), but I'd guess it's not in any immediate danger? I mean this round Green Green Greens is getting axed, Dear Anemone is probably next and Ruri Dragon has permanently moved to digital publication, and next round, who can say, maybe new series will get cut again, maybe a long-running series will have ended? It seems mad to axe a series that's been running for over 2 years already and sells ~50k when so many long-running series are ending soon. Then again, who knows, maybe a big name author will come back next round and WSJ'll do something crazy (this is another jab at PPPPPP's axing). Anyway, hopefully the climax of Akane-Banashi's current arc will give it a boost in popularity waaay before next round. I'm biased as a AB fan, but no doubt that it will be fire!

If anyone more knowledgeable can weigh in, please do!

#long post #so sad about GGG though #like. how are they going to wrap things up in ONE last chapter

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deedeekpop · 3 years ago

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Summary Seungcheol never seems to have much time on his hands, but after he meets you, his schedule suddenly gets a lot freer.

Word Count 5.6k

Genres fluff, minor angst, strangers to friends to lovers, hurt and comfort au

Pairing(s) journalist!reader x football player!Seungcheol (gn reader)

Warnings None really, just a lot of fluff. Y/N does get hurt at some point, but it is taken care of pretty quickly.

A/N Pretty sure this is the fluffiest fluff I’ve written so far. I enjoyed writing this one, and wrote it quite quickly. I hope you enjoy reading it, and let me know how I can improve. :)

Masterlist

You had begun working on the college newspaper in your first year, and since then you had worked your way up steadily. You were now in your final year, and had worked your way up to Copy editor, often getting front-page spreads.

So, it wasn’t long before you were given something you weren’t totally comfortable with. Usually, you were stuck with clubs and sorority events, though every so often you got a rogue article. Such as this one. You went to visit your editor-in-chief, Jeon Wonwoo, about the new article you were given. It was your fourth week back, and you had already been given an impossible task over email.

“Are you kidding me Wonwoo, Choi Seungcheol, he’s like the most unavailable person ever!” You whined.

“Which is why it has to be you! No one else has the drive that you have, plus you can ramble on one sentence into two paragraphs. If you get so little information, you can always stretch it out a little. Plus, I know you can get anything out of anyone, so you’ll be fine.”

“How do you know that? I haven’t dealt with someone like him before. The worst I’ve interviewed is some arrogant tennis player. They couldn’t stop talking about themselves, he doesn’t want to, he’s the exact opposite.” You complained.

“You could deal with a challenge once in a while, Y/N.” Wonwoo teased.

“Are you sure I can’t change over?” You pouted, “He’s going to be impossible to get anything good out of.”

“Sorry, Y/N, but no one else can do it but you. Plus, it’s going to be a two-page spread, so it can only be you that can do it.”

“Two-page spread! Wonwoo!”

And with that, he hung up, leaving you in despair. How could you do this? It was literally impossible to get an interview with this man, and you hadn’t seen an interview longer than two sentences ever from him. It didn’t seem like it was about to change any time soon.

You knew that most didn’t understand why you were so worried about this interview, but they would understand soon. Choi Seungcheol wasn’t bad by any means, you had heard he was quite sweet (after all he was friends with Wonwoo), but you knew of his reputation.

Choi Seungcheol was a well-known workaholic, as the captain of the football team you supposed it would make sense, but it meant that most of the time he was unavailable. This didn’t mean good things for you, because it was impossible to get any sort of interview, and this was going to be a lot harder than you expected.

At least by you could hope for a good interview, and that this interview could boost your resume. After all, an interview with a star football player would be great for your resume, especially if he became successful afterwards (and with his work ethic, it seemed likely).

He just had to think positively, this interview could be your future, and you couldn’t let Choi Seungcheol ruin it for you.

It didn’t take you too long to get a hold of him, much to your surprise. You managed to get his number through a mutual friend of yours, Kwon Soonyoung (though everyone calls him Hoshi). You originally came to the realisation, when you remembered that Hoshi was literally friends with everyone, Seungcheol included.

So that’s what you did, and Hoshi being a good friend, sent you Seungcheol’s number. You knew that a lot of people would be jealous of your situation, after all, despite all his absences, he is a star football player (and obviously he attracted a lot of unwanted attention).

After getting his number, you just stared at it for a while, after all, what were you supposed to say to him. What would he think when you just texted him, would he think you were weird? After all, you had just got his number from his friend, it wasn’t like he had asked himself. You could only hope he didn’t see you that way.

Staring at the new open contact on your phone, you couldn’t help but run through all the different scenarios in your head, ranging from the absolute best to the worst. The worst he could do is find you a little strange, right? He’d understand why you got his number, maybe Wonwoo told him.

Shrugging away the anticipation, you finally decide to make a move. Pulling up a text, you begin to type a straightforward message, after all, you can’t have him finding you weird.

“Hey Seungcheol,” You wrote, “I hope you don’t find this weird, but I got your number from Hoshi. I’m Y/N L/N, I work for the school newspaper. I don’t know if Wonwoo told you, but we’re planning on doing a spread for you this month. If you can, would you let me know the times you are available for an interview? I understand your busy schedule, and I am willing to be flexible with meeting times if you are uncomfortable.”

It takes him about an hour for him to respond, the entire time you were on the edge of your seat. Were you too formal? Maybe it was too uptight? So, when he finally responded, it was definitely a mental relief.

The response was simple from Seungcheol, “Oh, yes, I heard about this from Wonwoo. I’m able to meet up this week quickly, I have a lot of work to do so I hope you understand.”

Whilst the response was a lot shorter than your lengthy message, it wasn’t a decline, so you internally jumped for joy. It seemed that you could get some information for your article, no matter how brief the meeting, all you had to do now was seal the deal.

“I’m free throughout the entire week, so just let me know the times you’re available and we can schedule a meeting. I’m really looking forward to seeing you, I have a lot of interesting questions waiting.” You cringed at how formal the text conversation you were having was, it definitely felt tense and stifled, though you supposed that he was used to dealing with reporters.

You hoped that you had made a good impression, you wanted the interview to be comfortable. Whilst you were sure he was used to dealing with journalists throughout his football career, you hoped that you could finally break down the hard outer shell of the star football player. After all, you had a two-page spread article on him to write, you needed all the help you could get.

You conversed with Seungcheol little before you decided on a place for the interview, a little coffee shop you liked down the road from college. You hoped the atmosphere would relax him enough to get more information out of him, after all this was purely a business meeting.

Keeping that in mind, you arrived at the café early than necessary. Impressing him was key, you thought, maybe then you could get more information out of him. You had to get information out of him, that was all that was running through your mind.

Eventually snapping out of your trance, you ordered a warm drink and took a seat at the booth in the corner. Figuring that he wouldn’t be here for a while, you pulled out your laptop and begin going over and perfecting your list of questions. This had to be a perfect article, it had to ask all the right questions.

You didn’t really understand why you were so fixated on writing this article well. It wasn’t like it counted towards anything, and if you genuinely couldn’t get anything from him, you were sure that Wonwoo would give you a different article. Maybe it was the fact you were a perfectionist, or the fact that you often feared disappointing people.

Drowning yourself in your work, you don’t realise when Seungcheol has arrived.

“Y/N, right?” He asked politely, tapping his hand on the table to get your attention.

“Oh, yes, sorry… it’s very nice to meet you Seungcheol. I hope you weren’t looking for too long.” You ramble, slightly flustered.

“No, it’s okay. I just looked for the busiest person in the café and assumed it was you, plus Soonyoung told me what you looked like.” He gives a charming smile, you understood now why everyone was crazy about him, he was quite cute.

“Ah sorry, it’s just I have a lot of questions to ask you, so I was just trying to organise them.”

“No, it’s okay, just… I can’t be here too long, sorry, I have practice soon.” He admitted, slightly awkward.

“It’s fine, I’ll just ask you the more important questions first, then we’ll get down to the more trivial ones if we have time.”

“Fire away!” He smiles encouragingly.

“Okay then…” Your eyes scan over the carefully-worded questions, perfectly orchestrated, “It’s well known that you dedicate a lot of time to the sport you play, as captain I imagine that’s necessary. Spending so much time on it, it must be very special for you. What makes you cherish football so much?”

Seungcheol looks taken aback, maybe you had already gone too deep with the first question. Sensing that he was feeling uncomfortable, you broke the silence that had been steadily building.

“I’m sorry, was that too personal? I can ask you another.”

“No, it’s fine. I just didn’t expect you to ask these sort of questions.”

“What else would I ask you about, you’re the captain of the team, surely you were expecting some questions about football?” You ask, genuinely confused.

“It’s just when I pick up the school paper, it’s usually filled with gossip on the front page.”

“That’s because it’s more eye-catching, no one picks up a paper wanting to know about the new school policies, there’s always tons of interesting stuff inside it.” You explained.

“Makes sense.” He admits bashfully.

“Do you feel comfortable answering the question then?”

“Oh, yeah, sure… I guess it’s the rush of excitement when you play. There’s nothing like it, the exhilaration of a win. I guess it sounds quite generic, but when I play football it’s like I’m not here anymore, I’m in my own little world. “

“Wow, it sounds like you have a lot of fun out there, is there anyone who inspired you to begin playing?”

You carried on interviewing, not expecting him to stay as long as he did. There was one question left, that you had been reluctant to use. It was quite vulnerable, and you didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, especially when he was such a private guy. But you decided to take a leap of faith.

“My final question’s a little different from the others, and if it’s too much just let me know, I’ll cut it out.”

“Ok, go ahead.”

“Being captain of the football team is seen as a dream by many others, and with your love for the sport, it must be for you too. But with so many other people relying on you, there must be a lot of pressure. Do you ever feel insecure about the role?”

A silence ushers over you, lingering in the air. Despite the invasive question, he seemed to be in deep thought, rather than upset. For a man who came into the café expecting to answer questions about his love life, this was a question he definitely hadn’t prepared for.

“I’d say that times have been hard before.” He finally answers, “Sometimes before big games, I feel this overwhelming pressure, and as the captain, I have to set an example, so I can’t screw up. If I screwed up, what would everyone else think, you know?”

“I understand completely, you’re not alone thinking that. Sometimes I worry about not being good enough, being copy editor, but I can’t imagine the pressure you feel. You seem to handle it well though, no one who watches your games would know.” You comfort.

Typing up a couple of notes, you eventually thank him for coming, before he makes an exit, awkwardly waving goodbye. He seemed nice, you understood why everyone liked him so much, it seemed like he could deal with most things under pressure. Daydreaming to yourself, you began to copy up notes onto your laptop, eager to have this article finished as soon as possible.

Little did you know, you had made quite the impression on Choi Seungcheol. He hadn’t expected your professional attitude, along with the hard-hitting questions. But above all of that, he admired your attentiveness. It seemed that you actually genuinely cared about his wellbeing, and he admired the passion you had for your job. He was immediately smitten.

Ever since your initial interview with Choi Seungcheol, it seems like you can’t stop seeing him everywhere. Not like it was an issue, but you didn’t know how often you actually saw him throughout your day. Plus, now you treated every day like a game of where’s wally, picking out Seungcheol from the crowd.

Perhaps ever since the interview, you might have developed the tiniest crush on him. He just seemed like a sweet guy, and it helped that he was easy on the eyes too. It was just your luck, landing a crush on the most unattainable guy in school, a man completely uninterested in starting a relationship and focusing more on football.

The first time you ran into him was only a day later, almost spilling your flask all over him, focused on making notes rather than looking ahead of you. You immediately apologised, but he made it seem like no big deal. He was just that type of person.

“When’s the article going to be out?” He had asked you, you had sent him your final draft and he had approved it. It was only Wonwoo now standing in the way of it being published.

“Oh, I haven’t heard back yet, Wonwoo’s still reading through it.”

“Well, don’t let him reject it. It’s one of the best articles I’ve ever read, not to sound egotistical. It’s your writing, not the subject matter.” He fumbled.

Your face immediately flushed, the mixture of embarrassment and thrill reaching your ears.

The conversation ended shortly after that, the two of you going your separate ways, stuck in the pull of the waves of people in the corridors. It wasn’t long before you spoke to him again.

This time the two of you bumped into each other whilst queuing for food. You had your eye on the chocolate cake, and the pieces were going down rapidly, so you might have been slightly pushing in. Seungcheol caught you after you had accidentally bumped into him whilst fighting your way to the front.

“Are you pushing in, Y/N? Didn’t take you for that sort of person.” He joked.

“It’s chocolate cake, it changes me into someone else.”

“Understandable. It does taste really good.”

You remember the silence clearly that followed. You just couldn’t bring yourself to say all the things you wanted to, and you didn’t know what you wanted to say. Hence the awkward silence followed, only ending when the two of you got to the front of the queue. Shortly after, you parted ways, the entire time walking to your friends you were cringing at your stupidity.

It was like you were seeing him everywhere, like the library (the two of you were in the same section), or the park nearby to campus. It was almost like fate was trying to pull you together. But you had to resist, you couldn’t set yourself up for disappointment. You had to maintain realistic.

The most recent you had seen him was at a party, you were quite drunk when you saw him, and he didn’t seem far off either. Despite the atmosphere, he asked about the article.

“Do you know when it’s getting published?” He shouted over the music.

“On Monday!” You replied, equally as loud.

You danced together for a bit afterwards, you eventually leaving him to throw your guts up in the bathroom. Safe to say, that night wasn’t one you were trying to remember.

All this added up to one fact: you could never escape Choi Seungcheol. You knew it, your friends knew it (and teased you about it), and to be honest, so did everyone else. Great.

Seungcheol hadn’t expected to go out after practice had ended, but he supposed the local Korean takeaway was a good place to start. He hadn’t eaten Korean food in a long time, and he was starting to crave it, but he doubted that the food would be as good as his mothers.

So there he was, following Hoshi (who had been before), along with Mingyu and Seungkwan at nine in the evening to get take out. What could be better than this? He would be soon to find out, that he had been invited there for a reason, and that he would come very close to hating Hoshi sooner than he imagined.

Entering the shop, the bell on the door giving a familiar ring, the four grabbed one of the few tables in the place. Then something happened that he didn’t expect, but Hoshi definitely did. You walked out, an apron over your clothes and a bright smile on your face. He swore it faltered a little when you locked eyes, but he was too busy distracted by Hoshi’s muffled giggles.

“Hey, guys. What can I get for you?” He asks.

“I didn’t know you worked here, Y/N!” Seungkwan stated what everyone (bar Hoshi) was thinking.

“Soonyoung didn’t tell you? I started working here a couple of months ago, the food here is so good and I get the leftovers.”

“Is it good pay?” Mingyu asked, Seungcheol staying quiet, just looking at you from the corner of his eye.

“Why trying to get a job here?” You joke.

It was like a spark lit up in Soonyoung’s eyes, as the next sentence left his lips. “No, but Seungcheol is. That’s why he came here tonight.” Soonyoung announced.

Seungcheol glared at him, what could he do now? How could he explain to you that he didn’t want the job, without it leading back to him having a crush on you? Short for time, and running through every possible scenario in his head, it only led to one. He had to say yes, besides he did need to start paying off all his college debt (the scholarship didn’t pay for everything).

“Yeah I am, But I don’t think there’s any positions open. I didn’t see an advertisement anywhere.” Seungcheol hoped that you would agree, and he could wriggle his way out of it. But it seemed like you had other ideas.

“I’m sure that Bora would love to have you start. She only hires people who can speak fluent Korean anyway, and there’s not too many speakers here, so you’re a rare find.” You smiled, “I’ll go and get Bora for you now, do you want me to order your food at the same time?”

Everyone agreed, Seungcheol mumbling out his order, not breaking eye contact with Soonyoung and his mischievous grin. As soon as you left to order the food, Seungcheol couldn’t help himself.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Soonyoung!”

“Relax, dude. I just got you unlimited free time with Y/N. You should be extremely grateful right now.”

But Seungcheol couldn’t be grateful, too worried about the impromptu job interview he was about to have, and the fact he would have to prepare himself more regularly to see Y/N. Long story short, this was not going to end well.

Unsurprisingly, Seungcheol passed his interview at the Korean restaurant, and it wasn’t long before he started working there part-time. You couldn’t believe what just happened, the odds of Seungcheol walking in and asking for a job was minuscule. You didn’t know about the evil tampering’s of Kwon Soonyoung, that would come later.

As he was new to the restaurant, you were pretty much stuck with him for the next couple of weeks. Whilst there was some serving involved, part of the job also involved working in the kitchen and manning the till (both of which needed a lot more training than carrying out dishes of food). You hoped that he was a fast learner, and with his position on the football team, surely he had to be?

You were proved correct when it wasn’t long before he knew how to cook half the menu, take till like a pro and serve with the utmost professionalism. Bora joked that he might be replacing you soon, and you couldn’t help but jokingly agree. You guessed that this was another positive about Seungcheol, the fact that he seemed to put his all into everything he did, no matter how mundane the task. It did nothing but make him even more attractive to you.

The best part of Seungcheol being your colleague, was by far the lunch breaks. You really had no idea how witty and engaging he actually could be, talking to him was so much easier now when you could fall back on work talk. With this in mind, the two of you begin getting closer, eventually beginning to text each other and realising how much you actually had in common.

The two of you began to bond over the stupidest things, like the milk and cereal debate, or your shared annoyance for people who order extremely specific and complicated orders. You often caught up on your favourite kdramas, along with annoying tropes (like second male lead syndrome), you could rant with him for hours.

And that’s what you were currently doing, staring over Seungcheol’s shoulder and at some cat memes on his phone. It may be work, but at two it was the quietest time of the day, you had some time to relax.

“I can’t believe you still love cat memes, you’re such a mum.” You teased.

“Says the person looking at it with me! You know they never grow old, they’re a timeless classic.” He whined.

“You know, for the two people I pay for working for me, you both aren’t doing much work.” Bora appeared out of nowhere, “Though that is a cute cat.”

The two of you giggled, “Sorry, Bora, we’ll get back to work.” You half-heartedly apologise.

The scene was quite different to the awkward atmosphere at the beginning, but it seemed that you had been able to control your crush and subdue it in order to stay professional for work. But you knew, it wouldn’t be too long before you cracked and spilt everything. It was only a matter of time.

It wasn’t often that you got a night shift, Bora’s nephew often coming in to cover for you. But tonight, with Bora and her family busy at a family gathering, both you and Seungcheol were left with cleaning and closing up. The shop closed at 1 am, so there was plenty of time to waste when you weren’t busy with orders.

The two of you were quiet that evening, busying yourselves with cleaning so you would have less to clean after the close (after all, you didn’t want to be there until three in the morning). There wasn’t much conversation between the two of you, other than showing each other tiktok’s on each other’s phone’s and giggling.

Time was edging away, with only a couple of hours to spare before it closed. With times usually peaking around 9 or 10, you had already had the large wave and were just dealing with the aftermath. You began closing and cleaning sections of the kitchen with less popular menu items, in order to avoid wasting time, you really wanted to go home and collapse in bed.

Whilst cleaning one of the grills absentmindedly, you accidentally nudged the side, causing you to yelp out in pain and immediately recoiling your hand. Hearing it from outside the kitchen, Seungcheol dashed in.

“Are you okay?” He asked, concerned.

“Yeah, it’s just a little burn.” You show him your hand, not fully realising how red it had gotten.

“You need to put that under cold water, it looks pretty bad, Y/N.”

“Don’t I have to do that for ten minutes? We don’t have time for that, Seungcheol.”

“I’m sure if I told Bora what happened, she’d let us close early tonight.”

“You can’t bunk off working, just because I’m hurt.”

“Yes, I can.”

“Why?”

“Because I need to make sure you actually put your hand under the cold tap for ten minutes.”

“But I will!”

“No, you won’t, after a couple of seconds you’d turn it off and get back to working, and don’t lie and say you wouldn’t.”

“I’m sure it hardly makes a difference, Seungcheol.” You sigh.

“It does, now wait here for a second so I can close before more people come in to order.”

He doubles out of the room, arriving back moments later after locking the front door and flipping the sign. The next ten minutes are strange as the two of you sit and watch as your hand slowly goes numb, Seungcheol forcing it back under every time you attempted to pull it out. He only stopped when a timer goes off on his phone.

“You actually timed it?”

“Of course I did, I’ve got to be accurate or you wouldn’t be.”

“Hey, I’m very accurate.”

“I immediately outrank you though, because I’m a footballer.”

“I didn’t know that’s how it works.”

“Well, now you know.”

“Have you magically cured my hand then?”

“Not yet, let me just get the first aid kit. There’s bound to be some burn cream in there.”

He disappears again, returning holding the first aid kit in his hand and promptly putting it on the counter. He looked serious as he rooted through the box for the cream, his eyes lighting up when he eventually found it. Unscrewing the lid, he applied a generous amount to his finger and turner to you.

“May I?” He asks.

“Go ahead.” You simply reply.

He leans over, taking your hand and gently rubbing the cream over your hand gently. It was only then that you were hit with the reality of how intimate the situation actually was, and how attentive Seungcheol had just been.

“Thank you,” You almost whispered, “For looking out for me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he gives you a gentle smile, “You’d do the same thing in my position.”

Maybe it was the tiredness kicking in, but you swore the two of you were getting closer and closer.

“Is your hand feeling better now?” He asks sweetly.

“Yes, thank you, much better.” You grin, “I guess you really do know everything, huh.”

“Not really, I don’t know what’s going on inside your head.”

“Usually, most people can just tell from my face.”

“Really,” He begins to lean closer, inspecting every aspect and detail of your face. You blushed. “I guess I understand a little better now that I’ve seen it up close.”

Though the sentence ended, the two of you remained close. The tiredness had really started kicking in now, because you were thinking about kissing him, and you couldn’t do that. But your brain subconsciously leaned you closer and closer, until your lips were pressing against his, and you were like putty in his hands.

The way he kissed was unlike anyone else, he kissed with you with so much delicacy and fragility, almost as if you were a precious jewel. But at the same time, you felt no less passion, it was like pressing your lips to a god. Unlike anything else. But all good things have to come to an end, and it did when reality sunk in.

“Oh sorry,” You muttered, pulling away, “We should probably start cleaning up.”

“Yeah… I guess we should.”

You both hadn’t talked much since the kiss, it had scared you both off. Shifts had become tense and awkward, no longer filled with the happy-go-lucky attitude the two of you usually had. You knew you shouldn’t have kissed him, why did you do this to yourself?

In these situations, you only had one option, it was time to enlist the help of your two most trusted friends. So that’s what you did, immediately after your shift. Not leaving much chance to say goodbye, you managed to make your way to Yeri and Chae’s apartment.

Whilst you had managed to secure a cheap apartment to yourself (it more or less resembled a box), the two of them had a place together. It was quite fun to hear of their antics, the two of them being polar opposites, Yeri being a raging extrovert, whilst Chae was one of the quietest people you had met.

The two were great for advice, for this very reason, both seeing the answer from very different perspectives. You had been friends with them from the beginning of college, and over that time you had given a ton of relationship advice, so it was only fair that you got the same back in return. They had no excuse, after all, they were very much aware of your massive crush on Seungcheol.

“Wait, so you kissed? Why are you here right now then?” Yeri exclaimed.

“Obviously, because they both find it awkward.” Chae replies, “I reckon the next question is going to be, how do I confess to him?”

“How do you know me so well?”

“I’m a mind reader.”

“Makes sense.”

“Right anyway, how did it happen?” Yeri questioned, “You know the kiss.”

“I don’t know, it just happened. I burned myself and he helped me out.”

“Oh, he’s that kind of person.” Chae half swooned, “He’s definitely a keeper.”

“Enough with that, we need to come up with an action plan. Obviously, he likes you back, so now you just need to tell him.”

“How do you know that he likes me back?”

“Well he wasn’t repulsed when you kissed, plus I often see him ogling at you across the room,” Yeri smirked.

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“Nah, it’s fun to watch you squirm.”

“Yeri, that’s kind of sadistic.” Chae pitched in.

“It doesn’t matter, we both know that he likes Y/N.”

“Wait, Chae, you think he likes me too.”

“Yeah, he has that dreamy look in his eyes when he looks at you, you’re the only person he looks at that way. So really you just need to tell him.”

“Why wouldn’t he tell me he liked me if he did?”

“Because he’s like you. Completely awkward about this situation.” Yeri deadpanned.

“All we really need to do is get him to meet you.” Chae simplified.

“Yeah, and then this is what you’re going to do when you see him.” Yeri began to ramble, going into this long tangent over how you were going to seduce him.

Unknowingly, Seungcheol had done the exact same thing you had done, go to his friends for help. And fortunately, he had come to the same conclusion (though Mingyu and Soonyoung were way less helpful). All you had to do now was wait, and let the magic happen.

Whilst the two of you both had the intention to talk to each other, life caught up with you both and it never ended up happening. The two of you still hadn’t talked to each other about that fateful night, in fact, you both hadn’t seen each other since you had talked to your friends. It was almost like the world had agreed along with your pessimistic attitude.

You expected today to be the same, void of Seungcheol, but it seemed that the universe had finally decided to take action. It was just an ordinary day, you were in line for the coffee shop where you had met him, waiting to order your regular. You didn’t realise who was behind you, daydreaming to yourself about your problems, that was until you felt a tap on your shoulder.

You immediately turn around, face to face with the man you couldn’t get out of your mind. He seemed as nonchalant as ever, compared to you who was crumbling under the pressure of confession. The world was handing it to you, if you didn’t confess now, would you ever?

“Hey, Y/N, fancy seeing you here.” He smiled.

“Yeah, it’s been a while. How have you been?”

“Good, just really busy with football.”

“Same, the newspaper has really taken up my time.”

“Do you have a minute to talk now? I’ve kinda been meaning to talk to you for a while.”

Shrugging off the anxious feeling building in your stomach, you reply a simple “Yeah, sure”, and the two of you wait for your orders before sitting at the same booth in which you had met.

The both of you didn’t dare to speak a word to each other, despite Seungcheol’s initially bold question. It seemed that neither of you wanted to start the conversation, and time was running out as the drinks got colder and colder. Eventually, Seungcheol opens his mouth.

“I like you.” He blurted out, “I get it if you don’t like me back, but I just wanted to tell you.”

You stare at him in shock. He likes you? Like you, the newspaper geek. “Really?” Was all you could muster out.

“Really.”

Still not fully wrapping it around your head, there was only one reply that you could think of at that moment. And for some reason, it was very straightforward.

“Do you want to go out sometime?” Is your only response.

“I’d love to.”

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