#Frozen Momo Recipes

[keventeragro]

Frozen Momo Recipes | Winter Recipes | Keventer

Momos make us rub our hands with glee. A steaming bowl of hot momos is all we need for winter—but there are so many ways to enjoy them! Learn more here. https://www.keventer.com/media/blog/stay-warm-with-steamy-momos/

#Frozen Momo #Momo #Keventer momo #best brands for momos in Kolkata #Winter Recipes #Frozen Momo Recipes #keventer momos #keventer frozen foods #keventer frozen products #keventers momo #frozen momos #frozen food products #keventers near me #frozen food #frozen food items #frozen foods #momos frozen #frozen products #keventers frozen food #Best Frozen Momos

[insomniakisses]

Twice reaction | when they accidentally cum

Nsfw! Minors do NOT interact.

Also! I thought doing the same for all 9 would be boring so i altered it slightly! But still lowkey hate it as i ran outta ideas!

—————————— / 💕 / ——————————

Nayeon

Nayeon was so focused on the pleasure and making sure she fucked you deep with every thrust she hadn’t even realised she was close to cumming.

Her thrusting got faster and harder the more pleasure she felt, her mind she foggy that before she knew it she was unloading every drop of cum she had into you her body still moving unable to stop.

It was only after she came down from her high that she realised what she had done and blushing she immediately started to apologise her body frozen in place as she guiltily stutters over her words.

Jeongyeon

The poor baby just couldn’t help it. After days of not cumming or having you touch her to have you ridding her felt heavenly.

Hear head was thrown back as she moaned and whined at the feeling of your hot wet pussy sliding up and down her cock. Guiding her head down you pulled her in to suck on your tits feeling yourself clench around her.

Picking up speed you moaned as she sucked harder feeling her cock twitch inside you before a gasped moan escaped your lips as her cock erupted her hot cum into you barely hearing her gasped pleas.

Momo

To be fair on the girl, making her jealous and wearing her favourite outfit on you was just a recipe for disaster. Not that she sees it as one she got pussy and thats all she cares about.

Your moans are almost screams as she fucks into you from behind, her thrust as fast and hard as she can physically go. You know the whole dorm can hear you guys as her balls slap against you and your scream your lungs out from the mix of pain and pleasure shes giving you.

You don’t even register she has cum till her thrusting stops and a deep warmth fills you up as she stays balls deep inside you and murmurs against your neck between her kisses that now everyone will know your hers.

Sana

Sana couldn’t help how needy she was, you had been teasing her all day and now you were finally alone she couldn’t wait another second pulling you onto her lap and kissing you heatedly.

It wasn’t long before she was rock hard beneath you and a panting mess as you rocked your hips on her clothed cock. Her face scrunching up as she holds you still with a gasped whine, face flushing when a warm damp feeing filled her jeans. She couldn’t help hide her face in your neck in embarrassment from cumming in her pant.

Jihyo

She was a very loving and caring girl, especially in bed and was only rough when she had to be. During her moments of angry and harsh fucking her responsibility and reason seemed to leave her often leading her to act on impulse.

It was that very thing that had made her for go the condom today, being so eager to put your brattyness away and fuck you into a dumb slut.

The more she got into fucking you she had forgotten that she was fucking you raw. Her cock felt so good inside you that she just gave way to it and let her load erupt inside you only after she was done did she realise.

Her face going pale as she kissed you and apologised immediately pulling out and offering to help you wash up.

Mina

When mina told you she’d never had a blowjob you couldn’t go another second without making that right. To say the girl was nervous was an understatement, she sat blushing at the end of the bed with a rock hard cock.

Making sure to give her plenty of kisses for reassurance you sank to your knees, giving her cock a few strokes before wrapping your lips around the head.

You were barely a few sucks in before your mouth was filled with her salty cum, her face flushed as she hid her face in her hands whining when you sucked harder swallowing around her.

Dahyun

This girls cock is just so sensitive that she never lets you suck her off because she knows she just can’t take it. But she also loves the feeling of your merciless attention to her cock.

You can’t have been sucking her for more than 30 seconds before you felt her cock twitch as she moaned loud. Knowing she was about to cum you pulled away, stroking the base of her cock until she blew her load all over your face. Apologise and cusses streaming from her mouth as she panted eyes closed.

Chaeyoung

One thing this girl couldn’t resist is cock warming. She lived for having her cock inside you all day, she especially loved the feeling of holding her cum all day.

This time however you’d decided to make it more interesting instead of watching any movie while stuck on her dick you’d decided to tease her a little, and put on 365 days.

The movie started out normal as yall got comfy and she pulled you down so she was balls deep in you but the more intense the scenes got the harder it was for her to manage.

The second she felt herself cumming she held you down, bucking her hips up into you as embarrassing needy moans escaped her lips.

Tzuyu

This girls biggest weakness is her balls. Them babies are so sensitive it’s unbelievable which is why she never lets you touch them.

But today her guard had been lowered, you had pampered her all day by cooking her food and giving her all your love and attention. So much so that when you offered to suck her off she thought nothing of it.

She let her eyes close at the feeling of you sucking her cock and taking it deep in your throught. She hardly noticed when you pulled away to jerk her and run your tongue over her slit. Nor did she notice you move your lips to her balls until it was too late and you were sucking at her balls her cock a twitching mess above your head.

She lasting barely 10 seconds before she was cumming all over herself and your face. Moaning and stuttering apologies all at once freaking out and having am intense orgasm all at once.

#twice x fem reader #twice x reader #twice smut #twice headcannons #twice reactions #nayeon imagines #nayeon x reader #nayeon reactions #jeongyeon x reader #jeogyeon imagines #momo reactions #momo imagines #sana imagines #sana reactions #jihyo imagines #jihyo x reader #momo x reader #sana x reader #mina x reader #mina imagines #chaeyoung imagines #chaeyoung x reader #dahyun x reader #dahyun imagines #tzuyu imagines #tzuyu x reader

[sb-group-nepal]

SALMON FISH FARMING IN NEPAL

Introduction:

Nepal’s salmon-fishing farming has gained momentum recently, offering a promising opportunity for aquaculture entrepreneurs and consumers. While Nepal may not be traditionally associated with salmon, the industry has grown remarkably due to favorable climatic conditions, increasing demand for seafood, and technological advancements in aquaculture practices. This article explores the landscape of salmon fish farming in Nepal, delving into its production, market dynamics, pricing, and avenues for purchase.

Salmon farming in Nepal is primarily carried out In regulated settings like aquaculture farms, hatcheries, and ponds. The process involves breeding, hatching, rearing, and harvesting salmon under controlled conditions to ensure optimal growth and quality.

While Nepal’s natural water bodies may not be suitable for salmon farming due to temperature and other environmental factors, adopting modern aquaculture techniques has enabled the cultivation of salmon in inland regions.

One critical challenge in salmon farming in Nepal is replicating the natural habitat conditions required for salmon to thrive. This includes maintaining suitable water temperature, oxygen levels, and nutrition for the fish. However, with technological advancements and expertise, Nepalese aquaculture farmers have overcome these challenges and established successful salmon farming operations.

The growth of salmon fish farming in Nepal presents many economic opportunities, from employment generation to export potential. As the industry flourishes, it stimulates ancillary sectors such as transportation, packaging, and marketing, contributing to economic growth.

Salmon fish farming in Nepal emphasizes sustainable practices to preserve the delicate ecosystem. Farmers employ modern techniques such as recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and responsible feed management to minimize environmental impact while maximizing yield.

Salmon Fish Varieties Cultivated in Nepal:

Salmon fish has a high content of omega-3. Omega 3 is known to reduce blood pressure and is a good source of protein. (Source: styles at life)

Explore the culinary delights of salmon with traditional Nepali recipes and fusion creations. From classic grilled salmon to innovative salmon momos, there’s a dish to tantalize every palate. Embrace the versatility of salmon and experiment with unique flavor combinations for a gastronomic adventure.

While salmon fishing presents economic opportunities, it’s crucial to consider its environmental impact. Sustainable fishing practices are essential to preserve marine ecosystems and ensure the longevity of salmon populations. By adhering to responsible fishing methods, we can safeguard the future of this cherished seafood.

Price of Salmon Fish in Nepal:

Salmon fish prices in Nepal vary depending on the variety, size, freshness, and market demand. Generally, fresh salmon is more expensive than frozen or processed salmon products. Additionally, transportation costs, seasonality, and import tariffs influence the retail price of salmon in Nepal.

On average, the price of fresh salmon in Nepal ranges from NPR 800 to NPR 1700 per kilogram, varying according to the kind and caliber. Frozen or processed salmon products may be available at lower prices, making them more accessible to consumers with varying budget constraints.

Where to Buy Salmon Fish in Nepal:

Salmon fish can be purchased from various sources in Nepal, including supermarkets, fish markets, specialty seafood stores, and online platforms. Some famous outlets for buying salmon fish in Nepal include:

Supermarkets: Major supermarkets and hypermarkets in urban areas stock fresh and frozen salmon fish in their seafood sections. These outlets offer a convenient shopping experience and often provide a wide range of salmon varieties.

Fish Markets: Local fish markets are another popular destination for purchasing salmon fish in Nepal. Here, consumers can find a diverse selection of fresh seafood, including salmon, directly from local fishmongers and vendors. The prices at fish markets may vary depending on the season and availability of fresh catch.

Specialty Seafood Stores: Specialty seafood stores cater to discerning consumers looking for high-quality salmon and other premium seafood products. These stores typically source their seafood from reputable suppliers and may offer specialty cuts or gourmet preparations of salmon fish.

Internet platforms: Due to the increasing acceptance of e-commerce in Nepal, consumers can now buy salmon fish online from various e-commerce platforms and seafood delivery services. These marketplaces enable home delivery ease and frequently supply a more comprehensive selection of salmon varieties and products.

Establishing Reliable Sources: Finding trusted vendors is crucial when purchasing salmon fish in Nepal. Search for trustworthy vendors with a history of quality and reliability, ensuring freshness and authenticity in every purchase.

For More Details, Click Here

#SALMON FISH FARMING

[readytoeatmomos]

Veg Momos: The Easiest Snack!

Are you tired of reaching for unhealthy treats on a leisurely day? you need to try momos these delightful dumplings are not only a quick and easy snack option, but also a healthy alternative for you and your family. Here are three innovative ways frozen veg momos might help you substitute harmful meals for a healthier snack alternative:

Easy and Convenient: Frozen veg momos are a quick and easy     snack option that can be prepared in just a few minutes. Unlike other     snack options that require extensive preparation or cooking time, frozen     momos can be cooked in a steamer or microwave in under 10 minutes. As a     working mom, this is a game-changer when you're short on time but still     want to provide your family with a nutritious snack.

Wholesome Ingredients: One of the biggest challenges for     working moms is finding snack options that are not only easy to make but     also healthy for their families. Frozen veg momos are made with wholesome     ingredients like fresh vegetables, tofu, and whole wheat flour. They are a     good source of protein, fiber, and vitamins, making them an ideal snack     option for growing children and health-conscious adults.

Versatile: Frozen veg momos can be customized to suit your taste preferences and dietary needs. You can fill them with a variety of vegetables, meats, or even cheese to add a twist to the classic recipe. You can also experiment with different dipping sauces to add more flavor and variety to your snack. Whether you're in the mood for a spicy or sweet snack, frozen momos can be customized to fit your mood and taste buds. Honestly, frozen veg momos are a convenient and healthy snack option for working moms and their families. They are quick and easy to prepare, made with wholesome ingredients, and versatile enough to suit everyone's taste preferences. So, the next time you're looking for a quick snack option, reach for a pack of frozen momos and enjoy a nutritious and delicious snack that your entire family will love.

#frozen veg momos

[ja0-s-blank-canvas-fic]

Part 3 - Chapter 17 - I-Island: Rock The Boat

Blank Canvas Part 3

AO3 - here

Fanfiction.net - here

Hello again, my lovely readers! Thank you for your patience. As I explained on the discord, last week would have been when I posted but my work schedule was way too busy for me to do any editing for this. So I postponed for another week. But! To make up for the wait, this chapter is longer! :D Not exactly planned but that's how the plot points worked out.

A reminder of all who is on I-Island in BC. For our main group we have Izuku, Shouto, Hitoshi, Mei, Present Mic, Hound Dog, and All Might. Then we've got Momo, Jirou, Ochako, Tenya, and Kaminari. And of course Melissa as well. There are a few others but these are the main ones who actually play a part. :)

Also...

....

...

...I'm sorry.

Linktree to all the things!    

End notes for the chapter are under the line.

I'M SO SORRY, INKO!!

Seriously, I'm so sorry. I hate seeing good mom Inko get hurt. The first time I ever read a fic where Inko was killed off I sat for a minute in shock. I never realized before then that someone could do that and I had to mourn for her before continuing to read it. Oof that was rough. But from that tragedy leads to another trope I love so much which is adopted Izuku. Who will actually get that role I won't spoil but have fun theorizing. ;)

Now, I'm still on the fence on actually having Inko die or not. Honestly one of the points leaning towards her dying is to spare her from ever suffering from finding out All For One is Hisashi. Izuku, who will find out eventually, is going to be bad enough. For now she'll be in a sort of limbo. Kind of like Han Solo in Star Wars when he was frozen in carbonite. I just don't know what will work best for the story itself. We'll just have to let time, and my brain, decide what happens with that. And if you have any thoughts I will consider those as well.

For the recipes Inko was using, here is the miso salmon, the fried rice, and the salad dressing (along with a different salad combo) in case anyone was interested. :)

So the attack on I-Island was shorter than the movie. Though that I would think should be expected since they got a warning for it. Yes, there were some plot devices thrown in there but I'm happy with how it turned out. If anything, this gave Hitoshi a time to shine with support of his friends and classmates. All of them working as a team to take down the bad guys together.

Wolfram's English voice actor also does Hawkmoth from Miraculous Ladybug and Deep Sea King from One Punch Man. While writing this I was channeling a mix of the two combining Hawkmoth's whininess and Deep Sea King's cockiness and also both of their tones of frustration. I know some people are sub only for the voices but if you wanted a better idea of what I imagined him sounding like I'd try the dub. :) Also fun fact, the English voice actor for Plagg in Miraculous also is Saitama in One Punch Man! I don't know why but I find that hilarious. XD

That's it this chapter! Next chapter I have some very nice fluff to offset this. Izuku deserves it for all the new drama coming his way. Kekekeke. For now, I leave you with this angst. Cool? Okay, bye! :D

#mha #bnha #quirkless au #fanfic #blankcanvasfic #blankcanvasheritage #i-island #midoriya izuku #shinsou hitoshi #Class 1-A #wolfram #midoriya inko #mha muscular #i'm sorry #shigaraki tomura #mha all for one #dad for one

[meats-online86]

5 Types Of Cold Cuts To Try!

Everyone loves eating food cooked with the best ingredients and spices. There are at least 75% of non-vegetarians in India, with the market estimated at over Rs. 2 lakh crore, growing by 20% yearly. It indicates the rise in demand for non-vegetarian food and safety regulations. There are different meat cuts to try. Cold cuts are slices of pre-cooked meat, including ham, salami, mortadella, and meatloaf.

They are the best ingredients for making sandwiches and other dishes. When ordering them from an online meat store, ensure they are authentic and offer the best products using an ecosystem of ethical farming practices. Here are the types to try:

Ham

This is traditionally pork cut from a hog’s hind leg and preserved through salting, smoking, or curing. However, you also find chicken ham maintained similarly. It is available in various flavours to be served baked, boiled, fried, or by itself. It works well with sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and white wine.

Salami

It is also traditionally pork or beef, seasoned with garlic, minced fat, salt, spices, wines, and a range of herbs. Popular varieties are chorizo, pepperoni, and Saucisson. Salami tastes good on pizzas, pasta, or sandwiches. During the meat online delivery, you notice it comes packed in an ice gel pad technology to preserve freshness, prevent microbes, and taste fantastic.

Roast meat

Either beef or pork is slowly roasted and served as a whole meal. You use the leftovers in sandwiches and other recipes. Try out various dishes while browsing them that include combos like chicken curry cut and chicken breast, mutton curry cut and prawns, chicken momos and Chicken 65, and chicken curry cut with 12 white eggs.

Meatloaf

For preparing the traditional meatloaf, beef is ground, mixed with spices and herbs, formed into a loaf shape, and baked or smoked. It is available in lamb, pork, seafood, veal, venison, and poultry. You could serve them with rice or other curries. Since the animals grow naturally, they get humanely transported without administrating growth hormones.

Bierwurst

This is a German sausage seasoned with pepper, mustard seeds and paprika. You can accompany it with beer while eating snacks. You can also try other cold cuts, including Chicken Xacuti Sausage, Nuremberger Sausage, and tikka sausage. The meat is cut using food-grade knives and maintained at zero to four-degree temperatures.

Other qualities to consider

The butchers clean the meat with clean RO water while adhering to the WHO and FSSAI  guidelines. With online payment options, you need not instantly arrange for cash. Pay for the items through card or Net Banking for convenience. Sellers directly partner with local farming and fishing communities to ensure the meat remains fresh. The meat travels short distances, guaranteeing freshness.

Ordering from reputed sellers offers the benefit of a range of products under one roof. The product you get is not frozen. So, be assured your money has bought the best in freshness, taste, and safety.

[bluetigerfoods]

Buy Vegetable and Chicken Momos Online at Best Price

Blue Tiger Foods is aiming to serve everyone their delicious frozen food recipes. They want to make their services readily available to all their potential customers in India. The range of frozen food is curated to suit different tastes, from meat lovers to fitness enthusiasts. The ready to cook varieties include Veg Momos, Jain Momos, Edamame Truffle Dimsums, Spicy Chicken Momos, Cheesy Green Peapops and Chicken Spring Roll etc.

#Dimsums #Momos #Peapops

[cuisinecravings]

Can You Freeze Roast Vegetables?

Can You Freeze Roast Vegetables? Are roasted veggies your ideal side dish for casseroles, pasta, couscous salads, or soups? If so, have you ever considered freezing roasted veggies to increase their shelf life? This question—can you freeze roasted vegetables?—has come up a few times for me, from social media platforms to other blogs. This is hardly surprising given the popularity of roasted veggies and their numerous health advantages. In this essay, I'll answer one of these troubling issues, as well as any others that may arise. Hopefully, at the conclusion of this piece, you'll have all of your questions addressed. So, without further ado, let's get started.

Can You Freeze Roast Vegetables? Also Read :- 16 Easy Indian Vegetarian Dinner Recipes | Best Dinner Recipes

Can Roasted Vegetables Be Freezed?

Yes, you may freeze roasted veggies since it is one of the finest methods to keep them and extend their shelf life. Freezing your roasted veggies is a great idea, especially on busy winter nights or when you have more than enough for a single dinner. Unfortunately, most fresh veggies are wasted—and, according to the ReFed, fresh vegetables account for around 20% of household waste in the United States. This is why roasting and freezing veggies is a good technique to extend their shelf life and prevent wasting them. Most vegetables with a high moisture content, such as peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and mushrooms, can be roasted and frozen. However, once roasted and frozen, their texture will degrade. This is why most people combine them with lasagnas, stews, and other dishes. Can You Freeze Roast Vegetables? Parsnips, potatoes, and carrots, on the other hand, may be cooked and frozen without losing texture. This is great news, especially if you have a problem with your frozen vegetables losing their texture. Once frozen, roasted veggies may only be kept in the fridge for three to four days and in the freezer for six months. Read More Articles of Veg - What Does Vegemite Taste Like? What Vegemite Is? - Special Steamed Veg Momos with Spicy Chutney - Vegan Momos with Chutney, 12 Special Vegetarian Momos | Cuisine Cravings - Top 20 Vegetarian Breakfast Ideas, How to Make Healthy Breakfast ?

What Is the Best Way to Freeze Roasted Vegetables?

How do you proceed now that you know you can freeze roasted vegetables? Here's a quick five-step instruction to freezing roasted veggies. Step 1: Select the Vegetable to Be Used The first step is to choose the veggies that will be used. Check that the veggies you intend to use are fresh, with no broken or bruised sections. Place your vegetables in the freezer to keep them fresh. Carrots, peas, spinach, collards, squash, cauliflower, maize, and broccoli are among the greatest veggies to consider. Please keep in mind that celery, onions, herbs, and pepper may all be frozen. Step 2: Cook Them After that, you'll want to roast your vegetables. Before roasting the veggies, I recommend undercooking them for about 5 minutes. This ensures flawless cooking while reheating in the oven, resulting in a superb meal in the long run. If you're freezing vegetable leftovers, you've most likely prepared them to perfection. However, there's no need to panic—you can still freeze and reheat. However, you should be cautious about reheating time because items that have been cooked to perfection before freezing may require less time to warm. As a result, chop your veggies into equal-sized pieces and coat them with coconut oil (or olive oil) to roast. If desired, season with oregano, salt, and pepper. After that, lay your veggies on a baking pan and preheat the oven to 400° F until golden brown. The duration varies depending on the vegetable, however it might be anywhere between 20 and 45 minutes. Step 3: Allow Your Veggies to Cool Make sure your vegetables have totally cooled before freezing them. If you don't let them cool fully, moisture will likely build in the container you're using to freeze them. The worst thing is that the extra water will seep into your vegetables as you thaw them, leaving them soggy. Before chilling your veggies, I recommend transferring them to a separate tray. This is due to the fact that the cooking method you employ will always contain oil, and keeping your veggies in that oil might lead them to get soggy. Putting soggy veggies in the freezer will just make them wetter, even after warming. Step 4: Divide your vegetables into portions. Before you put your roasted veggies in the freezer, divide them into parts (not a must, but it could save you time). Splitting your vegetables before freezing them allows you to take only what you need while defrosting. Step 5: It's time to put your roasted vegetables in the freezer. When freezing vegetables, you have two alternatives. The first is to use individual-safe containers. The second approach is to store the veggies in big freezer-safe containers, especially if they have been flushed-freeze. Spread your vegetables on a tray and freeze them separately to freeze. They should be frozen for about two hours before being transferred to a big container. To keep the roasted vegetables from sticking together, freeze them individually before transferring them to a freezer bag. This makes it simple to remove them separately as and when they are required. If your freezer isn't large enough to hold a tray, just freeze your roasted vegetables in separate freezer bags.

Using an Oven to Reheat Roasted Vegetables

The best way to reheat roasted vegetables is in the oven. While there are alternative options, most of them will not meet your demands, especially if you're using the microwave to reheat your roasted vegetables. If you need a speedy remedy, the microwave is your best choice. However, it won't do much more than soften your vegetables, and they won't be as good as you would have hoped. Because your veggies have lost their form and become softer, the easiest and simplest solution to recover their shape is to remove excess moisture and crisp them. The following is a step-by-step instruction on how to do so: Step 1: Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. When preheating your roasted veggies, a higher temperature is required—at least 450° F. Heating your roasted veggies over medium heat will do little more than soften them. Set your oven to 450° F and wait for it to heat up. Please wait until the oven is hot before reheating. Step 2: Arrange your vegetables on a baking sheet. For this stage, you can use a baking rack or a tray, depending on what you have on hand. Depending on what you decide, line a baking sheet with parchment paper to ensure that your veggies are cooked on all sides. Aside from ensuring that the vegetables are roasted evenly on both sides, the baking paper will keep the vegetables from dropping through the bars, which may result in a huge mess. As a result, place some roasted veggies on your tray or baking sheet and spread them out. When distributing the vegetables, please make sure that none of them are on top of one another. In addition, arrange your vegetables so that they have enough room to warm and crisp. Step 3: Drizzle Some Olive Oil on Them After you've positioned the veggies on the pan or baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil to aid with baking and to add flavor. After that, place the vegetables in a prepared oven and bake for five minutes. It just takes five minutes for your vegetables to warm up and return their texture. However, if you want to produce your perfect flavor, feel free to prolong inside a minute or two—just be careful not to burn them.

Related Issues

- How Should Roasted Vegetables Be Stored and Reheated? Roasted veggies are best stored in the freezer, where they may be kept for up to six months. You may use an oven instead of a microwave to reheat food. The crispness and firmness of your vegetables will be enhanced by using an oven. - Can You Pre-Roast Vegetables and Reheat Them? Yes, you may roast veggies ahead of time and reheat them later—up to four hours ahead of time. Preheat your oven to 400°F, then combine the vegetables with pepper, olive oil, and salt in a large mixing bowl. - What's the deal with my soggy roasted vegetables? Because you did not shift your roasted vegetables to a fresh tray after cooking them, they are soggy. It is usually advised that you switch your veggies to another tray so that they do not sit in the oil for too long. - Is it necessary to salt vegetables before roasting them? Yes, season your vegetables before roasting them. As a general guideline, sprinkle your vegetables with oil and salt before roasting them. If you enjoy pepper, add it before roasting. - What Raw Vegetables Can I Freeze? Many vegetables may be frozen, including: - Peas - Spinach - Collards - Broccoli - Beans (green) - Kale - Celery - Onions - Cauliflower - pepper, and so on Please keep in mind that the list might be far longer than what I've listed. There are probably a lot more vegetables that you can freeze uncooked. Just do your homework before taking any action.

The Verdict on Freezing Roasted Vegetables

I hope I solved one of your most troubling questions: can you freeze roasted vegetables? The answer is yes. You can freeze your vegetables in no time if you follow the methods I've shown above. Now it's your turn. Please tell me what you always do with your roasted vegetables—how do you store them, or what do you do to extend their shelf life? Please let me know if you've tried to refrigerate or freeze roasted vegetables in the past. Read the full article

[pies-writes-and-more]

karasuno boys as things my bf (and past dudes) have done irl

characters: Azumane Asahi, Nishinoya Yū, Sawamura Daichi, Kageyama Tobio, Tanaka Ryūnosuke, Hinata Shōyō, Sugawara Kōshi, Ennoshita Chikara, Tsukishima Kei, & Yamaguchi Tadashi, all with a Fem!Reader

warnings: these were real events. not exaggerated. real things that happened to me lol they’re all mostly fluffy or just funny so no bad vibes here haha

a/n: i got this idea out of nowhere tonight and ive been feeling bad vibes so here’s me trying to make myself happy lol. very self indulgent im sorry haha but i hope you guys find it entertaining! also i’m sorry for not including Kinoshita or Narita - I really dont know much about them!! 

haikyuu masterlist

Asahi writes a goddamn essay about you for his english class. He wasn’t quite sure why he did but the prof asked him to write about how he used writing or poetry in his every day life and he thought about all the little notes he would write to you 

Noya will happily order food with you at any time. Especially when you’re hangry or just whining about how hungry you are. Did you say you wanted food and it’s 11PM? Well that convenience store is open so I guess we’re ordering. They don’t do orders? Okay well we’re walking now.

Daichi gets matching jean jackets with you. You got it first and found it in the mens section of a store but you loved it so much, you asked Daichi if he wanted one too. The look in your eyes was just too much so of course he had to say yes. Now Mom and Dad of the Karasuno Volleyball Team walks around in their jean jackets with all their kiddos in their team jackets.

Kageyama fell asleep while waiting for you to come home. You knew this was going to happen so you had begged him to give you the key to his apartment but nO the boy just insisted that he could totally stay up. He literally was texting you 5 minutes before you got there. And by the time you got to his door, he was passed the fuck out. You panicked for a solid 20 minutes outside of his door, calling him over and over again in hopes that it would wake him up, before he woke up and awkwardly answered the door. You were really upset about it but Kageyama tried to make it up to you for the rest of the week until you finally forgave him lol

Tanaka thinks you’re the prettiest person in the world. But you literally cannot ask him to take pictures of you because he takes horrible pictures. You’ve been trying to teach him about angles and how it’s not always about how many times you press the picture button. That he actually has to think before he takes the photo, not just take as many as he can.

Hinata wants to slow dance with you so badly but you are so incredibly awkward because slow dances seem like the perfect time for you to fall on your feet. But there’s a slow song playing and Hinata begs you to come dance with him and there’s just a moment where it actually was pretty nice. And then you remembered how nervous you were and thankfully the song ended but he liked it anyways and begs you to dance with him more often.

Sugawara cooks for you nonstop because you are a college student now and incapable of cooking for yourself. He tries all sorts of new recipes for you and you love him for always trying to make you food. He’s even brought you some in a tupperware when you were on campus studying and forgot to bring food. He had to go away for a bit once and wasn’t able to make you food so he bought you a rice cooker so at least you could make yourself something other than ramen and frozen pizzas.

Ennoshita is the only person in the world who can pick good makeup colours for you. You once tried to pick out a nice lipgloss colour for yourself and absolutely hated the look of it. But he always gets it right. And then makes fun of you a little for not being able to do it yourself lol

You’ve bullied Tsukishima into doing a skincare routine. Before you met him, he was using body wash as a means to clean his face. Then you smacked that attitude out of him because no way was your partner going to look like a wrinkled grape by the time he was 40. No way. This man needs moisturizer. Now he uses cleanser, toner, an eye cream, and moisturizer and when you tell your friends about it and they’re all so shocked by it, and praise him endlessly, he just stands there with his nose in the air like I’m better than you to all the other boyfriends. He enjoys when you tell your friends and their boyfriends that Tsukishima does something and the girl goes “See? How come you can’t be like him?” to their own boyfriend. Smug bitch lol

Yamaguchi came over in the middle of the night once because you found a spider and everyone else in the house was asleep. He had literally been sleeping but you called him because this spider was HUGE and you needed it to die immediately. Yamaguchi doesn’t really like spiders but honestly, you were so scared, he knew he had to help. Man dragged himself out of bed to come save you from this spider, gave you a kiss goodnight, and then walked himself back home and passed the fuck out

haikyuu taglist (let me know if you’d like to join!)

@al0ehas​ @aurumk​ @neko-chii1​ @thisnoodlewritesao3​ @satan-ruler-of-hells​ @trashy-simp​ @jeppiet​ @tobi-momo​ @darkvadeeer​ @haikyuutothetop​ @livy384​ @babyshoyo​ @jesssobs​ @b-bakana​ @just4readingfics​

#haikyuu x reader #hihqnetwork #tsukishima x reader #daichi x reader #kageyama x reader #asahi x reader #noya x reader #hinata x reader #yamaguchi x reader #ennoshita x reader #sugawara x reader #tanaka x reader

[amive2567]

Snowy sneezes

Class 1a x GN! Reader

Quirk: Snowman ~ can produce snowmen with everything that includes water. They can't melt (only by other quirks, not through natural causes), and they do whatever the host wants. If the host doesn't give any tasks immediately, the snowman becomes a body of its own forever. Unfortunately, they can't speak :( The more water there is in the air, (or any other source of water), the bigger the snowman gets. 

Warning: Crack, Fluff, mention of sexual content (because Mineta), swearing (because Bakugou), a bit OOC Midoriya

Summary: Y/n is sick, and every time they sneeze, little snowmen appear in their dorm. They are listening to music and study. Because of that, they didn't even notice that the snowmen disappeared and caused trouble. 

Disclaimer: My hero academia and the characters belong to Kohei Horikoshi.

Words: about 2.489

Masterlist

Inspiration by Frozen Fever

Your head pouted, and you barely could keep your eyes open. You had a quirk about snow, so why did you get sick from a snowball fight. "L/N-san, could you please lift your head from the desk and focus on the lesson." admonished you Cementos. "I am sorry, Ishiyama-sensei." you apologized. He continued to teach, but you couldn't focus on a word he said. The lesson dragged on like forever. 

After the day ended, you went straight to your dorm room to replicate the knowledge you got taught today. 

After some time, the headache disappeared, and you could finally focus on your unfinished notes. Your nose started to tingle, and with a loud achoo, you sneezed.  A cold shiver went down your spine, but you didn't think much of it. You were so caught up in the work that you didn't notice how a small snowman waddled quietly around the room. Since listening to music helped you while studying, you didn't hear the rustling steps on your carpet.  The cute snowman watched your back and looked around your room. He investigated your plant in front of your bed. His tiny form tried to stroke the plant, but his short snowy arm couldn't reach the plant. The small snowman was determined to stroke the plant, so he tried to climb up at the plant pot. Since he didn't think about the consequences, the plant pot fell over and covered him with the potting soil. Anxiously he watched if you had seen his plight. You didn't seem to notice it. So he tried to clean himself with his tiny arms. 

Another sneeze shook your body, and another tiny snowman appeared. He looked around the room and found his buddy. The two jumped happily around, and the new snowman helped to clean up his pal. The two snowmen happily discovered your room, as quiet as they could. After they were done, your room looked like you had a fight in it.  They also tried to open the door, but they were too tiny. Exhausted, the two snowmen settled in front of the door. 

A sneezing fit hit you, and about five snowmen developed in your room. The two snowmen got right up and wobbled to the new snowmen. They hugged each other like they were old friends. Silently the two older snowmen convinced the younger ones to open the door together. They built a ladder out of snowmen by stacking themself on their shoulders. With a soft click, the door opened, and they left your messy room.

Your classmates were occupied with their interests and tasks. Some were reading, training, baking, showering, or learning. So they were either outside, in their rooms, or in the common room area. This meant that the hallway in front of your room was empty. The snowmen waddled quietly around the enormous building. 

Since they discovered their new skill, they opened another door. In the room was a blond boy, who laid on his back with a manga in his hand, called Snow white with the Red Hair. He was completely caught up in the book, so he didn't even notice that someone entered his room. The snowmen inspected his room. It has the theme of yellow and blue, and on his shelf were tons of All Might figures. One snowman got his snowy hand on a manga and tried to read it. He failed because snowmen can't read, but the pictures were interesting. He wanted to read it later, so he took it with him. 

The gang of snowmen went downstairs to explore the other parts of the dorms. Loud singing caught their attention. They followed the singing and landed in a steaming environment or, to call it something more simple, the bathroom. It was hot in there, and the snowmen were happy that they couldn't melt by natural causes. Since the bathroom was really a boring place to be, they climbed on the shelves and searched through the products. After the other snowmen had left the room, the last one of them was mesmerized by a big red bottle with the label: red hair dye. He took the bottle with him and followed the other snowmen fast. 

The next stop of the seven snowy figures was another room. They used their secret method again and opened the door. The room was cramped with bookshelves that reached the ceiling. Another weird thing was that there was a shelf only for tons of glasses. No one was there. The snowmen wandered around the room like it was an old museum. The two snowmen that stole something hid in the corners of the room, so their misbehavior wasn't noticed. The smallest of the snowmen looked around and climbed up on the shelf with the glasses. Unfortunately, one of the spectacles fell on the ground and broke. No one seemed to witness it, so the tiny snowman grabbed them and hid them behind his back from the others to see. After they discovered every inch of the room, they made their way to the next one. 

The room wasn't much different from the first one, but it had a more pleasant atmosphere. It was bright and happy. Some snowmen were bored because of the All Might figures they had already seen, but one of them got interested by the rarest of all time. The bronze age All Might figure. Only fifty got produced, and the owner of the room had one. The snowman needed this figure, so when no one watched him, he took the opportunity and stole it. 

They went into two other rooms before they finally got to the common-room kitchen. There stood a tall brown-haired boy with a tart pan. He studied a recipe and was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice how a snowman stole his eggs. After the boy wanted to reach for them, they were gone, and he questioned himself if he forgot to lay the eggs on the kitchen counter. He opened the fridge and saw no eggs. But he was sure that he bought them with Koda yesterday. They couldn't be gone, only if someone used them. And he was sure who it was. With angry steps, he walked to the room of a certain angry pomeranian. 

In the meantime, the snowmen discovered that everyone had stolen something. They laid their stolen objects in the middle of their circle. The items they had stolen were a romance manga, red hair dye, a pair of glasses, a rare All Might figure, eggs, lipstick, and a book. All of the snowmen had a panicked expression on their snowy faces. The humans aren't dumb they would soon find out, so they have to hide their items somewhere. Fearfully they collected the things and quickly set about hiding with the stuff in a nearby room. 

It was a dark room, and it got lit by a small source of light. Unearthly sounds could be heard from the computer screen in front of a short, purple boy. The older snowmen tried to cover the eyes of the younger ones. So they couldn't see the horrific show that played on the screen. It was dangerous to be in such a gross environment with young snowmen, but it was better than getting caught. 

"I didn't steal your lame eggs. Now leave me alone fat lips." cursed Bakugou as Sato confronted him. "But I am sure you know where my manga is, don't you?" Bakugou questioned harshly with a raised eyebrow. "Why would I want a manga from you?" Sato asked him. The blond one scoffed and pushed Sato out of the way. "I bet shitty Deku got it," he grumbled and stamped in the direction of his room. Without knocking, he kicked the door open. "Oi, shitty nerd. Give it back," he yelled. But what he didn't notice that the room was messy as hell. "Ah, Bakugou, I wanted to talk to you," Midoriya spoke slowly. His expression was horrifying. Even when Bakugou wouldn't admit it, he was scared of the shorter green-haired boy. "Now, where do you have it?" Bakugou asked, unimpressed. "What should I have? I wouldn't even give it to you. You stole my All Might bronze age figure." Midoriya yelled. He activated his quirk, and before he could Detroit Smash Bakugou into nirvana, Kirishima intervened. "Wait, that's not really manly of you, bro. My hair dye also went missing. I think someone is stealing from us." Sato followed the red-haired. "I think he's right," he said. "Let's meet up with the other ones and think about it before we hurt each other." mediated Kirishima. Still, with rage in his eyes, Midoriya let got of his powerful quirk and noded. "Alright, but I am not done with you, Kacchan." proposed Midoriya. "Whatever you say, shitty nerd." scoffed Bakugou.

As they got everyone except two persons in the common room area, the yelling began. "My lipstick went missing. How can I be able to rock my hero costume." Mina cried and hugged Uraraka desperately. The short brunette patted her back, comforting. "A book of mine also went missing," noted Momo. "Did someone saw my pair of glasses? I need to find Marry the third. Without her, my collection is incomplete." Iida yelled and made his typical hand gesture. At his comment, more than half of class 1a had to suppress a burst of laughter.  "My hair product also went missing," said Kirishima. "My limited All Might figure in his bronze age is missing," said Midoriya grumpily. "You look a bit scary, Midoriya. Is everything ok?" Todoroki asked. "Yeah, of course. I didn't need my All Might figure anyway." he sarcastically answered. "It's just a figure," Todoroki mentioned, and every chatter died down. "Dude, does he have a death wish?" asked Kaminari quietly. "Maybe," answered Sero noiselessly. "A figure... A figure..." Midoriya yelled and wanted to charge for a punch, but a frustrated screech interrupted the argument. 

You finished the last sentence of your work. So you turned around and stretched yourself with closed eyes, but as soon as you opened them, you were met with a tremendous mess. "The sneezes and the...oh shit," you yelled out in frustration. You were so occupied with work that you didn't even notice that you let go of a bunch of snowmen. Your steps stormed to the common-room to start the search for the tiny, snowy trouble makers. The yells in the common-room got louder and louder as you got nearer. "Guys," you yelled over the screeches of Midoriya. "I let go of my quirk, and some snowmen are probably starting some trouble. We need to find them." you got straight to the point. Everyone looked at you with expressionless faces. "Why is even every one of you here?" you asked now, confused. "Your tiny snow fuckers stole our stuff," Bakugou grumbled. "What was actually stolen from you, Kacchan ?" Kaminari asked.  "A manga," answered Bukugou grouchily. "Uh, which genre?" questioned Kaminary. "Shut it, dunce face," Bakugou yelled. "Just asking." waved Kaminari away. 

"Do you know where they possibly went, or how we can get rid of them?" asked Momo calmly. "I don't know where they could be," you answered, a bit disappointed. "If we find them and want to get rid of them, we need to destroy them with fire quirks. They don't melt of natural causes," you explained. "Alright, I think we build two teams. One team goes with Bakugou and the other one with Todoroki," suggested Momo. "Why do I need to be in one team. I can do this on my own." Bakugou protested. "Do you want your manga back asap?" Momo asked after that the ash-blond boy was quiet but still grumpy. "I am not going with Kacchan." Midoriya angrily said. "I don't want to go with you either," shouted Bakugou. "Just like an old married couple." laughed Kaminari. "Shut it, dunce face." yelled the blond boy. 

After you build up the teams, you started to search for the cold troublemakers. The team of yours consisted of Todoroki, Aoyama, Tsuyu, Iida, Uraraka, Yaoyorozu, a grumpy Midoriya, Tokoyami, Shoji, Ojiro, and you, of course. The other ones had fewer patient people in their team. Bakugou got Sero, Kirishima, Kaminari, Ashido, Jiro, Sato, Koda and Hagakure in his team. Your team searched on the second and third floor for the stolen things and your snowmen. 

The third floor was clear now you searched on the second floor. "Waa, how did snowmen came into my room?" a high-pitched yell caught the attention of your team. You neared the room and opened the door. Mineta was standing in front of a bunch of tiny snowmen. Everyone in the room turned, slowly their hats to the door. "Yeah, gotcha," you shouted happily. The snowmen suddenly let go of the stuff they hoarded and ran in different directions. "We need to catch them. Todoroki, Tsuyu, Iida, Momo, and I are catching them, and the rest of you secure the missing stuff," you ordered. During this time, Momo produced earpieces for communication. The people named ran with you to catch the snowmen.

Since the snowmen were fast and not as dumb as you wished they were, you had to separate. The snowman in front of you ran fast, and you yelled after him. As the snowman had to take the elevator, you could easily catch him. "I got one. Does someone else has one?" you asked in your earpiece. "I've got one too." answered Iida "Me too," said Tsuyu. "I have already burned two," said Todoroki in his calm demeanor.  "I am currently trying to catch one," yelled Momo hectically. "Thanks, guys, that means only one is missing," you said. A loud explosion roared through the dorm-building. "Now, I think only one is left." you corrected yourself. "I got the penultimate snowman," said Momo proudly. "Great." you cheered. As the elevator stopped at the ground floor, the snowman in your arms tried to wiggle himself free. "We need to met up in the common room, so we can get rid of the captured snowmen," you said to the others. 

After you got rid of the captured snowmen. Bakugou stormed into the common room area. "We found only one, are all gone?" he asked grumpily. "Only one is missing," you answered as you watched the penultimate snowman melt. "I got the last one he was hiding in the fridge," said Sato and brought you the last one. 

"Thanks, guys, for helping. I am so sorry that my quirk got out of hand and caused such trouble," you apologized to your classmates. "No problem, that could happen to every one of us. You don't need to apologize." Midoriya said reassuringly. A small smile spread across your face, and you were relieved that everyone agreed and wasn't angry with you. Except for Bakugou, but that was to be foreseen. 

#bnha x reader #bnha #mha #izuku midoriya #shoto todoroki #class 1a #bakugou katsuki #momo yaoyorozu #tsuyu asui #sato rikido #eijirou kirishima #snowmen #mina ashido #ochako urakara #iida tenya #trouble #fluff #crack #gender neutral reader

[keventeragro]

Chilli Garlic Chicken Momos | Christmas Recipes | Keventer

Spice up your day with our Chilli Garlic Chicken Momos recipe, featuring the irresistible taste of Keventer Chicken Momos. A perfect blend of flavors that will leave you craving for more! Try it now and elevate your momo game. Read more, https://www.keventer.com/media/recipes/xmas-recipe/chilli-garlic-chicken-momos/

#Holiday Recipes #Christmas Dishes #Christmas Food Ideas #Frozen Momo Recipe #Momo Recipes #Chicken Momo Recipe #Chilli Garlic Chicken Momos #Garlic Chicken Momos #Chicken Momos Recipe #Chicken Momos #Keventer Chicken Momos

[foodiemarketer]

Top Best Places to buy Frozen Momos Online in 2021

The world consumption of food particularly frozen momos has continued to grow on a daily basis and now a day’s people demand a lot.

With hectic schedules and busy lifestyles, most families choose to cut down on preparation time when it comes to meals and go for quick-fix dinner options. This has brought about the immense popularity of frozen foods, which ensures that there is always something to eat at home and on top of this, freezing leftover meals can actually prevent wastage of food too.

Don’t you just love frozen momos? There’s nothing more convenient than throwing something into the microwave for two or three minutes, taking it out, and having everything you could possibly need in a little snack or a meal. I’m a big fan of frozen momos myself and love to eat these as they save me both time and money. So without taking your much time let’s start and check what are the good option available in the market for frozen momos. 1. Fat Tiger — Frozen Momos

Fat Tiger brand has launched their new category in Momos that is “Frozen momos” Fat Tiger momos are created from a secret and closely guarded authentic “Sikkimese Recipe” thereby giving you the “AUTHENTIC MOMO EXPERIENCE”.

Their momos contain no added MSG and contain zero preservatives. Furthermore, they are prepared from the finest and the most premium ingredients, Each Fat Tiger momos is encased in an authentic handmade “Tibetian Wrap” and are finished using the age-old “secret traditional recipe”. These yummy, extra-juicy, and mouth-watering treats are very easy to prepare and full of succulent flavor.

Fat Tiger momos also have the “largest fillings” (twice compared to any Momo’s available) thereby giving you the maximum “bang for your buck”. Fat Tiger Frozen momos can be steamed, pan-fried, deep-fried, and microwaved and are ready to eat in 3 minutes.

You can easily buy Fat Tiger Frozen Momos — www.fattigerfrozenmomos.com

2. Prasuma

Prasuma Momos offer bite-sized packets of joy filled with fresh meat and vegetables so that everyone can enjoy this delicious Momo at home. Their Momos are fully cooked and ready to heat and serve out of the pack or be prepared to your liking. The best thing that I like about Prasuma is the packaging, they have nice packaging with good print and style but if we taste the prasuma momos they are not up to the mark. I personally changed my mind whenever I think to eat frozen momos from Prasuma and I don’t know why they are compromising with the taste.

If I talk about the ingredients of Prasuma Veg Momos then they claim they are made up of premium ingredients and no preservatives, each Prasuma Momo is crafted with thin wrappers that allow for a larger filling-to-wrapper ratio, these bite-sized treats are full of flavor and easy to prepare. It can be microwaved, pan-fried, steamed, or deep-fried and ready to eat in as little as 2 minutes. You can easily buy Prasuma Frozen Momos — www.prasuma.com

3. Momo King

Momo King is also the perfect destination for foodies who want to find a real taste of Himalayan momo. Just experience the spirit of Himalayan hospitality at their restaurants. Furnished in warm wood, they incorporate traditional design elements to give you that authentic Asian feel. They welcome everyone who walks through outdoor, and their staff will do their best to accommodate all your needs.

Some of their most beloved dishes include Kothey Momo, Steamed Momo, Jhol Momo, Sandheko Momo, Choila Momo, Hakka Noodles, Vegan Momo, Gluten-Free Momo, Whole Wheat Momo, Thukpa Momo, Malaysian Laksa Momo, Chow Chow, Nepali Fried Rice, Schezwan Noodles, Rice & Noodles, Meal Boxes, and Dessert. Trust me that’s too much, still, if you want to try something new and different then you can try Momo King. You can easily buy Momo King Frozen Momos — www.themomoking.com

4. Boring Foods

Boring Foods creates gourmet frozen food that is tasty, preservative-free, & easy to cook. Now one can spend less time in the kitchen & more time enjoying life. Bring our Delicious ready-to-cook food home now for that not ‘so’ boring experience.

They don’t only deal in momo but they also serve samosa and spring rolls. I have not tasted this brand so don’t want to give any extra comments about this brand. Meanwhile you peeps can also share your insight about this brand in the comment section.

You can easily buy Boring Foods — www.boringfoods.in

5. Amazon

Yes, I am mentioning Amazon too where you can see a lot of options related to Frozen food and if you really confused with the other brands then you can directly visit Amazon and go with the flow and try something new.

Recommendation

So by checking all these frozen momos brands personally, I’d really want to give thumbs up to the Fat Tiger Frozen momos, they are literally amazing and perfect, they claim that their momos are the juiciest in the town and when you eat you will feel this. IF you want to try their momos just visit Fattigerfrozenmomos.com and get 15% off on your first order, just use code “FIRSTUSER”

Do try their momos and let me know your feedback in the comment section, I’d love to know your views about this post.

#fattiger Fattigerfrozenmomos frozenmomos frozenmomosonline buyfrozenmomos

[readytoeatmomos]

Tips For Using Cinnamon To Make Your Food Taste Better

If you adore apple pies, cinnamon buns, butter paneer, hot cocoa, and warm spiced lattes, then you probably adore cinnamon. Who in their right mind can resist cinnamon's inviting aroma and flavour, which is warm, woodsy, and earthy while also being sweet and somewhat spicy. Most of us have some cinnamon powder or quills in our spice cabinet. Cinnamon is a bark, though—did you know that? Cinnamomum verum's dried bark or even cassia tree's, is what makes up this fragrant spice.

This adaptable spice is used in both sweet and savoury meals, in Ayurveda for its various known medical benefits, in the preparation of sweet frozen momos, and in at-home beauty and even hair treatments. For those who just can't get enough of it, candles prepared with essential oil from cinnamon are also available and especially well-liked in the winter. Cinnamon is a godsend to bakers because it can brighten up any baked goods. Sprinkle it over just-baked cookies, sprinkle it on fruit pies to cut down on sweetness, mix some into your pound cake recipe, or dust it over some hot churros for a flavorful twist. Additionally, cinnamon pairs beautifully with meats; add some cinnamon powder to your stews, curries, and barbecues to bring out the best in your meat dishes. In order to give your supper a delightful sweet and spicy flavour, you can also sprinkle cinnamon to vegetarian meals like paneer butter or a veggie stir fry. Put a cinnamon stick into a pot of hot cocoa that is brewing on a chilly winter night to feel the earthiness of cinnamon embrace you. If you are making some veg momos at home, you can add dimension to it by adding a hint of cinnamon to that as well.

This spicy and sweet spice, which is incredibly adaptable, assists in elevating any of your culinary creations. Just be careful not to overuse cinnamon on your meals because it is a quite the powerful spice. It's important to use cinnamon sparingly.

#frozen momos #veg momos at home

[inyournightmares97]

Chocolate Eyes

You return home to find that the man you once loved has become a violent criminal, your mother is sick and your beloved little brother hates you. It’s hard to decide what is right and wrong. But at the end of day, we’re all just trying to protect the people we love. 

Word Count: 19.5k 

Warnings: Language, angst, dark topics. The reader has dark brown eyes since this is a birthday gift for Aia, but as always there are no other physical descriptions. (This is a revamp/continuation of a fic I abandoned for another group long ago. That one was barely 8k though lol.) 

Note: Happy Birthday, Aia! This is a birthday present for @ijustwantacue although I don’t know how appropriate it is since it’s filled to the brim with angst lol. I still hope that you enjoy it and have a great day! 

“Homework?” you asked cheerfully, tapping on Jaebum’s desk.

The handsome boy had a large pair of headphones over his ears and his eyes were closed as he bounced his head to the music. He hadn’t noticed you tapping on the desk. It was only when you poked Jaebum’s shoulder that he opened his eyes and reluctantly pulled the headphones down to rest around his neck.

“Huh?” he asked.

You smiled at him playfully. “Homework, genius. I’ve called you five times now. Please tell me you did it.”

Jaebum raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“Why? Want to copy off me?”

“Fat chance. I did my own homework. I just wanted to cross check my answers because Mrs. Lee said she’s grading the assignment. But if you haven’t even done it…” you trailed off, giving him a smug look.

You couldn’t wait to hear Jaebum admit that he hadn’t done his homework.  The two of you were the smartest students in the class. Admittedly, Jaebum’s intelligence was of a more natural and God-given nature while you worked much harder for your own grades. Both of you still maintained a friendly competition.

“I did do it,” Jaebum replied. He pulled out a slightly crumpled folder from his bag and handed it to you. Then he leaned forward to watch while your sharp eyes flitted across his homework. “Noticed what you did wrong, yet?” he teased.

You stuck your tongue out at him. “We have the same answers, idiot. Although… wait, what’s this?”

Jaebum cleared his throat and covered a page filled with messy scribbles. “Ah- sorry, that’s not part of the homework. I was just writing down ideas for some music I’m trying to compose. There’s an underground dance battle behind the railway tracks. Jackson Wang keeps challenging me. I’m planning to whoop his ass.”

You handed the homework file back to him. “Well, I don’t know much about dance but you should probably write your ideas down more neatly so that you can actually make sense of them later. Besides. What does it matter? Hip-hop music all sounds the same.”

You knew that Jaebum was an amazing dancer and b-boy. He often performed during school talent shows and other events. He was incredibly talented, the entire school knew this, but you’d never really seen him in his element at the underground battles.

Jaebum rolled his eyes. “You just don’t understand hip-hop music.”

“Maybe I don’t.”

“It’s really amazing. The beats, the music and the dance all come together like magic. You should come watch one of the underground battles. Do you want to come with me today? It’ll be a great time.”

You hesitated. Part of you really wanted to go with Jaebum. He was interesting and funny so you loved spending time with him. As much as you hated to admit it, you had a huge crush on your handsome classmate. But you had never been to anything like an underground rap battle before and the idea scared you a little.

“I don’t know…” you trailed off.

“You don’t have to,” Jaebum reassured you.

“It just sounds kind of scary.”

He chuckled. “It’s not. I mean, it’s technically illegal but… the guys there are friendly and everything. It’s not the mess of drunken rowdiness you’re probably imagining. Most of those guys are really talented; and there are girls too. You should see this girl called Momo, they say she’s the queen-“

“I wasn’t imagining drunk rowdiness!” you protested, flushing.

Jaebum grinned, his rare and handsome smile leaving you speechless. “Yeah, right. Come on. One time? I promise I’ll stay beside you the entire time.”

You bit your lip and then nodded. “Okay.”

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

You hitched your backpack up on your shoulder as you approached the house.

It had only been two years since you’d last been home. Somehow, the rickety house looked older and more dilapidated than ever. Paint was peeling off the outer walls and there was dirt everywhere. Your throat clenched uncomfortably.

What happened to this place? It looked almost uninhabited. Your hands trembled as you pushed open the slightly rusting gate and stepped onto the front porch.

“Mom? Are you here?” you called out. The front door was unlocked and you entered the messy and silent house. The living room had a stale and dusty smell. You hurried further inside to find your mother in her bedroom. The older woman was lying back in bed with the covers tucked firmly around her chest.

You breathed a sigh of relief. “Mom! I’m home!” you announced with a teary-eyed laugh.

Your mother smiled at you weakly. “Ah, darling. I was waiting for you. I’m sorry I can’t get up. I have a bit of a fever…” she apologized while she hugged you back gently. Her arms felt surprisingly frail and her grip around you was weak. “How are you, darling? How’s college going for you?”

You smiled. “It’s going fine.”

“You’re not struggling too much, are you?” she pressed.

“I’m fine,” you reassured her. You glanced around the room. It wasn’t very clean and you wondered how your ordinarily picky mother had allowed the house to fall into such a condition. You looked down at your sunken-eyed mother and gave her a small smile. Never mind. It wasn’t the time to get into such things. You could do a little bit of cleaning around the house if your mother was ill. 

“Have you eaten? Should I make dinner?” you offered.

“No, darling, you don’t have to cook-“

“I don’t mind. You rest. I’ll get started on dinner.”

You dropped your bags on the bedroom floor and then hurried into the kitchen. The refrigerator was making an odd noise but you pulled it open anyway and frowned. There wasn’t much in here for you to work with. You managed to lay your hands on some meat in the freezer rack and flipped it over to check an expiration date.

“Mom, where’s Yugyeom?” you called out loudly. “Is he still at school? Shouldn’t he have a holiday today?”

Your mother’s weak voice replied from the bedroom. “I don’t know darling. He’s usually not home at this time.”

“I messaged the idiot to pick me up at the station but he never came. I had to take the bus all the way back here with my luggage,” you complained.

You pulled your cell-phone out of your pocket and dialed your younger brother’s number, waiting as the phone rang repeatedly. There was no response. You put the phone back while you set the frozen meat on the counter.

Idiot. Where could Yugyeom have gone when he knew I was coming home today?   

You finished making dinner and called Yugyeom a few more times while you unpacked in your old bedroom. There was a lot of dust everywhere. You ended up having to clean most of the first floor in the process. How had your mother and brother allowed the house to get so messy? You collected an enormous pile of dirty laundry that you would have to do before you went to bed tonight. They were so careless.

It was slowly getting dark and Yugyeom still wasn’t home. Your mother didn’t seem worried so you decided not to comment on your brother’s absence. All the same, you couldn’t help but feel a little bit hurt. What was more important to Yugyeom than his sister who hadn’t been home in about two years? Couldn’t he even come and say hello to you?

“Was it tasty?” you asked your mother as you watched her eat the soup. “My roommate is from Busan and she taught me the recipe. You can make it with almost no ingredients. It’s nice, right?”

Your mother smiled gently. “It’s wonderful, dear.”

“Does Yugyeom not turn up for dinner often? I made enough for him. He used to love my cooking.”

“He stays out late with some friends of his,” your mother replied with a light hum as she spooned more soup into her mouth. She gave you a weak smile. “He’ll be fine. They’re nice boys.”

You nodded, resisting the urge to yawn. It had been a long day and you had been travelling for most of the morning, not to mention you’d cleaned the entire house and cooked. You were dying to go to bed. On your way upstairs you glanced at the clock.

It was almost 11 pm. Surely Yugyeom wouldn’t come home at this time? Maybe he was going to spend the night with a friend.

You hesitated for a short moment before locking up the house and going to bed.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

You found yourself sticking close to Jaebum as you both  approached the old, abandoned railway tracks. The underground dance battles apparently weren’t physically underground (you had honestly imagined a dilapidated old subway station or something along those lines) but they were actually held out in the open behind the old railway tracks that had long been out of service.

There were a lot of people around. some of them looked perfectly normal like you and Jaebum, while others were a little more intimidating.

“See?” Jaebum asked, leaning down to speak to you. He let you hold on to his arm without commenting on how tight your grip was. “Not scary, right?”

“I guess not,” you admitted as you watched some dude set up speakers and microphones on the makeshift stage. The dance battles were often followed by hip-hop music and rap battles. “You don’t have permission to use this space, right?””

“Of course we don’t. It’s trespassing.”

“So what if the police come? Then what do we do?”

Jaebum gave you a cheeky grin and leaned down to whisper in your ear.

“...We run for it.”

His husky whisper sent a shiver down your spine. You had to try not to blush. Instead, you reached out and smacked his shoulder. Jaebum only laughed playfully and dodged your hit before reaching for your hand and pulling you further into the crowd.

“Come on, we should go find some friendly faces. My friends are over there, I’ll introduce you; Jackson Wang! Park Jinyoung!” he yelled out loudly.

A pair of guys waved at him and you followed Jaebum silently. You hadn’t been sure what his friends would be like, but they both appeared to be perfectly normal. Well, perhaps not completely. Jinyoung looked normal. Jackson Wang was extremely muscular and had a slightly stupid grin on his face as soon as he spotted you and Jaebum.

“JB! Hey, what took you so long? I told you some of the older guys were performing today, you totally missed them!”

Jaebum chuckled. “Sorry, man.”

“JB?” you wondered quietly. Jaebum turned to glance at you and his cheeks turned slightly pink at the way your head tilted curiously. “Who’s JB?”

“Uh, it’s my b-boy name,” he muttered. “Short for Jaebum, you know.”

You couldn’t help but let out a snigger. You had never heard anything less creative.

“JB?” you demanded. “Who’s genius idea was that? Couldn’t you have come up with something more unique?”

Jinyoung smiled and reached out to shake your hand in a friendly manner. “Hey, I like her. She has the right attitude for this place. Nice to meet you, I’m Jinyoung and this is Jackson but he likes to go by J-Flawless around here. Are you a dancer too?” he asked curiously.

You flushed. “What? Oh no, I can’t dance at all. I’m just here to watch.”

“She’s my classmate,” Jaebum explained lightly. He suddenly remembered that he was holding your hand and tried to drop it casually, but Jinyoung’s sharp eyes missed nothing. The man blinked in a slightly confused manner before narrowing down on your face. You felt almost naked as Jinyoung's sharp eyes scanned you.  After a few seconds, he let out a small cackle of laughter.

“Oh my God! Jaebum, you can’t be serious!” Jinyoung cried. “This is Chocolate Eyes, isn’t it?”

Jaebum flushed. “Shut up.”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t performed it for her!” Jackson pressed with a cheerful grin. You blinked at Jackson when he turned to you firmly. “Haven’t you heard Jaebum’s Chocolate Eyes song?” he demanded.

You glanced at Jaebum uncertainly. “Uh…. I haven’t heard a lot of his songs to be honest… what’s so special about Chocolate Eyes?”

“It’s probably the cheesiest shit he’s ever written. Which is a lot because most of his lyrics are ‘fuck the society’ or innuendos about the size of his dick. Except you see, this one is about a girl with chocolate-colored eyes and the lyrics are literally twenty or so lines about how pretty the color of this girl’s eyes are so it’s some embarrassing shit.” He turned and grinned at Jaebum. “I would have thought you would-“

“Hey! Would you look at that? Someone is going on stage!” Jaebum cut him off quickly.

You had to admit that the dance battles were a lot of fun. It was loud and the crowd went wild with each dazzling move, especially when the more experienced dancers went up on stage. You had been waiting for Jaebum to go up as well, but he shyly admitted to you that he wasn’t really prepared to go on stage that day and that he’d perform some other time.

You also found that Jinyoung and Jackson (or J-Flawless, as he requested you call him during dance battles) were a lot of fun. Jinyoung was a little cheeky and kept addressing you  as Chocolate Eyes which left you a little flustered, but Jackson was extremely nice and friendly and kept talking to you. By the time you realized that it was past your curfew, you almost didn’t want to leave.

“It wasn’t as scary as you thought, right?” Jaebum asked as you both walked back after the event.

It was past your curfew but you’d called your little brother and told him to cover for you with your parents. Yugyeom had whined about being asked to do such a thing. Still, he eventually agreed to lie on your behalf.

It was dark as you walked back, and the street was relatively quiet.

“It was really interesting,” you admitted shyly. “I never knew hip-hop and dance could be so cool. And your friends were really fun. I don’t get why Jinyoung kept calling me Chocolate Eyes, though… and whatever he said about a song you wrote…” you trailed off, hoping he would explain it to you.

Jaebum flushed and he shoved his hands in his pockets as he stared down at the ground. “I-uh- it’s just a stupid song that I wrote. I wanted to try writing something romantic for once to challenge myself, so… I guess I just looked for inspiration wherever I could find it.”

“Will you show it to me?” you asked.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

He took a deep breath and turned to look at you with a sudden intensity that made your spine tingle.

”Because Jinyoung is right. Chocolate Eyes is about you.”

There was a brief pause before you both stopped walking and turned to look at each other. Jaebum was looking down at you so gently. He lifted a hand and gently stroked the side of your face with a rough thumb as his lips curved into a shy smile.

“Your eyes really are the color of dark chocolate,” he explained quietly. “And I kept thinking about how beautiful they are and how much I like when you look at me like that.”

Your breath hitched. “Like what?” you whispered.

“That.” He leaned down and kissed you, your lips pressing together sweetly and hesitantly. You wrapped your arms around his neck to pull him down closer so you could kiss him harder. Something about the sudden embrace was both exciting and still safe. Jaebum always made you feel safe.

The two of you pulled away breathlessly after a few moments, foreheads still pressed together.

“But the lyrics are complete shit because I couldn’t find the right words for them. I couldn��t find the right words for you,” Jaebum whispered against your lips.  

“Words are overrated anyway.”

He chuckled. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Kiss me again.”

When you finally managed to pull yourself away from Jaebum and climb into your room through the window, your head was spinning giddily. You had never been as crazy about a guy as you were about Jaebum. You were so busy smiling to yourself stupidly that you almost didn’t notice the boy sitting on your bed.

Yugyeom, had been waiting up for you while clutching his stuffed animal. Really, he was in middle school. He was too old for stuffed animals but Yugyeom had always been a child.

“Noona!” he greeted happily.

You jumped at the sound of his voice. “Hey. You scared me. What are you still doing up? Go to bed.”

“Noona, I covered for you with mom and dad. Aren’t you grateful?” Yugyeom pouted. His mouth spread into a cheeky and lopsided grin as he beamed up at you. “Where did you go, noona? Were you on a date with your boyfriend?” he teased.

You blushed. “Shut up.”

“You were?”

“Nope.” You lowered your voice and shut the bedroom door before beaming at your little brother. “You’ll never guess where noona was today. I went to go see an underground dance battle!”

Yugyeom’s eyes shimmered with excitement. “Wow! What’s that?”

“Go brush your teeth, get under the covers, and I’ll tell you all about it…”

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Somebody started pounding on the door at 2 am.

You awoke suddenly from a deep sleep to the banging noise and your eyes shot open. Who was at the door at this time of night? Heartbeat thudding and adrenaline pumping through you, you paused to grab a knife from the kitchen before slowly approaching the shaking door. You took a deep breath and forced yourself to think straight.

“Who is it?” you yelled over the banging.

The banging stopped.

“Noona?” Yugyeom’s voice demanded through the door. It was much deeper than you remembered but it was still unmistakably your little brother. Relieved, you let the kitchen knife fall to your side. Yugyeom sounded annoyed and banged a couple more times. “Fuck, noona, why did you lock the door? Open up!”  

You hurried to remove the deadbolts and swung the door open. Part of you was positive that Yugyeom must be drunk; he probably went out drinking with his friends, why else would he come back home at this absurd hour and make such a scene? You couldn’t believe that your innocent little brother was drinking underage. You were just getting ready to scold him when your eyes adjusted to the darkness and you saw what was in front of you properly.

There were two men on the porch. Both were tall but Yugyeom was more so. Your brother was clutching onto the shorter man as if he couldn’t stand properly, half bent over while bruises littered his pale skin. Yugyeom’s lip was bleeding and swollen and there was a large graze on his forehead that was dripping blood down the side of his face. He looked like he’d been in a fight.

Your heart dropped into your stomach.

“Oh my God-“ you could barely form words on your lips as Yugyeom silently limped into the front hall and turned on the light. There was blood on his clothes. He dropped a tattered backpack in the hallway as he sat down to take off his shoes. “Yugyeom-“

Yugyeom barely looked at you. “Welcome home, noona. Don’t lock the door at night next time.”

Your felt nauseous as you whirled around to look at the other man that was waiting in the doorway. It had been two years since you had last seen him, but you recognized Lim Jaebum immediately. He looked almost the same. Tall, broad shoulders and a sharp angular face. His dark eyes were as intense as ever.

Your blood ran cold.

“Lim Jaebum,” you greeted quietly.

Jaebum looked equally surprised to see you and his mouth fell open for a brief moment before he quickly closed it. You could see his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down his throat as he whispered a gruff response.

“Uh-hi. Welcome back.”

“What the fuck did you do to my brother?” you demanded, feeling your heartbeat race at the sight of a bloodied and bruised Yugyeom sitting on the floor and taking off his dirty sneakers. You whirled around and glared at Jaebum. “How dare you lay your hands on my brother-“

Yugyeom scoffed from his place on the floor. “Don’t be stupid, noona, Jaebum-hyung didn’t beat me up. He brought me back here safely.”

“You shut your mouth, Kim Yugyeom, I’ll deal with you later,” you hissed. Your insides were twisting and turning. What had been happening here while you were gone? Your worst nightmares were coming true and as you looked up at Lim Jaebum, you felt nothing but pure and adulterated anger. He was to blame. He was the one who’d gotten your brother involved in something ugly, you just knew it.

“Get out of my house,” you told Jaebum firmly.

Yugyeom glared at you. “Don’t talk to hyung like that-“

“Get out of my house, Lim Jaebum, and stay the hell away from my family.”

“Hyung, you don’t have to leave-“

Jaebum cut Yugyeom off and gave you a small, polite bow. “It’s fine. I should go. Clean yourself up properly, Yugyeom. I’ll be leaving now.”

He turned around and walked away, not even flinching when you slammed the door shut after him. You locked the deadbolts to be safe and then ran your fingers through your hair as you tried to calm your racing heartbeat. Then you turned to look at Yugyeom.

He was getting up from the floor while glaring at you. Your head spun. Where was your adorable younger brother with the cheeky grin? You didn’t know this strange man standing in front of you and that scared you.

“You shouldn’t have talked to Jaebum-hyung like that,” Yugyeom said coldly.

You stiffened. “Since when is Lim Jaebum your hyung?”

“Since you left.”

“I went to college,” you hissed.

“Well, I hope you had a nice time there,” Yugyeom scoffed before turning around to limp away. He was headed towards the stairs and you called after him angrily.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going? I’m not done with you yet. Sit down here so I can clean you up and we can talk about whatever the hell is going on,” you ordered firmly. There was no way you could let Yugyeom get away with this sort of behaviour. This wasn’t how either of you had been raised. “Do you come home like this often? Do you let our mother see you this way? Does she know that you’re buddies with Lim Jaebum?”

Yugyeom turned and gave you a cold, empty look.

“I can clean up after myself,” he replied dully. “I’ve been doing it for the past year. And as for our mother…In case you haven’t noticed yet, she’s dying.”

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

It was the beginning of your senior year when your father died.

Your mother spent an entire week at home without food, sobbing her eyes out and completely cut off from the world. Yugyeom was too innocent to understand what was going on and he would sit in his mother’s lap and cry along with her, clutching his stuffed animals. You had been left alone; alone to manage the household, alone to comfort your remaining family members, alone to finish your studies.

“My dear,” you teacher said to you quietly, when you turned up to school a mere three days after your father’s death. “You don’t need to come into school yet. Stay with your family. Take a year off if you need to. It’s all right.”

You had stiffened. “I’m fine,” you replied quietly. “I want to graduate this year.”

The only person you allowed yourself to cry in front of was Jaebum. He would come find you every day and you would let yourself break down in front of him, clutching his shirt as you sobbed into his chest and let out all your frustrations. Your father hadn’t just left your family; he had left behind debt and the moneylenders had started sending you messages. You had no idea how to repay them. One of the moneylenders in particular had been sending threatening messages and had even sent goons to your door to frighten you.

“I’m scared,” you sobbed into Jaebum’s chest as he wrapped his arms around you tightly. It was the only place you ever felt safe anymore. “I-I can barely make ends meet with my part time job. Yugyeom had to start working too. How am I going to pay back that money, Jaebum? How am I going to protect my family?”

Jaebum rubbed your back gently as he pressed his face against your hair. “I’ll take care of it,” he promised you quietly. “Baby, I’ll make sure they don’t hurt you. Listen to me. You are going to be fine.”

“I can’t- I can’t handle this, I can’t do it alone-“ you whimpered.

“You’re not alone. I’m here.”

“What are you going to do, Jaebum? What can you possibly do?”

“I’ll do everything I can.”

You fended off the moneylenders with vague promises of paying them back in a few years with interest, although you had no idea how you were going to manage it all. Instead, you dove into your academics. The only way you could ever pay that sort of money back was if you finished her education and got a proper job.

Part-time employment in the local restaurant wouldn’t cut it. You would be in debt for the rest of her life, if you went down that path. You needed to graduate, take out a student loan to go to college and earn a salary figure with a lot of zeros in it. That was the only way you would ever be able to take care of your family.

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

You couldn’t sleep.

You kept tossing and turning in bed, nightmares from the past plaguing you and causing you to wake up in a cold sweat. You finally forced yourself out of bed at dawn and stumbled around the house sleepily. You carefully approached Yugyeom’s room. He had left his door slightly ajar and the sound of his deep snoring drifted out.

You stood there silently for a moment before slowly walking in. Yugyeom was spread across his bed in a clumsy manner, one long leg hanging off the single bed that was now too small for him. He hadn’t cleaned himself up. Dried blood crusted around his lips and forehead. You quietly grabbed a blanket and spread it over your brother before stepping out of the room.

What happened to him? Yugyeom had never been like this. He had been a little innocent and sometimes stupid, but he was always a cheerful boy who found life exciting in general. How had he gotten involved with Lim Jaebum? Why was he coming home at unnatural hours with wounds all over him?

You entered the kitchen before remembering that there was hardly any food in the fridge. You paused and let your head rest in your hands for a few moments as you tried to make sense of what was happening around you. Why was everything such a mess? How had things gone so far downhill just because you’d gone off to college for a few months?

“Darling?” you mother called out weakly from her room. “Darling, are you awake?”

You straightened up and entered your mother’s room quickly, only to find that the older woman was sitting up in bed and coughing. You remembered Yugyeom’s piercing words from last night. As for eomma… she’s dying. You looked at your mother and blinked back the tears that sprang into your eyes. Why hadn’t you noticed her frail body and sunken face before? She didn’t merely have a fever. She was seriously ill.

“Mom,” you whispered softly. You went and sat next to you mother carefully. “Are you hungry? I’ll go down to the grocery store and get some things so I can make breakfast-“

Your mother groaned and sat up. “No, darling, you shouldn’t have to do all the cooking when you’ve just come home. I’ll make something for you-“

“No, lie down. I want to make breakfast. You should rest.”

Your mother sank back into the bed. “Did Yugyeom-ie come home last night?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” she replied, looking relieved. The older woman closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the pillow. “He’s a good kid. He really is. Sometimes he makes mistakes, but he’s a good kid. That Jaebum boy takes care of him  well. He comes and says hi to me sometimes as well. Polite boy.”

Your spine shuddered. “Lim Jaebum comes here often?”

“Hmmm.”

You took a deep breath and pressed a kiss to your mother’s forehead before grabbing your wallet and heading out of the front door to buy groceries. Your head was still spinning. What is Lim Jaebum getting at? Was he really trying to take care of your family or was he planning to drag Yugyeom down with him into a messy life of crime and self-destruction?

You couldn’t believe anything. You didn’t trust Jaebum. You wanted him far away from your family and you were going to make it happen.

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

You bit your lip and twirled the pen absentmindedly between your fingers.

“I can’t figure this one out,” you complained as you scratched out the last few lines of calculations that you had made in the notebook. “I thought I was applying the formulae right but I keep getting this weird number in recurring decimal points when the answer should be a whole number…”

Jaebum leaned towards you, pushing his glasses higher up his nose as he read over your work. You watched his eyes skim over the page. You thought Jaebum was extremely attractive when he wore glasses. He was handsome in general, of course, but you couldn’t take her eyes off him when he took his reading glasses out. It was a pity that he only wore them when the two of you were studying alone.  

“Yup. Wrong formula,” he said after a few seconds, pointing at a particular step in your calculations. “You’re supposed to apply the other one, genius.”

“Ahhh…” you bit her lip and hurried to scribble down the correct formula. “What would I do without you, Jaebum?”

“Don’t kid yourself. You would have wasted five more minutes to figure out your own mistake at worst.”

You smiled at him sweetly. “Well, then, thank you for saving five minutes of my time.”

Jaebum leaned close to you, stroking your cheek with the back of his fingers as he pressed his forehead against yours.

“Since I saved you so much time,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the corner of your mouth softly. “I think it should be mine, don’t you? Those five minutes belong to me.”

You glanced back at the homework doubtfully. “Jaebum…”

“Shh. It’s just five minutes.” He slanted his mouth over yours delicately, tongue dancing with yours as his strong arms wrapped around you. You whimpered into the kiss. Jaebum’s kisses were addictive; slow and gentle, yet at the same time extremely passionate. You could feel the heat from his lips and the eagerness with which he was kissing you And yet somehow they made you feel safe. Jaebum would pull you into his arms and wrap them around you tightly until you were cocooned into his chest. You loved that more than anything.

“Noona? Noona!”

You both pulled apart rapidly.

“Can you get under the bed?” you hissed as Yugyeom’s loud footsteps came up the stairs. Jaebum sighed but dove under the bed and managed to fit broad shoulders underneath it just as Yugyeom opened the door. You  smiled at your brother sweetly.

“Yugyeom. You’re home.”

Yugyeom smiled back half-heartedly. “Yeah. Work was hard. I hate this part-time job,” he admitted quietly. He gave you a small grin. “Is there anything to eat, noona? I’m starving.”

“Half of my paycheck goes in feeding you,” she joked. It wasn’t Yugyeom’s fault. He had recently hit puberty and seemed to be gaining inches in height with each passing day. He ate a lot and you could do nothing but playfully scold him while you made enough food. “Mom made soup before she left for her night shift. Go switch the rice cooker on before you wash up. We’ll eat in twenty minutes.”

“Fine,” Yugyeom agreed, shutting the door behind him as he left. Jaebum crawled out from under the bed and gave you a  resentful frown as he brushed dust off his shoulders.

“Do I have to hide whenever your brother is around?” he grumbled.

You pouted. “Sorry. It’s just really embarrassing. If he found you in the bedroom once then the idiot would keep trying to catch us at it and we wouldn’t have a second of privacy here. It’s just easier if he doesn’t know.”

Jaebum pouted. “Fine,” he mumbled. “I’ll get going then.”

“Wait.”

You dug into your backpack and pulled out a flyer, placing it on the table. “They were handing these out outside school earlier today. It’s a college exam prep center in the next town. They have demo classes on weekends and you can sit in on the classes and decide whether you want to join.”

Jaebum glanced down at the flyer. “Oh.”

You raised an eyebrow. “Well? Do you want to go? The classes aren’t that expensive. We should give it a shot, right? How else are we going to get through college entrance exams? They might cover stuff we don’t do at school.”

“It’s just…” Jaebum bit his lip and gave you a tentative look. “I’ll come with you if you want. But I’m not sure I want to go to college.”

You laughed. “What? Don’t be stupid. You’d be a shoo-in for the top colleges.”

“I don’t want to go,” he replied with a shrug. He sat next to you and ran his fingers through his messy hair. His thin lips were pressed together tightly. “Honestly, I kind of wanted to drop-out of high school because it makes me that miserable. I’m only sticking around to graduate. But I don’t want to go to college and get a degree that I won’t know what to do with. I think there are other things I want to pursue. Other ways of making money.”

You stared at him. You knew that Jaebum was a little unconventional and that he probably wouldn’t want to do something boring with his life. But you hadn’t thought that he wouldn’t even want to go to college. You glanced down at the flyer quietly.

“What are you going to do if you don’t go to college?” you whispered.

“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out. Maybe I’ll get into dancing professionally. I could audition for some dance teams.”

“But how will you earn money in the meantime-“

Jaebum leaned down and kissed your forehead sweetly. “Baby, don’t worry about me. I’ll take care of myself. I have ways of making money that don’t need a college degree, okay? Let’s go visit that prep class place on Saturday.”

You stared at him. “What ways? Jaebum, you’re not doing anything illegal, are you?”

Jaebum chuckled. “Babe, relax.”

“Promise me you’re not doing something shady like dealing drugs or whatever,” you insisted. You trusted that Jaebum was a good an honest person. But truth be told, there were all sorts of people at those dance battles. You were terrified that he might be dragged into a life of crime. “Don’t join a gang or something. You won’t, right? You’ll stay safe?”

Jaebum cupped your cheek and smiled. “You’re adorable when you’re worried about me.”

“I’m not kidding, Jaebum. I’ll never forgive you if you get yourself arrested-”

“I won’t. Trust me.”

Jaebum’s dark eyes were shining softly. You knew that you could trust the man in front of you but you were worried. Too many things had gone wrong in your life too quickly. You couldn’t afford to lose Jaebum too. You needed him to stay with you. You needed him to be the smart and reliable person that you always trusted.  

“Okay,” you whispered.

Jaebum chuckled as he moved towards your open window. “I can’t believe I have to sneak out because of your little brother…”

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

You bought groceries early in the morning and were busy making pancakes in the kitchen when Yugyeom finally came downstairs. He blinked sleepily and absent-mindedly for a moment before moving past you and heading towards the living room.

You called after him.

“Yugyeom, where are you going? I made pancakes!” you offered kindly. You had begun to wonder if you’d been too harsh with him last night. Yugyeom was your brother after all. You loved him. The two of you could sit and talk about whatever he was going through. You peeked out of the kitchen and waved him over eagerly. “You like my pancakes, right? Come on. I even bought the tasty syrup from the store.”

Yugyeom hesitated in the hallway. “I’m going out.”

“Where?”

He turned and frowned at you. “I don’t have to tell you where I’m going,” he snapped. “You’ve been gone for two years. What, you think you can suddenly come in here and order me around and demand to know about my life? That’s not how it works, noona.”

Your throat felt constricted. “Why are you acting like this?”

“Like what?”

“Like you hate me,” you replied quietly. Yugyeom was glaring at you and you felt like you were going to cry. Why was he behaving this way? What had you done to deserve this? “Yugyeom, I came home after two years. I want to spend time with my family. I’ve missed you and I’ve missed Mom but she’s lying sick on her bed and you’re acting like a completely different person, I…” you trailed off, your voice cracking. “I don’t know what to do.”

Yugyeom turned away from you. “You should have thought of that before you left home.”

“You’re acting like I ran away! I went to college, Yugyeom! Things haven’t been easy for me either!” you replied heatedly. You were on the verge of tears. “I need to keep on top of my studies to maintain my scholarship and get a job so I can repay my student loans and our father’s debt.”

“You don’t have to worry about our father’s debt,” Yugyeom informed you dully as he sat down in the hallway to put on his shoes. He tugged at the shoelaces. “I’ve started paying them off already.”

“How? Are you still working part-time at the restaurant?”

“No, I quit that job. It didn’t pay shit. I’m working for Jaebum-hyung now,” Yugyeom replied. He finished tying his shoelaces and stood up. His backpack was lying beside the doorway and he picked it up and slung it over his shoulders. “I have to go to work now. Bye.”

You closed her eyes to blink back your tears.

“Did Jaebum do this?” you asked quietly.

“What?”

“Did Jaebum turn you against me?” you demanded, voice rising. You had tried to keep calm but your head was spinning and you felt like you were going to lose control of yourself any moment. The unfamiliar man standing in front of you was still your brother and he wouldn’t have become like this without an explanation. “Did he make you hate me? Is he getting you to do illegal things for money? Is he blackmailing you or hurting you in some way?”

Yugyeom stiffened. “I’ve said this before. Don’t talk about Jaebum-hyung that way.”

“Are you scared of him?”

“No! How many times do I have to say this to get it through your thick head?” he yelled. “Jaebum-hyung was there for me. He stayed by me no matter what. He’s taking care of me, noona, in a way that you haven’t for the past two years.”

You opened your mouth. “I-“

“Don’t press me on this any further,” he cut you off and turned away from you. “Because Jaebum-hyung is an amazing person and I would pick him over you any day. Don’t push me to make that choice. Go eat your stupid pancakes yourself. And make sure Mom takes her medicines on time. It’s the least you can do at this point.”

He stormed past you and slammed the front door shut behind him.

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

You closed your eyes, holding back tears as your hands trembled. You couldn’t speak. Your entire body was shivering from fear and you felt like you were going to faint.

The moneylenders had been getting more impatient. Admittedly, it wasn’t all of them. Some were more willing to wait. But there was one man in particular who didn’t trust that you would ever pay him back, who wouldn’t shy away from using whatever means he could to recover his money.

You had been returning from the library late in the evening when the two men had grabbed you. When they held a knife to her throat and told you to pay the money back immediately, you were sure that you were going to die. They wouldn’t believe that you didn’t have it. They would get it out of you somehow, they said, and their boss wasn’t going to wait much longer.

By the time they left you alone you were terrified and sobbing in the alleyway. You barely managed to call Jaebum and tell him where you were.

Jaebum’s face had gone dark when he found you, bruises littering your arms from the men’s rough handling and crying so hard that you could only blubber out incomprehensible words. He had held you silently as you cried. You weren’t scared for herself; surely the moneylender knew that he would never get the money if he killed you.

“What about my mother and Yugyeom?” you had whispered. Your fingers clutched onto Jaebum’s shirt as you sobbed the last of your remaining tears into it. “How can I go off to college? What if he hurts them while I’m gone, Jaebum? What if he does something to them, I could never…”

Jaebum had pressed you to his chest. “This will never happen again.”

“How can you be sure-“

“It won’t,” he said firmly. His own shoulders were shaking in anger and his eyes had gone dark. You had never seen Jaebum so angry. He was normally a straight-faced and calm person but he looked almost murderous as he held you that night. “That man will never touch you again. And once you go to college, he will never touch your family.”

You shook your head. ‘How can you-“

“Baby, do you trust me?”

His fingers held your chin gently and he tilted your face up so that you were looking into his eyes. You didn’t recognize the look on his face. It was different and strange. Suddenly, he didn’t seem like Jaebum anymore. When you failed to respond, he pressed his forehead to yours so that you had nowhere else to look.

“Have I ever lied to you?” Jaebum asked softly. “Have I ever let you down?”

“N-no-“

“Then believe me. I will not let him touch you. And if he wants to get to your family once you go to college, he’ll have to get through me. That is a promise.” Jaebum’s thumb gently brushed away one of the tears that had spilt out of your red eyes. “Come on, take a deep breath and wipe away those tears. You don’t want Yugyeom to see you like this.”

You nodded, wiping away your tears and then pressing a hard kiss to Jaebum’s mouth. You didn’t know whether he could do anything to help you, but he had stayed with you through the hardest times of your life. You knew that you would have gone mad without him.

“I love you,” you told him firmly.

Jaebum smiled down at you. “I love you too,” he whispered.

You pulled away from him and rolled down your shirt sleeves to hide the bruises as you entered your house. Yugyeom was too busy watching television to notice your entrance so you managed to slip upstairs before your mother could suspect anything had happened.

Once you reached your bedroom, you peeked out of the window and saw that Jaebum was still standing in the street in front of your house. He was walking up and down the street agitatedly while he talked on the phone, running his fingers through his already tousled hair. You heard him curse loudly once. After about ten minutes, he hung up and walked away. Jaebum’s tall figure slowly disappeared down the road and out of sight of your window.

If only you had known in that moment, how much Lim Jaebum was willing to sacrifice for you.

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

“I need to talk to Lim Jaebum.”

The handsome man behind the counter had put on a dazzling smile when you first walked into the bakery, but it immediately faltered upon recognition. Mark Tuan’s large eyes blinked at you for a long moment before he responded.

“That’s a nice way to greet someone you haven’t seen in over a year,” Mark mused. “And here I thought you wanted some cake.”

“I wouldn’t mind some cake,” you admitted, feeling a little ashamed of your rude behavior. It was true that you were furious and frustrated but it wasn’t fair to take that out on Mark. He was one of the sweetest people you knew and had been slipping you and your brother free treats ever since he started the bakery. “But right now, I need to talk to Lim Jaebum.”

“Well, you’re not going to find him here.”

“Where is he?”

Mark sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Oppa, please. I know you’re the one that took care of him while he was in prison,” you pointed out. You might not have been here when it happened but you weren’t entirely cut off from this town. Rumors had reached you even back in college. Mark had always taken care of the younger boys in town. “If anyone would know where he is, it’s you. Or Jackson and Jinyoung, but I don’t know how to find them either.”

Mark ran a hand over his face. “Jaebum’s had it hard.”

“He killed a man while trying to steal from him.”

“And he only went to prison for eight months, which shows that a judge in a court of law didn’t think he was completely to blame. So if you’re going to hold that against him-“

“What if I told you that I think he’s about to take my little brother down the same path?”

Mark was quiet. He stared at you for a long moment, eyes unblinking. Then he took a deep breath and then nodded. “Maybe it’s better you talk to him yourself. He and Jinyoung bought out the old mechanics’ place; do you remember it? They run the car repair shed. You should find him somewhere around there.”

You nodded. “Thank you.”

“Anyone could have told you that,” Mark replied dismissively. He turned and looked at you with a firm gaze. “Listen to me. Jaebum is a good man. You know that more than anyone. Don’t forget that, okay? He doesn’t deserve a lot of the things that are happening to him.”

You closed your eyes. “Don’t try to pull that with me. You might be used to dealing with boys who go down the wrong path so it’s nothing in your eyes, Mark, but what Jaebum did is unforgivable. He’s a criminal.”

“No, you don’t-“

“You’re going to tell me that he did it because he was having a hard time. I know. Money was hard to come by. He probably wanted to help me pay my debts back so he and his gang tried to steal from that man. I don’t care. I never asked him to commit a crime for me and I most definitely never asked him to kill someone,” you snapped. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about what happened and no matter which way I look at it, what Jaebum did is unforgivable. He’s not the man I used to know. He’d been dealing with these sort of criminals long before he told me the truth. He lied to me.”

Mark was quiet.

“I know,” he reassured you softly. “Just go talk to him.”

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

You took a deep breath before you entered the shed-like mechanic’s store. You had gone to the gas station nearby first, but a rather handsome young boy with a cheerful smile had been manning the counter and stammered out that Jaebum was in the garage. His nametag read Youngjae and he had gaped at you in a rather obvious manner as you left the store. You wasn’t sure whether he was just a hormonal teenage boy, or if he somehow knew who you were.

The mechanic’s was a dirty place. You found yourself coughing as you were hit with the pungent smell of oil and petrol. To nobody’s surprise, you spotted Park Jinyoung settled comfortably behind a table with some ledgers open in front of him, nodding off. No wonder. He had never been one to get his hands dirty, Jinyoung was probably managing the finances of this place. You tapped the table in front of him to get his attention.

“Ahem.”

Jinyoung jolted upright. “Huh? What-who- oh.” His eyes widened as he saw you and he blinked. “Well. I heard you were back in town, Chocolate Eyes, but I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Where’s Jaebum?”

He smiled a gummy smile. “What, no pleasantries-“

“Where’s Jaebum?”

His smile dropped when he noticed the serious expression on you face. He cleared his throat and sat up a little straighter, yelling out Jaebum’s name loudly. There was a shuffling noise from the back of the shed. A few clanks could be heard before Jaebum appeared from behind a car. He was wiping the oil off his hands as he approached the front, and he stopped short when his eyes landed on you.

“Hey,” he greeted softly.

“Can we talk?” you asked him.

He nodded silently, leading you towards a door in the side of the shop that led into a smaller office. It had a small table that was stacked with more ledgers, and paperwork that had evidently been left unfiled. Jaebum didn’t speak but you could see that he was tense; years of knowing him had left you able to recognize when the seemingly cool man was actually flustered. Jaebum’s jaw was clenched tightly and his eyes looked worried as he pointed towards a chair.

“Uh- you can have a seat-“

“Where’s Yugyeom? He told me he was coming to work with you today,” you said, ignoring the chair.

Jaebum was silent for a moment. His eyes drank you in slowly and quietly. He hadn’t had a chance to look at you properly the previous night, considering how dark it was and how upset you had been over Yugyeom being covered in blood. But he saw you now. You looked the same as you had looked two years ago. Your cheeks had filled out more and you looked healthier than when you had been here.

Jaebum could see the hard exterior that you were trying to display but there was vulnerability in your eyes. Your chocolate-colored orbs were red and puffy even as they glared at him. Jaebum could tell that you had been crying so he took a deep breath and tried to focus on his words.

“I sent Yugyeom on some errands.”

You didn’t like that answer. “Errands?” you demanded. “Is he going to come back beaten up and half dead from those errands again?”

“I sent him to the post office. He’s mailing some orders to our suppliers.”

“Suppliers? Suppliers of what?”

“Car parts,” he said firmly. Jaebum sighed and gestured towards the ledgers behind him. “I don’t know what you’re thinking but I’m not doing anything illegal here. This is a genuine business. You can check my accounts if you want to. It’s transparent.”

You folded your arms across your chest and stared back at Jaebum. You hated the gentle way in which he looked at you, the softness in his gaze even while you glared at him. It reminded you of all the stolen nights spent in your bedroom when you would look up from your homework and find Jaebum looking at you with that same gentle gaze, eyes full of adoration.

But you weren’t going to let silly feelings from the past overwhelm you. There was something going on, and the Lim Jaebum standing in front of you had too many secrets.

“Yugyeom says he’s started paying back my father’s debts. He claims he’s doing it from the salary you’re paying him for working here,” you informed him stiffly. “I’m supposed to believe you can afford to pay him so much money just from your profits here? How long have you been out of prison, Jaebum? I highly doubt that business is booming right now.”

Jaebum was silent.

“Can you honestly tell me you don’t have some other source of income on the side?”

He lowered his eyes, unable to meet you piercing gaze. “It’s not what you think,” he whispered.

“What is it, then? Tell me.”

“You don’t understand. You’ve been gone for a long time. Things here have changed a lot, especially your brother. I know you love him, but he’s not the same kid he used to be-“

“Of course he isn’t, you’ve been ruining him,” you hissed.

Jaebum looked bewildered. “Ruining him? What does that even mean, what exactly do you think-“

“Yugyeom told me,” you explained shakily, “that he would choose you over me any day. He seems to think I abandoned him. My little brother looked at me with more hatred than I’ve ever seen in his eyes in the past 17 years, Jaebum; tell me you didn’t do that to him.”

“He shouldn’t be treating you that way,” Jaebum mumbled. He ran a hand over his face and sighed. “I’ll talk to him about his behavior and teach him to be more respectful-“

You scoffed. “How? Are you going to beat it into him again?”

Jaebum looked shocked. “I have never laid a finger on your brother. Do you really think I’m capable of that? Do you really think I’m such a monster that I would hit Yugyeom?” he asked, his voice cracking. His eyes were piercing into yours as he searched for some reassurance. “You know me better than anyone. How could you think I would do that?”

There was a brief silence.

“I didn’t think you were capable of robbery or murder either, but here we are.”

Jaebum looked defeated. He closed his eyes for a moment and the two of you stood in a long, painful silence. You could feel your heartbeat thudding. Jaebum wasn’t denying it. He looked up at you calmly after a few moments, his eyes filled with pain.

“You must really hate me,” he whispered. He let out a small, choked laugh. “I probably deserve it, I don’t know. But believe me when I say that I never had any intention of hurting you or your brother. That’s the last thing I would want to do.”

You closed your eyes in an attempt to blink back the tears that were threatening to spill down your cheeks.. “I don’t care. I don’t care what you wanted. If you had known anything about me then you would have known that I never wanted you to do any of those things. I hate that you did them. I hate you. You’re a monster.”

Before Jaebum could say anything else, the door to the small office room burst open. Yugyeom entered with a cheerful grin on his face.

“Hyung! I posted those letters, like you asked. I met Bambam on the way too, his arm is almost healed so he might come into work tomorrow.” He finished speaking, before he suddenly noticed you standing there. His smile dropped suddenly. “Noona?”

Jaebum gave the younger boy a forced smile. “Your sister has been looking for you. Why don’t you go home with her?”

Yugyeom frowned at you. “Why do you have to come into my workplace?” he sounded annoyed. “Anyway, my shift isn’t over yet. I’m supposed to be working until 9 today so-“

“I’ll let you off early,” Jaebum replied. “Go home and have dinner with your sister.”

“I don’t want to,” Yugyeom replied defiantly. He turned and glared at you. “Why should I have dinner with her? Why should I care when she never cared about me?”

Your chest felt tight. “Yugyeom…”

Jaebum’s eyes flashed with a hint of anger as he saw the broken-hearted expression on your face. He knew how much you loved Yugyeom. He knew that you had done so much in order to protect your little brother and that you couldn’t bear the way he was treating you now. Jaebum placed a hand on Yugyeom’s shoulder and then turned to look at you.

“You should go home. I’ll send Yugyeom back home before dinnertime,” he told you calmly.

You swallowed. “But-”

“I promise.”

“If he’s not back home in two hours then I’m calling the police,” you told Jaebum shakily. Then you turned once more to meet Yugyeom’s angry eyes and felt the sharp stab of pain in your chest. Taking a deep breath, you slowly walked out of the mechanic’s shed.

You suddenly felt incredibly alone in this world.

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

“Noona, can’t I come to these dance battles too?”

You sighed. Yugyeom was growing more alert and intelligent as time passed, which meant that he had a knack for figuring out when you were about to sneak out of the house to meet Jaebum. The young boy burst into your bedroom just as you were putting on your jacket and climbing out of the window.

“No, Yugyeom,” you told him patiently.

Yugyeom frowned. “Why not?”

“Because they’re not for little kids.”

“But I want to learn how to dance too! I’m really good at dancing!” he insisted with a pout. Yugyeom immediately started doing a rather poor imitation of breakdance moves in the middle of your bedroom to prove his passion. You couldn’t help but laugh; Yugyeom was growing taller and lankier each day and puberty had left him with dangling limbs and shoulders that he didn’t know what to do with. You giggled when he tried to imitate a robot-like dance move.

“Yugyeom, stop,” you laughed.

Yugyeom stopped dancing  and frowned. “It’s not fair. I’m a better dancer than you. Why can’t I go? Noona, I want to meet your boyfriend. Maybe he can teach me how to dance.”

You shook your head “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Yugyeom folded his arms across his chest with a pout. “Yes, you do. Don’t lie. I heard his voice in your bedroom last night. I know he’s the person you keep going to these dance battles with. Why won’t you take me with you? I promise I’ll be totally quiet and I won’t annoy him at all. I’ll even call him hyung and he can teach me how to breakdance!”

You smiled and placed your hands on your brother’s chubby cheeks to squish them. “You don’t want to come to those underground dance battles. How about you join some dance classes? Noona will find a way to pay for them. Just wait a year or two, okay?”

“Really?”

“I promise. If Yugyeom-mie wants to learn how to dance then he can learn it properly, not from my boyfriend.”

Yugyeom’s face broke into a shit-eating grin. “Ha! So you admit you have a boyfriend?”

You flushed. “What?”

“You admitted it, you admitted it! I didn’t really want to learn how to dance I just wanted you to admit that you had a boyfriend!” Yugyeom sang happily. He held his palm out to you in a smug manner. “Noona, give me money to buy a new game or I’m going to tell Mom about your boyfriend.”

You glared at him. “You little shit.”

Yugyeom beamed.

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

Your mother was having trouble breathing when you got home.

“Are you sure we don’t need to go to the hospital, Mom?” you asked. There was a small medicine bag on the bedside table and you helped her find the asthma inhaler and use it to help calm her breathing. There were a surprisingly large number of medicines in the bag. You didn’t know who had paid for all of these medications and you didn’t really want to ask.

You had a feeling that you wouldn’t like the answer.

“I’m fine,” she croaked dismissively. She let out a dry cough. “This happens all the time. It’s fine. I’ll be perfectly fine in a few minutes.”

You bit your lip. “Mom…”

“It’s really all right. Why don’t you let me get up and make you some dinner-”

“I’ve already started on dinner,” you told her firmly before making sure that she lay back on the bed. You didn’t want her to strain herself in this delicate condition. “I bought chicken and potatoes to make Yugyeom’s favorite dinner and they’re cooking. I’m going to bring you some soup in bed.”

She glanced up at you. “Are you all right, dear?”

No, you thought to yourself. No, I’m not fine. Everything is falling apart, I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t know how sick you are. I don’t know how much trouble Yugyeom’s in.

I don’t know anything.

You had finished making dinner and served the meal into plates when the front door opened. Yugyeom trudged into the house with his lips pressed together tightly. He gave you a surly look and then sat down at the dining table. He blinked in surprise at how clean it was; you’d spent all afternoon cleaning the kitchen and the living room.

“I made chicken,” you informed him gently. You set the plate down in front of Yugyeom but he didn’t even look at it. He simply stared at you in stony silence. You sat across from him and clenched your fists. You hate the emptiness you saw in Yugyeom’s eyes as he stared at you. You hated how you could no longer see the spark of innocence, the happiness in his eyes as he called you noona.

You hated how your little brother had disappeared.

“Aren’t you hungry?” you wondered.

Yugyeom folded his arms across his chest and frowned. “Jaebum-hyung says I have to apologize to you. He thinks that I shouldn’t have been so rude and that I should treat my older sister better. Funny, isn’t it? How he seems to think that you’re deserving of respect even though you evidently think that he’s trash.”

You took a deep breath. “Yugyeom, Lim Jaebum is a criminal-”

“He served the time the court asked him to.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that he’s guilty of murder and robbery,” you explained as you tried to stay calm. Your voice was trembling and you tried to make your brother understand. “He plead guilty to killing a man and robbing him. I know that you seem to think that Jaebum is some kind of role model and I understand why you trust him because he can seem like a very kind and understanding person but that doesn’t change the fact that-”

“You don’t even know him,” Yugyeom snapped.

You stared at him. “What?”

“You don’t even know him. You’re just like all the other people in this town, noona, you judge Jaebum-hyung based on rumours and stories. He’s a good person. He was there for me when nobody else was there and he took care of me. He treated me like his own brother. You were gone. When’s the last time you called me, noona? You haven’t been home in two years. Did you ever even answer my calls while you were at uni? Did you ever bother to come home during break?”

Your stomach churned. “Yugyeom, I was busy-”

He scoffed. “The usual story.”

“I was!” you cried. You couldn’t take this anymore. You couldn’t take Yugyeom treating you like you’d done something wrong when all your struggles and suffering had been for him. “Do you think it’s been easy to get my accounting degree while working multiple jobs at the same time? I was exhausted! I’ve been working day and night in order to put myself through university and keep up with my studies to maintain my scholarship! Do you know why I do these things? Do you you know why I struggle so much? Because I want a better life for our family. I want to get a good job, to earn enough to pay off our debt and take you and Mom away from this stupid town! I want to earn enough for you to go to college!”

Yugyeom stared at you in disbelief. “Really? Is that what you tell yourself every night? That you left me here to rot for my benefit?”

Your hands trembled. “I didn’t leave you here to rot-”

Yugyeom laughed, a cold and empty laugh that sent a shiver down your spine. His eyes were harsh when he stared at you. “I don’t know, noona. I don’t think you can have it both ways. You don’t get to leave me behind here and go off to your fancy university and live your life while claiming that you did it because you love me and care about me.”

“Yugyeom, I wanted you to be happy-”

“But I was unhappy!” he yelled at you suddenly. His face had turned red and you could see that his eyes had glazed over. He had evidently been holding this in for a long time. “I was unhappy when my sister left me behind in this stupid town, I was unhappy when she barely answered my calls or cared about my life. I was unhappy and I wanted you and you weren’t there for me, noona, so it doesn’t matter how much you sat there and wanted me to be happy because I wasn’t!”

You stared at him in shock. You suddenly realized how much pain Yugyeom was in. You realized how sheltered and adored and loved he had been until you left him behind to deal with his own life. How could you have been so stupid? How could you have thought that Yugyeom would be okay with you leaving him or that he would understand your reasons? He had been used to his older sister always being there for him and suddenly she had left. You wanted to reach out and hug your brother.

“I… I’m sorry.”

He bit his lip and shook his head. “Forget it.”

“Yugyeom, I really-”

“I don’t want to hear it, noona. I wanted to talk to you so many times but you never listened to me. You were always too busy. I don’t care if you wanted to earn money or pay off Dad’s debts or send me to college. We could have figured out ways to do that together. We could have worked as a team like we always did. You didn’t have to leave me here.”

Your voice cracked. “But-”

“You abandoned me and you seriously expect me to believe that you did it for my benefit,” Yugyeom reminded you shakily. His dark eyes were filled with pain. “Well, here’s the sad thing about your life, noona. I don’t believe that you really care about me and I’m not grateful. So you can do whatever you want now”

Yugyeom pushed the plate of chicken away and stormed upstairs.

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

Yugyeom was bleeding.

They had taken him behind the alleyway and beaten him up, the same way they had been doing every day since he had tried to leave the gang. He had imagined that joining the gang would be cool and that he would make some friends. He hadn’t expected to be handed a knife and ordered him to mug somebody on the street at night. He couldn’t do it. Yugyeom had never hurt anybody and he couldn’t start now. He had refused.

But there was no leaving the gang. Once you entered it was for life.

Lying the alleyway while his arm bled out and his legs screamed in pain, Yugyeom wondered if he had much of life left.

He limped into a corner behind the alleyway and managed to find a place to sit while he clutched his heavily bleeding arm. His teeth were gritted in pain. Yugyeom was growing used to it; the physical pain wasn’t as unbearable as the intense loneliness that he felt once the gang was done beating him up. Yugyeom had never felt so alone in his life. He couldn’t go home and tell his mother; she was already so weak and frail, what if she tried to help him and the gang hurt her as well? All of his friends at school had started to avoid him. All the teachers had labelled him a problematic student and given up on him.

And you. His noona, the one person who had always taken care of him and solved all his problems for him, was gone.

He missed you.

Yugyeom reached into his pocket and carefully pulled out the cellphone that you had given him. Your last goodbye present before you left him here in this horrible place. Your cellphone number was the only number saved in the contacts and he tentatively pressed call before holding it up to his phone.

It rang four times before you answered.

“Yugyeom?” your voice answered. Yugyeom wanted to cry upon hearing your gentle voice. He wanted to hug you and tell you how horrible things were, he wanted to beg you to come back. He wanted to tell you that he didn’t know what to do anymore. He couldn’t do this alone. He needed you.

“Noona,” he croaked out.

“Yugyeom, I’m at work. Can I call you back tomorrow? I have to finish my shift and then go write a paper by midnight,” your voice said hurriedly. You sounded busy, as though talking to him was a bother. You sounded tired. Yugyeom felt his heart sink.

He bit his lip. “O-okay.”

“Just text me if it’s something urgent, okay? I can’t let my boss catch me my on my phone. Good night!”

Yugyeom let the phone fall to his side and sniffled back the tears that had begun to form in his eyes. You were always busy. You were always tired. He had been trying to tell you how bad things were for weeks but you never seemed to want to listen. He held the phone loosely in his hand and then opened a new text message.

‘Noona,’ he typed slowly. ‘I don’t want to live anymore.’

Yugyeom stared at the message for a few moments. Then he deleted it and let his head fall back against the wall. The phone clattered to the ground and he closed his eyes. There was no escape. You wouldn’t come to save him.

This was his life now.

Yugyeom wasn’t sure how long he’d been lying there bleeding. It was only when a soft hand gently shook him awake that he opened his eyes. He looked up blearily and saw an unfamiliar face; a broad-shouldered man with a sharp set jawline and kind eyes was helping him to his feet.

“Hey kid,” the man said quietly. “Stay with me, okay? Let’s get you somewhere safe.”

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

You stumbled out of the house, feeling numb.

You felt like somebody had turned your world upside down. It was as if you had been walking along a path only to find that you’d been going backwards, that you were further away from your destination than when you started. Like you were tired, worn-out and had exhausted all your energy only to find that you’d been going the wrong way.

Now you didn’t have any energy left.

It was too late.

Yugyeom hated you.

Your feet carried you slowly down the dusty street. This town had always been small but you suddenly realized how dead it looked. It was a miserable place full of miserable people. It had always been. You had never been happy here. There were only two people in this entire world that had ever made you happy and you had somehow lost them both.

Jaebum had betrayed you and you had betrayed Yugyeom.

You passed by Mark’s bakery- it was closed, he always closed early in the evenings- and found yourself slowly walking towards the old gas station and Jaebum’s mechanic store. It had belonged to a friendly old man back when you were in high school. The old man must have died if Jaebum owned it now.

Jaebum.

Why had you blamed him? You were filled with a sudden intense, disgust for yourself as you looked at the old mechanic’s shed and saw the flickering light on in the back. Jaebum was evidently still working. He had been the one to take care of Yugyeom and give him a job while you were gone. He had taken responsibility for your young and innocent brother while you had been off in your own little world.

Jaebum was like that. Even when you had been together he had always done everything in his power to make you happy. His presence was magnetic. He was responsible and affectionate and had a heart of gold. He cared.

You missed Jaebum like crazy.

Your knees felt weak so you sat down on the sidewalk and pulled your knees up to your chest. You buried your head in your arms and held back the sobs that racked your body. You felt alone. You understood how Yugyeom must have felt now, dealing with your sick mother and having nobody to turn to when he was weak. You had failed him.

You had failed him terribly.

You heard the sound of footsteps approaching and slowly lifted your head. Jaebum had just stepped out of the shop and was walking towards you. He looked hesitant; his eyes were filled with concern but when they met yours, he finished the journey.

“Hey,” he greeted you quietly. “Didn’t Yugyeom come home?”

“He did,” you mumbled.

“Are you all right?”

“No.”

“Do you want to come inside?” Jaebum gently held his hand out to you. You saw his hand; it was rougher than it had been back in high school. There were calluses on his fingers and smudges of oil on his thumb. He had evidently been working hard. You looked up at Jaebum as the tears slid down your cheeks. You felt small and weak. Jaebum had always been there for you when you felt weak. He had been your only source of strength during the most difficult time of your life.

You missed him.

“Okay,” you whispered as you slowly reached for his hand. “Okay.”

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

“Hey, you. Tall kid. Get under the car and clean up that grease for me,” Jinyoung ordered.

Yugyeom pouted.

Everyone working at the mechanics’ shed had almost instantly started to welcome him; some because they were fond of how sweet and easy-going Yugyeom was and others because they were scared of Jaebum and what he might do if they didn’t treat Yugyeom well.

Park Jinyoung was fond of Yugyeom because he liked to make him do all his dirty work.

“Hyung, isn’t that your car?” Yugyeom wondered.

Jinyoung narrowed his eyes. “Are you talking back to me? Are you forgetting who the boss is here?”

Yugyeom opened his mouth to respond cheekily but he was cut off by the appearance of Jaebum himself, wiping his hands on a dirty rag. Jaebum chuckled as he tossed the rag on a table nearby.

“The boss is me, Jinyoung. I put the money into this place. And I say that it’s your car so you need to clean up the grease yourself. Don’t keep bullying the kid.”

Jinyoung looked offended. “I’d like to remind you that I’m the one who manages the customers around here. Nobody would be sending their cars to us if my pretty face wasn’t sitting at the front desk. I bring some life to this place and you should be grateful.”

“I am grateful,” Jaebum replied simply. “Now clean your own car.”

Jinyoung made a face behind Jaebum’s back as the latter walked out of the mechanic’s shop. Yugyeom sniggered gleefully, but fell silent as soon as Jinyoung turned his sharp glare towards him.

“Don’t be so quick to laugh at me, kid. You’re lucky Jaebum puts up with you. He’s usually pretty hard on new people but for some reason he thinks you're cute. There’s something fishy about this whole situation. I’m still trying to figure it out.”

Jackson lifted his head from behind one of the car engines with a grin. “Isn’t it obvious? It’s because he looks a little bit like Chocolate Eyes.”

Yugyeom perked up. “Chocolate Eyes? What’s that?”

“Shhh, we don’t talk about Chocolate Eyes in front of Jaebum anymore. Not since she left, anyway.”

“But who is Chocolate Eyes?” Yugyeom demanded.

Jackson checked the door furtively to make sure that Jaebum had really left the shed before he turned back to Yugyeom. “Chocolate Eyes is our nickname for this girl that Jaebum was in love with before he went to prison. He used to write all these sweet love songs about her. Jaebum is usually a calm and logical person but when it came to her, he always threw all logic out of the window. I think he would have cut off his own hand for her if she’d just asked.”

Yugyeom gaped. “Wow. I can’t imagine how awesome she must have been for Jaebum-hyung to fall in love with her.”

Jinyoung tsk-ed. “Yeah, but what’s the point? She left him.”

“Why?”

“Sometimes love makes you do crazy things,” Jackson mused with a frown. “You forget all reason and rationality. That was what happened to Jaebum. He killed a man for her and she never forgave him. She came to the courtroom and watched him plead guilty, then she told him that she never wanted to see him again and left.”

Yugyeom’s eyes widened. “But why did he kill the man-”

“Okay, that’s enough gossiping about Jaebum’s life!” Jinyoung decided with a frown. “There is grease under my car and someone needs to clean it! Kim Yugyeom. We don’t pay you to sit around. Until the day you start bearing a resemblance to MY long lost lover, you’re going to have to pull your weight around here.”

Yugyeom pouted. “Yes, hyung...”

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

The mechanic’s shed was empty because everyone had already gone home for the night.

Jaebum turned on a few lights so that the room was brighter and pulled up a chair next to Jinyoung’s desk for you. You sat down on it shakily and watched Jaebum go into a small pantry off to the side of the shed. He returned with two mugs of hot tea and pressed one into your hands. The warmth of the mug returned some feeling to your fingers and you stared up at Jaebum helplessly.

What am I doing? you wondered briefly.

“Did Yugyeom apologize to you?” Jaebum asked quietly.

You closed your eyes in shame. “He hates me.”

“No, he doesn’t. He’s been through a lot and he’s upset that you weren’t around to help him deal with his problems. He joined a gang and they wouldn’t let him leave. You know how dangerous those things are. He was being beaten up by them regularly when I found him. Yugyeom is an innocent kid, and he didn’t know how to handle the situation.”

You felt sick. “Oh god.”

“It happens to a lot of kids in this town.”

“Yeah, but Yugyeom’s my brother,” you whispered.

Your hands trembled and Jaebum carefully took the tea mug away from you. You looked up at him and suddenly realized that, in this moment, you hated yourself so much more than you hated Jaebum. You were the one person Yugyeom had trusted and you'd left him behind and tried to blame Jaebum for your mistakes.

“How could I have let this happen to him? Why didn’t I just make the time to call every now and then? How did- how did I not even know that things had gotten this bad?”

“You were busy. It can’t have been easy to put yourself through college and work so hard.”

“It wasn’t,” you whispered. You squeezed your eyes shut and a tear escaped. “It was hell. It is hell. I barely slept three hours a night because I’d work night shifts and have to go to class the next morning. I would have given up long ago if I didn’t keep thinking that I couldn’t let down Yugyeom and my mother. I went through all of this for them but I destroyed them in the process. I didn't… I didn't mean to leave him!”

“He doesn’t know that. He just missed you.”

“I miss him too,” you choked out.

You couldn’t hold back the sobs that were rising up in your throat. Your heart felt like it was going to rip out of your chest and you pressed your hands to your face while you sobbed. How could you have been so ignorant? Jaebum sat silently while you cried your eyes out. There was nothing he could say to help; you had bottled up your emotions and you needed to release them. He simply watched you quietly and wondered why the world had dealt someone as soft-hearted as you such a bad deal.

Once the sobs subsided, Jaebum handed you a tissue. You took it reluctantly and then looked up at Jaebum. He was watching you with a pained expression on his face.

“Why was he all bloody last night?” you managed to ask finally. “It really wasn’t you who hurt him?”

Jaebum sighed. “We paid off the gang to stop attacking him but sometimes they still rough him up when they catch him alone. Last night was one of those nights. Yugyeom’s gotten a lot better at defending himself, though, and he has my number on speed dial. He calls when he’s in trouble so we can go get him. You don’t need to worry. It doesn’t happen too often.”

You glared at him.

“Once is too often.”

“He’ll be fine,” Jaebum promised you. His voice was gentle. It shouldn't have been and you hated how much it comforted you. “Yugyeom might not be the little kid you remember anymore, but sometimes life throws circumstances at people and it changes them. We all have to toughen up. Yugyeom happened to learn that the hard way, just like you and I did."

You stared at Jaebum. There was a kindness in his eyes that you had missed, a kindness that you found so difficult to trust because you had been betrayed by it before. Jaebum had always been soft at heart. But you had also seen this soft-hearted man handcuffed and taken to prison. You had watched him stand in front of a judge and plead guilty to murder in order to get a lighter sentence.

Somewhere behind that soft heart  was a monster.

“Why are you doing this?” you asked quietly. “Helping Yugyeom? Why did you take him in and pay off the gang to leave him alone?”

Jaebum blinked at you calmly. “You know why I did it.”

“Out of kindness?”

“No.” Jaebum’s lips twisted into a reluctant smile. “Do you really want to hear me say it?”

"Yeah."

"I did it because I love you," he told you quietly. "I did it because I promised you once that I would never let anything happen to your family and I wanted to keep my promise."

You stared at him. Even after all this time, it made your heart leap to hear Jaebum say so confidently that he loved you. His voice was gentle and it sounded so honest and sincere. Jaebum had always been honest.

Until the day he wasn't.

"I figured our promises went down the drain when you were convicted for murder and robbery," you told him bluntly. It was true. No matter how kind Jaebum's eyes were or how sincere his words, nobody could ever erase the memory of watching the man you loved be taken away in handcuffs as a violent criminal. That would stay with you forever.

Jaebum leaned back and nodded. His eyes were dull and unsurprised, like he had already resigned himself to the truth.

"I thought you would say that. I don't expect you to trust me. But I'm still the man you loved," he whispered. He took a deep breath. "I understand if you hate that I'm a criminal but I have only ever wanted you to be happy."

"Did you really go there to rob that man?" you asked shakily. You wondered if Jaebum would ever tell you the truth, or if there was even any truth left to tell. "I saw the victim's face in the papers. He used to come to your dance battles sometimes. Did you find out that he had that money and go there to rob him?"

Jaebum's jaw tightened. "No."

"Then why did you go there?"

"You don't want to know," he replied darkly. "Trust me. You're better off not knowing what happened that night. Hate me all you want, since it's true that I killed him."

"Don't you feel any remorse?" you whispered.

Jaebum shook his head. "No. I would do it again."

You stared at Jaebum. Despite all that had happened, some part of you desperately wanted to believe him. You wanted to think that the man you had loved had had a justified reason for robbing a man and murdering him in cold-blood.

You wanted to know if he had really done it for you.

"Then tell me. How bad can it be? Tell me what happened."

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

"Are you sure about this, Jaebum?” Jinyoung asked nervously.

“I need the money. She needs the money or those goons will never leave her alone,” Jaebum said firmly. His jaw was clenched. He had made up his mind and there was nothing anybody could do to change it. Seeing you cry after you’d been threatened by the moneylender’s cronies had terrified Jaebum.

He wasn’t going to wait to lose you.  

“But Jaebum, it’s your music. They’re going to pass it off as their own and they won’t give you a share in the copyrights. You wanted to start your own career. How are you going to do that if you sell everything you’ve worked on to that fake-ass musician? Do you really need to get involved with people like that?” Jinyoung demanded. He could see how emotional Jaebum was and he felt like it was his responsibility to stop his friend from making an irrational decision.

Jaebum took a deep breath and frowned. “I appreciate your concern, Jinyoung, but I need you to shut up right now.”

“You’re even going to sell him Chocolate Eyes?”

“Yes.”

“There’s something extremely shady about this. What if he’s not willing to leave it as a one-time transaction? What if he wants you to keep working for him and he keeps stealing your music? There’s something fishy about these people. Jaebum, let’s sit down and think about this and do some research before you walk into their den and hand over all of your work to them-”

“I don’t have the time to sit down, those goons could hurt her any moment-”

Jaebum was interrupted by Jackson. The normally loud and talkative boy had been silent ever since Jaebum announced his intention to hand over all of his music in the form of ghostwriting for some money. Jackson reached into his pocket and pressed something into Jaebum’s hand; it was a knife.

“Be careful,” Jackson whispered. “These guys can be dangerous.”

Jaebum nodded.

His backpack felt heavy as he went to the address written on the slip of paper. This strange man had approached him at one of the dance battles; he had repeatedly asked Jaebum to sell him all of his music but Jaebum had refused. He had imagined that he could start his own producing career once he graduated and selling all of his work hadn’t seemed like the best way to start.

But now your life was more important.

The building was dark and dimly lit. Jaebum had to walk through alleyways and ask a few unpleasant people for directions before he finally managed to find the apartment number. It was dirty. He knocked on the door hesitantly.

“Who is it?” a voice asked gruffly from the other side.

“It’s-it’s Jaebum. We talked on the phone? About the music?” he called out.

The door swung open. The man was standing on the other side and he had a huge smile on his face; he welcomed Jaebum into the apartment and clapped him on the back heartily. “Jaebum! Come on in. I heard about your situation. Don’t worry, I’ve got the money ready for you. Here’s my assistant. Hey! Bring the kid the money. Do you have all the music?”

Jaebum swallowed and nodded. “Yeah.”

A large and well-built man came out of the adjoining room with a bag. He unzipped it and showed Jaebum that it was filled with currency; Jaebum had never seen so much money in his life. His hands were shaking as he reached into his own backpack and pulled out his music notebooks.

“I-I put everything together here,” Jaebum explained quietly.

“All of it?”

“Yeah, everything I’ve ever written.”

The man nodded sympathetically as he took the notebook and then handed Jaebum the bag of cash. “You’re doing a good thing, kid. I’m sure your girlfriend will be happy about you helping her. You said that the moneylenders are threatening her because of her father’s debt? Poor girl. She must have been so terrified.”

Jaebum swallowed. “Uh-yeah.”

“Okay, kid. You stay in touch and let me know if you ever write some more stuff that you want to sell me, yeah? Shut the door behind you when you leave.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Jaebum’s hands closed around the bag filled with money and he quickly transferred it into his own backpack. Then he hurried out of the apartment. He was about to shut the front door when he suddenly wondered if he should have counted the money out in front of them or even checked to see if it was legitimate. What if they were cheating him because he was just a teenager? Jaebum turned around to go back when he heard voices drifting out of the next room.

“.... stupid kid. I bet he doesn’t even realize how much quality music like this is worth. I’m almost wondering if we should let him live so he can write more stuff for us.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Do you think that pretty little girlfriend of his inspired all these songs? I’m kind of curious about her too. Maybe you should go find her. We’ll have some fun with her once you’ve gotten the money back from the kid. Once he’s dead I guess there won’t be anyone left for her to turn to. I love helpless girls, they’re the best kind.”

Jaebum’s heart clenched with fear.

Fuck. What had he gotten himself into? Fuck.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Don’t let the kid get too far with our money. Finish him and bring me my cash back.”

Jaebum heard the sound of footsteps and ran; he sprinted to the end of the corridor where a supply closet was half open and thrust himself inside. His heartbeat raced and he held his breath as the watched the large bodyguard walk past him through the crack of the door.

Once he was gone, Jaebum  slumped back against the wall and sank to the floor. Fuck. What was he going to do? This man was out to kill him and he was going to hurt you too. What had he gotten himself into? How was he going to escape this? Even if he managed to survive the bodyguard and make off with the money, there was no way to stop them from hurting you. Jaebum banged his fists against the wall in desperation. Something fell out of his pocket and clattered to the floor.

The knife.

Jaebum’s fingers closed around it.

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

“The lawyer said that if I plead guilty and show remorse, the judge would consider my young age and I could get away with a lighter sentence,” Jaebum explained quietly. “Otherwise I would have been locked up for years. There was no way to prove that the cash had been given to me by the man so they presumed I must have stolen it. I really wanted to tell people the truth about what happened. But it wasn’t worth spending a decade in prison.”

You had no words to say. As you looked up at Jaebum, you finally saw him for what he really was. Not a monster or a criminal, but a scared boy who had done something foolish in a moment of fear. No matter how much life hardened Jaebum or how brave he was, that part of him was still there on the inside.

You felt sick.

“You must have been so scared,” you whispered.

He bit his lip. “It’s okay. I was an idiot. I should never have trusted that man in the first place. It was my own desperation and foolishness that got me into that situation.”

“But-”

“Please don’t pity me,” Jaebum told you firmly. “That’s the last thing I want to hear from you.”

Your head was spinning and you had to press your fingers to your temple in order to collect your thoughts. How could you have misunderstood Jaebum so much? How could you have been so quick to turn on a man who loved you and who had put himself in danger for you? You felt pathetic. You had abandoned Yugyeom and misunderstood him the same way.

Were you capable of doing anything right? Or were you bound to keep hurting the people you loved because of your foolishness?

“I-I never even… I never even came to see you when you were in prison,” you remembered miserably. “Because I thought you really went there to rob that man, I thought you had lied to me about not getting involved in anything illegal and because you’d been acting so shady about the whole thing after those goons threatened me-”

“I know,” he replied.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t say that. I know you were scared and I know you felt betrayed,” Jaebum said. He carefully reached out and placed his hand over yours. His warm fingers felt familiar as his thumb gently stroked your palm. Jaebum’s touch had always been comforting. “Life thrusts a lot of things at us and we react how we feel we need to at the time. It’s okay. I’m fine. You’re fine. Yugyeom is fine too, and that’s all that matters.”

You bit your lip. “How can you be so optimistic?”

“Because I want to be happy.”

“Are you?”

Jaebum shrugged. “Sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not. But right now with you in front of me, I think I’m the happiest I’ve been in a while.”

"I want to be happy too," you mumbled.

Jaebum nodded.

"Don't worry. You will be."

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

Jaebum insisted on taking you home.

As you walked down the street with him quietly, his hand loosely holding yours, you were reminded of all the times you had done this before. You were reminded of how loved and safe you had always felt with Jaebum. How difficult it had been to say goodbye to him at the end of each day.

You missed that feeling.

"Don't worry about Yugyeom too much," Jaebum reassured you quietly. "He was angry and he needed to let it all out but now that he has, I'm sure he'll remember how much he misses you. He used to talk about you all the time. He can’t possibly forget how much he loves you.”

“He seems to love you more.”

Jaebum bit his lip. “He’s just a loving kid. That’s how he is.”

You glanced up at Jaebum and for a brief moment, you wondered what might have happened to your family and Yugyeom if he hadn’t been there to take care of them. If Jaebum hadn’t rescued Yugyeom from the gang and been an older brother to him, if he hadn’t been around to pay for your mother’s medication. Jaebum had fixed all the problems that were yours to handle and you couldn’t understand why he did all these things while you had written him off as a criminal and a monster.

“You should get some sleep,” Jaebum told you as you both approached your house. “You need to relax. Everything will be fine.”

You glanced down at your intertwined hands.

“Everything’s only fine because you take care of it,” you mumbled. It was slowly sinking in exactly how much you owed Jaebum, how much he had done with the sole purpose of making your life happier. How was anyone capable of such selfless love? Why had he chosen you of all people to care for? You looked up at him and frowned. “Why do you keep taking care of everything?”

Jaebum looked down at you quietly. “I don’t know.”

“I hate how much I need you,” you told him.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to, because you both knew the truth in that statement. No matter how much you denied it, the fact was was right there in front of your eyes.

You needed Jaebum.

You weren’t sure which one of you moved first, but it was probably you who wrapped your arms around Jaebum and wove your fingers tightly onto the fabric of his jacket. You needed to feel him close to you. You needed him to reassure you that everything would be okay, that even if you couldn’t handle life he would be there to help you through it. You needed to feel safe and the only time you felt that way was when you were in Lim Jaebum’s arms.

Jaebum had never imagined that he would get to hold you again. When you buried your face into his chest he was reminded of the cold nights in prison thinking about you, wondering where you were and how much you hated him. He remembered thinking that he would never get to hold you like this again, that he would never get to feel you in his arms once more. He would never get to see your beautiful eyes smiling back at him sweetly.

“I love you,” he whispered.

You leaned up and kissed him. It was a soft kiss; filled with hesitation and relief and gratitude and trust, and all the other wild mixture of emotions that were spinning through your mind at the moment. Jaebum’s lips captured yours tentatively. He didn’t want to lose you. He didn’t want to push you so far when you were so overwhelmed. He pecked your lips softly and brought his hands up to capture your face in them as he looked down at you.

“We don’t have to do this now,” he told you softly. “We can take this slow and talk about-”

“Noona?”

You ripped yourself away from Jaebum at the sound of Yugyeom’s voice. Your younger brother was standing on the front porch and staring at the both of you with wide eyes. You felt a sudden shiver down your spine.

Jaebum spoke first. “Yugyeom-”

“I’ve been trying to call you for over an hour, hyung,” Yugyeom said. His voice sounded thick and hoarse; like he had been crying. His ears were flushed red. “But you weren’t answering your phone. I thought you must have been working. You were fucking around with my sister?”

You flinched. “Yugyeom,I can explain-”

“Yeah, please do,” he snapped. His voice was trembling as he stepped closer to the both of you. He sounded angry. “Because barely twenty-four hours ago you were calling Jaebum-hyung a criminal and now you’re messing around with him? What sort of fucked up logic is that, noona? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I-”

“It’s not what you’re thinking, Yugyeom. We’ve known each other for a long time now,” Jaebum explained calmly. He took a deep breath. “I knew your noona long before I met you. We used to date in high school.”

Yugyeom’s eyebrows furrowed. “What?”

“I’m sorry I never said anything,” Jaebum replied. “But they were painful and personal memories to me so I didn’t like talking about them.”

“Oh my god.”

“Yugyeom…”

Yugyeom’s dark eyes had widened in horror. “Oh my god, noona, you’re Chocolate Eyes. You’re the girl Jaebum-hyung used to be in love with who left him after he got arrested. But that means…” he turned and looked at Jaebum. Something behind his eyes seemed to break. “That means you knew that I was her brother.”

Jaebum hesitated. “I-yes…”

“So all this time,” Yugyeom began slowly. “All this time, when you rescued me from the gang and when you gave me a job and all those times you told me that I could trust you and count on you, you weren’t doing those things for me. You didn’t do any of that for me. You took me in and cared for me because you used to fuck around with my sister. I thought the world of you but you just looked at me and saw her, didn’t you?” he cried. Tears were brimming in his eyes.

“What? Yugyeom, no-”

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. His dark gaze suddenly looked ashamed. “I guess I’m always the burden.”

Your heart broke. “No-”

You reached out to wrap your arms around Yugyeom, to hold your little brother tightly and reassure him that he was not a burden and that you would always love him more than anything in the world.

But Yugyeom shoved your arms away roughly and gave you one last heartbroken look before he ran down the street. You started to run after him but Jaebum silently held you back. He wrapped his arms around you and held you tightly to his chest.

“Don’t,” he whispered. “Give him some space. He’ll come back.”

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

“Noona,” Yugyeom asked suddenly. “Noona, am I annoying?”

You barely glanced up from your homework. Yugyeom was always asking you stupid questions while you were trying to study and you were too busy struggling to find the right formula for the algebra problem.

“Yes, you’re very annoying,” you told him simply.

Yugyeom bit his lip.

“Oh. Okay.”

You lifted your head and turned around to look at him, immediately sensing something wrong. That wasn’t Yugyeom’s usual curious tone. He sounded upset. You saw him sitting in the middle of your bed while picking at the loose strings of the sheets miserably. You sighed and closed your books. You sat next to him and patted his mushroom-shaped hair.

“Did somebody call our Yugyeom-ie annoying?” you asked.

He pouted. “No.”

“You can’t lie to me. Noona knows everything.”

“... Yes,” he admitted. His lower lip stuck out in a small pout. “This girl at school said I was annoying. She told me I was being too loud and to shut up.”

You frowned. How dare some stupid girl tell your adorable brother that he was annoying? Kids were meant to be loud anyway. “You should have told her to shut up too.”

Yugyeom smiled sheepishly. “Really?”

“Sure. Who isn’t loud during playtime? She was being a…” you cleared your throat before you used an unpleasant word in front of him. “Well. Not a nice person.”

“But you didn’t answer my question. Do I annoy you?”

“Sure you do,” you told him lightly. “You annoy me all the time. But that’s okay, because family are the people who you can annoy but they’ll still love you. You might be annoyed by what they DO, but you’ll still love THEM, you, know? I’ll always love you no matter how much you annoy me. Because you’re my brother and that’s how things are.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“But the girl at school won’t, right?”

You chuckled. “Yugyeom, do you have a crush on this girl?”

His ears turned red. “What? No!”

“Ooooooh, Yugyeom had a crush on a girl,” you sang playfully, poking him in the shoulder. Yugyeom’s face slowly blushed red and he shoved at you before hurrying out of your bedroom and slamming the door shut behind him. You smiled and turned back to your homework.

You would always love Yugyeom.

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

Yugyeom didn’t come home that night.

You had to go back to university in two days but you couldn’t bring yourself to even think about packing. You spent most of the night awake and terrified that Yugyeom was roaming around on the streets somewhere alone, that the gang who was after his life would find him and hurt him. He wasn’t answering your phone calls or Jaebum’s.

In the early hours of the morning, Jaebum got a call from Bambam saying that Yugyeom had arrived at his place and that he was upset, but safe. He didn’t want to talk to either of you.

“It’s time to take your medicines,” you told your mother quietly as you entered her bedroom. The old woman was still lying in bed and looking as frail as ever. She had become a shell of the person that she used to be and you could see that something in her eyes was broken. You didn’t want to ask her why. You squeezed her hands. “Are you okay, Mom?”

She took a deep breath and looked at you calmly. “I’m sorry I’m such a burden.”

Your throat felt tight. “Mom…”

“I should have taken better care of you both but I can barely get out of bed. I know that the only reason Yugyeom has been able to afford my medicines is because Jaebum gives him money. I know that you’ve been having such a hard time at university because you need to work so much. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to do better. I’m sorry.”

You squeezed her hand as tears blurred your vision. “Mom, you did fine.”

“I don’t know how much longer I’ll last.”

“Don’t say things like that.”

“You know I love you, right? And Yugyeom too. I’m so proud of him. I’m proud of you both.”

“I know. He knows and I know, it’s okay. You’re going to be fine,” you promised her, although you weren’t sure. You weren’t sure if she would be fine or if Yugyeom would be fine or if you would be fine. You weren’t sure of anything.

You just wanted it all to end.

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

“I don’t know if I can go back,” you admitted shakily.

Jaebum sat on your bed quietly as he watched you pack. You had already overstayed your vacation and there were classes, assignments and papers you had to write in order to finish your graduation. Everything was waiting there but your heart wouldn’t let you leave.

“You have to graduate,” Jaebum reminded you quietly.

“I-I could take a semester off,” you mumbled as you placed a t-shirt half-heartedly in the suitcase. You swallowed and looked up at him with a frown. “But that would delay my graduation and it might mean that I would lose my scholarship. I don’t think I could afford to pay tuition. What should I do, Jaebum?”

He bit his lip. “You should go finish your degree.”

“Still? Even though things have gotten this bad in my absence?” you wondered. You pressed your fingers to your temples. “Then Yugyeom will never forgive me. And Mom… she keeps talking about how she might die soon and it’s scaring me, Jaebum.”

“She’ll be fine. I’ll make sure she gets the medical treatment she needs.”

“But-”

“You can’t abandon your education now. What will become of the last two years of your hard work?” Jaebum asked you with a frown. He placed an arm around your shoulder and squeezed you comfortingly. “It’ll be fine. Don’t worry so much. It’s all okay.”

“You keep saying that but things only keep getting worse, Jaebum-”

The doorbell rang. Your eyes widened in surprise and Jaebum gestured for you to stay put while he went to check out who it was. You sat down and pressed your fingers to your temples again. It was too much to hope that Yugyeom had come back. He had been staying at Bambam’s and had refused to talk to either you or Jaebum for days. Your felt nauseous as you continued to toss clothes into your suitcase. Jaebum was taking a long time to return.

There was a sharp knock on the bedroom door.

“Hey,” Jaebum peeked into your room with a small smile. “Look who’s here.”

He stepped aside to reveal Yugyeom standing behind him. Your eyes widened in relief at the sight of your little brother safe and unhurt. “Yugyeom!” you cried. He looked a little thin and his fists were clenched at his side. He was staring at the floor but you hurried over to him and cupped his cheeks. “Yugyeom, are you okay? I’ve been so worried about you! How could you not even answer our calls?”

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“You know you’re not a burden, right? You’ve never been a burden to me,” you blurted out rapidly. You had to blink back your tears.  “You’re my family. How could you be a burden? I love you so much. There’s nobody in the world I care about more and I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you, noona made a mistake, I’m so sorry.”

Yugyeom didn’t say anything. He merely stood there silently, staring at the floor. Jaebum gave you a soft smile and then squeezed Yugyeom’s shoulder.

“I’m going downstairs so that you both can talk,” he told you.

Jaebum left and to your surprise, Yugyeom quietly entered your room and sat on your bed. His dark eyes looked around at your suitcase and clothes laid out everywhere silently. His hands were clasped in his lap tightly. You didn’t know what to say to him.

“Are you leaving for university?” Yugyeom asked you after a long and painful silence.

You bit your lip and looked down at the suitcase. It was only half-packed. You sat next to Yugyeom and quickly took both of his hands in yours.

“Do you want me to stay?” you demanded. “I can stay. Just say the word and I’ll stay, Yugyeom.”

He shook his head. “No, you should go.”

“O-okay.”

He took a deep breath. “Noona?”

“Yeah?”

Yugyeom turned to look at you and you saw tears in his dark eyes. For a moment, he suddenly looked like your adorable little brother again. There was pain and hurt in his eyes but there was also a tiny bit of hope. Something inside of him had given up.

“Noona, can you take me with you?” he choked out.

Your eyes widened and you nodded instantly. You threw your arms around Yugyeom and hugged him tightly, leaving him breathless. “Of course,” you said without missing a beat. “Of course I’ll take you with me. Let’s all go together. We’ll-we’ll find a better hospital for Mom and you can go to a better school. It might be hard for a while because I have to finish university but we’ll find some way to make money until I get a regular job-”

His arms slowly and carefully wrapped around you. “We can… we can sell this house, right?” he asked timidly.

You paused and then nodded. “Yeah, we can do that.”

“I don’t really care if we sell the house as long as the three of us are together,” he admitted quietly.

You laughed and nodded. Of course. Of course. What did the house matter? What was important that your family was all in one place. You decided that anything would be fine as long as your family was happy. Tears slipped out of your eyes as you fondly stroked Yugyeom’s hair and felt his own racking sobs.

“We’ll be fine,” you promised. And for the first time, you actually believed what you were saying. “We’ll be fine.”

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

Epilogue (Five Years Later)

“Noona, she threw up on me again,” Yugyeom complained.

He entered the kitchen holding your crying one-year old daughter at arm’s length while the front of his t-shirt was covered in baby puke. You turned off the stove and groaned. This was the third time this week. You took the crying child from him and gently rocked her in order to console her while you cleaned the puke off her face at the sink.

“I told you not to toss her in the air!” you scolded your brother.

“But she likes it. She always giggles,” Yugyeom defended himself.

“And then she throws up on you and since you are a complete man-child incapable of doing your own laundry, I have to wash both your clothes and hers and whatever else the puke got on. What are you going to do when you have your own children, Yugyeom? Are you going to be this careless?” you scolded him angrily while the baby wailed. You held to your chest and rocked her. “Shhh, it’s okay. It’s okay, sweetie, Uncle Yugyeom is just bad. It’s okay.”

Yugyeom pouted sadly. “I’ll go change.”

You frowned. “Go on, then.”

He was just about to step out of the kitchen when the sound of the front door opening caused him to stop in his tracks. Jaebum entered the kitchen calmly, taking off his jacket while frowning at you all.

“Why is the house always so noisy?” he complained.

You rolled your eyes. “Ask Yugyeom.”

Yugyeom merely pouted and slouched out of the kitchen in order to go and clean himself off. You sighed and glanced at the dinner cooking on the stove before realizing that it was about to overcook. You quickly handed the crying child to your husband. “Can you hold her for a second? Dinner is about to burn.”

Jaebum blinked. “Uh-sure-”

“God, I have to do everything around here.”

“Actually, I have something to tell you. Can we talk for a minute?” Jaebum asked you hopefully. He was looking at you eagerly but you were too busy stirring at the dinner on the stove. You had a lot to do; you had to finish dinner and then take a shower and then free yourself for a conference call in the evening with some work colleagues-

“Can it wait?” you asked. “I’m busy.”

“This is kind of big, actually.”

“I know but I’ve been so overwhelmed all day and now stupid Yugyeom had to go and get puke all over himself again so I’ll have to do a round of laundry before bed.”

“I’ll do the laundry. Just listen.”

You turned around and raised an eyebrow. He was holding your baby in one arm (she had miraculously stopped crying) and the other hand was holding something book-shaped. You squinted at it more closely and realized that it was a music album. You stared at him and your eyes widened.

“Oh my god. It was today? The album release?” you asked in shock. You felt terrible. “Jaebum, I completely forgot-”

Jaebum smiled and opened the album to show you. It had taken a lot of time for people to accept him in the city; his prison record didn’t do him any favours but he hadn’t given up on his dream. One month ago, Jaebum had signed a contract with a large music company who had hired him as a producer for some famous hip-hop artists. He flipped open the track list and right there at the top, with the lyrics and production credited to Lim Jaebum was the song.

Chocolate Eyes.

You beamed at your husband. Jaebum’s own eyes were shining and he chuckled when your daughter squealed in delight and reached for the album with her tiny little fists. He put her down on the floor and gave her the album to sit down and play with before turning to you.

“What do you think?” Jaebum asked you hopefully.

You kissed him softly.

“I think I love you,” you told him with a smile.

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

#got7 #got7 scenarios #got7 fanfiction #got7 jaebum #im jaebum #got7 jb #jb scenarios #jaebeom #got7 jaebeom #got7 scenario #got7 yugyeom #kim yugyeom #yugyeom scenario #got7 angst #got7 fluff #yugyeom angst #jaebum angst #jaebeom angst #got7 series #jus2 scenarios #jus2 #jus2 angst

[shotosbabie]

Freeze this》 Todoroki. S

—One shot recipe: You got dared to ask the distant and quiet boy something, you're not a pussy so you did, the thing is.. he looked at you pretty weird.

—One shot flavour: Shouto

Gif is not mine!

☆❋──❁ ❃──❋☆

"Okay so we all know that we have 3 purple chickens and after that you have to do the dare or answer the truth?" Mina asked, the girls nodded. "Okay then! Let's start" she commenced as she spinned the bottle to determine the unfortunate girl. "Ochako! Truth or dare?" Mina exclaimed, as the bottle landed on her, she fidgeted, finally answering "Truth" pretty quietly, "Ooh! Is it true that you have a crush on little Midoriya?" Mina asked, then Uraraka's face flushed red, waving her hand defensively.

"N-no! Why would you think that? We're only friends!" She answered, "Hmm, alright then, Ura-chan" Mina said, winking. "Kero, I'll spin the bottle next" Asui said, then with that, she spun it. The bottle landing on... you. 'Great..' you thought, the girls looked at each other then back to you, "Okay, Y/N, truth or dare?" Momo asked, "I'll go for the first dare" you said, quite regretting it after. "We got the perfect dare for you" Jirou cockily said, "Oh yeah? Bring it" you said, mustering courage, cause you know they can make the worst dares ever, the Mina smirked. Uh oh.

"Okay Y/N, we dare you to take this and ask Todoroki-kun if he could freeze it for you, make it into a popsicle" Mina said as Momo made juice and a popsicle stick and handing it to you. You gulped, it wasn't like you were scared of Todoroki, it was just he doesn't really talk to anyone, he was very distant and aloofed. "You ready Y/N? He's walking towards the kitchen right now" Jirou said, her ear on the floor, probably locating where Todoroki was. You sighed as you waltz out the door, heading downstairs.

Seeing Todoroki getting water, cooling it first. Then you met eyes with him, averting it quickly as you walked towards him. You hear the girls snickering behind you, hiding behind the door. "Hey Todoroki-kun.." you started, he raised his eyebrow and said "What is it?". 'It's now or never' you said to yourself. "Can you uh freeze this?" You said, holding out the juice that was now on a plate, the popsicle stick was on the side, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Uhm make it into a popsicle" you said, feeling more and more embarrased, "Uhm alright then..?" He said, not before giving you a judgemental look cause you know, shouto?

He placed the popsicle stick on the juice and woosh woosh, the ice was starting to become solid, "Woah" you said, pretty amazed, he handed you back the plate with a fully new popsicle, "If you need more popsicles to be frozen come by my dorm I guess" he said walking pass you and heading up to his room. "What did just happen?" You said, staring down at the popsicle, you took a lick "Pretty good" and then walking back to the girls. "Hehe pretty good dare huh?" Mina said, giggling at your red still face. "Im still amazed about that, it's like he's Elsa" you said, licking the popsicle, you were definitely gonna ask him to freeze more juice after that.

☆❋──❁ ❃──❋☆

I got pretty inspired after eating 2 melon popsicles, they were melting thou so I thought of Shouto freezing them again so that how I got working on this one shot.

~Plus Ultra Peachie !

#bnha #mha #bnha imagines #bnha scenarios #bnha todoroki #bnha x reader #todoroki shouto #todoroki x reader #shouto x reader #bnha deku #bnha kirishima #bnha bakugou #bnha oneshots

[justablogjs]

Love Nikki: I wish I'd known when I stared

In Game Clock/Server time In Game Currency Level Types Momo's Tips + Memory Style Types Free Diamonds Facebook Diamonds Stylist Arena Suit Recipe Tracking Deconstruction/Workshop

In Game Clock

At the very bottom left hand corner is a clock, it displays the date and time according to the Love Nikki Server. Any and all times found within the game (such as the Association Co-op or Neighbourhood Tea Party times) refer to this clock. Your local time may be very different, make sure you know how far out the Love Nikki Clock is to yours, because the end of Events are listed in the Server's Time.

In Game Currency

Stamina used to complete levels Gold Coins used to buy certain things, common currency Diamonds Used to buy things, rarer currency, used for Events – the bane of a player's existence, Hoard Them!! Star Coins Used to buy recipes, materials and dyes, rarer currency

The levels in the Mystery house, Dream Weaver, Association and Competition stores all require special currency which can be earned within by doing draws or pulls. (The two “Rooms of Mystery” have daily free draws, while the other four are free every 2 days.

Level Types Maiden Easy levels with no attempt limit, cost 4 stamina to do, You can auto-complete 1 [or up to 10 if you have the stamina and the V-Level for it (I believe it's V4)]

Princess Trickier, 3 free attempts per day, or pay diamonds for more (available extras depend on you 'V Level'), you can auto complete 1 [or up to 3 if you have the stamina and V-Level]

Levels are divided up into Chapters, Maiden Levels must be complete first before the Princess equivalent can be attempted.

Momo's Tips + Memory

After the tutorial stretch of level 1 Momo will start giving tips on how to get passing scores for each level (or S-rank). You can see these even before you start the level by tapping the little diamond-square on the level panel.

If Momo suggests an item in both normal and S-rank tips (especially if you don't have that item) it is likely a special requirement for the level.

Once you're in the level, Momo's tips can be found above the skills Icon at the bottom left of the screen, which is above the 'go fight' arrow icon.

Across from these Icons are the “Search”, “Suit”, “Background”, “remove” and “Memory” Icons

Search can let you see you clothes based on which tag and style they have, or you can search them by name. (By name is fastest when applying Momo's Tips (which will look hideous), but you don't always have to type the full name to find an item, some words appear frequently in item names, other words are much rarer, figuring out how best to search is up to each player.)

Suit lets you automatically apply any complete suit you've accepted the reward for in the achievements book. (If you haven't accepted the reward for completing the suit it won't show up in the list.)

Background just changes the background which has no baring on the final scores but is good fun in Free Dressing or Starry Corridor, while Remove automatically removes all clothing and accessories.

Memory has two options: “Best Score” and “Last Suit”. These are only available after the level has been completed the first time. Best score will automatically dress Nikki in the suit which earned the highest score for that level no matter how long ago it was, while Last Suit will put on the last thing Nikki wore to the scoring even if it failed miserably.

Style types

Gorgeous/Simple, Mature/Cute, Warm/Cool, Elegant/Lively, Sexy/Pure

There are 10 (2 lots of 5) Style Types used on all pieces in Love Nikki, but each suit will only contain 5 of them. The 10 tags can be divided in 2 (As shown above by the / marks) opposing lists, no suit will have two opposing tags (for instance you cannot have a piece that is Both Mature and Cute.) These Styles have ratings C, B, A, S, SS, and are what the Giftys (the little orange maybe bird things) score each level.

In addition there are 44 Style Tags which include things like “Modern China”, “Rock”, “Rain”, “Goddess”, “Gothic” - these are separate from the Style Types above and only appear on a few pieces, there are some levels where these Tags are important for your score and whether you use pieces with the correct tag can affect whether or not your clothes count towards your final score.

Level Tips

After the first several levels in the first stage, an icon labelled “Momo's Tips” will appear

Free Diamonds

Do Your Dailies!!! I cannot stress this enough, always do your dailies, you can earn an easy 53 Diamonds per day doing your dailies.

Dailies can be found on the right hand side of the screen up top, the open book icon labelled quests

- If you are saving for a stamina event you can do your “Complete any 5 quests with S rating” in Maiden and earn back what you've spent in stamina while earning 15 points for your dailies.

Vote in the Competition, every ten votes you do, you can get a prize, just tap the tiny picture of a gift box at the bottom of your screen. Prizes in the box include a few diamonds, or a crystal rose (currency for the competition store), or a couple hundred gold coins, or some stamina.

voting can be time consuming, but it is okay to farm by selecting one side and tapping the vote button slowly until you're out of votes if you're after the free stuff (we've all done it, anyone who's said otherwise is being less than truthful.) You get 30 votes max which recharge slightly faster than stamina, so you can get 60-90+ in a day which is an easy 6-9 prizes

Participate in the competition, this pay out can vary wildly and only comes twice a week when the competition ends, but it is free diamonds so even if you slap on whatever is at the top of your list and damn the theme: do it

Long Term Event: Daily Lucky Draw. The Balloon Icon on the right hand side of the screen about midway down, right hand tab and scroll down. This is a lucky draw event which can give a few diamonds, a couple hundred coins, stamina or star coins.

Long Term Event: Stage Bonus: the first time you complete each (most) stage(s) in the Maiden and Princess levels you will receive a prize containing (two of the four following:) Diamonds, Coins, Stamina or recipes (These recipes are generally used to complete the Stage specific suit and are occasionally needed to pass one of the levels in the stage.)

Achievements: completing certain tasks enough times earns you free diamonds and gold coins and occasionally suit pieces – Achievements are the golden medal between Quest and Event Icon.

Facebooks Diamonds

If you link your Love Nikki account to your Facebook page you can get some free suit pieces during certain events (Like the new wishes during the Frozen event or the Frost Flutters suit during the Miku event.

you can also earn about 15 additional diamonds per day through 'shares'.

You can actually get these without linking you facebook page, In the 'Change' tab of the competition, in both the Free Dressing and Go Home sections you can share for 2 Diamonds a piece, the first time you complete a level per day and win you can share for another 2 diamonds plus about 500 additional gold coins. When you do a level and get and 'F' for the first time each day you will see a 'help' button where the 'share' button normally is and '2 diamonds' under it, it isn't asking you to pay 2 diamonds to receive help, it is a share button like the other and will give you the 2 diamonds plus additional gold coins for subsequent shares.

When you raise your score (typically in a Maiden or Princess level, but Stylist Arena works too) enough to get a higher rank than you previously had (for the first time each day) you can share for a whopping 5 diamonds.

The easiest way to do this is to do a level in the Stylist's Arena, because of the way the rankings there work, just a single win per day should be enough to raise your rank for the Diamonds.

Stylist Arena

During that win you can also share for 3 star coins

Stylist Arena is the bane for many a player for a few reasons.

Reason 1: The Brief – each round has a Theme, but the Theme doesn't actually mean anything, what you're looking for in each Theme description are the words that match the style types

Reason 2: Momo's estimates – Up the top of the screen, each opponent is gauged by Momo and given an estimated score, you can use this to find an opponent you can beat by hitting 'Next' on your opponent's image but Be Warned: Momo's estimate Does Not take Skill usage into account so his estimate can be Under by as much 15,000 points (I personally try to never face an opponent who's score is over 45,000 and prefer to find opponents with scores Under 40,000 because I can't recall my score averages off the top of my head and I find it safer to fight a weaker opponent I can definitely beat than risk losing my streak. There's no penalty, it's just super frustrating, especially when you're trying to complete Arena Streak Achievements.)

"Finish ASAP" will reuse whatever your highest scoring outfit was in previous attempts and complete the battle in even less time than it takes normally, and you don't have to waste those few seconds tapping through rewards or rank up animations, which is awesome if you've forgotten to do your Arena battles until five minutes before the day 'resets'.

Like the Styling competition you get diamonds at the end of the season as well as a small bounty of Star Coins, these are used to buy Recipes, materials and dyes. (You can also get those from an association, but you're better off using the Star coins and saving you Association currency for the evolving outfits whose pieces are available at random when the store refreshes each day.)

Suit Recipe Tracking

Just below your Personal Icon at the top right hand corner is a small Icon called Guide, Selecting one of the three target spaces and select change to select a suit from the achievements tab (you can search by name or by origin type (level evolution/ from the store/ from a recipe etc) once selected the Guide will show you not only how many pieces of clothing you need to make the suit, but any recipes, material or dyes. You can deselect various pieces to show how much you need for a specific piece. When you have enough to construct the clothing piece, the Guide will let you know with a little 'go make' tag across the piece.

Deconstruction/Workshop

In your Workshop is the tab “Decompose”, which lets you turn excess pieces of clothing to coins (gold and Star), materials for customising, and Reconstruction Materials.

There is a small selection option “select extra clothes” near the top right hand corner which will select any clothing/accessory/makeup item which can't be used for a recipe, quest, evolved or customised. The list will always show 1 less in the tally of each item since it only displays duplicates of items, there will always be a piece left in the wardrobe.

If you want to throw in some of the recipe/quest/evolution/customizable clothes, you will have to do that manually. (I would suggest items which are only used in customisation, and leave yourself at least four since there's typically only four colour variations at most.)

There's a key up the top under the “Decomposition” banner to tell you what the symbols mean for the 'useful' clothes.

Spending Real World Money and closing thoughts IF you plan on spending real money on your Love Nikki Account, I would suggest ensuring your account is 100% linked to your Facebook page or you run the risk of losing your account if anything happens and the Devs will not (have never to my knowledge) refund lost-account money.

You do not have to spend real world money if you don't want to.

If you have the money, if spending it on Nikki won't hurt your finances and this is what you want to spend it on, go right ahead.

If you have the money, if spending it on Nikki won't hurt your finances and you don't want to spend it on Nikki, or if you don't have the money to spend, then don't that's fine too.

I spent a year playing before I spent real world money on the game, because until I hit the year mark, I wasn't sure I'd be playing it for very long.

Love Nikki is not Pay to Win, it's not even Pay to Play. Lately the Devs have been making Paying Players bleed for the extra suits and that's not okay, but pay or no pay:

The only way to play Love Nikki wrong is to not have fun.

If you're having fun then it doesn't matter how long it takes you to complete a level or stage or whether or not you do the Events in any percentage.

And yes, sometimes the most fun we have is having a go at Momo or crying theatrically at chapter 15 and then refusing to read any lore afterwards because you're too emotionally scarred to ever allow yourself to become invested again... ahem... moving right along!

Nikki's Info

Nikki's Info is an independent site which is honestly a godsend and if you find yourself struggling to complete a level, or if you want tips on how to do good at Stylist's Arena, I definitely recommend checking it out. I have an account over there, and I keep my wardrobe (manually) updated (the cloud doesn't like me) which means I can see a level and how to get the best out of my wardrobe.

If anyone has anymore tips they'd like to add please do (or if my information is no longer valid because updates or I've misremembered something, please tell me.)

#love nikki #love nikki dress up queen #wish i knew then #long post